164: Erin Flanagan- Author of Deer Season

Our interview this week is with Erin Flanagan (Deer Season, University of Nebraska Press, September 2021). With four previous novels in the drawer, Erin dug into her childhood memory of her father moving their family from Chicago to a small midwestern town of 1200 residents, and crafted Deer Season, a haunting story of the ripple effect of an act of violence on a close-knit community. We discuss how she came to be a reviewer at Publishers Weekly, how she keeps track of the hours she spends in drafting vs. revision (18% vs 82%) and how she now finds the novel form comforting like a long-term relationship you can count on always being there every morning. Erin Flanagan's latest novel Blackout (Thomas & Mercer) was an Amazon First Reads selection for June 2022. She is the author of Deer Season (University of Nebraska Press), winner of the 2022 Edgar for Best First Novel by an American Author and a Finalist for the Macavity Award for Best First Mystery. Erin is an English professor at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio and a regular book reviewer for Publishers Weekly. To learn more about Erin, click here.