Near the end of 2018, the name debutiful popped into my head while sitting in the gray cubicle of my day job. The notion of starting a website dedicated to debut authors had been something I was ruminating over for a while. It wasn’t something I thought I’d do without sitting down to come up with a plan. Then, on December 10, the portmanteau of debut and beautiful arrived.
Tag Archives: interview
Trixie Mattel: comedian, folk musician, and ‘Drag Race’ winner
Trixie Mattel is dominating the drag scene right now. She has her own show The Trixie and Katya Show on Viceland with fellow RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Katya Zamolodchikova (and later Bob the Drag Queen), a stellar folk album called One Stone, and recently took home the title for RuPaul’s Drag Race All-Stars 3.
The drag queen, born Brian Firkus, embarks on her own headlining U.S.-wide tour called Now with Moving Parts, a reference to lyrics from her folk album.
I spoke on the phone with the multi-talented queen while she was on tour for the Haters Roast about all of the aspects of her blossoming career. You can tour dates, as well as purchase tickets, to her upcoming tour here.
An interview with BeBe Zaraha Benet documentarian Emily Branham
The following is an excerpt of an interview I did with documentarian Emily Branham for a piece entitled “Inside Emily Branham’s 12-Year Quest to Document BeBe Zahara Benet’s Rise to Drag Stardom” for Writer’s Bone. That piece (which you should totally read if you haven’t) was an inside look into the behind the scenes process of making a documentary over the course of a decade.
I didn’t get to include a lot of Emily’s history with BeBe and her thoughts on the first winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race but I thought the world should know a bit more of Branham’s thoughts. Enjoy.
Listen to three Lauren Strange solo acoustic songs
Nashville-based badass musician Lauren Strange (and guest on Internal Review) stopped by WXNA 101.5FM in Nashville recently to play acoustic versions of three of her new songs.
Ep. 11: Chelsey Louise | Fairy Bones
Fairy Bones is an energetic rock outfit from Phoenix. Their no gimmick, kickass approach caught the eye of Highly Suspect, who brought them on a west coast tour this past autumn. Fronted by Chelsey Louise, the band released Dramabot in 2015, which garnered a lot of respect from the media and fans in Arizona.
Ep. 9: Tony Ruland | Soft Sleep + The Lonely Forest
Tony Ruland was the guitarist in the Washington-based band for a decade of his life. The band suddenly broke up, but he wasn’t too worried. He had music built up and ready to explode into the world. He linked up with fellow northwestern musicians to create Soft Sleep.
Ep. 8: Tennyson Nobel | The Lovely Days
The Lovely Days are an upbeat band from Australia led by brothers Tennyson and Holden Nobel. Their beach vibe has undertones of ’60s pop rock like the Beatles, which makes this one of the happiest sounding bands out there.
Ep. 6: Ian Metzger, Part 1 | The Gentle Hits + Dear and the Headlights
Ian Metzger was the brain and the heart behind the Phoenix indie band Dear and the Headlights. Since the band broke up, he’s been relatively under the radar, but he’s back with a new project called The Gentle Hits.
Interviews with two National Book Award nominees
The longlist for the National Book Award in fiction was released today. Of the ten authors, I was lucky to interview two of them earlier in the year. Both Garth Greenwell and Karan Mahajan wrote two of my favorite novels released in 2016 and if I had to vote for a top five to make the shortlist, both would find a spot as finalists. Read the interviews of Greenwell and Mahajan after the complete list of nominated authors.
Congratulations to:
- Chris Bachelder, The Throwback Special
- Garth Greenwell, What Belongs to You
- Adam Haslett, Image Me Gone
- Paulette Jiles, News of the World
- Karan Mahajan, The Association of Small Bombs
- Lydia Millet, Sweet Lamb of Heaven
- Elizabeth McKenzie, The Portable Veblen
- Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad
- Jacqueline Woodson, Another Brooklyn
Ep. 5: Samantha Hunt
Samantha Hunt is a very successful author: she won the Bard Fiction Prize, was part of the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 award, and was a finalist for the Orange Prize. After receiving critical acclaim for her first two novels, The Seas (2004) and The Invention of Everything Else (2008), she returned with one of the best books published in 2016: Mr. Splitfoot.
ADAM VITCAVAGE 