ZZ Packer
(She/Her)
As seen in:
The New York Times,
Harvard Gazette,
NPR,
Chicago Tribune,
The New Yorker,
GQ,
WNYC (New York, NY),
WSB-TV (Atlanta, GA),
KIRO-TV (Seattle, WA),
Literary Hub
and
Covers:
Books, Literature, Narrative, Voice in Fiction, Race, Reconstruction, Breonna Taylor, Louisville, KY, the Buffalo Soldiers
Author of Drinking Coffee Elsewhere. Guggenheim, National Book Award 5 Under 35, PEN, NEA, @NewYorker @NYTMag @WME @VanderbiltU #1619Project #BreonnaTaylor
Interview
Have you ever used a typewriter?
Yes.
How is social media changing news?
I think it's making it more accessible--which is good--but also more shallow--which isn't good at all.
Who's your favorite fictional journalist?
Harriet the Spy.
What tools and software do you use to do your job?
Scrivener. OmniOutliner. Tree (now defunct, but I still use it). Evernote. Numbers. Pages. Wine.
What's your favorite social network?
I love getting info on Twitter, but Twitter also gets me super stressed.
Who do you wish followed you?
Twitter Verified.
Did you work for your high school newspaper? If so, what did you do there?
Yes. I wrote all sorts of stories, though my favorite was writing about seeing "Do The Right Thing"...
What story are you most proud of writing or working on?
The Empty Facts of the Breonna Taylor Decision--a response to the decision in The New Yorker.
What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?
Continue to learn the difference between the significance of the narrative and the significance of the event.
What's the best pitch you ever got?
I write what interests me, so I don't normally *do* pitches, but I did do a profile on Samuel L. Jackson because I wanted to meet him...
When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?
Reading or in a bookstore. In class teaching. Walking. Finding great food to eat.
Aside from your own, what's your favorite publication to read?
The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Nation, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, Essence, Poets & Writers and The Economist.
Would you like to take the Muck Rack Interview?
Create a Muck Rack profile.