Episode 430: Louisa Thomas Knows How to End a Story

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By Brendan O’Meara

Nice to have Louisa Thomas back on the show to talk about profile writing, teaching, and kickers. Louisa is a staff writer for The New Yorker and one of my “appointment reading” writers: I see her byline, I make a date with it.

In this episode we talk about a profile she wrote on Nikola Jokic, perhaps the best player in the NBA. In talking about kickers, we riff on her column about the ennui of the Oakland Athletics and a smattering of other kickers. She says she’s not good at them and credits her editor more than herself, but I think she’s just being modest.

Louisa also is the author of the brilliantly biography Louisa: The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams and a co-editor of Losers: Dispatches from the Other Side of the Scoreboard.

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Episode 78—Louisa Thomas on Problematic Writers, Mercenary Work, and Picking Up the Phone

Louisa Thomas is the author of two books and a recent honoree of the Best American Sports Writing.

By Brendan O’Meara

Tweetables from Louisa Thomas (@louisahthomas)

“For me, I’m thinking about the writing from the very first second I get an assignment. I’m thinking about tone, and texture, and influences.”

“Sometimes you just have to write things. You do the best you can. You turn it in and you turn the page.”

“A lot of reporters can’t wait to pick up the phone. I will do everything to avoid picking up the phone.”

“I still get off on a great sentence. It’s as simple as that.”

Louisa Thomas joins me this week. She recently made the big book for The Best American Sports Writing for her piece Serena Williams, Andy Murray, and a Political Wimbledon.

In this episode we talk about

  • Louisa: The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams.
  • Working with Prolematic Writers and How Not to be One
  • Mercenary Writing
  • And what she learned working with New Yorker editor David Remnick
  • How she organizes her titanic feats of research and much more

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All right, enough of my stupid face, time to hear from Louisa Thomas, thanks for listening.

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Books by Louisa

Conscience: Two Soldiers, Two Pacifists, One Family—a Test of Will and Faith in World War I
Louisa: The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams