Ted is joined this month by not one but two amazing guests, Jennifer Acker and Emily Everett. Jennifer is the founder and editor in chief of The Common, an award-winning print and digital literary journal based at Amherst College, and author of the novel The Limits of the World, which was one of three fiction honorees for the Massachusetts Book Award.

Emily works with Jennifer as managing editor at The Common. She is also a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellow in Fiction and author of the novel All That Life Can Afford, the Reese’s Book Club pick for April 2025.

Considering the closest Ted has come to that latter honor is watching Big Little Lies, he starts the conversation by asking Emily what it was like to find out Reese had selected her book. (Spoiler: pretty freakin’ exciting.)

Emily then shares a little bit about All That Life Can Afford, a story with a main character whose idealized version of London doesn’t quite track with her reality when she moves there after college. The role of the city proves to be a great segue to ask Jennifer about The Common, as it is a magazine devoted to deepening “our individual and collective sense of place.”

Both Jennifer and Emily go on to talk about the relationship of their editorial work to their own writing, the difference in the writing challenge between novels and short stories (besides, you know, the length), how they’ve helped each other grow as writers, and the books they’re working on now.

Episode Links:

• Jennifer’s Website
• Emily’s Website
• The Common

Working Drafts episodes and info for requesting transcripts as well as more details about Ted and his books are available on his website, thetedfox.com.