Exclusive: Preview the latest episode of Ben Arthur's (MyHeart) 'SongWriter' podcast (SnogWriter), feat. Lucia Berlin (read by Elizabeth Geoghegan [ElizGeo]) and Rebecca Rego (regomusic):
was ahead of her time. She wrote darkly realistic fiction decades before it became fashionable, and she died long before her short story collection,SongWriter“She wrote 77 short stories in her life, and nobody knew her name,” Elizabeth says. “And then in 2004 she dies, and all of her books are out of print.”was released in 2015, and was quickly embraced by a wide audience.
In next week’s episode Elizabeth reads “Mama,” an autobiographical story about a conversation between two daughters. The mother in the story—like Berlin’s own mother—has a wicked, dark sense of humor. “Her mom was always trying to kill herself, and she would leave Lucia these terrible notes, and sign them ‘Bloody Mary,’” Elizabeth recalls.that she wrote an entire album inspired by the stories. Rebecca told me that what she loves most about Berlin’s work is its relentless sense of artistic independence.
“Sometimes when people have a vision,” Rebecca says, “They’re seeing the future, and a lot of times that future takes a long time to catch up with their art.”