{"id":309741,"date":"2026-04-24T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/electricliterature.com\/?p=309741"},"modified":"2026-04-22T15:10:03","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T19:10:03","slug":"emma-copley-eisenberg-is-tired-of-the-plot-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/electricliterature.com\/emma-copley-eisenberg-is-tired-of-the-plot-police\/","title":{"rendered":"Emma Copley Eisenberg Is Tired of the Plot Police"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I first encountered Emma Copley Eisenberg\u2019s work through this wonderful essay<\/a> from EL contributor Elizabeth Endicott. In it, Endicott chronicles her experience delving into Eisenberg\u2019s Housemates<\/a><\/em> as a plus-size reader; she moves from apprehension to relief to recognition, highlighting Eisenberg\u2019s ability to render fatness without the shadow of authorial judgment. Deeply imagined and embodied, Eisenberg\u2019s work captures a nuanced reality; she doesn\u2019t shy away from the systemic biases and discrimination that her protagonist Leah faces, but at its core, Housemates <\/em>is also a love story; she reminds us that joy and connection are universal, fundamentally human experiences, and that they\u2019re made possible by the very complex bodies we occupy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eisenberg\u2019s newest story collection, Fat Swim<\/a><\/em>, carries forth this ethos across 10 luminous, visceral stories. Within its pages, the body acts as a setting where desire, hunger, and loss can transform.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was honored to get to speak with Eisenberg about pushing through writer’s block, bad film adaptations, and the joys of trampolining from one sentence to the next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Lennie Roeber-Tsiongas<\/strong>
Editorial Intern<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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1. Describe your publication week in a six-word story.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emma Copley Eisenberg:<\/strong> Getting lost on I-95 on my way to Philly bookstores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. What book should everyone read growing up?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ECE:<\/strong> Fairytales. Specifically, Princess Furball<\/a><\/em>. It\u2019s a lesser known retelling of a Grimm\u2019s story. Also In the Night Kitchen<\/a>, <\/em>and the Alanna books<\/a> by Tamora Pierce. And Anne of Green Gables<\/a><\/em>. Oh, and Tuck Everlasting<\/a><\/em>. I just reread and it mostly holds up except for the weird age gap dynamic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Write alone or in community?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ECE:<\/strong> Both, I have to say. It\u2019s very bisexual of me. I need to be alone for the generative parts and the focus, but one can\u2019t really write alone. You need people to walk the path with you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. How do you start from scratch?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ECE:<\/strong> I have been getting up early to write, which doesn\u2019t come naturally to me. But there\u2019s something about that dawn hour, where night brain and daytime brain are both online at the same time, that helps me. It makes sense because dawn and dusk are when people pray, too. Also playing, reading, swimming, and not being too precious about anything is important in the scratch phrase. And sometimes writing longhand with a fun pen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Three presses you\u2019ll read anything from:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ECE:<\/strong> Graywolf. Dutton if they\u2019re edited by Pilar Garcia Brown. McSweeney\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. If you were a novel what novel would you be?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ECE:<\/strong> It feels aspirational, but I\u2019d be The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter<\/a> <\/em>by Carson McCullers because it has so many different points of view and weird risks and it\u2019s sad but also funny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. Describe your ideal writing day.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ECE:<\/strong> Similar to Ursula Le Guin\u2019s ideal writing day. Wake up early for dawn brain, coffee, breakfast (lots of it), more writing, a walk, lunch, a movie or doing something out in the world, reading, then dinner, then bed early with the cats. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

8. What\u2019s a piece of writing advice you never want to hear again?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ECE: <\/strong>I never want to hear that something \u201cdoesn\u2019t have a plot\u201d or to \u201cgive it more plot\u201d because I don\u2019t think people really know what that means. A lot of books that feel really propulsive have a plot, they just aren\u2019t incident-based. I had a student at Temple say \u201cI think what people mean when they say something doesn\u2019t have a plot is that they don\u2019t care about it.\u201d Or they don\u2019t care about the character. And I think that\u2019s true. If you care about the character or what\u2019s going on then the incident becomes sort of extraneous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9. What\u2019s a piece of writing advice you think everyone needs to hear?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ECE<\/strong>: Writing gets done sentence by sentence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

10. Realism or surrealism?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ECE:<\/strong> Impossible bind. I\u2019m more comfortable in realism. That\u2019s the tradition I was raised reading. But realism is also surreal and weird and strange. Kelly Link and Hilary Leichter are writers who show us that all the time. There\u2019s one story in Fat Swim<\/em> that has non-realist elements and it was hard but we did our best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

11. Favorite and least favorite film adaptation of a book:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ECE:<\/strong> Well speaking of, I hate the Tuck Everlasting<\/em> adaptation with Rory Gilmore. Makes it so boring when it\u2019s really an open, soulful book. The Sophie\u2019s Choice<\/a><\/em> movie is also really bad. For best adaptation . . . maybe The Devil Wears Prada<\/a><\/em>? I’ve never read the book and I don’t want to, but I will watch The Devil Wear Prada<\/em> when I’m sick 4,000 times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

12. Edit as you go or shitty first draft?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ECE: <\/strong>Shitty first draft. I don\u2019t understand the edit as you go people. That would break me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

13. Best advice for pushing through writer\u2019s block?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ECE: <\/strong>This is stolen from Alexander Chee so credit him. He says there\u2019s no such thing as writer\u2019s block, there\u2019s only unmade decisions and shame, which I think is basically true. When you\u2019re blocked you\u2019re avoiding making a decision about the draft, or you\u2019re feeling shame that you haven\u2019t written. Easier said than done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

14. What\u2019s your relationship to being edited?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ECE: <\/strong>Into it. Very into it. Good editors are such a gift, and they help you see what you\u2019re doing more clearly. The editor for my first book also changed the structure of the book in a way that helped me understand what I was trying to do. I wish that editors had more time and space to edit in today’s landscape. Huge appreciation to editors, they\u2019re doing the Lord\u2019s work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

15. Write every day or write when inspired?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ECE: <\/strong>Everyone\u2019s life is different, and I think either can work. I sometimes do the latter, but I would say I\u2019m most productive when I\u2019m doing the former. Conditioning your brain to be creative is like a muscle, it does strengthen and start to come online more consistently if you can be consistent with it. Maybe a better way to say that is write around the same time and around the same place as much as you can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

16. What other art forms and literary genres inspire you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ECE: <\/strong>Collage, ceramics, and film. Films have helped me figure out the shape of what I want to write more than once. For Housemates, <\/em>the quest was to make it as good as Thelma and Louise<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

17. The writer who made you want to write:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ECE: <\/strong>Carson McCullers and Raymond Carver when I was in high school. And James Baldwin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

18. How do you know when you\u2019ve reached the end?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ECE: <\/strong>I think there\u2019s an intuitive body sense where I\u2019m just like, this is the furthest I can take this thing. There\u2019s this concept in sociology called saturation where you ask the same question of different people and you start to get the same answer over and over again. That\u2019s how I feel when I\u2019m asking my characters a question. My first book was nonfiction, and I was asking real people questions, and you start to hear what you\u2019ve already guessed or imagined over and over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

19. Describe your writing space.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ECE: <\/strong>I\u2019m very lucky to have my own little room now. All my books in one place. I do have my little woo-woo objects (tarot cards, James Baldwin candle, some little rocks). And I also have a really big fat pink chair now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

20. How do you keep your favorite writers close to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ECE: <\/strong>I have a tattoo of Grace Paley\u2019s face on my arm. I\u2019ll leave it at that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

21. What\u2019s the last indie bookstore you went to?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ECE:<\/strong> <\/strong>There\u2019s a little used bookstore that just opened in my neighborhood in Philly called Little Yenta Books. And then in Baltimore, I went to Greedy Reads when I was there for AWP. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n