“I got obsessed with John Berryman” confessed writer Catherine Lacey, kneeling in the bright workspace beneath her lofted bed. “Like,” she said, “Really bad obsessed.” She’s even entitled her debut novel Nobody Is Ever Missing, the concluding line of Berryman’s Dream Song 29.
Lacey’s devotion to the poet hardly strikes HENRY as strange; Berryman’s anguished avatar is, after all, this site’s namesake. And while the extremes of Berryman’s passions led to his self-destruction, Lacey’s have been impetuses for wholly productive endeavors, both entrepreneurialy and artistically. In 2010 Lacey helped launch Downtown Brooklyn’s thriving bed and breakfast, 3B, simultaneously persisting through difficult early drafts of her book.
“Sometimes,” said Lacey, “it just takes awhile to figure out what you’re trying to say.” We’re more than willing to be patient–Catherine’s novel drops next year. In the meantime, this Q&A and the excerpt of Nobody Is Ever Missing published in McSweeny’s Issue 43 will sweeten the wait.
Thanks for this inspiring video! I’m just wondering what you managed to find in Columbia as I’m doing PhD research on Berryman and didn’t realise that there were any papers there.
Thanks,
Eve.