The Reader Does Not Give a Shit About You

Illustration by Adam Grano

In Conversation with Stephen Elliott

Stephen Elliott does not sit around and wait for things to happen. Since releasing his debut novel Jones Inn in 1998, the author/filmmaker/editor has built a reputation for exploring tough and deeply personal subject matter—child molestation, bouncing in and out of group homes in Chicago, scraping out a living as a male stripper, overdosing on heroin—in a way that’s brutally honest, funny, and sympathetic. He’s been compared to literary heavyweights like Bukowski, Denis Johnson and Joan Didion. Like Bukowski, Stephen writes in abundance and primarily about his own life, constantly blurring the line between fact and fiction. Whatever’s on his mind, people love to hear about it: His one-way email correspondence, “The Daily Rumpus,” attracts more than 16,000 readers.

His best book, according to him, is Happy Baby, a novel about a troubled man in his 30s coming to terms with his abusive childhood. His most popular work is The Adderall Diaries, a blend of memoir, true crime, and drug addiction. My Girlfriend Comes to the City and Beats Me Up, a short story collection centered around sadomasochism and explosive relationships, is every bit as hilarious and heartbreaking as its title suggests. In 2009 Elliott founded The Rumpus, a literary website that features interviews, pop culture essays, original fiction, and weekly columns by the likes of Ted Wilson and Rick Moody. His first foray into filmmaking, 2012’s About Cherry, starred Heather Graham, Lily Tomlin and James Franco. He’s currently directing a film adaptation of Happy Baby and writing a four-person play called Independent Cinema for the Dying. Like I said, he keeps busy.

I spoke with Stephen on a rainy fall afternoon at The Pony Bar on East 75th Street in Manhattan. That morning he had launched the first issue of The Weekly Rumpus, an online magazine that bundles the best articles from the site with original fiction, essays and poetry. Stephen ordered a big bowl of red chili and talked to me about the thrill of finding himself in the director’s chair, the time he nearly got locked up by a psychiatrist in San Francisco, and why he’s always in a race against his own enthusiasm.

—Lane Koivu

I. A DOG NAMED RUMPUS

THE BELIEVER: How did The Rumpus start?

STEPHEN ELLIOTT: Originally I was talking to Arianna Huffington. I’d just finished The Adderall Diaries and I wanted to do something but I didn’t know what. I didn’t want to write another book. So I thought, well, I’ll get into editing. Because I figured that by doing...