Drawings by Ria Brodell

FOOD FACES: TRAVIS JEPPESEN

In this series, Shane Jones looks at the diet of some of our favorite writers. In this installment he talks to Travis Jeppesen, whose most recent book, The Suiciders, is about seven criminal teenagers stuck on a loop of permanent exile, a book that shows how, as Jeppesen puts it, “art is something that vibrates when you throw up on it.”

THE BELIEVER: I like how your diet starts fast and light and generally slows down at the end with the heaviest of food, a kind of layering before the Jameson and ending the day. Is this a conscious decision on your part? Or is it reflective of the Berlin diet/lifestyle? 

TRAVIS JEPPESEN: I don’t think it’s a conscious decision on my part. As I get older, I think about food a bit more. My whole life, I was super skinny and I could always eat whatever I wanted whenever I wanted, no consequences whatsoever. Then, as I reached my late 20s/early 30s, my metabolism began to slow down, suddenly it all started to go straight to my belly—not my arms or my legs, just the belly. Since I didn’t want to look preggers anymore, it was time to start paying attention to what I stuff down my throat. I guess the diet I outlined for you conforms to the ideal rhythms of my daily metabolism, which also corresponds to my work schedule—I’m usually able to get a lot more done earlier in the day now, whereas in my early 20s, I’d stay up all night writing. Now I start to slow down as the day starts to fade, so it’s time to shovel the heavy stuff in—and usually, I’ve been to the gym by then already, so I feel it’s safe to reward myself. 

BLVR: I have the same issue with my stomach. I can look simultaneously fat and skinny. Richard Brautigan, later in life, had the same problem. He had these tiny arms and wrists and then a belly like a Texas truck driver. Do you think eating better yields better writing results?  

TJ: Yeah, it’s all tied to writing for me. Especially since my whole project is rooted in this tradition of a writing of the body, to the extent where body takes precedent over mind. So my body is a vehicle, food is my main fuel. I try not to put too much junk into it or else it malfunctions.

BLVR: Can you talk a little more about writing from the body? It makes sense—The Suiciders is a very physical book where the sentences and...