Steve Adams’ writing has won multiple awards. He’s been published in prestigious journals like Glimmer Train and The Missouri Review. He’s been nominated for Pushcart Prizes, and his memoir “Touch” was selected to be part of the 2014 Pushcart Prize Anthology. Steve is a writing coach and his debut novel Remember This has received high praise and was selected for the Southern Festival of Books. I talked with Steve about his debut novel Remember This.

— Paola Lastick

PL: Your book, Remember This, made its debut on 10/11/22 with amazing reviews and blurbs, such as “Exquisitely written and full of longing” and “Read this book, take a breadth, and read it again.” As a debut author putting your book out into the world what are your initial thoughts on the responses you’ve received so far?

SA: It’s really strange in a way. I mean I’m so grateful for these very generous early reactions. It’s gratifying and helps stabilize me. I do love this book a lot so I do feel some vulnerability as far as how people might respond. On top of that, the book itself is a very vulnerable and raw piece in both the way it’s written as well the subject matter. I chose that. I knew that was what the story would need, so I went right at it. I’ve had a lot of short work published and I always feel a bit raw when it goes out there. But with a full-length story it was even more intense, like oh my god people are reading this now! I’m a brave writer when I’m at the coffee shop or my apartment or quiet bar. But when it’s suddenly out there and you know people are reading it, there’s a real sense of exposure. But I think that’s true for any art. If you put your heart into anything you’re going to feel vulnerable. My book’s about New York City, which is a really important place for me. I wanted to capture it as well as I could, and the reactions have made me feel much more confident about that. We are still early, and so far we have gotten one really good official review in a trade journal. There are fewer review outlets out there now and a lot more books. Also I hear publishers were holding back because of Covid until this fall so it was an especially big season as far as releases. I’m lucky to have that one trade review, and thank God it was good. One thing I’ve learned is that you really have little control over much of what happens. I mean, you do whatever you can, but unless you’ve got a huge publisher and a big advance behind you, you have to let the cards fall how they fall and make peace with that. And even as far as big publishers with major influence, a friend was just telling me about a recent book from one of the Big 5 [publishers] that sold for a lot and got raves, but only sold a couple thousand copies to readers. Meanwhile other books with much less support are selling. But as far as my book and the people who’ve read it and gave me blurbs, they were really generous and amazing. They helped me to have some faith and belief, because it was about to go out there and there was no way of knowing what the reaction might be. It was really gratifying to know I was reaching some people. Super gratifying. We’ll see what happens next.

PL: Once you got your book deal and began the process of getting Remember This out into the world, what were some things you were surprised by that you did not expect?

SA: Well, I’m still in the middle of it, but there was something that surprised me personally. I make a living out of calming writers down, editing, and helping them create. I’m really a natural at that. It’s what I love, it’s what I’m comfortable doing. I also have confidence speaking in front of people. I’m an introvert, but I can do that on a stage even if I’m a little nervous. I studied acting and that helps. What I wasn’t prepared for was the marketing and publicity aspects of it, that in-between area between the writing and performing at events. You know, trying to figure out who you know and who to ask to help, who you can invite to a reading in a town, if anyone you know does reviews, asking for favors (I’m not good at this), thinking outside the box, thinking inside the box, setting up dates and logistics for events. It’s a lot, and I have a publicist. As far as the process itself with my press, the University of Wisconsin Press, it was great. They were very respectful and careful and thorough with the book. They challenged me in areas and I did my best to address their concerns. But I also pushed back when I needed to, and in the end they supported my vision. An experience this positive doesn’t always happen. University presses can’t pay you a lot of money, but a good one will often be a good collaborator and partner in getting your book out into the world in a way that’s true to your vision. Writers, more and more—this is what they say, and I feel it is true—have to do a lot of their own publicity. They have to reach out and do a lot of that stuff themselves. I had to go back and think who I met five years ago, 10 years ago, who could help me and hopefully wouldn’t hate me for contacting them. Some people are good at that hustle, but it wears me out. It exhausts me. That was my surprise, that I kind of stink at this stuff. I’m not a natural and I have to do my best just to get through it. My advice is, as you go along and you’re getting your short work seen and connecting with other writers, to be a good literary citizen and build connections, make friends. You know, just be nice, and help your writer friends when you can. They will come back to help you. I’ve had friends give me advice with promotion and help me with events. And I’m getting better at this stuff, but it’s not easy. If you think about it like surfing, I’m the surfer flailing in the water with my board bouncing all around as I try to clamber back on. That’s what it feels like anyway. My hope is that the next time I’ll have a better sense of what’s involved, and I’ll be able to stay on the board and maybe ride the waves a little better. Like I said, I do have a publicist so it’s okay for me to fall off the board some.

PL: How did you come up with the idea for Remember This?

SA: The time I spent working on it, and the time it sat in my computer hard drive (otherwise known as “the drawer”), is a big part of the story of this book. I don’t want to discourage anyone, but the length of time it took to get this in the world can hopefully be a story of hope too. You can have something that doesn’t hit and then years later it can come out, and that’s what happened. In 2008 when the economy collapsed I was living in New York City. As I said, that place is a really important place for me and I lost my job in that collapse. I knew I was going to have to leave my city, and I started wandering around to all the places there I loved while taking notes. Since I’m a writer, I started writing a story where I could put my sense of love and loss about my city into a narrative form. Out of that I came up with the story line. I mean, just having some sad guy wandering New York is hardly going to work as a novel, so I created this affair my protagonist has with a woman he’s pretty desperately in love with, and they can only be together a short time—two months, until her husband comes back from an overseas trip. So that adds a ticking clock to the story, and stakes, and tension. The second storyline, what I call the understory, with his childhood, that came in later.

Thanks for your questions and this interview, Paola. I really appreciate it.

About Steve Adams, in his own words: I graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a BA in Theater and received my MFA in Creative Writing from The New School in New York City. I’ve studied creative nonfiction as a scholar at the Norman Mailer Writer’s Colony and creative coaching with Dr. Eric Maisel. My work has been used as a teaching text at major universities, as well as in the public high schools, and cited in the book, Beyond the Writers’ Workshop: New Ways to Write Creative Nonfiction, by Carol Bly. My plays have been produced in New York City.