High Five With Tracy O'Neill
The author of Woman of Interest on five of her current obsessions.
Each month, I ask an author I love to share five recommendations they have for other writers, whatever is the wind beneath their wings when they sit down to write. This month I reached out to Tracy O’Neill, whose memoir, Woman of Interest, was released this summer. O’Neill is also a fantastic novelist—you may have read The Hopeful, one of Electric Literature's Best Novels of 2015; and Quotients, a New York Times New & Noteworthy Book. You can also read her short-form writing in many noteworthy publications, including The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, the New Yorker, LitHub, BOMB, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, The Believer, Guernica, Bookforum, and many others. She holds an MFA from the City College of New York; and an MA, an MPhil, and a PhD from Columbia University. She teaches at Vassar College.
I’m sure you’re dying to know what our fabulously impressive author has to share, so without further ado, here is Tracy’s High Five!
Creative Constraints. Recently, I went to see Eno, the iterative Brian Eno documentary. One of my favorite parts of the film regards his Oblique Strategies, a set of creative constraints that he’s used to make music and introduced into collaborations. I adore the way in which adopting a rule can provide an entry point into creative work and push thinking. To me, it can be a way of opting in to clarity.
New York City Housing Lottery. Like many New Yorkers, I spend a great deal of time thinking about where to live. The New York City Housing Lottery has now become near-mythological in my mind. I check the website habitually. If I meet someone at a party who has won the lottery, I want to know their every tip. It is embarrassing how many times I have perused Housing Lottery Reddit.
Bonjour Habibi truck. Not only does the Bonjour Habibi food truck have the best name, it serves a lovely chicken over rice. I eat it somewhere between two and four times a month. On the same corner, there is a taco truck, and sometimes I have an “appetizer” taco, then order my Bonjour Habibi dinner. I am a woman with appetite.
Daytime dancing. Until recently, I was a night owl. For many years, I worked in nightlife, and for quite a time after, I still couldn’t sleep until after two am. That changed last year, but I still do love to dance. This year, I went a few times to the afterparties for dance parties which, given how late dance parties go, began during the day. Now, I say that I party gently but vividly.
Asking people about their routines. I love routine, and I also love discarding a routine. I love imagining what a person’s life entails on a regular day. Do they bike to work? Do they watch television while they fold laundry? What matters enough to be habitual? And, of course, what life could be possible by reworking what any old day tends to be?
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