BIO

Laura Nessler is a writer based in Chicago, IL. She is also a social worker who works in community mental health. She moved to Chicago 10 years ago to write plays and now gravitates towards narrative nonfiction, novel writing, and other forms of not-playwriting. She can often be found reading articles on the internet and caring for other people's pets. Before moving to Chicago, Laura graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in English and Drama. She was raised in two college towns in southwest Virginia and central Texas.

INSPIRED BY

Bruce Perry, Lauren Slater, Rebecca Makkai, verbatim text, talking to people who are really into a certain thing, reading other people's fiction in progress, Samantha Irby

EXPLORING:

I want to continue working on a novel that I started last term with the midwives. Last term I was interested in just generating ideas, content, and just getting words down on the page. This term I am more interested in figuring out how to put scenes together and how to structure this damn thing. I am interested in how to turn an idea plus a bunch of loosely connect overwritten scenes into an actual NOVEL. 

Oh, and the novel is about a woman who sleeps progressively more and more until she is sleeping 23 hours a day. And she becomes a cam girl briefly which is where she discovers a patron who takes her in, which gives her both freedom and a new sense of captivity.  

INSPIRATION FOR PROJECT:

My own weird relationship to sleep, the overlap between the sex work and disability communities, our obsession with wellness and productivity and the kind of hilarious absurdity that I find in that.