Law School, Venmo-Stalking, and Feral Writing Companions: An Interview with Lauren Hunt by RoBin Van Impe

The first time I read Lauren Hunt’s work, we’re sitting in a workshop with ten other people, and she says she hates what she wrote and is going to write something else. It is only after our workshop at Emerson that I realize she’s been published in Split Lip Magazine. Her piece, Law School, immediately grabs my attention, not only because the experiences are so universal, but because the piece is so her. The style, the prose, the humor. So, when I meet her at a coffee shop across from the Boston Common, I have to ask her if she’s ever considered it: Law School.

Lauren Hunt: I always thought I would go to law school. I interned at DA’s offices and a superior court when I was a junior in college. There were a lot of things I loved about it, but I didn’t have the personality. I would have been a terrible litigator. I cry when I argue. But I think I was kind of in denial about all that.

Robin Van Impe: What made you consider going in such a different direction?

LH: When I didn’t go to law school, I worked in sales at a publisher for three years. Then, right before the pandemic I wrote a book. I would come home from work, sit outside on the patio and I write for two hours. During the pandemic, I continued to do that and realized it was the most important thing to me. I wanted to continue to improve as a writer, and I think I also wanted to take the plunge to make myself focus on it, make myself acknowledge how important it was to me. So, I went to grad school.

RVI: What happened to the book?

LH: The book? It was not good. But I did finish a different version of it over the summer. I’m trying to edit it now.

RVI: Can you tell readers more about the piece you wrote for Split Lip? Did you write that during the pandemic as well?

LH: I did. I was thinking a lot about burnout and the things people take on because it’s the correct thing to do or because it makes their life look a certain way to other people. I think I was watching a YouTube video, and someone was talking about how they had written a short story, I forget what it was, some virtue where like patience was a character. I thought that was so interesting, and I realized I wanted to write about law school, but law school was this douchy, preppy boyfriend. I wrote a line on my phone, I remember, it was “Law School is good at emergencies, and the emergency is always me.”

 RVI: I love that line. Did you draw from personal experience? 

LH: I feel really bad, I was in a relationship that coincidentally ended around the time this piece came out and someone in my life asked me if it was about my ex-boyfriend. I remember being really mortified because he was a really great person and I hoped people in my life were not reading it that way. So, no. I’ve never dated a “Law School.” Most of the men I’ve dated have been pretty cool, actually. I recognize that’s kind of a novel experience.

RVI: How do you go about characterization, do you ever take characteristics from people and put them together?

LH: I cannot write about people I know because I’m so biased, right? I’m always going to take my own side. That’s fine, but writing about it isn’t that interesting to me, and it doesn’t feel that true. But sometimes I do write a character and realize later they remind me of someone. I think it’s important for things to be “true” even in fiction. If somebody you know has done something, you know it’s something that could realistically happen.

RVI: Is there a fictional character, from your own work or someone else’s, that you’d like to hang out with if possible?

LH: I feel like very few of my characters would enjoy or get anything out of hanging out with me. That’s totally okay. This is hard, because I love a terrible person. When I’m reading, when I’m writing, I just enjoy them so much, but those are not necessarily people you want to meet. I immediately thought of The Secret History by Donna Tart, but I don’t want to meet any of those pretentious—can I swear?—I was going to say pretentious little fuckers.

RVI: Yeah, I guess the best characters aren’t fun to hang out with.

LH: People love to say they love morally gray, they looooove morally gray. No, you love a sarcastic character. You just can’t see the difference. I just love an asshole. Cause we’re all assholes, right?  

RVI: Totally. What other piece of yours do you want SLM readers to read?

LH: I have a piece in Crow & Cross Keys about Odette from Swan Lake and how she kind of misses being a bird. It feels like me, and the things I want to say as a writer. I’m very proud of that piece.

RVI: That sounds so fun! So, what do you want to say as a writer? 

LH: Wow, that’s tough. I’m primarily interested in the relationships between people and their relationships to themselves. People are so incredibly complex and the stories we tell ourselves about who we are and the people we know are so interesting. I think you can never run out of ways to explore those things.

RVI: Earlier, you mentioned you wrote for two hours after you got home from work. Can you tell readers more about your writing process?

LH: I’m definitely a night writer. It’s almost like pulling teeth for me to try to write in the morning. I love writing outside in the dark. In Boston, I live in a place with a little roof deck, so I’ll go write there. When I was working on that book I mentioned earlier, I was also trying really hard to domesticate this feral cat. When I was writing, she’d come out of the woods to sit under my chair. She wouldn’t let me pet her, but she’d eat out of my hand. Now and then, she’d come sit under the chair and wait for me. Sometimes, when I’m writing, I think about her. She’s dead now. 

RVI: Aw’ that’s sad. This needs to be a story.

LH: I’ve thought about that.  

RVI: What’s the strangest thing/situation that’s ever inspired your work?

 LH: I wrote a story about a girl that’s stalking her friend through Venmo. I think—in a healthy way—I’m so nosy, I love looking at people’s back and forth messages, I love looking at who’s hanging out with who. I think it’s an underrated social media. It’s sort of an excellent way to keep track of people.

RVI: If I would have expected anyone to stalk someone on Venmo, it would have been you, actually. 

LH: I’m glad to hear it. It’s fascinating, I recommend it…You’re going to make me seem smarter, right, not psychotic?

RVI: You are smart!

LH: Yeah, but like, not psychotic? But you can leave the cat in there.

Lauren’s influences: Margaret Atwood, Kelly Link. Before that: Gail Carson Levine. “What do you mean you have not seen Ella Enchanted?” —“I’m going to say you forced me to watch Ella Enchanted during this interview.”

Lauren’s favorite story: “Skinders Veil” by Kelly Link. “It’s a whole universe, it’s funny, and it does this thing that Katie [Williams, a Professor at Emerson College] talks about: the almost closed circle. The story is almost wrapped up but leaves space for the reader to connect things.”

Lauren Hunt (@Lauren__Hunt) is a teacher and freelance writer based in Boston, where she is pursuing her MFA at Emerson college, and reading for Ploughshares.

Robin Van Impe (@robinvanille) is a queer Belgian writer. Her work has appeared in the Boston Globe, Bending Genres, and others. She is a 2024 finalist of the Arts & Letters Unclassifiable Contest, the Fiction Editor at Redivider, and a Flash Reader at Split Lip