Tao Lin's "Shoplifting from American Apparel"

Writer and poet Tao Lin is not someone who shrinks from media attention. He’s sold shares of an unfinished novel on eBay and offers up GChat sessions for a fee. With all his self-driven publicity stunts, it’s hard to get past the noise and really dig into the writing. His style is flat, unemotive, and focuses on the surface of things. His new book is Shoplifting From American Apparel, and it’s a slim autobiographical novella set mostly in New York. The main character, Sam, gets caught stealing and goes to jail, plays Scrabble and makes out with girls, gambles away hundreds of dollars in Atlantic City, and attends a music festival in Florida… but all with equal gravity and a sense of profound detachment. Tao Lin joins us to discuss his writing and the hype he’s built up around it.

New York Magazine: New Lit Boy: Tao Lin

Village Voice: Tao Lin's Five-Finger Discount

The Rumpus: The Surface of Things: The Rumpus Long Interview with Tao Lin

The Millions Interview: Tao Lin