Meredith Westgate — ”Being a writer can often be empathy overload.”

Slow Stories

What do we remember about our stories? In her stunning debut novel, The Shimmering State, Meredith Westgate explores the convergence of memory, art, and grief through the lens of two artists: Lucien, a grieving photographer who moves to Los Angeles to care for his grandmother, and Sophie, a dancer with the Los Angeles Ballet Company who has landed a coveted lead role in an upcoming production. On the periphery of their stories is an experimental drug called Memoroxin that "targets and delivers patients' own memories" and is intended for medical treatment. But when Lucien and Sophie meet as patients at the Center—a Memoroxin rehabilitation clinic founded by the mysterious Dr. Sloane—readers are taken on a journey between past and present to understand Lucien and Sophie's connection to one another—and the world around them.

The consumption and curation of memory fuels so much of how we live, work, and create in our digital age. Yet as The Shimmering State comes out during a time of recalibration—both online and off—Meredith's work reminds us of the delicate threshold between the memories that make us who we are and the stories we tell ourselves.

In this interview, Meredith shared more about the origins of The Shimmering State, her thoughts on the curation and commodification of memory, and why writing fiction slows her down. This episode also opens with a reading by Kayla Maiuri.