We’re so excited to welcome Ben Purkert as a Writing Institute instructor this summer! He’ll be teaching a one day course, Winning at the Finish Line. Ben Purkert’s debut novel, The Men Can’t Be Saved, was named one of Vanity Fair’s Top 20 Books of 2023. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Nation, Slate, The Wall Street Journal, Poetry, Kenyon Review, and he’s been featured by NPR, Esquire, and The Boston Globe. He is also the author of the poetry collection, For the Love of Endings. He holds degrees from Harvard and NYU, where he was a New York Times Fellow. He teaches in the Sarah Lawrence College MFA program.
Three Questions with Ben:
What book have you been dying to read but haven't gotten to yet?
James Joyce's Ulysses. I'm hoping to finally climb the mountain sometime this summer.
What does writing in community mean to you? How has it helped you get where you are?
So much of writing is an isolating experience, at least it is for me. I likesilence when I'm working; I shut myself away from others. But then, once thewriting part is done, it's so essential to find one's people, to surroundyourself with folks who will support and challenge you in the best ways. Someof my best friends are folks I met in writing workshops decades ago. Those relationships are what make the writing on the page worthwhile.
How did you know when your debut novel "The Men Can't Be Saved" was finished?
I'm a big reviser. I'll go through dozens and dozens of drafts. Eventually, though, it's time to let the work go. The poet Jorie Graham once told me that, after too much revising, the work starts to suffer; it's like too much scar tissue. I knew my novel was finished when I could no longer bear to pick up the knife.
About The Men Can’t Be Saved:
A knockout debut novel that tackles a haunting question: What do our jobs do to our souls?
Seth is a junior copywriter whose latest tagline just went viral. He's the agency's hottest new star, or at least he wants his coworker crush to think so. But while he's busy drooling over his future corner office, the walls crumble around him.
When his job lets him go, he can't let go of his job. Unfortunately, one former colleague can't let him go either: Robert "Moon" McCloone, a skeezy on-the-rise exec better suited to a frat house than a boardroom. Seth tries to forget Moon and rediscover his spiritual self; he studies Kabbalah with an Orthodox rabbi by day while popping illegal prescription pills by night. But with each misstep, Seth strays farther from salvation--though he might get there, if he could only get out of his own way.
In his debut novel, Purkert incisively peels back the layers of the male ego, revealing what's rotten and what might be redeemed. Brimming with wit, irreverence, and soul-searching, The Men Can't Be Saved is a startlingly original examination of work, sex, addiction, religion, branding, and ourselves.
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