NEW GLUE: Kerri Schlottman

"Who is actually crazy except for the neoliberalist tech bros hell bent on waging wars, fleecing the people, and destroying the planet?"

Kerri Schlottman is a writer of literary fiction novels, most recently Daytime Moon, which is forthcoming from Unnamed Press in May 2026. Her novel Tell Me One Thing was named a 2025 Storytrade Literary Fiction Finalist, a two-time 2024 PenCraft Fiction Award Winner, a 2023 American Book Fest Best Literary Fiction Book Finalist, and a Shelf Awareness Best Book This Week.

She works to support artists, performers, and writers in creating new projects and is a part-time graduate professor at NYU in arts administration. Previously, she was a massage therapist, a factory worker, a copy editor, and briefly enrolled in law school.

1) What is the first thing that burned you?

A firecracker. And also the mean girls who carved KERRI IS A SLUT in the school’s baseball dugout after I kissed Mark Paul in the 5th grade.

2) What do you smell like?

Palo santo and my dog.

3) What do you feel is more true: Every crazy person is a movie, every movie is a crazy person, or neither?

I don’t know… Who is actually crazy except for the neoliberalist tech bros hell bent on waging wars, fleecing the people, and destroying the planet? I’m tired of that movie.

4) How does your heart feel?

Mostly cruel optimism.

5) What was it like to ride in your parents car as a kid? What about now—or equivalent?

Probably fun? My sister and I rode in a playpen in the back of our parents’ van. Now, riding in my mom’s car is terrifying. She’s 78 and a road rager and until last year drove an ancient Mustang convertible with bad breaks.

6) Does your misery love company?

Absolutely not. I believe in containing my misery instead of forcing it on others.

7) What does a potato chip mean to you? What does it taste like?

Heaven. Like salty crunchy nonsensical goodness.

8) What does touching feel like?

A way out of the brain and into the body.

9) Do you belong to and on Earth?

Sure, but only because I care about it and am actively trying to keep it from utter destruction.

10) What is your first memory and what does it mean to your work?

Four years old, of my babysitter shooting her fingers off with my dad’s gun because she wanted to see if it was loaded. Which is probably why I write dark stories about family traumas. Thank you, that was very therapeutic.

Luke Goebel is an award-winning author and screenwriter known for his novel Fourteen Stories, None of Them Are Yours, and his screenwriting work on the films Eileen and Causeway.

His new novel, Kill Dick comes out in Spring 2026.