TAO LIN and MIRA GONZALEZ discuss their new book SELECTED TWEETS

Selected Tweets (Short Flight/Long Drive Books)

 Selected Tweets—as the name suggests—is a book comprised of selected tweets from both Tao and Mira. The book operates as a sort of flip book, with Tao’s tweets on one side and Mira’s on the other. The tweets are organized by account (both writers have multiple), and then chronologically within each account, if that makes sense.

SHEILA HETI: How do you imagine people read twitter?

TAO LIN: On their phones I think mostly. I think I’ve read the most Twitter while laying in bed or on my back, or just laying in places, like in parks or in airports. Maybe not the most, but a lot. I’ve dropped my phone on my face many times. I think other people must too, but I rarely hear about this.

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SHEILA HETI: What do you think about before you tweet? You once told me that you tweet what makes you feel uncomfortable. So which tweets do you reject, which do you accept?

MIRA GONZALEZ: I wouldn’t necessarily say that I tweet what makes me feel uncomfortable, I think it’s more that I feel comfortable tweeting things that I would never feel comfortable saying in a real life conversation, or even in other places on the internet. For reasons that I don’t fully understand, Twitter is a place where I don’t feel ashamed to say my most shameful thoughts...

Praise for Selected Tweets

“Selected Tweets” features a selection of bleak, depressed, disturbing, funny, and personal tweets that create a fragmented narrative and show how Twitter can serve as a platform for art, storytelling, and connection." - Columbia Spectator

"Mira's tweets are self-deprecating to the point of hilarity, and Tao's are more neurotic—still 'funny' but, like, in the way people sometimes use that word to describe a thing that's behaving oddly, like ''My air conditioner is acting funny.' They both tweet the word 'Xanax' a lot. Get it in May." - The FADER

"Mostly, Twitter resembles a diary that is being written publicly and in real time. To Lin and Gonzalez, twitter is also a tool for writing. Like a director Lin and Gonzalez exhibit their creative power by picking and choosing which tweets to include in the overarching narrative." - The State Press

Tao Lin is the author of the novels Taipei, Richard Yates, Eeeee Eee Eeee, the novella Shoplifting from American Apparel, the story-collection Bed, and other books. He edits Muumuu House and lives in New York.

Mira Gonzalez is from Los Angeles, California. She is the author of I Will Never Be Beautiful Enough to Make Us Beautiful Together, which was nominated for The Believer Poetry Award and The Goodreads Choice Award. Her work has been published widely in print and online.