I found this really interesting interview with Nate Powell. It’s in 4 parts, but well worth the read. He discusses a vast number of topics from moving around the country to music, and eventually talks about Swallow Me Whole. Apparently he basically dreamt the entire concept in one night, which seemed really intense to me. He also mentions the movie Donnie Darko coming out right after his dream and having weird connections with that movie. Most prominent to me was his discussion of gender within the novel and how he went about critiquing that. He also talks a lot about working in the mental health and human services field, which gives him a lot of credibility in my mind. This interview really gives a great background to where Powell was coming from while writing Swallow Me Whole and brings up a lot of interesting issues and questions that I had not thought of previously.