Upisode 34: Seattle poet, playwright, longtime former advice columnist, and book-publishing industry impresario Greg Brisendine popped by the bookstore for a chat about finding the balance between day job and night moves — between career and passion for the thousands of artists and innovators who don’t make enough money to live off of art. Greg and Ian perform a love poem to HTML, and Greg describes the “risk paradox” of the book publishing industry in the early 2000s. Ian and his pal Doug Abbott discuss a cure for Internet trolls over a bowl of chicken dumpling soup.
About Greg B
A two-time Rain City Poetry Slam national team member, Greg Brisendine came into playwriting in his forties and has sent five works to the stage, including the hilarious Meeting Neil — a hilarious take on LGBT politics in which a group of friends learns that Neil Patrick Harris will be joining them for happy hour — and last year’s smashing success No Strings Attached, about love, trust, and sexual health in a Florida retirement community.
In 1999, before they were called ‘blogs,’ Greg started a website to provide relationship advice online as the Bitter Single Guy; he wrote the column online and in print for the next 15 years before “retiring” BSG in 2014. In his “day job” with Amazon, Greg is a senior manager for learning and development, helping writers self-publish; he shares the expertise from that role and others online and is currently finishing a book on Key Performance Indicators.
