Posted by Erin Duffy, Public Relations Intern and CNF Reader for Issue 4.2
Geneseo alum and author of “The Escape Artist,” Angela Workoff
Happy Throwback Thursday! To celebrate, we decided to interview some wonderful writers and artists who contributed to previous issues of Gandy Dancer. We started by chatting with Angela Workoff, author of “The Escape Artist,” our Post Script for Issue 4.1, to learn more about her literary life as a Geneseo alumni.
Gandy Dancer: Can you tell us a little bit about life after Geneseo and your MFA candidacy?
Angela Workoff: I always knew that I wanted to be a writer, but it took a long time, almost all of my twenties, to get out of my own way so that I could just sit down and do the work. I graduated from Geneseo in 2006, moved home to Brooklyn, and got an entry level job at an IT company which did tech support for hedge funds. The tech/finance world was miles away from everything I loved in the liberal arts, but I didn’t know what I wanted to write and was too insecure to commit to the stories I’d started. I found a niche in project management. I worked long hours alongside of my computer engineer coworkers and I learned a lot from them—those techs are likely the hardest working people I’ll ever know and they did their jobs often without recognition or thanks from our demanding clients. I traveled. I worked part time for a concert series in Brooklyn. I made friends. Got my heart broken a couple of times. Insecurity static began to settle when I was twenty-five, but I still didn’t feel great about my writing. Kept working, traveling, dipping in and out of writing workshops in the city.