Martha Frankel is the ultimate storyteller. Founder of the Woodstock BookFest, producer of Woodstock’s Story Slams, a book writer, book reviewer, essayist and celebrity profiler, writing teacher and editor, she does it all. 

In her conversation with The Overlook, Martha reflects on her love for personal storytelling and her life as a multi-venue storyteller, “I’m not organized, but I know what I’m doing.”

Why did you choose to write a memoir and to discuss your addiction? 

I come from a family of gamblers. It was ingrained in me and I was a little kid and really good at it. And so I was gonna write this family story about gambling, but fun, fun, fun. And then I got addicted to online poker and I spent four years or so in complete hell. Gambling online took it to a whole new level. 

And while I was talking to my agent about some book ideas, I said, well, ‘I’ve been gambling online’ and she lit up and said ‘that’s it. That’s the one.’ I didn’t want to talk about that because I was still doing it. But then my mother died and I sort of spiraled out of control and thought, let me just write this. I’m never going to show it to anyone. I just need to tell the story to myself because it happened so quickly. 

I wrote it and sent it to my agent, and she loved it. And then I had to tell my husband and my family that I was a gambler. It was a nightmare. 

How did your writing career begin?

I started out at Details Magazine with my mentor Annie Flanders, I then wrote book reviews and celebrity interviews at the height of the magazine world. And then when the magazine world changed, I started getting interested in writing a memoir. I love memoir. It’s my favorite genre. 

Which of your celebrity interviews did you most enjoy?

I loved my interviews with Jeff Bridges, the pieces I did on Sean Penn, and my piece on Floyd Patterson, the boxer who lived in New Paltz. I went to Europe to do a piece on Anthony Hopkins and was the first person to say out loud that he might win an Oscar for “Silence of the Lambs.” When he did, he sent me his director’s chair from the movie.

What storytelling avenue do you prefer?

The Story Slam is perfect for me. I feel like every day I get up and I want to tell my mother and my Aunt Tillie a good story. That’s how I was raised. If you could make those two laugh, it was a great day. So I love the Slams because of that, because I get to tell really personal stories. The next Slam is on November 7 at the Tinker Street Cinema.

And I write for The Mountains magazine. I do the back page, a diary of whatever I’m interested in. And that’s also really personal. I like personal storytelling. 

What’s your writing process?

I’m very unorganized about my writing, but I’m used to being on deadline. I work right to the deadline because I was a magazine writer and everything was due on the first of the month. When I teach, I tell my students, don’t wait till next week to write your piece, write it today while you’re thinking about it, but I’m not good at that. 

Right after this, I have a deadline and I’m almost done with the story. I just need to now stand back and say it out loud, say it as if I’m telling it. So I will spend today reading it out loud to myself and realizing what doesn’t work. I don’t know how people do it without reading their stuff aloud. I have to do that over and over. 

When I’m writing a story, I have to think it out for a long time. I have to figure out how it’s going to look in the magazine or on the page. I’m very aware of that because of the magazine background. And I write sometimes. like I’m writing for the art director instead of myself. I’m not organized, but I know what I’m doing. 

When I was writing “Hats and Eyeglasses,” I had to think of it as 14 magazine stories. I couldn’t think of it as a book. That was too much for me. But 14 magazine stories, yeah, I could handle that. 

What author has had a meaningful impact on you as a writer? 

John Irving. He does research for two years, writes the last chapter, and then goes back and figures out how to get there. Lots of writers lose momentum. His books do not. And I think of that a lot. I want you to be absorbed enough from the beginning to stick to the end. And that’s a hard job. I feel like that’s my job. 

What’s your next project?

I have been writing a piece of fiction for a long time. It’s total pornography. It’s got a story, but it’s really porn. I now think I should Substack it and put it out that way. Because it’s a fun story. And it’s fiction. Like I made it up and I made up places. I’ve never done that before. It’s so much fun. Yeah, so I think maybe I’ll do a little bit more of that. 

I would like to do something short. People say “you’re gonna write another book?” I don’t think so, the publishing business is so slow and I’m sort of like, okay, let’s get on to the next thing. It’s too slow for me, I don’t want to wait two years for a book to come out. It’s just not in me anymore. 

What are you reading now?

I just finished “The River is Waiting” by Wally Lamb, and “Shark Heart: A Love Story” by Emily Habeck, and I reread Warren Zanes’ “Deliver Me From Nowhere,” about Bruce Springsteen. I also just read “The Lost Voice,” by Greta Morgan.

I’m now reading Lily King’s new book, “Heart the Lover,” and I really want to dig into “The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny” by Kiran Desai. 

Just give me a good book and a nice fire and I’m comfortable. When I taught, the first thing I asked every day in every class was “what are you reading?” I don’t think you can be a good writer without being a good reader.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.