Sean Thor Conroe lost his fiercest advocate before he published his first novel.
Now hes facing the hype without him.
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Theres the untrustworthy male in the romantic context.
Theres the hypebeast fuckboy decked out in Balenciaga.
And finally, theres the guy who uses sex with more powerful men for protection.
No, hell no, he says.
Its that part of him the old him that the book is about.
The books themes are autofictional, the cadence staccato.
he writes.I dont know, bro.)
He callsFuccboia self-help book.
But since reading his poetic and propulsive writing, she has decided she doesnt mind.
She gave the book a blurb.)
Conroe describes DiTrapanos editing style as like, This chapter is kind of weak.
Make it better, bro.
Conroe was born in Japan to a Japanese mother and an American father.
People had different jobs according to their ability, he says of those communities.
So you might be in the damn weavery or the candle-making workshop.
The work took the family from Japan to Sacramento to Scotland to upstate New York.
Thats when he met DiTrapano.
Right before his first M.F.A.
Walker says the manuscript energized the editor.
Gian sent me two books in his life, he says.
One wasFuccboi.He was really hyped about it.
(The other was Michael OndaatjesThe Collected Works of Billy the Kid.)
DiTrapano took an interest in Conroe.
By March,Fuccboiwas essentially finished.
DiTrapano was planning to put out the book on a new imprint.
But then he died.
(I was saving the last 100 pages.)
He wouldnt say how much his advance was, but the publisher confirmed it was a six-figure deal.
Conroe took off shortly after, driving his Chevy van to Los Angeles.
I was going through some shit, he says.
I was just trying to change my life.
I cant stress enough how conniving he is with his thinking and planning, Pink wrote.
The man really is a weasel mastermind, in the art of snatching the crumb.
He accused Conroes publisher of riding Gians ghost.
Then he posted a screenshot of our email thread to his Instagram and Twitter.)
Now he has to navigate the aftermath without him.
When I asked Walker about the effect DiTrapano had on his own career, he took a beat.
I could really use Gian now, he said.
He was sitting on hundreds of pages of writing he didnt quite know what to do with.
For Conroe, the loss likewise represents the absence of a confident advocate.
At some point, he had stopped caring what his M.F.A.
workshops said about it: Gian fucks with this.
I dont care what you guys say.
A lot of that book is from a place of, like,Nothing matters.
Im fucked up, he says.
And, you know, I was fucked up.
He doesnt want to be that guy.
He recently moved to Brooklyn, where its quieter.
Hes playing a lot of basketball.
Hes taking cold showers.
Im on my body-fascism shit, he says.
He pauses, reconsiders.
That was a joke.
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