Inspired by our famous Writers at Work interviews, “My First Time” is a series of short videos about how writers got their start. Created by the filmmakers Tom Bean, Casey Brooks, and Luke Poling, each video is a portrait of the artist as a beginner—and a look at the creative process, in all its joy, abjection, delusion, and euphoria.

Today’s featured writer is Donald Antrim, whose first novel, Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World, appeared in 1993.

Watch our previous “My First Time” interviews:

• Sheila Hetion The Middle Stories, her first collection
• Tao Linon Bed, his first collection
• Christine Schutton Nightwork, her first collection
• Branden Jacobs-Jenkinson his play Neighbors
• Gabrielle Bellon The Book of …series, her early cartoons
• J. Robert Lennonon his debut novel, The Light of Falling Stars