I wanted someone else to tell it for me because I was so curious about what would happen. But I did have this idea for a couple of years about a survival reality show where it becomes a real survival situation, and I was obsessed with this idea. I love nonfiction, and I never set out to write fiction. None of them are that good, so it’s not that obvious a question. You said it was an obvious question, and I had like three ideas of what you were gonna say. What prompted that? What was the process like?īLAIR BRAVERMAN: Oh, that’s so funny. SHELBI POLK: I’m sure this is a question you get a lot, but tell me about this switch from memoir to fiction.

Shondaland talks with Braverman about her move into fiction, the line between survival and entertainment, and the way visibility changes a challenge. But when those producers disappear, Mara and her maybe-friends, maybe-competitors are thrust into a much more serious game.

Mara can’t quite figure out how to play the character the producers want her to play. Any of them who survive six weeks in the woods - starting with only one tool - will win a payout big enough to change their lives. Small Game follows Mara, a survival teacher who joins a group of mostly eager game-show competitors. Braverman’s newest book, a novel called Small Game, was, according to her, an almost reluctant foray into fiction.

That memoir, Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube, was published in 2016, and a photo-based book about her dogs, Dogs on the Trail: A Year in the Life, followed in 2021. Braverman has completed the Iditarod, a race established nearly 50 years ago in which competitors travel with sled dogs in Alaska from Anchorage to Nome lasted for weeks on the reality TV show Naked and Afraid and published a memoir about her time learning the craft of dog sledding and navigating the often-brutal culture of the outdoors community. On Twitter, Braverman’s dedicated followers call themselves #uglydogs and find community in the comments of the long, photo-driven stories Braverman tells on the social media platform when she’s not taking time off to write.Īnd her dedicated fans have had plenty to celebrate in recent years. There are working sled dogs, retirees, and fosters in her and her husband’s collection of “20-something” dogs, and many of them have their own fan bases. As the co-owner of a team of sled dogs, Blair Braverman finds herself pressed to figure out how many dogs she’s caring for at any given moment.

Small game blair braverman review