Bill Hayes on Sweat and Insomniac City

The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in nonfiction, Bill Hayes is a frequent contributor to the New York Times and the author of seven books, including The Anatomist, Insomniac City, and How We Live Now: Scenes from the Pandemic. His latest book, SWEAT: A History of Exercise, is a narrative nonfiction look at exercise from antiquity to the present. Hayes also recently completed the screenplay for a film adaptation of his memoir Insomniac City, to be produced by Brouhaha Entertainment. Hayes is a photographer as well, with credits including The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and the New York Times. A volume of his street photography, How New York Breaks Your Heart, was published by Bloomsbury. His photographs have been exhibited at the Steven Kasher Gallery and at The Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD), New York City. Hayes has lectured at NYU, UCSF, and University of Virginia, and has appeared at the Sydney Writers Festival, the 92nd Street Y, the Times of India (Mumbai) LitFest, and other venues. He has served as a co-editor of his late partner Oliver Sacks’s posthumously published work, including Gratitude and The River of Consciousness. Hayes, 62, lives in New York.

Carody Culver is the editor of Griffith Review. Her writing has appeared in Kill Your Darlings, Peppermint, Books+Publishing, The Toast and elsewhere. Her chapbook, The Morgue I Think the Deader it Gets, was published by Cordite in 2022. She’s interviewed writers and public figures including Grace Tame, Jonathan Franzen, Waleed Aly, Clementine Ford, Anna Funder and Cory Doctorow.