Writer’s Block: Teri Vlassopoulos

All Lit Up: Tell us about Living Expenses. What can readers expect?

Teri Vlassopoulos: Living Expenses is a novel told from the perspective of a character named Laura. It spans nine seasons in her early adulthood during which she and her husband decide to start a family but she can’t get pregnant, her sister moves to San Francisco for a tech startup, and her mother decides to dip her toe into online dating. Laura handles these events in various good and bad ways.

All Lit Up: What inspired the idea for your latest book?

Teri Vlassopoulos: I’m an only child but am really fascinated by sibling relationships, especially sisterhood. I started writing about Laura and her sister Claire and fell in love with the two of them, two half-Filipino sisters barely a year apart being raised by an immigrant mother. I also wanted to explore writing about infertility, which was an experience I had gone through but hadn’t seen reflected much in literature. I wanted to explore how infertility impacts the person going through it and the relationship with their partner, but also how it impacts other people in their life. In this case, Claire.

All Lit Up: What do you hope readers take away from your book?

Teri Vlassopoulos: I would like readers to finish the book with a sense of hope. Laura’s problems are very internal and private to her, and she struggles reconciling these aspects with the big, wide world around her. It’s usually when she forces herself away from her internal bubble that she makes some kind of breakthrough in her feelings.

All Lit Up: If you had to describe your writing style in just a few words, what would they be?

Teri Vlassopoulos: When I first got serious about writing, I loved Lorrie Moore because she was “funny sad”. I would like my writing to be funny sad too. I also want it to be full of heart.

All Lit Up: How has your perspective on writing changed over time?

Teri Vlassopoulos: Now that I’m in mid-forties, I’ve come to a kind of peace with my writing. There were many times in my life where I wondered what the point of it was– I still remember clearly when I had a toddler and was exhausted and sick and working all the time. I thought life would be so much easier if I gave up writing. It wouldn’t be hanging over me or like I was missing out on some big part of my life. But what any writer eventually realizes and accepts is that you’re a writer whether or not you’re writing or publishing. It’s just a part of your life. I try to give myself more grace when I don’t think I’m doing it enough because I know I’ll come back to it. I also know that being too busy to write is also what gives you fodder for writing, so I make sure to remind myself of that, too.

All Lit Up: How do you celebrate when you finish a book?

Teri Vlassopoulos: I love to celebrate and am always up for celebrating the biggest and smallest things. It took a good 10 years from inception to final publication to get Living Expenses into the world and I’m sure I had a few different celebratory meals along the way. But my favourite way to celebrate these days is with a good old fashioned karaoke party! When I first signed my contract with Invisible Publishing, I organized a karaoke party with Norm Nemetallah, our publisher, my editor Bryan Ibeas, and various Invisible writers like Jessica Westhead, Syd Hegele and Nina Ducic. I still think so fondly about that night. For my official launch party, I also had to include a karaoke element. With my karaoke host Emily Robertson-Riggio we held a karaoke party in Queen Books in Toronto. It was honestly a dream come true. So, yes: karaoke and something sparkling to drink. That’s how I celebrate.

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Teri Vlassopoulos is the author of Living Expenses (Invisible Publishing, 2025), Escape Plans (Invisible Publishing, 2015) and Bats or Swallows (Invisible Publishing, 2010). Her fiction and non-fiction has been published in Room Magazine, Today’s Parent, Catapult, The Millions, The Rumpus, The Toast, Open Book and more. She has been nominated for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award.

In addition to writing, Teri sits on the Board of Directors of the FOLD (the Festival of Literary Diversity). She lives in Toronto.