After 40 years in print journalism, Vince Vawter didn’t quite feel finished with writing. In 2013, he published his debut novel, Paperboy — a story about an 11-year-old boy named Victor Vollmer living in Memphis in 1959 who struggles to talk without stuttering. Blending fiction and memoir, the book draws heavily from Vince’s own childhood and the challenges he faced finding his voice.
Paperboy earned a prestigious Newberry Honor in 2014 and has now been published in 22 different languages. Years later, Vince began to imagine the story on stage, and at a friend’s suggestion, it evolved into a musical. In 2023, the Manhattan School of Music performed it in New York, and later this year it will debut professionally at the Weathervane Theatre in Whitefield, New Hampshire.
Following the success of Paperboy, readers wanted more of Victor’s story. Vince obliged, and in 2018 he released Copyboy, which follows Victor at 17, and in 2023 he completed the trilogy with Manboy, where Victor is 21 and still navigating life with a stutter as he becomes a young adult in the tumultuous late 1960s in the U.S.
I’ve known Vince for over two decades — his son and my brother my brother were college roommates and close friends. As I began carving out my own path in journalism, I remember early conversations with him, including our shared connection to the Evansville Courier & Press, though I’m not sure if our time there overlapped when I was working there in high school.
More recently, we reconnected on Substack and have interacted regularly. Now nearing 80, Vince remains as sharp as ever. In February, he released his latest book, The Stuttering Stoic: How an Ancient Philosophy Helped Me Find My Voice.
He joins me on the podcast this week to reflect on his long, accomplished journalism career and what he now calls his “second career” as an author. He also shares about living with a stutter and how writing — along with his study of Stoicism — has helped him find his voice.
Paperboy was originally published by Penguin Random House, one of the industry’s “Big Five” publishers. But along the way, Vince faced pressure to change elements of his story. Wanting to remain true to his voice and experience, he ultimately chose to self-publish rather than compromise, and in this conversation he talks about how he ultimately settled on that decision.
You can learn more about Vince and buy his books at vincevawter.com.
I’d also love to connect with you on Substack, where I write essays and share updates about future episodes. You can find that at The Road Ahead.
You can also find me on Instagram and Twitter @ColeClaybourn, and on Facebook under Cole Douglas Claybourn.
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