WMFA

Minisode: Gratitude

Wed, 27 Nov 2019 05:00:00 +0000

On the last episode of the season, I'm reflecting on gratitude for our work, and how often (or rarely) we feel it.

Returning to Your Humanity w. ALEXANDER CHEE

Wed, 20 Nov 2019 05:00:00 +0000

Alexander Chee's latest book is the essay collection How to Write an Autobiographical Novel. He and Courtney discuss the process of becoming real to yourself, staying accountable to the work, and how to keep a novel journal.

Minisode: Constraint

Wed, 13 Nov 2019 05:00:00 +0000

Building containers for creative freedom.

Playing to Your Strengths w. JAMI ATTENBERG

Wed, 06 Nov 2019 05:00:00 +0000

Jami Attenberg's latest novel, All This Could Be Yours, is out now from HMH Books. She and Courtney discuss writing family narratives, identifying and playing to your strengths, and keeping the work fun for the reader.

Minisode: The Future

Wed, 30 Oct 2019 04:00:00 +0000

The Future

Are we acting for our future selves?

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Thank you to WMFA patrons Ruthie Ackerman, Marta Bausells, Megan Brawley, Carrie Brown, Jack Cheng, Madison Cyr, Alice Elliott Dark, André Gallant, Nicky Gonzalez, Leah Hampton, Melanie Haws, Donna Hidock, Sarah Lauren Jaffe, Katie Karlson, Rachel Gordon Loube, Kathryn Matlack, D.H. Morton, Grace Pickering, Giulia Pink, Trivia NYC, Brooke Ward, Marianne Worthington, Erica Veurink and Lucretia Voigt for supporting this episode. Become a patron.

Crafting a Compelling Voice w. BRIAN ALLEN CARR

Wed, 23 Oct 2019 04:00:00 +0000

Author photo by Erin Davis.

Crafting a Compelling Voice w. BRIAN ALLEN CARR

Brian Allen Carr’s novel Opioid, Indiana is out now from Soho Press. Brian is the author of several story collections and novellas and has been published in McSweeney’s, Hobart, and The Rumpus. He was the inaugural winner of the Texas Observer short story prize as judged by Larry McMurtry, and the recipient of a Wonderland Book Award. He splits his time between Texas and Indiana, where he writes about engineers and inventors at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

Discussed In This Episode

Vaping. Being a teenager. Writing fast. Blue collar pulp noir. Borders. Belonging. Writing as coping. Revision. Loving bad reviews and learning from the mediocre ones. “I have found that, at least for me, if I'm not enjoying typing, I should not be typing.”

Bonus Segment: When Is a Voice Working?

Brian talks about what makes a voice click.

Bonus segments are a Patreon exclusive and cost just $2 a month. Join Patreon here.

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Minisode: A Tiny (and in Retrospect Totally Obvious) Epiphany

Wed, 16 Oct 2019 04:00:00 +0000

A Tiny (and in Retrospect Totally Obvious) Epiphany

The important piece of writing advice that finally sunk in.

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Thank you to WMFA patrons Ruthie Ackerman, Marta Bausells, Megan Brawley, Carrie Brown, Jack Cheng, Madison Cyr, Alice Elliott Dark, André Gallant, Nicky Gonzalez, Leah Hampton, Melanie Haws, Donna Hidock, Sarah Lauren Jaffe, Katie Karlson, Rachel Gordon Loube, Kathryn Matlack, Grace Pickering, Giulia Pink, Trivia NYC, Brooke Ward, Marianne Worthington, Erica Veurink and Lucretia Voigt for supporting this episode. Become a patron.

Minisode: Rest

Wed, 02 Oct 2019 15:02:19 +0000

Rest

How good are you at letting yourself just be?

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Thank you to WMFA patrons Ruthie Ackerman, Marta Bausells, Megan Brawley, Carrie Brown, Jack Cheng, Madison Cyr, Alice Elliott Dark, André Gallant, Nicky Gonzalez, Leah Hampton, Melanie Haws, Donna Hidock, Sarah Lauren Jaffe, Katie Karlson, Rachel Gordon Loube, Kathryn Matlack, Grace Pickering, Giulia Pink, Trivia NYC, Brooke Ward, Marianne Worthington, Erica Veurink and Lucretia Voigt for supporting this episode. Become a patron.

Cultivating Patience w. MARY RUEFLE

Wed, 25 Sep 2019 16:00:00 +0000

Author photo by Hannah Ensor.

Cultivating Patience w. MARY RUEFLE

Mary Ruefle is the author of many books, including Dunce (Wave Books, 2019), My Private Property (Wave Books, 2016), Trances of the Blast (Wave Books, 2013), Madness, Rack, and Honey: Collected Lectures (Wave Books, 2012), a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism, and Selected Poems (Wave Books, 2010), winner of the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. She has also published a comic book, Go Home and Go to Bed! (Pilot Books/Orange Table Comics, 2007), and is an erasure artist, whose treatments of nineteenth century texts have been exhibited in museums and galleries and published in A Little White Shadow (Wave Books, 2006). Ruefle is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Robert Creeley Award, an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, and a Whiting Award. She lives in Bennington, Vermont.

Discussed In This Episode

Letting go of expectations. Falling in love with solitude. Being part of a larger whole. Time. “Oh, somebody else is lonely too.” Repeating epiphanies. Domesticity. Letting the work in. “It breaks my heart that so many people don't understand that their life is their own.” Boredom. Mental cruising. We’re all dead.

Bonus Segment: A Love Letter to Letters

Mary talks about why letters are her favorite literary form.

Bonus segments are a Patreon exclusive and cost just $2 a month. Join Patreon here.

Some links may be affiliate. Thank you for supporting WMFA.

Thank you to WMFA patrons Ruthie Ackerman, Megan Brawley, Carrie Brown, Jack Cheng, Madison Cyr, Alice Elliott Dark, André Gallant, Nicky Gonzalez, Leah Hampton, Melanie Haws, Donna Hidock, Sarah Lauren Jaffe, Katie Karlson, Rachel Gordon Loube, Kathryn Matlack, Grace Pickering, Giulia Pink, Trivia NYC, Brooke Ward, Marianne Worthington, Erica Veurink and Lucretia Voigt for supporting this episode. Become a patron.

Minisode: Isolation

Wed, 18 Sep 2019 04:00:00 +0000

Isolation

Keeping ourselves connected in the solitary work of writing.

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Keeping Faith in the Process w. R.O. KWON

Wed, 11 Sep 2019 04:00:00 +0000

Author photo by Smeeta Mahanti.

Keeping Faith in the Process w. R.O. KWON

R.O. Kwon’s nationally bestselling first novel, The Incendiaries, is published by Riverhead, and it is being translated into five languages. Named a best book of the year by over forty publications, it is an American Booksellers Association Indie Next #1 Pick and an Indies Introduce selection. The Incendiaries was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Award for Best First Book, Los Angeles Times First Book Prize, and Northern California Independent Booksellers Association Fiction Prize. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Paris Review, BuzzFeed, NPR, and elsewhere.

Discussed In This Episode

Faith in religion and faith in writing. Spacing out with words. Writing your closest pain into the character who’s least like you demographically. When are you writing from your depths? Plausible deniability. “For me, facts get in the way of truth.” Throwing everything away and changing POV. What the book wants to be. What you know about your characters that does not make it onto the page. The “scraps” document. The joy of writing by hand. Memorize more poems! Poetry Twitter. “Lexical inevitability.” What women are supposed to want. Finding models of what you want to be in the world. “Trauma is the story that’s often expected of marginalized writers. You don’t owe anyone your trauma.” Point of view vs. point of telling (with a h/t to Alexander Chee). Why is the story being told?

Bonus Segment: Writers on Faith

R.O. recommends some of her favorite writers on the subject of faith.

Bonus segments are a Patreon exclusive and cost just $2 a month. Join Patreon here.

Some links may be affiliate. Thank you for supporting WMFA.

FROM THE ARCHIVES | Minisode: On Fear

Wed, 04 Sep 2019 17:54:16 +0000

On Fear

Feeling it. Acknowledging it. Understanding it. Doing the work anyway.

Listen below or via: iTunes | Stitcher | Pocket Cast | Overcast | RadioPublic

Some links may be affiliate. Thank you for supporting WMFA.

Thank you to WMFA patrons Ruthie Ackerman, Megan Brawley, Carrie Brown, Jack Cheng, Madison Cyr, Alice Elliott Dark, André Gallant, Nicky Gonzalez, Donna Hidock, Sarah Lauren Jaffe, Katie Karlson, Rachel Gordon Loube, Sherry Lowry, Kathryn Matlack, Grace Pickering, Giulia Pink, Trivia NYC, Brooke Ward, Marianne Worthington, Erica Veurink and Lucretia Voigt for supporting this episode. Become a patron.

Defining Your Writing Identity w. MARGINALLY PODCAST

Wed, 28 Aug 2019 04:00:00 +0000

Defining Your Writing Identity w. MARGINALLY PODCAST

Olivia Allison and Meghan Brawley are best friends and co-hosts of Marginally Podcast, where they talk about the ups and downs of combining day jobs and writing. They are most active on their podcast (subscribe in your favorite podcast app), website (marginallypodcast.com) and Instagram, @marginallypodcast.

Olivia has published a variety of non-fiction pieces of different lengths – one co-authored book and several articles in the politics and policy arena. She now working on a novel, as well as a selection of essays and short stories. You can see more about her writing at OliviaAllisonWrites.com, or sign up for her TinyLetter at http://tinyletter.com/roamingolivia. She splits her time between Ukraine and London, with lots of work travel mixed in from her day job as a consultant preventing and investigating fraud and corruption.

Meghan is a writer and librarian whose work has appeared in the Dallas Morning News, Kirkus online, book and culture website Forever Young Adult, and the feminist website Quotabelle, as well as select conference and trade publications. She writes both young adult and adult fiction centered around complex women’s friendships, and her current project is a YA novel about authenticity, climate change, and surfing. A Texan in exile, she currently share her North Carolina home—the 9th in 15 years—with her partner, two sons, and an elderly dog.

Discussed In This Episode

“Am I doing this right?” Writer identity. People-pleasing. Making a freelance career sustainable. Thinking of yourself as a business. Proposals for the Feminine Economy by Jennifer Armbrust. Making writing visually interesting. Works in progress. “Lord of the Rings of the oligarchs.” “Idea” books. Day jobs. Podcasting. How can Danielle Steel write like that? Plotting and structure.

Bonus Segment: Book Club!

We talk about Claire-Louise Bennett, Rachel Cusk, and Karl Knausgaard.

Bonus segments are a Patreon exclusive and cost just $2 a month. Join Patreon here.

Some links may be affiliate. Thank you for supporting WMFA.

Minisode: Writing Needs

Wed, 21 Aug 2019 18:10:18 +0000

Writing Needs

What do you need—and how do you figure out what you need anyway?

To read an expanded essay on this topic, become a Patreon member.

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Growing Into Your Practice w. MICHAEL PARKER

Wed, 14 Aug 2019 04:00:00 +0000

Author photo by Tasha Thomas.

Michael Parker

Michael Parker is the author of seven novels and three collections of stories, most recently Prairie Fever, out now from Algonquin Books. (Buy now from IndieBound.) His short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times Magazine, the Oxford American, Runner's World, Men's Journal, and other publications. His work has been anthologized in The O. Henry Prize Stories and The Pushcart Prize. He recently retired as the Nicholas and Nancy Vacc Distinguished Professor in the MFA Writing Program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He lives in Saxapahaw, North Carolina, and Austin, Texas.

Discussed In This Episode

Writing from old family tales and growing up with storytellers. “In order for me to get going, all I need is an image.” Knowing when stories are not finished. How many times do you have to write the book before you know what it means? Sibling relationships and the subjectivity of memory. Don’t forget to make the math of your story work. Thinking of plot as a manifestation of character desire. Trusting your readers and editors. Writing crackling dialogue. Epistolary novels. Writing outside your life experience. Leaving some mystery to your characters. Learning that it’s not going away. Growing into your writing practice.

Bonus Segment: Running, Swimming, and Writing

Michael is a former ultra-marathoner and a daily swimmer. We talk about the subconscious impact exercise has on his writing process.

Bonus segments are a Patreon exclusive and cost just $2 a month. Join Patreon here.

Some links may be affiliate. Thank you for supporting WMFA.

Minisode: Rewriting Our Stories

Wed, 07 Aug 2019 04:00:00 +0000

Rewriting Our Stories

What aspect of your creative life needs a new narrative?

To read an expanded essay on this topic, become a Patreon member.

Some links may be affiliate. Thank you for supporting WMFA.

Thank you to WMFA patrons Ruthie Ackerman, Megan Brawley, Carrie Brown, Jack Cheng, Madison Cyr, Alice Elliott Dark, André Gallant, Nicky Gonzalez, Donna Hidock, Sarah Lauren Jaffe, Katie Karlson, Rachel Gordon Loube, Sherry Lowry, Kathryn Matlack, Grace Pickering, Giulia Pink, Trivia NYC, Brooke Ward, Marianne Worthington, Erica Veurink, and Lucretia Voigt for supporting this episode. Become a patron.

Finding Writerly Courage w. SAVANNAH SIPPLE

Wed, 31 Jul 2019 04:00:00 +0000

Savannah Sipple

Savannah Sipple is the author of WWJD & Other Poems (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2019), which explores what it is to be a queer woman in Appalachia and is rooted in its culture and in her body. (Buy now from IndieBound.) With a beer-drinking Jesus as her wing man, she navigates this difficult terrain of stereotype, conservative Evangelicalism, and, perhaps most, shame. A writer from east Kentucky, her writing has recently been published in Southern Cultures, Split This Rock, Salon, Appalachian Heritage, Waxwing, and other places. She is also the recipient of grants from the Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Fund and the Kentucky Foundation for Women. A professor, editor, and writing mentor, Savannah currently resides in Lexington, Kentucky, with her wife, Ashley.

Discussed In This Episode

Hiding behind other voices. Lacking confidence in your experiences. “We’re just so tired of this same narrative getting tossed along.” The most vulnerable moment of the publishing process. Dorothy Allison, Nikky Finney, and relying on the writers who inspire you. Digging deep—and the doors that open once you do. Coming out. Homosexuality and faith. Wangari Maathai on On Being. The connectedness of sensuality. The ways we hurt one another and ourselves. “I think we’ve gone away from a foundation of love and turned into a foundation of control.” Reading is writing.

Bonus Segment: Queer Appalachian Writing

Savannah talks about the significance of queer narratives in and about her native region.

Bonus segments are a Patreon exclusive and cost just $2 a month. Join Patreon here.

Some links may be affiliate. Thank you for supporting WMFA.

Thank you to WMFA patrons Ruthie Ackerman, Megan Brawley, Carrie Brown, Jack Cheng, Madison Cyr, Alice Elliott Dark, André Gallant, Nicky Gonzalez, Donna Hidock, Sarah Lauren Jaffe, Katie Karlson, Rachel Gordon Loube, Sherry Lowry, Kathryn Matlack, Grace Pickering, Giulia Pink, Trivia NYC, Brooke Ward, Marianne Worthington, and Erica Veurink for supporting this episode. Become a patron.

Minisode: Healthier Harvests, or Another Kind of Flow

Wed, 24 Jul 2019 17:44:33 +0000

Healthier Harvests, or Another Kind of Flow

What kale, checks, and writing have in common.

To read an expanded essay on this topic, become a Patreon member.

Some links may be affiliate. Thank you for supporting WMFA.

Thank you to WMFA patrons Megan Brawley, Carrie Brown, Jack Cheng, Madison Cyr, André Gallant, Nicky Gonzalez, Donna Hidock, Katie Karlson, Rachel Gordon Loube, Kathryn Matlack, Grace Pickering, Giulia Pink, Trivia NYC, Marianne Worthington, and Erica Veurink for supporting this episode. Become a patron.

Creating Reassuring Writing Frameworks w. KRISTEN ARNETT

Wed, 17 Jul 2019 04:00:00 +0000

Author photo by Maria Jones.

Kristen Arnett

Kristen Arnett is a queer fiction and essay writer. Her debut novel, Mostly Dead Things, is out now from Tin House. (Buy now from IndieBound.) Kristen won the 2017 Coil Book Award for her debut short fiction collection, Felt in the Jaw, and was awarded Ninth Letter’s 2015 Literary Award in Fiction. She’s a columnist for Literary Hub and her work has either appeared or is upcoming at North American Review, the Normal School, Gulf Coast, TriQuarterly, Guernica, Electric Literature, Volume 1 Brooklyn, Bennington Review, Tin House Flash Fridays/the Guardian, Salon, the Rumpus, and elsewhere.

Discussed In This Episode

The absurdist delight of Twitter. “Weird sexualized taxidermy, that’s just funny.” Writing the body. When the characters aren’t done with you. Kristen’s personal rules for writing short vs. long fiction. No re-reading! “Pushing on things” in the work to learn more. “There were things I didn’t realize I was trying to ask of the characters.” Needing to have a lot of projects on the go at once. Queer writing beyond the coming-out narrative. “I want things to be an interrogation.”

Bonus Segment: Writing a Florida Book

Kristen talks about writing prose that captured the tactile experience of her home state.

Bonus segments are a Patreon exclusive and cost just $2 a month. Join Patreon here.

Some links may be affiliate. Thank you for supporting WMFA.

Thank you to WMFA patrons Ruthie Ackerman, Megan Brawley, Carrie Brown, Jack Cheng, Madison Cyr, André Gallant, Nicky Gonzalez, Donna Hidock, Katie Karlson, Rachel Gordon Loube, Kathryn Matlack, Grace Pickering, Giulia Pink, Trivia NYC, Marianne Worthington, and Erica Veurink for supporting this episode. Become a patron.

Minisode: Why Do You Write?

Wed, 10 Jul 2019 15:15:58 +0000

Why Do You Write?

Why it’s helpful to check in with our whys—plus a special request.

To read an expanded essay on this topic, become a Patreon member.

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Knowing What You Need as a Writer w. CASEY CEP

Wed, 03 Jul 2019 15:09:20 +0000

Author photo by Kathryn Schulz.

Casey Cep

Casey Cep is a writer from the Eastern Shore of Maryland. After graduating from Harvard with a degree in English, she earned an M.Phil in theology at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The New Republic, among other publications. Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee is her first book. (Buy now from IndieBound.)

Bonus Segment: What Didn’t Make the Book

Casey talks about some of her favorite material that wasn’t included in the final draft.

Bonus segments are a Patreon exclusive and cost just $2 a month. Join Patreon here.

Some links may be affiliate. Thank you for supporting WMFA.

Minisode: Goody Two Shoes Writing

Wed, 26 Jun 2019 04:00:00 +0000

Goody Two Shoes Writing

When you’re showing up but not really showing up.

To read an expanded essay on this topic, become a Patreon member.

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Writing More Diverse Narratives w. TOMMY ORANGE

Wed, 19 Jun 2019 14:42:23 +0000

Author photo by Elena Seibert. .

Tommy Orange

Tommy Orange’s debut novel, There There, was released in 2018. (Buy now from IndieBound.) Tommy is a graduate of the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. An enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, he was born and raised in Oakland, California.

Bonus Segment: Emerging Native Writers

Tommy recommends some of his favorite up-and-coming Native authors.

Bonus segments are a Patreon exclusive and cost just $2 a month. Join Patreon here.

Some links may be affiliate. Thank you for supporting WMFA.

Minisode: Agent Anxiety

Wed, 12 Jun 2019 04:00:00 +0000

Agent Anxiety

Welcome to the first listener-request minisode! We’re talking about finding the right agent for you.

To read an expanded essay on this topic, become a Patreon member.

Some links may be affiliate. Thank you for supporting WMFA.

Thank you to WMFA patrons Megan Brawley, Carrie Brown, Jack Cheng, Madison Cyr, André Gallant, Nicky Gonzalez, Donna Hidock, Katie Karlson, Rachel Gordon Loube, Grace Pickering, Giulia Pink, Trivia NYC, and Erica Veurink for supporting this episode. Become a patron.

Developing an “Occult Sensibility” of Your Writing w. KAREN RUSSELL

Wed, 05 Jun 2019 04:01:00 +0000

Author photo by Dan Hawk.

Karen Russell

Karen Russell, whose new story collection, Orange World, is out now. (Buy now from IndieBound.) Karen won the 2012 and the 2018 National Magazine Award for fiction, and her first novel, Swamplandia!, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She has received a MacArthur Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship, the "5 under 35" prize from the National Book Foundation, the NYPL Young Lions Award, the Bard Fiction Prize, and is a former fellow of the Cullman Center and the American Academy in Berlin. She currently holds the Endowed Chair at Texas State University's MFA program, and lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband and son.

Discussed In This Episode

“Pinballing around the library” and how what we read as kids inform what we write as adults. Writing surreal fiction in an increasingly surreal reality. Our relationship to nature and “a very dark flavor of hope.” MFAs and coming into your voice (and then sometimes getting sick of it). An “occult sensibility” of how to shape your work. Trying on other voices. Adhering to the internal logic of your story. Figuring out where readers might stumble and then letting them off the hook. Satisfying surprises. “Sound will lead you where you need to go.” Sentence choreography.

Bonus Segment: What Makes a Satisfying Ending

Karen talks about what she wants to achieve with an ending.

Bonus segments are a Patreon exclusive and cost just $2 a month. Join Patreon here.

Some links may be affiliate. Thank you for supporting WMFA.

Minisode: Patience

Wed, 29 May 2019 14:55:05 +0000

Patience

Slowing down to speed up.

To read an expanded essay on this topic, become a Patreon member.

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Crafting Narratives from History w. DAVID K. RANDALL

Wed, 22 May 2019 04:00:00 +0000

David K. Randall

David K. Randall’s new book, Black Death at the Golden Gate, is out now from W.W. Norton. (Buy now from IndieBound.) David is a senior reporter at Reuters and the New York Times best-selling author of Dreamland and The King and Queen of Malibu. He lives in Montclair, New Jersey.

Discussed In This Episode

“Why wasn’t this a bigger deal?” Fake news wasn’t invented in the 21st century. Racism and denying science. “Disease has a way of bringing out the worst in communities.” Conducting historical research. Giving real (dead) people interiority. How family dynamics can be the key to a character’s point of view. Organizing—and color-coding!—your notes. Every hour adds up. Just get something down on paper. “There’s always going to be some constraint.” Realizing that the world is going to move on. What allows you to keep doing the work.

Bonus Segment: David’s Favorite Literary Nonfiction

David talks about the works of historical literary nonfiction that were on his desk while he was writing Black Death at the Golden Gate.

Bonus segments are a Patreon exclusive and cost just $2 a month. Join Patreon here.

Some links may be affiliate. Thank you for supporting WMFA.

Minisode: Writing Without Writing

Wed, 15 May 2019 04:00:00 +0000

Writing Without Writing

Expanding our ideas of process.

To read an expanded essay on this topic, become a Patreon member.

Some links may be affiliate. Thank you for supporting WMFA.

Thank you to WMFA patrons Megan Brawley, Jack Cheng, Madison Cyr, André Gallant, Nicky Gonzalez, Donna Hidock, Katie Karlson, Rachel Gordon Loube, Grace Pickering, Giulia Pink, Trivia NYC, and Erica Veurink for supporting this episode. Become a patron.

Writing Into the Darkness w. SUSAN CHOI

Wed, 08 May 2019 04:00:00 +0000

Author photo by Heather Weston.

Susan Choi

Susan Choi’s new novel, Trust Exercise, is out now from Henry Holt. (Buy on IndieBound.) Susan is the author of the novels My Education, A Person of Interest, American Woman, and The Foreign Student. Her work has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award and winner of the PEN/W.G. Sebald Award and the Asian-American Literary Award for fiction. With David Remnick, she co-edited Wonderful Town: New York Stories from The New Yorker. She’s received NEA and Guggenheim Foundation fellowships. She lives in Brooklyn.

Discussed In This Episode

The affair novel. “It never works for me to try to do something a certain way.” Eating lunch without guilt. Writing into the darkness. What the work wants to tell you about itself. False endings. Questioning and listening. “Often the missing ingredient is time.” Novels as geologic formations. Forget your work. Re-vision. Keep going, fix it later. Self-righteous procrastination. Scientology. “Who says?” Sudden changes of direction (that probably aren’t that sudden). Where you shine the spotlight and where you cast the shadow. The advice Susan would give her younger self.

Bonus Segment: The Reader-Writer Relationship

Susan discusses how she thinks about this crucial dynamic.

Bonus segments are a Patreon exclusive and cost just $2 a month. Join Patreon here.

Minisode: Choosing Your Mindset

Wed, 01 May 2019 04:00:00 +0000

Choosing Your Mindset

How do you approach your practice?

To read an expanded essay on this topic, become a Patreon member.

Some links may be affiliate. Thank you for supporting WMFA.

Thank you to WMFA patrons Megan Brawley, Jack Cheng, Jonathan Cottrell, Madison Cyr, André Gallant, Nicky Gonzalez, Donna Hidock, Katie Karlson, Rachel Gordon Loube, Grace Pickering, Giulia Pink, Trivia NYC, and Erica Veurink for supporting this episode. Become a patron.

Reimagining Narrative Structure w. JANE ALISON

Wed, 24 Apr 2019 04:00:00 +0000

Jane Alison

Jane Alison’s new book, Meander, Spiral, Explode, is out now from Catapult. (Buy now from IndieBound.) Jane is the author of a memoir, The Sisters Antipodes, and four novels—The Love-Artist, The Marriage of the Sea, Natives and Exotics, and Nine Island—and is also the translator of Ovid’s stories of sexual transformation, Change Me. She is professor of creative writing at the University of Virginia and lives in Charlottesville.

Discussed In This Episode

Liberation from the narrative arc. Obligation and rules (and breaking them). The pliability of the novel form. “I have to admit, I have a hard time reading a conventional realist novel these days.” Narrative as a visual art. Spatial narrative. Letting a project age until it’s the right time to make it. Egocentric and allocentric spatial knowledge. Levitating above the text.

Bonus Segment: Reading Practice

Jane talks about how she reads.

Bonus segments are a Patreon exclusive and cost just $2 a month. Join Patreon here.

Minisode: Accepting Your Process

Wed, 17 Apr 2019 04:00:00 +0000

Accepting Your Process

How do you feel about the way you get writing done?

To read an expanded essay on this topic, become a Patreon member.

Some links may be affiliate. Thank you for supporting WMFA.

Building a Narrative Labyrinth w. SUMMER BRENNAN

Wed, 10 Apr 2019 04:00:00 +0000

Summer Brennan

Summer Brennan’s latest book, High Heel (buy from IndieBound), is out now from Bloomsbury’s Object Lessons series. Summer is a journalist and author. She received the 2016 Matthew Power Literary Reporting Award and was a visiting scholar at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University. A longtime consultant for the United Nations, her writing has appeared in New York Magazine, Scientific American, McSweeney's, the San Francisco Chronicle, and elsewhere. Her first book, The Oyster War: The True Story of a Small Farm, Big Politics, and the Future of Wilderness in America was a finalist for the 2016 Orion Book Award.

Discussed In This Episode

Sexism in fairy tales. Leaning into the fragmentation of the material and building a narrative labyrinth. Distilling ideas. Pitching a nonfiction book. Eva Hagberg Fisher. “The logical conclusions in these things are not logical.” What is a woman? How to organize your research (and confuse TSA agents). Keeping a reading journal (or a “commonplace book”). Victim blaming. Women’s pain, and the ways society ignores it. Concern trolling. “So much of beauty practices over time make women weaker and easier to dominate.” The writing machine in your mind. Make yourself write a crappy rough draft, then convince yourself someone else wrote it. “I’m often surprised how much I can keep, honestly.” Accepting your process.

This episode is sponsored by Creative Nonfiction.

Bonus Segment: Crowd-Funding

Summer talks about raising more than $50,000 for her next book and what goes into a successful crowd-funding campaign.

Bonus segments are a Patreon exclusive and cost just $2 a month. Join Patreon here.

Minisode: Taking Yourself Seriously

Wed, 03 Apr 2019 04:00:00 +0000

Taking Yourself Seriously

It’s foundational to writing—and it’s not always easy.

To read an expanded essay on this topic, become a Patreon member.

Some links may be affiliate. Thank you for supporting WMFA.

Telling the Hard Truths w. MORGAN PARKER

Wed, 27 Mar 2019 04:00:00 +0000

Author photo by Rachel Eliza Griffiths.

Morgan Parker

Morgan Parker is the author of the poetry collections Magical Negro, There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé, and Other People’s Comfort Keeps Me Up At Night. Her debut YA novel Who Put This Song On? will be published in Fall 2019 from Delacorte Press, and her debut book of nonfiction is forthcoming from One World/Random House. Parker is the recipient of a 2017 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, winner of a Pushcart Prize, and a Cave Canem graduate fellow. She is the creator and host of Reparations, Live! at the Ace Hotel. With Tommy Pico, she co-curates the Poets with Attitude (PWA) reading series, and with Angel Nafis, she is The Other Black Girl Collective. She lives in Los Angeles.

Discussed In This Episode

Black excellence. Intentional repetition. Reading until the audience gets it. Not believing in time, and understanding the present as a layered experience. Bodily memory. “This is like a really crazy party.” Zora Neale Hurston. Writing and documentation. Poetry as ethnography. Ralph Ellison. Langston Hughes. Glenn Ligon. “How do I want to play with this idea?” Putting your ego aside. Totems driving you through the text. It’s so hard to tell the truth. “Where does the reader need to breathe, and where do I not care if they get a chance to breathe?” Representation, and misrepresentation. “Negro sunshine.”

Bonus Segment

Morgan talks about why visual art is so critical to her creative process and discusses the artists who inspire her most.

Bonus segments are a Patreon exclusive. Join here.

Minisode: Being a Student

Wed, 20 Mar 2019 04:00:00 +0000

Being a Student

On always learning and the wisdom of beginner’s mind for writers.

To read an expanded essay on this topic, become a Patreon member.

Should You Get an MFA? w. ERICA DAWSON & LEAH HAMPTON

Wed, 13 Mar 2019 04:00:00 +0000

Erica Dawson & Leah Hampton

Erica Dawson is the author of When Rap Spoke Straight to God, The Small Blades Hurt, and Big-Eyed Afraid. Her work has appeared in three editions of Best American Poetry, The Believer, Virginia Quarterly Review, and other journals and anthologies. She is an associate professor of English and Writing at University of Tampa, where she directs the low-residency MFA program.

Leah Hampton is a fellow at the Michener Center for Writers and Editor in Chief of Bat City Review. Her work has appeared in Ecotone, storySouth, Appalachian Heritage, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, and elsewhere. Her first book, Bodies, will be released by Henry Holt in 2020.

Discussed In This Episode

The MFA Industrial Complex. Should you get an MFA? Low-residency vs. full-time residency. Making sense of funding. The threat of rejection. Will an MFA help you get your book published? Cultural and socioeconomic diversity in MFA culture. What you want, but also what you need. What’s the average age of an MFA student? Community. The most important aspects of the application. Writing sample dos and don’ts. “Going where the love is.” Magic. Should you go into student loan debt? What can I do with an MFA? Networking.

Season 4 Teaser

Wed, 13 Feb 2019 05:00:00 +0000

Coming up on WMFA …

More conversations. More minisodes. And some exciting announcements.

Thank you to WMFA patrons Megan Brawley, Jack Cheng, Jonathan Cottrell, André Gallant, Donna Hidock, Katie Karlson, Rachel Gordon Loube, and Grace Pickering for supporting this episode. Become a patron.

How to Not Always Be Working w. MARLEE GRACE

Wed, 19 Dec 2018 05:00:00 +0000

Author photo by Mae Stier.

Episode 39

Marlee Grace’s book How to Not Always Be Working is out now. Marlee is an improviser and writer living on the rural coast of California. She works with improvisation as a method for navigating being alive and making work through dancing, quilting, writing, and podcasting. She also runs a community space and public studio in Inverness, CA, called CENTER.

Discussed In This Episode

“I can start my day over anytime.” Our inner critics love us (really). Roger De La Rosa. There are no guarantees, so do the work first. When your work (art) is so personal, how do you keep from working all the time? Digital performance and authenticity. Personal Practice and dancing on Instagram. “I’m kinda done apologizing for feeling confident and feeling joy.” Saturn returns, man. Women to love and model ourselves after (a partial list): Solange. Ellen Rutt. Jen Gotch is OK…Sometimes. Nicole Lavelle. Sarah Faith Gottesdiener. Waxahatchee. Jenna Kutcher and her Goal Digger podcast. Faythe Levine. Maybe all your different things are the same thing. Turning what you’re already doing into business. What parts of your career are draining you? What parts are giving you a lot? Clue app.

Minisode: Jealousy

Wed, 12 Dec 2018 05:00:00 +0000

Jealousy

Get curious about it.

Listen below or via: iTunes | Stitcher | Pocket Cast | Overcast | RadioPublic

Turning Family Members into Characters w. NICOLE CHUNG

Wed, 05 Dec 2018 05:00:00 +0000

Author photo by Erica B. Tappis.

Episode 38

Nicole Chung‘s debut memoir, All You Can Ever Know, is out now from Catapult Books. Nicole’s essays and articles have appeared in The New York Times, the Times Magazine, GQ, Longreads, Shondaland, BuzzFeed, and Hazlitt, among others. She is the editor-in-chief of Catapult magazine and the former managing editor of The Toast.

Discussed In This Episode

The difficulty of selling an adoption memoir and the lack of adoptee narratives. Writing as refuge. Keeping a daily journal. Turning family members into characters. Taking the adoption story beyond where it usually ends in pop culture. Structural issues and chronology versus narrative conflict. Editing insight via dreams. The value of routines. Writing and motherhood. The internet pace and finding your community online. Pour one out for The Toast. The limits of empathy and good intentions. Art and our political reality.

Minisode: Voices

Wed, 28 Nov 2018 05:00:00 +0000

Voices

Hearing, heeding, and ignoring inner chatter.

Listen below or via: iTunes | Stitcher | Pocket Cast | Overcast | RadioPublic

Holding Yourself Accountable w. HEATHER HAVRILESKY

Wed, 21 Nov 2018 05:00:00 +0000

Author photo by Willy Somma.

Episode 37

Heather Havrilesky’s new essay collection, What If This Were Enough?, is out now from Doubleday. She is also the author of How to Be a Person in the World and the memoir Disaster Preparedness. She writes the "Ask Polly" column for New York magazine, and has written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times Magazine, and NPR's All Things Considered, among others. She was also Salon's TV critic for seven years.

Discussed In This Episode

How to assemble a collection. “What I aim for is to point people back to their own instincts and their own heart.” Our passivity problem. Holding ourselves accountable. Why do we feel so broken (and what can we do about it)? “I’m more interested in taking myself seriously these days.” #Metoo and feminism right now. Shirley Jackson and writing women. Our “weird aunt” vision board. Working from home.

Minisode: Centeredness, or Surviving Creative Adolescence

Wed, 14 Nov 2018 05:00:00 +0000

Centeredness, or Surviving Creative Adolescence

Getting to the place where you know your work.

Listen below or via: iTunes | Stitcher | Pocket Cast | Overcast | RadioPublic

Thank you to WMFA patrons Jack Cheng, Jonathan Cottrell, André Gallant, Donna Hidock, Katie Karlson and Grace Pickering for supporting this episode. Become a patron.

Finding Creative Freedom w. LIANA FINCK

Wed, 07 Nov 2018 05:00:00 +0000

Author photo by Jorge Colombo.

Episode 36

Liana Finck’s new graphic memoir, Passing for Human, was published by Random House in September. Liana is a regular contributor to The New Yorker, The Awl, and Catapult. She is a recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, and a Six Points Fellowship for Emerging Jewish Artists. She has had artist residencies with the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and Tablet magazine. Her first book, A Bintel Brief, was published in 2014.

Discussed In This Episode

“It takes so long to start something.” Having just enough confidence. Instagram as creative freedom. We love Jenny Slate. Big Mouth. Longing for childhood and home. The many narratives in a family. “I think that’s the secret to a good relationship, listening to each other’s versions of the stories.” What to leave out. Our ideas of artists and seeing the kind of artist you want to be in the world. Surrounding yourself with the people who keep you going. “It’s a real art, learning how to read the fears and not take them literally.” Tara Brach, Pema Chodron and sitting with your fears. The confidence to say who you are (and who you’re not). “I had some really weird years of making really bad paintings.” Being more creative within constraints. Joan Didion: “What's so hard about that first sentence is that you're stuck with it. Everything else is going to flow out of that sentence. And by the time you've laid down the first two sentences, your options are all gone.” Meta-narrative and feeling close to the writer you’re reading.

Minisode: Writing as Relationship

Wed, 31 Oct 2018 04:00:00 +0000

Writing as Relationship

What’s your relationship like?

Listen below or via: iTunes | Stitcher | Pocket Cast | Overcast | RadioPublic

Thank you to WMFA patrons Jack Cheng, Jonathan Cottrell, André Gallant, Donna Hidock, Katie Karlson and Grace Pickering for supporting this episode. Become a patron.

Storytelling as an Act of Love w. WAYÉTU MOORE

Wed, 24 Oct 2018 04:00:00 +0000

Author photo by Yoni Levy.

Episode 35

Wayétu Moore’s debut novel, She Would Be King, is out now from Graywolf Press. Wayétu is the founder of One Moore Book and is a graduate of Howard University, Columbia University, and the University of Southern California. She teaches at the City University of New York’s John Jay College and lives in Brooklyn.

Discussed In This Episode

Oral storytelling. Discovering yourself through literature. Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters. Racism is learned behavior. Magical realism isn’t necessarily magical. Representation in literature and making room for diasporic narratives. Strange Magic and co-opting rituals. Colonialism. “There’s a pervasive thievery of agency that occurs.” Showing black people as being their own savior. “Thank god the alien got cut.” Admitting that you want your work to be read. Preserving your relationship with your craft. “Writing and reading has been my escape and has saved me in a lot of ways and rehabilitated me, and I don’t want to mess up this relationship, because then what will I have, to be those things to me?” Louise Bourgeois: The Spider, the Mistress and the Tangerine. Storytelling as an act of love.

Minisode: Priorities

Wed, 17 Oct 2018 04:00:00 +0000

Priorities

Are you showing up for yourself?

Listen below or via: iTunes | Stitcher | Pocket Cast | Overcast | RadioPublic

Thank you to WMFA patrons Jack Cheng, Jonathan Cottrell, André Gallant, Donna Hidock, Katie Karlson and Grace Pickering for supporting this episode. Become a patron.

Writing While Parenting w. KAT GARDINER

Wed, 10 Oct 2018 04:00:00 +0000

Episode 34

Kat Gardiner’s debut collection of short fiction, Little Wonder, is out now from Father/Daughter Records. Born in Oklahoma, raised in the Pacific Northwest, and currently based in Detroit, Kat carries a restlessness through her writing that's been honed by a lifelong search for roots. She studied creative writing at Bennington College in Vermont, and later studied with Tom Spanbauer in Portland, Oregon.

Discussed In This Episode

Writing groups. “Failure is not failure; failure is how we learn and how we grow.” Tom Spanbauer and Dangerous Writing. Motherhood and writing: “I didn’t want my daughter to see that, as a woman, you spend your life driving toward something, and then you get pregnant and that’s the end.” The importance of sharing your work-in-progress. Is 100 a magic number? Creative Mornings. Patricia Wheeler on creativity and chaos. Rootlessness. Learning what you think by writing it down. “The story is where you’re at.” Dogme 95. Writing as invitation and relationship with the reader. Writing physicality in a way that signifies character. Prioritizing yourself is prioritizing your family. Is the goal for writing to be your financial support? Promoting yourself with authenticity. The Decemberists vs. Katy Perry.

Minisode: On Shame

Wed, 03 Oct 2018 04:00:00 +0000

On Shame

What keeps you from telling your story?

Listen below or via: iTunes | Stitcher | Pocket Cast | Overcast | RadioPublic

Thank you to WMFA patrons Jack Cheng, Jonathan Cottrell, André Gallant, Donna Hidock, Katie Karlson and Grace Pickering for supporting this episode. Become a patron.

Being a Steward of Others’ Stories w. LINDA KAY KLEIN

Wed, 26 Sep 2018 04:00:00 +0000

Author photo by Jami Saunders.

Episode 33

Linda Kay Klein’s first book, Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement that Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free, is out now from Touchstone. Linda is the founder of Break Free Together. She earned a master’s degree from New York University focused on American evangelical Christian gender and sexuality messaging for girls, and has spent over a decade working at the cross section of faith, gender, and social change.

Discussed In This Episode

Figuring out you’re not alone. Purity culture and sexual shame. Abstinence education. Building trust with interviewees. Structuring a book that’s hybrid memoir-journalism-oral history — and selling a genre-bending proposal. Giving yourself emotional breaks. Creating a morning ritual to prepare yourself for writing. What productivity looks like to a writer. “My body ultimately is what forces me to deal with something.” Being the steward of so many people’s stories. Becoming who you need to be to write the book you want to write. #MeToo. “This book felt so fragile. I felt like if I stopped looking at it, it would dissolve.” Rediscovering your creative self.

Minisode: On Fear

Wed, 19 Sep 2018 04:00:00 +0000

On Fear

Feeling it. Acknowledging it. Understanding it. Doing the work anyway.

Listen below or via: iTunes | Stitcher | Pocket Cast | Overcast | RadioPublic

Thank you to WMFA patrons Jack Cheng, Jonathan Cottrell, André Gallant, Donna Hidock, Katie Karlson and Grace Pickering for supporting this episode. Become a patron.

Taking Control of Your Narrative w. ERICA DAWSON

Wed, 12 Sep 2018 04:00:00 +0000

Author photo by Kevin Kelii.

Episode 32

Erica Dawson is the author of When Rap Spoke Straight to God, a book-length poem out September 18 from Tin House Books, as well as the collections The Small Blades Hurt and Big-Eyed Afraid. Her work has appeared in three editions of Best American Poetry, The Believer, Virginia Quarterly Review, and other journals and anthologies. She is an associate professor of English and Writing at University of Tampa, where she directs the low-residency MFA program.

Discussed In This Episode

Disquiet Literary Program. Realizing you have more to say (with an assist from Eileen Myles). “How did we get here?” Women are more than Biblical plot devices. Lil’ Kim and the verve of female rappers. “Ain’t that some crap?” Poetic form as liberation. Reacting to the evil of the world without letting the evil take over the narrative. “It was by far the most fun and the most difficult work I’ve ever done.” Keeping yourself at the page. Taking control of your narrative. Exorcising the male gaze: “This body isn’t out here for your enjoyment and approval.” Waiting until you want to write. Allowing your brain to wander. Lucille Clifton: “I don’t write out of what I know; I write out of what I wonder.” Learning something from—and about—yourself in writing.

Listening to Your Inner Voice w. MARGARET WILKERSON SEXTON

Wed, 25 Jul 2018 04:00:00 +0000

Author photo by Ben Krantz.

Episode 31

Born and raised in New Orleans, Margaret Wilkerson Sexton studied creative writing at Dartmouth College and law at UC Berkeley. Her debut novel, A Kind of Freedom, was a 2017 National Book Award nominee, a New York Times Notable Book of 2017 and a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice. Her work has been published in The New York Times Book Review, Oprah.com, Lenny Letter, The Massachusetts Review, Grey Sparrow Journal, and other publications.

This episode is sponsored by Scrivener.

Discussed In This Episode

“If I were a grandmother looking down on my generations, I would think, ‘God, what happened here?’” Taking inspiration from the spirit of your family. Strengthening the weakest parts. “Sometimes the problem is you’re at the wrong stage at the story.” The book’s motor. Bringing characters to life with research. 1940s New Orleans. The War on Drugs. “It really showed the degree to which they’re compromised from the very beginning.” Confronting Hurricane Katrina without telling a Katrina story. Deciding when to drop in on characters’ lives. Stop forcing; go for a walk. Telling big stories in little, identifiable ways. Not turning issues into pathologies. “It denies their humanity if you don’t recognize the fact that they’re still thriving.” 100 rejections. Djerassi. What you learn from the book that’s not published. Listen to your inner voice. Writing in bursts. Childcare. Treat it like a job. Finding your schedule.

Fictionalizing Real Life w. LISA KO

Wed, 11 Jul 2018 04:00:00 +0000

Episode 30

Lisa Ko is the author of The Leavers, a novel that won the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction and was a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction, the 2018 PEN/Hemingway Award, and the 2017 Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Award. Her writing has appeared in Best American Short Stories 2016, The New York Times, and elsewhere. She lives in New York City.

This episode is sponsored by Scrivener.

Discussed In This Episode

The American immigration horror show. Writing from the news. Complicating the notion of motherhood. Are the outliners lying? “I have to write it to figure out it doesn’t work.” Showing belonging and alienation through place. “What is it like for people to see you as this person that you don’t believe you are?” Roxane Gay on why presuming autobiography in fiction impoverishes the reading experience. Fact-checking your fiction. What are you prioritizing? Promoting your work and vulnerability hangovers. When the work doesn’t feel yours anymore. Document chaos. Working on your characters = working on yourself.

Engaging Your Characters w. ROBIN MACARTHUR

Wed, 27 Jun 2018 04:00:00 +0000

Episode 29

Robin MacArthur's debut novel, Heart Spring Mountain, was released in January. Robin lives on the hillside farm where she was born in southern Vermont. Her debut collection of short stories, Half Wild, won the 2017 PEN New England award for fiction and was a finalist for the New England Book Award and the Vermont Book Award. Her essays and stories have appeared in Orion Magazine, The Washington Post, and on NPR. She is also the editor of Contemporary Vermont Fiction: An Anthology, one-half of the indie folk duo Red Heart the Ticker, and the recipient of two Creation Grants from the Vermont Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Discussed In This Episode

Figuring out what your book is about. Climate change, Thoreau, and living off the grid. Having compassion for your characters. The opioid crisis. The back-to-the-land movement, then and now. "These are hard times, but hard times have been had before, and what can we learn from looking backward?" Pushing the story forward. What a short story writer's novel looks like. Interiority and ways to engage your characters with one another. Scrivener. Where is your sacred writing space? Imposter syndrome and the myth of the "real writer." Vermont College of Fine Arts. "Yes, but" writing.

Getting the Writing Done w. NATALIE GOLDBERG

Wed, 13 Jun 2018 04:00:00 +0000

Author photo by Mitsue Nagese.

Episode 28

Natalie Goldberg is the author of over fourteen books, including the bestselling Writing Down the Bones, which has changed the way writing is taught. Her other books include Wild Mind, The Long Quiet Highway (both published by Bantam), and The Great Spring (Shambhala). She continues to lead workshops and retreats nationally and internationally, which she has done for over forty years. She has also painted for as long as she has written. She lives in northern New Mexico.

Discussed In This Episode

The book that gets you to the next book. "You're really being tested: Are you gonna stand up?" Writing about your partner. Writers get to live twice. "I don't look for it as much as I used to." Visiting writers' graves. Researching yourself. What you don't need to get writing done. Monkey mind. "Nobody even asked me, 'On what authority are you telling us how to write?'" The writers who walk with you.

Writing the Book You Want to Read w. SILAS HOUSE

Wed, 30 May 2018 04:00:00 +0000

Author photo by Tasha Thomas.

Episode 27

Silas House is the nationally bestselling author of five novels and one book of creative nonfiction. His sixth novel, Southernmost, is out June 5 and has recently been selected as a Southern Living Best Book of Summer, an Indie Next Pick, and a recommended selection of the Southern Independent Booksellers Association. Silas’ work frequently appears in The New York Times and Salon, and has also appeared in Oxford American, Narrative, Garden and Gun, Newsday and various anthologies. He serves on the fiction faculty at the Spalding MFA in Creative Writing and as the NEH Chair at Berea College, and his honors include the Nautilus Award, the EB White Award, and the Appalachian Book of the Year.

Discussed In This Episode

Fictionalizing Appalachia. The advantages and challenges of writing child characters. "As a novelist, you want as much trouble as possible." Growing up Fundamentalist and writing belief and doubt. Pre-writing. Writing from the news. The question that leads to the plot. Being a gay Appalachian. "I think we are raised to leave." The comfort and oppression of familiarity. Write the book you want to read. Fitting the work into the chaos. Stopping when you know where to go next. The Appalachian Writers' Workshop. "Writing that is just therapy is not good writing." Creation is painful. It gets harder, not easier. Academia and Southern accents. Writing that empowers.

Catching History Before It's Forgotten w. ELIZABETH CATTE

Wed, 16 May 2018 04:00:00 +0000

Episode 26

Elizabeth Catte is a historian and writer based in Staunton, Virginia. She is the author of What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia and the co-editor of 55 Strong: Inside the West Virginia Teachers' Strike. Her writing has also appeared in Belt magazine, the Guardian, the Nation, Salon, and the Boston Review. She's the director of Passel, a historical consulting company, and an editor for West Virginia University Press.

Discussed In This Episode

Donald Tr*&p and J.D. Vance. "These are not just mistakes; this is a pattern." "A Message to the Future of Appalachia." Blogging into a book deal. Readers writing you about their pain. Elaine McMillion Sheldon. "Coal Is Dying—Coal Country Doesn't Have To." Eugenics. Media narratives of Appalachia. Setting your terms with publications. Protecting your rep. Passing the mic. "I've gotten very used to being poor." How to accidentally become a public historian. Writing with (not against) your emotions. The West Virginia teachers' strike. Reconsidering your history lessons. The possibilities you can't even imagine yet. "I think we all need to do all the work we can do right now with incredible urgency." Writing is rewriting. Catching history before it's forgotten. Pulling the strings left in your work.

Keeping Tabs on Your Characters w. ROBERT GIPE

Wed, 02 May 2018 04:00:00 +0000

Author photo by Meaghan Evans.

Episode 25

Robert Gipe is the author of two illustrated novels, Weedeater, released this year by Ohio University Press, and Trampoline. He lives in Harlan, Kentucky, and grew up in Kingsport, Tennessee. His fiction has appeared in Appalachian Heritage, Still, Southern Cultures, Motif and Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel. He is the executive producer of the Higher Ground community performance project in Harlan County.

Discussed In This Episode

All the books you'll ever write. Save some for the next book. Finding your characters in real life. Prescription drugs and mental healthcare (or the lack thereof) in Appalachia. The reluctant narrator. Gender as a continuum. "I think fiction gives evil more power than sometimes it has in people's lives." Finding flaws after publication. Voice. Being a non-plotter. Appalshop. Avoiding "othering." Choosing the right metaphors for your characters. Out-migration. The Appalachian Writers' Workshop. Write something—anything—every day. Chain-smoking notebooks. Keeping tabs on your characters (and occasionally forgetting they're dead).

Solving the Puzzle of Fiction w. KARAN MAHAJAN

Wed, 18 Apr 2018 04:00:00 +0000

Episode 24

Karan Mahajan is the author of Family Planning, a finalist for the International Dylan Thomas Prize, and The Association of Small Bombs, which was shortlisted for the 2016 National Book Awards, won the 2017 New York Public Library Young Lions Award, and was named one of the New York Times Book Review's "Ten Best Books of 2016." In 2017, he was selected as one of Granta's Best of Young American Novelists. His essays and criticism have appeared in the New York Times, The New Yorker Online, The New Republic, and other venues. Originally from New Delhi, he resides in upstate New York.

Discussed In This Episode

"I think one tends to avoid one's deepest material." Feeling stuck between places. Writing each draft over. Fiction as a puzzle you're constantly solving. Getting an MFA after your first book. Why he'll never write another funny novel. What (and what not) to explain to readers about your culture. Telling instead of showing. How people are irrational. Let your bad memory work for you. A book as one long thought. How to answer the question "What's your novel about?"

Presenting Women Characters w. LENI ZUMAS

Wed, 04 Apr 2018 04:00:00 +0000

Author photo by Sophia Shalmiyev.

Episode 23

Leni Zumas is the author, most recently, of the novel Red Clocks, which was a New York Times Editors' Choice, an Indie Next selection and a Publishers Weekly Top 10 Literary Fiction pick. She is also the author of the story collection Farewell Navigator and the novel The Listeners, which was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. She is an associate professor in the MFA program in creative writing at Portland State University.

Discussed In This Episode

Wondering how your characters would vote. Close third-person and authorial steering. Presenting women characters. Female stowaways and polar exploration. "There are so many of us who are at odds with the scripts that we've inherited." Writing lessons from Mom. Letting go of expectations. How is this book going to change you? How to prevent obsessively re-reading what you've just written. Levels of difficulty in fiction. When are you dodging the work? Formalizing the space around writing. How each project helps the next. Scarcity thinking. Virginia Woolf, Georgia O'Keeffe and letting your style develop. Signal boosting. How books talk to one another.

Writing Desire and Faith w. JAMIE QUATRO

Wed, 21 Mar 2018 04:00:00 +0000

Author photo by Stephen Alvarez.

Episode 22

Jamie Quatro is the author of the novel Fire Sermon. Her debut collection, I Want To Show You More, was a New York Times Notable Book, NPR Best Book of 2013, Indie Next pick, O Magazine summer reading pick, and New York Times Editors’ Choice. It was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, the Georgia Townsend Fiction Prize, and the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize. Quatro’s fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in Tin House, McSweeney’s, VICE, The New York Times Book Review, and elsewhere. She teaches in the Sewanee School of Letters MFA program, and lives with her husband and four children in Lookout Mountain, Georgia.

Discussed In This Episode

Fearlessness (real and perceived). The technicalities of writing sex. Overwriting. The moments that catch you off-guard. Fact-checking fiction and how to work against reality. "What does your husband think of your work?", "Cat Person" and what we think women can and can't make up. Low-residency MFAs. "The pie is infinite." Desire and faith. Writing leads to writing. The eternal now. Freedom. Digital vs. analog writing. Running as writing. "You have to catch it sideways, out of the corner of your eye."

Making Art and Podcasts w. MIKE SAKASEGAWA & COURTNEY BALESTIER

Wed, 06 Dec 2017 05:00:00 +0000

Self-portrait by Mike Sakasegawa.

Author photo by Michelle and Chris Gerard.

Episode 21

This is a special joint episode with Mike Sakasegawa, host of the arts podcast Keep the Channel Open, where he has in-depth conversations with artists across disciplines. Mike is a photographer and writer. His photography has been featured on the influential photo websites Lenscratch and LensCulture and has been included in group exhibitions around the country, and his writing has appeared on Catapult. He lives in San Diego.

Many thanks to Mike for editing our conversation.

Discussed In This Episode

Episode prep. Edacious: Food Talk for Gluttons. Being an introvert (who hosts a podcast). Finding yourself in art. Telling a narrative through photographs. Explorers and builders. Submission and competition fees. Places that sing to you. It Forgets You. Appalachian artists Elaine McMillion Sheldon, Roger May and Aaron Blum. Eleonora Ronconi. scott b davis. Medium Festival of Photography. Wanting to be seen. Don't be convinced to make yourself small. Cultural betweenness. Why start an arts podcast? Vulnerability. Marc Maron. Fear, motivation and throwing yourself into things. The freedom of doing what you want (without thinking about the critics).

Figuring Out the Book You Want to Write w. JOANNA SCUTTS

Wed, 22 Nov 2017 05:00:00 +0000

Author photo by Sarah Klock.

Episode 20

Joanna Scutts is the inaugural Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in Women’s History at the New-York Historical Society, and a contributor to the New Republic, the Guardian and other publications. She holds a Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University and lives in New York.

Recorded at Q.E.D., in Astoria, Queens.

Discussed In This Episode

Writing the book you want to read. The history of self-help literature. Divorce panic, marriage pressure, and what we get wrong about the 1950s. Writing "cocktail party nuggets." Cheating on your dissertation. Figuring out what kind of book you want to write. Support your public library! Adapting independence to marriage. Keeping track (and losing track) of your research. "Hotbed" exhibition at the New-York Historical Society. Writing while researching. Ta-Nehisi Coates, Scrivener master. Taking what you're doing seriously. Knowing when to let go.

Fighting Perfectionism w. CELESTE NG

Wed, 08 Nov 2017 05:00:00 +0000

Author photo by Kevin Day Photography.

Episode 19

Celeste Ng's new novel, Little Fires Everywhere, is out now from Penguin Press. Celeste grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Shaker Heights, Ohio. She attended Harvard University and earned an MFA from the University of Michigan. Her debut novel, Everything I Never Told You, won the Massachusetts Book Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature and the ALA’s Alex Award. She is a 2016 NEA fellow, and she lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Discussed In This Episode

What a good opening should do. Directing and misdirecting the reader. Taking away the scaffolding. Analyzing your own work. Reverse outlining. "At a certain point, the story starts to resonate with itself." Semi-awake thinking. Order and ideals. "I think the fundamental discomfort with people who are different from you is still there." Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's TED talk, "The Danger of a Single Story." Moving writing from the side to the front. Imposter syndrome. Adding to your brain's card catalog. Perfectionism (and how to fight it). Generating and then letting go. Finding the voice. Leaving yourself notes. "Everybody is figuring out their own route to this magical world of actually getting words on the paper."

Cutting Away the Obvious w. ZINZI CLEMMONS

Wed, 25 Oct 2017 04:00:00 +0000

Author photo by Nina Subin.

Episode 18

Zinzi Clemmons was raised in Philadelphia by a South African mother and an American father. She is a graduate of Brown and Columbia universities, and her writing has appeared in Zoetrope: All-Story, The Paris Review Daily, Transition, and elsewhere. She is a cofounder and former publisher of Apogee Journal and a contributing editor to Literary Hub. She has been in residence at the MacDowell Colony, Bread Loaf, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and Dar al-Ma’mûn in Marrakech, Morocco. Clemmons lives in Los Angeles with her husband.

Special thanks for this episode to the Detroit Foundation Hotel and the Shady Ladies Literary Society.

Discussed In This Episode

Autofiction. "We're expected as people of color to be spokespeople for our race." Diversity in publishing. How do we define experimental literature? Using white space, charts and other media in writing. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission report. Writing as "a cycle of guilt and action." Cutting away the obvious. Knowing your limitations. "It's almost a matter of physics: You can't be writing and participating at the same time."

Coaxing Out Your Subconscious w. CARMEN MARIA MACHADO

Wed, 11 Oct 2017 04:00:00 +0000

Author photo by Tom Storm Photography.

Episode 17

Carmen Maria Machado is the author of Her Body and Other Parties, out now from Graywolf Press and short-listed for this year’s National Book Award. Her work has appeared in Granta, the New Yorker, NPR, Electric Literature, and elsewhere. She has been nominated for a Nebula Award and a Shirley Jackson Award, and was a finalist for the Calvino Prize. She lives in Philadelphia.

Discussed In This Episode

Dismantling forms and tropes. Processing life in narrative. False memories and scary storytelling around campfires. Twin Peaks. How short stories are like puzzles (and algebra). Giving the reader a way to enter the story. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and the dead-girl trope. "I felt like I had arrived at some sense of my own aesthetic." Coaxing out your subconscious. Don't apply to 26 MFA programs. The difference between writing erotica and writing sex in literary fiction. List-keeping. Scrivener.

Rewriting And Rewriting More w. MATTHEW NEWTON

Wed, 27 Sep 2017 04:00:00 +0000

Episode 16

Matthew Newton is the author of Shopping Mall, out now in Bloomsbury Press’s Object Lessons series, and the Director of Publishing at Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His work has been published by the Oxford American, the Atlantic's CityLab, Forbes, The Rumpus, Guernica, and Spin. He lives in Western Pennsylvania with his wife and two sons.

Discussed In This Episode

Malls as civic spaces and emotional centers. Conversation pits! "The mall was the internet before the internet existed." Ruin porn. Victor Gruen, the shamed inventor of the shopping mall. Newspaper archives. Dawn of the Dead. That one chapter you have to keep rewriting. Urban renewal and the Rust Belt. "I feel a sense of obligation now to write about this place." Reimagining your work week. Giving yourself fun writing tasks. Backup plans for your backup plans and writing to suit your tendencies. Take the break. Roald Dahl's writing hut. Find your writing studio on Craigslist. Writing to David Axelrod and Brian Eno (with apologies to Philip Glass). Accountability groups. Writing about severe clinical depression and obsessive compulsive disorder. Honesty. "Who cares?"

Writing Your Way to a Theory w. NICK RIGGLE

Wed, 13 Sep 2017 04:00:00 +0000

Episode 15

Nick Riggle is a writer, skater and philosophy professor. His first book—On Being Awesome: A Unified Theory of How Not to Suck—comes out with Penguin Books on September 19. He teaches philosophy at the University of San Diego, and he's currently writing a novel about a beard and a philosophy book about YOLO.

Discussed In This Episode

What it is to be awesome (and to suck). The messy work of writing clearly. Writing as refuge. Staying in touch with the value of what you're doing. Antonyms. Restructuring. Writing your way to a theory. Hi-Phi Nation and philosophy through storytelling. "I am a motivational opportunist." YOLO, skating and talking facial hair. Creative dissatisfaction. "Why shouldn't a novel have a theme song?" Time. Lots of time.

Special Episode: Readings by Glenn Taylor, Jeremy B. Jones & Rebecca Gayle Howell

Wed, 30 Aug 2017 04:00:00 +0000

Season two starts in September. In the meantime, enjoy these three wonderful readings, recorded live at the Appalachian Writers' Workshop at the Hindman Settlement School in Hindman, Ky.

Glenn Taylor

Glenn Taylor is the author of the novels A Hanging at Cinder Bottom, The Marrowbone Marble Company and The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His writing has appeared in The Guardian, GQ, and Electric Literature, among others. He resided for a time in Austin, Texas, and after that, Chicago. He earned an MFA from Texas State University. Glenn was born and raised in Huntington, West Virginia, and he now lives with his wife and three sons in Morgantown, where he teaches in the MFA Program at West Virginia University. (Author photo by Steve Miller.)

Jeremy B. Jones

Jeremy B. Jones is the author of Bearwallow: A Personal History of a Mountain Homeland (John F. Blair, 2014), which won the 2014 Appalachian Book of the Year in nonfiction and was awarded gold in the 2015 Independent Publisher Book (IPPY) Awards in memoir. His essays have been named Notable in Best American Essays and published in Oxford American, The Iowa Review, and Brevity, among others. A frequent contributor to Our State Magazine and to Ruminate Magazine's blog, Jeremy is an associate professor of English at Western Carolina University, in his native North Carolina. He also serves as the series co-editor for In Place: a literary nonfiction book series from Vandalia Press, the creative imprint of WVU Press. (Author photo by Byron Collins.)

Rebecca Gayle Howell

Rebecca Gayle Howell is the author of American Purgatory, selected by Don Share for the 2016 Sexton Prize and out now by Eyewear Publishing. She is also the author of Render /An Apocalypse and the translator of Amal al-Jubouri's verse memoir of the Iraq War, Hagar Before the Occupation/Hagar After the Occupation. Native to Kentucky, Howell is a senior editor at the Oxford American. (Author photo by Matt White.)

Listen below or via: iTunes | Stitcher | Pocket Cast | Overcast

Some links may be affiliate. Thank you for supporting WMFA.

Season Two Announcement

Wed, 16 Aug 2017 04:00:00 +0000

Coming soon...

WMFA will be back in September with all new episodes featuring thoughtful, talented writers of all genres—and we have a couple tiny favors to ask in the meantime. Listen for details.

Listen below or via: iTunes | Stitcher | Pocket Cast | Overcast

Some links may be affiliate. Thank you for supporting WMFA.

Writing as Empathizing w. JENNIFER HAIGH

Wed, 02 Aug 2017 04:00:00 +0000

Author photo by Rob Arnold.

Episode 14

Jennifer Haigh's novel Heat and Light won a 2017 Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and was named a Best Book of 2016 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and NPR. Her previous books have won the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Massachusetts Book Award and the PEN New England Award in Fiction, and have been published in sixteen languages. Her short stories have appeared in The Atlantic, Granta, The Best American Short Stories and many other places. She lives in Boston and at www.jennifer-haigh.com.

Discussed In This Episode

Small-town storytelling and growing up in a mining community. Appalachia. Do writers belong anywhere? Writing in countries where you don't speak the language. Losing your accent. Secret writing studios, blank walls and ear plugs. Morning writing versus afternoon writing. Keep moving forward. Permission. Joan Didion and Don LeLillo, patron saints of courageous writing. Chatting with oil drillers and writing about fracking. Novel-writing as an exercise in empathy. "I was a hardcore realist as a child." Not getting that recommendation letter. Short stories versus novels: "It's kind of like the difference between dating and a long, bad marriage." Loving writing more mid-career. You can only pop the cork on the champagne bottle once.

Discovering and Deep Editing w. RACHEL KHONG

Wed, 19 Jul 2017 04:00:00 +0000

Author photo by Andria Lo.

Episode 13

Rachel Khong grew up in Southern California and holds degrees from Yale University and the University of Florida. From 2011 to 2016, she was the managing editor then executive editor of Lucky Peach magazine. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Tin House, Joyland, American Short Fiction, San Francisco Chronicle, The Believer, and California Sunday. She lives in San Francisco.

Discussed In This Episode

Memories = life. The 5 Year Diary. 1.) Wake up. 2.) Write. Writing to sounds, including (but not limited to) RainyCafe.com, Noisli and recordings of people chewing on Spotify. BYORSP (bring your own roasted sweet potato). San Francisco's Mechanics' Institute Library. Cabins in the woods. Discovery and deep edits. Disabling your phone. Timers, timers, timers. Fragmented structures. 0 x 0 = 0. "I had always wanted to be a writer, which was incompatible with the fact that writing wasn't a real job." When to go to grad school. Being alone with yourself and figuring out what you care about. Random acts of editing. "I am a really practical and also terrified person." Sleep on your revisions. Celebrate at every stage.

Learning to Trust Your Work w. HANIF ABDURRAQIB

Wed, 05 Jul 2017 04:00:00 +0000

Episode 12

Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. His first collection of poems, The Crown Ain't Worth Much, was released by Button Poetry in 2016. His first collection of essays, They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us, is forthcoming from Two Dollar Radio in winter 2017.

Discussed In This Episode

Columbus, gentrification and the erasure of memory. "None of this is land we got honest." Colonization and contempt for the poor. good kid, m.A.A.d. city by Kendrick Lamar. Bruce Springsteen. "The middle-of-the-country narrative, particularly for young black people, was not very existent." Breathless poems and playing with punctuation. Callaloo. Totems. "I don't believe in suffering for the work anymore." Learning to trust your work. Finding the work that gives you permission. Writing as you speak. A golden age of pop culture writing. Rap's "shiny suit" phase and relief from grief. Nostalgia as a cultural connection point. "This Is How We Do It" by Montell Jordan. No seriously: Bootleg Hanif's next book. Ric Flair. Fall Out Boy. Desks that point toward joy. Writing as a physical act.

Starting with Voice and Fragmenting Structure w. JULIE BUNTIN & GABE HABASH

Wed, 21 Jun 2017 04:00:00 +0000

Julie Buntin author photo by Nina Subin.

Episode 11

Julie Buntin is from northern Michigan. Her work has appeared in the Atlantic, Cosmopolitan, O, The Oprah Magazine, Slate, Electric Literature, and One Teen Story, among other publications. She teaches fiction writing at Marymount Manhattan College and is the director of writing programs at Catapult.

Gabe Habash is the fiction reviews editor for Publishers Weekly. He holds an MFA from New York University. They live in New York.

Discussed In This Episode

First person, third person and "unearned wisdom." First experiences, destructive teenage behavior and tracing the contours of big feelings. Families in upheaval. Female friendships. "It's your first truly intense passionate relationship." Rejecting cover designs and resisting the notion that women's literature is less serious. Starting with voice. "I was drawn to what kind of person would commit to something that's so demanding and unforgiving." Walking the line of character likability. Fragmented structure as psychological mirror. Sharing writing space. Binge writing and writing after work. How writers do money. Day jobs. Marrying another writer.

Being Patient and Indulgent w. GARTH GREENWELL

Wed, 07 Jun 2017 04:00:00 +0000

Author photo by Max Freeman.

Episode 10

Garth Greenwell is the author of What Belongs to You, which won the British Book Award for Debut of the Year, was longlisted for the National Book Award, and was a finalist for six other awards, including the PEN/Faulkner Award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice, it was named a Best Book of 2016 by over fifty publications in nine countries, and is being translated into eleven languages. His short fiction has appeared in The Paris Review, A Public Space, and VICE, and he has written criticism for the New Yorker, the London Review of Books, and the New York Times Book Review, among others. He lives in Iowa City.

Discussed In This Episode

Our relationship to language. The codes of cruising. Writing a novel one sentence at a time. 4:15 a.m. alarms and the anchor of a daily writing practice. Composing by hand versus on a computer. "Be patient and be indulgent." Loving long sentences and other writerly eccentricities. Triangulating for the right expression. Standing, moving and speaking with your sentences. Desire. "I think the gains made by queer people have been made, to a very great extent, by sort of keeping people from thinking about men having anal sex." Economic anxiety. "The idea that I could write something and someone would pay me for it—I still don't really believe that." MFA cynicism. Finding an agent.

Writing Down All Your Sh*t w. YESENIA MONTILLA

Wed, 24 May 2017 04:00:00 +0000

Author photo by Ana Leiva.

Episode 9

Yesenia Montilla is a New York City poet with Afro-Caribbean roots; she is the author of The Pink Box, released in 2015 by Willow Books, and her work has appeared in literary journals such as Adanna and The Wide Shore. A 2014 CantoMundo Fellow, she received her MFA from Drew University in Poetry and Poetry in Translation.

Discussed In This Episode

Being a baby poet. Poetry as a puzzle. Low-residency MFAs. Discovering your grandmother was a secret poet. Writing and dreaming in Spanish. "There is something about wanting to be other, and usually that is wanting to be whiter." Being exoticized as an "other poet." Writing about Sappho and about your father smoking crack. "That's what makes us, struggle and joy and beauty." Writing in your dream state. Dead white poets. Carrying your two-week notice in your pocket. The terror of public readings. Trauma is inherited. "Write down all your shit." Reading is the antidote to writer's block.

Editing Our Own Narratives w. JACK CHENG

Wed, 10 May 2017 04:00:00 +0000

Author photo by Wesley Verhoeve.

Episode 8

Jack Cheng writes contemporary fiction for young readers. His debut middle grade novel, See You in the Cosmos, is a Junior Library Guild selection and Top 10 IndieNext pick for Spring 2017. It is to be published in twenty languages. Cheng’s writing draws on his experience of nearly a decade working in advertising and tech. His Kickstarter-funded first novel, These Days, laid the groundwork for a mode of fiction that uses modern technology to examine the things that make us human. He lives in Detroit.

Discussed In This Episode

Realizing you're writing a book for young readers. Avoiding the archetype of the unrealistically precocious kid. The "Space" episode of Radiolab. "Why does this person keep showing up in my life?" The Richard Feynman theory (kind of) on presenting complex topics to children. Self-publishing versus traditional publishing. Ikea. Editing our own narratives. Learning how to dig. There is such a thing as too much freedom. Advice from agents who don't sign you. Showing your work. How the hell do you Kickstart a novel? "Near sci-fi" and using technology to tell human stories. Sophomore struggles.

Career Up-Leveling w. ESMÉ WEIJUN WANG

Wed, 26 Apr 2017 04:00:00 +0000

Author photo by Kristin Cofer.

Episode 7:

Esmé Weijun Wang is the author of The Border of Paradise: A Novel, named one of NPR's Best Books of 2016, and is the recipient of the 2016 Graywolf Nonfiction Prize for her forthcoming essay collection, The Collected Schizophrenias. She also runs theunexpectedshape.com, which provides resources for ambitious people living with limitations. Born in the Midwest to Taiwanese parents, Esmé was raised in the Bay Area, and happily calls San Francisco home.

Discussed In This Episode:

"Write your way through the story." Writing the granular experience of psychosis. A**-Kicking with Limitations. Frida Kahlo painting in bed. Productivity anxiety. "There's this version of myself I imagine who is completely healthy and who is producing so much." The Graywolf Prize. Plot lines about cults and other dead ends. Reading The Sound and the Fury—then throwing away an entire novel draft. Dreaming as your characters and setting apart distinct first-person voices. Writing residencies. Career "up-leveling." The power of rituals, desktop wallpapers and morning prayers of gratitude. Monetizing writing and creativity.

Finding the Helpfulness in Failure w. JASON DIAMOND

Wed, 12 Apr 2017 04:00:00 +0000

Episode 6

Jason Diamond is the author of the memoir Searching for John Hughes. He's the culture and sports editor at Rollingstone.com and founder of Vol. 1 Brooklyn.

Discussed In This Episode:

Embracing cheesiness and rooting for the happy ending. John Hughes (of course). Making your life the center of the story. The helpfulness of failure. Obsessive characters. "Editors are like spouses, or shrinks." Being a total screw-up in New York in your 20s. Vol. 1 Brooklyn. Writing for the internet and moving on quickly. Connecting. The George Plimpton approach to sportswriting. Meditation. Writing about food. "Is it 1,000 words or 100,000 words?" Paying tribute to your influences (whether you realize it or not). Dead authors and cemeteries. Reading books alone in bars.

BONUS Mini Episode: Talking Class + Art with Rebecca Gayle Howell

Wed, 05 Apr 2017 04:00:00 +0000

Author photo by Matt White.

In this bonus mini episode, we discuss class and art—and the attitudes about both that we can bring to creative work—with last week's guest, poet Rebecca Gayle Howell.

Accessing Your Nighttime Mind w. REBECCA GAYLE HOWELL

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 04:00:00 +0000

Author photo by Matt White.

Rebecca Gayle Howell

Discussed In This Episode

Listening, dictating and the nighttime mind. Over-mystifying the arts. Faith and writing. The sound of the Bible. Specialization is not the artistic model. The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, the life-changing power of fellowships and freedom from the capitalist economy. "Nothing good has ever come to me by denying what was uncomfortable." Cisterns in your brain! Maybe inspiration is the brain talking to itself. The questions we keep asking. Tenderness (or the absence of). Creation as resistance. Creative Pep Talk on making art and making money. Second-wave feminist publishing.

Exfoliating Fear From Your Mind w. TANAÏS

Wed, 15 Mar 2017 04:00:00 +0000

Author photo by Scott Dunn.

Episode 4

Tanaïs (née Tanwi Nandini Islam) is the author of Bright Lines (Penguin 2015), a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, Edmund White Debut Fiction Award and the Brooklyn Eagles Literary Prize, and the inaugural selection of the First Lady of NYC's Gracie Book Club. She is the founder of Hi Wildflower, a fragrance and beauty house. A graduate of Brooklyn College MFA and Vassar College, she lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Discussed In This Episode

Letting go of pages (a lot of them). "Sometimes you don't start the book in the right place." MFA in NYC. Adding your voice to the cultural conversation. Getting a book deal, losing a job. Writing by hand. Journals and heart chakras. Why tell a story? "Assessing the mountain and starting the climb." Writing overnight. Investing in help. Cutting what you thought was inherent to the story.

Writing Cultural Criticism w. JUAN VIDAL

Wed, 01 Mar 2017 12:00:00 +0000

Author photo by Anthony Anderson.

Juan Vidal

Juan Vidal is a writer and critic for NPR. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Esquire, GQ, Vibe Magazine, and elsewhere. His first book, Rap Dads, is forthcoming from Simon & Schuster.

Discussed In This Episode:

Knowing when to let a project go. How writing is like fatherhood. The rise of first-person cultural criticism. "A writer, first and foremost, is a curious person." Editor Chris Jackson on the word-to-thought ratio. Being a first-generation Colombian-American writer in the Trump age. Collaboration. Melville House, New Directions and reading in translation. Writing book proposals (and sample chapters that no longer exist). Listening to weird sounds taps into the psyche, probably! Twitter, live music and instant reactions.

Reading List:

White Girls by Hilton Als (Amazon | IndieBound)
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Amazon | IndieBound)
Reputations by Juan Gabriel Vásquez (Amazon | IndieBound)
"How I Passed My Skateboarding Addiction To My Kids" by Juan Vidal
Samanta Schweblin (Amazon | IndieBound)

Listen below or via: iTunes | Pocket Cast | Overcast

Some links may be affiliate. Thank you for supporting WMFA.

Writing From the Gut w. TAYLOR LARSEN

Wed, 15 Feb 2017 15:15:00 +0000

Author photo by Sylvie Rosokoff.

Episode 2

Taylor Larsen is a graduate of Columbia University’s MFA program in fiction writing. She has taught fiction writing at Columbia University and the Sackett Street Writers Workshop, as well as literature courses for Pace University. Taylor is an author at Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster for her novel, Stranger, Father, Beloved, which released in July 2016. Her essays have appeared in Bustle, Literary Hub, and Women Writers, Women’s Books. Originally from Alexandria, Virginia, Taylor resides with her husband in Brooklyn, NY.

Discussed in This Episode

One session, one page. Finding editors who keep your voice. The counterintuitive difficulty of writing short. First drafts as discovery. Back up your files, people! Courting your characters and keeping your ego in check. "The great stream of literature." Writing from the head (bad) versus writing from the gut (good). The harsh reality of advances. Being your own agent first.

Taking the Preciousness Out of Writing w. EMILY ST. JOHN MANDEL

Wed, 01 Feb 2017 15:15:00 +0000

Author photo by Dese'Rae L. Stage

Episode 1

Emily St. John Mandel is the author of four novels, most recently Station Eleven, which was a finalist for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award and won the 2015 Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Toronto Book Award, and the Morning News Tournament of Books. A previous novel, The Singer's Gun, was the 2014 winner of the Prix Mystere de la Critique in France. Her short fiction and essays have been anthologized in numerous collections, including Best American Mystery Stories 2013. She is a staff writer for The Millions and lives in New York City with her husband and daughter.

Discussed In This Episode:

"A Better Way to Think About the Genre Debate." Presidential reading (or non-reading) habits. Reading in random page order and other editing tricks. MFA vs. NYC. The glory of the treadmill desk. The 90/20 method. Freedom. "One day you'll be dead." Plot: Man buys shoelaces.

WMFA

Minisode: Gratitude

Returning to Your Humanity w. ALEXANDER CHEE

Minisode: Constraint

Playing to Your Strengths w. JAMI ATTENBERG

Minisode: The Future

The Future

Crafting a Compelling Voice w. BRIAN ALLEN CARR

Crafting a Compelling Voice w. BRIAN ALLEN CARR

Discussed In This Episode

Bonus Segment: When Is a Voice Working?

Minisode: A Tiny (and in Retrospect Totally Obvious) Epiphany

A Tiny (and in Retrospect Totally Obvious) Epiphany

Minisode: Rest

Rest

Cultivating Patience w. MARY RUEFLE

Cultivating Patience w. MARY RUEFLE

Discussed In This Episode

Bonus Segment: A Love Letter to Letters

Minisode: Isolation

Isolation

Keeping Faith in the Process w. R.O. KWON

Keeping Faith in the Process w. R.O. KWON

Discussed In This Episode

Bonus Segment: Writers on Faith

FROM THE ARCHIVES | Minisode: On Fear

On Fear

Defining Your Writing Identity w. MARGINALLY PODCAST

Defining Your Writing Identity w. MARGINALLY PODCAST

Discussed In This Episode

Bonus Segment: Book Club!

Minisode: Writing Needs

Writing Needs

Growing Into Your Practice w. MICHAEL PARKER

Michael Parker

Discussed In This Episode

Bonus Segment: Running, Swimming, and Writing

Minisode: Rewriting Our Stories

Rewriting Our Stories

Finding Writerly Courage w. SAVANNAH SIPPLE

Savannah Sipple

Discussed In This Episode

Bonus Segment: Queer Appalachian Writing

Minisode: Healthier Harvests, or Another Kind of Flow

Healthier Harvests, or Another Kind of Flow

Creating Reassuring Writing Frameworks w. KRISTEN ARNETT

Kristen Arnett

Discussed In This Episode

Bonus Segment: Writing a Florida Book

Minisode: Why Do You Write?

Why Do You Write?

Knowing What You Need as a Writer w. CASEY CEP

Casey Cep

Bonus Segment: What Didn’t Make the Book

Minisode: Goody Two Shoes Writing

Goody Two Shoes Writing

Writing More Diverse Narratives w. TOMMY ORANGE

Tommy Orange

Bonus Segment: Emerging Native Writers

Minisode: Agent Anxiety

Agent Anxiety

Developing an “Occult Sensibility” of Your Writing w. KAREN RUSSELL

Karen Russell

Discussed In This Episode

Bonus Segment: What Makes a Satisfying Ending

Minisode: Patience

Patience

Crafting Narratives from History w. DAVID K. RANDALL

David K. Randall

Discussed In This Episode

Bonus Segment: David’s Favorite Literary Nonfiction

Minisode: Writing Without Writing

Writing Without Writing

Writing Into the Darkness w. SUSAN CHOI

Susan Choi

Discussed In This Episode

Bonus Segment: The Reader-Writer Relationship

Further Reading

Minisode: Choosing Your Mindset

Choosing Your Mindset