QWERTY: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Ep. 163 Huda Al-Marashi

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 04:00:28 +0000

Writer and author Huda Al-Marashi writes for both children and adults. She is a coauthor of the middle grade novel Grounded, which won the Walter Dean Myers Honor award, and the author of the memoir First Comes Marriage: My Not-So-Typical American Love Story. Her other writing has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, and al Jazeera. She is a fellow and mentor with the Highlights Foundation Muslim Storytellers Program. Her short story “Not Only an Only,” was featured in the celebrated anthology ONCE UPON AN EID. Her new book is a middle grade novel titled, Hail Miriam, just out from Penguin. Listen in as she and I discuss turning one of her own life events into fiction, and so much more. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 162 Matti Friedman

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 04:00:32 +0000

Award-winning journalist and author, Matti Friedman has worked as a reporter in Israel, Lebanon, Morocco, Moscow, the Caucasus, and Washington, DC. A former Associated Press correspondent, his work has appeared in the New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine, the Atlantic, and elsewhere. He's currently writes from Israel for The Free Press. The author of five nonfiction books that have been translated into a dozen languages and have so far been awarded The Sami Rohr Prize, the Natan Prize, the ALA’s Sophy Brody Medal. His new book is Out of the Sky, Heroism and Rebirth in Nazi Europe, just out from Speigel and Grau. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 161 Shelley Noble

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 04:00:22 +0000

Shelley Noble is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. Well-known for her gripping historical novel, The Tiffany Girls, in which the author unearths the previously little-known true story of the women artists responsible for much of Tiffany’s glasswork, as well as for her historical mysteries, Shelley Noble is a former professor, dancer and choreographer. Her new historical novel could not be more timely. Titled The Sisters of Book Row, it digs into early 20th century American book banning during a time in our country when even classic literature or fine art could send a person to jail. The Sisters of Book Row is just out from William Morrow. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 160 Antonio Michael Downing

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 05:00:29 +0000

Antonio Michael Downing is the author of the memoir Saga Boy, My Memoir of Blackness and Becoming, in which he show us how he had become, like his father and grandfather before him, a Saga boy, a Trinidadian playboy and almost loses everything of value himself until he rescues himself and becames the musician and writer he was born to be. In his new book, a novel entitled Black Cherokee, we meet the unforgettable Ophelia Blue Rivers, a mixed-race Black girl fighting for her identity in a South Carolina Cherokee community. Listen in as he and I speak about writing into identity, and so much more. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 159 The Kansals

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 05:00:09 +0000

Father and son, Ruchin and Neil Kansal, are co-authors of the new book, The Kansal Clunker: The Car That Rebuilt Us, just out from Khoeler Books. It is getting rave reviews, including one from Kirkus proclaiming it “"An endearing and thought-provoking road odyssey." And it is just that – and odyssey, and more, that received a number one rating as a new release on Amazon in family travel guides. But it’s not like any other travel guide, I assure you. Listen in as we discuss what a clunker car brought to a father and son team. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 158 Tarpley Hitt

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 05:00:31 +0000

Writer and author Tarpley Hitt is a New York journalist and an editor and contributor at The Drift magazine. She has previously reported on culture and money for The Daily Beast and Gawker. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Bookforum, The Paris Review, The Guardian, Air Mail, Deseret Magazine, and Miami New Times. Her debut book is Barbieland, The Unauthorized History, just out from Simon & Schuster’s One Signal imprint. The New York Times called it “rollicking.” Amazon named it a “Best Book of the Month” and an “Editors’ Pick.” Her work is full of humor, joy and vibrant language, in no small part because of the eye she has developed. Listen in as we discuss that eye, and so much more. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 157 Melissa Fraterrigo

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 05:00:49 +0000

Melissa Fraterrigo is the author of the novel Glory Days (University of Nebraska Press), as well as the story collection The Longest Pregnancy (Livingston Press). Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies from storySouth and Shenandoah to Indiana Review and The Millions. She teaches fiction writing at Purdue University and is the founder and executive director of the Lafayette Writers’ Studio where she offers online classes on the art and craft of writing. Her new book is The Perils of Girlhood, just out from the University of Nebraska Press. Listen in as she and I discuss how to choose a point of view when writing memoir, and so much more. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 156 Jane Hamilton

Fri, 19 Dec 2025 05:00:25 +0000

Today my guest is writer and author Jane Hamilton. Her first novel, The Book of Ruth, won the PEN/Ernest Hemingway Foundation Award for best first novel and was a selection of the Oprah Book Club. Her second novel, A Map of the World, was an international bestseller, and the fine novels kept on coming so that now comes the publication of her eighth book, The Phoebe Variations, just out from Zibby Publishing. Listen in as we discuss how writers choose what to explore. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 155 Matthew White

Fri, 05 Dec 2025 05:00:40 +0000

Matthew White is an author, interior designer, antiquarian, preservationist, and a former ballet dancer. He is the author of Italy of My Dreams: The Story of an American Designer’s Real-life Passion for Italian Style. He is an emeritus board member and former chairman of Save Venice Inc. His new book is New York Minute: Public Clocks that Make the City Tick, just out from Abbeville Press. Listen in as he and I discuss how to give yourself permission and not talk yourself out of writing a passion project. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 154 Winnie Li

Fri, 21 Nov 2025 05:00:39 +0000

Winnie M Li is an American author and activist who has written for travel guidebooks, produced independent feature films, programmed for film festivals, and developed eco-tourism projects. Her first novel Dark Chapter was nominated for an Edgar Award and translated into ten languages, followed by the critically acclaimed Complicit. A survivor and advocate against gendered violence, she is an assistant professor of creative wriiting at the University of Birmingham in the UK. Her new novel is What We Left Unsaid, just out from Simon & Schuster. Listen in as she and I discuss what are we asking a writer to do when we ask her to write into a trauma, and so much more. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 153 Kyle Austin Young

Fri, 07 Nov 2025 05:00:41 +0000

Writer and author Kyle Austin Young has a debut book that is for anyone who has ever dreamed of having a side-hustle, starting a business or following a dream. The book, Success is a Numbers Game: Achieve Bigger Goals by Changing the Odds, is just out from Hay House Business. Clear, practical, fun and a terrific read, this book will show you how to make your idea happen. The book includes a simple test for knowing which of our biggest goals to prioritize and which to quit immediately. Kyle Austin Young has written for the Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, The Boston Globe, CNBC, Psychology Today, Forbes, and Business Insider. Among his many roles for many teams, Kyle is the Operations Manager here at The Memoir Project. His core principles have shaped everything we do. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 152 Jon Kinally

Fri, 10 Oct 2025 04:00:36 +0000

Jon Kinally is a long-time writer for television who, along with his writing partner, Tracy Poust, has written for such TV shows as Will & Grace, Ugly Betty, 2 Broke Girls as well as many others. Over the years, they have received several Emmy nominations as well as a Writer’s Guild Award for Outstanding Writing in Episodic Comedy. Jon Kinnally has now turned his eye to memoir, and has just published his debut book, I’m, Prancing As Fast As I Can: My Journey From a Self-Loathing Closet Case to a Successful TV Writer With Some Self-Esteem just out from Permuted Press. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 151 Khadijah VanBrakle

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 16:00:01 +0000

Khadijah VanBrackle's debut novel, Fatima Takes the Cake, brings us to the intersection of culture, gender and religion and throws in some baking, which is a very fun addition. Her new novel, My Perfect Family, gives us an intergenerational narrative that covers the complex relationships mothers and daughter and explores what it means to be a Black Muslin woman in America. As a Black Muslim woman in America and as the mother of five, she is a living example of the adage to write what you know. That debut novel was a 2024 NAACP Image Award finalist for Outstanding Youth/Teens literature, a School Library journal’s Teen Librarian Toolbox Favorite Young Adult Read of 2023 and a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection. In 2021, she was selected for the Highlights Foundation Muslim Storytellers Fellowship. Her new novel pormises to be award-winning, as well. Listen in as she and I discuss her themes of being a Black Muslim in America, that ever-popular topic of family secrets as well what it means to be a young person forging one’s own path. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 150 J.E. Thomas

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 04:00:19 +0000

The author and writer J. E. Thomas is an award-winning freelance journalist, whose first bok, Control Freaks, was a People Magazine Summer Must-Read as a Best of the Best pick by the Black caucus of the American Library Association. Her new book is The AI Incident, just out from Levine Quierido, and distributed by Chronicle Books. Listen in as she and I discuss how to create a surprise opening to a book, how to write into what's coming next, as well as how to write into the difficult territory of foster care in America. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 149 Joanna Choi Kalbus

Fri, 08 Aug 2025 04:00:34 +0000

Writer and author Joanna Choi Kalbus was born in North Korea and emigrated in wartime to The United States as a child, speaking no English. She was immersed in the California school system before the existence of English as a second language programs. She succeeded and eventually earned her PhD in Educational Administration from the University of California and served as a teacher, principal, and regional superintendent for 35 years. At eighty-four years old, Joanna has just published her first book, a memoir, called The Boat Not Taken, just out from BETTY Books, an imprint of WTAW books. It has been named by Ms. Magazine as one of The Most Anticipated Feminist Books of 2025. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 148 Tia Levings

Fri, 25 Jul 2025 04:00:12 +0000

Tia Levings is a New York Times bestselling author, whose debut book is a memoir entitled A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy, recently published by St Martin’s Press. Along with being a New York Times bestseller, the book is an Audible Canada best of the year for 2024 and a Goodreads Reader’s Choice. She maintains an educational platform on social media, speaking engagements, an anti-fundamentalist column, and bylines in major publications. You may have seen her as part of the hit 2023 docuseries on Amazon--Shiny Happy People---heard her on the We Can Do Hard Things podcast or read her in her Substack column. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 147 Calliope Nicholas

Fri, 11 Jul 2025 04:00:05 +0000

Calliope Nicholas is the Co-Director and Manager of Residency Programs at Millay Arts, the artists residency program situated at the former home of Edna St. Vincent Millay, in Austerlitz, New York. The mission of Millay Arts is to support "the work and creative process of multidisciplinary artists through a range of residencies that enrich lives and communities locally and globally.” For those who do not know, a residency is a gift of time and space for creatives. Listen in as Calliope Nicholas and Qwerty Podcast host, Marion Roach Smith, talk about how and when to apply, why to apply and what to expect from an artist's residency. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 146 Melissa Hafting

Fri, 27 Jun 2025 04:00:58 +0000

Melissa Hafting is an ecologist, bird guide, author, and photographer. She founded the British Columbia Young Birders Program in 2014, which aims to bring together youth of all races, sexual orientations, and genders to look at birds on fun excursions in the natural world. The program also helps teach youth about citizen science and the importance of bird conservation. She is the author of Dare to Bird: Exploring the Joy and Healing Power of Birds, out last year from Rocky Mountain Books. Listen in as she and I disucss the healing power of birds and so much more. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars and instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 145 Bridgett Davis

Fri, 13 Jun 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Bridgett M. Davis is the author of the 2019 memoir, The World According to Fannie Davis, which was a New York Times editor’s choice, and a BuzzFeed, Parade and Kirkus best book of 2019. She is also the writer/director of the award-winning film Naked Acts, rediscovered and re-released in 2024 to critical acclaim. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, among other publications. The author of two novels, she just published a new memoir, Love, Rita An American Story of Sisterhood, Joy, Loss and Legacy, just out from Harper Collins. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars and instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 144 Shannon Downey

Fri, 30 May 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Shannon Downey, also known as Baddass Cross Stitch, is an artist, activist, craftivist, community builder, and general instigator. Her work inspires others to take action, think, discuss, engage with democracy and their community, and find some digital/analog balance. Her award-winning work can be found in galleries, museums, and private collections around the world and has been featured in outlets including Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Atlas Obscura, Fast Company, and i-D, and books including Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Signs of Resistance: A Visual History of Protest in America. Her debut book is Let's Move the Needle: An Activism Handbook for Artists, Crafters, Creatives, and Makers, just out from Storey Publishing, a subdivision of Hachette. Listen in and Shannon and host Marion Roach Smith discuss how art is the greatest tool for building communities and mobilizing poeple to take action that will bring about actual social change. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars and instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 143 Callan Wink

Fri, 16 May 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Writer and author Callan Wink has been awarded fellowships by the National Endowment for the Arts and Stanford University, where he was a Wallace Stegner Fellow. His stories and essays have been published in the New Yorker, Granta, Playboy, Men’s Journal, and The Best American Short Stories. He is the author of a novel, August, and a collection of short stories, Dog Run Moon. He lives in Livingston, Montana, where he is a fly-fishing guide on the Yellowstone River. His new book is Beartooth, just out from Spiegel and Grau. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars and instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 142 Jessica Gutierrez

Fri, 02 May 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Jessica Gutierrez is a former journalist who has earned several awards for her work and is the current author of A Product of Genetics and Day Drinking: A Never Coming of Age Story, just published by Tiny Reparations House, a division of Penguin Random House. Listen in as she and host Marion Roach Smith discuss writing memoir, and specifically how to identify oneself in the world in order to write from there. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars and instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 141 Joan Wickersham

Fri, 11 Apr 2025 04:00:00 +0000

While Joan Wickersham is best known for her astonishing book, The Suicide Index, a National Book Award finalist, her work over her many years as a professional journalist, writer and tuhor, has taken her nearly everywhere, including to Stockholm to witness a mysterious object: the seventeenth-century Swedish warship Vasa, which sank only minutes into its maiden voyage and lay underwater for more than three hundred years until it was rediscovered, raised and housed in a museum built to show it to the world. Her poetic and meditative book on her experience with the Vasa is titled, No Ship Sets Out to be a Shipwreck. Her fiction has appeared in The Best American Short Stories and The Best American Nonrequired Reading. Her op-ed column appears regularly in The Boston Globe; she has published essays and reviews in the Los Angeles Times and the International Herald Tribune; and she has contributed on-air essays to National Public Radio. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars and instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 140 Gloria Huang

Fri, 28 Mar 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Gloria L. Huang is a freelance writer whose fiction has appeared in literary journals including Michigan Quarterly Review, The Threepenny Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, Witness Magazine, Massachusetts Review, Pleiades, Southern Humanities Review, Fiction Magazine, North American Review, Arts & Letters, Washington Square Review, The Chattahoochee Review, Gargoyle Magazine, Sycamore Review, and The Antigonish Review. Her debut novel, KAYA OF THE OCEAN has been selected as a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection, American Booksellers Association Indies Introduce selection, and Indie Next selection. It is just out from Penguin Random House. Listen in to this episode of The Qwerty Podcast, as she and host Marion Roach Smith discuss the art and work of being a contemporary freelance writer. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars and instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 139 Nicole Graev Lipson

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Today my guest is author Nicole Graev Lipson, whose work has appeared in The Sun, Virginia Quarterly Review, LA Review of Books, The Millions, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe, among other venues. Her work has been awarded a Pushcart Prize, nominated for a National Magazine Award, and selected for The Best American Essays anthology. She is the author of the just-out memoir in essays Mothers and Other Fictional Characters, published by Chronicle Books. Listen in as we talk about the fine art of the persoanl essay, writing essays and how to write a book-length collcetion of them. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars and instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 138 Brooke Randel

Fri, 07 Mar 2025 05:00:00 +0000

The author Brooke Randel has just published a memoir titled Also Here: Love, Literacy and the Legacy of the Holocaust, in which she explores the third generations's efforts to understand the Holocaust. In Also Here, she captures one woman's harrowing survival and another's struggle to excavate the story from her grandmother's fading memories so we can continue to explore this global horror. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars and instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 137 Julie Kabat

Fri, 21 Feb 2025 05:00:00 +0000

In the summer of 1964, the FBI found the smoldering remains of the station wagon that James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman had been driving before their disappearance. Shortly after this awful discovery, Julie Kabat’s beloved brother Luke arrived as a volunteer for the Mississippi Summer Project. He was one of more than seven hundred volunteers from the North who assisted Black civil rights activists and clergy to challenge white supremacy in the nation’s most segregated state. From his tale, author Julie Kabat has creatad a brillaint new memoir, Love Letter from Pig, My Brother's Story From Freedom Summer, an in-depth look at the life of a history maker, a change agent, and blazing star. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 136 Amy Wilson

Fri, 07 Feb 2025 05:00:00 +0000

Today my guest is writer, author and actor, Amy Wilson. She is the author of the memoir, When Did I Get Like This?: The Screamer, the Worrier, the Dinosaur-Chicken-Nugget-Buyer, and Other Mothers I Swore I'd Never Be, as well as the co-host of the popular parenting podcast WHAT FRESH HELL: LAUGHING IN THE FACE OF MOTHERHOOD. The author of the MOTHER LOAD, a one-woman show which toured to 16 cities after its hit off-Broadway run, she has appeared as an actor on Broadway and as a series regular on TV sitcoms. Her new book is Happy to Help, Adventures of A People Pleaser, just out from Zibby Books. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 135 Anita Felicelli

Fri, 24 Jan 2025 05:00:00 +0000

Anita Felicelli's short stories have appeared in The Massachusetts Review, Midnight Breakfast, Air/Light, The Normal School, and elsewhere. She has contributed essays and criticism to the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Alta Journal, Slate, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Review of Books, and the New York Times Modern Love column, among other places. Her short stories and poems have been anthologized and in 2023, one of her short stories was performed as part of Symphony Space’s Selected Shorts. Her books include Chimerica: A Novel, the award-winning Love Songs for a Lost Continent and her new short story collection, How We Know Our Time Travelers, published by WTAW Press. Listen in as we discuss the benefit as a writer to being able to write across forms. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 134 Sarah LaBrie

Fri, 10 Jan 2025 05:00:00 +0000

Sarah LaBrie is a TV writer, librettist and memoirist whose new memoir, No One Gets to Fall Apart, is just out from Harper Collins. Listen in as host Marion Roach Smith asks the author about the vulnerability needed to write memoir, how to find the language for defining ourselves and writing about family mental illness. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 133 Liz Morrow

Fri, 27 Dec 2024 05:00:00 +0000

Liz Morrow is a ghost writer and collaborator for thought leaders and and industry experts. With Ariel Curry, she runs Hungry Authors, which coaches authors to publish their books. They have co-authored the new book, Hungry Authors, The Indispensable Guide to Planning, Writing and Publishing a Nonfiction Book, just out from Rowman and Littlefield. Listen in while host Marion Roach Smith interviews Liz Morrow on what authors need to know to write and publish nonfiction books. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 132 Teresa Wong

Fri, 13 Dec 2024 05:00:00 +0000

Comics artist and writer, Teresa Wong is the author of the 2019 graphic memoir Dear Scarlet: The Story of My Postpartum Depression, a finalist for The City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize and longlisted for CBC Canada Reads 2020. Her comics have appeared in The Believer, The New Yorker and McSweeney’s. Her new book, All Our Ordinary Stories, is just out from Arsenal Pulp Press. Listen in as she and I discuss the intimacy that the graphic memoir allows. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars and instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 131 Sara Sherbill

Fri, 29 Nov 2024 05:00:00 +0000

Sarah Sherbill's memoir, There was Night and There was Morning: A Memoir of Trauma and Redemption, is just out from Union Sq. and Co., and chronicles a road to redemption after her father, a beloved rabbi in an Orthodox Chicago community is also a man who abuses his family. In Sarah's role in the family, she is the secret keeper, until a secret so grave is revealed that creates the demand to write it all down. Her work, including a remarkable full-page opinion piece in the Sunday New York Times, explores redemption and it complexities. Listen in as author Sarah Sherbill and Qwerty podcast host, Marion Roach Smith, discuss writing memoir, how to wite into redemption and how to look at one family story and turn it into essays, a book and opinion pieces. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars and instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 130 Sarah Leavitt

Fri, 15 Nov 2024 05:00:00 +0000

Sarah Leavitt is a cartoonist and author of the graphic memoir, Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer’s, My Mother, and Me (2010), and the author of the award-winning historical fiction comic Agnes, Murderess (2019). Sarah is an assistant professor in the School of Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, where she has developed and taught undergraduate and graduate comics classes since 2012. Her new book, a graphic memoir, is just out from Arsenal Press. The book is titled Something, Not Nothing, A Story of Grief and Love. Listen in as we discuss the varieties of grapahic memoirs, how to write a graphic memoir, what distinguishes graphic memor from strictly prose memoir, and so much more. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars and instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 129 Brigit Bins

Fri, 20 Sep 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Brigit Binns is a prolific author of cookbooks, with more than 100,000 copies in print, including eleven titles she has authored for Williams Sonoma. She has also co-authored cookbooks, edited cookbooks and written 90 shows for the Food Network series, The Hot Tamales. And now she has turned her attention to memoir. Her new book is titled Rottenkid: A Succulent Story of Survival, just out from Sibylline Press. In this fine memoir, she covers food, Hollywood, neglect, celebrity, infidelity, cooking, betrayal, narcissism, recipes and transcendenceListen in as we discuss how to handle big, compelling themes while writing memoir. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars and instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 128 Caro de Robertis

Fri, 06 Sep 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Caro De Robertis, whose pronouns are they/theirs, is a Uruguayan-American author and full tenured professor in the creative writing dept at San Francisco State University. They are the author of five novels and the editor of an award-winning anthology, Radical Hope. Their books have been translated into seventeen languages and have received numerous other honors, including a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature. Their new book is The Palace of Eros, just out from Atria Books. Listen in as we discuss how to write characters' interior lives, and so much more. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars and instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 127 Juli Min

Fri, 23 Aug 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Writer and novelist Juli Min is the editor-in-chief and fiction editor of the Shanghai Literary Review. Currently a resident of Shanghai, she was born in Seoul, Korea, and raised in New Jersey, and has just published her debut novel. Entitled Shanghailanders, the book is just out from Spiegel and Grau. Listen in as she and I discuss book structure, and so much more. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project's free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars and instructive posts, and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 126 Deborah Paredez

Fri, 09 Aug 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Deborah Paredez is the author of the critical study, Selenidad: Selena, Latinos, and the Performance of Memory (Duke 2009) and the poetry collections, This Side of Skin (Wings Press 2002) and Year of the Dog (BOA 2020). Her poetry, essays, and commentary have appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, National Public Radio, Boston Review, The Georgia Review, Feminist Studies, and elsewhere. She is a professor of creative writing and ethnic studies at Columbia University and is the Co-Founder of CantoMundo, a national organization for Latinx poets. At Columbia, Professor Pah Red dez Paredez is a recipient of a Lenfest Distinguished Faculty Award. Her new book is American Diva, just published by W.W. Norton. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars and instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 125 Rusty Gear

Fri, 12 Jul 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Rusty Gear is an Americana recording artist whose work explores the story of the USA and for whom the Qwerty Podcast host, Marion Roach Smith, writes lyrics. In this episode, they explore working together as creatives. What is the nature of good artistic collaboration? How do two writers work together? Listen in as we explore those themes and much more. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars and instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 124 Margaret Juhae Lee

Fri, 28 Jun 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Margaret Juhae Lee has been been published in The Nation, Newsday, Elle, ARTnews, The Advocate, The Progressive and most recently in The Rumpus and Ploughshares Blog. She received a Bunting Fellowship from Harvard University and a Korean Studies Fellowship from the Korean Foundation in support of research for her recently published book, book, Starry Field: A Memoir of Lost History, published by Melville House. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars and instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 123 Lissa Soep

Fri, 14 Jun 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Lissa Soep knows how to reanimate the voices of the dead, and she is here to teach you how to get those voices into your memoir writing. She is a senior editor for audio at Vox Media and special projects producer and senior scholar-in-residence at YR Media. She has a PhD from Stanford, where she studied education, social theory, and linguistic anthropology with leading Bakhtin scholars. She lives in San Francisco. Lissa has co-led teams honored with Peabody, Murrow, Kennedy, IRE, Gracie and other awards, and knows what it takes to make a great story. She has written for Harvard Educational Review, Boing Boing, NPR and Edutopia, among others, and is the author of a glorious new book that reminds and informs us that we carry within us the language of loved ones who are gone and how their words can be portals to other times and places. The book is Other People’s Words: Friendship, Loss and the Conversations that Never End. Just out from Spiegel & Grau. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars and instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 122 Alicia D. Williams

Fri, 31 May 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Storyteller, actor and award-winning author, Alicia D. Williams is on The Qwerty Podcast to talk about her new book, Mid Air, illustrated by Danica Novgorodoff and just published by Atheneum. Her book, Genesis Begins Again received the Newberry and Kirkus Prize honors, and was a William C. Morris Award finalist and won the Coretta Scott King- John Steptoe Award for New Talent. She is also the author of the picture books, Jump at the Sun and The Talk. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars and instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 121 Michael Jamin

Fri, 17 May 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Michael Jamin is an Emmy-nominated screenwriter who has been writing for television since 1996, and whose credits include Just Shoot Me, King of the Hill, Beavis & Butthead, Wilfred, Out of Practice, and Rules of Engagement. He’s also served as Executive Producer/Showrunner on Glenn Martin DDS, Maron, and Rhett & Link’s Buddy System. If you are interested in how to write book-length memoir in essays, his new book will show you how, one essay at a time. It's called, A Paper Orchestra, and is just out from Three Girls Jumping Press. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars and instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 120 Janet Skeslian Charles

Fri, 03 May 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Janet Skeslien Charles is a New York Times and international bestselling author whose work has been translated into 37 languages. Her shorter work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, The Sydney Morning Herald, and Montana Noir. Her 2021 novel, The Paris Library, became an instant New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today bestseller upon release. Originally from Montana, she lives in Paris and has just released Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade, published by Atria. Listen in and read along as we talk about doing reserach, writing historical fiction and so much more. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars and instructive posts and online classes, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 119 Hal Schrieve

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Hal Schrieve is the author of the 2019 book, Out of Salem, selected for the National Book Award Long List for Young People’s Literature. Hal works as a children’s librarian at the New York Public Library. As a librarian, Hal has written educator guides to other queer books for children and teens. Hal has had poetry in Vetch magazine, and is featured in Stacked Deck Press’s 2018 trans comics anthology We’re Still Here. Hal writes queer fiction for young people and writes comics and zines. Hal’s new novel, How To Get Over the End of the World, was just released with Seven Stories Press. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars and instructive posts and online classes, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 118 Suzette Mullen

Fri, 05 Apr 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Suzette Mullen is the author of the new memoir, The Only Way Through is Out, just out from the University of Wisconsin Press. She is the founder of Your Story Finder, where she provides nonfiction book coaching. In 2021, she published a Tiny Love Story in The New York Times that was the seed that became her new book. Listen as she and host Marion Roach Smith discuss how to go from a short piece of memoir to a book, and so much more. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars and instructive posts and online classes, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 117 Kevin Baker

Fri, 22 Mar 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Author, historian, essayist, bestselling novelist and commentator Kevin Baker has just published part one of his long-awaited two-part look into baseball and the city that formed it and was formed by it. Called The New York Game: Baseball and The Rise of a New City (Knopf, 2024), this was a labor of love from a super fan of both the city and the game. In our interview on the Qwerty podcast, we discuss the sport, the city and how a historian does his work. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars and instructive posts and online classes, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 116 Ani Gjika

Fri, 08 Mar 2024 05:00:00 +0000

Author, essayist, poet and activist Ani Gjika is an Albanian-born poet, literary translator, writer, and author of Bread on Running Waters (Fenway Press, 2013). A finalist for the 2011 Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize and 2011 May Sarton New Hampshire Book Prize, she moved to the US at age 18 and earned an MA in English at Simmons College and an MFA in poetry at Boston University. Her honors include awards and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, English PEN, the Robert Pinsky Global Fellowship, Framingham State University's Miriam Levine Reader Award, and the Robert Fitzgerald Translation Prize. Her poetry appears in Seneca Review, Salamander, Plume, From the Fishouse, and elsewhere. Her new book is An Unruled Body: A Poet’s Memoir, just out from Restless Books, which is the winner of the 2021 Restless Books’ New Immigrant Writing Prize. Listen in and she and host Marion Roach Smith discuss writing into trauma in this new episode of the Qwerty podcast. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars and instructive posts and online classes, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 115 Meg Kissinger

Fri, 16 Feb 2024 05:00:00 +0000

Writer and author Meg Kissinger spent more than two decades traveling across the country to report on America’s mental health system for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. A Pulitzer Prize finalist, she has won two George Polk Awards, the Robert F. Kennedy Award, awards from Investigative Reporters and Editors, and two National Journalism Awards. Kissinger teaches investigative reporting at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and was a visiting professor at DePauw University, her alma mater. Her stories on the abysmal living conditions for people with mental illness inspired changes to Wisconsin law and led to the creation of hundreds of new housing units. Now, she has brought the knowledge, insights, determination and humility of a reporter’s eye to the vulnerability needed to get to heart of her own origin story and published her new book, While You Were Out: The Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars and instructive posts and online classes, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 114 Taylor Brorby

Fri, 09 Feb 2024 05:00:00 +0000

Writer, essayist, speaker and activist Taylor Brorby is the author of Boys and Oil, Growing Up Gay in a Fractured Land, a NYT Editors’ Choice published in 2022 by Liveright, a division of W.W. Norton. He is also the author of Crude: Poems, Coming Alive: Action and Civil Disobedience, and he is the co-editor of Fracture: Essays, Poems, and Stories on Fracking in America. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, LitHub, Orion Magazine, The Arkansas International, Southern Humanities Review, North Dakota Quarterly, and numerous anthologies. He is a contributing editor at North American Review and serves on the editorial boards of Terrain.org and Hub City Press. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars and instructive posts and online classes, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 113 Felice Cohen

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 05:00:00 +0000

Known nationally and internationally as the woman who lived in one of the world’s smallest apartments, Felice Cohen is the award-winning author of the bestselling books Half In: A Coming-of-Age Memoir of Forbidden Love, 90 Lessons for Living Large in 90 Square Feet (...or More) (inspired by the YouTube video of her tiny NYC studio with over 25 million views) and What Papa Told Me, about her grandfather’s life before, during and after the Holocaust. Felice has been featured on Good Morning America, NBC, CBS, NPR, Time, Globe & Mail, New York Daily News, the Daily Mail and more. She speaks around the country leading memoir workshops, talking about how living tiny made her life larger as well as offering tips on organizing and decluttering, and about writing a book with her grandfather. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars and instructive posts and online classes, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 112 Kate Cohen

Fri, 12 Jan 2024 05:00:00 +0000

Washington Post contributing columnist and author Kate Cohen writes about American culture. Her new book, We of Little Faith: Why I Stopped Pretending to Believe (and Maybe You Should Too), is just out. Listen in as we discuss her book, writing about faith and the loss of it, and so much more. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars and instructive posts and online classes, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 111 Joanna Penn

Fri, 29 Dec 2023 05:00:00 +0000

Mega-bestselling author Joanna Penn, whose 40 books span several genres, has now written a memoir after making three separate solo pilgrimage walks. The walks and this new book, Pilgrimage: Lessons Learned from Solo Walking Three Ancient Ways, allowed her to define for herself her personal definition of being a seeker. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the bookThe Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars and instructive posts and online classes, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 110 Kristin Jarvis Adams

Fri, 15 Dec 2023 05:00:00 +0000

When writer, author and advocate Kristin Jarvis Adams pitched a potential publisher on her book, she began with a sentence so startling that it made the publisher ask her to breakfast. The book that followed was full of such sentences. This is a conversation about an unlikely book on an nearly impossible topic to sell that worked. Be inspired by her tale. Listen in and learn how to live this writing life. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars and instructive posts and online classes, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 109 Virginia Sole-Smith

Fri, 24 Nov 2023 05:00:00 +0000

Writer, author and advocate Virginia Sole-Smith knows how to write into other's biases, and she writes right into them, giving us new language while she explores diet culture, anti-fat bias, feminism and health. Listen in and learn how to live this writing life.

The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars and instructive posts and online classes, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 108 Allison K. Williams

Fri, 10 Nov 2023 05:00:00 +0000

Allison K. Williams utilized her years as what she calls an "unkind editor" to write and publish her fine book, Seven Drafts: Self-Edit like a Pro from Page to Book, which she discusses here on the Qwerty podcast. This skillfully constructed book breaks down the process of writing and self-editing into seven definitive drafts – the vomit draft, the story draft, the Character draft, the technical draft, the personal copyedit, the friend read and the editor read. Listen in and learn.

The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all my free webinars and instructive posts, as well as our online classes, our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 107 Kerri Maher

Fri, 27 Oct 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Kerri Maher knows how to choose topics to write about. The author of the USA Today bestseller, The Paris Bookseller, is back with one of the most compelling topics of our time. Listen in and learn how to live this writing life. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know.

Ep. 106 Matt Mendez

Fri, 13 Oct 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Matt Mendez is the author of Barely Missing Everything, his debut novel, and the short story collection Twitching Heart. He writes from places that have been traiditonally ignored and brings his perspective to his work. Listen in and learn how to live this writing life. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know.

Ep. 105 Roxan Mcdonald

Fri, 29 Sep 2023 04:00:00 +0000

https://www.spiritual-af.com/

https://www.resourceforwriters.com/

Ep. 104 Alice Carriere

Fri, 15 Sep 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Alice Carriere has written a dynamic debut memoir from her unconventional, big downtown New York life. Raised in the art scene, she is practically burdened with great, vivid material, including a supporting cast of celebrity artists, actors and infuencers. How to write a memoir from a vivid, troubled upbringing? Like this. Listen in and learn how to live this writing life. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know.

Ep. 103 Michele Cushatt

Fri, 21 Jul 2023 04:00:00 +0000

How to write memoir from the middle of the mess? Perhaps the expert on this is author Michele Cushatt, whose books from Zondervan, provide readers with the guidance to read and live through life's complications. Listen in and learn how to live this writing life. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know.

Ep. 102 Dave Pelzer

Fri, 07 Jul 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Dave Pelzer, bestselling author of A Child Called It and Qwerty podcast host Marion Roach Smith talk about writing from a place of helping others. Listen in and learn how to live this writing life. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know.

Ep. 101 Lamya H

Fri, 23 Jun 2023 04:00:00 +0000

How to write an anonymous memoir with Lamya H, author of Hijab Butch Blues. Listen in and learn how to live this writing life. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know.

Ep. 100 Robin Schepper

Fri, 02 Jun 2023 04:00:00 +0000

How to write a braided memoir? Author Robin Schepper and host Marion Roach Smith take on the topic of the braided memoir in this episode of The Qwerty podcast. Listen in and learn how to live this writing life. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know.

Ep. 99 Elizabeth Rau

Fri, 19 May 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Journalist and essaying Elizabeth Rau speaks with host Marion Roach Smith about the power of the personal essay, how to write from everyday life, and how to publish an essay collection in this episode of The Qwerty Podcast. Listen in and learn how to live this writing life. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know.

Ep. 98 Jennifer De Leon: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 05 May 2023 04:00:00 +0000

On this episode of The Qwerty podcast, the award-winning Young Adult writer, Jennifer De Leon, discusses how to make a writing career by writing what you know Listen in and learn how to live this writing life. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know.

Ep. 97 Rona Maynard

Fri, 21 Apr 2023 04:00:00 +0000

How to write dog memoir. Writer and author Rona Maynard talks with Qwerty podcast host Marion Roach Smith about her new book, Starter Dog. Listen in and learn how to live this writing life. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know.

Ep. 96 Julie Zickefoose

Fri, 07 Apr 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Naturalist, writer, author, illustrator and wildlife rehabilitator, Julie Zickefoose, speaks with Qwerty podcast host Marion Roach Smith about writing from nature. Listen in and learn how to live this writing life. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know.

Ep. 95 Rebecca Fogg

Fri, 24 Mar 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Memoirist Rebecca Fogg speaks with Qwerty opdcast host Marion Roach Smith about writing a first memoir and the lessons learned when writing from trauma. Listen in and learn how to live this writing life. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know.

Ep. 94 Heinz Insu Fenkl

Fri, 10 Mar 2023 05:00:00 +0000

Author, translator and professor Heinz Insu Fenkl and host Marion Roach Smith talk about writing from one's own life story and the writing tools available from being an outsider. Listen in and learn how to live this writing life. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know.

Ep. 93 Iris Smyles

Fri, 24 Feb 2023 05:00:00 +0000

Author, essayist and humorist Iris Smyles and host Marion Roach Smith discuss how to write funny in this latest episode of the Qwerty podcast. Listen in and learn how to live this writing life. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know.

Ep. 92 Scott Keyser: A Podcast for Writers on How to Life the Writing Life

Fri, 10 Feb 2023 05:00:00 +0000

Author Scott Keyser and host Marion Roach Smith discuss the great art of rhetoric on this episode of The Qwerty podcast. Listen in and learn how to live this writing life. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know.

Ep. 91 Shirley Showalter: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 30 Dec 2022 05:00:00 +0000

Author, opinion writer, essayist and speaker Shirley Showalter talks about how to write memoir with host Marion Roach Smith in this episode of the Qwerty podcast, a podcast by, for and about writers. Listen in and learn how to live this writing life. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know.

Ep. 90 Joanne Tubbs Kelly: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 16 Dec 2022 05:00:00 +0000

First time author Joanne Tubbs Kelly talks with host Marion Roach Smith on how to write the book you want to read. Listen in as they discuss Kelly's memoir, Walking Him Home: Helping my Husband Die with Dignity, just out from She Writes Press. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know.

Ep. 89 Lisa Lucca: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 02 Dec 2022 05:00:00 +0000

In episode 89 of The Qwerty Podcast, author Lisa Lucca and host Marion Roach Smith take on the tricky topic of writing about our past while living in the present. Many decisions go into how to characterize ourselves, our family, the times and more as we look from here back to there, especially when viewed through the lens of changing cultural norms. In 1974, when the author's father came out as gay, the family blew apart. Looking back, now with the eyes of a devoted ally, Lisa Lucca talks about how to look at ourselves and those we love when - and as - we change. Listen in and read along. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know.

Ep. 88 Amy Biancolli: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 05:00:00 +0000

In this episode of The Qwerty podcast, we discuss how to write memoir about loss and grief with Amy Biancolli, author of two memoirs on that topic. Amy is a staff writer for Mad in America, an online site that takes on global mental health. Qwerty is the podcast by, for and about writers. Listen in and learn how to live this writing life.

The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know.

Ep. 87 Shayla Raquel: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 04 Nov 2022 04:00:00 +0000

How and when should writers and authors promote themselves? Author branding maven Shayla Raquel walks us through everything you need to know about author branding in this episode of The Qwerty podcast. Qwerty is the podcast by, for and about writers. Listen in and learn how to live this writing life.

The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life.

Ep. 86 Beth Lapides: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 21 Oct 2022 04:00:00 +0000

Founder of UnCabaret and author of the audiobook So You Need to Decide, Beth and QWERTY podcast host Marion Roach Smith discuss the format of writing and recording an audiobook. Qwerty is the podcast by, for and about writers. Listen in and learn how to live this writing life. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life.

Ep. 85 Martha Anne Toll: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 07 Oct 2022 04:00:00 +0000

Novelist, book reviewer and essayist Martha Anne Toll is on episode 85 of The Qwerty podcast to discuss writing fiction from the large themes of life. Qwerty is the podcast by, for and about writers. Listen in and learn how to live this writing life.

https://marionroach.com/

Ep. 84 Zoe Sivak: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 04:00:00 +0000

Debut novelist Zoe Sivak is on episode 84 of The Qwerty podcast with host Marion Roach Smith to discuss restoring diversity to historical narratives. Qwerty is the podcast by, for and about writers. Listen in and learn how to live this writing life.

https://marionroach.com/

Ep. 83 Carolyn Sloan: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 19 Aug 2022 04:00:00 +0000

Writer, composer, musician and performer Carolyn Sloan is on episode 83 of the Qwerty podcast to talk about how to live the creative life with host Marion Roach Smith. Qwerty is the podcast by, for and about writers. Listen in and learn how to live this writing life.

https://marionroach.com/

Ep. 82 Margaret Roach: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 05 Aug 2022 04:00:00 +0000

New York Times garden columnist and author Margaret Roach talks about the fine art of writing what you know on episode 82 of The Qwerty podcast with host Marion Roach Smith. Qwerty is the podcast by, for and about writers. Listen in and learn how to live this writing life.

Ep. 81 Marie Myung-Ok Lee: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Mon, 25 Jul 2022 13:20:27 +0000

Author Marie Myung-Ok Lee takes on writing with transparency, confronting bias in America and how to write across genres in this gorgeous conversation on episode 81 of The Qwerty podcast with host Marion Roach Smith. Qwerty is the podcast by, for and about writers. Listen in and learn how to live this writing life.

Ep. 80 Zibby Owens: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 08 Jul 2022 04:00:00 +0000

Author, podcaster, publisher, writer and influencer Zibby Owens on writing and publishing memoir

The Memoir Project

Ep. 79 Melissa Faliveno: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 24 Jun 2022 04:00:00 +0000

Melissa Faliveno, the essayist and author of Tomboyland, talks about writing memoir that takes on gender, sexuality, and the America of now.

The Memoir Project

Ep. 78 Scott Bane: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 10 Jun 2022 04:00:00 +0000

Essayist and author Scott Bane talks about how to research and write a biography that explores the partnership of two great American artists.

The Memoir Project

Ep. 77 Anna Quindlen: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 27 May 2022 04:00:00 +0000

Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times bestselling author Anna Quindlen on how writing improves your life.

Ep. 76 Sarah Fay: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 13 May 2022 04:00:00 +0000

Author Sarah Fay on how to write a medical memoir: Listen in to discover how to write about your own health

Ep. 75 Andy Aledort: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 29 Apr 2022 04:00:00 +0000

Guitarist Andy Aledort comes back to the QWERTY podcast to talk about writing song lyrics from life

Ep. 74 Mary Laura Philpott: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 15 Apr 2022 17:38:00 +0000

Bestselling author Mary Laura Philpott talks about curating scenes from her life for her new memoir in essays.

Ep. 73 Bryan Collins: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 01 Apr 2022 04:00:00 +0000

How to become a writer, with bestselling author and creativity expert, Bryan Collins

Ep. 72 Rachael Cerrotti: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 18 Mar 2022 04:00:00 +0000

How to bear witness in writing

Ep. 71 Farah Jasmine Griffin: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 04 Mar 2022 05:00:00 +0000

How to write memoir based on the books that you've read

Ep. 70 Dave Chesson: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 18 Feb 2022 05:00:00 +0000

Book marketing for every author, with Kindlepreneur's Dave Chesson

Ep. 69 Genevieve Kingston: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 04 Feb 2022 05:00:00 +0000

How to write a Modern Love column and expand it into a book, with writer Genevieve Kingston

Ep. 68 Jessica DuLong: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 21 Jan 2022 05:00:00 +0000

How to report on and write about trauma, with writer and author Jessica DuLong

Ep. 67 Megan Falley: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 07 Jan 2022 05:00:00 +0000

Poet, writer, teacher and spoken word performer Megan Falley on writing one's truth

Ep. 66 Geraldine deRuiter: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 17 Dec 2021 05:00:00 +0000

On the consequences of telling our tales, with author Geraldine deRuiter

Ep. 65 Laura Davis: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 03 Dec 2021 05:00:00 +0000

How to write a family memoir after partial reconciliation

Ep. 64 Kevin Barhydt: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 12 Nov 2021 05:00:00 +0000

The author Kevin Barhydt discusses writing about healing

Ep. 63 Dianne Jacob: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 29 Oct 2021 04:00:00 +0000

How to develop your writer's voice

Ep. 62 Catherine Raven: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 15 Oct 2021 04:00:00 +0000

How to find the right voice for your memoir

Ep. 61 Dori Jones Yang: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 04:00:00 +0000

On writing across genres and the world of publishing, with author Dori Jones Yang.

Ep. 60 Dreux Richard: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 17 Sep 2021 13:04:29 +0000

How do writers choose their topics? We ask author Dreux Richards, author of Every Human Intention.

Ep. 59 Samantha Clark: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 03 Sep 2021 04:00:00 +0000

Samantha Clark, author of the memoir, The Clearing, on giving yourself permission to write what you know

Ep. 58 Rebekah Taussig: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 20 Aug 2021 04:00:00 +0000

Rebekah Taussig, author of Sitting Pretty, on how to write a memoir in essays

Ep. 57 Ellen Abrams: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 06 Aug 2021 04:00:00 +0000

The playwright, Ellen Abrams, discusses writing for the stage

Ep. 56 Rachel Michelberg: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 23 Jul 2021 04:00:00 +0000

How to write a difficult family memoir, with author Rachel Michelberg

https://marionroach.com/

Ep. 55 Travis Andrews: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 09 Jul 2021 04:00:00 +0000

Author Travis Andres talks about his new book with host Marion Roach Smith in this episode of the Qwerty podcast, a podcast by, for and about writers. Listen in and learn how to live this writing life. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know.

https://marionroach.com/

Ep. 54 Allison Fallon: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 25 Jun 2021 04:00:00 +0000

Author Allison Fallon talks about the power of writing it down with host Marion Roach Smith in this episode of the Qwerty podcast, a podcast by, for and about writers. Listen in and learn how to live this writing life. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know.

https://marionroach.com/

Ep. 53 Monica Wesolowska: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 11 Jun 2021 04:00:00 +0000

On curating your own life, with Monica Wesolowska, author of Holding Silvan

Ep. 52 Julie Metz: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 28 May 2021 04:00:00 +0000

How and when to see your life as story, with bestselling author Julie Metz

https://marionroach.com/

Ep. 51 Ali Stafford: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 14 May 2021 04:00:00 +0000

How to become a food writer, with cooking teacher and cookbook author Alexandra Stafford

Ep. 50 Carol Edgarian: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 30 Apr 2021 04:00:00 +0000

Advice to young writers from bestselling author Carol Edgarian

Ep. 49 Milo Beckman: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 16 Apr 2021 04:00:00 +0000

On writing for visual thinkers, with Milo Beckman, author of Math Without Numbers

Ep. 48 Toni Jensen: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 02 Apr 2021 04:00:00 +0000

Toni Jensen, the author of Carry, a new memoir in essays, speaks on indigenous people and the gun crisis in America.

Ep. 47 Amy Solomon: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 19 Mar 2021 04:00:00 +0000

On getting accepted into a humor collection, with editor and producer Amy Solomon

Ep. 46 Terry Sue Harms: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 05 Mar 2021 05:00:00 +0000

Memoirist and novelist Terry Sue Harms on how to write a family memoir.

Ep. 45 Suzanne McConnell: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 19 Feb 2021 05:00:00 +0000

Author Suzanne McConnell on how to become a writer.

Ep. 44 Devi Laskar: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 05 Feb 2021 05:00:00 +0000

Author Devi Laskar talks to us about writing from a place of darkness.

Ep. 43 Donny Jackson: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 22 Jan 2021 05:00:00 +0000

Spoken word performer Donny Jackson discusses how to train a writer's eye.

Ep. 42 Edward Schwarzschild: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 08 Jan 2021 05:00:00 +0000

Writer, author and teacher Edward Schwarzschild talks about how to develop a writer's eye for detail.

Ep. 41 Kristen Millares Young: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 18 Dec 2020 05:00:00 +0000

Writer and author Kristen Millares Young on how to find a writer's voice.

Ep. 40 Jennifer Risher: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 04 Dec 2020 05:00:00 +0000

Author Jennifer Risher discusses how to write about tough topics as we talk about her book on wealth.

Ep. 39 Gregg McBride: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 05:00:00 +0000

Multi-platform writer and author, Gregg McBride discusses how to tell the truth in writing

Ep. 38 Laurie Wolf: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 30 Oct 2020 04:00:00 +0000

Laurie Wolf, writer and author, and the "Martha Stewart of Edibles," talks living an authentic writing life

Ep. 37 Bob Cowser: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 16 Oct 2020 04:00:00 +0000

Author and writer Bob Cowser discusses writing non-fiction in real time.

Ep. 36 Elizabeth Rosner: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 14 Aug 2020 06:00:00 +0000

Author Elizabeth Rosner on what writers carry with them and draw from as they work

Ep. 35 D. Colin: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 31 Jul 2020 04:00:00 +0000

In this episode of the Qwerty podcast, spoken word artist D. Colin talks with host Marion Roach Smith on living the writing life.

Ep. 34 Nancy Campbell: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 17 Jul 2020 04:00:00 +0000

Non-fiction author Nancy Campbell gives advice on how to be a science writer.

Ep. 33 Amy Halloran: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 03 Jul 2020 04:00:00 +0000

Writer and food justice advocate, Amy Halloran, on how to turn your politics into a writing career

Ep. 32 Ellen Bass: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 19 Jun 2020 04:00:00 +0000

Award-winning writer Ellen Bass speaks with host Marion Roach Smith on on how poetry informs us.

Ep. 31 Sarah Enni: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 05 Jun 2020 04:00:00 +0000

Writer Sarah Enni leads us through how to enter the Young Adult market and survive the publishing experience.

Ep. 30 Joanna Penn: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 22 May 2020 04:00:00 +0000

How broad should an author platform be? Let's ask Joanna Penn, of the Creative Penn.

Ep. 29 Anne Kreamer: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 08 May 2020 04:00:00 +0000

From observation to manuscript: Author and entrepreneur Anne Kreamer on writing books from a cultural studies angle.

Ep. 28 Andy Aledort: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 24 Apr 2020 04:00:00 +0000

Music journalist Andy Aledort on how to turn a passion into a writing career.

Ep. 27 Joseph Dalton: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 10 Apr 2020 04:00:00 +0000

Non-fiction writer Joseph Dalton discusses how to write someone else's story.

Ep. 26 Richard Zacks: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 27 Mar 2020 04:00:00 +0000

Non-fiction writer Richard Zacks discusses how to write from who you really are.

Ep. 25 Ada Calhoun: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 13 Mar 2020 04:01:00 +0000

Bestselling author Ada Calhoun talks to Qwerty podcast host Marion Roach Smith about how to go from idea to publication.

Ep. 24: Alice Lichtenstein: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 28 Feb 2020 05:01:00 +0000

Novelist Alice Lichtenstein discusses spending time with life's tough topics and the fiction that can result.

Ep. 23: Diane Cameron: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 14 Feb 2020 05:01:00 +0000

Trauma recovery is writer Diane Cameron's area of expertise, and on this episode of QWERTY, she shares with us how to write through life's toughest material.

Ep. 22: Anthony D'Aries: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 31 Jan 2020 05:01:00 +0000

On this episode of the QWERTY podcast, writer Anthony D'Aries talks about how to interview your family when writing memoir.

Ep. 21: Jeff Goins: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 05:01:00 +0000

Jeff Goins answers questions on how to find your writer's voice on this episode of the QWERTY podcast.

Ep. 20: Jack Hitt: A Podcast for Writers on How to live the Writing Life

Fri, 03 Jan 2020 05:01:00 +0000

Jack Hitt, author, magazine writer and winner of two Peabody awards for his radio work, discusses how to craft a story.

Ep. 19: Joe Bunting: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 20 Dec 2019 05:01:00 +0000

Joe Bunting, Creator of The Write Practice, visits the QWERTY podcast and talks about how to promote a self-published book.

Ep. 18: David Leite: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 13 Dec 2019 05:01:00 +0000

Food writer David Leite and memoir coach and teacher, Marion Roach Smith, discuss the art and science of food writing.

Ep. 17: Jane Friedman: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 29 Nov 2019 05:01:00 +0000

How do you get an agent for your writing? This, and other questions on the business of publishing, are discussed when Jane Friedman visits the QWERTY podcast and talks with author, writer and teacher Marion Roach Smith.

Ep. 16: William Kennedy: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 15 Nov 2019 05:01:00 +0000

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a MacArthur Genius grant, William Kennedy knows about how to write from home. He has brought Albany, New York to the world through his work. Marion and David speak to one of America's greatest living writers.

Ep. 15: Annotations II: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 01 Nov 2019 05:00:00 +0000

In this second Annotations segment, Marion and David sit down together to discuss best writing practices and answer several listeners' questions.

Ep. 13: Jill Smolowe: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 18 Oct 2019 05:00:00 +0000

Journalist and author Jill Smolowe discusses her memoir "Four Funerals and a Wedding" and the challenges she faced writing about the many facets of grief and healing.

Welcome to Season 2: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 11 Oct 2019 05:00:00 +0000

Author and memoir writing teacher Marion Roach Smith and memorist and cookbook author David Leite kick off Season Two of QWERTY with a previerw of upcoming guests.

Ep. 12: Julia Siler: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 09 Aug 2019 20:11:46 +0000

Two-time best-selling nonfiction author Julia Flynn Siler gives excellent advice to writers about writing what you believe in, testing your material and setting writing deadlines and goals to have a writing life.

Ep. 11: Elissa Altman: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Sat, 03 Aug 2019 14:33:00 +0000

Best-selling memoirist Elissa Altman discusses with Marion and David the hard work of writing about family, getting to the truth, and the importance of what to include and what to leave out in her latest book, Motherland.

Ep. 10: Corvette Hunt: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 26 Jul 2019 05:30:00 +0000

Writer Corvette Hunt recounts how to control your personal details when writing memoir, how to get an essay published in The New York Times and then turn that into a book-length memoir.

Ep. 9: James Barron: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 19 Jul 2019 05:30:00 +0000

Marion and David ask a lifetime New York Times reporter about writing on deadline and how to identify when you know enough to publish.

Ep. 8: Literary Forensics: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 28 Jun 2019 05:00:00 +0000

In this first Annotations segment, Marion and David discuss the difficult process of reporting on one's own life when writing memoir.

Ep. 7: Marcia Butler: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 21 Jun 2019 05:00:00 +0000

Author Marcia Butler's first book, The Skin Above My Knee, chronicled surviving abuse through art, which brought her national acclaim. In this moving episode, she speaks about this gorgeous, notable memoir.

Ep. 6: Gary Taubes: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 14 Jun 2019 05:00:00 +0000

Gary Taubes has turned investigative journalism into a science. With three cover stories for the New York Times Magazine and a string of books, he has brought his skeptical scrutiny to topics as diverse as high-energy physics, salt, and dietary fat.

Ep. 5: Asha Dornfest: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 07 Jun 2019 05:00:00 +0000

Author Asha Dornfest has built a successful writing life one platform at a time. In this episode, she explains exactly how she did it and how her decisions led to several successful books.

Ep. 4: Sloane Tanen: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Fri, 31 May 2019 05:00:00 +0000

Bestselling author Sloane Tanen talks about her writing process and the tough choice of whether to tell your story as fiction or memoir.

Ep. 3: Zoë François: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Tue, 21 May 2019 14:00:27 +0000

Bestselling cookbook author Zoë François, who has more than 800,000 copies of her work in print, talks with Marion and David about the process of revising and updating your work.

Ep. 2: Lisa Cron: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Tue, 21 May 2019 13:58:30 +0000

Lisa Cron is the brain behind the brain science of writing. Marion and David speak with her about why we are all wired for story.

Ep. 1: Boris Fishman: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Tue, 21 May 2019 13:56:19 +0000

In the first episode, Marion Roach Smith and David Leite chat with author Boris Fishman about memoir writing, the power of food, and writing about depression.

Welcome to QWERTY: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Mon, 20 May 2019 18:47:43 +0000

Qwerty is the podcast for writers on how to live the writing life. Host Marion Roach Smith interviews well-published writers for their writing tips, their advice on how to write and their insights into how to get published.