August 2019 – Home of The Creative Nonfiction Podcast

Episode 166: Kate Hopper—Slap the Bass

“Every piece of writing is going to be hard in some way, and you just have to know that, and sit with it and keep going forward, and you will have a breakthrough at some point if you don’t give up.” —Kate Hopper

By Brendan O’Meara

Hey, there, CNFers, Kate Hopper (@MNKateHopper) joins me to talk about her True Story essay “Stumbling into Joy.” In case you couldn’t tell from the title of this episode, she learns to play the bass guitar in her forties. It’s pretty rad.

Please subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts. We’re on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. It is always my hope that I’ve made something worth sharing, so if you like this, please pass it along to the people you think would benefit from it. You are the social network.

As always, keep the conversation going on Twitter @CNFPod and Instagram @cnfpod. Also Facebook, so go like the page there. I respond to everything, so please tag the show on your preferred network and we’ll connect.

Thanks to Goucher’s MFA in Nonfiction, Bay Path University’s MFA in Creative Nonfiction, and River Teeth for the support.

Episode 165: Steven Kurutz—The Power of Libraries, Getting to New York, and ‘Fruitland’

By Brendan O’Meara

Welcome back, CNFers! The 301 Redirect is live so you should be getting that bump of CNF now in your feeds. Sorry about that missed week there. Things got broke. Acutally, things are still mildly broken with some older episodes. The podcast gremlins are on it.

Steven Kurutz is here. He’s a features writer for The New York Times, and it was his essay for Creative Nonfiction’s True Story, “Fruitland,” that made me want to reach out.

This was a fun one and I hope you dig it. If you do, please share it with your immediate network. That’s how I want this show to keep growing, not by interrupting people with Facebook ads, but by you deciding it has value and sharing it with your friends. Hand to hand. You’re the social network, man.

If you dig the show, consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts.

Keep the conversation going on Twitter @CNFPod. Let me know your thoughts. Podcast for your thoughts.

Episode 164: Donna Talarico—Literary Citizenship and Hippocamp 2019

Donna Talarico, founder of Hippocampus Magazine and Hippocamp.

“I like to joke that this [conference] is my investment in literary citizenship.” —Donna Talarico (@donnatalarico)

CNFers! There’s a coupon code IN THIS EPISODE for a massive discount on your last-minute registration for Hippocamp 2019! But you gotta listen.

Oh, hey, this is CNF, the show where I talk to badass people about the art and craft of telling true stories. Welcome.

I ask that if you dig the show, you share it with a few of your friends, link up to it on social, and tag the show @CNFPod on Twitter and @cnfpod on Instagram. We’re on Facebook too. I’ll jump in the fire with you.

If you’re feeling kind, leave a review on Apple Podcasts. We’re still on Mission 100 and we’re 28 away. There’s 28 of you out there, right? I sure hope so.

Big thanks to our patrons this week in Goucher College’s MFA in Nonfiction, Bay Path University’s MFA in Creative Nonfiction and Riverteeth, a journal for creative nonfiction.

Episode 163: Fred Waitzkin — How Writing a Book is Like a Love Affair

“A great story for me is one that engages me emotionally. It’s like a love affair.” —Fred Waitzkin

“A great story can light up the page.” —Fred Waitzkin

“The joy of it is writing those paragraphs.” —Fred Waitzkin

This week’s episode of CNF, aka The Creative Nonfiction Podcast, features Fred Waitzkin, the author of several books including Searching for Bobby Fischer and his most recent novel Deep Water Blues.

Lots of tasty nuggets in this episode. Maybe what struck me most about it was his sheer love of writing as a craft, as an art. So we talk about that, how his mismatched parents taught him what he knows, how he must take a break after each book, and the how he cracked the code of Deep Water Blues by writing a screenplay, of all things.

Be sure to subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts and if you’re feeling generous, leave a kind review over on Apple Podcasts.

Keep the conversation on Twitter @CNFPod and consider sharing the show with the people in your circle. Tag the show and I’ll jump in the fire with you.

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!: Once a Month. No Spam. Can’t Beat It.

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!: Once a Month. No Spam. Can’t Beat It.

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!: Once a Month. No Spam. Can’t Beat It.

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!: Once a Month. No Spam. Can’t Beat It.