Daniel Kolitz wrote about Enthusiastic Sobriety for The Atavist Magazine, so we talk about how he went about reporting and writing the piece.
I also speak with lead editor Jonah Ogles about what made this story so special.
Sponsor love: West Virginia Wesleyan College’s MFA in Creative Writing and HippoCamp21. Use CNFPod21 for $50 off your registration!
Become a Patron!Cecilia Brown (@cecilbrownn) is on the show to talk about “So Nice to Hear Your Voice,” her This American Life essay about her grandmother. We get into the behind-the-scenes of the piece. Great stuff.
What else do we get into?
Continue reading “Episode 269: The Visionary Life of Cecilia Brown, Making Pictures, and This American Life”
Sponsors: West Virginia Wesleyan College’s MFA in Creative Writing and HippoCamp 2021.
Become a Patron!Alison Herman (@aherman2006) is a staff writer for The Ringer, who writes about all kinds of TV and movies and the like.
What prompted this conversation was her piece about David Gelb, the filmmaker behind Jiro Dreams of Sushi and Chef’s Table.
In this episode we talk about:
Continue reading “Episode 268: Overcoming Bad Viewing Hygiene with The Ringer’s Alison Herman”
Lovely sponsors: West Virginia Wesleyan College’s MFA in Creative Writing and HippoCamp21.
Become a Patron!The writer Suzanne Roberts (@suzanneroberts28) came by CNF Pod HQ to talk all things writing and memoir and Bad Tourist: Misadventures in Love and Travel (University of Nebraska Press, 2020).
Had a wonderful time talking to her about:
Continue reading “Episode 267: Suzanne Roberts on Big Wins, Rejection Clubs, and ‘Bad Tourist’”Become a Patron!View on Zencastr
Kristen Radtke is the author of Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness. Let me tell you, CNFers, this book spoke to me like few others do. Such is the life as a lonely podcaster.
Continue reading “Episode 266: The Expansive Nothing You Have to Fill with Kristen Radtke”
It’s that time!
For Issue 3 of the audio magazine, the theme is HEROES. Hero worship. Hero sandwiches. Fallen idols. Should you meet your heroes? Superheroes. Is Batman a superhero? HEROES!
I want your best essays on heroes. Essays are meant to be read aloud and should be no longer than 2,000 words.
Email with HERO in the subject line your best essay to creativenonfictionpodcast at gmail dot com.
Deadline is Nov. 1, 2021! DEADLINE IS DECEMBER 31, 2021
This issue, like Issue 2, is available to members of the Patreon community. This is what allows me to pay writers for their work should I accept their essays.
If you like what we’re doing with the interview product, as well as the audio magazine, then please become a member. Check it out: patreon.com/cnfpod.
Ariel Ramchandani and Seyward Darby, in association with Cadence 13 and The Atavist Magazine, are producing “No Place Like Home,” an eight-part narrative podcast telling the story of the stolen ruby slippers, the ones worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz.
So we get into what the production of the podcast has been like, given that Seyward and Ariel are primarily print people, the origins of the project, getting good tape, and how producing a narrative podcast is very much like being in the kitchen.
Enjoy, CNFers.
Sponsors: West Virginia Weslyen College’s MFA in Creative Writing and HippoCamp2021 (Enter CNFPod21 for $50 off your registration!)
Become a Patron!Rachel Monroe (@rachmonroe) is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic and myriad other places.
Her latest piece for The New Yorker is about ransomware and hacker negotiators. She wrote a piece about #vanlife for The New Yorker back in 2017 that garnered all kinds of buzz.
Continue reading “Episode 264: Rachel Monroe Talks About the Things Writers Don’t Tweet About”
Michelle Weber and Catherine Cusick are the editor-in-chief and publisher of Pipe Wrench Magazine, a new venture that aims to fix what’s broken in journalism and publishing.
This is a fun conversation about the founding of the magazine and Michelle and Catherine are doing to help change the culture. You can find Issue 1 here, and they just went live with Issue 2 this week.
The pair overlapped at Longreads and parlayed much of that experience into Pipe Wrench, so we talk about that, among other things.
At one point Cartherine brings up this notion of “ramen startups,” and she’s referring to a blog post from Paul Graham. This means keeping things lean and nimble and not overextending and growing too fast.
Great talk!
OK, so keep the conversation alive @CNFPod and consider becoming a CNFin’ member at Patreon. There’s where you get exclusive access to the audio magazine, get asked to ask questions of guests, transcripts, coaching, and more. For just $2 a month, you get access to a killer audio product, and we’re going live with Issue 2 in mere days! Patreon.com/cnfpod
“I. Will. Write. This. Book. There’s no turning back,” says Bob Welch, @bob_welch23 on Twitter.
Bob is the author of several books, most recently is Saving My Enemy, a story of an American and a German WWII vet who forged a friendship late in life that led them down the path to forgiveness. Great book.
Bob was a long-time columnist at The Register-Guard in Eugene and has written books like The Wizard of Foz: Dick Fosbury’s One-Man High-Jump Revolution and Resolve.
We had a great conversation about “hiking your own hike” and how the famous writer Jon Krakauer actually stole Bob’s girlfriend back in high school in Corvallis, Oregon.
Great talk and good, good fun.
Keep the conversation going on social media @CNFPod and consider becoming a member at the Patreon page. It’s how you get access to the audio magazine, as well as transcripts and coaching. You dollars go directly into (50% goes to Patreon and Uncle Sam) the making of the podcast and paying writers. If you freelance, you get the titanic tax burden that’s on the freelancer. Oh, you got a $1,000 check! That’s nice! $500 of that needs to be skimmed off and goes to taxes, sooooo….
Anyway!
Enjoy this conversation and let me know what you think. HMU!