By Brendan O’Meara
Many of you know I’m a newsletter junkie. I collect them like baseball cards.
And Neal Bascomb, author of Faster, Red Mutiny, and several other gripping books of narrative journalism, has newsletter out called Work/Craft/Life.
Neal (@nealbascomb) profiles regular people about the craft of their work. Each profile is a wonderful character sketch of how people go about their work. It’s like Humans of New York, Studs Terkel, This American Life, and Walt Harrington’s Acts of Creation rolled into one. It’s great, and Neal’s just getting started with profiles of an abstract artist, a chef, and an ER doctor. Soon, he’ll have one of a war reporter.
We talk about how this departure stemmed from book burnout, what energizes him about these profiles, and how he disagrees with John McPhee about tape recorders.
The show’s Instagram handle, @creativenonfictionpodcast, and you can always keep the conversation going on Twitter @CNFPod.
And you know I’d rather you sign up for my rage-against-the-algorithm, Up-to-11 Newsletter. Here’s the latest. Signup form is below you and to your right. Book recs, book raffles, cool stuff curated by me for you, CNFin’ happy hour or writing group, writing prompts, fun and entertaining. First of the month. No spam. Can’t beat it.
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