#AmWriting – Page 11 – Home of The Creative Nonfiction Podcast

Episode 348: Carl Hoffman

Carl Hoffman is here (@lunaticcarl and @carlhoffmanstories)! He’s the author of Liar’s Circus: A Strange and Terrifying Journey into the Upside-Down World of Trump’s MAGA Rallies (Custom House).

I read this quick, as most of you will, and it is a strange and terrifying dive into the virtual reality chamber of MAGA Trump supporters. Carl is a long-time travel writer, and he turns that gaze and immersion at our own country.

It called to mind a conversation I heard with Henry Rollins, who has traveled all over the world, where he said the place he feels most unsafe in the world is … America.

Episode 346: Lyndsie Bourgon

Become a Patron!

By Brendan O’Meara

Hey CNFers, Lyndsie Bourgon (@lbourgon) is here to talk about Tree Thieves: Crime and Survival in North America’s Woods (Little Brown Spark).

This was a nice conversation that dug into the serendipity of reporting, getting our heads around organizing research, as well as the cultural identity that’s tied to logging and how that leads to timber poaching, a $1 billion “industry” in the U.S.

Episode 344: Rachel Dickinson

Become a Patron!

By Brendan O’Meara

Rachel Dickison is here to talk about her new book The Loneliest Places: Loss, Grief, and the Long Journey Home. It’s is published by Three Hills Press.

No way to sugar coat what this book deals with: Rachel’s son Jack died by suicide in 2012. He was 17. And this book stays within the boundaries of Rachel’s experience, her headspace, her grief.

Yes, her three daughters and her husband were deeply affected by this tragedy, but you won’t hear from them much, not really until the end of the book where Rachel interrogates her selfishness and withdrawal and, in some cases, abandonment. It would be easy to judge Rachel in this book, even her editor wondered how “likeable” she was as a character and that speaks to how honest Rachel was about her processing of this unthinkable experience.

This is something I’ve never done before, but I think it should be brought up, as I have heard other podcasts do this. If you or someone you know is dealing with suicidal thoughts and may harm themselves, call or text 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988. This will route people to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline where they can speak with a trained counselor.

Episode 343: Kristina R. Gaddy

Become a Patron!

By Brendan O’Meara

You know this, CNFers, always nice when we can welcome a guest back. So here’s Kristina R. Gaddy, back with her new book Well of Souls: Uncovering the Banjo’s Hidden History (Norton).

We talk about the late Philip Gerard, what she learned from Book 1 to Book 2, structure, and why do we even write books?

You could say I’m souring on writing books but like everything in my life I’m sure it’ll pass and I’ll be back to saying writing books is the ONLY thing that matters.

Episode 341: Isidra Mencos

Become a Patron!

By Brendan O’Meara

Isidra Mencos (@isidramencos) lived in Spain during an incredible inflection point. Franco died and along with him his authoritarian regime. It gave way to democracy. It gave way to personal freedom, sexual freedom, bodily freedom. And that’s where Promenade of Desire takes off.

Isidra’s book deals with intimacy, or a lack thereof; of being invisible in a big family and finding visibility through love and salsa dancing.

Episode 340: J.B. MacKinnon

Become a Patron!

By Brendan O’Meara

It’s that Atavistian time of the month! And this time we have J.B. MacKinnon, author of the feature “True Grit.”

This piece chronicles the harrowing journey a few feral cows made during a hurricane in North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Let’s just say cows can swim … a LONG time if needed.

J.B. is the author or coauthor of five books of nonfiction. An award-winning journalist, his work has appeared in such publications as the New Yorker, National Geographic, and the Atlantic, as well as the Best American Science and Nature Writing anthologies. He is an adjunct professor of journalism at the University of British Columbia, where he teaches feature writing.

Episode 339: Jeff Pearlman

View on Zencastr

Become a Patron!

By Brendan O’Meara

What a surprise! Jeff Pearlman (@jeffpearlman), author of The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson, came by the show to talk about writing biography (but don’t bring up the word craft, okay?).

This was a wonderful conversation from a brilliant writer and reporter, and a great advocate for the writing community at large. He’s the host of Two Writers Slinging Yang.

Writing this story was the hardest one he’d ever reported. He wrote it in backwards chronology, a la Memento. Did you know I did something similar back in 2016? True story. Jeff got $4 a word for his 3,000-word story; I got $200 for a 5,000-word story. That should give you an idea what kind of astral plane Jeff Pearlman works from. He’s a pretty cool dude.

Episode 337: Ander Monson

Become a Patron!

By Brendan O’Meara

Who doesn’t love an obsessive deep dive? Who doesn’t love a good rabbit hole? And what a rabbit hole Ander Monson‘s Predator: A Memoir, A Movie, An Obsession (Gray Wolf Press) is!

Ander (@angermonsoon) watched “Predator” more than 150 times so you don’t have to. It’s a great movie and Ander’s analysis of it reveals just how brilliant and salient it is. Sure, on the surface it reeks of brawn and would appear to be a rolling advertisement for gun perversion. But Ander folds in his experience into this unconventional memoir while we watch the movie with him.

Can’t recommend the book enough and this conversation should having you getting to the choppah to visit your favorite book seller.

Episode 336: Cassidy Randall

Become a Patron!

By Brendan O’Meara

Cassidy Randall is a freelance writer based out of Montana, and her piece for The Atavist Magazine, “Alone at the Edge of the World,” just dropped.

It’s a harrowing piece and one that really flexes the muscles of what a reporter/writer can do to re-create scenes when they weren’t present for the “main action.”

We talk about how reading fiction helps her with her nonfiction, dealing with rejection, attention to rhythm in sentences, pacing, and a whole lot more.

Episode 335: Steve Brusatte

Steve Brusatte, author of “The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs” and “The Rise and Reign of the Mammals.”

Become a Patron!

By Brendan O’Meara

Steve Brusatte came on the show back in 2018 for his Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs. And he’s back! This time to talk about The Rise and Reign of the Mammals: A New History, From the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us.

Hey … that’s us!

Great conversation about how he pivoted from primarily dinosaurs to primarily mammals, climate change, and how dinosaurs and mammals got so damn big.

You can find Steve @SteveBrusatte on Twitter.