Brendan O’Meara – Page 14 – Home of The Creative Nonfiction Podcast

Episode 280: Laura Todd Carns and ‘Searching for Mr. X,’ an Atavist Original

By Brendan O’Meara

Laura Todd Carns is here to talk about her latest feature for The Atavist Magazine. It’s called “Searching for Mr. X: For eight years, a man without a memory lived among strangers at a hospital in Mississippi. But was recovering his identity the happy ending he was looking for?”

Laura is a novelist, essayist, and journalist whose work has appeared in many places. You can find out more at her website.

She’s @LauraToddCarns on Twitter.

In this episode we talk about approaching a story as fiction vs. nonfiction, the challenge of the structure of the piece, collaborating with an editor and how it’s like a record producer and a musician, and more.

First I talk to Seyward Darby, as she was the lead editor of the piece. Enjoy!

Episode 279: Athena Dixon on Opening Doors, Day Jobs, and the Personal Essay

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Sponsor love: West Virginia m Wesleyan College’s MFA in Creative Writing and The Facing Project’s Empathy Prize for Nonfiction

By Brendan O’Meara

What a treat!

It’s Athena Dixon (@AthenaDDixon), the author of the essay collection The Incredible Shrinking Woman (Split Lip Press).

Had a great chat about day jobs and threading the work you want to do around that, how there’s no “writer’s life,” but rather just a “writer living.” That’s a direct quote from her Hippocamp talk this year.

Her essay collection delves into her identity as a Black woman, divorce, relationships, sex, the masks we where, and so on. Highly recommend.

Episode 276: Earl Swift Takes Us to the Moon

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By Brendan O’Meara

Earl Swift returns!

He’s back as we take a deep dive into Across the Airless Wilds: The Lunar Rover and the Triumph of the Final Moon Landings, an epic book that details the creative genius and the people behind the “moon car” and the three greatest feats of human exploration, largely forgotten.

Earl is an incredible reporter and writer, spinning intrepid yarns that are densely packed but not weighed down. Incredible stuff.

In this episode we dig into:

Writing and reporting the book during the pandemic
Breaking up longer chapters into shorter chapters
What surprised him about his moon research
And his incredible collaborative relationship with his book editor
And much much more.

Episode 270: How did Daniel Kolitz Pull Off His Atavist Story?

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By Brendan O’Meara

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.

Episode 269: The Visionary Life of Cecilia Brown, Making Pictures, and This American Life

Sponsor love: West Virginia Wesleyan College’s MFA in Creative Writing and HippoCamp21. Use CNFPod21 for $50 off your registration!

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By Brendan O’Meara

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?

Episode 268: Overcoming Bad Viewing Hygiene with The Ringer’s Alison Herman

Sponsors: West Virginia Wesleyan College’s MFA in Creative Writing and HippoCamp 2021.

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By Brendan O’Meara

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:

Episode 267: Suzanne Roberts on Big Wins, Rejection Clubs, and ‘Bad Tourist’

Lovely sponsors: West Virginia Wesleyan College’s MFA in Creative Writing and HippoCamp21.

By Brendan O’Meara

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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:

Episode 266: The Expansive Nothing You Have to Fill with Kristen Radtke

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By Brendan O’Meara

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.

Call for submissions: Heroes CLOSED TO SUBMISSIONS

By Brendan O’Meara

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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.

Episode 265: ‘No Place Like Home’ with Ariel Ramchandani and Seyward Darby

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By Brendan O’Meara

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.

Brendan’s Monthly Newsletter: First of the month! No spam! Can’t beat it!

Brendan’s Monthly Newsletter: First of the month! No spam! Can’t beat it!