As we keep unpacking great writing lessons from “The Queen’s Gambit,” let’s take a look at subtlety.
“The Queen’s Gambit” never hits you over the head with signals and symbols. Early on, her prized dress with her name Beth sewn into it was burned at the orphanage. She identified with that piece of clothing. It’s no wonder she grows up to love clothes and to identify with fashion. It was taken from her and she sought to take it back.
Continue reading “Lessons from ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ Part 3”Halfway through The Queen’s Gambit, Benny Watts, the top U.S. chess player with swagger, confidence, and sharp wit, asked Beth why the Soviets were so dominant.
Continue reading “Lessons from ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ Part 2”
By Brendan O’Meara (@CNFPod)
V.V. Ganeshananthan is the author of Love Marriage, an essayist, and a journalist. She also teaches at the MFA program at the University of Minnesota. She’s on Instagram and Twitter.
Whitney Terrell is the author of The Good Lieutenant. He also is a journalist who covered the Iraq War. He teaches at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He’s on Instagram and Twitter.
They co-host the Fiction/Non/Fiction Podcast as part of the Lithub network of podcasts. It’s on Instagram and Twitter.
Continue reading “Episode 237: A Fiction/Non/Fiction Festival with V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell”
By Brendan O’Meara
“Writing a book could be very tedious, but I’m writing to make myself laugh or cry. If I’m not crying or laughing, I’m so bored. When I’m telling a story, I’m laughing or crying. Most of the time, that’s what I’m doing it for. If I’m not thrilled by something, I can’t do it. It becomes tedious and I quit,” says Michael Leviton, author of the memoir To Be Honest (Abrams Press).
He is @michaelleviton on Instagram. A great follow.
Continue reading “Episode 236: Michael Leviton on Quantity Over Quality, Play, and His New Book ‘To Be Honest’”Dear CNFers,
Issue 2 of the CNF Pod audio magazine is coming down the pipe. The theme is summer.
I want your best essays about summer. Summer jobs. Summer flings. Summer breeze. Summer, summer, summer time!
We come of age in summer and I want your best essays of what those precious summer months mean to you.
Word limit: Up to 2,000 words. This is about a 15-minute read. Only submit written pieces.
Deadline: March 21, 2021.
Submit to creativenonfictionpodcast at gmail dot com with SUMMER in the subject line.
Issue 2 will be exclusive to Patreon members, so for as little as $4 a month you’ll get access to the the magazine, as well as some other goodies.
Become a Patron!
By Brendan O’Meara
During my conversation with Mason Gravely (@alive_adventures on IG), I asked him what a good interviewer is like. I admire him as an interview so much, I had to know.
He said, “You know, it’s someone who listens. Someone who really is present. You can really tell when an interviewer is distracted, or they’re just kind of going off. They’re calling it in.”
Mason does incredible work for Athletic Brewing, the nations best and only (?) brewery only brewing non-alcoholic beer. Amazing stuff.
Continue reading “Episode 235: Athletic Brewing’s Mason Gravely says ‘Make It Easy to Say Yes’”
Ho! Ho! Ho! CNFers!
What’s that under the tree? It’s Lamorna Ash here to talk about her wonderful debut work of nonfiction Dark, Salt, Clear: The Life of a Fishing Town (Bloomsbury).
Great talk with Lamorna as we dig into how she’s dealing with the pandemic, feeling trapped at sea, drawing inspiration from other forms of art and so much more. She’s 26 years old and you can tell she’s going to be a star. Maybe she already is!
Say hi on social media @CNFPod and, if you have time, leave a kind written review on Apple Podcasts. Almost at 100. Been sitting there for a long, long time.
Being a member on Patreon is HUGE. You’ll be supporting the audio magazine, supporting writers, and making the product possible. No members means no magazine. If you liked Issue 1 of the magazine, consider supporting the next one.
For $4 a month, you’ll get access to new transcripts, the forthcoming audio magazines, and other goodies exclusive to members. Check it out.
Lee Gutkind (@LeeGutkind) has returned to the show after a long, long time, this time to talk about his wonderful new book My Last Eight Thousand Days: An American Male in His Seventies (University of Georgia Press).
We talk about a lot of stuff, like voice. Lee says:
Continue reading “Episode 233: Lee Gutkind on Magical Moments, the Rope Test, and ‘My Last Eight Thousand Days’”
For the 30th and final edition of what we have come to know as The Best American Sports Writing series (Best American Paper, or Houghton Mifflin. Harcourt, (Amazon says Best American Paper, HMH’s website says it’s theirs. I don’t know anymore.), 2020), CNFPod bestie Glenn Stout returns to the show to talk about BASW and the evolution of journalism, or the evolution of the medium.
He also has a new book coming out in March: Tiger Girl and the Candy Kid: America’s Original Gangster Couple. It is available for pre-order.
If you want your fix of Stout, he’s been on the show here, here, and here. All worth listening to. There’s nobody better at distilling what this mess is all about.
Continue reading “Episode 232: Change is the Only Constant with Glenn Stout”