Brendan O’Meara – Page 32 – Home of The Creative Nonfiction Podcast

Episode 159: Allie Rowbottom—The Page as Safe Place

By Brendan O’Meara

“Talent is not enough. You have to have luck. You have to have drive.” —Allie Rowbottom (@allierowbottom)

In this 159th episode of CNF, I welcome Allie Rowbottom, author of Jell-O Girls: A Family History.

We had a nice time talking about journaling, competition, jealousy, and finding the page as a safe place.

As always, keep the conversation going on Twitter @CNFPod and let me know what you thought of this episode. Share it across your social media profiles and me sure to tag the show so I can jump in the fire with you.

If you’re feeling kind, take a less than five minutes and leave a kind review or rating on Apple Podcasts. With your help, we can reach 100 of them.

Enjoy the show!

Episode 158: Naomi Gordon-Loebl—F*ck, Yeah! Essays

“There’s always gonna be people who are better than you, and there’s also people who’re gonna be worse than you, but that can’t be the reason you write or don’t write.” — Naomi Gordon-Loebl (@naomigloebl)

Hey, CNFers, welcome to this installment featuring Naomi Gordon-Loebl, an essayist and journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Hazlitt, and more.

She grew up in a communal household in Brooklyn, has a twin sister, won the parent lottery, and is finding her footing as a writer passionate about LGBT issues, but it was her NYT essay on getting the “yips” that made me reach out.

Keep the conversation going on Twitter @CNFPod and Instagram @cnfpod. And consider leaving a kind review on Apple Podcasts.

Thanks be to Goucher College’s MFA in Nonfiction and Bay Path University’s MFA in Creative Nonfiction for supporting this show.

Episode 157: Eric Ducker—’I Want This Weirder’

Want the transcript of Eric’s episode? PayPal $5 to brendan at brendanomeara dot com and I’ll send you the pdf!

“I want to hear more of you in this. I want this weirder. Let loose.” —Eric Ducker (@ericducker)

By Brendan O’Meara

Hey, CNFers! So Eric Ducker is here. He’s a freelance editor and writer. When he wrote this great piece on Jenny Odell, I reached out to him.

We talk about how important music is to him and the shape of his weeks when he’s pitching vs. when he’s writing. Be sure to check out his work at his Contently site.

Subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts. Consider leaving a kind review on Apple Podcasts. If you do, I’ll coach up a piece of your writing up to 2,000 words. Leave a review, wait for it to publish, take a screenshot, send it to me, then I’ll reach back out!

Keep the conversation going on Twitter @CNFPod and Instagram @cnfpod. Facebook is @CNFPodcast. What fun!

Episode 156: Sonya Huber—Creative Infidelities

Want the transcript to this episode?! PayPal brendan at brendan omeara dot com $5 and I’ll send you the PDF!

By Brendan O’Meara

“I think that’s why people stop writing: the not knowing what you’re doing feels so terrible.” —Sonya Huber (@sonyahuber)

Hey…hey, you, how are you?

Sonya Huber is here. She’s the author of these five books:

Pain Woman Takes Your Keys and Other Essays from a Nervous System
Opa Nobody
Cover Me: A Health Insurance Memoir
The “Backwards” Research Guide for Writers
The Evolution of Hillary Rodham Clinton

Be sure to subscribe to the show wherever you get our podcasts. If you leave a review of the show, I’ll coach up a piece of your writing of up to 2,000 words. Write the review, take a screenshot when it posts, email me the screenshot, and I’ll reach back out and get going.

Keep the conversation going on Twitter @CNFPod or Facebook or Instagram.

Episode 155: T.D. Thornton—Horses, Cons, Boxers, Oh, My!

“You can persevere and you can grind, but you have to get lucky at times.” —T.D. Thornton (@thorntontd on Twitter)

“You have to churn out some bad writing to get to good or excellent writing.” —T.D. Thornton

By Brendan O’Meara

T.D. Thornton is a journalist and author.

He wrote Not By a Long Shot: A Season at a Hard-Luck Horse Track and My Adventures with Your Money: George Graham Rice and the Golden Age of the Con Artist.

Consider buying one, or both.

This was a fun conversation and I hope you dig it, and I hope you share it across your networks. Maybe encourage your pals to subscribe.

Join me on Twitter @CNFPod and Instagram @cnfpod to keep the conversation going.

Episode 154: Julian Smith—Pitch Clubs, Falling in Love with the Work, and Aloha Rodeo

By Brendan O’Meara

“The more you can immerse yourself in a story the better you can write about it.” —Julian Smith (@julianwrites)

“You gotta fall in love with your subject and sometimes people have to pull you out.” —Julian Smith (juliansmith.com)

Julian Smith is a freelance journalist covering science, conservation, and adventure for publications like Smithsonian, Wired, Outside, Men’s Journal, National Geographic Traveler, and The Washington Post.

He co-authored Aloha Rodeo with David Wolman, a fellow journalist he worked with before on this Epic Magazine piece about two warring ice cream trucks. It’s…epic.

Julian is also the author of Crossing the Heart of Africa and Smokejumper.

Episode 153: Amanda Petrusich—Clinging to Tiny Victories, Letting the Process Sustain You, and Wet Jeans

Amanda Petrusich is on the main stage for Episode 153.

By Brendan O’Meara

“The work itself, the process has to sustain you.” —Amanda Petrusich (@amandapetrusich Twitter)

“It’s like wet jeans, that’s the feeling of generating a bunch of crappy writing.”—Amanda Petrusich (@amandapetrusich IG)

Amanda Petrusich, staff writer for The New Yorker, joined me for a spirited conversation about her approach to writing criticism and the grind she endured to get where she’s at.

It was this great piece she wrote on Metallica that made me want to reach out to her. The way to this man’s heart is through Metallica.

Be sure to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts and wherever else you get your podcasts. Keep the conversation going on Twitter @BrendanOMeara and @CNFPod. Instagram: @cnfpod. Facebook The Creative Nonfiction Podcast.

Books by Amanda

Don’t Sell at Any Price
It Still Moves
Pink Moon

Episode 152: Philip Gerard—Fiction, Nonfiction, and the Writer’s Magical Combination

Philip Gerard returns to the show to talk about his latest book The Last Battleground.
Photo credit Alan Cradick

“For a writer, ignorance and curiosity are a magical combination.” —Philip Gerard

“I always tell my students if you can’t find it, you don’t have it.” —Philip Gerard

By Brendan O’Meara

Hey, CNFers, I’m thrilled to welcome back Philip Gerard. Philip joined me nearly 120 episodes ago and it’s great to have him back to talk about his latest book The Last Battleground: The Civil War Comes to North Carolina (University of North Carolina Press, 2019).

His historical novel, Cape Fear Rising, is celebrating its 25th anniversary, so we dive into that as well. It is published by Blair.

Philip is also an accomplished musician and recorded this song and video as a trailer for The Last Battleground. Check it out:

Be sure to subscribe to show, CNFers, on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. I make this show for you, so I’d deeply appreciate it if you shared it across your social channels. If you have a spare moment, leaving a rating or review helps with the show’s packaging. Helps validate the entire enterprise.

You can join me on Twitter @BrendanOMeara and @CNFPod, Instagram @cnfpod, and Facebook @CNFPodcast. If you tag me or the show I’ll be able to give you digital fist bumps.

Books by Philip Gerard

Too many to list! So visit this link to browse.

Episode 150: Ian Frisch—A Good Idea Knows No Age

Ian Frisch, author of Magic is Dead, hopped on the show.

By Brendan O’Meara

Quotables by Ian Frisch (@IanFrisch and @Ian_Frisch)

“That’s what makes a great story is having character, and setting, and narrative moments and dynamic change.”

“I’m not really just there for the information. I want to be able to understand a character and their motivations and their experience on a deeper level.”

“A good idea knows no experiences level or age.”

Well, here are CNFers, this is CNF, the creative nonfiction podcast where I speak to badass artists about the craft of telling true stories.

Ian Frisch, a master a freelancer and author of Magic is Dead, joins me this glorious CNFriday.

There’s so much great freelancer wisdom in this episode. I know your’e gonna dig it.

Ian mentions how great Patrick Radden Keefe’s Say Nothing and David Grann’s The White Darkness are. Not to mention Bill Buford’s great New Yorker piece on chocolate.

Ian is a prolific writer and his work can be seen here, so I hope you’ll check out his work. It’s an impressive collection.

Be sure to keep the conversation going on Twitter @BrendanOMeara and @CNFPod. You can always follow along on Instagram @cnfpod and on Facebook on the podcast’s page.

Enjoy the show!

Episode 149: Anika Fajardo—Writing is About Communicating

Anika Fajardo, author of Magical Realism for Nonbelievers, stopped by CNF.

“Part of me thinks nobody should write a memoir.” —Anika Fajardo (@anikawriter on Twitter)

“Writing is about communicating, so that’s why we have to send things out. There needs to be a point where it goes out in the world and we communicate with a reader.” —Anika Fajardo (@anikawriter on IG)

By Brendan O’Meara

Here we are again friend. I’m in the midst of rebranding so you’re listening to CNF, the show where I talk to badass writers, filmmakers, producers, and podcasters about the art and craft of creative nonfiction.

Today’s guest is Anika Fajardo, the author of Magical Realism for Nonbelievers: A Memoir of Finding Family (University of Minnesota Press, 2019).

It’s in the same class as Jean Guerrero’s Crux, in my opinion. You can check out Jean’s episode here.

In any case, I hope decide to subscribe to CNF wherever you get your podcasts. And if you’d be so kind, I’d appreciate a rating or review over on Apple Podcasts. They help validate the show.

Also, keep the conversation going on Twitter by joining me @BrendanOMeara and @CNFPod. Tag the show and I’ll jump in the fire. It’s all good.

I think you’ll get a lot of tasty nuggets out of this episode. I hope you enjoy it and you share it widely with your CNFin’ friends!

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!: Once a Month. No Spam. Can’t Beat It.

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!: Once a Month. No Spam. Can’t Beat It.

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!: Once a Month. No Spam. Can’t Beat It.

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!: Once a Month. No Spam. Can’t Beat It.

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!: Once a Month. No Spam. Can’t Beat It.

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!: Once a Month. No Spam. Can’t Beat It.

Books by Amanda

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!: Once a Month. No Spam. Can’t Beat It.

Books by Philip Gerard

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!: Once a Month. No Spam. Can’t Beat It.

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!: Once a Month. No Spam. Can’t Beat It.