Tag: creative nonfiction

Episode 226: Edward Parnell’s In Search of a Haunted Country in ‘Ghostland’

Edward Parnell

By Brendan O’Meara

Edward Parnell, the author of Ghostland: In Search of a Haunted Country (William Collins), comes by the show to talk about the new book, a book that is part travel log, culture log, and memoir.

It is a haunting read, a mournful read, so naturally I dug it.

You can find Edward @edward_parnell on Twitter.

We talk about our shared love of Kurt Vonnegut, keeping the fun in writing, his approach to take this book away from the traditional grief memoir path, and lots more.

Keep the conversation going on social media @CNFPod and be sure to sign up for the monthly newsletter where I give out reading recommendation, podcast news, and writing tips. This month I plan to try something new: An exclusive Zoom link to have a little happy hour. First of the month. No spam. Can’t beat it.

Other Books by Edward Parnell

The Listeners

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Episode 225: Amalia Andrade Dances with Her Fears

By Brendan O’Meara

What a pleasure to have Amalia Andrade (@amaliaandrade_ on Twitter) on the podcast to talk about her new book What You Think About When You Bit Your Nails: A Fear and Anxiety Workbook (Penguin Life).

She’s so damn cool and her style of drawing and writing is so fun and whimsical. I think you’re gonna dig her.

We talk about:

  • Her childhood growing up in Columbia
  • Fear and anxiety
  • Ira Glass and the creative gap (video below)
  • Developing along with her audience
  • And how drawing can alleviate your anxieties

Consider leaving a kind review on Apple Podcasts so more CNFers like YOU will see it. Subscribe to my monthly newsletter where you’ll get great reading recommendations, be entered in raffles for books and maybe, just maybe, be invited to a Zoom Happy Hour on the first of the month, the day the newsletter goes out. You’ll have to subscribe, open the newsletter, and follow the link at the appropriate time.

Cheers!

This Newsletter Goes to 11!

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Episode 224: Patrick Radden Keefe’s Atypical Path to Narrative Journalism, Writing Books and Making ‘Wind of Change’

By Brendan O’Meara

Is there anybody out there better than Patrick Radden Keefe? There are a few on his level, but I wouldn’t say anyone is better and here he is.

He says, “What can I leave out? And that point where I can start leaving things out becomes very liberating because then, in a way, the reporting continues, but it’s narrowing.”

He’s the author of three books (and a fourth coming out in 2021) and it’s his latest book, Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland that was on everybody’s list, like, Barack Obama’s list. I’m just tickled I have the same initials as Obama.

Patrick also is the host of Wind of Change, the incredible podcast that tries to solve the mystery behind the Scorpions song “Wind of Change” and whether or not the CIA had a hand in writing it.

Keep the conversation going on social media @CNFPod and consider leaving a kind review of the podcast so more people can find it, CNFers like you. It only takes a few minutes to tap away but will have a HUGE impact on the show.

Books by Patrick

Say Nothing
Snakehead An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld & the American Dream
Chatter: Uncovering The Echelon Surveillance Network And The Secret World Of Global Eavesdropping

Patrick’s Bookshelf for Apocalypse

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
Pnin by Nabokov
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The Last Sumaruai by Helen Dewitt



Episode 223: ‘Why Are You Making it, and Who is it for?’ with Kristen Meinzer

Kristen Meinzer

By Brendan O’Meara

“I spend a lot of time thinking about promotion. This isn’t Field of Dreams,” says Kristen Meinzer, @kristenmeinzer on Twitter.

You might remember Kristen from her first soiree on the podcast a few months ago when she and Jolenta Greenberg came by to talk about the book they co-wrote, How to be Fine.

She’s back for a solo show to talk about her book So You Want to Start a Podcast: Finding Your Voice, Telling Your Story, and Building a Community that Will Listen (William Morrow, 2019).

I’m self-taught, been doing this thing for eight years, and I found so many incredible nuggets in this book. The thing is, it’s ostensibly about podcasting, but you can apply the principles to anything.

We talk about structure in writing and in podcasting, why are you starting a podcast and who is it for, pet peeves in podcasting, mistakes new producers make, promoting a show, and what exactly a producer does.

Good stuff.

Please subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts, tell a friend, and consider leaving a kind review on Apple Podcasts. Keep the conversation going on social media. It’s @CNFPod across Twitter, IG, and FB.

Kristen’s Bookshelf for the Apocalypse or Library for the End of the World (in pictures!)

Leave the show a voicemail and I’ll answer your question on the show!

Gotta get that monthly newsletter! Here’s a link to the archive. It only goes back to March 2019, but you’ll get the drift.

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Episode 222: Catherine Grace Katz on One-Word Distillations, the Thrill of Research and ‘The Daughters of Yalta’

By Brendan O’Meara

Catherine Grace Katz, author of The Daughters of Yalta: The Churchills, Roosevelts, and Harrimans: A Story of Love and War, joins me to talk about her new book.

You can find her @Catherine_Katz on Twitter.

Catherine graduated from Harvard with a BA in history in 2013. She earned an MPhil in modern European history from Christ’s College at the University of Cambridge in 2014, and now is pursuing her JD at Harvard Law School.

You could say she was punching down in class coming by to speak with me.

She joins the ranks of several historians who have been on the show like Laura Hillenbrand, Bob Batchelor, and James Carl Nelson, to name a few.

We talk about her upbringing in Chicago and how stories were such an early part of her life, her dissertation on modern counterintelligence, research, and her Bookshelf for the Apocalypse. All great stuff.

Keep the conversation going on social media @CNFPod across the Big Three and consider leaving the show a kind review on Apple Podcasts. Drop me a line if you have questions, want me to work with you on your book or essay, or you just want to say hello.

Catherine’s Bookshelf for the Apocalypse

A Gentleman in Moscow
Emma
Anne Green Gables
The Martian
To Kill a Mockingbird
In Command of History

Brendan does not get a kickback for any book sales via affiliate links. This is why he fails.

This newsletter goes to 11!

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Episode 221: Power Couple Ashley Molesso and Chess Needham Bring You ‘The Gay Agenda’

Ashley Molesso and Chess Needham

By Brendan O’Meara

Ashley Molesso and Chess Needham are the creative, queer and trans power couple behind the incredible and beautiful book The Gay Agenda: A Modern Queer History and Handbook (Morrow Gift, 2020).

You can follow them and their stationery story at ashandchess.com and follow them on Instagram @ashandchess.

We dig into where they grew up, how they met, the “so 2018” way their book came to be, and much, much more.

Keep the conversation going on social @CNFPod and consider sharing the show across your networks. If you tag the show, I’ll be sure to give you some love, most likely in the form of a James Hetfield GIF. Also consider leaving a kind review on Apple Podcasts. It would give me and the show a great boost.

Ash and Chess’s Bookshelf for the Apocalypse*

Amateur: A Reckoning with Gender, Identity, and Masculinity by Thomas Page McBee
The Twits by Roald Dahl
The Hike by Drew Magary
Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell
The Fireside Book of Children’s Songs
*: These are not affiliate links. Brendan does not get a commission based on book sales, though he acknowledges this is probably really stupid not to.

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Episode 220: The ‘Unreality’ of Elisa Gabbert

By Brendan O’Meara

Elisa Gabbert is back, baby.

She’s got a new book out called The Unreality of Memory (FSG, 2020). It’s a killer collection of disaster essays and what we’ve come to expect from Elisa, which is to say deeply intellectual, observant, incredibly researched with just a dash of the personal.

As always, be sure you’re subscribed to this podcast wherever you listen and consider leaving a kind review on Apple Podcasts.

Keep the conversation going on social media @CNFPod across the big three. I’ll be emerging from my social media detox soon since I finished the latest draft of my memoirvel.

If you have questions or just want to say hello to the show, click on the appropriate button, leave a message, and I’ll be sure to address the best questions I get. Don’t be shy 🙂

I brought back the Bookshelf for the Apocalypse, a CNF Pod deep cut of how I’d ask guests what books were so important to them that they’d pack them in their survival pack for the end of the world. You have that to look forward to towards the end of the show. Enjoy, friend.

Elisa’s Bookshelf for the Apocalypse

Moby Dick
Howards End
Collection of John Ashbery’s work
Collection of Susan Sontag’s early work
The Journals of Sylvia Plath

Other Books by Elisa Gabbert

The Word Pretty
The Self Unstable
L’Heure Bleue, or the Judy Poems

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Episode 212: Kevin Guilfoile on Uncovering the Chaos and ‘A Drive into the Gap’

Kevin Guilfoile

By Brendan O’Meara

Kevin Guilfoile (@kevinguilfoile) is the author of the memoir A Drive into the Gap (Field Notes, 2012).

It’s a wonderful story about memory, fathers and sons, and the hunt for the identity of Roberto Clemente’s bat, the one that struck his 3,000th and final hit.

Kevin shares stories about his time growing up in Cooperstown, home of the baseball Hall of Fame and dealing with a young Barry Bonds while an intern for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

He’s written two novels and one movie and I loved it when he said, “You become a writer by writing.”

It’s the same sentiment that Austin Kleon espouses: In order to be the noun, you have to do the verb.

Keep the conversation going on on social media @CNFPod and consider leaving a kind a review on Apple Podcasts.

And sign up for my monthly newsletter where I raffle off books, share reading recommendations, writing tips, and what you might have missed from the world of the podcast.

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Episode 210: Stephanie Gorton Looks to the Past with ‘Citizen Reporters’

This episode is sponsored by Scrivener, by writers for writers.

“But there was a sense that I had let down my younger self and ought to find a way to make writing at least in some way, a part of my part life.” — Stephanie Gorton.

By Brendan O’Meara

Stephanie Gorton (@sdgortonwords) is the author of Citizen Reporters: S.S. McClure, Ida Tarbell, and the Magazine that Rewrote America. It’s a ripping-good yarn.

In this conversation we talk about her Page Turner piece for New Yorker dot com about an H.P. Lovecraft conference in Providence, her home city. We riff on what it was like for her to go from publishing to writing. We talk about the social media and why anyone with platform would trust a journalist with their stories. It’s good, clean fun.

Keep the conversation going on social media by linking up the show and tagging it @CNFPod.

This podcast was sponsored in part by Scrivener, made by writers for writers! It’s also sponsored by Casualty of Words, a writing podcast for people in a hurry.

Be sure you’re subscribed to the podcast wherever you get your podcasts and subscribe to my monthly newsletter for book recommendations, writing tips, and what you might’ve missed from the world of the podcast. You’re also entered to win books. What’s not to like?! Sign up below.

Episode 207: Every Story is a Workshop with Roy Peter Clark

Roy Peter Clark

This episode is sponsored by Scrivener, created by writers for writers.

By Brendan O’Meara

In this conversation, Roy Peter Clark, author of Murder Your Darlings: And Other Gentle Writing Advice from Aristotle to Zinsser (Little, Brown), he says, “Every story is a workshop.”

What a great way to approach reading and writing. I love it.

Roy is the author of several books on writing including Writing Tools, The Glamour of Grammar, Writing Short, Help! for Writers, and The Art of X-Ray Reading.

In this episode we talk about a deep dive he took on a 19-year-old college freshman’s brilliant story of a man washing the stain of blood from the sidewalk after a killing.

There’s lots of great stuff I know you’ll dig in this episode, so I’ll leave you to it.

Be sure to keep the conversation going on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook, @CNFPod.

If you dig the show, consider leaving a nice review on Apple Podcasts. I make it a point to review shows I like, so I’m not just asking for reviews and not dishing it out!

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