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Episode 390: How Did the Pitcher Pedro Martinez Help Will Harrison’s Writing?Episode 390:

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By Brendan O’Meara

Will Harrison (@thechillestwill) came on the show to talk about his essay My Unlikely Writing Teacher: Pedro Martinez for the New York Times Magazine.

Loved. This. Essay.

And it’s short, which is always kind of a bonus.

Will is an instructor at the School for Visual Arts in New York City. He has written for The Cleveland Review of Books and The Baffler, among others. You can learn more about him at his website, willharrisonwriter.com.

Episode 205: The Art of Biography with Larry Tye

By Brendan O’Meara

Hello, there, CNFers, we’ve got the incredible biographer Larry Tye joining us in conversation.

He’s the author of Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020).

Larry has written several biographies including ones on Satchel Paige, Super Man (!), and Bobby Kennedy, you know, your average ditch diggers.

In this episode we talk about book proposals, his approach to organizing his notes, and how being a reporter was like being in a “candy store.” Good, good stuff.

I had a lot of fun, and I hope you do, too.

If you’re feeling, leave a review on Apple Podcasts and consider signing up for the monthly newsletter. And keep the conversation going on social media. @CNFPod on Twitter, IG, and Facebook.

Episode 101—Creative Writer’s Toolbelt Host Andrew Chamberlain Brings the Hammer

Andrew J. Chamberlain, host of The Creative Writer’s Toolbelt, and the author of the book of the same name, joined me for Episode 101.

By Brendan O’Meara

Tweetables by Andrew Chamberlain (@writerstoolbelt):

“You can’t be passive and just sit back and wait for things to happen.”T

It’s The Creative Nonfiction Podcast, the show where I speak to the best artists about telling true stories: leaders in narrative journalism, podcasting, radio, doc film, essay, and memoir and tease out origins, habits, routines, tactics, so you can improve your own work.

For Episode 101, I welcome fellow podcaster Andrew Chamberlain. He hosts The Creative Writers Toolbelt, a podcast that gets real granular on the writing process. He has a fiction slant, but his experience interviewing and with ghost writing opened the door for him to come on my show. As an FYI, I went on his show not too long ago, so you should go and check that out. I’ll include it in the show notes.

Andy breaks it down for you in this episode. Many of the tools apply to fiction, but if you’re anything like me, you want your nonfiction to read like fiction so I think you’ll get a lot of tasty nuggets from this one.

Hey, if you haven’t subscribed, go and do that on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play Music, and soon Spotify, still waiting for approval on Spotify, but it’s coming, I promise.

Thanks everybody and thanks to Andy for the time.

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Got any questions, concerns, problems you’re working through (in your work), please reach out:

@BrendanOMeara and @CNFPod on Twitter and @CNFPodcast on Facebook or email me brendan at brendan omeara dot com.

That’s it for me. Have a CNFin’ great week, friends.

Episode 33—Melissa Chadburn Shares All Her Secrets!

Melissa Chadburn, author of “The Readiness Assessment.”

“Being a writer is like you’re always in the hallway.” —Melissa Chadburn

“I am competing against myself in the past.” —Melissa Chadburn (@melissacahdburn)

“With all nonfiction, you need something to hang your narrative on.” —Melissa Chadburn

“I like to have emotional access to my stories.” —Melissa Chadburn

By Brendan O’Meara

Melissa Chadburn stopped by #CNF HQ to talk about her second runner-up story (judged by Bronwen Dickey) titled “The Readiness Assessment.”

She entered it in Proxmity Magazine’s first inaugural narrative journalism prize and it’s a good one.

Melissa noted how fun it was to be edited by Maggie Messitt, a former guest on #CNF.

We’re keeping the good times rolling, so let’s not waste any more time. Please subscribe to the podcast, share it with someone you think will dig it, and subscribe to my book recommendations newsletter. It’s all free!

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