interviews – Home of The Creative Nonfiction Podcast

Episode 292: Chip Scanlan says, ‘A Writer is Someone Who Writes. Period.’

Sponsor love: West Virginia Wesleyan College’s MFA in Creative Writing

Hey, CNFers, Chip Scanlan is here!

Here’s a little ditty from his website:

I am a writer. An author. A writing coach who has helped thousands of writers discover the writer within us all.

And his new book Writers on Writing: Inside the Lives of 55 Distinguished Writers and Editors is out now. And for $10 on Kindle ($15 for paperback) you get insights from the likes of Susan Orlean, Bronwen Dickey, Tommy Tomlinson, David Finkel, Roy Peter Clark, Rosalind Bentley, and many, many more.

In the book, Chip (@chipscanlan) asks four questions of every person:

The Interstate or the Back Roads?

Become a Patron!

By Brendan O’Meara

My stock and trade is conversations.

I typically know what I want to coach out of a guest to best celebrate her work while also providing the most possible value for the listener.

But what’s the map?

Sure, the interstate system of highways is straight, efficient, and fast. You can drive 90 miles per hour in Montana.

But what if you take the back roads? The scenic route? Well, now you’re getting into the weeds, the great details, the scenery is richer. You’re going slower so you can take more in. I guess you can say it’s speed dating vs. that rich first date.

You still need to get somewhere, but one is far more revealing and less superficial. Depending on your goal and the time you have, consider the back roads.

Writing prompt: How can you turn more conversations from interstates to back roads?

Episode 237: A Fiction/Non/Fiction Festival with V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell

Become a Patron!

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.

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