Kim H. Cross – Home of The Creative Nonfiction Podcast

Episode 388: Agency, Empathy, and the Ethics of Writing True Crime with Kim H. Cross

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By Brendan O’Meara

Kim H. Cross — the H stands for hell raiser … that’s not true, I don’t know what the H stands for — is back on the podcast to talk about her new book In Light of All Darkness: Inside the Polly Klaas Kidnapping and the Search for AMerica’s Child. It’s published by Grand Central Publishing.

Kim does not identify as a true crime writer, nor is it a sub genre of journalism that she ever wants to do again, but, as Kim says, this story found her and she set out to write the book of record on this Polly Klaas kidnapping from the earlyl 1990s.

So in this episode we talk about how she navigated having a family member at the heart of the investigating (her father in law) as well as:

Episode 338: Remembering Matt Tullis

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By Brendan O’Meara

Matt Tullis, a survivor of childhood cancer, a professor, a writer, an author, a podcaster, passed away following complications from surgery.

If you want to help the Tullis family, here is a link to their gofundme page.

He was the author of Running with Ghosts, a memoir of his experience surviving cancer. It’s a wonderful book.

And it’s a tragic loss not only to his family, but also the nonfiction community. A tumor had surfaced, no doubt a result of the treatment he endured as a teenager.

Episode 330: Kim H. Cross

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By Brendan O’Meara

Ever have one of those friends who bails you out of jail? Me neither, but Kim H. Cross came pretty damn close because at the last minute she was willing to fire up the mics and head on down to CNF Pod’s digital HQ for her second time back to the show.

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Kim is the author of What Stands in a Storm and The Stahl House. Her work has been anthologized by Best American Sports Writing (RIP) and Year’s Best Sports Writer (the phoenix!). Something about Kim: few people are more passionate about telling true stories than she is.

In this episode we talk about:

Episode 284: Kim H. Cross on Scenes, Structure, and The Stahl House

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By Brendan O’Meara

Kim H. Cross is a freelance journalist, author, teacher, and mountain bike coach. Her latest book is The Stahl House: Case Study House #22: The Making of a Modernist Icon (Chronicle Chroma).

It’s the biography of a house and, in Kim’s words, the story of a blue-collar couple with white-collar dreams.

Kim also is the author of the best-selling What Stands in a Storm, and her work has appeared in The Year’s Best Sports Writing 2021, and myriad other places. Her piece for Bicycle Magazine about Leon + Noel (notice the palindrome, that’s significant. For analysis by Eva Holland of go here and for analysis of her 900-story for the New York Times by Chip Scanlan (a dream come true), go here.)

[SIDEBAR: In the introduction to the podcast I said that Chip analyzed her Bicycle Magazine piece. My bad.]