Look who’s back! It’s Erica J. Berry (@ericajberry) and she’s here to talk about Wolfish: Wolf, Self, and the Stories We Tell About Fear (Flatiron Books).
Erica came on the show back in 2017 (I shudder to think of the audio) and it’s worth revisiting, and it’s nice that nearly six years later her work has evolved so greatly that we now get to talk about her magnificent book.
In this episode, we talk about:
Continue reading “Episode 358: Erica J. Berry”
Siku Allooloo (@discobou) puts the “multi” in multi-hyphenate. She’s a writer, a poet, a filmmaker. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, Briarpatch Magazine, and Canadian Art Magazine, among others.
In this episode, we talk about the essay “Caribou People,” which appeared in the collection Shapes of Native Nonfiction (University of Washington). We also talk about “Living Death,” which won a creative nonfiction prize for Briarpatch Magazine.
These essays rhyme in dealing with patching together ancestral holes and colonial trauma. This is a very illuminating conversation from a great thinker.
Continue reading “Episode 356: Siku Allooloo”
Are you holding onto a railing? OK, good, Isaac Fitzgerald (@IsaacFitzgerald) is here, CNFers! He’s the author of the incredible memoir-in-essays Dirtbag, Massachusetts: A Confessional (Bloomsbury).
Isaac is a frequent contributor on The Today Show, offering book recommendations to the masses. His CV has The Rumpus, McSweeney’s, BuzzFeed Books, among others. He’s also the author of How to be a Pirate, Pen and Ink, and Knives and Ink.
Continue reading “Episode 353: Isaac Fitzgerald”Become a Patron!View on Zencastr
Blink and you might miss Lauren Fleshman (@laurenfleshman). She’s a champion runner and the author of Good for a Girl: A Woman Running in a Man’s World (Penguin Press).
Her new book explores how broken our athletics systems are as they relate to women. By overlaying the female experience over the man’s construct (speak nothing of trans athletes, which is whole other ball of wax for another day), Lauren unpacks what a disservice that is for young women.
Lauren can officially boast that her book is a New York Times best seller, which is pretty bad ass. She wrote the book herself without a ghost writer, so, mad props. And in this episode we talk about:
Continue reading “Episode 352: Lauren Fleshman”Become a Patron!
By Brendan O’Meara
You’re in for a treat because Damon Brown is back on the show!
Damon’s laundry list of accolades and books and projects is too long to type. Too long, CNFers. But! He’s awfully proud (and he should be!) of his YouTube show Bring Your Worth. He’s got 300 episodes and counting.
Damon’s also the author of Career Remix: Get the Gig You Want with the Skills You’ve Got.
Continue reading “Episode 350: Damon Brown”
That took a long time, didn’t it? At long last, Issue 3 of the audio magazine is here on the theme HEROES!
Big ups to our contributors who made the issue to those who submitted who didn’t make it into the final product.
Here’s a little bit of information from each of the writers:
Continue reading “Audio Magazine Issue 3: Heroes”
It’s been a long time since we featured a writer from the Pipe Wrench Magazine roster, so it was it nice to welcome Emily Fox Kaplan to CNF Pod HQ to talk about her piece “Searching for Zarahemla.”
It’s a trippy travel piece that has a very David Foster Wallace vibe to it, though Emily hasn’t read any DFW. Just as well. Far be it from me to be a the bro to say, ‘You gotta read him.’
But read his tennis writing …
Continue reading “Episode 347: Emily Fox Kaplan”
By Brendan O’Meara
Rachel Dickison is here to talk about her new book The Loneliest Places: Loss, Grief, and the Long Journey Home. It’s is published by Three Hills Press.
No way to sugar coat what this book deals with: Rachel’s son Jack died by suicide in 2012. He was 17. And this book stays within the boundaries of Rachel’s experience, her headspace, her grief.
Yes, her three daughters and her husband were deeply affected by this tragedy, but you won’t hear from them much, not really until the end of the book where Rachel interrogates her selfishness and withdrawal and, in some cases, abandonment. It would be easy to judge Rachel in this book, even her editor wondered how “likeable” she was as a character and that speaks to how honest Rachel was about her processing of this unthinkable experience.
This is something I’ve never done before, but I think it should be brought up, as I have heard other podcasts do this. If you or someone you know is dealing with suicidal thoughts and may harm themselves, call or text 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988. This will route people to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline where they can speak with a trained counselor.
Continue reading “Episode 344: Rachel Dickinson”
By Brendan O’Meara
Man, we lost another wonderful, brilliant, generous member of the writing community, CNFers. Philip Gerard passed away earlier this week.
A few weeks ago we lost Matt Tullis, a wonderful writer of narrative nonfiction, and a teacher of longform journalism. When he was working on what would become his memoir Running with Ghosts, he attended an MFA program out of Wilmington, NC, spearheaded by Philip Gerard.
Phil was someone who had always been one of those dudes I could call on if I had a question on writing, dating all the way back to 2008 when I wrapped up my MFA, right through 2017 and 2019 when he was one of the best guests on this very podcast. I never had him as a mentor in grad school, but he was always someone whose brain I liked picking. He never discounted you on wisdom and encouragement.
Continue reading “Episode 342: Remembering Philip Gerard”
Isidra Mencos (@isidramencos) lived in Spain during an incredible inflection point. Franco died and along with him his authoritarian regime. It gave way to democracy. It gave way to personal freedom, sexual freedom, bodily freedom. And that’s where Promenade of Desire takes off.
Isidra’s book deals with intimacy, or a lack thereof; of being invisible in a big family and finding visibility through love and salsa dancing.
Continue reading “Episode 341: Isidra Mencos”