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Episode 162: Seyward Darby — Editing as Collaboration at The Atavist

“Let me be your sounding board for how the piece should come together.” — Seyward Darby (@seywarddarby)

“Writing reminds you what it’s like to stare at a blank page and how hard it is to create a first draft,” Seyward Darby said on Episode 162 of the podcast.

She’s the executive editor of The Atavist Magazine, an online jam that produces one longform feature a month. It’s awesome. It’s on my bucket list as a place to have work published.

So many great nuggets in this episode specifically about pitching/querying. It’s another master class in what she finds strong. See episodes with Evan Ratliff and Ian Frisch. You gotta have a good fastball, baby.

Subscribe to the show wherever you get your pods. Spot. App. Goog. Stitch. We like one syllable.

Keep the conversation going on Twitter @CNFPod. Instagram is @cnfpod and Facebook is @CNFPodcast or The Creative Nonfiction Podcast. Go jump in. It’s fun. The water’s refreshing.

Share this with a fellow CNFer and link up to it on your preferred social network.

Enjoy the show!

Episode 161: Mark Kram Jr.—Letting the Dust Clear, Being a Late Bloomer, and Smokin’ Joe

“This is not something that comes overnight. It’s a long, arduous road,” says Mark Kram Jr.

Mark Kram Jr., author of Smokin’ Joe: The Life of Joe Frazier, joined me for a great conversation about his early career and the struggles he overcame.

He learned on the job, more or less. He said he was a late bloomer (Something I can attest to. Still waitin’ on my bloom.)

He also wrote Like Any Normal Day, and edited a book of his father’s best writing Great Men Die Twice.

Mark has won the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing and has been anthologized The Best American Sports Writing six times.

As always, if you dig the show, please share this across your social networks. Tag the show @CNFPod on Twitter and I’ll jump in the fire with you. You can subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts.

Episode 160: Chuck Klosterman — ‘Raised in Captivity,’ Being Straightforward, and How Nonfiction is Closer to Bowling

Chuck Klosterman. Photo credit Jason Booher

“I think that very often when anybody is writing a book, they lose track of the fact that the book can be whatever you want.” —Chuck Klosterman

“Nonfiction is closer to bowling. It can be perfect.” —Chuck Klosterman

Hey, CNFers, look who came over to CNF Pod HQ! It’s Chuck Klosterman, one my favorite authors for how he’s able to turn a phrase, dollop profanity, and be the mind I wish I had.

Chuck’s latest book is Raised in Captivity: Fictional Nonfiction, and we take a dive into what makes this collection of short stories — his first collection of short stories of his eleven books.

Keep the conversation going on Twitter @CNFPod. Let me know what you think. Tweet out what you love. I’ll tweet back horns and skulls.

I hope you have as much fun listening to this as I did conducting the interview and later editing it for production.

Episode 159: Allie Rowbottom—The Page as Safe Place

By Brendan O’Meara

“Talent is not enough. You have to have luck. You have to have drive.” —Allie Rowbottom (@allierowbottom)

In this 159th episode of CNF, I welcome Allie Rowbottom, author of Jell-O Girls: A Family History.

We had a nice time talking about journaling, competition, jealousy, and finding the page as a safe place.

As always, keep the conversation going on Twitter @CNFPod and let me know what you thought of this episode. Share it across your social media profiles and me sure to tag the show so I can jump in the fire with you.

If you’re feeling kind, take a less than five minutes and leave a kind review or rating on Apple Podcasts. With your help, we can reach 100 of them.

Enjoy the show!

Episode 157: Eric Ducker—’I Want This Weirder’

Want the transcript of Eric’s episode? PayPal $5 to brendan at brendanomeara dot com and I’ll send you the pdf!

“I want to hear more of you in this. I want this weirder. Let loose.” —Eric Ducker (@ericducker)

By Brendan O’Meara

Hey, CNFers! So Eric Ducker is here. He’s a freelance editor and writer. When he wrote this great piece on Jenny Odell, I reached out to him.

We talk about how important music is to him and the shape of his weeks when he’s pitching vs. when he’s writing. Be sure to check out his work at his Contently site.

Subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts. Consider leaving a kind review on Apple Podcasts. If you do, I’ll coach up a piece of your writing up to 2,000 words. Leave a review, wait for it to publish, take a screenshot, send it to me, then I’ll reach back out!

Keep the conversation going on Twitter @CNFPod and Instagram @cnfpod. Facebook is @CNFPodcast. What fun!

Episode 155: T.D. Thornton—Horses, Cons, Boxers, Oh, My!

“You can persevere and you can grind, but you have to get lucky at times.” —T.D. Thornton (@thorntontd on Twitter)

“You have to churn out some bad writing to get to good or excellent writing.” —T.D. Thornton

By Brendan O’Meara

T.D. Thornton is a journalist and author.

He wrote Not By a Long Shot: A Season at a Hard-Luck Horse Track and My Adventures with Your Money: George Graham Rice and the Golden Age of the Con Artist.

Consider buying one, or both.

This was a fun conversation and I hope you dig it, and I hope you share it across your networks. Maybe encourage your pals to subscribe.

Join me on Twitter @CNFPod and Instagram @cnfpod to keep the conversation going.

Episode 152: Philip Gerard—Fiction, Nonfiction, and the Writer’s Magical Combination

Philip Gerard returns to the show to talk about his latest book The Last Battleground.
Photo credit Alan Cradick

“For a writer, ignorance and curiosity are a magical combination.” —Philip Gerard

“I always tell my students if you can’t find it, you don’t have it.” —Philip Gerard

By Brendan O’Meara

Hey, CNFers, I’m thrilled to welcome back Philip Gerard. Philip joined me nearly 120 episodes ago and it’s great to have him back to talk about his latest book The Last Battleground: The Civil War Comes to North Carolina (University of North Carolina Press, 2019).

His historical novel, Cape Fear Rising, is celebrating its 25th anniversary, so we dive into that as well. It is published by Blair.

Philip is also an accomplished musician and recorded this song and video as a trailer for The Last Battleground. Check it out:

Be sure to subscribe to show, CNFers, on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. I make this show for you, so I’d deeply appreciate it if you shared it across your social channels. If you have a spare moment, leaving a rating or review helps with the show’s packaging. Helps validate the entire enterprise.

You can join me on Twitter @BrendanOMeara and @CNFPod, Instagram @cnfpod, and Facebook @CNFPodcast. If you tag me or the show I’ll be able to give you digital fist bumps.

Books by Philip Gerard

Too many to list! So visit this link to browse.

Episode 150: Ian Frisch—A Good Idea Knows No Age

Ian Frisch, author of Magic is Dead, hopped on the show.

By Brendan O’Meara

Quotables by Ian Frisch (@IanFrisch and @Ian_Frisch)

“That’s what makes a great story is having character, and setting, and narrative moments and dynamic change.”

“I’m not really just there for the information. I want to be able to understand a character and their motivations and their experience on a deeper level.”

“A good idea knows no experiences level or age.”

Well, here are CNFers, this is CNF, the creative nonfiction podcast where I speak to badass artists about the craft of telling true stories.

Ian Frisch, a master a freelancer and author of Magic is Dead, joins me this glorious CNFriday.

There’s so much great freelancer wisdom in this episode. I know your’e gonna dig it.

Ian mentions how great Patrick Radden Keefe’s Say Nothing and David Grann’s The White Darkness are. Not to mention Bill Buford’s great New Yorker piece on chocolate.

Ian is a prolific writer and his work can be seen here, so I hope you’ll check out his work. It’s an impressive collection.

Be sure to keep the conversation going on Twitter @BrendanOMeara and @CNFPod. You can always follow along on Instagram @cnfpod and on Facebook on the podcast’s page.

Enjoy the show!

Episode 149: Anika Fajardo—Writing is About Communicating

Anika Fajardo, author of Magical Realism for Nonbelievers, stopped by CNF.

“Part of me thinks nobody should write a memoir.” —Anika Fajardo (@anikawriter on Twitter)

“Writing is about communicating, so that’s why we have to send things out. There needs to be a point where it goes out in the world and we communicate with a reader.” —Anika Fajardo (@anikawriter on IG)

By Brendan O’Meara

Here we are again friend. I’m in the midst of rebranding so you’re listening to CNF, the show where I talk to badass writers, filmmakers, producers, and podcasters about the art and craft of creative nonfiction.

Today’s guest is Anika Fajardo, the author of Magical Realism for Nonbelievers: A Memoir of Finding Family (University of Minnesota Press, 2019).

It’s in the same class as Jean Guerrero’s Crux, in my opinion. You can check out Jean’s episode here.

In any case, I hope decide to subscribe to CNF wherever you get your podcasts. And if you’d be so kind, I’d appreciate a rating or review over on Apple Podcasts. They help validate the show.

Also, keep the conversation going on Twitter by joining me @BrendanOMeara and @CNFPod. Tag the show and I’ll jump in the fire. It’s all good.

I think you’ll get a lot of tasty nuggets out of this episode. I hope you enjoy it and you share it widely with your CNFin’ friends!

Episode 145—Investigative Reporter Scott Eden Talks Structure, Sprawl, and Picking Up the Phone

Scott Eden , investigative reporter for ESPN the Magazine.

By Brendan O’Meara

“The structure should grow organically from the material.”

“At what point are you taxing the reader, knowing when the reader has had enough.”

“I hated [calling people] at first, just terrified of calling people., but I’ve gotten over it. It took years.” —Scott Eden

Here we are again. Today I welcome Scott Eden, an investigative reporter for ESPN the Magazine. His piece on maligned former NBA referee Tim Donaghy was a piece two years in the making and came out in February.

As you may or may not know, this is The Creative Nonfiction Podcast, the show where I speak to badass writers about the art and craft of telling true stories.

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!: Once a Month. No Spam. Can’t Beat It.

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!: Once a Month. No Spam. Can’t Beat It.

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!: Once a Month. No Spam. Can’t Beat It.

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!: Once a Month. No Spam. Can’t Beat It.

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!: Once a Month. No Spam. Can’t Beat It.

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!: Once a Month. No Spam. Can’t Beat It.

Books by Philip Gerard

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!: Once a Month. No Spam. Can’t Beat It.

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!: Once a Month. No Spam. Can’t Beat It.