Tag: writing community

Episode 221: Power Couple Ashley Molesso and Chess Needham Bring You ‘The Gay Agenda’

Ashley Molesso and Chess Needham

By Brendan O’Meara

Ashley Molesso and Chess Needham are the creative, queer and trans power couple behind the incredible and beautiful book The Gay Agenda: A Modern Queer History and Handbook (Morrow Gift, 2020).

You can follow them and their stationery story at ashandchess.com and follow them on Instagram @ashandchess.

We dig into where they grew up, how they met, the “so 2018” way their book came to be, and much, much more.

Keep the conversation going on social @CNFPod and consider sharing the show across your networks. If you tag the show, I’ll be sure to give you some love, most likely in the form of a James Hetfield GIF. Also consider leaving a kind review on Apple Podcasts. It would give me and the show a great boost.

Ash and Chess’s Bookshelf for the Apocalypse*

Amateur: A Reckoning with Gender, Identity, and Masculinity by Thomas Page McBee
The Twits by Roald Dahl
The Hike by Drew Magary
Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell
The Fireside Book of Children’s Songs
*: These are not affiliate links. Brendan does not get a commission based on book sales, though he acknowledges this is probably really stupid not to.

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Episode 158: Naomi Gordon-Loebl—F*ck, Yeah! Essays

Naomi Gordon-Loebl

“There’s always gonna be people who are better than you, and there’s also people who’re gonna be worse than you, but that can’t be the reason you write or don’t write.” — Naomi Gordon-Loebl (@naomigloebl)

Hey, CNFers, welcome to this installment featuring Naomi Gordon-Loebl, an essayist and journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Hazlitt, and more.

She grew up in a communal household in Brooklyn, has a twin sister, won the parent lottery, and is finding her footing as a writer passionate about LGBT issues, but it was her NYT essay on getting the “yips” that made me reach out.

Keep the conversation going on Twitter @CNFPod and Instagram @cnfpod. And consider leaving a kind review on Apple Podcasts.

Thanks be to Goucher College’s MFA in Nonfiction and Bay Path University’s MFA in Creative Nonfiction for supporting this show.

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Episode 137—Bozos on the Same Bus with Bronwen and Brendan

Bronwen Dickey, author of Pit Bull: The Battle Over an American Icon, came by for the third time.

By Brendan O’Meara

“Clarity is the goal I want to be working toward. The more clear a piece of writing is, the more honest it feels.” —Bronwen Dickey (@BronwenDickey)

Ever feel like a garden gnome without a garden? That’s why I started this racket in 2013. This is the Creative Nonfiction Podcast, the show where I talk to badass writers, filmmakers, and producers about the art and craft of telling true stories.

Today’s guest returns for her third time. It’s Bronwen Dickey, author of Pit Bull: The Battle Over an American Icon. She is LITerally, my best friend even though we’ve never met in person. She was so sweet. She asked about my baseball book as soon as she came on the phone and indulged me for almost seven minutes. So naturally I cut it.

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