Episode 281: Susan Orlean Tackles Ledes, Generating Story Ideas, and ‘On Animals’

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By Brendan O’Meara

Susan Orlean makes her third trip back to the podcast (Ep. 61 and 121), this time to celebrate her latest book, a collection of her magazine work on animals titled … On Animals.

She’s the best selling author The Library Book, Rin Tin Tin, and The Orchid Thief. She’s been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1990s and, as many of you know, seeing a Susan Orlean byline is something like appointment reading. It’s special.

In this episode, we talk about:

  • The differences between writing a book and curating a collection
  • Reading past work
  • Generating story ideas and selling the idea to the editor
  • The importance of ledes
  • And Susan’s great work and home recommendation at the end of the show

The show has a new Instagram handle, @creativenonfictionpodcast, and you can always keep the conversation going on Twitter @CNFPod.

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