Home of The Creative Nonfiction Podcast

By Brendan O’Meara

This was a fun one. Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling came to play ball, CNFers and I think he’s really going to show you a thing or two.

While working menial jobs, he started writing stories for local papers for $30 and from there slowly leveled up, always pitching, always pitching, until he had stories in The Atavist, The Seattle Times, Weather.com, USA TODAY, and, at last, his incredible book A Libertarian Walks into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears).

You can find him at his website and on Twitter @hh_matt.

I love how Matt talks about his “brute-force method” of pitching, which is what it sounds like: pitch until your arm hangs off, deal with a low batting average, and eventually things will stick.

I think you’re going to dig this conversation a lot and if you do, know that the podcast is fueled by five-star reviews on Apple Podcasts. It’s true.

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By Brendan O’Meara

What a treat to welcome back Mary Pilon and Louisa Thomas to the podcast.

Both are brilliant writers and reporters, bestselling authors, Best American Sports Writing alums, you name it. They’re here to talk about the book they co-edited called Losers: Dispatches from the Other Side of the Scoreboard (Penguin).

The conversation starts out with Mary and me and then Louisa jumps in about halfway through.

So many great insights in what it means and what it reveals to be a loser. Mary and Louisa say they are “seasoned losers,” so we dive into that a bit.

Mary is the author of The Monopolists and The Kevin Show.

Louisa is the author of Conscience, Louisa: The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams, and Mind and Matter.

Let me know what you think about this episode and what struck you about their brilliant insights into writing and losing. Keep the conversation going on social media @CNFPod, though I’m detoxing until I finish my book, so if I don’t give you digital fist bumps or a James Hetfield gif, that’s why.

Be sure you’re subscribed to the podcast and to my monthly CNFin’ newsletter. And if you want to leave a question for the show, click the appropriate button on the little voicemail widget and I’ll answer it on the show. Ya dig?

By Brendan O’Meara

Hey, CNFers, guess who’s here? Lidia Yuknavitch! She’s @LidiaYuknavitch on Twitter and @lidiasmiles on Instagram.

She’s the author of Scribd original “Letter to My Rage,” as well as the critically acclaimed memoir The Chronology of Water.

She also had a wildly popular TED Talk that I’ve seen a few times and love it every time. Check it:

Lidia doesn’t get much cooler and you’re going to love her approach to being useful, how the energy to write builds like a wave — and not the way you’re thinking about a wave right now, shouldering the door open and the “hotness” of the woman-writer-titans that cracked the world open for her.

Please consider sharing this episode in some for with your networks. You can tag the show @CNFPod across all the big platforms. Be forewarned, I’m in social media detox until I finish my book, so if I don’t you give you love, I’m not being a dick, I swear.

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By Brendan O’Meara

This episode was made possible by Scrivener, by writers, for writers, and if you enter the promo coupon NONFICTION at checkout, you get 20% regular versions of Scrivener for macOS and Windows.

Hey there, CNFer, let’s come right out and say it: no interview this week.

I know, I know.

No worries, it’s fine, it’s all good. I put all my research and reading eggs into one basket for an interview that’s embargoed until November. So I decided to put together an all-star team of the ten most downloaded episodes (actually 11 since there was a tie).

And as a bonus, I read a work-in-progress, a little essay called “Raph, the Space Cadet.” It’s one in a series of essays I’m writing about middle school.

I hope you dig it. It helps to show you I’m in the mud, too, right?

By Brendan O’Meara

Jean Guerrero (@jeanguerre) makes her return to the podcast to talk about her new book Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda (William Morrow, 2020).

She told me:

It’s a whole new world. I remember I was reporting for the Stephen Miller book, I went to Trump’s first reelection rally in Orlando. And it was the first time that I had ever been in a place where I felt reluctant and kind of scared to tell people that I was a journalist. I wasn’t there undercover. I was there to interview people. It made me nervous to be walking around with my notebook out because there were so many chants against journalists.

In this episode we talk about networking as community, or community as networking, blasting through this book in six months, and getting to the bottom of Stephen Miller (Hint: There isn’t much depth.).

Jean was also on the show about two years ago, so you’ll want to check that out.

Keep the conversation going on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @CNFPod. Easy as pie. Mmmmm, pie.

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By Brendan O’Meara

Seyward Darby is here to talk about her book Sisters in Hate: American Women on the Front Lines of White Nationalism.

It’s a great book, tightly told.

Seyward talks about how editing The Atavist Magazine has made her a better writer, how she was able to write this book while holding down her full-time job, and three core tenets of why people get drawn into the vitriole of white nationalism.

Email the show with any questions you might want answered or to say hello.

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And, please, enjoy the show.