Biography – Page 2 – Home of The Creative Nonfiction Podcast

Episode 191: Alexander Norman on the Journey of Finding Voice, Ghostwriting, and the Dalai Lama

By Brendan O’Meara

Alexander Norman is here to talk about his book The Dalai Lama: An Extraordinary Life (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020).

In this conversation we talk about the challenge of finding a voice, how even after 30 years, Alexander is still trying to find it.

And, you know, the Dalai Lama.

We talk about how his time as an army officer influenced his writing, how to surrender to the story, and how he came to know the Dalai Lama.

I hope you’ll subscribe to the show if you already don’t. I do my best to make the best show for you. If you dig the show, consider leaving a kind review on Apple Podcasts. I’ll read it on the air as a way of saying thank you.

You can follow the show’s various social media channels. @CNFPod on IG, Twitter, and Facebook. Always nice to connect.

That reminds me. We all need editors. We all need editing. We all need accountability. If you’ve got an essay or a book that needs coaching I’d be honored and thrilled to serve you and your work. Email me brendan @ brendanomeara.com and let’s start a conversation because the world needs your work. We need you to show up and I want to help.

Books by Alexander

The Secret Lives of the Dalai Lama

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 114—Matthew Polly on Bruce Lee, Shaolin Temples, and Video Games

Portrait of Matthew Polly, writer and author of “Bruce Lee: A Life” ©JUSTIN GUARIGLIA, WWW.EIGHTFISH.COM

By Brendan O’Meara

“The great thing is if you find the right story it often is more interesting than fiction because it’s weird and quirky.” —Matthew Polly (@MatthewEPolly)

This is The Creative Nonfiction Podcast, the show where I speak to the best in narrative journalism, doc film, radio, podcasting, essay, and memoir about the art and craft of telling true stories.

Today’s guest is Matthew Polly. He’s the author of three books of nonfiction, most recently Bruce Lee: A Life. He’s a graduate of Princeton and a Rhodes Scholar, so you can say my 1050 SAT score didn’t exactly level me up any in this conversation.

Episode 88—Rachel Corbett says, “Stop Trying So Hard”

By Brendan O’Meara

Tweetables from Rachel Corbett (@RachelNCorbett):

“There is some advantage to saying nothing and letting people go on forever.”

“It’s usually when you stop trying so hard that you something happens.”

“You have to go away for a few days and then come back and look at it fresh and see what’s magical about the information.”

Hey, there CNF-buddys, I’m comin’ at you live from my shiny new digs. New house up in Eugene and I’ve got a nice little office I can call my own. There’s no foam on the walls yet, so please pardon the audio, but we’re making strides to be the best.

Part of that is me shutting the front door and getting the hell out of the way. I still haven’t quite figured out a way to completely edit myself out of these interviews. But I’m working on it.

Don’t worry…

…

Rachel Corbett joins me this week for Episode 88 of The Creative Nonfiction Podcast, the show where I speak with the best artists about creating works of nonfiction, leaders in the world of narrative journalism (like Bronwen Dickey here and here), essay, memoir, radio, and documentary film where I try and tease out origins, habits, routines, mentors, key influences, so you can apply some of their tools of mastery to your own work.

Rachel is a freelance journalist whose work appears in a few rags you might have heard of: The New Yorker, the New York Times, etc. She’s also the author of You Must Change Your Life, The Story of Rainer Maria Rilke and Auguste Rodin.

Rachel hits on some key points about:

Carving out your own niche
How things come easier when you stop trying so hard
Listening vs. talking
Getting away from the work so you can come back refreshed
And the power of being dumb and defeated (some of us were born this way)

So…you dig the show? I ask that you leave an honest rating (10 seconds) or a review (<60 seconds).

A review = an editorial consult/coach sesh of up to 2,000 words

An @CNFPod transcript of you choice.

Merely show me evidence (a screenshot) of your review, and I’ll respond.

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Writers Mentioned

Annie Proulx
Cormac McCarthy
William Gass
Geoff Dyer

#CNF Episode 26: Kevin Robbins Talks Harvey Penick and the Sacrifice of Writing a Book

Written by Brendan O’Meara

Sorry of the long delay in episodes, but the misses and I are moving to Eugene, OR very soon. I’m hustling to sell our belongings because all we’re taking is a Honda Accord over the Rockies.

We’re starting fresh.

Naturally, everything has taken a backseat to that.

That said, I finally edited this interview with Kevin Robbins (@kdrobbins on Twitter), author of Harvey Penick: The Life and Wisdom from the Man Who Wrote the Book on Golf.

Enjoy! (Oh, and don’t be shy about subscribing to the podcast and the monthly newsletter!)

Books by Alexander

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

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

Writers Mentioned