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Episode 134—Harrison Scott Key on Finding the Nature of His Talent, Humor, and the Pull to Create

Harrison Scott Key (right) returns to the podcast.

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By Brendan O’Meara

“I always felt this indescribable pull to create something I’m proud of. ‘Look. I made this.'” —Harrison Scott Key (@HarrisonKey)

“A memoir is just a slice.” —Harrison Scott Key

Harrison Scott Key came back to the show to talk about his amazing work. Since that day way back in 2013, Harrison has published his first memoir The World’s Largest Man about his father, which also won the Thurber Prize for the funniest book in the country. And his latest book, Congratulations, Who Are You Again?, Was my single favorite book from 2018.

This one was so funny, inspiring, and entertaining that I took it with me on walks and when I found a crack in my schedule I’d pick this thing up and read a few pages if I could while my boss wasn’t looking.

But we’ll get to that. I guess I forgot to mention that this is The Creative Nonfiction Podcast, the show where I speak to badass writers, filmmakers, and producers about the art and craft of telling true stories. I also unpack their origins and how they approach the work in the face of day jobs and crippling self-doubt. Am I projecting. Perhaps.

Do you subscribe this here podcast? You can find it just about anywhere and if you dig this show and others, link up to it on your social media platforms. You are the social network, CNFers. Rage Against the Algorithm. And if you have a minute or two, please give the show a rating over on Apple Podcasts. Follow the show @CNFPod on Twitter and @BrendanOMeara on Twitter.

What else, oh, yes, subscribe to my monthly newsletter. It’s chock full of my reading recommendations and what you might have missed from the world of the podcast. Once a month. No spam. Can’t beat it.

So Harrison came back to the show and as always I try and cut down these interviews by about 10-15% and I simply couldn’t do that with this one. Couldn’t do it, so I hope you enjoy the big man himself, Harrison Scott Key.

Don’t forget to Rage Against the Algorithm with my monthly up-to-11 newsletter. First of the month. No spam. Can’t beat it.

Consider supporting the show via Patreon patreon.com/cnfpod. Shop around if you want to support the community. I just paid out the writers from the last audio magazine. You make that possible. The show is free but it ain’t cheap.

Free ways to support the show?

Subscribe and download and share across your socials. And don’t forget to consider leaving a kind review on Apple Podcasts. Those go a LONG way.

Stay wild, CNFers!

Episode 132: Laura Hillenbrand on Research Workarounds, Reading Aloud, and Campfire Storytelling

Laura Hillenbrand Photo courtesy of The Daily Beast

By Brendan O’Meara

Tweetables by Laura Hillenbrand (Laura Hillenbrand on Facebook):

“I like to write books that sound like someone telling the story over a campfire.”

“You learn something when you listen to books that way. You start to hear that music of the language.”

“When I experience something interesting, I need to compose it in words.”

Hey, how’s it goin’, friend? I’m Brendan O’Meara and this is my podcast, The Creative Nonfiction Podcast, the show where I speak to badass writers, filmmakers, and producers about the art and craft of telling true stories. This is the last episode of 2018. We’ve averaged one episode a week for an entire year with no break and we’re finishing the year strong.

Episode 128—David Lee Morgan on Positivity, Trust, and Telling the Story Straight

David Lee Morgan, a prolific sports writer, now teaches high school English in his native Ohio.

“Let them tell the story, let them find the story that maybe they didn’t even know was the story.” —David Lee Morgan (@DavidLeeMorgan)

“That’s how I overcome that self doubt. ‘Hey, do you trust yourself? Do you have enough material for people to say he is an expert or he really knows the topic of which he’s writing?’ Then if you do then you just write on.” —David Lee Morgan

If you’re anything like me, and one assumes you are because you find some value in this humble little podcast, you need constant prodding in a sense. That can either be to get your work done or to get your brain in check. I’m one of those dudes who gets pretty down pretty easily, so it helps to have guests on who inspire me.

Enter David Lee Morgan, @davidleemorgan on Twitter.

David was a long time sports writer for the Akron Beacon Journal and most recently he turned his attention to teaching high school English, a move he doesn’t regret in the slightest. For the people who say “If you can’t do teach,” one of the more insulting things you can say to any artist who teaches or teachers who don’t make art, I give you David, who not only is a brilliant writer, but by the very nature of his attitude and approach, makes him that rare teacher that inspires with every lesson.

To be frank, I haven’t been in David’s classroom, but if my 90 minutes with him is any indication of what it’s like to sit at a desk in his class, well, sign me up. I might have done better on the SAT.

Episode 127—Sam Chiarelli ‘Digs’ Deep with Dino Memoir

Sam Chiarelli is the author of the memoir “Dig: A Personal Prehistoric Journey.”

By Brendan O’Meara

Did you know it’s Dinovember? Not die as in death, but dino as in dinosaurs, which is how and why today’s guest is Sam Chiarelli (@DinophileSam on Twitter), author of the memoir Dig: A Personal Prehistoric Journey, published by Hippocampus Books.

Episode 124—Natalie Singer on Finding the Time to Write and Living a Creative Life Around Day Jobs

By Brendan O’Meara

“What I’m doing when I’m not working is thinking.” —Natalie Singer (@Natalie_Writes)

Hey, this is The Creative Nonfiction Podcast, the show where I speak to the best artists about the craft of telling true stories. Today I welcome Natalie Singer, author of California Calling: A Self Interrogation to the show.

We talk about confidence, or the lack thereof, books as mentors, and day jobs and feeling shame for day jobs. I hope to change that perception over the next six million episodes, but shame is real, man, it is real. This brought up the great story about Andre Dubus III and how he wrote his famous book in 17-minute spurts.

Well, are you subscribed to the show? You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and just about anywhere else you get your pods. If you like this episode, tell one friend. Hand the show off like a baton and let them run with it. I’d love to see the show grow. For a small show, we get some big headliners. I’d love to keep that going. The headliners bring more ears so that we little people can get some attention we might not otherwise get. It’s getting there. We march on.

Got a newsletter you should consider subscribing to. I give out reading recommendations, but I’m also thinking of sprinkling in some other cool stuff I’ve stumbled on over the past month in the vein of Austin Kleon’s newsletter. I love his newsletter. I’m gonna Steal Like an Artist. See what I did there?

Okay, this is my conversation with Natalie Singer…

Thanks to our sponsors: Goucher College’s MFA in Creative Nonfiction and Creative Nonfiction Magazine.

So, the show is @CNFPod on Twitter and I’m @BrendanOMeara on Twitter. I don’t know. Following either of those two would be pretty rad. The show is on Facebook too if you’re into that.

You doing the newsletter thing? Subscribe here at the website. And if you like the show, share it with a friend, just one friend. The pod needs to keep on growing. Otherwise, what are we doing? Otherwise people won’t want to come on the show. They’ll be like, you’re not worth my time and I’ll be like, “Man, that hurts, Mom.” So please share it with a friend and subscribe if you haven’t.

Episode 122—Tracy Kidder on Writing Badly and Looking for People Over Subjects

By Brendan O’Meara

“The possibilities of doing something similar [to fiction] in nonfiction really did appeal to me.” —Tracy Kidder

“I don’t look for subjects. I look for people.” —Tracy Kidder

Are you riffin’ kiddin’ me!?

By virtue of today’s guest I’m assuming there might be a new CNFer or two to our little marauding gang of turbulent souls in this corner of the Internet.

Welcome. We play heavy metal music, we kick maximum ass, and we will, we will rock you. This is The Creative Nonfiction Podcast (subscribe!), the show where I speak to bad ass tellers of true stories about where they came from, what and who inspires them, and how they approach the work, so that you can apply those tools of mastery to your own work. I’m your mutha-riffin’ host Brendan O’Meara, hey, hey.

Episode 115—Candice Hare and the Wide World of Horse Racing

By Brendan O’Meara

Today’s guest is Candice Hare (@candicehare_ on Twitter). She’s a broadcaster for TVG, a horse racing channel. As some of you know, my primary field of expertise in the writing world is horse racing, so there’s quite a bit of that here.

But Candice’s story is nice, so even if you don’t dig horse racing, you’ll be able to pull out some cool tidbits from her approach to her own work. Continue reading “Episode 115—Candice Hare and the Wide World of Horse Racing”

Episode 105—From Factories to the Front Pages with Jonathan Green

Jonathan Greens “Sex Money Murder” is out now.

By Brendan O’Meara

Tweetables by Jonathan Green (@JonathanJAGreen):

“It was always the story behind the headlines I found more intriguing.”

This is The Creative Nonfiction Podcast, the show where I speak to the best artists about telling true stories where we dig into origins, work habits and process so you can be a better a better storyteller. Continue reading “Episode 105—From Factories to the Front Pages with Jonathan Green”

Episode 104—Elizabeth Rush Talks “Rising” and What It Means to Be a Woman in the Field

Elizabeth Rush, Brendan O'Meara — Elizabeth Rush returns!

By Brendan O’Meara

Here we are again, welcome to The Creative Nonfiction Podcast, the show where I speak to the best artists about telling true stories. I’m Brendan O’Meara.

I gotta say right up top that there’s been some serious issues with my hosting, Podomatic for those in the know, with the RSS Feeds. Shows are coming up unavailable in Apple Podcasts and it disappeared from Google Play and Stitcher. They say they’re on it, but it’s been three days with no improvement.

You can still stream the episodes from the embedded player on my website, brendanomeara.com, but in the meantime, downloading through the most popular and widely used platform—Apple Podcasts—is impossible until Podomatic gets it fixed. You might say I’ve been shopping around for other options.

Episode 104 brings back Elizabeth Rush to the podcast. Her new book Rising: Dispataches from the New American Shore (Milkweed Editions) is out. She could be coming to a city near you so check the show notes for the Rising Tour. I think that’s what Bruce Springsteen called his tour when his Rising came out. In this episode we talk about:

Rising sea levels
How to turn bleak material into something beautiful
How Elizabeth finds teaching energizing
And sexual harassment while doing fieldwork, something she’s never been asked about and was happy to get to talk about.

So that’s where we’re at. Please bear with me on the RSS nonsense. If you follow the social feeds, that links you up to my website so go find @CNFPod and @BrendanOMeara on Twitter and @CNFPodcast on Facebook. Follow Elizabeth @ElizabethaRush on Twitter for all things Rising.

Here she is: Episode 104.

Promotional support is provided by Hippocampus Magazine. Its 2018 Remember in November Contest for Creative Nonfiction is open for submissions until July 15th! This annual contest has a grand prize of $1,000 and publication for all finalists. That’s awesome. Visit hippocampusmagazine.com for details. Hippocampus Magazine: Memorable Creative Nonfiction.

If you made it this far I suspect you might like the show and want to help it out. Would you mind leaving an honest review on Apple Podcasts? That helps with validation and visibility. Let’s try and get to 100. We’re 57 ratings away at the moment. If a small fraction of you take out your phones, click on the star you deem appropriate, hit submit, that’s all you gotta do and you will have helped out the show in a major way. That takes like 10 seconds, if you want to leave a review, I will still edit a piece of writing up to 2,000 words for your kindness and time. Just send me a screenshot of the review with the date and we’ll get started.

I also have a great monthly reading list newsletter where I send out four book recommendations and what you might have missed from the world of the podcast. I don’t get any kickbacks or anything, so it’s just things I dig and endorse for your pleasure. First of the month. No Spam. Can’t beat that.

That’s it CNFers. See right back here next week.

Episode 99—David Grann on ‘The Killers of the Flower Moon” and Why Every Story is a Struggle

David Grann’s “The Killers of the Flower Moon” is now out in paperback.

By Brendan O’Meara

Tweetables by David Grann (@DavidGrann):

“I think the real trick is telling stories chronologically, letting them unfold as they really happened.”

“I’d rather find the story and excavate it than make it up.”

“I think every story is a struggle and a puzzle.”

It’s The Creative Nonfiction Podcast, the show where I talk to the best artists about telling true stories and tease out origins, tactics, and habits so you can apply those tools of mastery to your own work.

Welcome, CNFers, my CNFbuddies, oh, I’m feelin’ good today and, boy, do I have a treat for you. But first, if you don’t subscribe to the show, go and get it on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, Stitcher, and soon Spotify and join our little tribe in this true story corner of the Internet. Continue reading “Episode 99—David Grann on ‘The Killers of the Flower Moon” and Why Every Story is a Struggle”

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