essays – Page 2 – Home of The Creative Nonfiction Podcast

Call for submissions: Heroes CLOSED TO SUBMISSIONS

It’s that time!

For Issue 3 of the audio magazine, the theme is HEROES. Hero worship. Hero sandwiches. Fallen idols. Should you meet your heroes? Superheroes. Is Batman a superhero? HEROES!

I want your best essays on heroes. Essays are meant to be read aloud and should be no longer than 2,000 words.

Email with HERO in the subject line your best essay to creativenonfictionpodcast at gmail dot com.

Deadline is Nov. 1, 2021! DEADLINE IS DECEMBER 31, 2021

This issue, like Issue 2, is available to members of the Patreon community. This is what allows me to pay writers for their work should I accept their essays.

If you like what we’re doing with the interview product, as well as the audio magazine, then please become a member. Check it out: patreon.com/cnfpod.

Episode 256: G’Ra Asim and His Mixtape to His Brother ‘Boyz in the Void’

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By Brendan O’Meara

G’Ra Asim is the author of Boyz in the Void: A mixtape to my brother (Beacon Press). He’s @notjadedpunk on Instagram.

He’s a punk rocker and a killer spinner of yarns. It’s a fantastic book on “navigating Blackness, masculinity, and young adulthood: all through wry social commentary and a music/pop culture critique.

We talk a lot about the DIY nature of art, punk rock, straight-edge culture and why he chose to write this book to his younger brother.

Strap in for a fun one, CNFers.

Episode 254: Elena Passarello on Weird Freelance Work, Podcasting, and Oatmeal Brain

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By Brendan O’Meara

A great pleasure to welcome back Elena Passarello to the show to talk about … jeez … just about everything.

This was very much a shoot-the-shizz pod, but when it comes to Elena, there are few people you’d rather be listening to. So if you dug episodes with Bronwen Dickey and Peter Brown Hoffmeister, you’re in the right place, CNFers!

Episode 241: Carolyn Holbrook and the Indispensable Nature of Writing and Teaching

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By Brendan O’Meara

“I do a lot of encouraging people to journal and to just write it out, sing it out, dance it out, whatever you need to do,” says Carolyn Holbrook, author of Tell Me Your Names and I Will Testify: Essays (University of Minnesota Press).

Audio Magazine Issue No. 1: Isolation

By Brendan O’Meara

Become a Patron!

It’s been a long time coming, but, at long last, here is the inaugural Creative Nonfiction Podcast Audio Magazine!

The essays take you to edges of isolation and what that means to these five brilliant contributors.

I’m very proud of this, and I’m thrilled to keep improving the product and developing it.

As you know, this is the show where I usually speak to badass writers about the art and craft of telling true stories. So it’s my esteemed pleasure to bring you true stories on the feed.

Now, this inaugural issue will forever be free for all, but subsequent issues will only be available for members in the Patreon community. The first tier grants you exclusive access to the 2021 audio mag, which I hope will publish around June/July. The new theme and submission guidelines are at the end of this audio mag. Very exciting!

You’ll want to keep the conversation going on social media @CNFPod and let me know what you think of this exciting enterprise.

Episode 220: The ‘Unreality’ of Elisa Gabbert

By Brendan O’Meara

Elisa Gabbert is back, baby.

She’s got a new book out called The Unreality of Memory (FSG, 2020). It’s a killer collection of disaster essays and what we’ve come to expect from Elisa, which is to say deeply intellectual, observant, incredibly researched with just a dash of the personal.

As always, be sure you’re subscribed to this podcast wherever you listen and consider leaving a kind review on Apple Podcasts.

Keep the conversation going on social media @CNFPod across the big three. I’ll be emerging from my social media detox soon since I finished the latest draft of my memoirvel.

If you have questions or just want to say hello to the show, click on the appropriate button, leave a message, and I’ll be sure to address the best questions I get. Don’t be shy 🙂

I brought back the Bookshelf for the Apocalypse, a CNF Pod deep cut of how I’d ask guests what books were so important to them that they’d pack them in their survival pack for the end of the world. You have that to look forward to towards the end of the show. Enjoy, friend.

Elisa’s Bookshelf for the Apocalypse

Moby Dick
Howards End
Collection of John Ashbery’s work
Collection of Susan Sontag’s early work
The Journals of Sylvia Plath

Other Books by Elisa Gabbert

The Word Pretty
The Self Unstable
L’He u re Bleue, or the Judy Poems

CNFin Monthly Newsletter!

Episode 213: Tornados, BDSM Potlucks? Welcome to Tomboyland with Melissa Faliveno

Melissa Faliveno. Photo Credit: Maggie Walsh

By Brendan O’Meara

Stepping up to the plate this week is Melissa Faliveno (@melissafaliveno), author of Tomboyland, a collection of essays published by Topple Books.

It’s a love letter to her midwest roots and the topics are so wide ranging, yet have this connective tissue that once you’re in the thick of reading it you like “How the fuck did she do this?”

Seriously.

In this episode we talk about how she finds the groove, her workspace, the books she keeps on her desk, softball, BDSM, and F5 tornados.

Keep the conversation going on social media @CNFPod across them all. If you feeling kind, link up to the show and consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. A complimentary editing consult awaits you: Just screenshot your review, email it to the show, and I’ll reach back out.

You’ll also want to subscribe to my monthly newsletter that goes on the first of the month. Book recommendations, cool articles, podcasts, and what you might have missed from the world of this podcast. First of the month. No spam. Can’t beat it.

Melissa’s work has appeared in Bitch magazine, the Millions, Prairie Schooner, Isthmus, DIAGRAM, Midwestern Gothic, and Green Mountains Review. She’s a Best American Essays notable writer as well.

Please enjoy this conversation, friend.

Episode 202: Ruby McConnell — … And Nothing but The ‘Ground Truth’

By Brendan O’Meara

Ruby McConnell is here.

She’s @rubygonewild across the socials. She and I jam a bit on Twitter, so I’ll link up to that. Here.

Ruby’s got a new book out: Ground Truth: A Geological Survey of a Life (Overcup Press, 2020).

It’s a damn good book and I’ll take you to the woodshed if you think otherwise.

Sorry.

Feeling aggressive.

Ruby is also the author of A Woman’s Guide to the Wild.

We had a pretty rad conversation where we talk about how dance taught her the discipline it takes to be a writer and how geology is a, perhaps, the most writerly science. She’s a native Oregonian and a fellow Eugenian and, I don’t know, I had about as good a time as I’ve ever had on this show with Ruby.

Be sure you’re subscribed to the show wherever you get your pods and if you’re feeling kind, leave a nice review on Apple Podcasts. They’ve stalled and it’d be nice to crest that 100-rating threshold.

Keep the conversation going on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, all @CNFPod. And if you sign up for the newsletter, you’re automatically — and perpetually — entered in a raffle to win books. I give out reading recommendations and news you might have missed from the world of the podcast. It’s fun. You’ll dig it.

Episode 184: Kristina Gaddy — ‘Flowers in the Gutter’ and Loving What’s Underneath It All

By Brendan O’Meara

Hey, CNFers, Kristina Gaddy (@kgadz) is here to drop some sick riffs on the craft. She’s also here to talk about her new book Flowers in the Gutter: The True Story of the Teenagers Who Fought the Nazis. I know, right? So selfish.

This was a fun one as we dig into her reading habits, her writing routine, her obsession with that writing software, and her passion for research.

Be sure to sign up for my monthly newsletter, up there, down there, pop up.

What else? You can join the show on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

Hey, there’s a services tab up there, but you can go there now. I’d be honored to help you with your work. It’s time to level up you work and I want to help.

Episode 183: Sonia Hamer — Crock-Pot Prose

By Brendan O’Meara

Sonia Hamer is here to talk about her essay “Pig: An Essay,” an installment of Creative Nonfiction’s True Story.

This is a nice tight 30, which I’m starting to like more and more.

She talks about how writing essays is a lot like putting ingredients into a Crock-Pot, or making a soup. Reminds me of Adam Valen Levinson when he came by.

I hope you enjoy this final episode of 2019.

Brendan’s Monthly Newsletter: First of the month! No spam! Can’t beat it!

Elisa’s Bookshelf for the Apocalypse

Other Books by Elisa Gabbert

CNFin Monthly Newsletter!

Brendan’s Monthly Newsletter: First of the month! No spam! Can’t beat it!

First of the month. No spam. Can’t beat it!

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

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

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