memoir – Page 12 – Home of The Creative Nonfiction Podcast

Episode 187: Ander Monson — It’s Electric

By Brendan O’Meara

Ander Monson wrote a killer essay for True Story titled “My Monument.” He also edits DIAGRAM and runs a series of essay contests and competitions. He’s what you’d call a great literary citizen.

We talk his essay and a lot of other cool junk.

I love it when I have nearly instant chemistry with someone, and that was certainly the case with Ander. I only wish we had more time!

I love when previous guests pop up in a show, like Elisa Gabbert and Elena Passarello.

If you have any questions or concerns (you might after listening to my intro. Don’t worry. Things are cool. #riesling email the show creativenonfictionpodcast at gmail dot com. You may also find the show on Twitter, IG and Facebook, all @CNFPod.

If this show matters to you, please share with your CNFin’ friends and consider leaving a kind review on Apple Podcasts.

Books by Ander

I Will Take the Answer
Gnome Stories

Episode 185: Tim O’Brien on Memory, Failure and his ‘Maybe Book’

By Brendan O’Meara

Tim O’Brien, the author of The Things They Carried and Going After Cacciato, has written a book sixteen years in the making: Dad’s Maybe Book (HMH, 2019).

I’m no dad, nor will I ever be one, but I’m a son, and I’d read about bricklaying if Tim O’Brien’s name is attached to it. This book is so expansive and tender and prescriptive without being didactic. It’s about reading, writing, fatherhood, sonhood, marriage, struggle, triumph, demons. It’s about Tim.

Remember, if you enjoy the show, consider linking up to it on social media and leaving a kind review over on Apple Podcasts.

And also be sure to sign up for my monthly newsletter. I’ve scaled back social media (@CNFPod across the Big Three), but the newsletter is the real thing, the real one-to-one connection I’m after.

Enjoy this conversation with Tim O’Brien.

Episode 177: Steven Moore — Essays About to Break, Keeping Track of the Positive, and ‘The Longer We Were There’

By Brendan O’Meara

Steven Moore is here to talk about his memoir The Longer We Were There: A Memoir of a Part-Time Soldier (University of Georgia Press, 2019).

It’s in my Top 3 Memoirs of the year. My faves were Meredith May’s The Honey Bus and Leslie Jamison’s The Recovering.

In any case, Steven and I randomly met in November 2018 in line at a talk during the Portland Book Festival. We were in line to hear Elizabeth Rush give a talk. He heard my voice from this thing and here we are.

You see? You never know where your next podcast guest might come from.

Thanks, of course, to Bay Path University’s MFA in Creative Nonfiction for the support. Check them out.

Episode 175: Cassandra King Conroy — Mid-life Resurgence and Her Time with Pat Conroy in ‘Tell Me a Story’

By Brendan O’Meara

Cassandra King Conroy is the author of several works of fiction and, most recently, the memoir Tell Me a Story: My Life with Pat Conroy.

Be sure to subscribe to the show and keep the conversation going on Twitter @CNFPod or @BrendanOMeara. I love to hear what resonates with you, so please reach out and certainly share across your networks.

Episode 173: Sonja Livingston — Expeditions in Devotion, Trust, and The Virgin of Prince Street

By Brendan O’Meara

Hey, CNFers! Look who’s back! It’s Sonja Livingston, whose latest book The Virgin of Prince Street: Expeditions into Devotion (University of Nebraska Press) is the subject of our conversation.

This is a nice, tight thirty-minute interview. If you want a little more background on Sonja, check out Episode 56. It’s that special kind of memoir that has some journalistic components, something you might find in books by Leslie Jamison or Meredith May.

We dig into what brought Sonja to this story and how she rediscovered a long dormant devotion to Catholicism. The book doesn’t read like some icky treatise on becoming born again. It’s not evangelical in the least. It’s a person on a journey, a literal and figurative journey. And in the hands of a writer like Sonja,

Follow the show at @CNFPod to keep the conversation going. Sign up for the newsletter. Once a month. No spam. Can’t beat it.

Could that be it? I think so.

Episode 169: Chase Jarvis — Discover Your Creative Calling

Chase Jarvis, author of *Creative Calling.*

View on Zencastr

By Brendan O’Meara

Can you believe it? Chase Jarvis (@chasejarvis) is here! He’s here to talk about his incredible new book Creative Calling: Establish a Daily Practice, Infuse Your World with Meaning, and Succeed in Life + Work.

I can’t recommend it enough. Do yourself and a friend a favor and buy this book. You might want to listen and subscribe to his great podcast too, Chase Jarvis Live Show. He’s been doing this for ten+ years. Amazing stuff.

He made his bones as a photographer and might be most known for (these days) for founding Creative Live, the great online learning platform. I’ve purchased several classes that have helped me immensely.

As always, keep the conversation going on Twitter @CNFPod, Instagram @cnfpod, and Facebook @CNFPodcast. Sign up for the monthly newsletters where I share reading recommendations and what you might have missed from the world of the podcast.

And if you’re feeling froggy, leave a kind review on Apple Podcast. We’re knocking on the door of 100. It’s a long knock, but we’re getting there. Let’s do this!

You’re going to love how Chase went about writing this book as we break open the pinata of what makes this book — and Chase — so special.

Episode 166: Kate Hopper—Slap the Bass

“Every piece of writing is going to be hard in some way, and you just have to know that, and sit with it and keep going forward, and you will have a breakthrough at some point if you don’t give up.” —Kate Hopper

By Brendan O’Meara

Hey, there, CNFers, Kate Hopper (@MNKateHopper) joins me to talk about her True Story essay “Stumbling into Joy.” In case you couldn’t tell from the title of this episode, she learns to play the bass guitar in her forties. It’s pretty rad.

Please subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts. We’re on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. It is always my hope that I’ve made something worth sharing, so if you like this, please pass it along to the people you think would benefit from it. You are the social network.

As always, keep the conversation going on Twitter @CNFPod and Instagram @cnfpod. Also Facebook, so go like the page there. I respond to everything, so please tag the show on your preferred network and we’ll connect.

Thanks to Goucher’s MFA in Nonfiction, Bay Path University’s MFA in Creative Nonfiction, and River Teeth for the support.

Episode 159: Allie Rowbottom—The Page as Safe Place

By Brendan O’Meara

“Talent is not enough. You have to have luck. You have to have drive.” —Allie Rowbottom (@allierowbottom)

In this 159th episode of CNF, I welcome Allie Rowbottom, author of Jell-O Girls: A Family History.

We had a nice time talking about journaling, competition, jealousy, and finding the page as a safe place.

As always, keep the conversation going on Twitter @CNFPod and let me know what you thought of this episode. Share it across your social media profiles and me sure to tag the show so I can jump in the fire with you.

If you’re feeling kind, take a less than five minutes and leave a kind review or rating on Apple Podcasts. With your help, we can reach 100 of them.

Enjoy the show!

Episode 147—Meredith May on What Cracked Open Her Memoir, Nature as Parent, and Bees, Lots of Bees

Meredith May, author of The Honey bus (Photo Matthew May)

“The pleasure of reading a book is that it’s reciprocal.” —Meredith May (@meredithmaysf)

By Brendan O’Meara

How are you, CNFers? I’m Brendan O’Meara and this is The Creative Nonfiction Podcast, the show where I speak to badass writers, filmmakers, producers, and podcasters about the art and craft of telling true stories, chart their journey through this crazy world and offer a few tips along the way to help you get the work done.

Be sure to subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts and follow me and the show on Twitter @BrendanOMeara and @cnfpod. You can follow the show on Instagram too where I post some great quote cards and audiograms from the show’s deep bench.

If you’re feeling friendly, please leave a review or a rating on iTunes. I’d love to see it reach 100, but it’ll take you. It’ll take you going that extra mile for you buddy BO. You know I love you for it.

This week I have Meredith May (@meredithmaysf across all the socials). She is the author The Honey Bus: A Memoir of Loss, Courage, and a Girl Saved by Bees. She also wrote I, Who Did Not Die: A Sweeping Story of Loss, Redemption, and Fate.

Okay, so Meredith May is here to talk about her career and her new book. She was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize for a long feature she wrote back around the time of the second Iraq War for the San Francisco Chronicle. We talk about the toxic nature of the competition Olympics, and how writing about someone else in another book cracked open her memoir for her.

Episode 135—Leanna James Blackwell Talks About Fallow Periods, Running with Ideas, and 90s Grunge

Leanna James Blackwell wrote an essay. It’s good. Real good.

By Brendan O’Meara

Tweetables by Leanna James Blackwell (@baypathmfaCNF)

“Don’t worry if you go through a fallow period. It doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you.”

“When that idea comes, don’t wait, grab it, run.”

Okay, this is The Creative Nonfiction Podcast, the show where I talk to badass writers (like Laura Hillenbrand), filmmakers (like Emer Reynolds), and producers (like Alexandra DiPalma) about the art and craft of telling true stories, how they became who they are, and the habits and routines that make them special, so maybe you can apply those tools of mastery to your own work.

We got Leanna James Blackwell for you today, for episode 135 of this racket. But we’ll get there. We’re gonna talk about a lot of things, and especially her long essay “Lethe” which appeared as Issue No. 22 of Creative Nonfiction’s True Story. I love these little things, man. You should subscribe. That’s a free shout out if I ever heard one.

Books by Ander

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.

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.

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.