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What a joy to have Nicholas Dighiera on the show to talk about his flash essay “Happy Birthday” for Short-Reads.org.
It’s an 857-word, one-sentence essay, beginning to end. Nick’s thing is running toward the hurt and telling the truth.
You’re gonna dig it, friend.
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It’s that Atavistian time of the month and we’ve got a two-for-one, BOGO!, with Lucy Sexton, a documentary filmmaker, and Joe Sexton, a lifelong newspaperman and father to Lucy.
Lucy was working on a doc about the Iran hostage crisis when her father was taken hostage while reporting in Libya. What came out of it was “Held Together,” edited by Seyward Darby.
What’s all the more compelling is the dual authorship, not in the traditional co-bylined affairs that are uniform in nature with two names atop the story. This is two distinctly tuned instruments playing together in harmony.
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Another thing that I do, which is procrastination, but it’s also part of the process, is I’ll go for a run. And, of course, anybody who’s a runner who’s listening knows this, that’s when I often get some of my best ideas.
Alison Mariella Desir, Ep. 379
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By Brendan O’Meara
Alison Mariella Desir (@alisonmdesir) is a runner, activist, and author of Running While Black: Finding Freedom in a Sport That Wasn’t Built for Us (Portfolio).
A couple months ago I recommended Running While Black not only as a great read, but an important read. It gets into uncomfortable territory, but that’s what we need, it’s what we want, if we’re serious about inclusion, equity, diversity.
We start our conversation talking about procrastination and how running is part of Alison’s writing practice.
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I feel like I don’t understand an essay until I’ve ready it a few times.
Steve Moore, Ep. 378
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By Brendan O’MearaLook who came back! It’s Steven Moore! He’s the author of The Distance from Slaughter County: Lessons from Flyover Country (UNC Press). Growing up in Iowa and spending the last several years on the west coast — many in Oregon — Steven toggles between when it meant to grow up in the midwest and the view from afar.
His essays range from riffs on the sitcom “Home Improvement,” Blockbuster Video, Shania Twain, Garth Brooks, and political coverage of a state that had voted for Obama, then flipped, you know, the other way.
Steven also is the author of The Longer We Were There: A Memoir of a Part-Time Soldier, which won the AWP Award for Creative Nonfiction.
In this episode we talk about:
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Athletic Brewing Referral link, and use BRENDANO20 at checkout!
By Brendan O’Meara
Always nice to reach that Atavistian time of the month and this month has a great piece that combines the personal and the journalistic, “The Romance Scammer on My Sofa.”
These scammers, Yahoo Boys, as they’re called, spam people — the lonelier the better — in an effort to steal money. They’re based largely out of Lagos, Nigeria and there’s a great chance one of these Yahoo Boys has knocked on your door in one way or another.
They prey on the vulnerable, the lonely, and, for a short time, victimized Carlos’ mother, which led him on something of a manhunt to find the scammer, but what he found was a greater understanding of his mom.
Carlos is a journalist and student at the Columbia School of Journalism. You can find him on Twitter @CarolosBarraganT, and I hope you’ll head to magazine.atavist.com to read his piece and potentially subscribe. And, no, I don’t get any kickbacks, CNFer.
Continue reading “Episode 377: Carlos Barragan”
Become a Patron!You don’t have a lot of room to fart around and throw in stuff that doesn’t matter, you have to focus on what you’re doing and get it done, and then get out.
Hattie Fletcher, Ep. 375
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Got a two-for-one deal here, CNFers. It’s Hattie Fletcher and Stephen Knezovich, two of the brilliant minds behind Short Reads, a weekly email missive of flash nonfiction.
They are formerly of Creative Nonfiction Magazine until a failure in leadership forced Hattie, Stephen, and a handful of others to leave the magazine. What came of that experience is Short Reads.
So in this episode we talk about email marketing, building an email list, writing short nonfiction vs. long nonfiction. It’s a concentrated dose of goodness.
Stephen also is an accomplished collage artists, so be sure to check out his website to get a sense of what his work is about. Collage is the bomb.
Continue reading “Episode 375: Hattie Fletcher and Stephen Knezovich”
The best way to get your style as an artist is when you’re on a deadline that’s very short and you don’t have time to overthink and get all of your influence in it. You just fully present yourself.”
Akeem S. Roberts, Ep. 369
Akeem S. Roberts (@akeemteam) is a brilliant cartoonist and wouldn’t you know that he and I are now cosmically connected:
Oh, by the way did I tell you I won The New Yorker caption contest?
Continue reading “Episode 369: Akeem S. Roberts”
I’m probably a poet on roller skates, to be honest, like, I don’t know how to shed that.
Maggie Smith
Maggie Smith is here! You might know her as a poet (@maggiesmithpoet), but you’re gonna love her as a prose-writing memoirist in You Could Make The Place Beautiful (Atria).
I was probably the only doofus who had never read her viral, wicked-famous poem “Good Bones,” the poem that turned a relatively anonymous maggie smith in MAGGIE FUCKING SMITH.
You Could Make This Place Beautiful is a line from that poem and it introduced me to her poem. There’s a good chance I’m the only jucket this side of the Rockies who hadn’t heard of the poem, but it’s an incredible poem and she’s an incredible writer and this conversation, I have to say, (as well as my parting shot), is incredible.
Continue reading “Episode 365: Maggie Smith”
“I’m never going to let an editor push me off my square in terms of voice.” — Mitchell S. Jackson
Several Pultizer Prize—winners have graced the CNF Pod main stage, and, wow!, we get to add the incomparable Mitchell S. Jackson to the roster. What a thrill to talk to this brilliant writer and thinker.
His accolades are too long to list, but here are a few (for more, visit mitchellsjackson.com).:
And, damn, he sure is great.
Continue reading “Episode 364: Mitchell S. Jackson”
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Ari Shapiro (@arishapiro) is the host of NPR’s All Things Considered. He’s covered presidents. He’s traveled all over the world. He sings with the band Pink Martini. Now he’s the author of The Best Strangers in the World: Stories from a Life Spent Listening (HarperCollins).
It’s a great memoir and what amounts to a love letter to his craft, which is journalism. So in this conversation, we talk about how: