Good Writing Podcast

Dune is a weird book. Some might even say, a bad book. Emily does on this episode, and so does Ben (sort of). Herbert’s prose style is definitely stilted, but what Ben and Emily get into on this episode is the absolutely strange choice he’s made to write the entire thing in third person omniscient, and they try to figure out how thinking works in fiction. Ben recommends Flow my Tears, the Policeman Said Emily recommends One Hundred Years of Solitude Good Writing is a podcast where two MFA friends read like writers and lay out craft ideas for fellow writers to steal. Co-hosted by Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns. Twitter: @goodwritingpod  Email: goodwritingpodcast@gmail.com

We love insights and character motivation on this podcast! 😤 But we also like scenes that move the story forward. This week, we discuss the hilarious Milk Fed by Melissa Broder (2021) and how she introduces a therapist character who feels realistic while still creating all of the insights that we expect when a character goes to therapy. A link we promised to include in the show notes: Listen to Danez Smith read their poem “Dear White America” Good Writing is a podcast where two MFA friends read like writers and lay out craft ideas for fellow writers to steal. Co-hosted by Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns. Twitter: @goodwritingpod  Email: goodwritingpodcast@gmail.com

In this episode of the Good Writing Podcast, Ben and Emily discuss what it means to write an image that by no right can actually be seen. Good Writing is a podcast where two MFA friends read like writers and lay out craft ideas for fellow writers to steal. Co-hosted by Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns. Twitter: @goodwritingpod  Email: goodwritingpodcast@gmail.com

It's been 6 months of podcasting! Ben and Emily review some of their favorite prompts and exercises from the past 25 episodes of the Good Writing Podcast. Listen to the full episodes clipped here: Brett Biebel - On Compactness, Objects and Perfection with Josephine Rowe How to Write with Yourself as the Subject - Megan Boyle’s Liveblog Real Settings That Mess With Your Characters from Kristen Arnett & Patricia Lockwood The Best Sentence in Pride and Prejudice   Good Writing is a podcast where two MFA friends read like writers and lay out craft ideas for fellow writers to steal. Co-hosted by Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns. Twitter: @goodwritingpod  Email: goodwritingpodcast@gmail.com

Guest Melissa Febos explores the ethics of writing and the challenges of writing about real people. They discuss the editing process, the concept of cruelty in writing, accurately representing real people, engaging with criticism, and being open to feedback. They also have a casual conversation about a parody TV show and a docu-series.

Borges often looked to his work as an essayist and literary critic when looking for inspiration for his fiction, be it in the form of using that fiction to better understand writing or taking on the forms of non-fiction directly. While the first of these is inevitably touched upon in this episode, we focus more directly on the formal effort of "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" to discuss ways in which writers can take formal inspiration from the world of non-fiction. "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" - Jorge Luis Borges Good Writing is a podcast where two MFA friends read like writers and lay out craft ideas for fellow writers to steal. Co-hosted by Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns. Twitter: @goodwritingpod  Email: goodwritingpodcast@gmail.com

Emily picked up The Fellowship of the Ring and bought in hard. What makes the whimsical and meandering opening work so well? Ben and Emily also discuss listener mail and workshop peer pet peeves. Good Writing is a podcast where two MFA friends read like writers and lay out craft ideas for fellow writers to steal. Co-hosted by Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns. Twitter: @goodwritingpod  Email: goodwritingpodcast@gmail.com

Author and editor John Trefry joins us to discuss (among many other things) the ways in which language itself has aesthetic value, the unknowable contours of spacetime, why writing without emotion can lead you to interesting places, and death metal. Read John's writing on the Neutral Spaces blog. Visit Inside the Castle here. The Amityville films on Tubi. "Claustrophobic Dysentery" by Cabinet Good Writing is a podcast where two MFA friends read like writers and lay out craft ideas for fellow writers to steal. Co-hosted by Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns. Twitter: @goodwritingpod  Email: goodwritingpodcast@gmail.com

Today on the Good Writing Podcast we are joined by flash fiction author Brett Bieble. Topics discussed include the ways in which flash fiction approaches "perfection," the advantages of brevity, the ways that stories utilize objects, and comma patrol. Josephine Rowe's "The Vending Machine at the End of the World" Brett's Twitter Brett's story "Big Red Nation" Good Writing is a podcast where two MFA friends read like writers and lay out craft ideas for fellow writers to steal. Co-hosted by Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns. Twitter: @goodwritingpod  Email: goodwritingpodcast@gmail.com

Texas poet Esteban Rodriguez joins us to discuss an excerpt from Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 (1965). We talk about writing about stuff you hate and combining long and short sentence lengths for realism and momentum. Esteban recommends The Folly by Ivan Vladislavic (2015), An Explanation of the Birds by António Lobo Antunes (translated by Richard Zenith) (1981), and Rapture by Susan Mitchell (1992) Follow Esteban Rodriguez on Twitter at @estebanjrod11 Emily recommends Melissa Febos’s new craft essay “A Big Shitty Party: Six Parables of Writing About Other People” in Kenyon Review Good Writing is a podcast where two MFA friends read like writers and lay out craft ideas for fellow writers to steal. Co-hosted by Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns. Twitter: @goodwritingpod  Email: goodwritingpodcast@gmail.com