Memoir Nation

Join Brooke, Grant, and Neely Tubati-Alexander as they discuss the fun of romance writing, publishers' preferences, and how to break into the genre. Explore the appeal of light-hearted stories for escapism, community building in romance writing, embracing diversity, and the rise of Romantisee genre on platforms like TikTok.

This podcast delves into writing about childhood trauma, focusing on Javier Zamora's journey as an unaccompanied minor. It explores the healing process, diverse voices in literature, therapeutic benefits of writing, and the growing acceptance of LGBTQ+ romance books in publishing.

It's important to learn from the challenges of a failed book rather than allowing it to define your career. The publishing industry can be harsh and unforgiving to writers in this situation. Unforgiving as in agents abandoning the writer or publishers turning away future work, not because of its quality, but because of the one book that didn’t sell well. This week, we're joined by guest Ethel Rohan, whose story serves as a reminder that regardless of how brutal this industry can be, perseverance and reinvention can lead to triumph, and Ethel’s story is testament to that truth. This episode is a great reminder to keep moving forward through the challenges. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guest K-Ming Chang discusses disorientation as a style, language living in the body, and hating plot. The interview focuses on writerly aesthetic, language, and the existential position on writing. Chang's meditation on language is expansive and invites us to consider our own stories.

Guest Aubre Andrus breaks down the world of ghostwriting and work-for-hire writing, discussing the increasing demand for ghostwriters and how to break into the work-for-hire industry. The episode also explores the rise of Womb House, a woman-owned online bookstore, and highlights library sales and a website celebrating women writers.

This week’s Write-minded floats into the magical and surreal world of Ingrid Rojas Contreras, who talks about her new memoir, The Man Who Could Move Clouds, about her curandera-storytelling mother and their shared history of amnesia, and about why to her magical realism is just realism. Grant and Brooke consider what gets passed down to us from our families and how our stories and histories are in our bones and lived experience, and how reading stories from writers whose lives are vastly different from our own can invigorate our writing.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this gorgeous, sensualistic, tactile, provocative episode of Write-minded, we explore the senses with Janet Fitch of White Oleander fame. In this interview, Janet takes us on a tour through the senses, making the point that our language is impoverished and we can—and must—do more to become more sophisticated observers on the page. This is an episode you’ll carry with you into your next writing or reading session, keeping an eye out (and tastebuds at the ready and an ear attuned and the nose trained) for the next sensual experience or opportunity. Revel in the possibilities and ideas Janet offers to employ the superpowers each of our senses hold. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week's episode moves beyond inspiring and into the territory of important, essential, and recommended listening—and reading. Guest Dr. Brian H. Williams, author of the debut memoir, The Bodies Keep Coming, joins us to talk about his experience as a trauma surgeon, and what being on the hospital frontlines can teach us about racial inequities in America. On the writing side of things, Brooke and Grant talk about how hard it can be for memoirists to truly open up, especially if you’re not used to sharing your feelings, or if there’s a perception that you don’t want the book to be too much “about you.” Dr. Williams touches upon all this, and shares how, as a self-professed man of few words, he pushed himself to be so self-revealing in his memoir. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hidden stories are at the heart of many a novel and memoir, driving writers, often from very young ages, toward exploration, uncovering, and the desire to seek for and know truths. Vanessa Chan’s new novel, The Storm We Made, is one such story, spawned by the unlikeliest of spies—a discontent mother and wife in 1930s British Malaya who, in becoming a spy for the Japanese, unwittingly ushers in the most violent war her country has ever seen. Vanessa talks about her novel, its journey, and the idea that she herself is a hidden story. This is a not-to-be-missed interview with an exciting debut author whose book is getting tons of buzz. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Books were just books for hundreds of years, but in the past 20 years, we've experienced major shifts in how we read and write. Plus, we’re on the brink of another revolution with AI that will change what we know and think we know about book publishing. This week’s guest, Maja Thomas, is the Chief Innovation Officer at Hachette, and her job, essentially, is to figure out the future of the book. She’s the only Chief Innovation Officer in all of publishing, so it’s a treat to hear what she has to say about trends, disruptions, innovations, and yes, AI. Don’t miss her insights! Also, in the trend we mention this Foreign Policy article from Dave Karpf about the future of AI maybe not being as disruptive as we all think. Worth a read. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices