Memoir Nation

It’s Write-minded’s 300th episode! And we’re celebrating by bringing listeners the esteemed Viet Thanh Nguyen, whose novel, The Sympathizer, was adapted for HBO Max and started streaming in April. In this interview, Nguyen addresses didacticism as a craft choice, the mindset of writers who, like him, find themselves between two languages, and how his desire to capture the Vietnamese perspective on the Vietnam War (and more) made him a writer. Nguyen’s generosity and enthusiasm for his work and his craft shine through in every answer, and Write-minded is grateful to cap this milestone with such a beloved author and guest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week’s episode is one for book lovers, book collectors, aspiring authors, and every kind of writer. It’s always helpful to know what booksellers know—because bookstores do so much more than just provide a place for browsing and buying books. Join us to talk with Josh Cook of  Porter Square Books about his new book, The Art of Libromancy, and why bookselling is political, what authors should think about when speaking to booksellers, and what you need to know about Amazon and Bookshop and the landscape of buying books. Plus, Grant and Brooke swap stories about their time working in bookstores, and Brooke promised to share in the show notes a link to her essay about her months spent working (and bunking) at Shakespeare & Co. in Paris in 1999. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this week’s extra-inspiring show, guest Dhonielle Clayton treats us to a generous conversation about effecting change in the industry and how that inevitable comes with backlash. We talk about representation in publishing, Penguin Random House’s recent firing of two high-profile publishers, and book bans—among other important topics, like packaging and IP and how kids seeing characters that look like them in fiction opens up unimagined possibilities for their futures. We also encourage you to check out the work being done at We Need Diverse Books as supplemental to this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What will other people think? What will be the consequences of sharing my truth? These are among some of the questions that hold memoirists back, and their realities post-publication can cause “vulnerability hangovers.” Exposure, fear of fallout, concern for people we love—memoir doesn’t make it easy. With very recent experience informing her, this week’s guest, Susan Kiyo Ito, generously wades into the territory of these themes. If you’re grappling with exposure pre- or post-publication, you won’t want to miss this show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We’re living through a golden age of memoir, and guest Jennifer Leigh Selig’s Deep Memoir is a new contribution to the “how-to” space for memoirists who want to explore the how and the why of memoir writing. This episode will help listeners consider their own “why” when it comes to that age-old question of why to keep at it, and also to celebrate a genre that’s finally getting its due. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week’s Write-minded takes on grief, and why, as our guest Claire Jiménez says, “it’s where language collapses.” Jiménez’s new book deals with loss and grief and what happens in a family in the aftermath of a disappearance of a child, and yet, she weaves in humor and the history of American colonization of Puerto Rico and so much more. Grant and Brooke share their own experiences with grief, and also writing and thinking about grief as it manifests on the page and in the body, and why feeling grief is a gift of the human experience. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week Write-minded is interviewing an established writer whose star is on the rise. Elwin Cotman’s new story collection blew us away for how he played with form and takes readers on an expected journeys. His stories don’t fit into any box—including length, and we loved it! On this week’s show Grant also announces his departure from NaNoWriMo and what some of his new ventures will be. We’re celebrating creation and recreation and taking on new forms, on the page and in real life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week Write-minded reaches broadly into the topic of intimacy to explore its many permutations—not just romantic, but innocuous, violent, collective, and more. Guest Stacey D’Erasmo invites us to consider intimacy in writing, how we do it, how we feel it as readers, and also to consider acts of intimacy, like an older actress showing her authentic self as she ages. Intimacy is felt, and not always something we know how to put words around, so this conversation is a particular treat, thought-provoking and enticing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week’s guest is John McMurtrie, the esteemed former editor of the San Francisco Chronicle’s book review section. Join us as we explore the transition of book reviews from traditional media like TV and radio to online outlets like Amazon and Goodreads. His is an interesting take about how things were and how things are, along with insight about what a book reviewer is looking for when considering what books to review. Join us as John shares valuable insights on breaking into book reviewing and what he considers to be the key elements of a great book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What does it really mean to consider your own social responsibility as a fiction writer? Guest Naomi Kanakia confronted that very question as she considered her modeling as a trans author writing YA books for teens. What if hers was the first book a genderqueer or trans kid ever read? What did she owe her reader? These are some of the questions at the heart of this week’s episode, but we also look under the hood of the publishing industry a bit, too, from the perspective of an author who’s “inside/outside,” who’s writing across many genres, from sci-fi to lit fic, and who has a certain kind of privilege but still lives on the margins. A truly interesting episode with a guest who’s not afraid to speak truth to power. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.