The Creative Nonfiction Podcast with Brendan O'Meara

Joe Donahue hosts The Book Show and The Roundtable for WAMC Northeast Public Radio out of Albany, New York. He's the best interviewer you've likely never heard of, and it was a distinct pleasure to speak with him again. "My job really is to present a person and get to the bottom of them, if you will," he says, "and ask questions that hopefully people want answered." He learned from Larry King, Fred Rogers, and honed his craft over a lifetime of radio. Seriously. A lifetime. He wanted to be a broadcaster since the age of four. Please leave a review wherever you get your podcasts and share this with a friend. Thanks for listening!

Sonja Livingston stopped by The Creative Nonfiction Podcast to talk about her award-winning memoir “Ghostbread.” She was also gracious enough to read from three short chapters. It’s about family and growing up in poverty. “[My family] hasn’t tried to kill me, but they haven’t thrown me a party either,” Sonja says. This episode is layered and a bit experimental. I hope it adds a little extra somethin’-somethin’ to the usual interview. If you dig it, let me know on Twitter @BrendanOMeara and I’ll invite others to try something similar. Sonja talks a lot about her routine and how getting outside helps her write. Also she adds that writing personal essay can feel like a miracle, but can also be very painful. Maybe it’s that in order to write great art, there must be a little bit of blood on the page. I’d love for you to leave a review of the podcast and to share with folks you think will enjoy it. That’s all I can ask for. Thanks for listening!

"What writer at my age gets to have parents be dead? I don't have to worry about what they think!" says Nikki Schulak. I suggest visiting Nikki's website and then perusing her extensive archive of essays.  In this episode we talk about how stories come to her, how she stays attuned to the world, naked bike rides, and the power of performing for an audience and the validation that ushers. This is the last episode before my 37th birthday. Wanna give something to me? Leave a review on iTunes. You don’t even have to wrap it. The best part? It’s free and takes less than a minute. Can’t beat that right? Thanks for listening!

Andre Dubus III, author the memoir Townie and the novels House of Sand and Fog and Dirty Love, stopped by the podcast to talk about memoir, the essay, and writing in general. "The truth is, if you want to write or create anything worth a damn, you better embrace failure or you're not going to get to the good stuff. You gotta learn to love how hard it is," he says. This episode is so packed with great, actionable, and inspiring material from a "made" writer, meaning he built himself into the writer he wanted to be. If you think you don't have time to write, just wait until you hear him talk about how he found the time to write his breakout novel House of Sand and Fog. Talk about rigor. Please review the podcast and pass it along to a friend! Thanks for listening!

Jessica Abel is a cartoonist, a teacher, a writer, and a podcaster and her latest book, Growing Gills: How to Find Creative Focus When You're Drowning in Your Daily Life, is her latest project. I came across her kick-ass, 200-page, black-and-white graphic book Out on the Wire: The Storytelling Secrets of the New Masters of Radio and reached out to her.  So in this episode we talk a lot about what makes for great radio/podcasting, how to obtain creative focus, the power of reviewing your projects and processes, and much, much more. If you dig the show, share it with a friend and leave a review in Apple Podcasts or wherever you found this. The five-star ratings keep coming in and I'd love to have more that way I can reach more people just like you, people who dig what the best artists are doing in the genre of creative nonfiction.  Thanks for listening!

I'm not sure where to begin if I'm being perfectly honest. Joe Drape (@joedrape on Twitter) is a New York Times sports writer and the New York Times bestselling author of Our Boys and American Pharoah: The Untold Story of the Triple Crown Winner's Legendary Rise. He wrote the 80,000-word manuscript in six weeks without a book leave. How are you feeling about your productivity? "When you say, 'Ok, I've got six weeks to write 80,000 words,' it freaks you out," says Joe. "Sometimes 1,500 words goes to 3,000 or 6,000. Sometimes 1,500 becomes 300, and you shut your computer and go to a movie." I love it, baby. Joe is the author of these six books: American Pharoah Black Maestro Our Boys The Race for the Triple Crown In the Hornets Nest To the Swift In this episode he talks about how to write a book under tight deadline pressure, the power of reporting, and the power of listening. And thank you for listening! And if you have a moment, please leave a review on iTunes. Nine (and counting) five-star reviews! Thanks so much!

Jessica Lahey, author of the essay "I've Taught Monsters" and the NYT best seller "The Gift of Failure," came by the show to talk about teaching and getting the work done. "The work of being a writer means you get words on the page. It's as simple as that. I means you read, you write, and get words on the page." We talk about her approach to teaching and language, and also how Stephen King's "On Writing" influenced her style. We also talk about what it means to work hard as a writer. Dig the show? Give the podcast a nice review. You won't be alone. Several people have done it, so join them! Thanks for listening!

For the 50th episode of The Creative Nonfiction Podcast, we had to go big and that's what we did. Ted Conover, author of so many books (Rolling Nowhere, Coyotes, Newjack) including his latest "Immersion: A Writer's Guide to Going Deep," joined me to talk about why he wrote the book and how he has employed those tactics for the past 40 years. "The research you do is determinative, right?" Conover says. "It defines what you're going to be able to write in many ways." Thanks for listening. Please share, subscribe, and leave a review on iTunes.

DInty W. Moore is the founder of Brevity Magazine and the author of The Story Cure.

This week on The Creative Nonfiction Podcast decided to revisit my episode with Roy Peter Clark (@RoyPeterClark on Twitter), this time condensing that two-hour interview and pulling out the best moments. In it we hear Roy talk about how he learned to swim in the language, the moment he learned the true meaning of literacy, and when research can become crippling. I'm experimenting with the form and making it more like a mini one-source profile. Let me know what you think. I think it makes for a better overall listen. Ping me on Twitter @BrendanOMeara with thoughts, or to say hi. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast on the Apple podcast app and on Google Play Music. Leave a rating if you're feeling extra kind. Those help. Thanks for listening!