Memoir Nation

Pep Talk alert! Whether you’re writing a ton or writing a-none, this week’s episode is geared toward writers who are feeling the strain of the Muddy Middle. Grant and Brooke talk about strategies for staying on track and offer up encouragement for ways to keep with it—including how to break the wall. Brooke’s references to Esther Perel’s podcast episode, “Breaking News Is Breaking Us,” can be foun...

This week Brooke shares an interview she recorded with Allison Gilbert about her new book,  Listen World!,  a biography of the most famous woman writer you’ve never heard of. If you’re any writer, but particularly a woman writer, knowing about Elsie Robinson (1883-1956) will bring you needed inspiration during this NaNoWriMo season. She models how to believe in yourself, how to face rejection and...

Happy Halloween Week and Happy Start of NaNoWriMo. This week’s episode is a twofer because we’re bringing you a little dose of horror through our exploration of gothic stories with this week’s guest Isabel Cañas, who also happens to be a ten-year veteran of NaNoWriMo. Watch magic happen as Write-minded intertwines these two cultural events—one spooky-scary and the other downright inspiring. We’re...

With her new memoir,  You Could Make This Place Beautiful , guest Maggie Smith provides an example of how to break conventional form to gorgeous results. This interview covers narration, structure, and Maggie’s process of constructing this memoir, as well as how her background as a poet informed her approach to the writing. Join us for a wide-ranging conversation mostly about narration, but we als...

Whether you already love fanfiction or don’t really get it, you’ll want to tune into this episode for the sheer appreciation of its presence in the literary world. More than 100 million people worldwide are reading or writing fanfiction. We know that fanfiction writers have been wild over the years for Star Wars and Harry Potter and Twilight, but now fanfiction is increasingly likely to be a sourc...

This week’s co-authoring duo, Helen Macdonald and Sin Blaché, take us inside their relationship and share authentically and honestly about some of the considerations unique to writing your book with someone else. With tools available to authors that allow writing together over distance and time zones, many writers are keen to coauthor and explore new terrains with a creative collaborator. This wee...

One month out from National Novel Writing Month, this episode hopes to inspire listeners around the truism that the very best way to write a novel is simply to try it. NaNoWriMo encourages that effort, outcome irrelevant. Take heed from guest Kayvion Lewis who suggests in this episode to write the thing that sets your heart on fire. Also, as promised in today’s Book Trend, we encourage you to chec...

This week’s episode considers the intersection between dreaming and writing and how to harness not dreaming per se, but the midnight mind. The midnight mind speaks to a kind of liminal state where we can be more open, more creative, less blocked—and Gover’s interview and new book are encouraging to writers and authors around writing for writing’s sake, and not only for publication and outcome. The...

This week’s episode is an exploration of form, and why some stories are better contained in short story form rather than a novel. Guest Ghassan Zeineddine shares the evolution of his short story collection,  Dearborn , as well as some of his process, including research and spending serious time with subjects who sometimes play roles in stories years down the road. Dearborn is part-celebration, par...

This week Write-minded explores point of view, especially those stories told with less conventional points of view. Uncommon points of view stick with you—and Brooke and Grant cover books they love that have ghost points of view, dog points of view, and the kind of point of view where the reader is part of the story. This week’s guest Jimin Han walks us through some of her narration choices for he...

Write-minded is kicking off our sixth year this week with an episode focused on the skinny around what agents do, what they’re thinking about, and how to think about working with an agent—all through the lens of our guest, Lisa Leshne of The Leshne Agency. Lisa brings an honest and fresh perspective to the hard work of agenting, how authors want to think about being strategic partners with their w...

Two of our favorite memoir episodes from last year revisited, with guests whose memoirs showcase exceptional craft—so much so that they’ll be teaching a fall memoir course with Brooke that starts next month. We’re revisiting these two authors whose memoirs have so much to teach writers about good writing, storytelling, and creating an experience that has real staying power. Tune in or relisten—and...

This week we’re celebrating two of our more accomplished guests of last year. Grant and Brooke talk about the joy of interviewing authors we’ve long admired, and highlight these two fabulous shows with Gish Jen and Peggy Orenstein, two authors at the top of their game. These are great shows to revisit for their insights from writers who’ve been at their craft for a while, and have a thing or two t...

This week we’re revisiting our favorite two book biz episodes from last year. Both episodes got more listener feedback than any others—and if you missed the money episode, there’s so much here to be inspired by. For all writers and aspiring authors, there’s not enough we can say about being savvy about the business side of authorprenuership, which is why we’re spotlighting these two shows for our...

This is the first of our summer favorites series, featuring Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah and Ana Reyes. We’re revisiting our favorite episodes of the past year during the month of August, so we invite you to tune in or relisten as we celebrate and honor high-stakes fiction with two writers whose books we felt pushed the limits of fiction and made us think more critically about complex topics that wigg...

This week’s show takes on an age-old topic—that of all the ways family’s feelings, impressions, and reactions play a role in our writing. No relationship is more complex and multilayered than that of the parent and adult child, which is why Brooke wanted to bring on her mom, Gail Warner, as a guest to discuss writing and how the act of self-expression is not an isolated experience. We have conside...

This week's guest Ben Purkert, author of the newly released novel,  The Men Can’t Be Saved,  gives us some insight into the art of writing complex characters, including the downright unlikeable ones. Atrocious acts and bad behavior are at the center of storytelling, and when constructed well, supposedly unlikeable characters are often more gripping and memorable than likable ones. We’re titillated...

On this community-minded podcast, we love to host a community-focused episode from time to time. Guest Kellye Garrett shares the many ways that community has been a boon and a boost in her writing life and writing career. She shares about communities she’s founded, communities she’s been a part of, and the ways that community has supported her and championed her along the way. Grant and Brooke tou...

This week’s episode spotlights one of the most popular types of stories we see in both memoir and fiction—the coming-of-age narrative. Guest Yasmin Azad, author of  Stay, Daughter,  shares her considerations for writing her coming-of-age memoir. An episode about craft, the timeline of coming-of-age, why coming-of-age stories endure the way they do, and Brooke and Grant share some of their favorite...

This week Write-minded is expanding our literary horizons beyond the written word and into the myriad forms of visual creative expression that can accompany text. Guest Kelcey Ervick joins us to talk about her new book, The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Graphic Literature, Artists and Writers on Creating Graphic Narratives, Poetry Comics, and Literary Collage , a compilation of pieces from graph...

This week we’re talking about purpose and passion with guest N.D. Jones, a prolific author of fantasy stories and series who’s also a nonfiction author and publisher with a beautiful and creative online presence. This week’s show is inspired by Jones’s desire to articulate her “why,” and Brooke and Grant discuss how important purpose—the why—is for authors who might be feeling a little lost in the...

This week Grant and Brooke return to a topic we love—taking the leap, saying yes to the dare, finding inspiration in the thrill of writing the book you want to read. Guest Krystal Marquis has a special personal story, too, about taking on the dare to write a book from her brother. If you’re a writer who’s trying to find a story to write, or someone looking for a little boost of creative inspiratio...

This is an onstage interview with Brooke Warner and this week’s guest Nicole Chung. Brooke interviewed Nicole at the Bay Area Book Festival in May. The conversation is wide-ranging and covers the topics and themes central to Nicole’s new memoir, A Living Remedy , as well as questions and considerations central to memoir and telling the stories that must be told. Don’t miss this thoughtful and rela...

We bring you a powerful show stemming from a powerhouse of a guest this week. Write-minded examines the intersection of activism and writing and love with Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of  Chain Gang All Stars.  This week’s episode also makes a case for why dystopian fiction needs to be rethought and reclassified, and provides insight in the form of the reminder that the best stories are those...

This week’s episode covers the importance of investigation and research in works of family and personal histories and memoirs. Guest Gretchen Cherington shares the many ways she researched her latest family memoir,  The Butcher, The Embezzler, and the Fall Guy , through first-person narratives, interviews, and countless documents and letters. Hers is a book that attempts not so much to solve a cri...