Emerging Form

When you’re actively engaged in creative practice, what’s happening in your brain? We ask research scientist and writer Emily Willingham to talk about the science of creativity. Her clear communication about neurons and cognitive processes open up a new understanding of not only how the brain works but also the three key features of creativity, two kinds of thinking that go into creative process,...

What do you look for in collaborators? How do you find them? Is it better to collaborate with friends? We speak with singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and film composer Leah Shaw about putting together her full-length album Play Beautifully , a sonic exploration of loss, healing and self-transformation. She talks candidly about the balance between control and collaboration, learning new ski...

Image: Catherine, Christie and Rosemerry Feeling stuck or stumped in your creative practice? Maybe what you need is more fun. In this episode we speak with Catherine Price , author of T he Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again. Her definition of fun feels utterly apropos of creativity. She defines fun as the spirit of playfulness —in which you engage with no attachment to outcome; connection —in t...

What does a new calendar year mean for your creative process? In this episode, Rosemerry and Christie return to their creative goals from last year – did they meet them? They talk about Christie’s annual report model for creatives, about how a magic wand might help you identify your creative goals for 2022, and how they are hoping the form might emerge in the next year. Plus they offer new guiding...

In this bonus episode, Christie and Rosemerry read some of the new works they’ve created since the trauma of the last four months. Finding My Friend’s Unwritten Poems , Christie at Last Word On Nothing Digging Potatoes, 2021 , by Rosemerry Condition , by Rosemerry Please note : after we recorded this podcast, we experienced yet another sad event and we need to take a short break to focus on self-c...

Photo: Photo: Rosemerry and Christie celebrating Rosemerry’s birthday on a recent sleety/snowy day in Telluride. In this episode of Emerging Form, Rosemerry and Christie discuss how their recent traumas affected their creative output and how taking a break from writing ultimately helped their creative process. A quick note: after we recorded this podcast, we were hit with yet another cascade of sa...

Why invest in your creative life? In this episode of Emerging Form, we continue with our Soul Food Series with poet and teacher Jack Ridl. He talks about how our creative endeavors link us to the big history and reconnect us with what really matters. Then he brings us the news of the heart, reading poems from How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope . An episode full of inspiration, invi...

“Learn. Fail. Grow.” That’s part of the creative action plan for award-winning writer and Susan J. Tweit. In this episode of Emerging Form, we continue our Soul Food Series and talk with Susan about the importance of reflection--how writing not only helps us to meet difficult moments, but also helps us to find “deeper levels and better understanding” as time passes. We talk about the process of re...

What Does It Really Mean to Show Up?  In this episode, we speak with Rosemerry’s mentor and beloved friend Judith Jordan Kalush about how the way we meet our daily life intimately informs our creative practice. Are we listening? Are we distracted? Are we opening? Do we feel our connection to the rest of the world? What are we choosing to tune into? It’s a powerful episode with no platitudes, but w...

“In our evolution, we are coming to understand nuances and in betweens are necessary to living a full life,” says poet and painter Wendy Videlock. She quotes F. Scott Fitzgerald: “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless yet be d...

In today’s bonus episode, Rosemerry and Christie discuss the poetry and music that have been getting them through this difficult time. Fall (Herbst) by Rainer Maria Rilke The Thing with Feathers by Chris Bursk Let X=X , Laurie Anderson No One , Alicia Keys *Photo by Finn Trommer This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit em...

This is the most difficult episode we’ve ever recorded. In the span of two weeks, Christie and her family were thrown into a scary state of limbo and Rosemerry experienced an unthinkable loss. In this episode, we discuss what we’ve noticed about our relationship to creativity in this time of upheaval. Rosemerry explains how her 15-year practice of writing daily poems helped prepare her to meet thi...

In this week’s episode (recorded in late July), we jump right in with our delightful guest, Andy Offut Irwin. One of the most sought after performing storytellers in the United States, Andy has been a Featured Teller at the National Storytelling Festival more than ten times. He has appeared fourteen times as Teller in Residence at International Storytelling Center. Among other gigs, Andy has been...

Sometimes, telling a story can save you. In this episode, we speak with novelist, short story writer and journalist Charlie Jane Anders about her new book, “how writing helps us set rules, create frames, and surprise ourselves with what is possible. “Stories keep us alive,” she says. We also talk about writing and politics, writing the story you want to read, changing gears and creativity as a “sa...

Have you ever felt like an imposter in your own creative life? As if you are not truly as competent as others perceive you to be? In this episode of Emerging Form, we talk about imposter syndrome with violinist, award-winning author and scholar/associate professor Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman. Imposter syndrome is not always just your crazy brain telling you that you're not good enough — sexism and...

Failure is, of course, a big part of life, and learning how to meet it in healthy ways is a major part of creative process. In this episode, Rosemerry presents six or more ways we might fail, drawing from Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life . Rosemerry and Christie talk through the different kinds of failure--their experiences and successful ways to move through each kin...

Two of the most important tools any creative has? Your experiences and your time to create. And your biggest impediment? Distractions. In this episode of Emerging Form, we speak with author Catherine Price about how to strengthen “the muscle of attention,” how to set boundaries for yourself, how to give your brain space and how to change your habits. She focuses on our relationship with our phones...

Openness and curiosity--how do these attributes contribute to the success of creative endeavors? In this episode of Emerging Form, we speak with science fiction and nonfiction author Annalee Newitz. They talk about back up plans, the relationship between luck and hard work, how writing for free can really pay off, how we frame our experience, challenging our expectations, and creating opportunitie...

Struggle. It’s an essential part of the creative process. How do we move past the desire to give up and find the energy and time to continue? In this episode, Rosemerry and Christie talk about recent projects and their longtime experience with how to stay with a project when we’d rather give up. We speak about going back to the beginning, how community helps, ways to create accountability, deadlin...

When creatives show up for their practice, they bring a lot of tools: perhaps books and pens and paper. Perhaps canvas and paint. Perhaps a camera or a script. But all creatives have one thing in common: they bring their bodies. In this episode, we speak with poet/teacher/dancer/zen monk Brooke McNamara about body awareness and creative practice. How did her own body awareness inform her practice...

How long must we wait for the form to emerge? Sometimes right up to the last minute! In this episode we speak with Kate Fagan, Emmy-award winning journalist and No. 1 New York Times bestselling author. We talk about her new book, ALL THE COLORS CAME OUT, a memoir about her relationship with her father and his death from ALS. Kate shares with us the differences between writing memoir and reporting...

Have you ever felt envious of someone else’s success? In this episode of Emerging Form, we speak with Dear Sugar herself, Cheryl Strayed, and get practical, heart-opening, career-inspiring advice about how to meet this very natural and difficult feeling. We speak of abundance mentality, leaning in to our own heart’s desires, and the “all boats rise” when one of us succeeds philosophy. Strayed talk...

Can envy help your creative practice? The origin story of this podcast would seem to offer a resounding yes! In this episode, Rosemerry and Christie recall the strange circumstances (Christie’s word is “mortifying”) in which they first met in 2008--lots of laughter--and how play and vulnerability are now at the heart of their friendship. Christie offers insight about envy and how it can be an invi...

In this bonus episode, Kim Langley tells us about dealing with imposter syndrome and going to not one, but two writers retreats where she couldn’t write. Kim is the author of Send My Roots Rain: A Companion on the Grief Journey , 60 poems and brief reflections combined with suggestions for mindful activities and journaling. The book was well received by individual grievers as well as hospice, pall...

Kim Langley is the author of Send My Roots Rain: A Companion on the Grief Journey , 60 poems and brief reflections combined with suggestions for mindful activities and journaling. The book was well received by individual grievers as well as hospice, palliative care, social work, chaplaincy, and other helping professionals and so is in its second printing. Kim has facilitated numerous writing/discu...