Emerging Form

Telling someone else’s story presents a host of pleasures and challenges. In this episode, we interview Catherine Saint Louis, senior editor of podcasts for Neon Hum Media , about “ Rubber Bullets ,” a podcast episode released on Telescope in early July 2020, about a man who had guided implicit bias workshops for the San Jose Police Department for years, then found himself trying to de-escalate th...

Hello dear listeners! We are taking a short summer break. We’ve been putting out new episodes every week, and it feels like time to slow down for a moment and reflect. We’ll be back in August with some brand new regularly scheduled episodes. In the meantime, stay well. Thank you for your support. Christie & Rosemerry This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or...

Putting your values into your art can be a courageous act, and in this episode we speak with poet and storyteller Sara Abou Rashed about the vulnerability and rewards that come from revealing our identity in our work. Rashed comes from Palestine but was born and raised in Syria before moving to Ohio in 2013. She is a senior at Denison University of Ohio and has performed her one-woman show, A Map...

Could a book really save a life? Poet Aaron Abeyta is living proof. In this episode of Emerging Form, part of our miniseries about creativity and COVID-19, we talk with him about how Truman Capote helped transform him from trying to get kicked out of school to being the MFA Poetry Director at Western Colorado University. We also talk about his work as mayor in Antonito, Colorado, and how the pande...

Hula hooping story tellers on street corners? That’s one topic of discussion in this episode of Emerging Form, part of our miniseries on how creatives are responding to the pandemic. We speak with our friend, author and adventurer Craig Childs, whose new book, Virga and Bone: Essays from dry places , is a celebration of the primacy of land. We talk about the pleasures and challenges of staying in...

Are there any trends in how the pandemic has affected creative output in America? In this episode of Emerging Form, part of our miniseries on how creatives are responding to the pandemic, we speak with Timothy Green, editor of Rattle , one of America’s most popular poetry magazines. Timothy has worked as editor of Rattle since 2004 and is the author of American Fractal (Red Hen Press), a contribut...

When life gets difficult, how do we bring our best selves to meet it? That’s one of the questions we ask in this episode of Emerging Form. We continue our miniseries on creativity and COVID-19 by interviewing Peter Heller, author of The Dog Stars , a best-selling post-apocalyptic novel in which the main character has survived a global pandemic. It’s a little close to home--and we talk with Heller...

In Emerging Form’s ongoing series, Creativity and COVID-19, we interview creatives about how they’re channeling their creativity to cope with coronavirus. In this episode, we talk with Helena de Groot , a Belgian radio producer based in New York. She is the host and producer of Poetry Off The Shelf , an interview podcast for the Poetry Foundation. She also produces and sound designs The Paris Revi...

In this bonus episode, we bring you a special treat: an episode of Shelter in Place, a new podcast created by our guest this week on Emerging Form, Laura Joyce Davis. This episode is titled “The Call to Create.” Enjoy! Laura Joyce Davis Shelter in Place podcast This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emergingform.substac...

This is the first of a new mini-series in which we explore this weird new reality we’re living in by interviewing a variety of creative makers about how they’re channeling their creativity to cope with the new coronavirus. In this episode, we talk to Laura Joyce Davis , a writer from Oakland, California, host and creator of a new daily podcast, “Shelter in Place: finding daily sanity in a world th...

Welcome to our extended conversation with Rose Eveleth , the founder and host of Flash Forward, a podcast about the future. In this bonus episode, we talk with Rose about clarity: how she uses it to guide a project through growing pains. We’ll talk about her process for making monthly goals (so much more useful than a single New Year’s resolution!), how she organizes her goals, about her new book,...

In this five-minute bonus, Rosemerry reads four poems responding to the coronavirus pandemic:  A Change in the Light The Afternoon the World Health Organization Declares a Pandemic Staying Home Tucking in My Daughter in the Time of Corona Virus Rosemerry’s Daily Poem Blog, A Hundred Falling Veils This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus...

At some point, most creatives experience growing pains--when your project is going well and now you have decisions to make about whether to grow it, to bring in collaborators, or to expand your reach. We’ll also talk about avalanches of opportunity and money grubbing poets. Our guest this episode is the inimitable Rose Eveleth . She is the producer and host of Flash Forward, a podcast about the fu...

In this bonus episode we talk with psychologist and author Scott Barry Kaufman about the imagination network--the default chatter in your brain--and how valuable it is. We also talk about paradox, and the tug between a longing for external validation and the need to look inward for creative growth. We talk about openness to experience as a key driver for creativity, and how a rut can sometimes ser...

Are you living up to your creative potential? Or are you stuck in a rut? Could it be that the rut is serving you? These are some of the questions we wrestle with in this episode of Emerging Form. We talk about Christie’s sweet spot between struggle and boredom, how fencing (or another new activity) might supercharge your creative process, and LOTS of tips on how to get out of a rut. We finish, as...

In this bonus episode, we continue our conversation with USA Today best-selling author Sarina Bowen, who has written more than 30 contemporary novels and is cohost of the #amwriting podcast. She tells us the most important thing to remember when we think we are utterly stuck and shares with us tools from her “deep bag of tricks” for how to get unstuck.  We also talk about how genre writers are lik...

Like a lot of life plans over the past few weeks, this episode veered from our original schedule. We’d planned to discuss the joys and challenges of creating things with friends, but instead we found ourselves talking about these strange times. In this emergency episode of Emerging Form, we talk about how COVID-19 is changing what and how we write, and how it’s affecting all kinds of creative care...

In this bonus episode, we talk with memoirist and essayist Claire Dederer about the role of ambition in a writer’s life. She also discusses the different ways she responds to rejection, and how it differs when it comes from a professional source versus from a reader. She also talks about the writer’s imperative to write about difficult subjects, why it’s important it is to have clarity and distanc...

“We’re sorry, your work does not suit our needs at this time.” These words are so common. Rejection is a difficult reality for most (all?) writers and artists. So how do we handle rejection? Can we use it to improve our work? What does it have to tell us and teach us? In this episode, we talk about a useful phrase in the face of rejection, Christie’s Southeast Asia Problem, and one of the poetry w...

In this bonus episode, Sarah Knight talks about the four kinds of yessers, how she went from overachiever to having a fully operational no muscle, how to build “the gates of hell no” and then cultivate your own private “okay corral,” the calming effects of pina coladas, how her daily tweets might help you discover and maintain your own boundaries, and more. ** Please note that this episode contain...

It’s only two letters long, but the word “no” can be one of the hardest words to say out loud. In this episode, we talk about why no is every bit as important a word for a creative as yes. We’ll talk about earthworms, the trifecta of yes, how to strengthen your no muscle and Christmas candles. Then we interview the international bestselling “anti-guru” Sarah Knight, author of the No F*cks Given gu...

In this bonus episode, we continue our conversation with Thea Deley about creating on emotionally difficult topics. Thea talks about the one woman play she created about her struggles with her family and their religious belief system and about the issues that arise when addressing personal issues through art. Thea Deley  (photo of Thea by Mike Maxwell) This is a public episode. If you'd like to di...

As Mentioned in the Podcast: In this week’s podcast, we mentioned a poem I wrote about my dear friend Sally Estes when she was told she had three months to live. Here I am reading the poem. It’s also printed below. They Say It’s the Best Bloom in Ten Years          —Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer She wants to go see the bluebonnets, she says. This is after she tells me they’ve said she has three months...

Engaging in a creative project can be hard enough when the subject matter is fun. But what about when it’s emotionally taxing, too? In this episode, we talk about many techniques for working with topics that make us uneasy—from changing perspective to creating rituals. Then we talk with Thea Deley, speaker, writer and improviser, and ask her two questions: 1) When do you know you are ready to writ...

In this bonus episode, Sherry Richert Belul , happiness coach and founder of Simply Celebrate , talks with us about co-founding Secret Agents of Change , how even the way you walk to the office can be playful, and how it is that she came to find herself a happiness coach.  Want to make sure you receive every bonus episode? Subscribe to our newsletter! This is a public episode. If you'd like to dis...