The Queer & Trans Nonfiction Podcast

Episode 22 features Neesha Powell-Ingabire, author of Come By Here: A Memoir in Essays from Georgia's Geechee Coast. We discuss a wide variety of topics such as: starting to write at a young age, learning to incorporate personal reflection into journalistic writing, journalism in solidarity with social justice movements, hybrid memoirs, trying different styles and forms of prose based on prompts,...

Planning to travel or itching to book your next trip? Thinking about writing travel narrative? Tune into episode 21 where I chat with Lindsey Danis about their book (Out) On the Road and topics such as: weaving research and interviews into personal stories, Louisiana’s bathroom bills, Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay,” collecting and organizing a large volume of sources and information, the flaws of the L...

On episode 20 of the QT Nonfiction Podcast, I chat with Lynette D'Amico about a variety of topics such as: passport gender markers, the role of the trans person’s partner during transition, examining self-assigned labels during moments of major life change, embracing an “off-putting” title, resisting a chronological structure, incorporating quotes or verses or lyrics in creative nonfiction, explor...

On this episode of the QT Nonfiction Podcast, I'm in conversation with author and artist Komail Aijazuddin on a variety of topics such as: recording an audiobook, a narrator’s consistent tone, balancing childhood experiences with adult reflection on the page, specificity leading to universality, characterizing real people by their relation to us, writing about sexuality as a Pakastani without cent...

On episode 18 of the QT Nonfiction Podcast, I chat with Denne Michele Norris about a wide range of topics such as: leading a major literary outlet/nonprofit, what kind of work Electric Lit is looking to publish, the need for more trans people of color’s voices in the literary/publishing world, organizing an anthology into thematic sections, naturally choosing the final essay of an anthology, trans...

An equally funny and insightful conversation with writer and actor Jesse James Rose, in which we discuss topics such as: the inclusion of content warnings, the ways in which sexual violence is portrayed in media, developing a style of prose that mimics the feeling of PTSD, humor as hope, EMDR therapy, braiding together themes or topics that are not necessarily related outside the narrative, who ge...

Listen in on my conversation with Lamya H, the brilliant author of Hijab Butch Blues, as we discuss topics such as: writing as a means of placing our rage somewhere, first book timelines vs. second book timelines, the power (and complicated history) of the word “dyke,” paying homage to queer and trans writing ancestors, the intimacy of the present tense, the concept of “jinn” in Islam, feeling sim...

On the first ever live episode of the QT Nonfiction Podcast, writer J Brooke and I chat at Philly's own Giovanni's Room bookstore about their new poetry collection, I Can Tell You the Version that Will Make You Take My Side. Topics discussed include: deciding how to section a book of poetry, arriving at a different title than the original, listening to editors, normalizing the concept of gender as...

On the first ever "Now That's What I Call an Ally!" episode of the QT Nonfiction Podcast, I chat with author and ally Heather McCalden on a myriad of topics such as: instinctual creative output, getting sick of your own work during the editing process, viewing the threads of a text as forming a “DNA strand,” using extended metaphor to describe the things we can’t otherwise explain, writing a fragm...

On this episode of the QT Nonfiction Podcast, we celebrate the release of Homosexual Intifada: A Queer Palestinian Anthology with editors George Abraham and Hannah Moushabeck. Our discussion spans many topics such as: the bonds within queer Palestinian community, the trust of working with friends editorially, common themes and threads organically coming up in submission drafts for an all-genre ant...

On this special Genre Switch episode, I chat with poet Dr. Kelsey L. Smoot about topics such as: book tours, poetic texting, incorporating poetry into academic writing, re-framing the ways we define “love,” the politics of blurbing, determining the order and flow of a collection, considering the corporeal in trans poetics, form reflecting content, conveying imperfection on the page, speaking your...

A fun and enlightening conversation with writer and historian, Hugh Ryan, in which we discuss: approaching personal nonfiction vs. researched historical nonfiction, examining through writing the moments and memories in our lives we constantly think about, reading against the archive when researching queer histories, crafting an intimate reader experience, disagreeing with or contradicting the self...

My good friend and writer Mackenzie Kwok (who also makes music under her artist name, Lin), joins the conversation in episode 10. We discuss tons of topics such as: the crossover between the disciplines of writing and music, defining “folklore” and “folk and traditional arts,” Asian hate during Covid, the allure of the American Girl Doll universe in the 90s and 2000s, fictional characters with his...

Multi-memoirist Edgar Gomez is our special guest for episode 9 of the QT Nonfiction Pod! Listen in as we discuss topics such as: Substack, the importance of a good title, writing for the self instead of an audience, queerness as a privilege, getting from one published memoir to a second, sounding confident in a book proposal, self-promotion as a skill, the joy of meeting your readers, balancing ch...

On episode 8 of the QT Nonfiction Podcast, Aubrey Hirsch and I discuss a wide range of topics such as: the accessibility of information in graphic nonfiction, colors and images in the attention economy, whittling down research to the absolute most important points, the helpful confines of short form, service journalism, infusing humor into graphic nonfiction on heavy topics as a means of acknowled...

A thoughtful discussion with author Carvell Wallace on topics such as: love and beauty as a means of healing from trauma, finding and collecting bits of life to share with others, form reflecting content, distinguishing the difference between child and adult narration, essay as exploration or asking "what's missing?", the ongoing tragedies of masculinity, run-on sentences, 2nd person point of view...

On this episode of the QT Nonfiction Podcast, Zoë Bossiere and I discuss topics such as: the formula for a successful flash nonfiction piece, editing an anthology of contemporary creative nonfiction, beginning a memoir with a photo, writing a setting that is alive and immersive, home video as helpful archive, generational differences in queer longing, determining the right time to share drafts wit...

Listen in as D/Annie Liontas and I discuss navigating transition on the page, writing while “on fire,” work belonging to the reader once it’s published, striking the perfect balance of research and the personal, establishing language for brain injury, 2nd person POV, writing as resistance to erasure, turning people from your real life (living or dead) into “characters,” describing symptoms of a di...

On the first ever Genre Switch episode of the QT Nonfiction pod, Mac Crane and I discuss their novel A Sharp Endless Need, as well as experimenting with form as a way to access deeper truths, interpersonal stakes in CNF, autofiction, non-traditional book structure, writing the friends-to-more-than-friends queer pipeline, the inherent eroticism of sports, shame vs. guilt, sex scenes, the motivation...

On episode 3 of the QT Nonfiction Pod, Jean Grae and I discuss unmasking the self while writing a memoir, creative output as “the next logical step,” audiobooks, genuine narrative voice, place as more than just setting, writing about feeling eternally displaced, exploring abstract ideas through smaller, concrete things, repetition, the capitalism of it all, older generations finding language for q...

On episode 2 of the QT Nonfiction Pod, Richard Scott Larson and I discuss his memoir, The Long Hallway, as well as topics like braiding parallel narratives, attempting to write a novel and realizing it needs to be CNF, blending memoir and cultural critique of a single film for the entire length of a book, horror as a reenactment of the repressed, writing queer isolation and voyeurism, craft vs. co...

The inaugural episode of the QT Nonfiction Pod, featuring a conversation with author KB Brookins during which we discuss KB's journey as a writer, their inspirations, using footnotes, representation, telling our own stories instead of letting others tell them for us, putting top surgery contemplation on the page, weaving poetry into memoir, telling the truth in CNF even when it paints us in a not-...

An introduction from host and author, Jackie Domenus, explaining the who, the what, and the why behind the QT Nonfiction Podcast. Intro/Outro Music by Lin Lin's Bandcamp Lin's Spotify