Emerging Form

How could embracing change help grow and develop your creative practice? We speak with best-selling author Brad Stulberg about “rugged flexibility” and new definitions for stability, how your expectations might be inhibiting your creativity, how the way you define yourself limits or grows your creative potential, and much more. We also discuss why it sometimes sucks to succeed. Brad Stulberg is th...

What happens when science, spirituality and poetry weave together? We speak with heralded poet David Keplinger about his newest poetry collection, Ice , which he playfully describes as “poetry via the Pleistocene.” The book, and our conversation, explores emergence–the emergence of Ice Age animals once preserved in ice and the emergence of feelings and old versions of the self as the heart melts w...

Versatility in writing across genres can be a great blessing for a writer, and in this episode we speak with Cameron Walker who works as a journalist, writes poetry and fiction, and has two books coming out this year—one, a book of essays, and the other is an illustrated book for kids about US National Monuments. We speak about how to push yourself in different genres, the importance of trust in y...

This episode is all about passion. What happens when a curiosity takes on a life of its own? How do you juggle a passion project with a full-time job? What are the benefits to working alone? How do you determine a project has chops? We speak with Christine Laskowski , who recently launched an independent passion project, T&J , a podcast devoted to 6th century Byzantium and the greatest recorded lo...

Creative projects have a habit of taking on their own lives and bringing the creator along for the ride. In this episode, we speak with science writer Melissa L. Sevigny about how her book Brave the Wild River: The untold story of two women who mapped the botany of the Grand Canyon surprised her and required her to tell a story different from the one she set out to write. She also shares how she m...

Staying Open to Meet the Moment with Rosemerry on Breathing Wind A special surprise! This week, instead of hearing Rosemerry as an interviewer, you can hear her as an interviewee, talking about the intersection of creativity and grief on Breathing Wind , a wonderful podcast that offers “warm, honest and insightful conversations for journeying introspectively through grief and loss.” Hosts Naila Fr...

Writing a memoir is so much more than writing down memories–it’s shedding layers of stories we’ve told ourselves for years, seeing ourselves in unflattering lights, opening up to compassion, and exposing our underbelly. And it’s powerful medicine. In this episode, we talk with Laura Davis about the story behind her memoir, The Burning Light of Two Stars : A Mother-Daughter Story. In her blunt, bra...

For Phyllis Cole-Dai, mindfulness is “keeping my head and my heart where my body is … here and now.” In this interview with the poet, writer, community leader, and editor of the popular Poetry of Presence anthologies, we explore the role of mindfulness in a writing practice and how mindfulness helps our writing be in service to a larger community. How can our creative practice help further social...

What happens to our writing when we begin with an I-don’t-know mindset? Our work becomes more loose, more fresh, more playful, more true. We speak with authors and teachers James Navé and Allegra Huston about their book Write What You Don’t Know: 10 Steps to Writing with Confidence, Energy, and Flow . It’s a practical and fun episode with many tips for escaping the rational mind and allowing your...

Artificial intelligence is affecting creative industries–for instance Hollywood screenwriters–and frustrating creative writing instructors with papers turned in composed by ChatGPT. How dangers is AI to creative careers? Can it be helpful? How do we move forward in a world where human creativity and technology work together? What is the creative’s role in building a bridge between AI and the rest...

How do we share our art with the world? In this episode of Emerging Form, singer/songwriter and incredible performer Emily Scott Robinson talks about the creativity of connecting. How do we help our audience feel seen? How can “mistakes” create bonding? How do we change energy that feels “off”? How do you make the same material feel fresh for yourself time after time? It’s a practical, heart-openi...

What business skills are most helpful for a creative career? And if you didn’t get a business degree, how might you best get these skills? Who might you rely on? How can you find play and creativity in the business side of your artistic dreams? We speak about this and more with fine art photographer Marisa S. White, co-founder of the True North Art Gallery. Marisa S. White is an award-winning arti...

When Laura Tohe went to school in the Navajo Nation, there were no books by Native writers for her to read. “That was an invisibility I grew up with,” she says. She knew she wanted to be a writer, she just didn’t know how. In this episode of Emerging Form, we talk with Tohe about how she found support from writers such as Joy Harjo, Simon Ortiz and Rudofo Anaya who encouraged her to write about wh...

How do you create a project that at the same time reaches toward grief and toward joy? What does it ask of our creative practice? What does it take, practically speaking, to make it feel cohesive? In this special episode of Emerging Form, the co-hosts talk about Rosemerry’s new book, All the Honey , which releases April 18 from Samara Press. They talk about how to select poems for a collection and...

Instead of sweating the small stuff, what if we honor the small stuff–with curiosity, with wonder. In this episode of Emerging Form, we talk with podcaster and video editor Flora Lichtman about her work as host for the listener call-in podcast “Every Little Thing,” which was essentially an “exercise in curiosity.” We discuss who can best tell a story? How do we most courageously and interestingly...

One of the best ways to support your creative practice? Try new things . In this episode, David Epstein , author of the New York Times #1 best seller Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World , talks about why many streams of interest, novelty, and beginner’s mind are important. The conversation touches on science, music, sports, art and even parenting. Highlights: Epstein debunks the...

How can you invite pleasure to be a part of your creative practice? In this bonus episode with professor and poet Brad Aaron Modlin we talk about his heart-opening, blood pumping, joy-raising way to start a creative day; ways to dismantle our fear of not being good enough; and how changing the genre can open surprising doors.  Brad Aaron Modlin ’s book Everyone at This Party Has Two Names won The...

What kinds of creative habits work best for you? How do different practices bring out a new flavor or new thrill in your art? We talk with professor and poet Brad Aaron Modlin, the Reynolds Endowed Chair of Creative Writing at University of Nebraska, Kearney , about various challenges and approaches he’s used with his students. We also talk about how engaging with strangers is an important part of...

If you’ve noticed that being outside improves your creativity, you’re right. We speak with Florence Williams about the science of awe, why cultivating openness is your muse’s best friend, and specific ways to nourish your creative practice by engaging with the natural world. We also talk about the writing of her new book, in which she studies how we recover from heartbreak. It’s an episode that ap...

“Put on your zeitgeist hat,” says Holiday Mathis, syndicated astrologer and author of How to Fail Epically in Hollywood, “then pour everything you can into the part of your art you can control.” In this episode of Emerging Form, we talk about how to gather “textures” from daily life for creative practice, what she’s learned from writing, editing, publishing and narrating her new novel, the importa...

Lauren Fleshman knows firsthand the challenges of being a female runner, and how some of the greatest challenges come from the system meant to support athletes. In this episode of Emerging Form, she talks about how and why she came to write her memoir, “bringing a pulse to the research.” She tells us about the challenges of trying to write a book during a global pandemic while parenting young chil...

How can looking back at your creative practice over the last year help steer you forward into next year’s creative practice? Join Christie and Rosemerry as they do their annual review of things they’d hoped might happen, what really happened and where they think their creative lives are going next. The conversation reveals several epiphanies about creative practice vs. career, what really matters,...

“Art gathers  us,” says poet aaron a. abeyta. In this episode, we talk with the celebrated poet about his newest collection of poems and letters, ancestor of fire . In this episode, focus on what is the work of the writer? How do we save language? What are the benefits of writing longhand? How do we give voice to what is broken? How does repetition echo storytelling? Why is it important to write w...

Paying attention is an essential part of creative practice, and in this episode, we speak with comedian and TV writer Chris Duffy about how he transforms what he notices into a career in comedy. He also talks about why jokes and poems are versions of the same thing, how to structure a comedy set, why math is so important to comedy, how to maximize a laugh, the importance of vulnerability and how t...

Image: Rosemerry and her daughter definitely succeeded in making a delicious chocolate beet birthday cake. What is success? How have your ideas about success changed over time? Who is someone you think of when you think of a successful person in your field? How has their success made an impact on you? What risks have you taken for success?  In this conversation, co-hosts Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer...