Cabana Chats

In this episode, writer and teacher Cinelle Barnes talks with Resort founder Catherine LaSota about her background as a visual artist, her allegiances to particular NBA teams, and the through lines in her creative work. Cinelle Barnes is a formerly undocumented memoirist, essayist, and educator from Manila, Philippines, and is the author of MONSOON MANSION: A MEMOIR (Little A, 2018, Booklist starr...

In this episode, writer Rachel Khong talks with Resort founder Catherine LaSota about the joy of a good San Francisco walk, the community of the Ruby, and Rachel's awesome system for marking progress in her writing (it involves a ruler and coloring inside the lines).  Rachel Khong is a writer living in San Francisco. Her debut novel, Goodbye, Vitamin , won the 2017 California Book Award for F...

In this episode, writer and editor Matt Ortile talks with Resort founder Catherine LaSota about cooking, video games, and the pressure to monetize anything you are good at. They also talk about how Matt’s knowledge of the publishing process via his work as an editor is both a privilege and a challenge in his own writing process. Matt Ortile is the author of the essay collection The Groom Will Keep...

In this episode, writer and teacher Emily Stone talks with Resort founder Catherine LaSota about her life in Los Angeles, the ways her teaching practice has grown and developed during the pandemic, and how there are some things we simply cannot do alone as writers. Emily and Catherine also talk about astrology, aging, and raccoons. Born in New Orleans and raised in Brooklyn, Emily Stone is a write...

On episode four of our second season, we bring you a conversation with writer and professor Jason Tougaw. In this episode, Jason Tougaw , author of The One You Get: Portrait of a Family Organism , and Professor of English and Creative Writing at Queens College, CUNY, talks with Resort founder Catherine LaSota about his journey from California to New York, the unexpected encounters that follow writ...

On episode three of our second season, we bring you a conversation with writer, and Resort teacher, Amy Jo Burns. In this episode, Amy Jo Burns , author of Shiner and Cinderland , talks with Resort founder Catherine LaSota about her process of note-taking and working with tone in her writing, and the importance of community in a writer's life. Amy Jo and Catherine also talk about baths, old shoes,...

It's season two, episode two of Cabana Chats! In this episode, the amazing Lisa Lucas, Senior Vice President and Publisher of Pantheon and Schocken Books, chats with Resort founder Catherine LaSota about the importance of maintaining a whole life outside of one's work, what she reads for pleasure, and their love for the physical objects of books (as well as Lisa's ability to always be giving away...

Welcome to season two of Cabana Chats! We are thrilled to bring you a conversation with writer, editor, and literary organization professional Halimah Marcus in this first episode of the season. In this episode, Halimah Marcus , Executive Director of Electric Literature , talks with Resort founder Catherine LaSota about city life and country life, leaning on your community for support with big new...

Join us for a special, between-seasons Bonus Episode of the Cabana Chats podcast! This episode features a recording of a January 29, 2022 event that we held on Zoom: our four Fall 2021 Resort Fellows (Mai Tran, Lourdes Dolores Follins, Jaysen Henderson-Greenbey, and Dasia Moore) all read briefly from their amazing work, and then Resort founder Catherine LaSota is in conversation with the fellows f...

For our final episode of season one of Cabana Chats, podcast host and Resort founder Catherine LaSota turns the spotlight on five members of the Resort community who are also wonderful writers in our Cabana Club membership program for writers! Victoria, Nicole, Ian, Jules, and Devin reflect on what community has meant to them and their writing over the past year, and their goals for the year ahead...

In our fourteenth full episode of Cabana Chats, writer and cultural organizer MARS talks with Resort founder Catherine LaSota about their love for Detroit, the possibilities that can be created in moments of tension, and the importance of carving out and protecting dedicated writing time, especially when you are so committed to your other work and to your community. Bonus: Catherine conducted this...

In our thirteenth full episode of Cabana Chats, writer and editor Sari Botton talks with Resort founder Catherine LaSota about co-working spaces for writers, the importance of building a community around you, and how aging can mean different things to different people. If you want the full experience of this conversation, we recommend listening while enjoying a pizza around a fire with some friend...

Our twelfth episode of Cabana Chats is a throwback! In 2018, Resort founder Catherine LaSota chatted with the incredible writer Min Jin Lee, in Catherine's then-office on the campus of Columbia University. This episode features the recording of that conversation, in which Min Jin Lee compares the best writing projects to love affairs and talks about how parenthood irrevocably changes you. There is...

In this eleventh full episode of Cabana Chats, writer Amy Shearn talks with Resort founder Catherine LaSota about how our life circumstances impact our writing, and the joy of finding writing that speaks to you and connecting with strangers via your own writing. Some possible podcast spinoff ideas are also discussed! Also -- is Amy alien or human? You'll have to listen to find out! Amy Shearn is t...

Our tenth full episode of Cabana Chats is a special LIVE event episode, featuring a conversation we had with writer Leigh Stein as part of the 2021 Brooklyn Book Festival Bookends program. Leigh chats with us about how she conceived of, wrote, and published her newest poetry collection, What to Miss When , entirely during the pandemic, in 2020. We talk about how much community came into play in pu...

In this ninth full episode of Cabana Chats, we bring you a conversation with Eleanor Whitney, on walking, zine culture, and living both in the city and in the desert, among many other topics. Eleanor Whitney is a writer, editor, community builder, and content strategist. Through writing, speaking, and leading workshops, she creates space for people to reflect on their own experiences and inspire t...

On this very brief episode, Cabana Chats host Catherine LaSota pops in just to say hey and share a few thoughts about what community, and The Resort, has meant to her over the past year+, and to share that Cabana Chats interview episodes may slow down in frequency a little bit this season while we are busy preparing for lots of new awesomeness at The Resort in the new year. Check out the free onli...

In this eighth episode of Cabana Chats, we bring you a conversation with Hannah Bae, on being a generous community member, fighting the impulse to hoard resources, and the permission to take a break once in a while. And we talk about food a little bit, as well as many of the writers who inspire us. Hannah Bae is a freelance journalist and nonfiction writer who is at work on a memoir about family e...

In this seventh episode of Cabana Chats, we bring you a conversation full of awesome information about the ins and outs of the publishing world, and many years of the wonderful Minorities in Publishing podcast (and newsletter), with the fabulous Jennifer Baker. We also talk about just needing a break! Jennifer Baker was named the 2019 Publishers Weekly Star Watch “SuperStar” because her “varied wo...

In this sixth episode of Cabana Chats, we bring you a conversation with Tracy O'Neill, on acclimating to new jobs during a pandemic, the importance of eavesdropping, and the fact that even when you are not writing, you are writing. Also, sandwiches are important. Tracy O'Neill is the author of  The Hopeful,  one of  Electric Literature' s Best Novels of 2015, and  Quotients , a...

In this fifth episode of Cabana Chats, we bring you a conversation on the importance of accountability, the ways that genres inform one another, and the awesomeness of the individual writers who support us, with the wonderful writer and person Michele Filgate! Michele Filgate is a contributing editor at Literary Hub and the editor of the critically acclaimed anthology What My Mother and I Don’t Ta...

In this fourth episode of Cabana Chats, we bring you a conversation on the attraction of New York City, the complexities of curating events, and baseball as a writing metaphor, with writer and teacher Brian Gresko! Brian Gresko (he/they) is a writer based in Brooklyn, and the editor of the anthology When I First Held You: 22 Critically Acclaimed Writers Talk About the Triumphs, Challenges, and Tra...

In this third episode of Cabana Chats, we bring you a conversation on the fluidity of communities, the many ways one can enter the publishing world, and the importance of building a community of supporters for yourself, with writer/editor Nadxi Nieto! Nadxi Nieto is an Executive Editor at Flatiron Books and serves on the board of Latinx in Publishing, and she has held a wide variety of jobs in the...

It's our SECOND episode of Cabana Chats, a podcast about writing and community, brought to you by The Resort ! This episode features an interview with Hala Alyan , author of the novels Salt Houses and The Arsonists' City , as well as several collections of poetry, most recently The Twenty-Ninth Year . Hala lives in Brooklyn and works as a clinical psychologist. Hala chats with host Catherine LaSot...

Welcome to the first episode of Cabana Chats , a podcast about writing and community, brought to you by The Resort ! Our first episode features an interview with Courtney Maum , author of the novels Costalegre , Touch , and I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You , as well as her popular guidebook for writers, Before and After the Book Deal: Finishing, Publishing, Promoting, and Surviving Your Fi...