DIY MFA Radio

Hey there word nerds! Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Natasha Scripture. Natasha is an author, poet, humanitarian, and former aid worker. As a spokesperson for the United Nations, she covered humanitarian crises around the world and before the UN she worked for a variety of organizations, including the BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera English, the World Bank, TED, National Geographic, and Condé Nas...

Hey there word nerds! You might be doing a double-take right now because this episode is airing on a Thursday and not on Wednesday like our usual schedule. In fact, this is a bonus episode to celebrate the 5-year anniversary of DIY MFA. That's right… exactly five years ago today, we announced this podcast to the world. Since then, we have released a new episode every single Wednesday like clockwor...

Hey there word nerds! Today I have the pleasure of introducing you to our guest, the award-winning journalist, essayist, and poet Marybeth Niederkorn. Marybeth's work has appeared in The Gasconade Review , Trailer Park Quarterly , Red Fez , and others. A Southeast Missouri native, her work is expressive of her background and roots while still managing to be kind of hilarious. Educated at Southeast...

  Hey there word nerds! Today is one of my absolute favorite episodes of the year because it's our annual ThrillerFest Debut Authors panel and I am so delighted to have August Norman, D.A. Bartley, Paula Munier, and John McMahon on the show. Every year, I have the pleasure of attending ThrillerFest, which is a fabulous conference put on by the International Thriller Writers (ITW). I've attended ev...

Hey there word nerds! Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Fonda Lee on the show. Fonda is a recovering corporate strategist, black belt martial artist, and an action movie aficionado as well as the author of several highly acclaimed books of fantasy and science fiction, such as the young adult sci-fi novels Zeroboxer , Exo, and Cross Fire .  Her work has been nominated for several awards, i...

Hey there word nerds! Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Aileen Erin on the show. Aileen is half-Irish, half-Mexican, and 100% nerd. From Star Wars (prequels don't count) to Star Trek , she has a severe fascination with the speculative and supernatural.  This fascination led her into writing, but after Twilight , Aileen was told that nobody wanted to read another vampire or werewolf story....

Hey there word nerds! Today I have the pleasure of welcoming Mark Mayer to the show. Mark is an author and has an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where he was a Michener-Copernicus Fellow, and holds a PhD from the University of Denver. He was also the Robert P. Dana Emerging Writer-in-Residence at Cornell College's Center for the Literary Arts from 2012-2014. His stories have appeared in Amer...

Hey there word nerds! Today I have the pleasure of interviewing Dan Stout on the show. Dan is an author who writes about fever dreams and half-glimpsed shapes in the shadows. His prize-winning fiction draws on travels throughout Europe, Asia, and the Pacific Rim as well as an employment history spanning everything from subpoena server to assistant well driller.  Dan's stories have appeared in publ...

Hey there word nerds! Today I am delighted to have  Dylan Meconis on the show. Dylan is a cartoonist, writer, and illustrator. While she has pursued visual art since she could hold a crayon steady, her formal education has been concentrated in the liberal arts. She studied Western history, literature, philosophy, and French in the College of Letters at Wesleyan University, where she soaked up in-d...

Hey there word nerds! Today I have the pleasure of hosting Kelsey Ramsden on the show. I have long admired Kelsey's work as she moves the earth, literally and figuratively. She has been named Canada's top female entrepreneur by PROFIT, not once but twice. And Forbes calls her a "master builder of ideas, businesses and sky's the limit futures." She has received numerous awards for her businesses in...

Hey there word nerds! Today I have the pleasure of hosting Lenore Appelhans on the show! Lenore is the author of several books for children and teens. Her work has received honors such as appearing on the Bank Street Best Books list, winning a SCBWI Crystal Kite award, and getting featured on boxes of Cheerios. Her newest book the YA novel, The Manic Pixie Dream Boy Improvement Project , (which I...

Hey there word nerds! Today I have the pleasure of hosting Lee Tobin McClain on the show! Lee is the Publisher's Weekly bestselling author of eight contemporary romances for Harlequin Love Inspired as well as twenty independently-published novels and novellas. She also recently contracted with Harlequin HQN to write three mainstream romance novels, the Safe Haven series, of which the first and sec...

Hey there word nerds! Today I have the pleasure of having Rob Eagar on the show! Rob is a marketing consultant and author who has coached over 600 authors and helped both fiction and nonfiction books hit the New York Times bestseller lists. He is the author of The Author's Guide book series which includes The Author's Guide to Email Marketing , The Author's Guide to Write Text that Sells Books and...

Hey there word nerds! Today I have the pleasure of hosting Jodi Thomas on the show! Jodi is both a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over 50 novels and countless short story collections. With five RITA's to her credit, along with National Readers' Choice Awards and Booksellers' Best Awards, Jodi has proven her skill as a master storyteller, and in July 2006, was the 11th writer to...

Hey there word nerds! Today I have the pleasure of hosting Sam Sykes on the show! Sam is the author of multiple books of fantasy, including the Bring Down Heaven trilogy, the Affinity for Steel trilogy and comics such as Brave Chef Brianna . He currently lives in the United States with his two hounds and, at any given time, is probably yelling at something inanimate. Sam looks forward to being one...

Hey there word nerds! Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Patrice Gopo on the show! The daughter of Jamaican immigrants who was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, Patrice is a personal essayist and often writes about topics of race, immigration, and belonging. Her essays have appeared in numerous publications including Catapult and The New York Times . She also has had radio commentaries...

Hey there word nerds! Today I have the pleasure of interviewing Patricia Davids on the show! Born and raised in Kansas, Pat was an NICU nurse for forty years, before switching careers to become an inspirational writer. She is now a USA Today best-selling author of Amish romance, enjoys playing with her dogs (who think fetch should be a twenty-four hour a day game) and happily dreaming up new stori...

Hey there word nerds! Today I have the absolute pleasure of hosting Jon Land on the show! You may remember Jon from a previous episode where he took part in a round table interview  live from last year's ThrillerFest along with two other bestselling thriller authors: Lisa Gardner and Karin Slaughter. Today though he's here solo to let me pick his brain and give you his own nuggets of writing wisdo...

Hey there word nerds! Today I am delighted to have Tiffany Reisz on the show! Tiffany is the USA Toda y bestselling author of the Romance Writers of America's RITA®-winning Original Sinners series from Harlequin's Mira Books. She has also received a Lambda Award in Gay Fiction for her novel The King and two Romantic Times Editor's Choice Awards for Best Erotic Romance and Best Series Romance. Her...

Hey there word nerds! Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Janet Pocorobba on the show! Janet is a former features writer and editor at Metropolis magazine in Tokyo, whose memoirs, essays and reviews have appeared in many notable publications such as The Rumpus , The Writer , and Kyoto Journal . She is the author of the memoir, The Fourth String: A Memoir of Sensei and Me , which is now avai...

Hey there word nerds! Today I have the pleasure of hosting Rowenna Miller on the show! Rowenna is a midwestern born and raised fantasy author and has a Master's in English Film and Literature because she can't shut up about stories. She is also a historical reenactor and seamstress, specializing in the late eighteenth century, and writes fantasy shamelessly inspired by her love of history, especia...

Hey there word nerds! Today's episode is extra-awesome because I'm speaking with not one, not two, but three fabulous ladies, who have had hand in bringing a truly buzz-worthy novel to life, on the show! First we have author Samantha Downing, whose debut novel My Lovely Wife has been getting a lot of attention. When she was a kid, Samantha's mom brought her to the library every two weeks, where sh...

Hey there word nerds! Today we have a little change of pace in store for you. As you may recall, when I'm at different conferences, I'll sometimes record a live-from-the-conference interview, and this happens to be one of those episodes! This interview was recorded in front of a LIVE studio audience at INBOUND 2018. Now, if you're not familiar with INBOUND, it's a fantastic conference hosted by Hu...

Hey there word nerds! Today I have the absolute pleasure of hosting New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Heather Graham on the show! A theater arts major at the University of South Florida, Heather began her career with several years in dinner theater, back-up vocals and bartending. After the birth of her third child, she decided to stay home and that's when she began to write. Since t...

Hey there word nerds! Today I have the absolute pleasure of speaking with co-authors Anita Sarkeesian and Ebony Adams on the show! Anita is an award-winning media critic and the creator and executive director of Feminist Frequency, an educational nonprofit that explores the representations of women in pop culture narratives. She is best known as the creator and host of the highly influential video...