First Person Present

Sparkling wine, the New York Knicks, and a pair of heels you absolutely cannot walk in. In this episode, Josh and Dasha get deep into the undefined territory of writer's voice—what's the actual definition, whether you can find it or whether it's already found you, and why trying to write like the writers you love might be the most seductive trap in the craft. Plus, a Reddit post from a...

A bottle of heretical French wine, a five-year taste arc, and a 1,000-page German novel put down out of sheer pettiness. In this episode, Josh and Dasha trace the evolution of a writing sensibility: from angular Hemingway sentences to something velvety and unnecessary, like a Californian Pinot Noir. Then: an anonymous listener asks how you know when a poem is done, and whether every word has to hi...

Banana pudding guilt, a stalker, and a trip back to Michigan that refused to cooperate. In this episode, Josh and Dasha wade into the murky gap between a research trip and a writing residency—and why confusing the two might be the cruelest thing you can do to yourself. Then, the triumphant return of Reddit dot com, where writers explain “why they stop writing (only the truth).” Call in with questi...

Recorded live on the busiest day of AWP 26 in Baltimore, Josh and Dasha drag a microphone onto the conference floor—ambient noise, raised voices, a missing scarf, and all—for the first of two episodes from the convention. In between the chaos, a conversation about what AWP actually feels like from the inside: the surprising generosity of writers in person versus online, the live blog Josh has been...

Crowded trains, rolled manuscripts, and ten stolen minutes with a sleeping baby—Part 2 of First Person Present’s special Night Moves episode opens with an honest look at what a writing practice actually looks like when life refuses to cooperate. Dasha reports from the trenches of a major draft milestone, describing the particular satisfaction of physically wrestling with a printed manuscript on a...

Can subtlety be taught, or is it something a writer either has or doesn't? In this late-night edition of First Person Present, Josh and Dasha crack open a bottle of wine, announce a shift to biweekly episodes ahead of AWP, and wrestle with the question every writer dreads—what if the kind of writing you most admire isn't the kind you're built to produce? Dasha reveals her revision road...

Full show notes on our website. A snowstorm, a little free library discovery, and the eternal question of creative fidelity collide as Josh and Dasha experiment with something new: live Reddit questions about the craft. But first, Dasha reports a development that would make Hemingway wince—she's started a short story while supposedly committed to a decade-long novel project. Is this creative a...

Call in with your question For inquiries: https://www.heweshouse.com/ The holidays are over, obligations are piling up, and the buffet of overthinking is open for business. In this episode, Josh and Dasha dive into the peculiar vertigo of early-year overstimulation—that state where thoughts loop like a broken record and writing about yourself only amplifies the chaos. Is this mania? Is this just b...

Paper versus pixels, telekinesis versus typing, and an unexpectedly heated polemic against Charles Dickens that absolutely nobody asked for. In this episode of First Person Present, Josh and Dasha explore the tactile, vulnerable act of writing by hand in an increasingly digital age, and why the process of typing up handwritten drafts might be more valuable than you think. Fresh off their first Hew...

Dry January, the Year of the Red Horse, and the unexpected productivity of writing longhand in busy airports open Season 2 of First Person Present. When routine becomes stale and your home office starts feeling like a creative prison, what happens if you embrace the "scrappy performative energy" of public writing, even if it makes you feel exposed? (Exhibitionism, anybody?) Josh and Dash...

When brilliant ideas feel perfect in your head but turn "stale and ugly" on the page, is the problem your execution—or your expectations? Josh and Dasha tackle a writer's confession about motivation, world events, and the seductive comfort of ideation over actual writing. The conversation spirals into Ira Glass's famous gap between taste and execution, the dangerous pleasure of keeping ideas prist...

Episode Description Brain fog, baby preparation, and the brutal honesty of Reddit comments converge in a conversation about what happens when life's major changes collide with a writing practice you've maintained for years. Can discipline and self-compassion coexist? And when does productive routine become unsustainable perfectionism? Josh and Dasha wrestle with the culture of self-permission in 2...

Facebook Marketplace truck negotiations and café tethering lead to a deeper conversation about the habits we practice—both the ones that serve our writing and the ones that sabotage it. When life gets scattered, so does the writing schedule, but the real revelation comes from recognizing how skillfully we can master avoidance behaviors without even noticing. From Annie Dillard's wisdom about how w...

Episode Description What do psychedelic concert visuals, furniture shopping, and Raymond Carver's comma obsession have in common? They're all ways writers process the concept of spectacle—and avoid talking about revision while actually talking about revision the entire time. From King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard's mass hypnosis event to the masculine ambition of doorstop novels, Josh and Dasha e...

Seven drafts. Four years. One novel that refuses to surrender. In the inaugural episode of First Person Present, we step into the vulnerable territory where craft meets psychology, exploring why revision feels like such an emotional battlefield, and how our relationship with our own work can become our greatest obstacle. Through candid conversation about their current projects, Hewes House writing...