Memoir Nation

This week, guest David Yoon joins us in a conversation that takes on often-fraught topics with humor and candor. We talk about why YA is such fertile ground for representative stories about race, culture, and identity, and David’s mission to bring more visibility to writers of color. We talk about his approach to writing and how he writes not for or to a particular genre, but to sort out the quest...

We’re diving into ego this week—including, yes, its benefits. All writers, after all, are ego-invested in their work. They want what they’re writing to be good, to have an impact, to be well received. In this week’s episode Grant and Brooke speak with Steve Almond about how his ego got in the way of the work he wanted to do, and also the way that we must contend with our egos when we write. There’...

This week we’re kicking off NaNoWriMo (Happy November) with a final bonus craft-minded episode. Grant and Brooke talk with thriller writer Andrea Bartz about her process—including the Pomodoro Method, creating fake deadlines, and writing discovery drafts. This is a perfect episode to GET YOU STARTED, which Andrea acknowledges is one of the hardest things a writer can do. This week’s show is also a...

Tune in this week to geek out on aesthetic. Maybe you’re a writer who’s changed your aesthetic, wants to, or a reader who’s noticed the evolving aesthetics of the writers you love. How and why does this happen? How can you invite change into your process? In addition to thinking about style and craft, Grant and Brooke speak with guest Lan Samantha Chang about writing and MFA programs, whether we’v...

As we make our way through our Craft-Minded series this fall, heading straight into NaNoWriMo, we have a special topic for memoirists—but which will benefit any writer who thinks about reflecting, musing, or meaning-making as a way to reach their readers’ minds and hearts. This week’s guest, Prince Shakur, takes us on a journey of how and why reflection matters, and offers examples and tips, too....

This week Write-minded is exploring the ways authors place themselves into stories with broader cultural or historical contexts. Guest Danyel Smith has done just that with her new genre-crossing book, Shine Bright , that’s both an examination of black female music artists and those artists’ impact on Danyel. Books like these are popular and often difficult to pull off, since writers must be aware...

As we continue on with our Craft-minded series, Write-minded is honored to have Jeff VanderMeer speaking about imagination and how to mine the depths of your imagination to make yourself a better writer. Jeff’s classic craft book, Wonderbook, is written for the “imaginative fiction writer” rather than the “realistic fiction writer,” so we’re taking a dive into imagination, into creativity. This is...

In this third of six episodes in the Craft-minded series, Grant and Brooke speak with guest Morgan Talty about story form and how to listen for what your book wants to be. If, as a writer, you believe in the power of being in conversation with your own book, you’ll find a lot of comfort in Morgan’s articulation of that relationship between self and creative output, in addition to concrete ideas ab...

This week kicks off a 6-week craft-minded series, starting with the great A.M. Holmes on characterization. In this episode we talk about dialogue, indirect and direct characterization, character tics, and how to pay attention to your own writing tics and “bad habits.” Homes is a seasoned writer of many books and teaches creative writing at Princeton, and she’s known for her depth and breadth of ch...

This week’s episode is a celebration of opinion, of boldly stating what you mean and what matters to you and why. Writing is an exercise in truth-telling, and when it’s your personal truth—no matter what your genre—it’s scary as hell. And while this week centers memoir, the episode is for anyone who’s trying to write what they think. It’s about why it matters that writers synthesize, interpret, ma...

In her profound and moving new memoir,  What My Bones Know,  guest Stephanie Foo writes about trauma, and about a diagnosis of Complex PTSD that is lacking first-person narratives. In this week’s episode, the first of Write-minded’s fifth year, co-hosts Brooke and Grant talk about why trauma is a slippery subject to sell to publishers, and why Stephanie’s book is a breakthrough kind of memoir that...

In our final summer episode, we bring you two voices of advocacy in an episode that will both stoke your passions and remind you to be gentle with yourself at the same time. Guests Charlie Jane Anders and Azar Nafisi both speak to why we must write our truths, pay attention, bear witness, and remember the power of one person’s voice and words to save and change lives. Learn more about your ad choi...

This week Write-minded revisits two powerful interviews in which guests Erica Jong and Lilly Dancyger shared with us about the power of emotion on the page. Erica Jong’s work has often centered fear and desire while Lilly Dancyger’s work has circled anger. Both women share the power of unlocking emotion on the page, and touch upon the ways in which women are expected to be more confined in their e...

This week’s episode is chock-full of craft tips and ideas for thinking about the subtle art of subtext and omission, featuring two of our favorite craft episodes from the past year. E.J. Koh and Charmaine Wilkerson will help you think about what to leave out, how to help your readers read between the lines, and why these craft techniques are an exercise in building trust with your readers. Two exc...

In this week’s remembrances of some of the best episodes of the past year, we’re highlighting fantasy’s importance as a genre with guests Kwame Mbalia and Namina Forna. There’s so much goodness packed in here—about process, about why we write, about inspirations, and some fabulous tips for staying the course even when you feel like you don’t have the time. This isn’t so much an episode about fanta...

All August we’re celebrating with our favorite guests of the past year—but with a fresh take on the topic at hand and a new book trend. This week’s episode basks in the smart, intimate, and insightful energy of Ashley C. Ford and Melissa Febos, two wonderful memoirists who share about writing intimate truths. Brooke gives her take on why memoir is a force that’s changing the culture, and we celebr...

Anthologies date all the way back to the Renaissance and earlier, when important works of various authors were collected and bound. This week, Brooke and Grant discuss the modern anthology—what kinds of works lend themselves to collections and what publishers are looking for. Guest Stephanie Raffelock joins the show to discuss her latest book, Art in the Time of Unbearable Crisis, a joint project...

Romance often gets the short-shrift for being not a serious genre, or for being a guilty pleasure—and yet, it’s the best-selling genre there is. Which is why Grant and Brooke chose to explore with Angelina Lopez, touching upon the sexiness of romance, yes, but also the fact that it’s so much more than that. Romance can be socially conscious, and importantly—there’s romance out there for every kind...

Do you have to be a comedian or a humorist to execute funny in memoir? We don’t think so—and this episode tackles how humor shows up in the everyday, in universal experiences, and through the journey of looking inward. Guest David Sipress, whose New Yorker cartoons are recognizable worldwide, talks about his own insecurities in approaching memoir and how he worked through them, how he mines for fu...

We’re having fun this holiday week talking about genre-blending and bending, and why it’s fun and freeing, but also often problematic from an industry standpoint when stories are not easily categorized. Join Brooke and Grant this week in their conversation with Barbara Graham, a long-time nonfiction writer who breaks the mold with her debut novel, and shares about how intuitive her process was, an...

This week’s episode brings to the fore why meaning in all its outward, bigger-than-a-single-individual forms is so profound in writing. The notion that your story is broader than your limited experience is something memoirists know, but too often fail to fully execute on the page. Kathryn Schulz is a master of this form. Tune in to hear about what Brooke calls “litle-T takeaway” and the conversati...

Omission—it’s something writers understand as meaningful to story, but don’t often execute well on the page. In this week’s episode, guest Charmaine Wilkerson offers solid pointers on how to think about omission and why it will make your writing more meaningful. Join Grant and Brooke for this week’s craft-based conversation on the power of omission as we consider some of the best books we’ve read...

Write-minded is celebrating Episode #200 and a move to be part of the Lit Hub Radio family this week with guest Linda Holmes, host of NPR’s  Pop Culture Happy Hour , who joins Grant and Brooke to talk about her recent novel, imposter syndrome, and following the path life offers up. This episode is a celebration of shape-shifting and getting bitten by the novel bug—with a fun guest who knows a thin...

Write-minded is honored to be celebrating a few milestones this week—with guest Zakiya Dalila Harris’s paperback release and our announcement that starting next week, we are joining the Lit Hub Radio family! It’s a perfect episode to talk about publishing, since Zakiya’s novel, The Other Black Girl, points a finger at the industry—and because there’s so much else to say. Also, since this week’s bo...

This week’s episode inspires and challenges and encourages all of us to embrace the magic of subversive reading. This conversation with Azar Nafisi, the best-selling author of  Reading Lolita in Tehran , about her new book,  Read Dangerously , is a reminder of what’s at stake for us right now in the US, why we need to engage and not check out, or worse, employ the same tactics as extremists in the...