The Creative Nonfiction Podcast with Brendan O'Meara

It's The Creative Nonfiction Podcast where I speak with the world’s best writers, freelancers, interviewers, authors, and documentary filmmakers about WHY and HOW they go about creating works of nonfiction and how YOU can apply what they do to your work. Today’s guest is Joe Ferraro, the fourth Joe I’ve had on the podcast (Joe DePaulo, Joe Drape, Joe Donahue, and now Joe Ferraro). Need a Josephine...

Joe Donahue hosts The Book Show and The Roundtable for WAMC Northeast Public Radio out of Albany, New York. He's the best interviewer you've likely never heard of, and it was a distinct pleasure to speak with him again. "My job really is to present a person and get to the bottom of them, if you will," he says, "and ask questions that hopefully people want answered." He learned from Larry King, Fre...

Sonja Livingston stopped by The Creative Nonfiction Podcast to talk about her award-winning memoir “Ghostbread.” She was also gracious enough to read from three short chapters. It’s about family and growing up in poverty. “[My family] hasn’t tried to kill me, but they haven’t thrown me a party either,” Sonja says. This episode is layered and a bit experimental. I hope it adds a little extra someth...

"What writer at my age gets to have parents be dead? I don't have to worry about what they think!" says Nikki Schulak. I suggest visiting Nikki's website and then perusing her extensive archive of essays.  In this episode we talk about how stories come to her, how she stays attuned to the world, naked bike rides, and the power of performing for an audience and the validation that ushers. This...

Andre Dubus III, author the memoir Townie and the novels House of Sand and Fog and Dirty Love, stopped by the podcast to talk about memoir, the essay, and writing in general. "The truth is, if you want to write or create anything worth a damn, you better embrace failure or you're not going to get to the good stuff. You gotta learn to love how hard it is," he says. This episode is so packed with gr...

Jessica Abel is a cartoonist, a teacher, a writer, and a podcaster and her latest book, Growing Gills: How to Find Creative Focus When You're Drowning in Your Daily Life, is her latest project. I came across her kick-ass, 200-page, black-and-white graphic book Out on the Wire: The Storytelling Secrets of the New Masters of Radio and reached out to her.  So in this episode we talk a lot about what...

I'm not sure where to begin if I'm being perfectly honest. Joe Drape (@joedrape on Twitter) is a New York Times sports writer and the New York Times bestselling author of Our Boys and American Pharoah: The Untold Story of the Triple Crown Winner's Legendary Rise. He wrote the 80,000-word manuscript in six weeks without a book leave. How are you feeling about your productivity? "When you say, 'Ok,...

Jessica Lahey, author of the essay "I've Taught Monsters" and the NYT best seller "The Gift of Failure," came by the show to talk about teaching and getting the work done. "The work of being a writer means you get words on the page. It's as simple as that. I means you read, you write, and get words on the page." We talk about her approach to teaching and language, and also how Stephen King's "On W...

For the 50th episode of The Creative Nonfiction Podcast, we had to go big and that's what we did. Ted Conover, author of so many books (Rolling Nowhere, Coyotes, Newjack) including his latest "Immersion: A Writer's Guide to Going Deep," joined me to talk about why he wrote the book and how he has employed those tactics for the past 40 years. "The research you do is determinative, right?" Conover s...

DInty W. Moore is the founder of Brevity Magazine and the author of The Story Cure.

This week on The Creative Nonfiction Podcast decided to revisit my episode with Roy Peter Clark (@RoyPeterClark on Twitter), this time condensing that two-hour interview and pulling out the best moments. In it we hear Roy talk about how he learned to swim in the language, the moment he learned the true meaning of literacy, and when research can become crippling. I'm experimenting with the form and...

Shawna Kenney, author, writer, teacher, coach, editor, joins me on The Creative Nonfiction Podcast to talk about her origin story as a teenage fanzine founder, punk rock, and her delightful short essay “Never Call Yourself a Writer, and Other Rules for Writing,” a brilliant piece of satire. She grew up in a conservative family in small-town Maryland, so the nearby punk scene in Washington D.C. hel...

Creative Nonfiction's managing editor Hattie Fletcher sat down to talk about the art of editing.

My good friend (can I say that? I think so) Bronwen Dickey returns to talk about the paperback release of "Pit Bull: Battle Over an American Icon," Troll Culture, and how Perfectionism Kills You.

Experimental podcast! A micro essay about a book I've read. Ping me on Twitter or email me if you dig it!

Environmental writer Mary Heather Noble talks about her award-winning essay "Eulogy for an Owl."

Roy Peter Clark, author of Writing Tools and The Art of X-Ray Reading, joined me on #CNF.

Jennifer Niesslein, formerly a co-editor and co-founder of Brain, Child, and currently editor and founder of Full Grown People, joined me on Episode 41 to talk about the art of editing.

Michael Copperman, author of Teacher: Two Years in the Mississippi Delta (University Press of Mississippi), talks about his memoir and trusting the process.

I read my essay "The Gentleman's Guide to Arousal-Free Slow Dancing," which was published in Creative Nonfiction's "Joy" issue.

Philip Gerard, author of "The Art of Creative Research" stopped by #CNF HQ to talk about the serious research behind all great works of writing.

Angela Palm, author of "Riverine" (Graywolf Press) and the essay "Hierarchy of Needs" talks about the perils of the submission game, the power of leveling up, and to be on the lookout for organizing principles.

Kim Kankiewicz won Creative Nonfiction's essay prize for Issue No. 32, an issue themed "Joy". Lots of cool insights from a brilliant voice in personal essay.

Sybil Baker talks about her book Immigration Essays, published by C&R Press.

I say in the intro this is Episode 35. It's 34. With Tom McAllister, author of the memoir "Bury Me in My Jersey" and the novel "The Young Widower's Handbook."