The Inner Loop Radio: A Creative Writing Podcast

Writers conferences. What are they? What are they good for? And are they worth the time and money? President of the Washington Independent Review of Books, Jennifer Yacovissi, joins us to discuss the merits of writers conferences, how to choose the right conference for you, and the upcoming Washington Writers Conference. Plus, Courtney and Jennifer choose their own adventures in a writer’s odyssey...

Abi catches up with writer and Senior Nonfiction Features Editor for the Rumpus, Darcy Gagnon. They discuss a new take on approaching the work of your younger self, reading three books at a time, and a detective-like character Darcy really feels he embodies.

From the mystical to the fantastical, there's a spectrum of magic within writing. Courtney Sexton and Abi Newhouse sit down with local author, Len Kruger, to discuss the ways adding magic to your writing can create different opportunities for storytelling. Plus, we let tarot cards guide our next writing exercise... You can buy Len's book here: https://bookshop.org/a/101989/9781941551356

Every writer experiences the ebb and flow of creativity, but sometimes we need a little push to get into the flow. Nonfiction writer and cofounder of The Inner Loop, Rachel Coonce finds rhythm in her writing routine through the rhythm of her words. She revisits familiar concepts of poetry as they appear in prose, and offers a prompt inspired by Raymond Carver in this Inspiration Takeover, a series...

What’s the value in a writing retreat? From concentrated time to write to communing with other writers, writing retreats can serve to jumpstart your writing when you’re stuck in a rut. Abi Newhouse and Aeriel Merillat join Rachel and Courtney to talk about how their latest retreat helped their writing and their writing lives. Plus, the four revisit one of our favorite games… the exquisite corpse!

Strap in for the silliest installment yet of The Inner Loop Radio in celebration of our 100th episode! From hot pockets to small batch murders, there are even more laughs than usual, as Rachel and Courtney remember their favorite episodes, get sentimental with community memories of the past 10 years of TIL, and laugh all the way through our best “off-camera” moments in a beyond-funny bloopers reel...

If you find it easy to forget your strengths as a writer, you’re not alone. There are so many voices around us all the time—in our podcasts, our reading, even our music—that can make us wonder what we might be missing in comparison. Nonfiction writer and The Inner Loop’s Author’s Corner program manager Abi Newhouse takes us through the ways she works to remember her own voice when, as an editor an...

Courtney catches up with nonfiction writer Timothy Denevi, who does his best Bob Dylan impression as they talk about Joan Didion, the dilation and expansion of narrow worlds, and how life can get complicated quickly, whether in an Atlas of Remote Islands or in MILF Island.

Writing in a Second Language with Pantea Amin Tofangchi by Rachel Coonce and Courtney Sexton

Food is what we all have in common, and often it’s what brings us together around the holidays. First released in November 2019, former Washington City Paper food editor Laura Hayes and food journalist Susan Lutz, tell us how writing about food can be a vehicle for staging a scene, accessing difficult topics, or exploring the world around us, and how food writing as a genre has taken on new meanin...

Is ten years long or short in the life of a writer? Fiction writer and journalist Joanne Leedom-Ackerman shows us how her perspective on this has shifted. She offers us a prompt via Rainer Maria Rilke to get us thinking about our own writing lives and to get us to build narrative with what she describes as concentric circles in this Inspiration Takeover, a series of mini-episodes with different wr...

Courtney catches up with writer, former TIL Author's Corner program coordinator, and current Olive B. O'Connor Fellow at Colgate University, Lena Crown. They talk about writing in a fellowship capacity (and in a small town), how poetry and nonfiction inform each other, and bringing the world into the classroom all on this month's episode of Just Checking In, a series of informal chats with some of...

According to the NIH, writing lowers blood pressure and boosts immunity, but what are the other healing effects of writing? Poet and nonfiction writer Bernardine Watson joins Rachel and Courtney to discuss how the writing process changed her experience of living with an incurable disease, and reads from her book, Transplant: A Memoir from Day Eight Press and The Inner Loop Author’s Corner October...

Writing comes in waves, and sometimes even the most disciplined of approaches needs a little refresh. Author Rachel Louise Snyder takes us through her writing process: what it used to look like, what it looks like now, and how she gets inspiration from unexpected places. Rachel Louise Snyder is the author of "Fugitive Denim: A Moving Story of People and Pants in the Borderless World of Global Trad...

With Halloween coming up, we discuss ghosts and goblins in writing, how they present themselves in fiction, and how they can be used to process our mortality. First released in October 2018, Journalist Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson tells us about The Woman Who Invented Forensic Training with Dollhouses and reads from her New Yorker article. No tricks this episode, but we have a special treat with Dan...

Rachel catches up with writer, Anna Qu, and they talk about getting back to writing after the whirlwind of book publication, the brain teaser of switching from nonfiction to fiction, and tomatoes versus zucchini, all on this month’s episode of Just Checking In, a series of informal chats with some of our favorite writers.

Crossing genres can be fun, invigorating, and a new source of inspiration, so why does it sometimes feel like eating our vegetables? Poet, playwright, and ghost writer Alyson Gold Weinberg explains how all her outlets inform one another and reads from her latest collection of poetry, Bellow & Hiss from Finishing Line Press and The Inner Loop Author’s Corner September spotlight. Plus, Rachel, Court...

Often stories come to us in fragments: as a vivid image or a perfect sentence, but how do we turn those fragments into stories? Fiction writer, Jung Yun, shows how to create linear stories from nonlinear fragments and what happens when patience runs thin in this Inspiration Takeover, a series of mini-episodes with different writers who offer us a little dose of inspiration. Jung Yun was born in Se...

It’s back to school season and it’s time to get back to work, writers! First released in October 2019, Emily Mitchell joins Rachel and Courtney to discuss how teaching can inspire our creative writing, and we get to hear Emily read from her short story collection, Viral: Stories. Plus, Rachel and Courtney demonstrate the power of writing prompts for upcoming Inktober!

Courtney catches up with writer and professor, Kyoko Mori, and they talk about their mutual love of animals, Jo Ann Beard’s Festival Days, and how writing is more like birds than cats, all on this month’s episode of Just Checking In, a series of informal chats with some of our favorite writers.

As writers, why do we publish at all? Is it for the accolades or for something more pure? If you write to publish, can it still be called art? Author and senior editor at HarperCollins Austin Ross joins us to discuss the balancing act between art and commerce, he tells us his agent horror story, and why he finally decided to publish with an independent press. Plus, we hear from his novel Gloria Pa...

Do you hate writing exercises? Do you feel they are contrived and a waste of time? So did Robert Frost and Poet Michael Collier, who believed a writer’s whole nature must be in everything he writes. But Michael shows us how writing exercises can build community via a Three Goat Story in this Inspiration Takeover, a series of mini-episodes with different writers who offer us a little dose of inspir...

How do you write and make a living? Do you maintain a parallel career or find ways to make money through your writing? Poet, writer, and cultural worker, Abdul Ali, gives us insider tips on how to make money through writing, whether it be applying for grants, consulting, starting a business, or teaching, and how your work can feed your creative practice. Plus, Abdul, Rachel, and Courtney write a l...

Courtney catches up with poet, Jose Padua, and they talk about gaining perspective through travel, connecting the absurd to the everyday, and Barry Manilow, all on this month’s episode of Just Checking In, a series of informal chats with some of our favorite writers.

Love it or hate it, self-promotion is a necessary part of being a writer in today’s digital age. Young black entrepreneur and spoken word artist, Dominic McDonald, aka Nerd the Poet, offers up his tips on a successful writing brand, and we get to hear a few poems from his collection, I’d Rather Be Called a Nerd from Day Eight Press, and The Inner Loop Author’s Corner July spotlight. Plus, Rachel,...