Writers at the Well

Dr. Andrew Holecek discusses Dark Retreat—a Buddhist practice of spending extended periods in complete darkness—and its transformative effects on creativity, healing, and spiritual insight. Dark Retreat is “big medicine” not to be undertaken lightly. Like any retreat, its power relies on its integration. His new book is:  Total Eclipse of the Mind: Unleashing the Power of Darkness for Creativity,...

Novelist Tess Callahan sits down with George Saunders to discuss his new novel Vigil. Saunders reflects on writing morally complex characters, the balance between empathy and fierceness, and the challenges of inhabiting the consciousness of a character who is in his words "a real stinker." He discusses how revision, attention, and trust in the reader shape his work.  George Saunders is t...

Join debut novelist Carrie Birde author of A Small Tale of Uncommon Grace   ( Blydyn Square Books ) as she discusses her creative process, her road to publication, and the unique spiritual and artistic practices that help her transmute suffering—her own and the world’s—into daily acts of beauty. A literary fairy tale, her novel explores themes of community, connection, and communication. Carrie sh...

Join novelist Paula Saunders as she discusses her moving autobiographical novel Starting from Here , just out from Penguin Random House . A stand-alone sequel to The Distance Home , the novel follows 15-year old René through the challenges of adolescence within the pressure cooker of cultural and socioeconomic stressors. Saunders draws from her own experiences as a ballet dancer. She shares her sp...

Novelist Karen Dukess talks about daring to write with joy and the fun she had with her new book, Welcome to Murder Week .  Karen is the author of The Last Book Party  and Welcome to Murder Week ,  (6/10/25). She contributed to the forthcoming anthology Ladies in Waiting : Jane Austen's Unsung Characters. Karen lives outside of New York City and in Truro on Cape Cod, where she interviews some...

Internationally renowned speaker and physician Dr. Samra Zafar speaks with Tess about her new book Unconditional: Break Through Past Limits to Transform Your Future , which explores breaking free from old conditioning and embracing self-acceptance. She shares her journey from an abusive marriage to building a better life, emphasizing the importance of meditation, visualization, and unlearning. Zaf...

Bestselling author Laura Munson talks with Tess Callahan about her new book, THE WILD WHY: STORIES AND TEACHINGS TO UNCOVER YOUR WONDER , which she describes as a "teaching memoir" designed for people who think they are not creative. She discusses the value of intuition and wonder both in the writing life and everyday living. She offers tips for managing empathy and cultivating a firm bu...

Award-winning novelist, teacher, and podcaster Manda Scott talks with Tess Callahan about her shamanic spiritual practice, her new Thrutopian novel ANY HUMAN POWER , and her highly acclaimed podcast Accidental Gods . Tess and Manda discuss dreams, visions, and the liminal states between waking, sleeping, life, and death. Manda encourages writers to create new narratives that will pave the way to t...

Join sculptor/poet Don Freas , author of In-Between: Creativity Set Free and Swallowing the World: New and Selected Poems , in a rich exploration of the relationship between meditation and creativity. Don takes us on a deep dive into the “material meditation” of making art. “When you look back,” he says, “your own accrued shape appears in the spaces between the things you’ve fashioned.” Don holds...

Join novelist, essayist, and canoe adventurer Mar’ce Merrell as she unpacks her spiritual and creative toolbox, sharing how she uses meditation to move through stuck places in life and on the page. Mar’ce describes some of her extraordinary life-and-death moments in the canoe, how she learned to work with water and not against it, and how her life has unfolded in the gap between the impossible and...

Novelist, screenwriter, and founder of LA Writers' Lab Alan Watt talks with host Tess Callahan about his creative process, meditation, and the meaning he finds in teaching. He discusses the writing of his award winning novel Diamond Dogs and his many popular books on writing . Watt asserts that the desire to write is connected to the desire to evolve. In both his writing and meditation practi...