A writing podcast for writers and curious readers, featuring interviews with authors, poets, agents and editors. Twice chosen as one of Writer’s Digest Magazine’s 101 Best Website for Writers. Vermont-grown.
Episodes
Monday Dec 28, 2020
Monday Dec 28, 2020
A conversation from the archives with David Jauss about his collection Glossolalia: New and Selected Stories (Press 53, 2013).
This week’s Write the Book Prompt is to write about a man who is trying to get two dangerous snakes out of his garage.
Good luck with your work in the coming week, and tune in next week for another prompt or suggestion.
Music Credit: Aaron Shapiro
657
Tuesday Dec 22, 2020
Monday Dec 14, 2020
Monday Dec 14, 2020
Local author, artist and pet lover Dawna Pederzani, whose new book is The Bread Fairy (AuthorHouse).
During our interview, Dawna mentioned that the first writing she recalls taking on was the sermon for her grandfather’s funeral. She was twelve. This intrigued me. Writing offers the opportunity to really spell out how we feel about a person and to get the words just right. Dawna finds that her sentiments generally spill onto the page exactly how she intends right from the first draft, which is unusual, I think. For me, the ideas are the first to spill. A kernel of something right may build and take on life and energy as I continue, and then as I revise. A funeral sermon might be an opportunity to delve into emotion and offer tribute in a way that few other writing projects could. So this week’s Write the Book Prompt is to write a funeral sermon. Interpret that as you like. You could eulogize someone you lost years ago but have not yet fully said goodbye to. You could write your own funeral sermon, or one for a fictional character you’re trying to get a better feel for: a protagonist, perhaps (or maybe a villain...) Though as Dawna points out, few people are fully heroes. We all have shades of gray in the good and the bad that we show our community, especially during times of duress.
Good luck with your writing in the coming week, and tune in next week for another prompt or suggestion.
Music Credit: Aaron Shapiro
656
Monday Dec 07, 2020
Monday Dec 07, 2020
Author and educator Martin Puchner, whose new book is The Language of Thieves: My Family's Obsession with a Secret Code the Nazis Tried to Eliminate (Norton).
This week’s Write the Book Prompt was generously suggested by my guest, Martin Puchner. Take one piece of research, a photograph, a document, an object and contemplate not only what it says, but how it got into your hands. How many people handled it before you? What kinds of institutions, and the people working for them, preserved them? How did these objects come into being and how did they survive? Hopefully, in asking these questions, you’ll discover the biographies of these objects. They will become full interlocutor and not just props.
Good luck with your work in the coming week, and tune in next week for another prompt or suggestion.
I also spoke with Martin Puchner in 2018. You can listen to that conversation here.
Music: Aaron Shapiro
655
Monday Nov 30, 2020
Monday Nov 30, 2020
An interview from the archives with writer and psychologist Matt Fried, MA, PhD, MFA. Among many other things, Matt teaches workshops on writers' block.
When I spoke with Matt Fried in 2013, he generously suggested the following as a Write the Book Prompt: Write about a way in which you usually protect yourself in your daily life. You can define protection any way you like: emotionally, communication-wise, physically, etc. Then write about the reason or reasons you believe you protect yourself this way. Ask yourself: do I still need to do this? Finally, write about what might be a better (more effective, less emotionally costly) way to accomplish self-protection. I don’t generally repeat the prompts when I run archive episodes, but I feel that, given the pandemic and the divisiveness we’re experiencing as a nation, it might be a good one to offer again. Consider our present situation as you write about the ways you protect yourself in daily life, and your own answer to the question: is the way I protect myself sufficient, healthy, safe? Is it the best way to accomplish self-protection right now?
Good luck with your work in the coming week, and tune in next week for another prompt or suggestion.
Music Credit: Aaron Shapiro
654