First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing

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**First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing**

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing is a weekly show featuring in-depth interviews with fiction, non-fiction, essay, and poetry writers. First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing highlights the voices of writers as they discuss their work, their craft, and the literary arts. This weekly show hosted by Mitzi Rapkin is a celebration of creative writing and the individuals who are dedicated to bringing their carefully chosen words to print as well as the impact writers have on the world we live in.

Latest Episodes:

First Draft - Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer Feb 03, 2025

Show notes

Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer has been writing and sharing a poem a day since

2006—a practice that especially nourished her after the death of her teenage son in

2021. Her daily poems can be found on her blog, A Hundred Falling Veils, or a curated

version (with optional prompts) on her daily audio series, The Poetic Path, available with

the Ritual app. Her poetry collection Hush won the Halcyon Prize. Naked for Tea was a

finalist for the Able Muse Book Award. Her most recent collections are All the Honey

and The Unfolding. In January 2024, she became the first poet laureate for Evermore,

helping others through this platform to explore grief, bereavement, wonder, and love

through the voice of poetry. She is the co-hosts of a podcast on creative process called

Emerging Form.

This episode was recorded live at TACAW in Basalt, Colorado.

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First Draft - Alan Shapiro Jan 27, 2025

Show notes

Alan Shapiro was born in Boston, Massachusetts and graduated from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. Shapiro has published fourteen poetry collections, including A Dress Rehearsal for the Truth; By and By; Life Pig; Reel to Reel; Night of the Republic, a finalist for the 2013 Griffin Poetry Prize and the National Book Award; and Old War, winner of the Ambassador Book Award.

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First Draft - David Wrobelwski Jan 20, 2025

Show notes

David Wroblewski is the author, most recently, of the novel Familiaris, his followup to the internationally bestselling The Story Of Edgar Sawtelle, an Oprah Book Club pick, Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, winner of the Colorado Book Award, Indie Choice Best Author Discovery award, and Midwest Bookseller Association's Choice award, in addition to being selected as one of the best books of the year by numerous magazines and newspapers.

This was recorded live at TACAW in Basalt, Colorado.

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Paolo Bacigalupi Jan 13, 2025

Show notes

Paolo Bacigalupi is an internationally bestselling author of speculative fiction. He has won the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, John W. Campbell and Locus Awards, as well as being a finalist for the National Book Award and a winner of the Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature. Paolo’s work often focuses on questions of sustainability and the environment, most notably the impacts of climate change. He has written novels for adults, young adults, and children, and his new book is Navola.

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First Draft - Claire Messud and Amitava Kumar on Literary Friendship Jan 06, 2025

Show notes

This episode on literary friendship with Claire Messud and Amitava Kumar was recorded live at Lighthouse Writers Workshop in Denver, Colorado at the June 2024 Lit Fest. Learn more about Lighthouse.

Claire Messud is the author of six works of fiction. She is a recipient of a Guggenheim and Radcliffe Fellowships and the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her essay collection is called Kant’s Little Prussian Head and Other Reasons Why I Write. Her recent novel is called This Strange Eventful History. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her family.

Amitava Kumar is a writer and journalist. He was born in Ara, and grew up in the nearby town of Patna, famous for its corruption, crushing poverty and delicious mangoes. Kumar is the author of several books of non-fiction and four novels. His new novel is My Beloved Life. Kumar lives in Poughkeepsie, in upstate New York, where he is the Helen D. Lockwood Professor of English at Vassar College. He serves on the board of the Corporation of Yaddo.

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First Draft - Boyce Upholt Dec 30, 2024

Show notes

Boyce Upholt is a journalist and essayist whose writing has appeared in the Atlantic, National Geographic, the Oxford American, and Virginia Quarterly Review, among other publications. He is the winner of a James Beard Award for investigative journalism, and he lives in New Orleans, Louisiana. His book is called The Great River: The Making & Unmaking of the Mississippi.

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Best of 2024 - Kevin Barry Dec 27, 2024

Show notes

Kevin Barry is the author of the novels Night Boat to Tangier, which was longlisted for the Booker Prize, Beatlebone, and City of Bohane as well as three story collections including Dark Lies the Island. His stories and essays have appeared in the New Yorker, Granta and elsewhere. He also works as a playwright and screenwriter lives in County Sligo, Ireland. His new novel is The Heart in Winter.

We talked about the Irish in Butte, Montana, watching and writing westerns, Wuthering Heights, voice and character, Kevin’s writing process, comedy, and Annie Proulx.

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First Draft - Amina Gautier (Returns) Dec 23, 2024

Show notes

Amina Gautier is the author of four short story collections: At-Risk, Now We Will

Be Happy, The Loss of All Lost Things, and The Best that You Can Do. Gautier is the recipient of the Blackwell Prize, the Chicago Public Library Foundation’s 21st Century Award, the International Latino Book Award, the Flannery O’Connor Award, and the Phillis Wheatley Book Award in Fiction.

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Best of 2024 - Kiley Reid Dec 20, 2024

Show notes

Kiley Reid is the author of Come and Get It and Such A Fun Age, which was a New York Times Best Seller and longlisted for the 2020 Booker Price. Her writing has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Playboy, The Guardian, and others. Reid is currently an assistant professor at the University of Michigan.

We talked about religion and fiction, philosophy, acting, Buddhism, materialism, college age women, grace in fiction, what creative writing can and can’t do, not judging your fictional characters, and the background work she does that doesn’t make it into a novel.

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First Draft - Simon Rich Dec 16, 2024

Show notes

Simon Rich has written for “Saturday Night Live,” Pixar and “The Simpsons.” He is the creator and showrunner of “Man Seeking Woman” (FXX) and “Miracle Workers” which he based on his books. His other collections include Spoiled Brats and Ant Farm. He is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker. His new story collection is Glory Days.

We talked about Ray Bradbury, the similarities between humor and science fiction, characters who are trying to reinvent themselves, humanizing characters who seem like they have no good qualities, the underdogs, writing for TV and sketch comedy versus fiction books, and family dynamics.

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