Memoir Nation

Latest Episodes:

Wisdom from the Publishing Trenches, featuring Lisa Leshne and Kathleen Schmidt Aug 05, 2024

Show notes

Every August Grant and Brooke share their summer plans and writing aspirations and hopes and fails, along with some mashups of their favorite interviews of the year. Write-minded kicks off this best-of series with two beloved industry experts—agent Lisa Leshne and publicist Kathleen Schmidt. There’s real wisdom and straight-talk in these conversations that writers and authors will want to take in and absorb. So even if you heard these the first time around, take it in again—and have a wonderful start to your August.

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Getting Reinspired after Failed or Abandoned Book Projects, featuring Paolo Bacigalupi Jul 29, 2024

Show notes

Most writers either have or will have a failed or abandoned book project—or two, or three, or four—over the course of their lifetimes. The more you write, the more crisis moments you’ll face. It can be hard to come back from those moments, which is why this week’s episode with Paolo Bacigalupi is so encouraging. He shares with us his journey back from the edge of despair, having lost all motivation to write—and how he found his way to his latest book, Navola. This inspiring episode closes out our fifth season, and includes tips for world-building and wise words about this existential question so many of us face: why write.

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Being a Voice for Causes That Matter, featuring Naomi Klein Jul 22, 2024

Show notes

This week’s episode airs Brooke in conversation with Naomi Klein at this year’s Bay Area Book Festival. While this interview does not hew to Write-minded’s effort to offer weekly doses of inspiration for writers, Brooke and Grant decided to make this available both because our listeners requested it and because we admire the work Naomi Klein is doing in the world. This is a conversation about Israel/Gaza, Jewish heritage and history, American politics, and about Doppelganger, Klein’s 2023 book, which was Brooke’s favorite book of last year.

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How Secrets Fuel Memoir Writing, featuring Margaret Juhae Lee Jul 15, 2024

Show notes

Secrets come in all forms, big and small. We inherit secrets, carry the secrets of others, and struggle with the burden of all they hold and how they sometimes fester within us. This week’s episode with guest Margaret Juhae Lee explores the difference between people who want to keep the past buried and those who want to set it free. We explore intergenerational trauma and how that’s often its own form of carrying secrets forward from the past.This week’s trend is about book festivals, so please follow the link to find a festival near you.

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On the Awards We Receive and the Rewards We Make, featuring Jayne Anne Phillips Jul 08, 2024

Show notes

This week’s guest, Jayne Anne Phillips, is a Pulitzer prize-winning author for her latest book, Night Watch, which gives Write-minded an opportunity to muse about awards—why they matter, what we make of them and do with them, and where we might find awards from things we seek out in addition to those we receive. Join us for this wide-ranging literary conversation about storytelling, language, flash fiction, reading, and, of course, awards.

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How Big Questions Inform Fiction, featuring Rachel Khong Jul 01, 2024

Show notes

This week’s Write-minded centers questions, and how questions guide writers, drive fiction, and unearth important stories. Guest Rachel Khong shares how the big and provocative question of who’s a “real American” informed her new novel and why she writes without an outline. We also talk about ambition and drive, why novelists have to grapple with people speculating what in their fiction is “real,” and much more.

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Breaking New Ground in Memoir, featuring Shze-Hui Tjoa Jun 24, 2024

Show notes

Write-minded is celebrating memoir as an evolving form this week, tackling the difference between imaginative writing in memoir and writing in memoir that might not be true. Memoir is increasingly embodying its rightful spot in the realm of creative nonfiction, in that there’s allowance for writers to explore ideas and truths within the realms of creative devices, imagined conversations, different points of view, and more—and yet how do we keep that within the container of Truth? Listen in to this episode to find out more, and to hear from a rising talent, guest Shze-Hui Tjoa.

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The Big Novel, featuring Garth Risk Hallberg Jun 17, 2024

Show notes

This week we take on The Big Novel and unpack our thoughts on novel length, the very concept of The Great American Novel, advances, and more. Guest Garth Risk Hallberg joins us to talk about his own long works of fiction, as well as his writing process that involves seeing where his characters want to take him. We touch upon characterization vs. plot, the nature of long stories, and finding what motivates your characters in fiction. There's a lot to take away from this episode, so tune in!

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Remembering and Forgetting: The Refugee Journey, featuring Viet Thanh Nguyen Jun 10, 2024

Show notes

It’s Write-minded’s 300th episode! And we’re celebrating by bringing listeners the esteemed Viet Thanh Nguyen, whose novel, The Sympathizer, was adapted for HBO Max and started streaming in April. In this interview, Nguyen addresses didacticism as a craft choice, the mindset of writers who, like him, find themselves between two languages, and how his desire to capture the Vietnamese perspective on the Vietnam War (and more) made him a writer. Nguyen’s generosity and enthusiasm for his work and his craft shine through in every answer, and Write-minded is grateful to cap this milestone with such a beloved author and guest.

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Behind the Scenes of Selling Books, featuring Josh Cook Jun 03, 2024

Show notes

This week’s episode is one for book lovers, book collectors, aspiring authors, and every kind of writer. It’s always helpful to know what booksellers know—because bookstores do so much more than just provide a place for browsing and buying books. Join us to talk with Josh Cook of Porter Square Books about his new book, The Art of Libromancy, and why bookselling is political, what authors should think about when speaking to booksellers, and what you need to know about Amazon and Bookshop and the landscape of buying books. Plus, Grant and Brooke swap stories about their time working in bookstores, and Brooke promised to share in the show notes a link to her essay about her months spent working (and bunking) at Shakespeare & Co. in Paris in 1999.

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