The Writing University Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Episode 68: Mary Allen—Edit Like a Zen Master Jul 08, 2015

Show notes

Writing is neither good nor bad; it’s only finished or unfinished. It’s in the finishing that it becomes fully realized. It may seem to take a different set of skills—even using a different part of the brain—to shape, prune, and polish the work we’ve opened our hearts to generate, but if we try to edit without keeping at least one toe in the stream of creativity inside us, we can end up dismantling powerful first drafts. In this Eleventh Hour, Mary Allen will share what’s she’s learned as a writer and a writing coach about maintaining peace, confidence, and inner balance during the editing process.

Episode 67: Margaret Patton Chapman—The Craft of Enchantment: What Fairy Tales Can Teach Us about Writing Jul 07, 2015

Show notes

Good stories are often referred to as spellbinding. Of course they are not witchcraft, but the deft hand of the writer, who concocts a magical combination of the familiar and the unknown, of surprise and recognition, of enchanting prose. Drawing from the ideas of Kate Bernheimer and Bruno Bettelheim, among others, we’ll investigate the history of fairy tales, their story structures, the ways in which they’re rooted in a knowable world, and the elements that give them a sense of urgency, surprise, and wonder. We will connect fairytale techniques to those used in contemporary stories, and consider exercises that might bring enchantment and magic to your prose.

Episode 66: Juliet Patterson—Alternative Fuel Sources: Powering the Non-narrative Essay Jun 18, 2015

Show notes

When story is not the main concern, what keeps us reading? How can voice, structure, or research provide a pressurizing frame—and a pleasing shape—for nonfiction material? We will explore these questions through readings that rely on elements other than narrative for forward momentum, in the tradition of the idea-driven essay. In the course of our discussion, we’ll look at a few quick examples from writers who have published nonfiction that depends on something other than narrative and unpack some of their “alternative” strategies of making.

Episode 65: Michael Morse—Metaphor as Building Block: Idea to Image and Image to Idea Jun 16, 2015

Show notes

In this Eleventh Hour, poet Michael Morse will explore how ideas and images work off of and with each other. We’ll consider some poems that use striking examples of imagery, and then we’ll play with some exercises where we allow our natural tendencies of associative thinking to generate vivid images that in turn can lead to surprise and delight in metaphor.

Episode 64: “Please, Just Don’t Call it “Journaling”: Writing for Self Versus for Others” Jun 15, 2015

Show notes

There’s often a crucial distinction between our whole life experience and the narrower story, or stories, that we create from it. In this Eleventh Hour, Sarah Saffian—a memoirist, teacher, and mental health therapist—will explore the concept of journal writing and its usefulness both creatively, as the raw material that we draw from to craft our stories, and personally, as a means of achieving deeper, clearer self-reflection, processing, and discovery. Please bring materials to participate in writing prompts during this lecture.

Episode 63: Lon Otto—When Bad Bets Pay Off Jun 11, 2015

Show notes

When we’re learning to write (the learning that takes a lifetime), it’s smart to focus on high-percentage moves, choices most likely to result in writing that will engage, convince, and move the reader. It’s worth remembering, however, that sometimes things normally worth avoiding perversely succeed. This Eleventh Hour will look at some examples of that phenomenon, in hopes of understanding both why the bad bet was bad, and what might account for its unexpectedly paying off.

Episode 62: Susan Taylor Chehak — Self-Publishing and the Small Press Jun 10, 2015

Show notes

Susan Taylor Chehak, an ardent and successful writer, blogger, and self-publisher, will discuss the who, what, why, where, when and how of doing it yourself. Susan is the driving force behind Foreverland Press, where ten of her own books have been made available to readers, both digitally and in print, along with twenty-five books from other authors. In this hour, Susan will review the rewards and risks of taking publishing into your own hands.

Episode 61: Elizabeth Robinson -- You Can Start a Press/Publication Jul 24, 2014

Show notes

One of the best ways to participate in, and help define, contemporary literature is to start your own press or literary publication. This may sound intimidating, but you might be surprised to find that such projects need not be prohibitively expensive or overwhelmingly difficult. This talk will discuss a variety of media (print and electronic) and a variety of projects (magazine, blog-zine, chapbook press, and full-length book publications) and how to make your project sustainable, enjoyable, and meaningful.

Episode 60: Juliet Patterson -- How Poets See the World: The Art of Description Jul 23, 2014

Show notes

“It sounds like a simple thing say what you see,” Mark Doty has written. “But try to find the words for the shades of a mottled sassafras leaf or the reflectivity of a bay on an August morning." In this hour, we’ll take refuge in the sensory experience found in some contemporary poets, as a way of thinking about a number of questions: How does description contain or convey meaning? What do we do when we describe something? Reproduce, account for, portray, trace, parcel out? How does one take the measure of the external world and what can it mean for our writing?

Episode 59: Kelly Dwyer -- Better Talky Talky: The Art and Craft of Strong Dialogue Jul 22, 2014

Show notes

Many book editors say that they read the first paragraph of a manuscript, and if they like it, they skip ahead to read some dialogue. If the dialogue is strong, they go back to page one and keep reading. If the dialogue is weak, the editor sets down the manuscript, and the chances for publication (with that particular house, anyway) end there. Knowing how to write good dialogue, then, is crucial to publication—and readership. In this hour, we’ll explore what makes strong dialogue. Bring your laptops or pencils and notebooks with you, as Kelly will put you to work in responding to an exercise. (Sharing optional.)

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