Philip Metres is a poet, translator and director of the Peace, Justice and Human Rights program at John Carroll University. He is the author of ten books, including “Shrapnel Maps,” “The Sound of Listening: Poetry as Refuge and Resistance,” “Pictures at an Exhibition,” and “Sand Opera.”

Tomás Q. Morin is a poet, translator, and editor. His books include the collection of poems “Machete” and the memoir “Let Me Count the Ways” as well as the poetry collections “Patient Zero” and “A Larger Country.”

Laura Warrell is a writer based in Los Angeles. "Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm" is her first novel. The story follows a 40-year-old jazz musician and womanizer Circus Palmer–but this book centers the women in his life. It is a telling of their stories, not only his.

Laura and I talk about her wonderful debut and her path to publication which is an inspiring tale of persistence. And, from a bit of a different angle, we muse on that perennial question: can we separate the art from the artist?

Ingrid Rojas Contreras is a writer who was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia and now lives in San Francisco, California. Her first book was the novel “Fruit of the Drunken Tree” and her most recent book is a family memoir called “The Man Who Could Move Clouds.”

In this episode we chat all about language. On writing between two languages and cultures, and the evolution of language. We also talk about anxiety, dreams (what they can tell us about ourselves!) and much more.

Victoria Chang is a poet, writer and editor. Her new book of poetry is The Trees Witness Everything (2022). Her other books include Dear Memory: Letters on Writing, Silence and Grief (2021) and OBIT (2020).

In this episode, we chat about collaboration in art, her wonderful and varied use of form in her writing, and her current role as poetry editor at The New York Times Magazine.

We also talk about growing up between cultures, and the realization that the very things that make us different are often, as Victoria notes, our strengths.

Melissa Febos is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir, Whip Smart, and the essay collections, Abandon Me and Girlhood. Her craft book, Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative, will be published on March 15th.

In this episode, Melissa and I chat about her wonderful book Body Work. We talk about writing as a spiritual practice (and mode of discovery), learning to quiet that pesky voice saying “who cares?” while making art, and some of the other common fears and worries creatives face.

Fernando A. Flores is a writer based in Austin, TX. His books include the collection Death to the Bullshit Artists of South Texas, the novel Tears of the Trufflepig, and his upcoming book is Valleyesque.

In this episode, Fernando and I talked all about the ups and downs of the creative life, on living between cultures, the difference between writing vs. publishing, and the question Fernando asks that I’d like to put on a t-shirt: “Is this good for my creative brain?”

Michael Kleber-Diggs is a poet, essayist, and literary critic. His debut poetry collection “Worldly Things” was published last year and he is also a contributor to the book “There’s a Revolution Outside, My Love: Letters from a Crisis”.

In this conversation, Michael and I discuss his writing story, hope and sorrow, the power of mentorship to change a life and more.

Daisy Hernández is a writer and cultural activist. She is the author of the award-winning memoir A Cup of Water Under My Bed and coeditor of Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today's Feminism. Her latest book is The Kissing Bug: A True Story of an Insect, a Family and a Nation's Neglect of a Deadly Disease.

In this episode, we have a wide-ranging conversation about spirituality, writing, the nuances of language and cultures and more!

Emily Bernard is an author and professor. She holds a B.A. and Ph. D. in American Studies from Yale University. Her most recent book is the essay collection “Black is the Body: Stories from My Grandmother’s Time, My Mother’s Time, and Mine”. In this wide-ranging conversation, Emily speaks on motherhood, fear, forgiveness, rejecting shame and staying true to who you are as an artist. We also dive deep into having “the blues” - and I truly think it was the most joyful conversation on depression I’ve ever had!

Lidia Yuknavitch is the nationally bestselling author of the novels The Book of Joan, The Small Backs of Children, and Dora: A Headcase, and the memoir The Chronology of Water. Her newest book Verge is a collection of short stories. She also has a TED Talk “The Beauty of Being a Misfit” that has been viewed by millions. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

Lidia and I had a wide-ranging conversation about being a misfit, the in-between spaces of life, the blurry lines between fiction and nonfiction and the ways in which art can save us.