Kaveh Akbar
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Kaveh Akbar

Kaveh Akbar is a poet, novelist and editor. He is the author of two poetry collections: Pilgrim Bell and Calling a Wolf a Wolf, along with the chapbook, Portrait of the Alcoholic. He is also the editor of The Penguin Book of Spiritual Verse: 100 Poets on the Divine. His novel Martyr!, is a New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist.

We talked about identity, obsession in art making, fan mail, memory of language, writing dream sequences, and why animals are the best!

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Matthew Zapruder
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Matthew Zapruder

Matthew Zapruder is a poet, editor, and teacher. He is the author of six collections of poetry, most recently I Love Hearing Your Dreams (Scribner 2024), as well as two books of prose: Why Poetry (Ecco, 2017) and Story of a Poem (Unnamed, 2023). He is editor at large at Wave Books, and from 2016-7 he held the annually rotating position of Editor of the Poetry Column for the New York Times Magazine, and was the Editor of Best American Poetry 2022

I was so happy to have the chance to talk to Matthew about his poetry and prose. We discussed revision, literary friendships, dreams and more.

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Amina Cain
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Amina Cain

Amina Cain is Los Angeles based writer. She is the author of the novel Indelicacy (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2020), and two collections of short stories, Creature (Dorothy, 2013) and I Go To Some Hollow (Les Figues Press, 2009). Her latest book is A Horse at Night: On Writing (Dorothy, 2022).

In the episode we discuss friendship, writing, class, ambivalence around motherhood, the fleeting nature of happiness and more.

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Sue William Silverman
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Sue William Silverman

Sue William Silverman is an award-winning author of eight works of nonfiction and poetry and her most recent book is Acetylene Torch Songs: Writing True Stories to Ignite the Soul. This conversation, just like her book, is centered around writing personal narratives. We discuss putting our most vulnerable selves on the page, the fluidity of memory, writing about other people and much more. If you are a writer of memoir and personal essay– or hope to be, then this is the episode for you!

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Ross Gay
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Ross Gay

Ross Gay is the author of four books of poetry: Against Which; Bringing the Shovel Down; Be Holding, and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude. In addition to his poetry, Ross has released three collections of essays—The Book of Delights (a New York Times bestseller), Inciting Joy, and his newest collection, The Book of (More) Delights.

This conversation, much like Ross’s work, is about joy, curiosity, belonging and caring for one another.

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Tomás Q. Morín and Philip Metres
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Tomás Q. Morín and Philip Metres

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.”

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Nabil Ayers
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Nabil Ayers

Nabil Ayers is a musician, music exec and author. His memoir My Life in the Sunshine was released in June. He has also written about race and music for The New York Times, NPR, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone and GQ.

In this conversation, Nabil and I chat about his unique story that is the subject of his debut book, about his journey to connect with his famous father and in the process redefining what family means to him. We also chat about belonging, on having hard to pronounce names, and his life in music.

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Laura Warrell
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Laura Warrell

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?

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Ingrid Rojas Contreras
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Ingrid Rojas Contreras

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.

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Victoria Chang
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Victoria Chang

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.

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Melissa Febos
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Melissa Febos

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.

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Fernando A. Flores
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Fernando A. Flores

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?”

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Michael Kleber-Diggs
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Michael Kleber-Diggs

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.

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Daisy Hernández
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Daisy Hernández

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!

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Emily Bernard
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Emily Bernard

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!

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Lidia Yuknavitch
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Lidia Yuknavitch

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.

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Nadia Owusu
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Nadia Owusu

Nadia Owusu is an author and urbanist who grew up between Africa and Europe and now lives in Brooklyn.

In the episode Nadia talks about her memoir Aftershocks and the ways growing up between cultures shaped her life. We also chat about claiming, naming, and accepting mental illness as a part of one’s identity, and the gifts of memoir.

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Pam Houston
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Pam Houston

Pam Houston is the author of many books including the memoir, Deep Creek: Finding Hope In The High Country, Cowboys are my Weakness and most recently Air Mail: Letters of Politics, Pandemics, and Place (with Amy Irvine). Pam is also a fantastic teacher and the co-founder and creative director of the literary nonprofit Writing By Writers.

In this episode we talk all about place, writing, non-traditional parenting, and living an authentic life. She also tells us about her incredible experience running into the narwhal migration!

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Tara Schuster
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Tara Schuster

Tara Schuster is an author, playwright, and Comedy Central’s VP of Talent and Development.

In this episode we chat all about her new book , Buy Yourself the F*cking Lilies: and Other Rituals to Fix Your Life from Someone Who has Been There. We talk rock bottoms, re-parenting, becoming your own champion and making new friends as an adult. Tara tells us why “should” is her least favorite word and she has some wise words to share about not comparing our pain to others.

I so enjoyed this conversation with Tara and have a hunch you’ll be nodding your head “yes!” along with me as you listen to her.

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Carolyn Forché
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Carolyn Forché

Carolyn Forché is a poet, translator, and activist whose work has been translated into over twenty languages. Her books of poetry are Blue Hour, The Angel of History, The Country Between Us, Gathering the Tribes, and In the Lateness of the World. Her memoir, What You Have Heard Is True, describes her time in El Salvador shortly before and during the civil war there, and was a finalist for the 2019 National Book Award for Nonfiction. Carolyn is also a Co-Chair with Gloria Steinem of Hedgebrook’s Creative Advisory Council.

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