Mitzi Rapkin - Podcast Details

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Emerging Form Episode 130: Mitzi Rapkin on the Art of ConversationThere’s an art to deep listening and eliciting enlivening conversation, and in this episode we speak with celebrated interviewer Mitzi Rapkin, founder, host and producer of the literary podcast “First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing.” Join us in an exploration of how to draw out authenticity and invite conversations “with a life force of their own” that allow you to “go to a place you never thought you could go.”Mitzi Rapkin is the founder, host and producer of the literary podcast, “First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing,” which features a new author interview each week. There, she has int...

2025-01-2331 min

Swan Dive Mitzi Rapkin - "All In" - Literary Podcast Pioneer Quits Day JobMitzi Rapkin is the founder, host, and producer of the long-running podcast, First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing, featuring in-depth conversations with the world's most distinguished literary writers of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and essays. One of the best interviewers in the biz, her archive contains more than 380 interviews accumulated over nine years. Mitzi reads 50 BOOKS A YEAR, that's one a week, to produce up to 52 exquisite episodes/year, each meticulously covering the craft, creativity and themes of a writer’s work. She consciously cultivates conversations that evolve from the mechanics and quirks of a writer's process to questions on what...

2022-08-0254 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Souvankham ThammavongsaSouvankham Thammavongsa is the author of How to Pronounce Knife. Her stories have won an O. Henry Award and appeared in Harper's Magazine, The Paris Review, The Atlantic, Granta, NOON, The Believer, Best American Nonrequired Reading 2018, and O. Henry Prize Stories 2019. She is the author of four books of poetry, Cluster, Light, Found and Small Arguments. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2020-08-1054 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Michelle BowdlerMichelle Bowdler is the author of Is Rape a Crime? Michelle is a recipient of a 2017 Barbara Deming Memorial Award for non-fiction and has been a Fellow at Ragdale and MacDowell Colony. She has been published in the New York Times and in the anthologies The Anatomy of Silence and We Rise to Resist: Voices from a New Era in Women’s Political Action. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2020-08-0358 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Sejal ShahSejal Shah is the author of the debut essay collection, This Is One Way To Dance. Her stories and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in Brevity, Conjunctions, Guernica, the Kenyon Review Online, Literary Hub, Longreads, and The Rumpus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2020-07-2742 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing Anne EnrightAnne Enright was born in Dublin, where she now lives and works. She has written two collections of stories, published together as Yesterday’s Weather, one book of non-fiction, Making Babies, and six novels, including The Gathering, which won the 2007 Man Booker Prize, The Forgotten Waltz, The Green Road, and Actress. In 2015 she was appointed as the first Laureate for Irish Fiction, and in 2018 she received the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Contribution to Irish Literature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2020-07-2044 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - TaraShea NesbitTaraShea Nesbit is a writer and teacher. Her second novel, Beheld, is a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and an Indies Next Pick for April 2020. Her first novel, The Wives of Los Alamos, was a finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection, and winner of two New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards. She is an assistant professor of fiction and nonfiction at Miami University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2020-07-1357 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Marie Mutsuki MockettMarie Mutsuki Mockett was born and raised in California to a Japanese mother and American father, and graduated from Columbia University with a degree in East Asian Languages and Civilizations. Her books include American Harvest, Where the Dead Pause and the Japanese Say Goodbye, and Picking Bones from Ash. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2020-07-0652 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Mary SouthMary South is a graduate of Northwestern University and the MFA program in fiction at Columbia University. For many years, she has worked with Diane Williams as an editor at the literary journal NOON. Her writing has appeared in American Short Fiction, The Baffler, The Believer, BOMB, The Collagist, Conjunctions, Electric Literature, Guernica, LARB Quarterly, The New Yorker, NOON, The Offing, The White Review, and Words Without Borders. We discussed her short story collection You Will Never Be Forgotten. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2020-06-2958 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Lori GottliebLori Gottlieb is a psychotherapist and author of the New York Times bestseller Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, which is being adapted as a television series. In addition to her clinical practice, she writes The Atlantic’s weekly “Dear Therapist” advice column and contributes regularly to The New York Times and many other publications. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2020-06-2259 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Vanessa HuaVanessa Hua is an award-winning, best-selling author and columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. Her novel, A River of Stars, was named to the Washington Post and NPR’s Best Books of 2018 lists. Her short story collection, Deceit and Other Possibilities, received an Asian/Pacific American Award in Literature and was a finalist for a California Book Award, and was reissued by Counterpoint in 2020. We discussed her collection Deceit and Other Possibilities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2020-06-1553 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Jane HirshfieldJane Hirshfield is an award-winning poet, essayist, and translator. She is the author of nine collections of poetry, including Ledger; The Beauty, longlisted for the National Book Award; Come, Thief, a finalist for the PEN USA Poetry Award; and Given Sugar, Given Salt, a finalist for the National Book Critics Award. Hirshfield is also the author of two collections of essays, Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry and Ten Windows: How Great Poems Transform the World, and has edited and co-translated four books collecting the work of world poets. In this discussion we talked about Ledger. Le...

2020-06-081h 23

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Sue Monk KiddSue Monk Kidd writes fiction and non-fiction. Her novels include The Secret Life of Bees, The Mermaid Chair, The Invention of Wings, and The Book of Longings. Some of her non-fiction titles include The Dance of the Dissident Daughter and When the Heart Waits. In this episode we discuss her new novel The Book of Longings Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2020-06-011h 02

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Emily NemensEmily Nemens is a writer, illustrator, and editor. Her debut novel, The Cactus League, was published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in February 2020. In 2018, Nemens became the seventh editor of The Paris Review, the nation’s preeminent literary quarterly. In this episode we discuss The Cactus League. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2020-05-2552 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Ann NapolitanoAnn Napolitano is the author of the novels Dear Edward, A Good Hard Look, and Within Arm’s Reach. She is also the Associate Editor of One Story literary magazine. She received an MFA from New York University; she has taught fiction writing for Brooklyn College’s MFA program, New York University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies and for Gotham Writers’ Workshop. In this episode we discuss Dear Edward. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2020-05-1859 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Anna SolomonAnna Solomon is the author of three novels—The Book of V., Leaving Lucy Pear, and The Little Bride—and a two-time winner of the Pushcart Prize. Her short fiction, essays, and reviews have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Ploughshares, One Story, The Boston Globe, Tablet, and elsewhere. Anna is a graduate of Brown University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and teaches writing at Barnard College, Warren Wilson’s MFA Program in Creative Writing, and the 92Y Unterberg Poetry Center. In this episode we discuss The Book of V. Learn more about your ad choice...

2020-05-1156 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Carolyn ForchéCarolyn Forché was born in Detroit, Michigan. She studied at Michigan State University and earned an MFA from Bowling Green State University.She is a poet, memoirist, translator, and editor, Forché's books of poetry include: In the Lateness of the World, The Angel of History, which received the Los Angeles Times Book Award; The Country Between Us, which received the Poetry Society of America's Alice Fay di Castagnola Award and was the Lamont Poetry Selection of the Academy of American Poets; and Gathering the Tribes, which was selected for the Yale Series of Younger Poets by Stanley Kunitz. Her memoir...

2020-05-041h 09

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Ander MonsonAnder Monson is the author of eight books, including the non-fiction book I Will Take the Answer and the short story collection, The Gnome Stories. He edits the magazine DIAGRAM among other projects, and he directs the MFA program at the University of Arizona. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2020-04-2756 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Sahar MustafahSahar Mustafah, writer and editor is the daughter of Palestinian immigrants and she explores her heritage in her fiction. Her books include Code of the West and The Beauty of Your Face. In addition to working as a writer, Mustafah also teaches high school English outside of Chicago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2020-04-2055 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing Julian JarboeJulian K. Jarboe is a writer and artist from Massachusetts. They are the recipient of a Writers' Room of Boston Fellowship, a graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop, an Honorable Mention from the Tiptree Fellowship, and a residency from The Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts . They graduated from The Massachusetts College of Art and Design with Academic Honors. Their story collection is called Everyone on the Moon is Essential Personnel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2020-04-1348 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Katrin SchumannKatrin Schumann was born in Germany and grew up in Brooklyn and London. Her writing explores our search for a sense of belonging, and the struggle to define ourselves in the context of our circumstances. Schumann now lives in Boston and Key West, and she is the Program Coordinator of the Key West Literary Seminar and Workshops. She writes fiction and non-fiction. Her novels include This Terrible Beauty and The Forgotten Hours. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2020-04-0655 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing Deb Olin UnferthDeb Olin Unferth is the author of the memoir Revolution: The Year I Fell in Love and Went to Join the War, finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; the story collection Minor Robberies; and the novel Vacation, winner of the Cabell First Novel Award. Her work appears in Harper’s, The Paris Review, McSweeney’s, Tin House, Granta, and elsewhere. She has received three Pushcart Prizes, and a grant from Creative Capital for Innovative Literature. Her newest novel is Barn 8 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2020-03-3046 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - P. Carl P. Carl is a nonfiction writer, playwright, dramaturg and a Distinguished Artist in Residence at Emerson College in Boston. He is also a writer and lecturer on theater, gender, inclusive practices, and innovative models for building community and organizations. He is an accomplished theater artist, most recently the dramaturg and producer on a range of diverse projects including Claudia Rankine's new play, The White Card. Carl is the founder of the online journal HowlRound, and is currently advising the Broadway production of Jagged Little Pill. Carl's memoir is called Becoming a Man: The Story of a Transition.

2020-03-2353 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Chuck PalahniukChuck Palahnuik is an American novelist and freelance journalist, who describes his work as transgressional fiction. He is the author of the award-winning novel Fight Club, which also was made into a popular film of the same name. Some of his other works include Choke, Lullaby, “Guts”, and Adjustment Day. His new book about writing is called Consider This: Moments in My Writing Life After Which Everything Was Different. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2020-03-1650 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing Kevin WIlsonKevin Wilson is the author of two short story collections, Tunneling to the Center of the Earth and Baby You’re Gonna Be Mine, and three novels, The Family Fang, Perfect Little World, and Nothing to See Here. His fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, Tin House, One Story, A Public Space, and elsewhere. He lives in Sewanee, Tennessee, with his wife, the poet Leigh Anne Couch, and his sons, Griff and Patch, where he is an Associate Professor in the English Department at Sewanee: The University of the South. Learn more about your ad choices. Vis...

2020-03-0953 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Jenny OffillJenny Offill is an American novelist and editor. Her novel Dept. of Speculation was named one of "The 10 Best Books of 2014" by The New York Times Book Review. She writes fiction, non-fiction, and children's books. Her newest novel is called Weather. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2020-03-0253 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing Tishani DoshiTishani Doshi has published six books of poetry and fiction. Small Days and Nights, her second novel, has been shortlisted for the TATA Best Fiction Award 2019. She discusses this novel on First Draft as well as topics concerning modern day culture and issues in India. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2020-02-2458 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing Julia PhillipsJulia Phillips is the debut author of the nationally bestselling novel Disappearing Earth, which is being published in twenty-one languages and was a finalist for the National Book Award. She discusses the novel and writing it on First Draft. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2020-02-1749 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing Jill CimentJill Ciment was born in Montreal, Canada. She is the author of Small Claims, a collection of short stories and novellas; The Law of Falling Bodies, Teeth of the Dog, The Tattoo Artist, Heroic Measures, and Act of God, novels; and Half a Life, a memoir. She discusses the writing life and the novel The Body in Question in this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2020-02-1052 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing Luke GeddesLuke Geddes is the author of the novel Heart of Junk and the short story collection I am a Magical Teenage Princess. He also makes collage art and lives in Cincinnati. He discusses the novel Heart of Junk and the writing and collecting life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2020-02-0343 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Ethan RutherfordEthan Rutherford is the author of The Peripatetic Coffin and Other Stories, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, a finalist for the John Leonard Award, received honorable mention for the PEN/Hemingway Award, was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and was the winner of a Minnesota Book Award. Rutherford received his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Minnesota and now teaches Creative Writing at Trinity College. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2020-01-2735 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Isabel Allende Isabel Allende is the author of more than 23 works of fiction and non-fiction including The House of Spirits, Eva Luna, Of Love and Shadows, and Ripper. She has sold more than 74 million books, which have been translated into 40 languages. Allende devotes much of her time to human rights causes and after her daughter Paula died, she established a charitable foundation in her honor, which delivers care to girls and women around the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2020-01-2035 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Walter MosleyWalter Mosley is a fiction, non-fiction, and screenplay writer. He has written more than 50 books, including the bestselling mystery series featuring detective Easy Rawlins. His latest book is called Elements of Fiction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2020-01-1339 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Jeannie VanascoJeannie Vanasco is the author of the memoirs Things We Didn't Talk About When I Was a Girl and The Glass Eye. Her writing has appeared in The Believer, the New York Times Modern Love, NewYorker.com and elsewhere. She lives in Baltimore and is an assistant professor of English at Towson University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2020-01-0651 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Adrienne BrodeurAdrienne Brodeur is the author of the memoir, Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover and Me. Brodeur founded the fiction magazine, Zoetrope: All-Story, with filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, where she served as editor in chief from 1996-2002. In 2005, she became an editor at Harcourt. She is now the Executive Director of Aspen Words, a literary arts nonprofit and program of the Aspen Institute. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-12-3050 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Etgar KeretEtgar Keret is an Israeli writer of fiction, non-fiction, television and film whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Le Monde, The New Yorker, The Guardian, The Paris Review and Zoetrope, among others, and over 40 short movies have been based on his stories, one of which won the American MTV Prize. His feature film Wristcutters also won several international awards. His short story collection Fly Already won the Sapir Prize for Literature in Israel. Some of his other titles include The Seven Good Years, Suddenly, a Knock on the Door, Four Stories, and A Girl on the Fridge. Keret...

2019-12-231h 01

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft- David QuammenDavid Quammen writes fiction and non-fiction with a focus on science and the natural world. He has written more than ten books. His newest book is called The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life. He is a contributing writer for National Geographic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-12-1651 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Deborah LevyDeborah Levy was born in South Africa and moved to England at the age of nine, where she studied contemporary arts at Dartington College of Arts. In 1989, she published her first collection of short stories, Ophelia and the Great Idea, and a second, Black Vodka, in 2013. Two of her novels, Swimming Home and Hot Milk, were shortlisted for the Booker prize; her latest, The Man Who Saw Everything, was long listed for the Booker prize. She is a playwright, fiction writer, and memoirist. Her new memoir is called The Cost of Living. Learn more about your ad ch...

2019-12-0946 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Leslie JamisonLeslie Jamison writes fiction, non-fiction, and memoir. Her works include The Empathy Exams, The Gin Closet, The Recovering, and Make it Scream, Make it Burn. She teaches at Columbia University's MFA program concentrating on non-fiction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-12-0253 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Amitav GhoshAmitav Ghosh is the author of nine novels, including Gun Island and the Ibis Trilogy, Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke, and Flood of Fire. He is also the author of six books of non-fiction. He was born on Calcutta and lives in Brooklyn and Goa, India. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-11-2549 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Nick FlynnNick Flynn is the author of twelve books including the memoir Another Bullshit Night in Suck City and most recently the poetry collection, I Will Destroy You. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-11-1845 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Kimi EiseleKimi Eisele is the author of the debut novel The Lightest Object in the Universe. She is a multidisciplinary artist based in Tucson, Arizona. She also works for the Southwest Folklife Alliance as a writer and editor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-11-1148 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Alexandra FullerAlexandra Fuller is the author of novels, memoirs, non-fiction, essays, and journalism. Her latest memoir is Travel Light, Move Fast, which focuses on the life and death of her father, an Englishman who settled in Africa. Fuller was born in England, grew up in Zimbabwe, and now lives in Wyoming. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-11-0440 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Terry Tempest WilliamsTerry Tempest Williams has written and edited over 20 books, including the essay collection Erosion, Refuge, and The Open Space of Democracy. Her work focuses on the natural world and the intersection between the environment and personal and national politics, spirituality, and family. She teaches at the Harvard Divinity School and lives in rural Utah. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-10-2852 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Petina GappahPetina Gappah is an award-winning Zimbabwean author. Her novels include Out of Darkness, Shining Light and The Book of Memory. She has also written two short story collections and also writes journalism. She has a law degree and worked as an international trade lawyer. She lives in Harare. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-10-2150 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Alix OhlinAlix Ohlin is the author of the novels Dual Citizens and Inside, which was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. She lives in Vancouver and is the chair of the Creative Writing Program at University of British Columbia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-10-1450 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Nathaniel PopkinNathaniel Popkin is the author of three books of non-fiction and the novels, The Year of the Return, Everything is Borrowed, and Lion and Leopard. He also co-edited the anthology Who Will Speak for America?, which he also spoke about with co-editor Stephanie Feldman on First Draft. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-10-0750 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Téa ObrehtTéa Obreht is the author of the novels Inland and The Tiger’s Wife. Her work has been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories and The Best American Non-Required Reading, and has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, and The Atlantic, among many others. She was born in the former Yugoslavia and now lives and teaches in New York. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-09-3053 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Caitlin HorrocksCaitlin Horrocks is the author of the novel The Vexations and the short story collection This is Not Your City. She is on the advisory board of the Kenyon Review and teaches fiction at Grand Valley State University and the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. Subscribe to First Draft. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-09-2345 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Helen PhillipsHelen Phillips, author of The Need, has written five books, including the short story collections Some Possible Solutions and And Yet They Were Happy and the novel The Beautiful Bureaucrat. Her work has been featured on Selected Shorts, at the Brooklyn Museum, and in the Atlantic Monthly, the New York Times, and Tin House, among others. She is an associate professor at Brooklyn College. Subscribe to First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-09-1647 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Katie ArnoldKatie Arnold is a contributing editor and former managing editor at Outside Magazine, where she worked on staff for 12 years. She created and launched the popular Raising Rippers column, about bringing up adventurous kids, which appears monthly on Outside Online. Her memoir is called Running Home. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-09-0943 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Kevin McIlvoyKevin McIlvoy has taught creative writing for over twenty-five years. He was Editor in Chief of the national literary magazine, Puerto del Sol at New Mexico State University, and has served on the Board of Directors of two national writing organizations, Council for Literary Magazines & Presses and the Association of Writers & Writing Programs. His published works include A Waltz, The Fifth Station, Little Peg, Hyssop, The Complete History of New Mexico, 57 Octaves Below Middle C, and At The Gate of All Wonder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-09-0251 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Dinaw MengestuDinaw Mengestu is the award-winning author All Our Names, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, and How to Read the Air. He is a graduate of Georgetown University and of Columbia University’s M.F.A. program in fiction and the recipient of a 5 Under 35 award from the National Book Foundation and a 20 Under 40 award from The New Yorker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-08-2634 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Peg Alford PursellPeg Alford Pursell is the author of A Girl Goes into the Forest and Show her a Flower, a Bird, A Shadow. Peg lives in Northern California and is the founder and director of WTAW Press and of Why There Are Words, a national literary reading series and program of WTAW Press. She is a member of The Writers Grotto. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-08-1936 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Rachel Kushner Rachel Kushner is the author of The Flamethrowers, Telex from Cuba, and The Mars Room. A collection of her early work, The Strange Case of Rachel K, was published by New Directions in 2015. Her fiction has appeared in the New Yorker, Harper’s, and the Paris Review. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-08-1234 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Karen RussellKaren Russell won the 2012 and the 2018 National Magazine Award for fiction, and her first novel, Swamplandia! was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, winner of the New York Public Library Young Lions Award, and one of The New York Times’ Ten Best Books of 2011. Her short story collections include Vampires in the Lemon Grove, St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, and Orange World. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-08-0545 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Jennifer DuBois twoJennifer DuBois is the author of A Partial History of Lost Causes, Cartwheel, and The Spectators. The National Book Foundation named her one of its 5 Under 35 authors. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Playboy, Lapham’s Quarterly, American Short Fiction, The Missouri Review, The Kenyon Review, Salon, Cosmopolitan, ZYZZYVA, and elsewhere. A native of western Massachusetts, duBois teaches in the MFA program at Texas State University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-07-2947 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Emily BernardEmily Bernard was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee. She holds a B. A. and Ph. D. in American Studies from Yale University. Her work has appeared in The American Scholar, The Boston Globe Magazine, Creative Nonfiction, Green Mountains Review, Oxtford American, Ploughshares, The New Republic, and theatlantic.com. Her essay collection is called Black is the Body: Stories from My Grandmother's Time, My Mother's Time, and Mine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-07-2237 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Christopher Castellani twoChristopher Castellani is the son of Italian immigrants and a native of Wilmington, Delaware. He currently lives in Boston, where he is the artistic director of Grub Street, the country’s largest and leading independent creative writing center. He is the author of the novels: A Kiss from Maddalena, The Saint of Lost Things, All This Talk of Love, and Leading Men. He is also the author of The Art of Perspective: Who Tells the Story, a collection of essays on point of view in fiction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/ad...

2019-07-1558 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Laila LalamiLaila Lalami was born in Rabat and educated in Morocco, Great Britain, and the United States. She is the author of the novels Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, Secret Son, The Moor’s Account, and The Other Americans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-07-0841 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft: George HodgmanGeorge Hodgman is the author of Bettyville. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-07-0135 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Tina ChangTina Chang was raised in New York City. She is the first female to be named Poet Laureate of Brooklyn and is the author of the collections of poetry Hybrida, Of Gods & Strangers, and Half-Lit Houses. She is also the co-editor of the W.W. Norton anthology Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-06-241h 02

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Devi LaskarDevi Laskar is the author of two poetry collections: Gas & Food, No Lodging and Anastasia Maps and the novel: The Atlas of Reds and Blues. She lives in Northern California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-06-1734 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Rachel HowardRachel Howard is a writer of fiction, personal essays, memoir, and dance criticism. Her debut novel is called The Risk of Us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-06-1045 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft: Miriam ToewsMiriam Toews is the author of Women Talking, Summer of My Amazing Luck, A Boy of Good Breeding, A Complicated Kindness, All My Puny Sorrows, The Flying Troutmans, and Irma Voth, and one work of non-fiction, Swing Low: A Life. She is a winner of the Governor General’s Award for Fiction, the Libris Award for Fiction Book of the Year, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and the Writers Trust Marian Engel/Timothy Findley Award. She lives in Toronto. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-06-0436 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Meg WolitzerMeg Wolitzer is the New York Times–bestselling author of The Interestings, The Uncoupling, The Ten-Year Nap, The Position, The Wife, and Sleepwalking. She is also the author of the young adult novel Belzhar. Wolitzer lives in New York City. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-05-2730 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Joanne RamosJoanne Ramos was born in the Philippines and moved to Wisconsin when she was six. She graduated with a BA from Princeton University. After working in investment banking and private-equity investing for several years, she became a staff writer at The Economist. The Farm is her first novel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-05-2035 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Nell FreudenbergerNell Freudenberger is the author of the novels Lost and Wanted, The Newlyweds, and The Dissident, and the story collection Lucky Girls, which won the PEN/Malamud Award and the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-05-1338 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Molly DektarMolly Dektar is the author of The Ash Family. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-05-0641 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - CJ HauserCJ Hauser teaches creative writing and literature at Colgate University. She is the author of the novel The From-Aways and her fiction has appeared in Tin House, Narrative Magazine, TriQuarterly, Esquire, Third Coast, and The Kenyon Review. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-04-2932 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Erika MeitnerErika Meitner was born and raised in Queens and Long Island, New York. She is the author of five books of poems: Inventory at the All-Night Drugstore, Ideal Cities, Makeshift Instructions for Vigilant Girls, Copia, and Holy Moly Carry Me. In addition to teaching creative writing at UVA, UW-Madison, and UC-Santa Cruz, she has worked as a dating columnist, an office temp, a Hebrew school instructor, a computer programmer, a systems consultant, a lifeguard, a documentary film production assistant, and a middle school teacher in the New York City public school system. Learn more about...

2019-04-2244 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Cara RobertsonCara Robertson is the author of The Trial of Lizzie Borden. She is an attorney whose writing has appeared in The Boston Globe, the Raleigh News and Observer, and the Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities. She was educated at Harvard, Oxford, and Stanford Law School. A former Supreme Court law clerk, she served as a legal adviser to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at The Hague and a Visiting Scholar at Stanford Law School Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-04-1533 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - David MeansDavid Means is the author of several short story collections including Instructions for a Funeral, The Secret Goldfish, and The Spot and the novel, Hystopia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-04-0838 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Susan OrleanSusan Orlean is a staff writer at The New Yorker and her books include Rin Tin Tin, The Orchid Thief, and The Library Book, among others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-04-0143 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Jessica SofferJessica Soffer's work has appeared in Granta, The New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, Real Simple, Redbook, Saveur, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue and on NPR’s Selected Shorts. Her bestselling novel, Tomorrow There Will be Apricots, was published in twelve countries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-03-2532 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Sophie MackintoshSophie Mackintosh is the author of The Water Cure, which is on teh long list for the 2018 Man Booker Prize. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-03-1835 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Eva Hagberg FisherEva Hagberg Fisher is the author of How to be Loved: A Memoir of Lifesaving Friendship. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-03-1144 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Pam HoustonPam Houston is the author of Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-03-0440 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Katrin SchumannKatrin Schumann is the author of the novel The Forgotten Hours. She is also the author of the non-fiction titles: The Secret Power of Middle Children and Mothers Need Time Outs, Too. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-02-2542 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing FIrst Draft - Valeria LuiselliValeria Luiselli is the author of The Lost Children Archive. She is a fiction writer, journalist, and essayist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-02-1856 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Madhuri VijayMadhuri Vijay is the author of the novel The Far Field. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-02-1140 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Esmé Weijun WangEsmé Weijun Wang is the author of The Border of Paradise and The Collected Schizophrenias. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-02-0440 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Merritt TierceMerritt Tierce is the author of the novel Love Me Back. Merritt currently writes for the Netflix show Orange is the New Black. She lives in Los Angeles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-01-2831 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Juliet LapidosJuliet Lapidos is the author of the novel Talent and is a senior editor at The Atlantic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-01-2136 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Christy StillwellChristy Stillwell earned a BA in English at the University of Georgia before moving west, first to Wyoming, then Montana. She holds an MA in Literature from the University of Wyoming, and an MFA from the Warren Wilson College Program for Writers. Her books include a chapbook of poetry called Amnesia and the novel, The Wolf Tone. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-01-1437 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Tommy CaldwellTommy Caldwell is the author of The Push and is an accomplished rock climber. He made the first ascents of some of the United States' hardest sport routes including Kryptonite (5.14c/d) and Flex Luthor (5.15a) at the Fortress of Solitude, Colorado. In January 2015, Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson completed the first-ever free climb of the Dawn Wall of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2019-01-0745 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Stuart DybekStuart Dybek is the author of three books of fiction: I Sailed With Magellan, The Coast of Chicago, and Childhood and Other Neighborhoods. Both I Sailed With Magellan and The Coast of Chicago were New York Times Notable Books, and The Coast of Chicago was a One Book One Chicago selection. Dybek has also published two collections of poetry: Streets in Their Own Ink and Brass Knuckles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2018-12-3131 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Yiyun LiYiyun Li grew up in Beijing and came to the United States in 1996. Her debut collection, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, PEN/Hemingway Award, Guardian First Book Award, and California Book Award for first fiction. Her novel, The Vagrants, won the gold medal of California Book Award for fiction, and was shortlisted for Dublin IMPAC Award. Gold Boy, Emerald Girl, her second collection, was a finalist of Story Prize and shortlisted for Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone...

2018-12-2432 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Tom BarbashTom Barbash is the author of the novels The Dakota Winters and The Last Good Chance, a collection of short stories Stay Up With Me, and the bestselling nonfiction work On Top of the World: Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick & 9/11: A Story of Loss & Renewal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2018-12-1736 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Leif EngerLeif Enger was raised in Osakis, Minnesota, and worked as a reporter and producer for Minnesota Public Radio for nearly twenty years. His newest novel is called Virgil Wander. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2018-12-1042 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - RO KwonR.O. Kwon’s first novel is called The Incendiaries. She is a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow. Her writing has appeared in The Guardian, Vice, BuzzFeed, Noon, Time, Electric Literature, Playboy, San Francisco Chronicle, and elsewhere. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2018-12-0331 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Cai EmmonsCai Emmons is the author of the novels Weather Woman, His Mother's Son, and The Stylist. Emmons has taught at various colleges and universities, including the University of Southern California. Since 2002 she has been teaching fiction and screenwriting at the University of Oregon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2018-11-2637 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Sarah Stone Sarah Stone’s new novel, Hungry Ghost Theater, was published by WTAW Press in October 2018. Her first novel is called The True Sources of the Nile. She teaches creative writing for the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers and Stanford Continuing Studies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2018-11-1935 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Karen BenderKaren Bender is the author of short story collections The New Order and Refund, the novels A Town of Empty Rooms and Like Normal People and is co-editor of the anthology Choice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2018-11-1238 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Christina DalcherChristina Dalcher is the author of VOX. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2018-11-0540 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Daniel MasonDaniel Mason is a physician and author of The Piano Tuner, A Far Country, and The Winter Soldier. He is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Stanford University Department of Psychiatry, and his research and teaching interests include the subjective experience of mental illness and the influence of literature, history, and culture on the practice of medicine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2018-10-2941 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Beth MacyBeth Macy is a journalist and author. Her latest book, Dopesick, focuses on one of America's epicenters for the opioid crisis. The book follows distressed communities in Central Appalachia to wealthy suburbs. Her other books include Factory Man and Truevine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2018-10-2245 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Matthew ThomasMatthew Thomas's New York Times-bestselling novel We Are Not Ourselves was shortlisted for the James Tait Black Prize, the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and the John Gardner Fiction Book Award; longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award, the Guardian First Book Award, and the Folio Prize; named a Notable Book of the year by the New York Times; named one of the best books of the year by the Washington Post, Esquire, Entertainment Weekly, Publishers Weekly, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Apple, and others; and named one of Janet Maslin’s ten favorite books of the year in the New...

2018-10-1631 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Ben MarcusBen Marcus is the author of five books of fiction: The Age of Wire and String, Notable American Women, The Flame Alphabet, Leaving the Sea, and Notes from the Fog. His stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in Harper’s, The New Yorker, Granta, The Paris Review, Conjunctions, Bomb, the Virginia Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. He is the editor of The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories and New American Stories. Since 2000 he has taught on the faculty at Columbia University’s School of the Arts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/a...

2018-10-0843 min

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing First Draft - Bernice McFaddenBernice McFadden is the author of nine critically acclaimed novels including Sugar, Loving Donovan, Nowhere Is a Place, The Warmest December, Gathering of Waters (a New York Times Editors’ Choice and one of the 100 Notable Books of 2012), Glorious, and The Book of Harlan (winner of a 2017 American Book Award and the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Fiction). She is a four-time Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist, as well as the recipient of three awards from the BCALA. Praise Song for the Butterflies is her latest novel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit me...

2018-10-0146 min