10 Minute Writer's Workshop

By New Hampshire Public Radio

What's 10 Minute Writer's Workshop about?

A peek into how great writers conjure and craft their work. From creative rituals to guilty distractions, writers reveal what it really takes to get pen to paper.

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10 Minute Writer's Workshop episodes:

02.02.2024
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01.31.2018
Workshop 61: The Last Line
After more than two years and 60 episodes, the 10 Minute Writer’s Workshop is signing off to make room for new projects and podcasts. Thanks to everybody who has listened and learned from the show. As we dream up our next...
12.27.2017
Workshop 60: Manoush Zomorodi
Some of you may know Manoush Zomorodi as host of the podcast Note to Self from WNYC. She is also, now, an author. Her book Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self came...
12.13.2017
Workshop 59: Jennifer Egan
Conventional, linear narratives are not really Jennifer Egan’s thing. She's a shape-shifter of fiction – jumping through time, space, voices and forms. She's written a graphic novel, a short story composed of tweets, and, in the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Visit...
11.29.2017
Workshop 58: Welcome to Nightvale's Jeffrey Cranor & Joseph Fink
Jeffrey Cranor and Joseph Fink, co-creators of the phenomenally popular Welcome to Nightvale podcast, the “Nightvale Presents” series of podcasts, and New York Times bestselling co-authors of the new novel, It Devours, their second book set in the fictional world...
11.15.2017
Workshop 57: Dan Brown
The blockbuster 2003 thriller The Da Vinci Code launched Dan Brown into the best-selling stratosphere. More than 200 million copies of his books have sold worldwide since. Three of his novels have been made into films starring tom hanks as...
11.01.2017
Workshop 56: Speechwriter Sarah Hurwitz
For many writers, hitting their stride means finding their voice. Success for Sarah Hurwitz is in creating a voice for others. Sarah was candidate Hillary Clinton’s chief speechwriter during the 2006 Presidential primary, and was quickly snatched up by the...
10.18.2017
Workshop 55: Virginia Macgregor
Virginia Macgregor, author most recently of Wishbones, has a knack for capturing the voices of children and young adults and projecting her novels through their lenses, giving us young narrators with accurate levels of experience and naivety - and a...
10.06.2017
Workshop 54: Atul Gawande
Atul Gawande is a surgeon, professor at Harvard Medical School, and writes about medicine and ethics for the New Yorker. He’s author of several best-selling books, most recently, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End. The book questions...
09.20.2017
Workshop 53: Celeste Ng
Celeste Ng came out of the gate strong. Her first novel, Everything I Never Told You, was a New York Times bestseller and Amazon's #1 Best Book of 2014. Her latest, Little Fires Everywhere, continues her exploration of family dynamics...
09.07.2017
Workshop 52: Louise Penny
Louise Penny was well into her forties when she published Still Life, the first in what has become the wildly popular Armand Gamache mystery series. The novels are set in Québec, where Gamache is Chief Inspector of the provincial police...
08.23.2017
Workshop 51: Howard Axelrod
Howard Axelrod was a junior at Harvard when an accident left him blind in one eye. The loss left him feeling shattered and isolated, eventually leading to a two-year stint living in the solitude of the Vermont woods. His memoir...
08.09.2017
Workshop 50: Alice Fogel
Alice Fogel is Poet Laureate of New Hampshire, and the author of six collections of poetry, including Interval: Poems Based on Bach's Goldberg Variations. Her most recent work is A Doubtful House. Episode Music by Little Glass Men Learn more about your...
07.26.2017
Workshop 49: Michael Cunningham
Michael Cunningham is best known as the author of The Hours, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in fiction, which imagines a fateful day in the life of Virginia Woolf and its modern parallels. Nicole Kidman won an Academy Award for...
07.12.2017
Workshop 48: Roxane Gay
This episode, we speak to Roxane Gay, author, essayist, teacher, and all around-superwoman. The author of New York Times bestsellers Bad Feminist and Difficult Women, her latest, Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body, is a candid and personal account of...
06.28.2017
Workshop 47: Jonathan Safran Foer
Author, outspoken vegetarian, social media abstainer and writing teacher Jonathan Safran Foer is author of three novels: Everything Is Illuminated, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and, most recently, Here I Am, which follows four generations of a Jewish family grappling...
06.14.2017
Workshop 46: Ian Rankin
Ian Rankin is best known for two characters: Inspector John Rebus, the protagonist of now 21 mystery novels, and the city of Edinburgh, whose dark corners come alive in Rankin’s hands. Rebus made his debut in the 1987 crime novel...
05.31.2017
Workshop 45: Krista Tippett
Krista Tippett is probably best known as the host & creator of the public radio program On Being. But she's also the author of three books that pull from her decades of interviews with a broad variety of thinkers...
05.17.2017
Workshop 44: Anita Shreve
Anita Shreve had a small, but devoted following as a literary author when her second novel, The Pilot's Wife was named an Oprah Book Club pick. The recognition propelled her into a New York Times bestselling novelist. Two days after...
05.03.2017
Workshop 43: John Scalzi
John Scalzi, the Hugo Award-winning author of science fiction both serious and less-so and an internet star from way, way back. He is former president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, perhaps best known for his Old...
04.19.2017
Workshop 42: Tana French
Tana French is the Edgar Award-winning author of the Dublin Murder Squad series. The newest, called The Trespasser, is the sixth in the best-selling, habit-forming series. "It’s taken for granted that anybody who’s read one [Tana French novel] will very...
04.05.2017
Workshop 41: Ben H. Winters
Ben Winters is a little incomprehensible. Not his output, which is consistently great, but his wild imagination and range. He's a teacher, a playwright, an Edgar and Phillip K. Dick Award-winning novelist, he's written children's books, an existential detective series...
03.22.2017
Workshop 40: Mario Batali
Mario Batali is a superstar chef, restaurateur, television star and passionate advocate for simple, regional food. Also passionate about making that food more accessible, he is author or co-author of 7 cookbooks, including his most recent Big American Cookbook. We...
03.08.2017
Workshop 39: Lindy West
Lindy West, columnist for The Guardian, and author of How to be a Person and Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman. Lindy writes about feminism, social justice, body image, pop culture and, lately, politics. She's a funny and original thinker, and...
02.22.2017
Workshop 38: Victoria (V.E.) Schwab
Victoria Schwab... VE Schwab... V... the author's name depends on her audience, which, like the dark worlds she builds, is a well-thought out design. Ms. Schwab, we'll say, burst onto the scene in 2011 with The Near Witch. A dozen books...
02.08.2017
Workshop 37: Ottessa Moshfegh
Ottessa Moshfegh says she writes to explore why people do weird things. The daughter of a Croatian mother and Iranian father, she was a serious piano student who knew she didn't want to be a pianist when she felt the...
01.25.2017
Workshop 36: Caitlin Moran
Caitlin Moran is the best-selling author of How to Be a Woman, Moranthology, and columnist for the Times of London. She and her sister developed and write 'raised by wolves" --a British television series loosely based on their experience in...
01.11.2017
Workshop 35: Jonathan Lethem
Jonathan Lethem is the best-selling author of Gun, with Occasional Music, Fortress of Solitude, and other novels, including the Naitonal Book Critics' Circle award-winning Motherless Brooklyn. He's known for reanimating and remixing genres - hard-boiled crime novels, post-apocalyptic science fiction,...
12.28.2016
Workshop 34: Catalog Writer Jeff Ryan
'In Maine, when we say something is "wicked good" – we really mean it.' That's how LL Bean describes their Wicked Good Slippers, and how we describe Jeff Ryan, who for decades wrote Bean's catalog copy. We spoke to him about...
12.14.2016
Workshop 33: Emma Donoghue
Irish author Emma Donoghue may be best known for Room, her novel written in the voice of a young boy confined with his mother in a single room. It was nominated for a Man Booker prize and made...
11.30.2016
Workshop 32: Tom Gauld
Tom Gauld -- a cartoonist, illustrator of comics and covers for the New Yorker and The Believer. His weekly cartoon about the arts for The Guardian newspaper is a wry, often deadpan favorite among writers. He is extremely prolific, author...
11.16.2016
Workshop 31: Colson Whitehead
A National Book Award winner, Pulitzer-Prize nominee, Guggenheim fellow, and winner of a MacArthur "genius" grant, Colson Whitehead's new book, The Underground Railroad, was one of the most anticipated works of fiction this year. Virginia caught up with him backstage...
11.02.2016
Workshop 30: Jodi Picoult
It’s our 30th episode, this time with the phenomenally successful Jodi Picoult. Small Great Things is her 24th novel - and the ninth straight to debut at number one on the New York Times bestseller list. If Picoult has a "thing"...
10.19.2016
Workshop 29: Josh Ritter
In this episode of the 10-Minute Writer’s Workshop, singer-songwriter, musician and novelist Josh Ritter – who might say writer first, musician second. It was a song that spun into his 2011 novel Bright's Passage. Josh Ritter’s songs draw deeply from...
10.05.2016
Workshop 28: Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer
Legal decisions are rarely read for pleasure. And though read and re-read and excerpted and quoted, they are not always quotable. Clocking in at an average of just under 5000 words, they can sound jargony, pompous and bone-dry in the...
09.21.2016
Workshop 27: Cynthia Ozick
The novelist, short story writer and essayist Cynthia Ozick's best known piece of writing is called The Shawl, a brutal, phantasmal story of a woman and two children marching to a Nazi concentration camp. The Holocaust and Jewish identity are...
09.07.2016
Workshop 26: Andre Dubus III
Andre Dubus III's memoir Townie told the story of his violent childhood on the wrong side of the tracks. Writing was his way out, and he's made more than good, with multiple NYT bestsellers, an Oprah’s Book Club pick, and...
08.24.2016
Workshop 25: Kelly Link
Kelly Link is one of a handful of writers to manage to be wondrous, fantastical and ominous at the same time. As Kirkus says, her work is “like Kafka hosting Saturday Night Live, mixing humor with existential dread.” Her most...
08.10.2016
Workshop 24: Chuck Klosterman
Essayist, novelist, columnist, sportswriter and former ethicist for the New York Times Magazine, Chuck Klosterman has got a wildly original voice. That makes sense for a guy who's written about glam metal bands in North Dakota, or whether you should...
07.27.2016
Workshop 23: Judy Blume
Anyone who's ever been an awkward adolescent knows that for decades now, dog-eared copies of Judy Blume's books have been passed around school playgrounds like secrets, or read under the covers after lights out. Her best known books - Are...
07.13.2016
Workshop 22: Donald Hall
Donald Hall is now 87 and no longer writing poetry, a pursuit he calls "a young man's game" which takes "too much testosterone." But Hall, former Poet Laureate of both New Hampshire and the United States, long ago cemented his...
06.29.2016
Workshop 21: Helen Simonson
The bestselling author of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand - and bonafide Charming British Lady - Helen Simonson lets us in on her writing process, her thoughts on sunshine, and the perils of HGTV. Her latest novel, set in 1914, is...
06.15.2016
Workshop 20: Aaron Mahnke of Lore
A bona fide podcasting star, Aaron Mahnke has turned his love of the darker side of history into the spooky smash hit, Lore, which he researches and authors. He's also the author of four thrillers, a veteran of self-publishing, and...
06.02.2016
Workshop 19: Richard Russo
Richard Russo is the Pulitzer prize-winning author of Empire Falls and Nobody’s Fool - both were adapted into films starring Paul Newman. He returns to the fictional working class town of North Bath for his most recent novel, Everybody's Fool. We...
05.18.2016
Workshop 18: Joe Hill
As a writer, Joe Hill's family name gave him a leg up. Instead, he chose to create his own. We sat down with the best-selling author just before his appearance at Writers on a New England Stage at the Music...
05.04.2016
Workshop 17: James McBride
"Kill 'em and leave" was James Brown's commandment to his band before every show...it's also the title of a biography of the soul legend, the latest by James McBride. The National Book Award winner is also a musician and composer....
04.20.2016
Workshop 16: Partners in True Crime, Kevin Flynn & Rebecca Lavoie
In this episode, married co-authors Kevin Flynn & Rebecca Lavoie. Together, they have written four true crime books, most recently Dark Heart: A True Story of Sex, Manipulation, and Murder. They are also two of the eponymous crime writers behind...
04.13.2016
Workshop 15: Olivia Laing
We are thrilled to say the 10-Minute Writer's Workshop has picked up a ton of new listeners, so, we're bringing you this bonus episode to say thank you! and welcome...we are ecstatic to have you! On this episode, author, columnist and...
04.06.2016
Workshop 14: Anatomical Historian Alice Dreger
Alice Dreger is a historian of science, anatomy, and medicine, known for her work studying and advocating for people born with atypical sex disorders. She famously resigned from Northwestern University in protest of academic censorship, and gained some infamy on...
03.23.2016
Workshop 13: Alexander Chee
Alexander Chee is a careful craftsman of language. As we came to find out, when we talked to him from Argot Studios in NYC, he is as measured, unassuming and thoughtful in his speech. A retiring man, who prefers to...

What's 10 Minute Writer's Workshop about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

10 Minute Writer's Workshop episodes:

Test Trailer

Workshop 61: The Last Line

Workshop 60: Manoush Zomorodi

Workshop 59: Jennifer Egan

Workshop 58: Welcome to Nightvale's Jeffrey Cranor & Joseph Fink

Workshop 57: Dan Brown

Workshop 56: Speechwriter Sarah Hurwitz

Workshop 55: Virginia Macgregor

Workshop 54: Atul Gawande

Workshop 53: Celeste Ng

Workshop 52: Louise Penny

Workshop 51: Howard Axelrod

Workshop 50: Alice Fogel

Workshop 49: Michael Cunningham

Workshop 48: Roxane Gay

Workshop 47: Jonathan Safran Foer

Workshop 46: Ian Rankin

Workshop 45: Krista Tippett

Workshop 44: Anita Shreve

Workshop 43: John Scalzi

Workshop 42: Tana French

Workshop 41: Ben H. Winters

Workshop 40: Mario Batali

Workshop 39: Lindy West

Workshop 38: Victoria (V.E.) Schwab

Workshop 37: Ottessa Moshfegh

Workshop 36: Caitlin Moran

Workshop 35: Jonathan Lethem

Workshop 34: Catalog Writer Jeff Ryan

Workshop 33: Emma Donoghue

Workshop 32: Tom Gauld

Workshop 31: Colson Whitehead

Workshop 30: Jodi Picoult

Workshop 29: Josh Ritter

Workshop 28: Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer

Workshop 27: Cynthia Ozick

Workshop 26: Andre Dubus III

Workshop 25: Kelly Link

Workshop 24: Chuck Klosterman

Workshop 23: Judy Blume

Workshop 22: Donald Hall

Workshop 21: Helen Simonson

Workshop 20: Aaron Mahnke of Lore

Workshop 19: Richard Russo

Workshop 18: Joe Hill

Workshop 17: James McBride

Workshop 16: Partners in True Crime, Kevin Flynn & Rebecca Lavoie

Workshop 15: Olivia Laing

Workshop 14: Anatomical Historian Alice Dreger

Workshop 13: Alexander Chee