I talk to writer Dave Housley (This Darkness Got to Give, Howard and Charles at the Factory) about how he's managed to write and publish several books while holding down a 9-to-5 job in web development, running a magazine (Barrelhouse) and not neglecting his family.

I talk to novelist Wendy Fox (If The Ice Had Held) about finding time to write two books while working full-time for the tech industry, Denver vs. Seattle, and her mixed feelings about book contest fees.

Poet and essayist Elisa Gabbert (The Word Pretty, The Unreliability of Memory) talks about balancing her writing career with a full-time job in SEO content management, how she chooses which projects to work on, her decision not to have children, and why she misses poetry blogs.

I talk to writer Susan Muaddi Darraj (A Curious Land: Stories From Home) about the stigma she sometimes feels as a community college professor, and why she believes so strongly in community college education. We also talk about going to Catholic school as a non-Catholic, her father's poetry, what happens when you get retweeted by Hillary Clinton, and why she gets up every morning before the sun.

You can read Susan's article about community college stigma at Inside Higher Ed.

I talk to poet and writer Megan Volpert (Boss Broad, Straight Into Darkness) about her job teaching high school English and journalism, her tendency to overwork herself, and how she never imagined herself having a stable adult life.

I talk to poet, teacher, labor organizer, and 2016 Pew Fellow Ryan Eckes about the ethics of working for a university, the difficulties of labor organizing, and how his socialist politics influence the way he thinks about both his writing and his day jobs. His latest collection of poetry, General Motors, is available from Split Lip Press. You can also learn more about Ryan on his website, or follow him on Twitter @ryaneckes.

I talk to Tyrese Coleman, author of How to Sit (Mason Jar Press), which was recently named a finalist for the PEN Open Book Award. She's also a lawyer for the USDA, and a mother of twins, so we had lots of things to talk about in terms of work-life balance, and how to make space for your creative work while juggling a career and a family. 

Tyrese's website: https://tyresecoleman.com/

Tyrese on Twitter: @tylachelleco

Buy Tyrese's book from Mason Jar Press: http://www.masonjarpress.xyz/chapbooks-1/how-to-sit

Annie Wilson is a dancer, performer, choreographer, and bartender. She was a 2017 Pew Fellow, and her dances have been staged at the Philly Fringe Fest, JACK in Brooklyn, and Bryn Mawr College. She teaches me about the world of experimental dance, and gives me some new ways to think about movement, performance, and human bodies. Plus what she loves (and doesn't) about bartending, why she works as an independent choreographer instead of forming a company, and why she has no interest in adjunct teaching.

You can find out more about Annie and her work at her website: www.theanniewilson.com. 

You can find more episodes of this podcast via Apple podcasts, or just about any other podcast app. Or listen via my website: http://www.mikeingram.net/ 

Thanks for listening!

Christopher Gonzalez is a fiction writer and literary journal editor who also works full-time in digital production for a big New York City publisher. We talk about why he chose production work over editorial, what his family thinks about his creative pursuits, and how growing up in a house where money was often tight helped shape his relationship to work.

You can find Chris on Twitter @livesinpages, or check out his website, which includes links to some of his published work (though sadly his website does not include--yet!--the tragedy poems he wrote as a teen).

Thanks for listening!

This conversation with Bud Smith brought me so much joy. Bud is a writer who's published several books and also works full-time in heavy construction. We talked about writing on your phone during breaks, getting your coworkers to read good books, how wrong-headed it is to think of certain jobs as "brainless," and why Bud's girlfriend broke up with him after he wrote his first novel.