In this week’s episode, Angie and Elizabeth discuss the question, can fiction save your life? Elizabeth rapidly fires off a few examples of fiction that served as sign posts for her as she grew up. They once again discuss whether or not we are wired for story, and Angie muses about what purpose story serves. Representation? Teaching us how to live? Saving a life? Perhaps not. Changing lives however… perhaps.

Anne Patchett

Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Brené Brown

Later The Same Day by Grace Paley

Jesus’ Son by Denis Johnson

Alice Walker

Oz Series by Frank Baum

David Bowie

Nightwood by Djuna Barnes and Jeanette Winterson

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Herman Hesse

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

The Passion by Jeanette Winterson

Wired for Story by Lisa Cron

The L Word

Keep Going by Austin Kleon

Story Makers is a podcast that features in-depth conversations with accomplished writers, filmmakers and industry experts about story craft, technique, habit and survival--everything you need to know to stay inspired, connect to your creativity, find others’ wonderful stories and your own success.

The hosts:

Elizabeth Stark is a published, agented novelist and distributed filmmaker who teaches and mentors writers at BookWritingWorld.com.

Angie Powers is a distributed filmmaker and published short story writer with an MFA in creative writing and a certificate in screenwriting from UCLA who teaches story structure at BookWritingWorld.com.