This week Write-minded revisits two powerful interviews in which guests Erica Jong and Lilly Dancyger shared with us about the power of emotion on the page. Erica Jong’s work has often centered fear and desire while Lilly Dancyger’s work has circled anger. Both women share the power of unlocking emotion on the page, and touch upon the ways in which women are expected to be more confined in their emotional expression. This is exactly why it’s so important to feel those emotions and express them on the page, and these two authors give the absolute permission to do so, and model how in their wonderful works of fiction and nonfiction.

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This week’s episode is chock-full of craft tips and ideas for thinking about the subtle art of subtext and omission, featuring two of our favorite craft episodes from the past year. E.J. Koh and Charmaine Wilkerson will help you think about what to leave out, how to help your readers read between the lines, and why these craft techniques are an exercise in building trust with your readers. Two excellent writers on two important craft points that create more depth and sophistication when it comes to storytelling and scene-writing.

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In this week’s remembrances of some of the best episodes of the past year, we’re highlighting fantasy’s importance as a genre with guests Kwame Mbalia and Namina Forna. There’s so much goodness packed in here—about process, about why we write, about inspirations, and some fabulous tips for staying the course even when you feel like you don’t have the time. This isn’t so much an episode about fantasy as it is about writing intentionally and infusing meaning into genre writing just as you would any writing you do. 

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All August we’re celebrating with our favorite guests of the past year—but with a fresh take on the topic at hand and a new book trend. This week’s episode basks in the smart, intimate, and insightful energy of Ashley C. Ford and Melissa Febos, two wonderful memoirists who share about writing intimate truths. Brooke gives her take on why memoir is a force that’s changing the culture, and we celebrate Grant’s latest side gig, the Reality TV project “America’s Next Great Author”—which we’re excited to share about on this week’s show.

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Anthologies date all the way back to the Renaissance and earlier, when important works of various authors were collected and bound. This week, Brooke and Grant discuss the modern anthology—what kinds of works lend themselves to collections and what publishers are looking for. Guest Stephanie Raffelock joins the show to discuss her latest book, Art in the Time of Unbearable Crisis, a joint project with She Writes Press that collects the work of 80+ She Writes Press authors and which emerged from the premise Stephanie posed in her call for submissions—that art can and will carry us, even save us, during turbulent times.

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Romance often gets the short-shrift for being not a serious genre, or for being a guilty pleasure—and yet, it’s the best-selling genre there is. Which is why Grant and Brooke chose to explore with Angelina Lopez, touching upon the sexiness of romance, yes, but also the fact that it’s so much more than that. Romance can be socially conscious, and importantly—there’s romance out there for every kind of reader. Listen in to open your horizons to new reading experiences, or if you’re already a big romance lover, to be nodding your head, knowing you’ve been on the money all along.

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Do you have to be a comedian or a humorist to execute funny in memoir? We don’t think so—and this episode tackles how humor shows up in the everyday, in universal experiences, and through the journey of looking inward. Guest David Sipress, whose New Yorker cartoons are recognizable worldwide, talks about his own insecurities in approaching memoir and how he worked through them, how he mines for funny, and shares with us some insight about his cartoonist brain. You’re in for a treat—and Grant is holding out for a cartoon portrait to arrive in his mail any day now.

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We’re having fun this holiday week talking about genre-blending and bending, and why it’s fun and freeing, but also often problematic from an industry standpoint when stories are not easily categorized. Join Brooke and Grant this week in their conversation with Barbara Graham, a long-time nonfiction writer who breaks the mold with her debut novel, and shares about how intuitive her process was, and how and why she was compelled to write the story that became her book, What Jonah Knew.

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This week’s episode brings to the fore why meaning in all its outward, bigger-than-a-single-individual forms is so profound in writing. The notion that your story is broader than your limited experience is something memoirists know, but too often fail to fully execute on the page. Kathryn Schulz is a master of this form. Tune in to hear about what Brooke calls “litle-T takeaway” and the conversation that ensues with Kathryn, whose recent book, Lost & Found, offers up so much for discussion and emulation. 

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Omission—it’s something writers understand as meaningful to story, but don’t often execute well on the page. In this week’s episode, guest Charmaine Wilkerson offers solid pointers on how to think about omission and why it will make your writing more meaningful. Join Grant and Brooke for this week’s craft-based conversation on the power of omission as we consider some of the best books we’ve read lately that do omission well. We’ll also explore human behavior—like lying, secret-keeping, betrayal, cheating, protecting, and more—that lends itself to exploring omission more deeply.

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