Open Book with Narratively Academy

We’ve been waiting so long for this day — since December 21, 2023, to be exact, when the last brand-new full episode of Heavyweight aired — that it’s hard to believe it’s finally here. After a year and a half away and now at a new home, everyone’s favorite narrative nonfiction podcast is back! To celebrate, we’re sharing the Open Book interview we did w…

It was so great to have such a large crowd join us Monday night as Creative Nonfiction Founder Lee Gutkind interviewed award-winning journalist Jeanne Marie Laskas—a contributing writing for The New York Times Magazine; “Cement City,” podcast host; and author of the bestselling book-turned-movie Concussion. If you missed this chat, paid subscribers to Narratively Academy can watch the full thing above.

MORE: Check out all the episodes in our Open Book series of live conversations here.

To access all of the tools and resources in our writer-centric community, become a Narratively Academy subscriber today.

A former contributing editor at Narratively, Erika Hayasaki has written cover stories for The New York Times Magazine, WIRED, Newsweek and more, plus features for The Atlantic, The Guardian, National Geographic, Men’s Health, Elle, New York magazine, The Cut, and many other publications.

Erika joined our Open Book video series to talk about how she started her career—and how she forms relationships with editors, finds the best stories, and much more.

You can watch the full recording of this video above. Be sure to follow Erika’s Substack, The Reported Essay, for lots more insight—and our growing archive of Open Book talks with editors, writers and publishing professionals is always open for binge-watching.

P.S. Tomorrow morning is Writers’ Room time! Every Wednesday morning from 8-9 ET, it’s the perfect place to come to work out the kinks of your new essay, brainstorm your next novel or polish off a paragraph you’ve been struggling with. Head here for more info, and we hope to see you Wednesday morning!

One of my favorite parts about being a journalist — as I’m sure I’ve written about before — is going on a deep dive of someone’s work and then getting to ask them all the questions that came up for me as I did. This — spoiler — is exactly what I got to do with Ada Calhoun recently, and it was such a joy!

Ada — who has done everything from write five incredible books in the last decade, to collaborate on 30 major non­fic­tion books in her day job as a ghostwriter, to publish three Modern Love essays — was wonderfully candid about all of it. She answered questions about how she got started in media, which is truly the stuff of legends, where she finds inspiration for her books and the new writing genres she’s currently exploring. She also reminded us of this great James Salter quote that I’ll be thinking about for a while: “There are stories that one must tell, and years that one must tell them.” Buckle up for this master class in writing — it’s a perfect way to spend a little chunk of your Sunday.

To watch all of our live video recordings — and access everything else Narratively Academy has to offer — become a paid subscriber today. ❤️

In the days leading up to — and after — my interview with Kalila and Stevie of Heavyweight, I kept hearing from friends and strangers about how much they “omg, love this podcast!” And how it was their “absolute favorite,” (as it is mine)! Always with an exclamation point, always with the knowing enthusiasm that we were all in on something we didn’t real…

Last week was what we were calling “Rejection Week” at Narratively Academy. I wrote a craft piece for which I spoke to several writers and editors about what it’s like to be on both sides of it, and shared some advice in Writers’ Room about it, too. I also got to speak with the one and only Parisa Saranj, who is a writer, Persian translator and contributing editor at literary magazine Consequence Forum, about all the many inventive and thoughtful ways she deals with submitting her work and sometimes getting rejection letters.

Parisa works harder than almost anyone I know at getting her work out there, whether it’s submitting to journals, applying to grants or residencies, or even reaching out to authors she admires and making connections. She also has a unique way of looking at it all — not to mention an energy and enthusiasm that is unmatched. We’re so lucky that she came to chat with us and shared her secrets about reframing (here’s where the cake comes in!), how essential it is not to write alone, what kind of community to look for and so much more.

A few housekeeping things… Parisa talks about her Submission Sunday Club in our chat, and she wanted us to share her email address with folks who may be interested in joining: [email protected].

Also…we’ve been loving doing these Substack Live videos. One of the things that makes them fun is how conversational and spontaneous they can be. On the other hand, the whole live part can get kind of tricky when your video is randomly spotty, like it was in this chat, so apologies for that. We’re working on fixing the issue for the future, and for now, we’ve included subtitles that fill in the gaps to hopefully make things easier to follow. Thank you for understanding and for your support!

To watch all of our live video recordings — and access everything else Narratively Academy has to offer — become a paid subscriber today.

We really appreciate it when a successful author can be wholly honest and transparent about all of the ups and downs of the industry, and Kern Carter is nothing if not that. Kern has landed six separate book deals (yes, we said five when we promoted this chat; and yes, as he revealed in our live video, he landed yet another one since then!)

Kern chatted with us about why he felt self-publishing was the perfect way for him to “practice in public,” how he crafted a pitch that got the attention of an agent, what happens after you sign a deal with a major publisher, and how he made the agonizing decision to walk away from one of his deals.

Kern’s candor about how it all goes down is helpful advice for writers at any stage of their publishing journey.

It was incredible to see so many of you at our Pitch Perfect video session last week, where we talked over what we’re looking for in pitches and submission to Narratively.com (including our brand new call for pitches on unusual jobs), along with some broader tips on pitching any editorial publication. If you missed this session, just click play above to…

Thanks so much to the over 400(!) of you who joined our live chat today with Lee Gutkind and Dinty W. Moore. What a pleasure to have these two literary legends get together to talk about flash essays—and to have so many of you join from all over the world and chime in with insightful comments and questions.

Press play above to watch the full session.

And we have a special little treat: our first-ever flash essay contest! Here’s our prompt:

Write a flash essay about a moment you regret.

Don't overthink or self-edit too much. Just go for it! Write a flash essay of up to 500 words.

We’ll read all of your submissions and publish our favorite one on Narratively.com!

UPDATE: Read the winning flash essay submission over at Narratively.com

PS: Love getting together with other writers? Don’t miss our Wednesday Writers’ Room—a virtual space where we write together in community.

As a staff writer at The New Yorker, Lizzie Widdicombe has penned everything from breaking news posts to an 11,000-word profile of Taylor Swift. She has also authored over 200 pieces for the “Talk of the Town” section, where she served as deputy editor for nine years.