San Francisco Writers Conference Podcast

Lilly Dancyger is the author of Negative Space, a reported and illustrated memoir selected by Carmen Maria Machado as a winner of the Santa Fe Writers Project Literary Awards. Lilly is also the editor of Burn It Down, a critically acclaimed anthology of essays on women's anger. Her writing has been published by Guernica, Lit Hub, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, and more. Podcast host Matthew Felix invited Lilly to be on the show as soon as he finished reading her Electric Literature essay called, "Canceling My Book Deal Was the Best Career Move I've Ever Made: A contract that doesn't suit your needs or expectations could be worse than no book deal at all." Lilly shared with Matthew her journey from getting her first book deal, to realizing it wasn't the right one, to the agonizing decision to get out of it. She then shared what she did after canceling her deal, including how she applied the lessons learned, eventually resulting in her getting a deal that was right for her and her book. Red flags with Lilly's first book deal included: no distribution, no help with marketing and publicity, and no round of edits with the publisher. Lilly discussed criteria she used to find a small press that would work for her, including ones with national distribution, a robust social media presence, and ones that had published books she was familiar with. Matthew and Lilly discussed her memoir, NEGATIVE SPACE, which explores her grief, anger, and artistic inheritance as she sets out to illuminate the darkness her father—an artist and heroin addict—hid from her, as well as her own. Lilly talked about what she initially thought the book was about, and how her conception of it quickly evolved into something more personal as the project progressed. Matthew and Lilly discussed addiction, a central theme throughout the book, including some common misconceptions. Lilly explained how she did (or did not) reconcile the father she idolized with the man she learned more about—including some things she might have preferred not to discover—while researching the book. Negative Space is out now.

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Links

https://www.lillydancyger.com/

https://twitter.com/lillydancyger

K-Ming Chang is a Kundiman fellow, a Lambda Literary Award finalist, and a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree. She is the author of the New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice novel Bestiary, which was long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award. Told from the point of view of Daughter, a Taiwanese American early-adolescence girl, Bestiary threads together three generations of women with each other, land, water, trauma, violence, and love. Podcast host Matthew Felix asked K-Ming about her interest in inter-generational bonds, including the trauma that can sometimes come with them.

K-Ming shared the unique way in which Bestiary—the writing process for which was initially very fragmented—came together as a cohesive whole.

Matthew and K-Ming discussed language, from the influences of knowing other languages when writing in English to not shying away from possibly unpleasant physiological terms to how writing poetry can influence prose. Matthew asked K-Ming about how she accesses her imagination and her apparent ability to surrender to it. K-Ming discussed some of the key themes in Bestiary, including the cost of having a body and the tiger tail that the protagonist grows. K-Ming explained her inclusion of multiple queer love stories in Bestiary, and she shared some of the queer writers that have influenced her and her writing. Bestiary is now out in paperback.

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Links

https://www.kmingchang.com/

https://twitter.com/k_mingchang

Podcast host Matthew Félix talks with authors Laurie Ann Doyle and Ryan Sloan about community: What is it, really? Why is it so important to us as writers? How do we find it? Sharing their own personal stories, as well as their respective experiences in academia, participating in writers groups and organizations, and organizing literary events, Matthew, Laurie, and Ryan engage in a comprehensive discussion about the notion of community, its importance to writers, and the many ways we can find it. LAURIE ANN DOYLE is the author of World Gone Missing, winner of the Nautilus Award in Fiction. Recipient of the Alligator Juniper National Fiction Award and a Pushcart Prize nomination, Laurie's stories and essays have appeared in McSweeny's, Alta Journal, The Los Angeles Review, and many others. Laurie teaches writing at UC Berkeley Extension and The Writers Grotto in San Francisco. RYAN SLOAN is a novelist and essayist who teaches writing at the University of California, Berkeley. Ryan has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and his work has been published or is forthcoming in LA Weekly, Joyland Magazine, Opium Magazine and many other publications. Ryan has done multiple residencies, including the 2019 Lit Camp Writers' Conference and the 2019 Arctic Circle Residency on the Summer Solstice Expedition. Special shout-outs went out to The Book Passage Travel Writers and Photographers Conference, Left Coast Writers, The San Francisco Writers Grotto, Babylon Salon, NaNoWriMo, LitCamp, and LitWings, as well as other organizations, events, and sites that foster community among writers.

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Links

http://laurieanndoyle.com

https://rrsloan.com

https://www.babylonsalon.com

David Downie is a native San Franciscan who moved to Paris in the mid-1980s and now divides his time between France and Italy. His travel, food, and arts features have appeared in more than 50 print magazines and newspapers worldwide and on dozens of websites. David is the author of more than a dozen nonfiction books, one literary novel, and two thrillers, as well as a contributor to dozens of anthologies.

David's new book is Red Riviera, a murder mystery thriller. Commissioner Daria Vinci's first investigation, Red Riviera is a wild ride from the tangled trails of the Cinque Terre to glamorous Portofino to roistering Genoa.

David explained why for this latest project he chose to return to the mystery genre.

Podcast host Matthew Felix and David discussed the importance of place in a novel, as well as David's fascination with history and his incorporation of Italian history into Red Riviera. Matthew asked David to share his thoughts on our obsession with murder. David shared why he likes to write in so many genres—and his belief that, in actuality, there aren't different genres. Matthew asked David about how he is able to be so prolific and advice for writers struggling to finish their books. David addressed the current debate about whether or not writers should only write from the perspective of their of own experiences, and he explained his belief that writing cannot be taught. David advised writers to write was is urgent for them, to follow their guts and go with their hearts.

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Links

www.davidddownie.com/

https://www.facebook.com/david.downie.7773

https://twitter.com/DavidDDownie

https://www.instagram.com/redrivieradariavinci/

Joanna Penn writes non-fiction for authors and is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling thriller author under the pseudonym J.F. Penn. She has written more than 30 books and sold over 600,000 of them in 149 countries and 6 languages. Joanna is also a podcaster whose The Creative Penn Podcast has been downloaded over 4 million times in 220 countries. Joanna's website, TheCreativePenn.com, offers information and inspiration on writing, self-publishing, book marketing and how to make a living from your writing. TheCreativePenn.com has been voted in the Top 100 sites for writers by Writer's Digest. Podcast host Matthew Felix and Joanna began with an in-depth discussion of the pros and cons of traditional versus indie publishing, including some common misconceptions. Matthew and Joanna talked in detail about making money as a writer, as described in her book, How to Make a Living with Your Writing.

Joanna talked about the importance of writers being clear on their own definitions of success and emphasized the need to develop multiple streams of income. She also shared ways to go about that and examples of potential streams.

Joanna noted the importance for writers to be aware of and possibly change their attitudes toward money. Joanna discussed common obstacles that can get in the way of an "author mindset" and ways to address them, including self doubt, writers block, fear of judgement, and fear of failure.

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Links

https://www.thecreativepenn.com/

https://jfpenn.com/

https://www.facebook.com/TheCreativePenn

https://twitter.com/thecreativepenn

Kirstin Valdez Quade is the author of The Five Wounds. Her previous book, Night at the Fiestas, won the John Leonard Prize from the National Book Critics Circle and was also named a New York Times Notable Book. Kirstin talked about the rural New Mexico setting in which the book takes place, including its Latinx population, the drug epidemic plaguing it, and an enduring and unique religious tradition. Host Matthew Felix and Kirstin discussed the theme of redemption, which is central to the story, including the different ways it is pursued by the characters and the relationship between suffering and redemption. Speaking about craft, Kirstin elaborated on what it means for her to "write into uncertainty," the challenges of turning what was originally a short story into a novel, and how gradually she was able to get the reader to empathize was a character would initially is not very relatable. Matthew also asked Kirstin her thoughts on the current state of Latinx representation in publishing. Available now, The Five Wounds is the July pick for Roxanne Gay's Audacious Book Club. Listen here or on: iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | TuneIn | Amazon | Player FM | Deezer Watch on YouTube https://kirstinvaldezquade.com/

Natalie Baszile is the author of the novel, Queen Sugar, which was not only nominated for an NAACP Image Award but also made into a television series produced and directed by Ava DuVernay for the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). Natalie's new book is We Are Each Other's Harvest: Celebrating African American Farmers, Land, and Legacy. The book brings together essays, poems, photographs, quotes, conversations, and first-person stories to examine Black people's connection to the American land from Emancipation to today. Black farms had declined by as much as 98 percent by the end of the twentieth century, and it is estimated that Black farmers cultivate less than half of one percent of the country's farmland today. Black families have lost over 1.5 million acres of land because of racism in America, and it was recently calculated that since 1910 Black families have been stripped of hundreds of billions of dollars because of lost land. Podcast host Matthew Felix and Natalie discussed in detail some of the major themes of the book, including the importance of remembering to Black farmers, the importance of the land itself, some of the primary obstacles that have been put between Blacks and land ownership, and the importance of legacy. Natalie shared about what was involved, from a craft perspective, in putting the anthology together. Matthew asked Natalie about her writing journey, including how and when she made the jump, her creative process—including the role faith plays in it—and what it was like to see her own work, Queen Sugar, transformed by someone else when it was turned into a television series. Natalie presented her Black Harvest Fund initiative, which distributes grants to certified non-profits that advance the work of Black farmers and farmers of color. We Are Each Other's Harvest is out now. Listen here or on: iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | TuneIn | Amazon | Player FM | Deezer Watch on YouTube Links https://nataliebaszile.com/ https://www.facebook.com/natalie.baszile https://twitter.com/NatalieBaszile https://www.instagram.com/nataliebaszile/

Jasmin Darznik is the New York Times bestselling author of Song of a Captive Bird. She is also the author of The Good Daughter: A Memoir of My Mother's Hidden Life and the forthcoming, The Bohemians.

The Bohemians is a novel that imagines the friendship between photographer Dorothea Lange and her Chinese American assistant in 1920s San Francisco.

Podcast host Matthew Felix and Jasmin discussed some of the main themes of the novel, including our desire to be seen and the many ways in which history repeats itself. Many of the issues facing society in the 1920s were in striking parallel to ones with which contemporary society grapples, including racism, xenophobia, a pandemic, and much more.

Jasmin explained why 1920s San Francisco was a surprisingly good time and place to be a woman photographer.

Jasmin discussed the creative process, both as reflected in Dorothea's story and her evolution as an artist and personally, including the importance of an artist giving their all to their work and why she finds it essential to go with her gut when writing.

Jasmin shared her insights into writing historical fiction, including advice for writers just getting started in the genre.

The Bohemians is out April 6.

Chris Colin and Rinee Shah are author and illustrator, respectively, of the new book Off: The Day the Internet Died, A Bedtime Fantasy.

Off is a humorous, illustrated imagining of what might happen to the world if the Internet were to die from one day to the next. Host Matthew Felix discussed with Chris and Rinee some of the concerns about our relationship with the Internet that led them to write the book. They also talked about how this past year—dealing with the pandemic—has impacted our relationship with the Internet. Chris and Rinee explained how they collaborated as writer and illustrator. Rinee shared additional insights into her process as an illustrator, both as it pertained to Off and in general. Chris shared why he decided to make the book a humorous one, as well as his thoughts on writing humor. Rinee explained how she used her illustrations to complement the humor in the story. Off: The Day the Internet Died, A Bedtime Fantasy is out March 4 in the UK and March 23 in the United States.

Home Baked author Alia Volz talked about her book—a finalist for the 2021 National Book Critics Circle award for best autobiography—and offered advice about and lessons learned from launching during the pandemic. During the '70s in San Francisco, Alia Volz's mother ran the underground Sticky Fingers Brownies, delivering upwards of ten thousand illegal marijuana edibles per month throughout the circus-like atmosphere of a city in the throes of major change. Host Matthew Felix and Alia discussed what it was like for Alia to grow up with her parents running an illegal cannabis business. She also discussed telling her parents' stories and what she learned in the process. Alia talked about many of the socio-economic themes addressed in the book, including the HIV/AIDS crisis and its central role in fostering acceptance of medical marijuana; LGBTQ+ history; San Francisco then and now; marijuana criminalization and legalization; and much more. Alia discussed her journey getting the book published, including the importance of timing. She also shared the challenges of cohesively weaving together her personal story and the socio-economic events and themes of the time. Home Baked's launch was derailed by the pandemic. Alia shared how she pivoted and made the most of unexpected circumstances, ultimately having a successful launch. She offered advice to other writers for successful launches not only during but post-pandemic as well.