Host Madeline Wahl speaks with Tyson Higel, a nurse, a poet, and most unimportant of all, a person who stutters. His difficulty with speaking is what led him to writing, however—a landscape in which words are no longer obstacles, but bridges. Confessions of a Stutterer aims to be a bridge itself, to connect the reader, the listener, to what goes unspoken for from those who struggle with speaking.

Together, they talk about poetry, stuttering, identity, and more. 

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Music: guitar songs provided by mobygratis.

Host Madeline Wahl speaks with Jordan Scott, poet and children’s author. His debut children’s book, I Talk Like a River (illustrated by Sydney Smith), was a New York Times best Children’s Book of 2020. I Talk Like a River is translated into nineteen languages and was the recipient of the American Library Association’s, Schneider Family Book Award, which honors authors for the artistic expression of the disability experience. I Talk Like a River has won numerous international awards and was nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Prize for Young People’s Literature. Scott is also the author of four books of poetry and the recipient of the Latner Writers’ Trust Poetry Prize, given to a mid-career poet in recognition of a remarkable body of work, and in anticipation of future contributions to Canadian poetry.

Together, they talk about poetry, children's picture books, stuttering, and more. 

Links:

Music: guitar songs provided by mobygratis.

Note: An attempt has been made to edit out technical glitches due to unstable WiFi connection in the conversation, but some may have remained. Thank you for your patience. 

Host Madeline Wahl speaks with James Hayden, who lives in the New Orleans area with his fiancée and works in the medical field. He is the author of Dear World, I Stutter: A Series of Open Letters from a Person Who Stutters.

Together, they talk about facing fears, content creation, creativity, and finding your community. 

Links:

Music: guitar songs provided by mobygratis.

Note: This episode was recorded before the National Stuttering Association's Conference in Denver.  

Host Madeline Wahl speaks with Tv writer/Caregiver Influencer Jacquelyn Revere. After college, she moved to Atlanta to help care for her grandmother, then to NYC to pursue a career in theatre. Her openness about becoming her mother's dementia caregiver lead to her Op-Ed in the LA Times and feature on NPR. Revere specializes in family-centered half-hours that center on themes of disability and caregiving. She is alumna of Disruptors and Mentorship Matters and most recently Respectability TV writing Fellowships.

Together, they talk about facing fears, content creation, creativity, and finding your community. 

Links:

Music: guitar songs provided by mobygratis.

Host Madeline Wahl speaks with Darcey Steinke, the author of the memoirs Flash Count Diary, This is the Door, Easter Everywhere and five novels: Sister Golden Hair, Milk, Jesus Saves, Suicide Blonde, and Up Through the Water. Her books have been translated into ten languages, and her nonfiction has appeared widely. Her web story “Blindspot” was a part of the 2000 Whitney Biennial. She has been both a Henry Hoyns and a Stegner Fellow, and a Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi. She has taught at the Columbia University School of the Arts, New York University, Princeton, and the American University of Paris. She lives with her husband in Brooklyn.

Together, they talk about writing nonfiction, life as a person who stutters, and how Steinke continues to express herself in creative ways. 

Links:

Music: guitar songs provided by mobygratis.

Host Madeline Wahl speaks with Barry Yeoman, a person who stutters and an award-winning journalist whose stories put human faces on complex issues. He lives in North Carolina and teaches journalism at Duke University and Wake Forest University. Barry has been involved in the stuttering self-help movement for more than 30 years and co-founded Passing Twice, an informal network of LGBTQ+ people who stutter and their allies.

Together, they talk about investigative journalism, the stuttering self-help movement, and how Yeoman continues his career in journalism with teaching. 

Links:

Music: guitar songs provided by mobygratis.

Host Madeline Wahl speaks with Vince Vawter, a retired newspaper editor and publisher. Vawter is the author of the popular Paperboy Trilogy, a series of autobiographical novels that follow the life of a boy from age 11 to 21 as he grows up in the segregated South and deals with a worrisome stutter. The first book of the series, Paperboy, was a 2014 Newbery Honor Book published by Penguin Random House. Paperboy has sold more than a quarter-million copies and has been translated into 20 languages. The Manhattan School of Music premiered a musical adapted from the book in 2023 in New York.

Together, they talk about writing fiction, stuttering and fluency, and how Vawter didn't let his stutter stop him from pursuing his dreams. 

Links:

Music: guitar songs provided by mobygratis.

This week, Madeline talks with Ezra Horak, a stutterer and the founder of Stutterology, an empowering digital content platform that educates about stuttering lived experience through a neurodiverse and trauma-informed lens. Ezra talks about their journey with stuttering, what stuttering feels like, how they express creativity with Stutterology--and more! 

Links:

Stutterology website, Instagram, Facebook, podcast, and Profession submissions for Stutterology. 

Music: guitar songs provided by mobygratis.

Stuttering As Art, the podcast, is all about exploring the ways people who stutter create works of art alongside and involving their stutter. 

Each week, host Madeline Wahl--writer, independent academic, and person who stutters--interviews fellow writers, poets, award-winning authors, adjunct professors, investigative journalists, and more about their stuttering journey, writing, and creativity. 

An introspective, creative, and honest look at stuttering and creativity and how people express themselves in everyday life.

Tune in and follow along in the conversation! 

Madeline Wahl (she/her) recently completed her MLitt in Fantasy Literature at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. Previously, she has held editorial positions at Reader’s Digest, HuffPost, and Golf Channel. She was a speaker at the Australian Speak Easy Association’s online 2020 conference and has written about stuttering for The Stuttering Foundation. She has presented papers critically analyzing characters who stutter at Glasgow International Fantasy Conversations (GIFCon) 2023 and 2024. She is working on her YA Fantasy featuring stuttering spellcasters.

Music: guitar songs provided by mobygratis.