The Inner Loop Radio: A Creative Writing Podcast

Summer days are long, but the summer seems to fly by as vacations fade in the rearview mirror. How do we handle time in writing? When it comes to pacing, talking about time itself, or capturing an era, time can be a powerful tool on the page. Washington DC legend, E. Ethelbert Miller joins Courtney and Rachel to wax poetic on the poetry of time, and Kate Heller joins the fun as our resident Improve Slam Poet! Plus, we hear how local authors Kathy Curto, Faye Moskowitz, and Tanya Paperny handle time in their writing.

How does the world around you inspire your writing? What does it mean to be a nature writer? Are eco-poetics inherently eco-politics? Courtney and Rachel delve into the nuances of a multifunctional genre with Poet Rachel Adams, who reminds us to listen to the world around us, ecopoems from Jennifer Wallace and Jennifer Atkinson, and a live exercise after Walt Whitman.

Spring flowers are ready to bloom, and so is your newest creative writing project. But where do you begin? How do you overcome a blank page? Courtney and Rachel demonstrate how to enter a story through objects. Poet Dan Brady and fiction writer Sam Nelson tell us how they start a new project. Plus, we indulge in some spring poems by Jordi Rozenman, Benjamin Brezner, and Nicki Avena.

Love is in the air, and everyone wants to write about it. Love may be a powerful motivator for writing, but it's also one of the most difficult things to write about. How do you convey love without being cliché or melodramatic? Rachel reads some of her teenage poetry, Courtney talks about bleeding hearts, Peyman Allahverdizade loves loving, Alis Sandosharaj struggles to love her dark skin, and Taylor Johnson makes love universal. Plus, we hear from DC writers Timothy DeLizza, Stephanie Kline, Sam Mahone, and Don Illich.

Happy New Year and happy resolution season! Instead of starting a new project this year, why not resolve to finish one? Poet Nicole Tong and fiction writer Caroline Bock join us to discuss what gets in the way of finishing a writing project and how to push through those writerly ruts. Rachel and Courtney do a "live" exercise, and we hear from DC writers Benjamin Brezner, Carolyn Supinka, and Mary Donovan.

Just in time for the holidays, Rachel and Courtney discuss home. How do we write about home? What are some ways to convey the essence of home? What writing tools can we use to use home as setting, a catalyst, or its own character? Courtney introduces us to her dog Remy, and Rachel offers up a symphony of sound. Plus we hear from DC writers Nadia Prupis, Daniel Knowlton, Nicole Tong, and Garrett Schlichte.

With Halloween on the horizon and the 200th Anniversary of Frankenstein this month, we discuss monsters, ghosts, and grief in writing. Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson joins us to explore how ghosts present themselves in our writing, and how writing can be a way to work through grief and death. No tricks this episode, but we have a special treat with Dan Knowlton and Kate Heller!

As we settle down for the Fall and turn our focus back to writing and being productive, how do we establish good writing habits? And how do we stay inspired, and keep writing even when it's hard? Inner Loop veteran Leeya Mehta tells us how she can be constantly productive, and Ellen Roche talks about her sonnet-a-day project. Plus, we hear from local writers Sam Mahone, Jennifer Clements, J.G. McClure, and Michael Tager.

This month we discuss travel as inspiration for writing, whether it be travel writing per se, essays or poems about travel experiences, or fiction based in exotic places. Returning home from her 52nd country and her latest tour of the US, Rachel Louise Snyder shares her expertise on travel-inspired writing. Plus, we hear from local writers Kate Heller, Sherrie Flick, Toni Tileva, Joel Goldberg, Jen Fitzgerald, and Thu Nguyen.

The Inner Loop Radio is on hiatus this month. Have a great summer!