The Inner Loop Radio

Rachel catches up with writer, Anna Qu, and they talk about getting back to writing after the whirlwind of book publication, the brain teaser of switching from nonfiction to fiction, and tomatoes versus zucchini, all on this month’s episode of Just Checking In, a series of informal chats with some of our favorite writers.

Crossing genres can be fun, invigorating, and a new source of inspiration, so why does it sometimes feel like eating our vegetables? Poet, playwright, and ghost writer Alyson Gold Weinberg explains how all her outlets inform one another and reads from her latest collection of poetry, Bellow & Hiss from Finishing Line Press and The Inner Loop Author’s Corner September spotlight. Plus, Rachel, Courtney, and Alyson demonstrate just how fun it can be to switch genres!

Often stories come to us in fragments: as a vivid image or a perfect sentence, but how do we turn those fragments into stories? Fiction writer, Jung Yun, shows how to create linear stories from nonlinear fragments and what happens when patience runs thin in this Inspiration Takeover, a series of mini-episodes with different writers who offer us a little dose of inspiration. Jung Yun was born in Seoul, South Korea, and grew up in Fargo, North Dakota. She studied at Vassar College, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where she received her M.F.A. in Creative Writing. Her work has appeared in Tin House, the Massachusetts Review, the Indiana Review, the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, among others. She is the recipient of individual artist’s grants in fiction from the Maryland State Arts Council, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, and the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation. She has also received residential fellowships from MacDowell, the Ucross Foundation, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the National Humanities Center. Currently, Jung lives in Baltimore with her husband and is an associate professor of English at the George Washington University. She serves on the board of directors of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation.

It’s back to school season and it’s time to get back to work, writers! First released in October 2019, Emily Mitchell joins Rachel and Courtney to discuss how teaching can inspire our creative writing, and we get to hear Emily read from her short story collection, Viral: Stories. Plus, Rachel and Courtney demonstrate the power of writing prompts for upcoming Inktober!

Courtney catches up with writer and professor, Kyoko Mori, and they talk about their mutual love of animals, Jo Ann Beard’s Festival Days, and how writing is more like birds than cats, all on this month’s episode of Just Checking In, a series of informal chats with some of our favorite writers.

As writers, why do we publish at all? Is it for the accolades or for something more pure? If you write to publish, can it still be called art? Author and senior editor at HarperCollins Austin Ross joins us to discuss the balancing act between art and commerce, he tells us his agent horror story, and why he finally decided to publish with an independent press. Plus, we hear from his novel Gloria Patri from Malarkey Books and The Inner Loop Author’s Corner August spotlight. Then, Austin teaches us the importance of eating the frog.

Do you hate writing exercises? Do you feel they are contrived and a waste of time? So did Robert Frost and Poet Michael Collier, who believed a writer’s whole nature must be in everything he writes. But Michael shows us how writing exercises can build community via a Three Goat Story in this Inspiration Takeover, a series of mini-episodes with different writers who offer us a little dose of inspiration. Michael Robert Collier is an American poet, teacher, creative writing program administrator and editor. He has published five books of original poetry, a translation of Euripides' Medea, a book of prose pieces about poetry, and has edited three anthologies of poetry. From 2001 to 2004 he was the Poet Laureate of Maryland. As of 2011, he is the director of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, a professor of creative writing at the University of Maryland, College Park, and the poetry editorial consultant for Houghton Mifflin (now Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).

How do you write and make a living? Do you maintain a parallel career or find ways to make money through your writing? Poet, writer, and cultural worker, Abdul Ali, gives us insider tips on how to make money through writing, whether it be applying for grants, consulting, starting a business, or teaching, and how your work can feed your creative practice. Plus, Abdul, Rachel, and Courtney write a love poem… to money?

Courtney catches up with poet, Jose Padua, and they talk about gaining perspective through travel, connecting the absurd to the everyday, and Barry Manilow, all on this month’s episode of Just Checking In, a series of informal chats with some of our favorite writers.

Love it or hate it, self-promotion is a necessary part of being a writer in today’s digital age. Young black entrepreneur and spoken word artist, Dominic McDonald, aka Nerd the Poet, offers up his tips on a successful writing brand, and we get to hear a few poems from his collection, I’d Rather Be Called a Nerd from Day Eight Press, and The Inner Loop Author’s Corner July spotlight. Plus, Rachel, Courtney, and Dominic do some big-business branding exercises.