What can memory tell us about the space between fiction and nonfiction? First released in September 2020, author Timothy Denevi shows us how to turn memory into story and to shift our focus from current events to writing in this Inspiration Takeover, a series of mini-episodes with different writers who offer us a little dose of inspiration.

What if you could have quality and quantity in your writing? Or maybe just feel like you can produce freely? Mecca Jamilah Sullivan gives her secret to prolificacy with advice on writing routines, submissions and rejections, and self-care. We get to hear from her novel, Big Girl, now out in paperback, and each of us prepares an application to the generous Society for Cloud Inquiry and Enthusiasm.

Rachel catches up with short story writer, Rion Amilcar Scott, and they talk about visiting historical plantations, squeezing writing between kids and work, and the intrigue of the Titan submersible, all on this month’s episode of Just Checking In, a series of informal chats with some of our favorite writers.

There’s nothing you know better than your own life, right? So why research a memoir? Rachel and Courtney discuss how research can enrich personal stories with John Kropf, author of Color Capital of the World: Growing Up with the Legacy of a Crayon Company from University of Akron Press and The Inner Loop Author’s Corner June spotlight. Plus, a color-coded free-association game!

Inspiration Takeover: Imitation with Joshua Weiner by Rachel Coonce and Courtney Sexton

The odds of getting a piece published in a major literary publication from the slush pile is less than 1%. So how do you beat the literary odds? Denne Michele Norris, editor-in-chief of Electric Literature and author of the forthcoming novel, When The Harvest Comes, gives us a peek behind the publishing curtain and tells us her journey to a major book deal with Random House. Plus, some pretty shocking numbers are revealed in a round of publishing trivia!

Rachel catches up with poet and literary activist, E. Ethelbert Miller, and they talk about going to the Grammys, collaborations, life after COVID, and the depressing uniformity of critically-acclaimed literature, all on this month’s episode of Just Checking In, a series of informal chats with some of our favorite writers.

Rachel and Courtney explore the lure and inspiration of mythology and surrealism with Poet Lora Robinson through her poetry collection, An Essential Melancholy, from Akinoga Press and The Inner Loop Author’s Corner May spotlight. Then, Rachel puts Lora and Courtney’s art education to the test with a surrealism matching game!

What if the best poems come when you’re not looking for them? What can a writer do when it’s time to get to work? Poet David Keplinger offers a writing prompt that will trick your mind into that generative kind of spontaneity. We also hear an intimate moment with his mother and a forbidden chair in this Inspiration Takeover, a series of mini-episodes with different writers who offer us a little dose of inspiration.

Rachel and Courtney are back with a new season and a new lease on life… or writing… or whatever… Courtney dishes about her dissertation. Rachel talks about her voracious writing fit at VCCA. We hear a poem from Chet’la Sebree, and some inspiration insight from Lucian Mattison, Cija Jefferson, Melissa Scholes Young, and E. Ethelbert Miller. Plus, Rachel quizzes Courtney on just how well she knows her own nonprofit and the lit scene in DC. Hint: she may have gotten her PhD, but she still sucks at trivia!