In this episode of The Write Mind, Eli Ryder talks with writer Madeline Vosch about her writing education and the experiences that have shaped her work. Their conversation explores her memoir Undead, about surviving a suicide attempt, as well as the influence of Dorothy Allison, writing about poverty and difficult experiences, and the challenges of transforming deeply personal material into creative work.

Content Disclosures: Self Harm, Poverty, and Medical/Mental Health Trauma

In this episode of The Write Mind, Professor Eli Ryder talks with fiction writer and essayist Asha Thanki, author of A Thousand Times Before, about the writing life. Their conversation explores Thanki’s path to becoming a writer, balancing creative work with a day job, developing a sustainable writing practice, the role of speculative fiction in her work, and the importance of artistic community. Thanki also reflects on revision, publishing, creative growth, and why there is no single “right” way to build a life as a writer.

In this episode of The Write Mind, Professor Eli Ryder talks with poet and former Dallas Poet Laureate Mag Gabbert, author of Sex Depression Animals, about her path from music to poetry and the experiences that shaped her life as a writer. Their conversation explores mentorship and writing community, graduate study, revision, developing an individual voice through reading and imitation, and poetry as a practice of inquiry and discovery. Gabbert also discusses her writing process, making time for creative work, taking artistic risks, and the importance of continually pushing beyond the habits and techniques that have worked before.

In today’s episode, Professor Joe O’Connel speaks with Author Erika Krouse about obsessions, writing, and living a creative life.

Erika Krouse is the author of four books of fiction and nonfiction, including her new collection of short stories, Save Me, Stranger, which won the 2006 Joyce Carol Oates Prize, awarded by New Literary Project, and was longlisted for The Story Prize. Erika is a two-time winner of the Edgar Award, and her memoir, Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation, was also a New York Times Editors’ Choice. She is also a winner of the Colorado Book Award, the Housatonic Book Award, and the Paterson Fiction Prize. Erika’s short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Esquire.com, Best Mystery Stories of the Year, and The Best American Mystery and Suspense. Erika mentors for the Book Project and the Portfolio Year at Lighthouse Writers Workshop, where she won the Beacon Award for Teaching Excellence.

For this episode, 2025 Balcones Prize in Nonfiction Winner Ben Miller joins ACC Creative Writing Professor Ysella Fulton-Slavin for a conversation about the winning book, the importance of spaces like ACC that protect creative energy, writing as possibility, and writing when nothing else feels useful.

For this episode, Screenwriting Professor Luke Garza welcomes filmmaker Andrew Bujalski to an in-class conversation. Andrew Bujalksi has written and directed seven feature films. He types 89 words per minute. His brief bio doesn't begin to cover the breadth of his experience. Andrew talks about a little known film program at Harvard, being the Godfather of Mumblecore, screenwriting structure, and the monster we feed. we hope you enjoy the conversation!

For this episode we were joined in class and online by Lauren D. Woods, a writer whose collection The Great Grown-up Game of Make Believe is tearing up the awards circuit. We were very fortunate to have her. Lauren talks to us about evolving definitions of success, writing groups and community, her own writing habits and rituals, and how to talk about the hard things through fiction. Please enjoy this episode with Lauren D. Woods.

We are joined by Stephen Graham Jones and Paul Tremblay, two top-tier voices in horror. We discuss the ways horror transforms characters and readers, how horror sits in literary conversations, balancing writing with the obligations of our lives, and early-career writing advice