This week’s show focuses on endings, and beginnings. Guest Zahid Rafiq, who’s written a short story collection whose endings serve the stories and his characters, speaks to how he thinks about endings, including those that others might find less than satisfying. We’re defending a particular type of ending, those in which writers may feel less than compelled to tie their story in a bow for readers. Brooke points to a series of YouTube shorts she did on beginnings and endings in memoir that we invite memoirists to check out, and we close the show with a Substackin’ post Brooke wrote inspired by Salman Rushdie’s keynote at the Kauai Writers Conference in November.

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This week’s show features guest Faith Adiele, who’s just released two chapbooks that are in conversation with one another. These books are a springboard for a conversation about hybrid writing, hybrid memoirs, the popularity of chapbooks, and hybrid forms. If you’re a writer who’s been told “you can’t do that,” this episode will be validating, if not vindicating. The publishing world is playing catch-up to all the creativity writers are bringing to the fore, and Faith Adiele is at the forefront of a movement of writers who are playing, creating, and breaking both rules and boundaries. Tune in for an interesting, fun, and permission-giving show. And if you’re interested in residencies, check out Faith’s tutorial, “Residencies 101” on the homepage of her website.

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This week guest Jeannine Ouellette returns to Write-minded to share some specific teachings and practical tips for writers who want to better curb their own impulses to tell and/or to overwrite. This episode is a little more craft-focused than we normally do, and there’s no better person than Jeannine to showcase actionable ideas and student case studies. If you don’t already subscribe to her Substack, Writing in the Dark, get on her list asap—and this week’s Substackin’ highlights a recent post we loved that’s on point for the themes of this week’s show: From Playful to Profound, which you can read in its entirety here.

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This week’s Write-minded delves into our cultural and literary relationship with drugs, examining the role drugs play in creativity and among creatives. We also look at novels and memoirs that center drugs and alcohol, and talk to author Emily Witt about her own foray into this territory with her latest memoir, Health and Safety. Join us for this inquiry into the intersections between drugs and art.

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This week’s episode is a deep conversation that covers love, embracing contradiction, and guest Carvell Wallace’s journey to and through memoir. This is an enlightening interview for anyone who’s ever contemplated paradox, or how to tackle big, tangly ideas in your writing. Writing a memoir is an ambitious act of the heart, and we honor that journey this week in all its complexity and bigness. On Substackin’, we’re pleased to be sharing some of our favorite memoir writers’ Substacks, and hope you’ll take a look.

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This week Write-minded is exploring listening—as a practice, as an experience, as something that interacts with our writing. Guest Elizabeth Rosner’s new book is Third Ear, a book that she describes as a hybrid memoir. Listen in to find out why, to consider your own relationship with listening, and to consider all the ways that listening drives and inspires our writing. On Substackin’ this week, we revisit Grant’s post about being patient with impatience, with themes resonant to the episode.

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This week’s episode is inspired by guest Barbara Ridley’s new novel, Unswerving, whose central protagonist is gay and disabled. We explore the dearth of disabled characters in fiction, and hear from Barbara how choosing to write about a character who was doubly “othered” drew critiques that she was perhaps going a bridge too far. This episode examines sensitivities to consider when writing “the other” in fiction, and also why it’s important to write characters who don’t often get an opportunity to be centered—as it creates empathy and opens our eyes to the broad range of human experience.

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It could be said of this week’s guest that she, like the title of this week’s show, is fascinating and daunting. And that this is a pull toward the things we’re interested in, that we want to dive more deeply into, is the subject of this week’s show. Edwidge Danticat is a powerhouse in the literary world who’s written about immigration and poverty, exile and political upheaval, and so much more. There’s much to learn from the wisdom of a writer like Danticat who has been well and widely published for three decades, and who offers up insights across form—from memoir, to fiction, to essay. Tune in to hear from a literary force of nature.

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As Write-minded is wont to do, we bring you another tell-it-like-it-is reality bites episode about book publishing. And while the news isn’t all good, it’s also not all bad—and guest Michael Castleman is living, breathing proof that it’s worth it, as long as you’re ready to do the work and understand what you’re getting yourself into. Join us on this journey from the Gutenberg Press to modern-day publishing. Whether you’re a reader, writer, author, or industry person, you’re bound to learn something new from this week’s show. 

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This week’s Write-minded is a thoughtful conversation about where writers’ values meet public persona and the writing life. Guest Maggie Tokuda-Hall treats us to her thinking about career, ambition, and why she writes what subjects and characters she writes, and why she doesn’t write for adults. We get into the important topic of what’s at stake when writers speak up and out—touching upon the tensions that exist between standing up for what you believe in and a literary world that doesn’t always make those choices easy. Substackin’ this week takes a look at Brooke’s post about genre and category, “Your Story Is More Important Than Your Category.”

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