Writing Stories

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Deesha Philyaw tells the story of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies 

Along the way she covers: 

Being in the Norton Anthology of Literature 

Jamaica Kincaid's story Girl 

The ways Church Ladies is proudly Black 

Ways white supremacy shapes the stories we read and tell 

Misconceptions about race in publishing 

Revision for her novel 

Boundaries 

Her brilliant agent and unorthodox publishing moves  

Learn more about Deesha here

Buy Secret Lives of Church Ladies here 

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Sasha Hom tells the story of Sidework. 

Along the way she covers: 

Profluence

Including multiple nows in your writing 

Making appreciation a discipline

Polyphonic nature of restaurants and motherhood (especially when living in a tent!) 

Living life as an artist's residency 

Black Lawrence Press (Immigrant writing series) 

Learn more about Sasha here or here 

Buy Sidework here 

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Jennie Case tells the story of We Are Animals. 

Jennie talks about: 

- control, safety, and risk in the creative process 

- speaking to the current moment 

- how to gesture toward the place beyond concepts in writing 

- agent troubles 

- writing a letter to your book 

- publishing with a university press (Trinity)

Find out more about Jennie here

Buy We Are Animals here

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Rebe talks about: 

querying (and querying again!) 

hiring a publicist

writing about grief 

art vs archiving 

enjoying the ride 

the changing publishing industry 

Monkfish Press 

Find out more about Rebe here

Buy My Mother in Havana here 

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Libby Maxey talks about: 

- using sonnets to put the pandemic in a box 

- writing 'off of' other writers 

- the ancient tradition of starting a book with an author's address to the book 

- poetry land vs. fiction land, and how time doesn't matter

- editing other poets' poems

- giving dignity to small things 

- being 'bad' at 'pub days' 

Learn more about Libby here 

Buy Indwelling here

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Dori Lumpkin talks about: 

Comp titles and queries

Creature Publishing 

Religious tea drinking 

Setting up a book signing

Method writing (like method acting) 

Book tattoos

Learn more about Dori here 

Buy Antenora here 

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Emma Pattee talks about

Postpartum creativity 

Writing by hand 

Navigating the distance between one's own vision and feedback and finding one's breaking point with a project 

Confusing a desire to make art and a desire to be famous 

Going on sub for only 24 hours

Helen Phillips The Need 

Julia Phillips 

Margaret Malone

Lidia Yuknavitch and Reading the Waves 

Buy TILT here

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Wayne Scott talks about 

Writing well-rounded characters that can surprise us 

Trying to sell a book that publishers don't think will sell to women 

Marriage as a story

EM Forrester's Aspects of the Novel 

Publishing a Modern Love piece, getting an agent and then having your agent lose steam 

Memoir as coping strategy 

Rayhané Sanders

Corporeal Writing 

Tin House residency 

Christie Tate GROUP 

Black Lawrence Press and Diane Goettel 

Molly Roden Winters More

Gina Frangello

Leslie Jamison 

Buy The Maps They Gave Us here

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Mariam Rahmani talks about: 

Preserving voice 

How to know when you are ready to bring editors and other readers in to your process

Racialized pay gaps and racialized double-standards in publishing 

Streamlining of stories in publishing 

Putting a manuscript of 7 years aside 

Challenges of short story versus novel 

Danielle Bukowski (agent) and Evan Hanson-Bundy (editor) 

Buy LIQUID here 

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Cally talks about: 

Hardware and software in a story 

A need to detox from the marketplace 

Woeful inefficiency in the writing process

Zadie Smith and 'obsessive perspective disorder ' 

Furious throat-clearing 

Pregnancy creating writing urgency 

Sewanee review 

Keeping a manuscript under wraps and writing as solitary 

The sense in which approval is contagious

Iowa University Press

Buy Atta Boy here