Podcast Archives

Over a decade ago, Clara Parkes abandoned San Francisco’s high-tech hubbub to build a quieter creative life on the coast of Maine. Since then, she has become a trusted voice in the knitting community. Her most recent book, Knitlandia, has taken a well-earned position on the New York Times bestseller list for Travel. “Clara Parkes is the MFK Fisher of knitting: unflinching, all-seeing, mysterious–and also kind,” writes Ann Shayne and Kay Gardiner of Mason-Dixon Knitting. She is also the publisher of KnittersReview.com, has appeared regularly on the PBS Television series “Knitting Daily TV,” and is a frequent contributor to Twist Collective. In her spare time, Clara loves to putter in the kitchen and is a huge fan of butter.

Craft tip: Read your own work aloud. It’s a very helpful way to hear your words in a different way than on paper.

Listen above or subscribe on:

iTunes | Stitcher | Youtube | Facebook

 

Courtney Gillette is an essayist and reviewer, reviewing books for Lambda Literary since 2010. She co-hosts The Hustle reading series, helps behind the scenes at BinderCon, and has served as a judge for the Lambda Literary Awards. In 2013, her work was chosen by A.M. Homes for The Masters Review, and nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Most recently she was one of ten finalists for the BuzzFeed Emerging Writers Fellowship. She lives in Brooklyn with one bookseller and three cats.

Craft Tip: Whenever you’re writing something, if you can’t remember something specific, just write XX to fill in later. Keep going with the story at hand.

First of the Month TinyLetter (you want to be in on this)

Listen above or subscribe on:

iTunes | Stitcher | Youtube | Facebook

Kim Werker is a writer and freelance editor who tries to make something – anything – every day. Many of those things are awful; some are not. She runs a project called Mighty Ugly, leading workshops and lecture-conversations to help people embrace the hard parts of creativity so they can have more fun making stuff and trying new things. Her latest book is Make It Mighty Ugly: Exercises and Advice for Getting Creative Even When It Ain’t Pretty.  She has written six crochet books and recently helped a client start a clarinet magazine. Originally from Brooklyn, NY, Kim lives in Vancouver, BC, with her partner, their son and their mutt.

Craft Tip: Read it out loud. If you sound like a robot, you need more contractions.

SUPPORT KIM’S AWESOME PATREON HERE!

Listen above or subscribe on:

iTunes | Stitcher | Youtube | Facebook

Morgan Jerkins lives and writes in New York.  She graduated from Princeton University with an AB in Comparative Literature, specializing in nineteenth century Russian literature and postwar modern Japanese literature, and she has an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars. She speaks six languages.

Currently, she’s a contributing editorat Catapult and a Book of the Month judge. On the freelance side, her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Vogue, The New York Times, The Atlantic, ELLE, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, andBuzzFeed, among many others.

Her debut essay collection, THIS WILL BE MY UNDOING, is forthcoming from Harper Perennial.

SHOW NOTES: Morgan recommends Morgan Parker, Julie Buntin, and Vinson Cunningham.

CRAFT TIP: Don’t be afraid to embellish your memories – edit later, not in the moment. Explore every single emotion, don’t hold back, don’t judge the emotion, work through it. Earn your epiphany. 

Listen above or subscribe on:

iTunes | Stitcher | Soundcloud| Youtube | Facebook

Dr. Raina J. León was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was introduced to poetry by her mother from a young age. She holds multiple degrees, and she’s been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her work has appeared in over 50 literary magazines and journals, and her published poetry collections include: Canticle of Idols (2008) and Boogeyman Dawn (2013) which was was a finalist for the Naomi Long Madgett Prize. Her third book, sombra : (dis)locate, came out in February of 2016. León is a Cave Canem Fellow, as well as the recipient of other fellowships and residencies, and the cofounder of The Acentos Review (2008). She is currently an Assistant Professor at St. Mary’s College of California.

Craft tip: Ask a question, and engage with answering that question in different ways.

Listen above or subscribe on:

iTunes | Stitcher | Soundcloud| Youtube | Facebook

Nayomi Munaweera’s debut novel, Island of a Thousand Mirrors was long-listed for the Man Asia Prize and won the Commonwealth Regional Prize for Asia . It was short-listed for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature and the Northern California Book Prize. The New York Times called the book “luminous” and Publisher’s Weekly has compared her voice to that of Michael Ondatjee and Jhumpa Lahiri. Nayomi’s second novel, What Lies Between Us has been one of the most anticipated releases of 2016, having been featured on both Buzzfeed and Elle Magazines Best of 2016 lists. She lives in Oakland, California and is working on her third novel.

Craft Tip: From Janet Fitch – Regarding Character – When you write dialog, the reader learns as much from words as from gesture.

Listen above or subscribe on:

iTunes | Stitcher | Soundcloud| Youtube | Facebook