(R.H. Herron)
Join Rachael as she reports from the battle lines of Revisionlandia – fresh from getting her OWN revision letter, she talks about how to handle the emotions that come with someone else helping you with your work (real talk). Also, she answers Patrons’ questions: how to believe in yourself to keep writing, what to do when you’re querying a book but not sure if you should go back to editing it, and finally, what if my agent can’t sell my book?
On this fabulous episode, Kerri Maher talks about the way we all need community (and how to find it). She is the author of The Girl in White Gloves, The Kennedy Debutante, and, under the name Kerri Majors, This Is Not a Writing Manual: Notes for the Young Writer in the Real World. She holds an MFA from Columbia University and was a writing professor for many years. She now writes full-time and lives with her daughter and dog in a leafy suburb west of Boston, Massachusetts. The Paris Bookseller is her most recent novel.
Farah Jasmine Griffin is the William B. Ransford Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, where she also served as the inaugural Chair of the African American and African Diaspora Studies Department. In her most recent book, Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature, published September 14 by W.W. Norton, Griffin pays homage to family and community through generations of Black geniuses.
Kit Mayquist uses a technique not often talked about: working backward, not from the end, but from the dark moment, and it’s everything. A fan of everything spooky and indulgent, Kit Mayquist is a bisexual, trans masculine writer who can be found in the historic shadows of Boston, Massachusetts, hunched over his desk with a sullen Persian cat in his lap and surrounded by antiques. He has an MA in Medieval History from the University of Iceland, and a BA from Portland State University (and if you ask him, yes, Stumptown will always have the best coffee). Tripping Arcadia is his debut novel.
Sabrina Benaim is a poet, storyteller, and workshop facilitator. She is one of the most-viewed spoken word poets of all time: her videos have reached more than one hundred million people. In 2017, her debut collection, Depression & Other Magic Tricks, was a Goodreads Choice Awards finalist, finishing just behind Rupi Kaur’s The Sun and Her Flowers. In 2020, she took part in the Heavy Hitters Festival alongside Ani DiFranco, Amber Tamblyn, and Mary Lambert. She lives in Toronto, Canada.
Rachael talks about paid reviews (you might be surprised!), how to write a personal essay, how to arrive at theme, and what’s going on with women’s fiction. Enjoy!
