The Creative Nonfiction Podcast with Brendan O'Meara

Episode 545: Stories Can Sit in the Notebook for Years. Just Ask Matthew Wolfe.

"There are a lot of stories that I come across that almost work or that don't quite work. And early in my career, I think I'd try and chase stories or force them to fit o

Episode 544: Writing a Book is Like Driving a Bus, says Joshua Robinson

"Sometimes you swing and a miss on a story, or you get scooped by someone, and I think there's a constant feeling of like you're only as good as your last story, as the l

Episode 543: Doubt, Vulnerability, Confidence. Is Chris Bennett Talking About Writing or Running?

"I think it's a great point with writing. You know early on you realize like putting pen to paper or starting to type early on was a massive achievement. There were huge

Episode 542: Earl Swift and the Battle to Get the Reader to the Last Word

"Our our first job, job one, for anybody writing a book, for anybody writing a story of any kind, any length, is to get the reader to that last word. If you don't do that

Episode 541: 'Touch the Work Every Day' says Shanda McManus

"I applaud anyone out there who's done the book circuit and trying to reach readers, because I'm not in this to make a lot of money, not at all. I just want people to rea

Episode 540: Holbrook Mohr and Mitch Weiss Tackle the Atomic City for The Atavist

"You have to remember to slow things down. In this world where there's this fast-paced news cycle, and everybody wants to get it out first, this is a different genre, so

Episode 539: How Jennifer Keishin Armstrong Writes Biographies of TV Shows

"We probably have some sense of what narrative is. So when your brain starts turning into the little movie camera because this is a juicy scene, then it's like, well, wha

Episode 538: The Enduring Mystery of Amelia Earhart with Rachel Hartigan

"My career is not a straight path; it's a lot of happenstance where I just sort of somehow get a job and then figure out how to do it once I'm there," says Rachel Hartiga

Episode 537: Pamela Colloff's Now-or-Never Moment with 'Catch the Devil'

"I feel like before I have the confidence to write in the way that I want to write, where I really own the material, I have to spend so much time with people. I will say

Episode 536: The Blood, Flesh, and Messiness of Human Existence with Matthew Wolfe

"I love talking with people. I also like that process of trying to shape messy reality into some kind of story, or that moment when you're alone with your notes, and you'

Episode 535: Alex Ronan's Masterclass in the Depth of Reporting

"One of the things that Patrick Radden Keefe told me was, when I'm doing interviews, I'm always thinking about the anecdote that I will tell someone later at a bar, this

Episode 534: Shoeleather Reporting and Exploring the Riddles of America with Wil Haygood

"The mission of a nonfiction writer is to get the damn thing done," says Wil Haygood, author of several books, including his latest The War Within A War: The Black Strugg

Episode 533: Susan Orlean on Her 'Best' Rejection, Coming Up with Ideas, and Letting the Reporting Meander

"You don't have to go to the far ends of the earth, but I'm willing to do that for you, and tell you what I found," says Susan Orlean, bestselling author of several books

Episode 532: Barry Meier Likes to be Open to Surprises

"You never know what insight or information you're going to glean from someone, and so I want to be open to surprises. And not have any preconceived notions of what, who

Episode 531: Austin Kleon Goes Beast Mode in 'Don't Call It Art'

"I always think, 'Jesus, this person could be reading War and Peace, and they picked up this dopey little book.' You know what I mean? So the best thing I could do is be

Episode 530: Finding that 'Sinewy Strength' in the Prose with Maccabee Montandon

"Maybe your first images are some bulked up organism, or whatever. Then there's that kind of like sinewy strength that you see in like middleweight fighters. Roberto Dura

Episode 529: Dan John says, 'Inspiration is for Amateurs' … and He's Correct

"They want the secret, and the secret is little and often over the long haul," says Dan John, author of several books on strength and fitness, most recently The Fitness F

Episode 528: Stuck? Ramona Ausubel Will 'Unstuck' You!

"It all has to come from within. So we each have to be in conversation with ourselves and with the work. It's really a relationship, not a project," says Ramona Ausubel,

Episode 527: Isaac Fitzgerald says the Truth is a Block of Wood

"I say this all the time, and I'll say it again: the truth is a block of wood, and I know the sculpture I carve out of that block of wood looks different than the sculptu

Episode 526: Chanda Prescod-Weinstein's Literary Reading of the Universe

"This is also me saying here's a literary reading of the universe through physics. There's a way you can read The Edge of Space-Time as me  doing close-reading for a few