PodLit: The Podcast of Creative Nonfiction

This Podlit features an interview with Amy Stolls, Literature Program Officer for the NEA. Since the mid nineties, Literature remains the only NEA discipline to give individual grants. In this interview, Amy discusses the grant application process, trends in manuscript submissions, and why people sometimes refer to her as the "oil slick chick." For more information about the National Endowment for the Arts, visit www.nea.gov. To learn more about Creative Nonfiction, the journal and the genre, visit www.creativenonfiction.org or e-mail us at information@creativenonfiction.org.

Each year, an estimated 100,000 people die from preventable medical errors. In PodLit #8, actress Kathryn Spitz reads Linda Peeno's essay, "Burden of Oath," which describes her work to preserve the humanity of patients caught in a corporatized healthcare system. In her role as lawyer and physcian, she treats the healthcare system itself. "Burden of Oath" was originally published in Creative Nonfiction issue 21, Rage and Reconciliation: Inspiring a Healthcare Revolution.   Rage and Reconciliation is now available in paperback from Southern Methodist University Press. For more information about Creative Nonfiction, the journal and the genre, visit www.creativenonfiction.org or e-mail us at information@creativenonfiction.org.

For this PodLit program, Lee Gutkind interviews Jeffrey Lependorf, the Executive Director of CLMP,  (Council of Literary Magazines andPresses), in Austin, Texas at the Association of Writers andWriting Programs conference.  In the interview, Jeffrey discussesthe difference between mission driven and bottom-line drivenpublishers, as well as the vital role mission driven publishersplay by discovering new writers.  For more information about Creative Nonfiction, the journal and the genre, visit www.creativenonfiction.org or e-mail us at information@creativenonfiction.org.

Each year, an estimated 100,000 people die from preventable medical errors.  In PodLit # 7, actress Helena Ruoti reads aloud Ruthann Robson's essay, "Notes from a Difficult Case," which chronicles her experience as a patient misdiagnosed with terminal cancer--and on the verge of becoming another statistic.  Originally published in issue 21, Rage & Reconciliation: Inspiring a Health Care Revolution, Robson's essay won the Creative Nonfiction $10,000 Best Essay Award.  Rage & Reconciliation was republished by Southern Methodist University Press last year.  For more information about Creative Nonfiction, the journal and the genre, visit www.creativenonfiction.org or e-mail us at information@creativenonfiction.org.

PodLit 6 features Lee Gutkind's interview with Mary Gannon, Editor of Poets & Writers Magazine. Poets & Writers Inc., the nation's largest non-profit literary organization, supports writers of all genres, but, until recently, did not include creative nonfiction writers in their Poets & Writers online directory of writers. Mary discusses the recent decision to add creative nonfiction writers to the directory, and Creative Nonfiction's role in the exciting change. Mary also offers advice to writers who are looking to publish in Poets & Writers, a primarily freelance-written magazine.To read more about our Poets & Writers issue (Creative Nonfiction Issue 26), which includes Lee Gutkind's editorial that started the campaign for Poets & Writers to include creative nonfiction writers in their directory, click here.  For more information about Creative Nonfiction, the journal and the genre, visit www.creativenonfiction.org or e-mail us at information@creativenonfiction.org.

In Issue 27 of Creative Nonfiction, we published Writing It Short: The Best of Brevity - creative nonfiction pieces of 750 words or less. For PodLit #5, Lee Gutkind talks with Dinty W. Moore, founder and editor of Brevity, the online journal of extremely brief nonfiction.  Lee interviewed Dinty at this year's Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference in Austin, Texas, where they discussed the challenge of writing brief nonfiction, the history and growing popularity of flash essays, and the writing process behind Dinty's new book, The Truth of the Matter: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction.To purchase Issue 27, click here. For more information about the genre and its signature journal, Creative Nonfiction, visit www.creativenonfiction.org or e-mail information@creativenonfiction.org.To learn more about this year's Mid-Atlantic Creative Nonfiction Writers' Conference, where Dinty W. Moore will be teaching, visit www.goucher.edu/x9141.xml.

Listen to PodLit #4 to hear Rebecca Miller, President of the National Book Critics Circle, speak to the participants at the Mid-Atlantic Creative Nonfiction Writers' Conference in Baltimore, MD, about the benefits of book reviewing, as a career move and as a way to improve writing skills. Rebecca offers specific instructions on how to break into the writer's market through book reviewing and how to write book reviews editors want to publish.   For more information about the genre and its signature journal, Creative Nonfiction, visit www.creativenonfiction.org or e-mail information@creativenonfiction.org.   To learn more about this year's Mid-Atlantic Creative Nonfiction Writers' Conference, where Rebecca Miller will be teaching, visit www.goucher.edu/x9141.xml.

In our third PodLit program, C. Michael Curtis, Senior Editor of The Atlantic Monthly, reveals the right and terribly wrong ways to write a submission cover letter. Prepare to laugh and rethink your cover letter techniques as C. Michael Curtis dispenses advice and reads some of the most unusual cover letters he has ever received. For more information about the genre and its signature journal, Creative Nonfiction, visit www.creativenonfiction.org or e-mail information@creativenonfiction.org.

This PodLit episode features Natalie Goldberg, a guest at last year's 412 Creative Nonfiction Literary Festival. Natalie is the author of 10 books of poetry, fiction and nonfiction, including Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within, which has sold over one million copies. This program takes place at the Santa Fe Writers Conference, where Natalie reads from her latest book, The Great Failure: A Bartender, A Monk, and My Unlikely Path to Truth. After her reading, Natalie engages in a candid interview with Lee Gutkind, editor and founder of Creative Nonfiction, about the powerful reactions--positive and negative--her book evoked. For more information about the genre and its signature journal, Creative Nonfiction, visit www.creativenonfiction.org or e-mail information@creativenonfiction.org.

For PodLit's first podcast, Lee Gutkind, the godfather of creative nonfiction, refutes recent claims by publications such as the New York Times that the literary world is experiencing a creative nonfiction moment. By discussing the history and pioneers of the genre, as well as current nonfiction books, magazines and films, Lee reveals that creative nonfiction is a movement, not a moment. For more information about the genre and its signature journal, Creative Nonfiction, visit www.creativenonfiction.org or e-mail information@creativenonfiction.org. Please note: this is a large file and may take a few minutes to load.