Podcast appearances and mentions of megan stielstra

Megan Stielstra and Sara Cutia join the pod to discuss Megan's essay 'Here is My Heart' from THE WRONG WAY TO SAVE YOUR LIFE.  https://bsky.app/profile/chicagowriterspod.bsky.social https://www.storystudiochicago.org/

Megan Stielstra is the author of three collections: Everyone Remain Calm, Once I Was Cool, and The Wrong Way to Save Your Life, the Nonfiction Book of the Year from the Chicago Review of Books. Her work appears in the Best American Essays, New York Times, The Believer, Poets & Writers, Tin House, Longreads, Guernica, LitHub, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. A longtime company member with 2nd Story, she has told stories for National Public Radio, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Steppenwolf Theatre, and regularly with the Paper Machete live news magazine at the Green Mill. She teaches creative nonfiction at Northwestern University and is an editor at Northwestern University Press. She has one child, who just turned 16, and describes writer-motherhood in three words as “Oh my God."Writer Mother Monster is a community and conversation series devoted to dismantling the myth of having it all and offering writer-moms solidarity, support, and advice. Each episode is streamed live on Facebook and YouTube, then archived on writermothermonster.comSupport the showIf you appreciate what you hear, consider becoming a patron/ess of Writer Mother Monster. Depending upon your level of support, you can tell me who you want to hear and topics you'd like to hear about, send me questions for guests in advance of interviews, receive a letter of thanks, a signed book–and more! Thank you for contributing to WMM's sustainability. www.writermothermonster.com/donate/

Ben Tanzer, a Chicago-based author and consultant, joined Leah to celebrate the launch of his new novel The Missing (available on March 21, 2024) and his love of the book The Basketball Diaries. This conversation is a trip down memory lane, because Leah and Ben have been friends for 15+ years. We briefly discuss the suicide of a mutual colleague. Follow Ben online The Missing release date March 21, 2024 The Missing book tour Ben Tanzer on Bookshop This Podcast Will Change Your Life TanzerBen.com twitter @BenTanzer Instagram @tanzerben/ Facebook @BenTanzer Show Notes Amy Güth Jen Michalski on Finding Favorites  The Missing on Kirkus Reviews This American Life: This American Life Exile in Bookville: Exile in Bookville Lee Matthew Goldberg: Lee Matthew Goldberg The Book Cellar: Book Cellar Finding Favorites bookshop.org shop: Finding Favorites bookshop page Michael Keren: Michael Keren When Words Count: When Words Count Retreat Elizabeth Splaine: Elizabeth Splaine The Basketball Diaries by Jim Carroll Adam Lawrence Flowers in the Attic by V. C. Andrews Sacred Hoops: Spiritual Lessons of a Hardwood Warrior by Phil Jackson and Hugh Delehanty John Edgar Wideman Hendrick's Gin: https://www.hendricksgin.com/ Bombay Sapphire: https://www.bombaysapphire.com/us/en/ Tanqueray: https://www.tanqueray.com/en-us Death's Door: https://www.dancinggoat.com/deaths-door-gin Empress Gin: https://empressgin.com/ Alan Heathcock:https://alanheathcock.com/ Matilda: https://www.matilda-babyatlas.com/ David Masciotra: https://davidmasciotra.com/ Sunday Salon: https://sundaysalon-chicago.com/ P&T Knitwear: https://www.ptknitwear.com/ A Novel Idea: https://anovelideaphilly.com/ Village Well: https://villagewell.com/ Eric Spitznagel: https://www.ericspitznagel.com/ Megan Stielstra: https://www.meganstielstra.com/ Finding Favorites is edited and mixed by Rob Abrazado. Follow Finding Favorites on Instagram at @FindingFavsPod and leave a 5 star rating on Apple Podcasts, GoodPods or Spotify. Got a question or want to suggest a guest? email Leah at FindingFavoritesPodcast@gmail.com Support Finding Favorites by shopping for books by guests or recommended by guests on Bookshop.

In this week's story, tellers Megan Stielstra and Aimy Tien share a dual story of fighting to live their best lives and stepping in to help lift up others when that fight gets tough.

In this week's story, teller Megan Stielstra shares how a few key moments with one former partner have formed an unexpected through-line in her life.

Our guest today is Megan Stielstra. Megan is the author of three highly-acclaimed essay collections: Everyone Remain Calm, Once I Was Cool, and The Wrong Way to Save Your Life, which was the 2017 Nonfiction Book of the Year from the Chicago Review of Books. She's also a beloved writing teacher, a member of the nonfiction faculty at Northwestern University, and teaches courses online with Catapult and StoryStudio. We spoke with Megan about creative practice, what holds us back from telling our stories, writing about those you love, and how the best thing we can do as creative people is listen to and lift up others. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Kaveh Akbar, Melissa Febos, and Megan Stielstra catch up and reprise their 2017 Portland Book Festival panel for this conversation with moderator Marisa Siegel.

Today we talk with Megan Stielstra (THE WRONG WAY TO SAVE YOUR LIFE) about compartmentalization, boundaries, revisiting old work in advance of reissue, writing from grief, giving yourself permission to change as a person and as a writer, and so much more!

Megan Stielstra, Author, discusses finding courage with oral storytelling, discovering a theme, inviting people to your practice, exercises for generating personal essay material, asking books specific questions, and disregarding MLA style.   You can find Megan Stielstra online at https://www.meganstielstra.com/ and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/meganstielstra   Follow us at ChicagoWritersPodcast.com and at https://www.storystudiochicago.org/

In this episode, writer Soni Brown sets out to reconsider what’s left of the Mint 400, an elusive made popular by Hunter S. Thompson's novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Meanwhile, LeVar Burton transports listeners into an engine oil-infused dust storm as he reads an excerpt from Fear and Loathing. Inspired by Octavia Butler, writers Megan Stielstra and Erica Vital-Lazare unpack the question: What specifically did the desert teach me? Poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil and essayist Jordan Kisser discuss Aimee’s latest book, a collection of 28 essays about the natural world, and the way its inhabitants can teach, support, and inspire us.

Subscribe to the podcast here!Since I received my Fulbright in the creative writing category, I thought it might be helpful for me to share some ideas about how creative writing has helped me and my violin playing:How Creative Writing Could Make You a Happier MusicianIn classical music, we accept nothing less than perfection. We mustn’t miss a shift or play out of tune. This perfectionism made me relentless and hard-working and followed me from The Juilliard School to the M.F.A. classroom. But it also made me deeply afraid to take risks, to grow. I suspect I’m not alone in struggling with toxic perfectionism. If you struggle, too, consider putting your violin away. Not forever, just for a pause.There’s an idea that I like called “wabi-sabi,” the embracing of flaws in pottery where, instead of throwing away broken pieces, they’re mended with gold lacquer so that the restored object is gilded, made more beautiful. In Korea, we have the idea of “mak” or suddenness. A welcoming of imperfection that’s present in architecture and aesthetics. An affection for the unrehearsed, the unprepared. The surprise of unplanned delight.Like meditation, writing has provided surprising lessons that have helped me with my violin playing:1)  Create distance from the inner critic.Our inner critic is a bully who doesn’t want us to change. Through writing, I’ve learned to grow fond(er) of the “sh**ty first drafts,” a term coined by writer Anne Lamott. Crappy early work is necessary. A willingness to tolerate it without self-loathing makes it possible for me to accept “sh**ty practice days” on my violin, too.2)  Curiosity NOT judgement.This is a mantra from the writer and teacher, Megan Stielstra. When I’m too tight in my writing (or violin playing), it’s because I’m trying too hard to be good. Judgement is heavy, mocking the toilet paper stuck to our shoe. Curiosity is lighter, gazing at our mismatched socks wondering, “hmm, how did that happen? Do I want to fix it? Maybe I like it this way?” Curiosity helps us grow in spite of our flaws. Judgement keeps us stuck in our flaws.3)  Clarify your thoughts.Everyone’s a writer. If you think, you’re a writer. If you talk, you’re a writer. The legendary pianist and pedagogue Leon Fleisher said that if we can’t articulate what we’re trying to do with words, then our intentions aren’t clear enough in our minds. Writing helps us understand ourselves. The clarity of mind that comes from writing makes you a better problem-solver and musician, not to mention better human, citizen, and advocate.4)  The importance of “play” and making something of your own.Writing teaches us to follow our creative impulses. Making my own stuff is like being a kid, playing for play’s sake. I’ll write something that I might throw away or put in a drawer. But it's ​mine,​ something I made for myself. What do ​I​ want? What do ​I​ think? Instead of: Am I doing it ​right?​ What will ​other​ people think? Writing cultivates a creative mindset instead of a corrective mindsetA term I use with my writing students and violin students is “creative courage” or the willingness to:...be brave and take risks...make mistakes and fail often...look foolish...be awesomeWriting has made me more creatively courageous and a happier violinist. I think you might enjoy writing, too!

Megan Stielstra (@meganstielstra) is the author of three collections: Everyone Remain Calm, Once I Was Cool, and The Wrong Way To Save Your Life, winner of the 2017 Book of the Year Award from the Chicago Review of Books. She is a 2020 Shearing Fellow at the Black Mountain Institute in Las Vegas. An Axe for the Frozen Sea - https://believermag.com/logger/an-axe-for-the-frozen-sea/ TRANSCRIPT: MEGAN: For the first 6-months of the lockdown, my son and I quarantined at my mother's house in rural Michigan which in some senses was really lovely because her home is in the middle of the woods and on the other side of the woods from her house is the Amtrak going from Ann Arbor to Chicago every single day at 6 o'clock. There were things that I was experiencing myself that I wasn't expressing cause I didn't want to worry my kid. I didn't want to worry my mom. I didn't understand what was happening in the world. I was trying to keep my kids safe. My mom is immune compromised so I was there to help her out as well too. So I was trying to keep her safe. So all these things are happening inside my head and heart and what the hell do I do with it? One of my favorite writers, Lidia Yuknavitch, talks about how our bodies can't possibly carry everything that we've been given to carry, so we have to get it out of our bodies so we can see it. So everyday at 5:50 my kid and I would go outside and we would walk, like down the road from my mom's house and then we would stand by the tracks and we would wait. You feel it first in your feet like you feel the train coming up through your shoes and up through your legs and then you can hear it and then you can see it and as it gets closer and closer it gets louder and louder and you can feel it more throughout your own body and as soon as the front of the train would cross right in-front of us we would start screaming. And for him it's just letting out the energy and for him it's letting out everything that I can't say, and I can't talk about and I can't express how scared I am and I don't know where to put out all of that fear so it's just a release through the body and sometimes we would throw rocks and sometimes we would like break sticks and just like this physical release of everything that we'd been carrying all day and I could feel the brambles in my back unwind and everything...and you try to do this stuff in yoga class or in running but it never works, right? But just kind of that primal screaming my face off for the 2-minutes it took for the train to pass, which sounds like such a short period of time, like 2-minutes but really it is a long time to scream without stopping. Like even if we just sit-here for 10-seconds.....................................like that's a long time of dead air space and that's a long time to open your mouth and just be truthful. ZAK: mmmm. What's a good way for each of us to find our own form of release, you think? MEGAN: Whatever you're doing right now, can you stop and roll your shoulders? Can you remember to breathe? I don't mean that in any yoga, magical, just let yourself breathe, I mean it just straight up, are you actually breathing? I mean that with edge and knives and whiskey but are you actually breathing because I haven't been. It's a thing that I have been forgetting to do. So just even this awareness that we live in a body and how are we getting whatever emotional response we're having to the world out of it. Can you break something? Cause if you don't put it out of ourselves in these possible bonkers but also maybe healthy ways, it's gonna come out of us in ways that aren't healthy. So maybe that means booze or drugs or sex or cruelty or violence. Domestic violence numbers are up right now...just trying to think of what people are doing to care for ourselves. ZAK: I'm gonna go scream. MEGAN: Please do. I hope everybody does. ZAK: Yes. Go scream listeners.

Amanda and Jenn discuss morally ambiguous main characters, chapter book read-alouds, female artists, and more in this week’s episode of Get Booked. This episode is sponsored by The History of Literature – A Podcast, Scholastic, and Sourcebooks. Subscribe to the podcast via RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. Feedback The Power of Ritual by Casper ter Kuile (rec’d by Abigail) Man Seeks God: My Flirtations with the Divine by Eric Weiner (rec’d by Michelle) Stephen King: Firestarter and The Gunslinger (rec’d by Kelsey) Questions 1. hi! i’m looking for a book for my mom. she’s currently bored out of her mind, having watched every tv show and read every good book. i was hoping to surprise her with a book that catches her and makes her read for hours on end. she really enjoys books written by latin american and african writers, specially if they dwell on those cultures. she also really enjoys morally ambiguous main characters, or main characters that just straight up suck, like Macunaíma, by Mário de Andrade. a list of authors she loves includes Mia Couto, Machado de Assis, Chimamanda Ngozi, Mario Vargas Llosa, and also Dostoiévski. it’s a very specific requirement, which is why i was hoping you could help. thank you so much! -Maria 2. I recently came out as bisexual to my very conservative Lutheran parents. Neither responded how I hoped they would, but my dad was especially ready to tell me exactly why he thought the way I am and things I’ve done are wrong and harmful to myself and others. It was a very frustrating conversation and I ended up telling my dad I would send him books because I was not emotionally ready to engage in an argument about the morality of an aspect of my identity that I have already worked to let go of shame and gain pride around. I am hoping you could recommend me some books to send them that could help them gain some empathy and understanding of LGBTQIA+ matters or human sexuality in general. I plan to send them a big bookshop.com order and I already have How We Fight For Our Lives and In the Dream House in my cart, so I think I’m looking for something a little more fact-y than memoir-y. Bonus points if it directly addresses a Christian audience or debunks harmful Christian rhetoric around homosexuality and sexual purity. -Rebekah 3. I like romance books but so many of them seem to rely on the guy doing nice things for the love interest and other people and being super hot while he’s doing it, or they’ve both been hurt before so they’re learning to trust, etc, but not so much on the shared interests that, to me, seem like important markers of a successful relationship. I recently finished Long Division by Jane Berentson, and loved how the quirky main character and her equally quirky best friend understood each other, laughed at the same things, AND he paid attention to her (as an example and spoiler if you aren’t going to read it: Gus, the best friend, tunes into Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood for like 6 months until they air an episode that Annie, the MC, mentioned loving once 2 years ago. When it finally comes on he records it so she can always watch it.) Also loved how in Beach Reach by Emily Henry the main characters are both writers and that drives a lot of their relationship. Any recommendations? It doesn’t have to be a Romance but a story with romantic strong elements. Thanks! I get so many good book recs from the show!! -Georgia 4. hi! I’m looking for books to get my best friend for her birthday at the end of september – her and I have very different reading tastes so books I think are super good aren’t necessarily things I think she’d like. her favorite books are eat, pray love and the tattooist of auschwitz – she loves books that are about travelling or an adventure, books with strong emotional themes where the characters go through a revelation of some sort, and usually likes books that end on a hopeful note. english isn’t her first language so i’m hesitant to get her anything where the language could be described as “dense”. thank you so much!  -Morgan 5. Help! I’ll be teaching second grade this year and I am looking for diverse chapter book read alouds – not early chapter books that the kids can read independently. I have thankfully found plenty of those (Ely Jake’s, etc.), but books that are a couple of grade levels above. My ideal would be in the vein of Roald Dahl or Judy Blume. Stories that are interesting, introduce beautiful and sometimes challenging writing, and feature children of color. Thank you! -Malory Hi Jenn,  I’m an avid reader and have been for over 10 years. I went through a great period finding a lot of books that were deeply impacting me, but in the past year, I’ve struggled to find books with that deep emotional resonance. I love contemporary works about complicated women both fiction and non-fiction. Some of the books that I’ve loved in the past include Fates & Furies by Lauren Groff, both Sally Rooney books, though I preferred Conversation with Friends, The Wrong Way to Save your Life by Megan Stielstra, and The Rules Do Not Apply by Ariel Levy. I’ve been feeling uninspired with everything I’ve read lately and I’m hoping to find something I can fall in love with and something I will often think of which is true for the books I mentioned above.  All the best!!  -Sofia Hello. I am taking an online art history class on women artists. I am interested in reading more about them. Fiction or non fiction are both fine, but for fiction I would prefer it was based on a real painter.  I have already read “I always Loved You” based on Mary Cassat and Degas, but prefer something more focused on the artist and not a couple.   Many thanks! -Sofia Books Discussed Clarice Lispector: The Complete Stories, transl. by Katrina Dodson) My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite The Bible’s Yes to Same-Sex Marriage by Mark Achtemeier This Is A Book For Parents Of Gay Kids by Dannielle Owens-Reid Something to Talk About by Meryl Wilsner Waiting in the Wings by Tara Frejas From Scratch by Tembi Locke The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa, transl. by Philip Gabriel Everlasting Nora by Marie Miranda Cruz Post: Read-Alouds for Middle School The Season of Styx Malone by Kekla Magoon The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (tw domestic violence, racism) Please Look After Mom by Shin Kyung-Sook, translated by Chi-Young Kim (Tw: violence against women) Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough (tw: rape, torture) The Diary of Frida Kahlo See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

Basilo illuminates 5 Things you can do to get into soccer if you don’t know where to start. Author Megan Stielstra stops by to talk evolution of language, the Chicago literary scene, and having sex in independent bookstores.Megan Stielstra is the author of three collections: The Wrong Way To Save Your Life, Once I Was Cool, and Everyone Remain Calm. Her work appears in the Best American Essays, New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Believer, Longreads, Tin House, Guernica, Catapult, Buzzfeed Reader, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. A longtime company member with 2nd Story, she has told stories for National Public Radio, Radio National Australia, Museum of Contemporary Art, Goodman Theatre, and regularly with The Paper Machete live news magazine at The Green Mill. She teaches creative nonfiction at Northwestern University.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/jwbasilo)

Authors Kaveh Akbar, Melissa Febos, and Megan Stielstra discuss life, trauma, and art with moderator Marisa Siegel, editor-in-chief of The Rumpus, at Portland Book Festival 2017.

Authors Kaveh Akbar, Melissa Febos, and Megan Stielstra discuss life, trauma, and art with moderator Marisa Siegel, editor-in-chief of The Rumpus, at Portland Book Festival 2017.

Authors Kaveh Akbar, Melissa Febos, and Megan Stielstra discuss life, trauma, and art with moderator Marisa Siegel, editor-in-chief of The Rumpus, at Wordstock: Portland's Book Festival 2017.

Audio of a special episode of HarperAcademic Calling, that was presented as a Facebook Live special. Learn more: https://www.harperacademic.com/book/9780062429209/the-wrong-way-to-save-your-life/.

Originally released on October 3, 2013.

Megan and Sarah come together for a two-person story about the power of kindness and learning to show up for each other when it matters.

Originally released on December 11, 2011.

Originally released on December 11, 2011.

Most people get through postpartum depression with therapy. But for Megan Stielstra, the answer was spying on her neighbor. To join the conversation about this episode, go to longestshortesttime.com!

Please join us for the roundtable discussion, Beyond Lolita: Literary Writers on Sex and Sexuality. The proceeds will benefit PEN American Center and its Writers' Emergency Fund. Joining us will be Robin Rinaldi, Wendy C. Ortiz, J. Ryan Stradal, and Julia Fierro. Moderated by Anna March, these events will be taking place in Boston, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland this coming November and January. Cheryl Strayed, Audrey Niffenegger, Rachel DeWoskin, Cathi Hanauer, Megan Stielstra, Benoit Denizet-Lewis, Elissa Schappell, Daniel Jones, Luis Urrea, Ashley Ford, Lidia Yuknavitch and many others are participating around the country. The events will be free but attendees will be encouraged to join and support PEN, and an additional $500 will be donated to PEN for each event to support its emergency fund for writers.Robin Rinaldi is a journalist and author of The Wild Oats Project: One Woman's Midlife Quest for Passion at Any Cost. Before she left her day job to write a book, Robin was executive editor at 7x7, a San Francisco city magazine. Prior to that she wrote an award-winning food column for Philadelphia Weekly. Robin has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, Oprah Magazine, Yoga Journal, and others. Robin grew up in a small Pennsylvania town but has spent most of her life in California. She currently lives in Los Angeles, where she writes, reads, cooks peasant-style meals, does a lot of yoga, listens to a lot of music, watches a lot of premium cable dramas, and plays with her scruffy little terrier named Tengo (after the protagonist in 1Q84).Wendy C. Ortiz is a Los Angeles native. She is the author of Excavation: A Memoir, Hollywood Notebook, and the forthcoming Bruja. Wendy holds an M.A. in Clinical Psychology and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles. A Writer-in-Residence at Hedgebrook in 2007 and 2009, Wendy is also co-founder and curator of the Rhapsodomancy Reading Series. She has read and given talks at California State University Chico, University of California Santa Barbara, University of California Riverside's Low-Residency M.F.A. Program, and Lock Haven University. Wendy has been an adjunct faculty in creative writing and has also facilitated creative writing workshops with Los Angeles youth in juvenile detention facilities. While living in Olympia, Washington, she was a library worker, editor and publisher of 4th Street, a handbound literary journal, and an occasional mudwrestler. Wendy received a B.A. in Liberal Arts from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, where she lived for eight years before returning to Los Angeles.She is at work on a book based on her Modern Love essay published in The New York Times, a short story collection, and other projects. Wendy is represented by Bridget Wagner Matzie of Zachary Shuster Harmsworth Literary Agency. She parents and works as a registered marriage and family therapist intern in Los Angeles.J. Ryan Stradal’s first novel, Kitchens of the Great Midwest, was published by Viking / Pamela Dorman Books on July 28th, 2015, and reached the New York Times Hardcover Best Seller list at #19 on its third week of release. In November 2014, the Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society awarded Kitchens of the Great Midwest first prize in their annual novel competition. In September 2015, Warner Bros. optioned the film/TV rights. A selection of his short stories, compiled under the title "Nerd & Whore are Friends," was a 2013 finalist in the Dzanc Books Short Story Collection Competition. His short fiction has also been anthologized, nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and named a finalist for the James Kirkwood Literary Prize. He works as the fiction editor at The Nervous Breakdown  and  as an editor-at-large at Unnamed Press in Los Angeles.  He was also editor of the 2014 California Prose Directory, an anthology of writing about California by California writers, published by Outpost19. He volunteers for & is on the advisory board of the educational non-profit 826LA. He also helps make products and materials for their affiliated store, the Echo Park Time Travel Mart. He likes books, wine, sports, root beer, and peas. Julia Fierro is the author of Cutting Teeth, which The New Yorker called “a comically energetic debut novel.” Her next novel, The Gypsy Moth Summer, will be published in 2017. Julia founded The Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop in 2002, and it has since grown into a creative home to over 2,500 writers. She lives in Brooklyn and Los Angeles.

Most people get through postpartum depression with therapy. But for writer Megan Stielstra, the answer was spying on her neighbor.

Megan Stielstra is the guest. Her new essay collection, Once I Was Cool, is now available from Curbside Splendor.   Roxane Gay says "In Once I Was Cool, Megan Stielstra is warm and open and wise. Whether she’s writing about the complex loneliness of early motherhood or failing to rise to the occasion or find the right language while living abroad, Stielstra is a masterful essayist. From the first page to the last, she demonstrates a graceful understanding of the power of storytelling. What she’s truly offering with her words, is the grandest of gifts." And Christine Sneed says "What an amazing cri de coeur Once I Was Cool is. Megan Stielstra tells us in a witty, sympathetic, confident voice who she is and what and whom she cares about most. Reading these essays, I laughed out loud and also found myself on the verge of tears so many times. This book should be read by anyone who's been in love, had a child or thought about having a child. So, probably, that's everyone." Monologue:  humans, friendships, community, the fragility of human relationships, loneliness, complexity, simplicity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices