In the final episode of The Write Attention Podcast, Brittany and Jeannetta discuss why they are bringing the project to a close after two years, new projects they are working on, and finally their favorite episodes, guests and moments. 

• The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
• Episodes mentioned:
  • S2E4: Emotional Beats with Kara Smith
  • S1E9: Personal Revelation and Reader Responsibility with Colette Walker
  • S1E6: Support and Embodiment for the Writing Self with Lauren Samblanet
  • S1E10: Mentorship and Community with Nicola Andrews
  • S1E5: Poetics, Performance & Personhood with Míša Hejná
  • S2E2: The Emerging Reader in All of Us with Amelia Louise Herridge Ishak
  • S1E7: Place, Peculiarity & Persistence with Arianna Reiche
  • S1E1: Show, Tell  and Practice
• Craft in the Real World by Matthew Selasses

The Write Attention Podbean link is here: https://writeattention.podbean.com/

Multi-disciplinary musician and artist, Drew “Hondo” Felder, joins Brittany and Jeannetta for Episode 6. Drew "Hondo" Felder is a true multidisciplinary artist who has written fiction for over 25 years and played music professionally for 15. Throughout his artistic journey, he has composed and played parts for other artists; created themes and sound design for short films, games, and commercials; and is currently the bassist of two all original bands. Audio engineering is among his other pursuits both live and in the studio. Outside of music, Drew is also honing his skills in videography, motion graphics, and video post-production. Combining many of these skills, he started his own Youtube channel, Hondo Felder Music and supports other artists and content creators with the technical side of the media creation process. You can follow him on Instagram @hondofelder. The group   discuss pacing and time across music and writing. The discuss how time is expressed within and outside the work, how to incorporate tension and dissonance and the relationship between a work’s purpose and pacing. 

 

1. Edward P Jones,  “The First Day”, Lost in the City 
2. “Purple Rain”, Prince
3. “Stakes is High”, De La Soul and “Stakes is High”, Robert Glasper + Mos Def
4. Chris Dave, drummer 
5. Derrick Hodge, bass player
6. Matt Bell,  Refuse to Be Done
7. Max Gladstone, Amal El-Mohtar, This is How You Lose the Time War 
8. Sarah J Maas, A Court of Thorns and Roses Series
9. Karen E. Binder, “Adjusting Your Pace: How to Get  A Story to Move”, https://electricliterature.com/adjusting-your-pace-how-to-get-a-story-to-move/ 
10. Game of Thrones 
11. James Kaplan, 3 Shades of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and the Lost Empire of Cool

Join us in welcoming guest Colette Walker on The Write Attention podcast for our discussion on personal revelation and audience responsibility in Episode 9. The group dives into when they first identified as writers and share effective strategies and resources for making writing workshops work to the writer’s advantage, discussing writing the way into personal revelations or a personal journey in a project and how that may inform the character’s journey. In past episodes we have talked about show and tell. Now, we explore the audience's responsibility or role in our writing. Colette reminds us to let the audience do some work and why that is so important.

 

This episode also includes an excerpt of Colette Walker reading an excerpt from her work, LET THE DEAD BURY THEIR DEAD.

 

Show Notes

 

1. Billie Kahora, https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/persons/billy-k-kahora 

2. The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop: How To Decolonize the Creative Classroom Book by Felicia Rose Chavez, https://www.antiracistworkshop.com/ 

3. Black Women’s Writer Workshop in Europe, https://sites.google.com/view/thebwweretreat2023/about 

4. Craft in the Real World by Matthew Salesses, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55155120-craft-in-the-real-world

5. La Maison Baldwin, https://www.lamaisonbaldwin.fr/ 

6. Irenosen Okoji, https://www.irenosenokojie.com/ 

 

Cultivating and caring for our creativity with full schedules is no easy task. Jeannetta and Brittany dive into questions about boundaries, balancing work, weathering those summer social invitations, and ways to feed their imagination and creativity. Working full time has changed quite a bit about daily life, but we want to stay consistent with keeping writing high on the list of priorities.  For all you working writers, parent writers, caregiver writers, have-all-the-responsibilities writers, feel free to weigh in on your own answers to the questions posed in this episode. We would love to hear from you!

 

Show Notes

1. Leone Ross - https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/353845.Leone_Ross 

2. Nedra Tawwab - Set Boundaries Find Peace - https://www.nedratawwab.com/set-boundaries-find-peace-1 

3. Norrece T. Jones, Jr - https://www.amazon.com/Born-Child-Freedom-Yet-Slave/dp/0819562467 

4. Aretha Franklin - Day Dreaming - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7peQKJxsjo

Our guest co-host. Arianna Reiche, is a Bay Area-born writer based in London.

She is the author of the two-story chapbook Warden / Star (Tangerine Press), and At The End Of Every Day (Artia Books/Simon & Schuster).

She was also nominated for the 2020 Bridport Prize and the 2020 PANK Magazine Book Contest. She won first prize in Glimmer Train’s 2017 Fiction Open and Tupelo Quarterly’s 2021 Prose Prize. Her stories have appeared in Ambit Magazine, Joyland, The Mechanics’ Institute Review, Berlin’s SAND Journal, Feels Blind Literary, Lighthouse Press, and Popshot.

Her features have appeared in Art News, The Wall Street Journal, New Scientist, USA Today, The London Fashion Week Daily, Fest Magazine, Vogue International, and Vice. She also researches and lectures in interactive narrative and metafiction at City, University of London.

 

 

In Episode 7, Arianna Reiche joins us for a conversation about Place, Peculiarity, & Persistence. We discuss ways we are able to write about place and how that may challenge common conceptions, embracing strange and peculiar perspectives, persisting through life changes, and bearing the brutal bruises of editing. 

 

Questions

1. Place has a lot to do with my fiction - I just wrote a whole novel about the grounds of a theme park, and my next book is set in Berlin - but I often struggle with feeling that I've earned the right to write intimately about any given place. I find that I often sidestep writing about towns/cities/countries with real earnestness because of that, and instead adopt a lens of irony or eeriness. Or I just end up writing about the Bay Area, where I grew up, more than I probably truly want to, because no one can challenge me on my connection to it! Have you ever felt that conflict before? And more generally, how do you approach geography in your work   2. What does writing in earnest and with authenticity-one's OWN sense of what is authentic-look like? How do you capture it on the page to honor our own telling or to honor our truth and perspective? And how, if it all, does that challenge and expand the narratives we see present in certain spaces or among certain people?   3. How do you deal with feeling repelled by your own work during the editing process? It's something I've heard almost every writer I know talk about; I describe the feeling of opening the laptop for your third round of manuscript edits as poking a bruise. How do you stay enthusiastic about your own work when you're frankly just sick of looking at it?    

Show Notes

1. At the End of Every Day by Arianna Reiche https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/At-the-End-of-Every-Day/Arianna-Reiche/9781668007945

2. Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez https://bookshop.org/p/books/our-share-of-night-mariana-enriquez/18486460 

3. The Age of Magic by Ben Okri https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-age-of-magic-ben-okri/20082895?ean=9781635422689 

4. The Ben Okri story about Istanbul is called “Dreaming of Byzantium” found in Prayer for the Living, https://bookshop.org/p/books/prayer-for-the-living-ben-okri/13693373?ean=9781617758638 

5. Irenosen Okojie, https://www.irenosenokojie.com/

6. Helen Oyeyemi, https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/59813/helen-oyeyemi/ 

7. CA Conrad - Poetry Rituals https://somaticpoetryexercises.blogspot.com/2018/08/somatic-poetry-rituals-basics-in-3-parts.html

8. Raymond Queneau, was part of the Oulipo group, a collection of writers and mathematicians who imposed rules on writing to increase creativity. More here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/oulipo#:~:text=An%20acronym%20for%20Ouvroir%20de,and%20mathematician%20Fran%C3%A7ois%20Le%20Lionnais.

9. Kathy Winograd - https://kathrynwinograd.com/about/

10. La Maison Baldwin, https://www.lamaisonbaldwin.fr/ 

 

Our guest co-host, Lauren Samblanet, is a hybrid writer who cross-pollinates with other forms of making & other makers of forms. Her first book, like a dog, is forthcoming from punctum books. Some of her writing has been published in A Shadow Map: An Anthology by Survivors of Sexual Assault,  FENCE, DREGINALD, entropy, bedfellows, The Tiny, Crab Fat Magazine, and A) GLIMPSE) OF). She is a graduate of Temple University's MFA program.

​Lauren is a teacher and facilitator. She offers creative process workshops and support for individuals and collaborators through reinventing creative process.

 

In Episode 6**, Lauren joins us for a conversation about Support and Embodiment for the Writing Self. We discuss ways community and support nourish our writing practice, the importance of embodiment and presence, and how support and taking care of the self are all ways of taking care of the writing.  

 

* *  This episode contains explicit content which may not be appropriate for younger listeners. 

 

Questions

• When the off-season comes, the winter of writing where there's no inspiration and rest is needed, how do you rest as a writer? what seeds do you gather so spring will be plentiful and how do you nourish those seeds?
• How do you grapple with feeling unproductive? What are some ways you write yourself out of a "funk"? Or when you don't know where to go or what happens next? 
• How do you foster a sense of play in your creative practice?
• What does the literature of pain and illness look like? what forms does it use? and related, how do we reform writing to hold our bodies more gently through pain/illness?.

 

Show Notes

Lauren’s Readings:

• intro
• like a dog soundscore **contains explicit content
• like a dog **contains explicit content
• on ghosting

1. Wintering by Katherine May: https://katherine-may.co.uk/wintering

2. @aquarius.mood on IG

3. Hurry Slowly podcast https://hurryslowly.co/

4. Esther Perel: https://www.estherperel.com/blog/eroticism-self-care-plan

5. Justine Dawson : https://www.justinedawson.com/

6. nycmidnight microfiction/flash fiction contest: https://www.nycmidnight.com/

7. Eb Sanders: https://www.instagram.com/ebs______/?hl=en

8. Ariana Reines https://www.arianareines.net/the-cow

9. Thich Nhat Hanh breathing exercise: https://tricycle.org/article/thich-nhat-hanh-suffering/

10. Aubrie Warner: https://www.instagram.com/acwarnerlit/?hl=en

We welcome guest co-host, Míša Hejná, to The Write Attention podcast to discuss poetics, performance, and personhood.

Míša Hejná writes and performs poetry in Aarhus, Denmark.  She is also a member of Aarhus Women Write. Her work is primarily meditative and focuses on existential questions by combining the textual, the visual, and the aural.

In Episode 5, Míša captivates us with her readings and shares her questions and insights about performing visual poetry (yes, visual poetry), defining voice and style with rules, and the line between art and therapy. 

 

Questions

1. (How) can visual poetry be performed for an audience?
2. When is writing(/painting) for therapy art and not "just" therapy?
3. (How) can visual poetry be performed for an audience? 
4. How do you navigate the relationship between voice and the written word during performance? (For example, I can think of when I listen to slam poets sometimes and how the voice can sometimes get in the way of the poem, has this happened to you and, if so, how do you navigate that disconnect?)

 

Show Notes

Míša's Reading

• A Seagull Shat on Me
• As You Lay Daying

1. Aarhus Women Write

2. Always Burning Storytelling Series

3. Aarhus International Literature Festival on June 18th

4. Poetic Forms mentioned

Bop: https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/poetic-form-the-bop

Cascade: https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/poetic-form-cascade-poem

Descourt: https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/descort-poetic-form

Ballade: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/ballade#:~:text=An%20Old%20French%20verse%20form,subsequent%20stanzas%20and%20the%20envoy.

Golden Shovels: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/articles/92023/introduction-586e948ad9af8

5. Who Says?: Mastering Point of View in Fiction by Lisa Zeidner: https://www.amazon.com/Who-Says-Mastering-Point-Fiction/dp/0393356116#:~:text=%22Lisa%20Zeidner%27s%20Who%20Says%3F%20is,students%2C%20writers%20and%20readers.%22

6. Classical English Style by Ward Farnsworth:  http://classicalenglishstyle.com

7. House Of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/house-of-leaves-mark-z-danielewski/1102466935

8. Long Division by Kiese Laymon: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Long-Division/Kiese-Laymon/9781982174828

9. Ergodic literature term (coined by Aspen J. Aarseth in Cybertext—Perspectives on Ergodic Literature): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergodic_literature 

10. Dictee by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/90894 

11. Sunbathing is Forbidden in the Graveyard by Jeannetta Craigwell-Graham in Indiana Review’s Winter Issue: https://indianareview.org/item/winter-2023-volume-44-number-2/

12. The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/624631/the-dangers-of-smoking-in-bed-by-mariana-enriquez/

13. Alice Walker’s journals: https://www.amazon.com/Gathering-Blossoms-Under-Fire-Journals/dp/1476773157/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?ots=1&tag=thneyo0f-20&linkCode=w50&_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

14. Exercises in Style by Raymond Queneau: https://www.amazon.com/Exercises-Style-Raymond-Queneau/dp/0811207897

 

Inspired by an audience member writing in, Episode 4 explores ways we are reframing rejection and failure to best aid us on our writing journey.  The following are questions regarding rejection and failure from our hosts:

 

1. How do you process rejection other than the generic , get yourself back on the horse or allow yourself time to sulk ? What’s another way of looking at not getting what you want for your writing ?

2. Have you ever failed at something you were trying to write? How did that failure function for you after? Is there a difference between how you saw failure earlier in your writing and now?

 

Show Notes

1. Celeste Mohammed’s book Pleasantview: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56186509-pleasantview?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=nzlAGQjgAn&rank=1

2. Rejection Wiki: https://www.rejectionwiki.com/index.php?title=Literary_Journals_and_Rejections

3. Why Marriages Succeed or Fail : And How You Can Make Yours Last by John Gottman, in which the Four Horseman are mentioned: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/129025695-john-gottman?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=67vLw9eAxv&rank=1

4. Chillsubs: https://www.chillsubs.com/

5. Duotrope: https://duotrope.com/

6. Poets & Writers: https://www.pw.org/

7. Indiana Review “Sunbathing is Forbidden in the Graveyard” by Jeannetta Craigwell-Graham: https://indianareview.org/item/winter-2023-volume-44-number-2/

8. VQR: https://www.vqronline.org/

9. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-maslows-hierarchy-of-needs-4136760

10. Email us at writeattention@gmail.com to join The Write Space accountability meeting held on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 11am-1pm Pacific Time

11. Brené Brown’s book Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead, https://brenebrown.com/book/daring-greatly/  

12. Brené Brown’s book Atlas of the Heart, https://brenebrown.com/book/atlas-of-the-heart/

 

 

 

Today’s podcast episode surrounds the concept of imagining and one particular genre: science fiction. Although the conversation focuses on one specific genre, the subject elicits questions about what writing within a particular genre does for your work. Which genres do you write in and what ways do they help you imagine? Does writing in a particular genre open doors to reimagine reality?

 

Questions

1. How do you learn craft between workshops, writing classes/seminars, reading and practice? What do you think the right balance when it comes to learning craft? Do you ever feel out of balance and why?

2. The question Octavia Butler was often asked: What good is science fiction to Black people?” 

 

Show Notes

• Octavia Butler, Positive Obsession essay can be found here: https://www.loa.org/news-and-views/1779-octavia-e-butler-positive-obsession 
• Samuel R Delaney, The Motion of Light and Water, https://www.eileenmcginnis.com/blog/2018/10/19/turn-and-face-the-strange-samuel-delany-queering-science-fiction-queering-fatherhood
• Check out the wonderful world of Helen Oyeyemi here: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/80808.Helen_Oyeyemi 
• Robert Jordan, Wheel of Time, https://www.goodreads.com/series/41526-the-wheel-of-time 
• Crystal Wilkinson again! - https://www.crystalewilkinson.net/
• Hurston-Wright Foundation (https://www.hurstonwright.org/) has some upcoming workshops for emerging Black writers definitely worth checking out 
• Lighthouse Writers Workshop - https://www.lighthousewriters.org/ 
• Neil Gaiman, American Gods, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30165203-american-gods 
• Deep Reading taught by Michael Duszat, The Reader Berlin, https://www.thereaderberlin.com/weekend-workshop/the-deep-reading-workshop-with-michael-duszat/ - sign up for this class whenever it is on next!
• E.M. Forrester, A Passage to India (not voyage!), https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45195.A_Passage_to_India 
• Toni Morrison, Paradise, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5198.Paradise?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_14 - "They shoot the white girl first. With the rest they can take their time." - what a line!
• Eimear McBride, A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing,  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18218630-a-girl-is-a-half-formed-thing?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=69SsZIKOJh&rank=1 
• Experimental Writing for Non-Experimental Writers  was facilitated by Porochista Khakpour  (https://porochistakhakpour.com/) via The Center for Fiction  (https://centerforfiction.org/groups-workshops-all/) 
• Brittany’s amazing VONA instructor for Fiction, Mathangi Subramanian,  https://www.mathangisubramanian.com/ 
• VONA- https://www.vonavoices.org/
• Rooted and Written Poetry Cohort - https://rooted-written.org/ led by Tonya Foster (https://tonyafosterpoet.com/)

Jeannetta & Brittany discuss permission and possibility in Episode 2.

 

Questions

1. How do you steal while still being original?

2. Do you feel like you already have an inclination where you need to go, which form you need to use, do you experiment with different forms, or do you just start writing? What comes first?

3. How do you navigate when people say a poem is too abstract? My expectation is that a poem will always be somewhat abstract. Do you get what people are saying when they say it is?

4. How do you honor permission in your work? In what ways are you giving yourself permission? In what way are you noticing you are not? How do you address this in your writing?

 

Show Notes

Writers, books, articles, ideas and questions mentioned in this episode

• Jericho Brown “Duplex” from his book The Tradition. Also available on the Poetry Foundation website: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/152729/duplex 
• Steal like an Artist by Austin Kleon: https://austinkleon.com/steal/
• Turns out this one was Hemingway…“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” - https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/30849-all-you-have-to-do-is-write-one-true-sentence 
• Spike Lee, School Daze: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096054/ 
• Lidia Yuknavitch  and Corporeal Writing - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9pUjixyWI4 

 In this debut episode of The Write Attention podcast, Brittany Felder and Jeannetta Craigwell-Graham talk about where they are on their writing journeys and answer questions about discipline and discernment.

 

Questions

1.  How do you discern what to keep or remove from your writing?
2.  What does discipline in writing mean to you?

 

Show Notes

Writers, books, articles, ideas and questions mentioned in this episode

1. Sonya Huber article, “The Three Words that Almost Ruined Me as a Writer: Show Don’t Tell
2. Sign up for the Sitting in Silence newsletter here: https://mauricecarlosruffin.substack.com/
3. Lauren Samblanet's website: https://www.laurensamblanet.com/ 
   1. Finding & Nourishing Pleasure in Your Creative Practices; workshop taken through Reinventing Creative Process: https://www.reinventingcreativeprocess.com/ 
   2.  Building Discernment and Trust in Our Editing Practices; workshop taken through Alchemy Writing Workshop & Community Coven created by Hillary Leftwich: https://alchemyauthorservices.com/home/alchemy-writing-workshop-3/
4. Writing Tools 55 Essential Strategies for Every Writer by Roy Peter Clark
5. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
6. On Writing  by Stephen King
7. Black Writer’s Program Speculative Workshop led by Aaron Talley
   1. The “heat map”
8. “Sunbathing is Forbidden in the Graveyard” by Jeannetta Craigwell-Graham forthcoming in January 2023 in the Indiana Review
9. “Move fast and break things”, sadly apparently a Mark Zuckerberg quote, or at least a Silicon Valley mantra, read this book on why this is may not be working out for them.
10. Everything Everywhere All at Once film
11. Lauren Groff  website: https://laurengroff.com/ ; not the article Jeannetta read but here is an article where Groff references her writing routine: https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2021/09/lauren-groff-matrix/619998/
12. Ben Ferguson’s website here: http://www.benfergusson.com/ . Class was taken through The Reader Berlin: https://www.thereaderberlin.com/
13. Crystal Wilkinson website here: https://www.crystalewilkinson.net/;  Hurston Wright Foundation: https://www.hurstonwright.org/

1. Ben Ferguson’s website here: http://www.benfergusson.com/ . Class was taken through The Reader Berlin: https://www.thereaderberlin.com/
2. Crystal Wilkinson website here: https://www.crystalewilkinson.net/;  Hurston Wright Foundation: https://www.hurstonwright.org/

This episode was recorded in the late summer of 2022.

In episode 5: Breaking Down the Structure of Your Writing, Brittany and Jeannetta discuss structure with the first chapter of Jane Alison’s Meander, Spiral, Explode, “Point, Line and Texture”, as their guide. They discuss Alison’s framework for looking at structure, which proposes to look at the sounds and textures of words and sentences and how form follows content. They also explore how they have used structure in their own writing and the possibilities for disruption that structure offers.

Notes

• Shonda Rhimes universe!  Bridgerton (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8740790/) , Scandal (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1837576/), etc!
• Franz Kafka on his request to burn his work: https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/magazine/26kafka-t.html 
• The Artists Way by Julia Cameron, https://www.google.com/search?q=the+artists+way&oq=the+artists+way&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIJCAEQLhgKGIAEMgkIAhAAGAoYgAQyCQgDEC4YChiABDIJCAQQLhgKGIAEMgkIBRAAGAoYgAQyCQgGEAAYChiABDIJCAcQABgKGIAEMgkICBAAGAoYgATSAQg0NjQxajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 
• Charles Johnson, The Way of The Writer
• Matt Bell, “Syntatic Symbolism”, https://mattbell.substack.com/p/exercise-20-syntactic-symbolism 
• David Foster Wallace, “Forever Overhead”, can be read here: https://biblioklept.org/2014/09/01/forever-overhead-david-foster-wallace/
• Kathy Winograd,  https://kathrynwinograd.com/ 
• Mathangi Subramanian, https://www.mathangisubramanian.com/about 
• Dorte Nors, https://www.dorthenors.dk/ 
• D’Angelou, “Untitled”
• Tao Lin, Shoplifting in American Apparel, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6096464-shoplifting-from-american-apparel 
• George Saunders, Story Club Substack available here: https://georgesaunders.substack.com/ 
• Episode S2E3, Emotional Beats, with Kara Smith, accessible here: https://writeattention.podbean.com/e/emotional-beats-part-2/ 
• Witches by Brenda Lozano, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59892323-witches 

In Episode 4: Emotional Beats (Part 2) Kara, Brittany, and Jeannetta discuss who they write for (themselves or a specific audience), how writing rooms have affected Kara’s craft/process and what we gain from being in community.

Kara Smith to The Write Attention podcast. Kara is a Bermudan-British screenwriter based in the UK who has worked on the HULU drama series BLACK CAKE, the UK’s highly acclaimed streaming series: HBO/Sky’s horror-comedy THE BABY, Netflix’s new genre series LOCKWOOD & CO from Joe Cornish and Edgar Wright, as well as Amazon’s ANANSI BOYS created by Neil Gaiman, among other productions.

In Episode 4: Emotional Beats (Part 1) Jeannetta and Brittany welcome Kara Smith to The Write Attention podcast!

 

Kara is a Bermudan-British screenwriter based in the UK who has worked on the HULU drama series BLACK CAKE, the UK’s highly acclaimed streaming series: HBO/Sky’s horror-comedy THE BABY, Netflix’s new genre series LOCKWOOD & CO from Joe Cornish and Edgar Wright, as well as Amazon’s ANANSI BOYS created by Neil Gaiman, among other productions. In the first part of this conversation, Kara, Brittany and Jeannetta discuss the cross-sections between screenwriting and fiction/poetry including how screenwriters view emotions in writing and whether you should write about what you know. Show Notes

1. La Maison Baldwin, https://www.lamaisonbaldwin.org/

2. Irenosen Okojie, https://www.irenosenokojie.com/.

3. Save the Cat by Blake Snyder, https://savethecat.com/

4. “Phenomenal Women” by Maya Angelou can be found here: ​​https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48985/phenomenal-woman

5. Mad Men, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804503/

6. “The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power” by Audre Lorde can be found in Sister Outsider 

 

In episode 3, season 2 of The Write Attention podcast Brittany and Jeannetta discuss style in light of Miciah Bay Gault’s craft essay on style (link below) and the influence our real and adopted selves have on the form and content of the work we create. They jointly work on the exercise offered in Gault’s essay to write on loss in the style of another writer.

 

• Craft essay referenced in this episode is “I Craft Therefore I am Creating Persona Through Syntax and Style” by Miciah Bay Gault, accessible here: https://hungermtn.org/i-craft-therefore-i-am-creating-persona-through-syntax-and-style/
• Kurt Vonnegut essay on style, https://kmh-lanl.hansonhub.com/pc-24-66-vonnegut.pdf 
• John Keene, https://lithub.com/john-keene-elements-of-literary-style/ 
• Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon
• James Baldwin,  Giovanni’s Room, Another Country
• George Saunders, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain
• Poor Things, https://www.searchlightpictures.com/poor-things/ 
• The Lobster, https://a24films.com/films/the-lobster 
• Lighthouse classes can be found here:
• The Earley Scale, check out more about it here: https://brevitymag.com/craft-essays/going-cold/
• Mark Doty, The Art of Description: World into Word
• Donna Tartt
•  The Write Attention S2E2 with Amelia Ihshak, The Emerging Reader in All of Us, https://writeattention.podbean.com/e/the-emerging-reader-in-all-of-us/ 
• Ward Farnsworth, Classical English Style, https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/49831663 
• William Carlos Williams
• Lidia Yuknavitch Corporeal Writing: https://www.corporealwriting.com/about-corporeal and https://youtu.be/o9pUjixyWI4?si=4u4VaF4gE_N3yYsT
• Toni Ann Johnson
• Jhumpa Lahiri, The Interpreter of Maladies

Brittany and Jeannetta welcome Amelia Louise Herridge Ishak to the podcast to discuss reading as a writer. Amelia comes from London, England and has an MPhil in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic and moved to Aarhus, Denmark hunting for viking myths and monsters. Norse mythology and the rawness of Scandinavian nature inspires her work. She joined the Aarhus Women Write in 2017 and took over the running of it in 2020. The three discuss early childhood reading interests and how that has influenced their writing today, what genres and styles inspire them and the other reasons why they read besides pleasure or craft.  Amelia's piece which is shared on the podcast, "The Hidden Spirit of the Forest" is available in Meet me at 19th St available here: https://archstreetpress.org/2021/11/02/the-hidden-spirit-of-the-forest/. 

 

Questions

1. How much has your childhood reading interests influenced the way you write or the topics you write about? 
2. How much have your reading habits changed since becoming a writer? Do you read more around the genres and styles you write in? Do you write in the style and genres you read in? Is this different to when you were younger/before you became a writer?
3. We often hear how other writers inspire or influence other writers in a positive way, but what are some things that you have read where you have thought "I never want to write like that" and learnt what not to do? 
4. Besides pleasure and improvement of your craft (which are some of the reasons I read) what are some other reasons you read?
5. As a follow up to #1, what are the other ways reading has improved your creative practice besides the writing itself? (related to your question #2)? 

References in this Episode

• • Learn more about Aarhus Women Writers here https://www.instagram.com/aarhuswomenwrite?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw== 

• The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
• Throne of Glass, A Court of Thorns and Roses, and Crescent City series by Sarah J Maas
• Jane Austin
• Elizabeth Gaskill
• Margaret Atwood
• Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
• Goosebumps series by R. L. Stine
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
• Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
• My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
• The Flight of the Falcon by Daphne du Maurier
• Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier
• Wuthering Heights by Emile Brontë
• Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
• The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkein
• Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
• Log in to the Libby App through your local library here: https://www.overdrive.com/apps/libby  
• “Beauty and the Beast” by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve
• The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern
• Read Angela Carters’ (not Chambers…lol) reinterpretation of fairy tales in The Bloody Chamber
• Popisho by Leone Ross
• The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
• “A Temporary Matter” by Jhumpa Lahiri in The Interpeter of Maladies
• Charles Dickens
• Episode 1 of Season 1 of The Write Attention, “Show Tell and Practice”, https://writeattention.podbean.com/e/show-tell-practice/ 
• Episode 9 of Season 1 of The Write Attention, “Personal Revelation & Reader Responsibility” with  guest Collette Walker, https://writeattention.podbean.com/e/personal-revelation-audience-responsibility/ 
• The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

 

As Brittany and Jeannetta bring in the new year and season 2(!) of The Write Attention podcast, they discuss time, Susan Rich’s craft essay on revision (link below), especially her thoughts on slow writing, how to connect inward to move revision forward and figuring out the start and the finish and what you’re trying to say. 

 

Show Notes

• Rest as Resistance, Tricia Hersey, https://thenapministry.com/ - nap people!
• Craft Essay for this Episode:  https://www.writing.ie/resources/its-not-how-you-write-its-how-you-re-write-the-art-and-craft-of-revision-susan-rich/ 
• Maturing as a writer explored here in Episode #7: Place, Peculiarity & Persistence, https://writeattention.podbean.com/e/place-peculiarity-persistence/, 
• Episode #1, Show and Tell and Practice, https://writeattention.podbean.com/e/show-tell-practice/ 
• Brenee Brown, Atlas of the Heart, https://brenebrown.com/book/atlas-of-the-heart/ 
• William Carlos Williams famous quote: ‘no ideas but in things’, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/68731/william-carlos-williams-the-red-wheelbarrow
• Working your verbs in Matt Bell’s Refuse to be Done, https://www.mattbell.com/refuse-to-be-done

Join us for Episode 11, our final episode of The Write Attention podcast Season 1. Brittany and Jeannetta reflect on the conversations and lessons learned this year.  We discuss how our process has changed over a year, including how we have learned from other art forms, which guests/ideas from the podcast which have influenced us, and importantly, how to let-go and let-come in our process. 

 

Questions

1. What, if anything, have you integrated into your own practice or what about your practice has changed in this last year as a result of the conversations we have had on the podcast?
2. What other art forms have you been exploring (and how) to add to your writing practice?
3. What do you appreciate about your writing this year?
4. What would we like to explore in the next season?

 

Show Notes

 

1. 1. The Book Project,https://lighthousewriters.org/  
   2. Erika Krouse, https://www.erikakrousewriter.com/ 
   3. Toni Morrison quote on you controlling your characters, https://www.instagram.com/p/CyV-dhjNXcX/
   4. Arianne Reiche, Episode 7, “Place, Pecularity & Persistence” https://writeattention.podbean.com/e/place-peculiarity-persistence/ , 
   5. Collette Walker, Episode 9, “Personal Revelation & Reader Responsibility”, https://writeattention.podbean.com/e/personal-revelation-audience-responsibility/ 
   6. Twila Tharpe, The Creative Habit, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/254799.The_Creative_Habit 
   7. Johnny Ray Gill, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3331401/ 
   8. Nicola Andrews, “Mentorship and Community”, https://writeattention.podbean.com/e/mentorship-community/ 
   9. Annie Ernaux, A Woman’s Story, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59452779-a-woman-s-story 
   10. Helle Helle, https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/1203754.Helle_Helle 
   11. James Baldwin,  https://lithub.com/write-a-sentence-as-clean-as-a-bone-and-other-advice-from-james-baldwin/
   12. Save the Cat, https://savethecat.com/
   13. Lauren Samblanet, Episode 6, “Support and Embodiment  for the Writing Self,” https://writeattention.podbean.com/e/support-and-embodiment-for-the-writing-self/
   14. Episode 1, “Show, Tell and Practice,” https://writeattention.podbean.com/e/show-tell-practice/
   15. Radical Honesty, https://www.radicalhonesty.com/

Join us in welcoming guest Nicola Andrews to The Write Attention podcast Episode 10: Mentorship & Community.

Nicola Andrews (Māori, Pākehā) is a member of the Ngāti Paoa iwi, currently living on Ramaytush Ohlone territory. They are the winner of the 2023 AAALS Indigenous Writers Prize for Poetry, and their writing has been supported by communities including the Kearny Street Interdisciplinary Writers Lab, Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, Rooted & Written, and the Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation. Their debut chapbook, Māori Maid Difficult, is forthcoming with Tram Editions. In their spare time, they watch dinosaur documentaries with their cat.

 

In Episode 10, the group discusses what does or does not make for a good mentor, trusting your intuition, managing the closing and building of writing communities, and what thoughts go into putting together a collection of poems or stories.

 

Nicola Andrews also reads an excerpt from their poem, "Self Portrait with the Queue" from their debut chapbook, Maori Maid Difficult.

 

You can also find Nicola here:

Website: bit.ly/NicolaAndrews Social Media: @maraebrarian (twitter) @poi_division (Instagram, Bluesky)    

Show Notes

• Māori Maid Difficult at Tram Editions: https://trameditions.com/catalogue/2023-authors/
• Tram Editions, https://trameditions.com/
• Paper and Stick by Priscilla Wathington, https://trameditions.com/paper-and-stick-by-priscilla-wathington/ 
• Weren’t We Natural Swimmers by Aliah Lavonne Tigh, https://trameditions.com/werent-we-natural-swimmers-by-aliah-lavonne-tigh/ 
• RAWI, https://www.arabamericanwriters.org/ 
• APAture 2023, https://www.kearnystreet.org/apature 
• APAture Literary Arts Showcase: https://www.kearnystreet.org/events-blog/2023/9/11/apature-2023-literary-arts
• VONA, https://www.vonavoices.org/ 
• Chelsea T. Hicks, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/chelsea-t-hicks,  and Words of the People https://wtpgathering.org/ 
• Craig Santos Perez, http://craigsantosperez.com/ 
• Periplus mentorship collective, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-0SRWxJqx4oNbWVmbq4j9JE5INhisz76--U63UbtncM/edit 
• Write or Die, https://www.chillsubs.com/writeordie/education