Do you have to be a comedian or a humorist to execute funny in memoir? We don’t think so—and this episode tackles how humor shows up in the everyday, in universal experiences, and through the journey of looking inward. Guest David Sipress, whose New Yorker cartoons are recognizable worldwide, talks about his own insecurities in approaching memoir and how he worked through them, how he mines for funny, and shares with us some insight about his cartoonist brain. You’re in for a treat—and Grant is holding out for a cartoon portrait to arrive in his mail any day now.

We’re having fun this holiday week talking about genre-blending and bending, and why it’s fun and freeing, but also often problematic from an industry standpoint when stories are not easily categorized. Join Brooke and Grant this week in their conversation with Barbara Graham, a long-time nonfiction writer who breaks the mold with her debut novel, and shares about how intuitive her process was, and how and why she was compelled to write the story that became her book, What Jonah Knew.

This week’s episode brings to the fore why meaning in all its outward, bigger-than-a-single-individual forms is so profound in writing. The notion that your story is broader than your limited experience is something memoirists know, but too often fail to fully execute on the page. Kathryn Schulz is a master of this form. Tune in to hear about what Brooke calls “litle-T takeaway” and the conversation that ensues with Kathryn, whose recent book, Lost & Found, offers up so much for discussion and emulation.

Omission—it’s something writers understand as meaningful to story, but don’t often execute well on the page. In this week’s episode, guest Charmaine Wilkerson offers solid pointers on how to think about omission and why it will make your writing more meaningful. Join Grant and Brooke for this week’s craft-based conversation on the power of omission as we consider some of the best books we’ve read lately that do omission well. We’ll also explore human behavior—like lying, secret-keeping, betrayal, cheating, protecting, and more—that lends itself to exploring omission more deeply.

Write-minded is celebrating Episode #200 and a move to be part of the Lit Hub Radio family this week with guest Linda Holmes, host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour, who joins Grant and Brooke to talk about her recent novel, imposter syndrome, and following the path life offers up. This episode is a celebration of shape-shifting and getting bitten by the novel bug—with a fun guest who knows a thing or two about writing, podcasting, and changing your life story—all while going with the flow.

Write-minded is honored to be celebrating a few milestones this week—with guest Zakiya Dalila Harris’s paperback release and our announcement that starting next week, we are joining the Lit Hub Radio family! It’s a perfect episode to talk about publishing, since Zakiya’s novel, The Other Black Girl, points a finger at the industry—and because there’s so much else to say. Also, since this week’s book trend spotlights DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), we draw your attention in the show to the Independent Book Publishers Association’s DEI Resource Center: https://www.ibpa-online.org/page/dei-resource-center

This week’s episode inspires and challenges and encourages all of us to embrace the magic of subversive reading. This conversation with Azar Nafisi, the best-selling author of Reading Lolita in Tehran, about her new book, Read Dangerously, is a reminder of what’s at stake for us right now in the US, why we need to engage and not check out, or worse, employ the same tactics as extremists in the fight for democracy. Tune in for an episode that’s political and urgent and necessary—and if you’re not reading dangerously, make the next book on your reading list a subversive one.

This week we’re focusing on how to step into the point of view of another character in memoir. Increasingly memoirists are wanting to take risks with memoir, to fill holes in their knowledge but not be relegated to writing fiction. Guest Julie Metz provides a beautiful template for how to do this with her new memoir, Eva and Eve, which reconstructs her family’s 1940 escape from Vienna when Hitler was annexing Austria and ridding it of its Jewish population. Beyond a harrowing and beautifully rendered tale of family, Eva and Eve is a story of how history repeats itself and the legacies we carry.

This week we’re looking at book coaching—who might need one, why you might want one, or maybe you even want to become one. Guest Jennie Nash has resources and answers for anyone in this space because she trains book coaches through her Author Accelerator program, and has an incredible stable of coaches that authors can work with. So much good food for thought this week! Also, in today’s book trend on hybrid publishing, we mentioned Jane Friedman’s recent article, “IMHO: A Nuanced Look at Hybrid Publishers,” which you can find here: https://hotsheetpub.com/2022/05/imho-a-nuanced-look-at-hybrid-publishers/