This episode of Behind the Prose features an interview with author Cameron Conaway. His book Malaria, Poems was named to the NPR Best Books of 2014 list. I spoke with Cameron at Penn State Berks after his poetry reading. We talked about his Newsweek article
BY CAMERON CONAWAY “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.” —Shunryu Suzuki Beginner’s mind can be a pain in the ass. My palms sweat and I bite my nails and I pace around the house all while
Like writer and teacher Joan Dempsey said of her old fiction pieces, I’ve found if I let a work sit too long, by the time I dig it up again, it doesn’t seem like anything I’d have written or would want to pretend I wrote.
In this week’s journey Behind the Prose, I interview teacher and writer Joan Dempsey. Before discussing the way she crafts character actions (she’s got a technique that will certainly show you how committed she is to authenticity in her work), we talk about how she’s
Think you got what it takes to write a novel? How about a novel that gets picked up by one of the hottest directors around (Ava DuVernay) on one of the most influential television networks – Oprah Winfrey’s OWN TV? Well, if you can commit
BY KEYSHA WHITAKER “Writing is hard. For most writers, the financial rewards are few. I know the best I can hope for—and I hope for this daily—is a nice email from a stranger letting me know that something I wrote helped. Or moved them. Or
BY SARAH GERARD “Show, don’t tell,” might as well be hanging above the doorway of every writing classroom. I can’t say I always agree with it—every rule must be broken occasionally—but it held true in the editing of “BFF,” my forthcoming chapbook to be published by Guillotine
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***Listen to Cameron’s Episode*** Author Cameron Conaway is a triple threat. He writes. He teaches. He fights. The latter was literal several years ago when he stepped into the ring as a Mixed Martial Artist but now his battles are on the world stage, raising
Woe be unto you writer, should you land in a Washington Post article titled “The five worst sentences I read in January.” When I read that post written by the new nonfiction book critic Carlos Lozada, I knew two things. First, I needed to interview Lozada. Second, I was afraid to
This episode is filled to capacity with awesomeness. First, you’ll hear the rest of Associate Senior Editor Roxanne K. Young’s interview about her work at the Journal of the American Medical Association and Dr. Andrew Bomback’s essay “Errands” which ran in the “A Piece of
BlogTalkRadio, the largest talk radio network, has named Behind the Prose a most “Popular in Writing” show for the episode, “No Excuse Zone: Physician and writer Andrew Bomback discusses craft and commitment.” Bomback discussed his two essays which appeared in Full Grown People and in
So in case you’ve been living under a literary rock, Sarah Gerard’s debut novel Binary Star is a cosmic force in its own right. According to Wolf Literary Services, Gerard’s made EIGHT best lists for 2015. Count ’em: ONE: GQ‘s Six Best Books of January TWO: Buzzfeed’s
BY JENNIFER GENEST Objects are a writer’s friend. Almost any object is loaded if you think about it long enough. I am always surprised when objects in a story end up doing the “heavy lifting (explaining difficult or emotional things)” without it seeming forced or obvious.
On Sunday, Feb. 15, I spoke with Dr. Andrew Bomback about his two essays “I Know That Elmo is Not a Child Molester” and “Errands” which ran in Full Grown People and the Journal of the American Medical Association, respectively. Associate Senior Editor of JAMA,