The Creative Nonfiction Podcast with Brendan O'Meara
Brendan O'Meara
Conversations with badass writers, filmmakers, and producers about the art and craft of creative nonfiction.
- 1 hour 19 minutesEpisode 461: For Nick Davidson, Stories Hunt the Storyteller
Nick Davidson, @nickgdavidson on IG, says, "We usually think of hunting stories and looking for ideas, but I feel like it's the other way around: stories hunt the storyteller, and I'm just prey."
Nick's latest piece is for The Atavist Magazine titled "The Balloon That Fell From the Sky."
His work has appeared in Outside, VICE Sports, Garden & Gun, and a million other places of note.
Podcast Specific Substack at creativenonfictionpodcast.substrack.com.
Newsletter: Rage Against the Algorithm
Show notes: brendanomeara.com
4 April 2025, 10:00 am - 1 hour 3 minutesEpisode 460:Pulitzer Prize-Winning Biographer Megan Marshall Takes on Personal Essays in 'After Lives'
Megan Marshall is the author of After Lives: On Biography and the Mysteries of the Human Heart (Mariner Books), a new collection of essays. Megan won the Pulitzer Prize in 2014 for Margaret Fuller: A New American Life.
Podcast Specific Substack at creativenonfictionpodcast.substrack.com.
Promotional Sponsor: The Power of Narrative Conference. Use CNF15 at checkout for a 15% discount.
Newsletter: Rage Against the Algorithm
Show notes: brendanomeara.com
28 March 2025, 10:00 am - 51 minutes 31 secondsEpisode 459: Cassidy Randall Talks Forgotten Histories, Sticky Notes, and the Power of Listening
“I could suddenly see — and this is how I know when I'm supposed to start writing — is that words start putting themselves together in my head, and I just have to get them out, right? Which doesn't happen all the time, but it did for this," says Cassidy Randall, author of Thirty Below: The Harrowing and Heroic Story of the First All Women's Ascent of Denali (Abrams Books).
Cassidy's work has appeared in National Geographic, the New York Times, Outside Magazine, The Atavist, and many, many others.
In this episode we talk about:
- The beginning and ending
- Sticky notes
- The post-book funk
- Interviewing
- And so much more
Promotional Sponsor: The Power of Narrative Conference. Use CNF15 at checkout for a 15% discount.
Newsletter: Rage Against the Algorithm
Show notes: brendanomeara.com
Support: Patreon.com/cnfpod
21 March 2025, 10:00 am - 58 minutes 9 secondsEpisode 458: Jaydra Johnson Had to Get Weird
"And then this person said, 'Hey, you know, this needs to be, like, more weird or less weird, but it's in this kind of odd place that isn't working.' And I was like, she's so, right," says Jaydra Johnson, @jaydranicole, and author of Low: Notes on Art & Trash (Fonograf).
Lots of good stuff in this episode. We talk about:
- Luck
- Growing up poor
- Dialing up the weirdness
- And binge-buying books on eBay
Promotional Sponsor: The Power of Narrative Conference. Use CNF15 at checkout for a 15% discount.
Newsletter: Rage Against the Algorithm
Show notes: brendanomeara.com
Support: Patreon.com/cnfpod
14 March 2025, 4:50 pm - 1 hour 53 secondsEpisode 457: Poynter's Neil Brown Says Editing Isn't Discussed Enough
"What I was fortunate enough to get exposed to very early in my career, and I really believe is now the way to go, which is the nature of editing as thinking," says Poynter Institute president Neil Brown.
Neil has spent more than forty years as a reporter and editor, and he just wrapped up his tenure on the Pulitzer Prize Board. He's one of the more nimble minds in journalism and a champion of the editor/writer dynamic.
In this conversation, Neil riffs on
- Editing as thinking
- The late writing coach Don Murray
- How the front end is everything
- Respecting reader detection
- And Interviewing as a skill, among lots more great stuff.
Promotional Sponsor: The Power of Narrative Conference. Use CNF15 at checkout for a 15% discount.
Newsletter: Rage Against the Algorithm
Show notes: brendanomeara.com
Support: Patreon.com/cnfpod
14 March 2025, 10:00 am - 41 minutes 56 secondsEpisode 456: Neko Case Wrote her Memoir in Bed
Neko Case is best known for her career as a musical performing artist and as a founding member of The New Pornographers, but her debut memoir The Harder I Fight the More I Love You (Grand Central) is all the evidence we need to see that she's got the chops for narrative.
Promotional Sponsor: The Power of Narrative Conference. Use CNF15 at checkout for a 15% discount.
Newsletter: Rage Against the Algorithm
Show notes: brendanomeara.com
Support: Patreon.com/cnfpod
7 March 2025, 5:00 pm - 57 minutes 32 secondsEpisode 455: Will McGrath's Season on the Sidelines for The Believer
Will McGrath often thinks he's a phony, a fake writer, a fake journalist. But he isn't. He's very much real, and his piece for The Believer, "American Boys," chronicles the season and the lives of a group of young basketball players. It harkens back to Darcy Frey's brilliant book The Last Shot.
Podcast Specific Substack: https://substack.com/@creativenonfictionpodcast
Promotional Sponsor: The Power of Narrative Conference. Use CNF15 at checkout for a 15% discount.
Newsletter: Rage Against the Algorithm
Show notes: brendanomeara.com
Support: Patreon.com/cnfpod
7 March 2025, 11:00 am - 58 minutes 39 secondsEpisode 454: Allegra Rosenberg's Tale of Love on Ice for The Atavist
Allegra Rosenberg became obsessed with polar exploration narratives during the pandemic. She soon came across the journals of Harry Pennell and learned of his love for Edward Atkinson. Set amongst the backdrop of the South Pole and the looming possibility of WWI, Allegra weaves a brilliant and tragic story.
Promotional Sponsor: The Power of Narrative Conference. Use CNF15 at checkout for a 15% discount.
Newsletter: Rage Against the Algorithm
Show notes: brendanomeara.com
Support: Patreon.com/cnfpod
28 February 2025, 5:00 pm - 45 minutes 23 secondsEpisode 453: Chandlor Henderson, Live at Gratitude Brewing, Says 'Focus on the Skill'
Chandlor Henderson is the very definition of a multi-hypenate: a writer, editor, comic book writer, filmmaker, and podcaster.
This conversation was recorded live at Gratitude Brewing as part of a quarterly series between the Oregon Writers Colony and The Creative Nonfiction Podcast. In this conversation we talk about his journey to Oregon from the East Coast, to focus on skills, and how graphic novels are a great vector for storytelling.
Promotional Sponsor: The Power of Narrative Conference. Use CNF15 at checkout for a 15% discount.
Newsletter: Rage Against the Algorithm
Show notes: brendanomeara.com
Support: Patreon.com/cnfpod
28 February 2025, 11:00 am - 57 minutes 35 secondsEpisode 452: lamb of god's Randy Blythe's Search for Perspective in 'Just Beyond the Light'
If Randy Blythe's first book, Dark Days, was about accountability, his second book, Just Beyond the Light, is about perspective.
In essays ranging from the premature death of a young fan to surfing waves to revering his beloved grandmother, Randy talks about art and music and the messiness of being a creative person.
Visit randyblythe.com to learn more and to see dates for his spoken-word tour in support of his latest book.
Sponsor: The Power of Narrative Conference. Use CNF15 at checkout for a 15% discount.
Newsletter: Rage Against the Algorithm
Show notes: brendanomeara.com
Support: Patreon.com/cnfpod
21 February 2025, 11:00 am - 59 minutes 8 secondsEpisode 451: When Beach Read Meets a System with Lindsay Jill Roth
Lindsay Jill Roth was told by a tutor at a young age that she'd become a writer one day. At the time she laughed, but it came to be. Lindsay is the author of the novel What Pretty Girls Are Made Of and her latest is Romances & Practicalities: A Love Story (Maybe Yours) in 250 Questions.
Lindsay talks about the writing of the book, structuring it, and how working in television and radio informed the storytelling mechanics of the book.
Sponsor: The Power of Narrative Conference. Use CNF15 at checkout for a 15% discount.
Newsletter: Rage Against the Algorithm
Show notes: brendanomeara.com
Support: Patreon.com/cnfpod
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