Talking Writing

Sarah Tulloch, Talking Writing’s podcast production manager, interviewed JoeAnn Hart. JoeAnn is the author of Highwire Act and Other Tales of Survival. Highwire Act is a collection of previously published short stories that highlight the conflicts that climate change will bring to the forefront of human civilization. The characters are confronted with the consequences of dying ecosystems, illnesses, political tension, and new norms within human communities in order to survive the global change.

In the wake of this summer’s Canadian wildfires, protesters are descending on Climate Week NYC, which includes today’s United Nations Climate Ambition Summit. Although the spotlight on climate change has gotten a lot brighter in the past several months, the issue has been going on for decades. Three works have come out recently that were all conceived before this summer’s alarming weather but seem even more relevant now. All three artists have some connection to Talking Writing, and I decided that making a collage of their works and interviewing them would be a great way to explore these themes through the lens of aesthetics. JoeAnn Hart has just released a book of short stories set in the near future called Highwire Act and Other Tales of Survival, which won the 2022 Hudson Prize. In April 2023, Alice Major put out Knife on Snow, a collection of poems that weaves together emotional considerations of climate change with science, mythology, space exploration, and daily life. And in March, 2023 John Atkinson released his solo album Energy Fields, created from field recordings of coal mines, turbines, refineries, and animals from his residency at the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming in 2019.

In this episode, the interviewed artists talk about their approaches to playing their music live. What are the challenges? Where is the wiggle room for improvisation? What makes a performance engaging? As with the previous episode, each artist approaches the live situation differently, whether trying to present something that you've made in a studio or working out something that you've made in rehearsal.

Performing live and recording music are very different acts, and the skill sets don't necessarily cross over. Some musicians are prone to creating things in the studio and then face the challenge of making something live out of it. Others write and experiment in the live setting and then go into the studio to try and translate what they've been doing live. Both approaches come with unique challenges, and this episode asks the question: "What do you get psychologically out of each process, playing live and recording?"

Most artists tend to have many different projects occurring simultaneously or over the course of their artistic lives. Here the artists interviewed tell how they tend to move from one project to another and what their various projects provide them.

This episode explores the way that ideas come up and how they move through the process into becoming a piece of art. The path from vague idea to finished product is never straightforward. One thing that becomes clear during these conversations is how messy and random the progression can be.

The first episode of the Weird Music podcast series focuses on an idea put forth by Stephen King in On Writing: that art depends on telepathy. While discussing the telepathic elements of art, the conversation veers into the area of whether or not the artist's intention translates through the work.

John Vogel, Talking Writing's art director, interviews author Brad Schreiber on his latest book, Music is Power, and the influences that shaped his writing. Brad is an author, screenwriter, producer, literary consultant, journalist, playwright, teacher, and performer. Music Is Power: Popular Songs, Social Justice, and the Will to Change tells fascinating stories about the origins and impact of dozens of world-changing songs while revealing political context and the personal challenges of legendary artists from Bob Dylan to Bob Marley.

Neva Talladen, managing editor of Talking Writing, interviews the self-published author Dana Humphrey. The two discuss creating such a vulnerable piece of work while still keeping your real-life relationships intact. Dana is a life coach, an author, a life coach, a death doula, and a hot yoga instructor. May All Beings Be Fed is an incredibly vulnerable memoir of Dana’s life written in the third person. Through Yaya, Dana is able to explore her upbringing, her experience acquiring a mental health diagnosis, and her experience with drugs at a healthy distance.

John Vogel, Talking Writing’s art director, interviewed poet, writer, and editor Kelli Russell Agodon. Kelli Russell Agodon (she/her) is the author of four collections of poems, including her most recent, the award-winning Dialogues with Rising Tides, published by Copper Canyon Press in 2021. Kelli and John discuss the logistics behind making time for art as a parent, the role of their spouses in the artistic process, and staying motivated to submit and publish.

Talking Writing founder and publisher Martha Nichols talks to David Santos Donaldson about his novel Greenland, published by Amistad Press in 2022 and out now in paperback, which has garnered wide critical acclaim. In this interview, Martha and David discuss the personal background of the novel, the struggle of racial and sexual identity in the face of the white heterosexual default, and the cultural background of magical realism.

TW's managing editor Neva Talladen speaks with Nicki Pappas, a writer and podcaster whose self-published memoir, As Familiar as Family, delves into the abusive events that led her to leave a church with which she had been intimately involved. Nicki also hosts Broadening the Narrative, a podcast dedicated to exploring themes, ideas, and ways of being that exist outside the white evangelicalism in which she was raised. Neva and Nicki discuss the book, religion, and self-publishing.

TW's publisher, Martha Nichols, talks with novelist Richard Zimler. Their conversation focuses on Richard's latest novel, The Incandescent Threads, which was selected as a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. Martha delves into the personal stories behind the book's themes as well as Richard's thoughts on the invisible threads that connect the past with the future – and all of us.

John Vogel, TW’s art director, talks with director for the Penn Center for Neuroaesthetics Anjan Chatterjee about his paths in science and photography, the brain’s role in deriving pleasure from art, and the funding of the science of art. Anjan has practiced neurology for the past thirty years and produced two books on the subject of neuroaesthetics.

In this closing episode for the year, the Talking Writing team discusses how they mix their creative lives with everything else. Publisher Martha Nichols, Art Director John Vogel, Managing Editor Neva Talladen, and Nonfiction Editor Gabrielle (Gabi) Coloma talk about their successes, hesitations, failures, and determination to stay creatively sparked. Happy Holidays! The TW podcast will be on hiatus for the rest of 2022, returning early next year.

As the HarperCollins strike continues, we're running a fuller edit of TW managing editor Neva Talladen's interview with HarperCollins associate editor Rachel Kambury. This version focuses on Rachel's personal story entering into the publishing world, as well as specifics about the causes and conditions of the strike.

This episode focuses on the financial sustainability of art and publishing. It features an interview by managing editor Neva Talladen about the current HarperCollins strike with Rachel Kambury, an associate editor at HarperCollins, and a reading by Rebecca Steinitz of her essay "On Writing Another Novel."

In this spotlight episode about politics and art, we bring together readings from poets, interview comments, and excerpts from the essay "Is History Wasted on Everyone?" by Martha Nichols.

John Vogel, TW's art director, talks with Philadelphia musician Jamey Robinson about creativity, criticism, and intense aesthetic experiences. Robinson is the former keyboard player for Need New Body and Man Man as well as composer for his solo project, Buffalo Stance.All music in this episode is © Jamey Robinson and used with his permission.

In this inaugural episode, TW founder and publisher Martha Nichols talks to Sarah Fay, author of Pathological: The True Story of Six Misdiagnoses, about writing and diagnosing mental health conditions.