More to the Story: Recent Episodes
Janna Marlies Maron
A podcast all about creative nonfiction, telling true stories and sharing them with the world. Excerpts of true, personal stories and interviews with their authors. Hosted by Janna Marlies Maron, editor & publisher of Under the Gum Tree magazine.
Janna Marlies Maron (she/her) is a professional editor with nearly 20 years of experience helping writers to complete their projects and produce the best work possible. Her experience includes time as a magazine editor, college professor, agency editorial director, and content director for a popular internet brand. Her life’s work began when she was a kid writing in a spiral bound notebook, and she has since turned an MA in creative writing into a successful career as an editor, publisher, and director of her own business supporting women authors writing nonfiction. In addition to founding and editing Under the Gum Tree, she‘s the host of More to the Story, a podcast all about creative nonfiction, as well as private online community for nonfiction writers also called More to the Story.
In the episode I talk about:
- What’s been happening in the past three years, since the last season of More to the Story
- The importance of stepping back and taking a break when necessary
- Self-care as an essential component of work and life
- Showing up for the people you care about
- My new business working with nonfiction authors
- More to the Story, my private community for nonfiction authors. Find more info at jannamarlies.com/community
- Nonfiction Bootcamp, the 9-month coaching and editing program designed to help nonfiction authors finish a complete draft of their book manuscript. Find more info at jannamarlies.com/nonfictionbootcamp
- The best way to stay in touch with me is to subscribe to my email list at jannamarlies.com
Thanks so much for tuning in to this season of the More to the Story podcast! Visit us online at moretothestorypodcast.com and visit Under the Gum Tree at underthegumtree.com. Follow Under the Gum Tree Twitter and Instagram @undergumtree. Follow me on Twitter @justjanna and @jannamarlies on Instagram.
Nicole Walker is the author of Processed Meats: Essays on Food, Flesh and Navigating Disaster (2021) Sustainability: A Love Story (2018) and the collaborative collection The After-Normal: Brief, Alphabetical Essays on a Changing Planet (2019). She has previously published the books Where the Tiny Things Are (2017), Egg (2017), Micrograms (2016), Quench Your Thirst with Salt (2013), and This Noisy Egg (2010). She edited for Bloomsbury the essay collections Science of Story (2019) with Sean Prentiss and Bending Genre: Essays on Creative Nonfiction (2013) with Margot Singer. She is the co-president of NonfictioNOW and is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts award and a noted author in Best American Essays. Her work has been most recently published in the New York Times, Longreads, and Manifest-Station. She teaches at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. You can find her website at nikwalk.com.
In the episode we talk about:
- Nonfiction feeling particularly apt for the time that we’re living in
- Star Trek and approximating an “extra inch of brain stuff” by examining things in writing
- The connecting point of imagination, drawing threads between two ideas as a way to enter braided essays
- The collaborative nature of writing, and writing & editing as a paired job
- The “bird’s eye” view of an editor and how the work of a good editor can elevate writing
- The idea that climate justice is racial justice
- The human capacity to care more about each other than personal freedoms
- Science as a lens to examine the world
- Tinkering as a process crossing over from science to writing
- Nicole’s current project examining the privilege and trauma of moving, and how it ties into climate change
- The constant feeling that we should be doing more
- Find Nicole online at nikwalk.com / Twitter & Facebook
- Read stories people shared during the pandemic as part of the How We Are project at howweare.org
Visit us online at moretothestorypodcast.com and visit Under the Gum Tree at underthegumtree.com. Follow Under the Gum Tree Twitter and Instagram @undergumtree. Follow me on Twitter @justjanna and @jannamarlies on Instagram.
If you’re looking for a place to find more support with writing your true personal story, join the More To The Story community!
Kristie Robin Johnson is an educator, essayist, and poet from Augusta, Georgia. She is the current Chair of the Department of Humanities at Georgia Military College’s Augusta campus where she is an Assistant Professor of English. A graduate of the MFA Creative Writing program at Georgia College and State University, Kristie’s writing has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has received other awards and recognition, including an AWP Intro to Journals award, the 2020 Porter Fleming Prize for Nonfiction, and the 2021 Page Prize for Nonfiction from The Pinch Literary Journal. Her work has been published in numerous literary magazines, journals, and anthologies. Her first book, High Cotton, was released in 2020 by Raised Voice Press.
In the episode we talk about:
- Hip hop as Kristie’s first introduction to literature
- Writing essays as a function of journaling, being a young mother, and writing letters to her unborn child
- The transition from being a poet to being an essayist
- Maya Angelo, Harlem Renaissance writers, and imagining her first poems as if Tupac or Biggie and Langston Hughes had a baby
- Billy Collins’s theory that every poet has 200 bad poems that they have to get out
- Determining whether a piece is an essay or a poem
- Writing about the same things over and over as a writer of color, in reference to the lynching of Ahmaud Arbery and his murder being particularly difficult because of not being able to gather during COVID
- The impact that reading Black male authors had on her young son
- Addressing race with kids and how parents make the choice of when, where, and how to talk about it
- How the media has changed the frequency at which we see racial injustice
- Kristie’s strongest writing coming out of examining the intersections of life as a woman, a Black person, a single mom, and a returning college student
- The benefits of publishing with a small press
- Find Kristie online at kristierobinjohnson.com
- Kristie’s essay collection High Cotton is available on raisedvoicepress.com and everywhere books are sold
Visit us online at moretothestorypodcast.com and visit Under the Gum Tree at underthegumtree.com. Follow Under the Gum Tree Twitter and Instagram @undergumtree. Follow me on Twitter @justjanna and @jannamarlies on Instagram.
If you’re looking for a place to find more support with writing your true personal story, join the More To The Story community!
Timothy J. Hillegonds is the author of The Distance Between (Nebraska, 2019), a finalist for the 2020 Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year Award. A Pushcart Prize nominee, Tim's work has appeared in The Guardian, the Chicago Tribune, Salon, The Daily Beast, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Rumpus, Assay, Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction, River Teeth, Baltimore Review, Brevity, Under the Gum Tree, Hippocampus Magazine, The Fourth River, Midway Journal, RHINO, Bluestem Magazine, r.k.v.r.y. quarterly, and others.
In 2019, Tim was named by the Guild Literary Complex as one of their thirty "Writers to Watch,” and he currently serves as a contributing editor for Slag Glass City, a digital journal of the urban essay arts.
In the episode we talk about:
- The practice of writing in rehab at the beginning of a serious writing life and as an integral part of healing
- Coming to nonfiction as a result of trauma
- Getting an undergrad degree at age 30
- Recovery as never being singular, we're constantly recovering from one thing or another
- Never writing the same book twice and giving yourself permission to try something different
- Crafting a persona in creative nonfiction
- Truth vs subjectivity in nonfiction, honesty in recovery
- Using the second-person perspective in nonfiction
- The challenges of an addiction memoir and a story of abuse from the perpetrator’s point of view
- The benefits of publishing with a university press
- Writing visceral scenes of using after being sober
- The moral inventory of self and wrestling with privilege working on his behalf
- How to reinvent a story like an addiction that is, let’s be honest, so played out
- Writers Hope Edelman, Michele Morano , and Sheryl St. Germain
- Find Tim online at timhillegonds.com.
Visit us online at moretothestorypodcast.com and visit Under the Gum Tree at underthegumtree.com. Follow Under the Gum Tree Twitter and Instagram @undergumtree. Follow me on Twitter @justjanna and @jannamarlies on Instagram.
If you’re looking for a place to find more support with writing your true personal story, join the More To The Story community!
Kelly is an award-winning essayist and a Pushcart nominee. She has an MFA in nonfiction from Lesley University. Her essay “Do No Harm” was awarded the $1000 Best Essay Prize and appeared in Creative Nonfiction’s Issue #55, The Memoir Issue, Spring 2015. Her essay, "Paper Moon" was shortlisted for The Pinch's 2017 Literary Award. Kelly enjoys the quiet life of rural Ohio. When she's not chasing children around the house, she can usually be found corn field watching from beneath an apple tree in her backyard. Kelly is currently seeking representation for her first book a collection of essays.
In the episode we talk about:
- Grief journals and turning them into essays
- Needing a place to figure out what an experience means
- Giving readers the benefit of the doubt, and essays that are a slow burn
- The short form of flash and “micro” writing
- Loss and learning to love things without consuming or owning them
- Using care in the things we create vs. self-imposed deadlines or goals
- Kelly’s piece "Winter Soliloquy" in Hippocampus
- Connect with Kelly on Twitter @WhaleLetters
Visit us online at moretothestorypodcast.com and visit Under the Gum Tree at underthegumtree.com. Follow Under the Gum Tree Twitter and Instagram @undergumtree. Follow me on Twitter @justjanna and @jannamarlies on Instagram.
If you’re looking for a place to find more support with writing your true personal story, join the More To The Story community!
In this episode I talk with writer Katherine Standefer. Katherine's debut book, Lightning Flowers, published November 2020 from Little Brown, was shortlisted for the 2018 J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Prize from Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. Her work was featured in The Best American Essays 2016, won the 2015 Iowa Review Award in Nonfiction, and most recently appeared in Virginia Quarterly Review, Kenyon Review Online, New England Review, Crazyhorse, Quarterly West, and The Normal School. She was a Fall 2018 Logan Nonfiction Fellow at The Carey Institute for Global Good, and earned her MFA in Creative Nonfiction at the University of Arizona. As a creative entrepreneur, she teaches intimate, electric writing classes that help people tell their stories about sexuality, illness, and trauma. She is also a professor in Ashland University's Low-Residency MFA.
In the episode we talk about:
- Heartbreak and conflict minerals
- Illness as a driver force for writing nonfiction
- Owning a story vs. disguising it in thinly veiled fiction
- The need for narrative distance to craft nonfiction
- Processing illness through writing
- Research as a means of survival
- The personal is enough, a personal story well told can change lives
- Kati’s book, Lighting Flowers, story of a complicated relationship with her ICD, the American healthcare system, and the global supply chain.
- Book forthcoming March 2020 - Nov 2020, Little Brown
- IG / Twitter: @girlmakesfire / FB: writewithkatistandefer / katherinestandefer.com
Visit us online at moretothestorypodcast.com and visit Under the Gum Tree at underthegumtree.com. Follow Under the Gum Tree Twitter and Instagram @undergumtree. Follow me on Twitter @justjanna and @jannamarlies on Instagram.
If you're looking for a place to find more support with writing your true personal story, join the More To The Story community!
In this episode, I talk with writer James M. Chesbro. James is the author of A Lion in the Snow: Essays on a Father’s Journey Home. His work has appeared in The Writer’s Chronicle, America, The Washington Post, The Millions, Essay Daily, and The Huffington Post. Essays from A Lion in the Snow were chosen as notable selections in The Best American Essays series 2012, 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2018, as well as The Best American Sports Writing 2014.
In the episode we talk about:
- Making sense of things in a private journal
- Mourning the loss of a parent while trying to keep children alive at the same time
- The confluence of the role of son and father, feeling like a kid forever
- How becoming a father allowed him to learn about and understand his own father who passed away before he had kids
- How the memories that we attach to objects allow them to take on a life of their own
- Jamie's book, A Lion in the Snow, Essays on a Father’s Journey Home compiling an essay collection
- Finishing a project, even when it takes almost a decade, has to be an obsession
- The importance of books about men for men and exploring emotions as men
- jamesmchesbro.com / jamie_chesbro on Twitter & Instagram
Visit us online at moretothestorypodcast.com and visit Under the Gum Tree at underthegumtree.com. Follow Under the Gum Tree Twitter and Instagram @undergumtree. Follow me on Twitter @justjanna and @jannamarlies on Instagram.
If you're looking for a place to find more support with writing your true personal story, join the More To The Story community!
In this episode I talk with Tori Weston, creative writer and visual artist. Tori received a BFA in Writing and Literature and an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College. While working for the Professional Studies department and finishing her last semester of graduate school, she wrote a proposal for a creative writing high school program. Fifteen years later, she is now the Assistant Director of Pre-College Programs at Emerson College. When not running the pre-college program, she balances her professional life with her creative life as both a writer and artist. Her writing has appeared in What's Up Magazine, Providence Journal-Bulletin, Sleet Magazine, and Under the Gum Tree. She has also been a featured storyteller in the Risk! Live show, podcast, and book. Her artwork has been shown at the Somerville Museum, Diesel Cafe, and Bloc 11 Cafe.
In the episode we talk about:
- Her 6th grad teacher’s quirky essay assignments
- Tori's love of grammar & being rewarded for memorizing poems with parties
- The 1991 Doors movie inspiring a generation of creatives writing bad poetry
- The recurring theme of teachers taking interest, encouraging her to pursue writing
- Moving to nonfiction as a result of telling personal stories
- Themes unifying multiple short-short pieces
- The richness of growing up in a cultural diverse neighborhood
- Tori’s memoir-in-progress about her whopping 38 roommate situations
- Check out her work at: ToriWestonWriterArtist.com
Visit us online at moretothestorypodcast.com and visit Under the Gum Tree at underthegumtree.com. Follow Under the Gum Tree Twitter and Instagram @undergumtree. Follow me on Twitter @justjanna and @jannamarlies on Instagram.
If you're looking for a place to find more support with writing your true personal story, join the More To The Story community!
In this episode I talk with Rebekah Taussig, one of Under the Gum Tree’s previous contributors. Rebekah is a writer and teacher with her PhD in creative nonfiction and disability studies from the University of Kansas. She is interested in the powerful connection between the stories we tell and the tangible world we live in. You can find her essays in Under the Gum Tree and The Florida Review and can follow her flash-memoirs on her Instagram @sitting_pretty. Her essay “Reupholstered” appears in the October 2016 issue of Under the Gum Tree.
In this episode we talk about:
- Wanting to make sense of the world through words
- Disability stories in nineteenth century literature
- The Moonstone and Poor Miss Finch by Wilkie Collins
- Responses of Rebekah's students in her high school disability and literature class
- The challenge and discomfort engaging with "others," people who are different from we are
- Rebekah's experience of transitioning to using a wheelchair as a child
- Writing life stories that are shaped by Rebekah's experience with her body
- Rebekah's memoir Do You Feel This: The Story of a Voice Lost and Reclaimed
- Writing flash-flash memoir on Instagram
- Visit Rebekah online at rebekahtaussig.com and follow her on Instagram @sitting_pretty
Visit us online at moretothestorypodcast.com and visit Under the Gum Tree at underthegumtree.com. Follow Under the Gum Tree Twitter and Instagram @undergumtree. Follow me on Twitter @justjanna and @jannamarlies on Instagram. Find out about my 6-week email audio course at jannamarlies.com/cnf101course.
In this episode I talk with Liz Stephens, one of Under the Gum Tree's previous contributors. Liz is currently growing the Mojave Desert Arts project, a residency and workshop space outside Joshua Tree, California. Recent work can be found in the anthologies Brief Encounters: A Collection of Contemporary Nonfiction and Dirt: A Love Story. Other work can be found in Fourth Genre and Terrain.org, among others. She has served as managing editor of Brevity, and teaches nonfiction with the UCLA Extension Writer’s Program and through private workshops and retreats. Liz’s essay “Because Faint Glitter Came Off Everything” appears in the April 2017 issue of Under the Gum Tree.
In this episode we talk about:
- The difference between journaling and crafting true stories for an audience
- How writing creative nonfiction has taught Liz the craft and structure needed for returning to writing ficton
- Being in transition as an adult and part of the artistic class
- How places are created, whether people create it or whether place shapes and forms people
- Living in the desert and choosing to stay in a place that's more difficult to live
- The inconvenience of wanting something that isn't easy
- Paying attention to surroundings as a way to occupy an over-thinking mind
- An artist residency that Liz is working on starting called the Mojave Desert Arts
- Visit Liz online at thedaysaregods.com follow Liz on Instagram at @doc_stephens
Visit us online at moretothestorypodcast.com and visit Under the Gum Tree at underthegumtree.com. Follow Under the Gum Tree Twitter and Instagram @undergumtree. Follow me on Twitter @justjanna and @jannamarlies on Instagram. Find out about my 6-week email audio course at jannamarlies.com/cnf101course.
In this episode I talk with one of Under the Gum Tree's previous contributors, Dorian Fox. Dorian essays, articles and stories have appeared in december, Gastronomica, Alimentum, Monkeybicycle, National Parks Magazine, and elsewhere. His work has also been shortlisted for awards by Ploughshares, Phoebe and The Bellingham Review. He received his MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Emerson College and teaches writing at Grub Street in Boston. His essay "The Other First," appears in the January 2016 issue of Under the Gum Tree.
In this episode we talk about:
- The nakedness that comes with writing nonfiction and claiming your personal experience
- How to not get tripped up by facts when writing nonfiction
- Embracing and honoring your own subjective version of truth when writing
- Anxieties and concerns that develop when we age, and when we age in a relationship
- How we revise, recast, or recalibrate our personal life stories and see it with fresh perspective
- Dorian's work teaching at Grub Street in Boston
- Teaching writing and how it influences Dorian's own creative work as a writer
- The craft books The Art of Memoir, by Mary Karr; The Situation and the Story, by Vivian Gornick; and
On Writing, by Stephen King * The cult-classic films Motorphsyco! and Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! * Visit Dorian online at dorianfox.com
Visit us online at moretothestorypodcast.com and visit Under the Gum Tree at underthegumtree.com.
Follow Under the Gum Tree Twitter and Instagram @undergumtree. Follow me on Twitter @justjanna and @jannamarlies on Instagram.
Find out about my 6-week email audio course at jannamarlies.com/cnf101course.
In this episode I talk with Yahdon Israel, one of Under the Gum Tree's previous contributors. Yahdon is 27-year-old writer from Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, who has written for Avidly, The New Inquiry, Brooklyn Magazine, LitHub, and Poets and Writers. He graduated from the MFA Creative Non-Fiction Writing program at the New School. He is the Awards and Membership VP of the National Book Critics Circle. Run a popular Instagram page which promotes literature and fashion under the hashtag Literaryswag, and host a web show for writers called LIT.
In this episode we talk about:
- Writing as a means to confronting the world
- Telling lies to find your voice, and writing as a way to be heard
- Getting to the truth of feelings through false constructs like memory and objectivity
- How James Baldwin has influenced Yahdon as a writer
- White editors and their expectation that black writers should answer their questions
- Complexity of asking questions that reveal assumptions and lies we tell ourselves
- The essay as a form of asking questions that may never be answered
- What the literary market wants and expects from writers of color
- The Women, by Hilton Als
- The importance of literary citizenship and contributing to community beyond writing
- Yahdon's interview with Pulitzer Prizewinning poet Tyehimba Jess
- Yahdon's popular Instagram hashtag #literaryswag and his new web show for writers called LIT.
- Visit Yahdon online at yahdonisrael.com. Follow him on Instagram @yahdon and on Twitter @yahdonisrael.
- Follow Yahdon's projects on Instagram @litplatform and @literaryswagbookclub.
Visit us online at moretothestorypodcast.com and visit Under the Gum Tree at underthegumtree.com.
Follow Under the Gum Tree Twitter and Instagram @undergumtree. Follow me on Twitter @justjanna and @jannamarlies on Instagram.
Find out about my 6-week email audio course at jannamarlies.com/cnf101course.
In this episode I talk with Stephen Gutierrez, one of Under the Gum Tree's previous contributors. Stephen has published three books of stories and essays. Live from Fresno y Los won an American Book Award, and The Mexican Man in His Backyard is his most recent. He has published widely in magazines and anthologies, including nonfiction in Fourth Genre, River Teeth, Under the Sun, Alaska Quarterly Review, Third Coast, ZYZZYVA and Cleaver Magazine. He is working on a collection of essays and hybrid nonfiction. He teaches at California State University East Bay. His essay "Spiritual Direction" appears in the October 2016 issue of Under the Gum Tree.
In this episode we talk about:
- Writing both fiction and nonfiction, and discovering a new voice in nonfiction
- Taking a stand for writing a positive tribute of a family member
- What we learn about ourselves and others close to use when we write about family
- How writing can help us learn sympathy for others by being willing to challenge our own beliefs
- Stephen's three-volume box set: Elements, Live from Fresno y Los, The Mexican Man in his Backyard
- Visit Stephen online at stephendgutierrez.com
Visit us online at moretothestorypodcast.com and visit Under the Gum Tree at underthegumtree.com.
Follow Under the Gum Tree Twitter and Instagram [@undergumtree][4]. Follow me on Twitter [@justjanna][5] and [@jannamarlies][6] on Instagram.
Find out about my 6-week email audio course at [jannamarlies.com/cnf101course][7].
In this episode I talk with author and Under the Gum Tree contributor Carol Marsh. Carol's essay, “Pictures in Leaves,” won the 2016 New Millennium Writings Nonfiction Prize. Her essay "Highest and Best" received an honorable mention in Under the Gum Tree's inaugural essay contest and appears in the January 2017 issue of the magazine. It is an excerpt from her memoir Nowhere Else I Want to Be. Additional excerpts of her book have appeared in Soundings Review , bioStories, and Jenny magazine.
In this episode we talk about:
- Processing grief and experience through writing creative nonfiction
- Why Carol started Miriam's House, a nonprofit shelter for women in Washington, D.C. living with aids
- How writing played a role in maintaining emotional and spiritual health during her time at Miriam's House
- The importance of self-care when having others to take care and creating physical and emotional boundaries
- Why structure is a bitch and how to create it a memoir with multiple storylines
- Carol's memoir Nowhere Else I Want to Be
- The online school for people in public service that Carol started, Forum for Growth in Service
- Visit Carol online at caroldmarsh.com
Visit us online at moretothestorypodcast.com and visit Under the Gum Tree at underthegumtree.com.
Follow Under the Gum Tree Twitter and Instagram [@undergumtree][4]. Follow me on Twitter [@justjanna][5] and [@jannamarlies][6] on Instagram.
Find out about my 6-week email audio course at [jannamarlies.com/cnf101course][7].
In this episode I talk with Ira Sukrungruang, one of Under the Gum Tree's previous contributors. Ira is the author of The Melting Season, Southside Buddhist, Talk Thai, and In Thailand It Is Night. He teaches in the MFA program at University of South Florida. His essay "The Animatronic Dog" appears in the April 2016 issue of Under the Gum Tree.
- The pen name that Ira used when he used to submit stories to the New Yorker as a teenager
- How Ira shifts between writing in all three genres of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction
- The difference between writing personal stories as nonfiction versus autobiographical fiction
- Exploring the meaning of the word "monster," where monsters come from and what we are really afraid of
- Crafting segmented essays, determining the sequence and what to include or leave out
- What to do with material that doesn't end up in an essay
- The role of being an editor and how it affects Ira's work as a writer
- The online literary magazine Sweet, where Ira is a founding editor
- Ira's new memoir Buddah's Dog, coming out in spring 2018
- Visit Ira online at buddistboy.com, follow him on Twitter at @sukrungruang
Visit us online at moretothestorypodcast.com and visit Under the Gum Tree at underthegumtree.com.
Follow Under the Gum Tree Twitter and Instagram [@undergumtree][4]. Follow me on Twitter [@justjanna][5] and [@jannamarlies][6] on Instagram.
Find out about my 6-week email audio course at [jannamarlies.com/cnf101course][7].
In this episode I talk with Matt Young, one of Under the Gum Tree's previous contributors. Matt is a marine veteran, writer, and teacher. He lives in Olympia, Washington where he teaches at Central College. He holds an MA in creative writing from Miami University. His work can be found in Yemassee, Word Riot, Tin House, River Teeth, and others. His essay "Equal and Opposite" appears in the July 2016 issue of Under the Gum Tree. His memoir Eat the Apple comes out in February 2018.
In this episode we talk about:
- How Matt came to writing after his military career
- Navigating the often conflicting identities of being both a war veteran and a writer
- Dealing with re-traumatization when writing memoir
- Different types of reactions Matt experiences to his military stories
- Matt's new memoir Eat the Apple, which will be published February 2018 and available for preorder now
- Visit Matt online at http://mattyoungauthor.com/ or on Twitter at @young_em_see
Visit us online at moretothestorypodcast.com and visit Under the Gum Tree at underthegumtree.com.
Follow Under the Gum Tree Twitter and Instagram @undergumtree. Follow me on Twitter @justjanna and @jannamarlies on Instagram.
Find out about my 6-week email audio course at jannamarlies.com/cnf101course.
Welcome to episode seven of More to the Story, a podcast all about telling true stories and sharing them with the world!
In this episode, I talk with previous Under the Gum Tree contributor, Penny Guisinger. Penny Guisinger lives and writes on the easternmost tip of Maine. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Fourth Genre, River Teeth, Guernica, the Brevity blog, Solstice, Under the Gum Tree, and others. Her first book, Postcards from Here, was recently released by Vine Leaves Press. Her second book, Shift, is in progress. Penny is the founding director of Iota: Short Prose Conference and a graduate of the Stonecoast MFA Program. She lives with two dogs, two kids, her wife, and a family of porcupines that trundle across the lawn like bulldozers.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Penny’s new book, Postcards from Here
- Writing short-short prose, and assembling a book
- Finding material to write about by paying attention
- Getting published, and finding the exact right home for your work
- Incriminating ourself one the page first, before anyone we right about
- The importance of creating and participating in literary community
- Iota: The Conference of Short Prose, annual writing conference Penny founded
- Visit Penny online at pennyguisinger.com, and on Twitter @pennyguisinger
Visit us online at moretothestorypodcast.com and visit Under the Gum Tree at underthegumtree.com.
Welcome to episode six of More to the Story, a podcast all about telling true stories and sharing them with the world!
In this episode, I talk with previous Under the Gum Tree contributor, Maddy Walsh. Maddy is the lead singer and primary songwriter for Ithaca, NY-based, nationally touring, seven-piece moxy rock band The Blind Spots. She received her Bachelor's degree in English and Creative Writing from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 2005 and received her Master’s degree in the same field from California State University Sacramento in 2007. Her thesis was a manuscript of poetry, the form that most heavily influences her songwriting. Maddy’s essay “Placer County Jail” appears in the October 2012 issue of Under the Gum Tree and was listed as a notable in The Best American Essays 2013. Learn more about her current work, visit www.theblindspots.com and maddmoxy.blogspot.com.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Discovering cohesive of a life story without spewing unnecessary details
- Writing and sharing about a shame-inducing experience
- Turing an unpleasant experience into a piece of art
- The benefits of sharing stories instead of not talking about unpleasant experiences
- Maddy's song writing and her band, The Blind Spots
- Visit Maddy online at www.theblindspots.com and maddmoxy.blogspot.com
Visit us online at moretothestorypodcast.com and visit Under the Gum Tree at underthegumtree.com.
Welcome to episode five of More to the Story, a podcast all about telling true stories and sharing them with the world!
In this episode I talk with former Under the Gum Tree contributor, Timothy Kenny. Tim is a former USA Today foreign editor, a non profit foundation executive, a Fulbright scholar, and associate professor of journalism at the university of Connecticut. In addition to USA today, his reporting and op-ed piece shave appears in the Toronto Star, The Los Angeles Time, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Chicago Tribune, among many others. His narrative nonfiction has appeared in several literary magazines including the Kenyon Review Online, the Louisville Review, the Gettysburg Review, and of course Under the Gum Tree. His piece “Turning 66 and 6 in Umbria,” appears in the January 2013 issue of Under the Gum Tree. Tim’s first book is a collection of creative nonfiction entitled Far Country: Stories from Abroad and Other Places, and it was just published in May 2015. Before we get to the interview, here is Tim reading an excerpt from his new book.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Tim’s writing background and what draws him to creative nonfiction
- Why Tim prefers creative nonfiction to journalism
- Writing about how our sense of place affects who we are
- Process of compiling a book manuscript of essays
- Tim’s book Far Country: Stories from Abroad and Other Places on Amazon
Visit us online at moretothestorypodcast.com and visit Under the Gum Tree at underthegumtree.com.
Welcome to episode four of More to the Story, a podcast all about telling true stories and sharing them with the world!
In this episode I talk with former Under the Gum Tree contributor, Samuel Autman. Samuel is a member of DePauw University's writing faculty in Greencastle, Indiana where he specializes in the personal essay. "Invisible Nails" won first place in the SLS-DISQUIET 2015 Literary Contest in the nonfiction category. His work has appeared in The Chalk Circle: Prizewinning Intercultural Essays, Black Gay Genius: Answering Joseph Beam's Call, Ninth Letter, The Common Reader, Under the Gum Tree, Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction, I'm Black and I Travel, The Huffington Post and The Good Men Project. His essay “The Tongues of Angels” appears in issue seven of Under the Gum Tree, published in April 2013.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Samuel’s writing background and what draws him to creative nonfiction
- The difference between journalism and narrative nonfiction
- How journalism informs writing creative nonfiction
- What caused Samuel to begin writing about his family and growing up in Arkansas
- Determining the difference between what belongs to the writer and the page, and what belongs to the writer and his or her personal relationships
- Internal conflict with personal stories and learning how to grow into boldness
- Visit Samuel online at samuelautman.com, and @samuelautman on Instagram and Twitter
Visit us online at moretothestorypodcast.com and visit Under the Gum Tree at underthegumtree.com.
Welcome to episode three of More to the Story, a podcast all about telling true stories and sharing them with the world!
In this episode I talk with former Under the Gum Tree contributor, Kate Washington. Kate is a writer based in Sacramento, California. Her work has appeared in such publications as The Washington Post, Yoga Journal, Sunset and the Bellingham Review, and she is a contributing writer at Sactown magazine. She is a co-founder of Roan Press, a small nonprofit literary press. Kate’s essay “Promises Like Piecrust” appears in the October 2014 issue of Under the Gum Tree, and it was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Kate’s writing background and what draws her to creative nonfiction
- The impetus for “Promises Like Piecrust”
- Precise language and descriptions when writing about food
- Christina Rosetti’s poem “Promises Like Piecrust,” and pies during the Victoria Age
- Promises, what they mean, and what happens when we inevitably break them
- Living with a mother who has bipolar disorder
- Visit Kate online at kawashington.com or on twitter @washingtonkate.
Visit us online at moretothestorypodcast.com and visit Under the Gum Tree at underthegumtree.com.
Welcome to episode two of More to the Story, a podcast all about telling true stories and sharing them with the world!
Today I talk with previous Under the Gum Tree contributor Laurie Easter. Laurie writes from her home in Southern Oregon where she lives in a funky little cabin off the grid and on the edge of wilderness. She holds an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and has been awarded a fellowship to the Vermont Studio Center. Her work has appeared in Hippocampus Magazine, Connotation Press: An Online Artifact, and Oregon English Journal. She is working on an essay collection about loss and grief. Her essay, “Something to do With Baldness,” appears in the January 2014 issue of Under the Gum Tree, and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Laurie’s writing background and what draws her to creative nonfiction
- The impetus for writing “Something to do With Baldness”
- Writing about grief
- Laurie’s experience shaving her head
- Femininity and the perception of beauty
- The sometimes challenging dynamic of female friendships
- Visit Laurie online at laurieeaster.com
Visit us online at moretothestorypodcast.com and visit Under the Gum Tree at underthegumtree.com.
Welcome to episode one of More to the Story, a podcast all about telling true stories and sharing them with the world!
In this episode I interview previous Under the Gum Tree contributor, Katy Sargent. Katy is a recent graduate from the Stonecoast MFA program. She is a freelance, nonfiction writer who dabbles in screenwriting. She lives in South Portland, Maine with her husband, two daughters and three chickens. Her story, “Long Play,” was published in the April 2014 issue of Under the Gum Tree, and she is one of four writers we published that year who were nominated for the Pushcart Prize, which is one of the most coveted literary awards.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Katy’s writing background and what draws her to writing creative nonfiction
- Jo Ann Beard The Boys of My Youth and In Zanesville
- The origin of her story “Long Play”
- How connection to objects shapes our memories
- Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life, Steve Martin’s memoir
- Visit Katy online at enter link description herekatherinesargent.com
Visit us online at moretothestorypodcast.com. Visit Under the Gum Tree at underthegumtree.com.
Welcome to the pilot episode of More to the Story, a podcast all about telling true stories and sharing them with the world!
In this first episode, I talk about:
- What to expect from this first season of More to the Story
- What it means to tell stories without shame
- Where the name Under the Gum Tree comes from
- My story “The Gum Tree”
- Sign up for Under the Gum Tree email list and get a free digital copy of the Premiere issue!
- Find more information about the magazine at UndertheGumTree.com
Visit us online at moretothestorypodcast.com.