This week’s episode is an exploration and celebration of the short form with one of its masters, Pam Houston. Whether you write essays, short stories, interlocking essays, memoirs-in-essay, or short polemics, there’s much to discover in this conversation about structure, finding the “glimmers,” as Pam calls them, and the layers of meaning-making in the short form. We also invite you to be your own cowboy on the writing journey and to enjoy this excursion “deep into the pasture” with Pam.

In this week’s episode, Matt la Peña shares how explores how he went from being a non-reader as a kid to becoming a writer and author as an adult, which involved falling in love with Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street. Brooke and Grant talk with Matt about #ownvoices, the power of YA to effect meaningful change in readers’ lives, and the experience of being a working-class writer.

In this honest and heartfelt episode about the power of writing a reckoning (rather than a tell-all), guest Kiese Laymon shares why he wrote his latest memoir, Heavy, as a letter to his mother, how writing the book came at a cost, and what having “arrived” as a writer both changes and doesn’t change his trajectory as a writer. This is a show about reinventing forms, writing the book you need to write as a soul-cleansing, and the layered meanings that reside in all of our stories.

This week’s episode is a celebration of persistence, with author Nancy Davis Kho sharing her long journey to publication, how she grew and cultivated her author platform, and her process of writing and shopping work along the way. This episode is for all the authors out there who are feeling the slog toward publication. It’s hard work, but the payoff is worth it. We hope this week’s show and theme will support you to honor and celebrate your own persistence. Write on!

To write with dispassion, without judgment, or with distance is something many writers struggle with. In this week’s episode, Jeannette Walls, author of the best-selling memoir, The Glass Castle, shares how she was able to detach herself from judgment and tell a true story of her outrageous upbringing. In this intimate interview, Jeannette’s humility and humanity shine through—and we witness the resilient and generous spirit of that little girl in The Glass Castle who grew up to create a life on her own terms.

Popular author, blogger, and podcaster Joanna Penn joins Grant and Brooke to discuss some of her tips and best practices for staying productive and juggling multiple projects at once. To truly succeed as an authorprenuer takes a lot of discipline, and having more than a few plates spinning at once. With a good dose of her signature good humor and humility, Joanna shares how she gets it all done.

This week’s guest wrestled with her memoir for forty years, and wrote it in two. In this generous interview, Adrienne Brodeur shares about the many variations this book took over the years, about finding her north star in Vivian Gornick’s words, “For the drama to deepen, we must see the loneliness of the monster and the cunning of the innocent,” and how, by following this advice, her mother became more nuanced and sympathetic. This is an honest and heartfelt conversation about the power of truth and the emotional complexity of coming clean on the page.

This week’s show asks writers to think about what sustains them, to consider whether they’re steady and whether they stay the course when it comes to their writing. Our guest, Meg Wolitzer, is one such steady writer, a “schleper” (which we’re defining as a very positive quality when it comes to writing) and an author who’s admirable for her steadfastness. Join us today to listen in to what she has to say about writing, staying the course, and how she thinks about her own rising star.

This week’s episode is a journey into the world of book cover design with Creative Director of She Writes Press, Julie Metz. Brooke and Grant share some of their personal experiences with covers—what’s worked and what hasn’t—and Brooke shares some common places where (in her experience) authors get in their own way. Understanding book design will help any aspiring author breeze through this endeavor more easily, and getting a glimpse into the care and hard work that goes into creating covers is a point of interest for readers as well.