Craftwork

Miriam Richer, Mike Thorn

5.0 (5)
Books
Updated Monthly

Co-hosted by Mike Thorn and Miriam Richer. Discussions between writers about all things related to craft, process, and technique.

2d ago

Shakespearean Themes, Wang WPS Mishaps, & Stephen King's Revisions w/ Caroline Bicks

In this interview, we chat with Caroline Bicks about combatting AI in the classroom, words clanging on readers' ears, the uniquely portable magic of fiction, and so much more. Caroline Bicks is the author of several academic books, including Cognition and Girlhood in Shakespeare’s World and Midwiving Subjects in Shakespeare’s England. After she was named the University of Maine’s inaugural Stephen E. King Chair in Literature, she became the first scholar to be granted extended access by Stephen King to his private archive. In her most recent book, Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King, Bicks documents her exploration of King’s early drafts and hand-written revisions, and her conversations with King about those changes. Her popular writing has appeared in the Modern Love column of the New York Times and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. She is the co-host of the Everyday Shakespeare podcast. Books, plays, stories, and poems mentioned in this episode: The Wizard of Oz — L. Frank Baum I Know a Place: Rest Stop and Other Dark Detours — Nat Cassidy "Cherrylog Road" — James Dickey "The Boogeyman"; Carrie; Cell; "Children of the Corn"; Christine; Cujo; Danse Macabre; "The Dark Man"; The Dead Zone; Insomnia; It; "Jerusalem's Lot"; Lisey's Story; The Long Walk; Misery; Night Shift; "Night Surf"; On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft; Pet Sematary; Rage; 'Salem's Lot; The Shining; The Stand; "Strawberry Spring" — Stephen King Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life — Anne Lamott Edward II — Christopher Marlowe North Woods — Daniel Mason A Swim in the Pond in the Rain — George Saunders Hamlet; Henry IV, Part I; Henry IV; Part II; Henry V; Henry VI, Part I; Henry VI, Part II; Henry VI, Part III; Macbeth; Richard II; Richard III; Romeo and Juliet — William Shakespeare Charlotte's Web — E. B. White Our Town — Thornton Wilder How Fiction Works — James Wood

1h 27m
May 17

Ghostwriting, Cold War Propaganda, & Coming Back from a Five-Week Coma w/ Luke Francis Beirne

In this interview, we chat with Luke Francis Beirne about literature versus entertainment, Atlantic Canadian textures, a literary marriage proposal, and so much more. Luke Francis Beirne was born in Ireland in 1995 and now lives on Wolastoqey land in Saint John, New Brunswick. Beirne has published three novels with Baraka Books, Foxhunt, Blacklion and Saints Rest. His stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in outlets such as Counterpunch, NB Media Co-op, Hamilton Arts & Letters, Honest Ulsterman, and CrimeReads. Books mentioned in this episode: Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King — Caroline Bicks The Last Thing He Wanted — Joan Didion The Quiet American — Graham Greene The Maltese Falcon — Dashiell Hammett The Outsiders — S. E. Hinton The Bamboo Blonde; In a Lonely Place — Dorothy B. Hughes Hatchet — Gary Paulsen How Fiction Works — James Wood

55 min
Apr 8

Gut Feelings, Sonic Recursion, & Raspberry Cordial w/ Cassidy McFadzean

In this interview, we chat with Cassidy McFadzean about skewing prepositions, trusting the reader, opting for vibes over plot, and so much more. Cassidy McFadzean is the author of three books of poetry, most recently Crying Dress (House of Anansi, 2024). Her fiction has appeared in Joyland, The Walrus, Hazlitt, and Dead Writers (Invisible Publishing, 2025). Cassidy was born in Regina, earned an MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, an MFA in fiction from Brooklyn College, and now lives in Toronto. She was the 2024-2025 Writer-in-Residence at Sheridan College, and is the 2025-2026 Poet-in-Residence at Arc Poetry Magazine. Books mentioned in this episode: The Weak Spot — Lucie Elven Bird by Bird — Anne Lamott Slows: Twice — T. Liem Anne of Green Gables; Chronicles of Avonlea; Emily of New Moon; The Story Girl — Lucy Maud Montgomery Fever Dream — Samanta Schweblin Rock Crystal — Adalbert Stifter The Ice Palace — Tarjei Vesaas

1h 5m
Mar 17

Earthy Language, Scary Cupids, & Lunar Portrayals w/ Michael Wehunt

In this interview, we chat with Michael Wehunt about the administrative side of professional writing, the unanticipated weirdness of public selfhood, the "moment before the moment", and so much more. Michael Wehunt has been a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award, multiple Shirley Jackson Awards, and the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts' Crawford Award. In Spain, his translated works have garnered nominations for the Premio Ignotus and Premio Amaltea, winning the latter. He haunts the woods of Decatur, Georgia, with his partner and their dog. Together, they hold the horrors at bay. Most recently, he is the author of the novels The October Film Haunt and Nightjars. Books and poems mentioned in this episode: Ancient Images; The Grin of the Dark; Incarnate — Ramsey Campbell Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture — Douglas Coupland Poems 1962-2020 — Louise Glück Carrie — Stephen King Beings — Ilana Masad The God of the Woods; Long Bright River — Liz Moore Ghost Wall; Ripeness — Sarah Moss The Violent Bear it Away — Flannery O'Connor "Archaic Torso of Apollo" — Rainer Maria RilkeCoffin Moon — Keith Rosson

1h 31m
Feb 23

Indie Publishing, Intentional Ambiguity, & the Tyranny of Structure w/ Daniel Braum

In this interview, we chat with Daniel Braum about exploring the ecology of the supernatural, finding inspiration in liminal spaces, cultivating a sense of awe, and so much more. Daniel Braum writes short stories that explore the tension between the psychological and the supernatural. He intentionally adopts the term “strange tales” for his “Twilight Zone-like stories in homage to author Robert Aickman and the intentional ambiguities of his work. His latest collection is Phantom Constellations: Strange Tales and Ghost Stories from Cemetery Dance Publications (2025). His stories appear in places ranging from The Best Horror of the Year Volume 12, edited by Ellen Datlow, and Shivers 8, edited by Richard Chizmar. Books and stories mentioned in this episode: Cold Hand in Mine — Robert Aickman The Artist's Way — Julia Cameron Ancient Images; The Hungry Moon — Ramsey Campbell "Plunged in the Years" — Jeffrey Ford "Children of the Corn" — Stephen King The Ceremonies — T. E. D. Klein Beginnings, Middles & Ends — Nancy Kress Dreams of Dark and Light — Tanith Lee Rosemary's Baby; The Stepford Wives — Ira Levin Story — Robert McKee Conjunctions 83: The Ghost Issue — Joyce Carol Oates and Bradford Morrow, eds.The Jaguar Hunter — Lucius Shepard Shadowland — Peter Straub Conjunctions 39: The New Wave Fabulists — Peter Straub, ed.Harvest Home — Thomas Tryon The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers — Chris Vogler

55 min
Jan 19

Sculpture, Anaphora, & Writing by Hourglass w/ Hajer Mirwali

In this interview, we chat with Hajer Mirwali about cross-disciplinary work, embodied writing, poetic mad libs, and so much more. Hajer Mirwali is a Palestinian and Iraqi writer living in Toronto. Her first book, Revolutions (Talonbooks, 2025), is a collection of poetry on shame, pleasure, and Arab Muslim girlhood. Two poems from the collection also appear in an anthology of Palestinian poetry called Heaven Looks Like Us (Haymarket Books, 2025). Hajer’s work has been published in The Ex-Puritan, Brick Magazine, Room Magazine, and Joyland. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph, and a BA in Creative Writing from York University. Books mentioned in this episode: Trust Exercise — Susan Choi The Butterfly's Burden — Mahmoud Darwish Junie B. Jones series — Barbara Park Who by Fire; Who by Water — Greg Rhyno Harry Potter series — J. K. Rowling

1h 5m
2025-11-24

Braided Essays, Collective Solitude, & the Objective Correlative w/ Kasia Van Schaik

In this interview, we chat with Kasia Van Schaik about reverse outlining, asking "what if", sublimating emotion through landscape, and so much more. Kasia Van Schaik is the author of the Giller Prize-nominated story collection We Have Never Lived on Earth and the forthcoming book of memoir and cultural criticism, Women Among Monuments. With Myra Bloom, she is the co-editor of the essay collection, Shelter in Text: Essays on Dwelling and Refuge. Kasia’s writing has appeared in Electric Literature, the LA Review of Books, Room, The Rumpus, the Best Canadian Poetry, and the CBC. Kasia holds a PhD in literature from McGill University and is assistant professor of English and co-director of Creative Writing at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, Wolastoqiyik territory. Books mentioned in this episode: Wuthering Heights — Emily Brontë The Secret Garden — Frances Hodgson Burnett Autobiography of Red — Anne Carson Boyhood; Youth; Summertime — J. M. Coetzee Outline; Transit; Kudos — Rachel Cusk The Days of Abandonment; the Neapolitan Quartet — Elena Ferrante "The Robber Bridegroom" — Brothers Grimm Sweet Days of Discipline — Fleur Jaeggy Lucy — Jamaica Kincaid Her Body and Other Parties — Carmen Maria Machado Housekeeping — Marilynne Robinson Rings of Saturn — W. G. Sebald Flights — Olga Tokarczuk

1h 7m
2025-11-03

Building Communities, Finding Guardrails, & Reading the Comments Section w/ Jean Marc Ah-Sen

In this interview, we chat with Jean Marc Ah-Sen about comic books, literary scenes, flipping the script on what a book can be, and so much more. Jean Marc Ah-Sen is the author of Grand Menteur, In the Beggarly Style of Imitation, and Kilworthy Tanner. His writing has appeared in McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, Literary Hub, Catapult, The Comics Journal, Maclean's, The Walrus, and elsewhere. Books mentioned in this episode: The Fall – Albert Camus I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp – Richard Hell The Talented Mr. Ripley – Patricia Highsmith Intimacy – Hanif Kureishi Biography of X – Catherine Lacey Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle – Vladimir Nabokov Anti-Woo: The Lifeman's Improved Primer for Non-Lovers; The Theory and Practice of Gamesmanship: Or the Art of Winning Games Without Actually Cheating – Stephen Potter Lobotomy: Surviving the Ramones – Dee Dee Ramone Endling – Maria Reva The Dying Animal – Philip Roth Striptease – Georges Simenon The Handyman Method – Andrew Sullivan Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy The Island of Doctor Moreau; The Time Machine – H. G. Wells

57 min

Trailer

Trailer

Welcome to Craftwork: a podcast by writers for writers co-hosted by Mike Thorn and Miriam Richer. We created Craftwork to address questions that frequently come up in our own writing practices. Questions such as: What makes for a compelling read? Do you believe in writer’s block? What’s a piece of writing advice that really stuck with you? In the following weeks, we’ll bring on guests and delve into topics including creative influence, thematic fixations, and the mechanics of writing across all narrative genres. We hope these conversations will benefit writers and people interested in writing. We’ll be releasing a new episode every month or so. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter, and subscribe to us here on Spotify. Thanks for listening! Music by Randy Nikkel Schroeder

2024-05-15

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1 min

5

out of 5

5 Ratings

Excellent Podcast

2024-06-17

Rob Bose

A great dive into the interviewed author’s minds and craft.

Co-hosted by Mike Thorn and Miriam Richer. Discussions between writers about all things related to craft, process, and technique.

Creator

Miriam Richer, Mike Thorn
Years Active

2024 - 2026
Episodes

32
Rating

Explicit
Copyright

© Miriam Richer, Mike Thorn
Show Website

Craftwork