39 episodes
Good Writing Podcast Ben K & Emily D
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- Arts
Two friends, Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns, read their favorite sentences, paragraphs, and other short excerpts and present craft lessons and writing exercises for fellow writers.
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Dialog and Description in Suttree
Haha this was recorded like months ago. Please excuse the mess. More Good Writing coming on a reliably unreliable schedule.
Good Writing is a podcast where two MFA friends read like writers and lay out craft ideas for fellow writers to steal. Co-hosted by Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns.
Twitter: @goodwritingpod
Email: goodwritingpodcast@gmail.com -
Facts in Fiction in The Book of X
What are more tools we can use to further develop theme and the point-of-view character's worldview? In her novel The Book of X, Sarah Rose Etter regularly breaks the action with lists of facts.
Find the photo of Ben that reminded Emily of Edward Cullen in the Two Dollar Radio Tattoo Club
Don't Let Me Be Lonely by Claudia Rankine
Louie Zong's new album Rat Taxi
Good Writing is a podcast where two MFA friends read like writers and lay out craft ideas for fellow writers to steal. Co-hosted by Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns.
Twitter: @goodwritingpod
Email: goodwritingpodcast@gmail.com -
Fruiting Bodies and Being Mean to a Child
Point-of-view characters. You love them. You understand them. They still do mean things. How can you keep your reader empathizing with your point-of-view character even if they do something villainous?
Also: Ben (a philosophy major) and Emily (an outdoor enthusiast) interpret the climax pretty differently.
Read this short story before listening to the episode: "Algal Bloom" by Kathryn Harlan in Michigan Quarterly Review
Buy the whole collection Fruiting Bodies (Emily's short story collection of the year!) here
A poem that rocks: "Taking a Visitor to See the Ruins" by Paula Gunn Allen
Good Writing is a podcast where two MFA friends read like writers and lay out craft ideas for fellow writers to steal. Co-hosted by Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns.
Twitter: @goodwritingpod
Email: goodwritingpodcast@gmail.com -
How to Write Non-Chronologically in Enjoy Me Among My Ruins
Do you have to write about a topic in the chronological order that it happened in to understand it better? No, definitely not. In fact - maybe you shouldn't?
This episode, we discuss Enjoy Me Among My Ruins by Juniper Fitzgerald (2022). It's a memoir that uses 3 forms (diary entry, flash about an influential woman in her life, and essays) to explore sex work, academic theory, and how having a daughter changed her.
Order this book from The Feminist Press here
Good Writing is a podcast where two MFA friends read like writers and lay out craft ideas for fellow writers to steal. Co-hosted by Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns.
Twitter: @goodwritingpod
Email: goodwritingpodcast@gmail.com -
The Energy of Youth in Burn You the Fuck Alive
In this episode we consider what it takes to write young people in a way that feels both honest and honoring with a difficult piece of fiction by B.R. Yeager from his newest collection, Burn You the Fuck Alive.
Burn You the Fuck Alive by B.R. Yeager
Good Writing is a podcast where two MFA friends read like writers and lay out craft ideas for fellow writers to steal. Co-hosted by Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns.
Twitter: @goodwritingpod
Email: goodwritingpodcast@gmail.com -
Our Wives Under the Sea: How to Establish Themes When Your Point-of-View Character is Clueless
Carmen from Julia Armfield's debut novel Our Wives Under the Sea isn't necessary for the plot, but Emily got obsessed anyway (of course). In this episode, we discuss bringing side characters to life and using them to establish themes that your point-of-view character is too clueless to pick up on.
Other links:
B.R. Yeager (friend of the pod)'s new story collection Burn You the Fuck Alive
Here's a ContraPoints video about incels that we reference
Great news for the timing of this episode! Our Wives Under the Sea is now out in paperback
Good Writing is a podcast where two MFA friends read like writers and lay out craft ideas for fellow writers to steal. Co-hosted by Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns.
Twitter: @goodwritingpod
Email: goodwritingpodcast@gmail.com