The Inner Loop Radio: A Creative Writing Podcast

Chet'la Sebree, author of "Field Study" and "Mistress," discusses how to feel inspired when the world unfolds in surprising or disappointing ways. She speaks of her students at George Washington University, and how she's focused on reminding them that art matters especially in a time of tumult. To keep creating, she makes room for free writing, processing, and most of all, community. Her prompt asks you to see a different community through the lens of "we."

Of the many paths to publication, small press contests hold some fascinating opportunities. Co-hosts Rachel Coonce and Abi Newhouse talk with November Author’s Corner spotlight Luke Sutherland about his memoir winning the 2023 OutWrite Chapbook Competition. They discuss unexpected opportunities small press contests present, how they differ from traditional publishing, and how to maintain your agency in deciding which contest best fits your work. Luke reads from his memoir, Distance Sequence, and then they all pitch a pretend contest with experimental manuscript ideas that break the traditional book mold.

Welcome to the Inner Loop Radio in our latest segment of Just Checking where we bring you our sub-series by Leeya Mehta: Writers with Pets in Solariums. In this fifth and last edition for the year, Leeya Mehta talks with her friend, non-fiction writer Rashmi Sadana. We are calling this episode: Maybe We Can All be a Little Like Luna: a Conversation with Rashmi Sadana. Dr. Rashmi Sadana is an urban ethnographer and Berkeley-trained cultural anthropologist who has been writing about the city of Delhi for the last twenty years. Her most recent book is called “The Moving City” and tells the story of Delhi’s new subway system from the perspective of the people who ride it. It’s a story about the radical possibilities and concretized inequalities of the city. It’s also the author’s love letter to the city. Rashmi teaches at George Mason University and is otherwise at the beck and call of a gray tabby called Luna. References to Books: Rashmi Sadana, “The Moving City” Rashmi Sadana, “English Heart, Hindi Heartland: The Political Life of Literature in India” Dinaw Mengetsu, “SOMEONE LIKE US” Yahica Dutt, “Coming Out as Dalit: A Memoir” Isabel Wilkerson, “Caste” BR Ambedkar, “The Annihilation of Caste”

Writers are nothing if not ambitious, but what does success really look like for a writer? Gwydion Suilebhan, cultural critic, essayist, playwright, and Executive Director of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, joins us to discuss the journey, the destination, and the aftermath of what some consider literary success, and he proposes a different way to achieve writerly fulfillment. Plus, writers like to think of themselves as different in kind from other professions, but how different are we? We play a little game called Who Said It? to find out.

Tyrese Coleman, author of "How to Sit," discusses ways to feel inspired, including going on walks, getting outside, and using if-then writing prompts to tap into your creativity. She's working on creating routine to keep up writing habits, echoing Toni Morrison's routine of getting up early in the haunted hours to write. When is best for you to write? Coleman challenges you to take the time to find out.

We've all ridden the rollercoaster of emotions as writers--the joy when you actually *like* your work, and the despair when you overthink all of it. Co-hosts Rachel Coonce and Abi Newhouse talk with October Author's Corner spotlight, Nick Gardner, about feeling proud, feeling terrified, and how tapping into our childlike selves can actually help us breakthrough emotional turmoil. Nick reads us a part of his new book, Delinquents and Other Escape Attempts, which gave him particular grief while writing, and then they all play a game where they determine whether a piece of writing was written by a novice writer or a prestige one.

In this Just Checking In sub-series, Writers with Pets in Solariums, Leeya Mehta chats with Amanda Newell about balancing writing with life, her latest collection: Postmortem Say, and what horses have to teach us about life. Amanda Newell lives on a farm in southern Maryland with a cat named Kit Kat and two horses, Eko and Ed. She's close enough to the Chesapeake to hear the waves breaking against the shore. She grew up riding and showing horses and still finds mucking stalls therapeutic. She also loves the other animals on the farm, including the foxes and deer, who sometimes dine together. Newell is the author of Postmortem Say, published in 2024 by Cervena Barva Press. Her chapbook, I Will Pass Even to Acheron, was a 2021 winner of the Rattle Chapbook Prize. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Barrow Street, Bellevue Literary Review, Cimarron Review, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of fellowships and/or scholarships from Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, The Frost Place, and The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. A graduate of the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers, Amanda is currently an associate editor for the contemporary poetry journal Plume. She is currently working on a hybrid memoir about reconstructing her identity in the aftermath of the suicide of her ex-husband, a former prosecutor and judge. Her website is: www.amandanewellpoet.com

Okezie Nwoka, author of “God of Mercy,” discusses the difference between love and care, and how self love plays a role in creating art. Nwoka takes us through a writing prompt that invokes the wisdom of aphorisms—short expressions that, here, will capture ideas of loving oneself and others. He talks about writing strategies and routines, and how he surrenders himself to the moment of free expression.

Most writers have experienced feedback from a writer's workshop, a writing group, or from friends and family, and we're told it's a necessary part of writing. But what's the key to figuring out what level of feedback works for you? What qualifies as a "good" workshop? And most of all, what type of feedback will help us actually keep writing? Plus, you can help decide whether the feedback Courtney, Rachel, Dan, and David give each other in realtime is actually beneficial.

Today, TIL board member Leeya Mehta focuses on writing a personal essay, inspired by reading James Baldwin’s essay "The New Lost Generation." She talks about the way she is approaching this essay, which she’s calling “The Day After: Searching for Language for Another Lost Generation.” Leeya suggests exploring the politics of language as an essay prompt, and asks what you notice about language, and how it is being used in popular culture. How you would like to question that language and soften it? You may disagree, and think language is too soft, that we need to turn up the volume. In her attempt at this essay, she’s reflecting on the topic she has set herself. She asks, what does “the day after” look like?

The heaviness of summer can bring up those heavy feelings of nostalgia, but when is it time to stop musing and put those feelings on the page? First released in August 2019, J.M. Tyree, author, film critic, and nonfiction editor of the New England Review, joins Rachel and Courtney to discuss just that, as well as how we weave the past and the present into a narrative. Rachel and Courtney delve into their own pasts, Samantha de Trinidad, Stephanie Bento, and LaCole Foots get nostalgic, and Amy Woolard, Paul Fauteux, Whitney Pipkin, Matthew Moniz, and Max Meltzer help us feel that summer rain.

The Inner Loop board member Leeya Mehta catches up with author Linda Chavez for her new sub-series of Just Checking In: Writers with Pets in Solariums. The pair discuss Linda's parrot, her writing project involving a surprising discovery in her past, and some mischievous pet stories. Linda Chavez is the chairman of the Center for Equal Opportunity in Falls Church, VA. She served as director of public liaison in the Reagan White House and as staff director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. She served on the Sub-commission on Human Rights of the U.N. Human Rights Commission from 1992-1996. She is the author of three books, including the memoir An Unlikely Conservative, and numerous articles on public policy, which have appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and Los Angeles Times, among others. Chavez wrote a weekly syndicated column on politics and public policy from 1987-2017. She earned a B.A. from the University of Colorado in 1970 and an M.F.A. from George Mason University in 2012. Her short stories have appeared in Commentary magazine, Red Rock Review and Persimmon Tree. Her forthcoming novel, Guiomar’s Secret is the story of a young woman in 16 th Century Spain who discovers her family are Converso Jews living in the shadow of the Inquisition.

Is all writing inherently political? Co-hosts Rachel Coonce and Abi Newhouse talk with August Author's Corner spotlight Paul Jaskunas about balancing political topics in writing with their own political opinions, feeling trepidation about addressing hot button topics, and some examples of heavy-handed and subtle books involving political topics. Plus, they put their high school government and college rhetoric knowledge to the test in a game where they determine whether a political headline is fact or fiction.

Real-world cultures come up all the time in any genre of writing, but it can be difficult to world-build with something so nuanced. Host Abi Newhouse speaks with The Inner Loop's July Author's Corner spotlight, Diana Rojas, about creating stories from our own cultures. They cover how time affects culture, how to use specific cultural details to world-build, and they try to untangle ideas about working around cultural generalizations. Plus, they bring a few cultural misconceptions to the table--Abi with Mormonism, and Diana with first-generation Latinos--and discuss how to use those misconceptions to their advantage in their writing. You can buy Diana's book here: https://bookshop.org/a/101989/9781558859944

Abi catches up with freelance journalist and writer for the 730DC newsletter, Serena Zets. They discuss the DC journalism scene, stories Serena's been working on lately, and how writing creative nonfiction can be a great starting point for journalistic stories.

Andrew Bertaina, author of “One Person Away From You” and the new essay collection “The Body is a Temporary Gathering Place,” suggests inspiration comes from reading. Andrew takes us through a writing prompt that leads him to fictionalize a meeting with his late grandfather in the afterlife. Try negotiating the speculative realm in your own writing, and if you’re stuck, you know what to do: pick up a book and find a line that reminds you why you started writing in the first place.

Finding the right point of view can make or break a story, and in nonfiction, the line of experimentation can be blurry. Hosts Abi Newhouse and Courtney Sexton speak with The Inner Loop’s June Author’s Corner spotlight, Danielle Ariano, about innovative points of view in memoir. They cover the empathy, challenges, and breakthroughs a new point of view can inspire, and Danielle reads from her new memoir, The Requirement of Grief. Plus, they all write a memory from someone else’s point of view, and the outcome is full of unexpected nuance. You can buy Danielle's book here: https://bookshop.org/a/101989/9798891320840

With the sudden shutdown of Small Press Distribution, let’s dig into the value of independent presses and how their downturn might affect us as both writers and readers. Michael B. Tager, Managing Editor of Mason Jar Press and author of Pop Culture Poetry: The Definitive Edition from Akinoga Press, talks about independent presses from both sides of the publishing experience. Plus, we play a little game called indie press or indie rock band... can you tell the difference?

The Inner Loop board member Leeya Mehta catches up with “Carousel Court” author Joe McGinniss for her new sub-series of Just Checking In: Writers in Solariums with Pets. The pair check in with the dogs and another secret pet (!), talk about the difference between the creative process of fiction and nonfiction, and discuss how writing nonfiction can offer a specific sort of peace. Joe says that “the reality is there is no reality,” especially in the thrilling, immersive, and terrifying experience of writing.

We talk about major writing tenets like plot, character, and setting all the time in fiction and nonfiction, but how do these ideas come up in poetry? Hosts Abi Newhouse and Aeriel Merillat speak with The Inner Loop's May Author's Corner spotlight, Amanda Shaw, about rooting the readers inside a poem, crafting a story's arc through a poetry collection, and the many levels of time throughout it all. Plus, try your hand at our trivia game, in which we guess which story matches each specific setting. You can buy Amanda's book here: https://bookshop.org/a/101989/9781957755359