Nick Davidson, @nickgdavidson on IG, says, "We usually think of hunting stories and looking for ideas, but I feel like it's the other way around: stories hunt the storyteller, and I'm just prey."

Nick's latest piece is for The Atavist Magazine titled "The Balloon That Fell From the Sky."

His work has appeared in Outside, VICE Sports, Garden & Gun, and a million other places of note.

Podcast Specific Substack at creativenonfictionpodcast.substrack.com.

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Show notes: brendanomeara.com

Megan Marshall is the author of After Lives: On Biography and the Mysteries of the Human Heart (Mariner Books), a new collection of essays. Megan won the Pulitzer Prize in 2014 for Margaret Fuller: A New American Life.

Podcast Specific Substack at creativenonfictionpodcast.substrack.com.

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“I could suddenly see — and this is how I know when I'm supposed to start writing — is that words start putting themselves together in my head, and I just have to get them out, right? Which doesn't happen all the time, but it did for this," says Cassidy Randall, author of Thirty Below: The Harrowing and Heroic Story of the First All Women's Ascent of Denali (Abrams Books).

Cassidy's work has appeared in National Geographic, the New York Times, Outside Magazine, The Atavist, and many, many others.

In this episode we talk about:

• The beginning and ending
• Sticky notes
• The post-book funk
• Interviewing
• And so much more

Podcast Specific Substack

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Show notes: brendanomeara.com

Support: Patreon.com/cnfpod

"And then this person said, 'Hey, you know, this needs to be, like, more weird or less weird, but it's in this kind of odd place that isn't working.' And I was like, she's so, right," says Jaydra Johnson, @jaydranicole, and author of Low: Notes on Art & Trash (Fonograf).

Lots of good stuff in this episode. We talk about:

• Luck
• Growing up poor
• Dialing up the weirdness
• And binge-buying books on eBay

Podcast Specific Substack

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Show notes: brendanomeara.com

Support: Patreon.com/cnfpod

"What I was fortunate enough to get exposed to very early in my career, and I really believe is now the way to go, which is the nature of editing as thinking," says Poynter Institute president Neil Brown.

Neil has spent more than forty years as a reporter and editor, and he just wrapped up his tenure on the Pulitzer Prize Board. He's one of the more nimble minds in journalism and a champion of the editor/writer dynamic.

In this conversation, Neil riffs on

• Editing as thinking
• The late writing coach Don Murray
• How the front end is everything
• Respecting reader detection
• And Interviewing as a skill, among lots more great stuff.

Podcast Specific Substack

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Show notes: brendanomeara.com

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Neko Case is best known for her career as a musical performing artist and as a founding member of The New Pornographers, but her debut memoir The Harder I Fight the More I Love You (Grand Central) is all the evidence we need to see that she's got the chops for narrative.

Podcast Specific Substack

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Promotional Sponsor: The Power of Narrative Conference. Use CNF15 at checkout for a 15% discount.

Newsletter: Rage Against the Algorithm

Show notes: brendanomeara.com

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Will McGrath often thinks he's a phony, a fake writer, a fake journalist. But he isn't. He's very much real, and his piece for The Believer, "American Boys," chronicles the season and the lives of a group of young basketball players. It harkens back to Darcy Frey's brilliant book The Last Shot.

Podcast Specific Substack: https://substack.com/@creativenonfictionpodcast

Pre-order The Front Runner

Promotional Sponsor: The Power of Narrative Conference. Use CNF15 at checkout for a 15% discount.

Newsletter: Rage Against the Algorithm

Show notes: brendanomeara.com

Support: Patreon.com/cnfpod

Allegra Rosenberg became obsessed with polar exploration narratives during the pandemic. She soon came across the journals of Harry Pennell and learned of his love for Edward Atkinson. Set amongst the backdrop of the South Pole and the looming possibility of WWI, Allegra weaves a brilliant and tragic story.

Pre-order The Front Runner

Promotional Sponsor: The Power of Narrative Conference. Use CNF15 at checkout for a 15% discount.

Newsletter: Rage Against the Algorithm

Show notes: brendanomeara.com

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