Plume: A Writer's Podcast

We Plumed a Spell on You: Spooky Poems & Stories

Mon, 30 Oct 2023 09:00:00 -0600

Team Plume is reanimating, dusting off the last year, and sharing our first podcast in a while. In today’s episode, we bring you a ghosty story circle with writing that taps into the otherworldly… just in time for Halloween and the Samhain season!

Featuring writing from (in order of appearance):

Danielle Hanson – “Ghosts and Mirrors,” poetry
Melanie Unruh – “Altar Me,” poetry
Dawn Sperber – “Ghost Sisters,” story, with music by Hedia
Sarah Mina Osman – “The Djinn,” story excerpt, originally published in Lunaris, issue 17, 2023
Elsa Valmidiano – “Marmarna,” story, originally published in Mythos, Issue #7: Something Spooky, 2022
Lisa Chavéz – “The Customary Kiss,” story

Author Bios (in order of appearance):

Danielle Hanson strives to create and facilitate wonder. She is the author of Fraying Edge of Sky and Ambushing Water. Her poetry was the basis for a puppet show at the Center for Puppetry Arts. She is Marketing Director for Sundress Publications, and serves on their Editorial Board & as Managing Editor for their imprint Doubleback Books. Previously, she has been Artist-in-Residence at Arts Beacon, Writer-in-Residence for Georgia Writers, and Poetry Editor for Doubleback Books. She teaches poetry at UC Irvine. You can read more about her at daniellejhanson.com.

Melanie Unruh has an MFA in fiction from UNM. Her writing has appeared in The Meadow, The Boiler, New Ohio Review, Post Road, Philadelphia Stories, Cutthroat, and elsewhere. She’s working on a YA novel, a short story collection, and more weird poems about bones. https://melanieunruhwriter.wordpress.com/

Dawn Sperber is the author of two new books: a poetry collection, My Bones Are Love Gifts (Shanti Arts, 2022), and a flash fiction chapbook, Now, That’s a Trick (Finishing Line Press, 2022). Her work has appeared in PANK, Daily Science Fiction, Bourbon Penn, Hunger Mountain, and elsewhere. You can follow her at dawnsperber.com.
Music included in “Ghost Sisters” is by Hedia (Bryce Hample). https://hedia.bandcamp.com/

Sarah Mina Osman's work has appeared in the Lunaris Review, Punt Volat, The Huffington Post, and SheKnows among several other publications. She likes sloths and tacos. sarahminaosmanwrites.wordpress.com

Elsa Valmidiano, an Ilocana-American essayist and poet, is the author of We Are No Longer Babaylan, her award-winning debut essay collection from New Rivers Press, which was an Editors’ Choice selection from their Many Voices Project competition in Prose. Her second essay collection, The Beginning of Leaving, is from Querencia Press. Through the examination of folklore and ritual, she blends memoir and myth, & dreams and reality, where folkloric beings reflect our defiant ancestors and ourselves. For more information, please visit her website slicingtomatoes.com.

Lisa D. Chavéz has published two books of poetry, Destruction Bay and In An Angry Season, and her poems have also appeared in Camino del Sol: Fifteen Years of Latina and Latino Writing and other anthologies. Her essays have appeared in Arts and Letters, The Fourth Genre & other magazines, and she has had essays included in several anthologies, including The Other Latin@: Writing Against a Singular Identity and An Angle of Vision: Women Writers on their Poor and Working Class Roots.

Season 3, Episode 5: Revision as Spiritual Practice, A Conversation with Crystal (K.) Odelle

Tue, 06 Sep 2022 10:00:00 -0600

In this episode, Sam and Melanie talk with featured writer, Crystal (K.) Odelle, about flash prose, trans identity, the blurred lines between fiction and nonfiction, liminal spaces, chapbook publishing, RPG writing, and more!

Crystal (K.) Odelle (they/she) is a queer trans writer, chapbooks editor at Newfound, and author of the novel Goodnight. Their flash stories have appeared in Gertrude, Passages North, Peach Mag, [PANK], Hobart, ANMLY, and elsewhere. Crystal was a Tin House Scholar and has been nominated for Best of the Net, and they write RPGs at Feverdream Games.

Links

Crystal's website

Crystal's GoFundMe

Queer Phenomenology by Sarah Ahmed

Gloria Anzaldúa

Oliver Baez Bendorf

Joy Castro

I Love Dick by Chris Kraus

Look Who's Morphing by Tom Cho

The TransLash podcast with Imara Jones

Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz

Troubling the Line

We Want It All

Season 3: Episode 4: Plume Story Time—If the River Men Take You by Dawn Sperber

Sat, 25 Jun 2022 11:00:00 -0600

In today's mini episode, we offer you a brief reprieve from the hellscape of the news in the form of a magical short story by Plume's own Dawn Sperber. "If the River Men Take You" is a lovely tale from Dawn's debut flash fiction chapbook, Now, That's a Trick, out for pre-order now from Finishing Line Books. Preorder your copy today!

We hope you enjoy the reading!

Dawn's website:

DawnSperber.com

Season 3, Episode 3: Mothers & Daughters

Thu, 02 Jun 2022 14:00:00 -0600

In this episode, we’ve paired two mother-daughter writing duos to talk about how to support (and take seriously!) young writers and their creative endeavors. Sam hosts a conversation between returning-guest Jenn Ghivan and her 10-year-old daughter, Lina, and Ileisha Saunders and her 10-year-old daughter, Odyssey Miranda Mercado.

About Our Guests:

Jennifer & Adelina Ghivan

Jennifer has earned fellowships from the NEA and PEN/Rosenthal Emerging Voices, and published eleven books of poetry, fiction, and craft. Her novels have received glowing and starred reviews in Publishers' Weekly, The Washington Post, Ms. Magazine, and many others. Her honors and awards include The Southwest Book Award and Joy Harjo Poetry Prize, among many others. You can read more about Jennifer's books and what readers are saying at https://jennifergivhan.com/. Adelina has been accepted to the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts program for creative writing, and she fancies herself quite the precocious scholar and adventurer. She’s just written her first novel. Both she and her mama enjoy a good haunting.

Ileisha Sanders & Odyssey Miranda Mercado

Ileisha is a mom, writer and actress. She enjoys writing plays, poetry and short stories. Odyssey Miranda is a 10-year-old writer and performer. She is an avid reader and wrote her first self-published book when she was 8 years old called The Three Little Mermaids and the Big Bad Shark (https://www.amazon.com/Three-Little-Mermaids-Big-Shark/dp/1693166445) — a re-telling of an old tale. She is currently working on her first novel Morpho Wings. Oh, and she loves pizza with extra sauce. The mother- daughter pair enjoy participating in and watching live theatre. They look forward to writing together.

Season 3, Episode 2: It’s Okay to Be a Late Bloomer, A Conversation with Jessamine Chan

Mon, 16 May 2022 14:00:00 -0600

In this episode, Melanie and Dawn talk with featured writer, Jessamine Chan, about her New York Times bestselling novel The School For Good Mothers, publishing your first novel after 40, writing envy, motherhood, art and social change, “unlikeable” women in fiction, and more!

Join our Patreon at the $5 Prickly Pear level for access to an upcoming bonus segment from this episode, in which Jessamine talks in more detail about her novel (with spoilers!).

CW: forced parent child separation

Jessamine Chan’s short stories have appeared in Tin House and Epoch. A former reviews editor at Publishers Weekly, she holds an MFA from Columbia University. Her work has received support from the Elizabeth George Foundation, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Wurlitzer Foundation, Jentel, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, the Anderson Center, VCCA, and Ragdale. Her first novel, The School for Good Mothers, is a New York Times bestseller and a Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club pick. She lives in Chicago with her husband and daughter.

Links

JessamineChan.com

“Where Is Your Mother?” by Rachel Aviv: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/12/02/where-is-your-mother

Writers to Read

ChloeCooperJones.com

CatherineChung.com

RachelJYoder.com

Learn more about Plume at PlumeforWriters.org!

Season 3, Episode 1: A Novel in Progress, A Conversation with Melanie Unruh

Fri, 01 Apr 2022 09:00:00 -0600

To kick off Season 3, Plumesters Sam and Dawn are turning the tables on their fellow co-host, Melanie Unruh, and talking to her about writing novels, sticking with large projects, and the founding of Plume.

We're so excited to share this new season with you all!

CW: grief and abortion

Melanie Unruh has an MFA in fiction from the University of New Mexico. Her writing has appeared in and is forthcoming in The Meadow, Two Hawks Quarterly, The Boiler, New Ohio Review, Post Road, Sixfold, Philadelphia Stories, and Cutthroat, among others. She co-founded Plume: A Writer’s Companion, a community for women and non-binary writers, which has now branched out into Plume: A Writer's Podcast. At present, she’s working on a YA novel, a short story collection, and some weird poems about bones. When she’s not writing or teaching, she enjoys drinking a good cup of chai, listening to audiobooks, smashing the patriarchy, and spending time with her kids. Visit her website to learn more.

Season 2, Episode 14: A Plume Collage of Voices

Tue, 23 Nov 2021 11:00:00 -0700

We can’t believe we’ve just completed the second season of our podcast. We have enjoyed this beautiful, encouraging, supportive ride, and are excited to offer up our season 2 finale.

In this episode, we’ll break from our usual roundtable format. We thought, what better way is there to end the year than to include in this final episode as many voices from our Plume community as possible? The result is a beautiful range of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction from 15 of this season’s featured writers, roundtable participants, and members of our Plume community. This time of year is one for reflection and gratitude, and we are beyond thankful for how this wonderful community has continued to come together and grow in 2021.

We hope you enjoy it, and we look forward to bringing you new episodes next year!

CW: sexual assault, death, grief, suicide, cutting, mental illness, Covid-19

Writers sharing their work, in order of appearance (reverse alphabetical order):

Elsa Valmadiano – “Diwata” (poetry), originally appeared in NOMBONO: An Anthology of Speculative Poetry by BIPOC Creators
Melanie Unruh – excerpt from essay-in-progress titled “Natalie” (nonfiction)
Samantha Tetangco – excerpt from the novel-in-progress titled Bug (fiction)
Cynthia Sylvester - “The Monsters of Cherry Street.” (fiction), originally appeared in ABQ in Print
Dawn Sperber – “Inoculation” (fiction), originally appeared in Daily Science Fiction (https://dailysciencefiction.com/science-fiction/biotech/dawn-sperber/inoculation)
Suzanne Richardson – “I Was Thinking About the Ocean” (poetry), originally appeared in dialogist (https://dialogist.org/poetry/2021-week-35-suzanne-richardson )
Rhea Ramakrishnan – “One Line Play” (poetry)
Cynthia Patton – “House of Sea and Sky” (poetry)
Cassie McClure – “To See It All” (nonfiction), originally appeared in McClure’s column, My So-Called Millenial Life (https://www.creators.com/features/my-so-called-millennial-life)
Nari Kirk – “Jenn” (nonfiction), originally appeared in October 2021’s Digital Plume.
Julia Halprin Jackson – “Soloist” originally appeared in Fiction 365 (http://www.fiction365.com/2013/03/soloist/) (fiction)
Brenna Gomez – Excerpt from “Sienna” (fiction)
Jameela F. Dallis – ekphrastic poems “What is Holy,” “A Tangle of Desire,” & “Clay Lungs Obscure Intimacy” (poetry)
Marlena Chertock – “Dayenu, Hebrew for ‘It would have been enough’,” “Where the Quiet Queers Are,” which was originally shown in a gallery in Brussels called Lesbian Now, & “Nasty Beauty,” which originally appeared in Lesbians are Miracles Magazine (poetry)
Arlaina Ash – excerpt from hermit crab essay, “Annotating the DSM 5 Entry on Schizoaffective Disorder” (nonfiction)

Season 2, Episode 13: Can You Work on It for Five Minutes?, A Conversation with Kendra Tuthill

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 10:00:00 -0700

In this episode, Melanie and Dawn talk with November featured writer, Kendra Tuthill, about self-publishing; writing through grief; setting small, timed writing goals, and more. Plus, Kendra reads her thought-provoking letter of encouragement, which explores the effects of writers losing their attention spans in the age of social media.

Join our Patreon at the $5 Prickly Pear level for access to an upcoming bonus segment from this episode, in which Kendra talks in more detail about the excerpt from her novel Stitches. You'll also receive a copy of November's Digital Plume, which includes both Kendra's letter and her tour-de-force novel excerpt.

CW: suicide, assault, grief

Kendra Tuthill holds an MA in Fiction Writing from Portland State University. She has won several awards for her plays and screenplays, most notably landing a semi-finalist position in Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope Screenwriting Contest for her dark, superhero screenplay titled Kendar the Destroyer. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico where she works in the Art Department on independent features and studio shows such as Making a Killing and Better Call Saul. To pass time between productions, she writes dystopian screenplays and dramatic novels.

Season 2, Episode 12: Witchy Writers, a Roundtable Discussion with Jenn Givhan, Britt Ashley, and Dawn Sperber

Mon, 25 Oct 2021 10:00:00 -0600

In this episode, we talk with three writers who identify with Pagan traditions or as witches. We focus on how magic influences their writing, how they move through the world with this belief system and identity, how to ethically incorporate magic and spirituality into writing, and more.

CW: child loss, sexual assault, and religious intolerance

Jenn's website

Britt's website

Dawn's website

Season 2, Episode 11: Writing in Small Bites, A Conversation with Nari Kirk

Tue, 12 Oct 2021 07:00:00 -0600

In this episode, Sam and Melanie talk with October featured writer, Nari Kirk, about her writing process, poetic influences on her prose, MFA reflections, writing about grief, and more. Plus, Nari reads her engaging letter of encouragement, which explores the ways in which we often try to force writing into a work ethic.

Join our Patreon at the $5 Prickly Pear level for access to an upcoming bonus segment from this episode, in which Nari talks about her trajectory as a writer. You'll also receive a copy of October's Digital Plume, which includes both Nari's letter and a delicious flight of her flash nonfiction work.

Nari Kirk is a Korean American writer with an MFA in creative nonfiction from the University of New Mexico. Her work has appeared in Hobart online and the anthology All the Women in My Family Sing, among other publications. She lives in the Pacific Northwest.

Links

The Book of Delights by Ross Gay

The Catalogue of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay

“Leap” by Brian Doyle

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard

Writers to Read

Obit by Victoria Chang

Tiana Nobile

Season 2, Episode 10: Literary Magazines, a Roundtable Discussion with Brenna Gomez, Rhea Ramakrishnan, Samantha Tetangco, Dawn Sperber, and Melanie Unruh

Tue, 28 Sep 2021 07:00:00 -0600

In this episode, we’ve pulled back the curtain on what happens behind the scenes of a literary magazine. It’s a great one for those of you who’ve never worked on a literary magazine before or perhaps you are just starting to submit your work for the same time as it offers some advice for what to do, some insight into what editors look for, and some sense of the labor involved in putting out a literary magazine to the public.

Blue Mesa Review (open for fall submissions until 9/30/21!)

Electric Literature

Boulevard

The Audacity

Season 2, Episode 9: You Don't Have to Write Anything, A Conversation with Paula Treick DeBoard

Tue, 14 Sep 2021 06:00:00 -0600

In this episode, Sam and Melanie talk with September featured writer, Paula Treick DeBoard, about low residency MFA programs, balancing writing and teaching, publishing industry labels for writing by women, and more! Plus, Paula reads her compelling letter of encouragement.

Join our Patreon for access to an upcoming bonus segment from this episode, in which Paula talks about her riveting novel excerpt, featured in this month's Digital Plume.

Paula Treick DeBoard is a fiction writer in Northern California, with roots throughout the Midwest. She is the author of four novels, including Here We Lie (Park Row Books, 2018) and holds an MFA from the University of Southern Maine. Since 2015, she has taught writing at the University of California, Merced. Her street cred with students begins and ends with an appearance in 2016 on a Comic-Con panel called “Sweet Dreams Aren’t Made of These: Horror and Thriller Writers Bring You Their Worst Nightmares.” If it wasn’t for her husband and two dogs, she would probably get more writing done. Or maybe not.

Writers to Read

Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Kobes Du Mez

The Wolf Wants In by Laura McHugh

These Women by Ivy Pochoda

Season 2, Episode 8: Writing Real People, a Roundtable Discussion with Jameela F. Dallis, Cynthia Patton, and Cassie McClure

Tue, 24 Aug 2021 10:00:00 -0600

We asked and you answered! By popular vote, our Patreon community members chose this roundtable topic. In this discussion, Sam, Melanie, Dawn, and guests Jameela F. Dallis, Cynthia Patton, and Cassie McClure talk about the tricky nature of writing about real people, others’ reactions to their work, writing through grief, deciding who owns a story, and more.

TW// Intimate partner violence and Coronavirus deaths,

Learn more about our multi-talented panelists!

Follow us on social media!

Season 2, Episode 7: Art Is Us, A Conversation with Lisa D. Chavéz

Tue, 10 Aug 2021 06:00:00 -0600

In this episode, Sam and Melanie talk with August featured writer, Lisa D. Chavéz , about poetry, creative nonfiction, writing through trauma, MFA programs, and more!

CW: sexual assault, trauma, and PTSD

Lisa D. Chavéz has published two books of poetry, Destruction Bay and In An Angry Season, and had poems anthologized in Floricanto Si!: U.S. Latina Poets, Camino del Sol: Fifteen Years of Latina and Latino Writing, and elsewhere. Her essays have appeared in Arts and Letters, The Fourth Genre and other magazines, and in anthologies including The Other Latin@: Writing Against a Singular Identity, and An Angle of Vision: Women Writers on their Poor and Working Class Roots. She grew up in Alaska, and now lives in the mountains of New Mexico with a pack of Japanese dogs. She is currently the Director of Creative Writing program at the University of New Mexico.

Season 2 Episode 6: Feminist Writers: A Roundtable Discussion with Casandra López, Erin Adair-Hodges, & Suzanne Richardson

Tue, 27 Jul 2021 06:00:00 -0600

In this roundtable discussion, Sam, Melanie, and guests Casandra López, Erin Adair-Hodges, and Suzanne Richardson talk about the role of feminism in writing today, living and writing intersectional feminist lives, writing the body, writing as an act of reclamation, and more.

TW// Physical assault, sexual assault, violence against women, disordered eating, gun violence, genocide, & colonialism

Casandra's website

Erin's website

Suzanne's website

Recommended Books & Writers

Living a Feminist Life by Sarah Ahmed

Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendal

Thick & Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom

The Reckonings by Lacy M. Johnson

The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing

Sisyphusina by Shira Dentz

Bad Feminist and Not That Bad by Roxane Gay

Bone Black by bell hooks

Gloria Anzaldua, Audre Lorde, Anias Nin, Sapphire, and Marilyn Chin

Shout-outs from Suzanne:

Shoutout to The Feminist Press in general and the good work they do, but in particular my friend Joey Vallese’s Queer Horror Anthology that is in progress and will be out in 2022. It's a nonfictional essay collection about being queer and what connection and echoes that has with horror film.

Shoutout to my editors over at No Contact: Guarra Shekar, Eliot Alpern, and Natty Berry.

Three Things

Co-editor Daniel Shank Cruz—we’re working on a D&D Anthology together titled Roll 4 Initiative.

Season 2 Ep. 5: Writing Has Saved My Life, A Conversation with Cynthia Sylvester

Tue, 13 Jul 2021 06:00:00 -0600

In this episode, Sam and Melanie talk with July featured writer, Cynthia Sylvester, about writing dialogue, finding and defending your voice, the confluence of music and storytelling, writing about the southwest from a Diné perspective, compiling her new cross-genre collection, and more.

Cynthia Sylvester recently completed a collection of short stories and poems, The Half-White Album. Work from this debut book has appeared in ABQ in Print, Leon Literary Review, Lunch Ticket, As Us Journal, and Bosque – the Magazine. In 2012 she received the Native Writer Award at the Taos Writers Conference. She lives in Los Ranchos, New Mexico.

Writers to Read

Robin Rosen Chang

Kevin McIlvoy

Lisa Lenard-Cook

Season 2 Ep. 4: LGBTQ+ Writers: A Roundtable Discussion with Marlena Chertock, Belinda Kremer, and Summer Wood

Mon, 21 Jun 2021 05:00:00 -0600

In this roundtable discussion, Sam and guests Marlena Chertock, Belinda Kremer, and Summer Wood talk about what it means to be a queer writer, navigating the publishing industry and workshops designed by and for straight white men, using their voices to uplift communities and shed light on oppression, the genealogy of queerness, and so much more.

CW// forced sterilization

Summer's website

Marlena's website

OutWrite

Belinda's summer poetry class

Confrontation Magazine

Season 2 Ep. 3: Naming the Aswang, a Conversation with Elsa Valmidiano

Tue, 08 Jun 2021 06:00:00 -0600

In this episode, Melanie and Sam chat with June featured writer Elsa Valmidiano about writing Filipino heritage. They talk about her story "Down the Rabbit Hole", the inadequacy of labels, and the role of forgotten shamans. Elsa reads her letter of encouragement and shares some dazzling writers we should be reading now.

Elsa's website

We Are No Longer Babaylan

Elsa on Instagram

Writers to Read

CW: Miscarriage

Season 2 Ep. 2: Writing Moms: A Roundtable Discussion with Julia Halprin Jackson, Christina Socorro Yovovich, and Jennifer Jordán Schaller

Tue, 25 May 2021 08:00:00 -0600

In Plume's first roundtable discussion, Melanie chats with writers and moms, Julia Halprin Jackson, Christina Socorro Yovovich, and Jennifer Jordán Schaller. They discuss dual identities, juggling writing and parenting in the midst of the pandemic, writing about and for their children, current projects, and more.

Julia's website

Play on Words

Christina's recent essays: "Taking Time" and "Mom Talk: Choosing Third Grade"

Jennifer's website

Gregory Martin's Treadmill Journal

Season 2 Ep. 1: Soon It Will Be Blueberry Season, A Conversation with Tia Clark

Mon, 10 May 2021 08:00:00 -0600

Welcome to season two, Plumesters! In this episode, Melanie and Sam chat with May featured writer Tia Clark about narrative structure, intersectionality, short story collections, writing fellowships, and the passage of time as it relates to our writing. Tia reads their letter of encouragement, shares excellent writing advice, and gives us a heads up on writers we should be reading now.

Tia on Twitter

Tia's website

Dantiel W. Moniz

Annell López Instagram & Twitter

Kristin Sanders

Jami Attenberg

The Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing Fellowships

Season 1 Ep. 11: Melanie & Melanie, Featuring Melanie S. Hatter

Wed, 28 Apr 2021 00:00:00 -0600

In this episode, which marks the last from Plume's first season, Melanie interviews the delightful writer Melanie S. Hatter. They talk about work/life/writing balance, writing retreats, and Melanie's award-winning novel, Malawi's Sisters. At the end of the episode, Melanie (Unruh) gives important updates on Plume's new structure and relaunch, including some exciting new Patreon changes.

Melanie S. Hatter's website

Melanie on Twitter

This Is What America Looks Like (the new anthology Melanie is in)

Mastin Kipp (the speaker who organized the writing retreat in Bali)

A Tribute to Jennifer Simpson

Wed, 17 Feb 2021 09:00:00 -0700

As many of you know, Plume’s co-founder, Jennifer Simpson, passed away suddenly in December. In this special recording, Jenn's friends and family read her essays, blogs, and poems to honor her beautiful work, as well as her generous spirit.

Karin Zirk: “42 Years of Title IX: Where Are We Now?” 5:59
Debby Simpson: “First Dance” 8:17
Cindy Sylvester: “After, We Were Birds” 9:27
Nora Hickey: “Dead Deer” 12:17
Jennifer Lynn Krohn: “Jennifer Simpson Is Writing This Book Because” 15:10
Samantha Tetangco and Merimee Moffett: “Playing with Words” 16:33
Caroline Tompkins: “Letter to My Mother on the Anniversary of Her Death” 22:04
Cynthia Patton: “Jennifer Simpson Doesn’t Write Because/Jennifer Simpson Writes Because” 24:00
Melanie Unruh: “Love Letter to My Memoir” 27:54
Marie Landau: “Mother’s Day Shouldn’t Be About Grief” 31:58
Julie Tinney: “Best Night Ever” 35:13
Dawn Sperber: “What the Heck Is a Metaphor Anyway?” 37:42
Nari Kirk: “WTF: If Not Now, When?” 40:01
Katie Simpson: “Musing on Silence” 43:18
Judy Reeves: “Letter from My Mother or More About God or Untitled” 45:28
Amy Wallen: “Chapter 35: Je Sais”
Jill Badonsky: “Poem from the Awe-manac”
Jennifer Simpson: “You Like Play Chalk?”

Season 1 Ep. 10: Let's Generalize About Men, featuring Tierna Unruh-Enos

Mon, 23 Nov 2020 22:00:00 -0700

Melanie gives some Plume updates at the top of the show and the rest of the episode is an interview with Tierna Unruh-Enos, the associate publisher and managing editor of The Paper, a weekly alternative newspaper in Albuquerque, and the producer and creator of the podcast The Mesa. They talk about politics, representation in media, creativity in journalistic writing, and yes, men's fragile egos, among other things.

Links

Tierna on Twitter

The Mesa on Twitter

The Mesa podcast

The Paper

Season 1 Ep. 9: Featuring Felecia Caton-Garcia

Tue, 03 Nov 2020 00:00:00 -0700

Melanie and Jennifer unpack the idea of writer's block, discuss dream-boarding your story ideas, chat about books and writing and setting descriptions, and share a writing prompt. They interview Felecia Caton-Garcia, who shares a heartbreakingly beautiful excerpt from her novel in progress.

Links

Plume Zoom Writers' Support Group (free!) Registration

Is It Real? 25 Famous Writers on Writer's Block

Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow

Drought by Felecia Caton-Garcia

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo

Long Bright River by Liz Moore

The Searcher by Tana French

Season 1 Ep. 8: Featuring Jennifer Lynn Krohn

Mon, 19 Oct 2020 21:00:00 -0600

In this episode, Melanie and Jennifer talk about writing conferences after Melanie shares her experience of recently attending her first fully online one, which included speed dates with editors and agents. They chat with poet Jennifer Lynn Krohn about horror movies, giving advice to her younger self, and if the word "zeitgeist" is actually meaningful.

Links

Jennifer Lynn Krohn's website

Follow Jennifer on Twitter

Follow Jennifer on Instagram

Philadelphia Stories

Push to Publish Conference

Taos Summer Writers’ Conference

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo

You Have a Match by Emma Lord

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Calypso by David Sedaris

Season 1 Ep. 7: Featuring Danielle Hanson

Sun, 27 Sep 2020 23:00:00 -0600

Melanie and Jennifer discuss the loss of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and how writers are necessarily political. Melanie interviews Danielle Hanson, a rad, Atlanta-based poet, whose poetry is oddly synchronous with a story-in-progress excerpt Jennifer shares about people's ashes that attend parties (Yes, you read that correctly). This one is a wild ride of puppetry, feminism, diversifying your reading list, activism, shipping fictional princes and first sons, and more!

CW: Brief references to sexual assault

Links

Danielle’s website

Danielle on Instagram and Twitter

1619 podcast by The New York Times

History of American Slavery podcast by Slate

The Poet Salon

Sundress Press

Doubleback Books

Jericho Brown

Boom! Laywered podcast

The New York Times on RBG's complex legacy

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Long Bright River by Liz Moore

Mean Spirit by Linda Hogan

If Cats Disappeared from the World by Genki Kawamura

Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

Season 1 Ep. 6: Featuring Samantha Tetangco

Mon, 14 Sep 2020 21:00:00 -0600

On this episode of Plume: A Writer's Podcast, Melanie and Jennifer discuss Jesmyn Ward's heartbreaking essay that came out recently in Vanity Fair, which delves deeply into COVID-19 loss and grief, as well as how it connects to racism in the U.S. They also talk about everything from food memoirs to the new trailer for the Rebecca adaptation. Writer Samantha Tetangco sits down with them (on Zoom, anyway) to talk about identity, sexuality, race, and all the ways these subjects intersect with writing. They also reveal some exciting news about team Plume!

CW: racism and COVID-19 deaths

Links

Sam's website

Mass MoCA

Sam's essay in The Sun

Lisa See's The Island of Sea Women

Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca

Padma Lakshmi's A Place at the Table

Padma Lakshmi's show

Season 1 Ep. 5: Featuring Donna Miscolta

Mon, 31 Aug 2020 20:00:00 -0600

On this episode of Plume: A Writer's Companion podcast, Melanie & Jennifer talk about writing censorship and tourism, as well as family pushback on hard truths; discuss books they're reading; and talk about writing projects and conferences. They have a lovely chat with the writer Donna Miscolta, who reads from her forthcoming book Living Color: Angie Rubio Stories. This episode's writing prompt was inspired by an Angie Rubio story.

Links

Donna's website

Donna on Twitter and Instagram

Angie’s report card story

When the de La Cruz Family Danced book trailer

Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal

Kathleen Alcalá

Season 1 Ep. 4, Featuring Karin Zirk

Mon, 17 Aug 2020 23:00:00 -0600

On this episode of Plume: A Writer's Companion podcast, Melanie & Jennifer talk about rejection letters; discuss Lovecraft Country and Misha Green’s new adaptation of the book for HBO; and share their current writing and not writing projects. Melanie’s cat stops in to say hello and Jenn offers some great writing prompts about the moon. They chat about everything from myths to phone banking with Karin E. Zirk, an impressive mythologist and the author of Falling From the Moon, which was released earlier this year.

Links

Karin's website

Karin on Twitter

Season 1 Ep. 3, Featuring Sue William Silverman

Mon, 03 Aug 2020 22:00:00 -0600

On this episode of Plume: A Writer's Companion podcast, Melanie & Jennifer talk about a 4-year-old with a forthcoming poetry collection; share a book review of Watchmen; and discuss their attempts to write and edit during this strange time we're all living through. They chat about everything from metaphors to politics with Sue William Silverman, an engaging memoirist, who also reads an excerpt from her new memoir, How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences.

LINKS

Sue William Silverman

Her website

Sue on Instagram

Season 1 Ep. 2, Featuring Suzanne Richardson

Mon, 20 Jul 2020 21:00:00 -0600

On this episode of Plume: A Writer's Companion podcast, Melanie & Jennifer dig into the infamous Harper's Letter; share a book review of Men We Reaped, Jesmyn Ward's memoir; chat about Stacey Abrams' new book; and discuss their current writing projects. They also chat with Suzanne Richardson, a talented writer who is working on a memoir about addiction, as well as putting together an anthology about Dungeons & Dragons. They discuss everything from writing and teaching writing during a pandemic to real life repercussions of writing memoir.

LINKS

Harper's Letter

Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward

Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America by Stacey Abrams

The Two Kinds of Decay by Sarah Manguso

Excavation: A Memoir by Wendy C. Ortiz

Suzanne Richardson

Her website

Suzanne on Twitter

Submit your writing about D & D to her anthology

Season 1 Ep. 1, Featuring Christina Socorro Yovovich

Mon, 06 Jul 2020 15:00:00 -0600

In the very first episode of Plume: A Writer's Companion Podcast, Melanie and Jennifer talk about Plume and writing communities in the time of pandemic, as well as books, writing projects, and a writing prompt. They also chat with Plume's July featured writer, Christina Socorro Yovovich, about writing, parenting, and mental illness.