The Inner Loop Radio: A Creative Writing Podcast

Nov 17 2024 136 ep. 30 mins 88

The Inner Loop Radio: A Creative Writing Podcast artwork

Rachel Coonce and Courtney Sexton bring you creative writing inspiration, literature and craft discussions, and commiseration on the writing life with interviews, inspiration takeovers, and chats with poets and authors of fiction and nonfiction.

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Inspiration Takeover: Art is What We Turn To with Chet'la Sebree

Nov 17 2024 10 mins

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, communit

Small Press Contests with Luke Sutherland

Nov 07 2024 38 mins

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

Just Checking in with Rashmi Sadana

Oct 27 2024 20 mins

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

Reframing Literary Success with Gwydion Suilebhan

Oct 16 2024 48 mins

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, w

Inspiration Takeover: Speculating with Tyrese Coleman

Oct 08 2024 8 mins

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 Highs and Lows of Writing with Nick Gardner

Oct 06 2024 41 mins

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. N

Just Checking In with Amanda Newell

Sep 28 2024 18 mins

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

Inspiration Takeover: Writing is a Radical Act of Self Love with Okezie Nwoka

Sep 23 2024 8 mins

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 m

Is Feedback Really Useful? With Dan Knowlton and David Pfeferman

Sep 16 2024 31 mins

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 fe

Inspiration Takeover: Searching for Language for Another Lost Generation with Leeya Mehta

Sep 09 2024 15 mins

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