Writing It!

Dec 30 2024 40 ep. 47 mins 5

Writing It! Podcast artwork

"Writing It! The Podcast About Academics & Writing" dives deep into the world of academic writing and publishing. Join us for conversations with academics and editors as we discuss challenges, strategies, and insights from our writing lives. As we share our experiences and helpful hacks, we make the process of writing and getting published a bit more transparent and a bit less overwhelming.

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Episode 40: Finding courage to write the broader story

Dec 30 2024 51 mins

In this episode we talk with history professor Robin Judd of the Ohio State University about writing her most recent book, Between Two Worlds: Jewish War Brides After the Holocaust. Figuring out how to write up her research as a book appealing to a broader audience was a challenge that required new skills and a willingness to edit, while staying true to her sources’ voices. Don&

Episode 39: How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing

Dec 16 2024 47 mins

We’re speaking with University of North Carolina-Greensboro psychology professor and author of How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Writing, Paul Silvia. We humanities folks tend to overthink things, including about the reasons that writing isn’t going well. But what if the solutions to our writing problem are more simple than we realize? Silva studies the psycho

Episode 38: Relationships and Writing

Dec 02 2024 77 mins

Today’s episode is with Samira Mehta, associate professor of women and gender studies and of Jewish studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. We speak about the way our relationships feed our writing. The conversation focuses on fellowships, writing groups, writing coaches, and friends and colleagues with whom we exchange writing. Don't forget to rate and review our sho

Episode 37: How a great elevator pitch can make a difference

Nov 18 2024 36 mins

A conversation with Professor Lori Harrison-Kahan (Boston College) about edited volumes and writing while in a non-tenure track position. Harrison-Kahan shares ideas for creating successful edited volumes, including her own experiences with having a good elevator pitch and creating conference panels that show potential editors a good fit between papers. Harrison-Kahan explains how

Episode 36: What do book publicists do for academic authors?

Nov 04 2024 49 mins

We’re speaking with Leah Paulos, founder and director of the Brooklyn-based book publicity firm, Press Shop PR about what publicists do for academic writers: primarily, helping readers find your book! We talk about why an academic might hire a book publicist; at what stages of writing a book it makes sense to hire a publicist; publicist pricing; what authors can do on their own t

Episode 35: GETTING THE READER FROM BEGINNING TO END, WITH MERVE EMRE

Oct 21 2024 59 mins

A conversation with Shapiro-Silverberg Professor of Creative Writing and Criticism at Wesleyan University and contributing writer to The New Yorker magazine, Merve Emre. We talk about the work and goals of a book critic; what it means to think about the reader’s experience of our writing; creating a community of readers; and what it’s like to be edited at the New Yorker. Don&#

Episode 34: When Writing Becomes Like Painting

Oct 07 2024 43 mins

Harvard Divinity School Professor Shaul Magid began his undergraduate education as a painter. Over time, as he became an academic and a professor, Magid found that writing took the place of painting – that is, writing is his artistic and creative expression, and the thing that he’s basically always doing. We speak about how changing one’s institutions – Magid has taught at

Episode 33: Psychedelics & Writing

Sep 23 2024 46 mins

We speak with historian Ben Breen (UC Santa Cruz) about the writing of his recent book, Tripping on Utopia: Margaret Mead, the Cold War, and the Troubled Birth of Psychedelic Science, We discuss how to think about chapter organization; writing about individuals’ lives without writing biography; discovering our main characters through the writing process; books that have served as

Episode 32: 5,000-10.000 Downloads of a Conversation about Your Book

Sep 09 2024 36 mins

We’re speaking with Caleb Zakarin, the Editor of the New Books Network, about what NBN is and what it does for academics. You’ve probably heard about the New Books Network, because so many academics are either interviewed about their books on this podcast, or interview other academics for NBN. We wanted to understand what NBN does for academics and their books; what makes for a

Episode 31: Being Open to Collaboration

Aug 26 2024 28 mins

We’re speaking with Professor Anna Peterson (Religion, University of Florida). She received her PhD from the University of Chicago Divinity School and her AB from the University of California at Berkeley. Her research focuses on religion and social change, especially in Latin America; environmental and social ethics; and animal studies. Professor Peterson has decades of experienc