The ARTWIFE Podcast

This month, we're joined by writer and friend of ARTWIFE LaLa Thomas. LaLa is our first YA writer on the pod(!) and in this episode, you can hear us chat about MFA programs, the state of reading among young people, and Unexpected, LaLa’s first novel and the perfect story to share with any young person (or adult!) in your life. Buy Unexpected: https://parents.simonandschuster.com/9781665917285 Learn more about Hannah's novel, coming May 2027: https://indirectbooks.org/hannah-harlee/

Per annual tradition, The ARTWIFE Podcast is on spring break this month. So we're dropping in your feeds with an ep from the early days! This was only the 15th episode of the pod, and our first and only movie chat to-date. Enjoy! It's our first-ever movie night on the pod! We're looking at Challengers, a perfect film about three self-loathing, deeply unwell people visiting psychosexual drama upon each other repeatedly for more than a decade. The stuff dreams are made of! But what does it have to do with writing? Well, everything. In this episode, we talk about the power of indoctrinating your audience/readers with sub-perceptual imagery and symbolism. We also look at the absolutely manic and a-chronological movement of this narrative through time and figure out how the hell it managed to work...and so successfully. Hop in! Learn more about Hannah's novel, coming in 2027: https://indirectbooks.org/hannah-harlee/

This month we're joined by the wonderful Lina Patton. She's here to discuss her debut novel, The Lake Club, forthcoming from William Morrow on June 16, 2026 (and available for pre-order now at the link below!). Lina shares her insights about the role of joy in our work as writers, why finding companions in writing is just as important as finding mentors, and much more. Hear all this plus an excerpt from her novel to get a glorious glimpse of summer that'll carry you through these last weeks of winter. BTW: Catch the ARTWIFE gals at AWP! We'll be in the Bookfair at table T980 all three days, plus co-hosting an offsite reading with our pals at L'Esprit Literary Review on Friday, March 6th at Viva Books, 7 to 10pm. Free and open to the public! Pre-order The Lake Club: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-lake-club-lina-patton?variant=44325804507170 Learn more about Hannah's novel, coming in 2027: https://indirectbooks.org/hannah-harlee/

This month, Molly McCloy joins the pod to talk about her memoir, Nine Grudges: The Spiteful Origins of the Happiest Dyke on earth, forthcoming from Red Hen Press on Sept 8, 2026 (and available for pre-order now---link below!). Molly talks with us about the necessity of agency in trauma narratives, the distinctions and overlaps between writing and oral storytelling, and plenty more. Plus, we inaugurate a new segment: The ARTWIFE Questionnaire! What are you waiting, babe...hop in! Pre-order Nine Grudges: https://bookshop.org/p/books/nine-grudges-the-spiteful-origins-of-the-happiest-dyke-on-earth-molly-mccloy/79532e2d89f58b50?ean=9781636284880&next=t&aid=89218&listref=the-artwife-book-club Find Molly: https://mollymccloy.com/ and mollymccloy.substack.com and https://pipelineartists.com/y-a-kafka-finding-agency-in-childhood-trauma-narratives/ Hear Molly's interview on KJZZ: https://www.kjzz.org/the-show/2025-01-07/arizona-writer-molly-mccloy-wants-you-to-change-the-way-you-think-about-the-word-dyke Learn more about Hannah's novel, coming in 2027: https://indirectbooks.org/hannah-harlee/

The ARTWIFE Podcast ran into a snag with our scheduled guest for this month, so we're comin' at ya with a re-release instead! Happy New Year! We're starting the year with one of the best books we've read in awhile: The Coin by Yasmin Zaher. After a quick zip through the (bananas, unhinged, incredible) plot, we use the lens of this book to talk about the concept of artistic values and how important they are for clarifying and magnifying the work we make. Jump in!

In this short lil snack of an episode, we reflect briefly on the act of reading and the ways in which we might be generous to the authors we read. Then Hannah runs down a list of her top 5 works of art from the year. Join us and find out if any of your faves made the list.

In 2025, ARTWIFE Magazine is teaming up with The Inner Loop to bring you interviews with DC-area authors! In March, April, and May, then again in September, October, and November, join us on the third Tuesday of the month to hear from recently-published novelists, memoirists, and poets in the DMV. Today we meet Charlotte Taylor Fryar. Charlotte Taylor Fryar is the author of Potomac Fever: Reflections on the Nation's River (Bellevue Literary Press, 2025). Her essays, which have been twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize and recognized in The Best American Essays, can be found in Orion, Fourth Genre, Literary Hub, and the Southern Humanities Review, among other publications. Her writing has been supported by the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Conference, and the Inner Loop, where she is 2025 featured author. Charlotte holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and lives just outside in Washington D.C., less than 700 feet from the banks of the Potomac River. She is the Writer-In-Residence at a boarding school in northern Virginia, and operates a small community herbal clinic. For more information, visit www.charlottetaylorfryar.com/. Buy Charlotte's book: https://bookshop.org/p/books/potomac-fever-reflections-on-the-nation-s-river-charlotte-taylor-fryar/aa8e5b82e2220550?ean=9781954276345&next=t&aid=89218&listref=the-artwife-book-club The Inner Loop creates inclusive and accessible opportunities for our diverse network of both emerging and established writers to connect with each other, to connect to their community, and to transform the written word into a shared experience through the act of reading aloud. They put on monthly readings in Washington, DC, market writers who published with small- to medium-sized presses, host writing retreats and residencies, and provide other special programming throughout the year. Check out upcoming events at theinnerlooplit.org. @theinnerlooplit on IG facebook.com/theinnerloopdc

Astrologer Wonder Bright is back! This time, we explore the life and artistry of Cher. We look at topics like talent, singularity, self-expression, and creative partnership, all through the lens of Cher's artistic output. Join us! Wonder Bright is an astrologer living in Portland, Oregon. She works with her clients to help them use whatever sliver of free will they possess to embrace their fates and step more fully into their lives. She uses traditional techniques to arrive at thoroughly modern conclusions and has written about this for The Mountain Astrologer and www.astro.com. For more you can find her at www.starsofwonder.com.

In 2025, ARTWIFE Magazine is teaming up with The Inner Loop to bring you interviews with DC-area authors! In March, April, and May, then again in September, October, and November, join us on the third Tuesday of the month to hear from recently-published novelists, memoirists, and poets in the DMV. Today we meet Tamar Shapiro. Tamar Shapiro’s debut novel, Restitution, was published in September 2025 and named one of the 49 Must-Read Books of Fall 2025 by Town and Country Magazine. Her writing has also appeared in Poets and Writers, Electric Literature, and Literary Hub. A former housing attorney and non-profit leader, Shapiro is a 2026 MFA candidate at Randolph College in Virginia. She grew up in both the U.S. and Germany and now lives in Washington, DC. Find Tamar at www.tamarshapiro.com. Buy Tamar's book: https://bookshop.org/p/books/restitution-tamar-shapiro/6a531c6f40eb28ee?ean=9781646036196&next=t&aid=89218&listref=the-artwife-book-club Read Tamar's essay, starting on page 10, in The Writers’ Center Magazine: https://writer.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/TWC-Magazine_Fall2025_final_pages.pdf The Inner Loop creates inclusive and accessible opportunities for our diverse network of both emerging and established writers to connect with each other, to connect to their community, and to transform the written word into a shared experience through the act of reading aloud. They put on monthly readings in Washington, DC, market writers who published with small- to medium-sized presses, host writing retreats and residencies, and provide other special programming throughout the year. Check out upcoming events at theinnerlooplit.org. @theinnerlooplit on IG facebook.com/theinnerloopdc

For the first time ever, we're joined on the pod by ARTWIFE Magazine's other mommy, Erica Harlee! If you've hung around ARTWIFE for any length of time, you already know that looking at the life of the artist and the craft of writing as it manifests in the pop cultural landscape is one of our favorite activities so you KNOW we had to jump on the mic to talk about the lyrical stylings of one Ms. Taylor Swift. It's not the first time we've talked about Taylor on the pod and we gotta imagine it won't be the last. Topics covered include: full-length albums as linked short story collections, the imagery of professional masculinity, and how we as writers can learn to live with the fact that there's no new material under the sun. In short: fun, ever heard of it??? Hop in!

In 2025, ARTWIFE Magazine is teaming up with The Inner Loop to bring you interviews with DC-area authors! In March, April, and May, then again in September, October, and November, join us on the third Tuesday of the month to hear from recently-published novelists, memoirists, and poets in the DMV. Today we meet Michele Evans. Michele Evans, a fifth-generation Washingtonian (D.C.), is the author of purl (Finishing Line Press, 2025), a contemporary poetry collection inspired by Homer's Odyssey and the verses of Phillis Wheatley Peters. Nominated for the 2025 Maya Angelou Book Award, purl reimagines feminine forces from Greek mythology and American history in today's world to celebrate the resilience of women bound by universal traumas threaded through life and literature. This Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee studied at Smith College, King's College-London, and the Graduate School at the University of Maryland. Her poems have appeared in print and online in Artemis, The ASP Bulletin, Maryland Literary Review, Mid-Atlantic Review, Yellow Arrow Journal, Welter Magazine, WWPH Writes, Zora's Den, and elsewhere. Michele currently teaches English and Creative Writing in Northern Virginia and serves as the adviser of Unbound, a nationally recognized and award-winning high school literary magazine. You can find her online at www.awordsmithie.com. Buy Michele's book: https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/purl-by-michele-evans/ Listen to the purl playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3AyhWN4uT3HmT7Ibr4Q8N5?si=zpdja7dZR92KFAlcHirr1w&nd=1&dlsi=fe4d895b137f4165 The Inner Loop creates inclusive and accessible opportunities for our diverse network of both emerging and established writers to connect with each other, to connect to their community, and to transform the written word into a shared experience through the act of reading aloud. They put on monthly readings in Washington, DC, market writers who published with small- to medium-sized presses, host writing retreats and residencies, and provide other special programming throughout the year. Check out upcoming events at theinnerlooplit.org. @theinnerlooplit on IG facebook.com/theinnerloopdc Join us Tuesday evenings for the ARTWIFE Creative Hour: https://www.artwifemag.com/the-creative-hour

We've got a little somethin different this month: today, you'll hear an episode of The Free & Direct Podcast, in which ARTWIFE's founding editor Hannah Harlee joined Dan White of Indirect Books to talk about the endeavor of one Ms. ARTWIFE Magazine. Listen in to hear how we think about this here project and why we do what we do. Per The Free & Direct Podcast: Join us for the second half of our home-and-home with the excellent ARTWIFE Mag! Editor Hannah Harlee talks with Dan about her background in writing and editing, founding ARTWIFE, and how she came up with that excellent name. We also get into the confluence of visual and literary aesthetics and how ARTWIFE builds their expansive literary community. A great conversation and a great magazine! The Free & Direct Podcast: https://1882literary.substack.com/ Indirect Books: https://indirectbooks.org/ L'Esprit Literary Review: https://lespritliteraryreview.org/ Join us Tuesday evenings for the ARTWIFE Creative Hour: https://www.artwifemag.com/the-creative-hour

Welcome to the CONTRIBUTOR SPOTLIGHT series on The ARTWIFE Podcast! Every other month, we're interviewing an artist whose work we've published in the magazine. Join us as we get to know our contributors and talk about the creative process and the life of the artist. This month, we're joined by Max Blue. Max is the art critic for the San Francisco Examiner and has contributed criticism and reporting to Artsy, BOMB, and Hyperallergic among others. His short fiction has appeared in ARTWIFE, the MacGuffin, and North Dakota Quarterly, among others. He is currently writing his first novel. Read Gone to the Beach: https://www.artwifemag.com/short-stories/gone-to-the-beach Read On Spanish Novels: https://www.artwifemag.com/short-stories/on-spanish-novels Find more from Max at https://maxbluewriter.com/. Join us for The ARTWIFE Creative Hour, Tuesdays at 8:30pm ET (5:30pm PT). Learn more and sign up for weekly reminders at https://www.artwifemag.com/the-creative-hour.

Submitting writers, this one's for you! Dan White and Jessica Denzer are editors at L'Esprit Literary Review and publishers at Indirect Books. In this episode, learn more about how their two lit organizations operate, what kind of work they're looking for, and why ensuring the existence of a strong literary landscape matters to them. Plus: surprise! Dan is also a contributor to ARTWIFE Magazine. Hear him talk about the creation of his *perfect* short story, After Ilium, and read an excerpt from the work. Read After Ilium: https://www.artwifemag.com/short-stories/after-ilium L'Esprit Literary Review: https://lespritliteraryreview.org Indirect Books: https://indirectbooks.org Dan White: https://dwhitethewriter.com Jessica Denzer: http://jessicadenzer.com

Welcome to the CONTRIBUTOR SPOTLIGHT series on The ARTWIFE Podcast! Every other month, we're interviewing an artist whose work we've published in the magazine. Join us as we get to know our contributors and talk about the creative process and the life of the artist. This month, we're joined by Josie Mitchell, a writer, writing teacher, and podcast host. Read Josie's short story in ARTWIFE: https://www.artwifemag.com/short-stories/the-treaty-of-guadalupe-hidalgo Find more from Josie at the Bittersweet Infamy podcast (https://www.604podnetwork.com/podcasts/bittersweet-infamy), the East End Postales project (https://www.eastendpostales.com/), and on her website (https://josephinemitchell.com/).

In 2025, ARTWIFE Magazine is teaming up with The Inner Loop to bring you interviews with DC-area authors! In March, April, and May, then again in September, October, and November, join us on the third Tuesday of the month to hear from recently-published novelists, memoirists, and poets in the DMV. Today we meet Majda Gama, the award-winning author of In the House of Modern Upbringing for Girls (Wandering Aengus Press) and The Call of Paradise, (Two Sylvias, 2023). Her honors include the Graybeal-Gowen award for Virginia poets from Shenandoah Literary journal and the Gregory Djanikian scholar award from Adroit. Majda’s poetry can be found in Ploughshares, POETRY, Poetry Daily, Prairie Schooner, and is forthcoming from TriQuarterly. She is based in Northern Virginia where she tends to a native plant garden that is certified as a home wildlife sanctuary by the Audubon Society. Majda is currently a co-host of the long-running DC literary salon Café Muse. Buy Majda's book: https://bookshop.org/p/books/in-the-house-of-modern-upbringing-for-girls/19e6cb14ad2d48ea?ean=9798218516222&next=t&aid=89218&listref=the-artwife-book-club The Inner Loop creates inclusive and accessible opportunities for our diverse network of both emerging and established writers to connect with each other, to connect to their community, and to transform the written word into a shared experience through the act of reading aloud. They put on monthly readings in Washington, DC, market writers who published with small- to medium-sized presses, host writing retreats and residencies, and provide other special programming throughout the year. Check out upcoming events at theinnerlooplit.org. @theinnerlooplit on IG facebook.com/theinnerloopdc Come see ARTWIFE Magazine at World Pride! We'll be at the MLK Jr Memorial Library on May 31. Find more here: https://dclibrary.libnet.info/event/13580914

Astrologer Wonder Bright is back! This time, we explore the life, artistry, and filmography of one Ms. Demi Moore. We look at topics like: the fact that Demi's characters are always restrained and subtle AND also always complex and fully realized...how does she do that??? How does her lifelong habit of observation contribute to the work she's able to make? What's it been like for Demi to make works of beauty while being treated as an object of beauty herself? All this! And more! In today's episode. Wonder Bright is an astrologer living in Portland, Oregon. She works with her clients to help them use whatever sliver of free will they possess to embrace their fates and step more fully into their lives. She uses traditional techniques to arrive at thoroughly modern conclusions and has written about this for The Mountain Astrologer and www.astro.com. For more you can find her at www.starsofwonder.com. Ready for some editorial support on your creative writing? Learn about working 1:1 with Hannah to help your projects flourish at https://www.artwifemag.com/editorial

In 2025, ARTWIFE Magazine is teaming up with The Inner Loop to bring you interviews with DC-area authors! In March, April, and May, then again in September, October, and November, join us on the third Tuesday of the month to hear from recently-published novelists, memoirists, and poets in the DMV. Today we meet Patricia Coral, author of the memoir "Women Surrounded by Water," which was longlisted for the 2024 National Book Critics Circle Award in Autobiography. She holds a BA in Hispanic Studies from the University of Puerto Rico, an MA in Spanish from the InterAmerican University of Puerto Rico, and an MFA in Creative Writing from American University. Patricia writes creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry, but frequently her words find their home in between. The former director of events for Politics and Prose Bookstore, she has contributed to numerous literary magazines and her work has been supported by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Purchase Women Surrounded by Water at https://ohiostatepress.org/books/titles/9780814259252.html and use code CORAL for a 30% discount and free shipping! Find more from Patricia on her website, www.patriciacoral.com, and find her on Instagram @_patriciacoral_ The Inner Loop creates inclusive and accessible opportunities for our diverse network of both emerging and established writers to connect with each other, to connect to their community, and to transform the written word into a shared experience through the act of reading aloud. They put on monthly readings in Washington, DC, market writers who published with small- to medium-sized presses, host writing retreats and residencies, and provide other special programming throughout the year. Check out upcoming events at theinnerlooplit.org. @theinnerlooplit on IG facebook.com/theinnerloopdc

Welcome to the CONTRIBUTOR SPOTLIGHT series on The ARTWIFE Podcast! Every other month, we're interviewing an artist whose work we've published in the magazine. Join us as we get to know our contributors and talk about the creative process and the life of the artist. This month, we're joined by Julia Mallory, a poet, prose writer, visual artist, and founder. Read Julia's short story in ARTWIFE: https://www.artwifemag.com/short-stories/second-helping-of-grits Find more from Julia at www.thejuliamallory.com and www.blackmermaids.com.

In 2025, ARTWIFE Magazine is teaming up with The Inner Loop to bring you interviews with DC-area authors! In March, April, and May, then again in September, October, and November, join us on the third Tuesday of the month to hear from recently-published novelists, memoirists, and poets in the DMV. Today we meet Varun Gauri, author of the novel "For the Blessings of Jupiter and Venus". Varun worked for more than two decades on development economics and behavioral economics. He now teaches at Princeton University and lives with his family in Bethesda, Maryland. His debut novel, For the Blessings of Jupiter and Venus, won the 2024 Carol Trawick Fiction Prize, was selected for NPR’s Books We Love 2024, and is a finalist for Foreword INDIES 2024 Book of the Year in General Adult Fiction. Find more from Varun, as well as links to purchase his book: https://www.varungauri.com/ https://spia.princeton.edu/faculty/vgauri The Inner Loop creates inclusive and accessible opportunities for our diverse network of both emerging and established writers to connect with each other, to connect to their community, and to transform the written word into a shared experience through the act of reading aloud. They put on monthly readings in Washington, DC, market writers who published with small- to medium-sized presses, host writing retreats and residencies, and provide other special programming throughout the year. Check out upcoming events at theinnerlooplit.org. @theinnerlooplit on IG facebook.com/theinnerloopdc

The ARTWIFE Podcast is on spring break this month, so in honor of the current Venus retrograde we're re-injecting this episode from last fall into your feeds. Here she blows! This month, we're taking a field trip! Join us as we depart from our usual fare of writing & writers and romp instead into the realm of performance, performers, and the life of the artist. We're joined by astrologer Wonder Bright, who helps us understand how the astrological signatures in Barbra Streisand's birth chart are influencing and describing the way Barbra makes her art. Topics include the intersections and overlaps between astrology and storytelling; the merits of an artist's first instinct (a.k.a. first draft) versus their subsequent attempts (a.k.a. revisions); and the evolution(?) over time of one of our culture's recurring narrative fixations, A Star is Born. Wonder Bright is an astrologer living in Portland, Oregon. She works with her clients to help them use whatever sliver of free will they possess to embrace their fates and step more fully into their lives. She uses traditional techniques to arrive at thoroughly modern conclusions and has written about this for The Mountain Astrologer and www.astro.com. For more you can find her at www.starsofwonder.com. View Wonder's companion slide deck: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hDsHrdr1BiBA1Z7ueKM-n-B3-qZmrPp_/view We recorded this episode before we learned of Kris Kristofferson's passing. He was incredible—so moving and effective—in the role of John Norman Howard. Rest peacefully, Mr. Kristofferson.

Welcome to the CONTRIBUTOR SPOTLIGHT series on The ARTWIFE Book Club podcast! Every other month, we'll be interviewing an artist whose work we've published in the magazine. Join us as we get to know our contributors and talk about the creative process and the life of the artist. This month, we're joined by Jaina Cipriano, an experiential designer, filmmaker, and photographer. See Jaina's photo series in ARTWIFE: https://www.artwifemag.com/visual-art/the-empty-mirror-jaina-cipriano Learn more about Jaina's work at the Arlington International Film Festival (https://aiffest.org) and Finding Bright Studios (https://www.findingbrightproductions.com).

We're starting 2025 with one of the best books we've read in awhile: The Coin by Yasmin Zaher. After a quick zip through the (bananas, unhinged, incredible) plot, we use the lens of this book to talk about the concept of artistic values and how important they are for clarifying and magnifying the work we make. Jump in! Starting in February 2025, we invite you to join us weekly for The ARTWIFE Creative Hour! This is a free, virtual gathering for artists working in any medium to set aside an hour each week dedicated to our creative works-in-progress. Learn more and sign up for reminders here: https://www.artwifemag.com/the-creative-hour

In this short lil snack of an episode, we process some heavy shit and talk through the unique mixture of bleakness and hope stretching out ahead of us. Then Hannah runs down a list of her top 5 books & stories from the year, plus a few honorable mentions. Join us and find out if any of your faves made the list.

It's our first-ever movie night on the pod! We're looking at Challengers, a perfect film about three self-loathing, deeply unwell people visiting psychosexual drama upon each other repeatedly for more than a decade. The stuff dreams are made of! But what does it have to do with writing? Well, everything. In this episode, we talk about the power of indoctrinating your audience/readers with sub-perceptual imagery and symbolism. We also look at the absolutely manic and a-chronological movement of this narrative through time and figure out how the hell it managed to work...and so successfully. Hop in! There's still time to vote if you haven't yet done so! Find your polling place here: https://www.vote.org/polling-place-locator/. Learn about your rights and responsibilities if you need time off work to vote: https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/25/business/voting-during-the-work-day-employers-law/index.html.

This month, we're taking a field trip! Join us as we depart from our usual fare of writing & writers and romp instead into the realm of performance, performers, and the life of the artist. We're joined by astrologer Wonder Bright, who helps us understand how the astrological signatures in Barbra Streisand's birth chart are influencing and describing the way Barbra makes her art. Topics include the intersections and overlaps between astrology and storytelling; the merits of an artist's first instinct (a.k.a. first draft) versus their subsequent attempts (a.k.a. revisions); and the evolution(?) over time of one of our culture's recurring narrative fixations, A Star is Born. Wonder Bright is an astrologer living in Portland, Oregon. She works with her clients to help them use whatever sliver of free will they possess to embrace their fates and step more fully into their lives. She uses traditional techniques to arrive at thoroughly modern conclusions and has written about this for The Mountain Astrologer and www.astro.com. For more you can find her at www.starsofwonder.com. View Wonder's companion slide deck: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hDsHrdr1BiBA1Z7ueKM-n-B3-qZmrPp_/view We recorded this episode before we learned of Kris Kristofferson's passing. He was incredible—so moving and effective—in the role of John Norman Howard. Rest peacefully, Mr. Kristofferson.

This month we're back with another SHORTS episode...and we're doing things a little differently this time! Rather than look at the craft of an individual piece of work, we're turning our attention to the question of emotional depth & honesty in creative writing more generally. What does emotional presence *feel like* in a piece of writing? And what does it feel like when it's missing? Finally, and most importantly, how can writers avoid making work that relies on emotional approximation and instead create work with depth and longevity? Hop in and let's find out!

The hero's journey...reimagined! We're celebrating 1 year of The ARTWIFE Book Club with Sayaka Murata's novel about a protagonist who passes through all the stages of the traditional hero's journey—a foray into the unfamiliar, a dark night of the soul, a return bearing a hard-won treasure—all without ever leaving her hometown. Hop in!

Studying the craft of writing with the help of lyrics from Taylor Swift? Don't threaten us with a good time! This month, we do a close reading of the lyrics from the song My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys off of The Tortured Poets Department. The story of this song gives us an opportunity to look at how a narrator can effectively communicate their conflicted mental state and convince us of both their lucidity and delusion at the same time. With this example, we're continuing to circle around one of our primary writing obsessions here at the ARTWIFE Book Club: how do we as writers find a balance between being coy & withholding and didactic & excessive? As ever, Taylor Swift shows us. Hop in!

We read it, we loved it, and now we get to obsess over it...with the author! The book is Thieves, the writer is Valerie Werder, and Valerie herself joins us on this episode to talk about the creation of this astonishing book. We get practical (what can disciplines like sculpture and curation teach us about structuring a narrative?) and we get enigmatic (what the hell is a "self" anyway?) in equal measure, and ultimately we walk away from this inspiring episode with our favorite feeling in the world: the ache to sit down and write. Read Thieves: https://fenceportal.org/book/thieves/ Find Valerie Werder: https://www.valeriewerder.com/

ARTWIFE is back from spring break with a close look at Vinson Cunningham Is a Ritualistic Eater, a sublime essay published in Grub Street (read it here: https://www.grubstreet.com/article/vinson-cunningham-grub-street-diet.html). We articulate the work's skillful balance of technical expertise and emotional presence and ask ourselves...how the hell can we learn to write like this? Plus, the life & creative lessons from one RuPaul's Drag Race figure in here, and yep, you already guessed it: we wouldn't be The ARTWIFE Book Club without a romp into a little (double!) album by the name of The Tortured Poets Department. Get in, honey!

Annnnd we're back with the spring episode of the SHORTS edition! This time, we look at The Ice-Cream Truck, a flash essay from Souvankham Thammavongsa. (Read it here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/07/10/the-ice-cream-truck-souvankham-thammavongsa) Craft discussion topics include: a look at the way spacing and paragraph breaks help us manage pacing and emphasis, how to think about our written work like visual artists, and a short little addendum (AKA half the episode) about why you should definitely put what you learned in therapy into your artwork, but it functions best if you first digest it, interpret it, and make it your own. Programming note! Team ARTWIFE will be away for parts of April, so there won't be an episode next month. Consider it the ARTWIFE Spring Break! See you back here on May 7.

Our very first venture into science-fiction-adjacent literature on the pod! In our discussion about Jacqueline Harpman's 1995 novel, we revel in a book that rejects many of the fundamental elements that make up the construct of a book in the first place. Chapters? Hard pass. Traditional plot structure? No. Characters? Barely! We also make sure to carefully articulate all the ways in which human life is pointless and absurd! But also why that's perfectly okay and not at all nihilistic even though it seems like it should be! Join us.

TAYLOR SWIFT, EVERYBODY! In this episode, we learn from the master of storytelling *herself* about mood, manifesting a memorable atmosphere in our work, how distinct and specific imagery helps us experience even the most well-worn subject matter anew, and more. We also talk about how the structured nature of songwriting can serve as a guide when we're organizing our work in prose, so we can write stories that not only makes sense but make an impact. Here's to art and beauty in the new year and...~forevermore~.

Let's join hands and step into the peerless work of Saeed Jones, author of this 2019 memoir. This work teaches us what balance means in the craft of writing and invites us into the intersection between clarity and nuance. Topics include: remedying one of the main reasons editors reject work submitted to lit mags, why reading poets who write prose is so useful and instructive, and the characteristics of secure vs. insecure forms of interpersonal connection and how they manifest in our writing. Have something to add to the conversation? Share your thoughts on this book here: https://www.artwifemag.com/the-podcast

Welcome to the ARTWIFE Book Club SHORTS edition! In this format, we'll look at shorter-form works like short stories, essays, and song lyrics. This time we discuss Taffy Brodesser-Akner's meditation on Taylor Swift's Eras Tour. Come see for yourself: this essay is a national treasure. Read it here: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/12/magazine/taylor-swift-eras-tour.html?unlocked_article_code=1.8kw.Y4Ry.Bs4sElEfKmAA&smid=url-share

Dive face-first with us into this weird and wonderful 2018 novel from Otessa Moshfegh. We talk about the year 2000 (god help us), how even tropey character templates have the potential to become fully realized, engaging with art & literature using approaches that are less consumeristic and more interactive, and more! Have something to add to the conversation? Share your thoughts on this book here: https://www.artwifemag.com/the-podcast

In this episode, we explore We the Animals, a slim but gutting 2011 novel from Justin Torres. We get into the first person plural POV, the tension created by the gap between what readers know and what characters know, the way the human spirit seeks (and finds!) beauty even in the depths of despair, and much more. Share your thoughts on this book here: https://www.artwifemag.com/the-podcast

In the inaugural episode of The ARTWIFE Book Club, we discuss Samantha Hunt's inimitable 2004 novel, The Seas. We get into the shattered narrative structure, coping mechanisms, some of the most beautiful passages in the history of literature(!), and more. Have something to add to the conversation? Share your thoughts on this book here: https://www.artwifemag.com/the-podcast

Maybe you love to read, but you wish you had someone in your life who would rehash book plots with you as feverishly as they rehash concert experiences, TV shows, or movies. Or perhaps you're the type of person who wants to read more, but you struggle to stay focused on a book long enough to finish it. Wherever you land, we invite you to join us! Welcome to The ARTWIFE Book Club, the show that loves the debrief as much as it loves the book itself. We'll gather here once a month... and the first episode drops August 1st! Subscribe now wherever you listen to podcasts. The ARTWIFE Book Club is hosted Hannah Harlee. She is the co-founder of ARTWIFE, a digital literary and arts magazine publishing essays, short stories, visual art, and video art. Learn more at https://www.artwifemag.com/.