Good Writing Podcast
The Good Writing Podcast is a show for creative writers who want to nerd out on craft. Two friends, Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns, read their favorite sentences, paragraphs, and other short excerpts and present craft lessons and writing exercises for fellow writers.
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Episodes
Monday Jun 13, 2022
Monday Jun 13, 2022
We love insights and character motivation on this podcast! š¤ But we also like scenes that move the story forward. This week, we discuss the hilarious Milk Fed by Melissa Broder (2021) and how she introduces a therapist character who feels realistic while still creating all of the insights that we expect when a character goes to therapy. A link we promised to include in the show notes: Listen to Danez Smith read their poem āDear White Americaā Good Writing is a podcast where two MFA friends read like writers and lay out craft ideas for fellow writers to steal. Co-hosted by Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns. Twitter: @goodwritingpodĀ Email: goodwritingpodcast@gmail.com
Monday May 30, 2022
Monday May 30, 2022
In this episode of the Good Writing Podcast, Ben and Emily discuss what it means to write an image that by no right can actually be seen. Good Writing is a podcast where two MFA friends read like writers and lay out craft ideas for fellow writers to steal. Co-hosted by Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns. Twitter: @goodwritingpodĀ Email: goodwritingpodcast@gmail.com
Monday May 09, 2022
Monday May 09, 2022
It's been 6 months of podcasting! Ben and Emily review some of their favorite prompts and exercises from the past 25 episodes of the Good Writing Podcast. Listen to the full episodes clipped here: Brett Biebel - On Compactness, Objects and Perfection with Josephine Rowe How to Write with Yourself as the Subject - Megan Boyleās Liveblog Real Settings That Mess With Your Characters from Kristen Arnett & Patricia Lockwood The Best Sentence in Pride and Prejudice Ā Good Writing is a podcast where two MFA friends read like writers and lay out craft ideas for fellow writers to steal. Co-hosted by Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns. Twitter: @goodwritingpodĀ Email: goodwritingpodcast@gmail.com
Monday May 02, 2022
Monday May 02, 2022
This episode of the Good Writing Podcast deals with the ethics that the writer must grapple with when writing, especially when that writing deals with people from the so-called real world with the help of Melissa Febos' parables. "A Big Shitty Party" by Melissa Febos. Good Writing is a podcast where two MFA friends read like writers and lay out craft ideas for fellow writers to steal. Co-hosted by Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns. Twitter: @goodwritingpodĀ Email: goodwritingpodcast@gmail.com
Monday Apr 25, 2022
Monday Apr 25, 2022
Borges often looked to his work as an essayist and literary critic when looking for inspiration for his fiction, be it in the form of using that fiction to better understand writing or taking on the forms of non-fiction directly. While the first of these is inevitably touched upon in this episode, we focus more directly on the formal effort of "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" to discuss ways in which writers can take formal inspiration from the world of non-fiction. "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" - Jorge Luis Borges Good Writing is a podcast where two MFA friends read like writers and lay out craft ideas for fellow writers to steal. Co-hosted by Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns. Twitter: @goodwritingpodĀ Email: goodwritingpodcast@gmail.com
Monday Apr 18, 2022
Monday Apr 18, 2022
Emily picked up The Fellowship of the Ring and bought in hard. What makes the whimsical and meandering opening work so well? Ben and Emily also discuss listener mail and workshop peer pet peeves. Good Writing is a podcast where two MFA friends read like writers and lay out craft ideas for fellow writers to steal. Co-hosted by Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns. Twitter: @goodwritingpodĀ Email: goodwritingpodcast@gmail.com
Monday Apr 11, 2022
Monday Apr 11, 2022
Author and editor John Trefry joins us to discuss (among many other things) the ways in which language itself has aesthetic value, the unknowable contours of spacetime, why writing without emotion can lead you to interesting places, and death metal. Read John's writing on the Neutral Spaces blog. Visit Inside the Castle here. The Amityville films on Tubi. "Claustrophobic Dysentery" by Cabinet Good Writing is a podcast where two MFA friends read like writers and lay out craft ideas for fellow writers to steal. Co-hosted by Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns. Twitter: @goodwritingpodĀ Email: goodwritingpodcast@gmail.com
Monday Apr 04, 2022
Monday Apr 04, 2022
Today on the Good Writing Podcast we are joined by flash fiction author Brett Bieble. Topics discussed include the ways in which flash fiction approaches "perfection," the advantages of brevity, the ways that stories utilize objects, and comma patrol. Josephine Rowe's "The Vending Machine at the End of the World" Brett's Twitter Brett's story "Big Red Nation" Good Writing is a podcast where two MFA friends read like writers and lay out craft ideas for fellow writers to steal. Co-hosted by Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns. Twitter: @goodwritingpodĀ Email: goodwritingpodcast@gmail.com
Benjamin Kerns
Ben (co-host) is a writer living in Florida with his wife and their cat. He writes fiction with a penchant for the weird and unexpected.
Follow him on Twitter @benjaminkerns22.
Emily Donovan
Emily (co-host) is writer living in Colorado with her girlfriend, their dog, and several struggling houseplants. She writes jokes disguised as fiction.
Find her recent publications online at emilydonovan.com.