The podcast

Mothers, on the record.

Long-form conversations with the writers in our pages. Hosted by Darlene Cah. New episodes every other Tuesday.

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Forty-seven conversations and counting.

  1. 47

    Writing in the cracks of a school day

    With Paula Timpson · 38 min · April 8, 2026

    Paula on her morning ritual, the poems she writes during pickup line, and what changed when she stopped trying to find a "real" writing time.

  2. 46

    On writing the difficult thing first

    With Alessandra Nysether-Santos · 44 min · March 25, 2026

    Alessandra reads from "The Borrowers" and talks about why she started with the hardest scene — and why she'd do it that way again.

  3. 45

    A workshop, a book club, and a baby monitor

    With Jennifer Bonn · 41 min · March 11, 2026

    Jennifer started her first writing workshop the week she came home from the hospital. Eight years later, the workshop is still going. So is the kid.

  4. 44

    Three drafts, one good sentence

    With Maria Okonkwo · 36 min · February 25, 2026

    Maria on her revision practice, her color-coded notebooks, and the year she gave herself permission to throw out a finished novel.

  5. 43

    What humor can carry that earnestness can't

    With Beth Tashiro · 47 min · February 11, 2026

    A conversation about humor as a load-bearing structure: what jokes can hold up that straight talk would crush.

  6. 42

    First publication, twentieth submission

    With Anya Petrov · 39 min · January 28, 2026

    Anya kept a spreadsheet. She also kept writing. We talk about the long hallway of submission — and what it felt like to finally walk out the other side.

  7. 41

    A poem is a bowl, not a cup

    With Lila Ashworth · 33 min · January 14, 2026

    Lila on the difference between containment and concealment in poetry, and what to do when a poem refuses to close.

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