The podcast
Mothers, on the record.
Long-form conversations with the writers in our pages. Hosted by Darlene Cah. New episodes every other Tuesday.
All episodes
Forty-seven conversations and counting.
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47
Writing in the cracks of a school day
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.
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46
On writing the difficult thing first
Alessandra reads from "The Borrowers" and talks about why she started with the hardest scene — and why she'd do it that way again.
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45
A workshop, a book club, and a baby monitor
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.
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44
Three drafts, one good sentence
Maria on her revision practice, her color-coded notebooks, and the year she gave herself permission to throw out a finished novel.
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43
What humor can carry that earnestness can't
A conversation about humor as a load-bearing structure: what jokes can hold up that straight talk would crush.
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42
First publication, twentieth submission
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.
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41
A poem is a bowl, not a cup
Lila on the difference between containment and concealment in poetry, and what to do when a poem refuses to close.