Listen:
I first met Denne Michele Norris, the Editor-in-Chief of Electric Literature, at the Open Secrets Magazine Live event earlier this year. I loved chatting with her about publishing and her work. I was even more excited to learn of her debut novel When The Harvest Comes, and invited her to speak with me on Freelance Writing Direct for a two-part episode: The first on her book, and next week for episode #166, on her role at Electric Literature.
Denne, a Whiting Literary Magazine Prize winner and the first Black openly trans woman to helm a major literary publication, chatted with me about writing character-first fiction, sex as storytelling, dialogue that hums beneath the surface, and what it means to spend fourteen years shaping a novel that sings (yes, music is involved). Denne’s insights are generous and deeply personal, and you will love hearing them as much as I did.
Stay tuned: Next week, Denne returns to cover what catches her attention as an editor, how writers can stand out, and what it really takes to build a sustainable literary career.
In This Episode
- Bringing every character to life: How to ensure no character fades into the background
- Raising the stakes; Why Denne chose to open the story with a wedding to root readers in love before loss
- Sex as storytelling: writing intimate scenes that move the plot and reveal character
- Dialogue & subtext: what’s said, unsaid, and how readers can live between those lines
- Music as metaphor: a violist’s instrument as inner mirror
- Finding structure: shaping 14 years of revision into a three-part arc
- Title turnaround: The rediscovered sermon that inspired When the Harvest Comes
- Reader takeaway: crafting stories that offer escape, empathy, and affirmation
Watch on YouTube
About Denne
Denne Michele Norris is the editor in chief of Electric Literature, winner of the Whiting Literary Magazine Prize. She is the first Black, openly trans woman to helm a major literary publication. She co-hosts the critically acclaimed podcast Food 4 Thot and holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College.
Connect with Denne
Get More from Estelle
NYU (Zoom), 6-week course: Writing About Your Life Through Memoir, Essays & Articles — Register Here.
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Student Work
Rhonda Ray has a compelling new essay in Brevity, “How Searching for Writing Topics Became a Search for Truth and Beauty.” Rhonda workshopped this piece in my recent Zoom class, and it is a powerful example of how following a question on the page can lead to profound insight.
Ellen Acconcia published a smart and timely op-ed, “A Dangerous Nostalgia,” in Eurasia Review. She weaves her personal experience as an expat with a recent poll and a buzzy, culturally resonant term — a strategic combination I highlight as a publishing secret in Writing That Gets Noticed.
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- 📘 Writing That Gets Noticed – Buy the book | Audiobook
- 🎤 Watch Estelle’s TEDx Talk: How to Get Noticed in Your Writing and Beyond
- 📰 Subscribe on Substack: https://estelleserasmus.substack.com
Latest posts: “Why Every Memoir Needs the “Echo Effect”, When Writers Are the Ones Blocking the Page: 6 Ways to Move Forward (and An Offer); Stop Counting Your Words. Start Shaping Your Story” and “How to Get Published in Cosmopolitan or Seventeen” - 🎧 More episodes: Freelance Writing Direct Podcast
About Estelle
Estelle Erasmus is an award-winning journalist, author of Writing That Gets Noticed (named a “Best Book for Writers” by Poets & Writers), and host of Freelance Writing Direct—2025 Podcast of the Year (Education), American Writing Awards. A Contributing Editor for Writer’s Digest and adjunct professor at NYU, her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, WIRED, PBS/Next Avenue, The Independent, and AARP: The Magazine. She’s served as editor-in-chief of five national magazines.
