Freelance Writing Direct speaks with memoirist Heather Sweeney about how she shaped her memoir from years of life on the move, how she found clarity in a linear structure, what she learned to leave out, and how she discovered the moment her story really begins.… Read More
Leslie B. Blanchard joins Freelance Writing Direct for a conversation about developing her New York Times Modern Love essay under Estelle’s guidance, finding the emotional center of a grief story, clarifying the negotiation at the heart of the piece, shaping structure through revision, strengthening metaphor, understanding editorial expectations, and discovering what the story truly wanted to say.… Read More
Freelance Writing Direct chats with Alysia Abbott about Fairyland, adapting memoir to film, and the craft choices behind telling a tender, complex father–daughter story.… Read More
On this episode of Freelance Writing Direct, I go behind the scenes with Electric Literature’s Editor-in-Chief Denne Michele Norris to talk about what Electric Literature publishes, how to pitch them successfully, the craft mistakes that make editors stop reading, and the kinds of stories they’re looking for next.… Read More
Denne Michele Norris joins Freelance Writing Direct for a conversation about what it means to give every character main character energy, writing character-first fiction, crafting intimacy and “spicy” scenes with emotional depth, using dialogue as a tool for revelation, switching scenes for maximum impact, finding the story’s three-part structure, discovering the novel’s spine through revision, transforming autobiography into art, and her luminous debut When the Harvest Comes.… Read More
Mallary Tenore Tarpley joins Freelance Writing Direct for a conversation about writing from the in-between—the liminal space between illness and full recovery.… Read More
On Freelance Writing Direct, Estelle Erasmus chats with Chloé Caldwell, author of Trying, about what happens when your life unravels mid-book—and you have to rewrite the story you thought you were living.… Read More
In this solo episode, I share insider takeaways and Estelle’s Edge insights from the inaugural People of Publishing Conference in New York City.… Read More
What happens when a nonfiction writer lets herself play with magic? In this episode, Estelle Erasmus chats with Olga Mecking about trusting reinvention, midlife heroines, and the freedom that comes from writing on your own terms.… Read More
Freelance Writing Direct chats with award-winning author Sue William Silverman about flash nonfiction, the craft of metaphor, and how to braid the “unaware” and “aware” voices to create resonance.… Read More
Estelle Erasmus chats with Nina B. Lichtenstein about using the body as a framework for memoir, why senses like smell and music unlock memory, the role of empathy in writing about others, and how structure can emerge through essays.”… Read More
Journalist and former rock singer Kaila Yu joins Freelance Writing Direct to chat about her debut memoir Fetishized (Crown Publishing) and how memoir can be a reckoning with culture and the self.… Read More
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