Welcome to Qwerty, the podcast for writers on how to live the writing life. Host Marion Roach Smith interviews the best writers in all genres to discover their process. Qwerty is by, about and for writers and explores the real challenges of writing and the steps anyone can take to become a better storyteller. Listen in for writing tips, publishing advice and encouragement on how to live the writing life.

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Ep. 176 Stacey Lindsay

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Virginia Eubanks is an investigative journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Harper’s Magazine, The Guardian, Nature, and Scientific American. She is the author of the award-winning book <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3208509" rel="nofollow">Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor</a>. Her debut memoir is <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Guide-Open-Water-Lifesaving-Survival/dp/0374611793" rel="nofollow">A Guide to Open Water Lifesaving: Lessons on Love, Care and Survival</a> just out from Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Memoir-Project-Thoroughly-Non-Standardized-Writing/dp/0446584843" rel="nofollow">The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing &amp; Life</a>. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and <a href="https://marionroach.com/learn-to-write-memoir-in-4-online-memoir-classes-with-marion-roach-smith/" rel="nofollow">online classes in how to write memoir</a>, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 175 Virginia Eubanks

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Cara Benson&#39;s writing has been published in The New York Times, Boston Review, Orion Magazine, Sierra Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail, Terrain, and selected for Best American Poetry. She has received a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship and the bpNichol Award. Benson wrote a series on walking in the woods for the Best American Poetry website and taught poetry in a New York State Correctional Facility for eight years. Her new book is a memoir called <a href="https://link.amazon/B0cDyKHjU" rel="nofollow">An Armsfull of Birds: A Personal Field Guide to Love, Loss and Commitment</a>, just out from Health Comunications Inc., and distributed by Simon &amp; Schuster. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book T<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Memoir-Project-Thoroughly-Non-Standardized-Writing/dp/0446584843" rel="nofollow">he Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing &amp; Life</a>. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and <a href="https://marionroach.com/learn-to-write-memoir-in-4-online-memoir-classes-with-marion-roach-smith/" rel="nofollow">online classes in how to write memoir</a>, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 174 Cara Benson

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Jessica Walker is a multidisciplinary artist, illustrator, filmmaker, and educator, she is an assistant professor of fine arts at Parsons and has exhibited films, books, and 2D media in solo and group shows in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, and Australia. Her work is housed in the permanent collections at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Research Library, Yale University Haas Family Arts Library, and the University of Washington Art Library. Her new book is a debut novel called <a href="https://amzn.to/4gRPCZ5" rel="nofollow">The Secret Astronomers</a>, published by Viking Books Children’s Books. It won the Best YA Book Award at the 2026 Barnes &amp; Noble Children’s &amp; YA Book Awards. The award is voted on by Barnes &amp; Noble booksellers nationwide. Listen in as we discuss writing and illustrating a coming of age story that explores how to work through our differences. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book ,<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Memoir-Project-Thoroughly-Non-Standardized-Writing/dp/0446584843" rel="nofollow">The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing &amp; Life</a>. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and <a href="https://marionroach.com/learn-to-write-memoir-in-4-online-memoir-classes-with-marion-roach-smith/" rel="nofollow">online classes in how to write memoir</a>, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 173 Jessica Walker

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Hester Kaplan is the author of two story collections, The Edge of Marriage (University of Georgia Press, and Norton), which received The Flannery O’Connor Prize for Short Fiction; and Unravished (Ig Publishing); the novels The Tell (HarperCollins) and Kinship Theory (Little, Brown). Her work has appeared in Ploughshares, Story, Glimmer Train, Southwest Review, and Indiana Review and others, and has been widely anthologized, including in The Best American Short Stories, Creature Needs, and Providence Noir. The recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships and two fellowships in literature from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, she was named Quarry Farm Fellow by the Center for Mark Twain Studies. Fellow for her new book, Twice Born, Finding My Father in the Margins of Biography, just out from Catapult. Listen in as she and I discuss how to set up a fine piece of memoir. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Memoir-Project-Thoroughly-Non-Standardized-Writing/dp/0446584843" rel="nofollow">The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing &amp; Life</a>. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and <a href="https://marionroach.com/learn-to-write-memoir-in-4-online-memoir-classes-with-marion-roach-smith/" rel="nofollow">online classes in how to write memoir</a>, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 172 Hester Kaplan

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Writer, scholar, and award-winning teacher, Marian Yee teaches writing, literature and contemporary art to performing art students at Berklee College of Music. Her published writings include poems, reviews, and scholarly articles. Her debut novel is 4 JANES, published by Little A. Listen in as she and discuss the sheer joy of writing fan fiction. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Memoir-Project-Thoroughly-Non-Standardized-Writing/dp/0446584843" rel="nofollow">The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing &amp; Life</a>. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and <a href="https://marionroach.com/learn-to-write-memoir-in-4-online-memoir-classes-with-marion-roach-smith/" rel="nofollow">online classes in how to write memoir</a>, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 171 Marian Yee

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Rachel Weaver is a writer, author, essayist, memoirist and teacher. She is the author of the novel, Point of Direction which Oprah Magazine named a Top Ten Book To Pick Up Now, and won the 2015 Willa Cather Award for Fiction. Her new book, a debut memoir, is Dizzy, just out from West Virginia Press. Listen in as she and I discuss how to write a braided memoir. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Memoir-Project-Thoroughly-Non-Standardized-Writing/dp/0446584843" rel="nofollow">The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing &amp; Life</a>. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and <a href="https://marionroach.com/learn-to-write-memoir-in-4-online-memoir-classes-with-marion-roach-smith/" rel="nofollow">online classes in how to write memoir</a>, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 170 Rachel Weaver

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Nicole Walker is the author of several books, including, “Processed Meats: Essays on Food, Flesh and Navigating Disaster” and “The After-Normal: Brief, Alphabetical Essays on a Changing Planet.” She edits the “Crux” series at the University of Georgia Press, is the nonfiction editor at the journal “Diagram” and teaches creative writing at Northern Arizona University.. Her new book is How to Plant a Billion Trees: A Memoir of Childhood Trauma and the Healing Power of Nature, just out from Bloomsbury. Listen in as we discuss how to create your authority as a writer without being overly authoritative. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Memoir-Project-Thoroughly-Non-Standardized-Writing/dp/0446584843" rel="nofollow">The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing &amp; Life</a>. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and o<a href="https://marionroach.com/learn-to-write-memoir-in-4-online-memoir-classes-with-marion-roach-smith/" rel="nofollow">nline classes in how to write memoir</a>, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 169 Nicole Walker

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Hilary Plattner is a writer of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Her debut memoir, <a href="https://amzn.to/3Ri5sBY" rel="nofollow">The Momma Puzzle</a>, was shortlisted for the Santa Fe Writers Project Literary Awards, and named a finalist for the Wandering Aengus and Trail to Table Book Awards. She holds an MFA in fiction writing from Columbia University and has taught writing at The New School. Previously, she founded and directed Brooklyn Writers, a community-based writing program. Her writing has been published in numerous literary journals, including Allegro, Cider Press Review, Fence, GSU Review, Gulf Coast, Synkroniciti and The Ledge. Listen in as we discuss how to write memoir using records left behind by family members, as well as the difficult topic of writing about family suicide. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Memoir-Project-Thoroughly-Non-Standardized-Writing/dp/0446584843" rel="nofollow">The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing &amp; Life</a>. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and <a href="https://marionroach.com/learn-to-write-memoir-in-4-online-memoir-classes-with-marion-roach-smith/" rel="nofollow">online classes in how to write memoir</a>, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 168 Hillary Plattner

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Jed Alexander is the author of The Fairy Tale Color Collection, a series of children’s books that begins with the wordless 2018 book Red, the follow-up 2022 book, Gold, and the third book in that series, Olive. His clients have included SpongeBob Comics, Cricket Magazine, Writer&#39;s Digest and The Children&#39;s Book Council. His new book is <a href="https://amzn.to/43VFZ4e" rel="nofollow">The Black Market</a>, a Middle Grade book which he wrote and illustrated recently published by Union Square Kids. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book ,<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Memoir-Project-Thoroughly-Non-Standardized-Writing/dp/0446584843" rel="nofollow">The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing &amp; Life</a>. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and <a href="https://wp.writingclasses.com/courses/memoir-writing-i/" rel="nofollow">online classes in how to write memoir</a>, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 167 Jed Alexander

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Davin Malasarn is a writer an author whose work has appeared in The Los Angeles Review, Rosebud, Opium Magazine, SmokeLong Quarterly and other journals in print and online. His debut novel, The Outer Country, is just out from One World/Random House. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Memoir-Project-Thoroughly-Non-Standardized-Writing/dp/0446584843" rel="nofollow">The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing &amp; Life.</a> Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and <a href="https://marionroach.com/learn-to-write-memoir-in-4-online-memoir-classes-with-marion-roach-smith/" rel="nofollow">online classes in how to write memoir</a>, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 166 Davin Malasarn

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Writer and author Scott Eden is an investigative reporter whose work has focused on crime, corruption, injustice, business, science, technology, and the dark side of sports. His work has appeared in Wired, GQ, ESPN The Magazine, The Atavist Inc., and The Believer’s best-of collection Read Hard. The author of Touchdown Jesus: Faith and Fandom at Notre Dame. His new book is <a href="https://www.spiegelandgrau.com/a-killing-in-cannabis" rel="nofollow">A Killing in Cannabis: A True Story of Love, Murder and California Weed,</a> just out from Spiegel &amp; Grau. Welcome, Scott. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Memoir-Project-Thoroughly-Non-Standardized-Writing/dp/0446584843" rel="nofollow">The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing &amp; Life.</a> Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and <a href="https://wp.writingclasses.com/courses/memoir-writing-i/" rel="nofollow">online classes in how to write memoir</a>, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 165 Scott Eden

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Marion Winik is a writer and author whose memoir, First Comes Love, was originally published 30 years ago, featured on the Oprah Winfrey show and loved by reviewers and readers everywhere. Perhaps the words most often used for it were &#34;pioneering&#34; and &#34;groundbreaking.&#34; The Kirkus review said of it, “Romance, comedy, tragedy, terrible truth, and extraordinary love, as straight woman marries gay man, bears children, and watches their world dissolve in the wake of AIDS.” Yes, all that, amid writing that is a master class in memoir. The author of nine books, including The Big Book of the Dead (Counterpoint, 2019) and First Comes Love (Pantheon, 1996; Vintage, 2025), her essays have been published in The New York Times Magazine, The Sun, and elsewhere; her column at BaltimoreFishbowl.com has been running since 2011. A professor at the University of Baltimore, she reviews books for The Washington Post, Oprah Daily, and People, among others, and hosts the NPR podcast The Weekly Reader. She was a commentator on All Things Considered for fifteen years. She is the recipient of the 2023 National Book Critics Circle Service Award. Listen in as the author and I discuss writing what you know for a fine,long career. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Memoir-Project-Thoroughly-Non-Standardized-Writing/dp/0446584843" rel="nofollow">The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing &amp; Life.</a> Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and <a href="https://marionroach.com/learn-to-write-memoir-in-4-online-memoir-classes-with-marion-roach-smith/" rel="nofollow">online classes in how to write memoir</a>, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 164 Marion Winik

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Writer and author Huda Al-Marashi writes for both children and adults. She is a coauthor of the middle grade novel Grounded, which won the Walter Dean Myers Honor award, and the author of the memoir First Comes Marriage: My Not-So-Typical American Love Story. Her other writing has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, and al Jazeera. She is a fellow and mentor with the Highlights Foundation Muslim Storytellers Program. Her short story “Not Only an Only,” was featured in the celebrated anthology ONCE UPON AN EID. Her new book is a middle grade novel titled, Hail Miriam, just out from Penguin. Listen in as she and I discuss turning one of her own life events into fiction, and so much more. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Memoir-Project-Thoroughly-Non-Standardized-Writing/dp/0446584843" rel="nofollow">The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing &amp; Life.</a> Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and <a href="https://marionroach.com/learn-to-write-memoir-in-4-online-memoir-classes-with-marion-roach-smith/" rel="nofollow">online classes in how to write memoir,</a> as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 163 Huda Al-Marashi

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Award-winning journalist and author, Matti Friedman has worked as a reporter in Israel, Lebanon, Morocco, Moscow, the Caucasus, and Washington, DC. A former Associated Press correspondent, his work has appeared in the New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine, the Atlantic, and elsewhere. He&#39;s currently writes from Israel for The Free Press. The author of five nonfiction books that have been translated into a dozen languages and have so far been awarded The Sami Rohr Prize, the Natan Prize, the ALA’s Sophy Brody Medal. His new book is Out of the Sky, Heroism and Rebirth in Nazi Europe, just out from Speigel and Grau. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Memoir-Project-Thoroughly-Non-Standardized-Writing/dp/0446584843" rel="nofollow">The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing &amp; Life</a>. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and <a href="https://wp.writingclasses.com/courses/memoir-writing-i/" rel="nofollow">online classes in how to write memoir</a>, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 162 Matti Friedman

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Shelley Noble is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. Well-known for her gripping historical novel, The Tiffany Girls, in which the author unearths the previously little-known true story of the women artists responsible for much of Tiffany’s glasswork, as well as for her historical mysteries, Shelley Noble is a former professor, dancer and choreographer. Her new historical novel could not be more timely. Titled The Sisters of Book Row, it digs into early 20th century American book banning during a time in our country when even classic literature or fine art could send a person to jail. The Sisters of Book Row is just out from William Morrow. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book T<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Memoir-Project-Thoroughly-Non-Standardized-Writing/dp/0446584843" rel="nofollow">he Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing &amp; Life</a>. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and <a href="https://marionroach.com/learn-to-write-memoir-in-4-online-memoir-classes-with-marion-roach-smith/" rel="nofollow">online classes in how to write memoir</a>, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 161 Shelley Noble

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Antonio Michael Downing is the author of the memoir Saga Boy, My Memoir of Blackness and Becoming, in which he show us how he had become, like his father and grandfather before him, a Saga boy, a Trinidadian playboy and almost loses everything of value himself until he rescues himself and becames the musician and writer he was born to be. In his new book, a novel entitled Black Cherokee, we meet the unforgettable Ophelia Blue Rivers, a mixed-race Black girl fighting for her identity in a South Carolina Cherokee community. Listen in as he and I speak about writing into identity, and so much more. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Memoir-Project-Thoroughly-Non-Standardized-Writing/dp/0446584843" rel="nofollow">The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing &amp; Life.</a> Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and <a href="https://wp.writingclasses.com/courses/memoir-writing-i/" rel="nofollow">online classes in how to write memoir</a>, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 160 Antonio Michael Downing

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Father and son, Ruchin and Neil Kansal, are co-authors of the new book, The Kansal Clunker: The Car That Rebuilt Us, just out from Khoeler Books. It is getting rave reviews, including one from Kirkus proclaiming it “&#34;An endearing and thought-provoking road odyssey.&#34; And it is just that – and odyssey, and more, that received a number one rating as a new release on Amazon in family travel guides. But it’s not like any other travel guide, I assure you. Listen in as we discuss what a clunker car brought to a father and son team. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Memoir-Project-Thoroughly-Non-Standardized-Writing/dp/0446584843" rel="nofollow">The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing &amp; Life</a>. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and <a href="https://wp.writingclasses.com/courses/memoir-writing-i/" rel="nofollow">online classes in how to write memoir</a>, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 159 The Kansals

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Writer and author Tarpley Hitt is a New York journalist and an editor and contributor at The Drift magazine. She has previously reported on culture and money for The Daily Beast and Gawker. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Bookforum, The Paris Review, The Guardian, Air Mail, Deseret Magazine, and Miami New Times. Her debut book is Barbieland, The Unauthorized History, just out from Simon &amp; Schuster’s One Signal imprint. The New York Times called it “rollicking.” Amazon named it a “Best Book of the Month” and an “Editors’ Pick.” Her work is full of humor, joy and vibrant language, in no small part because of the eye she has developed. Listen in as we discuss that eye, and so much more. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing &amp; Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 158 Tarpley Hitt

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Melissa Fraterrigo is the author of the novel Glory Days (University of Nebraska Press), as well as the story collection The Longest Pregnancy (Livingston Press). Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies from storySouth and Shenandoah to Indiana Review and The Millions. She teaches fiction writing at Purdue University and is the founder and executive director of the Lafayette Writers’ Studio where she offers online classes on the art and craft of writing. Her new book is The Perils of Girlhood, just out from the University of Nebraska Press. Listen in as she and I discuss how to choose a point of view when writing memoir, and so much more. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book T<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Memoir-Project-Thoroughly-Non-Standardized-Writing/dp/0446584843" rel="nofollow">he Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing &amp; Life</a>. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars, instructive posts and <a href="https://wp.writingclasses.com/courses/memoir-writing-i/" rel="nofollow">online classes in how to write memoir</a>, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 157 Melissa Fraterrigo

Writing tips and instruction from successful authors.

Author Marion Roach Smith interviews the best writers in all genres to discover their process. QWERTY is about the real challenges of writing and the steps anyone can take to become a better storyteller. Join the conversation.