In today’s episode author Molly Gaudry sits down with TW founder and publisher Martha Nichols. Molly holds degrees in fiction, poetry, and experimental prose, and her new book that just came out last week is aptly titled Fit Into Me: A Novel, A Memoir. The book weaves a fictional narrative into Molly’s own story along with fragments from a wide range of other authors in an effort to create a sense of self via the combination of different elements. With this format Molly explores her experience as a Korean adoptee raised in the US, meeting her birth family as a teenager, and recovering from a brain injury as an adult.

In this TW conversation, Fit Into Me provides a jumping-off point for big questions about self-creation and the holes in memory that writers inevitably confront when telling their own stories. Martha and Molly discuss how she blended its nonfiction sections with the fictional story of a character (the “tea-house woman”) taken from her two previous works, We Take Me Apart (Ampersand, 2009), which was a finalist for the Asian American Literary Award; and Desire: A Haunting (Ampersand, 2018).

In this week's episode, TW Creative Director John Vogel sits down with drummer and author Nic Brown to talk about his memoir Bang Bang Crash (Counterpoint, 2023).

Despite being accepted to Ivy League colleges, Nic opted to pursue his band Athenaeum straight out of high school. They signed to Atlantic Records, landed a few hits, and played extensively before Nic decided to leave to group in 2001 to pursue different styles of music and reclaim his opportunity to go to college.

While attending Columbia University, he joined up with the band Skeleton Key, headed by bass player Erik Sanko, who played in John Lurie’s Lounge Lizards. Nic also played in several other bands, including Falcon! and Longwave. This episode is scored with that first Falcon! album, The Early Year.

Nic then left NYC for the Iowa's Writer's Workshop, sending him down the writing and teaching path that he's followed over the last almost 20 years.

Victor Manibo, a 2022 Lambda Literary Emerging Voices Fellow, sits down with TW Community Manager Neva Talladen to discuss the drafting process for his 2022 science fiction novel, The Sleepless. Manibo and Talladen connect over their shared Filipino heritage and roots in New York, as they explore the rise of “hustle culture.” The Sleepless portrays a society where sleep is no longer necessary or even desired. Instead, young professionals like Jamie, the story’s main character and an aspiring journalist, spend endless hours working, driven by an insatiable pursuit of career advancement.

TW Creative Director John Vogel interviews author Tom McAllister about his new essay collection It All Felt Impossible (Rose Metal Press, 2025). For the book, Tom challenged himself to write an essay a day that corresponded to each year of his life, keeping within a 1500 word limit. The result is a kind of mosaic memoir through snapshots across time with some tangential thoughts instigated by the memories.

This is Tom’s fourth published book, his first being the 2010 memoir Bury Me in My Jersey about his late father and their shared love of the Philadelphia Eagles. His other two books are the acclaimed novels How to Be Safe and The Young Widower’s Handbook, which have both been noted for their mix of darkness and humor.

In their conversation, Tom talks about the experiences of teaching and being a student, expectations along the artistic path, and the community that art can create.

TW Creative Director John Vogel talks with Andrew Boryga, author of the satirical novel Victim. The two talk about the autobiographic backdrop to the novel, balancing creative time with parenthood, and the addictive and distancing natures of social media.

TW Community Manager Neva Talladen talks with visual artist and graphic designer Sasha Wizansky about her experience starting Pencil Magazine. The magazine, created entirely out of work made with pencil and paper, brings attention to the physicality of writing and drawing with pencil, as well as the slowing down that writing and reading handwriting can cause.

In our last episode of the season, TW Creative Director John Vogel interviews author Athena Dixon, our first repeat guest for the podcast. A year and a half ago we released Neva’s interview with Athena, which focused on her book The Loneliness Files (Tin House, 2023). This time around, in January 2025, John asked her questions from his Perfect Recognition project focusing on intense aesthetic experiences and people’s life paths towards creativity. Fellow artists might find some resonance and solace in their open discussion about their own disillusionment surrounding artistic pursuit and how their lived experiences deviate from the more common narratives handed down to us.

TW proofreader Jess Barnett hosts award-winning Minnesotan food writer, Steve Hoffman, for a conversation about the unique joys and challenges of travel. Hoffman, a lover of French cuisine and culture, discusses traveling to the picturesque south of France, not as a tourist, skimming the surface of trending destinations, but as a humble guest, ready to immerse himself and his family in the cultural and culinary experience. In his recently published memoir, A Season for That: Lost and Found in the Other Southern France, Hoffman dishes out a humorous and layered perspective on marriage, parenting, and cooking in the small town of Autignac.

Hoffman is a self-described Francophile and lifelong lover of literature. Like many aspiring writers, he relied on other industries for financial stability, working first in real estate before transitioning to tax preparation. Hoffman’s food writing career was launched during his family's extended stay in France in 2012. Upon returning, he wrote for the Minnesota Star Tribune about his experience abroad. His 2018 piece, “What is Northern Food?” earned Hoffman the James Beard MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award and propelled his career as a food writer.

Hoffman describes his writing process as a decade-long reflection on “learning how to write a book, while writing one.” Stemming from journal entries during his time in France, he fashioned his writing after inspirational authors like John Updike and Jane Austen. Beyond a vivid depiction of the rural country and aromatic apprenticeship as a winemaker, he offers readers sincere vulnerability. Hoffman explores his imperfections and growth through professional coaching, caring but unvarnished feedback from his wife, and finding the balance in his writing between travel log and storytelling.

Steve Hoffman continues to draw inspiration from shared experiences with his family. Following a recent house fire (thankfully no one was injured), Hoffman’s potential second book will focus on this unfortunate event as a “clarifying devastation.” As someone who closely links identity to physical place and space, he reflects on the skillful art of a simplistic lifestyle and carrying on the “minimal number of things you need to live graciously.”