Melissa Hafting is an ecologist, bird guide, author, and photographer. She founded the British Columbia Young Birders Program in 2014, which aims to bring together youth of all races, sexual orientations, and genders to look at birds on fun excursions in the natural world. The program also helps teach youth about citizen science and the importance of bird conservation. She is the author of Dare to Bird: Exploring the Joy and Healing Power of Birds, out last year from Rocky Mountain Books. Listen in as she and I disucss the healing power of birds and so much more. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & 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 and 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.

Bridgett M. Davis is the author of the 2019 memoir, The World According to Fannie Davis, which was a New York Times editor’s choice, and a BuzzFeed, Parade and Kirkus best book of 2019. She is also the writer/director of the award-winning film Naked Acts, rediscovered and re-released in 2024 to critical acclaim. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, among other publications. The author of two novels, she just published a new memoir, Love, Rita An American Story of Sisterhood, Joy, Loss and Legacy, just out from Harper Collins. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & 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 and 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.

Shannon Downey, also known as Baddass Cross Stitch, is an artist, activist, craftivist, community builder, and general instigator. Her work inspires others to take action, think, discuss, engage with democracy and their community, and find some digital/analog balance. Her award-winning work can be found in galleries, museums, and private collections around the world and has been featured in outlets including Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Atlas Obscura, Fast Company, and i-D, and books including Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Signs of Resistance: A Visual History of Protest in America. Her debut book is Let's Move the Needle: An Activism Handbook for Artists, Crafters, Creatives, and Makers, just out from Storey Publishing, a subdivision of Hachette. Listen in and Shannon and host Marion Roach Smith discuss how art is the greatest tool for building communities and mobilizing poeple to take action that will bring about actual social change. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & 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 and 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.

Writer and author Callan Wink has been awarded fellowships by the National Endowment for the Arts and Stanford University, where he was a Wallace Stegner Fellow. His stories and essays have been published in the New Yorker, Granta, Playboy, Men’s Journal, and The Best American Short Stories. He is the author of a novel, August, and a collection of short stories, Dog Run Moon. He lives in Livingston, Montana, where he is a fly-fishing guide on the Yellowstone River. His new book is Beartooth, just out from Spiegel and Grau. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & 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 and 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.

Jessica Gutierrez is a former journalist who has earned several awards for her work and is the current author of A Product of Genetics and Day Drinking: A Never Coming of Age Story, just published by Tiny Reparations House, a division of Penguin Random House. Listen in as she and host Marion Roach Smith discuss writing memoir, and specifically how to identify oneself in the world in order to write from there. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & 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 and 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.

.

Gloria L. Huang is a freelance writer whose fiction has appeared in literary journals including Michigan Quarterly Review, The Threepenny Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, Witness Magazine, Massachusetts Review, Pleiades, Southern Humanities Review, Fiction Magazine, North American Review, Arts & Letters, Washington Square Review, The Chattahoochee Review, Gargoyle Magazine, Sycamore Review, and The Antigonish Review. Her debut novel, KAYA OF THE OCEAN has been selected as a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection, American Booksellers Association Indies Introduce selection, and Indie Next selection. It is just out from Penguin Random House. Listen in to this episode of The Qwerty Podcast, as she and host Marion Roach Smith discuss the art and work of being a contemporary freelance writer. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & 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 and 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.

Today my guest is author Nicole Graev Lipson, whose work has appeared in The Sun, Virginia Quarterly Review, LA Review of Books, The Millions, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe, among other venues. Her work has been awarded a Pushcart Prize, nominated for a National Magazine Award, and selected for The Best American Essays anthology. She is the author of the just-out memoir in essays Mothers and Other Fictional Characters, published by Chronicle Books. Listen in as we talk about the fine art of the persoanl essay, writing essays and how to write a book-length collcetion of them. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & 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 and 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.