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.


QWERTY: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Matthew White is an author, interior designer, antiquarian, preservationist, and a former ballet dancer. He is the author of Italy of My Dreams: The Story of an American Designer’s Real-life Passion for Italian Style. He is an emeritus board member and former chairman of Save Venice Inc. His new book is <a href="https://amzn.to/48phKNA" rel="nofollow">New York Minute: Public Clocks that Make the City Tick</a>, just out from Abbeville Press. Listen in as he and I discuss how to give yourself permission and not talk yourself out of writing a passion project. 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 & 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. 155 Matthew White

Winnie M Li is an American author and activist who has written for travel guidebooks, produced independent feature films, programmed for film festivals, and developed eco-tourism projects. Her first novel Dark Chapter was nominated for an Edgar Award and translated into ten languages, followed by the critically acclaimed Complicit. A survivor and advocate against gendered violence, she is an assistant professor of creative wriiting at the University of Birmingham in the UK. Her new novel is <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/What-We-Left-Unsaid/Winnie-M-Li/9781982190880" rel="nofollow">What We Left Unsaid</a>, just out from Simon & Schuster. Listen in as she and I discuss what are we asking a writer to do when we ask her to write into a trauma, 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 & 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. 154 Winnie Li

Writer and author Kyle Austin Young has a debut book that is for anyone who has ever dreamed of having a side-hustle, starting a business or following a dream.<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Success-Numbers-Game-Achieve-Playing/dp/1401975429" rel="nofollow"> The book, Success is a Numbers Game: Achieve Bigger Goals by Changing the Odds, is just out from Hay House Business. </a>Clear, practical, fun and a terrific read, this book will show you how to make your idea happen. The book includes a simple test for knowing which of our biggest goals to prioritize and which to quit immediately. Kyle Austin Young has written for the Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, The Boston Globe, CNBC, Psychology Today, Forbes, and Business Insider. Among his many roles for many teams, Kyle is the Operations Manager here at The Memoir Project. His core principles have shaped everything we do. 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 & 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. 153 Kyle Austin Young

Jon Kinally is a long-time writer for television who, along with his writing partner, Tracy Poust, has written for such TV shows as Will & Grace, Ugly Betty, 2 Broke Girls as well as many others. Over the years, they have received several Emmy nominations as well as a Writer’s Guild Award for Outstanding Writing in Episodic Comedy. Jon Kinnally has now turned his eye to memoir, and has just published his debut book, I’m, Prancing As Fast As I Can: My Journey From a Self-Loathing Closet Case to a Successful TV Writer With Some Self-Esteem just out from Permuted Press. 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 & 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. 152 Jon Kinally

Khadijah VanBrackle&#39;s debut novel, Fatima Takes the Cake, brings us to the intersection of culture, gender and religion and throws in some baking, which is a very fun addition. Her new novel, My Perfect Family, gives us an intergenerational narrative that covers the complex relationships mothers and daughter and explores what it means to be a Black Muslin woman in America. As a Black Muslim woman in America and as the mother of five, she is a living example of the adage to write what you know. That debut novel was a 2024 NAACP Image Award finalist for Outstanding Youth/Teens literature, a School Library journal’s Teen Librarian Toolbox Favorite Young Adult Read of 2023 and a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection. In 2021, she was selected for the Highlights Foundation Muslim Storytellers Fellowship. Her new novel pormises to be award-winning, as well. Listen in as she and I discuss her themes of being a Black Muslim in America, that ever-popular topic of family secrets as well what it means to be a young person forging one’s own path. 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 & 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. 151 Khadijah VanBrakle

The author and writer J. E. Thomas is an award-winning freelance journalist, whose first bok, Control Freaks, was a People Magazine Summer Must-Read as a Best of the Best pick by the Black caucus of the American Library Association. Her new book is The AI Incident, just out from Levine Quierido, and distributed by Chronicle Books. Listen in as she and I discuss how to create a surprise opening to a book, how to write into what&#39;s coming next, as well as how to write into the difficult territory of foster care in America. 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 & 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 <a href="https://marionroach.com/our-memoir-editing-coaching-services/" rel="nofollow">memoir editors and memoir coaches,</a> podcast guests and more.

Ep. 150 J.E. Thomas

Writer and author Joanna Choi Kalbus was born in North Korea and emigrated in wartime to The United States as a child, speaking no English. She was immersed in the California school system before the existence of English as a second language programs. She succeeded and eventually earned her PhD in Educational Administration from the University of California and served as a teacher, principal, and regional superintendent for 35 years. At eighty-four years old, Joanna has just published her first book, a memoir, called The Boat Not Taken, just out from BETTY Books, an imprint of WTAW books. It has been named by Ms. Magazine as one of The Most Anticipated Feminist Books of 2025. 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 & 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 <a href="https://marionroach.com/our-memoir-editing-coaching-services/" rel="nofollow">memoir editors and memoir coaches</a>, podcast guests and more.

Ep. 149 Joanna Choi Kalbus

Tia Levings is a New York Times bestselling author, whose debut book is a memoir entitled A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy, recently published by St Martin’s Press. Along with being a New York Times bestseller, the book is an Audible Canada best of the year for 2024 and a Goodreads Reader’s Choice. She maintains an educational platform on social media, speaking engagements, an anti-fundamentalist column, and bylines in major publications. You may have seen her as part of the hit 2023 docuseries on Amazon--Shiny Happy People---heard her on the We Can Do Hard Things podcast or read her in her Substack column. 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 & 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. 148 Tia Levings

Calliope Nicholas is the Co-Director and Manager of Residency Programs at Millay Arts, the artists residency program situated at the former home of Edna St. Vincent Millay, in Austerlitz, New York. The mission of Millay Arts is to support &#34;the work and creative process of multidisciplinary artists through a range of residencies that enrich lives and communities locally and globally.” For those who do not know, a residency is a gift of time and space for creatives. Listen in as Calliope Nicholas and Qwerty Podcast host, Marion Roach Smith, talk about how and when to apply, why to apply and what to expect from an artist&#39;s residency. 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 & 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, <a href="https://marionroach.com/our-memoir-editing-coaching-services/" rel="nofollow">available memoir editors and memoir coaches,</a> podcast guests and more.

Ep. 147 Calliope Nicholas

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 <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 & 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 and 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. 146 Melissa Hafting

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 <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 & 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 and 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. 145 Bridgett Davis

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&#39;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 <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 & 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 and 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. 144 Shannon Downey

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 <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 & 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 and 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 <a href="https://marionroach.com/our-memoir-editing-coaching-services/" rel="nofollow">talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches,</a> podcast guests and more.

Ep. 143 Callan Wink

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 <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 & 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 and 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. 142 Jessica Gutierrez

While Joan Wickersham is best known for her astonishing book, The Suicide Index, a National Book Award finalist, her work over her many years as a professional journalist, writer and tuhor, has taken her nearly everywhere, including to Stockholm to witness a mysterious object: the seventeenth-century Swedish warship Vasa, which sank only minutes into its maiden voyage and lay underwater for more than three hundred years until it was rediscovered, raised and housed in a museum built to show it to the world. Her poetic and meditative book on her experience with the Vasa is titled, No Ship Sets Out to be a Shipwreck. Her fiction has appeared in The Best American Short Stories and The Best American Nonrequired Reading. Her op-ed column appears regularly in The Boston Globe; she has published essays and reviews in the Los Angeles Times and the International Herald Tribune; and she has contributed on-air essays to National Public Radio. 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 <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. 141 Joan Wickersham

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 <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 & 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 and 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.

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#156

Ep. 155 Matthew White

#155

Ep. 154 Winnie Li

#154

Ep. 153 Kyle Austin Young

#153

Ep. 152 Jon Kinally

#152

Ep. 151 Khadijah VanBrakle

#151

Ep. 150 J.E. Thomas

#150

Ep. 149 Joanna Choi Kalbus

#149

Ep. 148 Tia Levings

#148

Ep. 147 Calliope Nicholas

#147

Ep. 146 Melissa Hafting

#146

Ep. 145 Bridgett Davis

#145

Ep. 144 Shannon Downey

#144

Ep. 143 Callan Wink

#143

Ep. 142 Jessica Gutierrez

#142

Ep. 141 Joan Wickersham

#141

Ep. 140 Gloria Huang