Today, we’re bringing you a special episode: a collaboration with Courtney Balestier of the WMFA podcast. If you don’t already listen to WMFA, this episode is sure to make you a convert. WMFA features interviews with outstanding writers, from Emily St. John Mandel (one of my favorite episodes) to Susan Choi, as well as minisodes where Courtney puts into words the same anxieties and thoughts we have, in a way that makes us feel so seen.
Courtney Balestier is a writer whose work focuses on the intersection of place and identity, particularly in her native Appalachia. Her writing has appeared in a variety of publications, including The New Yorker online, Lucky Peach, the New YorkTimes, and Oxford American, and has been nominated for a James Beard Foundation Journalism Award and a Pushcart Prize. Courtney holds a bachelor’s degree in news journalism from West Virginia University and a master’s degree in magazine journalism from New York University. A native West Virginian, she is at work on a novel about identity, progress, and class set in Appalachia and Detroit. She lives and works in Pittsburgh.
You can find Courtney on her website, Twitter, and Instagram. Find WMFA online here, or listen in your favorite podcast app.
You can listen right here on this page, or get Marginally on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or wherever get your podcasts.
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Find us on Instagram @marginallypodcast. Meghan’s occasionally on Twitter @meghanembee, and Olivia’s @roamingolivia
Theme music is “It’s Time” by Scaricá Ricascá.
Have a question you’d like us to try to answer, or a topic you’d love to have us cover? Interested in being a guest? Contact us here. Thanks for listening, and get to work!
In this episode:
Keep Going by Austin Kleon
The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield
David K. Randall on WMFA
Marlee Grace
Proposals from the Feminine Economy by Jennifer Armbrust
Kat Gardiner
Your Art Will Save Your Life by Beth Pickens
Heat and Light by Jennifer Haigh and her WMFA episode
On Writing by Stephen King
#amwriting episode with Lisa Cron