• Melissa Febos on Solitude as Creative Fuel

    From the Memoir Nation Podcast, Hosted by Brooke Warner and Grant Faulkner

    Memoir Nation: Weekly Inspiration for Writers is an extension of the Memoir Nation community hosted by Brooke Warner and Grant Faulkner, two friends and colleagues who bring a community-minded sensibility to the writing journey. Originally launched as Write-minded in 2018, this is a weekly writing podcast that focuses on memoir and personal writing, as well as industry trends and tips and resources for writers and authors.

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    This week we welcome Melissa Febos back to Memoir Nation to discuss her latest book, The Dry Season. Melissa is a fountain of inspiration and information and this episode covers topics as diverse as how to cultivate discernment in our reading to why memoir is the opposite of self-indulgent. We drill down into solitude as a creatively regenerative space, and get into some memoir craft, too. Hard to resist when we have a writing professor on the show. Melissa never disappoints, and this interview is one you’ll come back to when you need to fill your creative well.

    Subscribe and download the episode, wherever you get your podcasts. 

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    Melissa Febos is the author of five books, including the national bestselling essay collection, Girlhood; the craft book, Body Work (2022), which was also a national bestseller and an LA Times bestseller. Her new memoir, The Dry Season, was published in June 2025. She holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and is the Roy J. Carver Professor at the University of Iowa, where she teaches in the Nonfiction Writing Program.
     


    Memoir Nation
    Memoir Nation
    Memoir Nation: Weekly Inspiration for Writers is an extension of the Memoir Nation community hosted by Brooke Warner and Grant Faulkner, two friends and colleagues who bring a community-minded sensibility to the writing journey. Originally launched as Write-minded in 2018, this is a weekly writing podcast that focuses on memoir and personal writing, as well as industry trends and tips and resources for writers and authors.







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