Podcasts by This Creative Life

Ep 54: Writer&Teacher Daniel Bowman, Jr. from 2020-03-31T21:24:52

Sara talks with Dan Bowman, Jr., about writing, teaching, and about being #ActuallyAutistic. Watch for Notes from the Spectrum next year and stick around to the end of the episode to hear Dan re...

Ep 54: Writer&Teacher Daniel Bowman, Jr. from 2020-03-31T21:24:52

Sara talks with Dan Bowman, Jr., about writing, teaching, and about being #ActuallyAutistic. Watch for Notes from the Spectrum next year and stick around to the end of the episode to hear Dan re...

Author and Teacher Brandy Colbert - Ep 53 from 2020-03-22T01:32:21

Sara talks to author Brandy Colbert (The Only Black Girls in Town) about writing, career envy, mortality, and the Real Housewives.

For the full show notes, go to Listen

This Creative Life: the Reboot! - Ep 52 from 2020-03-13T00:21:52

This Creative Life picks back up where it left off in 2015, and host Sara Zarr talks about where the podcast has been and where it's going.

Documentarian and Adoptee Advocate Angela Tucker - Ep 51 from 2015-12-28T21:59:28

"Vocation is the place where our deep gladness meets the world's deep need." Frederick Buechner said that, and it's a quote I thought of when prepping to talk to Angela Tucker, the subject of th...

Daniel Kraus - Ep 50 from 2015-12-15T03:36:15

50! Episode 50! I'm so happy to celebrate this milestone with my guest Daniel Kraus, whose most recent book, The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch, was named one of Entertainment Weekly's Top 10 B...

Jeanne Murray Walker and Ambition - Ep 49 from 2015-12-03T00:00:01

Jeanne Murray Walker is a poet, playwright, memoirist, and teacher. Most recently, she co-edited with Luci Shaw a book of essays on the topic of ambition by members of the Chrysostom Society. We...

Corey Ann Haydu and Adult Children of Alcoholics - Ep 48 from 2015-11-19T16:36:33

In this Very Special Episode of This Creative Life, Corey Ann Haydu and I talk about being adult children of alcoholics and how that can play out in both the creative and business sides of our c...

Author Brendan Reichs - Ep 47 from 2015-11-11T22:37:43

Have you ever thought about co-writing some books with your mom? No? Well, if your experience could be anything like Brendan Reichs', maybe you should. Brendan is the co-author with Kathy Reichs...

Author Justine Larbalestier - Ep 46 from 2015-11-01T00:31:14

Justine Larbalestier is the author of half a dozen books for young adults in addition to her broader body of work writing and editing. Her most recent novel is RAZORHURST. In this episode we tal...

John Corey Whaley – This Creative Life ep 45 from 2015-09-04T21:23:58

    Charlie Kaufman and Sufjan Stevens, inspiration vs. discipline, being “Corey” vs. being “author John Corey Whaley”, the upside of being a process-hacker, the difference between normal jobs and ...

Author Alex Sanchez – This Creative Life ep 44 from 2015-08-21T19:52:49

At long last, it’s the end of summer hiatus! We kick off this new batch of episodes with Alex Sanchez, award-winning author of numerous books for young adults, including Rainbow Boys and its sequel...

Author Jennifer E. Smith – This Creative Life ep 43 from 2015-06-08T21:31:47

  Another podcast already? What? It’s true! I wanted to get one more episode in the can before I took off for some travel, and though I considered making it a scheduled post in a week or so I thoug...

Author Varian Johnson – This Creative Life ep 42 from 2015-06-04T18:02:41

    Varian Johnson and I go back to the era of listservs, LiveJournal, and Nokia flip phones. He’s the author of four novels for young readers–most recently The Great Greene Heist–and one on the wa...

Author Coe Booth – This Creative Life ep 41 from 2015-05-20T17:43:51

Coe Booth was one of the first YA writers I met when I started mingling with authors as a soon-to-be-published newbie. (I believe our first conversation was about Estelle Getty being alive or dead–...

Literary Agent Michael Bourret – This Creative Life ep 40 from 2015-05-11T19:00:36

I’ve known Michael Bourret (that’s pronounced with a hard T, by the way) for over a decade now, yet even I learned some new things about him in this episode. For example, that I’m not the only one ...

Author Gayle Forman – This Creative Life ep 39 from 2015-04-23T18:31:17

Gayle Forman is the author of seven novels, a book-length work of nonfiction, and many many magazine pieces. I knew that the day she and I could finally work out our schedules to get her on the pod...

TCL Archives: Malinda Lo (Ep 38, 2015) from 2015-03-26T21:43:43

Next week, Malinda Lo returns to the podcast to talk about the effect the success of Last Night at the Telegraph Club on her writing and career.

Here's our conversation from the 2015 arch...

Listener Q&A II: Electric Boogaloo – with Matt Kirby – This Creative Life ep 37 from 2014-12-08T19:07

Wow, you guys really came through with some great questions! Thank you so much, and my apologies that we couldn’t get to them all. We did cover a fair amount of ground, though, including book produ...

Bestselling Author E. Lockhart – This Creative Life ep 36 from 2014-09-13T20:49:56

E. Lockhart is the author of nine–nine!–novels for young adults, a host of other books under the name Emily Jenkins, and short and collaborative projects. Her 2008 release–The Disreputable History ...

Bestselling Author Jenny Han – This Creative Life ep 35 from 2014-08-01T20:44:07

Jenny Han is the New York Times bestselling author of books for young adults and younger readers, and an all-around cool lady. In our conversation we covered work habits, the relationship with read...

Author Nova Ren Suma – This Creative Life ep 34 from 2014-07-14T22:15:21

“When I was writing The Walls Around Us, I decided to be simply and only myself. … I wasn’t writing for recognition. I wasn’t writing for commercial success, or should I say ‘success’ because the i...

Critic Alissa Wilkinson – This Creative Life ep 33 from 2014-07-01T15:15:01

Not that I’ll ever tire of talking to novelists, but it was a nice change-up for this episode to have a chat with Alissa Wilkinson–critic and lover of pop culture; and editor and writer of film rev...

Author Stephanie Kuehn – This Creative Life ep 32 from 2014-06-16T14:46:53

After a six-month hiatus from doing the podcast, I am happy to be back! Thanks for your enthusiasm and support. I’m very pleased to have Stephanie Kuehn as my first guest in 2014. Stephanie is the ...

Bryan Bliss&Kate Bassett – This Creative Life ep 31 from 2013-12-19T19:41:34

It’s a This Creative Life first! My guests are two authors who are still a year out or more from the publication of their first books. I’ve been eager to do a show like this to remind us all that w...

Author David McGlynn – This Creative Life ep 30 from 2013-12-05T01:00:26

David McGlynn is the author of the Utah Book Award winning story collection The End of the Straight and Narrow; the riveting memoir about faith and swimming and loss, A Door in the Ocean; and numer...

Author Jo Knowles – This Creative Life ep 29 from 2013-11-18T23:06:55

In this episode, the lovely and talented Jo Knowles talks with me about emotional truth vs. “what really happened,” The Chocolate War, when we will start to feel like real authors, and the tragic d...

Author Steve Brezenoff – This Creative Life ep 28 from 2013-11-01T19:07:52

Steve Brezenoff started his career with dozens of writer-for-hire chapter books, and never though he’d wind up writing young adult realism. He says he “did it all wrong,” and YA just seemed to be w...

Author Sarah Dessen – This Creative Life ep 27 from 2013-10-15T15:24:33

Does she really need an introduction? Okay, just in case: Sarah Dessen is a Good Morning America superfan, tweeter extraordinaire, deviled egg aficionado and, oh yeah, the author of eleven bestsell...

Author & Filmmaker Nina LaCour – This Creative Life ep 26 from 2013-10-01T15:13:39

My guest this episode is Nina LaCour, author of HOLD STILL and THE DISENCHANTMENTS, and producer/writer/director of the forthcoming movie, HOLD STILL, based on her novel (as you may have guessed). ...

Author Matt de la Pena – This Creative Life ep 25 from 2013-09-14T21:24:25

25! 25! 25 episodes of the podcast. Day-um. That went by kind of fast. Thanks so much for helping me make this a success, and for your patience during summer hiatus. Your reward is this conversatio...

This Creative Life season finale! Dealing with Change from 2013-06-11T17:39:02

The winds of change never stop a-blowin’. How do we deal? By being flexible, letting go, staying optimistic. In this episode of This Creative Life, I talk briefly about how this works and why it ma...

Author/Screenwriter/YouTuber T. Michael Martin – This Creative Life ep 23 from 2013-05-01T15:48:39

Debut novelist Mike Martin in conversation with me (and you) about being the writer you are, gestating in the gap, and reasons to not read about yourself online. We talk about how my fifth novel, T...

Author/Performer Aaron Hartzler – This Creative Life ep 22 from 2013-04-15T15:05:16

Oh my oh my. I think I say this every time, but it’s yet another all-time favorite episode. Aaron Hartzler and I talk about his new memoir, RAPTURE PRACTICE, which led us to topics such as: the pow...

Author Bennett Madison – This Creative Life ep 21 from 2013-03-15T19:05:34

Author Bennett Madison (The Blonde of the Joke) and I discuss his forthcoming book September Girls, among many other things. Such as: trusting your readers, what to do with the feedback of your pee...

Part 2: Listener Q&A with Co-host Matthew J. Kirby – This Creative Life Ep 20 from 2013-03-03T00:04:36

And here is part 2 of the epic Listener Q&A, 2013 edition. Author Matthew J. (Matt) Kirby and I field your excellent questions about the writing life and process. See here for part one and the epis...

Part I: Listener Q&A with Co-host Matthew J. Kirby – This Creative Life Ep 20 from 2013-03-01T23:57:34

It’s an extremely epic episode of This Creative Life, so epic that I had to split the audio file into two parts. Because of the way my feed works, I believe I need to make this into two separate bl...

Author Sara Ryan – This Creative Life ep 19 from 2013-02-15T22:40:39

In this episode of This Creative Life, I had the pleasure of sitting directly across from – live! in person! – friend and writer Sara Ryan, in my very own house. We talked about writing space and w...

Author & Teacher Robert Clark – This Creative Life Ep 18 from 2013-02-01T15:00:03

In which Robert Clark – Edgar Award Winner, Guggenheim Fellow, novelist, essayist, and “nonfictionista” – and I have a good meaty talk about writing, including a healthy dose of the craft and proce...

Author&Video Game Designer Andrew Auseon – This Creative Life Ep 17 from 2013-01-15T14:05:11

Andrew Auseon and I first made contact back in 2005 or 2006, when his debut novel, Funny Little Monkey, was out and I’d just sold Story of a Girl. Though we’ve known each other online for nearly ei...

Jeffrey Overstreet & Anne Doe Overstreet – This Creative Life Ep 16 from 2013-01-04T21:29:18

In this episode of This Creative Life, I’m thrilled to bring you a conversation with Jeffrey Overstreet and Anne Doe Overstreet, who are a talented and inspiring pair. I’ve known them for years and...

Bestselling Author Ally Condie (also: A Year of Podcasting) – This Creative Life Ep 15 from 2012-12-17T14:23:45

In January 2011, I gave a talk called “Crafting a Creative Life” at the SCBWI-NY conference. I talked about the long journey of an artist’s life and all of the things that might trap us or freeze u...

Staying Productive Through the Holidays – This Creative Life ep 14 from 2012-12-02T00:13:53

It’s a very special holiday episode! Like when Juliana Hatfield played an angel on My So-Called Life, and by the way I just looked that up and Jason Katims co-wrote that episode, which blows the mi...

Screenwriter&Director Scott Derrickson – This Creative Life ep 13 from 2012-11-01T13:21:54

What do these things have in common: Biola University, the Chicago Film Critics Association’s Top 100 Scariest Films ever made, GK Chesterton, Ethan Hawke, lawn work, and Walker Percy? Well, maybe ...

Author Matthew Quick – This Creative Life ep 12 from 2012-10-14T16:10:27

No one can teach you to be you, and that’s the one thing you have as a writer. So saith Matthew Quick, author of two books for young adults and two books for adults (one yet unpublished but forthco...

Comic Book Hero Gene Luen Yang – This Creative Life ep 11 from 2012-10-01T15:14:58

In this edition of This Creative Life, hear about my plan to start all over in life with a new identity! But seriously folks! I hope you enjoy my conversation with Gene Luen Yang as much as I did. ...

Author A.S. King – This Creative Life ep 10 from 2012-09-17T18:00:05

A.S. (Amy) King and I have a good chat about getting to know our characters, why we don’t read most of our reviews, and that beautiful moment when we no longer hate our books. Sadly, Amy’s stories ...

Film Critic Scott Renshaw – This Creative Life ep 9 from 2012-09-03T15:15

The podcast is back for a fall season of new episodes and conversations –  hooray! In this one, I talk with Scott Renshaw of the Salt Lake City Weekly about the art of criticism, how he gets it don...