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 Welcome, Luminous Writers, to the Write, Publish, and Shine podcast. I am your host, author, and literary magazine editor, Rachel Thompson. This podcast explores how to write and share your brilliant writing with the world.
In each episode, we delve into specifics on how to polish and prepare your writing for publication and the journey from emerging writer to published mother. Oh my goodness,
I can't believe this is the 100th episode of this podcast. I have had so much joy and delight in each of the conversations and episodes I've been able to share with you in the process of talking to folks and the topics we've been able to explore on how to write,
publish, and shine. And in the writers who listen to each episode and share with me about what they gleaned or the little ways that we did encourage them to keep going. By the way,
it's taken a while since the start. We just reached 100 episodes after seven years. So it took a while. I think we're going at a slightly quicker pace now,
so probably the next 100 will be a little faster coming. But this episode is a moment to reflect on what the podcast has been and where it's going.
Podcast listeners share how the podcast helped them write, publish, and shine. And dear writers, these voice memos and notes touched me so much and surprised me, too, that things writers took away from listening.
We're often beautiful reminders of the conversations we've had and really started here and then extended into the work we do together in my writing course community. They've also really touched me because I feel like they're cool little like how to notes as well too.
It's like, oh, you can listen to this episode and think about this and go this way with your writing. So I hope you enjoy this listener feedback episode, the 100th episode of the write publish and Shine podcast.
- Hi, this is Wendy Weil Atwell. I write nonfiction and most recently published an article about Kelly O 'Connor's art in Oxford American. I started listening to the podcast because I enjoy Rachel's writing community.
The first episode I listened to was number 42, Rowan McCandless and How to Create a Writing Community. One of my favorite things about the podcast is getting to your editors from literary magazines explain what they're looking for in writing.
- I loved that episode that Wendy mentions with Rowan McCandless, a wonderful writer who has been a vital part of my writing community for many years now. And many listeners shared like Wendy,
how listening to what editors want, getting that front row seat to exactly what they see working and not working in submissions has been a highlight for them as listeners and writers listening to the podcast.
The podcast, if you've been listening for a long time, if you're an OG listener, you would know that the podcast started as Litmag Love and sprung out of my course by the same name. So we've had many editors on talking about that love and sharing how to publish with their journals.
Here's another voice memo. - Hello, this is Jennifer Robinson. I write creative nonfiction and I most recently published little packages in River Teeth's Beautiful Things column.
I started listening to the podcast because my friend, Lena Lau, mentioned it. And she talked about how it helped her learn sort of the culture of lit megs and how to submit.
And it seemed like it really helped her to get published. And so I wanted to get published as well. So I listened to the podcast. It was a really nice time in my life. When I look back, I would go for a run in the mornings,
get a coffee, and then just walk around listening to the podcast. And I did that almost every day until I had listened to all of them. My favorite guest, I think, was probably Pamela Malloy from the New Quarterly.
She and sort of validated and gave credence to the idea of going slow or being slow. And that's something that I felt at the time I really needed permission for.
I think that's a really important part of my process. And just the way I work in general, I think I'm a slow, slow person. And I need that to be okay. And I need that And though I've still not published anything with the new quarterly,
I'll still keep submitting. That's the kind of culture and community that I think I'm looking to be a part of in my writing life. - I love Jen's takeaway of permission from Pamela Malloy of TNQ to be slow,
to take her time. There's so much rushing and pushing, right? I remember another guest on my podcast, Wendy Lesser of three penny review who told me when we spoke.
I think there's too much pushing forward in a way that is not motivated by pleasure, that is motivated or shaped by ambition or greed or some sense that people have what they should want.
And so I take from that and from Jen's takeaway too, is that she found a speed that she's happy with and that's what she wants from her writing life and a writing life that gives her pleasure and lets her be published in red still but at her own pace.
She's writing, she's publishing and shining and even though she hasn't yet published with TNQ she gets to keep that as a goal that will happen when it happens. My fingers are crossed for her.
Ega to Antonow wrote me a note about a case where she listened to an episode that featured an editor, and then did place a piece inspired by that conversation.
And this is what she told me in her note, "I remember the first time I heard the right publish and shine podcast. It was the episode with Teya Prieto of The Gravity of the Thing. I remember I had the podcast on in the background while I was puttering around doing something else.
As Teya spoke about using non -traditional structures, I suddenly had an idea for a piece structured like a recipe. That fictional short was published in The Gravity of the Things,
Strange Writing Anthology, and was nominated for an award, although Egita puts this on the side that I didn't win that competition. She finishes, that still stands out as a podcast episode for me.
Wow, of course it does because she just went directly from being inspired to write something after listening to an editor and then going on to publish in the anthology of the same publication that the editor works at.
So I'm really thrilled that this happened for her. Egita, by the way, has gone on to publish many brilliant stories, including the recent publication, "Three Beats for the Broken Hearted" with Eunoya Rubyu.
Thank you so much for sharing that note with me. - Hello, This is Laurel Perry. I write creative nonfiction and fiction and most recently published in Five Minute Lit.
I started listening to the podcast because it was recommended to me by a friend of mine. The first podcast I heard was number 13, Lift Up Women's Stories with Sierra Skye Gemma.
In that podcast, Sierra says to me, a very intimate piece of memoir that could in no way be fact -checked was just as valid as a piece of investigative journalism.
That quote and other things she mentioned really resonated with me at the time and I still carry those messages today. I agree with Sierra. The very best kind of memoir in my opinion is the memoir where it is interior thoughts,
where the stage is quite small. But the emotions and the tensions and the risks are really high. And over the years,
I've been trying to craft my work. And this podcast has really been helpful to me all along the way. And I just want to say congratulations, Rachel,
on your 100th podcast. And I should also share that later on, six months after I listened to that first podcast. Another friend suggested that I enroll in Lit Mag Love,
which I did, and it wasn't until I was well along that I realized that Rachel was responsible for both the podcast and this wonderful course of Lit Mag Love. So congratulations,
and here's to all of us who continue to get such great inspiration from Rachel and all your wonderful and generous guests. I love Laurel's takeaway from that conversation with Sierra Sky Gemma,
that interior thoughts where the stage is quite small, as Laurel beautifully put it, are not only valid, but really exciting to her as a reader and writer,
and I agree with her, those are very exciting to me as well. Sierra Sky Gemma, by the way, was one of many of my colleagues at Room Magazine to appear on the podcast.
Rumi, as our collective has been affectionately called for decades, supported the podcast so much. In fact, there wouldn't be this podcast without Rumi. My first sound editor was Micah Lemiskey,
then a collective member, and then publisher Megan Bell helped Greenlight the whole project. And I've loved speaking with other past and present Rumi's over the years on the podcast,
cast, including Yonina Curtin, Micah Kiljoy, Geffen Samach, Shilene Knight, Nara Montero, Ellen Chang Richardson, Jessica Johns, about our craft.
It isn't often when we're working on the magazine that we get to pause and reflect on exactly what we're doing and why, so I've valued that a lot. In my most recent episode,
episode 99, I talked about some of my favorite gleanings from my guests over the years. But hearing from everyone so far who've talked about editors who've touched them with their words,
and the listener notes that are coming up as well, has had me remembering more and more conversations. And every guest has really brought it to the conversation, sharing deep,
caring insights for our listeners, so I'm really grateful. I mentioned the podcast name changed from "Lit Mag Love" to what's today called the "Right Publish and Shine" podcast.
And that was to allow more conversations about the journey from emerging writer to published author, so to give a little bit more breathing room to the topics that we cover. I've recently had writers in our community at various stages on to talk about their experiences and learning craft.
And one of those listeners /guests was Yolande House. Hi, this is Yolande House. I write creative non -fiction and I most recently published "Heart of Hearing a Diptych in Voices from the Fold,
the Festival of Literary Diversity's 2023 Conference Program." I joined Rachel's lit -made love course because I was struggling to submit to lit -mangs. Around that time,
I had submitted submitted to a bunch of litmangs, but only received form rejections. And I was so overwhelmed by the whole process of where to submit and just how to do everything.
And then I saw Rachel's course and I thought I need that. And it was fantastic. Rachel taught us a process for figuring out which litmangs are a fit for our writing and so much more.
And my favorite learning on the podcast was actually when I was on the podcast. So it was the writerly book club episode number 88 on Kate Tempest's book "On Connection." And it was a wonderful experience.
I had been on one podcast before that and it was not a good experience. So Rachel's podcast was a wonderful antidote to that. I really appreciated how Rachel shared her questions with me in advance and she stuck to them.
She was so patient through the process of recording and she did a fantastic job of editing our discussion and I really enjoy talking about a book I loved and I'm really proud of the resulting episode that we put out.
I also love how thoughtful and intentional Rachel is about everything, both her courses and podcasts alike. Thank you Yilan for co -creating that episode with me through your engagement in the craft conversation we had.
This was Episode 88 and recently replayed, so it's easy to find in my podcast feed. And I'm really happy that she had that experience. Earlier this year, I shared that I didn't reach this standard for one guest,
but I do aim to be intentional in all I do, but it's an imperfect practice. I feel like it's important to mention that when it comes to writing about the imperfection of all of the practices that I myself do around the writing,
think it's something that I really care about when it comes to writing, owning our stories imperfectly, which is also why I loved hearing from Terry about how that came across in her early listening of the podcast.
Hi, this is Terry Kinney. I write creative nonfiction, working on a memoir, and I've most recently published a theater review for the Hollywood Times magazine.
It's our local publication. And though that was journalistic, I put a heavy narrative slant on it because I am a storyteller. I started listening to write,
publish, shine, podcast way back in 2016 when I was really deep diving into the craft of writing and wanting to hone my skills and get better,
more professional, deeper, and shine, as she says. What I stayed for, what I really like about it, is that the podcast and what Rachel and the editors that she interviews communicate was respect for other writers,
for other cultures, other abilities, and a very open and generous view. I was very attracted to that.
I liked the message of writing responsibly and with respect. So I'm still listening to the podcast. I've since joined the community, and I'm pretty involved in Rachel Thompson's workshops.
I had to wait quite a while, I was on the wait list to join the online platform and community, but I'm very involved and I appreciate it and appreciate her.
- Thank you so much, Terri, for being in our community and for your openness and care in our community too. Heidi Grogan recently shared a lovely note with me about this 100th episode,
starting with mentioning that this is a huge deal and I agree doing things slowly in my own time and own way with so much support from our community. I'm a little surprised at times to be here and I hope we get to keep going for at least a hundred more,
but here's what Heidi shared in her note. I started listening because I attended a workshop you offered on lyric writing. I wanted more of this kind of slash quality of content and googled your site.
She emailed me to ask where she could get more of this kind of learning. And Heidi went on to say, "I was blown away by the breadth of craft and writing life topics and by the level of guests interviewed." Heidi wrote,
"The podcast that gave me that more, I saw, was 66, Empathy for Objects in Your Writing with Lyndell Cain. As for favorites, I could write a long list about gems that fill the pages of my notebooks.
Many were from podcasts connected to the Lip Mag Love course. The guests were incredibly generous with insights and I couldn't write fast enough. I have a way better understanding of how things work behind the Lip Mag scene and how to engage editors in ways that align with their process and begin to build potentially and hopefully mutually beneficial relationships.
My most recent fave is 73 agency and finding an agent with Lacey Young. And she also gave a shout out to Mellie Walker, who's been supporting me,
producing several of the episodes in the past few years. So thank you so much for that note, Heidi. I love from that that Heidi got so much out of Lindell Cain's excellent approach to objects and writing,
which again is episode 66, and Lacey Young on finding an agent, episode 73, both of whom are community members and were part of that shift from only speaking with editors to then also broadening out to connecting with writers who shared what they do in their practice of writing and getting published.
Finally, I want to share a note from Tamara Jung, who was my very first student in the Lit Mag Love course and who is working on her forthcoming memoir right now.
Yay. So over the time I've been offering the course in podcast, she's been working at her own pace towards this amazing accomplishment. I love this sort of parallel that we've been working in these two tracks at the same time.
Here's Tamara. My name is Tamara Zhang. My pronouns are she and her. I am a mixed -race writer of Chinese and Scottish ancestry and a longtime fangirl and member of Rachel Thompson's Lit Litmag Love community.
I write nonfiction, children's books, and I am a comics artist. I'm hard at work on book edits for my memoir that is coming out in 2025 with BookHuck. I joined Rachel Thompson's Litmag community,
and to be honest, a lot of fantastic things happened to me later. I started listening to Rachel's podcast because I was fortunate to be there from the beginning as a bedwriter, and also I am a long -time listener.
I will often listen to the podcast over and over again, trying to glean a little bit of wisdom when I need some inspiration, but also when I don't and I really enjoy it. The reason I was attracted to Rachel's lit mag love was because I had gotten rejected from an MFA program.
And I was a little deflated and crushed. I came upon a webinar that was done with Rachel and to read aloud, and it was called "Ten Years of Not Giving Up, How to Keep Your Writing Life Alive." It gave me hope and perspective and I decided to sign up.
I started writing again. I applied to the writer's studio. There's been a lot of great things as I mentioned that happened after that. And also I still received rejections, but I started to frame them a little bit differently.
I learned a lot from the Litmag Love course and I really recommend it. Cover letters were something that I hadn't really thought about, but it helped me make better ones. I'm consistently encouraged by Rachel's podcasts and emails and I would say some standouts.
There is so many to choose to be honest and it's really hard for me but the most recent one I really did enjoy with set shooter where they talked about there is something about exploring your own story and trying to connect it to a great story.
Since I write non -fiction of course like I said I connect to many of the episodes but there's always something to pick up. I love how all the episodes and the interviews are very easy,
and it doesn't sound formulaic. I especially learned a lot from Rachel's interviews with many of the editors, from many of the litmags that I wish to submit to, and even the ones that I didn't,
I just really enjoyed hearing conversations about writing. I'm also super grateful for the Litmag Love community. There are so many, and my list is growing, and I'm not sad about it.
There's Heggy, Melly, Rowan, Shirley, Sharon, Lendl, Kimberly, Lacey, Ellen, Yolande, Mary. co -writers,
work with them, being community with them. Again, like I said, I know I would be there without them. In whatever shape or form everyone has inspired me so much and saved me and continues to inspire me.
Thank you, Rachel, for everything that you've done for me and my writing. I am forever grateful for you. Congratulations on your 100th. Well done. - Tamara, thank you so much for believing in me way back And this was all an idea.
Thank you for your vital presence in our community, and thank you to everyone who shared a voice memo or note with me for this episode. As I've mentioned a couple of times,
this podcast sprung out of my "Litmag Love" course, which still happens at least once, usually twice per year. Here's a recent alum, Chantel Powell. Hi,
I'm Chantel Powell. I write a lot of - fiction, poetry, and creative non -fiction, but I tend towards writing speculative fiction, horror, and Indigenous futurism. My most recent publication is the poem "Exile of Nulia Yoke" in the heredity issue of non -binary review.
I joined Rachel's Lit Mag Love course because I wanted to familiarize myself with the ins and outs of getting published in literary magazines and anthologies. My favorite thing about the course has than learning what to do and what not to do when sending works off for publication.
I've learned a lot and I've had a dozen publications so far this year with more to come. - "Lip Mag Love" is still my signature course and we'll start again in September as of this recording.
If you're interested in enrolling, you can learn more about it at rachelpompson .co /lipmaglove. Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who sent in notes and voice memos about the podcast.
And a special thanks because this month can be rather extra as we head into summer and people would rather be outside than recording voice memos in their closets, I'm sure.
So thank you for that. And thanks also to the folks who I asked and couldn't do it this time. A warm no is also a beautiful thing. And, you know, I love those boundaries and I'm working on boundaries all the time myself.
So it's because of listeners like you, yes, the person you listening to this now that I can keep doing this podcast and I'm really grateful for that. Thank you for sharing your time and attention to what I and my guests have to say about writing.
I plan to take a break over summer now, but I will come back with new episodes in the autumn and the Northern Hemisphere Autumn.
Some of our listeners are not in the Northern Hemisphere, so that's a different season for you. I think that's the spring. But, you know, September -esque, you can expect new episodes. And coming up in that next season,
you can expect more conversations about specific craft genres, something I promised early this year in 2024, but we've done just one somehow,
so it was really lovely with Lena Lau, and we talked about Flash, but I promised more this year, so that will be corrected and more will come. I'll also bring in more interviews with editors and behind the scenes on Lit Mags,
because I heard from so many, including several of the listeners today about how valuable those conversations have been. Agatha Head and Epiphany, during an editor conversation, wrote a piece and then published with that editor.
So I really think we got to have more enlightening editor conversations for sure on the podcast. And thank you also to Melly Walker, who has helped me produce episodes for the past few years,
to Dia Jaffrey, who creates our transcripts, and Gulnaz, Syed and Ekta Garg have also helped with this in the past. So thank you both as well for being part of the podcast. I mentioned Micah Lemisky,
who is the first editor for the podcast. So thank you, Micah. And huge thank you now to Adam Linder for the very attentive sound editing that you do for each episode. When Yilan mentioned how thoughtful the editing was done for the episode that we recorded together,
I want to correct that that's not me. This is Adam's brilliance at work. So thank you all for everyone who's been part of the team over the years and currently are part of our team. You can learn more about the work I do to help writers write "Publish and Shine" at rachelthompson.co.
When you're there, sign up for my "Writerly Love Letters" and every week and filled with support for your writing practice. If any of my 100 episodes encourage you to write "Publish and Shine" I would love to hear all about it.
You can always email me at hello@rachelthompson.co and tell other luminous writers about this episode. You can do this by sending them to the podcast at rachelthompson .co /podcast or suggest that they search for write,
publish, and shine wherever they get their podcasts. Thank you for listening. I encourage you to keep at something for a while. Maybe it'll take you a number of years to get to a hundred.
You may be a bit slower like I have been with this But you're going to do it in your own time and own way and keep going. I'm recording this podcast episode in the Susana,
Egypt, on lands historically and presently inhabited by the El Muzina Bedouin. I support a free Palestine and I really hope to see this in our lifetimes.