
The Write, Publish, and Shine Podcast
Author and literary magazine editor, Rachel Thompson, helps you write, publish, and shine. Learn how to write and share your brilliant writing with the world.
Episodes delve into how to polish and prepare your writing for publication, and the journey from emerging writer to published author.
Latest Episode:
![61 // Staying True to You as You Publish [Replay]](https://rachelthompson.co/wp-content/uploads/WPSP61.jpg)
61 // Staying True to You as You Publish [Replay]
Replay note: It felt like the right time—in this season when people join writing programs and restart sending out submissions to lit mags to replay—this episode on Staying True to Yourself. Even if...
Past Episodes
79 // Three Lessons on Writing, Revising, and Publishing Your Writing
In this episode we talk all about the Write, Publish, Shine Intensive, which brings together my three courses, Write and Light, a course to get writers generating new, more profound work, Revision...
78 // Writing About Social Issues with Author Kavita Das
Craft and Conscience by Kavita Das is the first major book for writers to more effectively engage with complex socio-political issues—a critical first step in creating social change. Kavita Das...
Five Things Writers Can Stop Doing PLUS a Wrap-Up on Agency for Writers
As I do each summer, I’m taking a break from my weekly love letters and podcast. There will be no more new episodes in June or July. Before I head out, I want to share my list of five things you can...
77 // Come From a Place of Passion and Honesty in Your Writing Life
Megan Beadle, an acquiring editor at Dundurn Press, ran her own literary agency for several years. So, if you’ve been listening to the last run of episodes, that word, agent, rings a bell. Ding,...
76 // Make Your Own Map with Memoirist Wendy Atwell
This is the continuation of our agency theme on the podcast... I interview another luminous Writerly Love community member, Wendy Atwell, who is earlier in the process than our previous member guest...
75 // Literary Agency with Room Editor and Multi-Hyphenate Geffen Semach
Geffen Semach is my colleague at Room magazine, and the editor of the most recent issue, Ley Line. And Geffen has a real 360 degree understanding of the business side of writing and publishing....
74 // Anchoring into Your Why with Memoirist Jessica Waite
The second in our series exploring the theme of agency for writers. It’s our double-entendre theme of both of intentionality for writers and really literal about finding an agent. Anchoring into the...
73 // Agency and Finding an Agent with Lacey Yong
The first in our series on the theme of agency—a term both literal (i.e. about finding an agent) and abstract, in that we talk about pursuing your writing life with intentionality. In this episode...
72 // Book Club: Voice First by Sonya Huber
In this episode it is our Book Club Conversation. We talk about Voice First: A Writer’s Manifesto by Sonya Huber. It is my pleasure to introduce you to three lovely members of our Writerly Love...
Minisode: Cool Loneliness [Replay]
Reflections on cool loneliness: When I’m not writing enough, I lose track of what I believe, who I am, and who I truly want to be. Also, Book Club Conversation is coming up. Be sure to check out...
71 // Touch, Sight, and the Sixth Sense in Your Writing
In this episode it’s part two of our most recent six senses showcase. The writers you will hear all participated in the workshop series I offered last year on the six senses. As I mentioned in part...
70 // Special Episode: State of our Writing Community with Meli Walker
In this episode, it’s a little peak behind the scenes with my Writerly Love Community Facilitator, Meli Walker. I have some real #transparency moments around what I’m hearing back from writers in...
69 // Sound, Smell, and Taste in Your Writing: Six Senses Showcase
In this episode, we come to our senses again. We had another LIVE showcase of writers in the Writerly Love community. The writers you will hear all participated in the workshop series I offered last...
68 // Craft Book Club Conversation—The Poet’s Companion by Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux
In this episode it is my pleasure to introduce you to two members of our Writerly Love Community, Jennifer Robinson and Candace Webb, and bring you into our book club conversation. We’ve been doing...
Wrap-Up: Empathy for Writers
Welcome to a more interstitial episode of the Write, Publish, and Shine Podcast, a bonus episode, if you will, to wrap up the series of episodes we just had on empathy for writers. In a moment I’ll...
67 // Empathy for You and Your Reader with Lyric Writer, Christina Brobby
In this episode it’s my pleasure to welcome Christina Brobby to the podcast, a wonderful lyric writer and instructor. We start by getting into what exactly is lyric writing, if you’re wondering so...
66 // Empathy for Objects in Your Writing with Lyndall Cain
This episode is the second in our mini-series of three episodes on the theme of empathy for writers and a really interesting and unique take on empathy, as my guest is a curator and writer of...
65 // Empathy & POV with Naomi J. Williams
This episode is the first in a mini-series of three episodes on the theme of empathy for writers. In my membership community for writers, called Writerly Love, we have monthly themes that we look at...
64 // Using the Six Senses in Your Writing—Showcase PLUS Prompts
In this episode, I talk to six writers in my Writerly Love writing community about writing through the senses. This conversation was a follow up to a series of guided writing sessions we did, with...
63 // Ghosts and Haunting with Room Editor Ellen Chang-Richardson
In this episode, Ellen Chang-Richardson and I both speak as editorial collective members at Room, and as editors of the upcoming issue of Room’s Ghosts issue. That is issue number 46.3, if you’re...
62 // Seventeen “Craft” Books + Lessons Learned in Our Writerly Book Club
Welcome back to the Write, Publish, and Shine Podcast! Things have been moving sloowly here for now, with the Write, Publish, and Shine Podcast, as I’ve been honouring my imperfectionism. A new...
61 // Staying True to You as You Publish
This is a special episode of the Write, Publish, and Shine Podcast where you will hear from three writers on their publishing experiences and the journey they took to stay true to themselves as they...
60 // Chill Subs’ Karina Kupp on Keeping Your Chill as You Submit
Welcome back to the Write, Publish, and Shine Podcast! How’s your September going so far? You may have noticed that this podcast has been on hiatus! It’s back now after a lengthier summer break. My...
59 // The Gettysburg Review with Mark Drew on Reflecting on the Time You’re In
The Lit Mag Love course is open for registration right now and this episode is slightly different in that you will get to peek behind the curtain of the Lit Mag Love course. Each session, we host...
Five Steps to Publishing Your Writing in Literary Journals
five things editors want in your writing submissions to journals. This is all based on my experience reading submissions, publishing work in a lit mag, and talking to dozens of editors from other...
18 // Know You’re in a Conversation with Lilly Dancyger of Narratively
“You’re participating in a conversation, so you should know what has already been said so that you can push the conversation forward.” Lilly Dancyger In this episode, Rachel Thompson talks with...
12 // Humber Literary Review’s Eufemia Fantetti—Write Rhymes with Fight
“Write rhymes with fight for a reason. We’re not all meant to be at the frontline...I’m way more comfortable sitting down and trying to figure out how to write back against something that I really...
58 // Room Magazine’s Lue Palmer on Who Tells Your Story, Why, and to Whom?
Moving into the copy editing stage is actually my favourite, when you get to work with the authors directly. —Lue Palmer In this episode, Rachel Thompson talks to her colleague Lue Palmer...
57 // On Writing and “Cool Loneliness”
“When I'm not writing enough, I lose track of what I believe, who I am, and who I truly want to be.”—Rachel Thompson Dear listeners! As I’m getting back into the swing of setting up interviews with...
56 // Holding Each Other Up in Our Writing Community with Writer and Cartoonist Tamara Jong
This idea of supporting and holding each other up and putting each other ahead is something I learned early on. I do feel strongly that there's room for all of us to succeed.—Tamara Jong In this...
32 // Atticus Review’s Former Editor Dorothy Bendel on Erasing Shame [Replay]
“We’re looking for work that has an artfulness to it. I understand how, with everything going on in the world today we want to scream sometimes and it comes through our writing. Sometimes that kind...
15 // The Threepenny Review’s Wendy Lesser on Picking Pleasure Over Ambition [Replay]
“I think there is too much pushing forward in a way that is not motivated by pleasure that is motivated by shaped ambition or greed or some sense that people have as to what they should want....
55 // Handling Rejection of Your Writing and Finding Strength in Community
Had I not had a community of writers around me to support me, I would not have been successful, because there are people who were pushing me. —Angela Wright You probably already know, or have heard,...
54 // Four Writers on Finding Their “Lanes” and Publishing in Literary Magazines
Four actively publishing writers on writing what you're meant to be writing and publishing in your own time and your own way. Ellen Chang-Richardson is a poet, writer and editor of Taiwanese and...
53 // Writing About Grief with Meli Walker of the Writing Grief Podcast
“Really, the thing that keeps me writing is knowing that at some point I will have some kind of shared connection with readers.” —Meli Walker In this episode, I talk to Meli Walker about writing...
52 // How to Reach Out to the World with Your Writing
“What would happen if you consider the specific, personal details you're crafting in writing as a part of a whole pattern in the world?” I explore going from the intimate to the broad, the personal...
1 // EVENT’s Shashi Bhat, No Subject is Off Limits [Replay]
“I think anything that’s written about well can be interesting.”—Shashi Bhat, EVENT This is a special replay episode—my very first podcast episode. I'm re-releasing this conversation with Shashi...
35 // Massachusetts Review Editor Emily Wojcik on Trusting Your Writing [Replay]
“Trust that the reader came with you, trust that you did a good job and that you brought us there.” —Emily Wojcik This episode is a replay of a conversation I had in 2019 with Emily Wojcik, the...
20 // Plenitude’s Rebecca Salazar on Writing with Flash AND Fire [Replay]
“Poems, no matter what they are about or how they approach the world, have to need to happen.” —Rebecca Salazar, Plenitude This is a replay of a conversation I had with Rebecca Salazar of Plenitude...
51 // The /tƐmz/ Review Amy Mitchell and Aaron Schneider on Good Ugliness
“We both really like having, essentially, the guts to look at not just issues in their full complexity, but also not to try to gloss over the ugliness.” —Amy Mitchell, The /tƐmz/ Review Amy Mitchell...
50 // 50th Episode! Answers to Listener Questions About Publishing in Lit Mags
50th Episode! Rachel answers listener questions about publishing in lit mags. This special episode is all about you, the listeners. Rachel answers your questions, mostly about submitting and...
14 // Amanda Leduc from the Festival of Literary Diversity—Keep Going [Replay]
“Don’t give up and recognize that the writing is a thing in and of itself as well. You need to be able to love doing the writing and just love being in this world that you create with your...
49 // Augur co-Editor-in-Chief Terese Mason Pierre—Nothing Has to Happen
“Nothing has to happen in the story. There doesn't need to be explosions or big shocking twists. It's just enough to have well-developed characters and a beautiful world.” —Terese Mason Pierre,...
48 // CRAFT Editor-in-Chief Katelyn Keating—Leave Us Heartbroken, Amazed, or Excited
Katelyn Keating is the editor-in-chief of CRAFT and a freelance production manager for independent publishers. She is on staff at the Los Angeles Review of Books Publishing Workshop. Her essays...
08 // Entropy Executive Editor Janice Lee on Writing When Language Fails You [Replay]
“I’m interested in asking different questions and in the vulnerability of language that allows for an honest attempt at expression and a way to investigate complex questions.” —Janice Lee This is a...
47 // Black Warrior Review Editor Josh Brandon on Taking Necessary Breaks
“You’re kinda playing with fire when you delve into trauma writing. It’s possible to push yourself past your own limits and touch on things that are more tender than you thought.” —Josh Brandon of...
46 // Food Writing with Qwerty Editors Christine Wu and McKenna James Boeckner
"Food in itself is its own language and it as a language, whether it's a love language or a complicated language, can speak across barriers...even if our relationship with food is different,...
45 // Weird Writing with Okay Donkey Editors Téa Franco, Genevieve Kersten, and Elizabeth Upshur
“We like to read the odd, the off-kilter, and the just plain weird. We like things that are funny, things that are sad, and things that are both funny and sad at the same time. We especially love to...
11 // Understand Who You Are with Alicia Elliott of The Fiddlehead [Replay]
“I think that when a writer doesn’t have a good understanding of who they are and what their beliefs are…they are going to necessarily lack the conviction in their writing to go daring places, and...
44 // Genius and Estrangement with Ploi Pirapokin of Newfound #LitMagLove
In this episode, Ploi Pirapokin and Rachel Thompson start deep, jumping right into discussing estrangement for writers. Ploi shares about writing through immigration statuses and her Genius Visa....
43 // What if My Story Isn’t Special?
The biggest epiphany I had about my writing in the last year is that there is nothing special about my story. This sounds like a terrible epiphany, I realize! But it was so liberating. This episode...
42 // Rowan McCandless on How to Create a Writing Community
In this episode, I have the pleasure to talk to Rowan McCandless about finding your writing community. Rowan is someone who is a part of my writing community and it's the better for it. She is...
41 // Five Steps to Publishing Your Writing in Literary Journals
In this first solo episode after the Write, Publish, and Shine podcast reboot, I talk about the five things editors want in your writing submissions to journals. This is all based on my experience...
Announcement: Write, Publish, and Shine!
Big announcement! And before we get to it, I want to thank you for continuing to listen in this almost year since I released new podcast episodes. I feel you out there; I see the numbers, too, so I...
39 // Apple Valley Review—Do the Work You Want to Do with Leah Browning
“I’m doing the work that I want to do. And someone will either like it or not and either way that’s all right. It’s not a critique of me as a person if another editor doesn’t like that work. It’s...
38 // Mom Egg Review—Restore the Balance of Narratives with Marjorie Tesser
Marjorie Tesser is the editor of Mom Egg Review. She is co-editor of the anthologies Bowery Women: Poems and Estamos Aquí: Poems of Migrant Farmworkers (both Bowery Books) and Travellin’ Mama:...
37 // The Unpublishables—Reflect Your True Self with M. Paramita Lin and Doretta Lau
“The Unpublishables is a platform for all kinds of rice eaters everywhere to get together and make shit happen through our words, music, and artwork.” Read the complete episode transcript. Writing...
36 // The Nasiona—Persuade with Julián Esteban Torres López
“Editing is a position of power that I take seriously. I’m a writer, author, creative in different ways and I experienced the negativity of being a victim of systems of oppression,” Julián Esteban...
34 // Make Relationships Right with Jessica Johns of Room Magazine
Room is Canada’s oldest feminist literary journal, and has published fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, art, interviews, and book reviews for forty years. Published quarterly by the West Coast...
33 // Evoke Place with Mary Leauna Christensen of The Swamp Literary Magazine
The Swamp publishes work that evokes a sense of place, which, for The Swamp, is broadly defined. “We look forward to reading work that we can inhabit, no matter its geography. We do give preference...
31 // Push Back on What’s Expected with Felicity Landa of Literary Mama
Literary Mama believes that all mothers have a story worth sharing and honors the many faces of motherhood by publishing work that celebrates the journey as well as the job. They celebrate the...
30 // Tear Down Structures with Anna Lena Phillips Bell & Rachel Taube of Ecotone
Ecotone’s mission is to publish and promote the best place-based work being written today. Founded at the University of North Carolina Wilmington in 2005, the award-winning magazine features writing...
29 // Question and Observe with Alana Saltz of Blanket Sea Arts & Literary Magazine
About Blanket Sea Arts & Literary MagazineBlanket Sea features work created by people living with chronic illness, mental illness, and disability. “There aren’t many places where writers and...
28 // Know Who Your Readers Are (And Are Not) with Caroline Knecht of Whiskey Island
About Whiskey Island Founded in 1977, Whiskey Island is a nonprofit literary journal published by Cleveland State University. They accept submissions of original poetry, fiction, and creative essays...
27 // Follow Your Lights with Lawrence-Minh Bùi Davis and Gerald Maa of the Asian American Literary Review
“Our impulse is to trust writers and follow their lights. In cases where we’re editing and working closely with them, it’s to help them get to that place that they’re wanting to get to, but might...
26 // Have Heart and Humility with Jasmine Gui of LooseLeaf Magazine
"I think intersectional community asks us to be open and mindful of difference. It asks us to have a posture of listening that requires a lot of effort, it requires a lot of heart, it requires a lot...
25 // Be Generous & Wise with Jónína Kirton of Turtle Island Responds
In this episode of Lit Mag Love: A podcast for creative writers who want to publish, host Rachel Thompson interviews Jónína Kirton from Room's Turtle Island Responds. Room Magazine’s Turtle Island...
24 // Share Intimacy with Doyali Islam of Arc Poetry Magazine
In this episode of Lit Mag Love: A podcast for creative writers who want to publish, host Rachel Thompson interviews Doyali Islam from Arc magazine.Their conversation covers offering an...
23 // Learn from Others with Alexandria Petrassi of So to Speak Journal
In this episode of the Lit Mag Love Podcast, host Rachel Thompson talks with Alexandria Petrassi from So to Speak journal. Their discussion covers how the “canonical” writer has changed. “When...
22 // Invite Readers In with Sakina Fakhri and Diana McClure of Azure magazine
In this episode of the Lit Mag Love Podcast, host Rachel Thompson talks with Sakina Fakhri and Diana McClure, founders of Azure magazine. Azure accepts literary fiction, creative non-fiction,...
21 // Team Up with Kaitlyn Andrews-Rice and Marianne Chan of Split Lip
In this episode, Rachel Thompson talks with Marianne Chan and Kaitlyn Andrews-Rice, the respective poetry editor and flash fiction editor with Split Lip magazine. These are two editors who both...
19 // Take Control of Your Narrative with Robin Richardson of Minola Review
In this episode, Rachel Thompson talks with Robin Richardson, founder of the Minola Review. She discusses how she overcame early critiques of her writing by men—critiques she internalized. And they...
17 // Delight in Language with Maya Marshall of [PANK]
In this episode, Rachel talks with Maya Marshall, a self-described demanding and productive writer and editor with [PANK] magazine—yes, the magazine founded by Roxane Gay. Among much glorious and...
16 // Take Notice with Donna Talarico of Hippocampus
“I’ve just become better at noticing those little mechanical things,” says the guest for this episode, Donna Talarico, the founder and publisher of Hippocampus Magazine. Hippocampus makes...
13 // Lift Up Women’s Stories with Sierra Skye Gemma, Contest Coordinator at Room
“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.” Sierra Skye Gemma Sierra Skye Gemma is Room's contest...
10 // Stick With Writers with Shazia Hafiz Ramji from PRISM
As always this episode truly takes you behind the scenes of a literary journal—in this case, it’s a University-based journal in the centre of controversy. (Below, we link to articles that will...
09 // Turn Your Writing Outward with Carleigh Baker of Joyland Vancouver
Rachel interviews Carleigh Baker, an editor with Joyland, who talks about the difference between her first and future books, “You can only gaze at your navel for so long. If that’s what you needed...
07 // Let Love Lead You with Derek Askey of The Sun Magazine
The Sun is an independent, ad-free magazine that for more than forty years has used words and photographs to evoke the splendour and heartache of being human. Each monthly issue features personal...
06 // Invest in Relationships with Pamela Mulloy of The New Quarterly
The New Quarterly—TNQ, for short—is a Canadian literary journal known for wit, warmth, and literary innovation. Our style is celebratory, and we’re well known for finding, as well as nurturing,...
05 // Listen to the Writing with Chelene Knight of Room
Room is Canada’s oldest feminist literary journal, and has published fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, art, interviews, and book reviews for forty years. Published quarterly by the West...
04 // How Writing is Like Running and Cycling with Andrea Bennett of Maisonneuve
About Maisonneuve Maisonneuve literally means "new house" and suggests the spirit of collective enterprise the magazine gathers under one roof. The magazine takes its name from Paul de Chomedey...
03 // Make Something Strange with Thea Prieto of The Gravity of the Thing
An online independent literary magazine dedicated to the publication of new and innovative writing, The Gravity of theThing has been named one of thirty best online magazines in 2016 (Bookfox) and...
02 // Expose Something Scary with John Haggerty from The Forge Lit Mag
The Forge Literary Magazine was founded by volunteers from the Fiction Forge, an international online writers’ forum, which counts amongst its members and alumni winners of numerous literary awards,...
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