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In the Atelier

In the Atelier

By Atelier26 Books

In the Atelier is a creativity podcast for writers & artists that explores the life of the imagination. Each installment brings you real talk on subjects like the highs & lows of making art, inspiring works of literature & cinema, and the value & valor of staying true to your own creative vision. Produced by the award-winning literary press Atelier26 Books; hosted by author, publisher, & teacher M. Allen Cunningham.
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Atelier Visit: Writer Bess Winter

In the AtelierApr 07, 2021

00:00
10:00
Answering 10 Questions About Atelier26 Books & Small Publishing

Answering 10 Questions About Atelier26 Books & Small Publishing

ANSWERING 10 QUESTIONS ABOUT ATELIER26 BOOKS & SMALL PUBLISHING: Atelier26 publisher M. Allen Cunningham was recently invited to respond to 10 questions about independent publishing from a group of students at a distinguished private college. What are the advantages, for a writer, in publishing with a small press rather than a mainstream publisher? Besides size, what differentiates a small press from a larger house? What made you want to start Atelier26? How do you balance your work as a writer and your work as a publisher? In this recording, Cunningham gives open and thoughtful replies to these questions and more. You won't often hear an editor or publisher speak this frankly.
Apr 03, 202338:49
ATELIER VISIT: Writer Ann Stinson

ATELIER VISIT: Writer Ann Stinson

ATELIER VISIT WITH WRITER ANN STINSON: Recently we listened back through all of our ATELIER VISIT installments and, wow, it's a series just too damn good to leave scattered and languishing in the depths of our episode archives. So, for your pleasure, dear listener, we're gathering all these episodes together and running them back to back. These aren't interviews -- they're more intimate and creative than that -- and they're all unique in form and focus. Each is an atmospheric journey into the brilliant imaginative mind, process, and working environment of an artist sure to inspire you. You're welcome!

ANN STINSON is the author of the memoir The Ground at My Feet: Sustaining a Family and a Forest (Oregon State University Press, 2021), a Finalist for the 2023 Oregon Book Award. In this visit, she takes us outside, amid the trees of her family's forest in southwest Washington. In her writing, Stinson veers away from the narcissistic conventions of contemporary memoir to give us a book that is brilliantly capacious in spirit and form. Deeply personal, attuned to the big issues, and yet lastingly artful, The Ground at My Feet is an emotionally resonant family portrait and also a deliciously complex journey through time, strata, and culture. It's a nature book for the jaded urbanite, a grief report for the saccharine-allergic, and an account of transformational forest stewardship imbued with reverence and realism. Mentioned in this episode: the Cowlitz River; Mt. Rainier; the Columbia River; Douglas Firs; saw-whet owl; the stories of the forest; Richard Powers's book The Overstory; tree stumps and tree rings; the Cowlitz tribe; being alive to the possibilities of the future and the past; understanding the past anew; Thas-e-muth; Simon Plamondon; the literary utility of coat pockets; Rite in the Rain notebook; walking a trail for 50 years; Himalayan Blackberry; losing oneself to one's work; listening to the land.  Music: "Walking in Forests" by Ben Winwood; "Godnattsaga" by Beneath the Mountain; "Empty Beaches" by Paper Planes (All music used courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist)

Mar 27, 202312:11
ATELIER VISIT: Filmmaker & Pixar Screenwriter Jason Headley

ATELIER VISIT: Filmmaker & Pixar Screenwriter Jason Headley

ATELIER VISIT WITH FILMMAKER & PIXAR SCREENWRITER JASON HEADLEY: Recently we listened back through all of our ATELIER VISIT installments and, wow, it's a series just too damn good to leave scattered and languishing in the depths of our episode archives. So, for your pleasure, dear listener, we're gathering all these episodes together and running them back to back. These aren't interviews -- they're more intimate and creative than that -- and they're all unique in form and focus. Each is an atmospheric journey into the brilliant imaginative mind, process, and working environment of an artist sure to inspire you. You're welcome!

Jason Headley is the writer and director of the feature film A Bad Idea Gone Wrong, which won a Special Jury Prize at the South by Southwest Film Festival, and which you can view online. Headley also wrote Pixar's feature films Lightyear  (2022) and Onward (2020). Headley's short film work has been featured by NBC’s Today Show, Sundance TV, and the TED conference. He created the viral short film It’s Not About the Nail, in which he also acted, and also created the viral short film F*ck That: an Honest Meditation, and the accompanying F*ck That book and F*ck That app. But these are only few of his projects. You can find out more about them and many others at jasonheadley.com.

Mentioned in this episode: purposeful emptiness; letting the story be the distraction; West Virginia; Green Bay Packers; yard sales in San Francisco; an old man and his microwave; not adorning the inoperative; Pixar's "Onward"; cake then icing; getting the reason right; getting down in the rhubarb; perspective versus intention; weirdly angled notions; keeping it simple; Headley's film "A Bad Idea Gone Wrong"; being stuck in one's own life; South by Southwest Film Festival; South by Southwest Special Jury Prize for "A Bad Idea Gone Wrong"; hot buttered chaos; being a night person; Pixar working hours; making use of the day; the guilt of not writing; story-building and cards; Pixar telecommuting; Mural digital workspace; extra wide monitors; the incredible power of procrastination; kicking one's own ass; getting the document open; tinkering; just sort of doing it; writing versus surgery; existentialism; narcissism; fear of failure; guitar playing; joyous noise; pork parts.

Music: "Working the Fields" by James Paul Mitchell; "In Awe" by Evolv; "Reborn" by Swirling Ship; "Cold (instrumental)" by Anthony Lazaro; "Make Me Mad (instrumental)" by Ofrin (All music used courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist)

Mar 20, 202316:35
ATELIER VISIT: Filmmaker Brian Padian

ATELIER VISIT: Filmmaker Brian Padian

ATELIER VISIT WITH FILMMAKER BRIAN PADIAN: Recently we listened back through all of our ATELIER VISIT installments and, wow, it's a series just too damn good to leave scattered and languishing in the depths of our episode archives. So, for your pleasure, dear listener, we're gathering all these episodes together and running them back to back. These aren't interviews -- they're more intimate and creative than that -- and they're all unique in form and focus. Each is an atmospheric journey into the brilliant imaginative mind, process, and working environment of an artist sure to inspire you. You're welcome!

BRIAN PADIAN is the writer/director of the award-winning web series Microagressions, which played at NYC Webfest, the feature-length film The Black Sea, the web series Man of La Mansion, and the forthcoming feature-length film Sister/Brother. Mentioned in this episode: telecommuting; breakfast for the kids; day jobs; something to push against; laziness; the problems with monomaniacal ambition; monotony and the "meaningless"; Final Cut; Padian's first feature film The Black Sea; American Film Institute; Ingmar Bergman; Mike Leigh's Naked; David Lynch's Lost Highway; Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man; artist Noah Nakell; Sight & Sound magazine; Film Comment magazine; Filmmaker magazine; American Cinematographers magazine; naivete; Padian's short film "The Big Black Dark"; bookshelves as totems; screenplay versus finished film; budget limitations; screenwriting as travel planning; primacy of image, cast, and crew; the hazards of the artist's waiting and wanting; power in the doing; the Oregon coast; sneaker waves; dolly tracks; letting go; aspiration versus reality; tiny miracles. Music: "Retrospecting" by Yehezkel Raz; "Per Paura Che Si Rompa" by Bottega Baltazar; "Momentum" by Borrtex; "Roots" by I Am Fowler (All music used courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist)

Mar 13, 202313:52
ATELIER VISIT: Writer Kristen Millares Young

ATELIER VISIT: Writer Kristen Millares Young

ATELIER VISIT WITH WRITER KRISTEN MILLARES YOUNG: Recently we listened back through all of our ATELIER VISIT installments and, wow, it's a series just too damn good to leave scattered and languishing in the depths of our episode archives. So, for your pleasure, dear listener, we're gathering all these episodes together and running them back to back. These aren't interviews -- they're more intimate and creative than that -- and they're all unique in form and focus. Each is an atmospheric journey into the brilliant imaginative mind, process, and working environment of an artist sure to inspire you. You're welcome!

KRISTEN MILLARE YOUNG's debut novel, Subduction (Red Hen Press) was named a Finalist for two International Latino Book Awards in 2020. Her writing appears in The Washington Post, The Seattle Times, the Guardian, the Los Angeles Review, Joyland Magazine, Psychology Today, Hobart, Crosscut, Moss, and elsewhere. Kristen was the researcher for the New York Times team that produced "Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek," which won a Pulitzer and a Peabody. Visit KristenMYoung.com.  Mentioned in this episode: writing while standing; showing your work; taking your time; Makah Tribe; Luis Alberto Urrea; emotion and rigor; Frida Kahlo; Joan Didion; Literary Hub; mica and peeling rock; Sappho; ecstasy; mother goddess worshipping cults; Elissa Washuta; Washuta's "White Magic"; Tin House Books; Melissa Febos; Febos's "Girlhood"; Hugo House.  Music: "Walkman Snail Shoes" by Peter Spacey; "Blue Moon Cafe" by Stefano Mastronardi; "Where I Find Rest" by Sun Wash; "Bloody You" by Racoon Racoon;  "Clouds" by Stanley Gurvich. (Music used by courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist.)

Mar 06, 202315:58
ATELIER VISIT: Writer Bess Winter

ATELIER VISIT: Writer Bess Winter

ATELIER VISIT WITH WRITER BESS WINTER: Recently we listened back through all of our ATELIER VISIT installments and, wow, it's a series just too damn good to leave scattered and languishing in the depths of our episode archives. So, for your pleasure, dear listener, we're gathering all these episodes together and running them back to back. These aren't interviews -- they're more intimate and creative than that -- and they're all unique in form and focus. Each is an atmospheric journey into the brilliant imaginative mind, process, and working environment of an artist sure to inspire you. You're welcome!

BESS WINTER's debut short story collection, Machines of Another Era, appeared from Gold Wake Press in January 2021. Her work appears in American Short Fiction, Gettysburg Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Ecotone, W.W. Norton’s Flash Fiction International, and elsewhere, and has been awarded a Pushcart Prize and the American Short[er] Fiction Prize. An Assistant Professor of English at Eastern Illinois University, she’s Editor-in-Chief of Bluestem Magazine. Visit BessWinter.com. Mentioned in this episode: Urbana, IL; Roger Ebert; David Foster Wallace; Stanley Elkin; William Gass; old dolls; ghosts. Music: "Deep Brown Eyes" and "Grace" by Raccoon Racoon (Music used courtesy of the artist through a licensing agreement with Artlist.)

Feb 27, 202308:31
ATELIER VISIT: Writer Woody Skinner

ATELIER VISIT: Writer Woody Skinner

ATELIER VISIT WITH WRITER WOODY SKINNER: Recently we listened back through all of our ATELIER VISIT installments and, wow, it's a series just too damn good to leave scattered and languishing in the depths of our episode archives. So, for your pleasure, dear listener, we're gathering all these episodes together and running them back to back. These aren't interviews -- they're more intimate and creative than that -- and they're all unique in form and focus. Each is an atmospheric journey into the brilliant imaginative mind, process, and working environment of an artist sure to inspire you. You're welcome!

WOODY SKINNER's debut short story collection, A Thousand Distant Radios, was published by Atelier26 Books and was a semi-finalist for PEN America's  PEN/Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction. His work has won the Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award and appeared in Mid-American Review, The Carolina Quarterly, Hobart, Booth, Another Chicago Magazine, and elsewhere. Mentioned in this episode: chalkware cowboys; 1950s beer cans; cluttered desk-space; mid-century masculinity; Arkansas; Cincinnati, OH; Chicago, IL; objects and the imagination; Luke Geddes' novel Heart of Junk; Bess Winter's Machines of Another Era; Skinner's short story "The Knife Salesman"; writing in coffee shops; crust punks; scones; the value of corporate environments; the virtues of boredom. Music: "Winner" by Ofrin; "Tunnel Vision" and "Memories" by Stanley Gurvich; "Lost in the Future" by Swirling Ship (All music used courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist)

Feb 20, 202311:35
ATELIER VISIT: Writer Harriet Scott Chessman

ATELIER VISIT: Writer Harriet Scott Chessman

ATELIER VISIT WITH HARRIET SCOTT CHESSMAN: Recently we listened back through all of our ATELIER VISIT installments and, wow, it's a series just too damn good to leave scattered and languishing in the depths of our episode archives. So, for your pleasure, dear listener, we're gathering all these episodes together and running them back to back. These aren't interviews -- they're more intimate and creative than that -- and they're all unique in form and focus. Each is an atmospheric journey into the brilliant imaginative mind, process, and working environment of an artist sure to inspire you. You're welcome!

HARRIET SCOTT CHESSMAN has published two novels with Atelier26 Books: The Beauty of Ordinary Things and Someone Not Really Her Mother. Her latest novel is The Lost Sketchbook of Edgar Degas. She wrote the libretto for the opera My Lai, a commission by Kronos Performing Arts Association with music composed by Jonathan Berger. On April 23, 2022 a concert version was performed at Carnegie Hall. Her new opera, Sycorax, created in collaboration with Austrian composer Georg Friedrich Haas, was performed at Buehnen Bern Theater in Bern, Switzerland, in 2022. Mentioned in this episode: A room of one's own; woodland vistas; spareness and light; Ikea desks; poetry; haiku; breath; writing librettos; opera; My Lai; The Tempest; justice; the writer's connection to -- and contribution to -- the world. Music: "Ballerina" by Yehezkel Raz;  "Ever I Wander" by Jameson Nathan Jones; "Afternoon Mist" by Yehezkel Raz (All music used courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist)

Feb 13, 202313:30
ATELIER VISIT: Writer Amy Lee Lillard

ATELIER VISIT: Writer Amy Lee Lillard

ATELIER VISIT WITH WRITER AMY LEE LILLARD: Recently we listened back through all of our ATELIER VISIT installments and, wow, it's a series just too damn good to leave scattered and languishing in the depths of our episode archives. So, for your pleasure, dear listener, we're gathering all these episodes together and running them back to back. These aren't interviews -- they're more intimate and creative than that -- and they're all unique in form and focus. Each is an atmospheric journey into the brilliant imaginative mind, process, and working environment of an artist sure to inspire you. You're welcome!

AMY LEE LILLARD's debut book, the kick-ass short story collection DIG ME OUT, appeared from Atelier26 Books in October 2021. Amy will release two new books next year: the story collection Exit in Guyville (BOA Editions, spring 2024) and the memoir The Past Is a Grotesque Animal (University of Iowa Press, Fall 2024). Amy co-hosts the infectious, fascinating, and hilarious feminist podcast Broads and Books.  Mentioned in this episode: election seasons; rad Raygun tees; living on your own; old houses; bats; feral cats; maintenance calls; rainbow fire; working from home; Broads and Books podcast; Sleater Kinney; Bikini Kill; Nine Inch Nails; Trent Reznor; Iggy Pop; profane cross-stitch; owning your creative identity.   Music: "Wellington Joke" by Manos Mars; "Du Da" by Ian Post; "Broken Radios" by Stanley Gurvich; "Start Over" by Skygaze; "Just Right" by Generation Lost (All music used courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist)

Feb 06, 202312:60
ATELIER TALK, Ep. 1: Are You Serious?

ATELIER TALK, Ep. 1: Are You Serious?

ATELIER TALK, EP. 1: ARE YOU SERIOUS? -- David R. Roth is the author of the novel The Femme Fatale Hypothesis (Regal House Publishing, 2021). His stories are set in or shaped by life in the small Delaware River town in which he has lived for over three decades. M. Allen Cunningham is the author, most recently, of the novel Q&A (Regal House Publishing, 2021) and the producer and host of In the Atelier and Thoreau's Leaves: the Thoreau Podcast. He teaches creative writing at Portland State University and elsewhere. The springboard for this Atelier Talk is the first question in this interview from The New York Review of Books. (https://www.nybooks.com/online/2022/11/05/gods-of-chaos-and-stupidity-joshua-cohen/) Mentioned in this episode: 2022 Pulitzer Prize winner Joshua Cohen • New York Review of Books • The writer’s seriousness & the writer’s subject • The writer’s seriousness & the market • Moby-Dick • Kent Haruf’s Our Souls at Night • Haruf’s Plainsong Trilogy • Subject versus treatment • The need to be read • The “sanctity” of fiction • Communication as consequence • The circuit of creativity, thought, expression • A paltry number of readers • Focusing on one reader at a time • Many angles on seriousness • The reader’s perspective on what makes writing serious • Genre-writing and seriousness • C.S. Lewis’s An Experiment in Criticism • What kind of reading does the writing encourage? • Georges Simenon • Simenon's The Stain on the Snow • Dashiell Hammett • Louise Erdrich’s Justice Trilogy • Literary crime novels • Genre expectations • Form versus formula • “Blood-red lips” • Attention elicits attention • Satisfactions of form • Lasting reading experiences versus beach reads • Elmore Leonard • Francine Prose’s Reading Like a Writer • The importance of achieving more than one thing • Writing as human expression • 3 questions about the reading experience • James Baldwin’s “The Discovery of What It Means to Be an American” • Baldwin's Nobody Knows My Name • Impatience with interiority • Teju Cole • Trusting in the reader’s seriousness • The writer’s seriousness and the writer’s daily discipline • Toni Morrison • Reading seriously as a writer • Becoming more and more judgmental, unforgiving, and incorrigible • Letting the unconscious continue the work • Showing up and waiting • Writers have to write.

Dec 04, 202235:37
Atelier Special: The Sky at Her Back

Atelier Special: The Sky at Her Back

ATELIER SPECIAL: THE SKY AT HER BACK -- M. Allen Cunningham announces a special workshop opportunity and reads his short story "The Sky at Her Back," which first appeared in Issue 10 of Catamaran Magazine. (All music used by courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist)
Jun 10, 202211:05
Why It's Desirable to Be Eccentric, with JS Mill

Why It's Desirable to Be Eccentric, with JS Mill

WHY IT'S DESIRABLE TO BE ECCENTRIC: "Originality is the one thing which unoriginal minds cannot feel the use of." In 1859 the great English thinker John Stuart Mill published, in Chapter Three of his treatise On Liberty, one of history’s most cogent essays on the subject of Individuality, originality, genius, and eccentricity. To Mill’s view, mass opinion (what we might call “mass culture” these days), is an undeniable blight to individuality, and therefore directly threatens freedoms civic and intellectual, cultural, and democratic. While explicitly political, Mill’s argument reaches down to the foundations of human nature and culture, articulating many of the challenges artists and writers face in a media-driven society fixated upon dollars earned, hits per day, and “going viral.” Mentioned in this episode: John Stuart Mill; Mill's "On Liberty"; Victorian England; keeping up with the joneses; Ray Bradbury; bestseller lists; Billboard charts; Oprah endorsements; culture vs. commerce; becoming valuable to oneself and to others; despotism; John Gardner; the National Endowment for the Arts; the tyrannical majority; unpopular vs. uncommercial; persons of genius; arts funding.  Music: "Hands of Time" by Narrow Skies; "Interspacing" by Yehezkel Raz; "Fragments" by Borrtex; "Birds & Daisies" by Racoon Racoon (All music used courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist.)
May 18, 202221:53
Please Prove You Are Not a Robot

Please Prove You Are Not a Robot

PLEASE PROVE YOU ARE NOT A ROBOT: You haven't posted in a while. Say, "OK, Google." Everyone's watching. (Recorded Sept. 2019, Brooklyn NY)
May 11, 202205:19
Soul School, with John Keats

Soul School, with John Keats

SOUL SCHOOL, WITH JOHN KEATS: "Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is, to school an Intelligence and make it a Soul?" John Keats is saying here what Rilke put another way in 1904: "Let life happen to you. Believe me, life is in the right, always." Mentioned in this episode: John Keats; Shakespeare; Christianity; Rilke Music: "Another Green World" by Loyla; "Papyrus" by Kyle Preston; "Ballo in Casa Capuleti" by Bottega Baltazar. (All music used by courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist.) Episode reprised from the ITA archives.
May 04, 202208:35
About Discouragement
Apr 27, 202204:16
Atelier Visit: Writer Ann Stinson

Atelier Visit: Writer Ann Stinson

ATELIER VISIT WITH WRITER ANN STINSON: Atelier Visits take you into the creative workspaces of artists we admire. We're asking writers, visual artists, musicians, and filmmakers to bring you right inside their respective ateliers and share a bit about their process, their creative preoccupations, whatever is on their minds lately. It's an opportunity to spend a little while with various brilliant people who are busy doing good imaginative, artistic work. They'll speak to us directly about what life and creativity is like for them.
Ann Stinson is the author of the memoir The Ground at My Feet: Sustaining a Family and a Forest (Oregon State University Press, 2021). In this visit, she takes us outside, amid the trees of her family's forest in southwest Washington. In her writing, Stinson veers away from the narcissistic conventions of contemporary memoir to give us a book that is brilliantly capacious in spirit and form. Deeply personal, attuned to the big issues, and yet lastingly artful, The Ground at My Feet is an emotionally resonant family portrait and also a deliciously complex journey through time, strata, and culture. It's a nature book for the jaded urbanite, a grief report for the saccharine-allergic, and an account of transformational forest stewardship imbued with reverence and realism.
Mentioned in this episode: the Cowlitz River; Mt. Rainier; the Columbia River; Douglas Firs; saw-whet owl; the stories of the forest; Richard Powers's book The Overstory; tree stumps and tree rings; the Cowlitz tribe; being alive to the possibilities of the future and the past; understanding the past anew; Thas-e-muth; Simon Plamondon; the literary utility of coat pockets; Rite in the Rain notebook; walking a trail for 50 years; Himalayan Blackberry; losing oneself to one's work; listening to the land.
Music: "Walking in Forests" by Ben Winwood; "Godnattsaga" by Beneath the Mountain; "Empty Beaches" by Paper Planes (All music used courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist)
Apr 16, 202212:11
Opportunity & Inspiration

Opportunity & Inspiration

OPPORTUNITY & INSPIRATION: A famous author's invitation leads to a lesson about opportunity and the unexpected forms inspiration can take. Mentioned in this episode: Denis Johnson; Johnson's "Jesus' Son"; Johnson's "Tree of Smoke"; National Book Award. Music: "Anthem of a Quirky Hipster" by Rex Banner; "Lemonade" by Shtriker Big Band; "The Beat of the Land" by Assaf Ayalon (All music used by courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist)

Dec 05, 202112:03
Atelier Visit: Filmmaker & Pixar Writer Jason Headley

Atelier Visit: Filmmaker & Pixar Writer Jason Headley

ATELIER VISIT WITH FILMMAKER & PIXAR WRITER JASON HEADLEY: Atelier Visits take you into the creative workspaces of artists we admire. We're asking writers, visual artists, musicians, and filmmakers to bring you right inside their respective ateliers and share a bit about their process, their creative preoccupations, whatever is on their minds lately. It's an opportunity to spend a little while with various brilliant people who are busy doing good imaginative, artistic work. They'll speak to us directly about what life and creativity is like for them. Jason Headley is the writer and director of the feature film A Bad Idea Gone Wrong, which won a Special Jury Prize at the South by Southwest Film Festival, and which you can view online, and co-writer of Pixar’s 2020 film Onward. Headley's short film work has been featured by NBC’s Today Show, Sundance TV, and the TED conference. He created the viral short film It’s Not About the Nail, in which he also acted, and also created the viral short film F*ck That: an Honest Meditation, and the accompanying F*ck That book and F*ck That app. But these are only few of his projects. You can find out more about them and many others at jasonheadley.com

Mentioned in this episode: purposeful emptiness; letting the story be the distraction; West Virginia; Green Bay Packers; yard sales in San Francisco; an old man and his microwave; not adorning the inoperative; Pixar's "Onward"; cake then icing; getting the reason right; getting down in the rhubarb; perspective versus intention; weirdly angled notions; keeping it simple; Headley's film "A Bad Idea Gone Wrong"; being stuck in one's own life; South by Southwest Film Festival; South by Southwest Special Jury Prize for "A Bad Idea Gone Wrong"; hot buttered chaos; being a night person; Pixar working hours; making use of the day; the guilt of not writing; story-building and cards; Pixar telecommuting; Mural digital workspace; extra wide monitors; the incredible power of procrastination; kicking one's own ass; getting the document open; tinkering; just sort of doing it; writing versus surgery; existentialism; narcissism; fear of failure; guitar playing; joyous noise; pork parts.

Music: "Working the Fields" by James Paul Mitchell; "In Awe" by Evolv; "Reborn" by Swirling Ship; "Cold (instrumental)" by Anthony Lazaro; "Make Me Mad (instrumental)" by Ofrin (All music used courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist)

Jul 03, 202116:35
M. Allen Cunningham on the Broads & Books Podcast

M. Allen Cunningham on the Broads & Books Podcast

M. ALLEN CUNNINGHAM ON THE BROADS & BOOKS PODCAST: In the Atelier is going from weekly to occasional, but don't worry: there's lots of good listening still ahead. To make sure you hear about it whenever a new installment hits the podwaves, sign up for the Atelier26 newsletter at Atelier26Books.com. For today’s installment: a special from Broads and Books, the funny and feminist book podcast whose hosts love sharing books as much as they love sharing embarrassing stories and crackpot business ideas. Hosted by Amy and Erin, both voracious readers, Broads and Books is some of the most refreshing listening you’ll find. We can’t think of any other show that could match the fantastic chemistry and conversational rhythms between these two quick-witted bibliophiles. Recently, after listening to many many episodes of the Broads and Books himself, M. Allen Cunningham had the surreal pleasure of being a guest on the show, and it was the best time he's ever had discussing his reading life and his work as a novelist. They got him talking about his earliest formative reading, his conversion experience while accidentally watching Shakespeare’s Hamlet on screen at age 12, the classics he struggled with, the books he thinks everyone should read -- and they even got him to share the story of one of his most awkward author events. Have a listen, and check out Broads and Books wherever you get your podcasts!
Jun 02, 202156:05
Atelier Special: You, Me, and the Screen Between (An Elegy)

Atelier Special: You, Me, and the Screen Between (An Elegy)

ATELIER SPECIAL: YOU, ME, AND THE SCREEN BETWEEN (AN ELEGY) -- A novelist doesn't have to write about the here and now in order to be writing about the here and now. In this special installment of In the Atelier: a new essay by M. Allen Cunningham about how today's civic breakdowns are rooted in a pandemic of screen-addiction that goes back to a misunderstood chapter of American history. Cunningham's new novel Q&A reimagines those historic events in light of our own time. 

You can read Cunningham's essay in full at: medium.com/@M_A_Cunningham

Find excerpts from Cunningham's novel at: mallencunningham.com/qa

Mentioned in this episode: clarity of mind and clarity of line; M. Allen Cunningham's novel Q&A; what screens gave us; agitation; neverending flood of images; instantaneousness; Daniel J. Boorstin; involuntary commitments; landfills; questioning the value of privacy; all things reduced to equivalence; performing our lives; sharing economy; attention economy; gig economy; creative class; the Arab Spring; Occupy Wall Street; the Million Women March; Black Lives Matter; new neural networks; from ideas to memes; bots and trolls; 45th American presidency; impeachment; big onscreen metrics; television history; quiz shows; quiz show scandals; Twenty-One; Charles Van Doren; Columbia University; Pulitzer Prize; TV fakes; Van Doren's Congressional statement; disinformation; conspiracy theories; CBS Radio's Invitation to Learning; the warped logic of the small screen; rewards come to those who fake; Lionel Trilling; Trilling's Sincerity & Authenticity; self-deception; seeming over being; JFK assassination; Vietnam War; OJ Simpson trial; reality TV; "likes," "friends," & stats; Facebook; Twitter; Instagram; techno-cultural remodeling of self and society; democratic breakdowns; The Apprentice; counterfeit selves; ideological entrenchment; bamboozling the self; web-enabled tools of self-delusion; viral falsehoods; Covid; the 2020 election; windows versus mirrors; screen addiction; narcissism; the screen mind; YouTube; the insanity of January 6th, 2021.

Music: "Youth" by ANBR; "Tremors" by Spearfisher; "Tell Me You Love Me" by Kick Lee; "Unknown" by Kutiman; "Blood Meridian" by Spearfisher; "Thoughts" by ANBR

(All music used courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist.)

Apr 21, 202128:49
Atelier Visit: Writer Bess Winter

Atelier Visit: Writer Bess Winter

ATELIER VISIT WITH WRITER BESS WINTER: Atelier Visits take you into the creative workspaces of artists we admire. We're asking writers, visual artists, musicians, and filmmakers to bring you right inside their respective ateliers and share a bit about their process, their creative preoccupations, whatever is on their minds lately. It's an opportunity to spend a little while with various brilliant people who are busy doing good imaginative, artistic work. They'll speak to us directly about what life and creativity is like for them. Bess Winter's debut short story collection, Machines of Another Era, appeared from Gold Wake Press in January 2021. Her work appears in American Short Fiction, Gettysburg Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Ecotone, W.W. Norton’s Flash Fiction International, and elsewhere, and has been awarded a Pushcart Prize and the American Short[er] Fiction Prize. An Assistant Professor of English at Eastern Illinois University, she’s Editor-in-Chief of Bluestem Magazine. Visit BessWinter.com. Mentioned in this episode: Urbana, IL; Roger Ebert; David Foster Wallace; Stanley Elkin; William Gass; old dolls; ghosts. Music: "Deep Brown Eyes" and "Grace" by Raccoon Racoon (Music used courtesy of the artist through a licensing agreement with Artlist.) This episode reprised from the ITA archives.

Apr 07, 202110:00
Why It's Desirable to Be Eccentric

Why It's Desirable to Be Eccentric

WHY IT'S DESIRABLE TO BE ECCENTRIC: "Originality is the one thing which unoriginal minds cannot feel the use of." In 1859 the great English thinker John Stuart Mill published, in Chapter Three of his treatise On Liberty, one of history’s most cogent essays on the subject of Individuality, originality, genius, and eccentricity. To Mill’s view, mass opinion (what we might call “mass culture” these days), is an undeniable blight to individuality, and therefore directly threatens freedoms civic and intellectual, cultural, and democratic. While explicitly political, Mill’s argument reaches down to the foundations of human nature and culture, articulating many of the challenges artists and writers face in a media-driven society fixated upon dollars earned, hits per day, and “going viral.” Mentioned in this episode: John Stuart Mill; Mill's "On Liberty"; Victorian England; keeping up with the joneses; Ray Bradbury; bestseller lists; Billboard charts; Oprah endorsements; culture vs. commerce; becoming valuable to oneself and to others; despotism; John Gardner; the National Endowment for the Arts; the tyrannical majority; unpopular vs. uncommercial; persons of genius; arts funding.  Music: "Hands of Time" by Narrow Skies; "Interspacing" by Yehezkel Raz; "Fragments" by Borrtex; "Birds & Daisies" by Racoon Racoon (All music used courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist.)
Mar 31, 202121:54
Atelier Visit: Writer Amy Lee Lillard
Mar 24, 202112:46
About Discouragement (Bonus Installment)
Mar 21, 202104:55
The Value of Travel

The Value of Travel

THE VALUE OF TRAVEL: Reflections on travel and inspiration, on travel and parenting, on travel and expense, and on travel as a personal, creative, and maybe even moral responsibility. Mentioned in this episode: where ideas come from; spurring inspiration; child-rearing; American passport holders; innumerable (and numerable) benefits of travel; the "go while you're young" mindset; travel and affordability; travel as excessive expense; prioritizing travel; serendipity; artists on national currency; small cultural differences; Adam Gopnick; Gopnick's Paris to the Moon; unquantifiable value; bringing a child abroad. Music: "Mood" by We Are the Good; "Flight of the Inner Bird" by Sivan Talmor; "Lives" by Angel Salazar (All music used courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist.)

Mar 17, 202116:02
IN THE ATELIER: your weekly creativity podcast

IN THE ATELIER: your weekly creativity podcast

Produced by Atelier26 Books, hosted by M. Allen Cunningham
Mar 15, 202100:32
Atelier Visit: Writer Woody Skinner

Atelier Visit: Writer Woody Skinner

ATELIER VISIT WITH WRITER WOODY SKINNER: Atelier Visits take you into the creative workspaces of artists we admire. We're asking writers, visual artists, musicians, and filmmakers to bring you right inside their respective ateliers and share a bit about their process, their creative preoccupations, whatever is on their minds lately. It's an opportunity to spend a little while with various brilliant people who are busy doing good imaginative, artistic work. They'll speak to us directly about what life and creativity is like for them. Woody Skinner's debut short story collection, A Thousand Distant Radios, was published by Atelier26 Books and was a semi-finalist for PEN America's PEN/Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction. His work has won the Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award and appeared in Mid-American Review, The Carolina Quarterly, Hobart, Booth, Another Chicago Magazine, and elsewhere. Mentioned in this episode: chalkware cowboys; 1950s beer cans; cluttered desk-space; mid-century masculinity; Arkansas; Cincinnati, OH; Chicago, IL; objects and the imagination; Luke Geddes' novel Heart of Junk; Bess Winter's Machines of Another Era; Skinner's short story "The Knife Salesman"; writing in coffee shops; crust punks; scones; the value of corporate environments; the virtues of boredom. Music: "Winner" by Ofrin; "Tunnel Vision" and "Memories" by Stanley Gurvich; "Lost in the Future" by Swirling Ship (All music used courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist) This episode reprised from the ITA Archives.
Mar 10, 202111:37
It Is Natural to Need Help

It Is Natural to Need Help

IT IS NATURAL TO NEED HELP: Once upon a time I relished the idea of “making it” on my own. I didn’t foresee the hazards. Mentioned in this episode: Being a lone wolf; acting versus writing; self-reliance; the rat race; grants and fellowships; Malcolm Gladwell; Gladwell's "Outliers"; Thornton Wilder; meritocracy; Alain de Botton; Botton's "Status Anxiety"; Andrew Carnegie; success myths; moral debts; editors Music: "Killing Time" by Stanley Gurvich; "Drift" by Be Still the Earth (All music used courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist) This episode reprised from the ITA Archives.
Mar 03, 202110:25
Atelier Visit: Filmmaker Brian Padian

Atelier Visit: Filmmaker Brian Padian

ATELIER VISIT WITH FILMMAKER BRIAN PADIAN: Atelier Visits take you into the creative workspaces of artists we admire. We're asking writers, visual artists, musicians, and filmmakers to bring you right inside their respective ateliers and share a bit about their process, their creative preoccupations, whatever is on their minds lately. It's an opportunity to spend a little while with various brilliant people who are busy doing good imaginative, artistic work. They'll speak to us directly about what life and creativity is like for them. Brian Padian is the writer/director of the award-winning web series Microagressions, which played at NYC Webfest, the feature-length film The Black Sea, the forthcoming web series Man of La Mansion, and the forthcoming feature-length film Sister/Brother. Mentioned in this episode: telecommuting; breakfast for the kids; day jobs; something to push against; laziness; the problems with monomaniacal ambition; monotony and the "meaningless"; Final Cut; Padian's first feature film The Black Sea; American Film Institute; Ingmar Bergman; Mike Leigh's Naked; David Lynch's Lost Highway; Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man; artist Noah Nakell; Sight & Sound magazine; Film Comment magazine; Filmmaker magazine; American Cinematographers magazine; naivete; Padian's short film "The Big Black Dark"; bookshelves as totems; screenplay versus finished film; budget limitations; screenwriting as travel planning; primacy of image, cast, and crew; the hazards of the artist's waiting and wanting; power in the doing; the Oregon coast; sneaker waves; dolly tracks; letting go; aspiration versus reality; tiny miracles. Music: "Retrospecting" by Yehezkel Raz; "Per Paura Che Si Rompa" by Bottega Baltazar; "Momentum" by Borrtex; "Roots" by I Am Fowler (All music used courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist)
Feb 24, 202113:55
Soul School (with John Keats)

Soul School (with John Keats)

SOUL SCHOOL WITH JOHN KEATS: The English poet John Keats died unknown to the world at age twenty-five. The odds were against him from the start. Today his poetic mastery is often cited as being second only to Shakespeare. In this episode we look at a letter Keats wrote in 1819, in which he called the world "the vale of Soul-Making." Mentioned in this episode: John Keats; Shakespeare; Christianity; Rilke Music: "Another Green World" by Loyla; "Papyrus" by Kyle Preston; "Ballo in Casa Capuleti" by Bottega Baltazar. (All music used by courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist.) Episode reprised from the ITA archives.
Feb 17, 202108:37
Atelier Visit: Harriet Scott Chessman

Atelier Visit: Harriet Scott Chessman

ATELIER VISIT WITH HARRIET SCOTT CHESSMAN: Atelier Visits take you into the creative workspaces of artists we admire. We're asking writers, visual artists, musicians, and filmmakers to bring you right inside their respective ateliers and share a bit about their process, their creative preoccupations, whatever is on their minds lately. It's an opportunity to spend a little while with various brilliant people who are busy doing good imaginative, artistic work. They'll speak to us directly about what life and creativity is like for them. Harriet Scott Chessman has published two novels with Atelier26 Books: The Beauty of Ordinary Things and Someone Not Really Her Mother. Her latest novel is The Lost Sketchbook of Edgar Degas. She wrote the libretto for the opera My Lai. Mentioned in this episode: A room of one's own; woodland vistas; spareness and light; Ikea desks; poetry; haiku; breath; writing librettos; opera; My Lai; The Tempest; justice; the writer's connection to -- and contribution to -- the world. Music: "Ballerina" by Yehezkel Raz; "Ever I Wander" by Jameson Nathan Jones; "Afternoon Mist" by Yehezkel Raz (All music used courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist) This episode reprised from the ITA archives.
Feb 10, 202113:32
What Would Leonard Cohen Do?

What Would Leonard Cohen Do?

WHAT WOULD LEONARD COHEN DO? : If you’re a hardworking creative soul striving to continue doing the work of the expressive imagination, striving to honor an authentic vision that resists the forces of market optimization, you could do a lot worse than immerse yourself in Leonard Cohen’s corpus and give this question your consideration: What would Leonard do? Mentioned in this episode: Leonard Cohen; Cohen's "Hallelujah"; Songs of Leonard Cohen; Cohen's 1963 debut novel The Favorite Game; CBC Television; Cohen's novel Beautiful Losers; Cohen's performance style; Bob Dylan; Cohen's "Famous Blue Raincoat"; Zen; Mount Baldy; Leonard Cohen world tour; skipping at age 78; Cohen's album You Want It Darker; Cohen's album Thanks for the Dance; Feist; Beck; Damien Rice. This episode reprised from the ITA archives.
Feb 03, 202119:51
Loon Checkers

Loon Checkers

LOON CHECKERS, from THOREAU'S LEAVES -- An October day in a boat on Walden, and "a pretty game, played on the smooth surface of the pond, a man against a loon." (From Walden, "Brute Neighbors") Loon sounds by Andrew Spencer, XC 189383 (accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/189383); and Todd Wilson, XC103421 (accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/103421). Music: "Love You" by Yehezkel Raz; "Revelations" by Tristan Barton (All music used courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist)

Hear more from Thoreau's Leaves at anchor.fm/thoreausleaves

Jan 27, 202108:34
Why Stories Matter

Why Stories Matter

WHY STORIES MATTER: Thoughts about the questions our most enduring stories ask and the effects these stories achieve.  

Mentioned in this episode: Wendell Berry; Northern California; Mount Diablo; The Green Age of Asher Witherow; John Steinbeck; Steinbeck's East of Eden; Salinas, California; regionalism; cynical critics; Nobel Prize; Book of Genesis; Barry Lopez; mythology; Wallace Stegner; Stegner's "The Sense of Place"; Carl Jung; Harold Bloom; Bloom's "Anxiety of Influence." Music: "Unplanned Run" by Stanley Gurvich; "Fall" by ANBR; "King of Mandol" by Swirling Ship (All music used courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist)

This episode reprised from the ITA archives.

Jan 20, 202111:29
What Resists Us Helps Us

What Resists Us Helps Us

WHAT RESISTS US HELPS US: Imposed limitation can galvanize the imagination. So here's to "salutary antagonisms!" 

Mentioned in this episode: Ethan Canin; Canin's "Emperor of the Air"; Canin's short story, "Accountant"; Annie Proulx; John Dewey; Dewey's "Art As Experience" (1934); Katherine Anne Porter; Samuel Taylor Coleridge; Wallace Stegner's "Crossing to Safety" 

Music: "Puddles" by Stanley Gurvitch; "Continent" by ANBR; "Sparkle" by Maya Isac; "Vuelta al Sol" by Tomas Novoa; "Befun" by Befun (All music used by courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist)

This episode reprised from the ITA archives.

Jan 13, 202112:60
Watch Out for Wisdom

Watch Out for Wisdom

WATCH OUT FOR WISDOM: In matters of art, wisdom is rarely conventional.

Mentioned in this episode: Anthony Minghella; American movies; screenplays; three-act structure; Hollywood; formulas; plot; revision; Agnes Jaoui; Ingmar Bergman; Nicole Holofcener; Noah Baumbach; Wim Wenders; Minghella's "The English Patient"; Henry James; B.S.-detector; self-reliance; New York Times; William T. Vollman; movie deal.


Music: "SnowJah" by Peter Spacey; "Homemade Apple Pie" by Jamie Bathgate; "Likes" by Swirling Ship


(All music used courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist) This episode reprised from the ITA archives.
Jan 06, 202110:03
Atelier Visit: Writer Kristen Millares Young

Atelier Visit: Writer Kristen Millares Young

ATELIER VISIT: WRITER KRISTEN MILLARES YOUNG Atelier Visits take you into the creative workspaces of artists we admire. We're asking writers, visual artists, musicians, and filmmakers to bring you right inside their respective ateliers and share a bit about their process, their creative preoccupations, whatever is on their minds lately. It's an opportunity to spend a little while with various brilliant people who are busy doing good imaginative, artistic work. They'll speak to us directly about what life and creativity is like for them.
Kristen Millares Young's debut novel, Subduction (Red Hen Press) was named a Finalist for two International Latino Book Awards in 2020. Her writing appears in The Washington Post, The Seattle Times, the Guardian, the Los Angeles Review, Joyland Magazine, Psychology Today, Hobart, Crosscut, Moss, and elsewhere. Kristen was the researcher for the New York Times team that produced "Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek," which won a Pulitzer and a Peabody. Visit
KristenMYoung.com.
Mentioned in this episode: writing while standing; showing your work; taking your time; Makah Tribe; Luis Alberto Urrea; emotion and rigor; Frida Kahlo; Joan Didion; Literary Hub; mica and peeling rock; Sappho; ecstasy; mother goddess worshipping cults; Elissa Washuta; Washuta's "White Magic"; Tin House Books; Melissa Febos; Febos's "Girlhood"; Hugo House.
Music: "Walkman Snail Shoes" by Peter Spacey; "Blue Moon Cafe" by Stefano Mastronardi; "Where I Find Rest" by Sun Wash; "Bloody You" by Racoon Racoon; "Clouds" by Stanley Gurvich. (Music used by courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist.)
Dec 30, 202016:22
Atelier Special: In Ludwig's Room

Atelier Special: In Ludwig's Room

ATELIER SPECIAL: IN LUDWIG'S ROOM -- Atelier Specials feature original creative content including essays, fiction, and excerpts. Today: In honor of the 250th birth-year of Ludwig Van Beethoven, M. Allen Cunningham's account of a visit to Beethoven's rooms in Vienna, a mere two centuries after the composer steps out. Mentioned in this episode: Vienna; University of Vienna; the Ringstrasse; Vienna ramparts; the Votivkirche; Beethoven's 4th, 5th, 7th, and 8th symphonies; Beethoven's Rasumowsky Quartets; Beethoven's opera "Fidelio"; office workers; dreamers; ghosts; work and time; what we give our attention to.
Music: Beethoven! (and "Hands of Time" by Narrow Skies, used courtesy of the artist through a licensing agreement with Artlist).
Dec 23, 202010:14
John Ruskin on Freedom and Imperfection

John Ruskin on Freedom and Imperfection

JOHN RUSKIN ON FREEDOM & IMPERFECTION: Throughout the whole second half of the nineteenth century "to read [John] Ruskin was accepted as proof of the possession of a soul" (as art historian Kenneth Clark put it). And Ruskin's "The Stones of Venice" is a work of huge compassion, intelligence, and beauty that still has a great deal to say to artists. "No good work whatever can be perfect," says Ruskin, "for no great [person] ever stops working till [they have] reached [their] point of failure ... To banish imperfection is to destroy expression." Mentioned in this episode: John Ruskin; Ruskin's The Stones of Venice; Kenneth Clark; Industrial Revolution; Victorian England; Arts & Crafts Movement; Mahatma Ghandi; the European Gothic Age; Joseph Campbell; social reform; the digital age. Music: "Drifting" by Lake Union; "Autumn Wind" by Yehezkel Raz; "Best Summer Ever" by When Mountains Move (All songs used courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist.)
Dec 16, 202015:47
Atelier Visit: Writer Bess Winter
Dec 09, 202008:55
What Am I Doing With My Life?

What Am I Doing With My Life?

WHAT AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE? : Two kinds of doubt and how to use them. Mentioned in this episode: John Gardner; Gardner's "On Becoming a Novelist"; gap analysis; Henry James; James's "The Middle Years"; James's notebooks; Cynthia Ozick; prayer; intuition. Music: "Moonlight Call" by Racoon Racoon; "Purple Maze" by Lalinea; "Released" by Royal Nature; "Guide Your Wild Eyes" by Giants and Pilgrims (All music used by courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist) This installment reprised from the ITA archives.
Dec 02, 202009:45
A Song for the Unsung (Bonus Episode)

A Song for the Unsung (Bonus Episode)

A SONG FOR THE UNSUNG: Autumn is traditionally the season of "big books" -- books by the established heavy-hitters and the foreordained bestsellers among hot debuts. But in the midst of this season (and with Thanksgiving upon us), here's a tribute of gratitude to those who keep the literary world turning and the art-makers making. Mentioned in this episode: small books; unreviewed, unbought, and unawarded authors and poets; the disappearing midlist; "literary disappointments"; Bookscan; readers; commonplace books; editors; sales conferences; publishers; authors who help; writers who teach; experimentation; literary magazines; independent bookstores; the unconnected, unincluded, and uninvited best of the best.
Music: "Love You" by Yehezkel Raz
(All music used courtesy of the artists thanks to a licensing agreement with Artlist)
Nov 25, 202004:57
There's a Crowd on My Desk

There's a Crowd on My Desk

THERE'S A CROWD ON MY DESK: A word for creative solitude amid the hive life of screens.
Mentioned in this episode: John Stuart Mill; Michel de Montaigne; Henry David Thoreau; Neil Postman; Aldous Huxley's Brave New World; Lee Siegel's Against the Machine; Dave Eggers' A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius; John Updike; The Paris Review; Sven Birkerts' The Gutenberg Elegies; William Shakespeare's King Lear; Zadie Smith; J.D. Salinger; The Chronicle of Higher Education; William Deresiewicz.
Music: "Urban Drummers" by Mike Kirin; "Over and Over" by Stanley Gurvich; "Shiver" by Borrtex; "Heavens Anthem" by Skygaze; "Soft Awakening" by John Gegelman; "Belong to You" by Denitia
(All music used courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist)
Nov 18, 202020:32
Denis Johnson, Fame, & the 2,000-Page Rule

Denis Johnson, Fame, & the 2,000-Page Rule

DENIS JOHNSON, FAME, & THE 2,000-PAGE RULE: A story of an invitation received many years ago from legendary author Denis Johnson, and lessons learned about opportunity and the unexpected forms inspiration can take. Mentioned in this episode: Johnson's "Jesus' Son"; Johnson's "Tree of Smoke"; National Book Award. Music: "Anthem of a Quirky Hipster" by Rex Banner; "Lemonade" by Shtriker Big Band; "The Beat of the Land" by Assaf Ayalon (All music used by courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist). This episode reprised from the ITA Archives.

Nov 11, 202012:27
In the Absence of Yes

In the Absence of Yes

IN THE ABSENCE OF YES: This essay, which first appeared in Poets & Writers Magazine and can be found in The Honorable Obscurity Handbook from Atelier26 Books, presents thoughts on a subject all too familiar to every writer: rejection. Believing in the worth of what you've produced is no easy thing. And deserving work is all too often passed over in sluice tides of manila envelopes. All that matters is what you're committed to. Mentioned in this episode: Wallace Stegner; New York Times; Henry James; Andre Dubus; Gustave Flaubert Music in this episode: "Door Knob" by Egon Stone; "Petrolchimica2" by Bottega Baltazar; "Rising Up" by OFRIN; "Seventh March" by C3NC (All music used by courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist) This episode reprised from the ITA archives.
Nov 04, 202014:48
Atelier Special: Let Us Praise the Public Library

Atelier Special: Let Us Praise the Public Library

ATELIER SPECIAL: LET US PRAISE THE PUBLIC LIBRARY -- Atelier Specials feature original creative content including essays, fiction, and excerpts. Today: an essay by M. Allen Cunningham, slightly abridged. "Let Us Praise the Public Library" was originally published as a special 3-part series in The Oregonian. You can read the complete essay at medium.com/@M_A_Cunningham. Mentioned in this episode: Portland, Oregon; Multnomah County Library; Victor Hugo; Charles Dickens; Mark Twain; Herodotus; J.M. Whistler; Charles Kingsley; Jorge Luis Borges; Toni Morrison; John Steinbeck; the Library of Alexandria; Der Spiegel; Virginia Quarterly Review; Hypnerotomachia Poliphili; Aldus Manutius; American civic life; democratic institutions; The Oregonian.  Music: "Mythological" by Ofrin; "Do Your Thing" by Guesthouse; "Thoughts" by ANBR; "Settle Down" by Giants and Pilgrims; "Shallow Water" by Sivan Talmor; "Betula Lenta" by Shahar Haziza (All music used courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist.)

Oct 28, 202015:08
About Discouragement (Bonus Installment)
Oct 21, 202004:24
Surrendering to Process

Surrendering to Process

SURRENDERING TO PROCESS: Artist Andy Goldsworthy strives to know and understand stone -- and that's no straightforward task. Mentioned in this episode: "Rivers and Tides" (2001 documentary film). Music: "Hand in the Jar" by Rodello's Machine (used by courtesy of the artist through a licensing agreement with Artlist) This episode reprised from the ITA archives.
Oct 21, 202009:46
Working Without Working

Working Without Working

WORKING WITHOUT WORKING: What really takes discipline? Not working. "Working without Working," appeared in slightly different form in Poets & Writers magazine and can be read in The Honorable Obscurity Handbook from Atelier26 Books. Mentioned in this episode: W.H. Auden; Saul Bellow; Joan Didion; E.M. Forster's "Aspects of the Novel"; Annie Dillard; Dillard's "A Writing Life"; Ernest Hemingway; Hemingway's "A Moveable Feast"; Andre Dubus; Henry James; T.S. Eliot; Zadie Smith; Smith's "Changing My Mind" Music: "Possible Light" by Ziv Moran; "Spain" by Dan Pundak; "Fragments" by Borrtex; "Mindplay (instrumental)" by Roza; "The World Inside" by Rodello's Machine (All music used by courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist). This episode reprised from the ITA archives.
Oct 14, 202013:55
Getting in the Creative Habit

Getting in the Creative Habit

GETTING IN THE CREATIVE HABIT: "There's a difference," writes Twyla Tharp, "between a work's beginning and starting to work." This episode shares thoughts on Tharp's book The Creative Habit. (All music used by courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist.) This episode, reprised from the ITA archives, was originally titled The World According to Tharp.
Oct 07, 202008:19