“Being a middle-aged person and doing a new thing makes me feel alive.” —Courtney E. Martin
Preview: Episode 111 Courtney E. Martin on Creating Relationships and the Gaps Between Process & Product
Transparency. Vulnerability. Curiosity. Connection. These are the major themes of our conversation with journalist/podcaster/author/speaker Courtney E. Martin. We begin with a conversation about how an essential question, “Who is doing it better,” led her into an article about public education and creating a positive, diverse, community driven change in a community struggling with culture wars. And then we focus on advice she gave to the graduates of ArtCenter College of Design about how to live a creative life, rooting her wisdom in her own experience and the work of Parker Palmer.
Courtney E. Martin is the author of four books, most recently, Learning in Public, a popular newsletter, called Examined Family, host of “The Wise Unknown” podcast from PRX, and co-host of the Slate “How To!” podcast. She’s also a co-founder of the Solutions Journalism Network and FRESH Speakers, and the Storyteller-in-Residence at The Holding Co. Her literal happy place is her co-housing community in Oakland, Calif. Her metaphorical happy place is asking people questions.
What We’re Reading and Listening to:
Rosemerry:
In a world where we carry phones with us and people post what they ate for breakfast on social media, it’s amazing we could feel disconnected. And yet many of us do. I am just stunned with joy by Great-itude: Overcoming Loneliness in a Disconnected World by Linda Lattimore. With 520 ways to be of service in 52 chapters, it’s both practical and heartwarming. I love the premise—that the way to not feel lonely is to connect in meaningful ways with our communities through giving our time, energy, creativity and appreciation.
Today I felt lucky to discover Peaceful Exit, an organization that explores making peace with our mortality and exploring the art of dying. Specifically, I listened to a podcast episode in which founder Sarah Cavanaugh speaks with Michael Wiegers, the editor-in-chief of the fabulous Copper Canyon Press. They converse about many of my favorite poets and how they contribute to the larger conversation about why poets write about death and how we think about dying—Anna Swir, W.S. Merwin, Gregory Orr, and more.
Christie:
Cameron Walker’s book of delightful essays, Points of Light: Curious Essays on Science, Nature, and Other Wonders Along the Pacific Coast, is now out in the world! I absolutely love it and bet you will too.
I loved this story about how Bill Berloni trained a great dane named Bing to star in the film adaptation of Sigrid Nunez’s fabulous novel The Friend. (If you haven’t read it, now’s your chance!)
Maxim Loskutoff’s new novel, Old King, centers around the small town of Lincoln, in northwestern Montana. I was hoping for a little more insight from the storyline, but I really enjoyed the characters, which include Duane, a man who wanders into Lincoln and eventually settles there after an unhappy divorce, his neighbor Ted Kaczynski, is known to the world as the Unabomber, a wildlife ranger, a guy who rehabs injured wildlife and Jackie, a waitress and longtime local.
In this episode, we talk a lot about that moments before we are actually doing the writing—so in that spirit:
Interlude
Sometimes, waiting for the poem to come,
I lean in, eyes closed, lips parted,
edging wonder, unsure what comes next—
my heart a fluttering and tremblesome thing.
It’s like being seventeen again, wondering
if the boy beside me and I will kiss.
I love this flirty interlude when the poem
barely touches my lips with a brush
so light I wonder if I’m making it up—
and the pleasure center of the brain lights up
and soon I am breathless, dancing atop the labyrinth,
ready to give myself wholly to the kiss,
no longer able to follow the scripts I have known.
And the poem hovers above my lips
whispering, What truths are hiding inside you,
then plunders me until my eyes are open.
—Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
A Note About Paid Subscriptions:
First, we want to thank ALL our subscribers! We are so grateful you join us in this conversation about what it is to engage with yourself, the world and others in a creative way. And a BIG thank you to our paid subscribers. You make this podcast possible. Starting this month, only our paid subscribers will receive our bonus episodes as a thank you for their financial support.
This week, we continue our conversation with Courtney about the gap between how we think creating is supposed to feel vs. how it actually feels. We speak, too, about her sabbatical—why she felt it was essential and how it actually turned out—and the value of reading your old work. If you are not yet a paid subscriber, you can go now to our website, EmergingForm.substack.com, or by clicking the button below. Thank you!
Two Questions:
(share your answers with us here on Substack or in our FB group)
Thinking of creative practice—who is doing it “better”? What do they have to teach you?
Tell us about the gap between how you think creating is supposed to feel and how it actually feels.
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