Reckon True Stories · Ursa Story Company

More from Deesha: Ursa Short Fiction, with Dawnie Walton & Deesha Philyaw

October 24, 2024·11 min·1 clip

What happens when successful writers stop gatekeeping and start being completely transparent about their creative process?

Deesha Filyaw and Dawnie Walton return to their literary podcast Ursa Short Fiction after several months away. Filyaw congratulates Walton on producing the successful first season of Reckon True Stories with Kiese Lehman. Walton expresses gratitude for the podcast's reception, particularly noting how listeners said the transparent conversations about writing processes encouraged them to continue or restart their writing. She emphasizes how this transparency has the opposite effect of gatekeeping in the literary world. Filyaw praises the podcast's accessibility despite being literary in nature, noting how guests felt comfortable leading to incredible transparency and humor. She highlights one standout episode where Walton and Lehman discussed the challenges of writing about parents, which helped writers feel braver about tackling personal relationships in their work while being wiser about what should remain private versus public. Walton then announces her upcoming novel, which originated as a 12-page short story written as a break from her previous book. The story focused on two Black women who were best friends since their HBCU days, showing cracks in their friendship during a birthday dinner. The novel has expanded to explore their relationship from the 1990s to present day, examining how a scandal involving one woman's husband brings them to a breaking point. Unlike her previous work 'The Final Revival of Opal and Nev,' this book isn't set in the music world or written as an oral history, though it still contains cultural references especially from the 1990s timeline. Walton describes her recurring thematic obsessions including disappointment, betrayal, ambition in women, and intergenerational differences between women. She notes how when deeply engaged with a project, everything in life seems to connect back to the novel and characters. The hosts preview their upcoming season featuring conversations with authors like S.A. Cosby and Rian Amilcar Scott, plus original audio stories from various writers. They emphasize that the podcast is completely independent and listener-funded, encouraging support through memberships while offering accommodations for aspiring writers who cannot afford contributions.

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