Dec 28, 2018
"When I experience something interesting that happens I need to
compose it in words," says Laura Hillenbrand. In many ways this is
the logical conclusion of The Creative Nonfiction Podcast. This is
the Tony Soprano cut-to-black moment, Walter White dying beside his
precious meth lab, or Gollum plummeting into the fires of Mt. Doom
with the Ring of Power clutched in his hand. This interview with
the one and only Laura Hillenbrand was about two years in the
making and through unshakable endurance on both sides we were able
to get this done and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed by this
in the least. For those who don’t know, Laura is the best-selling
author of Seabiscuit: An American Legend and Unbroken: A WWII Story
of Survival, Resilience, and Rddemption. I think best-selling is an
understatement. Unbroken spent a staggering 42 weeks at No. 1 on
the New York Times Best seller list. Both books were made into
Oscar-nominated movies with Gary Ross directing Seabiscuit and
Angelina Jolie directing Unbroken. Laura won the National Magazine
Award in 2004 for her New Yorker article “A Sudden Illness,” which
describes the acute onset of chronic fatigue syndrome, or CFS, that
has been with her since the 1980s. If you haven’t subscribed to the
show, be sure to do that wherever you get your podcasts. If you dig
the show, please consider leaving an honest review over on iTunes.
You can follow me and the show on Twitter @BrendanOMeara and
@CNFPod. Like the Facebook page, it’s just The Creative Nonfiction
Podcast, and feel free to follow me on Instagram where I post cool
audiograms of the shows as well as stupid drawings I do when I need
to decompress. Always compressin’ over here. Head over to
brendanomeara.com for show notes and to subscribe to my monthly
newsletters where I share my reading recommendations for the month,
articles, and what you might have missed from the world of the
podcast. It’s a little bite of goodness to start your month. Once a
month. No spam. Can’t beat it. Thanks again to our sponsors in
Goucher College’s MFA in Nonfiction and Creative Nonfiction
Magazine. And, hey, happy New Year, friend. And thanks for being on
this CNFin’ journey with me. Here’s to 2019.