The Fail Safe
The Fail Safe
Rachel Yoder
The Fail Safe explores how today’s most successful writers grapple with and learn from creative failure. From the blank page to the broken sentence, we examine the many challenges and pitfalls of the literary life and discover how authors transform false starts, dead ends, and assorted blunders into works of literary genius. Produced collaboratively by draft: the journal of process and The Iowa Writers’ House, The Fail Safe provides encouragement for anyone who’s ever wanted to write and pulls back the curtain on the creative process for a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the writer-at-work. Created and hosted by Rachel Yoder, the first episode aired in June 2016.
Episode 14: Carmen Maria Machado
Host Rachel Yoder interviews author Carmen Maria Machado who talks about anxiety writing outside her genre, why her attempts at novel writing keep failing, and what she thinks about Cat Person.
Sep 23, 2020
51 min
Episode 13: Lauren Haldeman
Host Rachel Yoder interviews poet Lauren Haldeman about the importance of writing terrible poems, the relationship between failure and humor, the lessons of grief, & what exactly it means to "be on the opposite of drugs."
Sep 23, 2020
49 min
Episode 12: Alexander Chee
Host Rachel Yoder talks with Alexander Chee about how to mentally prepare for a book's publication, the trials & tribulations of a 15-year novel project, & his ingenious journaling system that keeps him on task.
Sep 23, 2020
55 min
Episode 11: Kelly Link
Host Rachel Yoder talks with Kelly Link about the gifts of interesting failures, how imagining really bad stories can actually help your writing, and how she successfully blazed her own path all the way to a Pulitzer nom as a slipstream writer. Recorded live at Prairie Lights Bookstore.
Sep 23, 2020
53 min
Episode 10: Kristen Radtke
Host Rachel Yoder talks with author and artist Kristen Radtke about her evolution as a graphic essayist, the many foolish snobberies of grad school, and the connection between pathological liars and successful writers.
Sep 23, 2020
39 min
Episode 9: Jessica Hopper & Alissa Nutting
Host Rachel Yoder talks with music critic Jessica Hopper and author Alissa Nutting about everything from productive stalking and self doubt to parenting as a writer and early failed forays in poetry.
Sep 23, 2020
1 hr 1 min
Episode 8: Roxane Gay
Host Rachel Yoder talks with literary powerhouse Roxane Gay about her first blog entitled “I Have Become Accustomed To Rejection,” her secret writing career, Little House on the Prairie and, of course, Beyoncé. Recorded live at Prairie Lights Bookstore in Iowa City.
Sep 23, 2020
45 min
Episode 7: Laura van den Berg
Author Laura van den Berg talks with Mark Polanzak about deleting an entire draft of a novel while at a haunted writing residency, why she started writing (spoiler: she wanted an easy A), & the year she combined every bad idea into one big failed project.
Sep 23, 2020
52 min
Episode 6: New Year's Eve Wrap-Up
Host Rachel Yoder and author Mark Polanzak talk about the many voices in their heads, a really bad chicken essay Rachel wrote, humiliation, and their favorite moments from the first 5 episodes of The Fail Safe.
Sep 23, 2020
43 min
Episode 5: Leslie Jamison
Host Rachel Yoder talks with best-selling author Leslie Jamison about the compost heap of failure, a tool for reframing failure that Leslie calls "Detroiting," and how to navigate feedback of all sorts, from classmates to spouses.
Sep 23, 2020
54 min
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