The Story Talks Back

Dani Shapiro: Discovering extraordinary wisdom in fiction, memoir, and everyday life

TSTB pays a return visit to the remarkable Dani Shapiro -- author of eleven books, as well as host and creator of the hit podcast Family Secrets. Her most recent novel, Signal Fires, was named a best book of 2022 by Time Magazine, Washington Post, Amazon, and others, and is a national bestseller. The paperback edition of Signal Fires will publish in October, and Dani is currently working on a television adaptation of the book.

Shapiro is also the author of a series of moving, insightful memoirs – most recently Inheritance, which became an instant New York Times best seller and was named a best book of 2019 by Vanity Fair, Wired, and others. Both Signal Fires and Inheritance were winners of the National Jewish Book Award. 

Dani’s book on the process and craft of writing, Still Writing, has just been reissued on the occasion of its tenth anniversary.

Author photo: Beowulf Sheehan

#fiction #novelists #novels #timelessfiction #stargazing #healingtrauma #specialchildren #greatjewishwriters #signalfires #carolynforche #inheritance #familysecrets #dnadiscoveries #biologicalparents #stories #storytelling #storytellers

Preview: Dani Shapiro reveals the very different challenges of writing fiction versus memoir

Over 20-plus years, Dani Shapiro made a name for herself as a best-selling author of deeply revealing and unforgettable memoirs -- including "Slow Motion," "Hourglass," "Devotion," and "Inheritance."

But in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, Shapiro discovered a forgotten manuscript for an unfinished novel in her office closet -- and her return to fiction, which had been her career focus early on, became essential. The result was "Signal Fires," a wonderfully intimate novel that spans more than two decades and takes us inside the hearts -- and into the well-kept secrets -- of three intertwined families.

In this excerpt from our forthcoming full interview with Shapiro -- her second visit to The Story Talks Back -- she talks about the very different demands and opportunities in writing fiction versus memoir, and reveals how the two inform each other in her work.

#stories #storytelling #storytellers #danishapiro #signalfires #inheritance #memoir #memoirist #novel #novelist #fiction #familysecrets #bestseller #nationalbookaward #jewishculture #timetravel #astronomy

Yaffa Lerea: Revealing the storytelling artistry of the film editor

In her early twenties, Yaffa Lerea found her calling, working at the heart of storytelling as a film and television editor. Starting her career at a post-production facility by day while taking a night course in film production at New York University, Lerea discovered her passion for editing. Since then she has been an editor on numerous films and TV series, including Ken Burns’ award-winning “Baseball,” CNN’s “The Movies,” "The Sixties," and “The Eighties,” “Project Runway,” MTV’s “The Real World,” and “Twin Towers,” which won an Academy Award as Best Short Documentary.

In just the past two years, Lerea produced CNN’s “’Tis the Season: The Holidays on Screen” and co-edited “Shot in the Arm,” a documentary about the anti-vaccine movement. She was also an editor on Amazon’s “Making the Cut” and “Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls.” Lerea spoke to TSTB from her home in Santa Monica, California.

Photo of Yaffa -- during editing of Ken Burns' "Baseball" -- by Stephanie Berger.

#stories #storytelling #storytellers #film #filmediting #editors #documentary #postproduction #hollywood #fiulmschool #moviemagic #kenburns #baseball #MTV #projectrunway #roadrules #academyaward #ishtar #NYU 

Preview: Noted film editor Yaffa Lerea tells of her NYC apprenticeship in video as storytelling

In a career of over 30 years, Yaffa Lerea has truly honed her craft as a story shaper through film editing. From her work on early episodes of MTV's "The Real World" to her efforts on Ken Burns' seminal "Baseball" documentaries, Lerea has become a sought-after video storyteller in her own right. But how did she get her start? It was all about being in the right place at the right time -- namely, a post-production house in 1980s New York City. There she encountered every kind of filmmaker, from the most obscure to Martin Scorsese, and began to develop her own approach to film and storytelling. Check out this excerpt from our forthcoming full interview with Yaffa Lerea.

#filmmaking #filmediting #videoediting #documentary #documentaries #kenburns #woodyallen #martinscorsese #storytelling #storytellers #stories

Timothy Ferris: Turning science into masterful stories — from Stephen Hawking to Voyager and beyond

TSTB shares its full interview with acclaimed science writer, editor, and film producer Timothy Ferris. In this wide-ranging discussion, Ferris reflects on his early career with Rolling Stone magazine, his transition to science writing, his friendship with Stephen Hawking -- including his role in developing the physicist's classic "A Brief History of Time" -- his collaboration with Carl Sagan on the Voyager project, and his lifelong passions for stargazing and music.

The author of a dozen books, Ferris has been called “the best science writer of his generation” by The Washington Post. His bestsellers The Whole Shebang and Coming of Age in the Milky Way have been translated into fifteen languages and were named by The New York Times as among the leading books of the twentieth century.

A former editor of Rolling Stone magazine, Ferris has published over 200 articles and essays in The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Forbes, Harper’s, Scientific American, Vanity Fair, and other periodicals. His three PBS documentary films — "The Creation of the Universe," (1986), “Life Beyond Earth” (1999), and “Seeing in the Dark” (2007) — have been seen by over twenty million viewers.

Ferris produced the Voyager phonograph record, an artifact of human civilization containing music and sounds of Earth launched aboard the twin Voyager interstellar spacecraft. Now exiting the solar system, the Voyagers are the most distant probes ever created by humans.

Ferris has received the American Institute of Physics prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship. His works have been nominated for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. He is currently an emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

#sciencewriting #rollingstone #rollingstonemagazine #writing #writingprocess #writingtips #revision #timothyferris #theuniverse #cosmology #astrophysics #thewholeshebang #stephenhawking #carlsagan #Voyager

Preview: Award-winning science writer Timothy Ferris tells why he scrapped a year’s worth of prose

A founding writer and editor at Rolling Stone magazine, Timothy Ferris profiled rockers like Todd Rundgren and Sly Stone before finding his own groove in the world of science.

Over the past 40 years, Ferris has written best sellers like "Coming of Age in the Milky Way" and "The Whole Shebang" and produced three groundbreaking PBS documentaries, including "The Creation of the Universe." He also was the creative visionary behind the Voyager "golden discs" -- compilations of Earth's music and natural sounds on LP-like records that were installed on the Voyager spacecraft.

In this preview of our forthcoming full interview with Ferris, he talks about the struggle to find just the right words to inspire himself and his readers.

#sciencewriting #rollingstone #rollingstonemagazine #writing #writingprocess #writingtips #revision #timothyferris #theuniverse #cosmology #astrophysics #thewholeshebang #stephenhawking #carlsagan #Voyager

Gered Mankowitz: Seeing rock icons through the storyteller’s lens

Born in London, Gered Mankowitz established his first photography studio in 1963, at age 17, as the British rock and blues movements were about to explode. He started working with the Rolling Stones soon after, touring the US with the then-fledgling band and producing several of their early album covers. Mankowitz quickly became a sought-after rock lensman, capturing timeless images of major stars from the 1960s through today – Jimi Hendrix, The Yardbirds, Traffic, Marianne Faithful, Elton John, Free, Kate Bush, Eurythmics, George Harrison, Paul McCartney & Wings, Sparks, Sade, Oasis, and countless others.

Mankowitz has continued to work in the music business, as well as contributing to many leading magazines and also taking prize-winning advertising photos. In 2013, he published a retrospective book – Gered Mankowitz: 50 Years of Rock and Roll Photography; and he was Executive Producer of the six-part TV series “Icon: Music Through the Lens,” which aired on PBS in 2020.

Photos by Gered Mankowitz are used with his permission and may not be captured or reproduced. Website: www.mankowitz.com.

#rockicons #rocknroll #rockmusic #photography #rockphotography #rocklegends #sixtiesicons #seventiesicons #jimihendrix #rollingstones #therollingstones #mickjagger #keithrichards #eltonjohn #katebush #lionheart #oasis #celebrityphotography #photographer #rockphotographer #stories #storytelling #storyteller 

Preview: Gered Mankowitz on collaborating with the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, and others

In the 1960s and '70s, British photographer Gered Mankowitz worked with some of rock's greatest stars at the peak of their creative powers. In the mid-1960s, he served as the Rolling Stones' "official" photographer, and he took now-classic shots of Jimi Hendrix, Kate Bush, Free, Traffic, The Yardbirds, The Small Faces, and dozens of other artists. In this excerpt from our forthcoming full interview, Mankowitz tells how his own collaborative approach evolved, and how he learned to help sometimes-shy musicians project the "stories" they wanted their audiences to see. #photography #rockphotography thesixties #rollingstones #theseventies #hendrix #jimihendrix #traffic #jeffbeck #jimmypage #yardbirds #katebush #lionheart #thekickinside

Garrett Hongo: Exploring the rich connections among poetry, memoir and storytelling

TSTB shares an insightful and candid discussion with Garrett Hongo -- celebrated poet, memoirist, and audio writer. Born in Volcano, Hawai’i, Hongo grew up in Kahuku and in Los Angeles. His poetry collections are Yellow Light, The River of Heaven – which received the Lamont Poetry Prize and was a Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize – and Coral Road.  His most recent book is 2022’s The Perfect Sound: A Memoir in Stereo. His other non-fiction includes The Mirror Diary and Volcano: A Memoir of Hawaiʻi.  Hongo’s work has been recognized with fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Fulbright Program (Italy), and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2022, he received the Aiken Taylor Award for lifetime achievement in poetry. He lives in Eugene, Oregon, where he is Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Oregon. 

In this conversation, Hongo discusses the formative stories -- told and concealed -- of his family history; the stereotyping and condescension he has sometimes faced in academic settings; and his enduring passion for great music and sound.

#storytelling #storyteller #stories #poetry #poetrylovers #asianamericanculture #hawaii #hawaiistories #hawaiimemoirs #hawaiichildhood #losangelesculture #losangeleswriters #academia #academicprejudice #creativewriting #creativewritingprograms #creativity #audiophile #audiophilewriting #theperfectsound #maxinehongkingston #quincytroupe #stanleycrouch #roberthayden #karentayyamashita  

 

 

”It ain’t cool”: Garrett Hongo shares stories of everyday prejudice and condescension in academic life

A Pulitzer Prize finalist and former Guggenheim fellow, Garrett Hongo is one of the country's most respected writers of Asian descent, gifted at both verse and memoir. And, as an educator and scholar since the 1970s, he has witnessed both sides of the diversity movement and cultural awakening -- with Asian American authors gaining new visibility, but also facing resentment and outright prejudice. In this excerpt from our forthcoming full interview with Hongo, he speaks candidly about his experiences as a student and professor in academic environments that remained (and usually remain) predominantly white and sometimes openly suspicious of "other" literatures. #asianamerican #asianamericanlit #academicdiversity #literarydiversity #asianamericanpoetry #americanwriters #pulitzerprize #guggenheimfellow #hawaii #hawaiianwriters #stories #storytelling #storytellers #DEI #academicprejudice #academicdiversity #racisminacademia #poets #poetrylovers #memoir