Writers’ Rough Drafts – Episode #45 With Simran Sethi

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Simran Sethi is a writer, speaker, and educator focused on food, sustainability, and social change. Named one of the “50 Most Influential Global Indians” by Vogue India and the environmental “messenger” by Vanity Fair, Simran has written for outlets including Smithsonian, The Wall Street Journal, Food & Wine, National Geographic Traveler, Forbes, The New Food Economy, The Washington Post, and The Guardian. Before her work in journalism and academia, she worked in the world of media production, and eventually hosting and on-camera work, for a number of high-flying networks like MTV, PBS, and the Sundance Channel, and NBC where she was a correspondent for shows like NBC News, Today, and Nightly News.

The Formula for Writing Strong Articles and Blog Posts

I’m not one of those people who can easily convert their thoughts into writing; instead, I work better with a structured approach to expressing my thoughts and ideas.

I tend to use a list whenever I need to do something, including writing.

What do lists have to do with writing?

5 Tips for a Productive Editing Process

A tongue-in-cheek quote, attributed to various authors, is: “I hate writing, and I hate not writing. I only like having written.” This is a statement many authors would relate to, and perhaps this is one reason why it’s hard to pinpoint the writer who originally voiced these wise words.

I’m a writer, and I can certainly relate to this quote. However, I’m also a freelance editor, and I believe that when a writer says “I hate writing,” what they really mean is “I hate editing.”

Writers’ Rough Drafts – Episode #44 With Victor Yang

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Victor Yang is a queer writer and organizer, who grew up, in his words, in Canada, rural China, and Kentucky. A former Rhodes Scholar, he has focused a large part of his career and experience in giving a voice to those who don’t have voices, or who often have those voices taken away. Whether it is his volunteer work in family casework for single mothers of color, direct action AIDS activism, work with low-wage workers unions in the Northeastern United States, or efforts to push the administration to launch the first summit on race in the 800-year history of Oxford University—he has been fighting for immigrant and labor justice for over a decade.

He shares his own stories, some of the stories of the folks he has encountered (whether broadly or specifically), and his difficulties, defeats, and joys as an organizer through his short essays and articles in a variety of publications like The Rumpus, Tahoma Literary Review, and Gulf Coast magazine. Victor has landed residencies and awards for his writing, including the coveted 2018 Chertkov Fellow with the Blue Mountain Center in upstate New York.