Today’s podcast episode is a Book Award Winner episode, where we get to know a writer who won the NAIWE Book Award.

Tong Ge won the 2024 Book Award for her book The House Filler in the Literary Fiction category.

Born and raised in China, Tong Ge moved to Canada in the late 1980s as an international student, earning a master of science degree from the University of Saskatchewan in 1992. Since 2012, she has written under both her real name and the pen name Tong Ge, publishing poetry, prose, and short stories in English and Chinese across North America, England and Taiwan. A recipient of five literary awards and a finalist for five others. Her debut novel, The House Filler, was published in Canada in 2023. It is a finalist for the 2023 Eyelands Book Awards and the 2024 Canadian Book Club Awards for fiction and won two book awards.

Here is a preview of today’s discussion:

Your book The House Filler was recently published. Can you tell us a little bit about it?

The House Filler is told through the experiences of Golden Phoenix, a widow with bound feet who faces war, poverty and political turmoil as she fights for survival, freedom and happiness.

After the untimely death of her husband, Golden Phoenix is determined to keep her family together, although finding a close enemy intent on destroying them. However, poverty forces her to make the heart-wrenching decision to allow her teenage twins to go to the Red Army. During the upheaval of the Japanese invasion of her hometown, she is separated from her two young girls, and her remaining son leaves to fight with the Nationalist army.

Golden Phoenix, along with her adopted son, remains to endure the horrors and the hardships of war. When the Civil War ends with the Communists winning power in 1949, one of her twins, a member of the Communist Party, is wrongly accused of being a traitor and is sentenced to death. Golden Phoenix and her family must find a way to save her son’s life.

What inspired you to write this book?

I always wanted to write my family’s stories into a book but struggled to find the right angle. Then, one day in 2004, while gardening, an idea struck me — the narrator could write a series of letters to her sister in China, recalling their family history. Though this format was later replaced by each book’s protagonist telling the story from her own perspective, that moment of inspiration allowed me to begin.

My family’s story became the foundation for this book and the two that follow.

What did you learn while working on this book?

I learned many things while working on this book.

First, I proved to myself that I can write fiction in a second language—and that I am the best person to tell this story. When I first started in 2004, I wrote in Chinese but soon realized I wouldn’t have access to critique groups, beta readers, manuscript evaluators, freelance editors, or publishers. At the time, I didn’t believe I could write it in English, so I searched for a ghostwriter. When that didn’t work out, I realized I had to do it myself. I took writing courses, read books on craft, and studied as much fiction as I could to learn from other writers.

Second, I learned to be patient. Writing is a long journey. Early on, I sent out query letters too soon, not realizing that you only get one chance per agent or publisher. Submitting flawed work means losing that chance forever.

Third, I learned the importance of professional help. I don’t believe a first-time writer can do this alone.

Fourth, I learned to be humble and take feedback seriously. As emerging writers, it’s easy to get defensive when receiving criticism and to believe that if others don’t recognize our talent, it’s their problem. But there is always room for improvement. If you can’t find an agent or publisher, the issue might not be them — it might be you.

Today’s podcast episode is a Book Award Winner episode, where we get to know a writer who won the NAIWE Book Award.

Our guest today is Erin Berkery.

Erin Berkery is a freelance writer, creative career advisor, and consultant with a passion for helping people both with their creative life and blending their creative lifestyles and the rest of their life. Erin writes content for companies, career development articles, and creative fiction that is quite humorous despite those previous two categories. She has recently published a book called: How Not to Make Small Talk, which won the NAIWE 2023 Book Award in Coffee Table books.

You recently had your book How Not to Make Small Talk published, which is in the humor and coffee table genres. To get an idea of what your book is about, I would like to read the book’s description to the listeners:

How Not to Make Small Talk is an anti self-help guide, where instead of showing people how to do something well, Erin shows you how not to do something well. How Not to Make Small Talk blends humor and ridiculousness to deliver the worst possible solutions to common blunders in everyday conversations. Featuring topics that should be off limits, suggestions that are slightly horrible, and lists of alternatives for any conversation.

When did you first have the idea for this book? And what inspired you to actually write this book?

After I had a baby, I had a lot of people who would say things to me in conversation that felt inappropriate, but they acted as if we were just talking about the weather. I realized that while they weren’t making a faux pas, that nobody had ever given guidance on how to make small talk. I then realized that I had no business giving anyone advice, but still was having ideas of conversation starters that would be better than the discussions I was having, so How Not to Make Small Talk was born.

Why did you decide to write and publish this book now?

I am a writer who writes a lot but doesn’t finish a lot of books, so when this book started to feel less than half baked I wanted to make it my goal to finish it and I did. I wish I could say that I timed it for something special, but the truth is that I was fairly proud of having it be completed.

Today’s podcast episode is a Book Award Winner episode, where we get to know a writer who won the NAIWE Book Award.

Our guest today is David Berner.

David W. Berner is the author of several books of award-winning personal narrative and fiction. The recipient of honors and awards from the NYC Big Book Award, the Paris Book Festival, the Hawthorne Prize, the Page Turner Awards, Readers’ Choice Awards, The Society of Midland Authors, The Chicago Writers Association, and the Eric Hoffer Book Awards.

His short stories, creative nonfiction, and poems have been published in The Ulu Review, Beyond Words Literary Magazine, Humans of the World, Red Noise Collective, Voices, The Lascaux Review, and others.

He has also been honored as a former Writer-in-Residence at the Jack Kerouac Project in Orlando and at the Ernest Hemingway Birthplace Home in Oak Park, Illinois.

For many years now, David W. Berner has been a writing teacher at Gotham Writers, and the editor of the writing craft website at MEDIUM—The Writer Shed. David also writes regular personal essays at SUBSTACK: The Abundance.

He has recently published a book called: The Islander, which was a winner of the NAIWE 2023 Book Awards in the Literary genre.

Q: When did you first have the idea for this book? And what inspired you to actually write The Islander?

I have always been fascinated with what are called “thin place,” those natural places in the world where we are awed. The Irish coast has always been one of those places for me. And I have also always been fascinated with how the human connection can transcend age, background, culture, and much else. I wanted to write about this.

Q: What prompted you to publish the book when you did?

I had been writing and editing it for years. Novellas are sometimes hard to find publishers, but The Shortish Project from Outpost19 Books in San Francisco was taking on a new project to publish short novels, championing the great tradition of novellas in American literature. The Islander seemed a great fit. I was lucky enough that they accepted it.

Q: What did you learn while working on this book? And what were some challenges you faced during the writing or publication of this book?

The writing was a delight. I never plan or outline, the book is already somewhere inside of me, and I just have to keep writing to let it out. Publishing, I knew might be more difficult, as it always it, but mostly because this is a novella, and what I call a “quiet” book. It’s more about character than plot. Much of popular fiction is plot driven. I don’t necessarily write with plot in mind.