This is Awakeners, a Lit Hub Radio podcast about mentorship in the literary arts. Robert Frost allegedly said he was not a teacher but an “awakener.” On every episode of this podcast, host Lena Crown speaks with writers, artists, critics, and scholars across generations who have awakened something for one another. We chat about how their relationship has evolved, examine the connections and divergences in their writing and thinking, and dig into the archives for traces of their mutual influence.

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Lena chats with the writers Kyoko Mori and Abi Newhouse, who worked together at George Mason University’s MFA program in Creative Nonfiction.

We discuss the evolution of Abi’s essay collection about growing up Mormon, including her experience leaving the Mormon Church during and after the MFA. We also cover ambivalence in personal narrative, the difference between context and subject, and the process of moving beyond the mentor-mentee relationship. Bonus: Kyoko recalls one hilarious piece of advice from the one and only Raymond Carver.

From the episode:

Kyoko Mori: I think I do try to get my students to listen to what their writing is already telling them about what they really want. But I try to do it in service to their writing, not to their life.

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Kyoko Mori’s new nonfiction book, Cat & Bird, was published in March 2024 by Belt Publishing. She is the author of 3 other nonfiction books (The Dream of Water; Polite Lies; Yarn) and 4 novels (Shizuko’s Daughter; One Bird; Stone Field, True Arrow; Barn Cat). Her essays and stories have appeared in The Best American Essays, Harvard Review, The American Scholar, Colorado Review, Conjunctions, and others.  She teaches in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at George Mason University and the Low-Residency MFA Program at Lesley University.  Kyoko lives in Washington, DC with her cats, Miles and Jackson.

Abi Newhouse is a writer, podcast producer, and the programs coordinator for Washington DC literary nonprofit, The Inner Loop. A graduate of George Mason University’s MFA program in creative nonfiction, her work can be found in The Rumpus, The American Scholar, and The Hunger Journal, among others. She has taught rhetoric and literature at George Mason University and American University.

More Abi Newhouse: abinewhouse.com and abinewhouse.substack.com

More Kyoko Mori: https://kyokomori.com/