In this special live episode, Laura Maylene Walter interviews Elissa Washuta, author of the essay collection WHITE MAGIC. Their wide-ranging conversation covers the craft of essay writing, research and memory mining for nonfiction writers, revision, rejection, unique writing residencies, cultural appropriation, witchcraft, and more. Washuta also offers on-the-spot literary tarot readings to Laura and five audience members.

Elissa Washuta is a member of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe and the author of White Magic, Starvation Mode, and My Body Is a Book of Rules. With Theresa Warburton, she co-edited the anthology Shapes of Native Nonfiction: Collected Essays by Contemporary Writers. Elissa is an associate professor at The Ohio State University, where she teaches in the MFA Program in Creative Writing.

This episode was recorded before a live audience on September 23, 2023, at Cleveland Public Library as part of Literary Cleveland’s Inkubator writing conference.

Page Count is produced by Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library. For full show notes and a transcript of this episode, visit the episode page. To get in touch, email ohiocenterforthebook@cpl.org (put “podcast” in the subject line) or follow us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.