Estelle Erasmus, author of WRITING THAT GETS NOTICED

Estelle Erasmus is a 2025 TEDx Speaker and an award-winning writing professor at New York University. An award-winning journalist, she has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Slate, Next Avenue/PBS, HuffPost, Business Insider, Marie Claire, WIRED, AARP the Magazine, and more. Her essays for The New York Times and The Washington Post have gone globally viral, and she has appeared on Good Morning America and Fox News, with her work mentioned on The View. She’s on the show to talk about her book, Writing That Gets Noticed: Find Your Voice, Become a Better Storyteller, Get Published, named a “Best Book for Writers” by Poets & Writers.

Today is all about non-fiction. Estelle joins Barbara DeMarco-Barrett to talk about writing essays, finding your voice, hooks, braided essays and hermit crab essays, writing scenes, queries, pitches, and more.

For more information on Writers on Writing and to become a supporter, visit our Patreon page. For a one-time donation, visit Ko-fi. You can help out the show and indie bookstores by buying books at our bookstore on bookshop.org. It’s stocked with titles by our guest authors, as well as our personal favorites. And on Spotify, you’ll find an album’s worth of typewriter music like what you hear on the show. It’s perfect for writing. Look for the artist, Just My Type. You can find hundreds of past interviews on our website.

(Recorded February 27,, 2026)

Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Host: Marrie Stone
Music: Travis Barrett (Stream his music on Spotify, Apple Music, Etc.)    

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Jayne Anne Phillips, author of SMALL TOWN GIRLS