Imagine getting new “radio”-style talk show to listen to and inspire your creative brain any time you like. We love podcasts for their convenience and easy delivery, but also for the creative content they offer authors.

Our thanks to WWW’s Matthew Dix for curating this select list of great podcasts for authors, each a unique way to stimulate your writer brains. Some author writer advice; others are just plain fun.

Have a podcast you live by, or have a podcast of your own? We want to hear about it with your comment below.

Stay tuned for our second go-to list of podcasts releasing on Tuesday that will energize your author marketing efforts!

The Allusionist – Small Adventures in Language with Helen Zaltzman

The Allusionist is a podcast about language and etymology by Helen Zaltzman for Radiotopia from PRX. New episodes arrive fortnightly on Wednesdays. Helen Zaltzman has a degree in Old and Middle English, but in 2003 was rejected for her dream job as an etymologist at the Oxford English Dictionary, so became a podcaster instead. Since 2007 she has co-presented and produced the award-winning comedy show Answer Me This!

Lore

Lore is a bi-weekly podcast about true life scary stories. The people, places, and things of our darkest nightmares all have real facts at their core. Each episode of Lore looks into a uniquely scary tale and uncovers the truth behind it. Sometimes the truth is more frightening than fiction. Transcript versions of each episode are also available.

The Moth

The Moth is an acclaimed not-for-profit organization dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling. It is a celebration of both the raconteur, who breathes fire into true tales of ordinary life, and the storytelling novice, who has lived through something extraordinary and yearns to share it. The Moth Podcast features favorite stories from The Moth Mainstage, StorySLAMs and MothSHOP Community program. As a subscriber to the Moth Podcast you receive one free Moth story every week to listen to on your iPod/MP3 player or your computer.

Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing

Mignon Fogarty is the creator of Grammar Girl and the founder and managing director of Quick and Dirty Tips. A magazine writer, technical writer, and entrepreneur, Mignon believes that learning is fun, and the vast rules of grammar are wonderful fodder for lifelong study. Grammar Girl provides short, friendly tips to improve your writing. Covering the grammar rules and word choice guidelines that can confound even the best writers, Grammar Girl makes complex grammar questions simple with memory tricks to help you recall and apply those troublesome grammar rules. Whether English is your first language or second language, Grammar Girl’s punctuation, style, and business tips will make you a better and more successful writer.

Story Corps

StoryCorps’ mission is to provide people of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share and preserve the stories of our lives,to remind one another of our shared humanity, to strengthen and build the connections between people, to teach the value of listening, and to weave into the fabric of our culture the understanding that everyone’s story matters. Since 2003, StoryCorps has collected and archived more than 50,000 interviews with over 100,000 participants. Each conversation is recorded on a CD to share, and is preserved at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. StoryCorps is one of the largest oral history projects of its kind, and millions listen to the weekly broadcasts.

New Yorker: Fiction

An eclectic selection of fiction and poetry podcasts from The New Yorker, (a weekly magazine offering a signature mix of reporting and commentary on politics, international affairs, popular culture and the arts, science and technology, and business, along with fiction, poetry, humor, and cartoons.)

Strangers

Each episode is an empathy shot in your arm, featuring true stories about about the people we meet, the connections we make, the heartbreaks we suffer, the kindnesses we encounter, and those frightful moments when we discover that WE aren’t even who we thought we were.

Writing Excuses

Writing Excuses is a fast-paced, educational, award-winning podcast for writers, especially those interested in genre-fiction. Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn, The Way of Kings) hosts with Dan Wells (I am Not a Serial Killer, Partials) and Howard Tayler (Schlock Mercenary) and the three of them tackle everything from world-building to submitting manuscripts, along with plenty of adjacent topics like maintaining motivation and dealing with criticism.

A Tiny Sense of Accomplishment

Authors Sherman Alexie and Jess Walter are friends. That friendship has led to phone calls where they’ll talk about the state of the world to the projects they’re working on to the real important stuff, like professional basketball. A Tiny Sense of Accomplishment takes these wide-ranging conversations, adds readings from each author, a fascinating guest or two, and gives them to you in podcast form.

Longform Podcast

A weekly conversation with a non-fiction writer or editor on craft and career. Sponsored by the Writing Program at the University of Pittsburgh. Hosted by Aaron Lammer, Max Linsky, and Evan Ratliff. Edited by Jenna Weiss-Berman. Produced by Longform and The Atavist.

Poem of the Day

Great classic and contemporary poems read by poets and actors, delivered every day. This podcast is sponsored and hosted by the Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, an independent literary organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. It exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience.

The New York Times Books Review

The world’s top authors and critics join Sunday Book Review Editor Pamela Paul in lively conversations about books, arts and ideas. A new podcast releases every Friday.