How Bestselling & Award-Winning Author Ramona Ausubel Writes
The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and NeuroscienceShow Notes
Bestselling and award-winning author Ramona Ausubel spoke with us about the value of low-residency MFA programs, and how to jumpstart your writing process with her latest book UNSTUCK: 101 Doorways Leading from the Blank Page to the Last Page.
Ramona Ausubel is the author of five books, most recently The Last Animal which was a national bestseller and received the National Book Foundation Science + Nature Prize and was a Barnes & Noble book of the month.
She was the recipient of the PEN/USA Fiction Award, the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award and has been a finalist for both the California and Colorado Book Awards, the New York Public Library Young Lions Award, and has had multiple selections as a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice.
Her latest non-fiction, Unstuck: 101 Doorways Leading From the Blank Page to the Last Page is a companion for writers at all stages of the process, and described as a book “… about staying in love with your writing: feeling excited, mischievous, productive, and hopeful—the opposite of being stuck. “
A Most Anticipated Book of 2026 from LitHub, Kirkus Reviews described it as, “An upbeat guide to navigating the writing process . . . Warm-hearted and practical, Ausubel emerges as trustworthy companion for a writer who’s stuck anywhere on the challenging road of creativity. Generous, empathetic, and unfailingly encouraging.”
Ramona’s work has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Paris Review daily, One Story, Tin House, The Oxford American, Ploughshares and others. She is a professor at Colorado State University and has taught in the Bennington Writing Seminars, Tin House Writing Workshop, Writing by Writers, the Community of Writers, Bread Loaf Environmental, Writing Workshop Paris and elsewhere.
[Discover The Writer Files Extra: Get 'The Writer Files' Podcast Delivered Straight to Your Inbox at writerfiles.fm]
[If you’re a fan of The Writer Files, please click FOLLOW to automatically see new interviews. And drop us a rating or a review wherever you listen]
In this file Ramona Ausubel, Milena and I discussed:
Why getting stuck is normal and productive rather than something to fear
How to fall back in love with your own work
Practical exercises to help writers navigate the creative process
The magic prompt that never fails
Why you need to let "not knowing" to be your companion
And a lot more!
Show Notes:
ramonaausubel.com
UNSTUCK: 101 Doorways Leading from the Blank Page to the Last Page By Ramona Ausubel – April 14, 2026 (Amazon)
Ramona Ausubel Amazon Author Page
Ramona Ausubel on Instagram
Milena Gonzalez | Writer | Reader | Book Reviewer
diary_of_a_book_babe on Instagram
Kelton Reid Instagram
Kelton Reid on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More from The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience
New York Times bestselling author Alma Katsu spoke with us about her 30-plus-year career in intelligence, her deep expertise in AI and social media disinformation, and her new techno-horror novel INCARNATE.
Bestselling author and historian Isabel Cañas returned to speak with us about the influence of Latin American history and family lore on her writing, the stakes of historical fiction, and her YA debut, THE HOUSE OF GARDENIAS.
New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Acevedo spoke with us about her journey from National Poetry Slam champion to winning the the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, and her new YA novel, ANGER IS ONLY A SHADOW.
Mexican-American writer and historian, Isabel Cañas, spoke to me about how to binge-write a novel, her fear of the dark, and swinging for the fences with her gothic debut "The Hacienda."
Bestselling crime novelist and former NFL running back Andre Hardy spoke with us about the slim odds of going from professional athlete to published novelist, writing through therapy, and his debut, TEAR THE CITY DOWN.