Dawnie Walton's Musical Journey from Media Exec to Debut Novelist

03/30/21 • 37 min

Dawnie Walton is the author of The Final Revival of Opal & Nev. It's her debut novel, and it's a story that came to her at a pivotal moment in her life, inspiring her to make the leap from journalist and media executive to author. The novel tells the story of a fictional rock duo, Opal Jewel and Nev Charles, who shoot to fame in 1970s New York City.

Walton is a MacDowell fellow, a Tin House scholar, and a graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop.
Edited by Ashur Rayis
Music by Mark Armstrong and Ashur Rayis
Get updates from EIL: https://markarms.com/newsletter/
EIL on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/EIL

Support the show

Support the show

Previous Episode

Maria Bustillos on Building an Unbreakable Media Company

Maria Bustillos is a writer and journalist whose work I’ve been following for many years — I first read her essays in The Awl, and she’s gone on to write for many other publications including The New Yorker, CJR, and Longreads. In 2016 she took on another assignment: covering the trial of Hulk Hogan vs. Gawker.
Hogan’s victory, the revelation that the lawsuit was secretly funded by billionaire VC Peter Thiel, and the shuttering of Gawker sent Bustillos on a mission: Is it possible to create a billionaire-proof media company?
That’s what she’s aiming to build with The Brick House, a cooperative of nine publications including her own site, Popula.
Get updates from EIL: https://markarms.com/newsletter/
EIL on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/EIL

Support the show

Next Episode

Leah Sottile on Rethinking Your Mission in Journalism

"Everyone in every part of the world was having a conversation with themselves: Who am I? What am I doing? Why am I doing it? And I definitely was having that question a lot with journalism."
Leah Sottile is a journalist whose work you'll remember from Bundyville, the Longreads podcast that ran for two seasons and explored domestic extremism in the United States. She also hosted the podcast Two Minutes Past Nine, produced with BBC Radio Four, which looked at the legacy of the Oklahoma city bombing 25 years later. And she's written for many publications including the Washington Post, New York Times Magazine, and High Country News.
She talks about how the pandemic forced her to confront some bigger questions about her own mission in journalism, and what stories she wanted to cover going forward.
Related links:

Leah Sottile on Substack
Did James Plymell Need to Die? (High Country News)
Bundyville (Longreads & Oregon Public Broadcasting)
Two Minutes Past Nine (BBC Radio Four)
The Ghost Hunter (The Atavist)
@leah_sottile on Twitter

Support the show

EIL: Everything I've Learned - Dawnie Walton's Musical Journey from Media Exec to Debut Novelist

Transcript

Dawnie Walton: I remember before I hit the submit button, like my finger was literally hovering over the button and I made a promise to myself, I said, if I get this, if I'm lucky enough to get this, I'm going for it, I'm taking the leap.

[MUSIC]
Mark Armstrong: Hi, everybody. Welcome to Everything I've Learned, a podcast about lessons, mistakes, and other turning points. I'm Mark Armstrong, founder of Longreads. As always, you can support the show b