The Metaworker Literary Magazine Podcast logo

The Metaworker Podcast – In the Willow Garden by Isabel O’Hara Walsh

Episode Description:

Matthew, Elena, Mel, and Cerid talk with Isabel O’Hara Walsh about her short fiction piece “In the Willow Garden”. Content Warning: We discuss victims of trauma and abuse reclaiming their narratives, the process of writing dark and difficult stories, and the need to take care of one’s mental health while doing so. We also discuss different perspectives on the need for dark fiction vs. light fiction as well as Appalachian culture, language, and dialects. 


Author Bio:

Isabel O’Hara Walsh (she/they) is a graduate from the MFA program in fiction at North Carolina State University and is working on her second novel. She teaches fiction at the Redbud Writing Project, and also works as a Tarot reader and witch. Walsh writes literary fiction with touches of horror that bring buried stories to light. She lives in Raleigh, NC with her partner and many pets.


Referenced in this episode: 

In the Willow Garden by Isabel O’Hara Walsh on The Metaworker website

The Stray Birds band

Kirk Hazen, director of the West Virginia Dialect Project

Jane Austen novels

Promising Young Woman movie


Book Recommendations:

There There by Tommy Origin

White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi

The Antiracist Writer’s Workshop by Felicia Rose Chavez

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: