Craft: Exploring Creativity

The Central Ohio Folk Festival will be held June 6–7 at Bank Run Metro Park. Folk singer Bill Cohen has been part of the event for many years, and he joined Craft to discuss the festival and play excerpts of the kind of music festival goers can expect to hear. Kids are welcome, with a dedicated children’s area offering performances, crafts, and an “instrument petting zoo” to spark interest in music. If you enjoy singing, jamming on instruments or just listening to bluegrass, blues, Celtic, and Americana, this is the event for you.

Our interview is also available on YouTube.

Novelist Steven Rowley has written five books including Lily and the Octopus, The Editor, The Guncle, and its sequel The Guncle Abroad. His work has been published in 20 languages, and he received the 2023 Thurber Prize for American Humor.

After all that, Rowley is back as a finalist for the 2026 Thurber Prize! We talked about how he learned he was a finalist for each prize, each time calling his agent. However, this time he feels an added pressure due to the book being a follow-up to his previous award winner.

Rowley sees his craft as a deliberate balance of heart and humor. He explores grief and resilience using comedy, carefully cutting or adding jokes to keep scenes from becoming too jokey or too dark. We also discussed the undervaluation of comedy and how hard it is to write.

Get your tickets to see Steven Rowley and the other finalists at the May 7, 2026 Thurber House awards!

Alison Espach‘s novel The Wedding People was not only a New York Times bestseller and Best Book of the Year pick but it granted her finalist status for the 2026 Thurber Prize for American Humor. During our talk, she described learning of the nomination via an excited text from her agent during maternity leave and she schools me on how to tell if something is funny (does it amuse you?)

But Espach also looks to other authors for examples of great humor, like Lorrie Moore’s Self-Help and Madeleine Gray’s Green Dot, both of which made her laugh out loud.

Listen in to learn more about how Espach was able to turn a “ soul crushing” job in market research into the Audible Original In-Depth Market Research Interviews with Dead People. In this, she imagines the dead as chatty and obsessive, derailing strict product questions with their unresolved life stories.

Get your tickets to see Alison Espach and the other finalists at the May 7, 2026 Thurber House awards!

Singer-songwriter John Gorka knows how to write songs. But he wasn’t always so disciplined about it. Listen in as he describes what changes he made that has allowed him to be a prolific and insightful songwriter.

Then, check him out on April 11 with Six String Concerts, a venue staffed by people Gorka praises as “the best presenters,” a sentiment I share.

My favorite part of this interview was that Gorka legitimately seems to enjoy songwriting, particularly the creative “middle” when a song is taking shape. As he sings,

My favorite place to be is in the middle of a song.

When it isn’t completely right, but it’s not hopelessly wrong

For a lot of writers, their craft seems like more of a chore than a delight, but Gorka finds it enjoyable. Very cool.

Check out his appearance with Six String Concerts on April 11 and let me know what you think!

Central Ohio author, photographer, and teacher Ben Berens’ young reader book Jump tells the story of a boy facing a big challenge: jumping off a diving board. (Hey, I had the same fear way back when.)

Berens relied on his background in visual arts and childhood love of illustrated books when he started writing and illustrating his own story in 2017. He’d been waiting for an opportunity to illustrate a book and decided to create one for himself.

Berens is a fan of mindfulness tools, like breathing, visualization, yoga, and meditation, topics he touches on throughout the story, especially in the postscript of mindfulness techniques.

If you’re looking for a book for a young person struggling with a new activity, Jump by Ben Berens is a great place to start a discussion.

Singer-songwriter Leslie Mendelson’s song “Rock and Roll on the Radio” is a jaunty look at changes on US airwaves.

Mendelson will bring her acoustic guitar-driven music to Columbus on March 14 for a performance with Six String Concerts. Mendelson co-wrote the song with Steve McEwen as a nostalgic reflection on the 1960s–70s era when Mendelson saw music movements and messaging as more impactful. She cities touchstones like Marvin Gaye, the Beatles, and Crosby, Stills & Nash’s “Ohio.”

Her 2024 album After the Party, celebrated her favorite styles after the darker tone of her 2020 record If You Can’t Say Anything Nice. So join her at the show to hear more of her channeling of ’70s sounds from country to rock to Americana.

Magician and variety artist Carissa Hendrix will perform in Columbus March 16–17 as Lucy Darling in a nontraditional variety show with Sarah Hester Ross. They’ll feature magic, singing, comedy, clown bits, and improv.

But wait.

Before there was Lucy Darling, there was Hendrix hammering nails into their face at 15 (“ when I was the correct amount of stupid to wanna do something like that”).

Listen in for Hendrix’s description of “Blockhead,” a sideshow trick that isn’t an illusion at all. That’s an actual nail going into a human face.

Hendrix also holds a Guinness record for holding fire in the mouth for two minutes and 1 second. Hendrix says it’s mostly about breath control. I’ll believe it because there’s no way I’m going to test that notion.

Also, check out the YouTube version of this interview!

Sometime categorized as “American Noir” Ben De Le Cour’s songwriting grew out of his musical upbringing, broad influences, and the evolution of his storytelling. De Le Cour, who will perform in Columbus with Six String Concerts on February 21st, reflects on his roots, discovering songwriters like Townes Van Zandt, and his journey from metal and punk rock to folk music. We discuss his interest in character-driven story songs and the importance of conflict in art. De Le Cour also talks about his song “The Devil Went Down to Silver Lake,” a meditation on the Charlie Daniel’s song “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” but this time exploring the pitfalls of artistic shortcuts. We discuss authenticity and I try out a bad joke about it.

Listen in and then see him at Six String.