"There are a lot of stories that I come across that almost work or that don't quite work. And early in my career, I think I'd try and chase stories or force them to fit or force them to be a story when they don't actually work as a story," says Matthew Wolfe, author of the book Fires in the Night and the Atavist story "The Bleeding Hearts."

Today we welcome back Matthew Wolfe for the third time in about a year. Why, you ask? Well, his first appearance was Ep. 482 for his Atavist story “The Talented Mr. Bruseaux,” then, just a few weeks ago he was on for Ep. 536 to talk about his first book Fires in the Night. And now he’s got another Atavist story.

Wild, right? This is the way.

Matt’s story is titled The Bleeding Hearts: An ex-cop pulled off the largest armed robbery in Austria’s history, with his friend’s mistress as his accomplice. But he wasn’t trying to get rich. He wanted to be a real-life Robin Hood.

Now, we’ll be chatting with Jonah Ogles soon and I didn’t bring this up with him, and I will down the road, but listen to the deck again. If you want to sell a pitch to the Atavist, can you sum it up in one sentence like that? I will talk to them about that in the next one and how that distillation might help your pitches out either for the Atavist or any other publication.

Matthew has written for the Atavist on 3 separate occasions, and he’s also the author of Fires in the Night about the Earth Liberation Front. His work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Harper’s, The Atlantic, and National Geographic

In this conversation, we talk about:

His love of The Baffler, Harper’s, and the New Yorker
Where his path and ambitions lie
Balancing fun, meaning, and value in a story
The almost-working stories that don’t
Stories that sit in the notebook for years
Periods of spring cleaning
Missing the sprawl of book writing
And when a reporter can add commentary to a story

Episode 545: Stories Can Sit in the Notebook for Years. Just Ask Matthew Wolfe.

The Creative Nonfiction Podcast with Brendan O'Meara

Episode 545: Stories Can Sit in the Notebook for Years. Just Ask Matthew Wolfe.