Fear of black cats and the writing life with Natalie Harris-Spencer

A monthly conversation examining creatures, ecology, writing, film, music, art, science and pop culture, using three primary mediums: doodles, writing, and speech. Hosted by Juliana, she talks with documentary film makers, musicians and activists leading global protests.

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Cats are an animal figure both feared and worshiped. In particular, the black cat is associated with witches and is often hurt or rejected because of this bias. In this episode, Juliana talks with Natalie Harris-Spencer, an author, editor, and blogger about the black cat she won on Twitter, animals in literature, and the writing life.

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Conversations with Animals is a monthly podcast hosted by Juliana examining our interconnection with nonhuman animal lives. Expect interviews with ecological writers, filmmakers, vegan chefs, animal-related spaces, artists, and more! Each month, a fresh companion newsletter is published. Subscribe: www.julianaroth.com/drawinganimals

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Natalie Harris-Spencer is an English writer, digital editor, and blogger living in America. Her work has appeared in Hobart, Allegory Ridge, the Stonecoast Review, The Dark City, The Satirist, and more. She was selected by Oyster River Pages as one of their Emerging Fiction Voices, and she is the winner of the Hummingbird Flash Fiction Prize. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing at Stonecoast, University of Southern Maine and she is the Editor-in-Chief of Aspiring Author. She is currently working on her debut novel. Natalie enjoys surprise in fiction. And tea. Find her author pages on Amazon and Goodreads.

In her day job, Natalie is Director of Digital Marketing for a global advertising technology leader, with 15 years creating, project managing, and delivering world-class web content and global digital strategies across a wide suite of omni-channel, cross-platform, multi-device products. She has spent 10 years leading, growing, and nurturing teams of digital champions. The bulk of her career has been spent devising the global digital strategy and overseeing global website transformation projects for the world’s largest entertainment company, Sony. Connect with her on LinkedIn.

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Juliana is a writer, filmmaker, educator, and performer. She formerly lived as a volunteer on an organic farm in Maine, out of a backpack in the wilderness of Utah’s La Sal Mountains, and worked for the Ecology Center. She was selected as a VIDA Fellow with the Sundress Academy for the Arts for her fiction. Her writing appears in The Breakwater Review, Irish Pages, Los Angeles Review of Books as well as being produced as independent films that she directs. Her web series, The University, was nominated by the International Academy of Web Television for Best Drama Writing and screened at survivor justice nonprofits across the country. Her new film, Final Curtain Call, inspired by the life of Radio City Music Hall’s Chief Organist, is currently screening at film festivals. She teaches writing at NYU.