Episode 517: The Miracle of Writing a Book with Keith O'Brien

About this episode

Brendan O'Meara interviews bestselling author Keith O'Brien about his latest book on Larry Bird and the intricacies of writing biographies.

"Those people who shaped the people are often more important than the subject, because they have insight into this young person that they were working with. It's crucial," says Keith O'Brien, bestselling author of Heartland: A Forgotten Place, an Impossible Dream, and the Miracle of Larry Bird. Today we have Keith O'Brien, author of five books, including his latest book Heartland: A forgotten Place, an Impossible Dream, and the Miracle of Larry Bird. It's published by Atria Books. It's a lean, propulsive biography framed as an origin story of Larry Bird before he went to the NBA to later become one of the ten best players in history. Keith is the New York Times bestselling author of Outside Shot, Fly Girls, Paradise Falls, Charlie Hustle, which won the PEN America award for biography, and now Heartland. You can learn more about Keith at keithob.com and follow him on the ol' IG @obrienstory. This book has been crushing it. His events have been overflowing. In this episode we talk about: * The dispiriting change we're seeing in sports journalism * Finding the people who shaped the people * Sitting under the prism of history * Writing an origin story * His favorite part of the job *…

People in this episode

Host: Brendan O'Meara

Guest: Keith O'Brien

Topics covered

• sports journalism
• biography writing
• origin stories
• Larry Bird
• writing process
• influential figures

Keywords

• Keith O'Brien
• Larry Bird
• biography
• sports journalism
• writing process
• Heartland
• origin story

Sponsors

2026 Power of Narrative Conference

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Atria Books, PEN America, combeyond.bu.edu

Books & works: Heartland: A Forgotten Place, an Impossible Dream, and the Miracle of Larry Bird, Outside Shot, Fly Girls, Paradise Falls, Charlie Hustle

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