# Episode 520: R. Renee Hess on the Work that Inspires her and the Founding of Black Girl Hockey Club

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-creative-nonfiction-podcast-with-brendan-o-meara-1081136/episode-520-r-renee-hess-on-the-work-that-inspires-her-and-the-founding-of-black-girl-hockey-club
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-creative-nonfiction-podcast-with-brendan-o-meara-1081136/episode-520-r-renee-hess-on-the-work-that-inspires-her-and-the-founding-of-black-girl-hockey-club.md
Podcast: [The Creative Nonfiction Podcast with Brendan O'Meara](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-creative-nonfiction-podcast-with-brendan-o-meara-1081136)
Published: 2026-04-03T10:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://zencastr.com/z/HPwrTxCJ
Audio file: https://redirect.zencastr.com/r/episode/69ced5f69934a0248a40b539/size/154476325/video-files/5cc1d44d44d4350014032d56/ff2dc194-d28f-45f9-b61c-3930dad457a9.mp4
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-creative-nonfiction-podcast-with-brendan-o-meara-1081136/episodes/episode-520-r-renee-hess-on-the-work-that-inspires-her-and-the-founding-of-black-girl-hockey-club
Duration seconds: 4570

## Resource

"I think, like all writers, I will feel an itch that I have to scratch. There will be an idea in my head that I've got to get down on paper, whether I follow through with it or not," says R. Renee Hess, author of Blackness is a Gift I Can Give Her: On Race, Community, and Black Women in Hockey. Who do we have this week? It's R. Renee Hess, but you can all her Renee, of Black Girl Hockey Club. She wrote the essay collection Blackness is a Gift I can Give Her: On Race, Community, and Black Women in Hockey. It's published by McClelland & Stewart. After Renee finished her schooling and got a job and had some money, she sought to find a sport to follow that cut against the grain. Instead of baseball, football, or basketball, she thought, maybe hockey and it didn't take long to realize that there very few Black people on the ice and in the stands. And even fewer Black women in the stands. In 2018, she launched Black Girl Hockey Club, a nonprofit organization that focuses on equity and including for Black women in ice hockey. Renee was named one of three finalists for the NHL's Willie O'Ree Community Hero Award in 2021 for positively impacting the community, culture, or society through the sport of hockey. Her work has appeared in Black Nerd Problems, Spectrum Magazine, and Racebaitr. You can learn more about Renee and her work at blackgirlhockeyclub.org [http://blackgirlhockeyclub.org/] and find her on the socials at @blackgirlhockeyclub In this conversation we talk about: * Tackling other genres * Short Fiction * Reading as a writer * Going back to the classics * What sustains the writing * Taking representation further * And focusing inward vs. outward in her BGHC work Really fun conversation about the important work she's doing and the work she draws inspiration from. Ord…

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-creative-nonfiction-podcast-with-brendan-o-meara-1081136/episodes/episode-520-r-renee-hess-on-the-work-that-inspires-her-and-the-founding-of-black-girl-hockey-club/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-creative-nonfiction-podcast-with-brendan-o-meara-1081136/episode-520-r-renee-hess-on-the-work-that-inspires-her-and-the-founding-of-black-girl-hockey-club.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.