PODCAST · arts
SoundPages Podcast
by Jack Straw Cultural Center
SoundPages features interviews and readings from fellows in the Jack Straw Writers Program
Episodes
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Viewing Windows – Diane Nguyen
Diane Nguyen’s project for the 2026 Jack Straw Writers Program is a series of vignettes that focuses on the challenges of motherhood as a queer millennial, the everyday life of queerness, and reproductive health. In her conversation with curator Claudia Castro Luna, they talk about what it’s like...
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The Space Where You Can Be the Most Vulnerable – Kevin Dean
Kevin Dean’s project for the 2026 Jack Straw Writers Program is a debut collection of poems that, in his own words, “explores the link between the personal and the political, as well as how places shape our identities and memories.” In his conversation with curator Claudia Castro Luna, they talk...
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Another Iberian Poet in New York? No! – Alejandro Pérez-Cortés
Alejandro Pérez-Cortés’s project for the 2026 Jack Straw Writers Program is a collection of poems that play with absurdity and irony, and critique world history. In his conversation with curator Claudia Castro Luna, they talk about how he chooses the titles for his poems, why he leans into humor…
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The Queen Is Dead – Elissa Favero
Elissa Favero’s project for the 2026 Jack Straw Writers Program is a collection of ekphrastic essays that explore the lives of women and visual art. In her conversation with curator Claudia Castro Luna, they talk about why she chooses not to introduce the artwork she’s writing about at the onset…
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Red Painted Woman – Maiah A Merino
Maiah A Merino’s project for the 2026 Jack Straw Writers Program is a collection of poems that, in her own words “explores systemic contracts and agreements we have with those in our families as well as other societal systems.” In her conversation with curator Claudia Castro Luna, they talk about...
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Memory Riffing – Rasheena Fountain
Rasheena Fountain’s project for the 2026 Jack Straw Writers Program is a series of poems that represent her relationship with her place, history, and her relearning of those relationships. In her conversation with curator Claudia Castro Luna, they speak on what the environment means to Rasheena…
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If I Could, I Would Swim the Columbia – Ruth Marie Tomlinson
Ruth Marie Tomlinson‘s project for the 2026 Jack Straw Writers Program is a long-form non-fiction manuscript that delves into the river routes from Seattle, WA to Two Dot, Montana, and imagines what it would be like to swim those paths. In her conversation with curator Claudia Castro Luna, they...
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Topographies – Gabriella Garcia
Gabriella Garcia‘s project for the 2026 Jack Straw Writers Program is a series of poems, each overlaid on maps of rivers and mountains where the poems take place. In her conversation with curator Claudia Castro Luna, they talk about the story of her opera A Spring Like This, her interest in…
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War Boys – Jason Prokowiew
Jason Prokowiew’s project for the 2025 Jack Straw Writers Program is a braided memoir about his Russian father’s adoption by the Nazis who murdered his family at the start of World War II, and the trauma he carried into parenthood. In his conversation with curator Kathleen Alcalá, they talk…
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I Go Back to Both Sides of the Dream – Makayla Danielle Gay
Makayla Danielle Gay’s project for the 2025 Jack Straw Writers Program is a series of poetry collages that combine poetry with archival film from her family. In her conversation with curator Kathleen Alcalá, they discuss the process of going through archival material, why she says art-making is…
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The Parasol Maker – Mia Tong
Mia Tong’s project for the 2025 Jack Straw Writers Program is a mythology-inspired Young Adult adventure duology. The story revolves around a young adult named Vana, her caretaker who contracts an illness, and Vana’s journey to find a cure in a vast country she knows little about. In her...
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A Town Called Slaughter – Mateo Bracken
Mateo Bracken’s project for the 2025 Jack Straw Writers Program is a manuscript of Auburn, Washington’s settler colonial history in verse. In his conversation with curator Kathleen Alcalá, they discuss where he turned for information on the history of Auburn, the multiple meanings of the name...
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Reruns – Connor Watkins-Xu
Connor Watkins-Xu’s project for the 2025 Jack Straw Writers Program is a book of poems covering themes of trauma, depression, and struggling with faith, which he hopes will “carry emotions and revelation.” In his conversation with curator Kathleen Alcalá, they discuss his journey from Alabama to...
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All Over the Map – Hillary Behrman
Hillary Behrman’s project for the 2025 Jack Straw Writers Program is a novel called All Over the Place and a collection of short stories called Lake Effect that explore human care and intimacy in a world that breeds doubt and isolation. In her conversation with curator Kathleen Alcalá, they…
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The Forest Bison – Nhatt Nichols
Nhatt Nichols’s project for the 2025 Jack Straw Writers Program is a non-fiction graphic novel about the history of the Białowieża Forest, a World Heritage Area that sits between Poland and Belarus, and how the forest and humanity influence each other. In her conversation with curator Kathleen...
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When Mother Took Her Hair Down – Sigrun Susan Lane
Sigrun Susan Lane’s project for the 2025 Jack Straw Writers Program is a collection of poems about her immigrant family and their origins in Iceland. In her conversation with curator Kathleen Alcalá, they discuss Icelandic folklore such as the little people, the influence of Icelandic poet…
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How to Write a Eulogy for a 10-Year-Old – Jenny Harrington Lill
Jenny Harrington Lill’s project for the 2025 Jack Straw Writers Program is a memoir about her late son, Ewan, who was diagnosed with an aggressive form of acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 2018. In her conversation with curator Kathleen Alcalá, they discuss Jenny’s writing style, her scientific...
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Gravity – Asha Dore
Asha Dore’s project for the 2025 Jack Straw Writers Program is an autoethnography titled Gravity that focuses on weird crime in Florida, class, and neurodivergence. In her conversation with curator Kathleen Alcalá, they discuss why her father became involved with a Colombian cartel, what her...
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Distance – Bill Hollands
Bill Hollands’s project for the 2025 Jack Straw Writers Program is a collection of poems that incorporate pop culture elements from his childhood. In his conversation with curator Kathleen Alcalá, they talk about the ’70s television shows that Bill watched as a kid, gay representation in popular...
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The Godspore King – Gabriel Moseley
Gabriel Moseley’s project for the 2024 Jack Straw Writers Program is a speculative fiction novel set at a fundamentalist Christian camp in the Olympic Peninsula, where the revelation of a child’s healing abilities leads to devastating consequences. In his conversation with curator Nisi Shawl…
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The Dim – Stacy Nathaniel Jackson
Stacy Nathaniel Jackson’s project for the 2024 Jack Straw Writers Program is a novel that he describes as “Epic, leaning speculative fiction, with a horror lens.” The Dim centers on a headhunter who has a genetic mutation that causes his sense of physical pain to be dimmed and how that lack of…
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A Killer Whale Calls – Catherine DeNardo
Catherine Denardo’s project for the 2024 Jack Straw Writers Program is a piece of nonfiction narrative writing that celebrates the sounds of the Southern Residents, a community of endangered killer whales located in coastal waters of British Columbia and Washington State. In her conversation with...
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Remora – Jarrett Ziemer
Jarrett Ziemer’s project for the 2024 Jack Straw Writers Program is a multimedia project, a collection of poems paired with short films where he uses personification and the conflation of identities to tell introspective stories. In his conversation with curator Nisi Shawl, they delve into how he...
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The Memoirs of Ruby Lovestone – Amontaine Aurore
Amontaine Aurore’s project for the 2024 Jack Straw Writers Program is an autobiographical coming of age novel set between 1963 and 1974, when her family moved to and lived in an all-white neighborhood in Seattle. The novel focuses on her search for a Black identity during a time of cultural,...
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Summer Thinking – Becca Rose Hall
Becca Rose Hall’s project for the 2024 Jack Straw Writers Program is a family epic novel set in the Pacific Northwest, homing in on the town of Home, Washington, an anarchist colony founded in 1896 on the Kitsap Peninsula. The novel switches between a homesteader living in Home and her great...
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The Metagnosis Vignettes – Mary Pan
Mary Pan’s project for the 2024 Jack Straw Writers Program is a collection of lyric essays focusing on themes of mental health, caregiving, identity, and the idea of retrospective diagnosis. In her conversation with curator Nisi Shawl, they discuss the challenges of navigating the healthcare...
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I Shall – E.J. Batiste
E.J. Batiste’s project for the 2024 Jack Straw Writers Program is a collection of poems two years in the making, covering a range of topics including her experience as a person of color in the rural south, femininity, prayer, and history. In her conversation with curator Nisi Shawl, they explore...
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The Boy and the Pennies – McKenna Princing
McKenna Princing’s project for the 2024 Jack Straw Writers Program is a collection of fairy tale retellings set in the Pacific Northwest that focuses on social justice issues. In her conversation with curator Nisi Shawl, she delves into the stories she wrote as a kid, the process of writing...
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They Say Art Is Healing – Allison Masangkay
Allison Masangkay’s project for the 2024 Jack Straw Writers Program is a zine that will be a culmination of past work exploring manananggal (a female presenting winged mythical creature in Filipino folklore) based on her experiences of disability, gender, colonization, imperialism, and more. In…
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Searching for a More Real Sea – Elyse Hauser
Elyse Hauser’s project for the 2024 Jack Straw Writers Program is a series of essays covering her work researching the deep sea in Bergen, Norway in late 2023. In her conversation with curator Nisi Shawl, she discusses how the research she did as a journalist has the potential for creative…
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A Healing Journey – Josh Griffin
Josh Griffin’s project for the 2024 Jack Straw Writers Program is a book of poems dedicated to the life and legacy of his mother, Carolyn Jane Griffin, who passed away in 2018. In his conversation with curator Nisi Shawl, he talks about how his mother encouraged him to pursue his art, choosing to...
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Hope in a Time of Disaster – Kaitlyn Teer
Kaitlyn Teer’s project for the 2023 Jack Straw Writers Program is a non-fiction book about the love, fears, and contradictions of mothering in a climate crisis and how mothering can be a force for social change. In her conversation with curator Priscilla Long, she talks about how her…
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Sauti – Nancy Mburu
Nancy Mburu’s project for the 2023 Jack Straw Writers Program is a novel titled Sauti, which translates to The Voice. The novel follows a performing poet named Nuru, who loses her voice when she immigrates to the United States from Kenya. In her conversation with curator Priscilla Long, she talks...
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365/24/7 – Julene Tripp Weaver
Julene Tripp Weaver‘s project for the 2023 Jack Straw Writers Program is a memoir titled 365/24/7 that delves into Julene’s experience working in AIDS service while keeping her own AIDS status private. In her conversation with curator Priscilla Long, she talks about the strategies she used to...
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Remembering Indigenous and Latino History – Jim Cantú
Jim Cantú’s project for the 2023 Jack Straw Program is a collection of poems that cover the ignored historical stories of People of Color, Indigenous People, and Latinos. In his conversation with curator Priscilla Long, they talk about how Jim first got interested in studying his indigenous...
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I Can’t Wait Any Longer – Brian Dang
Brian Dang’s project for the 2023 Jack Straw Writers Program is a collection of poems inspired by Brian’s ability to speak their family’s language (Cantonese) but not being able to read or write it. In their conversation with curator Priscilla Long, they talk about how Cantonese has framed the…
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Making a Foothold For Peace – Carla Shafer
Carla Shafer’s project for the 2023 Jack Straw Writers Program is a collection of poems exploring the themes of family, the natural world of the Pacific Northwest, and social justice. In her interview with curator Priscilla Long, she talks about the relationship between political activism and…
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Golden Threads – Sumu Tasib
Sumu Tasib’s project for the 2023 Jack Straw Writers Program is a collection of short fiction covering on themes of gender, relationships, and psychology that uses characters and narratives to create empathy and understanding. In their conversation with curator Priscilla Long, they talk about…
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Time Beautified Is Music – Stephen Reed Griggs
Stephen Reed Griggs‘s project for the 2023 Jack Straw Writers Program is an essay titled “How Long Should Music Last?” In this essay, Stephen muses on the legacy of recorded music in Seattle. In his conversation with curator Priscilla Long, he reflects on the first time he played music, his first...
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Séance – Hana Choi
Hana Choi’s project for the 2023 Jack Straw Writers Program is a piece of short fiction that takes place at an immigrant detention center. The piece focuses on a group of detainees who perform a séance to summon the spirits of their fellow inmates who committed suicide. In her conversation with...
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The Words Were Writing Themselves – David K. Rea
David K. Rea‘s project for the 2023 Jack Straw Program is a collection of poems and prose writing. In his conversation with curator Priscilla Long, he talks about his life after newspaper work, his daily writing practices, and how he considers himself a lifelong student of poetry. “I’d like to…
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PK, Cancer & the Tragic Ruts of Time – Geri Gale
Geri Gale’s project for the 2023 Jack Straw Program is a memoir titled PK, Cancer & the Tragic Ruts of Time that delves into the emotional complexity of breast cancer while also being a love letter to her wife PK and to the world. In her conversation with curator Priscilla Long, she talks about…
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Inching Towards Joy – Garfield Hillson
Garfield Hillson’s project for the 2023 Jack Straw Writers Program is a collection of poems that explore what it means to practice joy in a world that is constantly trying to take it away from marginalized people. In his conversation with curator Priscilla Long, he talks about why he decided to...
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Difficult Women – Ruth Schemmel
Ruth Schemmel’s project for the 2022 Jack Straw Program is a collection of short stories about women who don’t fit in. In her conversation with curator Michael Schmeltzer, she talks about the series of events that led her to take her art seriously, as well as the expectations placed on women in…
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Windows Into Desire – Carrie Beyer
Carrie Beyer’s project for the 2022 Jack Straw Program is a collection of poems in which she explores giving voice to church women who would normally be silenced. In her conversation with curator Michael Schmeltzer, they talk about the German-American Anabaptist community which inspired her...
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Resee – Erin Langner
Erin Langner’s project for the 2022 Jack Straw Program is a collection of essays in which she uses works of art to reflect on her time growing up in the Chicago suburbs. In her conversation with curator Michael Schmeltzer, they discuss how the music from her adolescence inspired her project, why...
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A Grito Contest in the Afterlife – Vincent Rendoni
Vincent Rendoni’s project for the 2022 Jack Straw Writers Program is a poetry book titled A Grito Contest in the Afterlife that celebrates the lessons he’s learned from his elders. In his conversation with curator Michael Schmeltzer, they talk about his origin story as a storyteller, his...
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Constraints and Jumping Off Points – Emily Parzybok
Emily Parzbok’s project for the 2022 Jack Straw Writers Program is a collection of essays centered on female archetypes. In her conversation with curator Michael Schmeltzer, they talk about how her relationship with these archetypes has changed over time and the grace in telling complicated...
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As Long As You Need Holding – Jessica Gigot
Jessica Gigot’s project for the 2022 Jack Straw Writers Program is a poetry manuscript in response to ecological grief. In her conversation with curator Michael Schmeltzer, they discuss the unique aspects of ecological grief, the lessons she’s learned about nurturing from being a farmer and a new...
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The Absurdity of Life – Helen Anderson
Helen Anderson’s project for the 2022 Jack Straw Writers Program is a collection of short stories living at the intersection of the recognizable and the uncanny. In her conversation with curator Michael Schmeltzer, they talk about the writers that inspire her, maintaining relationships in the age...
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does SoundPages Podcast have?
SoundPages Podcast currently has 224 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is SoundPages Podcast about?
SoundPages features interviews and readings from fellows in the Jack Straw Writers Program
How often does SoundPages Podcast release new episodes?
SoundPages Podcast publishes regularly with 224 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to SoundPages Podcast?
You can listen to SoundPages Podcast on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts SoundPages Podcast?
SoundPages Podcast is created and hosted by Jack Straw Cultural Center.
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