Community of Writers Podcasts

My guest this week is Lisa K. Richter, who has written an elegant multi-form memoir meets biography, a book constructed in a series of short, impressionist, lyrical recollections and insights, portraits and meditations, all with music in the background and, indeed, in the foreground. In Fly, My Darling, Richter both condenses and expands, simultaneously, on an unlikely love story, one so meaningful and transformative that perhaps this multi-form collage of document, journal, poetry, family history and grief chronicle --- and again, always with music --- could be told only and most vividly in gorgeous fragments which, finally, in their combining, produce a full, rich portrait of both self and subject.It’s the story of Lisa Richter and Lynda Roth, of a piano student and her teacher, of lovers, of a caregiver and the commitments demanded of love. Finally, the book esteems and celebrates the lost lover and, in its telling, introduces us to a writer who has used everything she has to find her own art and identity.Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

My guests this week have not made books, they have helped make history. They are academic workers. Yes, this is ostensibly a literary arts show but Bibliocracy often features discussion with activists, teachers, researchers, cultural critics, and historians.  Lately I’ve featured experts on so-called AI in education, and on labor justice in higher education.  Indeed, the motto of my own higher ed labor union is, instructively, (pun intended),“Our working conditions are our students’ learning conditions.”  Today’s show speaks, loudly, to what that means by way of a recent and historic victory by the United Auto Workers union, which represents higher ed workers at the University of California, one of the state’s biggest employers. At the same time, I am pleased to recommend a new title out from PM Press, Out of the Lab, Into the Streets.  It is an oral history of the historic —- and winning! —- 2022 high ed union contract campaign for Academic Student Employees at the University of California and offers an occasion to speak with two union comrades, academic professionals with impressive bios as scholars and teachers and, yes, as activists, Kerri McCanna and Kien Le.Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

My guest this week in part two of a two-part show is Christopher Mathias, a journalist with a long career of covering the far right, including at HuffPost, The Guardian, MSNBC and Zeteo. His investigative reporting has charted the role of racist and often violent nativist groups like the Proud Boys in the politics and policies of the GOP. He’s out now with a remarkable book titled To Catch a Fascist: The Fight to Expose the Radical Right which profiles the covert work of anti-fascist activists by way of a definitional history, case studies and a review of the tactics and traditions of the reactionary, racist, right from the Ku Klux Klan to the present, and perhaps most helpfully, their place in Trumpworld. In addition to charting the work of individual and organized anti-fascists, it presents a parallel narrative of the absurdly cartoonish if violent and dangerous work of multiple fascist groups in the context of the cartoonish, violent and dangerous ascendency of the Trumpist Republican Party.  To Catch a Fascist, out from Atria Books, is not just a sociological study, current affairs book, and a corrective to the mainstream narrative but an exciting, engaging and dramatically rendered adventure story too. In this half hour we talk about the ethical code of anti-fascist political work, about the successful outing of dozens of organized radical right members, and Mathias’s own personal bravery in documenting these struggles. Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

My guest this week is Terese Svoboda, author of two dozen books, in addition to short stories, poems, journalism, with work in The Atlantic, Slate, the New Yorker and the Santa Monica Review.  She has won multiple literary prizes, and is a three-time winner of the New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship.  Svoboda has written for and produced documentary film and wrote the libretto for the opera Wet, which premiered at LA’s Disney Hall. Svoboda’s engagement with so many stories, forms, and genres is both chronicled and exemplified in her latest, Hitler & My Mother-in-Law, gorgeously connected fragments, episodes, anecdotes, scenes and lots and lots of research, assembled ostensibly as an investigation into the life and career of Svoboda’s one-time mother in law,  the trailblazing journalist Patricia Lochridge, whose life is quite impressively unbelievable --- in so many ways --- but the book is also an examination of what and how we believe, and who tells stories anyway, not to mention a memoir of author Terese Svoboda herself.Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

My guest this week is Stephen Cooper, the leading biographer, scholar, and booster of the writer John Fante. He is winner of an NEA for his fiction, a filmmaker, and creative writing teacher at CSULB for many years.  He is the author of Full of Life: A Biography of John Fante, a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year and cowrote and produced the Netflix Original Documentary Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski. Cooper writes remarkable short stories, fiction which has appeared widely, including in The ThreePenny Review, American Fiction and the Santa Monica Review. Now ten of his short stories are collected in a volume titled River of Angels, out from the literary collective What Books Press --- the river being both metaphorical and very real indeed and the angels being human or imagined or fallen if always redeemable. This is a gorgeous and defining collection with a cover by legendary artist Gronk.Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

My guest this week is poet Gustavo Hernandez, last on this show to discuss his breakout poetry collection Flower Grand First. He is out now with Bachelor, six dozen short poems, many of which appeared in leading journals, here assembled thanks to FlowerSong press. The poet Diane Seuss, a big fan, helpfully celebrates the conceit of these poems, in which “the speaker moves like a ghost, from affiliation to singularity and back again, from son, brother, uncle, lover, to a state of profound bachelorhood, a traveler moving through a house of mirrors who encounters and re-encounters himself.” Indeed, these poems, with a carefully insistent throughline and in conversation with themselves, are about person and place, both prismatic and somehow also panoramic. Born in Jalisco, Mexico, Gustavo Hernandez was raised in Santa Ana, where he still lives and has served as the poet laureate of Orange County, California.Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

My guest this week is María Dolores Águila, out now with A Sea of Lemon Trees: The Corrido of Roberto Alvarez.  It’s a poetic work of YA historical fiction inspired by the defining early 1930s “Lemon Grove Incident,” a narrative which celebrates a victory over institutionalized racism in San Diego, the struggle for educational equity, and the power of community through a telling from the point of view of then-12 year old Roberto Alvarez, chosen as the plaintiff for the legal case which challenged the segregation of Mexican American public school students. Águila is the author of an acclaimed picture book, Barrio Rising: The Protest the Built Chicano Park. Her website, where you can learn more, helpfully defines her work and art: “Stories of Resistance and Resilience.”Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

My guest this week is journalist and activist Tracy Rosenthal, author of a terrific long piece at the new issue of a favorite online journal, Hammer & Hope, where they report on ICE raids in Los Angeles by way of the incredible Los Angeles Tenants Union (LATU). Rosenthal is a frequent contributor to The New Republic, The Nation, the LA Times and is the author, with Leonardo Vilchis, of Abolish Rent: How Tenants Can End The Housing Crisis, published by Haymarket. Rosenthal was a co-founder of the LA Tenants Union. Read the entire article, “Immigration Raids at This Home Depot Got More Aggressive but Less Effective. The LA Tenants Union Knows Why.”Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

I present a performance edition of the show, a recording made at a recent reading hosted by Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Foundation.  Thanks to Jimmy Vega, director, and Eric Ahlberg for recording. Playwright Daniel Olivas, poet Adolfo Guzman-Lopez, and short story writer Lisa Alvarez shared their work on a recent Friday night at LA’s longest-running literary and cultural arts venue. Today you’ll hear Alvarez (introduced by Olivas, author of Waiting for Godinez) read from her collection Some Final Beauty and Other Stories and Guzman-Lopez (introduced by Alvarez) read from his California Southern: Writing from the Road, 1992-2025. (More from that evening on a later episode.)  Meanwhile, both Alvarez and Guzman-Lopez explore, celebrate, and dramatize life, politics, place, and people in Southern California over decades in two breakthrough collections that could have been written only by devoted longtime chroniclers of our region.Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

A welcome regular on Bibliocracy, my end-of-year 2025 Fund Drive guest is Tom Zoellner, celebrated in a three-part series starting today which features his latest, The Road Was Full of Thorns: Running Toward Freedom in the American Civil War.  This remarkable book researches, reconsiders, and revises the story of slavery’s inevitable end, focusing on a singularly remarkable and game-changing historical moment. Imagine enslaved people finding refuge in a Union fortress, and then being used politically as assets (“contraband”) in one of the most ironic strategies in the struggle toward win emancipation. About this book Keisha N. Blain of Four Hundred Souls writes, “A vital, illuminating, and beautifully written book that affirms that Black people freed themselves.” This book is offered as a thank-you gift courtesy of publisher sponsor The New Press.Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

 My guest is Vishwas Gaitonde, a much-published short story writer out with his debut fiction collection, stories which dramatize, explore, interrogate and celebrate human connection. His On Earth As It Is In Heaven won the 2023 Orison Prize for fiction. About it Margot Livesy wrote “Gaitonde captures the struggle to belong within a family and within a culture, and how language unites and divides us.” Vishwas Gaitonde’s work has appeared in newspapers, magazines, and online with short stories in The Iowa Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Santa Monica Review, Epiphany, Gargoyle, and Mid-American Review.Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

My guest this week is the writer and Monthly Review editor John Bellamy Foster on his work in helping Monthly Review Press republish the classic Albert Einstein political essay “Why Socialism?”  It’s available now in a gorgeous small book featuring an introduction by Foster and an earlier essay by John J. Simon. Albert Einstein’s “Why Socialism?”: The Enduring Relevance of His Classic Essay explains and contextualizes a forgotten history and celebrates the renowned scientist as a political radical, peace and justice activist, and public intellectual whose commitments are generally ignored or often misrepresented. “I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.” - Albert EinsteinMusic: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

My guest this week is the multi-form writer Daniel Olivas, author of 13 books of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama including the subject of today’s Bibliocracy Radio, a play titled Waiting for Godínez: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts, from the University of New Mexico Press.  Among other titles, he’s written Chicano Frankenstein: A Novel, and My Chicano Heart: New and Collected Stories of Love and Other Transgressions. He co-edited The Coiled Serpent: Poets Arising from the Cultural Quakes and Shifts of Los Angeles and edited the landmark Latinos in Lotusland: An Anthology of Contemporary Southern California. Olivas has written for The New York Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, Los Angeles Times, Alta Journal, Jewish Journal, Zócalo, and The Guardian. When not engaging culture and literature, Olivas is a senior attorney with the California Department of Justice in Los Angeles where he specializes in land use, environmental enforcement, and affordable housing. Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

My guest this week is poet and prose writer Abby Walthausen, out now with a new poetry collection titled A Swale a Sort of Swaddle, a remarkable collection exploring and celebrating and, importantly, complicating the joys and challenges of domesticity, parenthood, and engagement of our region --- ecosystem, politics, place, history --- with language and the wonder that arrives with a new child. In addition to hosting the podcast A Lovely Wallpaper, her poetry has appeared in Public Domain Review, Paris Review Daily, the Atlantic, Zocalo Public Square, Atlas Obscura, Common-place, Mutha, Extra Crispy, LARB, and LitHub. Fiction has been published by Gigantic, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, the Made in LA anthology, Sycamore Review and Santa Monica Review. Here’s the link to A Lovely Wallpaper. Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

My guest this week is Nicholas Reiner, a poet and teacher and Associate Director of Media & Storytelling at the ACLU of Southern California. As part of Bibliocracy’s recent series of shows featuring scholars and activists confronting, explaining, and resisting Trumpism and the fascist GOP agenda, I’ve asked Reiner to catch me up on the work of the ACLU of Southern California, and also ask what he’s doing lately as an literary artist. He discusses why he writes, and reads a poem. Nicholas Tino Reiner is an American poet of Mexican heritage. His debut poetry chapbook Levitations was co-winner of the inaugural Alta California Chapbook Prize, a bilingual edition from Gunpowder Press. His poems have appeared in Spillway, Aquifer: The Florida Review Online, Western Humanities Review, and Zocalo Public Square. He earned an MFA in Writing from UC Irvine.Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

My guest this week is Dr. Nolan Higdon. Today on Bibliocracy Radio I check in again with Nolan Higdon, an activist and scholar on whose perspectives I rely as a result of reading his important work in media literacy and media criticism. Dr. Nolan Higdon is the author of multiple books and articles and academic papers, all with helpfully instructive titles which invite consideration of his analysis of a recent American Association of University Professors (AAUP) report on AI,and his own recent post “AI in Schools: IAAUP report on AI.” We further discuss our own union’s sell-out to Big Tech and the impacts economic, social, and pedagogical of the further corporatization of higher education. Read his Truth Dig article Randi Weingarten’s AI Betrayal. And see his Substack: https://nolanhigdon.substack.com/Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

My guest this week is Trevor Griffey. While Bibliocracy Radio is largely devoted to the celebration of book culture and reading, I’ve also frequently and increasingly devoted episodes featuring public policy and political experts, writers, and activists like scholar, teacher, and union advocate Trevor Griffey.  How to respond to this news from the New York Times? “The American Federation of Teachers, the second-largest U.S. teachers’ union, said on Tuesday that it would start an A.I. training hub for educators with $23 million in funding from three leading chatbot makers: Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic.”Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

My guest this week is Robin Romm, author of a breakout 2007 collection of stories, The Mother Garden, a celebrated memoir,The Mercy Papers and, now, a new collection titled Radical Empathy. She’s been awarded an O. Henry Prize in short fiction. Her journalism and nonfiction has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, Wired, and Slate. Today she's joining me to read from and discuss the ten stories collected in Radical Empathy, some of which appeared originally in Sewanee Review, ZYZZYVA, The Missouri Review and other top-notch literary journals. Romm's fiction draws favorable comparison to the work of Grace Paley and Amy Hempel for its empowering, funny, sly, insightful and sincerely honest characterizations and worldview.Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

I’m pleased to host American Library Association President Sam Helmick on the work of that organization and the upcoming ALA Banned Books Week 2025, October 5 - October 11. This year’s theme: “Censorship is so 1984. Read for Your Rights.”Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

My guest this week is Oscar Villalon, editor in chief of ZYZZYVA journal. Together we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the esteemed West Coast literary journal founded by Howard Junker, and which has printed so much important poetry and prose, art, photography and more. Villalon has lately made big changes to the journal yet kept true to its mission. Oscar Villalon is a journalist and former book reviewer with a long career in the literary arts, and his own work has been published in The Believer, Virginia Quarterly Review, Alta, Lit Hub,and more. To subscribe or otherwise learn more about one of the essential cultural outfits in the West, see its website: www.zyzzyva.org. Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

My guest this week is poet, prose writer, nature writer and photographer Charles Hood. In his newest book he has written a nature guide, travel adventure and, most movingly, a memoir in scenes of confession and revelation, self-discovery and joy. Out now from Heyday, it’s a collection of 18 essays gathered, with photographs, as Double Hyenas and Lazarus Birds: A Sideways Look at the Pacific Ocean and Everything In It. Recently retired from teaching, his previous books include Nocturnalia, A Consideration of Nature at Night, and A Salad Only the Devil Would Eat: The Joys of Ugly Nature. In addition to traveling the world to study nature, he is also the author of the poetry collections South x South and Partially Excited States. Praise for Hood arrives from no less than Jonathan Franzen, who writes: “Among nature writers now working, Charles Hood is my favorite.” Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

This week I share an edited version of readings by two more contributors to the latest Santa Monica Review. Taped in front of a live audience at a spring issue launch celebration, writers Dawna Kemper and Miles Parnegg read their work. Kemper has been published widely, including in ZYZZYVA, Ecotone, and The Kenyon Review. She is a frequent SMR contributor. Parnegg’s work has appeared in Blue Mesa Review and Citric Acid. He is a recent graduate of the UC Irvine Writing Program. In this special performance edition of Bibliocracy, Kemper reads “Harmony” and Parnegg reads  “Crossing.”Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

This week an edited version of readings by two contributors to the latest Santa Monica Review. Taped in front of a live audience at a spring issue launch celebration, writers Stephen D. Gutierrez and Sean Bernard share from their recent work. Gutierrez reads sections from his novella Captain Chicano Draws a Line in the American Sand and Bernard reads from his short story “Big Sur,” featured in the spring 2025 issue of the Santa Monica Review. Both writers have impressive publication histories. Check out their respective websites and visit the SMR site for more on the journal.Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

Welcome to the Podcast feed for the 2025 Summer Workshops in Olympic Valley. This week, we will upload daily craft talks, panels and readings as they happen. Be sure to subscribe to our feed to receive all recordings automatically. A full schedule of events can be found here.Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

Welcome to the Podcast feed for the 2025 Summer Workshops in Olympic Valley. This week, we will upload daily craft talks, panels and readings as they happen. Be sure to subscribe to our feed to receive all recordings automatically. A full schedule of events can be found here.Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

Welcome to the Podcast feed for the 2025 Summer Workshops in Olympic Valley. This week, we will upload daily craft talks, panels and readings as they happen. Be sure to subscribe to our feed to receive all recordings automatically. A full schedule of events can be found here.Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

Welcome to the Podcast feed for the 2025 Summer Workshops in Olympic Valley. This week, we will upload daily craft talks, panels and readings as they happen. Be sure to subscribe to our feed to receive all recordings automatically. A full schedule of events can be found here.Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

Welcome to the Podcast feed for the 2025 Summer Workshops in Olympic Valley. This week, we will upload daily craft talks, panels and readings as they happen. Be sure to subscribe to our feed to receive all recordings automatically. A full schedule of events can be found here.Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

Welcome to the Podcast feed for the 2025 Summer Workshops in Olympic Valley. This week, we will upload daily craft talks, panels and readings as they happen. Be sure to subscribe to our feed to receive all recordings automatically. A full schedule of events can be found here.Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

Welcome to the Podcast feed for the 2025 Summer Workshops in Olympic Valley. This week, we will upload daily craft talks, panels and readings as they happen. Be sure to subscribe to our feed to receive all recordings automatically. A full schedule of events can be found here.Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

Welcome to the Podcast feed for the 2025 Summer Workshops in Olympic Valley. This week, we will upload daily craft talks, panels and readings as they happen. Be sure to subscribe to our feed to receive all recordings automatically. A full schedule of events can be found here.Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

Welcome to the Podcast feed for the 2025 Summer Workshops in Olympic Valley. This week, we will upload daily craft talks, panels and readings as they happen. Be sure to subscribe to our feed to receive all recordings automatically. A full schedule of events can be found here.Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

Welcome to the Podcast feed for the 2025 Summer Workshops in Olympic Valley. This week, we will upload daily craft talks, panels and readings as they happen. Be sure to subscribe to our feed to receive all recordings automatically. A full schedule of events can be found here.Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

Welcome to the Podcast feed for the 2025 Summer Workshops in Olympic Valley. This week, we will upload daily craft talks, panels and readings as they happen. Be sure to subscribe to our feed to receive all recordings automatically. A full schedule of events can be found here.Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

Welcome to the Podcast feed for the 2025 Summer Workshops in Olympic Valley. This week, we will upload daily craft talks, panels and readings as they happen. Be sure to subscribe to our feed to receive all recordings automatically. A full schedule of events can be found here.Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

Welcome to the Podcast feed for the 2025 Summer Workshops in Olympic Valley. This week, we will upload daily craft talks, panels and readings as they happen. Be sure to subscribe to our feed to receive all recordings automatically. A full schedule of events can be found here: https://communityofwriters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/2025-WW-Public-Events-Schedule-scaled.jpgMusic: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

Welcome to the Podcast feed for the 2025 Summer Workshops in Olympic Valley. This week, we will upload daily craft talks, panels and readings as they happen. Be sure to subscribe to our feed to receive all recordings automatically. A full schedule of events can be found here: https://communityofwriters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/2025-WW-Public-Events-Schedule-scaled.jpgMusic: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

Welcome to the Podcast feed for the 2025 Summer Workshops in Olympic Valley. This week, we will upload daily craft talks, panels and readings as they happen. Be sure to subscribe to our feed to receive all recordings automatically. A full schedule of events can be found here: https://communityofwriters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/2025-WW-Public-Events-Schedule-scaled.jpgMusic: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

Welcome to the Podcast feed for the 2025 Summer Workshops in Olympic Valley. This week, we will upload daily craft talks, panels and readings as they happen. Be sure to subscribe to our feed to receive all recordings automatically. A full schedule of events can be found here: https://communityofwriters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/2025-WW-Public-Events-Schedule-scaled.jpgThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

This week: L. Annette Binder, the author of the short story collection Rise, winner of the Mary McCarthy Prize, and the novel The Vanishing Sky.  Now she’s out with a small, personal, if emotionally, scientifically, poetically encyclopedic book, a meditation exploring her late mother’s dementia. Titled Child of Earth and Starry Heaven, it’s a biography of a person and of a disease, an investigation of Alzheimer’s, and a daughter’s chronicle of attention and care. Part journal, part meditation, part scholarship, this is a multi-form and well-researched account of what Binder learned about the disease, her mother, and herself, and a generous gift to others.Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

This week: journalist and poet Adolfo Guzman-Lopez, out with a collection decades in the making. Published by Hinchas Press, he joins me this week to read from and talk about California Southern: Writing from the Road 1992-2025. Longtime radio reporter for LAist (89.3 FM in Southern California), Guzman-Lopez is a chronicler of the personal and political, a civic witness and a cultural guide with a multi-lingual voice and perspective full of empathy, insight, humor, and wisdom. A founder of the Taco Shop Poets and writer/producer of the podcast The Forgotten Revolutionary, this autobiographical poetry project assembled by Guzman-Lopez tells the life stories of not just one witness to our civic life but stories of individuals, communities, and movements. Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

Emily Greenberg joins us this week. She is the author of a debut short story collection, Alternative Facts, one of the most remarkable literary, political, and sociologically urgent --- not to mention funny and smart --- books I’ve read lately. Inspired in part by the writing of Thomas Pynchon, by what passes for reality, and offering a media and political critique of our post-truth moment, it’s if the Zeitgeist had offered Greenberg a writing prompt, to which she carefully, elegantly, almost scientifically responded. In seven short stories, we are reminded of and challenged to reconsider “real” people and events, including Kellyanne Conway, George W. Bush, B.F Skinner, and the false emergency alert of a nuclear attack on Hawaii. Her work has appeared widely.  Lately Greenberg compiles the online “Lest We Forget the Horrors” series for McSweeney’s.Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

This week: Acclaimed poet Amy Gerstler, author of 11 collections including Scattered at Sea, long-listed for the National Book Award and Creature, a New York Times Notable Book. Amy Gerstler’s newest book is out, a collection titled Is This My Final Form?, a funny, smart, polemical engagement or perhaps demand that we “keep walking,” keep living, keep noticing, keep evolving, keep celebrating. Of the three dozens poems collected here, some appeared originally in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Columbia Poetry Review and Mississippi Review.  The book is out now --- happy spring! --- from Penguin and includes many forms --- odes, sonnets, and even a long poem which announces itself as a one-act play. I’m pleased that she reads half a dozen poems from the book for us. The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

This episode contains both parts of a two-part show featuring novelist and short story writer Sameer Pandya on his newest novel, Our Beautiful Boys.  It is receiving enthusiastic reviews as well as both popular and critical attention. Pandya’s cultural criticism has appeared widely, including in the Los Angeles Review of Books, The Atlantic, Salon, and Sports Illustrated. Our Beautiful Boys is a simultaneously insightful sociological study and tantalizing mystery story set in an affluent community where football, family, social media, status, ethnicity, teenage jargon and identity offer clues meant to explore conflict and consider ethical behavior, easy expectations and difficult, complicated realities. With humor and empathy, and sharp insights into class and culture, Our Beautiful Boys is an unsparing if also empathetic study of aspiration, hypocrisy, and the struggles which some adults seem to pass on to their children. The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

My guest is Andrew Nicholls. He's written extensively for television print and stage, and produced both a memoir and a how-to comedy writing book. Now he’s out with a long poem on the making of filmmaker Werner Hertzog’s film Fitzcarraldo titled As Man is to God: A Poem on the Making of Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo. The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

I welcome back screenwriter and short story writer Janice Shapiro, out with her full-length graphic novel Honoria: A Fortuitous Friendship, a coming-of-age story about young women who discover their place in the world.The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

I welcome Dr. Nolan Higdon, a longtime media/civic literacy expert and critical media scholar, as well as activist and educator.The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

My guest is the art historian Stephen F. Eisenman, collaborator with legendary artist Sue Coe on the new collection The Young Person’s Illustrated Guide to American Fascism, out now from O/R Books.The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

This week we simultaneously mark a maddening anniversary and celebrate joyful creative resistance with a reading of her 2021 short story “False Flag” by writer, teacher, and editor Lisa Alvarez.The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

For  this month’s fund drive first edition I air an edited version of a terrific podcast hosted by writer Abby Walthausen featuring me --- of all people! --- as a guest. Its topic is the writer and artist whose work I curated for an exhibition on December 3rd through December 13 at Cerritos College.The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.