Switchback Podcast

Graduates who can write and teach! From the USF MFA program in Writing. Kelsey Ahlmark is interviewed by Garrett Miller for Switchback on "Teaching Creative Writing in High school" and "Flash Non-Fiction." How cool can you go?

Award-winning author Nina Schuyler talks about her wonderful book "The Translator" with Rafael Herrero for Switchback, the podcast and literary magazine for the MFA program in Writing at the University San Francisco. Winner of the 2014 Next Generation Indie Book Award for General Fiction. Listen in if you're a writer: Nina Schuyler gives great advice on craft! http://ninaschuyler.com/

Mike Massy talks about creativity, what helps, what gets the engines running, the strength to be found in diversity and what fears to get rid of. Meet the man and his art. His songs, his voice, his texts, his explorations. www.mikemassy.com Contact us at rafael.herrero.sf@gmail.com or swback.com

The world is always better with poetry.. Listen to Brynn Saito talk about poetry in this wonderful interview with fellow poet Hays Berry. Let Brynn Saito read to you some of her poems and explain how her life has shaped her poetry. Savor this hour with the author of "Power Made Us Swoon" (2016) and "The Palace of Contemplating Departure" (2013), winner of the Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award and finalist for the Northern California Book Award and the Milt Kessler Poetry Award. Brynn was born and raised in Fresno (CA) to a Korean American mother and a Japanese American father. Her poetry has been anthologized by Helen Vendler and Ishmael Reed; it has also appeared in the New York Times Sunday Magazine, Poetry Northwest, and Virginia Quarterly Review, among other journals. She is the recipient of a Kundiman Asian American Poetry Fellowship, the Poets 11 award from the San Francisco Public Library, and the Key West Literary Seminar’s Scotti Merrill Memorial Award. Brynn Saito teaches in the MFA at USF. Currently, Brynn lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she is the co-founder and director of the Center for Spiritual Life, an adjunct Assistant Professor in the BA program at California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) and director of the Center for Writing and Scholarship at CIIS. Wow!

The world is always better with poetry. Listen to Brynn Saito talk about poetry in this wonderful interview with fellow poet Hays Berry. Let Brynn Saito read to you some of her poems and explain how her life and past have shaped her poetry. Savor this hour with the author of "Power Made Us Swoon" (2016) and "The Palace of Contemplating Departure" (2013), winner of the Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award and finalist for the Northern California Book Award and the Milt Kessler Poetry Award. Brynn was born and raised in Fresno (CA) to a Korean American mother and a Japanese American father. Her poetry has been anthologized by Helen Vendler and Ishmael Reed; it has also appeared in the New York Times Sunday Magazine, Poetry Northwest, and Virginia Quarterly Review, among other journals. She is the recipient of a Kundiman Asian American Poetry Fellowship, the Poets 11 award from the San Francisco Public Library, and the Key West Literary Seminar’s Scotti Merrill Memorial Award. Brynn Saito teaches in the MFA at USF. Currently, Brynn lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she is the co-founder and director of the Center for Spiritual Life, an adjunct Assistant Professor in the BA program at California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) and director of the Center for Writing and Scholarship at CIIS. Ay caramba!

Combining sci-fi and historical fiction? They've done it! Writing a book à duo? They've done that, too! Listen to Spanish authors Higinio Pérez and José Villalba talk about their new book "Oddities: From Spain to Saturn." Interview in Spanish! Find out more at https://deuclesaencelado.com/

Marilyn Yalom talks about her fascinating book "How The French Invented Love." Travel with this erudite feminist professor from Stanford across the centuries through French literature and discover how the French have understood what it means to love. Love is understood by Yalom under all its possibilities. ;-)

Episode 6: "The One Where We Talk to A Paramedic. In this Episode we talk to a paramedic, an bakery owner, and a recently published author. Oh yeah, that's all the same person. But I guess no one cares."

The One Were The Zodiac Killer's Son Shows Up, or I am Not My Father's Son, Our Interview With Gary Stewart." In this Episode, we talk to Gary Stewart, New York Times bestselling author, father, businessman, and son of the infamous Zodiac Killer."

In this Episode, we play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, talk about brewing beer, and some other stuff happens that no one cares about.

"The Art of Catfishing." In this episode, we talk about movies, rediscover Suicidal Tendencies, and catfish some creeps on Tinder.

The FUNNEST and most informative craft essay talk show you'll ever listen to! Four English Graduates from USF talk about Craft: "An Attack on the Western Conventions of Plot," "The Seven Deadly Sins of Poets," "Point of View" and "The Establishment of Young Adult Fiction as a Respectable Art Form." Benedict Endrelunas, Amelia McKenna, Lucas Labrie and Alex Casey.

Episode 2: "Left facing train. Right facing train. Front facing train. Cat face." In this episode, we talk about Daniel's involvement in an illicit group-text feed, emojis, and our encounters with celebrities.

Spend an hour with Garth Greenwell! Listen to him tell you the ins and outs of his book "What Belongs To You," declared a masterpiece by Edmund White. Get ready for a sizzling hour!

In the first episode of "Guess What? No One Cares", Daniel and Joe give away limited edition Poison tickets, talk about pixie sticks, porn, and outhouses.

Give your reader a laugh! For joy, for release, for relief or for therapy. How to do it? Award-winning author Dave Madden tells you how to do it! More about Dave Madden at http://www.davemadden.org/

Award-winning author comments her book After The Parade. Advice on craft. Tragedy and humor, realism and nuance, dealing with difference... Lori Ostlund explains it all.

Take the plunge into "Queer Literature: History and Possibility" with award-winning author K.M. Soehnlein. Who's who, what, when, where in LGBTQI. Who wrote the best queer memoir? Who writes the best queer sex? Sizzling.

Enjoy this wonderful show with award-winning author Catherine Brady: Patterns of Imagery in Writing. Are images only things you can see? Can you smell an image? How does an image strengthen plot? How about subtext? Listen in!

Professor Dean Rader of the University San Francisco English department shares some tips for growing poets.

Sci-Fi in Poetry? WTF?! Poetry written by poets to the fellow poets? What are they smokin'? Find out how to write great poetry on these topics with smokin'-hot poets Hays Berry, Stan O'Neill and Danielle Bero. All poets at USF.

Problems with revision? Superwoman is here! Professor Catherine Brady to the rescue! Let this multilaureate writer share with you the secrets of revision that will take your manuscript to Pulitzer-prize winning heights!

Join us with Virginia Barrett, winner of the Acker Award for children’s literature in 2014. She will embark you on a journey to a world of poetry and oneness, communion with nature and self-resilience. Peace and poetry is on the menu.

Take a strut and flaunt your style down the writing runway with expert-stylist Nina Schuyler, award-winning author of The Translator and The Painting. Join the world of haute-couture in writing!

Didi Anofienem is a first year graduate student at USF. She is originally from Houston, TX, born to a Nigerian father and an African American mother. She chooses to identify herself as Black. She moved to San Francisco to attend the MFA writing program here at USF. She writes novels, short fiction, and poetry on occasion. The novel she’s working on for this program is her third novel that she’s written so far. She’s currently contemplating publishing with Amazon or sending queries for a literary agent. She’s been writing since she was 8 years old, and once thought she was going to be a lawyer. In 2010, she graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Science in Communication Studies. In 2014, she graduated from the University of Houston with a Bachelor of Arts in English. In addition to being a graduate student, she’s currently a freelance writer and a substitute teacher with the local school district. Upon graduating in 2017, she wants to pursue a doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction or Creative Writing. Her long-term goal is to publish prolifically and open a school for gifted and talented low-income and minority students.

Editor gods Greg Poulos and Jordan Serviss are on the air to speak about the editing world and literary magazines. WTF is editing? Are there different types? WTF is a literary magazine? What are the gods' favorites? Find out here.

Jump onto the magic carpet of personal essays with Garrett Miller — a voyage to self. The world of personal essays. He knows what he's talking about: he's an expert. The man to follow. What's his secret? Listen in.

Do you like to eat great food while you write? Do you like to read about it? Munch your way into the world of writing about food with food-writing guru, Tori Ritchie. Listen up and Bon appetit!

New York Times bestselling author and MFA Professor at USF Jasmin Darznik talks about her book "The Good Daughter" and her upcoming book "Sin". World premier: get the scoop on what her next bestseller is going to be about.

You said, "Gimme some tricks on writing great dialogue!" We heard you, so we dragged in our Switchback podcaster and MFA graduate Ian Jacoby to dazzle you with his insights on conversations on the page. Listen in.

Ian and Greg are graduation soon, and so they come into the studio one last time to talk about—what else?—the art of the ending.

It's a full house for this episode of the Switchback podcast, as Greg, Ian, Melissa, and Rafael all pack into the studio to talk about enemies in and out of literature. Image credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/linden_tea/380926246/

Greg is about to graduate, and he's worried about maintaining a community of writers post-graduation. He asks his fellow MFAers, Rose and Rafael, about their experiences in forming and running their own independent writing groups. Two episodes ago, we were pooh-poohing the whole idea of the writing workshop, and now we're telling you how to set up workshops of your own. Are we flip-floppers? Absolutely! Episode photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/paloetic/6381538651

It's just Ian and Greg this week, talking about SPOOKY SCARY STORIES. Listen to them discuss M.R. James, his five principles of ghost stories, and the difference between terror and horror. Later, Ian tells Stephen King to come at him, bro. So prepare to be terrified! Or is it horrified? Maybe you'll just get grossed out. Whatever the case, it should be a good time.

This week on the podcast, fellow Switchbacker Colter Ruland comes in to chat with Greg and Rafael about the MFA workshop -- and why it needs to die. OK, that might be an overstatement. But for the past fifty years, practically every MFA program in the country has been using the same tired (or time-tested?) format for their workshops. Perhaps it's time that changed. But if so, how? What alternatives exist to the traditional MFA workshop? Anyone who's been paying attention knows that lots of ink and plenty of pixels have been spilled over just these questions. Unfortunately, no one's come up with a definitive answer -- until now! Listen as Colter, Rafael, and Greg definitely put the matter to rest.

On this episode of the Switchback podcast, fellow MFAer Alyssa comes in to talk with Ian and Greg about her experience working at 826 Valencia, a San Francisco non-profit "dedicated to helping children and young adults develop writing skills and to helping teachers inspire their students to write." Over the course of their conversation, the podcast crew talks about the Google Impact Challenge, the unselfconscious creativity of kids, and scurvy.

It's award season! The Man Booker prize was awarded to Jamaican author Marlon James, and the shortlists for the National Book Awards were announced. Your hosts talk about that for a little while. Also! The MFA in Creative Writing at USF recently held a SUPER STUPENDOUS AMAZING faculty reading of works in progress. If you weren't able to make it, you can live vicariously through your hosts this week: Greg, Melissa, and Rafael. Photo credit: Brad.K (https://www.flickr.com/photos/stopbits/3777015632/)

Ian, Greg, and Stan discuss the recent awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Belarussian writer Svetlana Alexievich. Then they debate how much we should care about literary prizes in the first place. Later in the episode, the gang discusses their favorite banned books, because banned books week wasn't too long ago. Incidentally, Greg manages to set a new record for longest series of technical difficulties at the start of the episode. Be amazed! Photo credit: Adam Baker (https://www.flickr.com/photos/atbaker/8459286843/)

Anthony, a first-year poet in the program, joins Greg in the studio. The two hosts talk about the city of San Francisco, as well as Litquake, a literary festival that's taking place all throughout the city this month (www.litquake.org/).

Fellow MFAer Allison Rodriguez comes into the studio to talk with Ian and Greg about interning at ZYZZYVA, a literary magazine based in downtown San Francisco. You may have heard of it. Note: Ian's mic sounds tinny for about the first ten minutes, but eventually gets fixed. Sorry 'bout that. Episode photo credit to Matthew Fang (https://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewfch/2478230533/)

What do editors at publishing houses do? Well, it depends on what kind of editor you're talking about. In the first of what are sure to be several episodes on the topic of Life After MFA, Ian and Greg talk about life working as an editor in the publishing industry.

In this episode of the Switchback podcast, author Lily Iona Mackenzie comes into the studio to talk about her latest book, Fling!, released earlier this summer by Pen-L Publishing. After reading a selection from the book, Lily talks with hosts Greg Poulos and Stan O'Neill about the craft of writing, the importance of being a shapeshifter, and why we bother to read and write at all. Purchase Fling! at Pen-L Publishing: http://www.pen-l.com/Fling.html Read Switchback online: http://www.swback.com

What book would you delete from the literary canon? What would you put in its place? Greg is wishy-washy about his choices, while Ian barrels straight ahead.