Podcasts about vona voices

Host Jason Blitman talks to Karissa Chen (Homeseeking) about musicals--particularly The Last Five Years' influence on her writing, dreams as well as idealism, the coincidence of reconnection, and the concept of seeking home. Jason is then joined by Guest Gay Reader Paul Lisicky (Song So Wild and Blue) and talk about all things Joni Mitchell. Homeseeking is the January 2025 Good Morning America Book Club selection. Karissa Chen is a Fulbright fellow, Kundiman Fiction fellow, and a VONA/Voices fellow whose fiction and essays have appeared in The Atlantic, Eater, The Cut, NBC News THINK!, Longreads, PEN America, Catapult, Gulf Coast, and Guernica, among others. She was awarded an artist fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts as well as multiple writing residencies including at Millay Arts, where she was a Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Creative Fellow and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, among others. She was formerly a senior fiction editor at The Rumpus and currently serves as the editor-in-chief at Hyphen magazine. She received an MFA in fiction from Sarah Lawrence College and splits her time between New Jersey and Taipei, Taiwan.Paul Lisicky is the author of seven books including Later: My Life at the Edge of the World (one of NPR's Best Books of 2020), as well as The Narrow Door (a New York Times Editors' Choice and a Finalist for the Randy Shilts Award), Unbuilt Projects, The Burning House, Famous Builder, and Lawnboy. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, BuzzFeed, Conjunctions, The Cut, Fence, The New York Times, Ploughshares, Tin House, and in many other magazines and anthologies. He has taught in the creative writing programs at Cornell University, New York University, Sarah Lawrence College, and elsewhere. He is currently a Professor of English in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Rutgers University-Camden, where he is Editor of StoryQuarterly. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. BOOK CLUB!Use code GAYSREADING at checkout to get first book for only $4 + free shipping! Restrictions apply.http://aardvarkbookclub.comWATCH!https://youtube.com/@gaysreading FOLLOW!Instagram: @gaysreading | @jasonblitmanBluesky: @gaysreading | @jasonblitmanCONTACT!hello@gaysreading.com

187 We're bringing back this encore episode to celebrate Faith and Nadine's March 11 masterclass: Applying to Residencies and Fellowships. Replay will be sent if you can't make it live. Episode originally aired in June 2023.Want to know how to fulfill your writing and traveling dreams (& receive full or partial funding)? Grab a notebook because this episode with travel memoirist Faith Adiele is FULL of helpful info and resources. In addition to chatting about Faith's memoir, her travel column, her 20+ residencies, and her fascinating experiences as Thailand's first Black Buddhist nun, we discuss:-How to find writing residency opportunities-The amazing places you can visit while on residency-How to make your application stand out-Why you don't need publication credentials in order to be chosen-How to ask for the funding and opportunities you want About Faith:FAITH ADIELE is author of the memoirs Meeting Faith, an account of flunking out of Harvard and ordaining as Thailand's first Black Buddhist nun that won the PEN Open Book Award, and the humorous The Nigerian Nordic Girl's Guide to Lady Problems. She has attended 20+ artists' residencies around the globe and writes a syndicated travel column that appears in Detour: Best Stories in Black Travel and the Miami Herald. Named one of Marie Claire magazine's “Five Women to Learn From,” Faith speaks and teaches workshops in memoir and travel writing at Esalen, Open Center NYC, InsightLA, VONA/Voices and elsewhere.WebsiteFacebookInstagram @meetingfaithTwitter @meetingfaithLinkedInAbout Nadine:Nadine Kenney Johnstone is a holistic writing coach who helps women develop and publish their stories. She is the proud founder of WriteWELL, an online community that helps women reclaim their writing time, put pen to page, and get published. The authors in her community have published countless books and hundreds of essays in places like The New York Times, Vogue, The Sun, The Boston Globe, Longreads, and more. Her infertility memoir, Of This Much I'm Sure, was named book of the year by the Chicago Writer's Association. Her latest book, Come Home to Your Heart, is an essay collection and guided journal that helps readers tap into their inner wisdom and fall back in love with themselves. Her articles and interviews have appeared in Cosmo, Authority, MindBodyGreen, Good Grit, HERE, Urban Wellness, Natural Awakenings, Chicago Magazine, and more. Pulling from her vast experience as a writing, meditation, and yoga nidra instructor, Nadine leads women's writing and wellness workshops and retreats online and around

Ursula Villarreal-Moura is the author of Math for the Self-Crippling (2022), selected by Zinzi Clemmons as the Gold Line Press fiction contest winner, and Like Happiness (Celadon Books, 2024). A graduate of Middlebury College, she received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and was a VONA/Voices fellow. Her stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in numerous magazines including Tin House, Catapult, Prairie Schooner, among many others. Her writing has been nominated for Best of the Net, Best Small Fictions, a Pushcart Prize, and longlisted for Best American Short Stories 2015. Like Happiness has been listed as a best books of the year so far by Elle, Bookshop.org, Libby. Recommended Books: Raquel Gutierrez, Brown Neon Mohammed El-Kurd, Rifqa Catherine Lacey, Pew  Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro Against World Literature, is forthcoming with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ursula Villarreal-Moura is the author of Math for the Self-Crippling (2022), selected by Zinzi Clemmons as the Gold Line Press fiction contest winner, and Like Happiness (Celadon Books, 2024). A graduate of Middlebury College, she received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and was a VONA/Voices fellow. Her stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in numerous magazines including Tin House, Catapult, Prairie Schooner, among many others. Her writing has been nominated for Best of the Net, Best Small Fictions, a Pushcart Prize, and longlisted for Best American Short Stories 2015. Like Happiness has been listed as a best books of the year so far by Elle, Bookshop.org, Libby. Recommended Books: Raquel Gutierrez, Brown Neon Mohammed El-Kurd, Rifqa Catherine Lacey, Pew  Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro Against World Literature, is forthcoming with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Ursula Villarreal-Moura is the author of Math for the Self-Crippling (2022), selected by Zinzi Clemmons as the Gold Line Press fiction contest winner, and Like Happiness (Celadon Books, 2024). A graduate of Middlebury College, she received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and was a VONA/Voices fellow. Her stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in numerous magazines including Tin House, Catapult, Prairie Schooner, among many others. Her writing has been nominated for Best of the Net, Best Small Fictions, a Pushcart Prize, and longlisted for Best American Short Stories 2015. Like Happiness has been listed as a best books of the year so far by Elle, Bookshop.org, Libby. Recommended Books: Raquel Gutierrez, Brown Neon Mohammed El-Kurd, Rifqa Catherine Lacey, Pew  Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro Against World Literature, is forthcoming with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

Transforming Pain into Poetry: A Discussion on Suicide, Hope, and Healing   In this emotionally rich episode of the Suicide Zen Forgiveness podcast, host Elaine Lindsay sits down with poet Icess Fernandez Roja to discuss her debut poetry collection, 'The Opposite of Breathing is Cement.' The collection explores themes of identity, love, mental illness, and suicide. Icess shares her personal journey of overcoming suicidal ideation and how it led to writing poetry as a means of healing and reaching out to others experiencing similar struggles. The conversation delves into the importance of breaking the stigma surrounding mental health and suicide, providing support for those in need, and the power of finding and sharing hope through creative expression. The episode highlights the significance of talking about mental health openly and using one's experiences to help others feel less alone. Icess's story is a testament to the strength found in vulnerability and the transformative potential of art in navigating the darkest of times.   00:00 Introducing Icess Fernandez Roja and Her Poetry on Mental Health 00:42 The Mission of Suicide Zen Forgiveness Podcast 01:25 A Deep Dive into Identity, Suicide, and Healing Through Poetry 08:29 The Journey from Darkness to Diagnosis 14:59 Finding Hope and Purpose Through Sharing and Connection 20:40 The Power of Kindness and Community in Healing 24:12 Using Art to Open Conversations on Mental Health 27:11 Revolutionizing Customer Service: A Personal Touch 28:23 The Power of Genuine Compliments 29:54 Breaking the Cycle of Robotic Interactions 30:50 The Impact of Positive Feedback 31:13 A Lesson in Kindness from a UPS Driver 33:06 Sharing a Poignant Poem 37:59 Navigating Depression and Suicide Ideation 40:15 Preemptive Measures Against Depression 48:11 Finding Hope in the Smallest Things 49:47 Concluding Thoughts and Gratitude Summary Icess Fernandez Rojas is a highly acclaimed international writer, Houston educator, and former journalist. Her debut poetry collection, "The Opposite of Breathing is Cement: Poetry and Prose," delves into the intricacies of life, touching on themes of healing, identity, love, and mental illness. A graduate of Goddard College's MFA program, Rojas's work has earned international recognition, gracing the pages of prestigious literary journals such as Queen Mobs Lit Journal, Poetry 24, PANK Magazine, Rabble Lit, Minerva Rising Literary Journal, and the Feminine Collective's anthology, "Notes from Humanity." Her compelling Houston-based story, "Happy Hunting," found a place in the esteemed "Houston Noir" anthology. Her latest work is called: "The Opposite of Breathing is Cement: Poetry and Prose" and is available in bookstores and online now. Notably, Rojas's nonfiction and memoir pieces have left an indelible mark in publications like Dear Hope, NBCNews.com, HuffPost, and the Guardian. Her exceptional contributions to the literary world have garnered her numerous accolades, including the Owl of Minerva Award, and she is celebrated as an alum of the VONA/Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation, a Dos Brujas Workshop alum, a Kimbilio Fellow, and a member of the illustrious Yale Writers' Workshop. Website links: https://icessfernandez.com/ And the book links: Barnes and Noble:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/book/1144308727?ean=9798218280390   Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Opposite-Breathing-Cement-Poetry-Prose/dp/B0CMC722QG/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=2IZGWDNJ15SV1&keywords=the+opposite+of+breathing+is+cement%3A+poetry+%26+prose&qid=1699935853&sprefix=%2Caps%2C122&sr=8-1    Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-opposite-of-breathing-is-cement-poetry-prose-icess-fernandez-rojas/20765841

Transforming Pain into Poetry: A Discussion on Suicide, Hope, and Healing   In this emotionally rich episode of the Suicide Zen Forgiveness podcast, host Elaine Lindsay sits down with poet Icess Fernandez Roja to discuss her debut poetry collection, 'The Opposite of Breathing is Cement.' The collection explores themes of identity, love, mental illness, and suicide. Icess shares her personal journey of overcoming suicidal ideation and how it led to writing poetry as a means of healing and reaching out to others experiencing similar struggles. The conversation delves into the importance of breaking the stigma surrounding mental health and suicide, providing support for those in need, and the power of finding and sharing hope through creative expression. The episode highlights the significance of talking about mental health openly and using one's experiences to help others feel less alone. Icess's story is a testament to the strength found in vulnerability and the transformative potential of art in navigating the darkest of times.   00:00 Introducing Icess Fernandez Roja and Her Poetry on Mental Health 00:42 The Mission of Suicide Zen Forgiveness Podcast 01:25 A Deep Dive into Identity, Suicide, and Healing Through Poetry 08:29 The Journey from Darkness to Diagnosis 14:59 Finding Hope and Purpose Through Sharing and Connection 20:40 The Power of Kindness and Community in Healing 24:12 Using Art to Open Conversations on Mental Health 27:11 Revolutionizing Customer Service: A Personal Touch 28:23 The Power of Genuine Compliments 29:54 Breaking the Cycle of Robotic Interactions 30:50 The Impact of Positive Feedback 31:13 A Lesson in Kindness from a UPS Driver 33:06 Sharing a Poignant Poem 37:59 Navigating Depression and Suicide Ideation 40:15 Preemptive Measures Against Depression 48:11 Finding Hope in the Smallest Things 49:47 Concluding Thoughts and Gratitude Summary Icess Fernandez Rojas is a highly acclaimed international writer, Houston educator, and former journalist. Her debut poetry collection, "The Opposite of Breathing is Cement: Poetry and Prose," delves into the intricacies of life, touching on themes of healing, identity, love, and mental illness. A graduate of Goddard College's MFA program, Rojas's work has earned international recognition, gracing the pages of prestigious literary journals such as Queen Mobs Lit Journal, Poetry 24, PANK Magazine, Rabble Lit, Minerva Rising Literary Journal, and the Feminine Collective's anthology, "Notes from Humanity." Her compelling Houston-based story, "Happy Hunting," found a place in the esteemed "Houston Noir" anthology. Her latest work is called: "The Opposite of Breathing is Cement: Poetry and Prose" and is available in bookstores and online now. Notably, Rojas's nonfiction and memoir pieces have left an indelible mark in publications like Dear Hope, NBCNews.com, HuffPost, and the Guardian. Her exceptional contributions to the literary world have garnered her numerous accolades, including the Owl of Minerva Award, and she is celebrated as an alum of the VONA/Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation, a Dos Brujas Workshop alum, a Kimbilio Fellow, and a member of the illustrious Yale Writers' Workshop. Website links: https://icessfernandez.com/ And the book links: Barnes and Noble:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/book/1144308727?ean=9798218280390   Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Opposite-Breathing-Cement-Poetry-Prose/dp/B0CMC722QG/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=2IZGWDNJ15SV1&keywords=the+opposite+of+breathing+is+cement%3A+poetry+%26+prose&qid=1699935853&sprefix=%2Caps%2C122&sr=8-1    Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-opposite-of-breathing-is-cement-poetry-prose-icess-fernandez-rojas/20765841

In this episode, Dr. Anthony Christian Ocampo takes us both inside and beyond his new book, Brown and Gay in LA: The Lives of Immigrant Sons (NYU Press, 2022), to talk about the craft of writing nonfiction, the importance of writing communities and fellowships, and about putting your writing out into the world. Today's book is: Brown and Gay in LA: The Lives of Immigrant Sons, by Anthony Christian Ocampo. Growing up in the shadow of Hollywood, the gay sons of immigrants featured in Brown and Gay in LA maneuver through family and friendship circles where masculinity dominates, gay sexuality is unspoken, and heterosexuality is strictly enforced. Dr. Ocampo details his story of reconciling his queer Filipino American identity and those of men like him. He shows what it was like to grow up gay in an immigrant family, to be the one gay person in their school and ethnic community, and to be a person of color in predominantly White gay spaces. Brown and Gay in LA is an homage to second-generation gay men and their radical redefinition of what it means to be gay, to be a man, to be a person of color, and, ultimately, what it means to be an American. Our guest is: Dr. Anthony Christian Ocampo, who is Professor of Sociology at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He is the author of Brown and Gay in LA, and The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race. He is an Academic Director of the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity, and co-host of the podcast Professor-ing. His writing has appeared in GQ, Catapult, BuzzFeed, Los Angeles Review of Books, Colorlines, Gravy, Life & Thyme, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. He received fellowships from the Ford Foundation, Jack Jones Literary Arts, Tin House, and the VONA/Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation. He was recently featured in the Netflix documentary “White Hot: The Rise and Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch,” as he was one of the employees involved in suing the company for racial discriminatory hiring practices. He holds a BA in comparative studies in race and ethnicity and MA in modern thought and literature from Stanford University, and an MA and PhD in sociology from UCLA. Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the producer and host of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell. For more author-talks that consider the craft of writing, try: This conversation on Night of the Living Rez This conversation about A Calm and Normal Heart This conversation about Black Boy Out of Time This conversation about The Lost Journals of Sacajewea This conversation about The Names of All the Flowers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In this episode, Dr. Anthony Christian Ocampo takes us both inside and beyond his new book, Brown and Gay in LA: The Lives of Immigrant Sons (NYU Press, 2022), to talk about the craft of writing nonfiction, the importance of writing communities and fellowships, and about putting your writing out into the world. Today's book is: Brown and Gay in LA: The Lives of Immigrant Sons, by Anthony Christian Ocampo. Growing up in the shadow of Hollywood, the gay sons of immigrants featured in Brown and Gay in LA maneuver through family and friendship circles where masculinity dominates, gay sexuality is unspoken, and heterosexuality is strictly enforced. Dr. Ocampo details his story of reconciling his queer Filipino American identity and those of men like him. He shows what it was like to grow up gay in an immigrant family, to be the one gay person in their school and ethnic community, and to be a person of color in predominantly White gay spaces. Brown and Gay in LA is an homage to second-generation gay men and their radical redefinition of what it means to be gay, to be a man, to be a person of color, and, ultimately, what it means to be an American. Our guest is: Dr. Anthony Christian Ocampo, who is Professor of Sociology at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He is the author of Brown and Gay in LA, and The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race. He is an Academic Director of the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity, and co-host of the podcast Professor-ing. His writing has appeared in GQ, Catapult, BuzzFeed, Los Angeles Review of Books, Colorlines, Gravy, Life & Thyme, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. He received fellowships from the Ford Foundation, Jack Jones Literary Arts, Tin House, and the VONA/Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation. He was recently featured in the Netflix documentary “White Hot: The Rise and Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch,” as he was one of the employees involved in suing the company for racial discriminatory hiring practices. He holds a BA in comparative studies in race and ethnicity and MA in modern thought and literature from Stanford University, and an MA and PhD in sociology from UCLA. Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the producer and host of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell. For more author-talks that consider the craft of writing, try: This conversation on Night of the Living Rez This conversation about A Calm and Normal Heart This conversation about Black Boy Out of Time This conversation about The Lost Journals of Sacajewea This conversation about The Names of All the Flowers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-american-studies

In this episode, Dr. Anthony Christian Ocampo takes us both inside and beyond his new book, Brown and Gay in LA: The Lives of Immigrant Sons (NYU Press, 2022), to talk about the craft of writing nonfiction, the importance of writing communities and fellowships, and about putting your writing out into the world. Today's book is: Brown and Gay in LA: The Lives of Immigrant Sons, by Anthony Christian Ocampo. Growing up in the shadow of Hollywood, the gay sons of immigrants featured in Brown and Gay in LA maneuver through family and friendship circles where masculinity dominates, gay sexuality is unspoken, and heterosexuality is strictly enforced. Dr. Ocampo details his story of reconciling his queer Filipino American identity and those of men like him. He shows what it was like to grow up gay in an immigrant family, to be the one gay person in their school and ethnic community, and to be a person of color in predominantly White gay spaces. Brown and Gay in LA is an homage to second-generation gay men and their radical redefinition of what it means to be gay, to be a man, to be a person of color, and, ultimately, what it means to be an American. Our guest is: Dr. Anthony Christian Ocampo, who is Professor of Sociology at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He is the author of Brown and Gay in LA, and The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race. He is an Academic Director of the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity, and co-host of the podcast Professor-ing. His writing has appeared in GQ, Catapult, BuzzFeed, Los Angeles Review of Books, Colorlines, Gravy, Life & Thyme, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. He received fellowships from the Ford Foundation, Jack Jones Literary Arts, Tin House, and the VONA/Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation. He was recently featured in the Netflix documentary “White Hot: The Rise and Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch,” as he was one of the employees involved in suing the company for racial discriminatory hiring practices. He holds a BA in comparative studies in race and ethnicity and MA in modern thought and literature from Stanford University, and an MA and PhD in sociology from UCLA. Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the producer and host of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell. For more author-talks that consider the craft of writing, try: This conversation on Night of the Living Rez This conversation about A Calm and Normal Heart This conversation about Black Boy Out of Time This conversation about The Lost Journals of Sacajewea This conversation about The Names of All the Flowers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/gender-studies

In this episode, Dr. Anthony Christian Ocampo takes us both inside and beyond his new book, Brown and Gay in LA: The Lives of Immigrant Sons (NYU Press, 2022), to talk about the craft of writing nonfiction, the importance of writing communities and fellowships, and about putting your writing out into the world. Today's book is: Brown and Gay in LA: The Lives of Immigrant Sons, by Anthony Christian Ocampo. Growing up in the shadow of Hollywood, the gay sons of immigrants featured in Brown and Gay in LA maneuver through family and friendship circles where masculinity dominates, gay sexuality is unspoken, and heterosexuality is strictly enforced. Dr. Ocampo details his story of reconciling his queer Filipino American identity and those of men like him. He shows what it was like to grow up gay in an immigrant family, to be the one gay person in their school and ethnic community, and to be a person of color in predominantly White gay spaces. Brown and Gay in LA is an homage to second-generation gay men and their radical redefinition of what it means to be gay, to be a man, to be a person of color, and, ultimately, what it means to be an American. Our guest is: Dr. Anthony Christian Ocampo, who is Professor of Sociology at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He is the author of Brown and Gay in LA, and The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race. He is an Academic Director of the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity, and co-host of the podcast Professor-ing. His writing has appeared in GQ, Catapult, BuzzFeed, Los Angeles Review of Books, Colorlines, Gravy, Life & Thyme, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. He received fellowships from the Ford Foundation, Jack Jones Literary Arts, Tin House, and the VONA/Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation. He was recently featured in the Netflix documentary “White Hot: The Rise and Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch,” as he was one of the employees involved in suing the company for racial discriminatory hiring practices. He holds a BA in comparative studies in race and ethnicity and MA in modern thought and literature from Stanford University, and an MA and PhD in sociology from UCLA. Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the producer and host of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell. For more author-talks that consider the craft of writing, try: This conversation on Night of the Living Rez This conversation about A Calm and Normal Heart This conversation about Black Boy Out of Time This conversation about The Lost Journals of Sacajewea This conversation about The Names of All the Flowers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

In this episode, Dr. Anthony Christian Ocampo takes us both inside and beyond his new book, Brown and Gay in LA: The Lives of Immigrant Sons (NYU Press, 2022), to talk about the craft of writing nonfiction, the importance of writing communities and fellowships, and about putting your writing out into the world. Today's book is: Brown and Gay in LA: The Lives of Immigrant Sons, by Anthony Christian Ocampo. Growing up in the shadow of Hollywood, the gay sons of immigrants featured in Brown and Gay in LA maneuver through family and friendship circles where masculinity dominates, gay sexuality is unspoken, and heterosexuality is strictly enforced. Dr. Ocampo details his story of reconciling his queer Filipino American identity and those of men like him. He shows what it was like to grow up gay in an immigrant family, to be the one gay person in their school and ethnic community, and to be a person of color in predominantly White gay spaces. Brown and Gay in LA is an homage to second-generation gay men and their radical redefinition of what it means to be gay, to be a man, to be a person of color, and, ultimately, what it means to be an American. Our guest is: Dr. Anthony Christian Ocampo, who is Professor of Sociology at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He is the author of Brown and Gay in LA, and The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race. He is an Academic Director of the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity, and co-host of the podcast Professor-ing. His writing has appeared in GQ, Catapult, BuzzFeed, Los Angeles Review of Books, Colorlines, Gravy, Life & Thyme, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. He received fellowships from the Ford Foundation, Jack Jones Literary Arts, Tin House, and the VONA/Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation. He was recently featured in the Netflix documentary “White Hot: The Rise and Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch,” as he was one of the employees involved in suing the company for racial discriminatory hiring practices. He holds a BA in comparative studies in race and ethnicity and MA in modern thought and literature from Stanford University, and an MA and PhD in sociology from UCLA. Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the producer and host of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell. For more author-talks that consider the craft of writing, try: This conversation on Night of the Living Rez This conversation about A Calm and Normal Heart This conversation about Black Boy Out of Time This conversation about The Lost Journals of Sacajewea This conversation about The Names of All the Flowers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/lgbtq-studies

In this episode, Dr. Anthony Christian Ocampo takes us both inside and beyond his new book, Brown and Gay in LA: The Lives of Immigrant Sons (NYU Press, 2022), to talk about the craft of writing nonfiction, the importance of writing communities and fellowships, and about putting your writing out into the world. Today's book is: Brown and Gay in LA: The Lives of Immigrant Sons, by Anthony Christian Ocampo. Growing up in the shadow of Hollywood, the gay sons of immigrants featured in Brown and Gay in LA maneuver through family and friendship circles where masculinity dominates, gay sexuality is unspoken, and heterosexuality is strictly enforced. Dr. Ocampo details his story of reconciling his queer Filipino American identity and those of men like him. He shows what it was like to grow up gay in an immigrant family, to be the one gay person in their school and ethnic community, and to be a person of color in predominantly White gay spaces. Brown and Gay in LA is an homage to second-generation gay men and their radical redefinition of what it means to be gay, to be a man, to be a person of color, and, ultimately, what it means to be an American. Our guest is: Dr. Anthony Christian Ocampo, who is Professor of Sociology at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He is the author of Brown and Gay in LA, and The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race. He is an Academic Director of the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity, and co-host of the podcast Professor-ing. His writing has appeared in GQ, Catapult, BuzzFeed, Los Angeles Review of Books, Colorlines, Gravy, Life & Thyme, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. He received fellowships from the Ford Foundation, Jack Jones Literary Arts, Tin House, and the VONA/Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation. He was recently featured in the Netflix documentary “White Hot: The Rise and Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch,” as he was one of the employees involved in suing the company for racial discriminatory hiring practices. He holds a BA in comparative studies in race and ethnicity and MA in modern thought and literature from Stanford University, and an MA and PhD in sociology from UCLA. Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the producer and host of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell. For more author-talks that consider the craft of writing, try: This conversation on Night of the Living Rez This conversation about A Calm and Normal Heart This conversation about Black Boy Out of Time This conversation about The Lost Journals of Sacajewea This conversation about The Names of All the Flowers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-west

Notes and Links to Ursula Villarreal-Moura's Work        For Episode 207, Pete welcomes Ursula Villarreal-Moura, and the two discuss, among other topics, her early San Antonio Spurs' education, her omnivorous reading habits, particularly in her childhood, a formative writing contest and reading event, her transitioning from poetry to short stories and flash fiction, and salient themes addressed in her collection, including mental health issues, trauma, delusion, ideas of identity and self-perception, and imagination and story.         Ursula Villarreal-Moura is the author of Math for the Self-Crippling (2022), selected by Zinzi Clemmons as the Gold Line Press fiction contest winner, and Like Happiness (Celadon Books, 2024). A graduate of Middlebury College, she received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and was a VONA/Voices fellow. Her stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in numerous magazines including Tin House, Catapult, Prairie Schooner, Midnight Breakfast, Washington Square, Story, Bennington Review, Wigleaf Top 50, and Gulf Coast. She contributed to Forward: 21st Century Flash Fiction, a flash anthology by writers of color, and in 2012, she won the CutBank Big Fish Flash Fiction/Prose Poetry Contest. Her writing has been nominated for Best of the Net, Best Small Fictions, a Pushcart Prize, and longlisted for Best American Short Stories 2015.     Ursula Villarreal-Moura's Website   Buy Math for the Self-Crippling   Interview in Tri-Quarterly     At about 2:20, Ursula shares her love of the Spurs and the ways in which the Spurs culture was infused in her schooling   At about 5:00, Ursula talks about the ways in which she became an omnivorous reader, and how a Judy Blume book really flipped the reading switch    At about 7:10, Ursula describes her first writing as “exotic,” including stories set in boarding schools   At about 10:00, Ursula describes being “receptive” and maybe not as “expressive” in Spanish, and ideas of representations, including as an “Ursula”    At about 13:30, Ursula talks about the “beautiful readings” she witnessed from Sandra Cisneros and the big impact    At about 15:30, Ursula talks about the beginnings of her writing and writing career, including a memorable writing contest that she placed well in at a young age    At about 20:55, Ursula responds to Pete's questions about genre and how Ursula sees her work in terms of flash fiction, short stories, poetry, etc.    At about 23:45, Ursula describes short stories, including from Denis Johnson, Roberto Bolaño, Jeffrey Eugenides, Sandra Cisneros, Donald Barthelme, Tobias Wolff, and Amy Bloom that inspired her   At about 26:00, Ursula   At about 27:00, Ursula speaks to the idea that her work, like that of many women, is more likely assumed to be autobiographical    At about 27:50, Ursula answers Pete's questions about the chronology of her book, and she describes how much of it was written in the library    At about 29:35, Pete cites the collection's first story in asking Ursula about ideas of truth in storytelling and imagination   At about 31:00, Ursula and Pete shout out past guest Oscar Hokeah's Calling for a Blanket Dance and an example of things being “true but unreal”   At about 32:35, Pete cites an example of a story having to do with self-discovery and personas, and Ursula expands upon these ideas   At about 33:55, The two reflect on the power of a story about mental health and Sophia Loren   At about 36:20, Ursula reflects on meanings for the book's title, and Pete cites a Cherry Valance example from The Outsiders in connection to ruminations on seemingly life-changing experiences   At about 39:30, Ursula reflects on the narrator's disappointment and despair after a nonchalant comment from a possible boyfriend    At about 41:50, Ursula describes the ways in which therapy is featured in the book and differing ways in which it can be delivered in the real world   At about 43:00, Ursula expands on items of “totems”   At about 45:00, Pete highlights an important quote about “the power of suggestion” and Ursula describes how real-life events and ideas of “delusion” inspired a story in her collection   At about 45:52-Ursula's cat makes an appearance!   At about 47:10, Ideas of trauma affecting adult experiences and relationships is discussed    At about 50:55, The two reflect on ideas of observers and how Ursula skillfully uses second and third-person   At about 52:25, Ursula shares exciting new projects   At about 54:50, Ursula gives out contact info and social media info and recommends Bookshop.org, Powell's, and McNally-Jackson as places to buy her book      You can now subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, and leave me a five-star review. You can also ask for the podcast by name using Alexa, and find the pod on Stitcher, Spotify, and on Amazon Music. Follow me on IG, where I'm @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where I'm @chillsatwillpo1. You can watch this and other episodes on YouTube-watch and subscribe to The Chills at Will Podcast Channel. Please subscribe to both my YouTube Channel and my podcast while you're checking out this episode.    Sign up now for The Chills at Will Podcast Patreon: it can be found at patreon.com/chillsatwillpodcastpeterriehl     Check out the page that describes the benefits of a Patreon membership, including cool swag and bonus episodes. Thanks in advance for supporting my one-man show, my DIY podcast and my extensive reading, research, editing, and promoting to keep this independent podcast pumping out high-quality content!    NEW MERCH! You can browse and buy here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ChillsatWillPodcast    This is a passion project of mine, a DIY operation, and I'd love for your help in promoting what I'm convinced is a unique and spirited look at an often-ignored art form.    The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com.    Please tune in for Episode 208 with Sowmya Krishnamurthy, a music journalist and pop culture expert whose work can be found in publications like Rolling Stone, Billboard, XXL, and Time.  Fashion Killa: How Hip-Hop Revolutionized High Fashion comes out on October 10, which is the date the book will be published! Also, look out for a late October/early November print conversation with me and Sowmya that will be in Chicago Review of Books.     Again, this episode will air on October 10.

125 Want to know how to fulfill your writing and traveling dreams (& receive full or partial funding)? Grab a notebook because this episode with travel memoirist Faith Adiele is FULL of helpful info and resources. In addition to chatting about Faith's memoir, her travel column, her 20+ residencies, and her fascinating experiences as Thailand's first Black Buddhist nun, we discuss:-How to find writing residency opportunities-The amazing places you can visit while on residency-How to make your application stand out-Why you don't need publication credentials in order to be chosen-How to ask for the funding and opportunities you want About Faith:FAITH ADIELE is author of the memoirs Meeting Faith, an account of flunking out of Harvard and ordaining as Thailand's first Black Buddhist nun that won the PEN Open Book Award, and the humorous The Nigerian Nordic Girl's Guide to Lady Problems. She has attended 20+ artists' residencies around the globe and writes a syndicated travel column that appears in Detour: Best Stories in Black Travel and the Miami Herald. Named one of Marie Claire magazine's “Five Women to Learn From,” Faith speaks and teaches workshops in memoir and travel writing at Esalen, Open Center NYC, InsightLA, VONA/Voices and elsewhere.WebsiteFacebookInstagram @meetingfaithTwitter @meetingfaithLinkedInAbout Nadine:Her new book, Come Home to Your Heart, is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Bookshop.Award-winning author Nadine Kenney Johnstone is a holistic writing coach who helps women develop and publish their stories. Her articles and interviews have appeared in Cosmo, Authority, MindBodyGreen, HERE, Urban Wellness, Natural Awakenings, and more. Nadine is the podcast host of Heart of the Story, where she shares stories from the heart as well as interviews with today's most impactful female creatives. Pulling from her vast experience as a writing, meditation, and yoga nidra instructor, Nadine leads women's workshops and retreats online and around the U.S.In the past 2 years alone, Nadine has helped writers in her community develop and publish 12 books and more that 200+ pieces in places like The New York Times, Vogue, the Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Longreads, and more. Learn more about Nadine's Writer Workout community here. Learn more about her Women's journaling and meditation

Today, Ursula Villarreal-Moura talks to us about her new collection, hating and then learning to love flash fiction, Muriel Spark, how Roberto Bolaño would blurb her forthcoming novel, and more!  Ursula Villarreal-Moura is the author of Math for the Self-Crippling, which was selected by Zinzi Clemmons as the Gold Line Press fiction contest winner, and Like Happiness, forthcoming with Celadon Books. A graduate of Middlebury College, she received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and was a VONA/Voices fellow. Her stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in numerous magazines including Tin House, Catapult, Prairie Schooner, Midnight Breakfast, Washington Square, Story, Bennington Review, the Wigleaf Top 50, and Gulf Coast.  Find out more about Alex's new press, Great Place Books, here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ursula Villarreal-Moura is the author of Math for the Self-Crippling (2022), selected by Zinzi Clemmons as the Gold Line Press fiction contest winner, and Like Happiness (forthcoming with Celadon Books). A graduate of Middlebury College, she received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and was a VONA/Voices fellow. Her stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in numerous magazines including Tin House, Catapult, Prairie Schooner, Midnight Breakfast, Washington Square, Story, Bennington Review, Wigleaf Top 50, and Gulf Coast. She contributed to Forward: 21st Century Flash Fiction, a flash anthology by writers of color, and in 2012, she won the CutBank Big Fish Flash Fiction/Prose Poetry Contest. Her writing has been nominated for Best of the Net, Best Small Fictions, a Pushcart Prize, and longlisted for Best American Short Stories 2015. Recommended Books: Victor LaValle, The Ballad of Black Tom Patricia Highsmith, Deep Water Billy Ray-Belcourt, A Minor Chorus Alejandro Varela, The Town of Babylon Evie Wyld, The Bass Rock Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ursula Villarreal-Moura is the author of Math for the Self-Crippling (2022), selected by Zinzi Clemmons as the Gold Line Press fiction contest winner, and Like Happiness (forthcoming with Celadon Books). A graduate of Middlebury College, she received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and was a VONA/Voices fellow. Her stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in numerous magazines including Tin House, Catapult, Prairie Schooner, Midnight Breakfast, Washington Square, Story, Bennington Review, Wigleaf Top 50, and Gulf Coast. She contributed to Forward: 21st Century Flash Fiction, a flash anthology by writers of color, and in 2012, she won the CutBank Big Fish Flash Fiction/Prose Poetry Contest. Her writing has been nominated for Best of the Net, Best Small Fictions, a Pushcart Prize, and longlisted for Best American Short Stories 2015. Recommended Books: Victor LaValle, The Ballad of Black Tom Patricia Highsmith, Deep Water Billy Ray-Belcourt, A Minor Chorus Alejandro Varela, The Town of Babylon Evie Wyld, The Bass Rock Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Ursula Villarreal-Moura is the author of Math for the Self-Crippling (2022), selected by Zinzi Clemmons as the Gold Line Press fiction contest winner, and Like Happiness (forthcoming with Celadon Books). A graduate of Middlebury College, she received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and was a VONA/Voices fellow. Her stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in numerous magazines including Tin House, Catapult, Prairie Schooner, Midnight Breakfast, Washington Square, Story, Bennington Review, Wigleaf Top 50, and Gulf Coast. She contributed to Forward: 21st Century Flash Fiction, a flash anthology by writers of color, and in 2012, she won the CutBank Big Fish Flash Fiction/Prose Poetry Contest. Her writing has been nominated for Best of the Net, Best Small Fictions, a Pushcart Prize, and longlisted for Best American Short Stories 2015. Recommended Books: Victor LaValle, The Ballad of Black Tom Patricia Highsmith, Deep Water Billy Ray-Belcourt, A Minor Chorus Alejandro Varela, The Town of Babylon Evie Wyld, The Bass Rock Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies

Ursula Villarreal-Moura is the author of Math for the Self-Crippling (2022), selected by Zinzi Clemmons as the Gold Line Press fiction contest winner, and Like Happiness (forthcoming with Celadon Books). A graduate of Middlebury College, she received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and was a VONA/Voices fellow. Her stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in numerous magazines including Tin House, Catapult, Prairie Schooner, Midnight Breakfast, Washington Square, Story, Bennington Review, Wigleaf Top 50, and Gulf Coast. She contributed to Forward: 21st Century Flash Fiction, a flash anthology by writers of color, and in 2012, she won the CutBank Big Fish Flash Fiction/Prose Poetry Contest. Her writing has been nominated for Best of the Net, Best Small Fictions, a Pushcart Prize, and longlisted for Best American Short Stories 2015. Recommended Books: Victor LaValle, The Ballad of Black Tom Patricia Highsmith, Deep Water Billy Ray-Belcourt, A Minor Chorus Alejandro Varela, The Town of Babylon Evie Wyld, The Bass Rock Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

Jordan talks with poet/performer/advocate Kay Ulanday Barrett about their decision to get top surgery, the intersection of family and food, and writing through health crises. MENTIONED: Grey's Anatomy Swype The Asian American Writers Workshop Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Kay Ulanday Barrett aka @Brownroundboi is a poet, performer, and cultural strategist. Their second book, More Than Organs (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2020) received a 2021 Stonewall Honor Book Award by the American Library Association and is a 2021 Lambda Literary Award Finalist. They have received residencies from Tin House as a 2022 Next Book Winner as well as MacDowell as a 2020 James Baldwin Fellow. Other residencies include: Drunken Boat, VONA Voices, Monson Arts, and The Lambda Literary Review. Barrett is a three-time Pushcart Prize Nominee and two-time Best of the Net Nominee. They have featured at The United Nations, The Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, Brooklyn Museum, Princeton, Harvard, Columbia University, Northwestern, The School of the Art Institute, & more. Their contributions are found in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, Poetry Magazine, them., Colorlines, Al Jazeera, NYLON, Vogue, The Rumpus, to name a few. Currently, they remix their mama's recipes and live in Jersey City with their jowly dog. kaybarrett.net For more Thresholds, visit us at www.thisthresholds.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Being gay is hard enough. Imagine being gay in the margins where immigration, race, and LGBTQ issues clash with your sexual identity, and the conservative values, expectations, and fears of your hard working migrant parents make you feel less than the perfect son. Author, Anthony Christian Ocampo, PH.D. explores these types of stories in his new book Brown and Gay in LA: The Lives of Immigrant Sons, and he shares his insights, challenges and guidance on the podcast today. https://www.amazon.com/Brown-Gay-Lives-Immigrant-Sons/dp/1479824259/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1XDK4KIZS5EY1&keywords=brown+and+gay+in+la&qid=1661098699&sprefix=brown+and+gay+in+%2Caps%2C168&sr=8-1 ()About Anthony Anthony Christian Ocampo, Ph.D. is Professor of Sociology at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He is the author of https://www.amazon.com/Brown-Gay-Lives-Immigrant-Sons/dp/1479824259/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1XDK4KIZS5EY1&keywords=brown+and+gay+in+la&qid=1661098699&sprefix=brown+and+gay+in+%2Caps%2C168&sr=8-1 (Brown and Gay in LA: The Lives of Immigrant Sons) and The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race, which has been featured on NPR, NBC News, Literary Hub, and in the Los Angeles Times. He is an Academic Director of the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity and the co-host of the podcast Professor-ing. His writing has appeared in GQ, Catapult, BuzzFeed, Los Angeles Review of Books, Colorlines, Gravy, Life & Thyme, and the Chronicle of Higher Education, among others. He has received fellowships from the Ford Foundation, Jack Jones Literary Arts, Tin House, and the VONA/Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation. He was recently featured in the Netflix documentary “White Hot: The Rise and Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch,” as he was one of the employees involved in suing the company for racial discriminatory hiring practices. Raised in Northeast Los Angeles, he earned his BA in comparative studies in race and ethnicity and MA in modern thought and literature from Stanford University and his MA and PhD in sociology from UCLA. In his free time, he loves reading memoirs and essay collections, watching figure skating and gymnastics clips on YouTube, playing with his rescue dog Schmidt, binging queer content on Netflix and HBO Max, and being chaotic with his multigenerational Filipino American family. Connect With https://anthonyocampo.com/ (Website) https://www.facebook.com/latinosofasia (Facebook) https://www.instagram.com/anthonyocampo.phd/ (Instagram) https://twitter.com/anthonyocampo (Twitter) You can also listen to the podcast on… https://apple.co/2RBmUxZ ()https://bit.ly/2UxP9zN ()   https://spoti.fi/2JpvCfg ()https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/rick-clemons/the-coming-out-lounge ()   http://tun.in/pjtKR ()https://bit.ly/30kT4kL ()   https://bit.ly/2FVH55j ()  

Join Chris in a sit-down with Aurielle Marie, author of Gumbo Ya Ya (University of Pittsburgh Press), about passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry! Award-winning poet, essayist, and cultural strategist Aurielle Marie (they/she) is a Black queer storyteller, a political organizer, and child of the Deep South by way of Atlanta. They received their Bachelor's in Social Justice Strategy and Hip-Hop Theory from the Evergreen State College. Aurielle's poetry has been featured or is forthcoming in the TriQuarterly, Southeast Review, Black Warrior, BOAAT Journal, Sycamore Review, Adroit Journal, Vinyl Poetry, Palette Poetry, and Ploughshares. She's received invitations to fellowships from Lambda Literary, VONA Voices, and Tin House. Aurielle is a 2017 winner of the Blue Mesa Review poetry award. She's the Lambda Literary 2019 Poetry Emerging Writer-in-Residence. She won the 2019 Ploughshares Emerging Writers Award for Poetry. Aurielle's poetry debut, Gumbo Ya Ya is the 2020 winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, and is out from the University of Pittsburgh Press. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

10 Things I Learned from Junot Diaz: 1. “Unless it's breaking you, why would anyone else care?” 2. Give readers a chance to interact with the work - don't chew it up and put it in their mouths. Let them come to different conclusions. Give them choices to let them decide what to think.  3. Writers cannot be "in cahoots" with the story - safeguard a space for the reader in the story. The story shouldn't be dictated by the author. 4. Memory is contained and not dangerous. Memory work disrupts the immersion of the story because the character is not immersed in remembering 5. 1st POV should not try to discharge the function of 3rd POV 6. Withholding information is not developing character or plot. Non-information creates disinterest. 7. With characters, take away the one thing you think is important and see what you have left. Allow them to interact with others to let the reader see who they really are. Scaling with at least 2 others allows you to triangulate. 8. We look away to spare ourselves from feeling the pain and hope the reader will do the work for us. By taking the reader into our pain, we can be seen. 9. Always Be Building Character 10. Tend to your wound. Integrate it and write from there. Balance the person and the artist. Tend to your personhood so that if you never write again, you'll still love yourself. Mentions: - A Midsummer Night's Dream - https://www.instagram.com/p/ChxVmTbpG_V/ - Mysterious Galaxy - https://www.mystgalaxy.com/ - DJ Reads Books IG live - https://www.instagram.com/p/ChlNnAiFEyq/ - Scrivener - https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/overview - Storyist - https://www.storyist.com/ - Patricia C. Wrede Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions - https://pcwrede.com/pcw-wp/fantasy-worldbuilding-questions/ - Holly Black on Magic Systems - https://www.penandstory.com/2011/04/17/holly-black-on-creating-working-magic/ - VONA/Voices writers workshop - https://www.vonavoices.org/ - Junot Diaz - http://www.junotdiaz.com/ - Hurston Wright Foundation - https://www.hurstonwright.org/ - Dolen Perkins-Valdez - https://dolenperkinsvaldez.com/ - Writers mentioned: Kacen Callender, Ines Johnson, Shanae Johnson, Nicole Dennis-Benn, Daniel Jose Older, Lesley Nneka Arimah    The My Imaginary Friends podcast is a weekly, behind the scenes look at the journey of a working author navigating traditional and self-publishing. Join fantasy and paranormal romance author L. Penelope as she shares insights on the writing life, creativity, inspiration, and this week's best thing. Subscribe and view show notes at: https://lpenelope.com/podcast | Get the Footnotes newsletter - http://lpen.co/footnotes Support the show - http://frolic.media/podcasts! Stay in touch with me! Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook Music credit: Say Good Night by Joakim Karud https://soundcloud.com/joakimkarud Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported— CC BY-SA 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/SZkVShypKgM Affiliate Disclosure: I may receive compensation for links to products on this site either directly or indirectly via affiliate links. Heartspell Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

On the first stop of the “Las cuatro esquinas Tour” around the United States, Dr. Adriana Pacheco and Seattle Escribe bring together a panel of key players in education, culture, and literature to discuss names, topics, trends and voices in literature by writers of hispanic heritage and their impact on the culture. The literature of writers from Spanish-speaking countries who write from the United States, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Spain is impacting the world in an unprecedented way. Awards, publishing houses, curated lists, and translations of new books give proof of the movement. Hablemos, escritoras has followed these changes and recognizes synergies that mark our contemporary world, as well as the causes and motivations that have driven the phenomenon. This talk, part of the 2022  “Las cuatro esquinas Tour” around the United States, will allow for conversations with cultural advocates, members of the community, and especially readers about what we have learned after years of work. Most importantly, it offers space to learn what is happening in our region, the challenges we face, and the road that still needs to be traveled in recognizing new names, topics, and trends. The tour's goal is to broaden the scope of the conversation beyond regional borders and to encourage and foster meaningful, nationwide conversations about the presence, impacts, and influences of literature, language, and the hispanic culture in the United States. This event will be presented in English. Presented by Town Hall Seattle, Seattle Escribe, and Hablemos, escritoras. Participants Catalina Marie Cantú (Xicana) is of Indigenous Mexican/Madeiran heritage and is a multi-genre writer, interdisciplinary artist, Jack Straw Fellow, and Alum of VONA/Voices and The Mineral School. She has received funding from Artists' Trust, Hugo House, Centrum, and Hedgebrook. Her poems and stories have been published widely and anthologized. Cantú earned a B.A. in La Raza Studies and a J.D. from the University of Washington, where she was a co-founding member of the groundbreaking Latinx groups MEChA and Teatro del Piojo. As a volunteer attorney, she managed the King County Bar Association Bilingual Spanish Legal Clinic. She is a co-founding member and current Board President of La Sala Latinx Artists and former chair of Los Norteños NW Latino Writers. As a writer, Cantú's goal is to bring her Latinx BIPOC family viewpoint to the page and provide stories to connect readers to themselves and their familias. She is currently finishing her braided essay collection and her first YA novel. She lives on the unceded traditional land of the Coast Salish peoples, specifically, the first people of Seattle, the Duwamish People. Miguel Guillén joined ArtsWA in 2016 and currently serves as Program Manager for the Grants to Organizations program. As a seasoned arts administrator, Miguel provides support to community-based arts organizations and projects, small arts groups, and artists across Washington. He has previously managed arts programs for the private sector. Born in Mexico and raised in the Skagit Valley of Washington State, Miguel received an Arts Management Certificate from Seattle Central College. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle. He is a practicing visual artist. Claudia Castro Luna is an Academy of American Poets Poet Laureate fellow (2019), WA State Poet Laureate (2018-2021), and Seattle's inaugural Civic Poet (2015-2018). Castro Luna's newest collection of poetry, Cipota Under the Moon, is forthcoming in May of 2022 from Tia Chucha Press. She is also the author of One River, A Thousand Voices, the Pushcart-nominated Killing Marías, which was also shortlisted for WA State 2018 Book Award in poetry, and the chapbook This City. Her most recent non-fiction is in There's a Revolution Outside, My Love: Letters from a Crisis. Living in English and Spanish, Claudia writes and teaches in Seattle on unceded Duwamish lands where she gardens and keeps chickens with her husband and their three children. Alfonso Mendoza is a Mexican author that has written and published more than forty peer reviewed academic articles and chapters in the areas of economics, finance, and social sciences. As a creative writer, he enjoys writing short stories and poetry. Alfonso was a founding member of Seattle Escribe and participated as a student in the first writing workshop. Since then, he has remained in close contact with creative writing and the writers in the group. He is the current president of Seattle Escribe. José Luis Montero is passionate about storytelling regardless of the medium. After dabbling in radio, photography, and filmmaking, he turned his artistic attention towards the written word, both in English and Spanish. He was born and raised in Mexico and has lived most of his adult life in Seattle. He earned a certificate in Literary Fiction from University of Washington and a Master in Narrative and Poetry from Escuela de Escritores in Madrid. Upon his return from Spain, he worked as a production intern for Copper Canyon Press and assistant editor of poetry for Narrative Magazine before becoming a resident of the Jack Straw Writers Program in 2021. He is the former president of Seattle Escribe, a nonprofit promoting Spanish literature, and currently serves on the board of Seattle City of Literature. Dr. Adriana Pacheco was born in Puebla, Mexico and is a naturalized American Citizen. She sits at, and is the former Chair of, the International Board of Advisors at University of Texas Austin. She is an Affiliate Research Fellow at Llilas Benson, a Texas Book Festival Featured Author (2012), has several publications in collective books and magazines and has edited several books like Romper con la palabra. Violencia y género en la literatura mexicana contemporánea (Eón, 2017), and Para seguir rompiendo con la palabra. Dramaturgas, cineastas, periodistas y ensayistas mexicanas contemporáneas (Literal/Eón, 2021). She is the founder and producer of Hablemos Escritoras podcast and its accompanying encyclopedia, and founder of the first online bookstore for the United States focusing on women writing in Spanish or of Hispanic heritage: Shop Escritoras. She is currently working on several new books. Rubi Romero has worked as a content and policy manager, technical account manager, and UX Researcher at Amazon. In addition, Rubi serves as one of the leaders for Latinos@; an affinity group at Amazon, as a Career Development Director, and as a project manager for the Hispanic Heritage Month. Rubi graduated from the University of Washington with a Master's Degree in Digital Business and a B.A. in Communications and Sociology. Previously, she was a Project Manager for Microsoft and a Program Director for a non-profit organization where she built a State Program to assist Latino Victims of Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, and Human Trafficking. Rubi is originally from Mexico City and has lived in Seattle since 1994. Kristen Millares Young is a journalist, essayist and novelist. Named a Paris Review staff pick, her debut novel Subduction won Nautilus and IPPY awards. Her short stories, essays, reviews and investigations appear most recently in the Washington Post, The Rumpus, PANK Magazine, the Los Angeles Review, and others, as well as the anthologies Alone Together, which won a Washington State Book Award in general nonfiction, and Advanced Creative Nonfiction: A Writer's Guide and Anthology. She is the editor of Seismic: Seattle, City of Literature, a 2021 Washington State Book Award finalist in creative nonfiction. A former Hugo House Prose Writer-in-Residence, Kristen was the researcher for the New York Times team that produced “Snow Fall,” which won a Pulitzer Prize. Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here. 

Bio: Buki Papillon was born in Nigeria, the oldest of six. After studying law at Hull University in the UK, she completed an MFA in Creative Writing at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She has received several fellowships and awards for her writing and is an alumnus of Key West Literary, Vermont Studio Centre and Vona Voices residencies and workshops. Her work was published in Post Road Magazine and the Del Sol Review. She has in the past been a travel adviser, events host and chef. Buki currently lives in Boston, where she is resigned to finding inspiration in the long winters. An extraordinary literary debut about a Nigerian boy's secret intersex identity and her desire to live as a girl, Buki Papillon's An Ordinary Wonder draws from art, proverbs, and folktales to present a deeply moving queer coming of age story. The Yoruba people of Nigeria have an extraordinarily high rate of twins, and a mythology to match – the story of Taiwo and Kehinde, the one who came first, and the one who lagged behind. In Papillon's story, we follow another set of twins, Otolorin – one who walks a different path; and Wuraola – a wealth of gold.

Hari Alluri (he/him/siya) is the author of The Flayed City (Kaya). A winner of the 2020 Leonard A. Slade, Jr. Poetry Fellowship and an editor at Locked Horn Press, he has received grants from the BC Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts and fellowships from Las Dos Brujas, Port Townsend, and VONA/Voices writers workshops. His work appears in the Watch Your Head (Coach House) and Pandemic Solidarity (Pluto) anthologies, as well as recently in Prism International, Solstice, Tinderbox, The Volta and elsewhere. For more information on workshops visit www.cbaw.org --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/cbaw/support

We're back! After a short hiatus The Embodiment Project is back with a very special episode. In this episode, Danellia speaks with her comadres Dr. Renee Lemus and Dr. Cristina Rose—hosts Las Doctoras Podcast. Dr. Cristina Rose is mother, artist, and full time lecturer in Women's Studies at CSU, Dominguez Hills. She received her PhD from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco and a VONA (Voices of Our Nation's Arts) sister and has publications of pieces such as “Sacred Heart of Mango” and “mumbling of prayers (at the basilica of la virgen)” in spaces as distinguishable as Regeneración Tlacuilolli, Label Me Latina/o, and Verses Typhoon Yolanda. Dr. Renee Lemus—the academic bruja—has a PhD in Ethnic Studies and works as a college professor at Cal State Los Angeles and in the Los Angeles Community College District. She is also a certified yoga instructor specializing in prenatal yoga, and yoga for bodies of all shapes and sizes. On their podcast, they create spaces for important conversations about the oppressive social dynamics that impact our world. Grounded in a connection to ancestral wisdom, they discuss ways to heal from the wounds of generational trauma. In this episode, we'll discuss decolonizing education and the challenges of creating a space free from Westernized societal hierarchies. Plus, we'll examine the emotional toll that comes along with dismantling the hierarchy.  Learn more about Dr. Renee Lemus and Dr. Cristina Rose's work at https://lasdoctoras.net/ Enjoying this podcast and want to support it's production? Buy me a coffee! www.buymeacoffee.com/danellia

Today we travel with Faith Adiele to Thailand, where, on a pilgrimage in search of famous nuns, she finds her plans abruptly changed by a group of drunken businessmen, one small, sleepy boy, and the threat of bandits. FAITH is the author of the memoir MEETING FAITH, an account of becoming Thailand's first Black Buddhist nun that won the PEN Open Book Award. Her media writing credits include the HBO-Max limited series, A WORLD OF CALM, and the PBS documentary MY JOURNEY HOME. Her essays appear in numerous anthologies, including four volumes of BEST WOMEN'S TRAVEL WRITING. Faith founded the nation's first writing workshop for travelers of color through VONA/Voices, and she teaches and lectures around the world on decolonial and inclusive travel writing.

In this week's episode, I had the deep honor of speaking with Rona Fernandez, a 2nd generation Filipino-American, about her grief journey and the death of her beloved daughter Naima. She highlighted ways that various "containers" can support our grief process (e.g., space, time, nature, ritual, writing, art, sharing memories, social media, meaningful support and connection). She also offered some specific examples of ways in which we can explore and cultivate our own containers, especially when existing structures are not in place or do not resonate with us. Rona reads an excerpt from her powerful writing, "The Ritual," and shares how holding space for grief is important for both individual and collective healing. We also talk about ways we can fully support one another in grief rather than bypassing or adding to the burden of each other's grief, including being mindful of "grief dumping" without permission, and finding ways to repair when we misattune or unintentionally hurt people who are grieving. Rona is an incredible light in the world whose work, writing, compassionate advocacy, and unbounded love for her daughter, Naima, continues to promote healing not just for bereaved parents, but for us all. To connect more with Dr. Foynes: Check out the free 4-part video series on building resilience: https://melissafoynes.com/free-series 1:1 Coaching Program: https://melissafoynes.com/1-1-program Follow @drfoynes on Instagram. More about Rona: Rona Fernandez (https://ronafernandez.com/) is a writer, dancer, fundraiser, activist, wife and #stillmother (a mother with no living children) who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her writing has appeared in publications such as The Rumpus, The Colored Lens, Devilfish Review and the Grassroots Fundraising Journal, as well as the groundbreaking anthology What God is Honored Here: An Anthology on Miscarriage and Infant Loss, the first collection of writings by Native women and women of color on this topic. Rona is an alumna of the VONA/Voices workshop for writers of color, the Macondo Writers Workshop and the Tin House novel workshops. She is currently at work on a climate fiction novel set in the near future in California. You can find her on Twitter (https://twitter.com/ronagirl) and Medium(https://medium.com/@ronafernandez). References & Additional Resources What God is Honored Here (https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/what-god-is-honored-here) At a Loss: Finding Your Way After Miscarriage, Stillbirth of Infant Death by Donna Rothert, PhD. She also has a blog (http://seeingthestrals.com/). Rona's web site (https://ronafernandez.com/) which includes her blog and some pieces about grief and baby loss Tear Soup: A Recipe for Healing After Loss (https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/tear-soup-pat-schwiebert/1101968561) Still Mothers web site (http://www.stillmothers.com/) and Facebook page. There are several Still Mothers (https://www.facebook.com/wearestillmothers/) support groups on Facebook that are only open to mothers with no living children. Please note that the information provided in this episode does not constitute professional advice or therapy, mental health services, or health care services, and is not intended to serve as a substitute for professional advice or services. If you are struggling with a mental health crisis or need immediate assistance, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.

Poets Joseph Ross and Michael Torres read from and discuss their new books. Joseph Ross is the author of four books of poetry: Raising King (2020), Ache (2017), Gospel of Dust (2013), and Meeting Bone Man (2012). His poems appear in many places including The New York Times Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, Poet Lore, Xavier Review, Southern Quarterly, and Drumvoices Revue. He has received multiple Pushcart Prize nominations and won the 2012 Pratt Library / Little Patuxent Review Poetry Prize. He recently served as the 23rd Poet-in-Residence for the Howard County Poetry and Literature Society in Howard County, Maryland. He teaches English and Creative Writing at Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C., and writes regularly at www.JosephRoss.net. Michael Torres was born and brought up in Pomona, California, where he spent his adolescence as a graffiti artist. His debut collection of poems, An Incomplete List of Names (Beacon Press, 2020), was selected by Raquel Salas Rivera for the National Poetry Series. His honors include awards and support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the McKnight Foundation, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, CantoMundo, VONA Voices, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Jerome Foundation, the Camargo Foundation, and the Loft Literary Center. Currently he’s an Assistant Professor in the MFA program at Minnesota State University, Mankato, and a teaching artist with the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop. Visit him at: michaeltorreswriter.com. Read "On John Coltrane's 'After the Rain'" by Joseph Ross. Read "Stop Looking at My Last Name Like That" by Michael Torres. Recorded On: Wednesday, March 10, 2021

Ep. 18 DuEwa interviewed Keisha-Gaye Anderson @keishagayeanderson on for a #FocusedFriday edition of the #podcast. Keisha discussed her latest book A Spell for Living, her background in journalism, her love for the Brooklyn-arts scene, and her writing life.

Vida James reads Ani Sison Cooney's award-winning debut short story. A VONA / Voices alum, Ani Cooney is the winner of a 2020 PEN America /Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize and a Manuel G. Flores Prize from the Philippine American Writers and Artists (PAWA). His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and can be found in Epiphany, LikeWise Fiction, and Best Debut Short Stories: The PEN America Dau Prize. Music by Midsummer.

What’s it like to write a poem from the perspective of someone you despise? Michal “MJ” Jones of Mills College joins Jared to discuss their thesis project about the 2018 Hart family murders, writing from a place of anger, and pursuing an MFA as a working parent. Michal "MJ" Jones is a poet and parent in Oakland, CA. Their work is featured or forthcoming at Anomaly, Kissing Dynamite, and Borderlands Texas Poetry Review. They are an Assistant Poetry Editor at Foglifter Press, a journal curating queer and trans voices, and have fellowships from the Hurston/Wright Foundation, VONA/Voices, & Kearny Street Workshop. They are currently an MFA graduate fellow at Mills College. They can be found on Twitter @JustSayMJ and at their website michal-jones.com. MFA Writers is hosted by Jared McCormack and produced by Jared McCormack and Hanamori Skoblow. New episodes are released every two weeks. You can find more MFA Writers at MFAwriters.com. Twitter: @MFAwriterspod Instagram: @MFAwriterspodcast Facebook: MFA Writers Email: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com

During the process of developing a new book creative, writer, and educator Kleaver Cruz joins host JP Reynolds for an exchange about imagination, liberation, and the complexities of black joy. About Kleaver Cruz: From Uptown, NYC Kleaver is a Black queer Dominican-American creative, writer and educator. Kleaver’s work has been featured in various publications in print and online. Cruz is also one half of the poetic duo, The Delta, which has performed at The Nuyorican Poet’s Café and Bowery Poetry Club, among other spaces. Kleaver is an alum of the VONA/Voices of Our Nation Foundation's Emerging Writer's Non-Fiction and Kenyon Review Writer’s Fiction Workshops. Cruz has presented and conducted work across the African Diaspora in South Africa, France, Brazil and other countries. Cruz is the creator of The Black Joy Project, a digital and real-world affirmation that Black joy is resistance. Kleaver is also a member of We Are All Dominican--A U.S.-based grassroots collective that works in solidarity with movements led by Dominicans of Haitian descent fighting for inclusion and citizenship rights in the Dominican Republic. Cruz believes in the power of words as the means to write the stories that did not exist when Cruz needed them the most. About JP Reynolds: Called “remarkably special” by AllHipHop, JP Reynolds is an innovative artist, rapper and songwriter with an eclectic sound. The creator of “rap gumbo,” his music is a powerful blend of jazz, funk, gospel and soul. In addition to music JP is an entrepreneur, coach, activist, and minister. In 2012, he created Peace and Power Media, an artistic hub that produces music and multimedia content. Since 2014, JP has supported young people in pursuing passion and purpose through various initiatives and partnerships with organizations and communities within the non-profit sector. JP holds a Bachelor of Arts in African-American Studies and a Master of Divinity from Yale University. Conversation Topics: The "Yes-And" of Black Joy (3:54) • Equality v. Liberation (11:38) • Abundance of Life (16:40) • How Much Imagination Do We Really Need? (22:38) • Black Expression and Social Media (29:49) • Black Joy to Complicate the Narrative of Suffering (33:12) • Why a Global Perspective is Important (39:58) • The Role of Artistry (45:55) • Joy, Healing, and AfroFutures (50:58) • Kleaver's New Book (58:56) Reading Recommendations: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer “National Liberation and Culture” by Amilcar Cabral Theme Songs: "Reset (Hold Your Horse)" - JP Reynolds + BACHTROY "Elevate" - JP Reynolds + BACHTROY --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stircrazypodcast/support

Kelly Clayton talks about her new book Mother of Chaos: Queen of the Nines, family and Louisiana. Kelly Clayton is a writer, poet, playwright, and workshop facilitator. She is a Louisiana Creole with roots 15 generations deep. She returned home after twenty years in New York City spent teaching herself to write. Though she dropped out of high school for creative reasons (four sons), she kept both pantry and bookshelves full by working as a waitress, line cook, publisher's assistant, exotic dancer, and event producer. She is a VONA/Voices, as well as a Hedgebrook Alumnae. She was a recipient of the Hedgebrook Women Authoring Change Award.Kelly’s poetry has been published by, among others: Future Cycle Press, Delacorte Press, China Grove Press, The Dead Mule Society of Southern Literature, and Random House.She was awarded an Artist's Residency with the Acadiana Center for the Arts for the production of her original play, "Dancing With Aurora Borealis.”Kelly develops and teaches bespoke writing workshops in Louisiana schools, both public and private, for the Lafayette Juvenile Detention Center, and to groups of formerly incarcerated adults. She currently lives in Lafayette with her husband, youngest of four sons and their Great Pyrenees, Mabelline.To connect with Kelly: www.kellykclayton.comInformation about ordering signed copies: kellykclayton@gmail.comOfficial Contact: kellykclayton@gmail.comKelly is available for readings via Zoom, as well as in person. Send inquiries to:kellykclayton@gmail.comFor more information visit: That Painted Horse Press

The stereotype of the starving artist still pervades the social conscious, but creatives know it’s more complex than that: you work to feed yourself, family, and the art. The question becomes, “How much time can I dedicate to my craft and pay rent?” Artists have navigated this question in many ways but deciding to go full-time with their creative practice is a big leap for many. Others work full-time jobs to pay the bills and work on their art around that fact. Both bring their own pros and cons. We will have two guests to offer their experiences in navigating their creative practices around the question of going full-time with their art. Icess Fernandez Rojas is an educator, writer, podcaster, and a former journalist. She is a graduate of Goddard College's MFA program. Her work has been internationally published in Queen Mobs Lit Journal, Poetry 24, Rabble Lit, Minerva Rising Literary Journal, and the Feminine Collective's anthology Notes from Humanity. Her Houston-based story, “Happy Hunting”, was recently published in the Houston Noir anthology. Her podcast, Dear Reader, is based on the popular blog of the same name. Her nonfiction/memoir work has appeared in Dear Hope, NBCNews.com, HuffPost and the Guardian. She is a recipient of the Owl of Minerva Award, a VONA/Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation alum, a Dos Brujas Workshop alum, and a Kimbilio Fellow. She's currently working on her first novel and finishing her memoir, Problematic. Follow her on Twitter: @Icess and at her website: http://icessfernandez.com.Justin Garcia is a time architect, influenced by the timeless connection between art and science studied by Da Vinci. His lifelong fascination with aging and how change occurs over time led him to undergo a deep self-psychoanalysis through the abstraction of his first seven series spanning over a decade. All Garcia’s earlier works are pieces of a larger puzzle. To analyze, document, and assemble this puzzle, he took two years away from the art scene, several months of which he spent isolated in central Mexico. There, he mapped and constructed a theoretical model that captures the intersection of experience, awareness, and control across time and subject matter (Humanity’s Sustainable Infinite). In late 2015, he announced the completion and publication of his first book, One Ton Goldfish: In Search of the Tangible Dream, a retrospective of his seven series in which Garcia’s personal truth carried some universal meaning that lead to the creation of his theoretical model and latest works. Since, Garcia has been featured at the Venice Biennale, Art Basel, Seattle art fair, and Florence Biennale, which honored the centennial of Da Vinci. There was a guest lecture on art and science, and awarded the Medici medal for his exhibition.Intro music: "Ike is Gone" by Nick Gaitan.Support the show (https://fresharts.org/about-fresh-arts/friends-of-fresh-arts/)

Cathy Camper is the author of Lowriders in Space, Lowriders to the Center of the Earth and Lowriders Blast from the Past, with a fourth volume in the works, Lowriders to the Rescue, all from Chronicle Books. She has a forthcoming picture book, Ten Ways to Hear Snow (Dial/Penguin), release October 13, 2020, and also wrote Bugs Before Time: Prehistoric Insects and Their Relatives (Simon & Schuster). Her zines include Sugar Needle and The Lou Reeder, and she’s a founding member of the Portland Women of Color zine collective. A graduate of VONA/Voices writing workshops for people of color in Berkeley, California, Cathy works as a librarian in Portland, Oregon, where she does outreach to schools and kids in grades K-12

Hi loves, we're back with part deux of our conversation with the vibrant Michelle Peñaloza. Coming off of last week's lovely conversation about her own work, for this episode, she brought in Douglas Kerney's "Tallahatchie Lullabye, Baby". We excited to share the poem and this chat with you. Hope you're staying safe! MICHELLE PEÑALOZA is the author of Former Possessions of the Spanish Empire, winner of the 2018 Hillary Gravendyk National Poetry Prize (Inlandia Books, 2019). She is also the author of two chapbooks, landscape/heartbreak (Two Sylvias, 2015), and Last Night I Dreamt of Volcanoes (Organic Weapon Arts, 2015). The recipient of fellowships and awards from the University of Oregon, Kundiman, Hugo House and The Key West Literary Seminar, Michelle has also received support from Lemon Tree House, Caldera, 4Culture, Literary Arts, VONA/Voices, and the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, among others. The proud daughter of Filipino immigrants, Michelle was born in the suburbs of Detroit, MI and raised in Nashville, TN. She now lives in rural Northern California. DOUGLAS KERNEY has published six books, most recently, Buck Studies (Fence Books, 2016), winner of the Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Award, the CLMP Firecracker Award for Poetry and silver medalist for the California Book Award (Poetry). BOMB says: “[Buck Studies] remaps the 20th century in a project that is both lyrical and epic, personal and historical.” M. NourbeSe Philip calls Kearney's collection of libretti, Someone Took They Tongues. (Subito, 2016), “a seismic, polyphonic mash-up that disturbs the tongue.” Kearney's collection of writing on poetics and performativity, Mess and Mess and (Noemi Press, 2015), was a Small Press Distribution Handpicked Selection that Publisher's Weekly called “an extraordinary book.” His work is widely anthologized, including Best American Poetry (2014, 2015), Best American Experimental Writing (2014), The Creative Critic: Writing As/About Practice, What I Say: Innovative Poetry by Black Writers in America, and The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop. He is also widely published in magazines and journals, including Poetry, Callaloo, Boston Review, Hyperallergic, Jacket2, and Lana Turner. His work has been exhibited at the American Jazz Museum, Temple Contemporary, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, and The Visitor's Welcome Center (Los Angeles). A librettist, Kearney has had four operas staged, most recently Sweet Land, which received rave reviews fro The LA Times, The NY Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The LA Weekly. He has received a Whiting Writer's Award, a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Cy Twombly Award for Poetry, residencies/fellowships from Cave Canem, The Rauschenberg Foundation, and others. A Howard University and CalArts alum, Kearney teaches Creative Writing at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities. Born in Brooklyn, raised in Altadena, CA, he lives with his family in St. Paul. 

This week, friends, we're sitting with the question "So what do you write about?" ahead of a lovely conversation with Michelle Peñaloza. We chop it up about confession, contrast, and kasamas while sipping on Fire and Chrysanthemums. Enjoy! MICHELLE PEÑALOZA is the author of Former Possessions of the Spanish Empire, winner of the 2018 Hillary Gravendyk National Poetry Prize (Inlandia Books, 2019). She is also the author of two chapbooks, landscape/heartbreak (Two Sylvias, 2015), and Last Night I Dreamt of Volcanoes (Organic Weapon Arts, 2015). The recipient of fellowships and awards from the University of Oregon, Kundiman, Hugo House and The Key West Literary Seminar, Michelle has also received support from Lemon Tree House, Caldera, 4Culture, Literary Arts, VONA/Voices, and the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, among others. The proud daughter of Filipino immigrants, Michelle was born in the suburbs of Detroit, MI and raised in Nashville, TN. She now lives in rural Northern California. FIRE AND CHRYSANTHEMUMS: Chrysanthemum tea, Scotch and lemon juice, garnished with burnt lemon.    

Derrick Weston Brown holds an MFA in creative writing, from American University. He has studied poetry under Dr. Tony Medina at Howard University and Cornelius Eady at American University. He is a graduate of the Cave Canem and VONA Voices summer workshops. His work has appeared in such literary journals as The Little Patuxent Review, Colorlines, The This Mag, and Vinyl online. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2012.    He worked as a bookseller andbook buyer for a bookstore which is operated by the nonprofit Teaching for Change. He was thefounder of The Nine on the Ninth, a critically acclaimed monthly poetry series that ran from 2005-2015 at the 14th & V street location of Busboys and Poets. He was the 2012-2013 Writer-In-Residence of the Howard County Poetry Literary Society, of Maryland. He is also a participating DC area author for the PEN/Faulkner Foundation’s Writers-in-Schools program. He’s performed at such esteemed venues as The Nuyorican Poets’ Cafe and the Bowery. He has lead workshops and performed at Georgetown University, George Washington University, Sweet Briar College and Chicago State. He has appeared on Al-Jazeera and NPR as well. In May of 2014 he was also the recipient of a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Grant. He is a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, and resides in Mount Rainier, Maryland. His debut collection of poetry entitled, Wisdom Teeth, was released in April 2011 on Busboys and Poets Press/PM Press. His second collection of poetry, a chapbook entitled On All Fronts , was released along with two other poetry chapbooks in a bound series from Upper Rubber Boot Press entitled Floodgates Vol.5 , this March of 2019. You can follow him on social media on Facebook and on Instagram @theoriginalDerrickWestonBrown as well as his author website DerrickWestonBrown.com

We are definitely having fun here at http://YourArtsyGirlPodcast.com! Michelle Peñaloza has a new full-length poetry collection, "Former Possessions of the Spanish Empire" & we were all abuzz about it! We also discuss the necessary "hustle" of promoting our poetry because the struggle is real, ya'll. That's why tapping into "community" & getting on this podcast show is such a symbiosis of sorts. http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes http://michellepenaloza.com Michelle Peñaloza is author of Former Possessions of the Spanish Empire, which won the 2018 Hillary Gravendyk National Poetry Prize and will be published in August 2019 by Inlandia Institute. She is also the author of two chapbooks, landscape/heartbreak (Two Sylvias, 2015), and Last Night I Dreamt of Volcanoes (Organic Weapon Arts, 2015). Her work can be found in places like Prairie Schooner, upstreet, Pleiades, The Normal School and Third Coast. She is the recipient of fellowships from the University of Oregon, Kundiman and Hugo House as well as the 2019 Scotti Merrill Emerging Writer Award for Poetry from The Key West Literary Seminar. Michelle has also received scholarships from Lemon Tree House, Caldera, Vermont Studio Center, VONA/Voices, and the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, among others. The proud daughter of Filipino immigrants, Michelle was born in the suburbs of Detroit, MI and raised in Nashville, TN. She now lives, farms, and writes in rural Northern California. Michelle made a "mixtape" for her poetry collection. Check it out!   https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3uAR57qg44gKhnG3uDQTtG?si=Y5vAGHaNTxGbLswX4wPBeg

Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante and the Nuestra Palabra Crew talk to Dr. Jesus Jesse Esparza and Michelle Tovar Garcia about the exhibit and lecture: Latino Holocaust Liberators of World War II at the Houston Holocaust Museum, & Ivelisse Rodríguez discusses her new book "Love War Stories." Click her to donate to Nuestra Palabra: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=9CPLMM88TF5BS Bios: Ivelisse Rodriguez’s debut short story collection is Love War Stories (The Feminist Press, 2018). She has published fiction in the Boston Review, All about Skin: Short Fiction by Women of Color, Obsidian, Kweli, the Bilingual Review, Aster(ix), and other publications. She is the founder and editor of an interview series focused on contemporary Puerto Rican writers in order to highlight the current status and the continuity of a Puerto Rican literary tradition from the continental US that spans over a century. The series is published in Centro Voices, the e-magazine of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College. She was a senior fiction editor at Kweli and is a Kimbilio fellow and a VONA/Voices alum. She is currently working on the novel The Last Salsa Singer about 70s era salsa musicians in Puerto Rico. She earned an M.F.A. in creative writing from Emerson College and a Ph.D. in English-creative writing from the University of Illinois at Chicago. www.ivelisserodriguez.com. Dr. Jesus Jesse Esparza is an assistant professor of History at Texas Southern University, where he has taught since 2009. His area of expertise is on the history of Latinos in the United States, with an emphasis on civil rights activism. Dr. Esparza is currently working on a manuscript entitled Raza Schools: Latino Educational Autonomy and Activism in Texas, 1920- 1980 which offers a multiracial narrative of a Latino-owned school district in west Texas since the end of the First World War through the post-civil rights era. Michelle Tovar is the Associate Director of Education-Spanish Outreach and Latin American Initiatives at the Houston Holocaust Museum. NP Radio airs live Tuesdays 6pm-7pm cst 90.1 FM KPFT Houston, TX. Livestream www.KPFT.org. More podcasts at www.NuestraPalabra.org. The Nuestra Palabra Radio Show is archived at the University of Houston Digital Archives. Our hard copy archives are kept at the Houston Public Library’s Special Collections Hispanic Archives. Producers: Leti Lopez & Marlen Treviño. Board operator: Joe Anthony Treviño. Tony Diaz Sundays, Mondays, & Tuesdays & The Other Side Sun 7am "What's Your Point" Fox 26 Houston Mon Noon "The Cultural Accelerator" at www.TonyDiaz.net Tues 6pm NP Lit Radio 90.1 FM KPFT, Houston www.NuestraPalabra.org 24/7 The Other Side TV www.TheOtherSideTele.com

On today’s episode Hilary sits down with Cinelle Barnes, essayist, memoirist, and author of the recently published “Monsoon Mansion." Books have been the one constant in her life—through her tumultuous childhood in the Philippines, her years living as an undocumented immigrant in the New York City, her time as a new bride living in the American South, and as she completed her MFA program and began writing about her secrets. Barnes is also an AWP Journal Intro Award nominee, a Kundiman Creative Non-Fiction Intensive Fellow, a VONA/Voices alum for political content writing at the University of Pennsylvania, a presenter and panelist on Diversity in Literature at the Creative Writing Studies Conference at Warren Wilson College, a founding member of the C.D. Wright Women Writers Conference, a screener for WILLA: Women Writing the American West, and the incoming writer-in-residence at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Literary Hub, Buzzfeed, South 85, TAYO Literary Journal, Skirt!, West Of, Your Life Is A Trip, the Piccolo Spoleto Fiction Series, and Hub City Press’s online anthology, Multicultural Spartanburg. Her first book, Monsoon Mansion: A Memoir, arrives in May 2018 from Little A/Amazon Publishing. Barnes teaches writing workshops throughout the year, including Poses and Prose, a yoga + writing workshop. We explore these hot topics! The beautiful, albeit complicated, process of writing a book The discipline of writing daily for hours each day, and how much of her book was written with one hand while holding and breastfeeding her daughter The power of the 3x5 index card The necessity of play “Let’s go back to the beginning” as a tool for breaking down breakdowns! The pursuit of long term goals, like writing a book that took over 5 years to reach publication ;) Connect with Cinelle Barnes: Website “Monsoon Mansion” Connect with Hilary Johnson and Hatch Tribe: Website Members Circle Instagram Facebook

 A Milwaukee, Wisconsin native, Sheree L. Greer is a writer and educator living in Tampa, Florida. She founded The Kitchen Table Literary Arts Center to showcase and support the work of Black women and women writers of color and is the author of two novels, Let the Lover Be and A Return to Arms, a short story collection, Once and Future Lovers, and a student writing guide, Stop Writing Wack Essays. Sheree is a VONA/VOICES alum, Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice grantee, Ragdale Artist House Rubin Fellow, and YADDO fellow. She has completed Creative Capital Core Skills workshops and was awarded an NEA artist grant to support her current work in creative nonfiction. Sheree teaches composition, creative writing, fiction workshop, and African American literature at St. Petersburg College in Florida.  

Jeff speaks with two woman travel writers of color from VONA (Voices of Our Nation's Arts); we hear some great music by Oisima and The Polyversal Souls. (Note: Because of the longer than usual interview, no News this podcast!)

On this episode of The Poetry Gods, we talk to Willie Perdomo about how he got started writing poetry, The Crazy Bunch, friendships in poetry, and so much more. As always you can reach us at emailthepoetrygods@gmail.com. We love to hear from you, so please drop us a line! Leave us a review on iTunes! Bring us to your college/ local hummus emporium! WILLIE PERDOMO BIO: WILLIE PERDOMO is the author of The Essential Hits of Shorty Bon Bon (Penguin Poets), a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and Milton Kessler Poetry Award; winner of the International Latino Book Award, and a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award nominee. He is also the author of Smoking Lovely (Rattapallax), winner of the PEN/Beyond Margins Awards and Where a Nickel Costs a Dime (Norton), a finalist for the Poetry Society of America Norma Farber First Book Award. Perdomo is a Pushcart nominee, two-time New York Foundation for the Arts Poetry Fellow and a former Woolrich Fellow in Creative Writing at Columbia University. His work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature, Bomb Magazine, and African Voices. He is currently a member of the VONA/Voices faculty and an English Instructor at Phillips Exeter Academy. Follow Willie Perdomo on Instagram & Twitter: @willieperdomo Visit Willie's website: http://willieperdomo.com/ Follow The Poetry Gods on all social media: @_joseolivarez, @azizabarnes/ @azizabarneswriter (IG), @iamjonsands, @thepoetrygods & CHECK OUR WEBSITE: thepoetrygods.com/ (much thanks to José Ortiz for designing the website! shouts to Jess X Snow for making our logo)

Join us for an evening with authors from Kaya Press, the group of dedicated writers, artists, readers, and lovers of books working together to publish the most challenging, thoughtful, and provocative literature being produced throughout the Asian and Pacific Island diasporas, with special guest Abeer Hoque. The Secret Room In Kazim Ali's wildly inventive novel The Secret Room, written as musical score for a string quartet, he asks: How does one create a life of meaning in the face of loneliness and alienation from one’s own family, culture, or even sense of self? During the space of one single day, the lives of four people converge and diverge in ways they themselves may not even measure. Sonia Chang, a violinist prepares for a concert. Rizwan Syed, a yoga teacher who gives so much to others, makes one last panicked attempt at reconciliation with his own family. Jody Merchant tries to balance a difficult and stressful work-life with a dream she abandoned long ago. Pratap Patel trudges through his life trying to ignore the pain he still feels at old losses. Just like the real musical quality of a string quartet, these four characters weave in and out of one another's experiences in a raw, fluid song that mimics the hidden lives that exist within us all. Praise for Kazim Ali “Here are new organizing principles; to allow ourselves to be organized by music; to be scored. This is a text that suggests not to worry about how to read it. Rather, it extends an invitation to allow the text to happen with us (and/or for us to happen with the text), and this is a Revolutionary Hermeneutics: to open to the experiences of pain and awe. Text as ambient drift we can move through (the same space where healing and magic happens). The way a line divines another, a voice divines a voice, and the emergent conversation, and how this conversation is a hidden music, the music we have been waiting for.”-- Selah Saterstrom, author of Slab and Ideal Suggestions: Essays in Divinatory Poetics "Kazim Ali has managed to render into the English language the universal inner voice." -- Lucille Clifton Kazim Ali's books include five volumes of poetry, The Far Mosque, The Fortieth Day, Bright Felon, Sky Ward, and All One’s Blue: New and Selected Poems; three novels, Quinn’s Passage, The Disappearance of Seth and Wind Instrument; a collection of short stories, Uncle Sharif’s Life in Music, and three collections of essays, Orange Alert: Essays on Poetry, Art and the Architecture of Silence, Fasting for Ramadan and Resident Alien: On Border-crossing and the Undocumented Divine. He has translated books by Sohrab Sepehri, Ananda Devi and Marguerite Duras. He is an associate professor of Comparative Literature and the director of the Creative Writing Program at Oberlin College. The Flayed City Hari Alluri is an author who, according to U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, “carries a new, quiet brush of multi-currents, of multi-worlds to paint this holographic life-scape.” In The Flayed City, Alluri gives an intimate look into the lives of city dwellers and immigrants, imagining the souls that reside in “broom-filled nights”, “skyscrapers for buoys”, and under an “aluminum rising sun”. The charged poems in The Flayed City sweep together “an archipelago song” scored by memory and landscape, history and mythology, desire and loss. Driven by what is residual—of displacement, of family, of violent yet delicate masculinity, of undervalued yet imperative work—Alluri's lines quiver with the poet's distinctive rendering of praise and lament steeped with “gravity and blood” where “the smell of ants being born surrounds us” and “city lights form constellations // invented to symbolize war.” Praise for Hari Alluri “Hari Alluri is Michaux for our time. Which is to say: he is the poet who is able to find myth in our days of sorrow and displacement, when so many lose homes and identities, Hari Alluri offers a new music. When cities are destroyed by fire, Hari Alluri offers lyric fire that heals the heart, that lets theimagination save us. When there is nothing left to say and the page of our drive to stop the pain is brightly-lit and blank, Hari Alluri brings a few words that sing, brings them by the hand, gives them to us—not just words but images, sparks, from which the fire comes, from which whole villages are alive again. This is the poet to live with."-- Ilya Kaminsky, author of Dancing in Odessa  [Hari Alluri] carries a new, quiet brush of multi-currents, of multi-worlds to paint this holographic life-scape; a most rare set of poems—with jazz beat word lines, long-line wisdom and open space scenes where you can widen your eyes, scrape your hands and rush into colliding worlds. Bravo, many bravos!” Hari Alluri, who immigrated to Vancouver, Coast Salish territories at age twelve, is the author of Carving Ashes (CiCAC, 2013) and The Promise of Rust (Mouthfeel, 2016). An award-winning poet, educator, and teaching artist, his work appears widely in anthologies, journals and online venues, including Chautauqua, Poemeleon and Split This Rock. He is a founding editor at Locked Horn Press, where he has co-edited two anthologies, Gendered & Written: Forums on Poetics andRead America(s): An Anthology. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from San Diego State University and, along with the Federico Moramarco Poetry International Teaching Prize, he has received VONA/Voices and Las Dos Brujas fellowships and a National Film Board of Canada grant. Hari currently serves as editor of pacific Review in San Diego, Kumeyaay land. Photo by Cynthia Dewi Oka Olive Witch (Harper 360) In the 1970s, Nigeria is flush with oil money, building new universities, and hanging on to old colonial habits. Abeer Hoque is a Bangladeshi girl growing up in a small sunlit university town where the red clay earth, corporal punishment and running games are facts of life. At thirteen she moves with her family to suburban Pittsburgh and finds herself surrounded by clouded skies and high schoolers who speak in movie quotes and pop culture slang. Finding her place as a young woman in America proves more difficult than she can imagine. Disassociated from her parents and laid low by academic pressure and a spiraling depression, she is committed to a psychiatric ward in Philadelphia. When she moves to Bangladesh on her own, it proves yet another beginning for someone who is only just getting used to being an outsider – wherever she is. Arresting and beautifully written, with poems and weather conditions framing each chapter, Olive Witch is an intimate memoir about taking the long way home. Praise for Abeer Y. Hoque “Told with vivid lyricism yet unflinching in its gaze, Abeer Hoque's memoir is the coming-of-age story of migration on three continents, and about the pain, rupture, and redemptive possibilities of displacement.”
--Tahmima Anam, author of The Bones of Grace "An unflinching yet luminously beautiful take on family, race, sex and the treachery of memory. Don’t be fooled by the frangipani beauty of Abeer Hoque’s prose. Its razor-sharp edges can draw blood."--Sandip Roy, author of Don't Let Him Know Abeer Y. Hoque is a Bangladeshi-American writer and photographer. Her first book of fiction, The Lovers and the Leavers, was published by HarperCollins to critical acclaim. She also has a book of travel photographs and poems, The Long Way Home. She lives in New York City. 

Javier tells James about his journey to the United States at the age of 9. They discuss the power of teachers, the Undocupoets Campaign, transcendent readings, struggling to find an ending, and his collection of poems, UNACCOMPANIED (fall 2017). Then, Jennifer De Leon talks about opportunities for teen writers, #WeNeedDiverseBooks, and her experiences teaching in the YAWP program at Grub Street in Boston.     Javier and James Discuss: Yusef Komunyakaa Sharon Olds   Alejandro Zambra  Valeria Luiselli  Dick Scanlan Roberto Bolano  Gabriel Garcia Marquez  Jorge Luis Borges  ONE STORY  Yaddo  MacDowell Colony  Pablo Neruda  Rebecca Faust  Squaw Valley Writers' Workshops  Napa Valley Writers' Conference  Bread Loaf Writers' Conference  Alberto Rios  BIG FISH by Daniel Wallace  UC- Berkeley  NYU  Olive B. O'Connor  Peter Balakian Carolyn Forche Wallace Stegner Fellowship  Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship UndocuPoets Campaign Sibling Rivalry Press  Wil S. Hylton  Matthew Salesses  Monica Sok   Jennifer and James Discuss: YAWP (Young Adult Writers Program) Grub Street Val Wang  Celeste Ng Teen Ink  826  WriteBoston  New England Young Writers' Conference  Champlain College Young Writers' Conference  Iowa Young Writers' Studio  Sewanee Young Writers' Conference  Reggie Gibson  Junot Diaz  ROLL OF THUNDER, HEAR MY CRY by Mildred D. Taylor  #WeNeedDiverseBooks  VONA (Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation)  -  http://tkpod.com / tkwithjs@gmail.com / Twitter: @JamesScottTK Instagram: tkwithjs / Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tkwithjs/

Episode #118 with poet Angela Peñaredondo Born in Iloilo City, Philippines, Angela Peñaredondo is a Filipinx poet and artist (on other days, she identifies as a usual ghost, comet or part-time animal) . Her first full-length book, All Things Lose Thousands of Times, is the winner of the Hillary Gravendyk Poetry Prize. She is author of the chapbook, Maroon (Jamii Publications). Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in AAWW's The Margins, Four Way Review, Cream City Review, Southern Humanities Review, Dusie and elsewhere. She is a VONA/Voices of our Nations Art fellow as well as a recipient of a University of California Institute for Research in the Arts Grant, Gluck Program of the Arts Fellowship, Naropa University's Zora Neal Hurston Award, Squaw Valley Writers Fellowship and Fishtrap Fellowship. She has received scholarships from Tin House, Split This Rock, Dzanc Books International Literary Program and others. She resides in Southern California, drifiting between the deserts, beaches, lowly cities and socially engineered suburbs.

Elmaz Abinader is an award-winning author, poet, and playwright whose works are inspired by the dislocation of her parents from Lebanon to the US, as well as dislocations, occupations, and disenfranchisement of other people in the Arab World and Diaspora. She has been a Fulbright Scholar to Egypt, has conducted writing workshops in Palestine, and has toured several countries with her one-woman plays. She is also a Professor of English at Mills College in Oakland, CA, where she specializes in creative nonfiction/memoir, poets of color, and pedagogy. She co-founded VONA Voices in 1999 with the mission to nurture developing writers of color. This House, My Bones, her new collection of poetry, is the 2014 Editor’s Selection in Poetry at Willow Books/Aquarius Press and has been praised by poet Patricia Smith as "a gorgeously scripted chronicle that probes the collective heart and the countries we inhabit when we dare to speak out loud."Kim Jensen is a writer, educator, and political activist whose books include The Woman I Left Behind, Bread Alone, and The Only Thing that Matters. Her fiction, poems, and essays have appeared in many journals and anthologies. Her recent doctoral dissertation in creative writing is a post-September-11th novel called Forget Jerusalem. Active in the peace and justice movement for many years, especially the struggle for Palestinian liberation, Kim is associate professor of English at the Community College of Baltimore County where she is the founding director of the Community Book Connection, an interdisciplinary literacy initiative that demonstrates the vital connection between classroom learning and broader social issues. Writes poet Naomi Shihab Nye, "Kim Jensen’s poems are searing and spare. They will haunt you and stretch your vision. You won’t be the same person after reading them that you were before.” Recorded On: Sunday, January 11, 2015