Podcast appearances and mentions of Wendy C Ortiz

Notes and Links to Ben Tanzer's Work      For Episode 250, Pete welcomes Ben Tanzer, and the two discuss, among other topics, his childhood love of books, formative and transformative writers and writing, bothy past and present, muses, Jim Carroll and his powerful and pivotal work, Ben's podcast and motivations for living the creative life, and salient themes and issues in his novel like sacrifice, family bonds, parenthood, small towns, the unknown, and awe.      Ben Tanzer is an Emmy-award winning coach, creative strategist, podcaster, writer, teacher and social worker who has been helping nonprofits, publishers, authors, small business and career changers tell their stories for 20 plus years. He serves as a Lecturer (and part-time faculty) at Lake Forest College, where he teaches LOOP 202: 21st Century Development and Liberal Arts and The Workplace. He produces and hosts This Podcast Will Change Your Life (300+ episodes and counting), which was launched in February 2010, focuses on authors and changemakers from around the country and the world, and was named by Elephant Journal as one of "The 10 Best Podcasts to Help you Change your Life. His written work includes the short story collection UPSTATE, the science fiction novel Orphans and the essay collections Lost in Space and Be Cool. I'm a storySouth and Pushcart nominee, a finalist for the Annual National Indie Excellence and Eric Hoffer Book Awards, a winner of the Devil's Kitchen Literary Festival Nonfiction Prose Award and a Midwest Book Award.   Buy The Missing   A Conversation with Ben in The Chicago Review   Ben Tanzer's Website   At about 2:15, Ben gives background on the “creative life” and his day-to-day and “hustle” At about 5:30, Ben describes the importance of an “awesomely discouraging” tax person when one lives the creative life At about 6:45, Ben shouts out Columbia College in Chicago At about 7:45, Ben discusses his early relationship with reading and the written word At about 10:00, Ben talks about meaningful feedback in a writing class and how he started his writing career  At about 11:10, Ben cites Jim Carroll's Basketball Diaries, DeGrazia's American Skin, and other formative texts, like Catcher in the Rye, Will Allison and Joe Mino,  At about 14:10, Ben reflects on the importance of cross country and wrestling in his life At about 15:10, Ben shouts out Wendy C. Ortiz's Excavation, Gina Frangello, Donald Quist, Joe Meno, Sara Lippman, Alice Kaltman, Gionna Cromley, Lee Matthew Goldberg, and Lisa Cross Smith as writers and writing that thrills and inspires and “crush[es]” him At about 17:30, Pete cites the thrill of meeting standout writers, and Ben expands upon ideas of the brain being “profoundly affected” by meeting literary heroes At about 20:10, Ben talks about his podcast and its roots and philosophy  At about 22:30, Ben responds to Pete's question about Ben's viewpoint on the “muse,” in both his writing and his podcasting-shout out to SpiderMeka! At about 27:15, Pete and Ben lay out the book's exposition and Ben discusses the book's seeds At about 29:45, Ben gives background on a stimulating idea provided by his agent At about 31:45, The two discuss the aging and maturing or not of the central characters of the book At about 36:00, The two discuss how Ben writes about “what could have been” in using “speculative flashbacks” and ideas of the sexualization of young girls, especially in missing children cases; Ben shouts out Emily Schultz's Little Threats At about 40:35, Ben reflects on playing with the idea of having a kid who would dare date someone with a bad haircut, etc. At about 42:25, The two discuss unprocessed traumas and Hannah and Gabriel's mindsets and an awe-inspiring scene involving trains At about 47:00-Bobby Baccala and the trains-NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! At about 47:45, Ben responds to Pete's comments about Gabriel being referenced in the book as a “good father and a bad husband” At about 51:45, Pete wonders about Krista's reasons for leaving, and Ben talks about the unknown and his rationale in using a lot of unknown, as well as how many real-life parallels he's seen to the book's events At about 55:35, A key question about living one's best life is explored At about 56:15, Casting choices abound! and Ben expands on his interest in Officer John At about 57:35, Ed, father of Hannah, is explored as a victim and a great listener, and Gabriel's mother as an “enabler” is expanded upon At about 1:01:05, Ben gives contact info and social media information At about 1:03:10, Pete and Ben discuss the buying domain business    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.    I am very excited about having one or two podcast episodes per month featured on the website of Chicago Review of Books. The audio will be posted, along with a written interview culled from the audio. A big thanks to Rachel León and Michael Welch at Chicago Review.    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!    This month's Patreon bonus episode features segments from conversations with Deesha Philyaw, Luis Alberto Urrea, Chris Stuck, and more, as they reflect on chill-inducing writing and writers that have inspired their own work.       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 251 with Alexandra Alessandri. She is the author of several books for children, including Isabel and Her Colores Go to School (2021), and Grow Up, Luchy Zapata (2024), a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection; her books have received numerous distinctions, including the International Latino Book Award    The episode will go live on September 3.     Lastly, please go to https://ceasefiretoday.com/, which features 10+ actions to help bring about Ceasefire in Gaza.

In today's flashback, an outtake from Episode 436, my conversation with Wendy C. Ortiz. Her books include Excavation: A Memoir, Hollywood Notebook, and the "dreamoir" Bruja. Wendy was born and raised in Los Angeles. Her work has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, The Rumpus, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and the National Book Critics Circle Small Press Spotlight blog. Her writing has appeared in such venues as The New York Times, Joyland, StoryQuarterly, and a year-long series appeared at McSweeney's Internet Tendency. Her “Urban Liminal” series of texts appear alongside signature graphic representations of the projects of Lorcan O'Herlihy Architects in the book Amplified Urbanism (2017). Wendy is a psychotherapist in private practice in Los Angeles. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly literary podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Subscribe to Brad Listi's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch @otherppl Instagram  TikTok Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Noah & Ross sit down with poet, translator, editor, & teacher Ruben Quesada to talk about his new substack PROMOTION FOR POETS. Links of interest from this episode:Ruben Quesada website Be sure to sign up for Promotions for Poets (substack)Revelations (Sibling Rivalry Press) by Ruben Quesada Charles Olson essay on Projectice VerseHeadwaters (WW Norton) by Ellen Bryant Voigt The Art of Syntax (Graywolf) by Ellen Bryant VoigtRuben Quesada is a neurodivergent, gay, Latinx poet. A native Angeleno, Ruben was raised by Costa Rican immigrant parents. He is the author of Revelations, Next Extinct Mammal, and translator of Exiled from the Throne of Night: Selected Translations of Luis Cernuda. He is a recipient of an Individual Artist grant from the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events at the City of Chicago. He is producing a short documentary film on Latinx poetry.  After receiving a PhD in English, Ruben moved to Illinois in 2012. Soon after, with the mentorship of founding members from Canto Mundo Poetry, Macondo, and the Institute of Latino Letters | Letras Latinas, Ruben founded the Latinx Caucus at the AWP (Association of Writing & Writing Programs) Conference. Since 2015, the Latinx Caucus has been led by a leadership team of poets and writers who represent intersectional identities from the Americas.                 In 2015, Ruben moved to Chicago to launch the Logan's Run Readings series. This series was the nation's only Latinx literary salon and featured poets and writers including Daniel Borzutzky, Erika L. Sanchez, David Campos, Wendy C. Ortiz, and Diego Báez. For the past 15 years, Ruben has taught literature and creative writing. He's taught at Vermont College of Fine Arts, University of California-Riverside, The School of the Art Institute, Columbia College Chicago, Northwestern University, and UCLA Writers' Program. He teaches as an Associate Teaching Fellow at the Attic Institute. Ruben has written for Ploughshares, The Kenyon Review, Harvard Review, The Rumpus, Cobalt, and Chicago Review of Books. Recently, he worked as poetry editor at AGNI and guest editor at PANK. In his spare time, he manages Mercy Street Readings, a live, literary broadcast. He is editing a special folio of LGBTQIA+ poetry for the spring 2022 issue of Pleiades magazine. Thank you for listening to The Chapbook!Noah Stetzer is on Twitter @dcNoahRoss White is on Twitter @rosswhite You can find all our episodes and contact us with your chapbook questions and suggestions here. Follow Bull City Press on Twitter https://twitter.com/bullcitypress Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bullcitypress/ and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/bullcitypress 

In this episode, the hosts discuss the highly controversial My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell. Kendra and August share their reactions, analyze the major themes, and rage, rage, rage. They also discuss the alleged plagiarism controversy involving Wendy C. Ortiz's memoir Excavation (2014). This episode is full of spoilers, so please only listen if you are comfortable with learning all about this book. TW: sexual assault, sexual abuse of a minor, & pedophilia. Books mentioned in the episode: My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell (2020) Excavation by Wendy C. Ortiz (2014) Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (1955) Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov (1962)

Host Lisa Locascio chats with writer and psychotherapist Wendy C. Ortiz about her books Excavation: A Memoir and Hollywood Notebook, as well as some of her personal essays, her experiences as an alumni of the Antioch MFA program, the practice of writing, writing about the self, her relationship with the City of Los Angeles, and how astrology weaves into her writing.  This episode was produced and mastered by Barbara Platts with graphic design by Lisa Croce.

This week, we discuss the Texas Review's All-Essay Issue from late 2020, including two specific essays by Wendy C. Ortiz and Vincent James. Also: a virgin fake-gin cocktail, Godzilla vs. Kong, terrible jobs we've had, times we've gotten fired, an alarming amount of Will Smith content, and more! Links: Texas Review All-Essay Issue: http://www.thetexasreview.org/issues/ Seedlip non-alcoholic gin: https://www.seedlipdrinks.com/en-us/shop/?gclid=CjwKCAjwqIiFBhAHEiwANg9szlLXeKgBYIgMBhVevVOy1k5ZvO7TBpKnn4q-54ihA48uesXAxa7L5hoCMlYQAvD_BwE Godzilla vs. Kong: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5034838/ Will Smith's 5-minute story on becoming the Fresh Prince: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_WoOYybCro

Vanessa ist 15, als sie zum ersten Mal Sex mit ihrem Englischlehrer hat. Eine schicksalhafte Liebe, für die sie bereit ist, sich gern von der Gesellschaft verteufeln zu lassen. Denn muss ein Mann, der bereit ist, für sie alles zu riskieren, sie nicht über alles lieben? Kate Elizabeth Russell lotet in ihrem spannendem Debüt die Grenzen zwischen verbotener Liebe und Missbrauch aus. Ein Buch, bei dem ich an mehr als eine wahre Geschichte denken musste... aber dazu mehr im Podcast. Zu meiner großen Freude ist "Feiste Bücher" für den Buchblog Award 2020 nominiert. Wenn euch der Podcast gefällt, würde ich mich sehr freuen, wenn ihr mir eure Stimme gebt. Das ist bis zum 8. September möglich auf: www.buchblog-award.de Und hier die anderen in der Episode versprochenen Links: Nabokovs Klassiker "Lolita" spielt eine große Rolle in diesem Buch, wie Russell dazu gekommen ist, könnt ihr in diesem Porträt nachlesen: https://www.vulture.com/2020/02/my-dark-vanessa-kate-elizabeth-russell.html Dort geht es auch darum, dass im Januar 2020 die Autorin Wendy C. Ortiz noch vor Erscheinen des Buchs Russell vorgeworfen hat, „Meine dunkle Vanessa“ klinge nach einem Plagiat ihres Memoirs "Excavation". Ortiz erzählt, wie sie jahrelang von ihrem Lehrer missbraucht wurde. Der Plagiatsvorwurf gilt als entschärft -- und ich fürchte, dass es weltweit unendlich viele diese Geschichten gibt. Was bleibt, ist Ortiz' berechtigter Vorwurf, dass die Verlagswelt "weiße" Autorinnen und Autoren bevorteilt. Mehr dazu in: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/mar/13/kate-elizabeth-russell-my-dark-vanessa-interview Russell, der es ausdrücklich wichtig war, dass ihr Buch als Roman gelesen wird, fühlte sich durch die Auseinandersetzung gezwungen, öffentlich zu machen, dass einiges von eigenen Erlebnissen inspiriert ist. Hier ist der Link zu einem Statement auf ihrer Website: http://kateelizabethrussell.com/note-to-readers „Meine dunkle Vanessa“ von Kate Elizabeth Russell erscheint am 17. August bei C. Bertelsmann. Ich danke dem Verlag, dass ich das Buch schon heute vorstellen kann. Ulrike Thiesmeyer hat die 448 Seiten aus dem Amerikanischen übersetzt. Das Hardcover kostet 20 Euro. Und wenn ihr Feedback habt oder Lust, euch mit mir auszutauschen, geht das am besten bei Instagram. Folge direkt herunterladen

Cuddle up with something comforting because we’re talking about ~anxiety~ on today’s episode of Books and the City! More specifically, we discuss how we cope with our own personal forms of anxiety. Hopefully, at least some of it is useful, but most of it will certainly make you chuckle. And then we’re getting into the books. Once again, we have quite the variety for you, including a hyped, somewhat controversial book, a courtroom drama, a strange and delightful one, and a historical fiction (guess who read that one:).) Read on for timestamps, links, bar recs, and more! Also, got a perfect bar + book pairing in your city, OR any thoughts about the books we talked about in episode 6? Send us a note at booksandthecitypod@gmail.com!-------------> Libby just read: My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell (20:00-42:51) https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062941503/my-dark-vanessa/ No NYC pairing for this one, but we recommend a bit of further reading if you’d like to learn more about the controversy surrounding this book. Start with Wendy C. Ortiz’s “Adventures in Publishing Outside the Gates,” (https://gay.medium.com/adventures-in-publishing-outside-the-gates-a06f089c372e) and then head over to Kate Elizabeth Russell’s “This Is Not A Love Story” (https://www.vulture.com/2020/02/my-dark-vanessa-kate-elizabeth-russell.html) Up next for Libby: Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls by T Kira Madden Emily just read: Little Weirds by Jenny Slate (43:00-54:58) https://www.littlebrown.com/titles/jenny-slate/little-weirds/9780316485357/ You’ll want to pick this one up surrounded by an aesthetically pleasing, somewhat strange setting. We recommend you head to the East Village’s Beauty Bar, which is a nightclub that offers a quirky selection of cocktails, dance floors, and literal manicures. The perfect place to explore Jenny Slate’s brain! Up next for Emily: The New Me by Halle Butler Kayla just read: The Holdout by Graham Moore (54:59-1:06:05) https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/554758/the-holdout-by-graham-moore/ Drop by for a pint at The Malt House in the Financial District while you read this thriller. Afterward, take a quick walk a few blocks north to the NYC Supreme Court building! Jury duty or not, it's worth checking out. You may even recognize it from some of your favorite films and TV shows. Up next for Kayla: You Are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Peklanen Becky just read: The Kennedy Debutante by Kerri Maher (1:06:06-1:21:08) https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/572974/the-kennedy-debutante-by-kerri-maher/ Head to the Bowery Hotel's lobby bar for some live music and expert cocktails while you enjoy this book. You'll feel like you've been transported to Kick Kennedy's London! Just like her beloved 400 Club, you never know who you might see stopping in for a drink. Up next for Becky: The Body Double by Emily Beyda Music by EpidemicSound, logo art by @niczollos, all opinions our own.

Katie and Rincey give a rundown about the discussion around My Dark Vanessa and Excavation and then talk about some mysteries written by Latinx authors. This episode is sponsored by Book Riot’s Read Harder 2020 Challenge, The Lucky One by Lori Rader-Day, and Crooked River, the new Agent Pendergast novel from Preston & Child. Subscribe to the podcast via RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. To get even more mystery/thriller recs and news, sign up for our Unusual Suspects newsletter! Show Notes Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne are starring in the film adaptation of the true crime book The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder by Charles Graeber Graham Moore’s latest novel, The Holdout, has been optioned for a Hulu series Hallie Rubenhold, author of The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper, is planning a Whitechapel mural to celebrate the lives of these women Why cozy mysteries are the hottest TV genre of 2020 Crime Writers of Color has a great list of Black crime authors authors to read for Black History Month What’s Going on With My Dark Vanessa and Excavation? Books Mentioned My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell Excavation by Wendy C. Ortiz Bloody Waters by Carolina Garcia-Aguilera Untamed Shore by Silvia Moreno-Garcia Trouble Is What I Do by Walter Mosley Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman’s Search for Justice in Indian Country by Sierra Crane Murdoch Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson The Sea of Lost Girls by Carol Goodman Egg Drop Dead by Vivien Chien The Majesties by Tiffany Tsao Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha

This podcast contains nearly the entirety of the works in the print edition of FENCE Magazine 35, Winter/Spring Issue of 2019. Writers include Edgar Garcia, Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, Tess Brown-Lavoie, Laura Sims, Eleni Sikelianos, Leah Dworkin, Rachel Levitsky, Christopher Patrick Miller, Blake Butler, Tamara Barnett-Herrin, Nora Toomey, Ji Yoon Lee, David Blair, David Alejandro Hernandez, Nawal Nader French, Jenessa VanZutphen, Robin Clarke, Brian Kim Stefans, Wendy C. Ortiz, Jesse Nathan, Abby Minor, Gary Lundy, Margaret Johnson, Amy Lawless, Emmett Gallagher, Matthew Moore, Steven Alvarez, Sam Truitt, Josh Kalscheur, Joanna Fuhrman, Tasia Trevino, James Tate, Nicole Burdick, Desirée Alvarez, Nat Suffrin, Alison Wellford, Liana Jahan Imam, Bonnie Chau, Steffan Triplett, Dan Chu, Serena Solin, Erica Hunt, Timothy Otte, Geoffrey Cruickshank-Hagenbuckle, and BC Griffith. Music provided by the permission of Matmos. This audiobook/podcast has been gathered and assembled by Jason Zuzga. He is one of the print journal's two Other/Nonfiction Editors along with Sarah Falkner.In continuous publication since 1998, FENCE is a biannual print journal of poetry, fiction, art, and criticism that redefines the terms of accessibility by publishing challenging writing distinguished by idiosyncrasy and intelligence rather than by allegiance with camps, schools, or cliques. FENCE also publishes a range of books and additional digital content, such as Fence Streaming Posts, Afrosonics/Mythscience, Elecment and The Constant Critic. FENCE is committed to publishing from the outside and the inside of established communities of writing, seeking always to interrogate, collaborate with, and bedevil all the systems that bring new writing to light. FENCE is edited by Rebecca Wolff. For FENCE's COMPLETE MISSION STATEMENT and FULL LIST OF EDITORIAL STAFF: click and scroll down.Support the show (https://www.fenceportal.org/subscribe/)

From graffiti gangs and Grand Theft Auto to sugar daddies, Schopenhauer, and a deadly game of Russian roulette, Chelsea Hodson probes her own desires to examine where the physical and the proprietary collide. In Tonight I'm Someone Else, she asks what our privacy, our intimacy, and our own bodies are worth in the increasingly digital world of liking, linking, and sharing. Starting with Hodson’s own work experience, which ranges from the mundane to the bizarre—including modeling and working on a NASA Mars mission— Hodson expands outward, looking at the ways in which the human will submits, whether in the marketplace or in a relationship. Both tender and jarring, this collection is relevant to anyone who’s ever searched for what the self is worth. Hodson is joined by Wendy C. Ortiz, author of Excavation: A Memoir, Hollywood Notebook, and the dreamoir Bruja.

Los Angeles-based authors Alex Espinoza, Dan Lopez, Wendy C. Ortiz, and Martin Pousson discuss the ways they found homes for their unique voices and the independent literary communities that champion them, from publishers to bookstores and publications, in LA and beyond. Alex Espinoza was born in Tijuana, Mexico. He came to the United States with his family at the age of two and grew up in suburban Los Angeles. Author of the novel Still Water Saints, he received an MFA from the University of California, Irvine. A recipient of the Margaret Bridgman Fellowship in Fiction at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Espinoza is currently an associate professor of English at California State University, Fresno. His latest book is The Five Acts of Diego Léon. Wendy C. Ortiz is the author of Excavation: A Memoir and Hollywood Notebook. Her work has been profiled or featured in the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, The Rumpus, and the National Book Critics Circle Small Press Spotlight blog. Her writing has appeared in such places as The New York Times, Hazlitt, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, The Nervous Breakdown, Fanzine, and a year-long series appeared at McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. Wendy lives in Los Angeles. Martin Pousson was born and raised in the bayou land of Louisiana. His short stories won a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and have appeared in The Antioch Review, Epoch, Five Points, StoryQuarterly, TriQuarterly, and elsewhere. He also was a finalist for the John Gardner Fiction Book Award, the Glimmer Train Very Short Fiction Award, and the Lambda Literary Award. He now lives in Los Angeles. Dan Lopez's work has appeared in The Millions, Storychord, Time Out New York, and Lambda Literary, among others. The Show House is his first novel. He lives in Los Angeles. 

Bruja (Civil Coping Mechanism) Book of Endless Sleepovers (Civil Coping Mechanism) CCM is pleased to announce Bruja by Wendy C. Ortiz, the author of the critically acclaimed Excavation: A Memoir and Hollywood Notebook. With Bruja, Ortiz continues to upend and reinvent the memoir in inventive and deeply emotional ways to better fit the terms and trajectory of her exploration.  Behold the “dreamoir”–the details from the most malleable and revelatory portions of one’s dreams, catalogued in bold detail. Ortiz has created a new literary form, a parallel plane where the cast of characters are the people that occupied one’s waking life; Bruja is a narrative that’s equal parts delicate and bold, a literary adventure through the boundaries of memoir, where the self is viewed from a position anchored into the deepest recesses of the mind.  The end result is perhaps one of the most candid expressions of personal history, the subconscious bared in full, revealing the part of oneself that is often the most difficult to see. Bruja will be released as part of the Quarter Four 2016 CCM Catalogue. We can’t wait to show you more. We’re coping.  Guests are encouraged to come dressed as a character/person/animal/object from their dreams.  Praise for Bruja  "In Bruja, Wendy C. Ortiz deftly navigates the land of dreams in what she calls a dreamoir. By telling us her dreams, by revealing her most unguarded and vulnerable self, Ortiz is, truly, offering readers the most intimate parts of herself–how she loves, how she wants, how she lives, who she is. Bruja is not just a book–it is an enigma and a wonder and utterly entrancing." -- Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist and An Untamed State "Bruja calls into question not only what is a memoir, but what is a life. Politics, books, mass media, random encounters, work, relationships tumble into the depths of consciousness, and the self spirals open, huge and passionate. Ortiz’s dreamoir is a multidimensional love story with the whole mess of existence. I loved it."--Dodie Bellamy, author of When the Sick Rule the World, The TV Sutras, Cunt-Ups, and many more "Wendy C. Ortiz has invented her own genre, in her sleep, no less. Bruja is at once lush and spare, funny and weird, disturbing and sometimes even beautiful in the way that dreams can be. She’s crafted an absurdly real and compelling story here, one dream at a time." - Elizabeth Crane, author of The History of Great Things Wendy C. Ortiz is the author of Excavation: A Memoir and Hollywood Notebook. Her work has been profiled or featured in the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, The Rumpus, and the National Book Critics Circle Small Press Spotlight blog. Her writing has appeared in such places as The New York Times, Hazlitt, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, The Nervous Breakdown, Fanzine, and a year-long series appeared at McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. Wendy lives in Los Angeles. Book of Endless Sleepovers Bring your favorite stuffed animal, hold it tight, and stay awake as long as you can. The Book of Endless Sleepovers tosses and turns with telepathic campfire stories, crypto-zoological memoir and Mark Twain slash fiction. It’s fourteen interconnected tales of haunted childhood identity and exploded imagination. Nobody wants to fall asleep first. Praise for Book of Endless Sleeovers “I love how Henry Hoke plays fast and loose with autobiography and genre. His Book of Endless Sleepovers is wry and finely-wrought, a philosophical fever dream studded with the pleasure of proper names and surprising turns of phrase, a lyric page-turner.”-Maggie Nelson, author of The Argonauts “In his atmospheric debut, Henry Hoke maps the wild country of adolescence, the murky realm of childhood and its mysterious stirrings, where the names of cities are always changing along with our own, as we swap them for those of our favorite characters: The Hardy Boys or Huck Finn or Peter Pan. A land where pet bunnies are eaten by owls in the night and cats change owners at their own will. The Book of Endless Sleepovers is beguiling and evocative and sometimes sad. It is not to be missed.”-Kate Durbin, author of E! Entertainment “The Book of Endless Sleepovers is hot and cool, fine and blunt, new and ancient, puzzling and cannily revealing. Hoke's sharp, funny fictions are like shards of the books I hope to find lying around in Borges' garden of forking paths.”-Mark Childress, author of Crazy in Alabama “Hoke’s book dazzles. Beneath the surface of linguistic playfulness and narrative experimentation are real truths about love and brotherhood and especially about childhood: wild and thrilling and, as all childhoods are, full of terror. Worth reading for the brilliant reimaginings of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn alone, there is so much here that will astonish, surprise, and delight.”-Rahul Mehta, author of No Other World Henry Hoke was a child in the South and an adult in New York and California. He's the author of Genevieves (winner of the Subito Press prose contest, forthcoming 2017) and The Book of Endless Sleepovers (Civil Coping Mechanisms, 2016). Some of his stories appear in The Collagist, Gigantic, Winter Tangerine and Carve. He co-created and directs Enter>text, a living literary journal.  Ashley Perez lives, writes, and causes trouble in Los Angeles. She has a strong affinity for tattoos, otters, cat mystery books, and actual cats, but has mixed feelings about pants. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles. She runs the literary site Arts Collide and does work of all varieties for Jaded Ibis Press, and Midnight Breakfast. Iris De Anda is a Guanaca Tapatia poet who hosts The Writers Underground Open Mic at the Eastside Cafe every third Thursday of the month and the author of CODESWITCH: Fires From Mi Corazon. www.irisdeanda.com. Myriam Gurba is a writer, artist, and low key bon vivant living at the southern most tip of LA County. Her memoir Mean is forthcoming from Coffee House Press. Amanda Yates Garcia is an artist, writer, witch, healer and the Oracle of Los Angeles. Recent performance rituals include Capitalism Exorcism at Human Resources and Devouring Patriarchy at the Women’s Center for Creative Work. Her writing has been featured in publications such as Black Clock, the Rough Magick anthology, Entropy, Synema Publikationen (Cinema Magazine), and WITCH. Amanda hosts her bi-monthly show The Oracle Hour on KCHUNG radio; teaches the Magical Praxis monthly mystery school; and performs private rites of healing and empowerment at her magical studio in West Adams.

This episode stars Wendy C. Ortiz (Excavation: A Memoir, Hollywood Notebook, Bruja). It was recorded in Washington, DC at AWP in February 2017.

Wendy C. Ortiz is the guest. Her new book Bruja—a "dreamoir"—is available now from Civil Coping Mechanisms.  In today's monologue, I basically just get right to the interview.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A special bonus for BinderCast listeners. Here's author Wendy C. Ortiz reading from her memoir, Excavation. 

Getting your story out there, in the way you want it to be told, is always a struggle — especially when you're relying on someone else to package and market that story appropriately. For Wendy C. Ortiz, whose first book told the story of her taboo relationship with her middle school English teacher, finding a publisher who understood her story, and didn't make her feel exploited, was a serious challenge. This week, we chat with her about tackling the topic of teen sexuality, finding a publisher who truly understands your book, and the benefits of going with a small press. For more information on Wendy, visit bindercast.com

Wendy C. Ortiz is a Los Angeles native. She is the author of Excavation: A Memoir (Future Tense Books, 2014), Hollywood Notebook (Writ Large Press, 2015), and the forthcoming Bruja (Civil Coping Mechanisms, Oct. 31, 2016). Her work has been profiled or featured in the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Rumpus, and the National Book Critics Circle Small Press Spotlight blog. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Hazlitt, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, The Nervous Breakdown, Fanzine, and a year-long series appeared at McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Please join us for the roundtable discussion, Beyond Lolita: Literary Writers on Sex and Sexuality. The proceeds will benefit PEN American Center and its Writers' Emergency Fund. Joining us will be Robin Rinaldi, Wendy C. Ortiz, J. Ryan Stradal, and Julia Fierro. Moderated by Anna March, these events will be taking place in Boston, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland this coming November and January. Cheryl Strayed, Audrey Niffenegger, Rachel DeWoskin, Cathi Hanauer, Megan Stielstra, Benoit Denizet-Lewis, Elissa Schappell, Daniel Jones, Luis Urrea, Ashley Ford, Lidia Yuknavitch and many others are participating around the country. The events will be free but attendees will be encouraged to join and support PEN, and an additional $500 will be donated to PEN for each event to support its emergency fund for writers.Robin Rinaldi is a journalist and author of The Wild Oats Project: One Woman's Midlife Quest for Passion at Any Cost. Before she left her day job to write a book, Robin was executive editor at 7x7, a San Francisco city magazine. Prior to that she wrote an award-winning food column for Philadelphia Weekly. Robin has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, Oprah Magazine, Yoga Journal, and others. Robin grew up in a small Pennsylvania town but has spent most of her life in California. She currently lives in Los Angeles, where she writes, reads, cooks peasant-style meals, does a lot of yoga, listens to a lot of music, watches a lot of premium cable dramas, and plays with her scruffy little terrier named Tengo (after the protagonist in 1Q84).Wendy C. Ortiz is a Los Angeles native. She is the author of Excavation: A Memoir, Hollywood Notebook, and the forthcoming Bruja. Wendy holds an M.A. in Clinical Psychology and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles. A Writer-in-Residence at Hedgebrook in 2007 and 2009, Wendy is also co-founder and curator of the Rhapsodomancy Reading Series. She has read and given talks at California State University Chico, University of California Santa Barbara, University of California Riverside's Low-Residency M.F.A. Program, and Lock Haven University. Wendy has been an adjunct faculty in creative writing and has also facilitated creative writing workshops with Los Angeles youth in juvenile detention facilities. While living in Olympia, Washington, she was a library worker, editor and publisher of 4th Street, a handbound literary journal, and an occasional mudwrestler. Wendy received a B.A. in Liberal Arts from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, where she lived for eight years before returning to Los Angeles.She is at work on a book based on her Modern Love essay published in The New York Times, a short story collection, and other projects. Wendy is represented by Bridget Wagner Matzie of Zachary Shuster Harmsworth Literary Agency. She parents and works as a registered marriage and family therapist intern in Los Angeles.J. Ryan Stradal’s first novel, Kitchens of the Great Midwest, was published by Viking / Pamela Dorman Books on July 28th, 2015, and reached the New York Times Hardcover Best Seller list at #19 on its third week of release. In November 2014, the Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society awarded Kitchens of the Great Midwest first prize in their annual novel competition. In September 2015, Warner Bros. optioned the film/TV rights. A selection of his short stories, compiled under the title "Nerd & Whore are Friends," was a 2013 finalist in the Dzanc Books Short Story Collection Competition. His short fiction has also been anthologized, nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and named a finalist for the James Kirkwood Literary Prize. He works as the fiction editor at The Nervous Breakdown  and  as an editor-at-large at Unnamed Press in Los Angeles.  He was also editor of the 2014 California Prose Directory, an anthology of writing about California by California writers, published by Outpost19. He volunteers for & is on the advisory board of the educational non-profit 826LA. He also helps make products and materials for their affiliated store, the Echo Park Time Travel Mart. He likes books, wine, sports, root beer, and peas. Julia Fierro is the author of Cutting Teeth, which The New Yorker called “a comically energetic debut novel.” Her next novel, The Gypsy Moth Summer, will be published in 2017. Julia founded The Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop in 2002, and it has since grown into a creative home to over 2,500 writers. She lives in Brooklyn and Los Angeles.

Wendy C. Ortiz - Kate Nash Girl Gang FM [Episode 9 January 24th, 2016] by Bedrock.LA

This episode stars Wendy C. Ortiz (Excavation, Hollywood Notebook). It was recorded over the Skype between the TBWCYL, Inc. corporate offices in Chicago, IL and Ortiz's home in Los Angeles, CA in September 2015.

This week's guest on In Her Room is author, memoirist, and LA native Wendy C. Ortiz. Our conversation about public and private lives, boundaries and secrecy, and so much more is a thrill to share with you. I would joke with people that, if I didn’t have time to write, I would feel homicidal.But really, what I was saying is that I felt suicidal." This episode contains some explicit language. And it's totally worth it.Here are some things mentioned in this episode:Wendy's websiteWendy's tumblrWendy on TwitterExcavation: A MemoirHollywood Notebook"Newly Wed and Quickly Unravelling" :: Wendy's Modern Love essay"Interiors" :: Wendy's reading published in PANK Rhapsodomancy Reading SeriesMary Karr interview in The Paris ReviewEloise Klein HealyMFA program at Antioch UniversityWrit Large Press

When she was 13, Wendy C. Ortiz started “dating” her 28 year-old English teacher. In her new memoir, Excavation, she returns to the years she spent maintaining this secret relationship. It’s a disarming look at a tough adolescence. Ortiz manages to capture not only her own disorienting emotions, but also — as Tod and Rider will attest — an incredibly accurate portrait of life in the San Fernando Valley in the ’80s. But first, it’s a Bookshelf Roulette. And Julia regales us with stories of sleepwalking… Click here to purchase from an independent bookseller Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wendy C. Ortiz is the guest. Her memoir, Excavation, is now available from Future Tense Books. It is the official September selection of the TNB Book Club. (Photo: Francine Orr/ LA Times) Lidia Yuknavitch says The time has finally arrived when women are telling the truth--the hard truths, the messy, glorious, loud, tender, screeching corporeal truths--about their lives as they live them and not lived as we are asked to live them. Wendy C. Ortiz's writing will rearrange your DNA. Permanently, beautifully... And Emily Rapp says Excavation by Wendy C. Ortiz will change your life. Readers will find everything here: a gripping and necessary story, luminous writing and an utterly compelling heroine who is both generous and fierce. You will emerge changed, dazzled, energized, disbelieving and yet a believer. Most of all, read this book because, like all great literature, and especially the best memoirs, it will make you feel more alive. Monologue topics: mail, the word "retarded," podcast criticism, narcissism, too much me. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices