Podcasts about writing seminars

Can one decision be the fulcrum of a life?Or is destiny really millions of tiny choices swirled with events out of our control? That's one of the many questions at the heart of Eric Puchner's gorgeous new novel, “Dream State.” It's received a dizzying amount of praise since it was released in February — making the New York Times best seller list, becoming an Oprah Book Club pick. But despite the buzz, the novel is deceptively hard to pin down. Set in rural Montana, the book begins with two college buddies, as one of them, Charlie, prepares to marry the love of his life. But when Cece heads to the family cabin early to prepare for the wedding and meets no-nonsense best friend Garrett, her world wobbles. What happens next — amidst a wedding besieged by norovirus — launches the next 50 years, as the three friends remain intertwined by regrets and grief, possibilities and love. Puchner joins host Kerri Miller for a wide-ranging conversation on this week's Big Books and Bold Ideas. Among topics of discussion: why so few authors write about male friendship, why meeting friends from your beloved's past can be so perilous and why setting “Dream State” in a Montana cabin was so crucial to the plot. Guest:Eric Puchner is an associate professor in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and the author of the novel “Model Home,” as well as several short stories. His new book is “Dream State.” Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

Are home movies the grecian urns of the twentieth century? Today's poem says, “sort of.”Poet, editor, essayist, playwright, and lyricist Mary Jo Salter was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She grew up in Michigan and Maryland, and earned degrees from Harvard and Cambridge University. A former editor at the Atlantic Monthly, poetry editor at the New Republic, and co-editor of the fourth and fifth editions of the Norton Anthology of Poetry, Salter's thorough understanding of poetic tradition is clearly evident in her work. Salter is the author of many books of poetry, including A Kiss in Space (1999), Open Shutters (2003), A Phone Call to the Future (2008), Nothing by Design (2013), and The Surveyors (2017). Her second book, Unfinished Painting (1989) was a Lamont Selection for the most distinguished second volume of poetry published that year, Sunday Skaters (1994) was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award, and Open Shutters was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Salter has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation and taught for many years at Mount Holyoke College. She is currently the Krieger-Eisenhower Professor in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. Get full access to The Daily Poem Podcast at dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe

Steven Searcy reads his poem, "Christ's Baptism," and Lisa Rosinsky reads her poem, "Yom Kippur." Steven Searcy is the author of Below the Brightness (Solum Literary Press, 2024). His poems have appeared in Southern Poetry Review, Commonweal, The Windhover, Ekstasis, Amethyst Review, and elsewhere. He lives with his wife and four sons in Georgia. Lisa Rosinsky has been a finalist for the Slapering Hol Chapbook Prize, the Fugue Poetry Contest, and the Morton Marr Poetry Prize. She is a graduate of the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins and holds an MFA in poetry from Boston University, and in 2016, she won the Writer-in-Residence fellowship at the Boston Public Library. Her poems have appeared in Palette Poetry, SWWIM, Third Coast, Tahoma Literary Review, Prairie Schooner, Cimarron Review, Mid-American Review, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Baltimore Review, and other journals and anthologies. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support

Kristopher grew up in Lincroft, New Jersey. He received his B.A. in The Writing Seminars from Johns Hopkins University and an M.F.A. in Fiction from Columbia University. He is the author of the critically-acclaimed novels, OUR NARROW HIDING PLACES (Ecco/2024) WHY WE CAME TO THE CITY (Viking/2016) and THE UNCHANGEABLE SPOTS OF LEOPARDS, (Viking/2013). His book of essays on the creative process is REVISIONARIES: WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM THE LOST, UNFINISHED, AND JUST PLAIN BAD WORK OF GREAT WRITERS. And Kristopher is the director of the creative program and SUNY New Paltz. Recommended Books: E. Lily Yu Break Blow Burn and Make Kate Hamilton, Mad Wife  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

Kristopher grew up in Lincroft, New Jersey. He received his B.A. in The Writing Seminars from Johns Hopkins University and an M.F.A. in Fiction from Columbia University. He is the author of the critically-acclaimed novels, OUR NARROW HIDING PLACES (Ecco/2024) WHY WE CAME TO THE CITY (Viking/2016) and THE UNCHANGEABLE SPOTS OF LEOPARDS, (Viking/2013). His book of essays on the creative process is REVISIONARIES: WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM THE LOST, UNFINISHED, AND JUST PLAIN BAD WORK OF GREAT WRITERS. And Kristopher is the director of the creative program and SUNY New Paltz. Recommended Books: E. Lily Yu Break Blow Burn and Make Kate Hamilton, Mad Wife  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

Kristopher grew up in Lincroft, New Jersey. He received his B.A. in The Writing Seminars from Johns Hopkins University and an M.F.A. in Fiction from Columbia University. He is the author of the critically-acclaimed novels, OUR NARROW HIDING PLACES (Ecco/2024) WHY WE CAME TO THE CITY (Viking/2016) and THE UNCHANGEABLE SPOTS OF LEOPARDS, (Viking/2013). His book of essays on the creative process is REVISIONARIES: WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM THE LOST, UNFINISHED, AND JUST PLAIN BAD WORK OF GREAT WRITERS. And Kristopher is the director of the creative program and SUNY New Paltz. Recommended Books: E. Lily Yu Break Blow Burn and Make Kate Hamilton, Mad Wife  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/literary-studies

Kristopher grew up in Lincroft, New Jersey. He received his B.A. in The Writing Seminars from Johns Hopkins University and an M.F.A. in Fiction from Columbia University. He is the author of the critically-acclaimed novels, OUR NARROW HIDING PLACES (Ecco/2024) WHY WE CAME TO THE CITY (Viking/2016) and THE UNCHANGEABLE SPOTS OF LEOPARDS, (Viking/2013). His book of essays on the creative process is REVISIONARIES: WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM THE LOST, UNFINISHED, AND JUST PLAIN BAD WORK OF GREAT WRITERS. And Kristopher is the director of the creative program and SUNY New Paltz. Recommended Books: E. Lily Yu Break Blow Burn and Make Kate Hamilton, Mad Wife  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

Carlee Jensen reflects on how the American West and constructions of personal mythology shaped her writing, and how coming out “late” taught her that life has no single narrative. She also tells Jared why she avoided MFA application resources before submitting her materials, how the MFA helped her refocus on writing as an art, not just a profession, and she discusses her experience taking advantage of Hopkins's optional third year. Carlee Jensen is a fiction writer and educator, raised in Utah and California, and currently living in Baltimore, Maryland. She earned a BA from Yale University and an MS from Bank Street College of Education, and spent seven years as a classroom teacher before pursuing an MFA from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. During her time at Johns Hopkins, she received the 2024 Benjamin J. Sankey Fellowship in Fiction. Her work has appeared in New Ohio Review and The Master's Review, where it was selected by Kristen Arnett for a 2022 Short Story Award for New Writers, and was a finalist for American Short Fiction's Short(er) Fiction Prize in 2023. Find her at carleejensen.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. BE PART OF THE SHOW — Donate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee. — Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. — Submit an episode request. If there's a program you'd like to learn more about, contact us and we'll do our very best to find a guest who can speak to their experience. — Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application. STAY CONNECTED Twitter: @MFAwriterspod Instagram: @MFAwriterspodcast Facebook: MFA Writers Email: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com

Hillary Yablon lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two young sons. She is a graduate of Princeton University and earned her MA in poetry from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. This, her debut novel, received the Allegra Johnson Prize at UCLA. In Sylvia's Second Act, Sylvia's husband's cheating on her. She hates Boca. Sylvia is mad and she isn't going to take it anymore. She's moving back to the city of her dreams—with her best friend, Evie, in tow. When sixty-three-year-old Sylvia finds her husband in bed with the floozy of their retirement community, she's shocked and furious...at first. Sylvia realizes that actually, this isn't what she wants anymore. So she enlists her best friend, the glamorous older widow Evie, to join her in setting up a new life in Manhattan. Sylvia doesn't want to be twenty-five again. Her age gives her wisdom, experience, and perspective. A career, sex, fun, and a new romance—her entire second act is stretched out in front of her.

Jacob Budenz is the only one of their siblings not to be diagnosed with ADHD markers (something they attribute to being stoic about their problems). They're one of those people who has a zillion ideas and manages to see all of them to completion, while making every role they play seem effortless — writer, actor, director, musician, and performance artist. They have an MFA in Creative Writing from University of New Orleans and a BA in Writing Seminars and Spanish from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where they currently live and make art. Between publishing a collection of short stories (Tea Leaves) and conducting a performance ritual of apology for the divine masculine, they found time to TALKTALKTALK to me. Thank you, Jacob! This interview takes place on the Internet during (Jupiter in) Gemini season. FOLLOW JACOB ON INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/dreambabyjake/?hl=en VISIT THEIR WEBSITE https://jakebeearts.com/ BUY TEA LEAVES https://www.bywaterbooks.com/product/tea-leaves-by-jacob-budenz/ ENJOYED THIS VIDEO? Follow ART of the ZODIAC & Vivi Henriette in ALL the places: https://linktr.ee/ART_of_the_ZODIAC SUBSCRIBE to ART of the ZODIAC on SUBSTACK for the latest TALKTALKTALK, delivered straight to your inbox—it's FREE: https://artofthezodiac.substack.com/ LEARN Astrology! Make FRIENDS! SUPPORT the RADICAL ACT of CONVERSATION on ⁠PATREON⁠: https://patreon.com/ARToftheZODIAC?ut…

Tom's guest is Mary Jo Salter, a Professor Emerita in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. She has published nine volumes of poetry and has written essays, lyrics, and children's books. This year, she's been chosen as the guest editor of an anthology of verse called The Best American Poetry 2024. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

This week we welcome Robin Merle, author of Involuntary Exit, A Woman's Guide to Thriving After Being Fired, to share her insights. She brings a unique perspective to the conversation, showing how moving past the initial stages of anger and fear, and finding ourselves on a path of self-reflection can turn the experience into a positive one.  It can help us to rediscover our values and remind us of our power and importance.  We also return to a recent topic of networking and Robin shares her unique idea of networking with “intellectual curiosity”.  Letting our curiosity lead the conversation, showing genuine interest in others and their work, can help build meaningful connections.  Learning from being fired involves humility, self-reflection, and a commitment to our own personal growth. Join our Warrior conversation as we chart a path together.   Robin Merle, CFRE is the author of Involuntary Exit, A Woman's Guide to Thriving After Being Fired, which won the 2022 Gold Medal Nonfiction Book Award. She is the President of Robin Merle Associates, LLC, a fundraising consultancy, and the Founder of The Professional Guide which helps senior-level professionals succeed in their career transitions.  A Certified Fundraising Professional (CFRE), she has more than 35 years' experience as a senior executive for billion-dollar nonprofit organizations, raising more than a half-billion dollars primarily for universities and healthcare.   As someone on a mission to help people move forward with their career transitions, Robin coaches executives through the pain points of job loss to rebuild confidence and resilience.  She also coaches Development professionals to succeed in new roles. She is a frequent podcast guest and webinar host and has been a featured speaker at Chief, the Rutgers Center for Women in Business, the Johns Hopkins University Women's Leadership Conference, and AFP-NYC Global.  Robin is a proud graduate of The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins and graduated from Rutgers College as a member of its first class of women.  (3:25) Robin shares her experiences and path that brought her to write her book.  (7:07) We delve into Robin's book; starting at the beginning that sets the tone for her practical and insightful book.  (10:35) Robin shares why she uses a unique grief model, to help people navigation through being terminated.  (16:58) We discuss advice, one of many, that Robin's offers throughout the book.  (20:12) Robin explains how performance might not be the issue, when someone is terminated.  (22:08) Robin shares her advice on how to discuss a termination in a future interview; preparing for that question and taking the time before jumping back into the arena.  (25:20) Robin's unique take on networking, and its close relationship to being “intellectually curious”. (28:55) A discussion on the triggers and anxiety related to terminations.  (31:43) Robin shares how using affirmations and healthy mindset can move you through this experience.  Connect with Robin Merle https://www.linkedin.com/robinmerletpg/ https://www.theprofessionalguide.com  Subscribe: Warriors At Work PodcastsWebsite: https://jeaniecoomber.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/986666321719033/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeanie_coomber/Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeanie_coomberLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanie-coomber-90973b4/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbMZ2HyNNyPoeCSqKClBC_w

Page One, produced and hosted by author Holly Lynn Payne, celebrates the craft that goes into writing the first sentence, first paragraph and first page of your favorite books. The first page is often the most rewritten page of any book because it has to work so hard to do so much—hook the reader. We interview master storytellers on the struggles and stories behind the first page of their books.About the guest author:Kevin Smokler is a writer, documentary filmmaker and purveyor of pop culture.  He's the author of the four books Brat Pack America: A Love Letter to 80s Teen Movies (2016), the essay collection Practical Classics: 50 Reasons to Reread 50 Books you Haven't Touched Since High School (2013) and worked as the editor of “Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times,” A San Francisco Chronicle Notable Book of 2005. His essays and criticism have appeared in the LA Times, Salon, Fast Company, BuzzFeed, Vulture, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Decider and on NPR. He is also the co-director and co-producer of the documentary film Vinyl Nation about the contemporary renaissance of vinyl records in America. Kevin has lectured and taught at Comic Con, MIT, South by Southwest, The LA Times Festival of Books and The Commonwealth Club of California. He serves as a Creator-in-Residence for The Battery in San Francisco and sits on the board of Zyzzvya Magazine. Kevin holds a Bachelor's degree in Writing Seminars from Johns Hopkins University and a Masters in American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. A native of Ann Arbor, Michigan, he lives in San Francisco with his wife. His most recent book, BREAK THE FRAME: CONVERSATIONS with WOMEN FILMMAKERS comes out next year from Oxford University Press. You can find and follow Kevin on Twitter @weegee and his website kevinsmokler.comAbout the host:Holly Lynn Payne is an award-winning novelist and writing coach, and the former CEO and founder of Booxby, a startup built to help authors succeed. She is an internationally published author of four historical fiction novels. Her debut, The Virgin's Knot, was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers book. As an author and writing coach, she knows that the first page of any book has to work so hard to do so much—hook the reader. So she thought to ask your favorite master storytellers how they do their magic to hook you. Holly lives in Marin County with her family and two Labrador retrievers, and enjoys mountain biking, hiking, swimming and pretending to surf. To learn more about her books and writing coaching services, please follow her on IG + X @hollylynnpayne or visit hollylynnpayne.com.Tune in and reach out:If you're an aspiring writer or a book lover, this episode of Page One offers a treasure trove of inspiration and practical advice. I offer these conversations as a testament to the magic that happens when master storytellers share their secrets and experiences. We hope you are inspired to tune into the full episode for more insights. Keep writing, keep reading, and remember—the world needs your stories. If I can help you tell your own story, or help improve your first page, please reach out @hollylynnpayne or visit hollylynnpayne.com.You can listen to Page One on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, Stitcher and all your favorite podcast players. Hear past episodes. If you're interested in getting writing tips and the latest podcast episode updates with the world's beloved master storytellers, please sign up for my very short monthly newsletter at hollylynnpayne.com and follow me @hollylynnpayne on Instagram, Twitter, Goodreads, and Facebook. Your email address is always private and you can always unsubscribe anytime. The Page One Podcast is created at the foot of a mountain in Marin County, California, and is a labor of love in service to writers and book lovers. My intention is to inspire, educate and celebrate. Thank you for being a part of my creative community! Be well and keep reading.~Holly~ Thank you for listening to the Page One Podcast, where master storytellers discuss the stories and struggles behind the critical first page of their books. If you liked this episode, please share it on social, leave a review on your favorite podcast players and tell your friends! I hope you enjoy this labor of love as much as I love hosting, producing, and editing it. Please keep in touch by signing up to receive my newsletter at www.hollylynnpayne.com with the latest episodes each month. Delivered to your inbox with a smile. For the love of books and writers,Holly Lynn Payne@hollylynnpaynewww.hollylynnpayne.com

In this episode of the Poetry Edition, Rose Postma interviews Josiah Cox about his poem “Everything That Rises.” Josiah is a writer, editor, and educator from Kansas City, Missouri. He holds an MAR from Yale Divinity School and an MFA from The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University, where he currently serves as a junior lecturer. He has served editorial roles with various journals and presses, including Yale University Press, The Yale Review, and The Hopkins Review. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/reformed-journal/message

The Context of White Supremacy welcomes J.C. Hallman. A White Man born and raised in Southern California. He studied writing at the University of Pittsburgh, the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins, and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Gus found out about Mr. Hallman in a recent American Medical Association presentation on “Truth and Reconciliation in Medicine.” They discussed the history of the AMA excluding black doctors and abusing black patients. Hallman was there to speak to his new book, Say Anarcha: A Young Woman, a Devious Surgeon, and the Harrowing Birth of Modern - just published this year. The book is narrative non-fiction and aims to remove the years of lies and varnish about former AMA president and the “father of gynecology,” Dr. J. Marion Sims. Sims owned slaves, and experimented on black male and female slaves, like Anarcha, without anesthesia to concoct medical “cures” that would benefit White Women. The book reveals much about the System of White Supremacy, and why black people continue to suffer from enormous health deficits. Right on cue, we once again discuss the unwillingness of authors and scholars, White and non-white, to report that White people lie or that White people rape black people. #MedicalAparhteid #WhiteIgnorance #TheCOWS14Years INVEST in The COWS – http://paypal.me/TheCOWS Cash App: https://cash.app/$TheCOWS CALL IN NUMBER: 605.313.5164 CODE: 564943#

In today's flashback, an outtake from Episode 647, my conversation with author Susan Choi. She won the National Book Award in 2019 for her novel Trust Exercise. This episode first aired on June 10, 2020. Susan's first novel, The Foreign Student, won the Asian-American Literary Award for fiction, and her second novel, American Woman, was a finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize. Her third novel, A Person of Interest, was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. Ander fourth novel, My Education, received a 2014 Lammy Award. ” She serves as a trustee of PEN America and teaches in The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. ‘ *** 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

Mary B. Banks is the owner of La Muse Press, LLC, an innovative publishing company that empowers women to release their inner Muse through journaling, writing, and publishing. Ms. Banks has over 15 years of writing and publishing experience. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Writing Seminars from Johns Hopkins University, a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and Publishing Arts from the University of Baltimore, and a Master of Professional Studies in Publishing from George Washington University. She is also the author of Street Magic: Stories and Tales (2011). @lamusepress @marybankswriter

Amanda Gunn reads a poem by Judy Grahn and the poem "Like This" from Amanda's new book Things I Didn't Do With This Body (Copper Canyon Press, 2023).  Quick Note: for today's episode, Amanda Gunn chose a long poem by the living poet Judy Grahn as her lineage work—while Judy Grahn is not a “poet of the past” Amanda's passion about this poem and this great figure of our current age was irresistible, so we end our Lineage series by reopening the present.  Queer Poem-a-Day Lineage Edition is our new format for year three! Featuring contemporary LGBTQIA+ poets reading a poem by an LGBTQIA+ writer of the past, followed by an original poem of their own. Queer Poem-a-Day is a program from the Adult Services Department at the Library and may include adult language.  Amanda Gunn is a poet, teacher, and doctoral candidate in English at Harvard where she studies poetry, ephemerality, and Black pleasure. Raised in Connecticut, she worked as a medical copyeditor for thirteen years before earning a master of fine arts degree in poetry from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins. She is a 2021-23 Wallace Stegner Fellow in poetry at Stanford, the inaugural winner of the Auburn Witness Poetry Prize honoring Jack Adam York, the recipient of a writing fellowship from the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, and the recipient of a Pushcart Prize. "Like This" was first published in Things I Didn't Do With This Body (Copper Canyon Press, 2023).  Text of today's original poem and more details about our program can be found at: deerfieldlibrary.org/queerpoemaday/ Queer Poem-a-Day is a program from the Adult Services Department at the Library and may include adult language.  Find books from participating poets in our library's catalog.  Queer Poem-a-Day is directed by poet and teacher Lisa Hiton and Dylan Zavagno, Adult Services Coordinator at the Deerfield Public Library. Music for this third year of our series is AIDS Ward Scherzo by Robert Savage, performed by pianist Daniel Baer. Queer Poem-a-Day is supported by generous donations from the Friends of the Deerfield Public Library and the Deerfield Fine Arts Commission. 

This week I am SO happy to be sharing my conversation with Nash Jenkins! Nash is a fellow alum of Johns Hopkins and as in the Writing Seminars program. Although we only overlapped briefly, I was so excited to hear the news that he had published his debut novel Foster Dade Explores the Cosmos. "When Foster Dade arrives at Kennedy, an elite boarding school in New Jersey, the year is 2008. Barack Obama begins his first term as president. Kanye West's “Graduation” bumps from the newly debuted iPhone; teenagers share confidences and rumors over BlackBerry Messenger and iChat. The internet as we know it today is slowly emerging from its cocoon. So, too, is Foster emerging—a transfer student and lonely young man, Foster is stumbling through adolescence in the wake of his parents' scandalous divorce and his own budding anxiety disorders. But Foster soon finds himself in the company of Annabeth Whittaker and Jack Albright, the twin centers of Kennedy's social gravity, who take him under their wing to navigate the cliques and politics of the carelessly entitled. Eighteen months later, Foster will be expelled, following a tragic scandal that leaves Kennedy and its students irreparably changed. But when a nameless student inherits Foster's old dorm room, he begins an epic years long investigation into what exactly happened. Through Foster's blog posts, playlists, text archives, and interviews with former classmates, and the narrator's own obsessive imagination, a story unfurls—Foster's, yes, but also one that asks us who owns our personal narratives, and how we shape ourselves to be the heroes or villains of our own stories. Foster Dade Explores the Cosmos is about privilege and power, the pitfalls of masculinity and its expectations, and, most distinctly, how we create the mythologies that give meaning to our lives. With his debut novel, Nash Jenkins brilliantly captures the emotional intensities of adolescence in the dizzying early years of the twenty-first century." Like myself, Nash as a new sophomore at a prestigious boarding school in New Jersey, and his time at Lawrenceville made an incredible impact on his life and his writing. In this podcast interview, Nash and I talk about the unique and complex nature of the boarding school experience, as well as the perfect and painful process of being a teenager with little sense of direction. I can honestly say that Foster Dade is one of the most beautiful and powerful books I have read in a very long time (and I have been reading a lot). To learn more about Nash and to buy his new book, you can visit: http://www.nashjenkins.com/ and follow him on Instagram @pnashjenkins. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/zoescurletis/support

Today, Courtney Zoffness discusses Spilt Milk (memoirs), why pregnancy and early parenthood is a fertile time for creatives (haha see what I did there), moving between fiction and nonfiction, “going long,” working with McSweeney's, and more!  Courtney Zoffness is the author of the memoir-in-essays SPILT MILK, out now in paperback. Spilt Milk was named a best debut of the year by BookPage and Refinery29, and a “must-read” by Publishers Weekly and Good Morning America. Also a fiction writer, Zoffness was the second-ever woman to win the Sunday Times Short Story Award, the most valuable international prize for short fiction, amid entries from 38 countries. She joined a list of winners that includes Anthony Doerr and Junot Díaz. Other honors include an Emerging Writers Fellowship from The Center for Fiction and two residency fellowships from MacDowell. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, The Paris Review Daily, Guernica, No Tokens, and elsewhere. Zoffness holds graduate degrees from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Arizona, and a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. She's taught at a dozen different institutions and delivered readings and talks at venues across the US and abroad. Currently she directs the creative writing program at Drew University. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, NY. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was our absolute honour to chat with literary agent queen, THE Rena Rossner. Rena is an absolute boss in the industry and has so many fantastic insights to share. A bit more about Rena: Rena Rossner hails from Miami Beach, Florida. She is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University's Writing Seminars program, Trinity College, Dublin, and she holds a MA in history from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Her debut novel, The Sisters of the Winter Wood, was listed as "One of the 100 Best Books" of the year by Publisher's Weekly. She currently lives in Israel, where she works as a Literary Agent at The Deborah Harris Agency. Her grandparents and great grandparents immigrated to the USA from Hungary, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, and Moldova - their stories, together with her love of Jewish mythology and fantasy, inspire her work. You can find Rena on Instagram: @renarossner And at The Deborah Harris Agency: www.thedeborahharrisagency.com/profile or at her website: https://renarossner.weebly.com/

Courtney Zoffness is the author of Spilt Milk, out now with McSweeney's, and forthcoming in paperback in September 2022. Spilt Milk was named a best debut of 2021 by BookPage and Refinery29, and a “must-read” by Good Morning America. Also a fiction writer, Zoffness won the 2018 Sunday Times Short Story Award, the most valuable international prize for short fiction, amid entries from 38 countries. She joined a list of winners that includes Anthony Doerr and Junot Díaz. Other honors include an Emerging Writers Fellowship from The Center for Fiction and two residency fellowships from MacDowell. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, The Paris Review, The Southern Review, Guernica, No Tokens, and other venues, and she had essays listed as “notable” in Best American Essays in2018 and 2019. Zoffness holds graduate degrees from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Arizona, and a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. She has taught English at a dozen different institutions, including Yale University and the University of Freiburg (Germany), and delivered readings and talks at venues across the US and abroad. Currently she directs the creative writing program at Drew University. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York. Books Recommended: Emerson Whitney, Heaven Carmen Marie Machado, In the Dream House Emily Fridlund, History of Wolves 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

Courtney Zoffness is the author of Spilt Milk, out now with McSweeney's, and forthcoming in paperback in September 2022. Spilt Milk was named a best debut of 2021 by BookPage and Refinery29, and a “must-read” by Good Morning America. Also a fiction writer, Zoffness won the 2018 Sunday Times Short Story Award, the most valuable international prize for short fiction, amid entries from 38 countries. She joined a list of winners that includes Anthony Doerr and Junot Díaz. Other honors include an Emerging Writers Fellowship from The Center for Fiction and two residency fellowships from MacDowell. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, The Paris Review, The Southern Review, Guernica, No Tokens, and other venues, and she had essays listed as “notable” in Best American Essays in2018 and 2019. Zoffness holds graduate degrees from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Arizona, and a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. She has taught English at a dozen different institutions, including Yale University and the University of Freiburg (Germany), and delivered readings and talks at venues across the US and abroad. Currently she directs the creative writing program at Drew University. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York. Books Recommended: Emerson Whitney, Heaven Carmen Marie Machado, In the Dream House Emily Fridlund, History of Wolves 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

Courtney Zoffness is the author of Spilt Milk, out now with McSweeney's, and forthcoming in paperback in September 2022. Spilt Milk was named a best debut of 2021 by BookPage and Refinery29, and a “must-read” by Good Morning America. Also a fiction writer, Zoffness won the 2018 Sunday Times Short Story Award, the most valuable international prize for short fiction, amid entries from 38 countries. She joined a list of winners that includes Anthony Doerr and Junot Díaz. Other honors include an Emerging Writers Fellowship from The Center for Fiction and two residency fellowships from MacDowell. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, The Paris Review, The Southern Review, Guernica, No Tokens, and other venues, and she had essays listed as “notable” in Best American Essays in2018 and 2019. Zoffness holds graduate degrees from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Arizona, and a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. She has taught English at a dozen different institutions, including Yale University and the University of Freiburg (Germany), and delivered readings and talks at venues across the US and abroad. Currently she directs the creative writing program at Drew University. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York. Books Recommended: Emerson Whitney, Heaven Carmen Marie Machado, In the Dream House Emily Fridlund, History of Wolves 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

Courtney Zoffness is the author of Spilt Milk, out now with McSweeney's, and forthcoming in paperback in September 2022. Spilt Milk was named a best debut of 2021 by BookPage and Refinery29, and a “must-read” by Good Morning America. Also a fiction writer, Zoffness won the 2018 Sunday Times Short Story Award, the most valuable international prize for short fiction, amid entries from 38 countries. She joined a list of winners that includes Anthony Doerr and Junot Díaz. Other honors include an Emerging Writers Fellowship from The Center for Fiction and two residency fellowships from MacDowell. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, The Paris Review, The Southern Review, Guernica, No Tokens, and other venues, and she had essays listed as “notable” in Best American Essays in2018 and 2019. Zoffness holds graduate degrees from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Arizona, and a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. She has taught English at a dozen different institutions, including Yale University and the University of Freiburg (Germany), and delivered readings and talks at venues across the US and abroad. Currently she directs the creative writing program at Drew University. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York. Books Recommended: Emerson Whitney, Heaven Carmen Marie Machado, In the Dream House Emily Fridlund, History of Wolves 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

Alexis Sears's first book, Out of Order, won the the 2021 Donald Justice Poetry Prize and was just published by Autumn House Press. Alexis received her BA in Writing Seminars from Johns Hopkins University and her M.F.A. in poetry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her work has been widely published, including in Rattle's Poets Respond last month with her "Heartbreak Ghazal." She was a scholar at the Sewanee Writers' Conference in 2019. Currently, she teaches 9th grade English in Oakland, California. Find more at: https://www.alexissears.com/ As always, we'll also include live open lines for responses to our weekly prompt or any other poems you'd like to share. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins. For links to all the past episodes, visit: https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/ This Week's Prompt (from Katie Bickham): Take any abstraction like sorrow, envy, loneliness, desire, homesickness, hope, etc. and make that your title. Then the body of the poem is simply a description of that abstraction using ONLY concrete images and stories. Three great examples are Anne Sexton's "Courage," Stephen Dunn's "Tenderness," and Jane Kenyon's "Happiness." Next Week's Prompt: Write a canzone that confesses something. The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world's leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now. In this episode, Andrew is joined by Emma Brodie, author of Songs in Ursa Major. Emma Brodie has worked in book publishing for a decade, most recently as an executive editor at Little, Brown's Voracious imprint. She graduated from the Johns Hopkins University's Writing Seminars program, and is a longtime contributor to HuffPost and a faculty member at Catapult. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and their dog, Freddie Mercury. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 213 - Erica Anderson-Senter. Dan Sterenchuk and Tommy Estlund are honored to have as our guest, Erica Anderson-Senter. Erica Anderson-Senter lives and writes in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She teaches high school English and Creative Writing. Her first full length collection, Midwestern Poet's Incomplete Guide to Symbolism, is available through EastOver Press. Her work has also appeared in Tinderbox Poetry Journal, the once CrabFat Magazine, Midwestern Gothic, Off the Coast, and Dialogist among others. Her chapbook, seven days now, was published by The Dandelion Review. Erica hosts free literary events throughout her city to bring poetry to the public. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing through the Writing Seminars at Bennington College in Bennington, Vermont. Buy book: Midwestern Poet's Incomplete Guide To Symbolism https://eastoverpress.com/books/poetry/a-midwestern-poets-incomplete-guide-to-symbolism/ https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781934894675 https://www.amazon.com/Midwestern-Poets-Incomplete-Guide-Symbolism/dp/1934894672 Social Media: https://www.instagram.com/ericaann/ https://www.tiktok.com/@oldladybingbong https://twitter.com/tinytoadstool Note: Guests create their own bio description for each episode. The Curiosity Hour Podcast is hosted and produced by Dan Sterenchuk and Tommy Estlund. The Curiosity Hour Podcast is listener supported! The easiest way to donate is via the Venmo app and you can donate to (at symbol) CuriosityHour (Download app here: venmo.com) The Curiosity Hour Podcast is available free on 13 platforms: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible, Soundcloud, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, Podbean, PlayerFM, Castbox, and Pocket Casts. Disclaimers: The Curiosity Hour Podcast may contain content not suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion advised. The views and opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are solely those of the guest(s). These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of The Curiosity Hour Podcast. This podcast may contain explicit language. The Public Service Announcement near the end of the episode solely represents the views of Tommy and Dan and not our guests or our listeners. Tommy and Dan requested and were provided with a review copy of the book in preparation for interviewing Erica. Thank you to the publisher and Erica for providing us with these books.

Our guests this week are The Hopkins Review's Dora Malech and Kosiso Ugweuze. They joined us to talk about the literary journal's recent dramatic redesign, and what's in store for the publication's bright future. Dora Malech an associate professor in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and the new editor-in-chief of The Hopkins Review. She has written four books of poetry: Flourish (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2020), Stet (Princeton University Press, 2018), Say So (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2011), and Shore Ordered Ocean (2009). With Laura T. Smith, she is the co-editor of The American Sonnet: An Anthology of Essays and Poems, forthcoming from the University of Iowa Press in 2022. Kosiso Ugwueze is a Pushcart Prize-nominated writer and editor. She was born in Enugu, Nigeria and raised in Southern California. Her short stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Joyland, Gulf Coast, Subtropics, and the New England Review, among others.Kosiso is an MFA candidate in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University where she's the managing editor of The Hopkins Review.

The wonderful Rena Rossner joins us to talk about how she wrote her debut YA crossover novel, THE SISTERS OF THE WINTER WOOD (Orbit, 2018). Rena has so much wisdom to share about writing the book only you can write, why novels in verse are so powerful, and writing scenes out of order. We also go into her submission story -- which includes getting to acquisitions *twice* with no success -- and the struggle of writing her second book, THE LIGHT OF THE MIDNIGHT STARS (Orbit, 2021). Rena Rossner hails from Miami Beach, Florida. She is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University's Writing Seminars program, Trinity College, Dublin, and she holds a MA in history from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Her debut novel, The Sisters of the Winter Wood, was listed as "One of the 100 Best Books" of the year by Publisher's Weekly. She currently lives in Israel, where she works as a Literary Agent at The Deborah Harris Agency. Her grandparents and great grandparents immigrated to the USA from Hungary, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, and Moldova - their stories, together with her love of Jewish mythology and fantasy, inspire her work. Check out Rena's website. Follow her on Twitter! Rena is a literary agent at The Deborah Harris Agency. Her manuscript wish list page is here.

EMMA BRODIE has worked in book publishing for a decade, most recently as an executive editor at Little, Brown's Voracious imprint. She graduated from the Johns Hopkins University's Writing Seminars program, and is a longtime contributor to HuffPost and a faculty member at Catapult. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and their dog, Freddie Mercury. Songs in Ursa Major is her debut novel. How Do You Write Podcast: Explore the processes of working writers with bestselling author Rachael Herron. Want tips on how to write the book you long to finish? Here you'll gain insight from other writers on how to get in the chair, tricks to stay in it, and inspiration to get your own words flowing. Join Rachael's Slack channel, Onward Writers: https://join.slack.com/t/onwardwriters/shared_invite/zt-7a3gorfm-C15cTKh_47CEdWIBW~RKwg See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In conversation with Danielle Evans Pulling the delicate threads of ''fear and vulnerability, joy and passion, the capacity for love and pain and grief'' (The Washington Post), Alice McDermott's fictional narratives explore intersecting stories of familial love, Irish American culture and assimilation, and the lessons of adulthood. Her novels include Someone; Charming Billy, winner of the 1998 National Book Award; That Night; At Weddings and Wakes; and After This, all of which were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. For more than 20 years McDermott was the Richard A. Macksey Professor of the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University and on the Sewanee Writers Conference faculty. She has contributed writing to The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, and The New York Times, among many other periodicals. In What About the Baby?, McDermott shares a collection of essays inspired from a lifetime of reading, writing, and teaching literature. Danielle Evans is the author of the story collections The Office of Historical Corrections and Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self, winner of the PEN America PEN/Robert W. Bingham prize, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the Paterson Prize, and a National Book Foundation 5 under 35 selection. She teaches in The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. (recorded 9/20/2021)

Evonne Marzouk has spent her career in pursuit of inspiring others, making a difference, and bringing Jewish wisdom into the world. In this episode, Evonne and I go deep into discussing Jewish mysticism. Following the theme of Growing Into Your Gifts in Evonne's novel “The Prophetess”, we discuss how wisdom teachings have impacted our lives - both from a pragmatic and mystical perspective. The teachings of Judaism have been around for thousands of years, and have provided countless people with insight into life's most difficult questions. There is an amazing connection between ourselves and the divine, and coming into ‘contact' with the divine can have profound positive transformations on your life. Connecting with faith (emunah) and experiencing the light of consciousness can provide a deep sense of connectedness and peace to the turbulent lives we live. One of the main ways people connect with God is through meditation - a practice that is generally thought to be exclusive to Eastern wisdom traditions, but is actually also a fundamental part of Jewish mystical teachings. Taking the time to consciously experience life, nature, ourselves, and divinity is both the means and outcome of mediation. There is so much wisdom available in the world - we need only allow ourselves the opportunity to find and connect with it at a deep level, and the majesty of the universe will begin to reveal itself.  Support Evonne's Kickstarter project, The "Grow Into Your Gifts" Bat Mitzvah Present. Providing a present that inspires young women with Jewish wisdom... and empowers them to grow into all their gifts. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1044547715/the-grow-into-your-gifts-bat-mitzvah-present  Get a copy of Evonne's book The Prophetess: A Novel https://www.amazon.com/Prophetess-Novel-Evonne-Marzouk/dp/161088504X  Exploring modern adolescent anxieties and ancient mystical teachings, The Prophetess is a story about faith and sacrifice, promises kept through generations, and how, through the support of others, we can grow bigger than we ever believed we could be. Evonne Marzouk Evonne Marzouk has spent her career in pursuit of inspiring others, making a difference, and bringing Jewish wisdom into the world.  She grew up in Philadelphia and began writing and publishing poems and stories as a young child. Evonne attended the Johns Hopkins University and received a B.A. from the Writing Seminars program, with a minor in Religious Studies. Evonne founded and is the former director of Canfei Nesharim (recently merged with GrowTorah), an organization that teaches Jewish wisdom about protecting the environment.  Evonne began work for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1999 and has played key roles in work on the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation, the Minamata Convention on Mercury, and the Global Alliance to Eliminate Lead Paint. Throughout all these activities, publishing a novel has been one of Evonne's lifelong dreams.  She is incredibly grateful, and sometimes amazed, that the moment has finally arrived.    More of Evonne: Book website: https://www.evonnemarzouk.com/   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/evonne.marzouk/   Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/evonnemarz/  More of Shane:  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-pokroy/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/shanepokroy/ Facebook

We chat with author Rena Rossner about her new book, inserting ourselves into historical fiction, the fairy tales of her youth, and looking beyond the golem in Jewish folktales.    Content Warning: This episode contains conversations about or mentions of antisemitism, leprosy/illness, pandemic, conflict/war, bigotry, cultural erasure, and misogyny.    Guest Rena Rossner hails from Miami Beach, Florida. She is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University's Writing Seminars program, Trinity College, Dublin, and she holds a MA in history from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Her debut novel, The Sisters of the Winter Wood, was listed as "One of the 100 Best Books" of the year by Publisher's Weekly. She currently lives in Israel, where she works as a Literary Agent at The Deborah Harris Agency. Her grandparents and great grandparents immigrated to the USA from Hungary, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, and Moldova - their stories, together with her love of Jewish mythology and fantasy, inspire her work. Her most recent book is The Light of the Midnight Stars, which is now available.    Housekeeping - Recommendation: This week, Amanda recommends Gods & Lies from Realm. - Books: Check out our previous book recommendations, guests’ books, and more at spiritspodcast.com/books - Call to Action: Check out our merch at spiritspodcast.com/merch, including the expansion for our coloring book!      Sponsors - Stitch Fix is an online personal styling service that finds and delivers clothes, shoes, and accessories to fit your body, budget, and lifestyle. Get started at stitchfix.com/spirits for 25% off when you keep your whole box! - Skillshare is an online learning community where you can learn—and teach—just about anything. Explore your creativity at Skillshare.com/spirits and get a two week free trial of Premium Membership. This week Amanda recommends “Writing for Expression: How to Make Your Words More Artful & Lyrical” by Hanif Abdurraqib. - Function of Beauty is hair care formulated specifically for you. Save 20% off your first order at functionofbeauty.com/spirits   Find Us Online If you like Spirits, help us grow by spreading the word! Follow us @SpiritsPodcast on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Goodreads. You can support us on Patreon (http://patreon.com/spiritspodcast) to unlock bonus Your Urban Legends episodes, director’s commentaries, custom recipe cards, and so much more. We also have lists of our book recommendations and previous guests’ books at http://spiritspodcast.com/books. Transcripts are available at http://spiritspodcast.com/episodes. To buy merch, hear us on other podcasts, contact us, find our mailing address, or download our press kit, head on over to http://spiritspodcast.com.   About Us Spirits was created by Julia Schifini, Amanda McLoughlin and Eric Schneider. We are founding members of Multitude, an independent podcast collective and production studio. Our music is "Danger Storm" by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0.

Danielle Evans, author of The Office of Historical Corrections, will be in conversation with Laura van den Berg. Presented in partnership with CityLit Project. Danielle Evans is widely acclaimed for her blisteringly smart voice and x-ray insights into complex human relationships. With The Office of Historical Corrections, Evans zooms in on particular moments and relationships in her characters’ lives in a way that allows them to speak to larger issues of race, culture, and history. She introduces us to Black and multiracial characters who are experiencing the universal confusions of lust and love, and getting walloped by grief—all while exploring how history haunts us, personally and collectively. Ultimately, she provokes us to think about the truths of American history—about who gets to tell them, and the cost of setting the record straight. Danielle Evans is the author of the story collection Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self, winner of the PEN America PEN/Robert W. Bingham prize, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the Paterson Prize, and a National Book Foundation "5 under 35" selection. Her stories have appeared in many magazines and anthologies, including The Best American Short Stories. She teaches in The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. Laura van den Berg is the author of the story collections What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us,The Isle of Youth, and I Hold a Wolf by the Ears, which was named a Best Book of 2020 by TIME. and the novels Find Me and The Third Hotel, which was a finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award and named a Best Book of 2018 by over a dozen publications. She is the recipient of a Rosenthal Family Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Bard Fiction Prize, a PEN/O. Henry Prize, a MacDowell Colony fellowship, and is a two-time finalist for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. Born and raised in Florida, Laura splits her time between the Boston area and Central Florida, with her husband and dog. Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Canadian-American poet James Arthur is the author of The Suicide’s Son (Véhicule Press, 2019) and Charms Against Lightning (Copper Canyon Press, 2012). His poems have also appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, The New York Review of Books, The American Poetry Review, The New Republic, and the London Review of Books. He has received the Amy Lowell Travelling Poetry Scholarship, a Hodder Fellowship, a Stegner Fellowship, a Discovery/The Nation Prize, a Fulbright Scholarship to Northern Ireland, and a Visiting Fellowship at Exeter College, Oxford. Arthur lives in Baltimore, where he teaches in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. George David Clark’s Reveille (Arkansas, 2015) won the Miller Williams Prize and his recent poems can be found in AGNI, The Georgia Review, The Gettysburg Review, Ecotone, The Southern Review, and elsewhere. The editor of 32 Poems, he teaches creative writing at Washington and Jefferson College and lives in western Pennsylvania with his wife and their four young children.Read "Wind" by James Arthur.Read "Black Igloo" by George David Clark.Recorded On: Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Canadian-American poet James Arthur is the author of The Suicide’s Son (Véhicule Press, 2019) and Charms Against Lightning (Copper Canyon Press, 2012). His poems have also appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, The New York Review of Books, The American Poetry Review, The New Republic, and the London Review of Books. He has received the Amy Lowell Travelling Poetry Scholarship, a Hodder Fellowship, a Stegner Fellowship, a Discovery/The Nation Prize, a Fulbright Scholarship to Northern Ireland, and a Visiting Fellowship at Exeter College, Oxford. Arthur lives in Baltimore, where he teaches in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. George David Clark’s Reveille (Arkansas, 2015) won the Miller Williams Prize and his recent poems can be found in AGNI, The Georgia Review, The Gettysburg Review, Ecotone, The Southern Review, and elsewhere. The editor of 32 Poems, he teaches creative writing at Washington and Jefferson College and lives in western Pennsylvania with his wife and their four young children.Read "Wind" by James Arthur.Read "Black Igloo" by George David Clark.

“We are all healthier when we live in a culturally diverse world. When there are more stories that are accessible to us when every voice is part of every cultural conversation. It's not about excluding traditional voices. It's about expanding the range of what people know is there.” If you are a playwright or someone who is just starting to write plays, then you must know the New Play Exchange. We had the pleasure of interviewing writer, innovator, and arts advocate, Gwydion Suilebhan. He serves as both the Executive Director of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and the chief architect and evangelist of the New Play Exchange for the National New Play Network. He is also a co-founder of The Welders, award-winning playwrights collective in Washington DC. He's the author of several plays, and he has a Master of Arts in poetry from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. His forthcoming series All Souls is currently in post-production. To learn more about Gwydion and his work, you can visit the following links Website: www.suilebhan.com NPX Profile: newplayexchange.org/users/104/gwydion-suilebhan Or follow him on Twitter @GwydionS RELATED LINKS: Gwydion's New Series “For All Souls” www.forallsouls.com/ Tanuja Jagernauth's “Public Newsroom 124: Creating A World Beyond Racism and Fascism" on Nov 7th at City Bureau in Chicago. www.facebook.com/events/2446259125645248/ _____________________________________________ Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode to your friends, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: @beckettsbabies And as always, we would love to hear from you! Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting and we might discuss it in our next episode. Email: contact@beckettsbabies.com For more info, visit our website: www.beckettsbabies.com38. Interview with Gwydion Suilebhan --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/beckettsbabies/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/beckettsbabies/support

“We are all healthier when we live in a culturally diverse world. When there are more stories that are accessible to us when every voice is part of every cultural conversation. It’s not about excluding traditional voices. It’s about expanding the range of what people know is there." If you are a playwright or someone who is just starting to write plays, then you must know the New Play Exchange. We had the pleasure of interviewing writer, innovator, and arts advocate, Gwydion Suilebhan. He serves as both the Executive Director of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and the chief architect and evangelist of the New Play Exchange for the National New Play Network. He is also a co-founder of The Welders, award-winning playwrights collective in Washington DC. He’s the author of several plays, and he has a Master of Arts in poetry from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. His forthcoming series All Souls is currently in post-production. To learn more about Gwydion and his work, you can visit the following links Website: http://www.suilebhan.com NPX Profile: https://newplayexchange.org/users/104/gwydion-suilebhan Or follow him on Twitter @GwydionS LINKS: Gwydion’s New Series “For All Souls” http://www.forallsouls.com/ Tanuja Jagernauth’s “Public Newsroom 124: Creating A World Beyond Racism and Fascism" on Nov 7th at City Bureau in Chicago. https://www.facebook.com/events/2446259125645248/ _____________________________________________ Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode to your friends, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: @beckettsbabies And as always, we would love to hear from you! Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting and we might discuss it in our next episode. Email: contact@beckettsbabies.com For more info, visit our website: www.beckettsbabies.com

Dora Malech is the guest. Her most recent poetry collection, Stet, is available from Princeton University Press. Malech's other collections include Say So (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2011), and Shore Ordered Ocean (Waywiser Press, 2009). Her fourth collection, Flourish, will be published by Carnegie Mellon University Press in 2020.  Malech has been the recipient of an Amy Clampitt Residency Award from the Amy Clampitt Fund, a Mary Sawyers Baker Prize from the Baker Artist Awards, a Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, and a Writing Residency Fellowship from the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, and she has served as Distinguished Poet-in-Residence at Saint Mary's College of California. She is a co-founder and former director of the arts engagement organization the Iowa Youth Writing Projects, and she is currently an assistant professor in The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest this week is highly acclaimed poet Mary Jo Salter, whom Dan Chiasson described as "one of America's most accomplished formalists" in the New York Review of Books. I first met Mary Jo on the day I married her niece, over 22 years ago. Since then I've been fortunate to speak with her on several occasions, and always enjoy our discussions. I'm very pleased to share with you our latest conversation, which focused on the creation and experience of poetry, including: The difficulty in defining poetry The universality of poetry, told from a specific human being's point of view The connection between poetry and dreams The involvement of the unconscious mind in creating poetry The challenge of transforming experience into language What inspires us to create art The unpredictability of writing poetry Being open to the possibility of poetry The difficulty in being objective about one’s own writing The use of Biblical allusion in poetry Why it’s hard to binge read poetry The poet Amy Lowell, author of "To a Friend” The connection of poetry to place Poetry as a way of entering more fully into our moment-to-moment experience The importance of concision and lyricism in poetry The intersection of emotion and poetry Whatever your background in poetry, I encourage you to listen to this episode, as Mary Jo has a gift for making poetry accessible. Mary Jo was kind enough to read some of her poetry, including "Distance" and "Wreckage" from A Kiss in Space (one of my favorite collections), an excerpt from "Another Session" from Open Shutters, and "Little Men" and part of the title poem from The Surveyors. (A percentage of sales through these affiliate links will be used to support the podcast, at no additional cost to you.) As Mary Jo describes in our discussion, "The Surveyors" was inspired by a letter from Matthew Yeager; you can find some of his work here: Matthew Yeager poetry. Photo by Marina Levitskaya Mary Jo Salter is Krieger-Eisenhower Professor in The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. She is the author of eight books of poetry published by Alfred A. Knopf, most recently The Surveyors (2017) and Nothing by Design (2013), as well as a children’s book, The Moon Comes Home (1989). She is an essayist, playwright, and lyricist, whose poems and lyrics have been set to music by Fred Hersch and Caroline Shaw. She is also one of three co-editors of The Norton Anthology of Poetry (6th edition, 2018). To hear Mary Jo read more of her poetry, please visit the PoetryArchive.org. You can find more of her work at PoetryFoundation.org and Poets.org.

Sabrina Must is the author of Must Girls Love, a memoir, and Living Witnesses, the Holocaust Survivor series. Passionate about using personal experiences to inspire others to be more open and real, she runs the lifestyle blog SabrinaMust.com, where she shares about her travel adventures as well as grief, wellness, dating, and more. She teaches at the University of California, San Diego, has a Bachelors in Writing Seminars from Johns Hopkins University and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Northwestern University, and operates WriteLessBad, a content creation marketing firm for clients worldwide. You can often find her biking with her pug Monkey in San Diego.   If you know a entrepreneur in the San Diego market that has a unique story of over coming adversity we would love to share their story. Call Vinnie SD at 858-345-7829

Painted Bride Quarterly presents another especially excellent episode of Slush Pile. This is of course because we are joined by Pushcart Prize winner and newly annointed #PeopleOfThePile BJ Ward! BJ Ward is an American poet. Ward is a recipient of the Pushcart Prize (Anthology XXVIII, 2004) for poetry and two Distinguished Artist Fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. He has published three full books of poetry and has been featured in many journals including: Cerebellum, Edison Literary Review, Journal of Jersey Poets, Kimera, Lips, Long Shot, Maelstrom, Mid-American Review, Natural Bridge, Painted Bride Quarterly, Poetry, Puerto del Sol, Prairie Winds, Spitball, and TriQuarterly. His poem "For the Children of the World Trade Center Victims," is cast in bronze and featured at Grounds for Sculpture, an outdoor sculpture museum in Hamilton, New Jersey. Ward is an Assistant Professor of English at Warren County Community College and has served as University Distinguished Fellow at Syracuse University. BJ Ward is an active educator in a number of realms. He teaches writing workshops in the public school system throughout New Jersey, and his work there earns him yearly residencies in many school districts. After introductions, and Kathleen teasing a potential tale regarding flea killing solution, we dive into two pieces by James Arthur, On a Marble Portrait Bust in Worcester, Massachusetts and Study. James Arthur was born in Connecticut and grew up in Toronto. He is the author of The Suicide’s Son (Véhicule Press 2019) and Charms Against Lightning (Copper Canyon Press, 2012.) His poems have also appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, The New York Review of Books, and The London Review of Books. He has received the Amy Lowell Travelling Poetry Scholarship, a Hodder Fellowship, a Stegner Fellowship, a Discovery/The Nation Prize, and a Fulbright Scholarship. Arthur lives in Baltimore, where he teaches in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. In 2019, he is Visiting Fellow at Exeter College, University of Oxford. Bj offers a masterful observation in his analysis of Study, which offers the reader a bit of an interesting existential question. After Marion is untimely raptured, and Tim’s emphatic urging for Ali to fight guests of the Podcast, the gang votes on the first piece before moving on to On a Marble Portrait Bust in Worcester, Massachusetts. The editors offer a gambit of opinions on the piece and eventually come to a final vote. After the poems are voted on Kathleen regales the listeners with a tale about CBD oil and Flea remover, in addition to praising the benefits of the substance. How did the poems do? Did they make the cut? Listen On and find out!

Elizabeth Spires (born in 1952 in Lancaster, Ohio) is the author of seven poetry collections: Globe, Swan’s Island, Annonciade, Worldling, Now the Green Blade Rises, The Wave-Maker, and, newly published,  A Memory of the Future. She has also written six books for children, including The Mouse of Amherst and I Heard God Talking to Me: William Edmondson and His Stone Carvings. Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Poetry, American Poetry Review, and other magazines and anthologies.  She lives in Baltimore and is a professor at Goucher College where she co-directs the Kratz Center for Creative Writing.David Yezzi’s most recent books of poems are Birds of the Air and Black Sea, both from Carnegie Mellon. His verse play, Schnauzer, is forthcoming later this year from Exot Books. He is chair of the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins and editor of The Hopkins Review.​Read "The Streaming" by Elizabeth Spires.Read "Crane" by David Yezzi.Recorded On: Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Elizabeth Spires (born in 1952 in Lancaster, Ohio) is the author of seven poetry collections: Globe, Swan’s Island, Annonciade, Worldling, Now the Green Blade Rises, The Wave-Maker, and, newly published,  A Memory of the Future. She has also written six books for children, including The Mouse of Amherst and I Heard God Talking to Me: William Edmondson and His Stone Carvings. Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Poetry, American Poetry Review, and other magazines and anthologies.  She lives in Baltimore and is a professor at Goucher College where she co-directs the Kratz Center for Creative Writing.David Yezzi’s most recent books of poems are Birds of the Air and Black Sea, both from Carnegie Mellon. His verse play, Schnauzer, is forthcoming later this year from Exot Books. He is chair of the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins and editor of The Hopkins Review.​Read "The Streaming" by Elizabeth Spires.Read "Crane" by David Yezzi.

Poet Mary Jo Salter discusses and reads from her latest collection The Surveyors. Salter is a coeditor of The Norton Anthology of Poetry and a professor in The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. On April 19th, 2018, Salter gave a reading as a guest of the UO's Creative Writing Program.

1920s India: Perveen Mistry, Bombay’s first female lawyer, is investigating a suspicious will on behalf of three Muslim widows… when the case takes a turn toward the murderous.The Widows of Malabar Hill is a richly wrought story of multicultural 1920s Bombay as well as the debut of a sharp and promising new sleuth. The author of the Agatha and Macavity Award-winning Rei Shimura novels brings us an atmospheric new historical mystery with a captivating heroine. Mistry Law has been appointed to execute the will of Mr. Omar Farid, a wealthy Muslim mill owner who has left three widows behind. But as Perveen examines the paperwork, she notices something strange: all three of the wives have signed over their full inheritance to a charity. The Farid widows live in full purdah—in strict seclusion, never leaving the women’s quarters or speaking to any men. Are they being taken advantage of by an unscrupulous guardian? Perveen tries to investigate, and realizes her instincts were correct when tensions escalate to murder. Now it is her responsibility to figure out what really happened on Malabar Hill, and to ensure that no innocent women or children are in further danger. MALABAR HILL earned 3 starred reviews and is a terrific read.  Sujata Massey is the author of thirteen novels, two novellas, and numerous short stories. Her work is published in seventeen countries. Born in England to parents from India and Germany, she was raised mostly in Minnesota, although her home for is now Baltimore, Maryland. She holds a B.A. in the Writing Seminars from the Johns Hopkins University and was a features reporter for the Baltimore Evening Sun newspaper before becoming a full-time novelist. This is a trademarked copyrighted podcast solely owned by the Authors on the Air Global Radio Network LLC. 

Hilary S. Jacqmin's first book of poems, Missing Persons, was published by Waywiser Press in spring 2017. She earned her BA from Wesleyan University, her MA from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University, and her MFA from the University of Florida. She lives in Baltimore, where she is an associate production editor at Johns Hopkins University Press. Her work has appeared in 32 Poems, Painted Bride Quarterly, PANK, Best New Poets, DIAGRAM, FIELD, and elsewhere.Greg Williamson is the author of four volumes of poetry: The Silent Partner, Errors in the Script, A Most Marvelous Piece of Luck, and The Hole Story of Kirby the Sneak and Arlo the True. He has received an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Whiting Writers’ Award, the Nicholas Roerich Prize, an NEA Grant in Poetry, and others. His poetry has been published in more than 50 periodicals and several anthologies, including The Norton Anthology of Poetry. He teaches in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University.Michele Wolf is the author of Immersion (Hilary Tham Capital Collection, The Word Works, selected by Denise Duhamel), Conversations During Sleep (Anhinga Prize for Poetry, Anhinga Press, chosen by Peter Meinke), and The Keeper of Light (Painted Bride Quarterly Poetry Chapbook Series, selected by J.T. Barbarese). Her poems have also appeared in Poetry, The Hudson Review, The Southern Review, The North American Review, and many other journals and anthologies, as well as on Poetry Daily and Verse Daily. A contributing editor for Poet Lore, she teaches at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda and lives in Gaithersburg, Maryland.Read "Coupling" by Hilary S. Jacqmin. Read "Drawing Hands" by Greg Williamson. Read "The Great Tsunami" by Michele Wolf.Recorded On: Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Hilary S. Jacqmin's first book of poems, Missing Persons, was published by Waywiser Press in spring 2017. She earned her BA from Wesleyan University, her MA from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University, and her MFA from the University of Florida. She lives in Baltimore, where she is an associate production editor at Johns Hopkins University Press. Her work has appeared in 32 Poems, Painted Bride Quarterly, PANK, Best New Poets, DIAGRAM, FIELD, and elsewhere.Greg Williamson is the author of four volumes of poetry: The Silent Partner, Errors in the Script, A Most Marvelous Piece of Luck, and The Hole Story of Kirby the Sneak and Arlo the True. He has received an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Whiting Writers’ Award, the Nicholas Roerich Prize, an NEA Grant in Poetry, and others. His poetry has been published in more than 50 periodicals and several anthologies, including The Norton Anthology of Poetry. He teaches in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University.Michele Wolf is the author of Immersion (Hilary Tham Capital Collection, The Word Works, selected by Denise Duhamel), Conversations During Sleep (Anhinga Prize for Poetry, Anhinga Press, chosen by Peter Meinke), and The Keeper of Light (Painted Bride Quarterly Poetry Chapbook Series, selected by J.T. Barbarese). Her poems have also appeared in Poetry, The Hudson Review, The Southern Review, The North American Review, and many other journals and anthologies, as well as on Poetry Daily and Verse Daily. A contributing editor for Poet Lore, she teaches at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda and lives in Gaithersburg, Maryland.Read "Coupling" by Hilary S. Jacqmin. Read "Drawing Hands" by Greg Williamson. Read "The Great Tsunami" by Michele Wolf.

Elizabeth Hazen is a poet and essayist whose work has appeared in Best American Poetry 2013, Southwest Review, The Threepenny Review, The Normal School, and other journals. She earned her BA at Yale and her MA at Johns Hopkins where she was a student in The Writing Seminars. She teaches English at Calvert School in Baltimore, Maryland, where she lives with her son, Gregory, and their cat Ferdinand. Chaos Theories is her first book.Rose Solari is the author of three full-length collections of poetry, The Last Girl, Orpheus in the Park, and Difficult Weather, the one-act play, Looking for Guenevere, and the novel, A Secret Woman. She has lectured and taught writing workshops at many institutions, including the University of Maryland, College Park; St. John’s College, Annapolis, Maryland; the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University; and the Centre for Creative Writing at the University of Oxford’s Kellogg College in Oxford, England. In 2010, she co-founded Alan Squire Publishing (ASP), a collaborative indie publishing initiative, with James J. Patterson; in 2012, ASP became an imprint of the Santa Fe Writers Project (SFWP). Rose’s awards include the Randall Jarrell Poetry Prize, an EMMA award for excellence in journalism, and multiple grants.Read four poems by Elizabeth Hazen.Read three poems by Rose Solari.

Elizabeth Hazen is a poet and essayist whose work has appeared in Best American Poetry 2013, Southwest Review, The Threepenny Review, The Normal School, and other journals. She earned her BA at Yale and her MA at Johns Hopkins where she was a student in The Writing Seminars. She teaches English at Calvert School in Baltimore, Maryland, where she lives with her son, Gregory, and their cat Ferdinand. Chaos Theories is her first book.Rose Solari is the author of three full-length collections of poetry, The Last Girl, Orpheus in the Park, and Difficult Weather, the one-act play, Looking for Guenevere, and the novel, A Secret Woman. She has lectured and taught writing workshops at many institutions, including the University of Maryland, College Park; St. John’s College, Annapolis, Maryland; the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University; and the Centre for Creative Writing at the University of Oxford’s Kellogg College in Oxford, England. In 2010, she co-founded Alan Squire Publishing (ASP), a collaborative indie publishing initiative, with James J. Patterson; in 2012, ASP became an imprint of the Santa Fe Writers Project (SFWP). Rose’s awards include the Randall Jarrell Poetry Prize, an EMMA award for excellence in journalism, and multiple grants.Read four poems by Elizabeth Hazen.Read three poems by Rose Solari.Recorded On: Tuesday, April 25, 2017

James Arthur and Joseph Harrison read from and talk about their work.James Arthur’s poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, The New York Review of Books, The New Republic, and The American Poetry Review. He has received the Amy Lowell Travelling Poetry Scholarship, a Wallace Stegner Fellowship, a Hodder Fellowship, and a Discovery/The Nation Prize. His first book, Charms Against Lightning, was published by Copper Canyon Press. Arthur lives in Baltimore and teaches in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. During 2016 he will be the Fulbright Distinguished Scholar in Creative Writing at Queen’s University Belfast.Joseph Harrison is the author of Someone Else’s Name (2003), Identity Theft (2008), and Shakespeare’s Horse (2015), all published by Waywiser Press. Some of his early poems are anthologized in The Fly in the Ointment (20th anniversary edition, Syllabic Press, 2014). His honors include an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a fellowship in poetry from the Guggenheim Foundation. He is the Senior American Editor for Waywiser Press, and the editor of The Hecht Prize Anthology (Waywiser, 2011). He lives in Baltimore.Read "The Land of Nod" and "A Local History" by James Arthur.Read "Shakespeare's Horse" and "Dr. Johnson Rolls Down a Hill" by Joseph Harrison.

James Arthur and Joseph Harrison read from and talk about their work.James Arthur’s poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, The New York Review of Books, The New Republic, and The American Poetry Review. He has received the Amy Lowell Travelling Poetry Scholarship, a Wallace Stegner Fellowship, a Hodder Fellowship, and a Discovery/The Nation Prize. His first book, Charms Against Lightning, was published by Copper Canyon Press. Arthur lives in Baltimore and teaches in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. During 2016 he will be the Fulbright Distinguished Scholar in Creative Writing at Queen’s University Belfast.Joseph Harrison is the author of Someone Else’s Name (2003), Identity Theft (2008), and Shakespeare’s Horse (2015), all published by Waywiser Press. Some of his early poems are anthologized in The Fly in the Ointment (20th anniversary edition, Syllabic Press, 2014). His honors include an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a fellowship in poetry from the Guggenheim Foundation. He is the Senior American Editor for Waywiser Press, and the editor of The Hecht Prize Anthology (Waywiser, 2011). He lives in Baltimore.Read "The Land of Nod" and "A Local History" by James Arthur.Read "Shakespeare's Horse" and "Dr. Johnson Rolls Down a Hill" by Joseph Harrison.Recorded On: Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Speciat guest Sabrina Must graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 2008 with a Bachelors in Writing Seminars and from Northwestern University in 2012 with a Masters in Writing. Her passion for writing is seen in her three publications: Must Girls Love, a memoir; Living Witnesses: Faces of the Holocaust; and Living Witnesses: Triumph Over Tragedy. Universe Talks with Monica Ortiz applies the wisdom of the Universal Principles to show you how to manifest a happy and successful life. There is no religious slant, only effective advice on how to take your life to the next level and increase your life's happiness, good health, and success. Monica has helped thousands of people develop stronger relationships, finish degrees, open businesses, pursue their passions, and improve their sense of fulfillment and happiness.Monica Ortiz is a Life Coach, Author, Speaker and a prominent figure in the Hollywood entertainment world as a Writer and Producer. She has helped people of all types and backgrounds find greater success. Her debut book provides a new method to personal growth that has led to speaking at institutions such as Stanford University on topics from Success in Your Career & Relationships to Shifting Your Energy & Shaping Your Reality. She is the founder of The Universe Series, an organization bringing tools that will teach you how to live your life filled with happiness, love, good health, and success.

Matthew Thomas was born and raised in New York City. He has a BA from the University of Chicago, an MA from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University, and an MFA from the University of California, Irvine. His New York Times-bestselling novel We Are Not Ourselves was shortlisted for the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize and longlisted for both the Guardian First Book Award and the Folio Prize. It was named a Notable Book of the year by the New York Times, one of the fifty best fiction books of the year by the Washington Post, one of the ten best fiction books of the year by Entertainment Weekly, one of the five most important books of the year by Esquire, and one of the best books of the year by both Barnes and Noble and Amazon. www.matthewthomasauthor.com. More about First Draft at aspenpublicradio.org/programs/first-draft

Matthew Thomas was born and raised in New York City. He has a BA from the University of Chicago, an MA from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University, and an MFA from the University of California, Irvine. His New York Times-bestselling novel We Are Not Ourselves was shortlisted for the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize and longlisted for both the Guardian First Book Award and the Folio Prize. It was named a Notable Book of the year by the New York Times, one of the fifty best fiction books of the year by the Washington Post, one of the ten best fiction books of the year by Entertainment Weekly, one of the five most important books of the year by Esquire, and one of the best books of the year by both Barnes and Noble and Amazon. www.matthewthomasauthor.com. More about First Draft at aspenpublicradio.org/programs/first-draft

When Eileen Tumulty, raised by her Irish immigrant parents in Queens, meets Ed Leary, a scientist, she thinks she's found the perfect partner to deliver her to the cosmopolitan world she longs to inhabit. After they marry, Eileen quickly discovers that Ed doesn't aspire to the same American Dream. Through the Learys, novelist Matthew Thomas charts the story of the American Century: the promise of domestic bliss and economic prosperity that captured hearts and minds after WWII.A graduate of the University of Chicago, Matthew Thomas has an M.A. from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and an MFA from the University of California, Irvine. We Are Not Ourselves is his first novel.Recorded On: Monday, September 22, 2014

WordSmitten :: About the BooksKate Sullivan interviews Pulitzer Prize-winning authors, debut novelists, publishers, and editors. In this segment, Kate interviews Manhattan literary agent Harvey Klinger who talks about his relationships with acquisition editors, clients, and his former boss. He began his publishing career at Doubleday. Instead, he left and worked for a literary agent for eighteen months and began forming his first client list. A two-year stint followed in association with an independent publicist. Harvey created his own independent operation in October, 1977. Harvey Klinger received his M.A. in The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. Tune in to the fun. Recent guests include Johnny Temple (Brooklyn's Akashic Books noted for Go the F*** to Sleep), Tom Robbins (Tibetan Peach Pie), and Dani Shapiro (Still Writing). Pulitzer Prize winning authors Gilbert King (Devil in the Grove), Elizabeth Strout (Olive Kitteridge), Geraldine Brooks (March), and Edward P. Jones (The Known World) have appeared on the About the Books broadcast.The host and producer of the broadcast is Kate Sullivan, journalist, editor, publisher, and creative writing instructor with WordSmitten Media, Inc. in the seaside town of St. Petersburg, Florida.The WordSmitten broadcast (About the Books) airs Sunday afternoons at 5 PM Eastern from NYC and features recent interviews with bestselling authors, editors, and literary executives.Visit our company's distinctive sites:About-the-Books.comWordSmittenMedia.comWordSmitten.com © 2014 WordSmitten Media Inc. All Rights Reserved.  WordSmitten® is a registered trademark of WordSmitten Media, Inc., a Florida Corporation.

WordSmitten :: About the BooksKate Sullivan interviews Pulitzer Prize-winning authors, debut novelists, publishers, and editors. In this segment, Kate interviews Manhattan literary agent Harvey Klinger who talks about his relationships with acquisition editors, clients, and his former boss. He began his publishing career at Doubleday. Instead, he left and worked for a literary agent for eighteen months and began forming his first client list. A two-year stint followed in association with an independent publicist. Harvey created his own independent operation in October, 1977. Harvey Klinger received his M.A. in The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. Tune in to the fun. Recent guests include Johnny Temple (Brooklyn's Akashic Books noted for Go the F*** to Sleep), Tom Robbins (Tibetan Peach Pie), and Dani Shapiro (Still Writing). Pulitzer Prize winning authors Gilbert King (Devil in the Grove), Elizabeth Strout (Olive Kitteridge), Geraldine Brooks (March), and Edward P. Jones (The Known World) have appeared on the About the Books broadcast.The host and producer of the broadcast is Kate Sullivan, journalist, editor, publisher, and creative writing instructor with WordSmitten Media, Inc. in the seaside town of St. Petersburg, Florida.The WordSmitten broadcast (About the Books) airs Sunday afternoons at 5 PM Eastern from NYC and features recent interviews with bestselling authors, editors, and literary executives.Visit our company's distinctive sites:About-the-Books.comWordSmittenMedia.comWordSmitten.com © 2014 WordSmitten Media Inc. All Rights Reserved.  WordSmitten® is a registered trademark of WordSmitten Media, Inc., a Florida Corporation.

Mary Jo Salter was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and grew up in Detroit and Baltimore. She is Andrew W. Mellon Professor and Co-Chair of The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. Her six volumes of poems include Henry Purcell in Japan (1985), Unfinished Painting (1989), Sunday Skaters (1995), A Kiss in Space (1999), Open Shutters (2004), and A Phone Call to the Future: New and Selected Poems (2008). She has also published a children’s book, The Moon Comes Home (1989), and is a co-editor of the fourth and fifth editions of The Norton Anthology of Poetry. She edited The Selected Poems of Amy Clampitt (2010).Stephen Kampa has published poetry, critical prose, and reviews in journals such as the Southwest Review, Tampa Review, The Hopkins Review, Subtropics, Poetry Northwest, the Sewanee Theological Review, and River Styx. He is the winner of the 2011 River Styx International Poetry Contest, and his first book, Cracks in the Invisible, won the Hollis Summers Poetry Prize and a Florida Book Awards' Gold Medal in poetry. He holds degrees from Carleton College and the Johns Hopkins University and has worked as a teacher and a musician.Read a poem by Mary Jo Salter.Read a poem by Stephen Kampa.Mary Jo Salter photo credit: Michael Malyzsko. Recorded On: Wednesday, May 2, 2012

The stories of Ocean State roll over the reader like a wave. Family pleasures, marriage, the essential moments and mysteries of a seemingly ordinary world that break into magical territory before we can brace ourselves -- Jean McGarry puts us in life's rough seas with what the New York Times has called a "deft, comic, and devastatingly precise" hand.From Kirkus Reviews: "McGarry's prose is fresh, her plots unpredictable, her dialogue wry."Jean McGarry teaches in The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. Ocean State is her eighth book of fiction.Recorded On: Tuesday, October 5, 2010