writing class radio

Today on our show, we bring you a story by Farida Taha. Farida writes about losing her daughter to cancer and how she’s moving forward. We talk a lot about loss on our podcast, because writing is how so many people process grief. We believe writing opens the heart, clears the mind, and helps us understand and process. In this essay, Farida throws out some incredibly poignant lines that reveal inte...

Today on our show, we bring you a story by Sarena Neyman. Sarena is in Allison’s 2nd Draft class , which is made up of writers who come together to share a draft of their essay and receive feedback from the group. Sarena’s stories are funny and brimming with voice and perfect landings. Sarena Neyman has been writing for numerous human rights groups for more than 20 years, working on causes from di...

Today on our show, we bring you a story by Janet Funk. Janet writes about her experience sharing an essay she wrote with her family prior to submitting for publication to. The essay was about the horrible fourth of July when her brother Robbie drowned and was published in Business Insider on July 3, 2024. We’ll discuss the age-old-memoir questions: How do we write about and publish stories about t...

Today on our show, we bring you a story by Bonnie Shor , who we call Blee. Blee has been a student of Writing Class Radio for two years. We love the shit out of her. Listen to what she told us: I took up knitting, Zumba and writing when I turned 60. Eight years later, there's a ball of yarn in my closet, and four unused Zumba classes on my lost dance card. My writing, though, can be found in sever...

Today on our show, we bring you a story by Alison Colwell. At age 8, Alison was responsible for making sure her mother’s epileptic seizure didn’t kill her. In this essay, Alison takes us to a moment in the hospital where if she’d looked away, her mom might have died. Alison’s essay is an excellent example of hot topic cold prose and is contained in a very short moment. We will go into detail about...

This episode focuses on how to tell a story out loud. In May 2024, our own Andrea Askowitz made her way to a Moth storytelling competition and for the 15th time (over nine years), dropped her name in the bag. The prompt was snooping. Before she left home, her wife told her to look at this evening, if chosen, as practice instead of assuming this would be her Moth. So, when her name was chosen, Andr...

Today on our show, we bring you a story by Emma Lathrop , a PhD student at The Center for Ecosystem Science and Society (ECOSS) at Northern Arizona University (NAU) . Emma’s story is about proving your value and fighting for your position as a woman in STEM. The best part is when we get a glimpse into how the field would look if Emma were the boss. This story was originally performed on stage at t...

Today on our show, we bring you a story by our own Allison Langer . Her essay is called My Mom And I Fought For 55 Years. Now Battling My Son Is Making Me Rethink Everything , which was originally published in Huffington Post, May 16, 2023. In this episode, Allison shows us that you can write about the same thing over and over and you should. It’s the only way to really work out your shit. Listen...

Today on our show, we bring you a story by Darby Bergl , a PhD student at The Center for Ecosystem Science and Society (ECOSS) at Northern Arizona University (NAU) . Her story is about resilience and survival in the face of a volatile father. Darby has a passion for ecology and the study of carbon dynamics in temperate forests, which she interjects into her story. Darby’s story was originally perf...

Today on our show, we bring you a story by Keven Griffen , a PhD student at The Center for Ecosystem Science and Society (ECOSS) at Northern Arizona University (NAU) . Her story uses science to understand an emotional connection to place. She did it by having us fall in love with the place. She set the scene and raised the stakes.  Keven’s story was originally performed on stage at the Flagst...

Today on our show we bring you a story by Morgan Sutton that embodies everything a story should embody. The story uses no extra words; the narrator looks inside herself; and the story matters to the broader world. The story is so important because it explains a very dangerous and ugly assumption that is often made about women who’ve been raped. Morgan does it by examining her own situation and her...

Today on our show, we bring you a story by Jasmine Anenberg, a PhD student at The Center for Ecosystem Science and Society (ECOSS) at Northern Arizona University (NAU) . Her story is about losing a friend but gaining something he taught her, which is seeing the beauty in small things. She takes this lesson into her fieldwork as she studies mosses in dirt. Her story was originally performed on stag...

Today on our show, we bring you a story by Jennifer Byrne, who conjures the courage to leave her husband after she's faced with removing a bird that flew into her house. Her story is an excellent example of using a book-end structure. Jennifer has been published in the New York Times (Tiny Love Stories), The Cut, Psychology Today, Good Housekeeping, Atlas Obscura, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Th...

Today on our show, we bring you a story by Nick Link, a PhD student in the Mack Lab and part of the Center for Ecosystem Science and Society (ECOSS) at Northern Arizona University . His story was originally performed on stage at the Flagstaff Festival of Science in October 2023. This was a Collaboration with ECOSS , Northern Arizona University, and Story Collider , a podcast that airs true science...

Happy Valentine’s Day. Today on our show, we bring you a story that was originally performed on stage at the Flagstaff Festival of Science in October 2023. This was a Collaboration with The Center for Ecosystem Science and Society (ECOSS) at Northern Arizona University (NAU) and Story Collider , a podcast that airs true science stories. We worked with our narrator of today’s story Dr. Bruce Hungat...

Today on our show, we bring you a story by Christopher Blackwell. Chris is 42 and serving a 45-year prison sentence in Washington. Chris’s story came to us through writer and Chris’s mentor, Jamie Beth Cohen. This episode is about taking a small moment and bringing big meaning. Through details and emotion, Chris tells us so much about himself and his surroundings. When birds nest on the windowsill...

Today on our show, we bring you a story by Sumitra Mattai . Sumitra is a writer and textile designer based in New York City. She holds a BFA in Textile Design from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA in Creative Writing from The New School. Her essays on family, food and culture have been published widely. For more information, www.sumitramattai.com , Instagram @sumitramattai , or subscri...

Today on our show, we bring you a story by Maxine Poupko, a semi-retired nurse, long-time student of Writing Class Radio, and hilarious person. Maxine is a master at writing humor and writing the truth. Of course someone can learn the craft of writing, but there might be some debate about whether you can learn to write the truth. Maxine shows us it's possible. She's been writing with Writing Class...

Today on our show we’re talking about the writing process and how getting rejected is just part of the fun. After our own Andrea Askowitz takes a class on rejection taught by Elissa Bassist , she develops a new way of thinking about failure. If you are not getting rejected, you’re not in the game. You will hear the story Andrea wrote after her 643rd rejection. Andrea’s story is called, “I’ve Been...

Today on our show, we’re talking about structure and planting seeds. You’ll hear a story by Claire Tak called The Unopened Letter. Claire is a freelance writer and editor living in Denver. She has a column in PrisonJournalismProject.org called Outside/In , where she writes about her brother’s incarceration. Claire is currently writing a memoir. As a child of Korean-American parents, her book deals...

Today on our show, we are talking about hot topic/cold prose and when and why to write in the present tense vs. past. The story we share is written in the present tense, which gives readers the feeling that they're going through the situation with the narrator, in real time. Today’s essay is by Dr. Colleen Arnold who is a physician and freelance writer in Lexington, Virginia.  Dr. Arnold has...

Today on our show, we’re talking about writing with personality and being vulnerable. And when we say vulnerable, we mean including the hard things, good and bad, about ourselves. You’ll hear a story by Dr. Jane Marks , who is a conservation ecologist and professor of Aquatic Ecology at Northern Arizona University (NAU). Jane has been taking classes with Writing Class Radio (WCR) for three years i...

Today on our show, we bring you a story by Kimberly Elkins . Kimberly is the author of the novel, WHAT IS VISIBLE , which was a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice and named to several Best of 2014 lists. She’s written for The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Glamour, Slice, The Cincinnati Review, and Best New American Voic...

This episode is about how to write a near perfect essay. The story was written by Banning Lyon who writes about a harrowing childhood experience in a psychiatric ward. His essay was previously published in The Washington Post. After we discuss Banning’s story, you’ll hear an interview with the author on what his process was like, the difficult emotions writing the memoir brought up, and the cold c...

Today on our show, we bring you a story by Amy Paturel , which is a great example of how to write about someone else while still including the narrator in a big way. Paturel incorporates her husband’s late wife’s writing into a story that is both emotional, tender, and beautifully composed. She answers the question: Can we live on through writing? She shows us that we can live on through the notes...