Arts Calling

Hi there, Today I am excited to be arts calling Joseph Fasano! About our guest: Joseph Fasano is the author of the novels The Swallows of Lunetto (Maudlin House, 2022) and The Dark Heart of Every Wild Thing (Platypus Press, 2020), which was named one of the "20 Best Small Press Books of 2020." His books of poetry include The Crossing (2018), Vincent (2015), Inheritance (2014), and Fugue for Other...

Hi there, Today I am so thankful to be calling Margarita Saona! And stay tuned for part II coming next year! About our Guest: Margarita Saona teaches Latin American literature and Culture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She was born in Peru and studied linguistics and literature at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru. She received a Ph. D. in Latin American literature from Columbia...

Hi there, Today I am so happy to be arts calling Rhonda Parker! About our Guest: Rhonda Parker is a storyteller who slings a variety of words and ideas from her desk in Appalachia. Evernote and Google Docs are her constant companions and eternal scribes. Overthinking is both her superpower and her curse. Rhonda writes speculative fiction in various formats, on her Story Blog, Twitter, and in publi...

Hi there, Today I am thrilled to be arts calling Melissa Jordan! About our guest: Melissa E. Jordan lives in northwestern Connecticut, and was raised primarily in Ledyard, CT. Her recent poetry collection, Red Low Fog/Transcript (Animal Heart Press, 2022) is a hybrid poetry/fiction collection in the form of a documentary transcript. Each interview subject speaks in their own specific category of p...

Hi there, Today I'm excited to be arts calling CJ Peterson! About our guest: CJ Peterson has been a lifelong storyteller who grew up obsessed with movies. Since an early age, he knew he wanted to tell similar stories of his own that made him feel that magic a special story gave him. His debut novel IN THE SIGHT OF SOUND is out now. -- He lives in the Ozark Mountains with his wife & golden retr...

Hi there, Today I am excited to be arts calling Jesus M. Garibay! About our guest: Jesus is an actor, dancer, and director based in Mexico City. Links below! Twitter: https://twitter.com/JesusMGaribay FB: https://www.facebook.com/jesus.muga TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jesusmgaribay Thanks so much for joining me on the podcast, Jesus! All the best! -- Arts Calling is produced by Jaime Alejandro...

Hi there, Today I am excited to be arts calling Steffy Sandoval! About our guest: I'm a recent Florida International University alumni with a BFA Theatre Performance degree. Upon graduation, I was fortunate to book some Miami regional work which gave me the confidence and momentum to move to NYC. I have performed Off-Broadway with The Actor's Project NYC in their Season 41 industry showcases at th...

Hello, Today I am honored to be arts calling Irma Herrera! About our guest: Irma Herrera is a writer, solo performer, and social justice activista. A civil rights lawyer for 30+ years, she shares anecdotes of her time fighting for disadvantaged communities, the process behind her one-woman show, 'Why Would I Mispronounce My Own Name?' an hour-long show that is a mashup of personal narrative, lesso...

Hi there, Today I am elated to be arts calling Leslie Absher! About our Guest: Leslie Absher is a journalist and essayist. Her work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Independent, Salon, Huffington Post, Ms., Greek Reporter, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Her father joined the CIA before she was born. When she was a baby, her family moved to Athens, Greece. Just in time for a coup. She spent...

Hi there, Today it's a pleasure to be arts calling Ken Poyner! About our guest: Ken's four collections of brief fictions and four collections of speculative poetry can be found at most online booksellers.  He spent 33 years in information system management, is married to a world record holding female power lifter, and has a family of several cats and betta fish.  Individual works have appeared in...

Hi there, Today I am ecstatic to be arts calling Dr. Rachael Hanel! About our guest: Rachael Hanel is associate professor of creative nonfiction and journalism at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Her book We’ll Be the Last Ones to Let You Down: Memoir of a Gravedigger’s Daughter, also from the University of Minnesota Press, was a finalist for a Minnesota Book Award. Her essays have been publis...

Hi there, Thursdays are for arts calling! And today I am psyched to be arts calling Shahab Zargari! About our guest: Shahab Zargari is an  award -winning  filmmaker ,  music lover,  author and entrepreneur. He graduated in 2000 from the University of California at Irvine with a bachelor of arts degree in Sociology with a minor in Education. After years of creating original  YouTube  and  Vimeo  co...

TW: This episode is a discussion about a work that addresses sexual violence. Hi friends, Today I'm so excited to be arts calling Raegen Pietrucha, welcome back! About our guest: Raegen Pietrucha is a professional and creative writer, editor, consultant, and educator with two degrees in English and more than 20 years of combined experience. Her chapbook, An Animal I Can’t Name , won the 2015 Two o...

Hi friends! Today, I am so excited to be arts calling Samantha Terrell! About our guest: Samantha Terrell is an internationally published American poet and author whose work has received five-star reviews. In 2021, she received First Honorable Mention in the "Anita McAndrews Poets for Human Rights Awards" organized by Poets Without Borders. Her most recent book,  Things Worth Repeating?...

Hi there, Today I am so excited to be arts calling Rodd Whelpley! About our Guest: Rodd Whelpley seeks poetry in the everyday world. He manages an electric efficiency program for 32 cities across Illinois and lives near Springfield with his wife, son, and the memories of good Golden Retrievers he has known. His poems have appeared in Tinderbox Poetry Journal, 2River View, Star 82 Review, Right Han...

Hi there, Thanks for stopping by, today I am ecstatic to be arts calling Madeleine Corley! About our guest: Madeleine Corley has multiple interests with her main affinity simply being words. From elaborate acrostics to black-out found poems, she adores fitting concepts into tight spaces to create a puzzle. Madeleine received her Bachelors Degree in Public Health from The Ohio State University in 2...

Hi there, Welcome to the show! Today I am arts calling Dr. Sarah Etlinger! Sarah A. Etlinger holds a BA in English from Skidmore College, an MA in English from Syracuse University, and a Ph. D. in Rhetoric and Composition (English) from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Scholarly interests include new media studies, first-year composition, feminist literature,  the Beatles, and popular cultur...

Hi there, What a great episode we have for you: Today I am arts calling Allison Adair! About our Guest: Allison Adair’s first collection, The Clearing , was selected by Henri Cole as winner of Milkweed’s Max Ritvo Poetry Prize. Her poems appear in American Poetry Review , Arts & Letters , Best American Poetry , Kenyon Review Online , and ZYZZYVA ; and her work has been honored with the Pushcar...

Hi there, Today I am overjoyed to be arts calling Estela González! About our guest: Estela González holds an MFA in creative writing and a PhD in Latin American literature. As a binational and bilingual writer, she tells stories in English and Spanish about race, class, gender, and environmental justice. Growing up in Mexico, Estela regularly visited her family in Mazatlán, where decades-long inte...

Hello! Here we go, today I am so excited to be arts calling Thomas Bazar! About: Thomas Bazar (pronounced Bay-zar), is a novelist and playwright. Two of his plays were staged with the performance collective, A Band of Actors. He longs to reconnect with his Persian roots and loves Persian food and its great history. Besides that, he loves the wonderful cities of Lisbon and Paris, his dogs, and anyt...

Hi there, Welcome to CRUZFEST: Today I am thrilled to be arts calling Denise Cruz-Castino! About our guest: Denise Cruz-Castino graduated from UCLA, had a successful advertising writing career, and has turned that into a screenwriting career. Her first feature produced  5 Weddings  premiered at Cannes in 2018, opened in 52 countries worldwide, co-stars Bo Derek and Candy Clark and was produced by...

Hi there, Today I am so honored to be arts calling Daniel A. Olivas! About: Daniel A. Olivas is the author of ten books and editor of two anthologies. His latest books are How to Date a Flying Mexican: New and Collected Stories (University of Nevada Press, 2022), The King of Lighting Fixtures: Stories (University of Arizona Press, 2017), and Crossing the Border: Collected Poems (Pact Press, 2017)....

Hi there, Today I am so excited to be arts calling Abby Tozer! Abby Tozer is an actor, screenwriter, and producer. She and her creative team are currently embarking on the post-production of the short film, Positive. Coming soon! Stop by a virtual Q&A for the film on July 12th 4pm PST via Google Meets! LINK HERE Visit https://www.positiveshortfilm.com for more information. Thanks for this wond...

Hi there, Today I am thrilled to be arts calling Gauri Awasthi! About: Gauri Awasthi is an Indian poet and an MFA graduate from McNeese State University. She has won awards and scholarships from the Sundress Academy For The Arts, Louisiana Office of Cultural Development, Bread Loaf Writers' Workshop, and Kundiman. Her writing has been published in   The Rumpus ,  Quarterly West,   Buzzfeed ,  Notr...

Hi there, Today I am so happy to be arts calling Kátia Bandeira de Mello-Gerlach! About: Kátia Bandeira de Mello-Gerlach is a Brazilian fiction writer residing in New York City. Her first two books of short stories were published by Projeto Dulcinéia Catadora, an art collective, part of the Latin American cartonera movement. Disquiet International participant in June, 2016 with grant by the Luso A...