Community of Writers Podcasts

Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Sands Hall, Michelle Latiolais, Keenan Norris, and David Ulin discuss genre.

Katy Hays, Alex Espinoza, Tyler Diltz, Stacy Spruill, and Martin J. Smith discuss plot in fiction. Moderated by Andrew Tonkovich.

Tom Barbash presents an exploration into "Foster" by Claire Keegan, and "Switzerland" by Nicole Krauss. Tom Barbash is the author of four books as well as reviews, essays, and articles for publications such as McSweeney’s, Tin House, the Believer, Narrative Magazine, ZYZZYVA, and the New York Times . His short story collection Stay Up With Me was nominated for the Folio Prize a...

Interviewing advice from someone who has been doing it for nearly fifty years.

Reagan Arthur, Leland Cheuk, Jean Garnett, and Dan Lopez. Moderated by Michael Mungiello.

BJ Robbins, Kirby Kim, and Michael Mungiello. Moderated by Katy Hays.

Lily Grimes ( Faultline ), Andrew Tonkovich ( Santa Monica Review / Citric Acid ), David Ulin ( Air/Light ), and Blaise Zerega ( Alta Journal ) discuss west coast literary journals.

Dana Johnson, Sameer Pandya and Gregory Spatz discuss the craft of the short story. Moderated by Tom Barbash.

Victoria Patterson kicks off day 2 of our writers' workshops in olympic valley with a talk on show vs. tell.  Victoria Patterson’s latest story collection, The Secret Habit of Sorrow , was published in 2018. The critic Michael Schaub wrote: “There’s not a story in the book that’s less than great; it’s a stunningly beautiful collection by a writer working at the top of her game.” Her novel The...

With Leslie Daniels, Leland Cheuk, Louis B. Jones, Andrew Tonkovich. Moderated by Victoria Patterson.

Jason Roberts, Janet Fitch, Karen Joy Fowler, and Gail Tsukiyama, moderated by Sands Hall.

The first craft talk of the 2024 Writers Workshops in Olympic Valley: Staff member and board member Margaret Wilkerson Sexton kicks off day 1 with a craft talk on writing a character's journey throughout a life: Writing Across Generations. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast feed to keep up with this summer's excellent programming, wherever you may be. Thanks for listening!

As a podcast special, we wanted to share the late Gill Dennis’s welcome address from 2014, ten years ago. Gill Dennis died less than a year later in May of 2015. He was an enormous part of our community for decades. Along with Tom Rickman, he founded and directed the Community of Writers Screenwriting Program. His screenwriting credits include Return to O z , Walk the Line , and Forever .  He was...

Leland Cheuk Welcomes us to the 2024 Writers' Workshops from Olympic Valley, introduced by Andrew Tonkovich. 

Joan Braune has written a scholarly book which reads to this admirer like a handbook of liberatory insights, a history and a glossary, a philosophy text for beginners, with a provocative analysis at its conclusion.  If you think, as did I, you knew or understood the basics of fascism and the far right, the research and writing of Joan Braune will disabuse you, delight you, engage and inspire you. ...

My guest this week is a world-renowned expert on fascism, populism, and dictatorship.  Federico Finchelstein’s newest book is The Wannabe Fascists: A Guide to Understanding the Greatest Threat to Democracy .  He makes important distinctions even while educating, contextualizing, and warning, once again, of fascism’s rise globally and explaining its antecedents.   Finchelstein carefully considers w...

My guest this week is acclaimed short story writer and, now, novelist Venita Blackburn . Her debut novel, Dead in Long Beach, California arrives after two acclaimed short story collections, Black Jesus and Other Superheroes and How to Wrestle a Girl . This new novel is a multi-form, multi-voiced chronicle of loss, self-discovery, of desperately sad if also playful strategies of identity and invest...

Novelist, short story writer, and acclaimed teacher Molly Giles.  The author, most recently, of the novel The Home for Unwed Husbands , is out with a memoir in short episodes, vignettes, and meditations, built on her life crossing the Golden Gate Bridge.  In Life Span , Giles defines, examines, celebrates, and interrogates her writing life by way of the iconic bridge, each chapter marking a year i...

My guest this week is the writer, activist and podcaster from Chapo Trap House , Amber A’Lee Frost . Her debut book Dirtbag is a personal memoir, a journalistic account, a political autobiography, a take-apart of grassroots collective action, an insider look at Democratic Socialists of America, Occupy Wall Street, the Bernie campaign and, yes, podcast culture --- all offered with great stories, wi...

My guests this week remember and celebrate the life and work of the late short story writer, teacher, friend and mentor Dwight Yates (1945-2023). I am joined by Susan Straight ( Mecca ), Victoria Patterson ( The Secret Habit of Sorrow ), and Gary Amdahl ( The Daredevils ), all accomplished and acclaimed writers for the first of a two-part show. Dwight Yates was the author of dozens of short storie...

My guests this week further remember, celebrate, and, today, read from (!) the work of the late short story writer, teacher, friend and mentor Dwight Yates (1945-2023). I am joined in Part 2 of this “tribute” by Susan Straight ( Mecca ), Victoria Patterson ( The Secret Habit of Sorrow ), and Gary Amdahl ( The Daredevils ), all accomplished and acclaimed writers. Dwight Yates was the author of doze...

My guest today is Julie Schumacher, who will talk about and read from the final book in a trilogy which has earned its place on the shelf with other favorites in the weird, wonderful genre of academic satire, right next to Richard Russo’s Straight Man and, as it happens her first two novels chronicling the cheerfully doomed life of one Professor Jason Fitger, a divorced professor of English and cr...

My guest is novelist and short story writer Katherine Haake , a co-founder of What Books Press. Celebrating fifteen years, this collectively run publishing outfit has worked collaboratively with prose and poetry writers to create dozens of gorgeous books, and each featuring cover art by the legendary artist Gronk.  For  more on What Books Press see WhatBooksPress.com. For more on writer Katherine...

My very special guest is Theresa Bonpane, a legendary Southern California peace and justice, anti-war and anti-intervention activist. Her memoir, Sister Rebel , is out now from Red Hen Press, and she speaks with me about her life, sharing stories and poems and more. Because this is a fund drive edition, KPFK is happy to offer you a thank-you gift for your support.  Thanks to Theresa and Red Hen Pr...

My guest today is David Kipen.  He needs no introduction because he is himself the introducer, the anthologizer, the cultural historian, the literary booster and all-around celebrant of writers and literary culture for our state and our region. Book review editor, Director of Literature at the NEA, critic at large at the Los Angeles Times and, of course, founder-director of Libros Schmibros Lendin...