Inside the Writer's Head

In this podcast episode, 2026 WiR Intisar Khanani interviews Loretta Chefchaouni, an author of fantastical tales for teens and a former early childhood educator.

In this podcast episode, 2026 WiR Intisar Khanani interviews Beverly Twomey, a local bookseller and middle grade fantasy author.

In this podcast episode, 2025 WiR Mary Kay Carson interviews Keila Dawson, a fiction and informational author of children's books.

In this podcast episode, 2025 WiR Mary Kay Carson interviews Jenn Bishop, author of five middle-grade novels, including the Parent's Choice Gold Award winner, "Things You Can't Say."

In this podcast episode, 2025 WiR Mary Kay Carson interviews Carrie McCullough, Ohio Central & South Regional Advisor for the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). SCBWI is widely recognized as the preeminent professional organization for children's book creators.

In this podcast episode, 2025 WiR Mary Kay Carson interviews Kathy Sebastian, Children's Librarian at the Miami Township Library, Jill Keller, Youth Librarian at the Covedale Library (formerly West End), and Clair Schroeder, Branch Supervisor - Youth Services at the Groesbeck Library. Mary Kay and the librarians discuss the Library's Summer Reading program and what kids are currently reading.

In this podcast episode, 2025 WiR Mary Kay Carson interviews two regional children's book authors: Jennifer Sommer and Kerrie Hollihan. Originally from Lexington, KY, Sommer currently lives in Dayton, OH. Hear Sommer read from Her Eyes Were on the Stars , her debut award-winning picture book. Sommer received degrees in Political Science as well as Interior Design and Architectural Technology befor...

In this podcast episode, 2025 WiR Mary Kay Carson interviews Christine Wilson, Executive Director of Women Writing for (a) Change. Christine Wilson attended the University of Cincinnati for English, with a minor in Women's Studies and Poetry. She was awarded the English Department award for poetry collection. She's held manager and director roles, both in businesses and nonprofit organizations and...

In this podcast episode, 2024 WiR TaraShea Nesbit interviews Pepper Stetler, author of the upcoming “ A Measure of Intelligence: One Mother's Reckoning with the IQ Test ." Pepper Stetler is Professor of Art History at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She writes extensively on issues facing people with intellectual disabilities and their caregivers. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times,...

In this podcast episode, 2024 WiR TaraShea Nesbit interviews children's book author, artist, shop owner, and disability advocate Amy Webb. They discuss Amy's books, her work in disability advocacy, her experience co-writing with her daughter, the impact of her sticker shop, and more.  This podcast was recorded at the Downtown Main Library MakerSpace using the recording booth that anyone with...

In this episode of Inside the Writer's Head, TaraShea Nesbit talks with poet Yalie Saweda Kamara about her new book,  Besaydoo ,  a book that Ross Gay describes as "a prayer for us all" and the  New York Times Book Review  highlighted the collection as "evoking ecstatic attention and generosity." In addition to sharing her insights about writing poems, Yalie offers listeners a...

In the final episode of this season of "Inside the Writer's Head" Manuel Iris interviews renowned British poet and writer Fiona Sampson. They discuss Sampson's musical background informs her writing, how poetry challenges us to read in a different way, the secret coherence that often arises in poems, and more. Fiona Sampson is a leading British poet and writer. Published in thirty-eight languages,...

Manuel Iris talks with poet and academic Rossy Evelin Lima-Padilla. In this episode, Rossy shares how she crossed the border as an undocumented minor. Her struggle with the English language, and how her love for writing, literature, and community, gave her the strength to become a poet and professor in the United States.  Rossy Evelin Lima-Padilla is a United States-based Mexican writer,...

In this episode, Manuel Iris speaks with Latin American cultural studies professor and Director of the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at City College of the City University of New York, Carlos Aguasaco. Hear about his arrival to the US and how poetry and literature have been part of his immigrant story. This is a conversation on identity, belonging, and creative writing.  Carlos Agua...

Manuel Iris sits down with two internationally recognized poets, Tanya Ko-Hong and Tara Skurtu in the latest episode of “Inside the Writer’s Head.” In this episode, Manuel, Tanya, and Tara dive deep into how they define poetry, exploring topics like belonging, otherness, creativity, and the limits of language. Tara Skurtu is the author of "The Amoeba Game” and the upcoming poetry collection "Faith...

Poet Jennifer Hambrick joins Manuel Iris on a new episode of "Inside the Writer's Head" ahead of the arrival of the largest and oldest gathering of haiku poets outside Japan to Cincinnati. The biennial conference Haiku North America is organized in part by Hambrick. Listen in as they discuss the lyrical power of haiku, Hambrick's musical lens of poetry, and information about Haiku North America.&n...

Is identity a cage or freedom? How do authors write for enlightenment and hope in the midst of despair? Is it possible to be a black artist today without being an activist? What is love’s power in poetry? In my inaugural episode of this season of “Inside the Writer’s Head,” I chose to interview two brilliant guests to have a conversation about Black history and love. Listen in to my conversation w...

In this episode of “Inside the Writer’s Head,” Pauletta Hansel interviews three Cincinnati residents who have founded projects with community storytelling at their core, and tells a little about her own project as well.

In this episode of “Inside the Writer’s Head,” Pauletta Hansel, CHPL's Writer-in-Residence, interviews poets Rimel Kamran and Michael Thompson who are impacting society through their art.

 The writer Zora Neal Hurston said, “Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.” In this episode of “ Inside the Writer’s Head ,” The Library Foundation’s 2022 Writer-in-Residence Pauletta Hansel talks with three Cincinnati authors who have produced remarkable books in three very different genres, each using research as a key ingredient. Listen in as these “curi...

In this episode of “Inside the Writer’s Head” podcast, CHPL's Writer-in-Residence speaks with fellow poet laureate emeritus, Manuel Iris and the prolific and award-winning poet Sara Moore Wagner on demystifying the mysterious process of developing a poetry manuscript, a collection of turning individual poems larger than the sum of its parts.

Kari Gunter-Seymour, Ohio’s third poet laureate, is a woman with a mission: “to lift up all voices to spread the gospel of poetry far and wide.” Now in her second term, she is launching her newest project, I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing, an anthology of poetry from and about Ohio’s Appalachian communities. A grant from the American Academy of Poets and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will provi...

Cincinnati is bursting with writers’ communities of various types, both old and new. From the venerable Literary Club, founded in 1849, to Hit the Mic, founded in 2019, writers find inspiration and connection by coming together around the written—and spoken—word. In this episode of our “Inside the Writer’s Head” podcast, Writer-in-Residence Pauletta Hansel speaks with representatives of four such...

On this bonus episode of the “Inside the Writer’s Head” podcast, Dani McClain interviews the Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library's 2022 Writer-in-Residence Pauletta Hansel. Pauletta is a poet, memoirist, teacher, editor, and the author of nine poetry collections including her newest book, Heartbreak Tree, coming in 2022. She served as the first poet laureate of Cincinnati from April 20...

On this episode of the “Inside the Writer’s Head” podcast, Writer-in-Residence Dani McClain interviews poet and professor Felicia Zamora. Join in a wide-ranging conversation ranging from the experiences of having a career in writing to exploring poetry as activism. Dani and Felicia discuss art as a catalyst for change and share their creative writing process.  https://cincinnatilibrary.org/wr...