Community of Writers Podcasts

My guest this week is poet Gary Short, originally from Virginia City, Nevada and one of the most celebrated chroniclers of the West.  This show is a celebration of his newest collection, The Stars That Fell, out from the University of Nevada Press. Short is the author of three previous volumes of poetry and three chapbooks. His second book, Flying Over Sonny Liston, received the Western States Book Award. He’s taught at Old Dominion University, UC Davis, and the University of Mississippi, where he directed the MFA program. He’s received fellowship from the NEA, a Pushcart Prize, a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford, a fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and several residencies at MacDowell and the Virginia Center for the Arts. I was lucky to catch up with him on a visit home to Nevada and California. He lives full-time in Guatemala.

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The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

My guest this week is Janine Jackson, longtime host of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting’s (FAIR) weekly radio show and podcast CounterSpin. Longtime fans, like myself, will welcome this celebratory interview with a journalist whose voice has brought clarity, insight, and a welcome corrective by way of thoughtful media analysis. This year FAIR marks 40 years of critiquing and challenging the interests and priorities of media owners and sponsors, and Jackson reminds us of how. For more on the show and this organization, see the FAIR website.

Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudio

The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

My guest this week is Nolan Higdon, a returning favorite: scholar, activist, instructor and real-time chronicler of all things higher ed including academic speech, technology, and labor justice. He is out now with MAGAcademy: How Corporations Paved the Way for the Hostile Takeover of HigherEd. He’s the author of The Media and Me, United States of Distraction, and writes a Substack column and hosts a podcast when not teaching. Published by Third Rail Communications, MAGAcademy includes a foreword from the legendary Henry Giroux!

Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudio

The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

Today I am once again delighted to feature a higher ed union activist, another celebratory episode of Bibliocracy. This one features writer and USC instructor Professor Ryan Boyd. He teaches in the Writing Program at the University of Southern California and is an organizer with United Faculty-UAW, the newly formed union at USC!!! This is a celebratory, insightful, and also inspiring show. Boyd’s writing has appeared in Public Books, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Protean, and the Chronicle of Higher Education, among other venues.

Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudio

The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

Today I stray from the literary but not far, to the political, to civil rights, education and higher ed union activism. The arrest last summer of a fellow university instructor, a professor at Cal State University Channel Islands and his trial, captured the attention and imagination of many. Dr. Jonathan Caravello is my guest this week, recently acquitted of absurd felony charges brought against him by the United States Department of Justice. Caravello’s trial was a victory, but also an insight, a lesson, and a case study. This is a smart, fun and joyful conversation. Read more about both Caravello’s case and the union and movement response in a March 11 Truthout essay: “The State Is Escalating Charges Against Protesters. Labor Must Defend Them.”

Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudio

The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

This week I share a reading by poet Patty Seyburn recorded at Cal State Long Beach. She reads six poems from her latest, Jukebox, out from What Books Press. Seyburn is the author of three previous collections: Hilarity (New Issues Press, 2009), Mechanical Cluster (Ohio State University Press, 2002), and Diasporadic (Helicon Nine Editions, 1998).

Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudio

The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

My guest this week is Dillon Osleger, a scientist, writer, and environmental advocate who has spent years as a trail builder, geologist, professional mountain biker, and writer on public land management, wilderness, and the history and implementation of policies which directly affect the natural world in so many ways. Osleger is out with a book from the legendary nonprofit publisher Heyday titled Trail Work: Restoring the Paths and Stories of America’s Public Lands. In only 225 gorgeously composed pages Osleger delivers a naturalist’s memoir, a science and policy report, a meditation, and a cri de coeur, reminding us of how we have forgotten our paths into and out of our own history on the land. Read more about his work on and off the trail at his website.

Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudio

The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

My guest this week is Irena Smith,  the author of a defining, or perhaps further defining memoir from a writer, memoirist and raconteur whose storytelling accommodates or contextualizes nearly any circumstance, and bring insight, humor, and welcome complication. In her latest, Smith chronicles an unlikely if completely, joyfully contrived road trip up and down the California coast with her mother and her daughter, adding to the itinerary family history, politics, books, popular culture, Greek myth, scholarship, sociology, language and the series The White Lotus.  The book is Troika: Three Generations, Three Days & a Very American Road Trip. Irena Smith is the author of a previous bestselling memoir, The Golden Ticket: A Life in College Admissions Essays. That book demystified if also critiqued the college admissions process and asked big questions about the nature of striving, success, and learning, all using the thoughtful conceit of responding to those weird application essay prompts, which assume so much and often frighten students. Troika relies on an appreciation, a celebration writing and idiom, language and vocabulary. It doesn’t hurt that Smith is also an expert on Greek mythology, and along the way, teaches us bits of Soviet Russian culture, literature, and language. She is hilarious and ironic in the way, perhaps necessarily embraced by many immigrants to the United States, an ex-stranger in a still very strange land.

Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudio

The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

Welcome to the Podcast feed for the 2026 Summer Workshops in Olympic Valley. This week, we will upload daily craft talks, panels and readings as they happen. Be sure to subscribe to our feed to receive all recordings automatically.

Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudio

The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.

Welcome to the Podcast feed for the 2026 Summer Workshops in Olympic Valley. This week, we will upload daily craft talks, panels and readings as they happen. Be sure to subscribe to our feed to receive all recordings automatically.

Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudio

The views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.