Community of Writers Podcasts

My guest for the first of a three-part series is Steve Wasserman, the legendary editor, publisher, writer, agent, and arts and literature advocate with decades of experience and engagement and friendships which are now ours to read about in his essential collection, Tell Me Something,Tell Me Anything,Even If It’s a Lie: A Memoir in Essays.

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.

I present excerpts from one of the most requested, most popular, and perhaps, alas, most enduring and relevant of the hundreds of shows I have hosted over more than fifteen years of Bibliocracy Radio. Corey Robin’s landmark The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin is a primer, a take-apart, an essential guide to understanding, critiquing, and fighting the Right.

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.

A program celebrating a long-ago artist and writer whose work I am curating at an upcoming gallery show. Today I read his self-published book, Aliso Creek, a singular and defining introduction to the work of Peter Carr (1925-1981) and invite listeners to visit the late October show I am helping curate at Cerritos College Art Gallery.

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 is Jackie Wu, who worked for the Orange County Registrar of Voters. She's written a firsthand account titled On the Front Lines of Democracy: An Election Official’s Story of Protecting the Vote in 2020. It's an insider’s account of administering, defending, and advocating for one of the nation’s best voting systems.

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.

I attended the recent launch party reading celebrating the arrival of a must-read, must-own anthology. Writing the Golden State: The New Literary Terrain of California is out from the new collaborative publisher Angel City Press at the Los Angeles Public Library. It includes essays which write and rewrite stories and experiences of California with a range of writers.

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, my guest is Larry Beinhart, perhaps best known for a novel adapted into the film Wag the Dog (American Hero) but today talking about and reading from Salvation Boulevard. It’s both a detective story and a novel of big ideas, about “faith” and skepticism, a murder mystery with philosophical chops.

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, my 2009 interview with Victoria Patterson on her debut book, Drift, a defining —- for the author and her hometown, Newport Beach —- short story collection from and about Orange County, California.  This is where it started for the writer Victoria Patterson, who with Drift was a finalist for the California Book Award, the 2009 Story Prize, with Drift selected as one of the best books of 2009 by The San Francisco Chronicle. Since then she’s written the novel The Little Brother and a second short story collection titled The Secret Habit of Sorrow.  She is also the author of The Peerless Four and the Edith Whartonesque OC classic, This Vacant Paradise.

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, my 2010 interview with Luis Alberto Urrea on his smart, funny, sincerely moving Into the Beautiful North, a comic and woman-centered take on the classic film The Magnificent Seven by way of a border adventure story with a twist. It’s a sort of alternative version of his award-winning nonfiction classic The Devil’s Highway but with a light, humorous, humane touch. 

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, my 2009 interview with Dylan Landis on her debut novel-in-stories, Normal People Don’t Live Like This, a singularly poignant, tough and smart coming-of-age novel set in 1970s New York City. This is a good one, folks.  

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 short story writer Mary Jones. She has written and published dozens of short stories for many years, earning acclaim, and establishing a reputation, all of which is affirmed in her debut collection, 28 short stories, titled The Goodbye Process. The short and short-short stories offered in The Goodbye Process are dark, funny, meditative, often initially realistic episodes which necessarily and logically enter the comically, tragically absurd via empathetic and artful fable. These are economically and powerfully communicated short moments and everyday stories about loss and tragedy and betrayal transformed into deeply resonant, deadpan sincere, sometimes fabulist but simultaneously grounded tales of the familiar turned profound and, occasionally, tragedy turned into empathy or painful wisdom.

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.