LITerally Podcast

Irreverent, funny, off-the-cuff, and full of publishing knowledge, that is Johnny Worthen, your new League of Utah Writers President and our guest on the LITerally podcast.

If you want to laugh, listen. If you want to know some truths about writing and publishing, listen. If you want sugar coating, this is not the episode for you.

We really do love you, novelists, we do, but every once in a while we get a memoirist on the 'cast, and it's whole different, wonderful conversation. Sharon Harrigan, author of the recently released PLAYING WITH DYNAMITE, talked us about all the ways writing memoir challenging and exciting and crazy all at once.

We had fun (lots of fun with lots of laughter) last Friday while talking to Deborah Reed and exploring her new book, The Days When Birds Come Back. We talked diction, structure, and tone, but we also explored the much larger themes of loss and pain -- and delved into how June and Jameson (her dual protagonists) rebuild their lives after watching them crumble.

We did it! We pulled it off! We did our first FaceTime podcast, and we did it with the extremely talented and fun debut author Nicholas Mainieri; his new book THE INFINITE is available at Booked on 25th Street. Buy it now. It's my favorite book of 2016.

Nick joined us from New Orleans where he was warm while we were getting covered in snow here in Utah. I'm just looking for excuses to have Nickolas back on the podcast now. You'll see why.

It's not everyday that we get to sit down with the first Poet Laureate of Ogden, Utah. Sian, Brandon, and I got to talk to, and more importantly, listen to Brad Roghaar read and talk about where poetry belongs in our lives, in our culture, and in the world we live in now.

Star Coulbrooke, the Logan City Poet Laureate, came to Ogden to talk with us at Booked on 25th independent bookstore on Historic 25th Street.

Ogden City Arts is currently looking for a Poet Laureate, and listening to Star talk about why it is important, makes the search even more necessary for a city that aches to have a poetic voice. Star was an absolute delight to have on the podcast. She is truly a wonderful person, friend, teacher, and poet.

Siân Griffiths, author of Borrowed Horses (New Rivers Press, 2015) and Director of Creative Writing at Weber State University, our first guest on our soon-to-be famous podcast LITerally, joins us to talk about how it's just as easy to not be an asshole writer as it is to be one, and she chooses to not be.

While we do discuss literary pomposity – I used this word to be LITerally pompous – we talk about a lot more in this fun podcast that delves into the benefits of writing in a journal, the importance of literary citizenship, and how to dismiss advice from teachers and writers that just doesn't work for you.

Griffiths begins the podcast by reading her flash fiction, "What is Solid" (Versal, 2007).