NWP Radio

Based on the insight that "places are everywhere," this NWP Radio show explores how educators are using place to support students in having authentic opportunities to learn, grow, and connect. Join this team of teacher-editors and -authors from Place-Based Writing in Action: Opportunities for Authentic Writing in the World Beyond the Classroom to explore what is possible when you tap into this "everywhere resource" to support writing in elementary through preservice classrooms.

Our Guests and Their Chapters

Amanda Montgomery, Editor and “Making Connections to the Past: Using Place-based Writing to Bring History to Life”

Robert Montgomery, Editor and “Introduction to Place-Based Writing” (with Amanda) and “Touring the Place You Know Best: Virtual Tours as. Way to Teach Narrative, Argument, and Research Writing”

Cathie English, “Writing the Ecology of the Ozarks”

Clarice Moran, “In the Metaverse: Using VR as a Site for Place-based Writing”

Jeff Hudson, “The Sustainable Resource Project: Writing Towards Agency”

Rich Novack, “Mapping through Justice, through Padlet, and through the World”

This episode of NWP Radio features a conversation with Tess Taylor, an avid gardener, the author of five acclaimed collections of poetry, and the editor of Leaning Toward Light: Poems for Gardens and the Hands that Tend Them.

Join us for a conversation with NWP Writers Council member Lissa Soep, author of Other People’s Words: Friendship, Loss and the Conversation that Never Ends.

“Other People’s Words shows us how we carry within us the language of loved ones who are gone, and how their words can be portals to other times and places. Language—as with love—is boundless, and Other People’s Words is an intimate, original, and profoundly generous look at its power to nurture life amid the wreckage of grief. Dialogues do not end when a friendship or person is gone; instead, they accrue new layers of meaning, showing how the conversations we share with those we love continue after them, and will continue after us.”

Join us for a conversation with Andrea Balis and Elizabeth Levy, authors of Witch Hunt: The Cold War, Joe McCarthy, and the Red Scare.

About the Authors

Dr. Andrea Balis is not only a distinguished faculty member in the history department of John Jay College, City University of New York, specializing in twentieth-century political history, but also a versatile writer and director.

Elizabeth Levy is an award-winning author of over 100 fiction and non-fiction books for young readers. Renowned for her humorous yet meticulously researched approach, Levy brings subjects to life and inspires and entertains audiences worldwide.

Join us for a conversation with Stephanie Vanderslice, a professor of creative writing, the co-director of the Arkansas Writers MFA Workshop at the University of Central Arkansas, and the author of Teaching Creative Writing: The Essential Guide.

This episode of The Write Time features members of the Furious Flower Syllabus Project, an open-access curriculum for incorporating Black poetry into classrooms of all ages and levels. More about the syllabus and guests at https://teach.nwp.org/the-write-time-and-the-furious-flower-syllabus-project

Novelly is on a mission to publish diverse teenage authors and get their books taught in classrooms, so that every student can feel seen and inspired by what they read. This episode features the founder and managing director Anna Gabriella Casalme, along with two youth authors who have had their work published through Novelly.

Rob Rokicki is an NYC-based artist and educator. He wrote the music, lyrics, and co-orchestrated the Broadway show, The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical (book by Joe Tracz); nominated for a Lortel, Off-Broadway Alliance, and three Drama Desk Awards. His graphic novel/musical, Monstersongs (National Alliance for Musical Theatre official selection), is played internationally and is being developed as a VR game. He’s a two-time Larson Award finalist, an alum of the BMI Workshop, and a graduate of the University of Michigan. As an actor, Rob has performed in Broadway national tours and at Carnegie Hall.

Rob is interviewed by Kevin Hodgson, a sixth-grade teacher and musician in Southampton, Massachusetts, and a teacher-consultant with the Western Massachusetts Writing Project.

Today we visit with Leticia Britos Cavagnaro, author of Experiments in Reflection. Leticia is a developmental biologist turned design educator, who has been a part of Stanford University’s d.school since 2006. She co-founded and co-directs the University Innovation Fellows program, impacting students and educators worldwide. Leticia’s work integrates emerging technologies in creative methods to foster self-directed and responsible future shapers.

Heather Bourbeau’s award-winning poetry and fiction have appeared in The Irish Times, The Kenyon Review, Meridian, and The Stockholm Review of Literature. She has been featured on KALW and the San Francisco Public Library’s Poem of the Day, and her writings are part of the Special Collections at the James Joyce Library, University College Dublin. Her collection Some Days The Bird is a poetry conversation with the Irish-Australian poet Anne Casey (Beltway Editions, 2022). Her latest collection Monarch is a poetic memoir of overlooked histories from the US West she was raised in (Cornerstone Press, 2023).