Chloe Caldwell’s ‘The Red Zone’ is a coming-of-age story; it’s a love story—it’s a book about periods. And this is a conversation about periods.

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ Lauren speaks with poet Eloisa Amezcua, author of ‘Fighting Is Like a Wife’ (Coffee House Press), a collection of poems that reveal the love story and tragedy of two-time world boxing champion “Schoolboy” Bobby Chacon and his first wife, Valerie Ginn.

What is a divinatory poetics? Can texts be haunted? This week, we return to Lauren‘s 2021 conversation with Toronto-based poet Hoa Nguyen, in which the two dive into the narratives that prompted and sit within Nguyen‘s new book of poetry, ‘A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure’ (Wave Books).

From the freedom of her parents’ house and her grandmother’s flourishing garden, to the streets of Zhifu, China, and the saving grace of a modest calligraphy school, small Daiyu is taken to America, first to a California brothel and then to a small market in Idaho.

‘Black Cake’ is the story of a mother, a woman, whose traumas and histories she hid from her children—children who, after her death, are forced to confront their mother’s past, as well as their own identities in light of such shocking revelations.

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ Lauren speaks with Bill Vaughn, author of ‘The Last Heir: The Triumphs and Tragedies of Two Montana Families’ (Bison Books), the story of the Burke and Herrin families, brought together by marriage.

In this encore broadcast, Lauren chats with Colorado-based poet and scholar Khadijah Queen, author of ‘Anodyne’ (Tin House Books). Their conversation covers a lot: imagining change, our dying planet, “confessional” poetry, the ethics of care—plus much, much more!

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ Lauren speaks with poet and novelist John Elizabeth Stintzi, JES, about ‘My Volcano’ (Two Dollar Radio; Arsenal Pulp Press), a meticulously-crafted tapestry of a novel—one in which a volcano emerges from the Central Park Reservoir in New York.

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ Lauren chats with Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe, author of ‘Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk’ (Counterpoint Press). ‘Red Paint’ is part memoir and part family history—full of personal stories from the author’s childhood and her not-so-distant past, as well as the story of the Coast Salish people, a beautifully woven story of the women who came before her, of their strength and spirituality.

In this encore broadcast of a March 2021 conversation, host Lauren Korn and poet-essayist Paisley Rekdal, author of ‘Appropriate: A Provocation,’ dive into the nuances of cultural appropriation in literature. What is the difference between depicting a character unlike one’s self and appropriating their culture and identity? What is the difference between one’s politics and one’s ethics?