Writers on Writing

Before receiving her Masters from the Program in Writing at UCI, Rebecca Sacks moved to Israel, spending time understanding Israeli and Palestinian culture, learning Hebrew and Arabic, and immersing herself in the cultures, their people, and their conflicts. Her debut novel, City of a Thousand Gates, tackles these tensions from a variety of points of view.  Sacks joins Marrie Stone to talk about her writing process, accessing her characters, keeping 29 points of view balanced and organized, rendering sex and violence on the page, and so much more. She brings all her MFA wisdom and experience to the interview, as well as her personal experience living abroad, getting lost, and finding herself again.  Download audio.   Record date: January 29, 2021 Broadcast date: February 10, 2021

Tommye Blount, finalist of the National Book Award in poetry last year, joins Marrie Stone to talk about his collection, Fantasia for the Man in Blue. They are daring poems about race, power, desire, sex, and a redefinition of beauty. Blount's work captures the experience of being black and queer in Michigan, about an encounter with the Michigan police, his role as a son, and his observations as a poet. He talks about his journey into poetry, finding his voice, using media and art in his work, and all the poets who influenced him along the way. (Disclaimer: Some topics in this interview are intended for mature audiences. There are references to sex and pornography. Listener discretion is advised.)   Download audio.   (Record date: January 16, 2021)

Lynell George, author of A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky: The World of Octavia E. Butler, published by Angel City Press, talks with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett about her new biography of Octavia E. Butler.  Download audio. (Broadcast date: Feb. 3, 2021) Musical intro, outro and interludes by Travis Barrett. Find him on Spotify and Patreon.

For twenty years, George Saunders has taught a select group of graduate students in Syracuse’s MFA program. Relying on 19thcentury Russian masters, Saunders breaks down the prose—sentence by sentence, line by line—to show students how it’s done. Now he’s broadened his audience. George acts as literary tour guide through seven short stories by four Russian authors in his latest, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain.   George joins Marrie Stone for their third interview, imparting his gentle wisdom to writers about the art and craft of storytelling. He also teaches us how to read deeper and closer. And, through it all, how reading (and writing) often inspires us to lead more empathetic, intentional, and meaningful lives by inhabiting other viewpoints. Conversations with George leave one feeling not only smarter, but better. You can check out their other interviews in the blog’s archives (Tenth of December, 2013 and Lincoln in the Bardo, 2017).  Download audio.   Record date: January 18, 2021 Broadcast date: January 27, 2021

Vicki Hendricks, called the "Queen of Noir," is Barbara DeMarco-Barrett's guest for the entire hour. Hendricks's novels include Miami Purity, Iguana Love, and Cruel Poetry. She also has a story in Miami Noir (Akashic) and other noir anthologies. Download audio.   (Broadcast date: January 20, 2021) Musical intro and outro and interludes by Travis Barrett. Find him on Spotify.

Argentinian author Mariana Enriquez knows horror first hand. Born in 1973, three years before the U.S.-backed Dirty War that rained state-sponsored terror down on its citizens for seven years, Enriquez grew up in a world where death squads were common and neighbors disappeared.   Enriquez joins Marrie Stone to talk about her second collection of short stories, The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, published in 2009 in Argentina, but translated and released in the U.S. this month. One of the stories in that collection, “Our Lady of the Quarry,” appeared in the New Yorker last month. She shares her complicated childhood, her obsessions with the horror genre, and how American literature influenced her writing. She also talks about working with her translator, America's interest in South American literature, and more.  Download audio.  (Broadcast date: January 13, 2021)

Ken Layne, author of Desert Oracle, Volume 1: Strange True Tales from the American Southwest, talks with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett about the art, craft, and business of writing, along with fairies and unexplainable goings on in the desert. Download audio.  (Broadcast date: December 23, 2020) Musical intro, outro and interludes by Travis Barrett. Find his music on Spotify and also find him on Patreon.

Anthony Horowitz might be the most prolific and successful author living in the U.K. today. He’s murdered more characters, fictionally, than any other living writer. Creator of the Alex Rider series, commissioned by the Conan Doyle estate to write two new Sherlock Holmes mysteries and the Ian Fleming estate to write a James Bond novel, Horowitz has penned over 50 books. He’s also written for television and screen. Horowitz joins Marrie Stone to talk about the second in his latest series, Moonflower Murders. He was on the show in 2017 to talk about the first, Magpie Murders. In addition to exploring Horowitz’s obsessive writing personality, they chat about magic, the inspiration of art, and the problems with the recent HBO series The Undoing. They also talk about our current socio-cultural climate and the unseen traps writers can fall into without warning. For mystery writers, Anthony’s insights and advice are invaluable. For fans of his fiction, you’ll enjoy stepping behind the pages to see how the magic is made. Download audio.   (Broadcast date: December 30, 2020)

Unrequited love and unconsummated romance is the subject of Michele Morano’s latest memoir-in-essays, Like Love. These fourteen essays explore romantic friendships, dangerous crushes, familial infatuations, and the complicated emotions surrounding parental love. Morano’s essays feel at once daring, vulnerable, insightful, and full of familiar emotions most of us dare not name. She joins Marrie Stone to talk about love, longing, and desire, but also about craft, technique, and the art of writing an effective essay.   What separates an essay from an anecdote? What’s the difference between therapeutic writing and art? What are some effective techniques for accessing old memories? What’s the sign that you’re stumbling into something worthwhile to write about? Morano talks about all this and more.   Download audio.  (Broadcast date: December 16, 2020)

Literary agent Betsy Amster talks with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett about publishing. Download audio.  (Broadcast date: Dec. 9, 2020) Musical intro/outro/interludes by Travis Barrett. Find him on Spotify and Soundcloud.