Writers on Writing

Aimee Bender is the author of six books, including both novels and short story collections. Her latest novel, The Butterfly Lampshade, came out in July of 2020 and was listed by Publisher’s Weekly as one of the best novels of the year. Bender joins Marrie Stone to talk about the book’s inspiration and construction. In the process, she exposes the creative fodder that’s gifted to us by our own childhoods. She talks about how imposing time limitations on her writing allows her access to scary places, and how to listen to words that "shimmer." Those words and phrases can be the keys that guide your book in the right direction. Bender teaches creative writing at USC, has taught several other fiction workshops, and written several essays on the craft. She brings that wealth of experience and reflection to this interview to impart a lot of wisdom for both beginning and advanced writers. Download audio.   (Broadcast date: September 1, 2021)

Poet Honoree Fanonne Jeffers produced a stunning debut novel. Before its publication, The Loves Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois was already named by Oprah as her next book club pick. The novel, clocking in at 816 pages, is a sweeping ancestral saga chronicling the American South from before the Civil War to present day. Scholar W.E.B. Du Bois wrote about the problem of race in America, and what he called “Double Consciousness,” the sensitivity that every African American possesses to survive. The novel's protagonist feels these words deeply as she navigates her history while trying to create her future.Jeffers joins Marrie Stone to share the history behind the novel, how it grew to over 800 pages, and her struggles along the way. She talks about her attempt to shed her poetic voice, and then reclaim it again. She also hints that she may not be done with these characters. @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}@font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536859905 -1073732485 9 0 511 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;}Download audio.    (Broadcast date: August 18, 2021)

Palm Springs Noir (Akashic) contributors Barbara DeMarco-Barrett, Alex Espinoza, and Rob Roberge talk with literary maestro Corey Roskin about writing noir fiction. Download audio.  (Recorded via Zoom on August 5, 2021) Music by Travis Barrett.

Tod Goldberg, author of The Low Desert, a new collection of short fiction, talks with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett about the art, craft, and business of writing short stories.  Download audio.  (Broadcast date: August 11, 2021)   Music by Travis Barrett.

Hear Us:Writing from the Inside During the Time of COVID is a collection of over 50 essays, poems, pieces of fiction, and artwork from—or about—inmates serving time in U.S. correctional facilities. The incarcerated are infected by COVID at a rate five times higher than the general population. Crowded conditions, lack of sanitation, and inadequate medical care all contribute to the desperate conditions inside our prison system. Alongside COVID, our national conversation regarding race, racism, and a long overdue reckoning was also taking place behind bars. Exchange-for-Change, a nonprofit organization, offers writing courses in prisons and runs letter exchanges between incarcerated students and writers studying on the outside. They partnered with Disorder Press, a sibling owned and operated independent press, to publish this anthology. Alongside living with—and dying of—COVID in our correctional institutions, inmates write about the Black Lives Matter movement, general prison life, and what the past year was like behind bars.  Kathie Klarreich (Executive Director for Exchange-for-Change), Mik Grantham (owner of Disorder Press) and Tina Barrett (sister of a former incarcerated student of Exchange-for-Change who died of COVID last year, and a contributor to the anthology) join Marrie Stone to talk about the anthology and the organization that supported its creation.  Download audio.   (Broadcast date: August 4, 2021)

Dan Duling, scriptwriter for Pageant of the Masters (Laguna Beach, CA) and award-winning playwright talks with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett about the pageant and playwriting.  Download audio.  (Recorded on August 3, 2021) Music by Travis Barrett

Halley Sutton, author of The Lady Upstairs, talks with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett about her noir thriller and about the art, craft, and business of writing. Download audio.  (Broadcast date: July 28, 2021) Music by Travis Barrett.

Even casual readers will be familiar with Shirley Jackson's classic works: The Haunting of Hill House, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and her iconic and widely anthologized short story "The Lottery." Stephen King called The Haunting of Hill House "one of the most important horror novels of the 20th century." In the course of her two-decade career, Jackson wrote six novels, two memoirs, and over 200 short stories. A film based loosely on her life, starring Elisabeth Moss, was released last year (though the portrayal is far from accurate). Although Jackson died in 1965, her work is enjoying a renaissance. Thanks in part to her eldest son, Laurence Jackson Hyman, several of her books and stories are now being made into movies. Hyman published two story collections posthumously and now, for the first time, has revived a collection of Jackson's letters dating from 1938 to 1965. Hyman joins Marrie Stone to talk about The Letters of Shirley Jackson, his mother's legacy, the woman behind the thrillers, and domestic life and memories with Jackson growing up. We also learn about Jackson's husband, Stanley Hyman, a staff writer for the New Yorker, professor at Bennington College, and literary critic. Shirley Jackson fans won't want to miss this intimate insider's look inside her life.  Download audio.  (Broadcast date: July 21, 2021)

Chris Offutt, author of the new novel, The Killing Hills (Grove Press) talks with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett about his new work, as well as the art, craft, and business of writing.  Download audio.  (Broadcast date: July 14, 2021 Musical intro/outro and interludes by Travis Barrett.

Two years ago, Jane Alison set out to redefine how writers might think about structure in their work. Most novelists are trained on the narrative arc (better known as Freytag’s Pyramid)—arguing that a story should begin with an enticing incident, build to a climax, and fall into some form of resolution. By examining patterns in nature, Alison argues there are many other ways novelists can structure a story.  Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Patterns in Narrative  provides eight examples, with plenty of supporting literary evidence. She joins Marrie Stone to talk about how she’s used these methods in her own work, what inspired her to seek out these structures, and how novelists can use these techniques to their creative advantage. For further reading, check out Alison's book recommendation, Exercises in Style, by Raymond Queneau. Download audio.   (Broadcast date: June 25, 2021)