Community of Writers Podcasts

May 09 2024

Community of Writers Podcasts artwork

Stay abreast of our summer workshops in Fiction, Nonfiction and Memoir by following to hear panels, and craft talks from esteemed agents and editors. Later in the year we will be adding selected craft talks from previous summers.

Year-round, we also host Bibliocracy Radio , a weekly half-hour books discussion and interview program hosted by Santa Monica Review editor Andrew Tonkovich featuring writers of literary fiction and nonfiction, poetry, memoir and cultural criticism.

Subscribe on Podcast Addict

Bibliocracy Episode 11: Molly Giles on Life Span

May 09 2024 28 mins

Novelist, short story writer, and acclaimed teacher Molly Giles. The author, most recently, of the novel The Home for Unwed Husbands, is out with a memoir in short episodes, vignettes, and meditations, built on her life crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. In Life Span, Giles defines, examines, celebrates, and interrogates her writing life by way of the iconic bridge, each chapter mark

Bibliocracy Episode 10: Venita Blackburn on Dead in Long Beach, Califonria

May 09 2024 29 mins

My guest this week is acclaimed short story writer and, now, novelist Venita Blackburn. Her debut novel, Dead in Long Beach, California arrives after two acclaimed short story collections, Black Jesus and Other Superheroes and How to Wrestle a Girl. This new novel is a multi-form, multi-voiced chronicle of loss, self-discovery, of desperately sad if also playful strategies of ident

Bibliocracy Episode 9: Julie Schumacher on The English Experience

Apr 01 2024 27 mins

My guest today is Julie Schumacher, who will talk about and read from the final book in a trilogy which has earned its place on the shelf with other favorites in the weird, wonderful genre of academic satire, right next to Richard Russo’s Straight Man and, as it happens her first two novels chronicling the cheerfully doomed life of one Professor Jason Fitger, a divorced professor

Bibliocracy Episode 8: A Tribute to Dwight Yates (Part 2 of 2)

Apr 01 2024 29 mins

My guests this week further remember, celebrate, and, today, read from (!) the work of the late short story writer, teacher, friend and mentor Dwight Yates (1945-2023). I am joined in Part 2 of this “tribute” by Susan Straight (Mecca), Victoria Patterson (The Secret Habit of Sorrow), and Gary Amdahl (The Daredevils), all accomplished and acclaimed writers. Dwight Yates was the

Bibliocracy Episode 7: A Tribute to Dwight Yates (Part 1 of 2)

Apr 01 2024 29 mins

My guests this week remember and celebrate the life and work of the late short story writer, teacher, friend and mentor Dwight Yates (1945-2023). I am joined by Susan Straight (Mecca), Victoria Patterson (The Secret Habit of Sorrow), and Gary Amdahl (The Daredevils), all accomplished and acclaimed writers for the first of a two-part show. Dwight Yates was the author of dozens of sh

Bibliocracy Episode 6: Amber A'Lee Frost on Dirtbag

Apr 01 2024 30 mins

My guest this week is the writer, activist and podcaster from Chapo Trap House, Amber A’Lee Frost. Her debut book Dirtbag is a personal memoir, a journalistic account, a political autobiography, a take-apart of grassroots collective action, an insider look at Democratic Socialists of America, Occupy Wall Street, the Bernie campaign and, yes, podcast culture --- all offered with g

Bibliocracy Episode 5: Theresa Bonpane on Sister Rebel

Apr 01 2024 28 mins

My very special guest is Theresa Bonpane, a legendary Southern California peace and justice, anti-war and anti-intervention activist. Her memoir, Sister Rebel, is out now from Red Hen Press, and she speaks with me about her life, sharing stories and poems and more. Because this is a fund drive edition, KPFK is happy to offer you a thank-you gift for your support. Thanks to Theresa

Bibliocracy Episode 4: Katherine Haake on What Books Press

Apr 01 2024 28 mins

My guest is novelist and short story writer Katherine Haake, a co-founder of What Books Press. Celebrating fifteen years, this collectively run publishing outfit has worked collaboratively with prose and poetry writers to create dozens of gorgeous books, and each featuring cover art by the legendary artist Gronk. For more on What Books Press see WhatBooksPress.com. For more on writ

Bibliocracy Episode 3: David Kipen on Dear California

Feb 23 2024 29 mins

My guest today is David Kipen. He needs no introduction because he is himself the introducer, the anthologizer, the cultural historian, the literary booster and all-around celebrant of writers and literary culture for our state and our region. Book review editor, Director of Literature at the NEA, critic at large at the Los Angeles Times and, of course, founder-director of Libros S

Bibliocracy Episode 2: Reid Sherline on Rapture

Feb 23 2024 29 mins

In his prizewinning novella Rapture, debut writer Reid Sherline has with a very small book made an outsized contribution to the literature of dark, weird Southern California, a place (and moment) where the recklessness, confusion, disengagement of adults turns their ignored or innocent children into perversely exaggerated walking, talking, misbehaving monster versions of themselves