From debut authors to Pulitzer Prize winners, Writers on Writing tackles a little of everything — novels, short stories, memoir, poetry, and more, as well as interviews with agents and publishers.

Unlike other shows dedicated to discussing books, we focus on the art, craft, and business of writing. Writers appreciate the opportunity to talk about the artistic elements of their job — the thousands of decisions that must be made to produce a manuscript. There’s no aspect of craft, creativity, and publishing we don’t explore.

We’ve hosted well over 1,500 authors on the show including Elizabeth Strout, S.A. Cosby, Ann Patchett, Amor Towles, and George Saunders. Expert advice from some of the industry’s top writers allows us to offer a show that’s been called “your own personal MFA program” (with no financial strain).

Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Host: Marrie Stone

Music and sound editing by Travis Barrett

Subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Amazon, Spotify, Stitcher, Google, or your favorite podcast app.

.

EPISODES

(2001 - present)

Nicole Nelson 5/26/16 Nicole Nelson 5/26/16

Arna Bontemps Hemenway and Patricia Engel with Nicole Nelson

Arna Bontemps Hemenway, author of the short story collection Elegy on Kinderklavier, joins co-host Nicole Nelson to discuss writing about loss, inhabiting his characters emotionally, overcoming a challenging period in his own writing life post-MFA, and how the most important thing you can make a story isn't clever or topical, or anything else besides making it meaningful to you.

In the second half, Patricia Engel, author of The Veins of the Ocean, talks about the origins of this novel as a short story, her strategy for handling plot, doing research as needed, using dialogue sparingly, letting her life by the ocean influence the story, and more.

Download audio.
[Note: Audio begins immediately with the interview with Arna, without a show introduction, due to technical difficulties.]

(Broadcast date: May 18, 2016)