Author2Author

Bill welcomes award-winning author Lydia Millet back to the show. Lydia is the author of A Children's Bible, a finalist for the National Book Award and a New York Times Top 10 book of 2020, among other works of fiction. She has won awards from PEN Center USA and the American Academy of Arts and Letters and been shortlisted for the National Book Award, National Book Critics Circle Award, and Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Her story collection Love in Infant Monkeys was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Her latest novel is Dinosaur. She lives in Tucson, Arizona.

Bill welcomes author Priscilla Long to the show. Priscilla is a Seattle-based writer of poetry, creative nonfiction, science, history, and fiction, and a long-time independent teacher of writing. Her seventh book is Dancing with the Muse in Old Age. Her two poetry books are Holy Magic and Crossing Over: Poems. Her awards include a National Magazine Award for a science-based feature. Her how-to-write book is The Writer's Portable Mentor: A Guide to Art, Craft, and the Writer's Life. Other books are a collection of memoirist essays, Fire and Stone: Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? and Minding the Muse: A Handbook for Painters, Composers, Writers, and Other Creators. Her first book was Where the Sun Never Shines: A History of America’s Bloody Coal Industry.

Bill welcomes filmmaker and debut author Brian O'Hare to the show. Brian O’Hare is a graduate of the US Naval Academy and former US Marine Corps officer. His career began in a Baltimore bar, the legendary Club Charles, where director John Waters cast him to appear in his film Cry Baby. Currently, he’s an award-winning writer and filmmaker living in Los Angeles. His work has appeared in War, Literature and the Arts; Santa Fe Writers Project; Hobart; and other journals, and he has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes. He was named a Writing Fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and recently served as Visiting Writer at CUNY/Kingsborough (Brooklyn). He’s currently at work on his debut novel. His short story collection, Surrender, is his first published book.

Bill welcomes novelist, violinist, and arts lecturer Erica Miner back to the show. Former Metropolitan Opera Orchestra violinist Erica is an award-winning author, lecturer, screenwriter, and arts journalist. Erica’s debut novel, Travels with my Lovers, won the Fiction Prize in the Direct from the Author Book Awards. Her screenplays have won awards in the Santa Fe, WinFemme and Writer’s Digest competitions. Erica’s 3-part Julia Kogan “Opera Mystery” novel series, released by Level Best Books starting on Oct. 28, 2022, with Aria for Murder, in which young violinist Julia Kogan investigates murder and mayhem behind the Met’s “Golden Curtain.” Erica’s real-life experiences working with operatic superstars such as Luciano Pavarotti lend authenticity to the ale. Sequels take place at the Santa Fe and San Francisco Operas. A resident of the Pacific Northwest, Erica is a top speaker and lecturer on opera and writing. In addition to pre-concert lectures for the Seattle Symphony, Erica regularly presents for Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of California San Diego and University of Washington; Creative Retirement Institute at Edmonds College; Wagner Societies in Boston, New York, the Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego, North Carolina and New South Wales (Sydney, Australia). As a lecturer in writing, she has presented for the WOTS, Fields End, and Los Angeles Writer Conferences.

In this special episode, your host Bill Kenower tells a short story about success, failure, parenting, and creativity. Bill is the author of Everyone Has What It Takes: A Writer’s Guide to the End of Self-Doubt,  Fearless Writing: How to Create Boldly and Write With Confidence, and Write Within Yourself: An Author’s Companion, and the Editor-in-Chief of Author magazine. In addition to his books, he’s been published in The New York Times, Writer’s Digest,Edible Seattle, Parent Map, and has been a featured blogger for the Huffington Post.

Bill welcomes memoirist and novelist Cheryl Klein to the show. Cheryl is the author of CRYBABY (Brown Paper Press), a memoir about wanting a baby and getting cancer instead. She also wrote a story collection, THE COMMUTERS (City Works Press) and a novel, LILAC MINES (Manic D Press). And three unpublished novels, which she still thinks are pretty great. She is also a Senior Editor and columnist for MUTHA Magazine, where she often writes about adoption, foster parenting, fear, and her hatred of LEGOs. Her stories and essays have appeared in Entropy, The Normal School, Blunderbuss, and several anthologies. Her work has been honored by the MacDowell residency program and the Center for Cultural Innovation.

Bill welcomes debut memoirist Brooke Siem to the show. Brooke Siem was among the first generation of teens to be medicated with antidepressants. After spending half her life—and her entire adult life—on antidepressants, she wondered: Who might I be without them? Unfurled against a global backdrop, Brooke's writing, speaking, and work as an award-winning chef chronicles explosive and terrifying antidepressant withdrawal and the fight to manage the modern mental health system, all while demanding hope and forgiveness in the name of healing. Her debut memoir, MAY CAUSE SIDE EFFECTS, was published in September 2022 and was named as one of Good Morning America's Most Anticipated Reads. Her work on antidepressant withdrawal has also appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Post, Psychology Today, Insider, Mad In America, The Washington Examiner, and more. She is also a Food Network "Chopped" champion and author of the newsletter, Happiness Is A Skill.

Bill welcomes screenwriter and novelist Brian Herskowitz to the show. Brian has worked as a writer on series such as THE LEGENDARY JOURNEY’S OF HERCULES, BLOSSOM, DREAM ON, and TOUR OF DUTY.  He directed ODESSA OR BUST with Red Buttons, Jason Alexander, George Wendt, and Jason Schwartzman, MURRAY GHOST (short content series), and Produced Candace Bushnell’s The Broadroom (web series). Brian has taught the craft of screenwriting for over thirty years, starting with a stint with Writer’s Bootcamp, then at UCLA extensions, and for the last seventeen years, he has led the Boston University Writer in Hollywood Program. As an author, Brian’s first book was a textbook on screenwriting, PROCESS TO PRODUCT. His second book, CONCEPTUS, is a novel that grew out of one of his screenplays.

Bill welcomes debut novelist Julia Sullivan to the show. Julia started working on Bone Necklace more than twenty years ago, after visiting the Big Hole Battlefield in Wisdom, Montana. Julia first became interested in the Nez Perce story because of the great injustice that the tribe suffered. What kept her interested was their conduct during the war. While under attack, the Nez Perce won the respect of the soldiers sent to fight them and the civilian population. At the end of the war, Canada offered them political asylum. Julia is a lawyer in the United States and a solicitor in England & Wales. Throughout her career, she has worked to expose and root out injustice.

Bill welcomes YA novelist Sara Bennett Wealer to the show. Sara grew up in Manhattan, Kansas, where she sang in all the choirs and wrote for the high school newspaper. She majored in voice performance at the University of Kansas before deciding she had no business trying to make a career as an opera singer. She then transferred to journalism school, where no one cares if you can hit a high C or convincingly play a Valkyrie, and became a reporter covering everything from house fires to Hollywood premieres. These days, she writes event scripts and marketing copy while the sun is out. By night, she writes books for young adults, including her most recent, Grave Things Like Love.