The Lives of Writers

Guest host Ryan Skaryd talks with Laurie Uttich about running workshops in a maximum-security correctional center for men, reaching for a pen to figure stuff out, loving teaching after not wanting to teach, moving from fiction to non-fiction, the path to her first book of poems, how an idea might lead to non-fiction or poetry, process, a poem landing or not, the point of writing, not rushing into publication as a student, trying different things, and more.Laurie Rachkus Uttich is the author of the poetry collection, Somewhere, a Woman Lowers the Hem of Her Skirt (Riot in Your Throat, 2022). Laurie’s prose and poetry have been published in Autofocus; Burrow Press; Brevity; Creative Nonfiction; Fourth Genre; Iron Horse Literary Review; JuxtaProse; The Missouri Review: Poem of the Week; Poets and Writers; Rattle; River Teeth; Ruminate; Split Lip Magazine; The Sun; Superstition Review; Sweet: A Literary Confection; Terrain.org; and others. Laurie teaches at the University of Central Florida.Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Michael talks with Kevin Sampsell about his work at Powell's, the story of Future Tense Books, getting into books at 21, stumbling on a memoir, getting into collage after publishing a novel, I MADE AN ACCIDENT (Clash Books, 2022), the mysterious allure of magazines older than you are, the influence of collage on his poetry, losing a book written off the cloud, and more.Kevin Sampsell is the author of several books, including the memoir A Common Pornography (Harper Perenniel), the novel This Is Between Us (Tin House Books), and most recently the visual collage and poetry collection I Made an Accident (CLASH Books). He coordinates events and the small press rack at Powell’s Books and is the publisher of Future Tense Books.Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Michael talks with Siân Griffiths about her horse (Larry), riding, coming of age as a writer in denial, finishing a novel and grad school as a new mother, starting her essay collection THE SUM OF HER PARTS around 2016, writing layered analysis, the process of structuring longer essays, sharing work with her filmmaker sister, writing across genres, trusting your obsessions, and more.Siân Griffiths the author of four books: the novels Borrowed Horses and Scrapple, the story collection The Heart Keeps Faulty Time, and most recently the essay collection The Sum of Her Parts. She teaches creative writing at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah and serves on the editorial teams for Barrelhouse and American Short Fiction.Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Michael talks with Keely Shinners about Cape Town, writing about the arts, their path to becoming a novelist, How to Build a Home for the End of the World (Perennial Press), world building, autobiography in the first novel, a question as a through line, theme as guide for structure, and more.Keely Shinners is the editor of ArtThrob and the author of How to Build a Home for the End of the World. Their essays have appeared in Electric Literature, Flypaper Lit, Mail & Guardian, Mask Magazine & Full Stop, their fiction has been featured in The Sun and Peach Magazine, and they live and work in Cape Town.​Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet’s “Special Sause” used with permission from Bertholet.

Michael talks with Robert Vaughan about the creation of Bending Genres, reading and writing with dyslexia, almost becoming a musician, finding book publishers from public readings, his sixth book ASKEW, creating distance, form, and technique in revision, telling it slant, upcoming work, and more.Robert Vaughan is the author of six books of poetry, fiction, and cross-genre writing, including Addicts & Basements, RIFT (a collaboration with Kathy Fish), Funhouse, and most recently Askew (Cowboy Jamboree Press, 2022). He's the editor-in-chief for the literary magazine Bending Genres.Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Michael talks to Marisa Siegel about her time as owner/eic of The Rumpus, poetry as a thread through her life, writing and editing FIXED STARS (Burrow Press, 2022), writing the personal in poetry vs essay, writing about the writing, approaching prose vs poetry, and new work.Marisa Siegal is the author of the poetry book Fixed Stars (Burrow Press, 2022). She’s the senior acquiring editor for trade at Northwestern University Press and an editor-at-large for The Rumpus. Her poems have recently appeared or are soon forthcoming in Voicemail Poems, Hobart, Sweet: A Literary Confection, and Autofocus, and her essay “Inherited Anger” appears in the anthology Burn It Down (Seal Press, 2019).Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Michael talks with Emily Costa about the making of UNTIL IT FEELS RIGHT, turning a diary into a book, OCD, performing in therapy, intensive CBT, reasons to make the private public, timeliness, a novel-in-progress, early influences, and more.Emily Costa is the author of Until It Feels Right (Autofocus Books). Her work can be found in X-R-A-Y, Hobart, Barrelhouse, Wigleaf, and elsewhere. She is currently working on a novel sort of about her father's video store, as well as a book of short stories. You can follow her on Twitter @emilylauracosta.Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet. 

Michael talks with Jennifer Wortman about reading as a disaffected teen, becoming a fiction writer, her story collection THIS. THIS. THIS. IS. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE., self-conscious narrators, theme appearing without seeing it, the question of God, a novel-in-stories-in-progress, where strangeness in a story comes from, and more.Jennifer Wortman is the author of the story collection This. This. This. Is. Love. Love. Love. (Split/Lip Press, 2019). She’s been a recipient of NEA and MacDowell fellowships, and her work has appeared in TriQuarterly, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Glimmer Train, Electric Literature, Brevity, Best Small Fictions, Best Microfiction, and elsewhere.Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Michael talks with Erin Slaughter about her journey to finding community as a writer, figuring out a balance between disclosure and dignity in poetry, THE SORROW FESTIVAL (Clash Books, 2022), writing about emotion from the body, vulnerability, the impulse to write about the self, finding form, and her forthcoming story collection.Erin Slaughter is the author of two books of poetry: The Sorrow Festival, which is out today from Clash Books, and I Will Tell This Story to the Sun until You Remember That You Are the Sun (New Rivers Press, 2019). Her debut story collection A Manual for How to Love Us is forthcoming from Harper Perennial in 2023. She’s the co-founder of The Hunger.Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.

Michael talks with Sara Lippmann about running, palpable honesty, the reissue of DOLL HOUSE (2014), the new collection JERKS (Mason Jar Press), the gaps in a person and the gaps between people, entrapment and transgression, crafting dynamic narrators with an authentic voice, the long process of writing her novel LECH (Tortoise Books), and more.Sara Lippmann is the author of three books: JERKS, a story collection that came out this year with Mason Jar Press, LECH, a novel that’ll come out in the fall of this year with Tortoise Books, and DOLL PALACE, a story collection recently reissued from 713 Books.Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.