Literally Podcast

“Intimidating and Illuminating,” as quoted in the most recent article in SLUG Magazine, is the only way to describe our conversation with Author Espido Freire, along with Isabel Asensio, Professor of Spanish, and Electra Gamon Fielding, Associate Professor of Spanish. Her extensive, impressive, and accomplished bio is below the podcast. We were so fortunate to talk with the 2018-19 Hurst Artist/Scholar-in-Residence at Weber State University. Thank you, again, Isabel, for inviting us along.

We harvested just the smallest yield from the bounty of writing experience that came together to talk writing before our Utah Humanities Book Festival LITerally reading. In conjunction with The Utah Humanities Book Festival, this was a group podcast featuring many of our local and national guests. Our local readers for the evening: Kase Johnstun, Sian Griffiths, J.A. Carter Winward, Danielle Susi, Chadd VanZanten, Brad Roghar (Ogden Poet Laureate), Alison McLennon, Amanda Luzzader, and Michael McLane. Our Oregon writers who joined us: Sean Davis and Deborah Reed.

We got poetry. We got prose. We got a performance piece. And there is so much more in our podcast with J.A. Carter-Winward. If you're easily offended, this isn't your episode. But if you're not, you will be entertained. Thanks, JA, for joining me and Brandon for the podcast. We got LIT (eral).

Paul Rowley talks to us about his first chapbook, one that gives a picture of living always on the borders -- the borders between the expectations and realities of growing up as Native American, though this is just the catalyst for a much deeper discussion about the place of art in our time.

Teresita Dovalpage, writing about food and murder and what it's like to wrap them together in Cuba, made us laugh. Teresita opened up on the LITerally Podcast about being a writer, a native Cuban, and what it's like write a crime novel, which, to me, felt like a literary crime novel because of the beautiful prose!

Ryan Sharp, a poet and a hell of a good guy, read some old and new poetry for us at LITerally. It was great to talk with him and hear him talk about what all this means in this crazy world of ours, and where we belong in it and how our voices view it and interpret it and shape it. And a shout out to the OAC!

Misty Bell Stiers, debut author, enlightened us on so many things Wicca and life and love and family when she joined us to talk about her new memoir, ‘Witch Please’. I smile the whole podcast!

We flipped the mic this time. Emmy-Nominated producer and filmmaker Trevor Baierl interviewed me about my book Beyond the Grip of Craniosynostosis. It's the most honest (somewhat reluctantly) I've ever talked about the congenital birth defect. If you listen, I only ask that you listen until the very end, please. It all comes back around. You'll learn way too much about me and Trevor, for sure. I hope you enjoy.

On our inaugural 30 minutes with Sean, we talked about his forthcoming book about the history or Oregon Fire Fighting, what it means to be a writer in this political climate, the Mall of America, and side-by-side stationary bikes in a fifth wheel. Every month, join us here, and, mom, I say the "F" word a couple times in this one, so you may want to cover your ears a couple times.

It's possible to have a podcast that is funny, off-the-wall, and very poignant at the same time. This is what we found when Sian Griffiths and I interviewed Tabitha Blankenbiller about her book Eats of Eden. the podcast has been timed perfectly, specifically addressing what it means to attend AWP, which is coming up this week in Tampa, FL.

Irreverent, funny, off-the-cuff, and full of publishing knowledge, that is Johnny Worthen, your new League of Utah Writers President and our guest on the LITerally podcast. If you want to laugh, listen. If you want to know some truths about writing and publishing, listen. If you want sugar coating, this is not the episode for you.

We really do love you, novelists, we do, but every once in a while we get a memoirist on the 'cast, and it's whole different, wonderful conversation. Sharon Harrigan, author of the recently released PLAYING WITH DYNAMITE, talked us about all the ways writing memoir challenging and exciting and crazy all at once.

We had fun (lots of fun with lots of laughter) last Friday while talking to Deborah Reed and exploring her new book, The Days When Birds Come Back. We talked diction, structure, and tone, but we also explored the much larger themes of loss and pain -- and delved into how June and Jameson (her dual protagonists) rebuild their lives after watching them crumble.

We did it! We pulled it off! We did our first FaceTime podcast, and we did it with the extremely talented and fun debut author Nicholas Mainieri; his new book THE INFINITE is available at Booked on 25th Street. Buy it now. It's my favorite book of 2016. Nick joined us from New Orleans where he was warm while we were getting covered in snow here in Utah. I'm just looking for excuses to have Nickolas back on the podcast now. You'll see why.

It's not everyday that we get to sit down with the first Poet Laureate of Ogden, Utah. Sian, Brandon, and I got to talk to, and more importantly, listen to Brad Roghaar read and talk about where poetry belongs in our lives, in our culture, and in the world we live in now.

Star Coulbrooke, the Logan City Poet Laureate, came to Ogden to talk with us at Booked on 25th independent bookstore on Historic 25th Street. Ogden City Arts is currently looking for a Poet Laureate, and listening to Star talk about why it is important, makes the search even more necessary for a city that aches to have a poetic voice. Star was an absolute delight to have on the podcast. She is truly a wonderful person, friend, teacher, and poet.

Siân Griffiths, author of Borrowed Horses (New Rivers Press, 2015) and Director of Creative Writing at Weber State University, our first guest on our soon-to-be famous podcast LITerally, joins us to talk about how it’s just as easy to not be an asshole writer as it is to be one, and she chooses to not be. While we do discuss literary pomposity – I used this word to be LITerally pompous – we talk about a lot more in this fun podcast that delves into the benefits of writing in a journal, the importance of literary citizenship, and how to dismiss advice from teachers and writers that just doesn’t work for you. Griffiths begins the podcast by reading her flash fiction, “What is Solid” (Versal, 2007).