Episode 89: How Does a Man Get Away with Calling Women Bitches and Hoes in a Story?

EPISODE 88: Should I Stay or Should I Leave This Country?

Today’s episode is part of a series called Home. Writing Class Radio helped produce a documentary to help end homelessness for Chapman Partnership, a homeless center in South Florida.

On this episode, you will hear a story by writer Tiffanie Drayton who takes an idea that most Americans hold about our country and turns it on its head. Typically, people come to America to seek asylum. But, Tiffanie left America to seek asylum. She left because she didn’t feel safe here as a Black American. 

Tiffany’s essay was published in the New York Times on June 12, 2020, which led to an agent signing and a 250k book deal. You’ll hear that story plus our conversation with Tiffanie about her experience as a Black person in America. Tiffanie came to America from Trinidad at four years old. She talks about her privilege as a dual citizen and her responsibility as a writer to call herself out for that privilege. 

Tiffanie Drayton is working on a book about fleeing American racism.

Episode 87: At Home in My Skin

Trigger warning: This story contains strong language and images and is not appropriate for children. Sexual violence is discussed. 

Today’s show is part of a series called Home. Writing Class Radio helped produce a documentary to help end homelessness for Chapman Partnership, a homeless center in South Florida. We put out a public call for submissions for stories about home. The call brought so many different and fascinating takes. Thank you to all the people who submitted stories. 

In our home series, you’ll hear a story about a woman who is torn between two homes, a man who finds home through love with a woman while he’s dealing with addiction, and a woman who finds home in another country less racially divided. 

Today’s story by Mary Ann Parker is about feeling at home in your skin.

Mary’s story shows how to expertly plant seeds, which is a way to drop hints and lead your reader to your conclusion. 

Mary Ann Parker is a war veteran and a student in our class. She is working on a memoir.

Episode 86: Torn Between Two Houses Feeling Like a Fool

Today’s show is the first in a four-part miniseries called Home. Writing Class Radio helped produce a documentary to help end homelessness for Chapman Partnership, a homeless center in South Florida.  

The story you’ll hear on this episode is by Anechy Padron who is torn between two homes.

This episode’s writing lesson addresses an essay that doesn’t have a clear ending or resolution. We always want to make a solid point, but sometimes the point is a conflict. Anechy’s story reveals that conflict.

Anechy was born in Cuba. She’s an actress-puppeteer and writer who worked as a clown in a Cuban circus. Anechy writes in English and Spanish and has been published in the Mexican anthology, Cada Loco Con Su Tema. For more Anechy, visit her travel blog and creative blog.

Episode 85: What Does Your TV Habit Say About You?

This episode is about story structure and all things done well in an essay. LiAnne Yu tells a story about watching TV with her Chinese immigrant parents. As a narrator she brings us into her world--dinners in front of the TV with her parents. She uses detail to reveal character--Mork & Mindy, Sex and the City, and Fox News. She follows the five Cs of story structure: context, circumstance, complication, change, consequence.

LiAnne Yu is an anthropologist and writer based in San Francisco and Kailua Kona, Hawaii. Her story was originally published in The New York Times, July 17, 2020.

Episode 84: Who’s Your Voice of Reason?

Nicholas Garnett is an adjunct professor of creative writing at Florida International University and Miami Book Fair International. He’s editor of the journal Sliver of Stone. His writing has appeared in Salon.com, The Florida Book Review, and other places including Best Sex Writing of 2013. Most importantly, he’s the co-producer of Lip Service, which is a Knight Foundation award winning live storytelling show in Miami.

Episode 83: Every Word Matters

Today on our show, we’re talking about how every word in a story matters. We have a story to share that illustrates this point so well. Essayist, teacher, and Writing Class Radio listener Amy Paturel submitted her story called “The Other Love of His Life,” which was originally published in Newsweek, April 2009. 

Amy’s story is a great example of how every word must lead to the final conclusion. Every scene, detail, and description should move the story forward. If not...cut. 

Amy Paturel teaches personal essay writing online and offers one-on-one coaching to professional and aspiring writers. Her essays have appeared in Newsweek, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Real Simple, Parents and Good Housekeeping.

Episode 82: A Poet’s Response to Senseless Murders

Zorina Frey is an improv and spoken word performer and the owner of I.W.A. Publications. I.W.A specializes in creating SEO content and consulting aspiring writers and experts to publish a book in their area of expertise. She has over a decade of publishing experience including Indiana University South Bend’s Michiana Monologues nonprofit organization. Her poetry has been published in Analecta and New Views on Gender literary magazines.

Episode 81: An Insider Conversation with a Literary Agent

Today on our show, we share a New York Times Modern Love essay we love by Jessica Strawser, editor-at-large at Writer’s Digest.

Her essay caught the attention of literary agent Barbara Poelle, an agent with the Irene Goodman Literary Agency and the author of Funny You Should Ask: Mostly Serious Answers to Mostly Serious Questions About the Publishing Industry. Her book is based on her Writer's Digest column of the same name. On today’s show, we share our conversation with Barbara about how to get an agent.

Barbara Poelle began her publishing career as a freelance copywriter and editor before joining the Goodman Agency in 2007, but feels as if she truly prepared for the industry during her brief stint as a standup comic in Los Angeles. She has found success placing thrillers, literary suspense, Young Adult and upmarket fiction and is actively seeking her next great client in those genres, but is passionate about anything with a unique voice.

Jessica Strawser is editor-at-large at Writer’s Digest. She is author of Almost Missed You, Not That I Could Tell, and her latest, Forget You Know Me. She’s won a bunch of literary awards. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Modern Love, Publishers Weekly, and other fine outlets. Find her on Twitter @jessicastrawser, and Facebook and Instagram @jessicastrawserauthor.

Episode 80: We Grant You Permission to Write or Not to Write During this Crisis.

Sari Botton is a writer and editor living in Kingston, NY. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire, Women’s Wear Daily, W, The Billfold, The Rumpus, The Millions, Catapult, plus other publications, and assorted anthologies. She is the Essays Editor for Longreads, and edited the award-winning anthology Goodbye to All That: Writers on Loving & Leaving NY and its New York Times bestselling follow-up, Never Can Say Goodbye: Writers on Their Unshakable Love for NY. She teaches at Catapult and in the MFA program at Bay Path University.