Past Forward

A live recording of our educational podcast The How, The Why with Jonathan Lethem. Jonathan Lethem is the author of ten novels, including The Fortress of Solitude, Girl In Landscape, and A Gambler’s Anatomy. His fifth, Motherless Brooklyn, won The National Book Critic’s Circle Award. In 2005 he was named a Fellow of the Macarthur Foundation. His stories and essays have been collected in five volumes and his writing has been translated into over thirty languages. He’s the Roy E. Disney ’51 Chair in Creative Writing at Pomona College, and lives in Claremont and Maine. Photo: Adrian Cook The How, The Why is a half-hour podcast documenting the creative process and the creative purpose hosted by Jon-Barrett Ingels. This free weekly series is an educational resource provided to discuss the evolution of literary arts with industry innovators—authors, journalists, and publishers. Producers: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Jonathan Lethem Audio: Brew Sessions Live

Today our podcast connects with Linda Abbit, author of The Conscious Caregiver: A Mindful Approach to Caring for Your Loved One Without Losing Yourself. She is the Community Outreach Manager for the innovative Mind and Memory outpatient program at Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, CA. A former caregiver with twenty-five-plus years’ experience, her blog, Tender Loving Eldercare, has grown into a Facebook community for caregivers. She is a prominent contributor to SeniorPlanet.org, where many of her stories remain in the top thirty articles read on the site. She holds a master’s in education, and has been vocal in the caregiving community for fifteen-plus years. In 2009, she received the Caregiver of the Year Award by Caregiving.com, and her website was nominated for excellence by Best Senior Living Awards in 2012, 2013, and 2014. The How, The Why is a half-hour podcast documenting the creative process and the creative purpose hosted by Jon-Barrett Ingels. This free weekly series is an educational resource provided to discuss the evolution of literary arts with industry innovators—authors, journalists, and publishers. Producers: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guests: Linda Abbit

A live recording of our educational podcast The How, The Why with Lucille Lang Day and Dave Holt. Lucille Lang Day is a co-editor of the anthology Red Indian Road West: Native American Poetry from California, which has received awards from PEN Oakland and Artists Embassy International. She has published ten poetry collections and chapbooks, including Becoming an Ancestor and Dreaming of Sunflowers: Museum Poems, which received the 2014 Blue Light Poetry Award. She is also the author of a two children’s books, Chain Letter and The Rainbow Zoo, and a memoir, Married at Fourteen, which received a PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Award and was a finalist for the Northern California Book Award in Creative Nonfiction. Her poems, short stories, and essays have appeared widely in literary magazines and anthologies. The founder and director of Scarlet Tanager Books, she holds an MFA in creative writing from San Francisco State University and a PhD in science/mathematics education from the University of California, Berkeley. She is of Wampanoag, British, and Swiss/German descent. After high school, Dave Holt began setting his poems to music. His desire to be a composer led to a move to California to get his songs published, but he ended up in San Francisco State University’s Creative Writing Program (BA ’93, MA ’95). His poetry has been published in several journals and has won prizes in the Thomas Merton’s Poetry of the Sacred, Maggie Meyer Memorial, Dancing Poetry, and Ina Coolbrith contests. His essay “American Indian Poets and the Mixed-Blood Experience” appeared in Raven Chronicles. His book, Voyages to Ancestral Islands, which tells the story of reuniting with his Anishinaabe Ojibwe ancestors, won a Literary/Cultural Arts Award from Artists Embassy International (San Francisco). His work has been included in three anthologies, including Red Indian Road West and Descansos, Words from the Wayside, where his contributed poem received a Pushcart Prize nomination. The How, The Why is a half-hour podcast documenting the creative process and the creative purpose hosted by Jon-Barrett Ingels. This free weekly series is an educational resource provided to discuss the evolution of literary arts with industry innovators—authors, journalists, and publishers. Producers: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Trevor Allred Guests: Lucille Lang Day and David Holt Audio: Brew Sessions Live

A live recording at The Last Bookstore with Richard Gaffin, Veronica Bane, Jon Frechette, and Ashley Heaton.Producer: Jon-Barrett IngelsHost: Jon-Barrett IngelsGuests: Veronica Bane, Jon Frechette, Richard Gaffin, and Ashley Heaton

A live recording of our educational podcast The How The Why with Gabriel Gale and Ages of Oz. Produced in collaboration with Orange Home Grown and Tiddlywinks. Gabriel Gale is a Brooklyn, NY native and the creator of Ages of Oz, which he started approximately 10 years ago, after graduating with a Bachelor’s in Fine Art from Cooper Union and a Master’s in Architecture from Columbia. He has worked with Writer’s House, Scholastic, Simon & Schuster, William Morris Endeavor, Warner Bros, and A-list Hollywood Producers and Directors. “Ages of Oz is a new adaption and expansion of the Oz that we all know and love. What sets us apart is that after deconstructing and rebuilding all of the characters, objects, and settings from L Frank Baum’s original 14 Oz books – only one of which was “The Wizard of Oz” – we created 1000 years of Oz history all the while staying true to Baum’s intentions… including that Glinda had fiery red hair! The How, The Why is a half-hour podcast documenting the creative process and the creative purpose hosted by Jon-Barrett Ingels. This free weekly series is an educational resource provided to discuss the evolution of literary arts with industry innovators—authors, journalists, and publishers. Producers: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Gabriel Gale Audio: Brew Sessions Live

Apollo Bebop, named after the Greek God of music and the intricately harmonic style of jazz, is a West Coast based band that formed in the summer of 2015 in Santa Ana, California. From the start, the group has aimed to revitalize the appreciation of Jazz music by incorporating the musicality of jazz with classic, yet contemporary, hip hop back beats. The quintet consists of drummer Donovan Cruz, bass and guitarist roles that alternate between Christopher Trimmer and Dominick Cruz, DeAndre Grover on tenor sax, and Brian “Brian to Earth” Gomez as the front man and Emcee.Sounds + Stories is an eclectic music series featuring live performances and entertaining discussions with emerging and established artists. Produced in collaboration with Brew Sessions Live. Special episodes are filmed and edited into a short documentary compilation with the audio from each episode recorded and archived for podcast.Guest: Apollo BebopProduced by Past Forward in partnership with Brew Sessions Live.

A live recording of our educational podcast The How, The Why with Stephen Most. Stephen Most writes plays, books, and documentary screenplays. He has writing credits on four Academy Award “best documentary” nominated films and five Emmy-winning films. His book, River of Renewal: Myth and History in the Klamath Basin (2006) was made into a film that won a “best documentary” award at the American Indian Film Festival. Stories Make the World is his fourth book. He resides in Berkeley, California. The How, The Why is a half-hour podcast documenting the creative process and the creative purpose hosted by Jon-Barrett Ingels. This free weekly series is an educational resource provided to discuss the evolution of literary arts with industry innovators—authors, journalists, and publishers. Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Stephen Most Audio: Brew Sessions Live

Today our podcast connects with Taisia Kitaiskaia, author of Literary Witches (Hachette/Seal) and Ask Baba Yaga (Andrews McMeel), and Pushcart-nominated poet who has been published in Fence, Crazyhorse, Pleiades, and Guernica. The How, The Why is a half-hour podcast documenting the creative process and the creative purpose hosted by Jon-Barrett Ingels. This free weekly series is an educational resource provided to discuss the evolution of literary arts with industry innovators—authors, journalists, and publishers. Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Taisia Kitaiskaia Photo: Fernando A. Flores

James Spaite has been performing internationally since the age of 18 having toured in Argentina, Belgium, Germany, Holland, Hungary, and the US. While majoring in Psychology in college and working full time, Spaite would tour during the summers and play local San Diego shows on the weekends.He is preparing for the recording and release of his second album, “Outside” projected to release this coming February/March.JR Bishop is a composer, producer and arranger based out of Los Angeles. He believes in the power of music to bring people together and works to achieve that end with his music. His upcoming release “We Go Together” is a full-length album written and recorded entirely on his 1330-mile hike of the Pacific Crest Trail.Sounds + Stories is an eclectic music series featuring live performances and entertaining discussions with emerging and established artists. Produced in collaboration with Brew Sessions Live. Special episodes are filmed and edited into a short documentary compilation with the audio from each episode recorded and archived for podcast.Guest: James Spaite and JR BishopProduced by Past Forward in partnership with Brew Sessions Live.

A live recording of our educational podcast The How The Why with Martin J. Smith. Martin J. Smith is a veteran journalist and magazine editor has won more than fifty newspaper and magazine writing awards, and his crime novels have been nominated for three of the publishing industry’s most prestigious honors, including the Edgar Award, the Anthony Award, and the Barry Award. New York Times bestseller Michael Connelly calls Smith’s latest thriller, “Combustion,” a “page-turner with a kicker at the end — you can’t ask for anything better. Intricately plotted and full of character, this one is a great ride that burns with the intensity of a California wildfire.” Diversion Books released that novel on Sept. 27, 2016. In November, Globe Piquot published “Mr. Las Vegas Has a Bad Knee,” a collection of Smith’s essays about the people, places, and peculiarities of the American Southwest, where he lived and worked between 1985 and 2016. Writes book critic and 2015 Guggenheim Fellow David L. Ulin in the book’s foreword: “If Smith’s book is about anything, it’s about place, the way it gets inside us. And the Southwest … there’s something about the space, the unformed landscape, that both terrifies and inspires, allowing us to see our limits and our possibilities. Thus, if on the one hand, Smith is tracking a lost world, it’s a lost world that’s also brave and new. Sound like a contradiction? That’s the whole idea behind Smith’s work in this collection, which traces (as it must) the middle ground between opposing, but not irreconcilable, perspectives: ‘Permanence is illusion’; ‘The best stories develop over time.’ ” A former senior editor of the Los Angeles Times Magazine, Smith was editor-in-chief of Orange Coast magazine in Orange County, Calif., between 2007 and 2016, during which time the Western Publishing Association five times named Orange Coast the best city/metropolitan magazine in the western U.S., including four consecutive wins between 2013 and 2016. His 2012 nonfiction book, “The Wild Duck Chase,” about the Federal Duck Stamp Contest and the strange and wonderful world of competitive duck painting, inspired Brian Golden Davis’ documentary film “The Million Dollar Duck,” which won both the Jury and Audience awards at the 2016 Slamdance Film Festival. The film aired multiple times on Discovery Communications’ Animal Planet in September 2016. The How, The Why is a half-hour podcast documenting the creative process and the creative purpose hosted by Jon-Barrett Ingels. This free weekly series is an educational resource provided to discuss the evolution of literary arts with industry innovators—authors, journalists, and publishers.

Today our podcast connects with Akwaeke Emezi. Akwaeke Emezi is an Igbo and Tamil writer and video artist based in liminal spaces. Her debut autobiographical novel FRESHWATER (Grove Atlantic, February 2018) has been reviewed by the Wall Street Journal ('[a] witchy, electrifying story of danger and compulsion') and the LA Times ('a dazzling, devastating novel'). It also received starred reviews from Library Journal and Booklist, and has been recognized on 2018 best/most anticipated books lists by Esquire, ELLE, Cosmopolitan, Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, Bustle, OZY, Electric Lit, and Book Riot, among others. Emezi's first young adult novel, PET, will be published in 2019 by Make Me a World, Christopher Myers' imprint in partnership with Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers. Her short story 'Who Is Like God' won the 2017 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for Africa. She was photographed by Annie Leibovitz and profiled in the February 2018 issue of Vogue Magazine (Modern Families With A Cause). Her video art series THE UNBLINDING recently premiered at Gavin Brown's enterprise in Harlem. Born in Umuahia and raised in Aba, Nigeria, Emezi holds two degrees, including an MPA from New York University. In 2017, she was awarded a Global Arts Fund grant for the video art in her project The Unblinding, and a Sozopol Fellowship for Creative Nonfiction. She received a 2015 Morland Writing Scholarship to write her second novel, and is a 2016 Kimbilio Fellow. Emezi's writing has been published by Granta Online, Vogue.com, and Commonwealth Writers, among others. Her memoir work was included in The Fader's 'Best Culture Writing of 2015' ('Who Will Claim You?') and her experimental short UDUDEAGU won the Audience Award for Best Short Experimental at the 2014 BlackStar Film Festival. She is currently making video art and working on her third novel. The How The Why is a half-hour podcast documenting the creative process and the creative purpose hosted by Jon-Barrett Ingels. This free weekly series is an educational resource provided to discuss the evolution of literary arts with industry innovators. Interviews are structured as friendly conversations and conducted via telephone. Occasionally, episodes will be recorded live at special events and highlight multiple guests. Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Akwaeke Emezi

A live recording of our educational podcast The How, The Why with Peter McLaren. Peter McLaren is Distinguished Professor in Critical Studies, College of Educational Studies, Chapman University. He is Co-Director and International Ambassador for Global Ethics and Social Justice of the Paulo Freire Democratic Project, the Donna Ford Attallah College of Education, Chapman University. He is also Chair Professor, Northeast Normal University in Changchun, China, where he is Honorary Director of the Center for Critical Studies in Education. A Marxist humanist who works in the areas of Marxist humanism and liberation theology, he has lectured widely in Latin America, North America, Asia, and Europe. Professor McLaren is the author and editor of nearly 50 books and hundreds of professional publications on education and social justice. His writings have been translated into over 30 languages. He received his Ph.D. in education from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada. Professor McLaren is Fellow of the Royal Society and Commerce, England, and Fellow of the American Educational Research Association. Professor McLaren is Honorary Director of Instituto McLaren de Pedagogia Critica y Educatcion Popular in Ensenada, Mexico and received the Outstanding Educator of America Award for 2013, from the Association of Educators of Latin America and the Caribbean. Professor McLaren’s book, Life in Schools: An Introduction to Critical Pedagogy in the Foundations of Education (Allyn & Bacon), has been named one of the 12 most significant writings by foreign authors in the field of educational theory, policy and practice by the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences. He is a recipient of the Liberty Medal by Soka Gakkai International-USA, a Buddhist organization with 12 million members worldwide, and The Central New York Peace Studies Consortium Lifetime Achievement Award in Peace Studies. In addition, the Higher Council of Community Government, the Council for Civil Affairs and the Education Commission of Cheran, Michoacan, presented McLaren with the Defence of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Award commemorating the second anniversary of the defence of the forests. His most recent book is Pedagogy of Insurrection. The How The Why is a half-hour podcast documenting the creative process and the creative purpose hosted by Jon-Barrett Ingels. This free weekly series is an educational resource provided to discuss the evolution of literary arts with industry innovators. Interviews are structured as friendly conversations and conducted via telephone. Occasionally, episodes will be recorded live at special events and highlight multiple guests. Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Peter McLaren Audio: Brew Sessions Live

A live recording of our educational podcast The How, The Why with Aaron James, author of Assholes: A Theory published by Penguin Random House. He holds a PhD from Harvard and is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of Fairness in Practice: A Social Contract for a Global Economy published by Oxford University Press, and was awarded the Burkhardt Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies, spending the 2009-10 academic year at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. He’s an avid surfer (the experience of which has directly inspired this book)… and he’s not an asshole. Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Aaron James Audio: Brew Sessions Live

Today our podcast connects with Lena Späth, author of Behind Closed Curtains: Interior Design in Iran. Lena was born in Munich, Germany, and enrolled in Middle Eastern Studies. She lived in Spain, Turkey and Iran and travelled a lot within the Middle East. You will find a tile from Iran, a carpet from Egypt and a lantern from Syria in her house. Before producing Behind Closed Curtains: Interior Design in Iran Lena worked for consulting, recruiting, and Internet companies and analyzed the presidential elections in Iran, Google’s advance into the television sector or the latest trends in bohemian interior design. Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Lena Späth The How, The Why is a half-hour podcast documenting the creative process and the creative purpose hosted by Jon-Barrett Ingels. This free weekly series is an educational resource provided to discuss the evolution of literary arts with industry innovators—authors, journalists, and publishers.

A live recording of our educational podcast The How, The Why with Jenna Rainey. Jenna Rainey is the founder and lead designer, illustrator, calligrapher behind Mon Voir. She started her small but mighty illustration and design agency out of a love for art that began when she was very little. With a passion for the arts and a background in psychology, she strives to bring out the creativity in each student in a workshop and unique and elegant quality within every design and invitation. Beyond being a stationery boss lady, she is a terrible whistler, an avid coffee drinker, musician and lover of details and history. Jenna’s work has been featured in countless publications and wedding blogs including Nixon, Martha Stewart Weddings, The Knot, The Lane, BuzzFeed and is now sharing her talent and stories in various keynotes throughout the country including Connecting Things, Brit+Co’s Re:Make Summit and more! Jenna has a passion for teaching others to find their creative voice and is coming out with a book, releasing in October 2017 with Ten Speed Press, titled “Everyday Watercolor” to show each reader the love she has for watercolor! Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Jenna Rainey Audio: Brew Sessions Live The How, The Why is a half-hour podcast documenting the creative process and the creative purpose hosted by Jon-Barrett Ingels. This free weekly series is an educational resource provided to discuss the evolution of literary arts with industry innovators—authors, journalists, and publishers.

Today our podcast connects with Yaron Lifschitz. Yaron is a graduate of the University of New South Wales, University of Queensland and National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA) where he was the youngest director ever accepted into its prestigious graduate director’s course. Since graduating, Yaron has directed over 60 productions including large-scale events, opera, theatre, physical theatre and circus. His work has been seen in 39 countries, across six continents by over one million people. He was founding Artistic Director of the Australian Museum’s Theatre Unit, Head Tutor in Directing at Australian Theatre for Young People and has been a regular guest tutor in directing at NIDA since 1995. He is currently Artistic Director and CEO of Circa. With Circa, Yaron has created works such as by the light of stars that are no longer…, CIRCA, Wunderkammer, How Like an Angel, “S”, Beyond, Opus, Carnival of the Animals, Il Ritorno, Humans, and One Beautiful Thing. His recent works have been reviewed as being “stunning”, “exquisite” and “the standard to which all other circuses can aspire”. Yaron lives in Brisbane with his son, Oscar. The How, The Why is a half-hour podcast documenting the creative process and the creative purpose hosted by Jon-Barrett Ingels. This free weekly series is an educational resource provided to discuss the evolution of literary arts with industry innovators—authors, journalists, and publishers.

[gallery columns="1" link="none" size="full" ids="32551,32550,32549,32548,32547,32546"] A live recording of our educational podcast The How, The Why with Neelanjana Banerjee, Anelise Chen and Q.M. Zhang. Neelanjana Banerjee is the Managing Editor of Kaya Press; assistant editor with the Los Angeles Review of Books; instructor with artworxLA and Writing Workshops Los Angeles; journalist; co-editor of Indivisible: An Anthology of Contemporary South Asian American Poetry (University of Arkansas Press); and writer whose works have appeared in anthologies such as Desilicious (Arsenal Press), The HarperCollins Book of English Poetry (HarperCollins India), and Breaking the Bow: Speculative Stories Inspired by the Ramayana (Zubaan Books), as well as in numerous magazines and journals such as PANK Magazine, The Rumpus, Prairie Schooner, and Asian Pacific American Journal. Anelise Chen is the author of So Many Olympic Exertions (Kaya Press 2017), an experimental novel that blends elements of sportswriting, memoir, and self help. She hails from Temple City, California, and received a BA in English from UC Berkeley and an MFA in Fiction from NYU. Her essays and reviews have appeared in the New York Times, NPR, BOMB Magazine, The New Republic, VICE, Village Voice and many other publications. She has received fellowships from the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, the Wurlitzer Foundation, and she will be a 2019 Literature Fellow at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany. She currently teaches writing at Columbia University and writes a column on mollusks for The Paris Review. Q.M. Zhang (Kimberly Chang), author of Accomplice to Memory (Kaya Press 2017), grew up in upstate New York, lived in China and Hong Kong, and currently makes her home in Western Massachusetts. She is a writer and teacher of creative non/fiction stories and forms, with a focus on Chinese American border crossings. Trained in the disciplines of anthropology and psychology, she has published ethnographic studies of Asian diasporic communities on both sides of the Pacific. Faced with the limitations of her social science tools, she has worked over the last decade to develop herself at the craft of creative non/fiction as the quintessential hybrid literary form for writing about migration and diaspora. She is an alumni of the Juniper Summer Writing Institute and was a resident writer at the Vermont Studio Center. Her book, Accomplice to Memory, combines memoir, fiction, and documentary photographs to explore the limits and possibilities of truth telling across generations and geographies. An excerpt from the book was published in The Massachusetts Review. She currently teaches at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA. Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Moderator: Julianne Berokoff Guests: Anelise Chen and Q.M. Zhang Audio: Brew Sessions Live Photo: Arthur Pham The How, The Why is a half-hour podcast documenting the creative process and the creative purpose hosted by Jon-Barrett Ingels. This free weekly series is an educational resource provided to discuss the evolution of literary arts with industry innovators—authors, journalists, and publishers.

Today our podcast connects with Michael Heald, founder of Perfect Day Publishing, author of Goodbye to the Nervous Apprehension (Perfect Day), and writer at large for Runner's World magazine. Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Michael Heald Photo: Holly Andres The How, The Why is a half-hour podcast documenting the creative process and the creative purpose hosted by Jon-Barrett Ingels. This free weekly series is an educational resource provided to discuss the evolution of literary arts with industry innovators—authors, journalists, and publishers. The 1888 Podcast Network is a curated collection of educational and entertaining podcasts. Each program is designed to provide a unique platform for industry innovators to share stories about art, literature, music, history, science, or technology.

Today our podcast connects with Zachary Auburn, author of books such as How to Talk to Your Cat About Gun Safety (Three Rivers Press), A Field Guide to the Aliens of Star Trek: The Next Generation (Devastator Press), and Love is Not Constantly Wondering if You Are Making the Biggest Mistake of Your Life (Perfect Day Publishing), as well as various zines. Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Zachary Auburn

A live recording of our educational podcast The How The Why with our California Writing Residency 2017 recipients–William Deverell, Elline Lipkin, and Ruth Nolan. Gil Soltz, the founder of Yefe Nof, also joined the panel discussion.William, Elline, and Ruth also shared their thoughts on the residency: "The experience was simply fabulous. It is the longest period of my life where I have been alone; within 24 hours of arrival, I found my "extrovert switch" and turned it off...I sat at the little table in the kitchen for hours and hours each day and each night. It was a perfect workspace for me. I walked down Burnt Mill Road every day, then back up Cottage Grove. I went out once to a pub in Blue Jay, but, otherwise, I was at the house or on my walk...I surprised myself with how much I got done; there was a purity to the work experience that was utterly satisfying...My work time was unhurried, contemplative, and I delighted in all of it...I feel so fortunate to have had this experience.” –William "I'm so enamored of the house, quiet, and Arrowhead woods. It's truly been a peaceful and productive retreat...The treehouse-like sense of nesting in the mountainside and the chance to concentrate on work has been tremendous.” –Elline "I LOVED my time at the house in April. I loved the location, the vibe of the house, and I really felt supported and nurtured as a writer, something that is so hard to find. It was energizing to be on the ridge line of the mountains, hiking around and finding wildfire burn zones, digging the radical weather (wind and fog and even a bit of rain) and reconnecting in a visceral way with the areas I'm actually writing about in my book.” –Ruth William Deverell is Director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West and Professor of History at University of Southern California. He publishes non-fiction on the history and culture of the 19th and 20th century American West and is author of Evangel, a short story which appeared in Exposition Review in 2016. Elline Lipkin is the author of two books: The Errant Thread, chosen by Eavan Boland for the Kore Press First Book Award and Girls’ Studies, published by Seal Press. A poet and nonfiction writer, she affiliates with the University of California, Los Angeles Center for the Study of Women and teaches for Writing Workshops Los Angeles. Her writing has appeared in a variety of journals and she is a contributor to Ms. Magazineonline and the academic site Girl w/Pen. Currently, she is the Poet Laureate of Altadena, California. Ruth Nolan, a former wildland firefighter, is a writer/professor based in Palm Springs, CA. She’s the author of Ruby Mountain (Finishing Line Press, 2016); her story “Palimpsest,” from LA Fiction: Southland Writing by Southland Writers (Red Hen Press, 2016), received an honorable mention in Sequestrum’s 2016 Editor’s Reprint contest and was nominated for a 2016 PEN Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. Her work’s been published in James Franco Review; Angels Flight LA; Rattling Wall; KCET; Desert Oracle; Women’s Studies Quarterly; News from Native California, and more. Ruth holds her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from UCRUniversity of California, Riverside. Gil Soltz is founder of the Yefe Nof Residency and author of its origin story, Inspiration Drive. He holds an MPA in Nonprofit and Public Management from NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service and an MFA in Creative Writing from Warren Wilson College. Since 2010 he is based in Paris, France.

Today our podcast connects with Michael Hingston and Natalie Olsen, co-publishers of Hingston & Olsen Publishing. Michael Hingston is also the editor of Hingston & Olsen, writer, and author of The Dilettantes (Freehand Books) and the upcoming Let's Go Exploring: Calvin and Hobbes (ECW Press). Natalie Olsen is also the designer of Hingston & Olsen and Kisscut Design, and has designed over 500 titles for publishers across North America. Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guests: Michael Hingston and Natalie Olsen

[gallery link="none" columns="1" size="full" ids="32099,32098,32097,32096,32095,32094"] A live recording of our educational podcast The How The Why with Taryn Tilton, the winner of The Plaza Literary Prize 2017. This event celebrates the release of her novella Cherry Cherry with a panel discussion featuring Michael Dean Clark who was on the 2017 Jury and her editors Julianne Berokoff and Hunter Moreno. Taryn Tilton is a writer and translator. She lives in Buenos Aires, where she also teaches creative writing workshops at Walrus Books. Taryn has an MFA in Fiction from Warren Wilson College, where she was the Rona Jaffe Foundation Graduate Fellow, and a BA in Chinese Language and Literature from Middlebury College. Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guests: Taryn Tilton, Michael Dean Clark, Julianne Berokoff and Hunter Moreno Audio: Brew Sessions Live Photo: Arthur Pham The How The Why is a half-hour podcast documenting the creative process and the creative purpose hosted by Jon-Barrett Ingels. This free weekly series is an educational resource provided to discuss the evolution of literary arts with industry innovators. Interviews are structured as friendly conversations and conducted via telephone. Occasionally, episodes will be recorded live at special events and highlight multiple guests. Also available on iTunes and Stitcher. The Plaza Literary Prize is a national novella competition. We believe a great story is never defined by its length and welcome all genres and themes with compelling characters and evocative moments. We’re looking for our generation’s Hemingway, Oates, or Steinbeck. The City of Orange, California was incorporated on April 6, 1888. The center of the town became known as the Plaza, which has become a symbol of the community and a catalyst for storytelling.

A former college and professional basketball player, Paul turned the stories of his travels and travails into a humor memoir called Can I Keep My Jersey? (Villard Books). He has also written for Slate, Esquire, and the Wall Street Journal. Paul lives in Los Angeles, where he is an adjunct professor at West LA College. He runs a writers' workshop called Writers Blok. His second book, Stories I Tell on Dates (Fourth Bar Books), will be published in October 2017.

Today our podcast connects with Janine Vangool, Publisher, Editor, and Designer of UPPERCASE Magazine, and author of The Typewriter: A Graphic History of the Beloved Machine (UPPERCASE Publishing). Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Janine Vangool

[gallery size="full" link="none" ids="31865,31864,31863"] A live recording of our educational podcast The How The Why with Ryan Gattis. Ryan Gattis is a writer & educator. His most recent novel, Safe, is a heist thriller about a DEA safecracker gone rogue, ripping off gang-owned drug safes in order to help citizens hurt during the market crash of 2008. It’s essentially Robin Hood Noir. The book is set in the same world of South Central Los Angeles as his previous novel, All Involved: A Novel of the 1992 L.A. Riots, which was grounded in 2.5 years of research & background spent with former Latino gang members, firefighters, nurses, & other L.A. citizens who lived through it. Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Ryan Gattis Audio: Brew Sessions Live Photos: Luis Martinez

Samantha Dunn is an editor at Coast Magazine. Sam’s work is widely anthologized, including the short story collection, Women on the Edge: Writing from Los Angeles, which she co-edited. Her essays have appeared in numerous national publications such as O (Oprah) Magazine, Ms., and Salon. Her debut novel, Failing Paris, was a finalist for the PEN Center Fiction Award. Her memoir, Not By Accident: Reconstructing a Careless Life rose to bestseller lists in Los Angeles and San Francisco and her second memoir, Faith in Carlos Gomez, has been in production at Lifetime Television. She teaches in the UCLA Extension Writers Program and at the Idyllwild Arts Academy. Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Samantha Dunn Audio: Brew Sessions Live Photo: Arthur Pham

Today our podcast connects with Jon Davis, Director of the Institute of American Indian Arts Low Residency MFA program in Creative Writing, Santa Fe Poet Laureate, author of books such as Preliminary Report (Copper Canyon Press) and Scrimmage of Appetite (University Of Akron Press), and co-translator, with the author, of Dayplaces by Iraqi poet Naseer Hassan (Tebot Bach Press). Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Jon Davis

Today our podcast connects with Ruta Sepetys, author of internationally acclaimed historical fiction novels such as Between Shades of Gray (Philomel Books) and Out of the Easy (Philomel Books), and the recent Carnegie Medal winning novel Salt to the Sea (Philomel Books). Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Ruta Sepetys

Today our podcast connects with Nate Ragolia, Co-Founder of Spaceboy Books, author of the novella There You Fee Free (1888) and the novel The Rectroactivist (Spaceboy), Editor-In-Chief of Boned: A Collection of Skeletal Writings, author of the webcomics The Illiterate Badger and The Right Corking Adventures of Cecil Larkbunting & Alastair Wakerobin, and Social Media Manager of 1888. Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Nate Ragolia

Today our podcast connects with Christopher Monks, editor of McSweeney's Internet Tendency and author of The Ultimate Game Guide to Your Life (Tow Books). Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Christopher Monks

Today our podcast connects with Jonathan Sun, author (under the pen name jomny sun) of the graphic book everyone's a aliebn when ur a aliebn too (HarperPerennial); author behind the Twitter projects @jonnysun, @tinycarebot, and @tinydotblot; Ph.D. candidate and co-creator of The Online Humor Conversation Series at MIT; former editor-in-chief of the Yale School of Architecture journal, Retrospecta 36; playwright; architect; comedian; and artist. Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Jonathan Sun Photo: Billy Wong

Today our podcast connects with Sarah Ladipo Manyika, author of novels such as Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun (Cassava Republic Press) and In Dependence (Legend Press), board member of Hedgebrook and the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), Juror of the California Book Awards, Patron of the Etisalat Prize for Literature, and host of OZY’s video series “Write.” Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Sarah Ladipo Manyika

Today our podcast connects with Kurt Heinzelman, Founder and Editor-at-Large of Bat City Review, Co-Founder of The Poetry Miscellany, Pushcart Prize nominee, translator, professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and author of books of poetry such as The Names They Found There (Pecan Grove Press), and Intimacies & Other Devices (Pinyon Publishing). Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Kurt Heinzelman

Today our podcast connects with Jeffery Ryan Long, Editor-in-Chief of Hawaiʻi Review, the literary journal published by University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Jeffery Ryan Long

Today our podcast connects with Lee Gutkind, founder and editor of Creative Nonfiction, founder of the ThinkWritePublish program and Professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University, and the author and editor of more than 30 books, including titles such as You Can't Make This Stuff Up: The Complete Guide to Writing Creative Nonfiction (Da Capo Lifelong Books) and Almost Human: Making Robots Think (W.W. Norton). Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Lee Gutkind

Today our podcast connects with Lance Olsen, the Chair of the Board of Directors for the author-run publisher Fiction Collective 2, professor at the University of Utah, and author of novels such as Dreamlives of Debris (Dzanc Books), short fiction collections such as How to Unfeel the Dead (Teksteditions), and the anti-textbook Architectures of Possibility: After Innovative Writing (Guide Dog Books). Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Lance Olsen

Today our podcast connects with Chris Lafave, curator at the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library. Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Chris Lafave

Today our podcast connects with Ryan Rivas, Publisher at Burrow Press, which focuses on contemporary literature by Floridians and about Florida, as well as fostering a literary community in and around Orlando, Florida. Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Ryan Rivas Photo: Delila Smalley

Today our podcast connects with Bill Pierce, author and senior editor of AGNI, the literary journal of Boston University. Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Bill Pierce

Today our podcast connects with Seth Greenland, author of novels such as I Regret Everything: A Love Story and The Angry Buddhist (Europa Editions), screenwriter for television shows such as HBO's Big Love, author of plays including Jungle Rot and Red Memories, and co-host of the Los Angeles Review of Books Radio Hour. Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Seth Greenland

Today our podcast connects with Karen Tei Yamashita, author of novels such as Tropic of Orange, I Hotel, and Through the Arc of the Rain Forest (Coffee House Press), and Professor of Literature and Creative Writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Karen Tei Yamashita

Today our podcast connects with Jennifer Volland and Wendy Thomas Russell, co-founders of Brown Paper Press. Jennifer Volland is the co-author of Edward A. Killingsworth: An Architect’s Life (Hennessey + Ingalls) and Long Beach Architecture: The Unexpected Metropolis (Hennessey + Ingalls), as well as co-curator of the exhibition and publication Grand Hotel: Redesigning Modern Life for the Vancouver Art Gallery. Wendy Thomas Russell is the author of Relax, It's Just God (Brown Paper Press), writer of a parenting column for PBSNewsHour, and former writer for Long Beach Press-Telegram. Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guests: Jennifer Volland and Wendy Thomas Russell Photo: Asia Morris, Long Beach Post

Joel Arquillos is the Executive Director of 826LA, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write. Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Joel Arquillos

Today we connect with Laurie Sheck. She is the author of, most recently, Island of the Mad (Counterpoint Press), and A Monster’s Notes (Knopf), a re-imagining of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, which was selected by Entertainment Weekly as one of the 10 Best Fictions of the Year (2009), and long-listed for the Dublin Impac International Fiction Prize. A Pulitzer Prize finalist in poetry for The Willow Grove (Knopf), she has been a Guggenheim Fellow, as well as a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard, and at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. Her work has appeared in numerous publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Paris Review, and The Nation. She has taught at Princeton, CUNY, and Rutgers, and is currently a member of the MFA faculty at the New School. She lives in New York City. Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Laurie Sheck Photo: Nina Subin

Today our podcast connects with Matt Rouse, Torrin Greathouse and Nicole Connolly of Black Napkin Press. Black Napkin Press is a non-profit organization that supports emerging artists from across the spectrum of cultures, races, religions, ethnicities, and gender/sexual identities. Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Matt Rouse, Torrin Greathouse and Nicole Connolly

Today our podcast connects with David Galef, author of novels such as How to Cope with Suburban Stress (The Permanent Press), short story collections including My Date with Neanderthal Woman (Dzanc Books), poetry collections such as Kanji Poems (Word Poetry), and most recently Brevity: A Flash Fiction Handbook (Columbia University Press). He is also a professor at Montclair State University, and writes the humor column "U of All People" for Inside Higher Ed. Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: David Galef

Today our podcast connects with Cati Porter, Executive Director of the Inlandia Institute, poet, and founder of the literary journal Poemeleon. Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Cati Porter

Today our podcast connects with Jane-Rebecca Cannarella, Editor-in-Chief of HOOT Review, editor for Lunch Ticket, and contributing writer at SSG Music. Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Jane-Rebecca Cannarella

Today our podcast connects with Benjamin Percy, author of novels such as Red Moon and The Dead Lands (Grand Central Publishing), comics including Green Arrow and Teen Titans (DC Comics), and most recently the collection Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction (Graywolf Press). Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Benjamin Percy

Today our podcast connects with Joyce Krieg, president of the California Writers Club and author of the mystery novels Murder Off Mike, Slip Cue, and Riding Gain (St. Martin's Press). Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Joyce Krieg