Tune in today to hear Laura Hulthen Thomas read from her debut novel The Meaning of Fear (Regal House Publishing 2026). We talk about writing the novel: the vision and the process. We also talk about… Read more: Laura Hulthen Thomas
Stream or tune in today to hear Jennifer Sperry Steinorth read from Boys Behind Glass (TRP: The University Press of SHSU 2025). We talk about collaboration with other artists, like for this project with… Read more: Jennifer Sperry Steinorth
Hear Amanda Uhle read from her debut memoir Destroy This House (Summit Books, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster 2025). We talk about the stories you need to write, family, the world of memoir, hoarding, and charisma. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2025-09-24-170001-EDT.mp3… Read more: Amanda Uhle
Stream or tune in today to hear poet Ellen Stone read from Everybody Wants to Keep the Moon Inside Them (Mayapple Press 2025). We talk about mothers, daughters, moons, mental health, and the midwest. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2025-06-18-170001-EDT.mp3 Download… Read more: Ellen Stone
Michigan’s own Greg Schutz reads from Joyriders: stories (University of Massachusetts Press 2025). We talk about short stories, compelling characters, big things in small spaces, rural and small-town life, and terriers. We also talk about mysteries… Read more: Greg Schutz
Poet M. Bartley Seigel reads from In the Bone-Cracking Cold (Wayne State University Press 2025). We talk about being the Michigan Poet Laureate for the Upper Peninsula, and being the founding editor of a letterpress and… Read more: M. Bartley Seigel
Tune in today to hear Mason Stokes read from All the Truth I Can Stand (Calkins Creek 2024). We talk about young-adult speculative historical fiction, research, Matthew Shepard, imagination and empathy. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2025-03-12-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
Today poets Katie Hartsock, J.C. Scharl, and James Matthew Wilson read poems from their latest collections, Wolf Trees (Able Muse Press 2023), Ponds (Cascade Books 2024), and Saint Thomas and the Forbidden Birds (Word on Fire 2024), respectively.… Read more: Katie Hartsock, J.C. Scharl, and James Matthew Wilson
Tune in today to hear Darcey Steinke read from Flash Count Diary: Menopause and the Vindication of Natural Life (Sarah Crichton Books). We talk about composition notebooks, Simone de Beauvoir, using the body to… Read more: Darcey Steinke
Stream or tune in today to hear a conversation with Jane Smiley about her latest novel Lucky (Knopf 2024). We talk about using your own memory of your lived experience of a place as the… Read more: Jane Smiley
Stream or tune in today to hear a conversation with Diane Seuss about her latest book of poems Modern Poetry(Graywolf Press 2024). We talk about form, musical structure, resistance, rawness and raw material,… Read more: Diane Seuss
Stream or tune in today to hear Luis Alberto Urrea read from his novel Good Night, Irene (Little, Brown and Company 2023). We talk about World War II and the Red Cross Clubmobiles. We talk… Read more: Luis Alberto Urrea
Michigan’s own poet Keith Taylor read from All the All the Time You Want (Dzanc Books 2024). We talk about selecting poems, Isle Royale National Park, and being outdoors, no matter the weather or terrain.… Read more: Keith Taylor
Eleni Sikelianos read from Your Kingdom (Coffee House Press 2023). We talk about song poems, family, ecopoetics, and using the space of the page with words, images, drawings. We also talk about how a glossary… Read more: Eleni Sikelianos
Paul Tran reads from their debut collection All the Flowers Kneeling (Penguin Books 2022). We talk about history, family, trauma and resilience. We also talk about story-telling, play, and inventiveness. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2023-11-15-170001-EST.mp3 Download Audio
Frank Uhle reads from Cinema Ann Arbor: How Campus Rebels Forged A Singular Film Culture (University of Michigan Press 2023). We talk about the Ann Arbor Film Festival, the Cinema Guild, revolutionaries, censorship, and cultural history. We also talk about primary documents, the archives, interviewing,… Read more: Frank Uhle
John Sayles reads from his latest novel Jamie MacGillivray: the renegade’s journey (Melville House). We talk about storytelling, historical research, screenwriting, creating characters and his approach to the novel. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2023-04-19-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio * thanks… Read more: John Sayles
Tune in today to hear Jia Tolentino talk about her book of essays Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self Delusion (Random House 2019). We talk about the “art vs. work” question; adapting a… Read more: Jia Tolentino
Tune in today to hear Joan Silber read from Secrets of Happiness (Counterpoint May 2021). We talk about stand alone stories that grow into novels. We also talk about going beyond a single character,… Read more: Joan Silber
Tune in today to hear Diane Seuss read poems from frank: sonnets (Graywolf Press 2021). We talk about following the sound and how a poem looks on the page. We also talk about rural… Read more: Diane Seuss
Tune in today for a conversation from November 2020 with poet Patricia Smith. Patricia Smith reads from Incendiary Art (Triquarterly Books/Northwestern 2017) and talks about rituals, dramatic monologues, invention and research. We also talk about… Read more: Patricia Smith
Tune in today to hear Sara Schaff read from her collection of stories The Invention of Love (Split Lip Press 2020). We talk about story-telling and oral tradition. We also talk about gender, the… Read more: Sara Schaff
Arthur Sze reads from Sight Lines, (Copper Canyon Press 2019) the 2019 National Book Award winner for poetry. We talk about poems in a series, the natural world, and language systems.
Summer host Amanda Uhle talks with Lisa Taddeo, author of Three Women (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster 2019), about women’s desire and how it’s intertwined with judgement from others, how to build layered… Read more: Lisa Taddeo
Aisha Sabatini Sloan reads from DREAMING OF RAMADI IN DETROIT (1913 Press 2017). We talk about interconnectedness, vulnerability, art, Galway Kinnell, and a Detroit ride-along. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2019-06-19-1700-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
Triple the fun on Living Writers with guests Patti F. Smith and Britain Woodman talking about Vanishing Ann Arbor (The History Press 2019) and Michael Andreoni talking about his short story collection The Window Is A Mirror (bhc… Read more: Patti F. Smith, Britain Woodman, and Michael Andreoni
Elizabeth Schmuhl reads from Premonitions (Wayne State University Press 2018). We talk about colors, numbers, poems, dance, the natural world, and “pantsuit power.” http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2018-10-03-1700-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
Guest host Amanda Uhle talks with Luke Shaefer, co-author with Kathryn Edin of $2.00 A Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America. They talk about how poverty in the U.S. has deepened and expanded… Read more: Luke Shaefer
Guest host Amanda Uhle talks with poet & Pal of the Podcast Keith Taylor about his latest collection Ecstatic Destinations (Alice Greene & Co 2018). They talk about Canada, park benches and… Read more: Keith Taylor
Guest host Amanda Uhle talks with Julia Turshen about Feed the Resistance: Recipes and Ideas for Getting Involved (Chronicle Books 2017); they talk about about writing about food and eating, the important role… Read more: Julia Turshen
Jim Shepard reads from his story collection The World To Come (Vintage 2018). We talk about natural disasters, humanity, keeping in contact with the notion of play, last lines and beagles. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2018-05-31-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
hear Leah Stewart read from her novel What You Don’t Know About Charlie Outlaw(Putnam 2018). We’ll talk about identity, researching character, being an observer, voice and Cincinnati. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2018-05-10-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
Russell Thorburn reads from Somewhere We’ll Leave the World (Wayne State University Press 2017). We talk about wandering, Philip Levine, and garage bands. We also talk about being haunted by Lake Superior and being poet laureate… Read more: Russell Thorburn
Magician Nate Staniforth reads from his first book Here Is Real Magic (Bloomsbury 2018). We talk about believing you can write, finding an agent, and the wonder of magic. [missing from podcast] Download Audio
Guest host Amanda Uhle talks with Jennifer Traig, author of Devil in the Details: Scenes from an Obsessive Girlhood, Well Enough Alone: A Cultural History of My Hypochondria, editor of The Autobiographer’s Handbook and many other titles.… Read more: Jennifer Traig
Douglas Trevor reads from his latest collection of stories The Book of Wonders (six one seven books 2017). We talk about Radiohead, putting together a book of connected stories, invention, the number 9, melancholy… Read more: Douglas Trevor
Mike Stax, editor/publisher of Ugly Things magazine and the author of Swim Through The Darkness speaks with Frank Uhle about folk/rock and psychedelic music, fanzine publishing, and private investigators. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2017-08-30-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
This show and the next has a special focus on Detroit, in part to mark the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the 1967 uprising. Frances Stroh, author of Beer Money, talks about her family’s… Read more: Frances Stroh
Guest host Amanda Uhle talks with Doree Shafrir, Senior Culture Writer at Buzzfeed and author of the novel Start Up, which skewers startup culture and tackles workplace sexual harassment, the ever changing role of… Read more: Doree Shafrir
Philip and Erin Stead, Caldecott-winning writer/illustrators of A Sick Day For Amos McGee and the forthcoming Purloining of Prince Oleomargarine talk with guest host Amanda Uhle about writing and illustrating children’s books, working with the ghost of Mark… Read more: Erin and Philip Stead
Laura Hulthen Thomas reads from her debut collection of stories States of Motion published by Wayne State University Press as part of the Made in Michigan Writers Series. We talk about place as character, process and habit. … Read more: Laura Hulthen Thomas
Keith Taylor reads poems from his collection The Bird-while out with Wayne State University Press from the Made in Michigan Writers Series. We talk about spring, driving to Muskegon to see the ruff, and Poets at Michigan. Download… Read more: Keith Taylor
Will Schwalbe reads from Books for Living published by Knopf (2017). We talk about joy, connecting books to moments in your life, the 80s, and MMMBop. For more on this author, click here!… Read more: Will Schwalbe
Little Bang Theory–Terri Sarris, Doug Shimmin and Frank Pahl– talk about their work and about the Ann Arbor Film Festival featuring the film A Page of Madness with musical accompaniment by Little Bang Theory–with Ichiro Kataoka… Read more: Little Bang Theory: Terri Sarris, Doug Shimmin & Frank Pahl
Rebecca Solnit reads from The Mother of All Questions (Haymarket Books) the final book of essays in the trilogy that began with Men Explain Things to Me. We talk about politics, silence, language… Read more: Rebecca Solnit
Nick Tobier reads from Looping Detroit: A People Mover Travelogue published by Maize Books, Michigan Publishing. We talk about everyday places, elephants, monorails, Utopia Toolbox, and offering interruptions. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2017-02-22-170001-EST.mp3 Download Audio For more on this… Read more: Nick Tobier
Young writers from 826 Michigan read their poems and stories and talk about their writing process for WCBN’s annual fundraiser. Featuring: Josiah (age 10) & his mother, Lisa Luella (6) & her… Read more: Amanda Uhle & 826Michigan Young Writers
Heather Ann Thompson reads from Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy published by Pantheon Books. We talk about process and research — and uncovering documents and artifacts that… Read more: Heather Ann Thompson
Michael J. Sandel discusses his book What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets published in 2012 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. We talk about markets, values and the common good.… Read more: Michael J. Sandel
Tune in today to hear Laura Hulthen Thomas read from her debut novel The Meaning of Fear (Regal House Publishing 2026). We talk about writing the novel: the vision and the process. We also talk about… Read more: Laura Hulthen Thomas
Stream or tune in today to hear Jennifer Sperry Steinorth read from Boys Behind Glass (TRP: The University Press of SHSU 2025). We talk about collaboration with other artists, like for this project with… Read more: Jennifer Sperry Steinorth
Hear Amanda Uhle read from her debut memoir Destroy This House (Summit Books, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster 2025). We talk about the stories you need to write, family, the world of memoir, hoarding, and charisma. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2025-09-24-170001-EDT.mp3… Read more: Amanda Uhle
Stream or tune in today to hear poet Ellen Stone read from Everybody Wants to Keep the Moon Inside Them (Mayapple Press 2025). We talk about mothers, daughters, moons, mental health, and the midwest. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2025-06-18-170001-EDT.mp3 Download… Read more: Ellen Stone
Michigan’s own Greg Schutz reads from Joyriders: stories (University of Massachusetts Press 2025). We talk about short stories, compelling characters, big things in small spaces, rural and small-town life, and terriers. We also talk about mysteries… Read more: Greg Schutz
Poet M. Bartley Seigel reads from In the Bone-Cracking Cold (Wayne State University Press 2025). We talk about being the Michigan Poet Laureate for the Upper Peninsula, and being the founding editor of a letterpress and… Read more: M. Bartley Seigel
Tune in today to hear Mason Stokes read from All the Truth I Can Stand (Calkins Creek 2024). We talk about young-adult speculative historical fiction, research, Matthew Shepard, imagination and empathy. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2025-03-12-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
Tune in today to hear Michigan Poet Laureate Nandi Comer and Michigan poets Brittany Rogers, Jonah Mixon-Webster, and M. Bartley Seigel talk about Michigan Words: the project and the poems. We also will hear… Read more: Michigan Words: Nandi Comer, Brittany Rogers, Jonah Mixon-Webster, and M. Bartley Seigel
Today poets Katie Hartsock, J.C. Scharl, and James Matthew Wilson read poems from their latest collections, Wolf Trees (Able Muse Press 2023), Ponds (Cascade Books 2024), and Saint Thomas and the Forbidden Birds (Word on Fire 2024), respectively.… Read more: Katie Hartsock, J.C. Scharl, and James Matthew Wilson
Tune in today to hear Darcey Steinke read from Flash Count Diary: Menopause and the Vindication of Natural Life (Sarah Crichton Books). We talk about composition notebooks, Simone de Beauvoir, using the body to… Read more: Darcey Steinke
Stream or tune in today to hear a conversation with Jane Smiley about her latest novel Lucky (Knopf 2024). We talk about using your own memory of your lived experience of a place as the… Read more: Jane Smiley
Stream or tune in today to hear Luis Alberto Urrea read from his novel Good Night, Irene (Little, Brown and Company 2023). We talk about World War II and the Red Cross Clubmobiles. We talk… Read more: Luis Alberto Urrea
Michigan’s own poet Keith Taylor read from All the All the Time You Want (Dzanc Books 2024). We talk about selecting poems, Isle Royale National Park, and being outdoors, no matter the weather or terrain.… Read more: Keith Taylor
Eleni Sikelianos read from Your Kingdom (Coffee House Press 2023). We talk about song poems, family, ecopoetics, and using the space of the page with words, images, drawings. We also talk about how a glossary… Read more: Eleni Sikelianos
Paul Tran reads from their debut collection All the Flowers Kneeling (Penguin Books 2022). We talk about history, family, trauma and resilience. We also talk about story-telling, play, and inventiveness. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2023-11-15-170001-EST.mp3 Download Audio
Frank Uhle reads from Cinema Ann Arbor: How Campus Rebels Forged A Singular Film Culture (University of Michigan Press 2023). We talk about the Ann Arbor Film Festival, the Cinema Guild, revolutionaries, censorship, and cultural history. We also talk about primary documents, the archives, interviewing,… Read more: Frank Uhle
John Sayles reads from his latest novel Jamie MacGillivray: the renegade’s journey (Melville House). We talk about storytelling, historical research, screenwriting, creating characters and his approach to the novel. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2023-04-19-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio * thanks… Read more: John Sayles
Tune in today to hear Diane Seuss read poems from frank: sonnets (Graywolf Press 2021). We talk about following the sound and how a poem looks on the page. We also talk about rural… Read more: Diane Seuss
Arthur Sze reads from Sight Lines, (Copper Canyon Press 2019) the 2019 National Book Award winner for poetry. We talk about poems in a series, the natural world, and language systems.
Summer host Amanda Uhle talks with Lisa Taddeo, author of Three Women (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster 2019), about women’s desire and how it’s intertwined with judgement from others, how to build layered… Read more: Lisa Taddeo
Aisha Sabatini Sloan reads from DREAMING OF RAMADI IN DETROIT (1913 Press 2017). We talk about interconnectedness, vulnerability, art, Galway Kinnell, and a Detroit ride-along. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2019-06-19-1700-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
Triple the fun on Living Writers with guests Patti F. Smith and Britain Woodman talking about Vanishing Ann Arbor (The History Press 2019) and Michael Andreoni talking about his short story collection The Window Is A Mirror (bhc… Read more: Patti F. Smith, Britain Woodman, and Michael Andreoni
Elizabeth Schmuhl reads from Premonitions (Wayne State University Press 2018). We talk about colors, numbers, poems, dance, the natural world, and “pantsuit power.” http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2018-10-03-1700-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
Guest host Amanda Uhle talks with Luke Shaefer, co-author with Kathryn Edin of $2.00 A Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America. They talk about how poverty in the U.S. has deepened and expanded… Read more: Luke Shaefer
Guest host Amanda Uhle talks with poet & Pal of the Podcast Keith Taylor about his latest collection Ecstatic Destinations (Alice Greene & Co 2018). They talk about Canada, park benches and… Read more: Keith Taylor
Guest host Amanda Uhle talks with Julia Turshen about Feed the Resistance: Recipes and Ideas for Getting Involved (Chronicle Books 2017); they talk about about writing about food and eating, the important role… Read more: Julia Turshen
Jim Shepard reads from his story collection The World To Come (Vintage 2018). We talk about natural disasters, humanity, keeping in contact with the notion of play, last lines and beagles. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2018-05-31-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
hear Leah Stewart read from her novel What You Don’t Know About Charlie Outlaw(Putnam 2018). We’ll talk about identity, researching character, being an observer, voice and Cincinnati. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2018-05-10-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
Russell Thorburn reads from Somewhere We’ll Leave the World (Wayne State University Press 2017). We talk about wandering, Philip Levine, and garage bands. We also talk about being haunted by Lake Superior and being poet laureate… Read more: Russell Thorburn
Magician Nate Staniforth reads from his first book Here Is Real Magic (Bloomsbury 2018). We talk about believing you can write, finding an agent, and the wonder of magic. [missing from podcast] Download Audio
Guest host Amanda Uhle talks with Jennifer Traig, author of Devil in the Details: Scenes from an Obsessive Girlhood, Well Enough Alone: A Cultural History of My Hypochondria, editor of The Autobiographer’s Handbook and many other titles.… Read more: Jennifer Traig
Douglas Trevor reads from his latest collection of stories The Book of Wonders (six one seven books 2017). We talk about Radiohead, putting together a book of connected stories, invention, the number 9, melancholy… Read more: Douglas Trevor
Mike Stax, editor/publisher of Ugly Things magazine and the author of Swim Through The Darkness speaks with Frank Uhle about folk/rock and psychedelic music, fanzine publishing, and private investigators. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2017-08-30-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
This show and the next has a special focus on Detroit, in part to mark the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the 1967 uprising. Frances Stroh, author of Beer Money, talks about her family’s… Read more: Frances Stroh
Guest host Amanda Uhle talks with Doree Shafrir, Senior Culture Writer at Buzzfeed and author of the novel Start Up, which skewers startup culture and tackles workplace sexual harassment, the ever changing role of… Read more: Doree Shafrir
Philip and Erin Stead, Caldecott-winning writer/illustrators of A Sick Day For Amos McGee and the forthcoming Purloining of Prince Oleomargarine talk with guest host Amanda Uhle about writing and illustrating children’s books, working with the ghost of Mark… Read more: Erin and Philip Stead
Laura Hulthen Thomas reads from her debut collection of stories States of Motion published by Wayne State University Press as part of the Made in Michigan Writers Series. We talk about place as character, process and habit. … Read more: Laura Hulthen Thomas
Keith Taylor reads poems from his collection The Bird-while out with Wayne State University Press from the Made in Michigan Writers Series. We talk about spring, driving to Muskegon to see the ruff, and Poets at Michigan. Download… Read more: Keith Taylor
Will Schwalbe reads from Books for Living published by Knopf (2017). We talk about joy, connecting books to moments in your life, the 80s, and MMMBop. For more on this author, click here!… Read more: Will Schwalbe
Little Bang Theory–Terri Sarris, Doug Shimmin and Frank Pahl– talk about their work and about the Ann Arbor Film Festival featuring the film A Page of Madness with musical accompaniment by Little Bang Theory–with Ichiro Kataoka… Read more: Little Bang Theory: Terri Sarris, Doug Shimmin & Frank Pahl
Rebecca Solnit reads from The Mother of All Questions (Haymarket Books) the final book of essays in the trilogy that began with Men Explain Things to Me. We talk about politics, silence, language… Read more: Rebecca Solnit
Nick Tobier reads from Looping Detroit: A People Mover Travelogue published by Maize Books, Michigan Publishing. We talk about everyday places, elephants, monorails, Utopia Toolbox, and offering interruptions. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2017-02-22-170001-EST.mp3 Download Audio For more on this… Read more: Nick Tobier
Young writers from 826 Michigan read their poems and stories and talk about their writing process for WCBN’s annual fundraiser. Featuring: Josiah (age 10) & his mother, Lisa Luella (6) & her… Read more: Amanda Uhle & 826Michigan Young Writers
Heather Ann Thompson reads from Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy published by Pantheon Books. We talk about process and research — and uncovering documents and artifacts that… Read more: Heather Ann Thompson
Michael J. Sandel discusses his book What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets published in 2012 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. We talk about markets, values and the common good.… Read more: Michael J. Sandel
