Living The Writing Life Podcast with Nancy Christie

In Conversation With … Gregory Erich Phillips, novelist

Gregory Erich Phillips is the author of three award-winning novels: Love of Finished Years, The Exile and his most recent novel, A Season in Lights.

Gregory comes from a prolific literary family, and he carries on that tradition by writing aspirational stories through strong, relatable characters that transcend time and space, transporting readers into the world of his fiction.

Gregory is also an accomplished tango dancer and musician. For more about Gregory and his work, visit his website and follow him on Facebook and Instagram.

In today’s conversation, we’ll discuss the idea of using fiction to create change in the real world through helping readers develop a greater understanding of other cultures and empathy for other people.

Thoughts on writing and life for April 2022

Just a few thoughts about the importance of staying focused on your goals, even if you think it’s too late for you to achieve them, because, after all, you never know.

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In Conversation With … Dana Spiotta, novelist

Dana Spiotta is the author of five novels: Lightning Field (2002), Eat the Document (2006), Stone Arabia (2011), Innocents & Others (2016), and her most recent, Wayward (2021) that was called by the New York Times a “virtuosic, singular and very funny portrait of a woman seeking sanity and purpose in a world gone mad.”

Dana has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Rome Prize, the St. Francis College Literary Prize, and the John Updike Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

For more about Dana, visit her website.

In today’s conversation, we’ll discuss the impact of gender and age on writing—in terms of the types of topics covered, the depictions of female characters, and on creativity itself.

Thoughts on writing and life for March 2022

Just a few thoughts on how reaching the top (i.e., success) requires us to take one step after the other—without giving up.

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In Conversation With ... Casie Bazay, young adult novelist

Casie Bazay is a former middle school teacher whose debut novel, Not Our Summer, was released in the spring of 2021 by Running Press Kids.

A freelance writer, and editor, Casie lives on a hay farm in Oklahoma with her husband and two children, and in her spare time, enjoys exploring the great outdoors, spending time at the barn with her horses and goats, reading, and watching movies. Casie also loves traveling to new and exciting destinations whenever she can.

For more about Casie, visit her website and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

In today’s conversation, we’ll discuss dealing with rejection as an author—something I would venture to say just about all writers have had to face!

Thoughts on writing and life for February 2022

Just a few thoughts on how love for the craft of writing can survive, despite setbacks, disappointments and frustrations.

 

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In Conversation With ... Deborah Tobola, award-winning memoirist, poet, playwright and co-author of a children’s book

Deborah Tobola is a memoirist, poet, playwright, and co-author of a children’s book. Her work has earned four Pushcart Prize nominations, three Academy of American Poets awards and a Children’s Choice Book Award.

Her memoir, Hummingbird in Underworld, won a Next Generation Indie Book Award in Social Justice, a Nautilus Silver Book Award in Heroic Journeys, a Readers’ Favorite bronze medal in Non-Fiction – Social Issues, and first place in Chanticleer International’s HEARTEN Awards. It was also a finalist in the Willa Literary Awards’ Women Writing the West in Creative Nonfiction. Last year it was released in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Deborah has worked as a journalist, legislative aide and adjunct English faculty member in Alaska and California. She began teaching creative writing in California prisons in 1992, taking the job of Institution Artist Facilitator at the California Men’s Colony in 2000, before retiring at the end of 2008. In 2014, Deborah returned to prison as a contract artist, where she currently teaches creative writing and theatre at the California Men’s Colony.

In 2009, she founded the Poetic Justice Project, a program of the William James Association, the country’s first theatre company created for formerly incarcerated actors, where she serves as artistic director. Poetic Justice Project’s pandemic miracle, the play Terms of Confinement is now on YouTube, written by her, is based on writings from her students who had been incarcerated.

For more about Deborah, visit her website, or follow her on Facebook.

In today’s conversation, we’ll discuss the role the arts can play in the lives of those who are incarcerated, what led her to become involved with prisoners, and her goal in writing her memoir.

Thoughts on writing and life for January 2022

Just a few thoughts on how sometimes the wisest course of action is to take a step back and do something completely unrelated to what you are supposed to do—in short, to give yourself a breather, to recoup and regroup.

 

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In Conversation With ... award-winning poet Karen Schubert

Karen Schubert is the author of the poetry collection The Compost Reader (Accents Publishing) and five chapbooks including Dear Youngstown (NightBallet Press), I Left My Wings on a Chair (Kent State Press) and Black Sand Beach (Kattywompus Press).

Her poetry appears most recently in Reunion: The Dallas Review, Olney Magazine, Poor Yorick, New World Writing and Read+Write: 30 Days of Poetry.

Karen has received the Wick Poetry Center Chapbook Prize and an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award and was awarded residencies at the Vermont Studio Center and Headlands Center for the Arts. She is also the Founding Director of Lit Youngstown.

For more about Karen, visit her website, or follow her on Facebook and Twitter. 

In today’s conversation, we’ll discuss Karen’s work both as a poet and as the founder of Lit Youngstown, and the role writers can play in supporting the arts in their communities.

Photo Credit: Melanie Buonavolonta

Thoughts on writing and life for December 2021

Just a few thoughts on the importance of remembering that, despite any failures or setbacks the past year may have held, any day spent writing is still a good day.

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