White House stenographer Beck Dorey-Stein joins Marrie Stone to talk about her memoir, In the Corner of the Oval. She talks about her time in the Obama White House and the lessons President Obama imparted about writing, storytelling, and the power of words. She shares her wisdom for being vulnerable on the page, her commitment to copious notes, ...…

Memoirists Melissa Stephenson, author of Driven, and Elizabeth Rosner, author of Survivor Cafe, talk with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett about the art, craft, and business of writing their books. Download audio. (Broadcast date: July 25, 2018)By penonfire@earthlink.net (Barbara DeMarco-Barrett).

Barbara DeMarco-Barrett talks with Patt Morrison, author of Don't Stop the Presses! and Amy Wallen, author of the memoir, When We Were Ghouls. Download audio. (Broadcast date: July 18, 2018)By penonfire@earthlink.net (Barbara DeMarco-Barrett).

Short story writer Gabriel Houck shares his debut collection, You or a Loved One. Gabe talks with Marrie about beginnings, endings and first sentences. He shares insights on how revealing ourselves through fiction, as opposed to essays, is often easier. He deconstructs a few of his stories from initial kernel of an idea, throughout the revision ...…

Editor and Bloomsbury Press publisher Peter Ginna, author of What Editors Do: The Art, Craft, and Business of Editing, talks about what goes into the acquisition of a title, what editors look for, the changes in publishing, and more. Download audio. (Broadcast date: July 4, 2018)By penonfire@earthlink.net (Barbara DeMarco-Barrett).

Novelist and essayist Alexander Chee joins Marrie Stone for the hour to talk about his latest collection of essays, How to Write an Autobiographical Novel. He discusses the important distinction between writing for therapy versus writing for publication. He discusses the pitfalls of readers' interest in what is "true" and autobiographical about ...…

Marrie Stone chats with the very funny Abbi Waxman, author of Other People's Houses. They talk about the differences between British and American humor and values, and the ways in which problems in other people's marriages can affect our own. Abbi shares how her prior career in copywriting and advertising helps her fiction, and how life experie ...…

Rebecca Makkai, author of The Great Believers, joins Marrie Stone for the full hour to talk about her pull towards the AIDS epidemic in 1980s Chicago. She talks about the unexpected origins of the novel, her massive amount of research, and the ways empathy can only take a writer so far. She shares techniques for getting inside a character's ski ...…

Sue Halpern, author of Summer Hours at the Robbers Library, joins Marrie Stone to talk about the healing power of libraries and the unlikely friendships made there. They chat about the importance of telling the story only you can tell, allowing the story to tell the writer what it needs, and working with different voices inside a single novel. ...…

Christina Lynch, author of The Italian Party and memoirist Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, author of The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir, spend this penultimate day of May talking about their work with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett on Writers on Writing, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Download audio. (Broadcast date: May 30, 2018)…

Novelist and short story master Richard Bausch spends the full hour with Marrie Stone talking about his latest collection, Living in the Weather of the World. He talks about his early influences in writing, his connection to poetry, and his approach to the short story. Along the way, he dissects some of the stories in his collection, from first ...…

Claire Fuller, author of Swimming Lessons, joins Marrie Stone to chat about her novel, her later-in-life journey to writing, her process and advice. She discusses ways writers can survive the first draft, her revision process, and the intimacy of tucking memorabilia away inside books. Mark Sarvas joins in the second half to discuss his novel, M ...…

Novelist Michael Zadoorian, author of The Leisure Seeker talks with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett about his novel (recently made into a film with Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland). Download audio. (Original broadcast date: March 31, 2010)By penonfire@earthlink.net (Barbara DeMarco-Barrett).

Novelist Lisa See, author of the novel, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, talks with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett for the entire hour about her book, how it came to be, Pu'er tea, and the Akha culture. They also discuss her mother, the late great writer, Carolyn See. The station is in the midst of their annual fund drive. If you've enjoyed the show ...…

Rachel Khong, author of Goodbye, Vitamin, and Julia Fierro, author of The Gypsy Moth Summer join Barbara DeMarco-Barrett to discuss their novels and the art, craft, and business of writing. Download audio. (Broadcast date: April 11, 2018)By penonfire@earthlink.net (Barbara DeMarco-Barrett).

Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The House of Broken Angels, talks with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett about his current wondrous novel, as well as the art, craft, and business of writing. Download audio. (Broadcast date: April 25, 2018)By penonfire@earthlink.net (Barbara DeMarco-Barrett).

Joan Silber, author of Improvement, joins Marrie Stone for the full hour. Improvement recently won the 2018 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction, as well as the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. Silber discusses the importance of travel on her work, cultural appropriation in fiction, finding one's voice, humor, the "kaleidoscopic story ...…

Erica Garza, author of the memoir Getting Off: One Woman's Journey Through Sex and Porn Addiction, talks with Marrie Stone about her reasons for writing the memoir, the incredible reception it has received since publication, and the obvious need to bring buried issues to light. She discusses how to tackle painful scenes, overcoming shame, where ...…

Memoirist and novelist Jasmin Darznik joins Marrie Stone to talk about her novel, Song of a Captive Bird. She talks about her pull toward Iran, toward silenced women, poetry, and more. She discusses the difficult path she took to find the structure of her novel, research, point of view, and more. In the second half, memoirist Tara Westover join ...…

John Dufresne, author of Flash! Writing the Very Short Story and Susan Henderson, author of The Flicker of Old Dreams talk with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett about their new books. Download audio. (Broadcast date: March 28, 2018)By penonfire@earthlink.net (Barbara DeMarco-Barrett).

Novelist, essayist and psychotherapist Dennis Palumbo joins Marrie Stone to talk about his latest Daniel Rinaldi thriller, Head Wounds. He discusses the role of technology in crime fiction, the ways in which crime fiction can reflect society, and the many challenges posed when writing brilliant characters. Dennis also shares his many words of w ...…

Literary critic, writer and poet John Freeman joins Marrie to talk about his collection, Maps. John brings all his insights, wisdom and pitch-perfect ear to the discussion of poetry, and treats the listener with a few readings. In the second half, Jensen Beach talks about his collection, Swallowed by the Cold. These interlocking stories, set in ...…

Novelist Leni Zumas, author of Red Clocks, talks to guest host Nicole Nelson about how attention to language can help foster authenticity, how she learned to put more pressure on story threads and "stick with the trouble," and how she developed a style that insists that readers "keep up." Download audio. (Broadcast date: March 07, 2018) p.p1 {m ...…

New York Times bestselling novelist Kristin Hannah joins Marrie Stone for the hour to discuss her latest novel, The Great Alone. Kristin shares her fascination with Alaska and living off the grid. She discusses writing dark characters and dark themes, against the backdrop of an oppressive setting. Kristin talks about writing in the aftermath of ...…

Marrie Stone is joined by Catherine Banner, author of House at the Edge of Night. Catherine discusses the art of structure, how introducing a fairy tale to the beginning of each section grounded the book, inhabiting characters very different from herself, and writing as an outside (from the perspective of both time and place). In the second hal ...…