Press enter after choosing selection
Graphic for events post

Media

Words The Podcast - Episode 9: Glyphs the Podcast

Ally Wright is a fiction writer whose short story, As a Widow Throws a Lasso, is a meditation on grief and the grieving process. Ally grew up in a house full of books, and always loved words. Now she’s just been accepted to the Creative Writing sub-concentration at the University of Michigan. In this segment, we talked about making the familiar unfamiliar, an ancient jackal god of death called Wepwawet, Animorphs, and finding inspiration in everyday places, like Snapple caps.

Drew Maron is a writer of short fiction, but we never really got to that part. We talked about “making literature accessible” as a mark of a good professor, free will, and what 50 Shades of Grey and Paradise Lost have in common as fan-fiction.

Graphic for events post

Media

Words The Podcast - Episode 8: It's Vegas, Baby

Juliana Roth is a writer from New York and a senior in the creative writing program. She’s finishing up an Honors Thesis that will be in the form of a collection of short stories. We discuss her story “Appraisal” in terms of topics like the 1.5 year mark in a relationship, Macguffins, and a world of fine china, PF Chang's, and rivers that wind through the desert.

Liz Swaynie is screenwriter and writer of short fiction. She finished up her major in creative last year and is currently working on getting into the world of network TV comedy and drama. We discuss her spec script for Bob’s Burgers, as well as what a spec script actually is, teleplays as a medium, and an idea for a second season of Words the Podcast, set in Las Vegas.

Graphic for events post

Media

Words The Podcast - Episode 7: Working Title

Chris Aldridge is a poet and journalist. He’s a reporter with the Huron Daily Tribune by day, and a inquisitive poet by night. He reads seven of his poems. We discuss his creative process, the ephemerality of the moment, and how to properly conduct an ambush in a Nerf gun fight.

Abrar “Raad” Haider is a senior and pre-med student at U-M. He brings in a current project that draws heavily from what he studies. His short story places Dr. Akiesha Palta in the middle of a dire conflict: her pharmaceutical company is the most successful vaccine company in the world, but it’s also producing many of the world’s most potent viruses.

Graphic for events post

Media

Words The Podcast - Episode 6: Changing Times

Lucy Zhao reads three poems and discusses salt, liminal spaces, and how to use poetry to land a job.

Andrew Dooley studied poetry, worked as journalist, and then ran the statewide social media accounts for MLive. He brings three articles to the table for discussion: “To all the young journalists asking for advice…,” by Felix Salmon; “Career Advice for Young Journalists: Don’t Take Older Journalists’ Advice,” by Will Oremus; and “Inside Ashton Kutcher’s celebrity-powered viral media empire, which no one knows exists,” by Rob Price.

Graphic for events post

Media

Words The Podcast - Episode 5: The Statement

This week The Michigan Daily published its annual literary issue of its weekly insert The Statement. It featured 13 works of short fiction and poetry. We spoke with The Statement editor Ian Dillingham and three of the literary issue contributors (including Words' own Phil Witteveen!)

Kari Simonsen discusses her short story, The Color Blind Knitter
JP Seguin talks Allen Ginsberg and his poem Disrespect
Phil Witteveen elaborates on life, flash fiction, and his short story Course Evaluation

Read all three works, and more, at the The Statement’s literary issue.

Graphic for events post

Media

Words The Podcast - Episode 4: The Human Heart

Jeremy Allen is a reporter for The Ann Arbor News. His article Brothers without hearts: Man makes history at U-M Hospital as first patient discharged with Total Artificial Heart was wildly popular. Fellow Ann Arbor News reporter Ben Freed stops by to discuss newsroom antics.

Jeremy Berkowitz is a filmmaker. His story, Catherine the Caterpillar, is about an insect that burrows inside the heart of young boy, and has to decided whether it wants to burst out of the boy’s heart.

Jack Bologna is the creator of Words the Podcast, and he brought a mic to the radiology department for a recent CT scan of his heart. His dad, James, helps tell the story I Hope I Have a Broken Heart.

Graphic for events post

Media

Words The Podcast - Episode 3: The Next Step

Lucy Tobier is the 10-year-old editor-in-chief of The Murray Avenue Times, the monthly, hyperlocal newspaper all about Murray Ave. in Ann Arbor. If you’d like to order the February edition of her paper, email her at Lucy.is.here.101@gmail.com.

Jacob Conflitti is a writer and the author of For Your Viewing Pleasure, a short story about a dystopian future where people in deep debt are forced into gladiator-style fights for the entertainment of the wealthy.

Brandon Reisch is the director of the Ann Arbor Poetry Blast, a city-wide poetry initiative. Learn more about this project and how to get involved by visiting the Ann Arbor Poetry Blast tab on our website.

Graphic for events post

Media

Words The Podcast - Episode 2: Competition

Alejandro Zuniga and Greg Garno are sports journalists and were the 2014 managing editors of The Michigan Daily‘s sports section. They covered University of Michigan football, writing about on the most historically dismal seasons, the firing of Dave Brandon and Brady Hoke, and the hiring of Jim Harbaugh. On-air they tell stories about life in the press box.

Carlina Duan is a poet and Ann Arbor native. she is currently one of the editors of Michigan in Color. Carlina reads three poems on-air and discusses identity, race, perception, and the menstrual cycle.

George Gardner is a short story writer who wrote Treasurer, the story of a girl who will do whatever it takes to win her middle school student government election. George discusses winning, high school wrestling, and more on this week’s episode.

Graphic for events post

Media

Words The Podcast - Episode 1: Beginnings

Dave Askins, formerly of The Ann Arbor Chronicle, Dave discusses his new civic engagement project, CivCity. Dave also brings a copy of Ann Arbor’s most hyperlocal print publication, The Murray Avenue Times.

Jeff Garland wrote Shredded Duck Confit, a short story about a caterer at the Michigan Union who can’t seem to get anyone to try his hors d’ouevres. The story is based on T.S. Eliot’s poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.

Brendan McCaffery is a poet who writes about sex, drugs, and college. He both disparages and challenges Generation Y. Read the poems featured on this episode.