Actor Omid Abtahi on Writers on Writing, KUCI-FM in OC, California, with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett

Actor Omid Abtahi, featured in American Gods, Boys of Abu Ghraib, Homeland, Argo, etcetera etcetera, spends the hour with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett. They talk about the creative process, his roles, and how it all begins with the word.

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(Broadcast date: Jan. 2, 2019)

Memoirist Beth M. Howard with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett on Writers on Writing, KUCI-FM

Memoirist Beth M. Howard, author of Hausfrau Honeymoon, talks with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett about her new memoir, a prequel to Making Piece, on KUCI-FM 88.9. The show is first broadcast from UC-Irvine Campus and later podcast on iTunes. Subscribe to the show on iTunes and when a new show is uploaded, you'll receive it in your podcast file.

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(Broadcast date: January 2, 2019)

Happy New Year!

Janet Fitch with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett on Writers on Writing, KUCI-FM

Janet Fitch, author of The Revolution of Marina M, talks with Barbara about her newest novel, why she's a novelist and not a memoirist, composite characters, her undergraduate focus on Russia and her stay in Russia as a student, and so much more.

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(Broadcast date: Dec. 19, 2018)

Karen Bender with Marrie Stone on Writers on Writing on KUCI, 88.9FM

Novelist and short story writer Karen Bender joins Marrie Stone to talk about her latest collection, The New Order. Bender discusses her writerly instinct to create order from chaos, and how events in the real world shape her art. She shares her "octopus theory" for creating scope in short stories, as well as her "container theory" for stories.

Bender dissects a few of her stories from original concept to final draft, and highlights some of the steps in her revision process. She also notes several stories she uses for teaching these various techniques. All this, and much more.

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(Broadcast date: December 12, 2018)

Literary agent Betsy Amster with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett on Writers on Writing, KUCI-FM

Los Angeles-based literary agent Betsy Amster talks with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett about the state of publishing, self-publishing, query letters, what she's looking for, and more.

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(Broadcast date: Dec. 5, 2018)

Los Lobos Founding Member Louie Pérez and Poet Grant Hier on Writers on Writing, KUCI-FM, Irvine

Louie Pérez, founding member of the American rock band Los Lobos, and Grant Hier join Marrie Stone for a round-table discussion of poetry, lyric-writing, prose, visual arts, music and more.

Hier and Pérez collaborated on the double CD Joyride: Friends Take the Wheel, a compilation of various artists (including George Saunders) interpreting the words and music of Louie Pérez. The CD was created as a special companion piece to Pérez's new book, Good Morning, Aztlán: The Words, Pictures & Songs Of Louie Pérez.

Hier is the author of several poetry collections and a forthcoming historical flash fiction book. His most recent work is Similitude. 

Pérez and Hier discuss their creative process, the origin of some of their work, how setting personal boundaries breeds creativity, and much more. We also are treated to some Los Lobos songs.



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(Broadcast date: November 28, 2018)

Jonathan Lethem & Deborah Gaal on Writers on Writing, 88.9 FM, at UC-Irvine

Jonathan Lethem, author of The Feral Detective, and Deborah Gaal, author of The Dream Stitcher, talk with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett about the art, craft, and business of writing.

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(Broadcast date: Nov. 21, 2018)

Marie Lu and Rita Dragonette with Marrie Stone on Writers on Writing, KUCI 88.9FM

Young adult writer Marie Lu returns to "Writers on Writing" to talk with Marrie Stone about her latest duology, Warcross and Wildcard. She talks about the intersection between video gaming and her novels, how to build a compelling world, how her sketchbooks help her build character, and more.

In the second half, debut novelist Rita Dragonette joins to discuss her novel The Fourteenth of September. In addition to talking about the impact of the Vietnam War on her life, she discusses the difficulties of writing a novel over the course of 12 years, mining your own life as a starting point in fiction, the role of critique groups in her writing and more.

The interviews were pre-recorded and ran longer than the allotted on-air time. To access the longer interviews, click on the links below the podcast.

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Download full length Marie Lu.

Download full length Rita Dragonette.

(Broadcast date: November 14, 2018)

Hallie Ephron and Lisa Brackmann talk with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett on Writers on Writing

Hallie Ephron, author of You'll Never Know, Dear, and Lisa Brackmann, author of Black Swan Rising, talk with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett about the art, craft, and business of writing mysteries and suspense. 

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(Broadcast date: Nov. 7, 2018)

Marcus Zusak and Lisa Unger on Writers on Writing, KUCI-FM, with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett

Marcus Zusak, author of Bridge of Clay and The Book Thief, and Lisa Unger, author of Under My Skin, talk with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett about the art, craft, and business of writing.

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(Broadcast date: 10/24/2018)

Rick Moody joins Marrie Stone on Writers on Writing, KUCI-FM, Irvine

Rick Moody, author of The Ice Storm, Hotels of North America, and Demonology (among many other works), joins Marrie Stone to talk about taking risks, the importance of playing with form, stoking creativity, living in the world in an artist in today's America, and more.

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(Broadcast date: October 31, 2018)

Andre Dubus III talks with Marrie Stone on Writers on Writing, KUCI-FM, Irvine

Andre Dubus III joins Marrie Stone for the full hour to talk about his latest novel, Gone So Long. He discusses how to make the empathetic leap into characters vastly different from him, and living in the discomfort of a character who might repulse him. He gives insight into his process for writing effective sex scenes. He talks craft, process, structure, and revision, all with his signature down-to-earth and eloquent style.

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(Broadcast date: October 17, 2018)

Liana Finck and Deborah Reed with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett on Writers on Writing, KUCI-FM

Liana Finck, author of the graphic memoir, Passing for Human, and novelist Deborah Reed, author of The Days When Birds Come Back, join Barbara DeMarco-Barrett to talk about their new books and the art, craft, and business of writing.

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(Broadcast date: October 10, 2018)

Christina Dalcher and Donna Hilbert talk with Marrie Stone on Writers on Writing, KUCI-FM

Christina Dalcher, author of Vox, talks with Marrie about dystopian fiction, linguistics, the importance of language, and her love of flash fiction. She also discusses beat sheets, rough outlines, how flash fiction helps novel writing, and more.

In the second half, Donna Hilbert discusses her latest poetry collection, Gravity. She talks about the quiet space necessary to produce work, art versus therapy, and the process of understanding what a poem is about. Donna also dissects one of her poems for the listening audience.

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(Broadcast date: October 3, 2018)

Novelist Tod Goldberg and literary agent Jennie Dunham with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett on Writers on Writing, KUCI-FM

Tod Goldberg, author of Gangsterland and Gangster Nation, and NYC literary agent Jennie Dunham talk with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett about novels, agents, publishing, and so much more.

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(Broadcast date: Sept. 26, 2018)

Tod will be featured at the Pen on Fire Speaker Series and Salon on Oct. 16, 2018, at the Lido Bookstore in Newport Beach, CA   More at www.penonfire.com/speakerseries

Jo Ann Beard talks with Marrie Stone on Writers on Writing, KUCI-FM, Irvine

Novelist and essayist Jo Ann Beard talks with Marrie Stone about her past works, The Boys of My Youth and In Zanesville. Over the course of the hour, she shares a wealth of wisdom and honest insights about her process and craft, her feelings about her work and her artistry, the importance of the work versus the importance of publication, and much more.

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(Broadcast date: September 19, 2018)

Memoirist Leslie Schwartz talks with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett on Writers on Writing, KUCI-FM in Irvine

Leslie Schwartz, author of the memoir The Lost Chapters talks with Barbara on the show about her time in jail, treatment of prisoners, and how this experience became a book, and how reading books kept her going during these 90 days.

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(Broadcast date: Sept. 12, 2018)

Alexia Arthurs on Writers on Writing, KUCI-FM

Alexia Arthurs joins Marrie Stone to share her short story collection debut, How to Love a Jamaican. She discusses beginnings and endings. She talks about writing from place and setting. And she talks about the unexpected surprises of a short story and what they reveal to the writer.

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(Broadcast date: September 5, 2018)

Sandra Gail Lambert on Writers on Writing, KUCI-FM

Novelist and memoirist Sandra Gail Lambert joins Marrie Stone to talk about her memoir in essays, A Certain Loneliness. She discusses how writing from the body avoids sentimentality, and how she can both protect her own privacy while exposing herself on the page. Sandra also discusses how one essay, when broken apart, became the backbone structure for the whole book.

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(Broadcast date: September 5, 2018)

Glen David Gold with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett on Writers on Writing, KUCI-FM in Irvine, CA

Glen David Gold, author of I Will Be Complete (Knopf), is Barbara's guest for the entire hour. The show is a master class in writing memoir. If you're writing memoir, you won't want to miss this one.

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(Broadcast date: August 29, 2018)

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