The Last Word

Host(s): 
Chris Fanning
Length: 
30 minutes
Type of Show: 
Talk

Writers & Books staff member Chris Fanning interviews local readers, writers, and W&B Teaching Artists. 

Past Episodes

  • Storytelling: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Aired: Wednesday, March 18, 2020

    Join host Chris Fanning as he reads from L Frank Baum's classic, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

     

    A note from Writers & Books:

    In uncertain times, we turn to our favorite poems and works of fiction for consolation, strength, perspective, and joy. Especially now, while so many of us are sheltering in place, Writers & Books is committed to creating space for discourse, imagination, and compassion through the literary arts.

  • Almeta Whitis: SMUDGE STICK:The pungent Aroma of TRUTH Aired: Wednesday, March 11, 2020

    Almeta Whitis is a storyteller, actress, poet, writer and teaching artist who has taught elementary, middle and high school in NYS and Arizona. A former assistant professor of Theater at SUNY Brockport, in 1997, she received their “Distinguished Scholar Public Service Award”. In 1995, Phi Delta Kappa awarded her “Lay Educator of the Year” by unanimous decision. As Chair of ALLOFUS Art Workshop’s Dance Department, a MAG and UR outreach program, she expanded a Saturday class of eight children to a year-round program serving over 450 children and adults.

  • Liza Flum on being a poet and her fascination with hummingbirds Aired: Wednesday, February 5, 2020

    Liza Flum is a poet and teacher living in Geneva, New York. She holds an MFA in poetry from Cornell, and her poems appear in journals including Narrative, The Tampa Review, The Southeast Review, Lambda Literary, and The Collagist. She is a recipient of a Barbara Deming individual artist grant, and her work has been supported by fellowships from the Saltonstall Foundation, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center.

  • CaTyra Polland: published author, established editor, entrepreneur and speaker/instructor Aired: Wednesday, February 5, 2020

     

    CaTyra Polland is a published author, established editor, entrepreneur and speaker/instructor and JobCorps Admissions & Outreach Counselor. CaTyra began writing poetry in middle school and has an affinity for reading. She loves helping her clients materialize their books by editing their manuscripts. CaTyra's passions include promoting and celebrating Black excellence, encouraging youth to read and write, and encouraging others to pursue their goals and dreams.

  • Translator Jennifer Kellogg: Greece, translations, and the power of words Aired: Wednesday, January 22, 2020

    Jennifer Kellogg is a Hellenist, literary translator, and a non-profit administrator. She holds a PhD in Modern Languages and Literatures from the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. She has been a board member at Writers & Books since 2012. From 2017 through 2019 she was the Executive Director and Academic Programs Director at the Greek America Foundation. She is currently working on translating the poetry of Greece’s first Nobel Prize winning poet, George Seferis. 

  • Scott Seifritz, creator of Rochester Spoken Word and co-host of Rochester Speak Easy Aired: Wednesday, January 15, 2020

    Scott Seifritz is a co-founder of Rochester Spoken Word, the goal of which is to help writers be heard. (Turns out a mic and amp go a long way.) He is a part-time playwright whose humorous play No Encore was performed at the 2017 24-Hour Plays for the Rochester Fringe Festival and whose comedy Denny Killington, Master Detective! was selected for the 2016 Rochester Regional Writers Showcase. For your chance to be heard, visit www.RocSpoke.org.

  • Poet David Ruekberg: Writing, what influences his work, and semi-retirement Aired: Wednesday, January 8, 2020

    David Ruekberg has been drawing and writing poetry since he was a kid, but got more serious about it after attending classes at Writers & Books. His first instructor was Mark Nowak, who was big on writing produced by a homemade random number generator, and which is where he first met Thom Ward. He then took a few classes from Thom, where he met several other poets, including Charlie Cote, Lee McAvoy, and Bob Drojarski, with whom he formed a writing group called the Potluck Poets.

  • Poet David Ruekberg: Writing, what influences his work, and semi-retirement Aired: Wednesday, January 8, 2020

    David Ruekberg has been drawing and writing poetry since he was a kid, but got more serious about it after attending classes at Writers & Books. His first instructor was Mark Nowak, who was big on writing produced by a homemade random number generator, and which is where he first met Thom Ward. He then took a few classes from Thom, where he met several other poets, including Charlie Cote, Lee McAvoy, and Bob Drojarski, with whom he formed a writing group called the Potluck Poets.

  • Robin L. Flanigan, author of M is for Mindful Aired: Wednesday, December 11, 2019

    Robin L. Flanigan grew up among the red rocks of Sedona, Arizona, and launched a writing career in the early ‘90s while living in a Baltimore graveyard. She was a beat reporter for eleven years, winning several national awards, and now works as a freelance writer and editor. Her essays has been published in The Sun, Motherwell, and other literary magazines and anthologies. Her coffee-table book on the city of Rochester was published in 2009, and her children’s book, M is for Mindful, came out in November. 

  • Interview with Brian Wood, author of Joytime Killbox, a debut collection of short stories Aired: Wednesday, December 4, 2019

    Brian Wood is the author of Joytime Killbox (BOA, 2019). He has served as the Managing Editor of Reed Magazine and the Fiction Editor for POST. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from San Jose State University, and his work earned him a Ludwig Scholarship for Excellence in Creative Writing, as well as the James Phelan Award for Short Fiction and Familiar Essays. He lives in Rochester, NY, where he is a writing instructor at Writers & Books and the co-host of the Two Month Review podcast produced by Open Letter Press.

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