Community of Writers Podcasts
Stay abreast of our summer workshops in Fiction, Nonfiction and Memoir by following to hear panels, and craft talks from esteemed agents and editors. Later in the year we will be adding selected craft talks from previous summers.
Year-round, we also host Bibliocracy Radio , a weekly half-hour books discussion and interview program hosted by Santa Monica Review editor Andrew Tonkovich featuring writers of literary fiction and nonfiction, poetry, memoir and cultural criticism.
Episodes
99 episodes
Bibliocracy Radio: Lisa K. Richter on Fly, My Darling
My guest this week is Lisa K. Richter, who has written an elegant multi-form memoir meets biography, a book constructed in a series of short, impressionist, lyrical recollections and insights, portraits and meditations, all with music in...
Bibliocracy Radio: Higher Ed Union Victories
My guests this week have not made books, they have helped make history. They are academic workers. Yes, this is ostensibly a literary arts show but Bibliocracy often features discussion with activists, teachers, researchers, cultural c...
Christopher Mathias on To Catch a Fascist
My guest this week in part two of a two-part show is Christopher Mathias, a journalist with a long career of covering the far right, including at HuffPost, The Guardian, MSNBC and Zeteo. His investigative repor...
Bibliocracy Radio: Terese Svoboda on Hitler & My Mother-in-Law
My guest this week is Terese Svoboda, author of two dozen books, in addition to short stories, poems, journalism, with work in The Atlantic, Slate, the New Yorker and the Santa Monica Review. She...
Bibliocracy Radio: Stephen Cooper on River of Angels
My guest this week is Stephen Cooper, the leading biographer, scholar, and booster of the writer John Fante. He is winner of an NEA for his fiction, a filmmaker, and creative writing teacher at CSULB for many years. He is the autho...
Bibliocracy Radio: Poet Gustavo Hernandez on Bachelor
My guest this week is poet Gustavo Hernandez, last on this show to discuss his breakout poetry collection Flower Grand First. He is out now with Bachelor, six dozen short poems, many of which appeared in leading ...
Bibliocracy Radio: Maria Dolores Aguila on A Sea of Lemon Trees
My guest this week is María Dolores Águila, out now with A Sea of Lemon Trees: The Corrido of Roberto Alvarez. It’s a poetic work of YA historical fiction inspired by the defining early 1930s “Lemon Grove Incident,”...
Bibliocracy Radio: Tracy Rosenthal at Hammer and Hope
My guest this week is journalist and activist Tracy Rosenthal, author of a terrific long piece at the new issue of a favorite online journal, Hammer & Hope, where they report o...
Bibliocracy Radio: Alvarez & Guzman-Lopez at Beyond Baroque
I present a performance edition of the show, a recording made at a recent reading hosted by Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Foundation. Thanks to Jimmy Vega, director, and Eric Ahlberg for recording. Playwright Daniel Olivas, p...
Bibliocracy Radio: Tom Zoellner- The Road Was Full of Thorns
A welcome regular on Bibliocracy, my end-of-year 2025 Fund Drive guest is Tom Zoellner, celebrated in a three-part series starting today which features his latest, The Road Was Full of Thorns: Running Toward...
Bibliocracy Radio: Vishwas Gaitonde - On Earth As It Is In Heaven
My guest is Vishwas Gaitonde, a much-published short story writer out with his debut fiction collection, stories which dramatize, explore, interrogate and celebrate human connection. His On Earth As It Is In Heaven won the...
Bibliocracy Radio: John Bellamy Foster on Einstein's "Why Socialism?"
My guest this week is the writer and Monthly Review editor John Bellamy Foster on his work in helping Monthly Review Press republish the classic Albert Einstein political essay “Why Socialism?” It’s available now in...
Bibliocracy Radio: Daniel Olivas on Waiting for Godinez
My guest this week is the multi-form writer Daniel Olivas, author of 13 books of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama including the subject of today’s Bibliocracy Radio, a play titled Waiting for Godínez: A Tragicomedy ...
Bibliocracy Radio: Poet Abby Walthausen
My guest this week is poet and prose writer Abby Walthausen, out now with a new poetry collection titled A Swale a Sort of Swaddle, a remarkable collection exploring and celebrating and, importantly, complicating the joys and challenge...
Bibliocracy Radio: Nicholas Reiner of So Cal ACLU
My guest this week is Nicholas Reiner, a poet and teacher and Associate Director of Media & Storytelling at the ACLU of Southern California. As part of Bibliocracy’s recent series of shows featuring scholars and activ...
Bibliocracy Radio: Nolan Higdon on All Things AI & Higher Ed
My guest this week is Dr. Nolan Higdon. Today on Bibliocracy Radio I check in again with Nolan Higdon, an activist and scholar on whose perspectives I rely as a result of reading his important work in media literacy and media cr...
Bibliocracy Radio: Trevor Griffey on Corporate AI Teacher Training
My guest this week is Trevor Griffey. While Bibliocracy Radio is largely devoted to the celebration of book culture and reading, I’ve also frequently and increasingly devoted episodes featuring public policy and political expert...
Bibliocracy Radio: Robin Romm on Radical Empathy
My guest this week is Robin Romm, author of a breakout 2007 collection of stories, The Mother Garden, a celebrated memoir,The Mercy Papers and, now, a new collection titled Radical Empathy. She’s been aw...
Bibliocracy Radio: ALA Banned Books Week
I’m pleased to host American Library Association President Sam Helmick on the work of that organization and the upcoming ALA Banned Books Week 2025, October 5 - October 11. This year’s theme: “Censorship is so 1984. Read for Your Rights.”
Bibliocracy Radio: Oscar Villalon on ZYZZYVA’s Fortieth
My guest this week is Oscar Villalon, editor in chief of ZYZZYVA journal. Together we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the esteemed West Coast literary journal founded by Howard Junker, and which has printed so much impo...
Charles Hood on Double Hyenas and Lazarus Birds
My guest this week is poet, prose writer, nature writer and photographer Charles Hood. In his newest book he has written a nature guide, travel adventure and, most movingly, a memoir in scenes of confession and revelation, self-discovery...
Bibliocracy Radio: Dawna Kemper & Miles Parnegg
This week I share an edited version of readings by two more contributors to the latest Santa Monica Review. Taped in front of a live audience at a spring issue launch celebration, writers Dawna Kemper and Miles Parnegg read their work....
Bibliocracy Radio: Stephen D. Gutierrez & Sean Bernard in Performance
This week an edited version of readings by two contributors to the latest Santa Monica Review. Taped in front of a live audience at a spring issue launch celebration, writers Stephen D. Gutierrez and Sean Bernard share from their recen...
Writers Workshops 2025 - Special: Closing Talk by Sameer Pandya
Welcome to the Podcast feed for the 2025 Summer Workshops in Olympic Valley. This week, we will upload daily craft talks, panels and readings as they happen. Be sure to subscribe to our feed to receive all recordings automatically. A full sched...
Writers Workshops 2025 - Panel: "The Short Story" with Tom Barbash, Dana Johnson, Maceo Montoya, Gregory Spatz. Moderated by Andrew Tonkovich
Welcome to the Podcast feed for the 2025 Summer Workshops in Olympic Valley. This week, we will upload daily craft talks, panels and readings as they happen. Be sure to subscribe to our feed to receive all recordings automatically. A full sched...
