WVW Podcast: Contestcast 2

Episode 25 (a.k.a. CONTESTCAST 2) of the WV Writers Podcast is now online. We're a wee bit past the mid-way point for the 2010 WV Writers Annual Writing Contest, so we thought it would be prudent to check in with our adult contest coordinator, Steve Goff, to find out how things are going. Steve answers more of your frequently asked questions, discuss the list of contest judges and reveal some of the categories in which your odds are better for winning this year.

Download it from our podcast page http://www.wvwriters.org/2010/02/episode-25-contestcast-2.html

Or subscribe with iTunes.

WV Writers Podcast: Keith Pitzer Tribute with Pops Walker

Episode 24 of the WV Writers Podcast is now available. It is a special double-size episode in tribute to musician Keith Pitzer, who was a friend of WV Writers and of this podcast. Keith died after a battle with cancer on December 22 , 2009. Joining us for the episode is Pops Walker, who was a good friend of Keith's. We talk about Keith the man, the musician and the tireless servant of the ecological health of the Cheat River. We'll also hear some of the outtakes from my interview with him last June, including some of the amazing music he made alongside his wife Joan.

Find Episode 24 posted on our podcast website.

Contestcast 2010

Parts 1 and 2 of the 2010 WV Writers Contestcast are now online! In them I am joined by special guests Terry "El Presidente" McNemar and Steve "El Coordinador de la Competencia" Goff to talk about the WVW Annual Writing Contest and detail some of the changes you need to know about and the unchanged things you still need to pay attention to. It's a veritable digital contest primer.

In Part 1 we primarily discuss the adult contest, while in Part 2 the main topic is the New Mountain Voices Student Contest. We also get a sneak peek at not only some of the key judges for the contest but some more of the major presenters for the 2010 Summer Conference. El President McNemar also spills the time period we can expect ALL the details on the conference to be revealed. (Hint: it'll be sooner, rather than later.)

Find the Contestcast on our podcast website or subscribe through iTunes.

WVW Podcast: Lee Maynard Recorded Live Reading

Our 6th WVW Podcast Bonus Show is now online. It features a recorded live reading from Lee Maynard's appearance at the WV Book Festival, in October. Mr. Maynard reads the first chapter of his new novel-in-memoir-form The Pale Light of Sunset: Scattershots and Hallucinations in an Imagined Life, published by West Virginia University Press.

Be sure to also check out Episodes 21 and 22 for parts 1 and 2 of our podcast of the conversation between Lee and Cat Pleska.

Get the Lee Maynard Recorded Live Reading HERE.

Podcast Episode 21: A conversation with Lee Maynard

Episode 21 of the WVW Podcast is now available, featuring a conversation between WV Writers 1st Vice President Cat Pleska and Lee Maynard, author of the book Crum, its followup Screaming with the Cannibals and the new novel-in-memoir-form The Pale Light of Sunset: Scattershots and Hallucinations in an Imagined Life, published by West Virginia University Press.


As those of you who've attended Lee's workshops at previous WV Writers Summer Conferences well know, he's an extremely talented writer who specializes in gut-level writing. This week's part of the conversation explores some of that as well as his writing discipline, his philosophy on truth in memoir vs. storytelling and his feelings about West Virginia.

Hear it for yourself at our PODCAST PAGE.

WVW Podcast Bonus Show 4

Our 4th WVW Podcast Bonus Show is now online and features trimmings from our Episode 12 interview with Pops Walker.

We also pass along the results of the Shenandoah Valley Acoustic Roots Fest and Songwriting Contest, which we talked to Pops about in Episode 12.

Click HERE to go THERE.

WVW Podcast Episode 17 Now Online

Episode 17 of the WVW Podcast has now been posted. It's our second recorded live reading, this time originating from a session of the Greenbrier Valley Theatre's October Literary Tea series, from 2007. The featured material is the short story "Faux Fangs" from Beverly Pauley's collection Gothic Bedtime Stories. This story is the first appearance of Bev's reoccurring character, elderly West Virginia vampire Rutherford Zucks.

The episode also has information about the 2009 Literary Teas as well as a preview of what WV Writers will be doing at the 2009 WV Book Festival in Charleston and some hints about presenters for our upcoming 2010 Summer Conference.

Check it out at our PODCAST PAGE.

WVW Podcast Bonus Show 2

The second bonus show for the WV Writers Podcast has now been posted. It features conversational outtakes with Dolly Withrow and Barbara Smith recorded for last week's special podcast. Plus we have a further interruption from my dog.

Find it HERE or on iTunes.

WVW Podcast Shirley Young Campbell Tribute Special

(THE PODCAST LINK BELOW HAS BEEN UPDATED)

This week we present a special double-sized podcast episode in tribute to the lady without whom there would not be a WV Writers, Shirley Young Campbell. Mrs. Campbell passed away August 17, 2009. For this special episode, we interview Dr. Barbara Smith, Dolly Withrow and Kirk Judd, each counted among the charter members of WV Writers and longtime friends of Mrs. Campbell. We discuss Mrs. Campbell's many accomplishments in promoting the writing and writers of WV, her role as a catalyst in the creation of West Virginia Writers, Inc., her co-founding of Mountain State Press, her own writing and many publications, what she was like as a person, and her role as the "Literary Mother" of so many of the finest writers of our state and beyond.

For those of you unfamiliar with the history of our organization, this is a podcast not to be missed.

Many thanks to Phyllis Wilson Moore for her tremendous help in the research for this podcast.

http://www.wvwriters.org/2009/09/episode-16-shirley-young-campbell.html

WV Writers Podcast Episode 15 Now Online

Episode 15 of the WV Writers Podcast is now online. In it, we talk to storyteller Susanna "Granny Sue" Holstein. She’s been a featured storytelling performer at events from Bellingham, Washington to Boston, Massachusetts and points in between. She's especially well known, however, for being a West Virginia storyteller, focusing much of her repertoire on WV history, ghost stories, Appalachian tales and ballads.

We talk about how she began storytelling, the fluidity of the artform, the skills required to do it correctly and, of course, we'll hear one of her more famous stories.

Download it HERE or subscribe with iTunes.

This week on the WV Writers Podcast

This Friday, the WV Writers Podcast will broadcast its first recorded live reading.

Our subject will be a live reading given by author Joey Madia from his novel Jester Knight.

You can see the trailer for this book by clicking the book cover on the right.

Tune in Friday morning, August 14, for Episode 14 of the WV Writers Podcast.

WV Writers Podcast: Episode 11 Now Available

Episode 11 of the WV Writers Podcast is now available. In it we speak once again to Episode 3's guest, writer/editor Rhonda Browning White. Instead of speaking about memories of conferences of years past, we speak of memories of conferences of two weeks past.

If you were unable to attend, this will give you some highlights.

Episode 11: Memories of Conferences More Recent

WV Writers BONUS Podcast: Episode 9 Now Available

Episode 9, the first of our two, count `em, TWO work-week bookending podcasts we're releasing this week, is now online.

In this episode we talk to Keith Pitzer of the singing duo Keith & Joan Pitzer.

Keith is not only leading a workshop on songwriting at the conference this year, he and Joan are returning to the Saturday night entertainment stage. Attendees last year remember them for their concert with our podcast's music provider, Pops Walker.

We talk to Keith about the craft of songwriting and hear some of the Pitzers music as well.

http://www.wvwriters.org/2009/06/episode-9-keith-pitzer.html

WV Writers Podcast Episode 8: William Bitner & Daniel Boyd: Tag Team Interview

Episode 8 of the WVW Podcast is now online, in which we speak with William Bitner and Daniel Boyd, authors, film-makers, educators, professional wrestlers, and creators of the WV-set pulp-style illustrated novel Death Falcon Zero Vs. the Zombie Slug Lords.

We talk to them about how they became the wrestlers Death Falcon Zero and Professor Danger and how that ultimately led to their book starring their in-ring alter-egos.

Both William Bitner and Daniel Boyd will be leading workshops at next week's WV Writers Summer Conference, June 12-14, 2009, Cedar Lakes Conference Center, Ripley, WV.

Check it out at our Podcast Page.

WVW Podcast Episode 7 Now Online

Episode 7 of the WVW Podcast is now online. In it, we speak with artist, poet, essayist, philosopher and official WV Writers Conference Artist in Residence Boyd Carr. We speak with Boyd about his origins as an artist, how it led him to a long association with WV Writers and about his foray into philosophy and the origins of storytelling, which he calls My.Th.

Check it out at the Podcast Page.

WVW Podcast Episode 5 Now Online

Episode 5 of the WVW Podcast is now online, in which we talk to Georgia-based poet Dana Wildsmith, presenter at the upcoming WV Writers Summer Conference, June 12-14, 2009, Cedar Lakes Conference Center, Ripley, WV.

Dana speaks about her journey to becoming a poet, her time spent as a Writer in Residence around the country, her love of music and Garrison Keillor's reading voice, and what her workshops will bring at this year's conference. She was also kind enough to read one of her poems for us.

Find it HERE.

WV Writers Podcast

Hola Citizens,

I have a fairly large announcement to make here. Beginning tomorrow, Friday, April 17, 2009, WV Writers will enter the podcasting arena with our very own podcast, hosted by me.

This will be a weekly podcast leading up to our Summer Conference and will feature interviews with the folks putting the conference together as well as some of the movers and shakers who will be teaching workshops at the conference.

Some early guests include President Terry McNemar, humorist and keynote speaker Susan Reinhardt and some reminiscences on conferences past with Rhonda White.

Please join us tomorrow at the Podcast Homepage.

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