This Week...

...there is no new podcast. Awww.

Cause the wife and I will off celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary. Yay!

Back in a couple.

Bonus Show 7 featuring Sal Buttaci

Our 7th bonus show is an extry-long entry into our Recorded Live Reading series. (Q: "But if it's recorded, how can it be live?" A: "Ahhhh, mind your Ps and Qs, Mack.")

This live reading was recorded at a poetry reading given by Salvatore Buttaci at the Princeton Public Library on December 3, 2009. Sal is the author of A Dusting of Star Fall: Love Poems, Boy on a Swing and Other Poems, A Family of Sicilians: Stories and Poems, Sun Sparks The Day and Sal Buttaci's Greatest Hits 1970 - 2000 published in the Pudding House books Greatest Hits series. He is also the author of Painless Poetry, which is a workshop for educators teaching poetry appreciation and creative writing. His most recent book is called Flashing My Shorts a collection of flash fiction.

DOWNLOAD (Right click and Save Link Target As)
West Virginia Writers Podcast Bonus Show 7


LINKS
Salvatore Buttaci's website
A Family of Sicilians

No podcast this week...

...due to the double-sized nature of our first two of the year. Please join us here next week for podcast bonus show #7, featuring a recorded live reading of WV Writers member Sal Buttaci's December poetry reading in Mercer County.

In the meantime, please enjoy this video of the smaller of my two bonus show co-hosts, recorded this past autumn.

Episode 24: Keith Pitzer Tribute with Pops Walker

“It’s with a heavy heart that I write to you today, for we have lost a great friend and performer, Keith Pitzer. Keith passed on this morning after a courageous fight with cancer. His wife Joan, and his four grown sons mourn the loss of their loved one, as do I, Bobbi, and anyone who knew Keith.” -- Pops Walker

This is the opening paragraph from a letter written by Keith's friend and our podcast composer, Pops Walker. Written on December 22, the day Keith passed, it is how many of us first learned the news. Keith was not only a friend of this podcast, but he was a friend of our organization as well.

I thought for today’s special double-sized podcast it would be nice to speak with Pops in tribute to Keith. I wanted to get Pops' perspective on Keith the man and hear about his tireless work with Friends of the Cheat, and also hear of his skill as a musician. 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.

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West Virginia Writers Podcast Episode 24


LINKS FOR THIS PODCAST

• Keith & Joan’s website
• Keith & Joan on MySpace
• Keith & Joan Pitzer's CDs
• Falling Mountain Music
• Friends of Cheat
• Pops Walker.com
• Keith Pitzer Memorial Celebration Information
  
• Pops' Letter Regarding Keith
• Keith on Podcast Episode 9
• West Virginia Highlands Voice blog
• Dominion Post article about Keith by Michelle Wolford
• VIDEO: Keith, Joan and their son Jake playing as "String Fever"
• Andrew McKnight's blog entry about Keith

Episode 23: THE 2010 CONTESTCAST

For our first new episode of 2010, we're doing a gargantu-sized two part episode we're calling THE CONTESTCAST. That's right, this is your primer for all things related to the WV Writers Annual Writing Contest, which began accepting entries mere days ago.

Joining us for the podcast are WV Writers President Terry McNemar and Adult Contest Coordinator Steve Goff.



DOWNLOAD (Right click and Save Link Target As)
West Virginia Writers Contestcast (a.k.a Episode 23 Part 1)

West Virginia Writers Contestcast (a.k.a Episode 23 Part 2)



Download Contest Entry Forms As Reference for the Podcast


Entry Form (.doc) Entry Form (.pdf)



Student Entry Form (.doc) Student Entry Form (.pdf)

THIS WEEK!

For the first new episode of the new year, we'll be talking up the WV Writers Spring Writing Competition 2010. Our guests for this special extra-sized episode will be WV Writers President Terry McNemar and Contest Coordinator Steve Goff.

If you have any questions about the contest, likely they'll be answered as part of this podcast. It also serves as a great introduction to the contest in general. And stick around for the end of the episode when we'll have a sneak preview of some of the guests for the 2010 Summer Conference.

Join us here this Friday for Episode 23.

Episode 9: Keith Pitzer (REBROADCAST)

This week we're rebroadcasting Episode 9 of the podcast in honor of the recent passing of musician Keith Pitzer. We spoke with Keith last June in preparation for he and his wife Joan's appearance at the WV Writers Summer Conference 2009. Unfortunately, Keith and Joan were unable to attend last year because of a sudden turn in Keith's health stemming from the cancer that took him on December 22, 2009.

The WV Writers Podcast will soon have a brand new episode dedicated to celebrating Keith Pitzer as a performer and human being, including an interview with Keith's friend and friend of the podcast, Pops Walker. We will also be including some outtake material from that interview.

DOWNLOAD (Right click and Save Link Target As)
West Virginia Writers Podcast Episode 9 (REBROADCAST)

Bonus Show 6

Our 6th WVW Podcast Bonus Show 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 check out Episodes 21 and 22 for our podcast of the conversation between Lee and Cat Pleska.

DOWNLOAD PODCAST (Right click and Save Link Target As)
WVW Podcast Bonus Show 6

Links mentioned in Podcast:

The Pale Light of Sunset: Scattershots and Hallucinations in an Imagined Life

This week...

No podcast today. In fact, our December podcast schedule may be a bit light due to the holiday season, though there are still some goodies on the way. However, Cat Pleska has informed me that her radio interview with Lee Maynard will be broadcast on WV Public Radio, Monday morning between 7:30 and 8. This is not repeated material from the recordings we used in the podcast, but is a complete standalone interview, as yet unheard, recorded specifically for WV Public Radio.

An expanded version of that interview will also be made available on the WV Public Radio website (along with a mention of the podcast interview).

Check it out Monday morning.

Episode 21: A Conversation with Lee Maynard, Part 1

Episode 21 of the WVW Podcast features 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.


DOWNLOAD PART 1 (Right click and Save Link Target As)
West Virginia Writers Podcast Episode 21

Then CLICK HERE for Part 2.


Links mentioned in Podcast:

LeeMaynard.com

The Pale Light of Sunset: Scattershots and Hallucinations in an Imagined Life

Chuck Kinder