Josh Parkinson reads a short story he wrote in high school. This absolute banger involves a fly, a car crash, and a response from the local authorities that you won’t see coming. Is it worth an hour of your time? We think so. It did win 3rd place in 1991.

On this episode, we are joined by Gina Welch, award winning Castle Rock screenwriter.

On this episode we have Ada Zhang in the studio with us to share an early piece of work and discuss her journey to become a writer.

Lila Byock stops by the studio to talk about her time writing for the acclaimed series Watchmen and her current projects.

Bret Anthony Johnston joins us in the studio to talk about his new book We Burn Daylight, his time as a graduate student at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and what he’s working on now.

Melissa Mogollon stops by the studio to talk about her debut novel Oyé, her time as a graduate student at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and what she’s working on now. For her piece from the past, Mel shares a list she wrote during her time as a graduate student at the Workshop!

"I mean this book took me more than 10 years -- I started it while I was at Iowa!"

"There was a term that I heard somewhere used, just the other day, and she said "I'm in my gathering phase." Have you guys heard that? Is that a term of art over here?"

In today's podcast, poet and translator Dan Beachy-Quick talks with us about his early writing days, and his current Greek translations.

"My godmother gave me stationary -- it was jungle themed stationary that had my name, it was customized -- and I would write stories and send them to publishers."

In today's podcast, novelist Rachel Yoder discusses her wild experience adapting Nightbitch to a soon-to-be-released feature film starring Amy Adams.

In part two of today's podcast, novelist and screenwriter Vinnie Wilhelm shares a section from a novel he wrote in high school, entitled "SPAM."