Episodes

March 4, 2020

How to Write About Death: Use an Obsession

Writing about an obsession is a creative and interesting way to write about death.
Feb. 5, 2020

Writing Helps You Figure Out How You Think

Today on our show, we’re talking about how writing helps you figure out how you think. And helps you see yourself, specifically your failures more clearly because it’s hard to ignore a pattern when you see it in writing. We…
Jan. 8, 2020

Gotta Be a Good Literary Citizen if You Wanna Get Published

Being a good literary citizen means helping other writers and promoting their work.
Dec. 4, 2019

Abortion Stories Matter

On this episode, you’ll hear two stories about abortion, because we believe abortion stories must be told to keep abortions safe, legal, and accessible. If all women who had abortions told their stories, abortion would not b…
Nov. 6, 2019

How to Go From Idea to Published Essay to Book Deal

Ariel Henley suffers from crouzon syndrome, a rare disease that affects her appearance. Her writing shares her experience and emotional growth. A Face Like Picasso is the book, There’s a Mathematical Equation that Proves I’m…
Oct. 2, 2019

Think Like a Writer with Dani Shapiro

This episode is about how to think like a writer, which means, how to figure out what your story is about, how to understand your themes, and how to respect other people's privacy.
Aug. 28, 2019

How to Write When Shit Gets Real

Three weeks ago, Allison was diagnosed with Stage 3 ovarian cancer. In this emotional episode, we share the stories we wrote about this situation. We are treating this episode as if we’re in writing class by sharing our own …
Aug. 14, 2019

Create Scenes So People Remember

A suicide bomber in Afghanistan, with children around him, headed straight towards our base. This is the picture painted by listener Michael Howell in his essay, How Are You Really? We read Michael's essay and discuss what g…
July 31, 2019

What’s Inside Your Container?

A visit to the hair salon provides a container for a story about mental health. A container is a method to tell your entire story while contained in a place or period of time. This story is told while sitting in the stylists…
July 17, 2019

How to Write About the Unbelievable

To be reliable when describing the unbelievable we must express doubt, we must focus on details and we must convince our reader that we believe. Pat Martin achieves all these things in the story that she shares on today's sh…
July 3, 2019

How to Write Your Story While You're Still Living It

Today on our show, we’re talking about how to end a story when the situation is ongoing. You’ll hear an essay by the Brazilian born Miami writer, Camile Flosi Araujo. Camile brings us into her world, which changed dramatical…
June 19, 2019

What's a Meta Phor?

Hear how to make a metaphor work in your essay
June 5, 2019

Ready, Set, Go Get Into College

Today on our show we’re talking about perseverance, a quality important if you want to be a writer, a runner, or someone successful at crafting the dreaded college essay. What makes your essay stand out to publishers and to …
May 22, 2019

How to Brag and Pull it Off.

Here's how to brag on your college admissions common app essay or any personal essay.
May 8, 2019

Slow Down. You Don’t Want to Miss this Moment.

This episode is about expanding a moment in your story. How and when to slow down and give specific details.
April 24, 2019

Inspiration Sometimes Comes in the Form of a Dress

In class, sometimes we ask people to close their eyes and smell sunblock, or freshly baked bread. Sometimes we play a Beatles song or have students squeeze Play-Doh. Sometimes we throw out a word like pussy. Then, we ask stu…
April 10, 2019

How to Pitch to Publications

How to write the perfect pitch and get published.
March 27, 2019

The Devil's in the Details

Details matter. To help create specific details in your story, ask yourself: Like what?
March 13, 2019

How to Stop Procrastinating and Write Your Story

On this episode, we talk about procrastination. We also talk about speaking directly to the reader from a place of experience. And giving advice, which is really hard in a story and in life. If you're willing to be vulnerabl…
Feb. 27, 2019

If You Want to Write About Death and Get Published, Write the Truth

In this episode we’re talking about writing about death. We have a story by Leslie Gray Streeter, a columnist for the Palm Beach Post who also contributes to Modern Loss,    the online magazine dedicated to normalizing the w…
Jan. 30, 2019

A Time I Had an Unpopular Opinion

In this episode we air the winner of our fall writing contest--Jen Antill. The prompt: A Time I Had an Unpopular Opinion reaped a story about a woman who is pregnant at 24, but doesn’t want to be. It turns out, she never wan…
Jan. 23, 2019

Everyone Needs an Editor/Friend

This is the final episode of the Andrea Show. For the last seven weeks, we brought you a story written and read by Writing Class Radio co-host, Andrea Askowitz, with commentary by her editor, co-host, Allison Langer. Andrea …
Jan. 16, 2019

What's Your Achilles Heel?

For the next two weeks, we will bring you a story written and read by Writing Class Radio co-host, Andrea Askowitz, with commentary by her editor, co-host, Allison Langer. Andrea took a weekly essay challenge, which was insp…
Jan. 9, 2019

Write About Me!

For the next three weeks, we will bring you a story written and read by Writing Class Radio co-host, Andrea Askowitz, with commentary by her editor, co-host, Allison Langer. Andrea took a weekly essay challenge, which was in…