The English Suite podcast

Ken Pobo’s been writing for more than 50 years. What keeps him going and how has his work grown and stayed vital? Ken shares poems from his latest chapbooks Lavender Fire, Lavender Rose (Brickhouse Books) and Gold Bracelet in a Cave: Aunt Stokesia (Ethel) and gives advice for budding poets on how to discover your voice and find a community of supportive writers.

Widener students, alumni, and faculty read creative writing by themselves and others. The event was held on Zoom in October 2022.

Author Asali Solomon reads from her novel, The Days of Afrekete, which the New York Times calls "a feat of engineering...a reverie, a riff on Mrs. Dalloway and a love story...in prose as clear as water." Solomon was visiting writer at Widener University in October 2022. For more information, see https://www.asalisolomon.com/

Join us for a conversation with Professors Jayne Thompson and Andrea Zittlau, who talk about their work on collaborative community writing workshops and publishing projects in schools and prisons.

We celebrate National Poetry Month by sharing some original poetry and favorite poems, presented by members of the Widener University community.

Is the English major worth it? Are any of the myths about studying English and Creative Writing true? Widener undergraduate student Gabby Norris hosts. We hear stories and insights from alumnae Taylor Blum and Josh Schneider, current student Ashley Serrano, and professor Christine Woody.

Jim Esch and Shpresa Ymeraj talk with Rob Reutter, director of the Lone Brick Theatre Company, about the history of the company and their cutting edge performances in and around the Widener University community. Lone Brick's newest production is Metamorphoses by Mary Zimmerman. It runs March 26, 27, 29, 30 and April 1, 2 at 8:00 pm in Lathem Hall on the Widener campus. Tickets are $12 and seating is limited. Tickets are available HERE. You can follow Lone Brick Theatre on Facebook.

Sherrie Flick was the Widener University visiting writer in October 2021. She held a virtual reading by Zoom. In this episode, hosted by Gabby Norris with an introduction by Shpresa Ymeraj, you will hear excerpts from Sherrie Flick's short fiction, as well as her responses to questions from the audience. Sherrie Flick is the author of the novel Reconsidering Happiness (University of Nebraska Press), the flash fiction chapbook I Call This Flirting (Flume Press), and two short story collections with Autumn House Press: Whiskey, Etc. (2016) and Thank Your Lucky Stars (Fall 2018). Her nonfiction has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Creative Nonfiction, Pittsburgh Quarterly, and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. You can follow her at sherrieflick.com.

Poet, editor, and critic Luiza Flynn-Goodlet talks with the editors of The Q&A Queer Zine about the challenges and opportunities involved when building an LGBTQ+ magazine from the ground up. Luiza is the editor-in-chief of Foglifter: a San Francisco Bay Area magazine by and for LGBTQ+ writers and readers.

In this episode Jim Esch chats with Jillian Benedict about the impact Covid19 had on her writing life, her launching of an Instagram account to feature her short-form writing "doodles," long-form fiction projects, and the progress she is making during Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month). Jill shares a selection of her flash fiction. You can follow her Instagram account @writerwithtoutacause. Her recently published short story "Problem Visit" can be found at Feels Blind Literary.

Jim interviews members of Smart Barker: Mark Graybill and Dan Robinson, a band with numerous ties to Widener University. They talk about their newest album All the Rivers in Hades (released for streaming in October 2021).

We talk about Romantic period magazine culture with Dr. Christine Woody and Widener students Jattu Fahnbulleh, Cloë Di Flumeri, Stefan Cozza, and Seth Glickman. Together, they worked on a textual scholarship project about the 19th century periodical Blackwood's Edinburgh magazine and its running series Noctes Ambrosianae. We discover some striking parallels between magazine culture then and modern-day digital publishing. To learn more about textual scholarship courses at Widener, you can contact Dr. Woody at cmwoody@widener.edu.

Jim Esch talks with Dr. Annalisa Castaldo about the canon and the presence (and absence) of women writers in it. Why have women been underrepresented in the canon? What kinds of writing and authors are being discovered and appreciated today? How has the canon changed for the better in the last 30 years? For show notes and links, check out englishsuitepodcast.blogspot.com.

Matthew Lomas (class of 2021) asks some Widener alumni about their post-grad writing experiences.

We recap a busy month of April for Widener English and Creative Writing. The episode also features original poems by Jessica Guzman, Courtney Bambrick, Jayne Thompson, Ken Pobo, and Jim Esch.

Hear how Widener's undergraduate literary print journal came back from the dead after Covid19 shut it down, thanks to the efforts of advisor Dr. Jessica Guzman, Editor-in-Chief Ciana Bowers, technical advisor Jeannine Mcknight, and the Widener Ink staff. You'll also hear some of the creative work published in the magazine, read by students Ciana Bowers, Luke Curran, Naquawna Letman, Gabby Norris, and Aimee Schwartz.

Shpresa Ymeraj interviews Dr. Rebecca Morgan Frank about her experiences in the publishing world as editor-in-chief of Memorious: A Journal of New Verse and Fiction. Rebecca also discusses her writing career and shares a poem from her latest book Oh You Robot Saints! (published by Carnegie Mellon UP). For more info, check out https://rebeccamorganfrank.com/

Widener University English professor Mark Graybill discusses the literary allure of baseball, reads baseball-themed literature by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gary Soto, and Don DeLillo, and shares his prognostications about the upcoming 2021 MLB season.

Host Jim Esch talks with Widener English major Emma Irving. In three short years since graduating, Emma is already blazing a trail in publishing, creative writing, and literary community-building. A coordinator of workshops for the Widener Writers group on Facebook, Emma's creative writing (featured on this podcast) appears in the inaugural issue of Millennial Pulp Literary Magazine. For more information, see https://www.millennialpulp.com

Undergraduate students Cloë di Flumeri and Christina Giska talk with Dr. Stephanie Schechner, Professor of French at Widener University, about her translation of Camille in October by Mireille Best, published by Seagull Books & distributed by University of Chicago Press. For more information, see https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/C/bo46675959.html