Francesca Rheannon is an award-winning independent radio producer. In addition to hosting Writer's Voice, she's a freelance reporter for National Public Radio and its affiliates. Recipient of the prestigious Nancy Dickerson Whitehead Award for reporting on substance abuse issues for her news series, VOICES OF HIV, produced for 88.5 WFCR public radio in western Massachusetts. She is also finishing a book on Provence (PROVINCE OF THE HEART) and working on a memoir of her father, THE ARGONAUTS.
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Kermit Roosevelt talks about his novel Allegiance, a legal thriller that has the internal debate over the policy of internment of Japanese Americans at its core. Then we re-air our interview with Pamela Rotner Sakamoto about her book, Midnight in Broad Daylight. It’s the true story of a Japanese-American family sundered by World War II on both sides of the Pacific. One side suffered internment. The other side of the family were there when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Continue reading →
If you love Writers Voice, please go to iTunes or your podcast provider and give us a favorable rating. That way, you can spread the love around!Continue reading →
Charlotte Rogan talks about her new novel, Now And Again. It’s about an ordinary woman who becomes inspired to take on the fight against the social ills she sees around her — and what that means for the people she loves.
Mary Costello talks about her wonderful debut novel, Academy Street. Then, in light of the Supreme Court decision June 27 declaring Texas’s restrictive law on abortion clinics unconstitutional, we re-air our 2015 interview with Katha Pollitt about her book, Pro. Continue reading →
Then we re-air our 2015 interview with urban philosopher David Kishik about his book, The Manhattan Project. It imagines what Walter Benjamin might have written about New York, had he survived World War II. Continue reading →
Then we re-air the 2012 interview Zacks gave Writers Voice in 2012 about his book Island of Vice. It’s about Teddy Roosevelt’s stint as New York City’s crusading anti-vice Police Commissioner. Continue reading →
For John Muir Laws paying attention is an act of love — love for the plants, animals and insects with whom we share our beautiful and terribly endangered home. Perhaps — no, surely — if we all paid the kind of attention that Laws does to the world that sustains us, we would be incapable of inflicting the monstrous harm on it that we do.
The instrument of his love is his nature journal. John Muir Laws has been keeping nature journals since he was a child roaming the California wilderness. His first published book is an illustrated guide to part of that wilderness, Â The Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada. He went on to write more books — guides to birds, guides to drawing birds, and now The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling.
It’s filled with stunning drawings and practical exercises for developing your eye, hand and mind for a deeper understanding of the natural world — whether that be in a spectacular national park or just in your own backyard. But the book is also more than a guide to drawing, it’s a guide to living with more attention, appreciation and love for what surrounds us.
Corinne Smith
As the spring ripens and the days grow warmer, families turn their thoughts to outdoor adventures. Research shows that bringing kids into nature creates a lifelong sense of wonder — the foundation of learning.
What better way to do that than to involve kids in hands-on activities that foster their inner naturalist. Combine that with a lively biography of America’s most famous nature lover, Henry David Thoreau, and you have a book that delights and instructs in nature and history at the same time.
That’s just what Corinne Smith has done with her book Henry David Thoreau For Kids. Whether it’s building a model of Thoreau’s cabin, planting a garden, keeping a journal or creating a sound map of a forest, the 21 activities in the book bring Thoreau and his ideas to life in a vivid an engaging way.
Corinne Smith is a writer, speaker and outdoor educator. Henry David Thoreau For Kids is her second book about the great American thinker. Her first was Westward I Go Free: Tracing Thoreau’s Last Journey.
Then, there is one way to make sure your voting machines aren’t being hacked and it’s being used by one county in New York State. We talk with Board of Elections Commissioner Virginia Martin. She’ll tell us how and why they hand count the vote in her county. Continue reading →
Then — with massive voter purges and hackable voting machines, are American elections really clean and fair? We hear a clip from a recent speech from election integrity expert Robert Fitrakis. He’s got a new book out, co-authored with Harvey Wasserman — The Strip And Flip Selection of 2016. Continue reading →
George Hodgeman talks about his wonderful memoir of taking care of his mother in her declining years, Bettyville, first published in 2015 and now out in paperback. Then we re-air our 2011 interview with Dr. Allan Teel about his innovative approach to caring for seniors, called Full Circle. His book is Alone and Invisible No More. Continue reading →
Novelist Jennifer Haigh talks about her powerful new book, Heat and Light. It’s about what happens to a small Pennsylvania community when the frackers come to town.
Peter Blood and Annie Patterson, co-creators of Rise Up Singing, talk about the sequel, Rise Again (Hal Leonard Publishing June, 2015). We talk with them about both songbooks, their work with Pete Seeger and their long collaboration as a musical couple.
Then we talk with journalist and anti-fracking activist, Maura Stephens. Continue reading →
Can we get real democracy in the US? We talk with political scientist Patrick Barrett about his article, “Can We Change the Political System? Strategic Lessons of the Bernie Sanders Campaign”.
Then we re-air our 2008 interview with muckraking reporter Greg Palast about his book Steal Back Your Vote. We talk about how voters were disenfranchised by voter purging and other voter suppression methods in past elections — and what voters can do about it.Continue reading →
The following is an excerpt from 
The instrument of his love is his nature journal. John Muir Laws has been keeping nature journals since he was a child roaming the California wilderness. His first published book is an illustrated guide to part of that wilderness, 
What better way to do that than to involve kids in hands-on activities that foster their inner naturalist. Combine that with a lively biography of America’s most famous nature lover, Henry David Thoreau, and you have a book that delights and instructs in nature and history at the same time.
