From deep within The Downtown Writers Jam podcast bunker, we’ve been pressing forward with Season 4: The Pandemic Edition. I’m interviewing authors and writers who have projects coming out while we’re all locked inside.
And, you can listen to the podcast:
You can also purchase the books from these authors through my bookshop, which helps support independent stores across American.
But, I’m not just promoting new work. I also reached out to guests who’ve appeared on the program in the past to find out what they’ve been up to in the last few years. Take a few moments, click on their links, and see what they are up to these days!
Andrew Neylon (Episode 4)
Moved to Austin, TX to begin a Film MFA at UT. Currently studying film direction and editing a 10-15 minute narrative short film I shot during the winter. Short doc about electric scooter chargers I made.
Sarah Layden (Episode 7)
Has it really been 5+ years? Wow. Since the show, my debut novel, Trip Through You Wires, was released by Engine Books. My flash fiction chapbook, The Story I Tell Myself About Myself, won the 2017 Sonder Press Chapbook Competition and was released in 2018.
I’ve recently completed a full-length story collection and a new novel, and I’m in the process of submitting them to publishers. The stories have been in places like Blackbird, Boston Review, Stone Canoe, and other journals. And the novel is about three very different women whose lives disastrously intersect at a midwestern fertility clinic.
Newer work (also linked at my site):
- https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/seven-women-on-his-mind-the-take-it-easy-ladies-tell-all
- https://blackbird.vcu.edu/v18n2/fiction/layden-s/nothing-page.shtml
- http://www.bostonreview.net/fiction/sarah-layden-bad-enough-with-genghis-khan
- http://monkeybicycle.net/janet-jacksons-concert-pantsuit-nation-field-notes-dance-interpreter/
- https://themillions.com/2018/09/then-again-maybe-i-will-the-reads-i-kept-hidden-in-my-youth.html
- https://www.salon.com/2017/04/30/why-i-banned-the-handmaids-tale-and-why-we-need-it-more-than-ever/
- https://www.indystar.com/story/entertainment/2018/09/03/sarah-layden-crate-barrel-taste-cracker-barrel-budget/1023929002/
Les Kurkendaal-Barrett (Episode 17)
Got divorced, got married, wrote several new shows, and started 2 podcasts
Trisha Borowicz (Episode 27)
Well, I moved from Indianapolis to Des Moines for my day job. My movie, Science, Sex, and the Ladies was dubbed in Italian and plays on Italian TV now. Other than that I’m still writing my blog where I have since reviewed a ton of movies, TV, books and magazines on their depictions and discussions of female orgasm, female masturbation, the clit and cunnilingus.
I’ve written summaries and critiques of several scientific journal articles related to female orgasm, and I’ve written about a bunch of people and particularly artist out there fighting in various ways for orgasm equality. 🙂
Ellen Munds (Episode 28)
I am still the executive director of Storytelling Arts of Indiana. We are working on a new strategic plan in preparation of my retirement in 4 years. I am very proud of the story “Growing Up Black and White in America” told by Charlotte Blake Alston and Bill Mettler that we hosted in January 2020. I would like to host more stories that delve into racism, cultural differences and similarities and social issues.
K.T. Peterson (Episode 31)
I graduate from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop in May, I had a beautiful kiddo who makes my heart explode, I will present a workshop of RAZOR CREEK, a new musical I’ve been working on with Paige L. Scott, at the Iowa New Play Festival this May, and in August my new play LOVE BIRD will receive its world premiere at the Phoenix Theater in Indianapolis.
Julia Scheeres (Episode 38)
Gearing up to write my next book, a biography of Elsie Robinson, a popular Hearst columnist from the 30s. Finally my teaching schedule is clearing, so I can turn my full attention to it.
Lauren Gaskill (Episode 40)
I am writing my second book—30,000 words in!
Erik Deckers (Episode 41)
I’ve started my next novel, and am about 8 weeks away from my 25 year anniversary of publishing a newspaper humor column.
