Lecturers Belinda Kremer and Miriam Bird Greenberg read and discuss their poetry and their revision process.
Work they read: Greenberg opens with “Would You Believe,” from her award-winning collection In the Volcano’s Mouth, a vivid poem set near the Cypress Freeway collapse following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, shaped by her years hitchhiking and train-hopping across the U.S. She closes with “After I Die,” a haunting, folkloric meditation on rebirth, violence, and survival. Through her readings, Greenberg discusses how she learned...
College Writing Programs Lecturers Bridgette Portman and Michal Reznizki discuss their writing projects and processes.
Work they read: In this episode of Berkeley Writers at Work, College Writing Programs lecturers Bridgette Dutta Portman and Michal Reznizki read from their recently published works and discuss the intersections between creativity, pedagogy, and parenthood.
Portman, a playwright and novelist, shares an excerpt from The Twin Stars...
College Writing Programs Lecturers Carmen Acevedo Butcher and Kaya Oakes discuss their recent books and teaching writing.
Work they read: In this reflective episode of Berkeley Writers at Work, journalist and creative nonfiction author Kaya Oakes joins poet and translator Carmen Acevedo Butcher for an intimate conversation on the intersections of writing, teaching, faith, and kindness. Oakes, author of The Defiant Middle and Radical Reinvention, and Acevedo Butcher, acclaimed...
College Writing Programs Lecturer John Fielding interviews Judy Juanita about her writing projects and processes.
Work they read: In this episode of Berkeley Writers at Work, Judy Juanita—award-winning essayist, poet, playwright, journalist, and novelist—joins John Fielding for a wide-ranging conversation about the writing life. The discussion begins with Juanita reading her title poem, “Manhattan My Ass, You’re in Oakland” (winner of the 2021 American Book Award), a...
Lecturers Kaya Oakes and Mike Larkin talk about the challenges of writing and teaching writing.
Work they read: In this episode of Berkeley Writers at Work, longtime colleagues and friends Mike Larkin and Kaya Oakes reflect on their shared decades of writing and teaching in UC Berkeley’s College Writing Programs. Their conversation moves fluidly between craft and classroom, exploring the joys and challenges of sustaining a creative life alongside a teaching career.
College Writing Programs Lecturer Michelle Baptiste interviews College Writing Programs Director Maggie Sokolik about flash fiction, and they also discuss their reading interests.
Work they read: In this episode of Berkeley Writers at Work, College Writing Programs Director Maggie Sokolik joins Lecturer Michelle Baptiste for a conversation about creativity, travel, and the rhythms of daily writing. The episode opens with Sokolik reading her flash fiction piece ...
College Writing Programs Lecturers Joe De Quattro and Matthew J. Parker discuss their writing projects and processes.
Work they read: In this episode of Berkeley Writers at Work, author and lecturer Matthew J. Parker joins Joe De Quattro to discuss the intersections of art, empathy, and survival. Parker reads from his essay “Sonic Footprints Down Highway 61”—a reflection on Bob Dylan’s 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue tour and the literary echoes of Dylan’s Nobel Prize in Literature....
College Writing Programs Lecturer Tehmina Khan is interviewed by colleague Michelle Baptiste about her poetry and her teaching.
Work they read: In this episode of Berkeley Writers at Work, continuing lecturer Michelle Baptiste sits down with poet, translator, and multilingual lecturer Tehmina Khan for an intimate conversation about language, heritage, and creative expression. The episode begins with Khan reading her poem “In Memory of Al-Mutanabbi Street, Baghdad,” an elegy for the booksellers and poets lost in a 2007...
College Writing Programs Lecturers Ryan Sloan and Kim Freeman discuss their writing projects and processes.
Work they read: In this lively episode of Berkeley Writers at Work, College Writing Programs lecturers Kim Freeman and Ryan Sloan share their original works of flash fiction and discuss how creative writing informs—and is informed by—their teaching. Freeman reads “How to Break Up at the Musée d’Orsay,” a richly detailed story set in Paris that captures heartbreak through art...
