Conversations with working writers on the craft of writing, the writer’s life, and the broader writing community, recorded at the Writers Grotto in San Francisco, California.
GrottoPod
Claim This Podcastby The Writers Grotto
4.8(51 reviews)
155 episodes
Updated Bi-weekly
Accepts GuestsHas SponsorsLocation 🇺🇸
52
Podcast Authority
BetaFairBased on show quality, social media presence, reviews, charts, and more
Quality71
Social0
YouTube0
Engagement82
Podcast Overview
Conversations with working writers on the craft of writing, the writer’s life, and the broader writing community, recorded at the Writers Grotto in San Francisco, California.
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
2/7/2017
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52
Podcast Authority
BetaFairBased on show quality, social media presence, reviews, charts, and more
Quality71
Social0
YouTube0
Engagement82
7
Excellent Areas
1
Good Performance
11
Growth Opportunities
excellent
Episode Length
39 minutes
Performing excellently!
good
iTunes Tags
6.5/10
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needs improvement
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Every 19 days
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Recent Episodes
April 19, 2025
"You're going to the bookstore, aren't you?" with Lewis Buzbee
Lewis Buzbee, Doug Henderson and T. K. Rex discuss the craft of books, and why we still love bookstores, even after (especially after) working at them.Lewis Buzbee’s most recent novel is Diver. He is also the author of The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop, Blackboard, After the Gold Rush, Fliegelman’s Desire, as well as three award-winning books for younger readers, Steinbeck’s Ghost, The Haunting of Charles Dickens, and Bridge of Time. His essays, poems, stories, and interviews have appeared in Lit Hub, Lit Stack, GQ, The New York Times Book Review, Paris Review, ZYZZYVA, Black Warrior Review, Best American Poetry, and elsewhere. A former bookseller and publisher, he’s taught writing in the San Francisco Bay Area for a long time now.Other stuff we talked about in the episode:* Nadine Gordimer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadine_Gordimer)* Dog Eared Books in San Francisco, California (https://www.dogearedbooks.com/)* Green Apple Books in San Francisco, California (https://greenapplebooks.com/)* Monterey Bay Aquarium (https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/)* Grotto Nights at the Library, May 27 (the panel that Doug and T. K. are going to be on in May at the San Francisco Public Library Main Branch, 6pm) (https://sfpl.org/events/2025/05/27/presentation-grotto-nights-library)* Bookshop.org (https://bookshop.org/)
March 18, 2025
Don't Go Alone: Creating Space with Shingai Njeri Kagunda
Shingai Njeri Kagunda (https://www.instagram.com/shingai_be_like/), T. K. Rex (https://www.tkrex.wtf/) and Doug Henderson (https://www.doughendersonauthor.com/) discuss editing fiction publications, the triumphant return of Fantasy Magazine, and creating space for underrepresented writers.Shingai Njeri Kagunda (they/she) is an Afrosurreal/futurist storyteller from Nairobi, Kenya with a Literary Arts MFA from Brown. Shingai’s work has been featured in The Best American Sci-fi and Fantasy 2020 and 2023 editions, Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction in 2021, and Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror 2020. They have work in Omenana, Fantasy Magazine, FracturedLit, Khoreo, Baffling Magazine, Lightspeed, Psychopomp, Frivolous Comma and several anthologies including Africa Risen, Will This Be A Problem, and Afro-Centered Futurisms in Our Speculative Fiction. Their debut novella, & This is How to Stay Alive, won the Ignyte Award for best novella in 2022. Their short story "Air to Shape Lungs", was chosen in 2023 for the Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy list and anthology. Their essay "Black Futurisms vs. Systems of Domination" was nominated for the 2025 British Science Fiction Association award, and their newly released novelette, We Who Will Not Die, was named Locus Recommended Reading. Shingai is the co-founder of Voodoonauts Summer Writing Workshop, a creative writing teacher, an eternal student, and a lover of all things soft and Black.Other stuff we talked about in the episode:* Fantasy Magazine (https://psychopomp.com/fantasy-magazine-announcement/)* Podcastle (https://podcastle.org/)* Voodoonauts Afrofuturist collective & workshop (https://www.voodoonauts.com/)* & This Is How To Stay Alive (https://www.neonhemlock.com/books/-this-is-how-to-stay-alive)* Ignyte Awards (https://ignyteawards.fiyahlitmag.com/) - centering the contributions and experiences of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) in Speculative Fiction* FIYAH Magazine (https://fiyahlitmag.com/) - speculative fiction by and about Black people of the African Diaspora* Let the Star Explode (https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/let-the-star-explode/) - short story by Shingai Njeri Kagunda* Hi From Shelling Point (https://www.utopiasciencefiction.com/product-page/october-november-2023-issue) - story story by T. K. Rex, in Utopia Magazine* Arley Sorg (https://arleysorg.com) - Co-Editor of Fantasy Magazine* Rooted & Written, BIPOC conference at the Writers Grotto (https://rooted-written.org/)* The Nebula Awards (https://nebulas.sfwa.org/)* British Fantasy Awards (https://britishfantasysociety.org/about-the-bfs/the-british-fantasy-awards/)* #PublishingPaidMe (https://www.vox.com/culture/2020/6/17/21285316/publishing-paid-me-diversity-black-authors-systemic-bias) - link to the Vox explainer* Yvette Lisa Ndlovu (https://www.yvettelisandlovu.com/)* Sheree Renée Thomas (https://www.shereereneethomas.com/)* Suyi Davies Okungbowa (https://suyidavies.com/)* Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (https://www.nanakwameadjei-brenyah.com/)* Just Keep Writing podcast (https://www.justkeepwriting.org/)* Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center - a 1984 book about feminist theory by bell hooks (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminist_Theory:_From_Margin_to_Center)
February 15, 2025
Despair is a Luxury
Nina Schuyler (https://ninaschuyler.com/), Susan Kaye Quinn (https://susankayequinn.com/), Doug Henderson (https://www.doughendersonauthor.com/) and T. K. Rex (https://www.tkrex.wtf/) discuss writing climate fiction and one central theme: hope. How to have it, how to write it, and why it’s more important than ever.Nina Schuyler’s short story collection, In This Ravishing World, won the W.S. Porter Prize and the Prism Prize for Climate Literature and was published in July 2024. Her novel, Afterword, won the 2024 PenCraft Book of the Year in Fiction, the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award for Science Fiction and Literary, and the PenCraft Spring Seasonal Book Award for Literary and Science Fiction. Her novel, The Translator, was shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing and won the Next Generation Indie Book Award for General Fiction. Her novel, The Painting, was shortlisted for the Northern California Book Award. Her books, How to Write Stunning Sentences and Stunning Sentences: A Creative Writing Journal are bestsellers. Her short stories have been published by Zyzzyva, Chicago Quarterly Review, Fugue, Nashville Review, and elsewhere, and have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. She teaches creative writing for Stanford Continuing Studies, The Writing Salon, and Book Passage. Susan Kaye Quinn is an environmental engineer turned author, writing and publishing speculative fiction since 2011. Lately, she writes hopeful climate fiction, trying to change the narratives that are destroying the world. You can find her short fiction in Reckoning, Solarpunk Magazine, and Grist's recently released Metamorphosis collection of solarpunk stories. All her short fiction and novels are on her website, https://susankayequinn.com/ (https://susankayequinn.com/). She's the host of the Bright Green Futures podcast, stories to build a better world: https://brightgreenfutures.substack.com/ (https://brightgreenfutures.substack.com/)Other stuff we talked about in the episode:* The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth by Zoë Schlanger* Songs of the Humpback Whale (https://youtu.be/sjkxUA041nM?si=Ww-_C-2Gj82ygHzY)* Sounds of Nature by Karen Bakker* How to be Animal by Melanie Challenger* Glide Memorial (https://www.glide.org/volunteer/) volunteer program* The Great Derangement by Amitav Gosht* The Hopepunk Panel (https://youtu.be/4_3fD4XU4P4?si=U6pbc2ZlO4EQEWl6) at Watertown Public Library* Object oriented ontology (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-oriented_ontology)* The Overstory by Richard Powers* "Mazes" short story by Ursula LeGuin (https://communitydemocracyproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Mazes.pdf)* Metamorphosis: Climate Fiction for a Better Future* The Great Mississippi Tea Company (https://www.greatmsteacompany.com/)*
155 total episodes available
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Frequently asked questions
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This podcast updates bi-weekly.
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This podcast is available on 8 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.
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