Work in Progress

About Work in Progress

A podcast about creative writing with three creative writing friends who record in diners, sometimes with guests, always with gravy fries.

Publisher

Michael Klein, Stacie Murphy, Lori Sullivan

Category

arts · fiction

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

24 Dec 2024

Latest episode

2 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

23 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   2 Oct 2026

   Making Our Writing Better

   The gang got together to talk about what aspects of our writing we have confidence in, and where we think we can improve. Chapter endings, dialogue, dialogue tags, multi-layered plots, time travel, and more came up for discussion. All that, plus Wile E. Coyote. Work discussed in this episode include: "The Lighthouse at the End of the World" by Philip Suggars "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo "The City and Its Uncertain Walls" by Haruki Murakami "Lincoln in the Bardo" and "Victory Lap" by George Saunders "Exit Party" by Emily St. John Mandel Jim Butcher (but not "The Dresden Files" for this particular example) "Coyote Vs. Acme"

2. 

   4 Sept 2026

   Feeling Our Feelings

   The gang has had curveballs thrown at them, been hit by pitches, sacked, fouled, slashed, and other sports analogies. We brought our big feelings to the Carnegie Diner to talk about them and what our plans were going forward. We talked writer relationships, changing course on a project, and the joy of finding the perfect words that keeps us going.

3. 

   7 Aug 2026

   Poetry

   The gang sits down with AWG poets Ashwin Verghese and Ron Giegle who do a great job of making poetry accessible. They talk form, their personal approaches to reading and writing poetry, what makes a poem "break containment," and more. They analyze poems selected in advance and then Ashwin and Ron recite poems of their own. Here's what we talked about: The Poetry Foundation (https://www.poetryfoundation.org) "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks "Good Bones" by Maggie Smith "Introduction to Poetry" by Billy Collins "Ars Poetica" by Archibald Macleish And here's the link to the performance of "The Stranger's Case" the gang discussed...they got 2 details right (it was Ian McKellen on Stephen Colbert) and everything else wrong...but it's defiitely worth a watch.

Who has been a guest on Work in Progress

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Max Paradise
• Catherine Puma
• Stacie Williams
• Jessica Link

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

79,630

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

2 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 44 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

55

Social presence

0

YouTube

85

Engagement

0

Contact Work in Progress

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

Questions about Work in Progress