Episodes

109: Show and Tell. Episode 47 revisited.
Aug. 18, 2021

109: Show and Tell. Episode 47 revisited.

For the month of August, 2021, we’re bringing back four of our listeners’ favorite episodes. Writing Class Radio brings you personal stories and tips on how to write your own stories.  In this episode, we examine the popular writing tenet, show DON’T tell. We believe just showing is not only impos…
108: How to Write Your Story with Joyce Maynard. Episode 30 revisited.
Aug. 11, 2021

108: How to Write Your Story with Joyce Maynard. Episode 30 revisited.

For the month of August, 2021, we’re bringing back four of our listeners’ favorite episodes. Writing Class Radio brings you personal stories and tips on how to write your own stories.  The format for this episode is a little different. Today we’re bringing you a guest teacher, because we think it’…
107: Can You Hear Me if I Can’t Hear You? Episode 29 Revisited
Aug. 4, 2021

107: Can You Hear Me if I Can’t Hear You? Episode 29 Revisited

For the month of August, 2021, we’re bringing back four of our listeners’ favorite episodes. Writing Class Radio brings you personal stories and tips on how to write your own stories.  Allison Langer loves the process of working out her shit and reading it out loud. In class, she can’t hide behind…
106: How Do You Know if Your Story Sucks?
July 28, 2021

106: How Do You Know if Your Story Sucks?

How to get a story published, even if the topic is written about often.
S E105: Teach Us Something We Don't Know
July 14, 2021

S E105: Teach Us Something We Don't Know

This episode is about teaching the reader/listener something they don’t know anything about. Teaching can be done in two ways. One, by taking the reader into a world foreign to most people and two, by relaying information that’s rarely discussed and possibly unknown to the average person. In the st…
Sleep Left Me for a Younger Woman
June 30, 2021

Sleep Left Me for a Younger Woman

This episode is about commitment. Not commitment to love, exactly, but commitment to a concept. Listener Lucie Frost writes a satirical essay where sleep is her lover. She never slips from the concept. Humor writing requires committing to an idea and pushing that idea as far as you can go. Lucie F…
Is it Ok to Write the Same Story Over and Over?
June 16, 2021

Is it Ok to Write the Same Story Over and Over?

On this episode, we bring you a story that the narrator has returned to and will probably return to all her life. Everyone has their themes and it’s okay to return to them at different points in our lives. Trigger warning… The story you will hear on this episode documents the loss of a child. If…
A Boyhood Brush With Breast Cancer
June 2, 2021

A Boyhood Brush With Breast Cancer

On this episode, we bring you a story that is not one you hear too often but addresses a very serious situation: breast cancer in men. Kevin Wood shares his essay, A Boyhood Brush with Breast Cancer. This essay was previously published on The Good Men Project. We sat on this story for a few years …
I Own Seven Vibrators and I Still Worry About What to Say at a Cocktail Party
May 19, 2021

I Own Seven Vibrators and I Still Worry About What to Say at a Cocktail Party

This episode is about writing like you speak, which is the best way to tell a true, authentic story. Andrea and Allison discuss why bringing your voice into a written essay makes the story so much better.  You will hear an essay by Anthea Rowan, a writer and listener from Tanzania, Africa. Anthe…
Happy F*ing Mother's Day
May 5, 2021

Happy F*ing Mother's Day

This episode features an extreme mother story by Diana Kupershmit who is honest and vulnerable. Diana tells the truth about a very tough decision she and her husband made when their daughter Emma was born with a severe disability. Diana reads her story and then Andrea and Allison discuss the brilli…
Why Did the Prison Series Get Canceled?
April 14, 2021

Why Did the Prison Series Get Canceled?

Welcome to Season 11. If you’re new to Writing Class Radio, season 11 was going to be a little different. We started a 10-part series inspired by the people Allison met teaching memoir writing in prison. But last week, Allison was fired by the organization she volunteered for and we were asked to t…
How to Hit Your Editors in the Heart
March 3, 2021

How to Hit Your Editors in the Heart

This episode is about secrets, a mom/daughter relationship, and donor-conception, a subject that hit both Andrea and Allison in the heart. When Amanda Serenyi’s friend gets pregnant using donor sperm, Amanda freaks out because she herself was donor-conceived and her mother kept this a secret until …
What Did it Take to Finally Get Published?
Feb. 17, 2021

What Did it Take to Finally Get Published?

Get out of your own way and submit your stories already.
Crafting a Story is Like Solving a Puzzle
Feb. 3, 2021

Crafting a Story is Like Solving a Puzzle

Crafting stories well requires both sides of the brain.
Brave Listener Gets Hard Edits
Jan. 20, 2021

Brave Listener Gets Hard Edits

Everyone needs an editor or two, so we asked you to send us your unfinished essays for some hard edits.
Taking the Long Road, Writing About Transformation
Jan. 6, 2021

Taking the Long Road, Writing About Transformation

This episode is about showing a narrator's transformation.
Bye Bye 2020
Dec. 23, 2020

Bye Bye 2020

Andrea and Allison say goodbye to 2020.
The Upside to a Downside
Dec. 2, 2020

The Upside to a Downside

On today’s episode you’ll hear a story that takes a bad situation and finds the good. We don’t love sappy happy endings, but honest happy endings are the best, especially when they bring joy to the world. Jamie Katz got married on her balcony during lockdown and was greeted with some pleasant surpr…
How Does a Man Get Away with Calling Women Bitches and Hoes in a Story?
Nov. 18, 2020

How Does a Man Get Away with Calling Women Bitches and Hoes in a Story?

This episode is about how home is love.
Should I Stay or Should I Leave This Country?
Nov. 9, 2020

Should I Stay or Should I Leave This Country?

Today’s episode is part of a series called Home. Writing Class Radio helped produce a documentary to help end homelessness for Chapman Partnership, a homeless center in South Florida. On this episode, you will hear a story by writer Tiffanie Drayton who takes an idea that most Americans hold about…
At Home in My Skin
Oct. 21, 2020

At Home in My Skin

This episode features a story about feeling at home in one's skin and shows the art of planting seeds.
Torn Between Two Houses Feeling Like a Fool
Oct. 7, 2020

Torn Between Two Houses Feeling Like a Fool

How to write a story when the end is murky.
What Does Your TV Habit Say About You?
Sept. 2, 2020

What Does Your TV Habit Say About You?

This episode is about story structure and all things done well in an essay. LiAnne Yu tells a story about watching TV with her Chinese immigrant parents. As a narrator she brings us into her world--dinners in front of the TV ...
Who's Your Voice of Reason?
Aug. 5, 2020

Who's Your Voice of Reason?

A good device is to use another character to offer a voice of reason.