Golden State Writers

Our guest this morning is none other than Ellen O'Connell Whittet. Her memoir What You Become in Flight is coming out with Melville House Press distributed by Penguin Random House on April 14th. She’s written for the Paris Review, New York City Ballet, and Buzzfeed and is the winner of Prairie Schooners Virginia Faulkner Award. On top of having a knack for nonfiction and journalism, Whittet is also a lecturer within the writing program at the University of California Santa Barbara. She shares her love for self-expression by drawing on her past as a ballerina and how a severe injury drove her to become a writer. She finds joy in Big Sur and Los Angeles and grew up along the Santa Barbara coast. A journey of self-discovery and catharsis, Whittet recognizes the power of word.

Our guest today is Bob Krut. Krut is the author of three collections of poetry. His most recent, The Now Dark Sky, Setting Us All On Fire, was the winner of the Codhill Poetry award and This is the Ocean, from 2013, received the Melissa Lanitis Gregory Poetry Award. He's a connoisseur of the different neighborhoods in Los Angeles, and he's keen to the power of a good, old-fashioned California road trip. If you're seeking guidance on how to tap the vein of the writer's consciousness, look no further than the mind and poetry of Bob Krut.

Golden State Writers is a podcast that celebrates the literature of California by sitting down with some of it's most eclectic contemporaries. This being our very first episode, we thought you might like to get to know us, your hosts. Grace Holtzclaw, a UCSB Writing and Literature student and resident of the San Fernando Valley, and Kara Mae Brown, Professor and Mastermind behind UCSB's College of Creative Studies Writing Program, sit down to introduce themselves by interviewing each other. They ask the question of what effect California has on the writer's state of mind and discover the answer through a series of interviews with it's local artists.

Today we sat down with rising Macmillan author Via Bleidner to discuss her experience growing up in the San Fernando Valley and her progression into writing.