In Conversation

(First aired: January 15, 2023) Poets Sheila Bender and Joanne Clarkson discuss how their writing of poetry helps them and their readers cope with loss, with Clarkson reading from her 2022 book, Hospice House and Shelia Bender from her 2022 book Since Then. Hosted by Phil Andrus on Cats in Our Laps.

(First airdate: July 7, 2020) Sheila Bender and Charlie Fleishman talk about their years together hosting, editing and producing In Conversation.

(First airdate: June 23, 2020) Sheila Bender talks to Eugene, Oregon writer Richard Weeks about the value of his writing group and his memoir collections that include stories from several decades of his life.

(First airdate: June 9, 2020) Sheila Bender connects via phone with Portland poet Peg Edera about love as a spiritual path and her collection, Love Is Deeper Than Distance: Poems of Love, Death, a Little Sex, ALS, Dementia and the Widow’s Life Thereafter.

(First airdate: May 26, 2020) Port Townsend poet Gerry McFarland comes to the KPTZ studio to talk about his writing poetry, serving on a literary magazine board, and putting together his first full-length collection, The Making.

(First airdate: May 12, 2020) Portland author Philip Kenney visits Sheila Bender via phone to discuss how spirituality informs creativity and creativity informs spirituality.

(First airdate: April 28, 2020) Sheila Bender speaks with Bellingham author Brenda Miller about the third edition of her seminal co-authored work Tell It Slant and about writing the lyric essay.

(First airdate: April 14, 2020) Sheila Bender talks to Seattle-area author William Kenower about his work inspiring writers to sit down and write despite their fears.

(First airdate: March 31, 2020) Sheila interviews Los Angeles novelist Robin Page via phone to discuss her novel Small Silent Things, the story of a woman of color transplanted from the Midwest to Los Angeles and her friendship with Simon, a survivor of Rwandan genocide.

(First airdate: March 17, 2020) Sheila Bender speaks via phone with Everett, Washington writer Sue Pace about her fiction writing and her published collection, Driving Sharon Crazy, about to be produced for Audible.com.

(First airdate: March 3, 2020) Sheila speaks with Massachusetts debut novelist Mindy Pollack-Fusi about her semi-autobiographical novel The Narcissist’s Daughter: a Meshugenah Love Story.

(First airdate: February 18, 2020) Host Sheila Bender speaks with Port Townsend poet Joanne Clarkson in the KPTZ studio, and discusses how her poetry, in her words, “invokes the beauty of many things.”

(First airdate: February 4, 2020) Sheila welcomes Port Townsend actor and playwright Susan Solley to the studio to talk about creating and writing her KPTZ soap opera, The Port Ludlow Project.

(First airdate: January 21, 2020) Sheila talks with Port Angeles poet Tess Gallagher about her career in poetry and her poems, her early days learning from famous poets, and the ways she collaborates with and encourages other artists. Her newest book Is, Is Not received a 2020 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award.

(First airdate: January 7, 2019) Sheila speaks in studio with Virginia Thompson about her long-term book series Family Math, its inception, and its success.

(First airdate: December 24, 2019) Host Sheila Bender speaks via phone with Christina Baldwin about her career—from teaching and writing about journalism, to work on the power of circles, to her new work of novel writing.

(First airdate: December 10, 2019) Sheila Bender talks via phone with Anderson Island poet Dianne Avey about her recent chapbook, a memoir in poems, and about her work as director of the Anderson Island Writers’ Retreat.

(First airdate: November 26, 2019) Sheila Bender talks to Toni Kennedy about her memoir, “Far from Home,” in which she explores the family life and personal attributes that led her to become a nun and then leave the order 25 years later for secular life.

(First airdate: November 3, 2019) In Conversation host Sheila Bender connects via phone with Lynda Monk, Director of the International Association for Journal Writing, about her goals for the organization and how journaling helps people heal and transform their lives.

(First airdate: October 15, 2019) Host Sheila Bender visits via phone with Oregon author Molly Tinsley to learn about her new novel Things Too Big to Name, and to gain insight into her long writing career.

(First airdate: October 1, 2019) Host Sheila Bender talks with Portland poet and book artist Marilyn Stablein about her poetry and the inspiration for her book art.

(First airdate: September 17, 2019) Sheila Bender interviews Port Townsend journalist and reporter Kirk Boxleitner about his life in journalism and coming to Port Townsend for a position at The Leader, our weekly community newspaper.

(First airdate: September 3, 2019) Host Sheila Bender interviews Seattle poet Ed Harkness about his latest volume of poetry, The Law of the Unforeseen, as well as about his new work and his start in poetry.

(First airdate: August 20, 2019) Host Sheila Bender speaks in studio with Port Townsend resident John Delaney about his newest book Twenty Questions and how he’s seen poetry change since receiving his MFA in poetry in the nineteen seventies.

(First airdate: August 6, 2019) Host Sheila Bender turns the microphone around to interview KPTZ sound engineer/editor Charlie Fleishman about his own writing, his work with authors, and his accomplished editing for “In Conversation.”

(Reprise airdate: July 23, 2019) Host Sheila Bender speaks via phone with author Peter Donahue about his book Three Sides Water in the repeat of a broadcast that originally aired in January 2019.