Inside the Writer's Head

In this podcast episode, 2025 WiR Mary Kay Carson interviews two regional children's book authors: Jennifer Sommer and Kerrie Hollihan.

Originally from Lexington, KY, Sommer currently lives in Dayton, OH. Hear Sommer read from Her Eyes Were on the Stars, her debut award-winning picture book. Sommer received degrees in Political Science as well as Interior Design and Architectural Technology before earning her Masters in Library Sci...

In this podcast episode, 2025 WiR Mary Kay Carson interviews Christine Wilson, Executive Director of Women Writing for (a) Change.

Christine Wilson attended the University of Cincinnati for English, with a minor in Women's Studies and Poetry. She was awarded the English Department award for poetry collection. She's held manager and director roles, both in businesses and nonprofit organizations and has worked as an independent editor...

In this podcast episode, 2024 WiR TaraShea Nesbit interviews Pepper Stetler, author of the upcoming “A Measure of Intelligence: One Mother's Reckoning with the IQ Test."

Pepper Stetler is Professor of Art History at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She writes extensively on issues facing people with intellectual disabilities and their caregivers. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Slate, The Progressive, ...

In this podcast episode, 2024 WiR TaraShea Nesbit interviews children's book author, artist, shop owner, and disability advocate Amy Webb. They discuss Amy's books, her work in disability advocacy, her experience co-writing with her daughter, the impact of her sticker shop, and more. 

This podcast was recorded at the Downtown Main Library MakerSpace using the recording booth that anyone with a library card can reserve to create...

In this episode of Inside the Writer's Head, TaraShea Nesbit talks with poet Yalie Saweda Kamara about her new book, Besaydoo, a book that Ross Gay describes as "a prayer for us all" and the New York Times Book Review highlighted the collection as "evoking ecstatic attention and generosity." In addition to sharing her insights about writing poems, Yalie offers listeners a writing exercise to try, one which inspi...

In the final episode of this season of "Inside the Writer's Head" Manuel Iris interviews renowned British poet and writer Fiona Sampson. They discuss Sampson's musical background informs her writing, how poetry challenges us to read in a different way, the secret coherence that often arises in poems, and more.

Fiona Sampson is a leading British poet and writer. Published in thirty-eight languages, she has published twenty-nine books...

Manuel Iris talks with poet and academic Rossy Evelin Lima-Padilla. In this episode, Rossy shares how she crossed the border as an undocumented minor. Her struggle with the English language, and how her love for writing, literature, and community, gave her the strength to become a poet and professor in the United States. 

Rossy Evelin Lima-Padilla is a United States-based Mexican writer, scholar, translator and activist. S...

In this episode, Manuel Iris speaks with Latin American cultural studies professor and Director of the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at City College of the City University of New York, Carlos Aguasaco.

Hear about his arrival to the US and how poetry and literature have been part of his immigrant story. This is a conversation on identity, belonging, and creative writing. 

Carlos Aguasaco has edited twelve literary anth...

Manuel Iris sits down with two internationally recognized poets, Tanya Ko-Hong and Tara Skurtu in the latest episode of “Inside the Writer’s Head.” In this episode, Manuel, Tanya, and Tara dive deep into how they define poetry, exploring topics like belonging, otherness, creativity, and the limits of language.

Tara Skurtu is the author of "The Amoeba Game” and the upcoming poetry collection "Faith Farm.” She is a two-time U.S. Fulbr...

Poet Jennifer Hambrick joins Manuel Iris on a new episode of "Inside the Writer's Head" ahead of the arrival of the largest and oldest gathering of haiku poets outside Japan to Cincinnati. The biennial conference Haiku North America is organized in part by Hambrick. Listen in as they discuss the lyrical power of haiku, Hambrick's musical lens of poetry, and information about Haiku North America. 

A poet hailed for her “brillia...

Is identity a cage or freedom? How do authors write for enlightenment and hope in the midst of despair? Is it possible to be a black artist today without being an activist? What is love’s power in poetry?

In my inaugural episode of this season of “Inside the Writer’s Head,” I chose to interview two brilliant guests to have a conversation about Black history and love. Listen in to my conversation with MoPoetry Phillips and Yalie Sawe...

 The writer Zora Neal Hurston said, “Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.” In this episode of “Inside the Writer’s Head,” The Library Foundation’s 2022 Writer-in-Residence Pauletta Hansel talks with three Cincinnati authors who have produced remarkable books in three very different genres, each using research as a key ingredient. Listen in as these “curious” authors read from their books an...