In Conversation

(First airdate: July 9, 2019) Host Sheila Bender talks via phone with former Seattle resident Ariadne Shaffer about her work as a screenwriter in Los Angeles.

(Reprise airdate: June 25, 2019) Host Sheila Bender interviews Seattle poet and teacher Susan Landgraf in the repeat of a broadcast that originally aired in October 2018.

(First airdate: June 11, 2019) Sheila Bender of In Conversation hosts Port Townsend poet Lauren Davis in the KPTZ studio to discuss her new poetry chapbook and her work in the literary hub of Port Townsend.

(First airdate: May 28, 2019) Host Sheila Bender talks via phone with San Luis Obispo, CA writer Amy Hewes about writing opinion columns for her local alternative newspaper.

(Reprise airdate: May 14, 2019) In Conversation turns back the calendar to February 2015 to rebroadcast Sheila Bender’s interview with poets Kelli Russell Agodon and Martha Silano, who co-authored The Daily Poet: Day-by-Day Prompts For Your Writing Practice.

(First airdate: April 30, 2019) Host Sheila Bender welcomes Port Townsend resident Stewart Pugh to the KPTZ studio to discuss his recent work clearing out the books and archives of Dragon Gate Press, a 1980s Port Townsend publishing house

(First airdate: April 16, 2019) Host Sheila Bender visits in studio with recent Port Townsend resident Marcia Myers to talk about the writing and production of her three coffee table books.

(Reprise airdate: April 2, 2019) Host Sheila Bender interviews local-area poet and writing teacher Holly J. Hughes in a repeat of a broadcast that first aired in November, 2014.

(First airdate: March 19, 2019) Host Sheila Bender talks with Rashida Scholz about her Grace Bloods series, novels penned under the name Jasmine Silvera. The setting is in an alternate present-day Prague, where a mortal woman draws on the power of gods through dance in solving murders.

(First airdate: March 5, 2019) Host Sheila Bender talks via phone with former Seattle and now LA resident Constantine J. Singer about his first novel Strange Days, a science fiction story written for the Young Adult market in which as an impending alien invasion threatens Earth’s future, a 17-year-old grapples with self-doubt, loss and love.

(First airdate: February 19, 2019 Host Sheila Bender speaks via phone with Colorado poet and spiritual guide Laura Weaver about the poems in her book Luminous:  Poems and Inquiry for the Soul’s Journey.  

(First airdate: February 5, 2019) Host Sheila Bender talks by phone with California poet Kevin Clark about his poetry, career as a poet, and how he teaches new poets to write toward surprise. 

(First airdate: January 22, 2019) Host Sheila Bender travels 9000 kilometers via Skype to interview William Powers at his home in Bolivia. Powers is a Senior Fellow at the New York City-based think tank World Policy Institute, and his new book is Dispatches From The Sweet Life: One Family, Five Acres, and a Community’s Quest to Reinvent the World.

(First airdate: January 8, 2019) Host Sheila Bender talks via phone with Washington novelist Peter Donahue about his new book Three Sides Water, three short novels containing a cast of disparate characters finding their way during different decades in communities around the Olympic Peninsula.

(First airdate: December 25, 2018) Sheila Bender interviews KPTZ’s own David Cunningham about his career as a journalist and author.

(First airdate: December 11, 2018) Sheila Bender talks via phone with California poet, novelist and Emeritus Professor Mary Mackey about her writing and her career efforts to advance environmental awareness and women’s opportunities to publish their writing.

(First airdate: November 27, 2018) In Conversation host Sheila Bender speaks via phone with Iranian-born fiction author and memoirist Nahid Rachlin to talk about her books, which include a new novella and a collection of short stories.

(First airdate: November 13, 2018) In Conversation host Sheila Bender talks with Vashon Island elementary school teacher Margie Butcher about the way she facilitates her young students in writing grant proposals for environmental awareness projects in their school and community.

(First airdate: October 30, 2018) In Conversation host Sheila Bender talkes with Seattle poet Susan Landgraf about her career in poetry.

(First airdate: October 16, 2018) In Conversation host Sheila Bender talks in studio with Port Townsend oncology therapist Tess Taft, and discusses how counseling her clients living with cancer diagnoses led her to become a writer.

(First aired: October 2, 2018) Sheila Bender talks in studio with Marrowstone Island author Rachel Fordham about writing and publishing her first romance novel and then writing two more.

(First aired September 18, 2018) Sheila Bender interviews poet and songwriter John O’Connor via phone to talk about how he turned to writing poetry at age 50, learned from the great poets, and eventually won a literary contest that included the publication of his first book of poems.

(First aired September 4, 2018) Sheila Bender speaks via phone with book-length cartoonist Ellen Forney about her recent nonfiction graphic books concerning bi-polar disorder, and her cartooning and teaching career.

(first aired August 21, 2018). Sheila Bender talks in studio with Marrowstone Island author Michael Buschmohle about writing tips and his career in helping writers create and edit effective email, speeches, blogs and more.

(first aired August 7, 2018). Host Sheila Bender talks in studio with Bellevue, WA author Robert Devereux McEliece to discuss his memoir, “The Faithful Sextant,” and to explore his desire to study writing and leave a legacy memoir for family, friends and others.

(first aired July 24, 2018). Sheila Bender interviews Port Townsend resident Dan Zobrist about his book, Flaky’s Big Dream, written for young readers and inspired by science education programs he created for children while a Park Ranger in Alaska.