Interviewed by Hubert O’Hearn

LANCE OLSEN was born in 1956 and received his B.A. from the University of Wisconsin (1978, honors), his M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers Workshop (1980), and his M.A. (1982) and Ph.D. (1985) from the University of Virginia. Heis author of eleven novels, one hypertext, four critical studies, four short-story collections, a poetry chapbook, and two anti-textbooks about innovative writing, as well as editor of two collections of essays about innovative contemporary fiction. His short stories, essays, poems, and reviews have appeared in hundreds of journals, magazines, and anthologies, including Conjunctions, Black Warrior Review, Fiction International, Iowa Review, Hotel Amerika, Village Voice, Time Out New York, BOMB, Gulf Coast, McSweeney’s, and Best American Non-Required Reading. Olsen is a Guggenheim and an N.E.A. fellowship recipient, winner of a Pushcart prize, and former governor-appointed Idaho Writer-in-Residence. His novel Tonguing the Zeitgeist was a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award. His work has been translated into Italian, Polish, Turkish, Finnish, and Portuguese. He has taught at the University of Idaho, the University of Kentucky, the University of Iowa, the University of Virginia, on summer- and semester-abroad programs in Oxford and London, on a Fulbright in Finland, at various writing conferences, and elsewhere. Olsen currently teaches experimental narrative theory and practice at the University of Utah. He serves as Chair of the Board of Directors at Fiction Collective Two; founded in 1974, FC2 is one of America’s best-known ongoing literary experiments and progressive art communities. He is Fiction Editor atWestern Humanities Review. With his wife, assemblage-artist and filmmaker Andi Olsen, he divides his time between Salt Lake City and the mountains of central Idaho.

Ideal for individual or classroom use, ARCHITECTURES OF POSSIBILITY theorizes and questions the often unconscious assumptions behind such traditional writing gestures as temporality, scene, and characterization; offers various suggestions for generating writing that resists, rethinks, and/or expands the very notion of narrativity; visits a number of important concerns/trends/obsessions in current writing (both on the page and off); discusses marketplace (ir)realities; hones critical reading and manuscript editing capabilities; and strengthens problem-solving muscles from brainstorming to literary activism. Exercises and supplemental reading lists challenge authors to push their work into self-aware and surprising territory. In addition, ARCHITECTURES OF POSSIBILITY features something entirely lacking in most books about creative writing: more than 40 interviews with contemporary innovative authors, editors, and publishers (including Robert Coover, Lydia Davis, Brian Evenson, Shelley Jackson, Ben Marcus, Carole Maso, Scott McCloud, Steve Tomasula, Deb Olin Unferth, Joe Wenderoth, and Lidia Yuknavitch) working in diverse media, providing significant insights into the multifaceted worlds of experimental writers’ writing.

Interviewed by Hubert O’Hearn

​CHERYL WADLINGTON is one of the nation’s premiere fashion and beauty journalists and a leading consultant in the field of personal growth. An accomplished writer, television personality and sought-after motivational speaker, she has reached millions through publications such as Self, Essence, Life & Style, and The Philadelphia Daily News. She founded Evoluer Image Consultants, an award-winning full-service agency in Philadelphia that provides clients with extensive makeovers, personal shopping and wardrobe management. She also operates the nonprofit organization, The Evoluer House, which has graduated more than 700 socio-economically challenged girls from this highly successful personal development program. Cheryl majored in advertising and communications at the Fashion Institute of Technology and Fashion Merchandising at Bauder Fashion College. She also served on the faculty of the TempleUniversity School of Communications and the advisory board of Cheyney University’s Fashion Merchandising program.

The DivaGirl’s Guide is chock-full of expert advice from an all-star panel that includes former Miss USA Kenya Moore, Dr. Joycelyn Elders (former U.S. Surgeon General), Monica (Grammy Award-winning singer and actress), Dr. Susan Bartell (teen psychologist /director www.4healthygirls.com), Dr. Boyce Watkins (Syracuse University finance professor) and many more. This guide also serves as a style and beauty resource with pointers from a premiere celebrity make-up and fashion glam squad.The book is informative in addressing sensitive topics like sex in the relationship chapter titled Cupid Shuffle. With an expert approved sex term glossary edited by Planned Parenthood, an essential conversation takes place and provides young (and not-so-young) readers with a road map to negotiate a journey through the rocky teen years.

Interviewer: Kaye Cloutman

Lynn Henriksen discovered a profound way to keep our loved ones’ spirits alive after she witnessed Alzheimer’s disease ravage her mother’s mind. She has helped hundreds capture in brief memoirs the memories and feelings they never thought they could record. Her “how to” book, Give the Gift of Story: TellTale Souls’ Essential Guide to Tap Memory and Write Memoir in Five Acts, is easy-to-follow and filled with tips, examples, exercises, and sage advice for memoirists and storytellers alike. Lynn, aka The Story Woman™, holds Story Salons and gives workshops, events, and classes to Tap Memory & Write Memoir: Give the Gift of Story. Her second book, TellTale Souls: Keeping Spirits Alive One Memoir at a Time, is filled with 50 short, true tales capturing the character of mothers from diverse walks of life. The manuscript is presently in the hands of her agent, who is seeking a publisher.

Lynn is a member of the California Writers Club–Marin and the President of the San Francisco Chapter of the Women’s National Book Association, an organization with ten chapters and more than 800 members. An alumna of Dominican University and a member of the Psi Chi Chapter of the National Honor Society in Psychology, her career has been rich and varied as an entrepreneur, business woman, founder of a non-profit institute, neuro-feedback (brainwave) therapist, writing instructor, and project manager for the renovation of historic hotel properties. Lynn is the mother of a son and two daughters, the proud grandmother of two “adorables,” and she lives with her husband in Marin County, overlooking San Francisco Bay.

Website: www.telltalesouls.com

Blog: www.thestorywoman.com

Read our review of Give the Gift of Story

Robert Brockway is one of only six regular, weekly columnists for Cracked.com. He also runs the successful humor site, Fight Robots, where a dedicated readership avidly anticipates his weekly updates and kindly tolerates his manic techno-evangelizing. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his girlfriend.

In this interview, we discuss Brockway’s book Everything is Going to Kill Everybody.

Interviewer: Kaye Cloutman

Shawn Marie Edgington is a successful CEO and entrepreneur of several multimillion-dollar companies. She also has more than twenty years of corporate project management, business development, public speaking, brand creation, and creative design and marketing of new and unique services.

Shawn lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two children. Like most people, Shawn is forever striving to stay balanced with all the demands of life and continues searching for the best time-management tools (yes, texting is one of them) to help her “Shoot for the Stars.” Puberty is no longer a requirement to text. With no expertise required and no age maximum enforced, text-messaging makes bridging the communication gap with family, friends and colleagues a great solution to unanswered e-mails. Make a conscious decision to use new technology to stay in the communication loop! For more on Shawn visit www.rbtlguide.com.