2010 Schedule

This post will be updated as the year progresses and Woman-Stirred Radio interview dates are confirmed. Schedule of interviews for 2010:

Jan 14
5:00 Sherry Wolf, Sexuality and Socialism

Jan 21
5:00 Ellen Hart, The Mirror and the Mask (rescheduled for Feb 21st)

Jan 28
Philip Pomper, Lenin's Brother:

Feb 4
4:15 Kelli Smith and Val McDermid, publishers: Bywater Press

Feb 11
5:00 Dacher Keltner, The Compassionate Instinct

Feb 18
4:15 Ellen Hart, The Mirror and the Mask

Feb 25
4:15 Jerome Charyn, The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson
5:00 Elizabeth Oakes, The Luminescence of Everything Emily

March 18
4:15 Brad Watson, Aliens in the Prime of their Lives: Stories

April 22
5:00 Elizabeth Bradfield, Approaching Ice

Guest Schedule 2009

Listen to Woman-Stirred Radio on WGDR Goddard College community radio. Tune in to 91.1 fm if you're in Central Vermont. Or stream it live at WGDR by clicking on the "Listen Live" link each Thursday between 4pm and 6pm (Eastern).

Merry loves it when listeners call in! Have a question for a guest? The air studio phone is (802) 454-7762.

Guest details updated Dec 19, 2009

January 8
4:15 Beth Robinson, executive director of VT Right to Marry
5:00 Charlie Barasch, Dreams of the Presidents
February 5
4:15 Retta Dunlop, advocate for Vermonters for Better Education
February 12
4:15 Kim Bobo, Wage Theft in America: A Crisis We Can Solve
February 19
5:00 Judith Arcana, 4th Period English
March 5
4:15 Maxine Kumin, Still to Mow
March 12
4:15 Ben Binstock, Vermeer's Family Secrets
5:00 JD Glass, X
March 2
4:15 Alicia Ostriker, feminist scholar, poet
5:00 Elaine Parker, discussion of her experiences in Antartica
April 9
4:15 Rigoberto Gonzales, discussion of queer Latina/Latino poetry and writing
5:00 Eaven Boland, New and Collected Poems
April 16
4:15 Martha Serpas, The Dirty Side of the Storm
April 30
5:00 Lisa Williams, A Woman Reading to the Sea
May 7
4:15 Mary Roach, Bonk
5:00 Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Calligraphy of the Witch.
May 14
4:15 Kim Addonizio, Ordinary Genius: A Guide to the Poet Within
5:00 Kate Clinton, I Told You So
May 21
4:15 Martha Nell Smith, Dickinson Electronic Archives
5:00 Alison J. Pugh, Longing and Belonging: Parents, Children, and Consumer Culture
May 28
4:15 John Amen, Pedestal Magazine
5:00 Matt Rothschild, Democracy in Print: The Best of the progressive Magazine 1909-2009
June 4
4:15 Ray Raphael, Founders: The People Who Brought You a Nation
5:00 Sasha Abramsky, Breadline USA: The Hidden Scandal of American Hunger and How to Fix It
June 18
4:15 Julie R. Enszer, Lesbian Poetry Archive
June 25
4:15 Adam Reid, Thoroughly Modern Milkshakes
5:00 Nathaniel Bellows, Why Speak?
July 16
4;15 April Bernard, Romanticism
July 23
4:15 Janelle Orsi, The Sharing Solution
5:00 Dick Lehr, The Fence: A Police Cover-Up Along Boston¹s Racial Divide
July 30
4;15 Diane Levine
5:00 Allison Pugh, Longing and Belonging: parents, children, and consumer culture
August 6
5:00 Denise Giardina, Emily’s Ghost
August 13
4:15 Elana Dykewomon Risk!
August 20
4:15 Sarah Schulman, The Mere Future
5:00 Orson Gregory, poet and musician
September 3
4:15 Jan Steckel, Mixing Tracks
September 10
4:15 Jane Satterfield, Daughter of Empire: A Memoir of a Year in Britain and Beyond
September 17
4:15 Electa Arenal, Sor Juana
October 8
5:00 Diane Lefer, California Transit
October 15
4:15 Anna Thomas, Love Soup Vegetarian Epicure)
5:00 Jim Lahey, My Bread
October 22
4:15 Linda Gordon, Dorothea Lange: A life without limits
5:00 Linda Nathan, The Hardest Questions Are Not on the Test
November 5
4:15 Lesley Wheeler, Heathen
5:00 James Schwartz, In Pursuit of the Gene: from Darwin to DNA
December 3
5:00 Martin Duberman, Waiting to Land: A (Mostly) Political Memoir
December 10
4:15 Guest co-host Julie R Enszer: A Celebration of Emily Dickinson's Birthday: various poets read original poems about or inspired by ED
5:00 Martha Nell Smith, a discussion of ED and her impact on lesbian identity and literary history
December 17
5:00 Nona Caspers, Little Book of Days
December 24
4:00 - 9:30
A Special double-header of Christmas music


Previous guests:
Bettina Aptheker, Joan Armatrading, Alison Bechdel, Dr Helen Caldicott, Catie Curtis, Elana Dykewomon, Lillian Faderman, Charles Flowers, Judy Grahn, Janis Ian, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Jane Rule, and many others.

Woman-Stirred Radio is a writer's collective and cultural blog dedicated to bringing the amazing talent and creative spirit of Queer Culture to the world at-large, and to preserving this culture for future generations. Woman-Stirred Radio is funded in part by a grant from the Samara Foundation of Vermont.

Some Thoughts on Beginnings and Endings: Woman-stirred radio in 20099

Yesterday's interview with Nona Caspers was my last interview of 2009, wrapping up a year of changes: Nicki Hastie gone, WSR intern Mikael Yowe moved on (he finished up his BA), I expanded the universe of interviews and guests to the straight world, knowing that exclusion is problematic on any front. And I have certainly challenged myself, interviewing some very smart writers, musicians, and policy makers.

Last January I interviewed Beth Robinson, the driving force behind the success of Vermont's right to marry movement. In February, I interviewed a local woman, Retta Dunlop, who is a Fundamentalist and home-schooler. Now that was an interesting situation, but in the end I learned something about how well dialogue and patience can work. February also brought us the amazing Judith Arcana. March gave us interviews with poet Maxine Kumin, art scholar Ben Binstock, NY writer and musician JD Glass, and feminist writer Alicia Ostriker. in early April, I went to the National Federation of Community Broadcasters (NFCB) in Portland Oregon, where I met Troy Williams, a young queer activist from Salt Lake City, who has an absolutely fantastic radio program. Poetry Month brought us Eavan Boland, Rigoberto Gonzalez, Martha Serpas, and Lisa Williams. Mary Roach returned to talk about Bonk, and Alicia Gaspar de Alba was a first time guest. may also brought the incomparable Kate Clinton, and writer Kim Addonizio, policy-maker Alison Pugh, and one of my favorite people, Dickinson scholar Martha Nell Smith.

I want to thank everyone, with special thanks to my dear friend, Julie R Enszer, an invaluable colleague, brilliant scholar, and fellow believer in the value of Woman-Stirred Radio to lesbian culture as well as, well, all the other cultures that continue to thrive in America.

If you have a suggestion for a guest, please contact me and we'll take it from there.

Nona Casper's Little Book of Days

This week on Woman-Stirred Radio, Merry Gangemi welcomes Nona Caspers back to Woman-Stirred Radio to talk about Little Book of Days, and read from her most recent publication.

The book is disarmingly relevant and very, very interesting as Caspers presents layered meditations on the ordinary--and not so ordinary--everyday occurrences that spark and sometimes roost within us: sounds from the street, the sun bleeding through the window, memories, scents, love, passion, and past and present difficulties.

Nona Caspers is the author of the recent Little Book of Days and Heavier than Air, which received the Grace Paley Prize in Short Fiction and was a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice.

Nona is a recipient of a National Endowment of the Arts fellowship, an Iowa Review Fiction Award, a Joseph Henry Jackson Award, a Barbara Deming Award, and a LAMBDA nomination among other honors. Her stories have been widely published in literary journals and anthologies such as Ontario Review, Cimarron Review, Iowa Review, WOMEN ON WOMEN and the HERS series. She is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at San Francisco State University.

So please tune in or stream it live. This Thursday, December 17th at 5 p.m. (eastern) and 2 p.m. (pacific). If you want to join in the conversation, go to WGDR, and click Listen Live.

Happy Birthday Emily Dickinson!!

This Thursday, Woman-Stirred Radio presents a special two-hour program to celebrate the birthday of one of the most imagined, and distinctly American poets of all time: Emily Elizabeth Dickinson, born December 10, 1830.
In the first hour Julie R. Enszer and Merry Gangemi will read the original work of poets from around the country, and welcome poets who will read their original poems about or inspired by Emily Dickinson, including:
Barbara Crooker, Carol Dorf, Charlotte Mandel, Claire Keyes, Elizabeth Oakes, Jane Satterfield, Janet McCann, Julie Moore, Lesley Wheeler, Rachel Dacus, Susan Rich, and Tamiko Beyer.

In the second hour, Martha Nell Smith visits Woman-Stirred Radio to talk about the possibilities of Emily Dickinson, and unpack some of the myriad ways in which Dickinson's legacy has enriched and sustained the creativity and scholarship of millions of women, redefining and re-imagining the ferocious brilliance of the Belle of Amherst (how I dislike that moniker!!). Martha Nell and Merry will also talk about the intensely passionate and intellectual relationship between Emily and her beloved sister-in-law, Susan Gilbert Dickinson.

So please join Merry Gangemi and her guests on Thursday, December 10th from 4 to 6 pm (eastern) for a delightful celebration of Emily Dickinson's 107th birthday.

Tune in at 91.1 fm (in Central Vermont) or stream the show live at WGDR Community Radio. Want to join the conversation? Call 802.454.7762 or send an email with your questions and comments to mgangemi@vtlink.net
or julierenszer@gmail.com.