Words on a Wire

In this captivating episode of The Writer and the Brain, a Words on a Wire production, host Daniel Chacón sits down with poet and artist Octavio Quintanilla at the Texas Book Festival to explore his latest poetry collection, The Book of Wounded Sparrows. This deeply personal collection delves into themes of family separation, dislocation, and the transformative power of memory and time. Octavio reflects on his journey as a poet, from his debut collection If I Go Missing to this profoundly intimate new work, revealing how his growth as an artist mirrors his evolution as a human being.

In this episode of Words on a Wire, host Will Rose sits down with Rus Bradburd—former UTEP and NMSU assistant basketball coach turned author—to discuss his debut novel, Big Time (Etruscan Press, 2024). This sharp satire delves into how money and sponsorships are reshaping higher education in America, all through the lens of the fictional Coors State University.Bradburd, who coached Division I basketball for 14 seasons (including eight at UTEP), is no stranger to compelling stories. He’s the author of four acclaimed books, including 40 Minutes of Hell, the biography of El Paso sports icon and former University of Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson. After 16 years as a writing professor at New Mexico State, Bradburd brings his insider perspective to his first foray into fiction.

In this episode, host Daniel Chacón sits down with his longtime Words on a Wire co-host, Tim Z. Hernandez, to discuss Tim’s latest book, They Call You Back. Diving into themes of search, memory, and connection, the conversation unravels the deeply personal and poetic journey behind Hernandez’s work. This episode delves into the liminal spaces between the living and the dead, storytelling as a portal, and the profound power of objects and places that hold memory. Whether you’re a writer, mystic, or seeker, this discussion offers a deeply moving exploration of love, loss, and the enduring impact of stories.

In this episode of Words on a Wire, longtime host Tim Z. Hernandez introduces "The Storykeeper," an exciting new segment on Words on a Wire. Drawing from his extensive experience from his years of gathering stories, Hernandez explains how The Storykeeper will bring powerful, transformative narratives to listeners. He offers a preview of upcoming episodes, including an interview with a family affected by the Mexican Repatriation Act of the 1930s.The segment emerges from Hernandez's belief that storytelling is medicine - that sharing our stories builds understanding and connection across communities. The Storykeeper promises to deliver compelling narratives that reveal our shared humanity.This introductory episode showcases the intimate, thoughtful approach listeners can expect from The Storykeeper when it debuts in 2025 on KTEP 88.5 FM, as Hernandez and his team work to demonstrate how "one story shared with another is medicine, but many stories shared in community is transformation.”

 In this engaging conversation, Host Daniel Chacón speaks with California Poet Laureate Lee Herrick. They discuss his latest work "In Praise of Late Wonder: New and Selected Poems," a collection that marks a profound exploration of his identity as a Korean adoptee. While Herrick has long been known as an adopted poet, this book represents his deepest dive yet into themes of adoption, identity, and belonging, featuring intimate pieces about his birth family search and letters to his birth parents. The discussion expands beyond poetry to explore Herrick's compelling belief that librarians, farmers, and street food vendors hold the key to society's salvation, drawing on Anthony Bourdain's perspective about street food's vital role in human connection. Herrick and Chacón engage in thoughtful dialogue about the changing landscape of publishing, the role of social media in literary success, and the importance of maintaining authenticity in an increasingly corporatized world.

In this episode of Words on a Wire, host Will Rose sits down with Jonathan Blitzer, New Yorker staff writer and author of the New York Times Top 10 Book of 2024, Everyone Who Was Gone Is Here. Blitzer delves into the intricate and often overlooked ties between U.S. foreign policy in Central America and the modern immigration crises at the southern border. Drawing on years of immersive reporting and personal interviews, Blitzer highlights the human stories behind the headlines, including the transformative narratives of individuals like Juan, whose life embodies the far-reaching consequences of Cold War-era policies.The conversation touches on key moments in immigration history, such as the evolution of deterrence strategies in El Paso, the humanitarian crisis fueled by asylum seekers, and the shifting demographics of border crossings. Blitzer also shares his concerns about the potential consequences of a second Trump administration, predicting aggressive policies that could reshape immigrant communities and asylum processes.

In this episode of Words on a Wire, host Tim Z. Hernandez speaks with poet Yaccaira Salvatierra. Yaccaira’s poems have appeared in POETRY Magazine, The Nation, Prairie Schooner, and Rattle among others. Her collection, Sons of Salt, was published with BOA Editions September 2024. She has been an organizer for the San Francisco International Flor y Canto Literary Festival and is currently translating Estancias de Emilia Tangoa, a poetry collection by Peruvian poet Ana Varela Tafur. Some of her translations can be found in About Place Journal and Plume. She lives in Oakland, California, where she is a dedicated educator.

Host Daniel Chacón talks with mystery writer Teresa Dovalpage about her thirteenth novel, Last Seen in Havana (Soho Press, 2014).

In this engaging podcast episode, host Daniel Chacon sits down with poet Gabriel Dozal to discuss Dozal’s book The Border Simulator and explore themes of identity, technology, and the concept of borders. Their conversation dives into Dozal's inspirations, blending personal experiences of crossing the U.S.-Mexico border with an imagined digital landscape where borders feel like a "simulation." The two delve into how technology, from language models to social media, shapes both personal expression and public interaction, and they explore Dozal’s playful poetic experiments with language. This candid talk covers everything from the influence of AI in writing to Dozal’s unique approach to navigating and representing the border experience.

On this episode of Words on a Wire, host Tim Z. Hernandez talks with poets ire'ne lara silva and Jen Yáñez-Alaniz.ire’ne lara silva, 2023 Texas State Poet Laureate, is the author of five poetry collections, furia, Blood Sugar Canto, CUICACALLI/House of Song, FirstPoems, and the eaters of flowers, two chapbooks, Enduring Azucares and Hibiscus Tacos, a comic book, VENDAVAL, and a short story collection, flesh to bone, which won the Premio Aztlán. ire’ne is the recipient of a 2021 Tasajillo Writers Grant, a 2017 NALAC Fund for the Arts Grant, the final Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Award, and was the Fiction Finalist for AROHO’s 2013 Gift of Freedom Award. Most recently, ire’ne was awarded the 2021 Texas Institute of Letters Shrake Award for Best Short Nonfiction. Her second short story collection, the light of your body, will be published by Arte Publico Press in Spring 2025. http://www.irenelarasilva.wordpress.comJen Yáñez-Alaniz is a poetactivist, community organizer,and  a third-year PhD Fellow at the University of Texas at San Antonio’s Culture Literacy and Language Program, and a Mexican American Studies Graduate Certificate Student. Her research interests include cultural preservation and decolonial praxis. Exploring themes of sensuality, surrogacy, and consumption, Jen blends creative and academic expression using Gloria Anzaldúa’s autohistoria-teoría to honor embodied experiences that are often confined within linguistic boundaries. Jennifer’s literary contributions include "Matrilineal Poetics: Toward an Understanding of Corporeality and Identity," featured in Latinas in Hollywood Herstories. She has published widely in journals and anthologies, including an extensive critical biography of Carmen Tafolla in Chicana Portraits: Critical Biographies of Twelve Chicana Writers (University of Arizona Press), and her poetry chapbook Surrogate Eater (Alabrava Press) was launched in 2023.

Host Daniel Chacón talks with Dr. Tara López, author of Chuco Punk: Sonic Insurgency in El Paso (University of Texas Press, 2024).

In this episode of Technically, Literate, host Leah O'Daniel speaks with author Joesph Lezza.Joseph Lezza is a writer in New York, NY with an MFA in creative writing from The University of Texas at El Paso. His debut memoir in essays, I'm Never Fine: Scenes and Spasms on Loss (Vine Leaves Press), was a finalist for the 2021 Prize Americana in Prose and was named by Buzzfeed LGBTQ and Lambda Literary as a "Most Anticipated 2023 Release." 

Host Will Rose talks with fiction writer and essayist Dagoberto Gilb about his two new books, New Testament: Stories (City Lights, 2024) and A Passing West: Essays from the Borderlands (University of New Mexico Press, 2024).

In this episode of Technically, Literate, host Leah O'Daniel speaks with accomplished poet and UTEP professor Andrea Cote Botero.

On this episode of Words on a Wire, host Daniel Chacón talks with author Lucrecia Guerrero about her new book, On the Mad River (Mouthfeel Press, 2024).Lucrecia Guerrero grew up in Nogales, Arizona in a bilingual and bicultural home--her mother is from Kentucky, her father from Mexico. Both parents held a fierce pride in their perspective cultures and shared stories with their children. Guerrero is proud to say that she was raised on biscuits and gravy with a jalapeno on the side. Her stories inevitably involve cultural clashes between experience and tradition; and explore themes such as the abuse of power, both political and personal, and the strength and beauty of the human spirit.Guerrero has lived in the Midwest for years where she teaches creative writing.

Host Daniel Chacón travels to Las Cruces, New Mexico to sit with legendary Chicanx writer Denise Chávez. They discuss her career, her Las Cruces bookstore, and her new book, Street of Too Many Stories (Conocimientos Press, 2024).

Host Will Rose talks with Bloomberg opinion columnist Parmy Olson about the arms race to build the next generation of artificial intelligence -- and her new book, Supremecy: AI, ChatGPT, and the Race that Will Change the World.

On this episode of Words on a Wire, Host Tim Z. Hernande speaks with Cassie Holguin-Pettinato, a Chicana poet, collage artist, and theremin musician from the El Paso/Juárez frontera. A fourth-generation resident of La Calavera, the last historic neighborhood of Smeltertown, she channels her rich cultural background into her work. Cassie is the author of The Lamb’s Tail (Bottlecap Press, 2022) and The Five Stages of Stuttering (Flowersong Press, 2024). She holds a B.A. in Creative Writing from The University of Texas at El Paso. In 2024, she was honored with the Poet and Author Fellowship at the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing. Currently, she serves as an academic writing tutor at El Paso Community College.

[Listener note: This episode's conversation is conducted in Spanish] Ricardo Pohlenz es un escritor iconoclasta, ha atravesado la poesía concreta, la crítica cinematográfica y la literatura como acto de irreverencia. En este episodio iniciamos una nueva temporada de Patos Salvajes con esta entrevista sorprendente que tuvimos en persona en la Ciudad de México. Patos Salvajes es el espacio radiofónico de los estudiantes del M.F.A. en Escritura Creativa Bilingüe en la Universidad de Texas en El Paso. [Description translation] Ricardo Pohlenz is an iconoclastic writer, he has traversed concrete poetry, film criticism and literature in general as an act of irreverence. In this episode we start a new season of Patos Salvajes with this astonishing interview we had in person in Mexico City. Patos Salvajes is the radio program of the students of the M.F.A. in Bilingual Creative Writing at the University of Texas at El Paso.

Host Daniel Chacon speaks with author, playwright, and theater director Octavio Solis.