LA-based author Melissa Broder joins Toni for a conversation about her novel Death Valley, which she describes as a humorous look at grief. In the second part of the show, Toni talks with Mendocino County Librarian Melissa Carr and Salt Lake City Utah bookstore owner Calvin Crosby (The King's English) about the impact of book bans on our communities.

Farnaz Fatemi and Erin Redfern hear and talk to Jen Siraganian about her poems and her work with various poetry organizations.  Jen is the newly appointed Poet Laureate of Los Gatos, California. She is a writer, educator, and literary organizer. She has served as Managing Director for Litquake: San Francisco’s Literary Festival, been nominated for a Ruth Lilly Fellowship and a Pushcart Prize, earned scholarships from Community of Writers at Squaw Valley and Napa Valley Writers’ Conference, and authored a poetry chapbook titled “Fracture.” Her writing has appeared in Best New Poets 2016, Cream City Review, Mid-American Review, Smartish Pace, Barrow Street, Southwest Review, Not Somewhere Else But Here: A Contemporary Anthology of Women and Place, and other literary journals and anthologies. https://jensiraganian.com https://www.losgatosca.gov/2298/Poet-Laureate

Susan Browne, winner of the Catamaran Poetry Prize, reads from her new book, Just Living, which was chosen as the Catamaran Poetry Prize winner. Catherine Segurson, editor and chief of Catamaran, talks about the Catamaran Literary Reader and all of Catamaran's many contributions to the literary scene in the Monterey Bay.