In Collaboration With...

In Collaboration With...

by Writing Co-Lab

Season 1

Ilana Masad, Soraya Palmer, and Alejandro Varela Talk with Sara Lippmann about Maintaining a Lifelong Writing Practice

This special episode comes from a panel at Writing Co-Lab’s 2026 Summer Camp program entitled Maintaining a Lifelong Writing Practice. It features authors Ilana Masad, Soraya Palmer and Alejandro Varela answering questions posed by moderator Sara Lippmann about their work and career. About the participants: Writing Co-Lab co-founder Sara Lippmann is the author of the novels Hidden River and Lech, the short story collections Jerks and Doll Palace, and is co-editor of the anthology Smashing the Tablets: Radical Retellings of the Hebrew Bible. She is also the Editor-in-Chief of Epiphany Magazine. Ilana Masad is the author of the novels All My Mothers Lovers and Beings and co-editor of the anthology Here For All Reasons: #BachelorNation’s Franchise Fascination. Soraya Palmer is the author of the novel The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts, Alejandro Varela is the author of the novels The Town of Babylon and Middle Spoon and the story collection The People Who Report More Stress. In Conversation With... is a production of the online teaching cooperative Writing Co-Lab. Fall classes are now available! Visit our website to learn more.

Saskia Vogel on Erotic Review and Sex Writing

Saskia Vogel is the author of the novel Permission, a prolific and accoladed translator of Swedish literature into English, and deputy editor of Erotic Review. In this conversation, she talks with host Brian Gresko about the most recent iteration of the storied magazine, as well as what makes good sex writing, and what the difference is between literary erotica and smut or pornography. They also discuss the many roles Vogel plays, and how her editorial work impacts her creative writing, and the challenges of being creative while also being a parent. It’s a short, sexy, fun, and thought provoking conversation! In Conversation With... is a production of the online teaching cooperative Writing Co-Lab. Fall classes are now available! Visit our website to learn more.

Edgar Gomez, Mia Arias Tsang, and Katie Yee on Getting Started As A Writer

This special episode comes from a panel at Writing Co-Lab’s 2026 Summer Camp program entitled From Zero to… Something: Getting Started As A Writer. It features authors Edgar Gomez, Mia Arias Tsang, and Katie Yee answering questions posed by host and moderator Brian Gresko about their work and career. About the participants: Edgar Gomez is the author of the memoir High-Risk Homosexual, winner of the American Book Award and a Lambda Literary Award, as well as the memoir in essays Alligator Tears. Katie Yee is the author of the novel Maggie: or, a Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar. And Mia Arias Tsang is the author of the book Fragments of Wasted Devotion, and the founder of Pocket Publications, a mini zine press she runs from her bedroom. In Conversation With... is a production of the online teaching cooperative Writing Co-Lab. Fall classes are now available in every genre, including translation, as well as accountability groups! Visit our website to learn more.

Javeria Hasnain and Jenna Tang on The Art of Literary Translation

Javeria Hasnain and Jenna Tang join host Brian Gresko to discuss their background and work in translating poetry and fiction. They each share a piece in its original language along with their English translation, and discuss some of their process and decision making in creating the translation. Javeria Hasnain is a scholar, translator, and poet from Karachi, currently pursuing a doctorate in English at Fordham University. She is the author of the poetry collection SIN and the translator of Sara Shagufta's poetry collection from Urdu, EYES, EYES, EYES. Jenna Tang is a Taiwanese writer and a translator who translates between Mandarin, French, Spanish, and English. Her translations and essays are published in The Paris Review, Lit Hub, McSweeney’s, and elsewhere. Her translations include works from Taiwanese feminist authors, Lin Yi-Han, Lâu Tsí-û, Leah Yang, and more. She is currently working on books written in her disappearing dialect. Jenna is a board-member at the American Literary Translators Association. In Conversation With... is a production of the online teaching cooperative Writing Co-Lab. Fall classes are now available in every genre, including translation, as well as accountability groups! Visit our website to learn more.

Joseph Osmundson on Spawning Season: An Experiment in Queer Parenthood

Author and scientist Joseph Osmundson joins host Brian Gresko to discuss his memoir Spawning Season: An Experiment in Queer Parenthood. Osmundson shares what brought him to write a memoir, and how the craft involved is the work an author does in order to earn a reader’s attention. In this wide-ranging, fascinating conversation, he talks about the self-care he needed to write this book and how theory has changed and shaped his life, as well as masculinity and queerness, family and cooking. This is an episode any fan of memoir, and creative nonfiction writer, will find of interest! To purchase a copy of Osmundson’s memoir, please visit our friends at Bookshop. In Conversation With... is a production of the online teaching cooperative Writing Co-Lab. Fall classes are now available in every genre, including translation, as well as accountability groups! Visit our website to learn more.

Matt Ortile on Travel Writing

Matt Ortile joins host Brian Gresko to discuss travel, writing, travel writing, and literary life in Paris. Ortile is an editor and writer who has taught creative writing seminars for the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, Tin House, Kundiman, Poets & Writers, PEN America, and elsewhere. He is the author of the essay collection The Groom Will Keep His Name and a co-editor of the essay anthology Body Language: Writers on Identity, Physicality, and Making Space for Ourselves. He is also an editor for print and digital at Condé Nast Traveler, and was previously the executive editor of the literary magazine Catapult prior to its closure. Matt has two classes with Writing Co-Lab coming up, Fall 2026: Reading Paris and The Art of Travel Writing–How to Read, and Write, for Travel Magazines. In Conversation With... is a production of the online teaching cooperative Writing Co-Lab. Classes are available in every genre, as well as accountability groups! Visit our website to learn more.

Julie Buntin on her novel Famous Men

In our debut episode, Julie Buntin joins host Brian Gresko for a lively and personal discussion of her new novel Famous Men. Buntin is the author of the acclaimed novel Marlena, and an assistant professor at the University of Michigan, where she teaches writing. In this conversation, Buntin talks about the origins of her new novel, Famous Men, the development of two of its main characters, Will Miles and Nathaniel Fellows, and the community that helped inspire her to keep writing it over the years. To purchase a copy of the novel, please visit our friends at Bookshop. In Conversation With... is a production of the online teaching cooperative Writing Co-Lab. Fall classes are now available in every genre, as well as accountability groups! Visit our website to learn more.