Writer's Voice with Francesca Rheannon Francesca Rheannon

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Champions of Democracy: The Populist Movement of the 1890s
Join us as we explore the transformative impact of the Populist movement during the 1890s.
In this episode, we delve into the story of hard-pressed farmers and workers who sparked a movement that reshaped the nation's political landscape. In his book The Forgotten Populists:When Farmers Turned Left to Save Democracy, author Steve Babson reveals the historical roots of progressive change and the relevance of this movement to contemporary struggles against corporate profiteering and right-wing authoritarians.
About The Author
Steve Babson is a labor educator and union activist. He’s published seven books, including Working Detroit: The Making of a Union Town; Lean Work: Empowerment and Exploitation in the Global Auto Industry; and The Color of Law: Ernie Goodman and the Struggle for Labor and Civil Rights in Detroit.
The Enduring Legacy of Matthew Shepard
Heather Has Two Mommies author Lesléa Newman reflects on the 25th anniversary of Matt Shepard's murder as a pivotal moment for LGBTQ rights. Despite significant progress over the past quarter century, she notes the frightening backlash from rightwing hate groups threatening these gains.
Newman commemorates Shepard's legacy in her new book, Always Matt, emphasizing his aspiration to, as he said, “create a better, kinder, and more peaceful world for everyone.”
In this episode, we discover who Matthew Shepard was as a person, not just a victim, and why advocating for LGBTQ rights remains so important for all of us.
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We talk with Simon Worrall and Heather Dune-Macadam about the fascinating and tragic story of a young Jewish artist in Nazi-occupied Paris. Their book is STAR CROSSED: A True Romeo and Juliet Story in Hitler’s Paris.
Then, New York Times columnist and author Margaret Renkl tells us about her acclaimed new book THE COMFORT OF CROWS: A Backyard Year.

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Paris, 1940
In Nazi-occupied Paris, pursuing art, culture, and jazz becomes an act of defiance for patriotic Parisians. Forbidden love blossoms between Annette Zelman, a spirited Jewish student at the Academy of Beaux-Arts, and the poet Jean Jausion. But escalating restrictions on the Jewish community lead the young lovers down divergent and tragic paths.
Literary couple Heather Dune-Macadam and Simon Worrall used a treasure-trove of personal letters to uncover the story behind Starcrossed. Beyond the lovers at the heart of the tale, they paint a fascinating portrait of wartime Paris and its lively scene of intellectual resistance to Nazi rule.
About the Authors
Heather Dune is the author of the award-winning book, 999: The Extra­or­di­nary Young Women of the First Offi­cial Jew­ish Trans­port to Auschwitz. Simon Worrall is the author of several books, including The Poet and the Murderer: A True Story of Verse, Violence and the Art of Forgery.
Margaret Renkl’s Backyard Year
The leaves are falling in ever greater numbers as Fall marches into Winter. And as they do, the question arises, what to do with them?
My guest, New York Times columnist and author Margaret Renkl has a simple solution: do nothing. A messy yard is great habitat for our endangered wildlife.
Her new book The Comfort of Crows is a a literary devotional: fifty-two chapters that follow the creatures and plants in her backyard over the course of a year. Beautifully written, it reminds us to pay attention to the fragile and wondrous life around us. By protecting it, we enrich our own lives immeasurably.
About the Author
Margaret Renkl is the author of Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss and Graceland, At Last: Notes on Hope and Heartache From the American South. She is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, where her essays appear weekly.


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We spend the hour with Corban Addison talking about his spell-binding legal thriller, WASTELANDS: The True Story of Farm Country on Trial.
Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004.
Find us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon, on Instagram and Threads @WritersVoicePodcast or find us on X/Twitter @WritersVoice.
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We talk with poet, farmer and author Scott Chaskey about his new book, Soil and Spirit: Cultivation and Kinship In The Web of Life.
Then, Chef Ravinder Bhogal introduces us to the comfort and joy of immigrant food. Her book is Comfort and Joy: Irresistible Pleasures from a Vegetarian Kitchen.
For full show notes, go here. For interview transcript, click here.


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We talk with Patrick Chura about a long-suppressed novel about the Holocaust by the blacklisted Socialist writer, Albert Maltz. It’s just been published in the US — over 60 years after it was written. Chura wrote the introduction to A Tale of One January and is responsible for its publication by Bloomsbury Press.
Then, we re-play an extended segment of our 2018 interview with Norman Finkelstein about his book, Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom.
A Tale Of One January
Albert Maltz’ novel A Tale of One January tells the story of six prisoners who have just escaped from a forced march out of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Based on a true story told by one of the escapees to the writer, Albert Maltz, the novel paints a compelling portrait of what it’s like to experience sudden freedom after years of horrific confinement and the constant threat of death.
Blacklisted Author, Suppressed Novel
Albert Maltz was a committed socialist who wrote for the stage and screen until he was blacklisted in 1947 as one of the Hollywood Ten. A Tale of One January was published in the UK in 1967, but, due to the blacklist, was never published in the US — until now.
A Historian Revives The Story
Patrick Chura is writing a biography of Albert Maltz and wrote the introduction to A Tale of One January. He is Professor of English at the University of Akron and the author of Thoreau the Land Surveyor and Michael Gold: The People’s Writer.
Gaza: An Inquest Into Its Martyrdom
The October 7 Hamas attacks on Israeli citizens were utterly horrific.
The Back Story
But they cannot be understood without considering their backstory: 75 years of dispossession of the land Palestinians called home for centuries, 13 years of a siege of Gaza, 90% unemployment for Gazan youth, the occupation of the West Bank, near daily killings of Palestinian civilians, the wanton demolition of Palestinian homes, denial of the right to vote, and increasing attacks by Israeli settlers who daily take more of the land and homes of their Palestinian neighbors.
Those are only some of the reasons Israel has been accused of imposing an apartheid on the Palestinians. Now, the world is watching in horror as Israel carries out the collective punishment of an entire people that threatens ethnic cleansing at best — and genocide at worst.
A Fierce Critic of Israeli Policy
Most of Norman Finkelstein’s ten books have centered on Israeli policy toward the Palestinian people. He has been a fierce critic of that policy, well before others had the courage or even awareness to speak out against it. We spoke with him in 2018 about his book, Gaza: An Inquest Into Its Martyrdom and re-air it now.


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