Podcast host Matthew Félix talks with authors Laurie Ann Doyle and Ryan Sloan about community: What is it, really? Why is it so important to us as writers? How do we find it?

Sharing their own personal stories, as well as their respective experiences in academia, participating in writers groups and organizations, and organizing literary events, Matthew, Laurie, and Ryan engage in a comprehensive discussion about the notion of community, its importance to writers, and the many ways we can find it.

LAURIE ANN DOYLE is the author of World Gone Missing, winner of the Nautilus Award in Fiction. Recipient of the Alligator Juniper National Fiction Award and a Pushcart Prize nomination, Laurie’s stories and essays have appeared in McSweeny’s, Alta Journal, The Los Angeles Review, and many others. Laurie teaches writing at UC Berkeley Extension and The Writers Grotto in San Francisco.

RYAN SLOAN is a novelist and essayist who teaches writing at the University of California, Berkeley. Ryan has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and his work has been published or is forthcoming in LA Weekly, Joyland Magazine, Opium Magazine and many other publications. Ryan has done multiple residencies, including the 2019 Lit Camp Writers’ Conference and the 2019 Arctic Circle Residency on the Summer Solstice Expedition.

Special shout-outs went out to The Book Passage Travel Writers and Photographers Conference, Left Coast Writers, The San Francisco Writers Grotto, Babylon Salon, NaNoWriMo, LitCamp, and LitWings, as well as other organizations, events, and sites that foster community among writers.