Minnesota Poet Laureate Joyce Sutphen joins us. Joyce Sutphen is the author of four full-length collections of poetry, the latest being First Words. She will be reading Sunday, Feb. 5th, at noon at Plymouth Congregational Church in Minneapolis as part of the Literary Witnesses series.

Also joining us this week is Stewart O'Nan, who will talk about his new book, The Odds: A Love Story. He is the author of 13 award-winning novels, including Snow Angels, A Prayer for the Dying and Emily, Alone, as well as several books of nonfiction, including, with Stephen King, the bestselling Faithful.

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We speak with Carol O'Connell about her new novel, The Chalk Girl, the latest in her bestselling Mallory series, about a wounded but dangerous New York City police detective -- the take-no-prisoners, sociopathic heroine Kathy Mallory.

Our guest in the second half of the show is Thomas Frank, author of the bestseller, What's the Matter with Kansas?, who will be discussing his new book, Pity the Billionaire. We'll talk about how the Right has managed to successfully shift the blame to Democrats for its failed economic policies.

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We speak with Alex Gilvarry about his debut novel, From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant, the story of a fashion designer who is sent to Guantanamo Bay for his supposed involvement in a terrorist plot.

Our guest in the second half of the show is poet Sierra DeMulder. An award-winning veteran of both the local and national poetry slam scene, she will release her second collection of poetry, New Shoes on a Dead Horse, Sunday, January 29th, at Honey.

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Tuesday, January 10th, Deborah Harkness calls in to talk about her new urban fantasy novel, A Discovery of Witches. It's the first book of the All Souls trilogy, which begins with historian Diana Bishop opening a bewitched alchemical manuscript in Oxford’s Bodleian Library.

Our guest in the second half of the show is children's book author Stephen Shaskan, www.stephenshaskan.com, whose debut picture book is called A Dog Is a Dog. It has received many accolades from reviewers at Publisher’s Weekly, School Library Journal, Kirkus, and many prominent Children’s Literature blogs. Recently, A Dog is a Dog made it onto New York Public Libraries top 100 books to Read and Share for 2011, and on their Top Ten Read-Alouds of 2011.

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Tuesday, January 3rd, Sasha Suarez joins co-hosts Charlotte Sullivan, Ian Graham Leask, and Lynette Reini-Grandell to look back at 2011 and prognosticate what 2012 will bring for writers. Sasha Suarez is a writer and student at the University of Minnesota-Morris who has participated for several years in the Loft's Equilibrium program. Charlotte Sullivan is Write on Radio's specialist in children's literature. Ian Graham Leask is a small press publisher who will be leaving Scarletta Press this year to work with Tumblehome Learning of Boston. Lynette Reini-Grandell is a notorious procrastinator who hopes to do better this year.

In the second half of the show, Joni Cole calls in to talk with us about her newest collection of essays, Another Bad-Dog Book: Tales of Life, Love, and Neurotic Human Behavior. Publisher's Weekly said of it, "by the end of this friendly, honest book, the reader will feel much affection for Cole, her little brood, and her bad dog.”

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