Host Jay Thiemeyer speaks with writer BK Loren about her new novel "Theft," whose main character Willa Robbins is a master tracker working to reintroduce the Mexican wolf, North America’s most endangered mammal, to the American Southwest. But when Colorado police recruit her to find her own brother, Zeb, a confessed murderer, she knows skill alone will not sustain her. Willa is thrown back into the past, surfacing memories of a childhood full of intense love, desperate mistakes, and gentle remorse. "Theft" is a story about family, about loss, and about a search for answers.

BK LOREN has worked as a naturalist, large predator monitor for CO State Parks, professional brainstormer, assistant chef, ranch hand, furniture maker, UPS driver, and college professor. She currently teaches writing at Chatham University’s low residency program, the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, and many other venues throughout the United States and Canada.

Adam Levin’s debut novel, The Instructions, published by McSweeney’s in 2010, arrived with a lot of buzz. An inventive, experimental book of over one thousand pages, its protagonist was Gurion ben-Judah Maccabee, a 10 year old genius from Chicago, who may or may not be the Jewish Messiah. Levin’s short stories have appeared in Tin House, McSweeney’s and Esquire. He was the winner of the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Award and the 2004 Joyce Carol Oates Fiction Prize among others. He lives in Chicago where he teaches Creative Writing at the School of the Art Institute and talks today, with host David Naimon, about his much anticipated follow-up to The Instructions, his short story collection, Hot Pink.

"From walls that ooze unnameable, unidentifiable gel, through makers of children's dolls designed to mimic the stages of digestive health, to old widowers in retirement looking back over their marriages, Levin manages to find the pathos and humor in living an 'ordinary' existence. Enter his world if you dare!"
—The Jewish Times

"Levin has a gift for voice, for creating enticing narrators. Whether it's the elderly, dirty-minded Jewish men of 'The Extra Mile' or the adolescent Italian-American toughs of 'Finch' and the white working-class boys of 'Hot Pink,' these are stories that grab the ear first.”
—The LA Times

Host Jennifer Kemp speaks with local author Ruth Tenzer Feldman about her book "Blue Thread." It's 1912. Sixteen-year-old Miriam Josefsohn is groomed for the life of a socialite, but dreams of working in the family print shop. When her father refuses to train her as his replacement, Miriam decides to take control of her life and devotes herself to women's suffrage at the height of the Oregon campaign. In the process, she meets the mysterious Serakh, who inquires about a special shawl with a single blue thread. Miriam discovers that this family heirloom, her great-grandmother's prayer shawl, is capable of transporting her thousands of years into the past, where she is introduced to the daughters of Zelophehad and their ancient struggle for women's rights. With Serakh as her guide, Miriam embarks on a journey to alter the past, but will she have the courage to fight for her own future?

Portland writer Ruth Tenzer Feldman is an award-winning author of books and articles, mainly for children and young adults. She has been an attorney, editor, research analyst, ticket seller, and keypunch operator. Her 10 nonfiction books focus on history and biography, while her articles range from leeches to Einstein’s refrigerator.

Dan Johnson interview Chana Wilson, author of "Riding Fury Home" a memoir about Chana's early life in dealing with a mother who attempts suicide and an absent father. Now a psychotherapist living in Berkley, California, Chana, pronounced Hanna is able to open herself up to tell this gripping story.

This interview includes clips of conversations between Chana and her mother in 1974, when both mother and daughter come out as lesbians.