First episode airs on January 10, 2018!!!

ACME Writing Academy Podcast Trailer - Season One

The premier episode of the ACME Writing Academy Podcast!   A lively discussion of the notion of great books in the world.  

ACME is
Hosted by Rick Krizman.
Produced by Rick Krizman and Mike Magnuson.
Featuring Bob Clark, Jim Frank, and Marcello Vazquez.
With Mike Magnuson.

S1 - #1 - ACME Great Books

The ACME Writing Academy members discuss rules, laws, and other things about writing we don't necessarily need to follow.

ACME is
Hosted by Rick Krizman.
Produced by Rick Krizman and Mike Magnuson.
Featuring Bob Clark, Jim Frank, and Marcello Vazquez.
With Mike Magnuson.

S1 - #2 - ACME Rules of the Roadrunner

The ACME Writing Academy members get a bit sentimental discussing sentimentality.

ACME is
Hosted by Rick Krizman.
Produced by Rick Krizman and Mike Magnuson.
Featuring Bob Clark, Jim Frank, and Marcello Vazquez.
With Mike Magnuson.

S1 - #3 - ACME Sentimentality

The ACME Writing Academy members explore voice as a function of personality and as a function of writing craft, and they reach some surprising conclusions.

ACME is
Hosted by Rick Krizman.
Produced by Rick Krizman and Mike Magnuson.
Featuring Bob Clark, Jim Frank, and Marcello Vazquez.
With Mike Magnuson.

S1 - #4 - ACME Voice

GENRE!  A truly whacked, bandwidth-challenged, chuckling-around-the-peanut-barrel conversation about the nature of genre in writing.   Crack one open, light one up, and join us!  

ACME is
Hosted by Rick Krizman.
Produced by Rick Krizman and Mike Magnuson.
Featuring Bob Clark, Jim Frank, and Marcello Vazquez.
With Mike Magnuson.

S1 - #5 - ACME Genre Party

#9 ACME Lost in Place.    In this rather heartfelt episode – Really! – the ACME Writing Academy ponders the one undeniably stupid question known to exist in the universe:  Is there no place like home?

ACME is
Hosted by Rick Krizman.
Produced by Rick Krizman and Mike Magnuson.
Featuring Bob Clark, Jim Frank, and Marcello Vazquez.
With Mike Magnuson.

S1 -#6 - ACME Lost in Place

The ACME Writing Academy discusses the nature of rhythm and tempo in prose, in music, and in the heart.  Is the music of writing natural and unconsciously created?  Or do writers construct it to control their reader’s experience?  Special guest appearance by Ludwig van Beethoven. 

ACME is
Hosted by Rick Krizman.
Produced by Rick Krizman and Mike Magnuson.
Featuring Bob Clark, Jim Frank, and Marcello Vazquez.
With Mike Magnuson.

S1 - #7 - ACME Writing Rhythm

ACME gets personal in this discussion of Vietnam, Argentina, Iowa, the Bronx, and the differences between influence, appropriation, and plagiarism.

Acme is
Hosted by Rick Krizman.
Produced by Rick Krizman and Mike Magnuson.
Featuring Bob Clark, Jim Frank, and Marcello Vazquez.
With Mike Magnuson.

S1 - #8 - ACME Under the Influence(s)

A funny, serious, lowbrow/highbrow, and ultimately honest discussion of the value of writing workshops.  Does the old, often brutal workshop model still work?  Or should there be new way for us to get feedback on our works in progress?

ACME is
Hosted by Rick Krizman.
Produced by Rick Krizman and Mike Magnuson.
Featuring Bob Clark, Jim Frank, and Marcello Vazquez.
With Mike Magnuson.

S1 - #9 - ACME Workshop

ACME kicks around the writing advice we’ve heard or given over the years, the advice we’ve heeded or ignored or didn’t mean in the first place or that we might have been just too damn lazy to put into effect.  

ACME is
Hosted by Rick Krizman.
Produced by Rick Krizman and Mike Magnuson.
Featuring Bob Clark, Jim Frank, and Marcello Vazquez.
With Mike Magnuson.

S1 - #10 - ACME Advice:  Sage or Sausage?

ACME’s California Adventure draws to a close in an oddly serious discussion of the benefits of planning ahead as opposed to improvising and allowing the words to lead the work wherever it wants to go, even if the words lead to nothing, which begs the question:  What do you do when you got nothin’?

ACME Writing Academy Season Two:
ACME's California Adventure

Hosted by Rick Krizman.
Produced by Rick Krizman and Mike Magnuson
Featuring Chef Marcello Vazquez
With Bob Clark and Mike Magnuson

S2 - #7 - Plotting and Pantsing in the ACME Republic of Anchovia

On Sunday, after Rick wakes up at 4:30 in the morning excited about sentences, the Academy declares this to be Sentence Day and puts on ACME party hats and lays out a magnificent smorgasbord of sentences for an all-day celebration.

ACME Writing Academy Season Two:  
ACME’s California Adventure

Hosted by Rick Krizman.
Produced by Rick Krizman and Mike Magnuson
Featuring Chef Marcello Vazquez
With Bob Clark and Mike Magnuson

S2 - #6 - How to Cook Sentences for a Crowd

With the California sun shining and everyone’s mood improving, the Academy sidesteps the broader, abstract concerns of writing and opens up the toolbox of grammar and rhetoric and what writers actually need to know to put words on the page.

ACME Writing Academy Season Two:
ACME’s California Adventure

Hosted by Rick Krizman.
Produced by Rick Krizman and Mike Magnuson
Featuring Chef Marcello Vazquez
With Bob Clark and Mike Magnuson

S2 - #5 - The Stephen Foster Wallace Stevens Taco Meatloaf Grammar

Morning arrives in Santa Monica, and a crisp, coffee-fired Academy considers the rules and regulations of point-of-view, French musician’s etiquette, Argentina’s working-class cooking protocols, and the satisfaction that comes with saying, “Know it?  Hell, I wrote it!”

ACME Writing Academy Season Two:
ACME’s California Adventure

Hosted by Rick Krizman.
Produced by Rick Krizman and Mike Magnuson
Featuring Chef Marcello Vazquez
With Bob Clark and Mike Magnuson

S2 - #4 - POV, Softest Veau, and The Blanched American Pianist

On a lovely Santa Monica evening, with a $100 dollar porterhouse on the grill, the Academy ponders the endless layers of the bullshit involved in writing the stories of our lives, and along the way, they stumble into the dangerous territory of personal and cultural appropriation.  And outright theft.

ACME Writing Academy Season Two:
ACME’s California Adventure

Hosted by Rick Krizman.
Produced by Rick Krizman and Mike Magnuson
Featuring Chef Marcello Vazquez
With Bob Clark and Mike Magnuson

S2 - #3 - Memoir: So Sue Me

The Academy searches through the murk of their histories to find where their stories and storytelling methods come from, and when they can’t figure it out what it all means, they do the only sensible thing.

ACME Writing Academy Season Two:
ACME’s California Adventure

Hosted by Rick Krizman.
Produced by Rick Krizman and Mike Magnuson
Featuring Chef Marcello Vazquez
With Bob Clark and Mike Magnuson

S2 - #2 - Call Your Mother

The California Adventure begins in a jarring alternate reality where the members of the ACME Academy find themselves in Venice, tasked with defeating the age-old, art-killing nemesis of every writer: What do you do when you got nothin’?

ACME Writing Academy Season Two:
ACME’s California Adventure

Hosted by Rick Krizman.
Produced by Rick Krizman and Mike Magnuson
Featuring Chef Marcello Vazquez
With Bob Clark and Mike Magnuson

S2 - #1 - We Got Nothin'

Novelists Claire Davis and Mary Helen Stefaniak join ACME to discuss everything from metaphors to movies to red wine and the great city of Milwaukee.

Hosted by Rick Krizman
Produced by Rick Krizman and Mike Magnuson
Featuring Claire Davis and Mary Helen Stefaniak
Note: Bob Clark and Marcello Vazquez will return in future episodes.

S3 - #1 - From an Undisclosed Location Near the Sea

Novelist Mary Helen Stefaniak joins ACME to discuss making time to write a novel and how to think about the sentences that go in it.

Hosted by Rick Krizman
Produced by Rick Krizman and Mike Magnuson
Featuring Mary Helen Stefaniak
Note: Bob Clark and Marcello Vazquez will return in future episodes.

S3 - #2  Making Time at the Undisclosed Location

Mary Helen Stefaniak guest hosts this discussion with novelist Kellie Wells about writing methods, writing mindsets, reading aloud, and our inner voices.

Hosted by Rick Krizman
Produced by Rick Krizman and Mike Magnuson
Featuring Mary Helen Stefaniak and Kellie Wells
Note: Bob Clark and Marcello Vazquez will return in future episodes.

S3 - #3 - One Sentence at a Time with Kellie Wells

Valerie Laken - novelist, artist, musician - joins the Academy on the north shore of Lake Winnebago to discuss her roots as a writer and a thinker.

Hosted by Rick Krizman
Produced by Rick Krizman and Mike Magnuson
Featuring Valerie Laken
With Bob Clark and Mike Magnuson
Marcello Vazquez will return in future episodes.

S3 - #4 - Valerie Laken on Lake Winnebago, Part One

Valerie Laken - novelist, artist, musician - joins the Academy on the north shore of Lake Winnebago for Part Two of this discussion about trangressions in literature, Midwesternisms, and ways to produce serious work and have fun doing it.

Hosted by Rick Krizman
Produced by Rick Krizman and Mike Magnuson
Featuring Valerie Laken
With Bob Clark and Mike Magnuson
Marcello Vazquez will return in future episodes.

S3 - #5 - Valerie Laken, Part Two: Go Bad or Go Home

Novelist and ACME Academy member Mary Helen Stefaniak calls in to Academy Party Headquarters in Menasha with a report on teaching creative writing in Beijing.

Hosted by Rick Krizman
Produced by Rick Krizman and Mike Magnuson
Featuring Mary Helen Stefaniak
With Bob Clark and Mike Magnuson
Marcello Vazquez will return in future episodes.

S3 - #6 - Mary Helen Stefaniak, Beaming In From Beijing

Rick, Bob, and Mike answer your questions about writing in this funny and occasionally serious final episode of Season Three.


Hosted by Rick Krizman
Produced by Rick Krizman and Mike Magnuson
Featuring Bob Clark 
Marcello Vazquez will return in future episodes.

S3 - #7 - ACME Mailbag:  Your Questions, ACME's Answers

A writer's podcast: part morning-drive radio; part graduate school; part old school; part train wreck.

Hosted by Rick Krizman.
Produced by Rick Krizman and Mike Magnuson.
With Mike Magnuson, Bob Clark, and Chef Marcello Vazquez.
Guest appearances by Mary Helen Stefaniak, Valerie Laken, and Jim Frank.

Popular tracks by The ACME Writing Academy Podcast