Valley Writers Read

On this edition of Valley Writers Read, we hear a reading of Mary Benton's short story "The Grape Fields." In this Dust Bowl era story, a family of grape pickers assist in the recovery of a kidnapped boy.

On this week's episode of Valley Writer's Read, hear Benjamin Rae's short story "Disconnect" about a night telephone operator invents a fictitious supervisor to circumvent troublesome calls.

A job in Mexico hosting bird watchers introduces "Bea" to some unsavory characters, on this week's edition of Valley Writers Read, as we hear a reading of Jane Rosenthal's story El Tropical.

On this week's edition of Valley Writer's Read, hear a reading of Judy Ryan's "Little Fire", and hear how a young girl comes of age and questions the origins of her unusual name.

On this edition on Valley Writers Read, we hear five stories by one of the Central Valley's most acclaimed writers, Gary Soto. The program includes readings of four stories from his book A Summer Life including "The Bike", "The Haircut", "The Pie" and "The Nile". Gary also reads "My Time on Weldon Avenue" which is the foreword to a book published for Fresno City College's the Centennial Celebration.

Both Armen Bacon and Nancy Miller have shared the pain of losing a child to addiction. On this edition of Valley Writers Read, we hear them read their story, Griefland- An Intimate Portrait of Love, Loss and Unlikely Friendship.  They share the tragedy of their loss and how their grief helped build their friendship.

On this edition of Valley Writers Read, Christine Autrand Mitchell reads her story A Remarkable Tragedy, which tells how a family's life is changed by the sudden death of a father and son. Also this week, Howell Hurst reads Long Walk To the Showers, the story of a homeless man trying to rebuild his life.

On this edition of Valley Writers Read, Larry Warkentin reads his story, Are We There Yet?, a fictionalized tale about a group of Mennonites and their journey across the Atlantic to the New World.

This week on Valley Writers Read, we hear a story by Flora Beach Burlingame, called "A Teacher of the Freedmen." The story is a biography of the author's grandfather, John Stevenson, who volunteered to educate freed slaves after the Civil War.

On this edition of Valley Writers Read, we hear Jerry Fisher tell his story "Auf Wiedersehen, My Love" of a fictional World War II pilot who bails out over Germany, where he befriends a German woman and then is interned in a POW camp.