Writers Go to the Movies

The Creative Writing Programs, in collaboration with Writers Go to the Movies, invites you to a screening and conversation event with alum Will McGrath MFA '20 (author of Farewell Transmission and Everything Lost is Found Again) and podcaster Jonathan Goldstein, (host of Heavyweight) for a screening of the movie Rushmore.   Writers Go to the Movies Saturday, October 3 Anderson Center, room 304 starting at 6 p.m. No registration needed! Writers Go to the Movies is a film series where writers and movie lovers gather to talk about their craft, art-making, cross disciplinary ideas, and to share a movie together. McGrath will read a short excerpt of his work and be in conversation with Goldstein after the screening. A writing exercise will be offered for anyone interested in participating! Will McGrath has worked as a reporter, homeless shelter caseworker, UPS truck loader, public radio producer, mental health crisis responder, Burger King chicken sandwich mayo-applicator, ghostwriter, and ghosteditor, in slightly different order. His debut book, Everything Lost Is Found Again, won the Society of Midland Authors Award for Biography & Memoir, and the Dzanc/Disquiet Open Borders Book Prize. His most recent book, Farewell Transmission: Notes from Hidden Spaces, was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award and shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. He has written for the New York Times, the Believer, the Atlantic, Pacific Standard, Guernica, and the Rumpus, among other publications. Jonathan Goldstein, Jonathan Goldstein is the host and creator of the podcast Heavyweight. In 2016, the Atlantic named it the number one podcast of the year; in 2017 it received a Third Coast award (informally known as ‘the Oscars of radio’). The show has also received effusive coverage from the New York Times, Guardian, Buzzfeed, Time Magazine, GQ, Wired, USA Today, Elle, Financial Times, the New Yorker and other publications. Previously, Jonathan created and hosted WireTap, a cult favorite that ran on CBC radio for 11 years. When it ended, the show’s goodbye video went viral, with over 30 million views. His fiction, essays, and reported stories have been appearing on This American Life for over twenty years. In 2024, Jonathan received the iHeart Pioneer Award.