The series "11 Central Ave," produced in collaboration with Chicago Public Radio and 800 lb Productions, and winner of a National Gracie Allen Award is a four-minute radiostrip that plays out in the kitchen of 11 Central Ave, the home of an extended family where a hodgepodge of other characters regularly drops in.
"Writers Write 11 Central Ave" is a new series designed to get well-known fiction writers' work onto public radio in a format that is short and easily accessible. To date, episodes have been written by Rick Moody, James Reiss, Ruth Pennebaker, Rudolph Delson, Steve Skinner with more to come (publicists, take note!). Today's episode was written by me and you listen to it here.

Next week's "Writer's Write" episode is by Pulitzer Prize nominee James Reiss, author of the upcoming Facade for a Penny Arcade (Rager Media, Inc.). A regular contributor for 11 Central Ave, Reiss is Professor Emeritus of English and Founding Editor of Miami University Press in Oxford, Ohio.

Read about the genius behind this series and Moody's take on writing for radio after the jump.

Sue Shepherd Creator, Writer and Producer of the series started writing for the Boston Globe, and then moved into public radio, working on the show Living on Earth. She currently works for the World Vision Report, a weekly radio show about international poverty and justice.

In her interview with contributor Rick Moody (The Ice Storm and Garden State) Shepherd asked him about the difference between writing novels vs. radio.

"For radio, you need to simplify a lot," Says Moody. "My sentences on the page can tend to be rather dense. That stuff just doesn't work well in an aural medium. It's good for me, in radio, to be forced to give up my cherished complexity. Also: it's important to read radio pieces out loud in the process of composition, so you are thinking about the conjunction of reader/actor and text."

"11 Central Ave" airs mornings at 8:35 on Chicago Public Radio, Sunday morning at 9:34 on Boston's WBUR, and Friday afternoon at 12:24 on WUSM, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Sunday mornings on Seattle's KUOW, and on Austin's KUT, Saturday mornings on Miami's WLRN, and Mondays at 11:45 AM on WUGA, Athens, Georgia.

Sue Shepherd on the origins of the series:

I thought the morning shows on public radio needed a comic strip, so I approached NPR and they gave me money for a pilot. This was about ten years ago and by the time I was ready to start producing, it was the week of 9/11, and the project had to be scrapped until the country was in more of a mood for a satirical radio strip.

I originally wanted it to be daily, but it was prohibitively expensive, so Chicago Public Radio jumped in to give it a go on a weekly basis. I wanted to be able to produce them close to air time so they could be topical, and I wanted a way to talk about the news in a more irreverent way than public radio typically does.

The "Writers Write" series is a way to get a better cross pollination between fiction writers, playwrights and public radio. I think we need their talent badly, and I hope to get lots of writers writing episodes.

Listen to the podcast here