The How The Why is a half-hour podcast documenting the creative process and the creative purpose hosted by Jon-Barrett Ingels. This free weekly series is an educational resource provided to discuss the evolution of literary arts with industry innovators.

William Deverell is Director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West and Professor of History at University of Southern California. He publishes non-fiction on the history and culture of the 19th and 20th century American West and is author of Evangel, a short story which appeared in Exposition Review in 2016.

Elline Lipkin is the author of two books: The Errant Thread, chosen by Eavan Boland for the Kore Press First Book Award and Girls’ Studies, published by Seal Press. A poet and nonfiction writer, she affiliates with the University of California, Los Angeles Center for the Study of Women and teaches for Writing Workshops Los Angeles. Her writing has appeared in a variety of journals and she is a contributor to Ms. Magazineonline and the academic site Girl w/Pen.  Currently, she is the Poet Laureate of Altadena, California.

Ruth Nolan, a former wildland firefighter, is a writer/professor based in Palm Springs, CA. She’s the author of Ruby Mountain (Finishing Line Press, 2016); her story “Palimpsest,” from LA Fiction: Southland Writing by Southland Writers (Red Hen Press, 2016), received an honorable mention in Sequestrum’s 2016 Editor’s Reprint contest and was nominated for a 2016 PEN Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. Her work’s been published in James Franco Review; Angels Flight LA; Rattling Wall; KCET; Desert Oracle; Women’s Studies Quarterly; News from Native California, and more. Ruth holds her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from UCRUniversity of California, Riverside.

Gil Soltz is founder of the Yefe Nof Residency and author of its origin story, Inspiration Drive. He holds an MPA in Nonprofit and Public Management from NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service and an MFA in Creative Writing from Warren Wilson College. Since 2010 he is based in Paris, France.