26 Dec 2025

A different sort of New Year Resolution, moving us from personal improvement to public advocacy! Let’s write an essay of address, framing our passions into a perspective that would make Le Guin proud!

Texts from this episode:

• Nazim Hikmet: Letters to Taranta-Babu, 1935
• Aimé Césaire: Notebook of a Return to the Native Land, 1939
• Walt Whitman: various poems from Leaves of Grass, 1855
• Mahmoud Darwish, “Identity Card,” 1965
• Chimamanda Adichie: Dear Ijeawele, 2017

Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/

CHAPTERS

00:00     New Years, New Laments
06:16     Intro Theme
06:50     Why Write Back
12:06     Our Writing Prompt: Anchor & Sting
21:34     Topics, Topics, Topics
26:21     I’m Writing, Too
37:30     Closing Credits

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Transcript:  https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/6-21-writing-back-letters-to-humanity

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Literary Nomads is the primary program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas.

Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses.

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CREDITS:

Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/)

Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski

USING THIS WORK:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution.

MLA CITATION:

Chisnell, Steve. “6.21 Writing Back: Letters to Humanity,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 26 Dec 2025, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.