Kris Kleindienst, Co-Owner Left Bank Books, And Author Joy Lanzendorfer

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I start this episode by chatting with Kris Kleindienst, co-owner of Left Bank Books in St. Louis, Missouri, and then head over to California to speak with Joy Lanzendorfer, author of Right Back Where We Started From. 

Left Bank Books is the oldest and largest independently-owned full-line bookstore in St. Louis, Missouri. They offer a full line of new and used books, gifts, cards, magazines, toys, and services.

The staff at Left Bank Books are a fiercely committed group. Many are writers, performers, and artists who personally appreciate the importance of a store like Left Bank, not only to the cultural health of a community but to the health of its creative people, too! Many Left Bankers are involved in other community organizations as volunteers and activists and support issues such as peace, racial justice, civil rights, urban sustainability, education, animal rights, and support for the arts. 

Joy Lanzendorfer is the author of Right Back Where We Started From, a multigenerational work of fiction that explores the lust for ambition that entered into the American consciousness during the Gold Rush and how it affected our nation’s ideas of success, failure, and the pursuit of happiness. 

Joy’s non-fiction work has been in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Poetry Foundation, Ploughshares, NPR, Smithsonian, and Raritan. And Her fiction has appeared in Tin House, The Guardian, Hotel Amerika, Alaska Quarterly Review, and many others. 

Left Bank Books

This is What Lesbian Looks Like: Dyke Activists Take on the 21st Century, Kris Kleindienst (Editor)

Ruby Fruit Jungle, Rita Mae Brown

Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer

Joy Lanzendorfer

Right Back Where We Started From, Joy Lanzendorfer

George Sterling Article, Joy Lanzendorfer

Jack London Article, Joy Lanzendorfer

What’s The Story Podcast With Joy Lanzendorfer

Joy Lanzendorfer Keynote Speech at the Southern California Writer’s Conference

Beloved, Toni Morrison

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