The Writing Life explores the works of prominent authors from around the globe.  Brought to you by the Howard County Poetry and Literature Society(HoCoPoLitSo), from four Maryland Poets Laureate to a pair of Nobel Laureates - Saul Bellow and Seamus Heaney - more than fifty poets and writers have appeared in HoCoPoLitSo's Cable TV series since 1986.  The half hour shows are hosted by such well-known area writers as: Lucille Clifton, Michael Collier, Roland Flint, Linda Pastan, Mark Strand and Henry Taylor.  Guests range from interesting new writers to the most distinguished names in contemporary letters: Michael Harper, W.S. Merwin, Grace Pauley and Richard Wilbur.  The Writing Life has been honored by the National Hometown Video Festival and the BRAVO Network's "Arts For Change" Award.  It has won funding from the Maryland Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, and such private sponsors as The Columbia Foundation, The First National Bank of Maryland, the Columbia Festival of the Arts, the Rouse Company Foundation and the Friends of HoCoPoLitSo.

A Literary Gathering of Women – Part 2- Themes in Literature (Encore 2009).  In this encore edition of HoCoPoLitSo’s “The Writing Life”, novelists Donna Hemans, Helen Elaine Lee and Thrity Umrigar engage in an open conversation with professor Tara Hart, in which the differences and the similarities of their Caribbean, African-American and Indian experience inform their literary works.  Their respective novels include River Woman, The Serpent’s Gift and The Space Between Us.  The discussion centers on the discipline of writing, the destructive powers of community, the meaning of sustenance in the mother/daughter relationship, and connecting the reader and the writer experience through literature.  The unique aspects of each of their cultures play a strong role in this intimate discussion of writing and the art of literature.   

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