Celebrating the life and work of a cherished writer and teacher

book party to be held on the campus of UCLA will also serve as a memorial: the writer Les Plesko committed suicide over a year ago, leading his friends to rally to make sure the book he considered his magnum opus got into print

Plesko taught for nearly 20 years at UCLA Extension, and was an active member in the community of writers in Los Angeles. A long-time denizen of Venice, Calif., born in Hungary, he was a unique soul, committed to his art form. But not someone inherently commercial, or interesting in bending his form for commerce’s sake.

Acclaimed writer

Janet Fitch came to KCRW to talk about her friend Les Plesko, his last novel, and the challenges writers face today in getting their work into print. And what she and others did to make sure this novel made its way into the public’s hands. You can read an excerpt

here on

The Nervous Breakdown. You can see tributes to Les Plesko

here. And here’s my conversation with Fitch:[soundcloud id=’172358475′]