Show Details

Prosody, which airs every Tuesday evening on listener-supported WYEP 91.3 FM, is Western Pennsylvania’s only regularly scheduled radio program featuring contemporary poets and writers. WYEP is an NPR affiliate, with transmission reaching into Pennsylvania and surrounding states.

Jan Beatty and Ellen Placey Wadey are the producers of Prosody. Beatty is the author of three books of poetry, Mad River (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1995), Ravenous, (State Street Press, 1995), and Boneshaker, (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2002). She has received the Agnes Lynch Starrett and Pablo Neruda Poetry Prizes, among other honors. Ellen Wadey is currently completing her Master of Fine Arts Degree in Fiction with a certificate in Film Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. She has a manuscript-in-progress, a novel entitled Four O’Clock. She is the winner of the 2001 Scott Turow Award from the University of Pittsburgh. Wadey’s expertise in the areas of fiction and non-fiction adds the dimension of other genres to Prosody. WYEP volunteers Joel Grimes and Brad Coffield are the program’s engineers and editors. John Belch, WYEP’s Technical Services Director, has trained the Prosody staff, and continues to assist with recording, digital editing, and education.

Joel Grimes, a 1999 University of Pittsburgh graduate with BA’s in English Writing and Philosophy, was an audiophile long before Jan asked him on board Prosody as a sound engineer. Combining a love of the written word with this aforementioned obsession with sound, he has been recording, editing, and archiving the show for over five years now. He continues to play music, write, laugh, and love as much as possible, despite still not knowing exactly what he wants to be when he “grows up.”

Joseph Wilk graduated the University of Pittsburgh in 2004 with a BA in English Writing (Poetry) and History; there, he served as a writing instructor with the University of Pittsburgh Writing Center. He currently supplements his dedication to Prosody as a Library Assistant on the Carnegie Public Library’s beautifully renovated First Floor. He also dedicates his time teaching literacy to non-native speakers of English with the Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council and coordinating the booking for the Mr. Roboto Project, in Wilkinsburg.

Contact Prosody:
Voice mail: (412) 381-9131 Ext. 19
E-mail: beattyjp@aol.com
Engineers: Joel & Brad