I'm a Writer But

Nayantara Roy discusses her debut novel, The Magnificent Ruins, new genres, divorce novels, the essay that inspired the novel, the problematic choices her main character made, allowing her main character to choose neither love interest, finding the right agent, breaking all the rules of a debut novel, working in television, and so much more! Nayantara Roy is the author of the debut novel, The Magnificent Ruins. In 2018, she won the Rick DeMarinis Prize for her short story, 8C. Her plays have been performed in India and the UK and she is currently at work on her second novel, Sisters Of A Halved Heart. Tara is also a television executive at STARZ/Lionsgate, where she oversees the acquisition and creative development of original scripted television series. Originally from India, Tara lives in Los Angeles with too many plants. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Author Sara Levine (The Hitch, forthcoming from Roxane Gay Books) has chosen as her 90s Book Club topic the elusive writer Jane Shapiro, author of After Moondog and The Dangerous Husband. After going down many rabbit holes, Sara found Jane's agent, we emailed them, and Jane agreed to join us on the podcast! Jane discusses her career, publishing in the 90s, new work, Donald Antrim, and where she's been all this time.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nora Lange discusses her debut novel, Us Fools (Two Dollar Radio), finding absurd moments to celebrate if by “celebrate” we mean “awaken,” passing anxieties down to our children, writing about the 80s farm crisis, research, committing and recommitting to the project of her novel despite life upheavals, and so much more! Nora Lange's writing has appeared in BOMB, Hazlitt, Joyland, American Short Fiction, Denver Quarterly, HTMLGiant, LIT, The Fairy Tale Review, and elsewhere. Her project Dailyness was longlisted for the 2014 Leslie Scalapino Award for Innovative Women Performance Writers. She has received fellowships from Brown University and is a fellow at USC's Los Angeles Institute of the Humanities. An earlier iteration of her novel was shortlisted for The Novel Prize in 2020, a prize to recognize and publish novels that explore and expand the possibilities of the form. She comes from a long line of Midwestern farmers and lives in Los Angeles with her family. Us Fools is her first novel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Richard Mirabella discusses his debut novel, Brother and Sister Enter the Forest, as well as sibling dynamics, the deft forward motion of the novel, the influence of Throwing Muses' album Purgatory/Paradise on the structure of the novel, writing “skeletal drafts,” fairy tales, Rachel Glaser fandom, and more! Richard Mirabella is a writer and civil servant living in Upstate New York. His stories have appeared in Story Magazine, American Short Fiction, Split Lip Magazine, and elsewhere. He's the author of the novel Brother & Sister Enter the Forest, a New York Times Editors' Choice and Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to IAWB Presents 90s Book Club, a special podcast from I'm a Writer But (where writers discuss their work, their lives, their other work, the stuff that takes up any free time they have, all the stuff they're not able to get to, and the ways in which any of us get anything done) in which Lindsay Hunter is joined by a variety of her favorite freaks to talk about influential moments from the 90s.        Today, Chelsea Bieker (MADWOMAN) discusses Sleeping with the Enemy–both the novel and the film–and its influence on her as she wrote her newest novel.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Acamea Deadwiler discusses her debut memoir, Daddy's Little Stranger, along with writing about her childhood self, writing trauma while maintaining humor, lending grace and complexity to her family members, the nature of memory, Gary, Indiana, and so much more! Acamea Deadwiler is a memoirist and essayist who received critical acclaim from Publishers Weekly for her book, Single That. She has been featured by the New York Post, Cosmopolitan, Bustle, and the FOX television network, among other media outlets. Acamea is also a TEDx speaker. Currently residing in Nevada, she holds a master's degree from Valparaiso University and is a fellow in the MFA program at Randolph College. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alisa Alering discusses their debut novel, Smothermoss, growing up on a farm, writerly trickery, place, southern Pennsylvania, how unlimited access to the outdoors as a child influenced their writing, what time means to a mountain, the energy of the natural world, the real-life tragedy that features in the novel, setting the novel in the 1980s, starting the novel as a collage, and so much more! Alisa Alering grew up in the Appalachian Mountains of Pennsylvania and now lives in Arizona. After attending Clarion West, their short fiction has been published in Fireside, Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, Podcastle, and Cast of Wonders, among others, and been recognized by the Calvino Prize. A former librarian and science/technology reporter, they teach fiction workshops at the Highlights Foundation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lindsay is joined by Ryan Bradford as they discuss the weird but forgotten horror anthology, Grim Prairie Tales, starring James Earl Jones's wig, James Earl Jones, and Brad Dourif. Ryan Bradford is a writer and web editor at San Diego City Beat. His writing can be found in vice, paperdarts, and monkeybicycle. He's also the rummer for the band Forest Grove. He's also a huge horror fan and a teacher, and you can find him on his Substack, at @awkwardsd.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joanna Pearson discusses her debut novel, Bright and Tender Dark, as well as branding, homesteading online, Tressie McMillan Cottom, the weirdness of Threads and Goodreads, eerie vibes, using murdered-girl tropes while subverting them, unresolved creepiness in the novel, Rachel Monroe fandom, and more! Joanna Pearson's debut novel, BRIGHT AND TENDER DARK (Bloomsbury, 2024), is an Indie Next Pick and an Amazon Editors' Pick. Her second story collection, NOW YOU KNOW IT ALL (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2021), was chosen by Edward P. Jones for the 2021 Drue Heinz Literature Prize and named a finalist for the Virginia Literary Awards. Her first story collection, EVERY HUMAN LOVE (Acre Books, 2019) was a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Awards, the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for Fiction, and the Foreword INDIES Awards. Her stories have appeared in The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Mystery and Suspense, The Best Small Fictions, Best of the Net, and many other places. Joanna has received fellowships supporting her fiction from MacDowell, VCCA, South Arts, the Sewanee Writers' Conference, and the North Carolina Arts Council/Durham Arts Council. She holds an MFA in poetry from the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars and an MD from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Originally from western North Carolina, she now lives with her husband and two daughters near Chapel Hill, where she works as a psychiatrist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Barrie Miskin discusses her debut memoir, Hell Gate Bridge, motherhood, depression, how the book began as a form as therapy, writing a fast draft, working with Sarah Perry and Elizabeth Ellen, literary talismans, plumbing dark places as she wrote, hiring a publicist, and more! Barrie Miskin is the author of HELL GATE BRIDGE: A Memoir of Motherhood, Madness and Hope, out today! from Woodhall Press. Barrie's writing has appeared in Hobart, Narratively, Expat Press, and elsewhere. Her interviews can be found in Write or Die Magazine, where she is a staff writer. Barrie is also a public school teacher in Queens, New York, where she lives with her husband and daughter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emma Copley Eisenberg discusses her debut novel, Housemates, Philadelphia, BODIES, the spectrum of Ottessa Moshfegh to Grace Paley, structure, road trips, the historical figures who inspired the novel, and more! Emma Copley Eisenberg is the author of the novel Housemates and the narrative nonfiction book The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia, which was named a New York Times Notable Book and was nominated for an Edgar Award, a Lambda Literary Award, and an Anthony Award, among other honors. Her fiction has appeared in Granta, McSweeney's, VQR, American Short Fiction, and other publications. Raised in New York City, she lives in Philadelphia, where she co-founded Blue Stoop, a community hub for the literary arts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Craig Willse discusses his debut novel, Providence, as well as writing family systems, grief, the many times he rewrote the book, layering in tension, rewarding the reader with sex, the danger of projection, and more! Craig Willse is a teacher and freelance editor living in Los Angeles. A 2021 Lambda Literary Fellow, Craig has recent work in HAD, Joyland, and Fence. His first novel, Providence, is out now from Union Square. He is also the author of The Value of Homelessness (University of Minnesota Press) and has a PhD in Sociology from the CUNY Graduate Center. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, live from Exile in Bookville in Chicago, Shze-Hui Tjoa discusses her debut memoir, The Story Game, as well as excavating her childhood from buried trauma, crafting her sister into a listener character in the book, pushing past profound dissatisfaction, the submission process, making space for being corny, and more! Plus audience questions! Shze-Hui Tjoa is a writer from Singapore who lives in the UK. Her debut, The Story Game (Tin House Books, 2024), is a genre-bending memoir about using storytelling to overcome the memory lapses of c-PTSD and recover personal identity.  Shze-Hui writes about and beyond herself - and is particularly interested in creative nonfiction that challenges formal conventions to speak the deepest possible truth to power. She has upcoming interviews or features in BOMB Magazine, Electric Literature, The Rumpus, The Millions, Poets & Writers magazine, Between the Covers podcast, and elsewhere. Her work has been listed as notable in three successive issues of The Best American Essays (2021-23).  Shze-Hui is currently a nonfiction editor at Sundog Lit, where she works to uplift writers from different backgrounds and bring them into conversation. Her career has received support from the Tin House Summer Workshop (USA), Ceriph Mentorship Programme (Singapore), Disquiet International (Portugal), and VONA Voices (USA), among other organizations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Morgan Talty live-comments on his own Goodreads review, then discusses his debut novel, Fire Exit, as well as why he enjoys interacting with his online reviewers, the expectations people bring to indigenous fiction, being an objective reader of his own work, building emotion around an idea, balancing darkness with tenderness, Alice Munro, writing from the perspective of a white man, and more! Morgan Talty is a citizen of the Penobscot Indian Nation. His debut short story collection, Night of the Living Rez, won the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, the American Academy of Arts & Letters Sue Kaufman Prize, the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize, the New England Book Award, the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 Honor, and was a Finalist for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, the 2023 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Prize, and The Story Prize. His writing has appeared in The Georgia Review, Granta, Shenandoah, TriQuarterly, Narrative, Lit Hub, and elsewhere. Talty is an assistant professor of English in Creative Writing and Native American and Contemporary Literature at the University of Maine, Orono, and he is on the faculty at the Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing as well as the Institute of American Indian Arts. He lives in Levant, Maine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're live from the beautiful Fine Arts Building in downtown Chicago at Lindsay's favorite bookstore, Exile in Bookville! Kimberly King Parsons talks about her debut novel, We Were the Universe, a mother's right to disassociate, drugs, horny moms, “a quick squirt,” her painstaking sentence-making, Garielle Lutz, her favorite music, deserving her novel's ending and more! Plus audience questions! Kimberly King Parsons is the author of the forthcoming novel We Were the Universe and the short story collection Black Light, which was longlisted for the National Book Award and the Story Prize. A recipient of fellowships from Yaddo and Columbia University, Parsons won the 2020 National Magazine Award for “Foxes,” a story published in The Paris Review. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her partner and children. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ferdia Lennon discusses the historical background of his debut novel, Glorious Exploits, skepticism and the divine, reading the classics, coming back to writing, using contemporary Irish dialect to write a novel set in the Peloponnesian War, and more! Ferdia Lennon was born in Dublin to an Irish mother and a Libyan father. He holds a BA in History and Classics from University College Dublin and an MA in Prose Fiction from the University of East Anglia. His short stories have appeared in publications such as the Irish Times and the Stinging Fly. In 2019 and 2021, he received Literature Bursary Awards from the Arts Council of Ireland. After spending many years in Paris, he now lives in Norwich with his wife and son. Glorious Exploits is his debut novel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lucas Mann discusses his essay collection, Attachments, as well as Brad Pitt, being a dad but not a dumb dad, intentions vs. writing, fooling himself into writing, the usefulness of delusion, writing as excavation, Dr. Becky, his bookstore in Providence, Riffraff, and more! Lucas Mann is the author of the new collection, Attachments: Essays on Fatherhood and Other Performances, as well as Captive Audience: On Love and Reality Television, Lord Fear: A Memoir, and Class A: Baseball in the Middle of Everywhere. He teaches creative writing at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, and lives in Providence, RI with his family, where they own Riffraff Bookstore and Bar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Temim Fruchter discusses her debut novel, City of Laughter, the Jewish folklore and queer joy that informed it, the circular/non-linear structure to be found in Jewish folklore and in her novel, writing in different timelines and generations, hosting Pete's Reading Series, ultrafemme queerness, and more! Temim Fruchter is a queer nonbinary anti-Zionist Jewish writer who lives in Brooklyn, NY. She holds an MFA in fiction from the University of Maryland, and is the recipient of fellowships from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Vermont Studio Center, and a 2020 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer's Award. She is co-host of Pete's Reading Series in Brooklyn. Her debut novel, CITY OF LAUGHTER, a New York Times Editors' Pick, is out now on Grove Atlantic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alexandra Tanner talks about her debut novel, WORRY, along with sibling dynamics, current slang (we don't know what it is), allowing for characters to have free will, writing a harsh yet recognizable mother character, editing a “fragmentary, formless book” into the shape it has today, Amy Klobuchar (IYKYK), the nihilism in her favorite narratives, and more! Alexandra Tanner is a Brooklyn-based writer and editor. She is a graduate of the MFA program at The New School and the recipient of fellowships from MacDowell and The Center for Fiction. Her writing appears in The New York Times Book Review, Gawker, and Jewish Currents, among other outlets. Worry is her first novel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amy Shearn discusses her new novel, Dear Edna Sloane, as well as unplugging, being a woman writer of a certain age, the notion of creating content vs. making art, working with an indie press vs. a bigger publisher, her “saucy” upcoming novel, and more! Amy Shearn is the award-winning author of the novels Unseen City, The Mermaid of Brooklyn, and How Far Is the Ocean From Here, as well as two forthcoming novels. She has worked as an editor at Medium, JSTOR, Conde Nast, and other organizations, and has taught creative writing at NYU, Sackett Street Writers Workshop, Gotham Writers Workshops, Catapult, Story Studio Chicago, The Resort LIC, and the Yale Writers' Workshop. Amy's work has appeared in many publications including the New York Times Modern Love column, Slate, Poets & Writers, Literary Hub, Real Simple, Martha Stewart Living, O: The Oprah Magazine, and Coastal Living. Amy has an MFA from the University of Minnesota, and lives in Brooklyn with her two children. You can find her at amyshearnwrites.com or @amyshearn. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Juli Min discusses her debut novel, Shanghailanders, as well as starting with place, working toward the backward-in-time structure, writing sisters, writing “mean” characters, the notion of home, the work of writing historical fiction, how becoming a mother made her fearless as a writer, the Shanghai lit scene and more! Juli Min is a Korean-American writer based in Shanghai. She holds an MFA in fiction from Warren Wilson, and she studied Russian and comparative literature at Harvard University. Her novel Shanghailanders will be published in May 2024 by Spiegel & Grau (US) and Dialogue Books (UK). Translations are forthcoming in Japanese, German, Spanish, and Norwegian. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Julia Hannafin discusses their debut novel, Cascade, as well as the research she did into the Farallon Islands, writing from life, bird shit, grief, working with Great Place Books, the difference between writing for TV and writing novels, and more! Born and raised in Berkeley, Julia Hannafin now lives in Los Angeles. They have written episodes for television. Cascade is her debut novel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Clare Beams (The Garden) discusses the fascinating medical history behind her new novel, writing a “ghost story,” crafting a sympathetic villain and an unlikable main character, finding inspiration and darkness by re-reading The Secret Garden as an adult, and more! Clare Beams's new novel, The Garden, will be published by Doubleday in April of 2024. It has been longlisted for the 2024 Joyce Carol Oates/New Literary Project Prize and featured on anticipated lists at LitHub and Bookshop.org. Her novel The Illness Lesson, published in February of 2020 by Doubleday, was a New York Times Editors' Choice and was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. It was named a best book of 2020 by Esquire and Bustle and a best book of February by Time, O Magazine, and Entertainment Weekly. Her story collection, We Show What We Have Learned, was published by Lookout Books in 2016; it won the Bard Fiction Prize, was longlisted for the Story Prize, and was a Kirkus Best Debut of 2016, as well as a finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, the New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction Award, and the Shirley Jackson Award. Her short fiction appears in One Story, n+1, Ecotone, Conjunctions, The Common, Kenyon Review, Hayden's Ferry Review, Electric Literature's Recommended Reading, and The Best American Nonrequired Reading, and has received special mention in The Pushcart Prize and twice in The Best American Short Stories. She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the Sewanee Writers' Conference, MacDowell, and the Sustainable Arts Foundation, and was a finalist for the 2023 Joyce Carol Oates/New Literary Project Prize. Clare lives in Pittsburgh with her husband and two daughters and currently teaches in the Randolph MFA program. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Daniel Sweren-Becker discusses his new novel, Kill Show, as well as using the oral history format, finding the right balance of red herrings to tantalize but not torture the reader, true crime, the way truth can be shaped and manipulated, white man's fragility, and more! Daniel Sweren-Becker is an author, a television writer, and a playwright living in Los Angeles. He graduated from Wesleyan University and received an MFA from New York University. His play Stress Positions premiered in New York City at the SoHo Playhouse, and he is the author of the novels The Ones and The Equals. His new novel is Kill Show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Katya Apekina discusses her new novel, Mother Doll, as well as using humor as a coping mechanism and a vehicle for intimacy, sex scenes, giving a ghost a voice, being inspired by her grandmother's memoirs, generational trauma, time as something stacked rather than something sprawling, ambiguous endings, and so much more! Katya Apekina is a novelist, screenwriter and translator. Her novel, The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish, was named a Best Book of 2018 by Kirkus, Buzzfeed, LitHub and others, was a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize and has been translated into Spanish, Catalan, French, German and Italian. She has published stories in various literary magazines and translated poetry and prose for Night Wraps the Sky: Writings by and about Mayakovsky (FSG, 2008), short-listed for the Best Translated Book Award. She co-wrote the screenplay for the feature film New Orleans, Mon Amour, which premiered at SXSW in 2008. She is the recipient of an Elizabeth George grant, an Olin Fellowship, the Alena Wilson prize and a 3rd Year Fiction Fellowship from Washington University in St. Louis where she did her MFA. She has done residencies at VCCA, Playa, Ucross, Art Omi: Writing and Fondation Jan Michalski in Switzerland. Born in Moscow, she grew up in Boston, and currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband, daughter and dog. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brandi Wells talks about their debut novel, The Cleaner, and discusses the Muppet Babies, writing a character who's inventing her own world, what constitutes “real work,” what they love about teaching, revising by listening to their book be read to them over and over, weird coworkers, and more! Brandi Wells is the author of the novella, This Boring Apocalypse as well as a full length chapbook of stories, Please Don't Be Upset. Their fiction appears in Puerto Del Sol, Mid-American Review, Tri-Quarterly and many other journals. A native of Georgia, they teach creative writing at California State University, Fullerton.  Their new novel is The Cleaner, an offbeat, darkly clever tale about a night cleaner who discovers a toxic secret about her company's CEO—and decides to take matters into her own hands. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sarah Kain Gutowski discusses her book-length narrative in poems, The Familiar, the way she's made space for her Extraordinary and Ordinary Selves, figuring out how to market herself and her work, finding the meaning in darkness, collaborating with Texas Review Press, and more! Sarah Kain Gutowski is the author of Fabulous Beast, winner of the 14th annual National Indies Excellence Award for Poetry and a 2019 Foreword Indies Finalist. With interdisciplinary artist Meredith Starr, she is co-creator of Every Second Feels Like Theft, a conversation in cyanotypes and poetry, and It's All Too Much, a limited edition audio project. Her poems have appeared in The Gettysburg Review, The Threepenny Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, and The Southern Review, and her criticism has been published by Colorado Review, Calyx, and New York Journal of Books. Her new collection is a book-length narrative in poems titled The Familiar, which explores female mid-life existential crisis through two characters, the Ordinary Self and the Extraordinary Self, who send a single household into chaos as they vacillate between the siren call of ambition, the necessity of the workplace, and responsibility to love and family. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, John Cotter (Losing Music) discusses writing a memoir by accreting details, revision, being a gusher or not, reinventing the wheel with every project, considering the reader, how his memoir is actually a mystery, the inhumanity of the medical industry, and more! John Cotter is the author of the novel Under the Small Lights, and the memoir Losing Music, which Oprah Daily calls, “as much a love letter to sound itself as it is a chronicle of loss; your world will sound different after reading it.” The Millions calls Losing Music, “a powerful addition to the memoir canon–hard-hitting, beautiful, profound.” And The Wall Street Journal says, “Evidence that Mr. Cotter's ear is still keen for the melodies of language sings from every page.”  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, Abbott Kahler (Where You End) discusses the true story that inspired her novel, how her writing process changed as she pivoted from nonfiction to fiction, outlining, the unique world of twins, working with her longtime group of readers, starting all over, and more! Abbott Kahler, formerly writing as Karen Abbott, is the New York Times bestselling author of Sin in the Second City; American Rose; Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy; and The Ghosts of Eden Park, which was an Edgar Award finalist for best fact crime and a finalist for the Ohioana Book Award. Her next nonfiction book, Then Came the Devil, is forthcoming in 2025. She is also the host of Remus: The Mad Bootleg King, a forthcoming podcast from iHeartRadio about legendary Jazz Age bootlegger George Remus. A native of Philadelphia, she lives in New York City and in Greenport, New York, where she is at work on her next novel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, Kate Brody discusses her literary crime debut, Rabbit Hole, inhabiting and subverting the crime genre, writing sex scenes, writing men, the narrative use of a gun in the novel, what drives us to consume true crime, and more! Kate Brody lives in Los Angeles, California. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Lit Hub, CrimeReads, Electric Lit, The Rumpus, and The Literary Review, among other publications. She holds an MFA from NYU. Rabbit Hole is her debut. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Julie Myerson discusses the immersive structure of her new novel, how her real life influenced her fiction, dealing with intense public backlash and rediscovering her confidence as a writer, Elizabeth Strout, and so much more! Julie Myerson is the author of ten novels, including the bestselling Something Might Happen and The Stopped Heart, and three works of nonfiction, including Home: The Story of Everyone Who Ever Lived in Our House and The Lost Child. As a critic and columnist, she has written for many newspapers including The Guardian, the FT, Harper's Bazaar and the New York Times, and she was a regular guest on BBC TV's Newsnight Review. She lives in London with her family. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yael Goldstein-Love discusses her time- and genre-bending novel, The Possibilities, trying to put motherhood into words, using quantum mechanics to explain the paradox of parenthood, the way parents birth a child's mind, mom rage, writing humor, her newest project, and more! Yael Goldstein-Love is the author of the novels The Passion of Tasha Darsky, described as “showing signs of brooding genius” by The New York Times, and The Possibilities, a speculative thriller about the psychological transition to motherhood. A PEOPLE pick of the week (“a powerful page-turner with deep wisdom”) and Good Morning America recommendation for summer reading (“taps into those primal feelings every nurturer feels — and fears”), The Possibilities grew out of Goldstein-Love's own rocky transition to motherhood as well as her clinical passion for working with people during this fraught and potentially generative period. Her doctoral dissertation examined how mothers experience their anxiety for the unknown futures of their children. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Boston Globe, and Slate, among other places. A graduate of Harvard University and The Wright Institute, she lives with her six-year-old son and a very patient cat in Berkeley, CA. In another life, she was co-founder and Editorial Director of the literary studio Plympton, which aims to make the digital age a golden age for literature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Andrew Porter discusses his new collection, The Disappeared, how his process changes depending on what he's working on, trying to hold a novel in his head all at once as he's drafting, moving from writing stories to writing a novel and back again, when and how he thinks about structure, and more! Andrew Porter is the author of the short story collection The Theory of Light and Matter (Vintage/Penguin Random House), which won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, the novel In Between Days (Knopf), which was a Barnes & Noble “Discover Great New Writers” selection and an IndieBound “Indie Next” selection, and the short story collection The Disappeared (Knopf), which was recently published in April 2023. Porter's books have been published in foreign editions in the UK and Australia and translated into numerous languages, including French, Spanish, Dutch, Bulgarian, and Korean. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Athena Dixon discusses her new book, The Loneliness Files, the cases that inspired the essays, how social media can help and harm the creative process, writing on her phone, being ghosted for writing opportunities, being transparent in the industry, working without an agent, and more! Born and raised in Northeast Ohio, Athena Dixon is a poet, essayist, and editor. She is the author of the essay collection The Loneliness Files, out now on Tin House, The Incredible Shrinking Woman and No God In This Room, Winner of the Intersectional Midwest Chapbook Contest. Her work also appears in The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 2: Black Girl Magic and Getting to the Truth: The Practice and Craft of Creative Nonfiction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rachel Cantor discusses her new novel, Half-Life of a Stolen Sister: A Novel of the Brontës, writing a modern take on historical characters, finding her way to the novel's innovative form, finding a balance in voice and tone, finding a publisher for this book without an agent, and more! Rachel Cantor is the author of the novels A Highly Unlikely Scenario and Good on Paper. Her short stories have appeared in The Paris Review, One Story, Ninth Letter, and The Kenyon Review, among other publications. She was raised in Rome and Connecticut, and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this truly wonderful and enlightening episode, E.J. Koh discusses her debut novel, the magic of dogs, familial relationships, how poetry helped her communicate, magnanimity, how imagination and creativity are essential aspects of apology, her hope for Korea, and more!  E. J. Koh is the author of the memoir The Magical Language of Others, which won a Washington State Book Award, Pacific Northwest Book Award, Association for Asian American Studies Book Award, and was longlisted for the PEN Open Book Award. Koh is also the author of the poetry collection A Lesser Love, a Pleiades Press Editors Prize for Poetry Winner. She earned her MFA at Columbia University in New York for Creative Writing and Literary Translation and her PhD at the University of Washington in English Language and Literature studying Korean American literature, history, and film. Koh has received National Endowment for the Arts, MacDowell, American Literary Translators Association, and Kundiman fellowships. She lives in Seattle, Washington. Her debut novel is The Liberators, out on Tin House November 7, 2023. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kathleen Rooney discusses her new novel, which is based on silent film star Colleen Moore and the fairy castle she created, as well as the best kind of weirdos, nailing the unique voice of her protagonist, researching the silent film era, and more! Kathleen Rooney is a founding editor of Rose Metal Press, a nonprofit publisher of literary work in hybrid genres, as well as a founding member of Poems While You Wait, a team of poets and their typewriters who compose commissioned poetry on demand. She teaches in the English Department at DePaul University, and her recent books include the national best-seller Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk and the novel Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey.. Where Are the Snows, her latest poetry collection, was chosen by Kazim Ali for the X.J. Kennedy Prize and published by Texas Review Press in Fall 2022. With her sister Beth Rooney, she is the author of the picture book Leaf Town Forever, forthcoming in 2025 from University of Minnesota Press. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chloé Caldwell discusses her memoir, The Red Zone, as well as the ambitious decision to center a book around her period/PMDD, periods in pop culture, women's changing bodies, the euphoria of seeing menstruation depicted realistically, structuring and restructuring her book, and more (about periods)! Chloé Caldwell is the author of The Red Zone: A Love Story (Soft Skull, 2022) and three more books: the essay collection I'll Tell You in Person (Coffee House/Emily Books, 2016), the critically acclaimed novella, WOMEN (SF/LD 2014), and Legs Get Led Astray (2012). Orphaned Passages: Notes on Trying will release in 2025 from Graywolf Press. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cleo Qian discusses moving between poetry and fiction, the inspiration behind some of the stories in her debut collection, allowing her book to age as she revised, honoring the privacy of writing, and more! Cleo Qian (she/her) is a fiction writer and poet from California. She received her MFA from NYU. Her work has appeared in over 20 outlets; was a winner of the Zoetrope: All Story Short Fiction Competition; has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, twice longlisted for the DISQUIET Prize, and supported by Sundress Academy for the Arts. By day, she works at a nonprofit and reads self-help articles on how to be happy. Her debut short story collection, LET'S GO LET'S GO LET'S GO, is out now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eden Robins (Franny Stands Up) discusses her new novel, catharsis in comedy, how being a funny woman is STILL transgressive, the terror of writing the jokes for the book, the intermingling of trauma and pain and humor, Chicago history, and more! Eden Robins loves novels best, but they take forever so she also writes short stories and self-absorbed essays at places like Catapult, USA Today, LA Review of Books, Apex magazine, Shimmer, and others. Her debut novel When Franny Stands Up was named a best book of 2022 by the Chicago Reader, a best queer book of 2022 by Autostraddle, and Best Book of the Month by Bustle and Buzzfeed. She co-hosts a science podcast called No Such Thing As Boring with an actual scientist and produces a monthly live lit show in Chicago called Tuesday Funk. Previously, she sold sex toys, wrote jokes for Big Pharma, and once did a stand-up comedy set to an audience who didn't boo. She lives in Chicago, has been to the bottom of the ocean, and will never go to space. Find out more scintillating tidbits at monkeythumbs.com and on Twitter and Instagram @edenrobins. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ben Purkert discusses the rich text of toxic masculinity, writing a novel that engages with authenticity and a character who has no idea who he is, the role Judaism plays in the book, poetry being his first love, the dearth of heterosexual male intimacy, writing complex female characters, and more! Ben Purkert is the author of the debut novel, The Men Can't Be Saved (Abrams/Overlook). His poetry collection, For the Love of Endings (Four Way Books, 2018), was named one of Adroit's Best Poetry Books of the Year. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Nation, Slate, Poetry, Ploughshares, Kenyon Review, Tin House, and elsewhere. He holds degrees from Harvard and NYU, where he was a New York Times Fellow. He is the editor of Back Draft, a Guernica interview series focused on revision and the creative process. He currently teaches creative writing at Rutgers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Daniel Hornsby discusses his new novel, Sucker, as well as the difficulty of editing a book's opening, tech hubris, writing a character who inhabits the punk/DIY world and is full of shit, caves are great but spelunking is idiotic, Celine Dion is a time lord, and so much more!  Plus: Alex has returned for one ep only! Keep up with all things Great Place Books and Alex's novel True Failure! Daniel Hornsby is the author of the novels Sucker and Via Negativa, and his stories and essays have appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Electric Literature, The Missouri Review, and Joyland. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Isabel Kaplan discusses her bestselling novel, NSFW, writing an authentic codependent relationship, pushing past catharsis and resolution rather than crafting a traditional ending, her use of dialogue and conversation, querying agents at age 12, what it's like to have a viral essay, and more!  And: stay tuned at the end to hear excerpts from some exciting new small press releases from Grant Maierhofer and Shannon McLeod!   Isabel Kaplan is the author of the national bestselling novel NSFW, which was a finalist for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize and an Amazon “Best Book of 2022.” She is also the author of the viral Guardian essay “My boyfriend, a writer, broke up with me because I'm a writer” and the national bestselling young adult novel Hancock Park. She studied English at Harvard, holds an MFA in creative writing from NYU, and was born and raised in Los Angeles.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, Ben Hinshaw discusses his debut novel, Exactly What You Mean, as well as shaping this novel-in-stories, how parenthood changed his writing, locating and maintaining his authentic voice, his process, the weird feelings that accompany publication, and more!  Ben Hinshaw's writing has received an O. Henry Award and appeared in Granta, Harvard Review, Story, The Carolina Quarterly, The White Review and elsewhere. He earned his MA in creative writing at UC Davis and has received grants and scholarships from the Elizabeth George Foundation, Bread Loaf, and the Community of Writers. Born on the island of Guernsey, Ben has lived in London, Nottingham and Northern California. He currently lives on Guernsey with his wife and daughters.   Ben's debut novel is Exactly What You Mean, published by Viking and selected for BBC Two's Between the Coversbook club. Exactly What You Mean was called "brilliant" and "remarkable" by The Sunday Times, "a notable debut from a smart and capable author" by Hilary Mantel, and "riveting and beautifully patterned" by Max Porter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, Kathleen Hale talked about the extensive research and work that went into her new book, SLENDERMAN: Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls, as well as how she rewrote its 680+ page manuscript, how being canceled brought her to the story, the Wisconsin justice system, and more.   Kathleen Hale is a true crime author and TV writer based in Los Angeles. She is the author of four books. Her work has been featured in Vanity Fair, among other outlets.  Hale's article on Gabby Petito was Vanity Fair's most read piece of 2022. It was optioned by FilmNation.  Her fourth book, SLENDERMAN: Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls, was optioned by Littleton Road Productions and sold to Peacock. SLENDERMAN was nominated for an Edgar Prize. It also won the 2022 Midland Writers Award for Non Fiction.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, Anne K. Yoder (The Enhancers) discusses her “poet's novel”; writing a dystopian, cross-genre, fictional pharmaceutical packet; the long revision process; running the arts collective/press Meekling Press; and more!   Anne K. Yoder is the author of the novel The Enhancers, which was selected as a must-read by Wired, Vulture, Nylon, and elsewhere. Her fiction, essays, and criticism have appeared in Fence, BOMB, Tin House, NY Tyrant, and MAKE, among other publications, and has been recognized in Best American Nonrequired Reading. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks and is a member of the Chicago-based publishing and arts collective, Meekling Press. She writes, lives, and occasionally dispenses pharmaceuticals in Chicago.  Amanda Goldblatt's novel is Hard Mouth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, Tania James discusses her new romp of a novel, LOOT, and how it helped her re-find her way as a writer, staying in it over a long career, researching 18th century Mysore and Europe, working with Knopf, and more!  Tania James is the author of the novels The Tusk That Did the Damage and Atlas of Unknowns and the short-story collection Aerogrammes. Her fiction has appeared in Freeman's, Granta, The New Yorker, O, The Oprah Magazine, One Story, and A Public Space. Tania has been a fellow of Ragdale, MacDowell, the Sustainable Arts Foundation, and the Fulbright Program. She teaches in the MFA program at George Mason University and lives in Washington, D.C.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, Jessica Anne (Sex with My Family) and Joshua Bohnsack of Long Day Press talk about collaborating on this short, vicious, beautiful book; cows; maintaining rawness in the work; Jessica's theater background informing her writing; endings; Long Day's forthcoming manual on muskrat removal (!); and more!   Jessica Anne is Neo-Futurist, Lit & Luz artistic associate, author of A Manual for Nothing, and Visiting Lecturer at Roosevelt University. Her new book is Sex with My Family. Long Day Press is a Chicago-based novella and chapbook publisher. Since 2015, they have published boundary-pushing work with an emphasis on emerging Midwestern writers. Joshua Bohnsack's band is Kyle Francois and the Gold Dust. Listen here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, S.L. Wisenberg discusses her Juniper Prize winning essay collection, The Wandering Womb: Essays in Search of Home, as well as inspiration, encountering herself when revisiting and revising her work, finishing, locating her fear as a prompt, and more!  S. L. Wisenberg is editor of Another Chicago Magazine and author of the fiction collection, The Sweetheart Is In, and two nonfiction books, Holocaust Girls: History, Memory, and Other Obsessions and The Adventures of Cancer Bitch. The recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Holocaust Education Foundation, and the Illinois Arts Council, Wisenberg works as a writing coach, editor, and creative writing instructor in Chicago. Her new book is The Wandering Womb: Essays in Search of Home, which was the recipient of the Juniper Prize for Creative Nonfiction and was published by the University of Massachusetts Press.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, Jane Wong reads from her new memoir, Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City, and discusses transforming her collection of essays into a non-linear memoir, “Wongmom.com,” working in poetry and prose, “writing up to the present,” writing the hard stuff, tonal shifts, and more!  Jane Wong is the author of How to Not Be Afraid of Everything from Alice James Books (2021) and Overpour from Action Books (2016). Her debut memoir, Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City, is forthcoming from Tin House in May, 2023. She holds an M.F.A. in Poetry from the University of Iowa and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Washington and is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Western Washington University. Her poems can be found in places such as Best American Nonrequired Reading 2019, Best American Poetry 2015, The New York Times, American Poetry Review, POETRY, The Kenyon Review, New England Review, and others. Her essays have appeared in places such as McSweeney's, Black Warrior Review, Ecotone, The Common, The Georgia Review, Shenandoah, and This is the Place: Women Writing About Home. A Kundiman fellow, she is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and fellowships and residencies from the U.S. Fulbright Program, Artist Trust, Harvard's Woodberry Poetry Room, 4Culture, the Fine Arts Work Center, Bread Loaf, Hedgebrook, Willapa Bay, the Jentel Foundation, SAFTA, Mineral School, the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, Loghaven, and others. The recipient of the James W. Ray Distinguished Artist Award for Washington artists, her first solo art show “After Preparing the Altar, the Ghosts Feast Feverishly” was exhibited at the Frye Art Museum in 2019. Her artwork will also be a part of “Nourish,” an exhibition at the Richmond Art Gallery in 2022. A scholar of Asian American poetry and poetics as well, you can explore "The Poetics of Haunting" project here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, John Milas discusses his new novel, the difference between terror and horror, perception vs. time, working with Roxane Gay, the real Militia House, writing a speculative literary military novel, the nostalgia of 2010, and more! John Milas is the author of the forthcoming novel THE MILITIA HOUSE (Henry Holt, 2023). He enlisted in the US Marine Corps at age nineteen and subsequently deployed to the Helmand Province of Afghanistan in support of OEF 10.1. He was honorably discharged from active service in 2012. After his discharge, he earned both his BA and MFA in creative writing. As a student, he studied with writers such as Marianne Boruch, Roxane Gay, Brian Leung, Robert Lopez, Terese Marie Mailhot, Julie Price Pinkerton, Donald Platt, Sharon Solwitz, and others. He is represented by Julia Kardon of HG Literary and Dana Spector of CAA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices