Nation of Writers

In this episode, we discuss the life and work of Flannery O’Connor. Born in Georgia in 1925, O’Connor wrote prolifically before her early death at age 39 due to lupus. She routinely wrote every morning until noon, and spent her afternoons and evenings tending to her domestic birds or entertaining visitors. Informed by the community [...]

In this episode, we discuss the life and work of Studs Terkel. A Chicago resident from age 10 until his death at age 96, Studs Terkel epitomized Chicago. A charismatic presence, Terkel began his career as a radio actor and on-air interviewer before becoming the star of an unscripted local TV show called Stud's Place. [...]

In this episode, we discuss the life and work of novelist and short story writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. Born in Salem, Massachusetts, Hawthorne's paternal ancestors were some of the first Puritans to arrive in America—one of his ancestors was even a judge who oversaw the Salem Witch Trials. He was educated at Bowdoin College where he [...]

This episode lies between the pit of man's fears, and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call, The Twilight Zone… In this episode, we discuss the life and work of screenwriter Rod Serling. Quoting from the PBS American Masters episode about him, “Known primarily [...]

This week, we take a look back at some of our top episodes of 2024 from both of our podcast series: AWM Author Talks and Nation of Writers. This is our final episode of 2024. We'll return next year with even more episodes featuring the writers you love and the stories they tell. Presented in [...]

In this episode, we discuss the life and work of poet and novelist James Welch. Part Blackfeet and part Gros Ventre, Welch grew up on the Blackfeet and Fort Belknap reservations in Montana and graduated from the University of Montana, where he studied writing under poet Richard Hugo. Welch was the author of the novels [...]

In this episode, we discuss the life and work of Filipina-American journalist and guerilla leader Yay Panlilio. Born in 1913 to a Filipina mother and Irish-American father, she moved to the Philippines in the 1930s where she became a popular reporter, photographer, and radio broadcaster. When World War II broke out, Yay served as an [...]

In this episode, we discuss the life and work of queer Chicana poet, essayist, and theorist Gloria E. Anzaldúa. Quoting from The Gloria Anzaldúa Reader edited by AnaLouise Keating: “Born in the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas, Gloria Anzaldúa was an internationally acclaimed cultural theorist. As the author of Borderlands / La Frontera: The [...]

In this episode, we discuss the life and work of journalist Mike Royko, a Chicago writing icon. Quoting from the Newberry Library’s current exhibit Chicago Style: Mike Royko and Windy City Journalism, “Best known for his daily column, he wrote for the Chicago Daily News from 1959 until the paper's closure in 1978; he joined [...]

In this episode, we discuss the life and work of Thomas Wolfe, one of the country's leading novelists of the early twentieth century. A contemporary of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Faulkner, Wolfe is best known for his first novel Look Homeward, Angel. He would publish four books during his lifetime and is an important figure in [...]

In this episode, we discuss the life and work of the multifaceted writer Rachel Pollack. She was the author of 41 books, including two award-winning novels, Unquenchable Fire, winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and Godmother Night, winner of the World Fantasy Award. Her comics work includes Doom Patrol, The New Gods, Tomahawk, The [...]

In this episode, we'll discuss the life and work of poet and author Audre Lorde. Born in New York City in 1934, Lorde was the daughter of immigrants and had a love for poetry from an early age. She would go on to publish many collections of poetry, essays, and speeches that continue to have [...]

In this episode, we'll discuss the life and work of poet W. S. Merwin. Appointed U.S. Poet Laureate in 2010, William Stanley Merwin had a career that spanned seven decades. A poet, translator, gardener and environmental activist, Merwin has become one of the most widely read and honored poets in America, the recipient of two [...]

In this episode, we'll discuss the life and work of fiction writer Kate Chopin, who dared to write about female sexuality, longing, and identity at a time when women were expected to focus on husbands and family. Chopin's works mostly take place in Louisiana and lyrically reflect the many cultures of the region: Creoles, Acadians, [...]

In this episode, we’ll discuss the life and work of television pioneer Norman Lear. We are joined by pop culture historian Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, whose bestselling books detail the stories and cultural impacts of television and film. Her latest book, So Fetch: The Making of Mean Girls (And Why We're Still So Obsessed with It) [...]

*Episode note: In the introduction, we incorrectly called the book co-written with Vince Lombardi Running into Daylight. The correct title is Run to Daylight. In this episode, we'll discuss the life and work of journalist and author W. C. Heinz. Most well known for his sports reporting, Heinz was one of the nation's preeminent sports [...]

In this special episode, we take a look back at some of our favorite moments from the top episodes of our two ongoing series – Nation of Writers and AWM Author Talks.

In this episode, we discuss the life and work of writing icon Joan Didion, a writer's writer. Not only a groundbreaking journalist, essayist, novelist, and screenwriter, Didion was also a keen observer of life in all its humor, disappointment and grace. Perhaps best known for essay writing and collections such as The White Album, The [...]

In this episode, we'll discuss the life and work of indigenous author and orator William Apess. In 1829 Apess published his memoir A Son of the Forest, which describes his journey to reclaim his Pequot identity after being taken away from his family and forced to work as a servant for white families. The memoir [...]

In this episode, we'll discuss the life and work of Edna St. Vincent Millay. The wildly popular Jazz Age poet ventured fearlessly beyond traditional poetic subjects to tackle political injustice, social discrimination, and female sexuality in her bestselling books, beginning with Renascence and Other Poems in 1917. The first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize [...]

In this episode, we'll discuss the life and work of Betty Friedan. The feminist writer and activist acclaimed as the mother of second-wave feminism, and pathbreaking author of The Feminine Mystique, was powerful and polarizing. As a journalist she covered racism, sexism, labor, class inequality, and anti-Semitism. As a wife and mother, she struggled to [...]

In this episode, we'll discuss the life and work of poet Phillis Wheatley Peters. Kidnapped in West Africa, Wheatley Peters was renamed after the ship that brought her to Boston to be sold as a slave. A precocious child, she was given an education, which was unusual at a time when enslaved African-Americans could be [...]

In this episode, we'll discuss the life and work of the late Cormac McCarthy, whose novels about wayward characters in the rural American South and Southwest are noted for their dark violence, dense prose, and stylistic complexity. During his long career, McCarthy wrote twelve novels, two plays, five screenplays, and three short stories, many of [...]

In this episode, we'll discuss the life and work of Ursula K. Le Guin. As you can read on her website, UrsulaKLeGuin.com, she was, “a celebrated author whose body of work includes 23 novels, 12 volumes of short stories, 11 volumes of poetry, 13 children's books, five essay collections, and four works of translation. The [...]

In this episode, we'll discuss the life and work of iconic poet Walt Whitman, who grew up in working-class New York City and was largely self taught. Whitman's poems celebrated America, freedom, and individualism. His unconventional free verse, without rhyme or meter, shocked many readers but others found Whitman's style and voice distinctly American and [...]

In this episode, we'll discuss the life and work of poet, author, educator and community builder Gwendolyn Brooks, who was born in Topeka, Kansas. She moved to Chicago at just a few weeks old, where she remained an integral figure in the city for the rest of her life. Her work often dealt with the [...]

In this episode, we'll discuss the life and work of Edith Wharton, who was born in 1862 into a tightly controlled society at a time when women were discouraged from achieving anything beyond a proper marriage. Wharton broke through these strictures to become one of America's greatest writers. Author of The Age of Innocence, Ethan [...]

In this episode, we'll discuss the life and work of Zora Neale Hurston, who was, simply, extraordinary. She grew up in Eatonville, Florida, an all-black town, leaving home in her teens and working menial jobs in order to finish high school. She arrived in New York in the 1920s to study anthropology at Columbia University [...]

In this episode, we discuss the life and work of Chicago legend Nelson Algren, one of the most well known literary writers in America in the 40s and 50s who eventually fell into obscurity toward the end of his life. Algren is perhaps best known for his novels such as A Walk on the Wild [...]

In this episode, we discuss the life and work of Willa Cather. As one of the greatest American novelists of the 20th century, Cather was gifted in conveying an intimate understanding of her characters in relation to their personal and cultural environments—environments that often derived from Red Cloud, Nebraska where she spent most of her [...]

In this episode, we'll discuss the life and work of Rudolfo Anaya. A writer powerfully attuned to the land, history, and people of his native New Mexico, Anaya is often viewed as one of the founders of contemporary Chicano literature. “What I've wanted to do,” Anaya reflected, “is compose the Chicano worldview…and clarify it for [...]

In this episode, we'll discuss the life and work of Oscar Hijuelos, who became the first Latino to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1990 for his novel The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love. He wrote rich and radiant novels that brought the Cuban American immigrant experience into the heart of American literature, helping [...]

In this episode, we'll discuss the life and work of Octavia E. Butler. Butler was an acclaimed American writer who defied genre, though she is most often associated with the realm of science fiction. The recipient of multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards, she is the author of such classics as Kindred, Parable of the Sower, [...]

In this episode, we'll discuss the life and work of the one and only Prince. The Purple One was an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, poet, cultural icon, and is widely regarded as one of the best musicians of his generation. In this episode we'll largely focus on Prince's lyricism, as well as his profound impact on [...]

In this episode, we'll discuss the life and work of Nora Ephron, one of the most popular, accomplished, and beloved writers in American journalism and film. Best known for iconic rom-com films like When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail and more, Ephron was also a reporter, essayist, director and novelist who [...]

In this episode, we'll discuss the life and work of Sylvia Plath, the poet, novelist, and short-story writer. Plath is perhaps best known for her published collections The Colossus and Other Poems and Ariel, as well as the novel The Bell Jar. Nearly twenty years after her death, Plath was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in [...]

In this episode, we'll discuss the life and work of Margaret Wise Brown, the children's book author of classics such as Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny. Margaret's books have sold millions of copies all over the world, but few people know that she was at the center of a children's book publishing revolution. Her [...]

In this episode, we'll discuss the life and work of Toni Morrison. A writer who needs no introduction, Toni Morrison is one of the most cherished American authors, known for her iconic novels like Beloved, Song of Solomon, The Bluest Eye, and Sula. She earned numerous prestigious awards during her life including the Pulitzer Prize, [...]

In this episode, we'll discuss the life and work of Hannah Arendt. Arendt is one of the most renowned political thinkers of the twentieth century, and her work has never been more relevant than it is today. Born in Germany in 1906, she published her first book at the age of 23 before turning away [...]

In this episode, we'll discuss the life and work of Rachel Carson, a hugely influential marine biologist and nature writer. Her 1962 book Silent Spring is perhaps her most recognized work, as it led to a nationwide ban on DDT and other pesticides and sparked the worldwide environmental and conservation movements. The Library of America [...]

In this episode, we'll discuss the life and work of Zitkála-Šá, who also went by the name Gertrude Simmons Bonnin. Zitkála-Šá was a member of the Yankton Dakota, also known as Sioux, tribe. An accomplished violinist, writer, and activist, she co-founded the National Council of American Indians, lobbied Congress to pass the Indian Citizenship Act, [...]

In this episode, we'll discuss the life and work of multi-dimensional writer Shirley Jackson, perhaps best known for her horror novels and short stories. We're joined by three guests whose lives and careers have been influenced greatly by Jackson in different ways. Laurence Jackson Hyman is the eldest child of Shirley Jackson and Stanley Edgar [...]

In this episode, we'll discuss the life and work of chef, author, documentarian, and tv personality Anthony Bourdain. We're joined by his longtime assistant and writing partner Laurie Woolever. Woolever's latest book is Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography, which features interviews with nearly 100 people from all facets of Bourdain's life from childhood to his [...]

This podcast is presented in conjunction with our new virtual exhibit, American Voices, which you can explore at NationOfWriters.org. In this episode, we'll discuss the life and work of Américo Paredes. Paredes was an esteemed scholar and storyteller of the Mexico-U.S. border, a champion of its history, peoples, music, and mythologies. He grew up in [...]

This podcast is presented in conjunction with our new virtual exhibit, American Voices, which you can explore at NationOfWriters.org. In this episode, we'll discuss the life and work of Cuban-born writer Reinaldo Arenas with our guests Ann Tashi Slater and Peter Johnson. Arenas was born in the Cuban countryside where he spent a lot of [...]

In this episode, we'll discuss the life and work of Japanese American author Hisaye Yamamoto. You can learn more about Yamamoto by exploring our virtual exhibit on Google Arts and Culture. I also highly recommend you read her work as it is powerful and accessible. As we were creating the exhibit, I found myself engrossed [...]

In this episode, we dive into the life and work of Maya Angelou with Nikki Giovanni and Glory Edim. About our guests: Nikki Giovanni is an acclaimed poet, writer, activist and educator. She is the author of several bestselling collections of poetry and the recipient of numerous well-earned awards and honors. Glory Edim is the [...]

This episode we discuss Ray Bradbury with Bradbury scholars Jason Aukerman and Patrick Mullins. Be sure to check out our newest online exhibit Ray Bradbury: Inextinguishable launching April 14th. More about our guests: Jason Aukerman is a Clinical Assistant Professor of American Studies and English and the Director of the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies [...]

This episode we discuss Margaret Walker with Angela Stewart, Archivist at the Margaret Walker Center, an archive and museum dedicated to the preservation, interpretation, and dissemination of African American history and culture. This podcast is presented in conjunction with our new virtual exhibit, American Voices, which you can explore at NationOfWriters.org AWM PODCAST NETWORK HOME

Today, we discuss the life and writings of Abraham Lincoln with our guests Carolyn Curiel, former U.S. Ambassador and Senior Speechwriter for Bill Clinton; and Dr. Christian McWhirter, Lincoln Historian at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. If you are interested in reading Lincoln more and exploring his writing more in depth, the Papers [...]

Welcome to the Nation of Writers Podcast, a monthly series from the American Writers Museum that aims to explore our ever growing Nation of Writers by examining powerful and significant American Voices throughout history. This podcast is presented in conjunction with our new virtual exhibit American Voices. Explore at NationOfWriters.org. This month, we learn more [...]