Podcast appearances and mentions of jamie quatro

Mystics and prophets have reported receiving visions from the Divine for centuries—”Thus saith the Lord…”—Hildegard of Bingen, Teresa of Avila, Ignatius of Loyola, Catherine of Siena, or Julian of Norwich. The list goes on.But what would you think if you met a seer of visions in the present day? Maybe you have.What about a prophet whose visions came like a movie screen unfurled before him, the images grotesque and vivid, all in the unsuspecting backwoods setting of Lookout Mountain, deep in the south of Tennessee.Would you believe it? Would you believe him? The beauty of fiction allows the reader to join the author in asking: What if?That's exactly what Jamie Quatro has allowed us to do in her newest work of literary fiction, Two-Step Devil.What if an earnest and wildly misunderstood Christian is left alone on Lookout Mountain? What if the receiver of visions makes art that reaches a girl who's stuck in the darkest grip of a fraught world? What if the Devil really did sit in the corner of the kitchen, wearing a cowboy hat, and what if he got to tell his own side of the Biblical story?On today's episode novelist Jamie Quatro joins Macie Bridge to share about her relationship to the theological exploration within her latest novel, Two-Step Devil; her experience of being a Christian and a writer, but not a “Christian Writer”; and how the trinity of main characters in the novel speak to and open up her own deepest concerns about the state of our country and the world we inhabit.Jamie Quatro is the New York Times Notable author of I Want to Show You More, and Fire Sermon. *Two-Step Devil* is her latest work and is the winner of the 2024 Willie Morris Award for Southern Writing, and it's also been named a New York Times Editor's Choice, among other accolades. Jamie teaches in the Sewanee School of Letters MFA program.SPOILER ALERT! This episode contains substantial spoilers to the novel's plot, so if you'd like to read it for yourself, first grab a copy from your local bookstore, then two-step on back over here to listen to this conversation!About Jamie QuatroJamie Quatro is the New York Times Notable author of I Want to Show You More, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award and the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Prize, and Fire Sermon, a Book of the Year for the Economist, San Francisco Chronicle, LitHub, Bloomberg, and the Times Literary Supplement. Her most recent novel, Two-Step Devil, is the winner of the 2024 Willie Morris Award for Southern Writing. It has also been named a New York Times Editor's Choice, a 2025 ALA Notable Book, and a Best Book of 2024 by the Paris Review and the Atlanta Journal Constitution. A new story collection is forthcoming from Grove Press.Quatro's fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Harper's, the New York Review of Books, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of fellowships from MacDowell, Yaddo, Bread Loaf, and La Maison Dora Maar in Ménerbes, France, where she will be in residence in 2025. Quatro holds an MA in English from the College of William and Mary and an MFA in fiction from the Bennington College Writing Seminars. She teaches in the Sewanee School of Letters MFA program, and lives with her family in Chattanooga, Tennessee.Show NotesGet your copy of Two-Step Devil by Jamie QuatroClick here to view the art that inspired Jamie Quatro's Two-Step DevilProduction NotesThis podcast featured Jamie Quatro with Macie BridgeEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan RosaProduction Assistance by Macie Bridge, Alexa Rollow, Zoë Halaban, Kacie Barrett & Emily BrookfieldA Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/aboutSupport For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give

National Novel Writing Month takes a hit for its position on AI; the 20th anniversary of a novel we love: Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell; and we visit with writer Jamie Quatro on her novel Two-Step Devil about an outsider artist in Appalachia who professes to be a prophet of God.  Thank you for listening! If you like what you hear, give us a follow at: X: Across the Pond, Galley Beggar Press, Interabang Books, Lori Feathers, Sam JordisonInstagram: Across the Pond, Galley Beggar Press, Interabang Books, Lori Feathers, Sam JordisonFacebook: Across the Pond, Galley Beggar Press, Interabang BooksTheme music by Carlos Guajardo-Molina

This week on From the Front Porch, it's another New Release Rundown! Annie, Erin, and Olivia are sharing the September releases they're excited about to help you build your TBR. When you purchase or preorder any of the books they talk about, enter the code NEWRELEASEPLEASE at checkout for 10% off your order! To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, stop by The Bookshelf in Thomasville, visit our website (type “Episode 493” into the search bar and tap enter to find the books mentioned in this episode), or shop on The Bookshelf's official app: Annie's books: Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout (9/10) Two-Step Devil by Jamie Quatro (9/10) Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (9/24) Olivia's books: Lucy, Undying by Kiersten White (9/10) A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall by Jasmine Warga (9/10) When the World Tips Over by Jandy Nelson (9/24) Erin's books: The Life Impossible by Matt Haig (9/3) A Bit Much: Poems by Lyndsay Rush (9/17) Entitlement by Rumaan Alam (9/17) From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in South Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf's daily happenings on Instagram, Tiktok, and Facebook, and all the books from today's episode can be purchased online through our store website, www.bookshelfthomasville.com.  A full transcript of today's episode can be found here. Special thanks to Dylan and his team at Studio D Podcast Production for sound and editing and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.  This week, Annie is reading Someone in the Attic by Andrea Marra. Olivia is reading The Girls of Skylark Lane by Robin Benway. Erin is reading Entitlement by Rumaan Alam.  If you liked what you heard in today's episode, tell us by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. You can also support us on Patreon, where you can access bonus content, monthly live Porch Visits with Annie, our monthly live Patreon Book Club with Bookshelf staffers, Conquer a Classic episodes with Hunter, and more. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch. We're so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week. Our Executive Producers are...Jennifer Bannerton, Stephanie Dean, Linda Lee Drozt, Ashley Ferrell, Susan Hulings, Wendi Jenkins, Martha, Nicole Marsee, Gene Queens, Cammy Tidwell, and Amanda Whigham.

Today, we hear from Jamie Quatro whose latest novel, TWO-STEP DEVIL, releases in September. We're talking to Jamie about experimenting with form.Sorry! There's no audio/video version of this episode available. Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Quatro's debut and many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Jamie Quatro is the New York Times Notable author of I Want to Show You More, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award and the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Prize, and Fire Sermon, a Book of the Year for the Economist, San Francisco Chronicle, LitHub, Bloomberg, and the Times Literary Supplement. HER new novel, Two-Step Devil, is forthcoming from Grove Press in September 2024, to be followed by a story collection, Next Time I'll Be Louder. A finalist for the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction, she is the recipient of fellowships from MacDowell, Yaddo, Bread Loaf, and Maison Dora Maar in Ménerbes, France, where she will be in residence in the spring of 2025. Quatro holds an MA in English from the College of William and Mary and an MFA in fiction from the Bennington College Writing Seminars. She teaches in the Sewanee School of Letters MFA program and lives with her family in Chattanooga, Tennessee.Photo by National Library of Medicine on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com

Today you get a sneak peak of what our summer interviews will like. Listeners will also get a chance to be a part of the summer podcast episodes, so listen for announcements about that opportunity in our SubStack notes and on our Facebook page. We're going to start the summer off early (please, yes!) by hearing from Samantha Harvey, who latest novel, ORBITAL, was released in November. Samantha and I will be talking about the dynamic relationship between structure and point of view and how she rediscovered her own late in her drafting process. Samantha will also be at Porter Square Books in Cambridge tomorrow, April 3, at 7pm with author Jamie Quatro, so if you're local to Boston, I encourage you to check it out. I'll be there as well. Watch a recording of our live webinar here. The audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Harvey's book and many books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Samantha Harvey is the author of five novels, The Wilderness, All Is Song, Dear Thief ,The Western Wind and Orbital. She is also the author of a memoir, The Shapeless Unease. Her novels have been shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction, the Guardian First Book Award, the Walter Scott Prize and the James Tait Black Prize, and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, the Baileys Prize, the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize and the HWA Gold Crown Award. The Western Wind won the 2019 Staunch Book Prize, and The Wilderness was the winner of the AMI Literature Award and the Betty Trask Prize. Orbital, was published in November 2023 by Jonathan Cape (UK) and Grove Atlantic (US). She lives in Bath, UK, and is a Reader in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.Photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com

This week on From the Front Porch, we have a new episode series: Into the Backlist! Today, Annie changes her focus from new releases to dive into the backlist: the books that came out years ago, the books that didn't get enough attention, the books you may stumble upon while browsing in an indie bookstore like The Bookshelf. To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, visit our website (type “Episode 460” into the search bar and tap enter to find the books mentioned in this episode) or or download and shop on The Bookshelf's official app: Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry Frances and Bernard by Carlene Bauer The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff Fire Sermon by Jamie Quatro (unavailable to order) Dear Regina by Flannery O'Connor Gilead by Marilynne Robinson Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in South Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf's daily happenings on Instagram at @bookshelftville, and all the books from today's episode can be purchased online through our store website, www.bookshelfthomasville.com.  A full transcript of today's episode can be found here.  Special thanks to Dylan and his team at Studio D Podcast Production for sound and editing and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.  This week, Annie is reading One in a Millennial by Kate Kennedy. If you liked what you heard in today's episode, tell us by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. You can also support us on Patreon, where you can access bonus content, monthly live Porch Visits with Annie, our monthly live Patreon Book Club with Bookshelf staffers, Conquer a Classic episodes with Hunter, and more. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch. We're so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week. Our Executive Producers are...Ashley Ferrell, Cammy Tidwell, Chanta Combs, Chantalle C, Kate O'Connell, Kristin May, Laurie Johnson, Linda Lee Drozt, Martha, Nicole Marsee, Stacy Laue, Stephanie Dean, Susan Hulings, and Wendi Jenkins.

This week on From the Front Porch, you'll hear from Annie, Erin, Olivia, Shop Mom, Nancy, and Shop Dad as they celebrate 7 years of Shelf Subscriptions! Erin is here to give you a behind-the-scenes look at the history of Shelf Subscriptions and what makes them special. We want to say a heartfelt thank you to our loyal, lovely Shelf Subscribers! Click here to purchase a Shelf Subscription! Click here to purchase the Bookshelf bandana! Purchase One Book Thomas County's community read here: You're Not Listening by Kate Murphy Annie's favorite past Shelf Sub picks: Fire Sermon by Jamie Quatro (unavailable to order) Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid I Miss You When I Blink by Mary Laura Philpott The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi Erin's favorite past Shelf Sub picks: Congratulations, The Best is Over by R. Eric Thomas Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson Now is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in South Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf's daily happenings on Instagram at @bookshelftville, and all the books from today's episode can be purchased online through our store website, www.bookshelfthomasville.com.  A full transcript of today's episode can be found here. Special thanks to Dylan and his team at Studio D Podcast Production for sound and editing and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.  This week, Annie is reading Happiness Falls by Angie Kim. Erin is reading The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters. If you liked what you heard in today's episode, tell us by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. You can also support us on Patreon, where you can access bonus content, monthly live Porch Visits with Annie, our monthly live Patreon Book Club with Bookshelf staffers, Conquer a Classic episodes with Hunter, and more. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch. We're so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week. Our Executive Producers are...Ashley Ferrell, Cammy Tidwell, Chanta Combs, Chantalle C, Kate O'Connell, Kristin May, Laurie Johnson, Linda Lee Drozt, Martha, Nicole Marsee, Stacy Laue, Stephanie Dean, Susan Hulings, and Wendi Jenkins.

Jamie Quatro reads her story “Yogurt Days,” which appears in the August 7, 2023, issue of the magazine. Quatro is the author of the story collection “I Want to Show You More” and the novel “Fire Sermon.”  A new novel, “Two-Step Devil,” will be published next year. 

Charlotte Jones Voiklis talks with author Jamie Quatro and editor Karen Kosztolnyik about The Moment of Tenderness (2020), a new collection of short stories by Madeleine L'Engle. Notes: Learn more about Jamie Quatro Follow Karen Kosztolnyik on Twitter. Credits: This episode was produced by Charlotte Jones Voiklis, Hannah Beal and Jennie Josephson. The music in this episode was composed by Dara Hirsch. The cover art for the Tesser Well podcast was illustrated by Caroline Hadilaksono. Special thanks to Molly Wood for reading the book excerpt and for being a special advisor on the project. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tesser-well/message

Today’s episode of Rewrite Radio features a conversation between the writers April Ayers Lawson and Jamie Quatro, hosted by Amy Frykholm. Titled “Sex, the Spirit, Short Stories, and South,” this conversation takes up the complicated work of writing about religious experience and sexual experience. It may not be appropriate for all listeners. Jamie Quatro writes fiction, poetry, and essays, and her work has appeared in publications such as Tin House, the New York Times Book Review, and the Kenyon Review. Her first book, I Want to Show You More, was a New York Times Notable Book, an NPR Best Book of 2013, and an Indie Next pick. The collection was also a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, the Georgia Townsend Fiction Prize, and the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize. Her first novel, Fire Sermon, was released in January 2018. A contributing editor at Oxford American, Quatro teaches in the MFA program at Sewanee, the University of the South, and lives on Lookout Mountain, Georgia. April Ayers Lawson is the author of Virgin and Other Stories, which was named a best book of the year by Vice, Bomb, Southern Living, and Refinery29, and has been translated into German, Italian, Norwegian, and Spanish. The title story in the collection won the Plimpton Prize for Fiction in 2011 and was also named a favorite short story by Flavorwire and anthologized in The Unprofessionals: New American Writing from the Paris Review. She was a 2015 writing fellow at Yaddo, has lectured in the creative writing department at Emory University, and was the 2016–2017 Kenan Visiting Writer at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Rewrite Radio is a production of the Calvin Center for Faith and Writing, located on the campus of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI. Theme music is June 11th by Andrew Starr. Additional sound design by Alejandra Crevier. You can find more information about the Center and its signature event, the Festival of Faith and Writing, online at ccfw.calvin.edu and festival.calvin.edu and on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Alice and Bethany finish up the year with their top 10s of 2018. Alice's book of the year is Women by Chloe Caldwell - https://amzn.to/2QiG9PM Bethany's book of the year is Skin Deep by Liz Nugent - https://amzn.to/2zP3IFm Bethany's top 10: Skin Deep by Liz Nugent - https://amzn.to/2zP3IFm Women by Chloe Caldwell - https://amzn.to/2QiG9PM Normal People by Sally Rooney - https://amzn.to/2AYKxc0 House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara - https://amzn.to/2QCrheq Fire Sermon by Jamie Quatro - https://amzn.to/2B3ktML Lullaby by Leila Slimani - https://amzn.to/2Pqi8B0 Revolting Prostitutes by Molly Smith and Juno Mac - https://amzn.to/2L598QU Bad Blood by John Carreyrou - https://amzn.to/2Pp96E1 Sabrina by Nick Drnaso - https://amzn.to/2B3lbcT I'll Be Gone In The Dark by Michelle McNamara - https://amzn.to/2L1o56P Alice's top 10: Women by Chloe Caldwell - https://amzn.to/2QiG9PM Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata - https://amzn.to/2SC1259 Normal People - https://amzn.to/2AYKxc0 Lullaby by Leila Slimani - https://amzn.to/2Pqi8B0 Fire Sermon by Jamie Quatro - https://amzn.to/2B3ktML What It Means When A Man Falls From The Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah - https://amzn.to/2PseLJA Ponti by Sharlene Teo - https://amzn.to/2Qig1El I'll Be Gone In The Dark by Michelle McNamara - https://amzn.to/2L1o56P Little Eve by Catriona Ward - https://amzn.to/2B3ljsT Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott - https://amzn.to/2PkWcqR The 2019 releases we can already recommend are My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite Red Snow by Will Dean Stone Mothers by Erin Kelly Wakenhyrst by Michelle Paver The Doll Factory by Elizabeth Macneal

In her second novel, BURY WHAT WE CANNOT TAKE, Kirstin Chen depicts a family in China under the tightening rule of Mao. She tells James about her choice to tell the story when and how she did, along with trying to make people happy, learning to craft endings from short stories, dealing with cultural tourism, and, of course, writing in a cave in a museum. Plus, Michael Nye on the AWP conference, selling your book, scheduling your day, and writing longhand.    - Kirstin Chen: http://kirstinchen.com/ Kirstin and James discuss:  NTU-NAC National Writer in Residence in Singapore Little A  Matthew Salesses  Emerson College  Columbia University  NYU  Chairman Mao  The Great Famine  The Great Leap Forward  Drum Wave Inlet  Michelle Brower  Jamie Quatro  Zadie Smith  Vanessa Hua  The San Francisco Chronicle  -  Michael Nye: http://mpnye.com/  Michael and James discuss:  BOULEVARD MAGAZINE  NATURAL BRIDGE: A JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE  University of Missouri in St. Louis  AWP Conference  Annette Bening  AMERICAN BEAUTY  Maggie Smith  Ohio State University  Ruth Awad  TINY LETTER  RIVER STYX MAGAZINE  Annie Hartnett DEEP WORK by Cal Newport   - http://tkpod.com / tkwithjs@gmail.com / Twitter: @JamesScottTK Instagram: tkwithjs / Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tkwithjs/

Ruth Wilson stars in British film Dark River; a tragedy about a family coping with death on a rundown farm in Yorkshire, The B*easts at London's Bush Theatre is an exploration of the pornification of culture and the sexualisation of children. Kenneth Clark's landmark 1969 BBC TV series Civilisation explored the history of Western art, architecture and philosophy since the Dark Ages. It's now been remade as Civilisations. Fire Sermon is a novel by Jamie Quatro about a mother devoted to her family who begins an affair, throwing all her moral certainties into a spiral. Pop! Art in a Changing Britain is a new exhibition at Chichester's Pallant Gallery. The issues raised by pop artists in the 50s and 60s about mass media, the cult of celebrity, questions of identity and prevalent political concerns still resonate today. Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Kate Maltby, Viv Groskop and Kevin Jackson. The producer is Oliver Jones.

Jamie Quatro's debut collection, I Want To Show You More, was a New York Times Notable Book, NPR Best Book of 2013, Indie Next pick, The Oprah Magazine summer reading pick, and New York Times Editors' Choice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's the latest installment of our show within a show, Love It or Loathe It, in which frequent contributors Emily and Hunter discuss a contentious book with Annie in a book club-style roundtable. This week: Fire Sermon by Jamie Quatro. Also mentioned this week: + What Belongs to You by Garth Greenwell + Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff + At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon + Gilead by Marilynne Robinson + Frances and Bernard by Carlene Bauer + The Book of American Martyrs by Joyce Carol Oates Thanks, as always, to Forlorn Strangers for the use of our theme music. Learn and listen more here. Listen to a full back catalogue of our show here, and, if you're interested in some exclusive content like our weekly behind-the-scenes newsletter, consider supporting us on Patreon here. 

HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES, the dazzling debut by Carmen Maria Machado has garnered tremendous acclaim, including being named a finalist for the National Book Award. Carmen and James discuss never being done editing, her enviable file of images, and being thrown out of a plane. Plus, Editorial Director at Graywolf Press, Ethan Nosowsky.  - Carmen Maria Machado: https://carmenmariamachado.com/ Carmen and James discuss:  Ethan Nosowsky  FIVE CHAPTERS  GRAYWOLF PRESS  THE NEW YORKER  I WANT TO SHOW YOU MORE by Jamie Quatro  Kelly Link  Kevin Brockmeier  Shuchi Saraswat  Kimberly Glyder Aimee Bender Karen Russell  Laura van den Berg  Clarion Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers' Workshop ANNIHILATION by Jeff Vander Meer  SMALL BEER PRESS A STRANGER IN OLONDRIA Sofia Samatar  THE WINGED HISTORIES by Sofia Samatar TENDER by Sofia Samatar Sam J. Miller  Alyssa Wong  Alice Kim  TIN HOUSE  McSWEENEY'S Yaddo   WOODCUTTERS by Thomas Bernhard NEVER LET ME GO by Kazuo Ishiguro Ted Chiang  STRANGE HORIZONS  THE AMERICAN READER  - Graywolf Press: https://www.graywolfpress.org/ Ethan and James Discuss: National Book Award IndieNext Pick  Page-Turner Blog Kent Wolf  Graywolf Press  McSweeney's  FSG  Oxford University Press  Fiona McCrae (Graywolf) CLMP  Jeff Seroy (FSG) Josh Glusman (Norton)  Robert Giroux  Alan Williams  Stephen King  Nadine Gordimer  John Steinbeck  MacMillan Publishing  Bruce Machart  Houghton-Mifflin  David Vann  TOMB SONG by Julian Herbert   Christina MacSweeney  Tracy K. Smith  A LUCKY MAN by Jamel Brinkley  THE CONVERT by Deborah Baker  THE LAST ENGLISHMAN by Deborah Baker  - http://tkpod.com / tkwithjs@gmail.com / Twitter: @JamesScottTK Instagram: tkwithjs / Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tkwithjs/

Turf (Counterpoint Press) Blazing through states, cities, towns, continents, Crane fearlessly pivots from micro to macro, humor to tragedy, past to present, mixing an off-kilter sensibility with a heartbreaking reality, guiding us into the fringed and often fantastical lives of her characters. And that has never been truer than in her new collection, Turf. The end of the world as seen through a young couple in Brooklyn, who find a baby in a bucket on their front step; a group of geniuses who meet every Wednesday, able to unlock all the secrets of the universe except for the unknowable mystery of love; a woman and her dog walker whose friendship is uprooted by an incident at the park; these are dark, intriguing vistas explored in Crane’s glowing collection. For as places change, and people come and go, these stories in Turf remind us that it is the unchanging nature of the human heart that connects us all. Praise for Elizabeth Crane: "The novel flows smoothly, and readers game for offbeat narrative approaches will be well rewarded . . . So much like the relationship they’re borne of, Crane’s deeply realized mother-daughter inventions are therapeutic and ruthless, heartfelt and crushing. A lovely exercise in the wild, soothing wonders of imagination.” —Booklist, Starred Review  “Poignant and hilarious . . . Crane writes about the relationship between a deceased mother and her daughter as they tell each other’s stories to understand each other.” —Los Angeles Times “Imagine sitting at a leisurely dinner with two intelligent women, a mother and daughter . . . The format may be experimental, but the emotions the book will stir in readers are moving and heartbreakingly familiar.” —Library Journal “I cannot remember the last time I simultaneously cried and laughed as hard as I did while reading Elizabeth Crane’s glorious, tender knockout of a novel, The History of Great Things. Wait, yes I can. It was the last time I spoke to my mom about life.” —Amber Tamblyn, author of Dark Sparkler “A poignant dual narrative . . . Alternating between laugh-out-loud humor and heart-rending melancholy, Crane gives us a mother and daughter who never quite grasp each other’s life stories, but who find truth through unconditional love.” —Bookpage “Ultimately, The History of Great Things is a story of perception, one well worth reading. It serves as a reminder that what truly matters to each of us is not what actually happens, but how we remember it.”  —The Rumpus  “An important work, fearless in both structure and vision, with Crane’s razor-edge fusion of intelligence, humor, and emotion informing every chapter. Get ready, world: this one’s going to be huge.” —Jamie Quatro, author of I Want to Show You More  “Like everything Elizabeth Crane writes, The History of Great Things is wonderful fun to read—smart, insightful, and witty—but it will break your heart, too. It stares down the poignant question so many daughters want to ask: How well did my mother really know me?” —Pamela Erens, author of Eleven Hours and The Virgins “The Copelands would feel right at home in a Noah Baumbach movie . . . Our narrator is an omniscient ‘We’ who reports the goings-on of the family with the breathless glee of an incurable gossip.”—Entertainment Weekly “Its style is literary, with an edge: The point of view is wicked, the characters prickly, the language not quite quotable here. I can’t wait to read past the first chapter.”—Los Angeles Times “Like any good story writer, she had me in the first two paragraphs . . . A treat to read. The characters are crisp and enjoyable; the narrator is smart and witty.”—Iowa Press-Citizen “This is an irresistible and winsome read. A truly astute tale of love neglected and reclaimed, family resiliency, spiritual inquiries, and personal metamorphoses.” —Booklist, Starred Review  “Crane delivers a unique and dizzying tale that delves into the emotional life of a family teetering on the brink of everything . . . The beauty in Crane’s novel is her sweep from acid commentary to heartfelt portrayal of real-life loves and losses.” —Kirkus Reviews“Crane’s novel is filled with deliciously idiosyncratic characters, humorous and distinct narration, and a whole lot of personality. Each character’s emotional growth is just enough to satisfy, without being overbearing . . . Crane’s summer novel has undeniable heart.” —Publishers Weekly “At last a novel from Elizabeth Crane! With her expert humorist’s eye for detail, she gives us a playful, passionate story of longing, heartbreak, and of the gargantuan human will. You won’t be able to stop reading.” —Deb Olin Unferth, author of Revolution“Not since The Royal Tenenbaums have I loved a family so much. The Copelands of We Only Know So Much are wonderfully eccentric, hilariously not self-aware and strangely adorable. They seemed so real, I felt like I was reading my own family story.” —Jessica Anya Blau, author of The Summer of Naked Swim Parties and Drinking Closer to Home“This is the kind of book that inspires a person to see the beauty in the ordinary, to stop concentrating on others’ failings long enough to see their spark and maybe rediscover his or her own.”—Susan Henderson, author of Up from the Blue“A beautiful, warmhearted, ferociously honest debut that will pull you in with its chorus of true voices and catch you off guard with its playful, restless edginess.” —Patrick Somerville, author of The Cradle and This Bright River Elizabeth Crane is the author of the novels The History of Great Things and We Only Know So Much and three collections of short stories. Her stories have been featured on NPR’s Selected Shorts. She is a recipient of the Chicago Public Library 21st Century Award, and her work has been adapted for the stage by Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company. She currently lives in Newburgh, New York

In her harrowing novel, OUR HEARTS WILL BURN US DOWN, Anne Valente creates a portrait of trauma and the grief that follows. She and James discuss depicting violence, point of view, why drawer novels should never be published, the moments when they wondered if they should pursue something other than writing, and how music tastes may reveal more about characters than anything else. Plus, Emily Nemens talks about her work as co-editor and prose editor at THE SOUTHERN REVIEW.    Anne Valente: http://www.annevalente.com/ Anne and James Discuss: Aimee Bender  Haruki Murakami  The Dzanc Books Prize for Fiction   Dan Wickett  DARK SHADOWS dir by Tim Burton  Jamie Quatro  AND THEN WE CAME TO THE END by Joshua Ferris Steve Bartman  Nine Inch Nails  The Pixies  The Cure  KILL BILL, VOL. 1  The Dave Matthews Band  Blues Traveler  The Clash  Widespread Panic   - The Southern Review: http://thesouthernreview.org/ Emily and James discuss: Bret Lott  Jeanne Leiby  The Center For Architecture  Cara Blue Adams  Jill McCorkle  James Lee Burke "Solee" by Crystal Hana Kim  PEN AMERICA BEST DEBUT SHORT STORIES 2017 - http://tkpod.com / tkwithjs@gmail.com / Twitter: @JamesScottTK Instagram: tkwithjs / Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tkwithjs/

The interconnected stories in YOU MAY SEE A STRANGER took Paula Whyman over a decade to compile. She gives James some advice for writing sex scenes and explains how she writes with such honesty. Then, Daniel Menaker tells James about deciding to represent Paula's book, editing Alice Munro's stories, his career at Random House, and what made his time at The New Yorker so special. And somewhere a dog barks. Quite frequently.     Paula and James discuss: Yaddo  THE BREAST by Philip Roth  PLOUGHSHARES  THE HUDSON REVIEW American University  VIRGIN FICTION (anthology)  WORLD VIEW  Porter Square Books Joanna Rakoff  Philip Roth  T.C. Boyle  Martin Amis  Jamie Quatro  Alyssa Nutting  OLIVE KITTERIDGE by Elizabeth Strout  McSWEENEY'S Jane Austen  Oliver Sacks  Daniel Menaker  Sewanee Writers' Conference  Mike Levine  ONE STORY  Hannah Tinti  Marie-Helene Bertino  Maribeth Batcha  Billy Goldstein    James and Daniel discuss:  The New Yorker  Paula Whyman  Alice Munro  "Royal Beatings" by Alice Munro  Richard Avedon  Michael Chabon  LIVES OF MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS by Sheila Munro   Daniel Halpern Tim Duggan   Roger Angell Charles McGrath  William Maxwell  MY MISTAKE by Daniel Menaker  Matthew Klam  SUNY Stonybrook  Tina Brown  Harold Evans  Bill Buford  Robert Gottlieb William Shawn  Michael Cunningham  Susan Minot David Foster Wallace  Antonya Nelson David Remnick  Alberto Vitale "Wenlock Edge" by Alice Munro    http://tkpod.com / tkwithjs@gmail.com / Twitter: @JamesScottTK  Instagram: tkwithjs / Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tkwithjs/

After some negative pre-publication reviews, Jamie Quatro feared the worst. Then, critic James Wood and the NYTBR (among others) hailed her collection, I WANT TO SHOW YOU MORE, as a classic. Jamie and James talk about conflating writer and subject matter, depicting the female gaze and female sexuality, and writing novels vs short stories. Then, the agent Anna Stein joins the show to go over what an agent does, how to find one, and mistakes writers make along the way.      Jamie and James Discuss:  David Gates  Amy Hempel  Bennington College Low Residency MFA  Princeton University Pepperdine University  Sheila Kohler  E.M. Forster  Franz Kafka  Flannery O'Connor  Margot Livesey  Andre Dubus (II)  PROXIES: ESSAYS NEAR KNOWING by Brian Blanchfield  Sewanee Writers' Conference  RUNNER'S WORLD  INFINITE JEST by David Foster Wallace  QUACK THIS WAY by David Foster Wallace  BRIEF INTERVIEWS WITH HIDEOUS MEN by David Foster Wallace  BLUETS by Maggie Nelson Tin House Summer Writer's Workshop  THE FUN STUFF: AND OTHER ESSAYS by James Wood  Claire Messud  Wyatt Prunty  Ann Patchett  Urban Waite  Lincoln Michel  George Saunders  Lydia Davis Alice Munro  INTERPRETER OF MALADIES by Jhumpa Lahiri OLIVE KITTERIDGE by Elizabeth Strout  P.J. Mark  Barry Hannah Steven Milhauser  A VERY OLD MAN WITH ENORMOUS WINGS by Gabriel Garcia Marquez  LADIES AND GENTLEMEN by Adam Ross  Yaddo  Sylvia Plath  Ted Hughes Zadie Smith  The Old Testament  THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner  Grove Atlantic    Anna and James Discuss:  Hanya Yanagihara  Ben Lerner  Garth Greenwell  Maria Semple  NEVERHOME by Laird Hunt  THE MOTHER-IN-LAW CURE by Katherine Wilson  THE EVENING ROAD by Laird Hunt  THE STORY OF A BRIEF MARRIAGE by Anuk Aradpragasam  THE CLANCYS OF QUEENS by Tara Clancy  TODAY WILL BE DIFFERENT by Maria Semple  THE PARIS REVIEW  Sewanee Writers' Conference  A LITTLE LIFE by Hanya Hanagihara  WHAT BELONGS TO YOU by Garth Greenwell    http://tkpod.com  /  tkwithjs@gmail.com  /  Twitter: @JamesScottTK https://www.facebook.com/tkwithjs/  /  Instagram: tkwithjs     

There's Something I Want You To Do: Stories (Pantheon Books) From one of the great masters of the contemporary short story, here is an astonishing collection that showcases Charles Baxter'sunique ability to unveil the remarkable in the seemingly inconsequential moments of an eerie yet familiar life. Penetrating and prophetic, the ten inter-related stories in There's Something I Want You to Do are held together by a surreally intricate web of cause and effect--one that slowly ensnares both fictional bystanders and enraptured readers. Benny, an architect and hopeless romantic, is robbed on his daily walk along the Mississippi River, and the blow of a baseball bat to the back of his knee feels like a strike from God. A drug dealer named Black Bird reads "Othello" while waiting for customers in a bar. Elijah, a pediatrician and the father of two, is visited nightly by visions of Alfred Hitchcock. Meanwhile, a dog won't stop barking, a passenger on a transatlantic flight reads aloud from the book of Psalms during turbulence, and a scream carries itself through the early-morning Minneapolis air. As the collection progresses, we delve more deeply into the private lives of these characters, exploring their fears, fantasies, and obsessions. They appear and reappear, performing praiseworthy and loathsome acts in equal measure in response to the request--or demand--lodged in each story's center. The result is a portrait of human nature as seen from the tightrope that spans the distance between dreams and waking life--a portrait that could have arisen only from Baxter's singular vision. Readers will be stunned by his uncanny understanding of human attraction and left to puzzle over the meaning of virtue and the unpredictable and mysterious ways in which we behave. Praise for There's Something I Want You To Do “These accomplished stories of precarious marriages and family strife are so laced with paradox and the unexpected and so psychologically intricate, one turns them over and over in one's mind, seeking patterns and gleaning insights…. Rooted in Minneapolis, its industrial ruins so poetically rendered, these ravishing, funny, and compassionate stories redefine our perceptions of vice and virtue, delusion and reason, love and loss.” —Booklist, *starred review* “Bare storylines can't convey the quickly captivating simple narratives…or the revealing moments to which Baxter brings the reader…Similarly, Baxter, a published poet, at times pushes his fluid, controlled prose to headier altitudes, as in ‘high wispy cirrus clouds threatening the sky like promissory notes.' Nearly as organic as a novel, this is more intriguing, more fun in disclosing its connective tissues through tales that stand well on their own.” —Kirkus Reviews, *starred review*  “Five stories named for virtues and five for vices make up this collection from a master craftsman….Baxter's characters muddle through small but pivotal moments, not so much confrontations as crossroads between love and destruction, desire and death….The prose resonates with distinctive turns of phrase that capture human ambiguity and uncertainty: trouble waits patiently at home, irony is the new chastity, and a dying man lives in the house that pain designed for him.” —Publishers Weekly, *starred review* “Baxter's delightful stories will make readers hungry for more. Fortunately, there are more out there, and one hopes, more to come.” —Library Journal, *starred review* “Charles Baxter is nothing short of a national literary treasure. To read these stories—hilarious, tragic, surprising, and indelibly human—is to receive revelation at the hands of a master. Who but this writer has such intimate knowledge of our most shameful depths, and who else can illuminate them with such stunning aptness of word and thought? These ten linked stories, fraught with loneliness, ultimately reveal the unbreakable ties between us all.” —Julie Orringer, author of How to Breathe Under Water “With his latest collection, Charles Baxter has given us something altogether new in contemporary fiction: a series of moral tales that contain zero moralizing. At the center of each of these stories is a pivotal request—something I want you to do—and the ensuing narratives unfold with the nuanced complexity we've come to expect from Baxter, with a theological acumen few contemporary writers possess. Here is a cast of characters unparalleled since Sherwood Anderson's Book of Grotesques, with a modern-day Minneapolis as tangible and strange as his Winesburg, Ohio. A stunning and unique work from one of the living masters of the story form.” —Jamie Quatro, author of I Want to Show You More “Charles Baxter's stories proceed with steady grace, nimble humor, quiet authority, and thrilling ingeniousness. In this his latest collection, all is on display—as are his honoring of the mysteries of love and his dramatic explorations of American manners, mores, family, solitude, and art. He is a great writer.” —Lorrie Moore, author of Bark Charles Baxter is the author of the novels The Feast of Love (nominated for the National Book Award), The Soul Thief, Saul and Patsy, Shadow Play, and First Light, and the story collections Gryphon, Believers, A Relative Stranger, Through the Safety Net, andHarmony of the World.  The stories “Bravery” and “Charity,” which appear in There's Something I Want You to Do, were included inBest American Short Stories. Baxter lives in Minneapolis and teaches at the University of Minnesota and in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.