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Zibby is joined by the writing duo behind Cassidy Lucas, Julia Fierro and Caeli Wolfson Widger, to talk about their second book, The Last Party. Julia and Caeli share how they met through Julia's Craigslist listing for a writing group, the ways in which working as partners has strengthened their skills, and what's happening next for Cassidy Lucas and both writers individually. Julia and Caeli also tell Zibby all about the birthday party camping trip that inspired them to set this book in Topanga Canyon. Purchase on Amazon or Bookshop.Amazon: https://amzn.to/3LK52gxBookshop: https://bit.ly/3xRbvRbSubscribe to Zibby's weekly newsletter here.Purchase Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books merch here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Author Stories - Author Interviews, Writing Advice, Book Reviews
Today's author interview guest is the writing duo of Julia Fierro and Caeli Wolfson Widger who write...
Author Stories - Author Interviews, Writing Advice, Book Reviews
Our guests today in the Story Craft Cafe are Julia Fierro and Caeli Wolfson Widger who write as the duo named Cassidy Lucas. We talk about how their creative process changes when they are writing alone as compared to the magic that happens whey they co-author. Cassidy Lucas is the pen name of writing duo Julia Fierro and Caeli Wolfson Widger. Fierro is the author of the novels Cutting Teeth, praised by the New Yorker as a “comically energetic début,” and The Gypsy Moth Summer, called “hugely engaging” by Francine Prose. Widger is the author of the novels Real Happy Family and Mother of Invention, praised by Margaret Atwood as a “pacey thriller,” and was featured on NPR's Marketplace. Both Fierro and Widger live in Santa Monica with their families. Their second novel, The Last Party, set in Topanga Canyon on the westside of Los Angeles, will be published in April 2022. Santa Monica, their first book together, was published in 2020. The authors of Santa Monica once again illuminate the dark truths of life in sunny California in THE LAST PARTY, a twisty and atmospheric psychological thriller about a 50th birthday celebration on a remote mountainside in Topanga Canyon, where things go terrifyingly wrong. For Los Angeleno Dawn Sanders, turning 50 seems like one more disappointment. Her career has stalled, her nineteen-year-old daughter with developmental issues is regressing, and Dawn's ex-husband Craig, a fertility doctor worshipped by Hollywood's elite, is forever upending her life. Though she doesn't feel much like celebrating, she can't say no when her best friend Mia Markle, a flamboyant and strong-willed actress, insists on planning a “creative” birthday weekend in the wild, wealthy bohemian enclave of Topanga Canyon. On the weekend of the Summer Solstice, Dawn and her six closest friends gather in the hills above the canyon at “Celestial Ranch,” 18-acres of rugged, wooded mountainside where they'll spend three glorious days hiking, practicing meditation and reiki, and enjoying lavish catered cuisine. They will also indulge in a little DMT, a short-acting psychedelic drug meant to open their senses and transport them to a higher plain. But as the weekend unfolds, long-buried tensions, unresolved grievances, and old secrets emerge, leaving Dawn desperate for clarity about her life. Dawn and her friends take the drug late at night on an open hillside beneath the glittering stars. When Dawn returns from her intense and revelatory “trip,” she learns that one of her friends has gone missing. Then another disappears. And soon, Dawn finds herself alone on the dark mountainside, seemingly abandoned by the people who are supposed to love her most. Or have they somehow been taken from her? What could Dawn have possibly done to deserve a devastating birthday night like this—and how will she make it to the morning alone?
Our guests today in the Story Craft Cafe are Julia Fierro and Caeli Wolfson Widger who write as the duo named Cassidy Lucas. We talk about how their creative process changes when they are writing alone as compared to the magic that happens whey they co-author. Cassidy Lucas is the pen name of writing duo Julia Fierro and Caeli Wolfson Widger. Fierro is the author of the novels Cutting Teeth, praised by the New Yorker as a “comically energetic début,” and The Gypsy Moth Summer, called “hugely engaging” by Francine Prose. Widger is the author of the novels Real Happy Family and Mother of Invention, praised by Margaret Atwood as a “pacey thriller,” and was featured on NPR's Marketplace. Both Fierro and Widger live in Santa Monica with their families. Their second novel, The Last Party, set in Topanga Canyon on the westside of Los Angeles, will be published in April 2022. Santa Monica, their first book together, was published in 2020. The authors of Santa Monica once again illuminate the dark truths of life in sunny California in THE LAST PARTY, a twisty and atmospheric psychological thriller about a 50th birthday celebration on a remote mountainside in Topanga Canyon, where things go terrifyingly wrong. For Los Angeleno Dawn Sanders, turning 50 seems like one more disappointment. Her career has stalled, her nineteen-year-old daughter with developmental issues is regressing, and Dawn's ex-husband Craig, a fertility doctor worshipped by Hollywood's elite, is forever upending her life. Though she doesn't feel much like celebrating, she can't say no when her best friend Mia Markle, a flamboyant and strong-willed actress, insists on planning a “creative” birthday weekend in the wild, wealthy bohemian enclave of Topanga Canyon. On the weekend of the Summer Solstice, Dawn and her six closest friends gather in the hills above the canyon at “Celestial Ranch,” 18-acres of rugged, wooded mountainside where they'll spend three glorious days hiking, practicing meditation and reiki, and enjoying lavish catered cuisine. They will also indulge in a little DMT, a short-acting psychedelic drug meant to open their senses and transport them to a higher plain. But as the weekend unfolds, long-buried tensions, unresolved grievances, and old secrets emerge, leaving Dawn desperate for clarity about her life. Dawn and her friends take the drug late at night on an open hillside beneath the glittering stars. When Dawn returns from her intense and revelatory “trip,” she learns that one of her friends has gone missing. Then another disappears. And soon, Dawn finds herself alone on the dark mountainside, seemingly abandoned by the people who are supposed to love her most. Or have they somehow been taken from her? What could Dawn have possibly done to deserve a devastating birthday night like this—and how will she make it to the morning alone?
Where is all of the literary love for Queens? It’s right here at LIC Reading Series. Join them each week for stories, readings, and discussions with acclaimed writers, recorded with a live audience in the cozy carriage house of a classic pub in Long Island City, Queens, New York, and hosted by founder Catherine LaSota. This week, the podcast features the reading and panel discussion from the LIC Reading Series event on June 13, 2017, with Julia Fierro (The Gypsy Moth Summer), Brandon Harris (Making Rent in Bed-Stuy), and Hannah Tinti (The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley). Check out the readings from Tuesday in the prior episode! About the Readers: Julia Fierro is the author of the novels The Gypsy Moth Summer and Cutting Teeth. Her work has been published in The New York Times, Poets & Writers, Buzzfeed, Glamour, The Millions, Flavorwire, Lenny Letter, and other publications, and she has been profiled in Brooklyn Magazine, the L Magazine, The Observer, and The Economist. A graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, she founded The Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop in 2002, which has grown into a creative home to 5,000 writers in NYC, Los Angeles, and Online. Julia lives in Brooklyn and Santa Monica with writer Justin Feinstein and their two children. She travels country-wide to give talks on the craft of writing, the business publishing, and on building creative communities. Brandon Harris, originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, has worked in the world of American independent film as a critic and programmer, producer and director, screenwriter and educator. His writings about cinema, politics, culture, and the intersections between them have appeared in The New Yorker, The New Republic, Guardian, VICE, Daily Beast, Variety, n+1, New Inquiry, Brooklyn Rail, In These Times, Hammer to Nail, and Filmmaker magazine, where he is a contributing editor. Hannah Tinti is the author of the bestselling novel The Good Thief, which won The Center for Fiction’s first novel prize, and the story collection Animal Crackers, a runner-up for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her new novel, The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley, is a national bestseller and has been optioned for television. She teaches creative writing at New York University’s MFA program and co-founded the Sirenland Writers Conference. Tinti is also the co-founder and executive editor of One Story magazine, which won the AWP Small Press Publisher Award, CLMP’s Firecracker Award, and the PEN/Magid Award for Excellence in Editing. * This event was made possible in part by the Queens Council on the Arts, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Where is all of the literary love for Queens? It’s right here at LIC Reading Series. Join them each week for stories, readings, and discussions with acclaimed writers, recorded with a live audience in the cozy carriage house of a classic pub in Long Island City, Queens, New York, and hosted by founder Catherine LaSota. This week, the podcast features the reading and panel discussion from the LIC Reading Series event on June 13, 2017, with Julia Fierro (The Gypsy Moth Summer), Brandon Harris (Making Rent in Bed-Stuy), and Hannah Tinti (The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley). Check out the panel discussion on Thursday! About the Readers: Julia Fierro is the author of the novels The Gypsy Moth Summer and Cutting Teeth. Her work has been published in The New York Times, Poets & Writers, Buzzfeed, Glamour, The Millions, Flavorwire, Lenny Letter, and other publications, and she has been profiled in Brooklyn Magazine, the L Magazine, The Observer, and The Economist. A graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, she founded The Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop in 2002, which has grown into a creative home to 5,000 writers in NYC, Los Angeles, and Online. Julia lives in Brooklyn and Santa Monica with writer Justin Feinstein and their two children. She travels country-wide to give talks on the craft of writing, the business publishing, and on building creative communities. Brandon Harris, originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, has worked in the world of American independent film as a critic and programmer, producer and director, screenwriter and educator. His writings about cinema, politics, culture, and the intersections between them have appeared in The New Yorker, The New Republic, Guardian, VICE, Daily Beast, Variety, n+1, New Inquiry, Brooklyn Rail, In These Times, Hammer to Nail, and Filmmaker magazine, where he is a contributing editor. Hannah Tinti is the author of the bestselling novel The Good Thief, which won The Center for Fiction’s first novel prize, and the story collection Animal Crackers, a runner-up for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her new novel, The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley, is a national bestseller and has been optioned for television. She teaches creative writing at New York University’s MFA program and co-founded the Sirenland Writers Conference. Tinti is also the co-founder and executive editor of One Story magazine, which won the AWP Small Press Publisher Award, CLMP’s Firecracker Award, and the PEN/Magid Award for Excellence in Editing. * This event was made possible in part by the Queens Council on the Arts, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A sweeping, romantic, and profoundly moving novel, set in Europe in the aftermath of World War I and Los Angeles in the 1950s, about a lonely young man, a beautiful widow, and the amnesiac soldier whose puzzling case binds them together even as it tears them apart. From the bone-strewn fields of Verdun to the bombed-out cafés of Paris, from the riot-torn streets of Bologna to the riotous parties of 1950s Hollywood, Nick Dybek's The Verdun Affair is a riveting tale of romance, grief, and the far-reaching consequences of a single lie. Dybek is in conversation with Julia Fierro, author of the novels The Gypsy Moth Summer and Cutting Teeth.
Julia Fierro joins Mallory in the MILK studio to talk about her riveting new novel, “The Gypsy Moth Summer,” as well as her first book, “Cutting Teeth.” A graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, Julia founded The Sackett Street Writers’ in 2002, a creative home to more then 3500 writers n NYC, Los Angeles and Online. Her work has been published in The New York Times, Buzzfeed, Glamour, Poets and Writers, and many other publications. Julia speaks frankly about anxiety and the OCD behaviors she tackles to write, and how motherhood intersects with her writing mind. Julia is a great champion of her students and colleagues, a supportive wife to another writer who “gets it,” and a mom to 2 super readers. She recently relocated from her beloved Brooklyn to Los Angeles, and likes to generalize about that.
Julia Fierro is the guest. Her new novel, The Gypsy Moth Summer, is available now from St. Martin's Press. This is Julia's second time on the program. She first appeared in Episode 292 on July 6, 2014. In today's monologue, I discuss eating during interviews, politics, and health care. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
SCRATCH: Writers, Money, and the Art of Making a Living (Simon & Schuster) Based on the online magazine of the same name, SCRATCH: Writers, Money, and the Art of Making a Living is a collection of honest and informative essays and interviews, addressing the relationships between writing and money, work and life, literature and commerce. In the literary world, we romanticize the image of the struggling artist, but pursuing a career as a creative also stirs a complicated discourse: either writers should be paid for everything they do or they should just pay their dues and count themselves lucky to be published. You should never quit your day job, but your ultimate goal should be to quit your day job. They are told by more-successful writers to “do it for the love,” but the advice gets quiet when it comes to how to make a living out of writing. It’s an endless, confusing, and often controversial conversation that, despite our bare-it- all culture, still remains taboo. For SCRATCH, editor Manjula Martin has gathered interviews and essays from established and rising authors to confront the age-old question: how do creative people make money? For the first time, these authors get down to the nitty gritty of money, MFA programs, freelancing, teaching fellowships, finally getting published, the bestseller list, and how they define “success”. They also tackle the penetrating questions on what living in the literary world is really like, including issues of diversity, female likeability, debt and credit, and having a family while managing an artists’ career. The result is an entertaining and inspiring book that helps readers and writers understand what it’s really like to make art in a world that runs on money—and why it matters. Essential reading for aspiring and experienced writers, and for anyone interested in the future of literature, SCRATCH is the go-to guide to doing the impossible: making a living by doing what you love. Praise for SCRATCH "Well-organized, fascinating anthology...highly recommended"-Kirkus Reviews "Solid counseling for aspirants on what it means to offer the labors of their heart for sale in the marketplace."-Publishers Weekly "Meaningful for those working in any discipline."-Booklist, Starred Review Manjula Martin created the blog Who Pays Writers? and was the founder and editor of Scratch magazine, an online periodical focused on the business of being a writer. Her writing has appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review, Pacific Standard, SF Weekly, The Billfold, The Toast, and other publications. She is the managing editor of Zoetrope: All-Story. Scratch is her first book. Manjula Martin by Ted Weinsten Julia Fierro is the author of the novels Cutting Teeth and the forthcoming The Gypsy Moth Summer. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Julia’s work has been published in The Millions, Poets & Writers, Flavorwire, Buzzfeed, Glamour, TimeOut New York, Psychology Today, and other publications. She founded The Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop in 2002, and it has since become a creative home to over three thousand writers. Sackett Street was named a “Best NYC Writing Workshop” by the Village Voice, TimeOut New York, and Brooklyn magazine, and a “Best MFA-Alternative” by Poets & Writers. She lives in Brooklyn and Los Angeles with her husband and their two children. Susan Orlean has been a staff writer at the New Yorker since 1992. She is the author of seven books, including Rin Tin Tin, Saturday Night, and The Orchid Thief, which was made into the Academy Award–winning film Adaptation. She lives with her family and her animals in Los Angeles and may be reached at SusanOrlean.com and Twitter.com/SusanOrlean. Susan Orlean photo by Gaspar Tringale Kima Jones has received fellowships from PEN Center USA Emerging Voices, Kimbilio Fiction, Yaddo's 2016 Howard Moss Residency in poetry and was named the 2014-2015 Gerald Freund Fellow at The MacDowell Colony. She has been published at GQ, Guernica, NPR, PANK, Scratch Magazine and The Rumpus among others and in the anthologies Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History, Her Own Accord: American Women on Identity, Culture, and Community and The New York Times Best Seller, The Fire this Time, edited by Jesmyn Ward. Her short story "Nine" received notable mention in Best American Science Fiction 2015. Kima is an MFA candidate in fiction and Rodney Jack Scholar in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. She is a founding board member of Makara Center for the Arts. Kima lives in Los Angeles where she operates Jack Jones Literary Arts, a book publicity company. Harmony Holiday, poet and choreographer, is the author of Negro League Baseball (Fence Books, 2011), winner of the Motherwell Poetry Prize; Go Find Your Father/A Famous Blues (Ricochet, 2015), and Hollywood Forever (FenceBooks, 2016). Holiday curates the Afrosonics archive of Jazz Poetics and audio culture as well as a fantastic blog,nonstophome. She teaches at Otis College in Los Angeles and has a BA from the University of California, Berkeley and an MFA from Columbia University. She runs a boutique production house devoted to the crossing between archiving, improvisation, myth, and black music.
First Draft interview with Julia Fierro
Julia Fierro is the author of the novels Cutting Teeth and the forthcoming The Gypsy Moth Summer. A graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop, where she was awarded a Teaching-Writing Fellowship, Julia founded The Sackett Street Writers' Workshop in 2002, and it has since become a creative home to over 2,500 NYC writers. Sackett Street was named a “Best NYC Writing Workshop” by The Village Voice, Time Out NY, and Brooklyn Magazine, and a “Best MFA-Alternative” by Poets & Writers and the L Magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Julia Fierro's debut novel, Cutting Teeth, was recently included on "Most Anticipated Books of 2014" lists by HuffPost Books, The Millions, Flavorwire, Brooklyn Magazine and Marie Claire. Her work has been published, or is forthcoming, in Guernica, Ploughshares, The Millions, Flavorwire, Poets & Writers, Glamour and other publications, and she has been profiled in the L Magazine, The Observer and The Economist. In 2002, she founded The Sackett Street Writers' Workshop, and what started as eight writers meeting in her Brooklyn kitchen has grown into a creative home for over 2000 writers. She is a graduate of The Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she was a Teaching-Writing Fellow, and currently teaches the Post-MFA workshops at Sackett Street. Julia lives in Brooklyn and can be found online at juliafierro.com and on Twitter @juliafierro Ivy Pochoda is the author of the critically acclaimed novel Visitation Street published by Ecco / Dennis Lehane Books. Visitation Street was chosen as an Amazon Best Book of the Month, Amazon Best Book of 2013, and a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Huffington Post, Self, and House & Garden. Her first novel The Art of Disappearing, was published by St. Martin's Press in 2009. Ivy has a BA from Harvard College in Classical Greek and an MFA from Bennington College in fiction. She grew up in Brooklyn, NY and currently lives in downtown Los Angeles with her husband Justin Nowell. Caeli Wolfson Widger is the author of the novel Real Happy Family (New Harvest/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, March 2014). Her work has appeared in such publications as the New York Times Magazine, Another Chicago Magazine, and the Madison Review, as well as on NPR and CBS Radio. She earned her MFA from the University of Montana and currently resides in Santa Monica, where she teaches fiction for Writing Workshops Los Angeles. JJ Keith has written for Salon, the Huffington Post, The Rumpus, The Nervous Breakdown, Bitch, Babble, The Hairpin, Role/Reboot, Reader's Digest and other publications. Her first book will be out in 2014 from Skyhorse Publishing. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children.
Julia Fierro is the guest. She is the founder of the Sackett Street Writers' Workshop and her debut novel, Cutting Teeth, is now available from St. Martin's Press. The Millions says "When a group of thirty-something parents gather at a ramshackle beach house called Eden, no serpent is required for the sins, carnal and otherwise, to pile up. Fierro, founder of Brooklyn's Sackett Street Writers' Workshop, argued in The Millions last year that writers need to put the steam--and the human sentiment--back into sex scenes in literary novels. You may want to keep Fierro's debut novel on a high shelf, away from children and prudish literary snobs." And Megan Abbott says "Julia Fierro’s Cutting Teeth offers immense rewards to readers far beyond those who will identify with the frantic, conflicted, yearning parents who fill the novel (though many will). It’s for any reader seeking a tale rich in character, strong in voice and filled with both incisive social critique and a luminous generosity of spirit, a rare combination indeed." Monologue topics: mail, Labor Day, childbirth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
One of the most anticipated debut novels of 2014, Cutting Teeth takes place one late-summer weekend as a group of thirty-something couples gather at a shabby beach house on Long Island, their young children in tow.