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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
Elizabeth Strout is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Lucy by the Sea; Oh William!, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Olive, Again; Anything Is Possible, winner of the Story Prize; My Name Is Lucy Barton; The Burgess Boys; Olive Kitteridge, winner of the Pulitzer Prize; Abide with Me; and Amy and Isabelle, winner of the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize. She has also been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize in London. She lives in Maine. Her new novel is Tell Me Everything. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Elizabeth Strout is the author of the novel Tell Me Everything, available from Random House. Strout is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Lucy by the Sea; Oh William!, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Olive, Again; Anything Is Possible, winner of the Story Prize; My Name Is Lucy Barton; The Burgess Boys; Olive Kitteridge, winner of the Pulitzer Prize; Abide with Me; and Amy and Isabelle, winner of the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize. She has also been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize in London. She lives in Maine. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Subscribe to Brad Listi's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Twitter Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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
From the outside looking in, author Philipp Meyer had the kind of success that is easy to not just be envious of, but angry about. His first two published novels, American Rust and The Son, were massive critical and commercial hits (we carry them both at The Painted Porch for good reason–they sell!). American Rust won the 2009 Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, and The Son was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 2014. Both were adapted into TV series. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail
Elizabeth Strout is the author of the New York Times bestseller Olive Kitteridge, for which she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize; the national bestseller Abide with Me; and Amy and Isabelle, winner of the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize. She has also been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize in London. She lives in Maine and New York City. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ethan Rutherford's fiction has appeared in BOMB, Tin House, Ploughshares, One Story, American Short Fiction, Post Road, Esopus, Conjunctions, and The Best American Short Stories. His first book, The Peripatetic Coffin and Other Stories, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, a finalist for the John Leonard Award, received honorable mention for the PEN/Hemingway Award, was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and was the winner of a Minnesota Book Award. His second short story collection is Farthest South. Rutherford teaches Creative Writing at Trinity College. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
We cover a lot of ground with writer/professor, Ethan Rutherford, soon after the release of his second collection of short fiction, Farthest South, published by A Strange Object. Ethan Rutherford’s fiction has appeared in BOMB, Tin House, Ploughshares, One Story, American Short Fiction, Post Road, Esopus, Conjunctions, and The Best American Short Stories. His first book, The Peripatetic Coffin and Other Stories, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, a finalist for the John Leonard Award, received honorable mention for the PEN/Hemingway Award, was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and was the winner of a Minnesota Book Award. Born in Seattle, Washington, he received his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Minnesota and now teaches Creative Writing at Trinity College. He lives in Hartford, Connecticut with his wife and two children. Photo credit: Lou Russo Photography
Authors Diane Cook and Lydia Kiesling join the first-ever Twenty Summers virtual festival to talk about their recent novels, The New Wilderness (Harper, 2020) and The Golden State (Picador, 2019), respectively, both of which examine motherhood, the state of the world, and glimpses at even darker futures in unique, funny, and sometimes devastating ways. Diane Cook is the author of the novel, The New Wilderness, currently nominated for a Booker Prize, and the story collection, Man V. Nature, which was a finalist for the Guardian First Book Award, the Believer Book Award, and the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. Her writing has appeared in Harper’s, Tin House, Granta, and other publications, and her stories have been included in the anthologies Best American Short Stories and The O. Henry Prize Stories. She is a former producer for the radio program This American Life, and was the recipient of a 2016 fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband, daughter and son.Lydia Kiesling is the author of The Golden State, a 2018 National Book Foundation “5 under 35” honoree, and a finalist for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award. She is a contributing editor at The Millions and her writing has appeared at outlets including The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker online, The Cut, and The Guardian.
Ethan Rutherford is the author of The Peripatetic Coffin and Other Stories, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, a finalist for the John Leonard Award, received honorable mention for the PEN/Hemingway Award, was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and was the winner of a Minnesota Book Award. Rutherford received his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Minnesota and now teaches Creative Writing at Trinity College. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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.
Sep. 5, 2015. Valeria Luiselli discusses "The Story of My Teeth" at the 2015 Library of Congress National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. Speaker Biography: Valeria Luiselli was born in Mexico City and grew up in South Africa. She is the author of the internationally acclaimed novel "Faces in the Crowd" and the collection of essays "Sidewalks." Her work has been translated into multiple languages and has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Granta and McSweeney's. She has received the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for first fiction and the National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 award. Her newest novel available in English is "The Story of My Teeth." For transcript, captions, and more information, visit http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=6974
Dinaw Mengestu was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1978. He is the recipient of a fellowship in fiction from the New York Foundation for the Arts and a Lannan Literary Award, and received a "5 under 35" Award from the National Book Foundation. His first novel, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, was named a New York Times Notable Book and awarded the Guardian First Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, among numerous other honors. His latest novel is called All Of Our Names. More about First Draft at aspenpublicradio.org/programs/first-draft
Dinaw Mengestu was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1978. He is the recipient of a fellowship in fiction from the New York Foundation for the Arts and a Lannan Literary Award, and received a "5 under 35" Award from the National Book Foundation. His first novel, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, was named a New York Times Notable Book and awarded the Guardian First Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, among numerous other honors. His latest novel is called All Of Our Names. More about First Draft at aspenpublicradio.org/programs/first-draft
Ethan Rutherford’s fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, One Story, American Short Fiction, and anthologized in The Best American Short Stories. His first book, The Peripatetic Coffin and Other Stories, won the Minnesota Book Award, the Friends of American Writers Award, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award, and received honorable mention for the PEN/Hemingway Award. He was born in Seattle, Washington, and received his MFA in Fiction from the University of Minnesota. Before coming to Trinity, he taught at Macalester College, the University of Minnesota, and at the MFA program at Hamline University. In the classroom he encourages his students to read as writers, to take their own work seriously, and to understand that even the most compelling stories began simply, as a series of artistic choices.
The Tragedy of Arthur (Random House) We're thrilled to welcome back bestselling novelist Arthur Philips for his acclaimed latest, The Tragedy of Arthur! This virtuosic novel (masquerading as a memoir) includes an entire five-act "lost" William Shakespeare play! "A long-lost Shakespeare play surfaces in Phillips's wily fifth novel, a sublime faux memoir framed as the introduction to the play's first printing—a Modern Library edition, of course… The play itself . . . reads not unlike something written by the man from Stratford-upon-Avon. It's a tricky project, funny and brazen, smart and playful.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review Arthur Phillips was born in Minneapolis and educated at Harvard. He has been a child actor, a jazz musician, a speech writer, and a five-time Jeopardy! champion. His first novel, Prague, was named a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times and received the Los Angeles Times/Art Seidenbaum Award for best first novel. He is also the bestselling author of The Egyptologist, Angelica, and The Song is You. His novels have published in over two dozen countries. He lives in New York City with his wife and two sons. Photo of the author by Barbi Reed. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS OCTOBER 18, 2011.
Elizabeth Strout, Thu, Jan 27 at 6:30pm from BAMCafe, Brooklyn Academy of Music. Moderated by Deborah Treisman. Elizabeth Strout is the winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for her novel Olive Kitteridge. She is also the author of two previous novels: Abide With Me, a national bestseller and Book Sense pick, and Amy and Isabelle, which won the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize and was a finalist for the PEN Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize in England. Her short stories have been published in a number of magazines, including The New Yorker. She was raised in small towns in New Hampshire and Maine and currently lives in New York City.