Podcast appearances and mentions of Margot Livesey

Bookwaves/Artwaves is produced and hosted by Richard Wolinsky. Links to assorted local theater & book venues   Tom Robbins (1932-2025) Tom Robbins (1932-2025, author of the classic novels “Another Roadside Attraction” and “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues”, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff in the KPFA studios on May 15, 2000 while on tour for the novel “Fierce Invalids, Home from Hot Climates.” Tom Robbins, who died on February 9, 2025 at the age of 92,  was the considered the leading chronicler of the sixties vibe. Over the course of his long life, he only wrote eight novels, one collection of short stories and a memoir over the course of his long life, but he is recognized as one of the most important voices of mid to late twentieth century America. Among his novels are Another Roadside Attraction, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, which became a film by Gus Van Sant, Still Life with Woodpecker and Jitterbug Perfume. Tom Robbins would only write one more novel after Fierce Invalids, Titled Villa Incognito, it was published in 2003. A collection of his short writings, Wild Ducks Flying Backwards, was published in 2003, and a memoir, Tibetan Peach Pie: A true Account of an Imaginative Life, was published in 2014. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues is the only one of his books to be adapted for film. Photo: Creative Commons,   Margot Livesey Margot Livesey, author of the novel, “The Road from Belhaven,” now just out in trade paperback, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky. Recorded at Book Passage Bookstore in Corte Madera, California. Margot Livesey is the author of ten novels, including “The Missing World,” “Mercury” and “The Boy in the Field,” which range from literary novels to psychological thrillers. Born and raised in Scotland. she currently teaches at the Iowa Writers Workshop. “The Road from Belhaven” is set in the late 1800s in rural Scotland and Glasgow, and concerns a young woman artist with second sight who finds herself in difficult circumstances. It's based on stories of Margot Livesey's great grandmother as told by her grandmother and relatives in Australia. Special thanks to Elaine Petrocelli and the folks at Book Passage Bookstore. Photo: Richard Wolinsky. Complete Interview.   Review of “The Thing About Jellyfish” at Berkeley Rep Roda Theatre through March 9, 2025.   Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links Note: Shows may unexpectedly close early or be postponed due to actors' positive COVID tests. Check the venue for closures, ticket refunds, and vaccination and mask requirements before arrival. Dates are in-theater performances unless otherwise noted. Some venues operate Tuesday – Sunday; others Wednesday or Thursday through Sunday. All times Pacific Time. Closing dates are sometimes extended. Book Stores Bay Area Book Festival  See website for highlights from the 10th Annual Bay Area Book Festival, June 1-2, 2024. Book Passage.  Monthly Calendar. Mix of on-line and in-store events. Books Inc.  Mix of on-line and in-store events. The Booksmith.  Monthly Event Calendar. BookShop West Portal. Monthly Event Calendar. Center for Literary Arts, San Jose. See website for Book Club guests in upcoming months. Green Apple Books. Events calendar. Kepler's Books  On-line Refresh the Page program listings. Live Theater Companies Actors Ensemble of Berkeley. See website for specific days and times, and for staged readings at LaVal's Subterranean Theater. Actor's Reading Collective (ARC).   See website for upcoming productions. African American Art & Culture Complex. See website for calendar. Alter Theatre. See website for upcoming productions. American Conservatory Theatre Nobody Loves You, a musical, Feb. 28 – March 30, Toni Rembe Theatre. Aurora Theatre  The Heart-Sellers by Lloyd Suh, February 9 – March 9, 2025. Awesome Theatre Company. See website for information. Berkeley Rep. The Thing About Jellyfish, based on the novel by Ali Benjamin, adapted by Keith Bunin, January 31 – March 9, World Premiere, Roda Theatre. Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov, adapted by Conor McPherson, February 14 – March 23, Peets Theatre. Berkeley Shakespeare Company. See website for upcoming shows. Supergalza: A Shakespeare Cabaret, spring 2025. Boxcar Theatre. Magic Man, Jan 3 – June 2, Palace Theatre. Brava Theatre Center: See calendar for current and upcoming productions. BroadwaySF: Back to the Future: The Musical, Feb 12 – March 9. Orpheum. See website for complete listings for the Orpheum, Golden Gate and Curran Theaters. Broadway San Jose:  The Cher Show. March 18 – 23. Center Rep: Froggy, Feb. 9 – March 7. Lesher Center. Central Stage. See website for upcoming productions, 5221 Central Avenue, Richmond Central Works  Push/Pull by Harry Davis, March 1 – 30, 2025. Cinnabar Theatre. Steel Magnolias by Robert Harling, February 14-23, 2025, Warren Theatre, Sonoma State University. Club Fugazi. Dear San Francisco ongoing. Check website for Music Mondays listings. Contra Costa Civic Theatre Fairview by Jackie Sibblies Drury. February 1 – 16, 2025. 42nd Street Moon. See website for upcoming productions. Golden Thread  AZAD (The Rabbit and the Wolf) by Sona Tatoyan in collaboration with Jared Mezzocchi, April 11 – May 3. See website for other events. Hillbarn Theatre: Fly by Night conceived by Kim Rosenstock Written by Will Connolly, Michael Mitnick, and Kim Rosenstock, March 6 – 23. Lorraine Hansberry Theatre. See website for upcoming productions. Los Altos Stage Company. The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. Jan. 23 – Feb. 16. Lower Bottom Playaz  See website for upcoming productions. Magic Theatre. the boiling by Sunui Chang  April 3 -20, 2025. See website for additional events. Marin Shakespeare Company: See website for calendar. Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts Upcoming Events Page. New Conservatory Theatre Center (NCTC) Francis Grey and the Case of His Dead Boyfriend by Nathan Tylutkis, February 6-16. Wild with Happy by Colman Domingo, March 7 – April 6. New Performance Traditions. Both Eyes Open, a chamber opera on the Japanese American WWII incarceration, February 15-16, Zellerbach Hall. Oakland Theater Project.  See website for upcoming schedule. Odd Salon: Upcoming events in San Francisco & New York, and streaming. Palace of Fine Arts Theater.  See website for event listings. Pear Theater. The Gods of Comedy by Ken Ludwig,  Feb. 21 – March 16. See website for staged readings and other events. Playful People Productions. See website for upcoming productions and events. Presidio Theatre. See website for complete schedule of events and performances. Ray of Light: Next to Normal. June 2025. San Francisco Playhouse. Exotic Deadly, or the MSG Play by Keiko Green, January 30 – March 8. SFBATCO.  See website for upcoming streaming and in- theater shows. Cuckoo Edible Magic by Reed Flores, at the Magic in Fort Mason, Feb. 13 – March 8. San Jose Stage Company: An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen, Feb. 5 – March 2.. Shotgun Players.  Heart Wrench, Feb 14 – 15. Art by Yazmina Reza, starts March 8. South Bay Musical Theatre: Urinetown,  January 15 – February 15, 2025. Saratoga Civic Theater. Stagebridge: See website for events and productions. Storytime every 4th Saturday. The Breath Project. Streaming archive. The Marsh: Calendar listings for Berkeley, San Francisco and Marshstream. Theatre Lunatico  See website for upcoming productions. Theatre Rhino  Doodler, conceived and directed by John Fisher, February 8- March 2. Streaming: Essential Services Project, conceived and performed by John Fisher, all weekly performances now available on demand. TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. Happy Pleasant Valley, Book, Music, and Lyrics by Min Kahng, Lucie Stern Theatre, Palo Alto, March 5-30. Word for Word.  See website for upcoming productions. Misc. Listings: BAM/PFA: On View calendar for BAM/PFA. Berkeley Symphony: See website for listings. Chamber Music San Francisco: Calendar, 2025 Season. Dance Mission Theatre. On stage events calendar. Fort Mason Center. Events calendar. Crushing, live monologue show, Feb. 27-28. Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Calendar listings and upcoming shows. San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. Signs of Life? written and performed by Cheyenne Jackson, 2 performances February 14, Chan National Queer Arts Center. See schedule for upcoming SFGMC performances. San Francisco Opera. Calendar listings. San Francisco Symphony. Calendar listings. Filmed Live Musicals: Searchable database of all filmed live musicals, podcast, blog. If you'd like to add your bookstore or theater venue to this list, please write Richard@kpfa.org                                   .   . The post February 13, 2025: Tom Robbins – Margot Livesey appeared first on KPFA.

Jacke talks to award-winning novelist and short story writer Charles Baxter about his new book, Blood Test: A Comedy, which the New York Times says "provides a snapshot of a troubled America, disguised as a speculative comedy...a quiet masterpiece." PLUS Bill Eville (Washed Ashore: Family, Fatherhood, and Finding Home on Martha's Vineyard) stops by to discuss his choice for the last book he will ever read. Additional listening: 63 Chekhov, Bellow, Wright, and Fox (with Charles Baxter) 612 Family Matters (with Bill Eville) 429 Books I Have Loved (with Charles Baxter, Margot Livesey, and Jim Shepard) The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at gabrielruizbernal.com. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/donate. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

PopaHALLics #130 "The Witch, The Killer ... & Emily in Paris"Kate muses on the appeal—and fashion—of the Netflix hit "Emily in Paris," recently named by The New York Times as one to "hatewatch." (You dislike the show so much that you still watch it so you can ridicule it.) First, we look at "American Murder: Laci Peterson" and talk about three novels. Also: "The Lost Kitchen."Streaming:"Emily in Paris," Netflix. As the fourth season begins, marketing executive Emily (Lily Collins) has even more romantic and professional dilemmas! Golly! Part one of this season premiered in August and part two drops Sept. 12."American Murder: Laci Peterson," Netflix. This true-crime docuseries delves into the 2002 disappearance and murder of Peterson, who was eight months pregnant at the time."The Lost Kitchen" and "Getting Lost," Max, Discovery, Magnolia. In these reality shows, self-taught chef Erin French uses local crops to whip up tasty dishes and connections to the family cooks who went before.Books:"The Road from Belhaven," by Margot Livesey. The gift of second sight complicates the life of a young woman in late 19th-century Scotland."Gone," by Chelsea Cain. In this thriller, Kick, a survivor of child pornography, looks for an abducted boy with the help of the enigmatic John Bishop."The Paying Guests," by Sarah Waters. This novel set in 1920s south London weaves together a love story and a crime drama as a family trying to make ends meet takes in lodgers.Click through to watch and read what we're talking about.

The New York State Summer Writers Institute will offer evening readings by an extraordinary line-up of distinguished writers this June and July. Tonight at 8 p.m., the institute presents Margot Livesey. Her latest novel is "The Road from Belhaven."

It's the start of a new hundred episodes! Fresh off her tour for her new novel The Road from Belhaven, superguest Margot Livesey joins Jacke for a discussion of mistakes in the novels of Thomas Hardy. Then Jacke tells Margot the heartrending story of Hardy's fraught relationship with his first wife Emma - and how Emma's death unlocked some of his greatest poetry. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/donate. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

​Bookwaves/Artwaves is produced and hosted by Richard Wolinsky. Links to assorted local theater & book venues    Margot Livesey, author of the novel, “The Road from Belhaven,” in conversation with Richard Wolinsky. Recorded March 19, 2024 at Book Passage Bookstore in Corte Madera, California. Margot Livesey is the author of ten novels, including “The Missing World,” “Mercury” and “The Boy in the Field,” which range from literary novels to psychological thrillers. Born and raised in Scotland. she currently teaches at the Iowa Writers Workshop. “The Road from Belhaven” is set in the late 1800s in rural Scotland and Glasgow, and concerns a young woman artist with second sight who finds herself in difficult circumstances. It's based on stories of Margot Livesey's great grandmother as told by her grandmother and relatives in Australia. Special thanks to Elaine Petrocelli and the folks at Book Passage Bookstore. Photo: Richard Wolinsky. Complete Interview.   Review of “Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord” at ACT Strand Theatre through May 5, 2024. Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links Note: Shows may unexpectedly close early or be postponed due to actors' positive COVID tests. Check the venue for closures, ticket refunds, and vaccination and mask requirements before arrival. Dates are in-theater performances unless otherwise noted. Some venues operate Tuesday – Sunday; others Wednesday or Thursday through Sunday. All times Pacific Time. Closing dates are sometimes extended. Book Stores Bay Area Book Festival  Event calendar and links to previous events. Book Passage.  Monthly Calendar. Mix of on-line and in-store events. Books Inc.  Mix of on-line and in-store events. The Booksmith.  Monthly Event Calendar. Center for Literary Arts, San Jose. See website for Book Club guests in upcoming months. Green Apple Books. Events calendar. Kepler's Books  On-line Refresh the Page program listings. Live Theater Companies Actor's Reading Collective (ARC).  The Last Days of Judas Iscariot by Steven Adly Guirgis, May 4, 7 pm, Marin Shakespeare Company, San Rafael. African American Art & Culture Complex. See website for calendar. Alter Theatre. Dine Nishli (i am a sacred being) or A Boarding School Play by Blossom Johnson, April 11-13. See website for time and location. American Conservatory Theatre  Kristina Wong Sweatshop Overlord, March 30 – May 5, 2024, Strand Theater. A Strange Loop, April 18 – May 12, Toni Rembe Theater. Aurora Theatre  Blue Door by Tanya Barfield, April 19 – May 19. Streaming:  March 14-19. Awesome Theatre Company. Awesome High: A Sketch Comedy Play, directed by Nikki Menez,  April 12-27, Eclectic Box, 446 Valencia, SF. Berkeley Rep The Far Country by Lloyd Suh, March 8 – April 14, Peets Theatre. Galileo, World Premiere Musical, book by Danny Strong, with Raul Esparza, May 5 – June 10, Roda Theatre. Berkeley Shakespeare Company. See website for upcoming schedule. Boxcar Theatre. See website for upcoming shows. Brava Theatre Center: See calendar for current and upcoming productions. BroadwaySF: Haispray, April 16-21, Orpheum. See website for special events at the Orpheum, Curran and Golden Gate. Broadway San Jose:  Peter Pan, June 25-30. California Shakespeare Theatre (Cal Shakes). Terrapin Roadshow, June 1-2; As You Like it, September 12 – 29. Center Rep: Cabaret, May 26 – June 23, Lesher Center for the Arts. Central Works  Boss McGreedy, written and directed by Gary Graves, extended to April 7. Accused by Patricia Milton, July 13 – August 11. Cinnabar Theatre. Shipwrecked! April 12 – 28. Club Fugazi. Dear San Francisco ongoing. Contra Costa Civic Theatre In Repertory: Hamlet and Rosencranz and Gildenstern Are Dead, September 7 – 22. Curran Theater: See website for upcoming one-night only live events, including the Unscripted series with various celebrities. Custom Made Theatre. In hibernation. Cutting Ball Theatre. See website for upcoming productions. 42nd Street Moon. Forever Plaid, April 18 – May 5, 2024. Golden Thread  Returning to Haifa by Ghassan Kanafani, April 12 – May 4, Potrero Stage. Hillbarn Theatre: Something Rotten, April 25 – May 12. Lorraine Hansberry Theatre. (NO MORE) adjustments: A Black Queer Woman Evolves in Real Time, written and performed by Champagne Hughes, May 1-5, 2024. Fort Mason. Magic Theatre. Riding the Currents of the Wilding Wind by Martha Gonzalez and Virginia Grise, April 18-21. Garuda's Wing by Naomi Iizuka, June 5-23. Marin Theatre Company Torch Song by Harvey Fierstein, May 9 – June 2, 2024. Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts Upcoming Events Page. New Conservatory Theatre Center (NCTC) The Tutor by Torange Yeghiazarian, April 5 – May 12. Oakland Theater Project.  Red, Red, Red by Amilio Garcia, conceived by Lisa Ramirez, World Premiere, April 26 – May 19.h Odd Salon: Upcoming events in San Francisco & New York, and streaming. Pear Theater. In Repertory: The Chinese Lady by Lloyd Suh; Love Letters by A.R. Gurney. April 19 – May 20. Presidio Theatre. See website for complete schedule of events and performances. Ray of Light: Everybody's Talking About Jamie, June 1 – 23, 2024. See website for Spotlight Cabaret Series at Feinstein's at the Nikko. San Francisco Playhouse. The 39 Steps, March 7 – April 20. SFBATCO See website for upcoming streaming and in- theater shows. Sign My Name to Freedom: The Unheard Songs of Betty Reid Soskin, March 29 – April 13. San Jose Stage Company: Hangmen by Martin McDonagh. Regional premiere. April 3 – 28. Shotgun Players.  A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. March 15 – April 14. Website also lists one night only events at the Ashby Stage. South Bay Musical Theatre: Mary Poppins, the Broadway Musical, May 18 – June 8. Saratoga Civic Theater. Stagebridge: Shady Manor, a musical play by Prescott Cole. June 14-16. 2501 Harrison St., Oakland. The Breath Project. Streaming archive. The Marsh: Calendar listings for Berkeley, San Francisco and Marshstream. Theatre Rhino  Pride of Lions, by Roger Q. Mason, March 28 – April 21. Streaming: Essential Services Project, conceived and performed by John Fisher, all weekly performances now available on demand. TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. Tiger Style by Mike Lew, April 6-28, Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts.. Word for Word.  See website for upcoming productions. Misc. Listings: BAM/PFA: On View calendar for BAM/PFA. Berkeley Symphony: See website for listings. Chamber Music San Francisco: Calendar, 2023 Season. Dance Mission Theatre. On stage events calendar. Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Calendar listings and upcoming shows. San Francisco Opera. Calendar listings. San Francisco Symphony. Calendar listings. Filmed Live Musicals: Searchable database of all filmed live musicals, podcast, blog. If you'd like to add your bookstore or theater venue to this list, please write Richard@kpfa.org The post Bookwaves/Artwaves – April 11, 2024: Margot Livesey, “The Road from Belhaven” appeared first on KPFA.

Margot Livesey, author of the novel, “The Road from Bellhaven,” in conversation with Richard Wolinsky. Recorded March 19, 2024 at Book Passage Bookstore in Corte Madera, California. Margot Livesey is the author of ten novels, including “The Missing World,” “Mercury” and “The Boy in the Field,” which range from literary novels to psychological thrillers. Born and raised in Scotland. she currently teaches at the Iowa Writers Workshop. “The Road from Bellhaven” is set in the late 1800s in rural Scotland and Glasgow, and concerns a young woman artist with second sight who finds herself in difficult circumstances. It's based on stories of Margot Livesey's great grandmother as told by her grandmother and relatives in Australia. Special thanks to Elaine Petrocelli and the folks at Book Passage Bookstore. Photo: Richard Wolinsky. The post Margot Livesey, ” The Road from Bellhaven,” 2024 appeared first on KPFA.

As the 2024 Presidential race heats up, award-winning fiction writer Margot Livesey joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss the value of seeing the future in politics and in family life. Are the polls right? Will Donald Trump beat President Joe Biden in the November election? Livesey talks about the role predictions play in our political landscape and in her new novel, The Road from Belhaven, in which a young woman named Lizzie Craig, raised by her grandparents in 19th century Scotland, has the gift of second sight. Livesey discusses the ways that literature has handled the concept of “seeing the future” over time, including the role second sight plays in Macbeth. She reads from her novel.  To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf. Margot Livesey The Road From Belhaven The Boy in the Field Homework Eva Moves The Furniture The Flight of Gemma Hardy Others Daniel Deronda by George Eliot Fiction/Non/Fiction: Season 3, Episode 24: “Summer Books Extravaganza: Margot Livesey and Jaswinder Bolina on Beach Reading When the Beach is Closed” Fiction/Non/Fiction: Season 5, Episode 35: "Boris Johnson: Margot Livesey on British Politics, the Brexit Blunder, and the Prime Minister's Lies"  No Great Mischief  by Alistair MacLeod  The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis  Macbeth by William Shakespeare Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon L.M. Montgomery Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Margot Livesey has published ten novels: Homework, Criminals, The Missing World, Eva Moves the Furniture, Banishing Verona, The House on Fortune Street, The Flight of Gemma Hardy, Mercury, and The Boy in the Field, and The Road from Belhaven. The Hidden Machinery, a collection of essays on writing, was published by Tin House Books in 2017. Livesey is currently teaching at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. She lives with her husband, a painter, in Cambridge, MA, and goes back to London and Scotland whenever she can. We talked about growing up in Scotland, quiet novels, traveling in her mind when she couldn't in person during Covid, small town farm life, solace in animals and the natural world, secret sorrows, and the supernatural. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Book Public podcast host Yvette Benavides interviews Margot Livesey about her latest novel, 'The Road from Belhaven.'

Margot Livesey is the author of the novel The Road from Belhaven, available from Knopf. Livesey was born and grew up on the edge of the Scottish Highlands. She is the author of a collection of stories and nine other novels, including Eva Moves the Furniture, The Flight of Gemma Hardy, and The Boy in the Field. She has received awards from the NEA, the Guggenheim Foundation and the Radcliffe Institute. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is on the faculty of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly literary 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

Beth Golay recently spoke with Margot Livesey about the trials Lizzie endured as part of her gift and as part of the setting, as well as her own experience as the author of 10 novels and teacher at the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

It's Episode 500! Jacke shares some thoughts on Meg White's drumming, Boswell and Johnson, and living in Taiwan. Then author Margot Livesey (The Boy in the Field, The Flight of Gemma Hardy) joins Jacke for a discussion of some My Last Books with past guests. Additional listening suggestions: 439 The Poets' Guide to Economics (with John Ramsden) 417 What Happened on Roanoke Island? (with Kimberly Brock) 465 Greek Lit and Game Theory (with Josiah Ober) 463 Friedrich Nietzsche (with Ritchie Robertson) Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/donate. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to (and how not to) give and receive feedback, with authors and teachers Daphne Kalotay and Margot Livesey.For a list of my fave craft books and the most recent works by our guests, go to our Bookshop page.Margot Livesey grew up on the edge of the Scottish Highlands.  She is the author of nine novels, a collection of stories and a book of essays about the craft of fiction. She teaches at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and spends much of the year in Cambridge, Ma.Daphne Kalotay is the author of the story collection, Calamity and Other Stories, as well as the novels Russian Winter, Sight Reading, and Blue Hours. Her bestselling work has been published in twenty languages and won her numerous national and international awards. Her forthcoming collection, The Archivists, won the  the 2021 Grace Paley Prize and will be published in Spring 2023.Daphne lives in Somerville, Massachusetts and teaches at Princeton University's Program in Creative Writing.Thank you for reading The 7am Novelist. This post is public so feel free to share it. 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

Get ready for our March March 31-day writing challenge, with live webinars and daily inspiration and writing tips—and it's all free. Thanks to the writers who are helping us out for our second challenge: Rebecca Makkai, Allison Amend, Julie Carrick Dalton, Desmond Hall, Margot Livesey, AE Osworth, Hank Phillippi Ryan, Henriette Lazaridis, Jenna Blum, David Abrams, Dawn Tripp, Jane Roper, Randy Susan Meyers, Shuchi Saraswat, Patricia Park, Lara Prescott, Erica Ferencik, Michael Lowenthal, and many, many more! 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

One of the best ways to develop your characters is to figure out their attitude to others and the world, from the way they enter a room to how they cut their steak (or refuse steak altogether). Listen in to our discussion about what informs our characters' sense of themselves and others from writers Margot Livesey and Courtney Maum.Margot Livesey grew up on the edge of the Scottish Highlands.  She is the author of nine novels, a collection of stories and a book of essays about the craft of fiction. She teaches at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and spends much of the year in Cambridge, Ma.Courtney Maum is the author of five books, including the groundbreaking publishing guide BEFORE AND AFTER THE BOOK DEAL and the memoir THE YEAR OF THE HORSES, chosen by The Today Show as the best read for mental health awareness. A writing coach and educator, Courtney's mission is to help people hold on to the joy of art-making in a culture obsessed with turning artists into brands. You can sign up for her publishing tips newsletter and online masterclasses at CourtneyMaum.com 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

Novelist Margot Livesey joins Fiction/Non/Fiction hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell from London to discuss the downfall of Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the legacy of his decision to “do Brexit.” Livesey, who grew up in Scotland, explains Johnson's career of fabrications, talks about how Brexit looks now, and shares her experience of the recent heat wave in the U.K. Finally, she and the hosts analyze characters who resemble Johnson in literature–including the antagonist in Livesey's novel The Missing World. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/. This podcast is produced by Anne Kniggendorf. Selected Readings: Margot Livesey The Hidden Machinery: Essays on Writing The Boy in the Field Mercury The Missing World The Flight of Gemma Hardy Others: Protesters in UK decry climate change after record heat wave - ABC News Quentin Blake Roald Dahl Matilda by Roald Dahl The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov The Guardian Martin Amis S5 Episode 6: Nadifa Mohamed on Writing the Convoluted Terrains of Immigration Howards End by E.M. Forster The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett Barbara Kingsolver Venetia Welby J.G. Ballard Have I Got News for You Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For years, we've enjoyed talking to writers about the books they love best. In this "best of" episode, we go deep into the archive for three of our favorites: Jim Shepard and his youthful discovery of Bram Stoker's Dracula; Margot Livesey and her love for Ford Madox Ford's modernist classic The Good Soldier; and Charles Baxter telling us about his love for the poetry of James Wright. Enjoy! Additional listening suggestions: 96 Dracula, Lolita, and the Power of Volcanoes (with Jim Shepard) 63 Chekhov, Bellow, Wright (with Charles Baxter) 78 Jane Eyre, The Good Soldier, Giovanni's Room (with Margot Livesey) Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Still recovering from his immersion in Sigmund Freud, Jacke looks instead to one of the world's great literary cities: Odessa. More than 300 writers have lived in, traveled through, and/or written about Ukraine's "pearl of the Black Sea" - what did they find so compelling? And what did they write about afterwards? PLUS we continue our conversation with Scottish novelist Margot Livesey, who has been reading Boswell's Life of Johnson, generally considered one of the greatest biographies ever written (and one of Jacke's favorite books). Additional listening suggestions: Weeping for Gogol Natalia Ginzburg Chekhov's "The Lady with the Little Dog" Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Love is all around! On podcasts as well as holidays... In this episode, Jacke talks to USA Today bestselling author Mimi Matthews about her love for the Victorian era and how that fueled her latest work, the historical romance The Siren of Sussex, in which an ambitious equestrienne teams up with a devastatingly handsome half-Indian dressmaker to take London society by storm - unless their professional plans are thwarted by their amorous propensities toward one another. Jacke also checks in with friend of the show Margot Livesey about her first reading of the classic biography Life of Johnson by her fellow Scot, James Boswell - does it still hold up? And finally, Jacke throws a bone to love's wretched dogs, who might find some company in the misery of ancient Rome's Catullus, whose love for "Lesbia" placed him on the knife edge between self-loathing and despair. Additional listening suggestions: In love with love? Pain turns to loving pleasure in Episode 95 The Runaway Poets - The Triumphant Love Story of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning. Still in love with love? Try Episode 130 The Poet and the Painter - The Great Love Affair of Anna Akhmatova and Amedeo Modigliani. No one to love but yourself? Join us for a look at Oscar Wilde, Ovid, and the Myth of Narcissus (with novelist Natasha Joukovsky) in Episode 337. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jacke had big plans to make this episode all about the poetry of William Butler Yeats...and then listener feedback to the last episode overtook him. So instead of lazing about on the Lake Isle of Innisfree, he returns to the subject of Sophocles and the power of literature, as introduced in the conversation with Bryan Doerries, the Artistic Director of Theater of War Productions. After checking in with Friend of the Show Margot Livesey as she reads Boswell's Life of Johnson, Jacke turns to a special message from a longtime listener whose own life had been changed by the work that Bryan and his theater company do. We hope you enjoy this special episode devoted to the power of literature. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Even though we've technically finished up our reading of Jane Eyre, we feel like the season isn't quite complete without a look at the many adaptations of the text. Over the next few months, we'll be looking a few examples and asking the question 'what do these teach us about the original text?'The first episode of this short series is all about The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey, and we were lucky enough to get Margot Livesey herself to speak with us about the book. Vanessa and Margot discuss 'why do people keep coming back to this text?' and 'what are the hardest things in this text to modernize?' --We hope to launch or season on Pride and Prejudice on March 25th, but we need your help to do it! We're hoping to raise $4k by February 14th and we're almost at our goal. If you want Hot and Bothered to continue, please consider supporting us on Patreon! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sürgün, hareket halinde olma hâli ve göç konuları Azareen Van Der Vliet Oloomi'nin edebiyatının merkezinde yer alıyor. Sonbahar 2020 sezonumuzda ABD'den çevrimiçi programlara konuk ettiğimiz Oloomi ile bu kez, bütün bu konuları kapsayan enine boyuna bir sohbet için İstanbul'daki stüdyomuzda buluşuyoruz. Oloomi'nin kitaplarında yürümek, seyahat, coğrafya nasıl bir yer tutuyor? Özellikle son bir buçuk yılın kaos ortamı ve kısıtlamaları düşünüldüğünde, yer değiştirmek yazar için ne anlam ifade ediyor? Bu konuşmada, Oloomi'nin Türkçeye çevirisi devam eden yeni kitabı Savage Tongues'dan da söz edeceğiz. Kimlik, cinsiyet, iktidar, yaş konularını merkeze alan bu politik roman, Margot Livesey'nin deyişiyle "hafıza ile deliliğin arasındaki bıçak sırtı çizgide yürüyerek gençliğini kurtarmaya çalışan" bir kadınla tanıştırıyor okuru. Oloomi ile İstanbul Edebiyat Evi'nin çekirdek ekibinden Thomas Roueché söyleşiyor.Podcast dili İngilizcedir, buluşmanın Türkçe altyazılı video kaydını ise YouTube kanalımızda izleyebilirsiniz.

This virtual launch event for Joan Silber's newest novel Secrets of Happiness drew a passionate crowd for her conversation with fellow novelist Margot Livesey about themes of money, love, travel, and spirituality.  Livesey and Silber talked about her desire to write “big and small at the same time” with closely observed interiority but wide scope in time and space, and how her works exist on a spectrum between novels and short stories, as well as literary influences and current favorites. (Recorded May 3, 2021)

Eric and Medaya talk with queer writer Kristen Arnett about her knew novel, With Teeth, which centers on the troubled relationships between Sammie, her wife Monica and their son, Samson.  As Samson grows up, it becomes clear that he isn't quite like the other children. He is emotionally aloof and prone o outbursts. As a teenager, he's even more of a mystery: a loner and a threat to the image of a normal family that Monica is so desperate to present to the world. As the stay at home Mom, and narrative focal point, Sammie is tasked with trying to understand both her mysterious son; and herself, as her marriage and seemingly every else begins to deteriorate around her - or so it seems. As With Teeth spins through its insightful portrayal of queer parenthood, the struggle for identity and autonomy amidst the disintegration of a marriage, Kristen Arnett keeps us guessing until the final moment when it appears that everything we think we know about Sammie, Monica, and Samson might be wrong. Also, Joan Silber, author of Secrets of Happiness, returns to recommend two recent novels: The Sun Collective by Charles Baxter; and The Boy in the Field by Margot Livesey.

Eric and Kate talk with queer writer Kristen Arnett about her knew novel, With Teeth, which centers on the troubled relationships between Sammie, her wife Monica and their son, Samson.  As Samson grows up, it becomes clear that he isn't quite like the other children. He is emotionally aloof and prone o outbursts. As a teenager, he's even more of a mystery: a loner and a threat to the image of a normal family that Monica is so desperate to present to the world. As the stay at home Mom, and narrative focal point, Sammie is tasked with trying to understand both her mysterious son; and herself, as her marriage and seemingly every else begins to deteriorate around her - or so it seems. As With Teeth spins through its insightful portrayal of queer parenthood, the struggle for identity and autonomy amidst the disintegration of a marriage, Kristen Arnett keeps us guessing until the final moment when it appears that everything we think we know about Sammie, Monica, and Samson might be wrong. Also, Joan Silber, author of Secrets of Happiness, returns to recommend two recent novels: The Sun Collective by Charles Baxter; and The Boy in the Field by Margot Livesey.

Margot Livesey discusses her rich and layered ninth novel, THE BOY IN THE FIELD, with fellow author Christopher Castellani, author of LEADING MEN, THE SAINT OF LOST THINGS, and others. Hosted by Trisha Blanchet

The bestselling author of Eva Moves the Furniture and The House on Fortune Street talks to Eleanor Wachtel about her new novel, and about reimagining the life of her mother — and her fabled connection to the supernatural.

A conversation on plotting the literary novel. Margot Livesey's new novel is A Boy in the Field (Harper) and Jill McCorkle's latest is Hieroglyphics (Algonquin).  This week we have four Write the Book Prompts, thanks to the generosity of my guests. You’ve heard Jill’s prompts. The two exercises she suggested for writers who aren’t sure what comes next for their plot was so great, I’m using them here as well. Jill’s teacher Max Steele originally suggested these first two exercises to her: First, write a 1000-word sentence. In one sitting, spend the time to write out that four-page, double-spaced sentence. This will “clean out the attic,” as Jill puts it. Another exercise is to complete the sentence “I wish.” Later, and hopefully without actively thinking of how these sentences might link or thematically relate, write out an early memory. After you’ve written about these two ideas, see if your wish and memory connect.  Margot suggests writing a scene that begins with the question, “Where were you last night?” A second prompt Margot likes to share with her students is to take a scene that you’ve already written, and rewrite it from the point of view of another character. This doesn’t mean that you should change from first person to third person, but from, say, Milicent to Larry.  Good luck with your work in the coming week, and tune in next week for another prompt or suggestion.   Music Credit: Aaron Shapiro

The Boy in the Field: A Novel by Margot Livesey Margotlivesey.com The New York Times bestselling author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy delivers another “luminous, unforgettable, and perfectly rendered” (Dennis Lehane) novel—a poignant and probing psychological drama that follows the lives of three siblings in the wake of a violent crime. One September afternoon in 1999, teenagers Matthew, Zoe, […] The post Chris Voss Podcast – The Boy in the Field: A Novel by Margot Livesey appeared first on Chris Voss Official Website.

The Boy in the Field: A Novel by Margot Livesey Margotlivesey.com The New York Times bestselling author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy delivers another “luminous, unforgettable, and perfectly rendered” (Dennis Lehane) novel—a poignant and probing psychological drama that follows the lives of three siblings in the wake of a violent crime. One September afternoon in 1999, teenagers Matthew, Zoe, […] The post Book Author Podcast – The Boy in the Field: A Novel by Margot Livesey appeared first on Book Author Podcast.

with Chris Skaugset and Austin Brigden! Where we talk about: Expanded Library Drive-Thru Hours;Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte; Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys; Jane Slayer by Sherri Browning Erwin; Jane by April Linder; The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey; Charlotte Bronte Before Jane Eyre by Glynnis Fawkes; Glass Town by Isabel Greenberg; Jane by Aline Brosh McKenna; Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte; The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte; The Lonely City by Olivia Laing (misstated as The Silent City); Jane Eyre (2011) directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, starring Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender; Jane Eyre TV Mini-Series (2006) starring Ruth Wilson; Jane Eyre (1943) directed by Robert Stevenson, starring Orson Welles; Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore; Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen; Cowboy Christmas Redemption by Maisey Yates; Ahab’s Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund; Moby Dick by Herman Melville; March by Geraldine Brooks; Little Women by Louise Alcott; Marley by Jon Clinch; The Muppet Christmas Carol; and more!

A Beyond the Book interview with the always charming Margot Livesey recorded at an online Books & Bathrobes event. Margot discussed her novel The Boy in the Field in an in depth book club style conversation with Julie Robinson. Margot gave a lot of insight into her characters, her writing process, and her luminous body of work.      

When a young man is found lying unconscious and motionless in a field just outside Oxford (England, that is) it's time for Rhod to sit down in his garden (back yard) with the author of this fiction. The Boy In The Field is Margot Livesey's ninth novel and her first and last (we hope) to be released in Covid time.

Fan favorite Margot Livesey returns to the History of Literature to discuss her new novel, The Boy in the Field, and to help Jacke choose the greatest writers in Scotland's history.  MARGOT LIVESEY is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels The Flight of Gemma Hardy, The House on Fortune Street, Banishing Verona, Eva Moves the Furniture, The Missing World, Criminals, and Homework. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, Vogue, and the Atlantic, and she is the recipient of grants from both the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. The House on Fortune Street won the 2009 L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award. Born in Scotland, Livesey currently lives in the Boston area and is a professor of fiction at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop. (We appreciate it!) Find out more at historyofliterature.com, jackewilson.com, or by following Jacke and Mike on Twitter at @thejackewilson and @literatureSC. Or send an email to jackewilsonauthor@gmail.com. New!!! Looking for an easy to way to buy Jacke a coffee? Now you can at paypal.me/jackewilson. Your generosity is much appreciated! The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Margot Livesey is a writer and teacher. Her first book, published in 1986, was a collection of stories called Learning By Heart. Since then Margot has published eight novels: Homework, Criminals, The Missing World, Eva Moves the Furniture, Banishing Verona, The House on For tune Street, The Flight of Gemma Hardy, Mercury, and The Boy in the Field. The Hidden Machinery, a collection of essays on writing, was published by Tin House Books in 2017. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this week's episode of Fiction/Non/Fiction, co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan are joined by novelist Margot Livesey and poet and essayist Jaswinder Bolina. Livesey discusses an excerpt from her fantastic new novel, The Boy in the Field, and challenges the traditional idea that that beach reads shouldn't, or can't, be “political.” Then Bolina discusses how the most popular books in this historic summer of protest and pandemic – including his own brilliant new collection of essays, Of Color – have engaged with themes of race and anti-racism.  To hear the full episode, subscribe to the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. And check out video excerpts from our interviews at LitHub's Virtual Book Channel and Fiction/Non/Fiction's YouTube Channel.  This episode was produced by Dylan Miettinen and Andrea Tudhope. Selected readings: Margot Livesey The Boy in the Field Mercury: A Novel The Flight of Gemma Hardy The House on Fortune Street Banishing Verona Eva Moves the Furniture The Missing World Criminals Homework Jaswinder Bolina Of Color The 44th of July Phantom Camera  Others: Middlemarch by George Eliot Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Normal People by Sally Rooney The Mothers by Brit Bennett Milkman by Anna Burns The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid Ken Follett James A. Michener 1984 by George Orwell Toni Morrison Margot Livesey on moral weakness for the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast The Firm by John Grisham Tom Clancy Sue Monk Kidd Agatha Christie Rex Stout Ngaio Marsh Ralph Ellison Billy Collins How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong Ta-Nehisi Coates Citizen by Claudia Rankin Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett A Burning by Megha Majumdar The Professor's House by Willa Cather Real Life by Brandon Taylor Feel Free by Zadie Smith The Great Believers Rebecca Makkai This Is One Way to Dance by Sejal Shah The Dark Tower by Stephen King Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we're happy to have Margot Livesey on the show.

The Boy in the Field: A Novel by Margot Livesey Margotlivesey.com The New York Times bestselling author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy delivers another “luminous, unforgettable, and perfectly rendered” (Dennis Lehane) novel—a poignant and probing psychological drama that follows the lives of three siblings in the wake of a violent crime. One September afternoon in 1999, teenagers Matthew, Zoe, and Duncan Lang are walking home from school when they discover a boy lying in a field, bloody and unconscious. Thanks to their intervention, the boy’s life is saved. In the aftermath, all three siblings are irrevocably changed. Matthew, the oldest, becomes obsessed with tracking down the assailant, secretly searching the local town with the victim’s brother. Zoe wanders the streets of Oxford, looking at men, and one of them, a visiting American graduate student, looks back. Duncan, the youngest, who has seldom thought about being adopted, suddenly decides he wants to find his birth mother. Overshadowing all three is the awareness that something is amiss in their parents’ marriage. Over the course of the autumn, as each of the siblings confronts the complications and contradictions of their approaching adulthood, they find themselves at once drawn together and driven apart. Written with the deceptive simplicity and power of a fable, The Boy in the Field showcases Margot Livesey’s unmatched ability to “tell her tale masterfully, with intelligence, tenderness, and a shrewd understanding of all our mercurial human impulses” (Lily King, author of Euphoria). Margot Livesey is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels The Flight of Gemma Hardy, The House on Fortune Street, Banishing Verona, Eva Moves the Furniture, The Missing World, Criminals, and Homework. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, Vogue, and the Atlantic, and she is the recipient of grants from both the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. The House on Fortune Street won the 2009 L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award. Born in Scotland, Livesey currently lives in the Boston area and is a professor of fiction at the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 21, 2020 is: exhort • ig-ZORT • verb 1 : to incite by argument or advice : urge strongly 2 : to give warnings or advice : make urgent appeals Examples: "You'd think it was easy, making a little cube with dots, but it's hard to make a die that isn't biased. The foreman would walk up and down exhorting us: 'The fate of honest men and women lies in your hands. A single crooked die can ruin a man for life.'" — Margot Livesey, Banishing Verona, 2004 "Teen-age activist Greta Thunberg told world political and business leaders in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday that their inaction on the climate crisis was 'fueling the flames by the hour.' The 17-year-old exhorted the World Economic Forum audience to 'act as if you loved your children above all else.'" — Vicky McKeever, CNBC.com, 23 Jan. 2020 Did you know? Exhort is a 15th-century coinage. It derives from the Latin verb hortari, meaning "to incite," and it often implies the ardent urging or admonishing of an orator or preacher. English speakers apparently took to the root hort, fiddling around with different prefixes to create other words similar in meaning to exhort. They came up with adhort (meaning the same as exhort) and dehort (a word similar to exhort and adhort but with a more specific meaning of "to dissuade"). Adhort all but vanished after the 17th century. Dehort had a slightly better run than adhort, but it is now considered archaic.

Debut YA novelist Jordan Ifueko joins us to discuss Raybearer (Amulet Books, Aug. 18), “A fresh, phenomenal fantasy that begs readers to revel in its brilliant world” (Kirkus, starred review). Then our editors join with their reading recommendations for the week, including books by Veronica Chambers, Raquel Vasquez-Gilliland, Ilan Stavans, and Margot Livesey.

Novelist Margot Livesey joins Marrie Stone to talk about her latest, The Boy in the Field. She discusses the draw of writing a coming-of-age novel at this point in her career, her play with police procedurals, her personal connection to her character's quest to find his family of origin, and how she tackled those various points of view. She also talks about how characters off stage, and other minor characters, can motivate action and accelerate plot. This, and so much more, in the conversation.Margot also contributes this writing prompt to spark your creativity:One of my jobs, during my brief career as a deputy supermarket manager, was to apprehend shoplifters. I was hopeless at this, in part because most shoplifters were teenagers or senior citizens, and they often stole trivial items.  So your character, not necessarily an employee of the shop, notices someone—a friend? a stranger?—shoplifting something: a wedge of cheese, a pack of Kleenex.  Write what happens next. Download audio.   (Broadcast date: August 12, 2020)

One September afternoon in 1999, teenagers Matthew, Zoe, and Duncan Lang are walking home from school when they discover a boy lying in a field, bloody and unconscious. Thanks to their intervention, the boy's life is saved. In the aftermath, all three siblings are irrevocably changed. Matthew, the oldest, becomes obsessed with tracking down the assailant, secretly searching the local town with the victim's brother. Zoe wanders the streets of Oxford, looking at men, and one of them, a visiting American graduate student, looks back. Duncan, the youngest, who has seldom thought about being adopted, suddenly decides he wants to find his birth mother. Overshadowing all three is the awareness that something is amiss in their parents' marriage. Over the course of the autumn, as each of the siblings confronts the complications and contradictions of their approaching adulthood, they find themselves at once drawn together and driven apart.

In this week's show, I had the pleasure of speaking with Margot Livesey about her latest novel THE BOY IN THE FIELD, and Amy Stuart about her latest novel STILL HERE.  I also highlighted some of the week's new book releases. Books to keep on your radar:THE SON OF GOOD FORTUNE by Lysley Tenorio - A big-hearted debut novel following an undocumented Filipino son as he navigates his relationship with his mother, an uncertain future, and the place he calls home. *** BiblioLifestyle newsletter subscribers are the first to know all the podcast happenings, get free goodies in the mail and they can enter for the chance to win free books. Every Friday you’ll get a special treat in your inbox filled with inspirational content, book recommendations, self-care tips, original interviews, and things we think you’ll enjoy. The best part? You will only receive ONE email per week and it will be an amazing 5-minute read or less! Get our free weekly delivery - bibliolifestyle.com. A list of all the books mentioned in the show can be found at bibliohappyhour.com . To find an independent bookstore near you or when you're traveling, visit bibliofinder.com. For as little as $1/month, you can tune in to our “off the cuff” discussion (aka the aftershow),  get our tailored “top shelf” book recommendations, behind the scenes content, perks, and more when you become a supporter on Patreon. Join us at patreon.com/bibliofinder.

Hey campers—I hate reading you all a canned intro to our authors every time, so I’m winging it with our guest, Sonali Dev. I’m a fan of hers, so I feel like I know all the things. She’s the author of four straight-up romances, but her last-book-but one is the start of a series written in homage to Jane Austen, as is her latest, both set among the members of a politically ambitious Indian family in California. Why Jane Austen? Because, as Sonali says, “those were the first books I read about women wanting things and getting them. Instead of ending up crazy or dead.”We talk the pros and cons of writing from such revered material, whether readers are “looking for Lydia,” the need to make your heroine “likeable” (pro tip: the female Darcy is hard sledding) and supplying recipes for hungry readers. Links from the pod: Sonali Dev on IGNewsletter with a recipe booklet, recommendations, and a really bad joke.#AmReadingSonali: Boyfriend Material by Alexis HallThe Kingmaker by Kennedy RyanKJ: The Proposal by Jasmine GuilloryPerfect Happiness by Kristyn Kusek LewisSarina: Pale Rider by Laura SpinneyThe Great Influenza by John M. BarryThanks to everyone who supports the podcast financially. To join that team, click the button below:But it’s all good. The pod is free as it always has and always will be. This shownotes email is free, too, so please—forward it to a friend, and if you haven’t already, join our email list and be on top of it every time there’s a new episode.Find more about Jess here, Sarina here and about KJ here.KJ Dell'Antonia 0:00 Hello fellow writers, we have an interview for you with Sonali Dev whose Bollywood romances have always reflected her love of all things Jane Austen, and whose latest books are all in on that passion. If you're all in with books, reading, and writing, you might want to check out the latest book from Jennie Nash at our sponsor, Author Accelerator - Read Books All Day and Get Paid For It: The Business of Book Coaching. You can find that and more at authoraccelerator.com. Is it recording?Jess Lahey 0:30 Now it's recording. KJ Dell'Antonia 0:33 This is the part where I stare blankly at the microphone and try to remember what I'm supposed to be doing. Jess Lahey 0:37 Alright, let's start over. KJ Dell'Antonia 0:38 Awkward pause. I'm gonna rustle some papers. Okay, now one, two, three. Hey, I'm KJ Dell'Antonia and this is #AmWriting the weekly podcast about writing all the things, fiction, nonfiction, short pieces, long pieces, proposals, pitches, you are allowed to start to write things that do not start with P, although I may not list them here. And in short, we are the podcast about sitting down and getting your work done. Sarina Bowen 1:14 I'm Sarina Bowen, I am trying to get the work done this week on romance novel number 36. And you can find more about me at sarinabowen.com.KJ Dell'Antonia 1:25 And I am KJ Dell'Antonia. I'm the author of the novel The Chicken Sisters, and you heard it here first, I don't know when it's coming out. We've just delayed that puppy from this summer into the future. Not the indefinite future, but I don't know what kind of future. So everybody's talking me off the ledge because I'm not super happy about it, but it is what it is and when it comes out, it's gonna be great. It really is. I'm also the author of How to Be a Happier Parent, which did come out in paperback this summer. I'm a former editor of The Motherlode blog at the New York Times and still sometimes a contributor there. And you'll find me bookstagramming on Instagram at kjda. And we have a guest today that I'm really excited about. So I hate reading everybody the canned intro to the authors all the time, where I sort of just suck pieces off of their websites. So I'm sorry, guest Sonali Dev, I'm revealing your identity. I'm just gonna riff, because I am a fan and I feel like I know all the things without having to write them down. So Sonali Dev is our guest today. She is the author of four straight up Bollywood style romances, but her last book (but before this one) was a take on Pride and Prejudice. And this one, the current book, which is called Recipe for Persuasion follows the arc of the Jane Austen book Persuasion. And we're gonna talk about that and all kinds of things. And Sonali, I'm so excited that you're here.Somali Dev 3:14 Thank you so much for having me. And I think what I like to call it is an homage to not even an homage to the novel, but an homage to what I learned personally from the novel as a young girl growing up. So it's inspired by, and it's an homage to, her work.KJ Dell'Antonia 3:33 That completely works and I have not yet finished Persuasion, although I am deep, deep, deep into it. And I absolutely gobbled Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors. And I think you're not someone that sticks tightly to what's been done before in any way and that's what makes them so good.Somali Dev 3:51 Yeah, not even close. I mean, that's not even my intent ever. You know, these are completely my stories. There's no doubt and like I said, what they are to me is not even really so much about the story, but what I learned from that story, and what it made me, and what it makes me want to say. And so they're absolutely my stories, but it very much is paying homage to her original stories.Sarina Bowen 4:22 And how did you decide to do that? Like it's a big, difficult task to nod at this work that you already love so much. So what was the deciding factor for you that this would be your next big series of projects?Somali Dev 4:38 So, it's really strange because you know how we have those childhood dreams that are grand, like the Oscar speeches we give in front of mirrors and things like that. You know, where you dream you're going to do something and Jane Austen was one of my earliest favorites. She was, I think, a very strong influence on me as a young girl, because what I saw in her books was aligned very closely with who I was on the inside, but who I was not being reinforced by the stories in my world. I grew up in India, and the stories we were hearing rarely were about women wanting things and getting them. And so that in Jane Austen's work spoke to me, because you know, her heroines at a time when there was nothing in their world telling them they were worthy of anything considered themselves worthy of getting love, and they didn't end up either crazy or dead, like all the other classics. So from a very early age, and I also dreamed of being a "big fancy author" sitting in my big fancy cottage by the beach and writing, you know, that was my faraway dream as a little girl. And so very early - like I couldn't even tell you where the genesis of that idea was - but very early I knew I wanted to tell her stories my way and then as I started to take the publishing journey seriously and I became a published author, it was always very front and center in my mind. And as that idea had taken taken shape and become real I knew that I wanted to take these four novels, which are my favorite four novels, and tell them under one story umbrella. And I also wanted them to be entirely my stories, while still being very much nods to her. And so all of that was just always in my head. And I think in 2013, I sold my first book and had my first agent. And at the time we had sold the first two Bollywood books and you know how agents and authors who want a career, kind of want to stay a few steps ahead. And when we were having that conversation, I told her about this idea. And her reaction in a very casually dismissive way was that Austen doesn't sell, so we're not going to do that. And even for a second that didn't dissuade me, which kind of tells you how much a part of me this was. So, you know, it was always something I was going to do, no matter who else was on that train or not. So it was just somehow (and I think that has to do with how much of an influence she was for me as a woman and as a person growing up). So I always knew I was going to do this.KJ Dell'Antonia 8:01 Wow. If we read your first four books really carefully knowing this now, would we see hint? I think you see hints of Darcy, for example, in something that I'm writing now. And I'm aware of it. And it's not an homage, it's not anything, it's just some of the ways that he interacted with Elizabeth are reflected in what I'm working in. So would we find them? Would we find little clues?Somali Dev 8:29 I think you would be hard pressed not to find some influence of her in any romance novel. So definitely. In fact, I think when I was selling Bollywood Bride, my hook was (of all things) Wuthering Heights meets Monsoon Wedding. I think the things that we read as children... The other day I was talking to someone and when this person read Bollywood Bride they got a Jane Eyre sense and I think that has to do with the fact that there is a crazy lady in the attic. Like you can't write a bad arrogant, bad proposal without invoking Jane Austen, there's just no way to do it. You can't write an arrogant man without invoking Darcy. And so, yeah for sure, I think you see that in those books. I think how you see it more is in the voice. And there's a little bit of cynicism in all my writing. This need to laugh at the world we live in was something I think again was reinforced by Jane Austen and by PG Woodhouse. And you know, those authors that I read as a child like we live in this world and it's flippin ridiculous and that it's okay to live in it and yet find it completely ridiculous was something (again) that felt okay because I read these books young. And I think if you looked you would find in a lot of the inner dialogue and the narrative of all of my books is the fact that all is not well with our world and it's kind of ridiculous.Sarina Bowen 10:40 Can I ask a question - you just made such a terrific case for the fun and the backbone that you get by writing an homage to something you love, and I just want to think about the risks for a second. Because that's something we do on the podcast a lot is just to think about the pros and cons of various paths. So I read a book a few years ago called The Flight of Gemma Hardy, a novel by Margot Livesey. And it's a Jane Eyre take, which is super fun. And I went to see this author at my local bookstore and she started to talk about why she wrote this book and my jaw kind of hit the floor because she had a life that began a little bit like a Jane Eyre. So she was just primed to write this thing. So I took this wonderful book, and I read it and I enjoyed every minute of it. But in the back of my head, I was always like, What is she going to do with the crazy woman in the attic? So to me that announced itself as a risk that readers would be looking for certain plot cues to happen. So how do you subvert that?Somali Dev 12:01 So what you're saying is that if you pick up a book that is titled Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors you're going to be looking for...KJ Dell'Antonia 12:12 You're looking for Lydia...Somali Dev 12:14 and you're looking for a story that's kicked off by a misunderstanding and egos being hurt. You're looking for the bad proposal. So again, I think (and this happened fairly naturally, and this might just be a nature and personality thing) is that I really only cared for what I wanted to say. And I really only cared for the story I wanted to tell. And so if at any point I had thought (I never, for a moment and this is with all my books) I rarely think about what it is people want to hear. I feel like I'm doing a disservice to writing, and not to sound obnoxious, but I feel like this in the way I live in everything, if you say things that you think people want to hear, then you have zero credibility. And there's really no authenticity in living like that. And so I try to kind of transfer that to how I write. And so just naturally I don't worry about it. And that explains a lot, possibly about my career.KJ Dell'Antonia 13:28 So you're just kind of like, well, the Lydia is coming and that's okay. Like, if people maybe know that the Lydia is coming (I'm just using Lydia because that's a pretty easy one), but I'm good with that. Like, I'm rolling along and by God, the Lydia train is about to crash into my story.Somali Dev 13:46 No, not even that. I'm thinking if Lydia is not important to the story I'm telling, then she doesn't have to be there. Like I want this story to be about two people who start off on the wrong foot because of how they see the world and themselves, and that's what I want. Only in that much is what I want to do with Pride and Prejudice. You know, I want to explore how when you meet someone who is completely different from you, how you process yourself and the world. And so that is what I want to do. And so that's what I'm going to do. I'm not thinking about people looking for Wickham or for Lydia or any of that. So it's only in that much, that I want to retell that story. Now, if that kickoff point where there is the misunderstanding, comes naturally to my story, and if that proposal comes naturally to my story, only then it has a place in my book. So like with Persuasion, at least with Pride, Prejudice and Other Flavors, there are some plottish consistencies, but with Persuasion, you'd be hard pressed to find anything more than a thematic connection.KJ Dell'Antonia 15:23 So Persuasion is my least favorite Jane Austen book, and I want to get to that...Somali Dev 15:28 I want to talk about that because I've been hearing so many people say that.KJ Dell'Antonia 15:34 But I'm watching for who the other girl is, and maybe I'm wrong, maybe she's not even coming. So, but don't tell me, don't tell we're not spoiling in any way. I had guessed, I was like, oh, I'll bet this is the girl who falls off the wall. I forget her name. Yes, Louisa Musgrove. Thank you.Somali Dev 16:00 So I think that for me again, the way I think about the story is that Louisa Musgrove isn't Louisa Musgrove in the story, she is the thing or the device that keeps Ann and Wentworth misunderstandings reinforced. So what she is is them not growing enough to put their past behind them. So, what you will find is other things that keep them from doing that. You might be able to take a character and say, okay, she's kind of Louisa Musgrove, but what she really is, is just that thing standing in their way, which is really in terms of story to me, what I'm trying to get them over.KJ Dell'Antonia 16:52 Right. Oh, you need that, because otherwise it's boring.Somali Dev 16:56 And that's the story, the story is about getting over mistakes. But not by magic, but by growing. So that's the story I'm trying to tell - the story that no mistake is absolute. I'm not trying to tell the story of Captain Wentworth per se, I'm trying to tell the story of this warrior-like man who goes off and makes lemonade when life gives him lemons, but has not let go of his past, and how he's going to process a second chance and this girl who has to grow a spine and you know, was never spineless.KJ Dell'Antonia 17:35 That's why Persuasion is my least favorite Jane Austen. Because I have trouble with the spineless heroine. But yours I can tell has a spine, she's just put it in the closet somewhere.Somali Dev 17:53 Again, with both of them... Now, I don't see Ann as spineless, I see Ann as very much a product of her time. But if she were truly spineless she would have just gone off and married the next Joe who comes along. So Ann is just someone who feels differently from how the world around her feels, and she has to make that journey of being okay with it. I think this is a very universal journey and we all make it. It's just less overt in our day to day, because the world will tell us being x is really what makes you cool or all of that. And if you naturally don't feel x, then you have to make the journey of that being okay. And I think that's her journey. So it's not spinelessness. She never is okay with what doesn't feel okay to her. She just has to find a way to find that power to let that become.KJ Dell'Antonia 18:48 That's probably why Persuasion does work. Even though like you said, you're hearing a lot of people say that they have frustration with the heroine. There's a lot of pleasure in seeing her find a way to be okay with it. And also I think you're right, we all know that we're in that and that it's a really common journey. Maybe it's just one we don't like to think that hard about.Somali Dev 19:13 Yeah. And we don't live in a world with overt taboos or overt divisions in society, but they're all still there, it's just become more silent and it's become less easy to find. But I feel we still relate to those journeys, because it's very much there. And it's our daily struggle, I don't think there is a person in the world who feels completely comfortable in their skin from the day that they were born. Which is why this whole woman against her world or woman against expectations story works for us even today. Now, I will say that if you've watched the films, I think both portrayals of the two BBC films that are most commonly watched, the portrayals of Ann Elliot are terrible, terrible. Yeah, so maybe those filmmakers saw her as that, or those actresses did. But it's terrible, like that's not how I saw Ann Elliot and I found it very violating to have actresses play them like spineless wimps because she's not. KJ Dell'Antonia 20:33 I wanted to ask you if you find that setting the Jane Austen stories - this is probably more true of Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors which you actually set in India. Recipe for Persuasion is set in the United States.Somali Dev 20:49 No, they're both set in the United States. They're are an Indian American family. It's the story of a politically ambitious Indian American family. And Pride, Prejudice and Other Flavors is set in the San Francisco Bay area where the older son is running for California Governor. So it's very much set in America.KJ Dell'Antonia 21:08 Pride, Prejudice and Other Flavors has got him running for governor?Somali Dev 21:12 So the overall arc for these four novels when I imagined them was that, it was this politically ambitious Indian American family in the Bay Area. And their oldest son is running for California Governor and the stories kick off with the announcement that he's running, and then they will end when the election results happen.KJ Dell'Antonia 21:33 Right. So that's gonna be all four books?Somali Dev 21:35 That's all four books. KJ Dell'Antonia 21:36 I think (and it's been obviously a little while since I read Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors) that the flair of India and the feel must have just sort of soaked into me a little too thoroughly. But what I wanted to ask was, do you think that using your Indian heritage and working within that culture you kind of get the advantage of some of the more strict expectations that Jane Austen's heroines faced? Like it might be harder for people to buy feeling huge pressure from your family from some suburban Chicago kid, whereas if you're looking at a tiger mom or at an Indian parent who has expectations about marrying within the Indian... I don't even know what the words are that I'm looking for. Anyway, do you think that sort of helps to heighten the Austen feeling, is what I really wanted to ask?Somali Dev 22:40 Okay, so first, Trisha (who is the protagonist of Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors) who is a female Mr. Darcy, because the story is gender flipped. She's a neurosurgeon at Stanford. So you know, very much an American story. But I think you're right, and it isn't that simple. Because I think family expectations are pretty ubiquitous and universal. Having said that, Indian families have peculiarities and lack of boundaries, or at least mine does. I was having this conversation with someone else who is not Indian and she said, 'Are their families where they believe in boundaries?' And I don't know families that believe in boundaries. So I think it's naturally a part of being a family, but then as an author always world building. So this could be a white family, they could be a Korean family, they could be a black family, as long as I as an author can make you believe that that's how their relationships and their bonds are. That's all I really need to do. And for me, being an Indian American girl, there is authenticity to my understanding of how Indian families interact. I do feel like it's not that unique, but that just might be because that is my life. And so it is easy for me. I don't know if it's easier for the reader to process. Again, you know, Jane Austen was about family, but I think that it was really more about society. So how rigid the society you lived in was and again in these books, it is very much the modern world, so it's not like rules have suddenly appeared. It's that rules exist in our world, they're just more subtle than they were 200 years ago.KJ Dell'Antonia 25:26 I just wonder if the rules feel easier for a white reader to stomach because they can sort of be like, Oh yes, Indian families are like that, but yet the reason that they're in there and identifying is that all families are like that exactly like you said. It's an interesting way of just thinking about how readers let things into their minds and where they go with it.Somali Dev 25:58 And again, I come across all sorts of readers. I come across the reader who will come to me and say with great amounts of disbelief that they could actually relate to my characters. Like they think they're saying something nice to me and they're like, my gosh, I could totally relate to Milly, who you know has a child. And my reaction to that is always, you can relate to vampires so why are you surprised that you can relate to an Indian girl?KJ Dell'Antonia 26:32 You can relate to Jane Austen's heroines. They're as far from us as anything.Somali Dev 26:38 Exactly. And then there are people who have read one book, and it's a checkmark. Oh, I read an Indian book and now I know everything about the Indian culture, and I'm done with my little walk. And there are readers who inhale all of my books and see them as a story and reading and processing them like they would read and process any story. So I think that there is a good spectrum of readers. And again, I'm essentially writing it as a story. And my hope is that everybody will in the end, we will be a world where everybody will read it as a story, not an Indian story.KJ Dell'Antonia 27:20 It is very much a story, except for the part where it makes you hungry for Indian food. Sarina Bowen 27:49 I just wanted to point out that at the beginning of Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors, chapter one actually begins in India with the heroine's childhood. This beautiful rich memory of her visit to a family estate and what happens there. And I just love the way that you get this glimpse of her as a young child and then you snap your fingers and you're in this hospital in Northern California. So I felt like I was being dunked into her sort of mythical past before shown the harsh hospital lighting and that just helped color it that way for me as a reader, that she was just more interesting than if I had seen her in a lab coat for the first moment.Somali Dev 28:41 As writers, all three of us, I'm sure have had to make this struggle. And that is the likability of your female protagonist. So just by virtue of writing a female Darcy, and that was one of the reasons that I wrote this book and also one of the reasons why writing this book was a very personally transformative experience for me. Because I set out to see if arrogance and owning your own power and privilege and your own brilliance and all of that would still be easily palatable. I mean, would be easily palatable in 2019 in a woman as it was in a man 200 years ago, in 1813. And so, it turns out that it isn't, it turns out that it took a lot of iterations to make Trisha consumable. And it was work because a woman being arrogant, and a woman being impatient, and a woman being lacking in empathy is not seen the same way as a man being all those things. And one of those things, I think one of the reasons that I had to show you right up front where she's coming from, it instantly softens her, which is kind of sad that she needed that instant softening and if I was showing you a man in that same situation I may not have had to soften him. You know, we would all have been much more accepting of his arrogance and trusted that he'll come around. Because men are expected to be jerks in fiction and especially romantic fiction when we start out. Sarina Bowen 30:42 That's so true. And you know, if Pride and Prejudice had begun with little Darcy in knee pants like snuggling a swarm of puppies I don't know if I could summon the same outrage during that awful proposal. And I think that we should take a pause right here with Darcy in knee pants with the puppies, before we talk about what we've been reading.KJ Dell'Antonia 31:07 Excellent plan. Writers before we get to what we've been reading, let's talk about what you've been writing or rather, where you've been writing. If you've got a pile of colored index cards that represent scenes, and plot lines, and characters, and keep getting shuffled around on the floor while your dog walks on them, a notebook full of pages with half an outline here and a list of things that belong in another scene there. I get you. And I want to encourage you to take a look at Dabble, the writing software that works the way our writing minds work, or maybe the way we wish they'd work. Capture all those little details and big plot lines in a system designed to help you keep track of where you are and where you're going. We love Dabble and we hope you will, too. Get a free trial at dabblewriter.com and please head over to our Facebook group and tell us what you think. Now it is time, let's talk about what we've been reading that did not involve Darcy and with a swarm of puppies?Somali Dev 32:22 I so now want to read Darcy with a swarm of puppies. And boy shorts. KJ Dell'Antonia 32:29 Alright, so what are we reading? Sarina Bowen 32:55 My books are easy. KJ Dell'Antonia 32:56 Okay. Then you go first, Sarina, while Sonali and I gather our thoughts. Sarina Bowen 33:02 My book club has picked Pale Rider by Laura Spinney, which is a book about the Spanish Flu of 1918. And the structure of Pale Rider is frustrating me, so I have turned to The Great Influenza by John Barry to compare the two and I will let you know.Somali Dev 33:23 Can I just say I have so much respect for anyone reading those books right now like in this moment in time.KJ Dell'Antonia 33:40 Alright, Sonali, I'm gonna turn to you because I am looking up a title on Kindle.Somali Dev 33:48 It seems to be a really good time for rom-coms. And just in terms of what's being published, like every book being published is a rom com, but it's also a really good time for some fun and romance. So there's one that comes out in July, it is called Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall who is one of my favorite, favorite romance authors. Sarina Bowen 34:20 I cannot wait to get my hands on that book. Somali Dev 34:22 I have been saying that this is possibly the best rom-com I have ever read. Like it's in that realm, it's that good. So it is this fake relationship, but through the whole book the fake relationship is in quotation marks. Like as you're reading it, these big virtual quotation marks because it is this complete cup of a boy who is the son of a fallen rock star. So he is a papparazzi darling. He's always in the news for the wrong reasons. He's a mess. And to regain his reputation at work, he needs a good solid boyfriend. And so he finds this man who is a human rights lawyer and incredibly straight laced and all the things and it is just delightful. It is laugh out loud funny. I mean, there were times when I was guffawing like a hyena. Don't drink hot beverages - you will choke and you will spit them all over the place. Hilarious, incredibly poignant. Just so connected, it's just a gorgeous book. I mean, it will just leave you so happy. And it's one of those books that also makes you turn a mirror on yourself. So it's all those things and it's just amazing. So that comes out at the end of July, I think.I'm so jealous that you have the arc. Alexis Hall is so talented.Incredibly, I think is one of the greatest talents of the romance genre right now. Glitter Land is also an absolute masterpiece, I think. I didn't think I would love one more than that, but it's just delightful. It's everything a British rom-com should be or can be. So I have also recently discovered Kennedy Ryan and think that her writing is almost like startlingly beautiful. And she wrote The Kingmaker I think that came out in December last year, and it was what she calls a duet, so Kingmaker is the first. I think the second book is called Rebel King, but it has this giant emotional impact of like old style romance. But all of the subject matter is so current and contemporary. So she kind of juxtaposes those two things so well, very emotionally, it's an old style romance, but with all the regressive parts gone and it's this fresh and very contemporary, very socially conscious take. And of course, I'm not a huge fan of the whole alpha label. And Max, her protagonist, is as alpha as they come and so even with a hero, who is someone I would run 10 miles from in real life, I just completely bought it and she just makes it beautiful.KJ Dell'Antonia 37:45 That sounds really good. And I have just written Boyfriend Material down on my list of books to order and I want to check out Kingmaker. I have been reading The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory, and I am only partway into it. And I don't usually talk about books until the author sticks the landing, but she's probably going to and it is really good. And she has a new book coming out this summer too, which is definitely not just on my list of 99% sure, I already ordered it. So there was that and I also read and enjoyed very much Perfect Happiness by Kristyn Kusek Lewis, that one's not rom-com, that's definitely women's fiction. It's woman who is already married, struggling with all kinds of things to do with being already married. And it's pretty fun because she's a happiness expert who is unhappy so that was clearly the hook and it was very hard to put down. So that's fun. And that is what we've been reading because Sarina already told us and we immediately dismissed those because we didn't want to read them.Sarina Bowen 39:19 Sonali, thank you so much for joining us today. Somali Dev 39:22 Thank you so much for having me. That went fast and it was so fun. Thank you.KJ Dell'Antonia 39:28 Should we tell people where to find you, Sonali? Besides sonalidev.com? What's your favorite social media? Where should people follow you?Somali Dev 39:37 I am on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. And I'm fairly active on (more active than I should be) on all three. And I do also have a newsletter which I was really bad with but I'm now trying to send out once a month so it's a very low incidence newsletter but what I do that people might have fun with is I do a recipe, a recommendation, and a really bad joke, because my family sends me the most terrible jokes on group chat. And I feel like I shouldn't be suffering alone. And if you sign up for the newsletter, I have a free recipe booklet that you get. And of course, I'm told over and over again that the books make people hungry. And these are recipes that are related to the books. So you get that.KJ Dell'Antonia 41:51 Well, this was super fun. I echo Sarina in saying thank you for coming. And Sarina, do you want to take us out?Sarina Bowen 42:16 Yes ma'am. Until next week, keep your butt in the chair and your head in the game.Jess Lahey 42:29 This episode of #AmWriting with Jess and KJ was produced by Andrew Parilla. Our music, aptly titled unemployed Monday was written and performed by Max Cohen. Andrew and Max were paid for their services because everyone, even creatives should be paid. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

Life and story go hand in hand in Margot Livesey’s “The Boy in the Field.”

For the hundredth episode, Margot Livesey talks to Ivan about six things which she thinks should be better known. Margot Livesey is a novelist. Her novels include Homework, Eva Moves the Furniture and The Flight of Gemma Hardy. Her eighth novel, Mercury, was published in 2016. She teaches at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. St. Kilda https://www.nts.org.uk/visit/places/st-kilda The Weir of Hermiston https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1994/11/the-double-life-of-robert-louis-stevenson/306474/ ME https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG5g4M7KWv8 Frittatas https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/fritatta Joan Mitchell https://joanmitchellfoundation.org/ Oh, Lucky Man! https://www.nytimes.com/1973/06/14/archives/screen-o-lucky-manenglish-comedy-tells-of-a-classic-innocent-the.html This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

The latest novel from Alix Ohlin, DUAL CITIZENS, depicts the lives of two sisters as they navigate family, art, love, and life. She tells James about the depicting the whoosh of time, rewatching Hitchcock's VERTIGO, recommitting yourself, establishing patterns, putting things into your basket, and missing wolf licenses. Plus, Alix's friend and agent, Amy Williams.     - Alix Ohlin: https://alixohlinauthor.com/ Buy DUAL CITIZENS: Buy DUAL CITIZENS from indie bookstores. Buy Alix's other books: Buy Alix Ohlin's books from independent booksellers Alix and James discuss:  The Neopolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante  Alice Munro  VERTIGO dir by Alfred Hitchcock Jimmy Stewart REALITY BITES dir by Ben Stiller  Winona Ryder  Bread Loaf Writers' Conference  Daniel Johnston  Henry Darger  Tony Gilroy  "What Writers Really Do When They Write" by George Saunders: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/04/what-writers-really-do-when-they-write Margot Livesey  Michael Ondaatje  Walter Murch  THE CONVERSATIONS: WALTER MURCH AND THE ART OF EDITING FILM by Michael Ondaatje: Buy THE CONVERSATIONS IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE by Walter Murch: Buy IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE HITCHCOCK by Francois Truffaut: Buy HITCHCOCK- TRUFFAUT TRUST EXERCISE by Susan Choi: Buy TRUST EXERCISE THE OUTLINE TRILOGY by Rachel Cusk: Buy THE OUTLINE TRILOGY - Amy Williams: https://williamsliterary.com/ Amy and James discuss:  THE GEORGIA REVIEW  I HATE TO SEE THAT EVENING SUN GO DOWN by William Gay  Sloan Harris  Eric Simonoff  Alix Ohlin  Radcliffe Publishing Course  Harvard University  Knopf  Gary Fisketjon  Doubleday  David Gernert Michener Center for Writers  Denis Johnson Jim Magnuson  SLACKER dir by Richard Linklater  VERTIGO  Alice Munro  Lincoln Michel  Jean Craighead George - http://tkpod.com / tkwithjs@gmail.com / Twitter: @JamesScottTK Instagram: tkwithjs / Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tkwithjs/

Back in episode 47, Whitney Scharer discussed the incredible sale of her debut, THE AGE OF LIGHT, and now, she and James discuss the actual novel, which depicts the relationship between Lee Miller and May Ray. They talk about creating fictional characters from real people, when she had her "Aha!" insight into Lee's psyche, cultural movements, Boston apartment hopping, and, of course, what you call a butt. Plus, Whitney's UK cover designer, Stuart Wilson.  -  Whitney Scharer: https://whitneyscharer.com/ THE AGE OF LIGHT: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780316524087 Whitney and James discuss:   Lee Miller  Man Ray  Peabody-Essex Museum  CAPE MAY by Chip Cheek  Jean Cocteau Janet Flanner  THE NEW YORKER  Ernest Hemingway  GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES by Anita Loos  David Bain  Margot Livesey  Pamela Painter  Emerson College  Richard Kenney  JUST KIDS by Patti Smith  CBGB's  Robert Mapplethorpe  - Stuart Wilson Stuart and James discuss:  Francesca Main  Whitney Scharer  Jeff Cottenden  Lee Miller  Pan 70th Anniversary Collection  Justine Anweiler  JAWS by Peter Benchley  BORN FREE by Joan Adamson  THE PROVINCIAL LADY by E. M. Delafield  Edward St. Aubyn  Benedict Cumberbatch  THE PAPER LOVERS by Gerard Woodward - http://tkpod.com / tkwithjs@gmail.com / Twitter: @JamesScottTK Instagram: tkwithjs / Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tkwithjs/

In our final episode of our Sewanee Writers' Conference series recorded in the summer of 2018, James is joined by Christine Schutt, one of our greatest authors, to discuss her career from FLORIDA to her latest, PURE HOLLYWOOD. They cover a lot of books, and a lot of ground, from nerves about reading to insecurity about writing, in an honest and illuminating conversation. Plus, friend and (relatively) new PARIS REVIEW editor Emily Nemens.  -  Christine Schutt: https://www.christineschutt.com/  Christine and James discuss:  Christine's books: FLORIDA; A DAY, A NIGHT, ANOTHER DAY, SUMMER; NIGHTWORK; ALL SOULS; PROSPEROUS FRIENDS; PURE HOLLYWOOD: AND OTHER STORIES  Amy Hempel  Barry Hannah  Gordon Lish  Lucy Corin  UC Davis  Mary Jo Salter  John Casey Cheri Peters  William Gay  Wyatt Prunty  Jill McCorkle  AWP  Donald Justice  Elizabeth Bishop  BLUETS by Maggie Nelson  TRIQUARTERLY  National Book Award  Kathryn Davis  SLEEPLESS NIGHTS by Elizabeth Hardwick TRAIN DREAMS by Denis Johnson CHILD OF GOD by Cormac McCarthy  AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner  TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf  Diane Williams  NOON  Josh Weil  UC Irvine  The Nightingale-Bamford School  Wesleyan University  Mills College  Elizabeth Winthrop  GOSSIP GIRL by Cecily von Ziegesar Laura van den Berg  Elisabeth Schmitz   Margot Livesey  Alfred Hitchcock "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor  Alice Munro  Dan O'Brien  Maurice Manning  Clare Beams  - Emily Nemens: https://www.theparisreview.org/ Emily and James Discuss: THE PARIS REVIEW  THE SOUTHERN REVIEW  Diane Williams  WRITERS AT WORK  Pulitzer Prize  WOMEN AT WORK, INTERVIEWS FROM THE PARIS REVIEW  Francois Mauriac  Nadine Gordimer  Hernan Diaz  Kelli Jo Ford  Emily Bell  AWP  THE CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE - http://tkpod.com / tkwithjs@gmail.com / Twitter: @JamesScottTK Instagram: tkwithjs / Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tkwithjs/

The third in a series of conversations recorded at the Sewanee Writers' Conference in the summer of 2018 finds James sitting down with Randall Kenan, who talks about the books that made him feel less alone, the art of writing about food, and the legacy of James Baldwin. Plus, Anna Lena Phillips Bell, editor at Ecotone Magazine.     - Randall Kenan: https://randallkenan.com/ Randall and James discuss:  Margot Livesey  Richard Bausch  Jill McCorkle  Tony Earley  Steve Yarbrough  Wyatt Prunty  Maurice Manning  Zora Neale Hurston  Charles Chestnut  Latin American Boom  Gabriel Garcia Marquez  Carlos Fuentes  Mario Vargas Llosa  Isabelle Allende  UNC- Chapel Hill  Amos Tutuola  Wole Soyinka  William Faulkner  Bennett Cerf  Donald Klopfer  Christine Schutt  Little Richard  Studs Terkel  V.S. Naipaul  THE LIVING IS EASY by Dorothy West  Jackie Kennedy  THE WEDDING by Dorothy West  Dan O'Brien  C-SPAN'S BOOKNOTES with Brian Lamb  SOUTHERN FOOD by John Egerton  Southern Foodways Alliance  INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison  Edna Lewis  William Styron  Molly O'Neill  Mark Twain  MFK Fisher  Urban Waite  JAMES BALDWIN: A BIOGRAPHY by David Leeming  THE NATION  THE FIRE NEXT TIME by James Baldwin NO NAME IN THE STREET by James Baldwin GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN by James Baldwin  ANOTHER COUNTRY by James Baldwin Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  - Anna Lena Phillips Bell: https://ecotonemagazine.org/ Anna Lena and James discuss:  David Gessner  UNC- Wilmington  AWP  TIN HOUSE  AMERICAN SCIENTIST  David Schoonmaker  Dawn Silvia   Emerson College   -  Music courtesy of Bea Troxel from her album, THE WAY THAT IT FEELS: https://www.beatroxel.com/ -  http://tkpod.com / tkwithjs@gmail.com / Twitter: @JamesScottTK Instagram: tkwithjs / Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tkwithjs/

In the first in a series of Sewanee Writers' Conversations, recorded at the Sewanee Writers' Conference in July 2018, James sat down with poet Maurice Manning to talk about his latest collection, ONE MAN'S DARK, as well as a beautiful story about a gift from Claudia Emerson, challenging himself with each book, and how his poetry has changed. Plus, editor-in-chief of 32 POEMS, George David Clark.  Sewanee Writers' Conference: http://www.sewaneewriters.org/ - Maurice Manning Maurice and James discuss: Tony Earley  Tim O'Brien  Claudia Emerson  Pelican pens  Margot Livesey  Daniel Boone  Brooks Haxton  By Maurice Manning: ONE MAN'S DARK, THE GONE AND THE GOING AWAY, BUCOLICS, THE COMMON MAN, A COMPANION FOR OWLS, LAWRENCE BOOTH'S BOOK OF VISIONS  - George David Clark: http://www.georgedavidclark.com/ 32 POEMS: http://32poems.com/ David and James discuss:  32 POEMS  Texas Tech  VIRGINIA QUARTERLY REVIEW MERIDIAN  John Poch  ONE STORY  Hannah Tinti  Dan O'Brien  REDIVIDER  Mark Wagner  Aimee Bender  Lydia Davis  "How to Talk to the Hunter" by Pam Houston   -  Music courtesy of Bea Troxel from her album, THE WAY THAT IT FEELS: https://www.beatroxel.com/ -  http://tkpod.com / tkwithjs@gmail.com / Twitter: @JamesScottTK Instagram: tkwithjs / Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tkwithjs/

Special guest Carolyn Cohagan, author of the Time Zero trilogy and founder of the creative writing workshop Girls with Pens, joins Jacke for a discussion of her writing process, her origins in standup comedy and theater, and her early love for the fiction of Ray Bradbury (and her special appreciation for his short story "All Summer in a Day"). For another look at a twentieth-century giant who broke down genre barriers, try Episode 141 Kurt Vonnegut (with Mike Palindrome). Love pulp fiction? Hear about the efforts of a contemporary editor to bring back the heyday of the genre, including classic twentieth-century prose and beautiful painted covers, in Episode 140 Pulp Fiction and the Hardboiled Crime Novel (with Charles Ardai). Writing a little yourself? Hear the interview that made Carolyn run out to buy the book that passes along the secrets of fiction in Episode 133 - The Hidden Machinery (with Margot Livesey).  Support the show at patreon.com/literature. Find out more at historyofliterature.com, jackewilson.com, or by following Jacke and Mike on Twitter at @thejackewilson and @literatureSC. Or send an email to jackewilsonauthor@gmail.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast, writers James Traub and Margot Livesey discuss the idea of morally weak characters with hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell. In part one, Traub talks moral weakness, the concept of decency in the public sphere, and his recent Atlantic article about the Strzok hearing. Livesey explores the morally weak character in her novel Mercury, fiction and moral failings in the private sphere, and famously flawed characters in literary history.   Readings • “[Decency Loses Its Moral Force](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/07/have-they-no-sense-of-decency/565415/)” by James Traub • “[Selfishness Is Killing Liberalism](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/liberalism-trump-era/553553/)” by James Traub • [John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit](https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780465093830) by James Traub • [The Hidden Machinery: Essays on Writing](https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781941040683) and [Mercury](https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780062437501) by Margot Livesey • 12 Angry Men by Sidney Lumet • [On Liberty](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/34901/34901-h/34901-h.htm) by John Stuart Mill • [All The King's Men](https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780156004800?aff=PublishersWeekly) by Robert Penn Warren • [Put Out More Flags](https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781619698611?aff=) by Evelyn Waugh • [Homage to Catalonia](https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780156421171) by George Orwell • [1984](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/326569/1984-by-george-orwell-with-a-foreword-by-thomas-pynchon/9780452284234/) by George Orwell • Moby-Dick by Herman Melville • [The Good Soldier](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2775/2775-h/2775-h.htm) by Ford Madox Ford • The criticism of F. R. Leavis • “[The Interview](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1957/07/27/the-interview-4)” by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala • [Giovanni's Room](https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781101907740) by James Baldwin • [All the Kings Men](https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780156004800?aff=PublishersWeekly) by Robert Penn Warren • [Things Fall Apart](https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780385474542) by Chinua Achebe • [Invisible Man](https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780679732761) by Ralph Ellison • “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O'Connor • “[Drinking Coffee Elsewhere](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2000/06/19/drinking-coffee-elsewhere)” by ZZ Packer • [Rebecca](https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780380730407) by Daphne du Maurier • [A Passage to India](https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780156711425) by E. M. Forster • Magneto from The X-Men • [The Stanford prison experiment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why does literature matter? Why read at all? Jacke Wilson takes questions from high school students and attempts to make the case for literature. Works and authors discussed include Beloved, The Great Gatsby, Shakespeare, The Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, Animal Farm, Scarlet Letter, Of Mice and Men, the Odyssey, The Inferno, The House on Mango Street, Farenheit 451, 1984, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Where the Red Fern Grows, Pride and Prejudice, Junot Diaz, Drown, Maya Angelou, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Ernest Hemingway, Willa Cather, J.K. Rowling, Paul Auster, Sara Gruen, Alice Sebold, Lorrie Moore, Sandra Cisneros, Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, Isabel Allende, Ernest Hemingway, Martin Amis, Colson Whitehead, Edwidge Danticat, Ronica Dhar, David Sedaris, Jhumpa Lahiri, Zadie Smith, Junot Diaz, Vu Tran, Julia Alvarez, Amy Tan, Gish Jen, Margot Livesey, Cristina Garcia, George Saunders, Jennifer Egan, Stephen King, Haruki Murakami, James McBride, Shawna Yang Ryan, Charles Baxter, Nick Hornby, Ngugi wa Thiong'o. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop. Learn more about the show at historyofliterature.com or facebook.com/historyofliterature. Contact the host at jackewilsonauthor@gmail.com or @WriterJacke. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the course of eleven books, including his latest novel, THE UNMADE WORLD, Steve Yarbrough has established himself as a master of language and place. But James knows him as the leader of the greatest workshop ever. They discuss that class at Sewanee, as well as being a Southern writer with a British aesthetic, structuring novels based on the football calendar, and getting poked in the stomach. Plus, Annie Hartnett on being more productive.    Steve Yarbrough: https://www.steveyarbrough.net/ Steve and James discuss: Sewanee Writers' Conference  Jill McCorkle  Johnny Carson  IN THE SHADOW OF 10,000 HILLS by Jennifer Haupt  THE GIRL FROM BLIND RIVER by Gale Massey  Bill Parcells  Jimmy Johnson  University of Arkansas  William Harrison  John Clellon Holmes  James Whitehead  Bill Belichick  Graham Greene  Emerson College Pamela Painter  Margot Livesey  THE LAST PICTURE SHOW by Larry McMurtry BOOKMARKED: LARRY McMURTRY'S THE LAST PICTURE SHOW by Steve Yarbrough (SY)  PRISONERS OF WAR by SY  THE END OF CALIFORNIA by SY  "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway  Ron Hansen  A CLOCKWORK ORANGE  Bill Evans  Raymond Carver  THE DIXIE ASSOCIATION by Donald "Skip" Hayes  Richard Yates  William Trevor  "Wildwood Flower" "Blowing up on the Spot" by Kevin Wilson (from PLOUGHSHARES, Winter 2003-4)  Joyce Carol Oates "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"  THE PIGEON TUNNEL by John LeCarre   Alice Munro  THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER by Tom Clancy  Gary Fisketjon  Greg Michalson Fred Ramey  Knopf  THE OXYGEN MAN by SY  The Harvard Book Store  Michael Nye  OBJECTS OF AFFECTION by Ewa Hryniewicz-Yarbrough Unbridled Books  - Annie Hartnett: http://www.anniehartnett.com/ Annie and James discuss: "If You Want to Write a Book, Write Every Day or Quit Now" by Stephen Hunter   "Why the Best Way to Get Creative Is to Make Some Rules" by Aimee Bender http://www.oprah.com/spirit/writing-every-day-writers-rules-aimee-bender/all#ixzz58vlFL9eU THE ELECTRIC WOMAN by Tessa Fontaine  Sarah Shute  THE DEFINING DECADE by Meg Jay  ON WRITING: A MEMOIR OF THE CRAFT by Stephen King  DEEP WORK by Cal Newport  Anne Vogel  Benjamin Percy  THE SOUND OF MUSIC -  http://tkpod.com / tkwithjs@gmail.com / Twitter: @JamesScottTK Instagram: tkwithjs / Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tkwithjs/            

Ever wonder how fiction works? Or what great literature can teach us about writing? Novelist Margot Livesey returns to the show for a discussion of her book The Hidden Machinery: Essays on Writing.  Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop. Learn more about the show at historyofliterature.com or facebook.com/historyofliterature. Contact the host at jackewilsonauthor@gmail.com or @WriterJacke. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Claire Fuller started writing to compete in a local short story slam. Then she started to win. Soon after, she earned an MA and has since written two novels, OUR ENDLESS NUMBERED DAYS and SWIMMING LESSONS. She and James talk about the torture of writing new material, the joy of editing, the reader response theory, and the practice of listening to music while writing. Plus, year-end reading recommendations from some of 2017's guests!    Claire Fuller: https://clairefuller.co.uk/ Claire and James discuss: Penguin Books  Tin House Books  Masie Cochran  Fuzzy Felt Green  WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE by Shirley Jackson  THE THINGS THEY CARRIED by Tim O'Brien  THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers  HOUSEKEEPING by Marilynne Robinson  LEGEND OF A SUICIDE by David Vann  Iron & Wine  Sam Beam  Townes van Zandt  TURN OUT THE LIGHTS (album) by Julien Baker  Margot Livesey  SOY SAUCE FOR BEGINNERS by Kirstin Chen NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (dir by Coens) THERE WILL BE BLOOD (dir by PT Anderson)  MICHAEL CLAYTON (dir by Tony Gilroy)  ZODIAC (dir by David Fincher)  IDAHO by Emily Ruskovich   A SEPARATION by Katie Kitamura  - Year-End Recommendations from: Annie Hartnett, author of RABBIT CAKE:  THE HISTORY OF WOLVES by Emily Fridlund THE TWELVE LIVES OF SAMUEL HAWLEY by Hannah Tinti  BORNE by Jeff VanderMeer  MOTHERIST by Kristen Iskandrian  THE MOTHERS by Brit Bennett  PERFECT LITTLE WORLD by Kevin Wilson  GOD, THE MOON, AND OTHER MEGAFAUNA by Kellie Wells  ANNA KARENINA by Leo Tolstoy    Anne Valente, author of OUR HEARTS WILL BURN US DOWN: THE ANIMATORS by Kayla Rae Whitaker SING, UNBURIED, SING by Jesmyn Ward  THE HOUR OF LAND by Terry Tempest Williams    Tim Weed, author of A FIELD GUIDE TO MURDER AND FLY FISHING: ANNA KARENINA by Leo Tolstoy  HAVANA GOLD by Leonardo Pedura    Robert Repino, author of D'ARC: THE ART OF COMIC BOOK WRITING by Mark Kneece  THE NEST by Kenneth Oppel    Amy P. Knight, author of LOST, ALMOST:  STEPHEN, FLORIDA by Gabe Habash THE GOLDFINCH by Donna Tartt  OUTLINE by Rachel Kusk    Rachel Cantor, author of GOOD ON PAPER: WE THE DROWNED by Carsten Jensen  THE LONG DRY by Cynan Jones  HOMESICK FOR ANOTHER WORLD by Ottessa Moshfegh  THE OLD FILTH TRILOGY by Jane Gardham TUESDAY NIGHTS IN 1980 by Molly Prentiss  STORIES OF YOUR LIFE by Ted Chiang  THE TWELVE LIVES OF SAMUEL HAWLEY by Hannah Tinti  MEMOIR OF A POLAR BEAR by Yoko Tawada    Michael Farris Smith, author of DESPERATION ROAD:  STONER by John Williams  THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD dir by Andrew Dominik   Kelly J. Ford, author of COTTONMOUTHS:  THE FACT OF A BODY by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich  HERE COMES THE SUN by Nicole Dennis-Benn  A SEAT AT THE TABLE (album) by Solange    Daniel Wallace, author of EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES: HEATING & COOLING: 52 MICRO-MEMOIRS by Beth Ann Fennelly THE BOOK OF RESTING PLACES: A PERSONAL HISTORY OF WHERE WE LAY THE DEAD by Thomas Mira y Lopez  - http://tkpod.com / tkwithjs@gmail.com / Twitter: @JamesScottTK Instagram: tkwithjs / Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tkwithjs/

The seventh book from Benjamin Percy is the terrifying THE DARK NET. He tells James what he's learned writing comics, how he juggles his projects, why his sister slept with the lights on into her 20s (spoiler: it's Ben's fault), and how he overcame being a closeted genre fan. Plus Percy's editor and editorial director of fiction at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Helen Atsma. - Benjamin Percy: http://benjaminpercy.com/ Benjamin and James Discuss: Green Arrow  Teen Titans  Black Canary  Dennis O'Neil  Neal Adams  The Justice League The Flash  Wonder Woman  Batman  Superman  Green Lantern  DC Comics  Juan Ferreyra  THRILL ME by Benjamin Percy  THE WARLORD  Spider-Man  Mike Grell  X-Men  Wolverine  VOODOO HEART by Scott Snyder  WHO CAN SAVE US NOW? ed by Owen King  VERTIGO COMICS  Katherine Fausset RED MOON by Benjamin Percy  Mark Doyle  DIE HARD  The Pulitzer Price  THE DARK NET by Benjamin Percy  CONAN THE BARBARIAN Soundtrack  Tom Waits "Red Right Hand" by Nick Cave  Enya  The Jonas Brothers  Rick Astley  Jen Percy  POETS & WRITERS MAGAZINE  REFRESH, REFRESH by Benjamin Percy  THE LANGUAGE OF ELK by Benjamin Percy  Sherman Alexie  Alice Munro  Flannery O'Connor  THRILLING TALES ed. by Michael Chabon Jim Shepard  Nick Hornby  Margaret Atwood  Susanna Clarke  Kate Atkinson  Peter Straub Dennis Lehane  Cormac McCarthy  The Tin House Summer Writer's Workshop  University of Nevada MFA  Kelly Link  Colson Whitehead  Justin Cronin  Karen Russell  WHAT THE WORLD WILL LOOK LIKE WHEN ALL THE WATER LEAVES US by Laura van den Berg  TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf  Margot Livesey  Tim O'Brien  GQ  THE DEAD LANDS by Benjamin Percy  THE TWILIGHT ZONE  Powell's Books  INDEPENDENCE DAY - James and Helen Discuss:  Steve Martin "Refresh, Refresh" by Benjamin Percy  THE PARIS REVIEW  Katherine Fausset  TIN HOUSE  Grub Street, Inc.  Graywolf Publishing  THRILL ME by Benjamin Percy  THE WILDING by Benjamin Percy  Grand Central Publishing  THE LONEY by Andrew Michael Hurley  THE WANGS VS. THE WORLD by Jade Chang  THE DARK NET by Benjamin Percy  Stephen King  TOY STORY JAWS  THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA by C.S. Lewis  ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN Archie  E.M. Forster  Alvar Aalto  MISS KOPP'S MIDNIGHT CONFESSIONS by Amy Stewart  GIRL WAITS WITH GUN by Amy Stewart  NEVER COMING BACK by ALISON McGHEE THE FIRST DAY by Phil Harrison Marilynne Robinson   -   http://tkpod.com / tkwithjs@gmail.com / Twitter: @JamesScottTK Instagram: tkwithjs / Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tkwithjs/

In all of his conversations, James has never found anyone who approached the craft of writing with the scientific common sense of Julie Lekstrom Himes. They discuss her debut novel, MIKHAIL AND MARGARITA, and the tremendous amount of work she put into her research in order to understand Russian culture, tracing it all the way to its origins. Plus, Michael Reynolds, Editor-in-Chief of Europa Editions.     - Julie Lekstrom Himes: https://www.europaeditions.com/author/204/julie-lekstrom-himes Julie and James Discuss: Grub Street Fine Arts Work Center  Jim Shepard  SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN  Margot Livesey  Hannah Tinti  Daniel Wallace New York State Summer Writers Institute  THE MASTER AND MARGARITA by Mikhail Bulgakov  THE WHITE GUARD by Mikhail Bulgakov  A YOUNG DOCTOR'S NOTEBOOK by Mikhail Bulgakov  LIE DOWN IN DARKNESS and THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER by William Styron  THE QUIET AMERICAN by Graham Greene  I REMEMBER by Joe Brainard  - Europa Editions: https://www.europaeditions.com/ Michael and James Discuss: Edizioni E/O THE ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG by Muriel Barbery  OLD FILTH by Jane Gardam  THREE WEEKS IN DECEMBER by Audrey Schulman  Elena Ferrante  MIKHAIL AND MARGARITA by Julie Lekstrom Himes  -  http://tkpod.com / tkwithjs@gmail.com / Twitter: @JamesScottTK Instagram: tkwithjs / Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tkwithjs/

Deceit and Other Possibilities (Willow Books) In this powerful debut collection, Vanessa Hua gives voice to immigrant families navigating a new America. Tied to their ancestral and adopted homelands in ways unimaginable in generations past, these memorable characters straddle both worlds but belong to none. From a Hong Kong movie idol fleeing a sex scandal, to an obedient daughter turned Stanford imposter, to a Chinatown elder summoned to his village, to a Korean-American pastor with a secret agenda, the characters in these ten stories vividly illustrate the conflict between self and society, tradition and change. In “What We Have is What We Need,” winner of The Atlantic student fiction prize, a boy from Mexico reunites with his parents in San Francisco. When he suspects his mother has found love elsewhere, he fights to keep his family together. With insight and wit, she writes about what wounds us and what we must survive. Her searing stories explore the clash of cultures and the complex, always shifting allegiances that we carry in ourselves, our family, and our community. Deceit and Other Possibilities marks the emergence of a remarkable new writer. Praise for Deceit and Other Possibilities "Vanessa Hua inhabits in graceful and heartbreaking detail the people of her stories: strivers and betrayers, lovers and the landless, all of them on their way to transcendence in her hands. – Susan Straight, author of Between Heaven and Here and Highwire Moon    "Fast-paced, dazzling, smart, and fun, Vanessa Hua's debut collection illustrates the insanities and heartbreaks on both sides of the Pacific." – Gary Shteyngart, author of  Little Failure and  Super Sad True Love Story "Deceit and Other Possibilities gives us characters whose lives are constrained and yet also enriched by different borders, cultures, and traditions. A bracing and beautiful debut, full of fire and light."–Laila Lalami, author of The Moor's Account "Complicated, cosmopolitan and utterly contemporary, Deceit and Other Possibilities is a richly enjoyable collection.  Hua is expert at creating both empathy and suspense whether it's in the emptiness of a national park or the crowded space of an international flight.  These stories will jump right off the page into the reader's imagination."–Margot Livesey, author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy For nearly two decades, Vanessa Hua has covered Asia and the diaspora in journalism and in fiction, writing about the ways immigrants bring their traditions, their histories, and their ambitions to America. She received a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, the San Francisco Foundation’s James D. Phelan Award for Fiction, and is a past Steinbeck Fellow in Creative Writing at San Jose State University. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, The Atlantic, FRONTLINE/World, Washington Post, Guernica, ZYZZYVA, and elsewhere. A former staff writer at the San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Times, she has filed stories from China, South Korea, Panama, Burma and Ecuador. She is a graduate of Stanford University and UC Riverside's MFA program. She lives in the Bay Area with her family. Naomi Hirahara is an award-winning novelist and nonfiction writer. Her Mas Arai mystery series, which features a Southern California-based gardener and Hiroshima survivor, has been published in Japanese, Korean and French. The sixth in the series, Sayonara Slam, was released in May of this year. Her short stories have been included in Los Angeles Noir, Asian Pulp and Hanzai Japan. A former editor of The Rafu Shimpo, she also is involved in the preservation of Japanese American and regional history in the form of books and exhibitions.  

Writing about the Scottish-born novelist Margot Livesey, the author Alice Sebold remarked, “Every novel of Margot Livesey’s is, for her readers, a joyous discovery. Her work radiates with compassion and intelligence and always, deliciously, mystery.” How has Margot Livesey managed to create this suspense in novel after novel, including in contemporary classics such as The Flight of Gemma Hardy, The House on Fortune Street, and her most recent work, Mercury? Host Jacke Wilson is joined by the author for a conversation about her readerly passions and writerly inspirations, including Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier, and James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room. Show Notes:  Contact the host at jackewilsonauthor@gmail.com or by leaving a voicemail at 1-361-4WILSON (1-361-494-5766). You can find more literary discussion at jackewilson.com and more episodes of the series at historyofliterature.com. Check out our Facebook page at facebook.com/historyofliterature. You can follow Jacke Wilson at his Twitter account @WriterJacke. You can also follow Mike and the Literature Supporters Club (and receive daily book recommendations) by looking for @literature SC. Music Credits: “Handel – Entrance to the Queen of Sheba” by Advent Chamber Orchestra (From the Free Music Archive / CC by SA). “Danse Macabre – Violin Hook” and “Lift Motif” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Margot Livesey discusses her latest novel, “Mercury,” with host Richard Wolinsky. Margot Livesey is known for writing literary psychological thrillers. Born and raised in Britain, she's lived in the United States for several years, and “Mercury,” a tale of obsession and misunderstanding, is her first set in America. In this interview, she talks about writing the book, about her career as a writer, and about her work as a teacher of writing. The post Margot Livesey appeared first on KPFA.

In 1999, Margot Livesey sat down next to James at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and changed his life forever. Margot talks about her incredible career, the role of art in the current political climate, which of her books she loves best, and her wonderful new novel, MERCURY. Then, social scientist and Associate Professor in the Department of Government at Harvard University, Ryan Enos, recommends books to understand the 2016 presidential election.    - http://tkpod.com / tkwithjs@gmail.com / Twitter: @JamesScottTK Instagram: tkwithjs / Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tkwithjs/  

Set in Spain in the late 70s, Gabrielle's debut novel, THE SLEEPING WORLD, represents something deeply personal to her. She tells James about writing through grief, how the novel grew from a short story inspired by a song, as well as world building, dirt, and 'the spaghetti mind.' Plus Janet Geddis, the owner of Avid Bookshop in Athens, GA, shares exciting news and she and James geek out over upcoming fall titles.     James and Gabrielle Discuss:  Keith Waldrop  LADY AND THE TRAMP Jamaica Kincaid  "Runaway", THE NATIONAL SOY CUBA dir by Mikhail Kalatozov  PEPI, LUCI, BOM AND OTHER GIRLS LIKE MOM dir. by Pedro Almodovar  Alberto Garcia-Alix (photographer) NADA by Carmen Laforet  Elena Ferrante  RAY OF THE STAR by Laird Hunt  Toni Morrison  Audre Lorde  Alice Walker  WHAT BELONGS TO YOU by Garth Greenwell    James and Janet Discuss: Deirdre Sugiuchi Al Dixon  WE SHOW WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED by Clare Beams (10/25)* THE MORTIFICATIONS by Derek Palacio (10/4)# HOW TO SHAKE THE OTHER MAN by Derek Palacio  Nouvella Books COMMONWEALTH by Ann Patchett (9/13)* LITTLE NOTHING by Marisa Silver (9/13)# THE REACTIVES by Masande Ntshanga* MERCURY by Margot Livesey (9/27)# BOWIE by Simon Critchley (9/13)# REPUTATIONS by Juan Gabriel Vasquez (9/20)# THE SOUND OF THINGS FALLING by Juan Gabriel Vasquez A FAMILY IS A FAMILY IS A FAMILY written by Sara O'Leary, ill. by Qin Leng*  THE SLEEPING WORLD by Gabrielle Lucille Fuentes*#  *Janet Recommends  #James Recommends - http://tkpod.com / Twitter: @JamesScottTK / tkwithjs@gmail.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tkwithjs/ / Instagram: tkwithjs MUSIC by: Braainzz (https://soundcloud.com/braainzz) & Sleep Studies (http://sleepstudiesband.com/)     

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     

Margot Livesey appears at the 2012 Library of Congress National Book Festival. Speaker Biography: Margot Livesey grew up in a boys' private school in the Scottish Highlands, where her father taught and her mother was the school nurse. After earning a B.A. in English and philosophy at the University of York in England, she spent most of her 20s working in shops and restaurants and learning to write. Her first book, a collection of stories called "Learning by Heart," was published in 1986. Since then Livesey has published seven novels, including her latest, "The Flight of Gemma Hardy." Livesey has taught at many institutions of higher learning, such as Boston University, Bowdoin College and Cleveland State University, as well as at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She has received many fellowships, including one from the National Endowment for the Arts. For captions, transcript, and more information visit http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=5714.

Author Margot Livesey discusses The Flight of Gemma Hardy -- her reimagining of Jane Eyre. [32:40]

Author Margot Livesey discusses The Flight of Gemma Hardy -- her reimagining of Jane Eyre. [32:40]

Author Margot Livesey discusses The Flight of Gemma Hardy -- her reimagining of Jane Eyre. [32:40]

Author Margot Livesey discusses The Flight of Gemma Hardy -- her reimagining of Jane Eyre. [32:40]

Margot Livesey, the Guggenheim-winning author of The House on Fortune Street and The Flight of Gemma Hardy, discusses her friendship with Andrea Barrett, whose works include the Pulitzer Prize finalist Servants of the Map and the National Book Award winning Ship Fever. Livesey reads from their recent works and recounts how their literary friendship of over twenty years has shaped each of their work. February 2012.

A captivating tale, set in Scotland in the early 1960s, that is both an homage to and a modern variation on the enduring classic Jane Eyre.

Author Margot Livesey, discusses her new book "The House on Fortune Street".

Author Margot Livesey, discusses her new book "The House on Fortune Street".

"Margot Livesey grew up in a boys' private school in the Scottish Highlands where her father taught, and her mother, Eva, was the school nurse. After taking a B.A. in English and philosophy at the University of York in England she spent most of her twenties [in Toronto] working in shops and restaurants and learning to write. Her first book, a collection of stories called Learning By Heart, was published by Penguin Canada in 1986. Since then Margot has published six novels: Homework, Criminals, The Missing World, Eva Moves the Furniture, Banishing Verona and The House on Fortune Street (May 2008)." Margot has taught at numerous universities, and received many awards and fellowships. She is currently a distinguished writer in residence at Emerson College and the John F. and Dorothy H. Magee writer in residence at Bowdoin College. She lives with her husband, a painter, in Cambridge, MA. We met at the Philadelphia Book Festival, and talk here mostly about Shakespeare, and how themes found in Hamlet wend their way through much of what she has written: trust, betrayal, how much you can push other people around, entering stories from different angles, exits as entrances; the Alexandria Quartet, cranberry sauce, pieces of stories, cubism, faulty fractured vision, authorial versus character-faithful metaphors, Jane Austen, Jane Eyre, Tolstoy's ability to inhabit a wide range of characters, apparitions, the tradition of ghosts being real, our relationship with the dead, stories within stories, the sin of irrelevancy, Keats's wish to be taller, and Margot's ambition to make her sentences ('ethical units') better.

Margot Livesey The Missing World (Knopf) With an alarming, but quiet malice and wit, Livesey dissects the dark motives underlying her sinister world view.