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Host Jason Blitman sits down with debut novelist Lucas Schaefer to discuss The Slip, diving into themes of identity, self-expression, and the inspiration behind the book. They explore Lucas's personal experiences at a boxing gym, the real-life mentor who shaped one of his characters, and what led to the end of his theater career. Later, Jason is joined by Guest Gay Reader Mike Curato (Gaysians), who shares what he's currently reading and reflects on the significance of chosen family and representation in his latest work.Lucas Schaefer lives with his family in Austin. The Slip is his first novel.Mike Curato is the author and illustrator of the children's book series Little Elliot. He has also illustrated What If… by Samantha Berger, All the Way to Havana by Margarita Engle, Worm Loves Worm by J.J. Austrian, The Power of One written by Trudy Ludwig, If I Were a Fish by Corook and Olivia Barton, and contributed to What's Your Favorite Color? by Eric Carle and Friends, Sunny Day: A Celebration of the Sesame Street Theme Song, and Dear Heartbreak: YA Authors and Teens on the Dark Side of Love. Publishers Weekly named Mike a “Fall 2014 Flying Start.” In the same year he won the Society of Illustrators Original Art Show Founder's Award. Mike's debut young adult graphic novel, Flamer, was awarded the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Young Adult and the 2021 Massachusetts Book Award for Middle Grade/Young Adult. Gaysians is his adult debut. SUBSTACK!https://gaysreading.substack.com/ MERCH!http://gaysreading.printful.me PARTNERSHIP!Use code READING to get 15% off your madeleine order! https://cornbread26.com/ BOOK CLUB!Use code GAYSREADING at checkout to get first book for only $4 + free shipping! Restrictions apply.http://aardvarkbookclub.com WATCH!https://youtube.com/@gaysreading FOLLOW!Instagram: @gaysreading | @jasonblitmanBluesky: @gaysreading | @jasonblitmanCONTACT!hello@gaysreading.com
Maureen Stanton's new memoir, The Murmur of Everything Moving (Columbus State University 2025) opens when she was in her early twenties, working at a bar saving for a backpacking trip through Europe. She meets and falls for Steve, an electrician who at 27 is the father of three children going through a divorce. They are deeply in love, now back in Michigan close to Steve's children, when he's diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer that has metastasized throughout his body. In beautiful prose, Stanton describes the medical challenges, Steve's physical and psychological pain, and the heartache they face knowing that his time is limited while trying to defy the odds. This is a moving story of human fragility, resilience, and the different forms love can take. Maureen Stanton is also the author of Body Leaping Backward: Memoir of a Delinquent Girlhood, winner of a Maine Literary Award and a People Magazine "Best Books Pick"; and Killer Stuff and Tons of Money: An Insider's Look at the World of Flea Markets, Antiques, and Collecting, winner of a Massachusetts Book Award and a Parade Magazine "12 Great Summer Books" selection. Her nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, Fourth Genre, Creative Nonfiction, Longreads, New England Review and elsewhere, and has been recognized with the Iowa Review prize, the Sewanee Review prize, and Pushcart Prizes. She's received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Maine Arts Commission, and the MacDowell Colony. She teaches at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and lives in Maine. When she's not reading, writing, or teaching, she enjoys swimming (ponds, tidal rivers, lakes, and the ocean), foraging for wild mushrooms, baking, and haunting flea markets. www.maureenstantonwriter.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biography
Maureen Stanton's new memoir, The Murmur of Everything Moving (Columbus State University 2025) opens when she was in her early twenties, working at a bar saving for a backpacking trip through Europe. She meets and falls for Steve, an electrician who at 27 is the father of three children going through a divorce. They are deeply in love, now back in Michigan close to Steve's children, when he's diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer that has metastasized throughout his body. In beautiful prose, Stanton describes the medical challenges, Steve's physical and psychological pain, and the heartache they face knowing that his time is limited while trying to defy the odds. This is a moving story of human fragility, resilience, and the different forms love can take. Maureen Stanton is also the author of Body Leaping Backward: Memoir of a Delinquent Girlhood, winner of a Maine Literary Award and a People Magazine "Best Books Pick"; and Killer Stuff and Tons of Money: An Insider's Look at the World of Flea Markets, Antiques, and Collecting, winner of a Massachusetts Book Award and a Parade Magazine "12 Great Summer Books" selection. Her nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, Fourth Genre, Creative Nonfiction, Longreads, New England Review and elsewhere, and has been recognized with the Iowa Review prize, the Sewanee Review prize, and Pushcart Prizes. She's received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Maine Arts Commission, and the MacDowell Colony. She teaches at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and lives in Maine. When she's not reading, writing, or teaching, she enjoys swimming (ponds, tidal rivers, lakes, and the ocean), foraging for wild mushrooms, baking, and haunting flea markets. www.maureenstantonwriter.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
Maureen Stanton's new memoir, The Murmur of Everything Moving (Columbus State University 2025) opens when she was in her early twenties, working at a bar saving for a backpacking trip through Europe. She meets and falls for Steve, an electrician who at 27 is the father of three children going through a divorce. They are deeply in love, now back in Michigan close to Steve's children, when he's diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer that has metastasized throughout his body. In beautiful prose, Stanton describes the medical challenges, Steve's physical and psychological pain, and the heartache they face knowing that his time is limited while trying to defy the odds. This is a moving story of human fragility, resilience, and the different forms love can take. Maureen Stanton is also the author of Body Leaping Backward: Memoir of a Delinquent Girlhood, winner of a Maine Literary Award and a People Magazine "Best Books Pick"; and Killer Stuff and Tons of Money: An Insider's Look at the World of Flea Markets, Antiques, and Collecting, winner of a Massachusetts Book Award and a Parade Magazine "12 Great Summer Books" selection. Her nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, Fourth Genre, Creative Nonfiction, Longreads, New England Review and elsewhere, and has been recognized with the Iowa Review prize, the Sewanee Review prize, and Pushcart Prizes. She's received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Maine Arts Commission, and the MacDowell Colony. She teaches at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and lives in Maine. When she's not reading, writing, or teaching, she enjoys swimming (ponds, tidal rivers, lakes, and the ocean), foraging for wild mushrooms, baking, and haunting flea markets. www.maureenstantonwriter.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature
Ted is joined this month by not one but two amazing guests, Jennifer Acker and Emily Everett. Jennifer is the founder and editor in chief of The Common, an award-winning print and digital literary journal based at Amherst College, and author of the novel The Limits of the World, which was one of three fiction honorees for the Massachusetts Book Award. Emily works with Jennifer as managing editor at The Common. She is also a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellow in Fiction and author of the novel All That Life Can Afford, the Reese's Book Club pick for April 2025. Considering the closest Ted has come to that latter honor is watching Big Little Lies, he starts the conversation by asking Emily what it was like to find out Reese had selected her book. (Spoiler: pretty freakin' exciting.) Emily then shares a little bit about All That Life Can Afford, a story with a main character whose idealized version of London doesn't quite track with her reality when she moves there after college. The role of the city proves to be a great segue to ask Jennifer about The Common, as it is a magazine devoted to deepening “our individual and collective sense of place.” Both Jennifer and Emily go on to talk about the relationship of their editorial work to their own writing, the difference in the writing challenge between novels and short stories (besides, you know, the length), how they've helped each other grow as writers, and the books they're working on now.Episode Links:Jennifer's WebsiteEmily's WebsiteThe CommonWorking Drafts episodes and info for requesting transcripts as well as more details about Ted and his books are available on his website, thetedfox.com.
On this episode, we continue our visit to Mount Auburn Cemetery. Joined by biographer Natalie Dykstra, we visit the Gardner tomb where Isabella Stewart Gardner is buried. We learn more about Gardner and her family's relationship to the history of Boston from Dykstra and Chief Historian Peter Drummey. Mount Auburn is the first American cemetery that purposely combined commemoration with elements of experimental gardening, picturesque landscape design, and access to nature, starting a trend across the nation in the mid-19th century that led to the creation of the first public parks in this country. Learn more about episode objects here: https://www.masshist.org/podcast/season-4-episode-5-Gardner-Tomb Email us at podcast@masshist.org. Episode Special Guests: Natalie Dykstra is the author of Clover Adams: A Gilded and Heartbreaking Life, which was a finalist for the 2013 Massachusetts Book Award. For her recent book Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner, she received a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholars grant and the inaugural Robert and Ina Caro Research Fellowship from the Biographers International Organization. Chasing Beauty is a finalist for the Marfield Prize, the national award for arts writing. Dykstra has been an elected Fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society since 2011 and is an emerita professor of English at Hope College. She lives near Boston. Meg L. Winslow is Senior Curator of Historical Collections & Archives at Mount Auburn Cemetery where she is responsible for developing and overseeing the Cemetery's permanent collections of historical and aesthetic importance. Meg is co-author with Melissa Banta of The Art of Commemoration and America's First Rural Cemetery, Mount Auburn's Significant Monument Collection, in its third printing. This episode uses materials from: Elderberry (Instrumental) by Chad Crouch (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International) Psychic by Dominic Giam of Ketsa Music (licensed under a commercial non-exclusive license by the Massachusetts Historical Society through Ketsa.uk) Curious Nature by Dominic Giam of Ketsa Music (licensed under a commercial non-exclusive license by the Massachusetts Historical Society through Ketsa.uk)
Heather Corbally Bryant reads “Listening to Seamus Heany.”Heather is a Senior Lecturer at Wellesley College, the author of a prize-winning study of Elizabeth Bowen, and eleven books of poems. Her poems have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, the Massachusetts Book Award, and have received honorable mention in the Finishing Line Press's Open Chapbook competition.
Today I talked to Alegra Goodman about her novel Isola (The Dial Press, 2025) After Marguerite is orphaned as a young girl, her guardian leaves her alone in her family's enormous home, where servants see to her needs until he hires a mother and daughter to tutor her in the ways of wealthy 16th century lords and ladies. The guardian sells her home and spends her fortune, betting on an expedition to New France (now known as Canada). The guardian insists that she accompany him, only with her old maid. Afraid and lonely, Marguerite befriends her guardian's secretary and falls in love with him, but the guardian learns of it and abandons her, her maid, and his secretary on a deserted island. Marguerite is forced to learn survival skills in this tale based on a true story. Allegra Goodman's novels include Isola (2025), Sam (a Read With Jenna Book Club selection), The Chalk Artist (winner of the Massachusetts Book Award), Intuition, The Cookbook Collector, Paradise Park, and Kaaterskill Falls (a National Book Award finalist). Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker and elsewhere and has been anthologized in The O. Henry Awards and Best American Short Stories. She has written two collections of stories, The Family Markowitz and Total Immersion and a novel for younger readers, The Other Side of the Island. Her essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and The American Scholar. Raised in Honolulu, Goodman studied English and philosophy at Harvard and received a PhD in English literature from Stanford. She is the recipient of a Whiting Writer's Award, the Salon Award for Fiction, and a fellowship from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced study. She lives with her family in Cambridge, Mass. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
Today I talked to Alegra Goodman about her novel Isola (The Dial Press, 2025) After Marguerite is orphaned as a young girl, her guardian leaves her alone in her family's enormous home, where servants see to her needs until he hires a mother and daughter to tutor her in the ways of wealthy 16th century lords and ladies. The guardian sells her home and spends her fortune, betting on an expedition to New France (now known as Canada). The guardian insists that she accompany him, only with her old maid. Afraid and lonely, Marguerite befriends her guardian's secretary and falls in love with him, but the guardian learns of it and abandons her, her maid, and his secretary on a deserted island. Marguerite is forced to learn survival skills in this tale based on a true story. Allegra Goodman's novels include Isola (2025), Sam (a Read With Jenna Book Club selection), The Chalk Artist (winner of the Massachusetts Book Award), Intuition, The Cookbook Collector, Paradise Park, and Kaaterskill Falls (a National Book Award finalist). Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker and elsewhere and has been anthologized in The O. Henry Awards and Best American Short Stories. She has written two collections of stories, The Family Markowitz and Total Immersion and a novel for younger readers, The Other Side of the Island. Her essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and The American Scholar. Raised in Honolulu, Goodman studied English and philosophy at Harvard and received a PhD in English literature from Stanford. She is the recipient of a Whiting Writer's Award, the Salon Award for Fiction, and a fellowship from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced study. She lives with her family in Cambridge, Mass. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature
Today I talked to Alegra Goodman about her novel Isola (The Dial Press, 2025) After Marguerite is orphaned as a young girl, her guardian leaves her alone in her family's enormous home, where servants see to her needs until he hires a mother and daughter to tutor her in the ways of wealthy 16th century lords and ladies. The guardian sells her home and spends her fortune, betting on an expedition to New France (now known as Canada). The guardian insists that she accompany him, only with her old maid. Afraid and lonely, Marguerite befriends her guardian's secretary and falls in love with him, but the guardian learns of it and abandons her, her maid, and his secretary on a deserted island. Marguerite is forced to learn survival skills in this tale based on a true story. Allegra Goodman's novels include Isola (2025), Sam (a Read With Jenna Book Club selection), The Chalk Artist (winner of the Massachusetts Book Award), Intuition, The Cookbook Collector, Paradise Park, and Kaaterskill Falls (a National Book Award finalist). Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker and elsewhere and has been anthologized in The O. Henry Awards and Best American Short Stories. She has written two collections of stories, The Family Markowitz and Total Immersion and a novel for younger readers, The Other Side of the Island. Her essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and The American Scholar. Raised in Honolulu, Goodman studied English and philosophy at Harvard and received a PhD in English literature from Stanford. She is the recipient of a Whiting Writer's Award, the Salon Award for Fiction, and a fellowship from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced study. She lives with her family in Cambridge, Mass. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/historical-fiction
Amidst all the doom and gloom of the current zeitgeist, Harvard University literature professor & DLD 2025 speaker Martin Puchner remains cautiously optimistic about our high tech future. Reflecting on cultural and technological changes over the past 20 years. Puchner explains how digital technology has transformed academic research and teaching since 2005, noting how the internet has made obscure texts more accessible and changed how scholars work. While acknowledging concerns about declining humanities enrollment and student reading habits, Puchner maintains a cautiously optimistic outlook. He observes that while fewer top students choose to study literature, there's been a growth in public engagement with humanities through book clubs, podcasts, and adult education. Puchner offers nuanced perspectives on several contemporary issues, including the rise of student anxiety (which he attributes more to psycho-pharmaceuticals than technology), the paradox of people valuing reading while actually reading less, and the role of AI in education. He suggests that AI's ability to summarize texts might complement rather than replace deep reading, particularly for fiction where the reading experience itself is central. Looking ahead to 2045, Puchner is particularly optimistic about education's future, believing that interactive online platforms and AI could help democratize high-quality education globally. However, he maintains that human teachers will remain essential due to the affective, interpersonal nature of education—something demonstrated during COVID-19 when in-person interaction was lost. He sees technology as augmenting rather than replacing traditional educational experiences, much as print didn't eliminate lectures and film didn't replace theater.Martin Puchner, the Byron and Anita Wien Professor at Harvard University, is a prize-winning author, educator, public speaker, and institution builder in the arts and humanities. His writings range from philosophy and theater to culture and technology and have been translated into many languages. Through his best-selling Norton Anthology of World Literature and his HarvardX MOOC Masterpieces of World Literature, he has brought four thousand years of literature to audiences across the globe. His book, The Written World, which tells the story of literature from the invention of writing to the Internet, has been widely reviewed in The New York Times, The Times (London), the Financial Times, The Times Literary Supplement, The Atlantic, The Economist, among others, covered on radio and television, and has been translated into over twenty languages. It appeared on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list and received the Massachusetts Book Award. His book The Language of Thieves has been praised as an unusual combination of scholarship and memoir, and the writing, compared to Stevenson's Treasure Island and Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. An adventurous foray into the philosophy of language, it is also a reckoning with Germany's past. His book Literature for a Changing Planet is based on the inaugural Oxford University Lectures in European History, delivered in November 2019, has been reviewed in the Financial Times, The New York Review of Books and other venues. It calls for a new approach to storytelling and climate change. His most recent book, Culture: The Story of Us, tells a global history of culture that raises fundamental questions about how culture works, and how different cultures should relate to one another. In hundreds of lectures and workshops from the Arctic Circle to Brazil and from the Middle East to China, he has advocated for the arts and humanities in a changing world. At Harvard, he has instituted these ideas in a new program in theater, dance and media as well as in the Mellon School of Theater and Performance Research, which lasted from 2010-2022. Among his prizes are a Guggenheim Fellowship, fellowships at the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin and at the Cullman Center at the New York Public Library, the Berlin Prize, and the 2021 Humboldt Prize. He is a permanent member of the European Academy.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe
Diana Renn is a fantastic author, creating environmental mysteries for kids and adults alike. Her latest book, the Owl Prowl Mystery is like Sherlock Holmes for environmentalists and is a real HOOT. :) The first book in the series, Trouble at Turtle Pond was named a 2023 Green Earth Book Award Honor Book and has been longlisted for the Massachusetts Book Award. Her three YA mysteries, Tokyo Heist, Latitude Zero, and Blue Voyage, all published by Viking/Penguin Random House, feature international intrigue and globetrotting teens. Diana is also a co-author of False Idols, an episodically-released international thriller for adults, published by Realm (formerly Serial Box) and Adaptive Books. A nonfiction writer as well, Diana received a 2022 Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship Award as a finalist in creative nonfiction. Her essays, articles, and short fiction have appeared in Flyway:Journal of Writing and Environment, Publisher's Weekly, WBUR's Cognoscenti, The Huffington Post, Pangyrus, Brain Child, Literary Mama, The Writer, Writer's Digest, YARN (Young Adult Review Network), The Indiana Review, Cricket Magazine for Children, and elsewhere. She has authored and edited numerous textbooks, taught writing at Boston University, Brandeis University, and Grub Street, and is an Author Accelerator Certified Book Coach. Diana grew up in Seattle and now lives outside of Boston with her family. To learn more about Diana and her work visit https://dianarennbooks.com/
Diana Renn is a fantastic author, creating environmental mysteries for kids and adults alike. Her latest book, the Owl Prowl Mystery is like Sherlock Holmes for environmentalists and is a real HOOT. :) The first book in the series, Trouble at Turtle Pond was named a 2023 Green Earth Book Award Honor Book and has been longlisted for the Massachusetts Book Award. Her three YA mysteries, Tokyo Heist, Latitude Zero, and Blue Voyage, all published by Viking/Penguin Random House, feature international intrigue and globetrotting teens. Diana is also a co-author of False Idols, an episodically-released international thriller for adults, published by Realm (formerly Serial Box) and Adaptive Books. A nonfiction writer as well, Diana received a 2022 Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship Award as a finalist in creative nonfiction. Her essays, articles, and short fiction have appeared in Flyway:Journal of Writing and Environment, Publisher's Weekly, WBUR's Cognoscenti, The Huffington Post, Pangyrus, Brain Child, Literary Mama, The Writer, Writer's Digest, YARN (Young Adult Review Network), The Indiana Review, Cricket Magazine for Children, and elsewhere. She has authored and edited numerous textbooks, taught writing at Boston University, Brandeis University, and Grub Street, and is an Author Accelerator Certified Book Coach. Diana grew up in Seattle and now lives outside of Boston with her family. To learn more about Diana and her work visit https://dianarennbooks.com/
In Part 2 of our interview, Marc Vincenz—author of over 40 books of poetry—talks about his book of poetry, The Pearl Diver of Irunmani (White Pine Press, 2023). We dive into the deep waters of a consciousness preparing for death. During a health crisis, Vincenz came into a new language informed by this encounter, finding footing in "the heart of a word" and his own fearless observations. "See the island in your mind/or you will always be lost." From within a language he invents as if to breathe in this unfamiliar element, Vincenz takes us through then beyond "the theater of fear"..."when the audience leaves and you're left only with yourself." The poet and the reader emerge changed. Like a cyborg prophet, Marc now writes from the seam between worlds—life and death, nature and "the machinery of the world" (Borges)—mitigating oppositions with deep music. "The traffic doesn't slow/the bling navigates/like porpoises' eyes/ in the windows,/those deep dangling metaphors/in a city tangled up in its own industrial age." You can hear Pt. 1 of our interview which aired 10/6/24 on KSQD. We discuss Marc's book, The King of Prussia is Drunk on Stars (Lavender Ink, 2024) here: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/the-hive8/episodes/S6E31-Marc-Vincenz-talks-with-Roxi-Power-e2pcb8o Marc Vincenz is a poet, fiction writer, translator, editor, publisher, musician and artist. His latest poetry collections are A Splash of Cave Paint, and The King of Prussia is Drunk on Stars. His latest translation is An Audible Blue: Selected Poems (1963 - 2016) by celebrated Swiss poet and novelist, Klaus Merz, which won the 2023 Massachusetts Book Award for Translated Literature. His forthcoming poetry collections are Spells for the Wicked (Unlikely Books 2025) and No More Animal Poems with White Pine Press in 2026. Marc's work has been translated into German, Russian, Romanian, French, Icelandic, and Chinese. Marc is the publisher for MadHat Press and New American Writing. He produces and hosts the biweekly reading series on Zoom, Lit Balm. https://madhat-press.com/ https://litbalm.org/
Marc Vincenz has been called the David Bowie of poetry, reinventing himself and exploring new poetic chops in each of his 40 books. Roxi Power talks with Vincenz about his newest book of surreal poems inThe King of Prussia is Drunk on Stars (Lavender Ink Press, 2024). From the imperialism of Prussia to the purity of Iceland, Vincenz juxtaposes the monstrous with the meditative in his quiet lyrics of epic scope. Matthew Cooperman writes that "Vincenz conjures a centaur poetics where anything may be attached to anything else." What connects humans with woodworms? How do eels emerge "from the carcass of a waterlogged horse"? We follow the world-traveling and world-building eye of Vincenz across the globe, then perch quietly among constellations that "grow alongside the window" or under the apple trees among the stars, only to experience in his deep images again and again: "Where your eye is, there you grow." Marc Vincenz is a poet, fiction writer, translator, editor, publisher, musician and artist. He has published over 40 books of poetry, fiction and translation. His latest poetry collections are A Splash of Cave Paint, and The King of Prussia is Drunk on Stars. His latest translation is An Audible Blue: Selected Poems (1963 - 2016) by celebrated Swiss poet and novelist, Klaus Merz, which won the 2023 Massachusetts Book Award for Translated Literature. His forthcoming poetry collections are Spells for the Wicked (Unlikely Books 2025) and No More Animal Poems with White Pine Press in 2026. Marc's work has been translated into German, Russian, Romanian, French, Icelandic, and Chinese. Marc is the publisher for MadHat Press and New American Writing. He produces and hosts the biweekly reading series on Zoom, Lit Balm.
Tonight, Writers for Blue is offering a special opportunity to learn about writing your first pages. We'll have four award-winning authors, including myself, Aaron Hamburger, Nancy Johnson, and Pulitzer Prize-winner Jayne Anne Phillips, workshopping seven first-page writing submissions in support of electing Kamala Harris, our first female president—and our 47th. We'll also hear about ways you might use your words in the upcoming election cycle, including how to write politically-charged topics, canvassing, and more, from writers Charles Coe, Rishi Reddi, Daphne Kalotay, Julia Rold, and Gish Jen. All of these authors have donated their time, energy, and talents in support of this event. We're hoping you might follow suit and consider donating to our Writers for Blue campaign. Go to writersforblue.com to get started. And, if you're looking for specific links and resources mentioned during the event, see below.AUTHORS FEATURED:Charles Coe, author of five books of poetry and one novel, teaches in the Newport MFA writing program, and is renowned both as a writer and a performer; we are honored to have him speaking as well as kindly reading aloud our sample pages.Aaron Hamburger is author of four acclaimed books of fiction, winner of the Rome Prize and a 2023 Lambda Literary prize; his new novel HOTEL CUBA has been featured on NPR; Aaron does political activism with Swing Left and is on the faculty at Stonecoast MFA.Author of nine acclaimed books, most recently a ‘best book' choice by the Oprah Book Club, NPR and the New Yorker, Gish Jen writes about charged issues with humor and heart, as in her latest collection, THANK YOU, MR NIXON.Nancy Johnson's acclaimed debut novel THE KINDEST LIE, was a New York Times Editor's Choice and Indie Booksellers choice; Nancy's also an Emmy-nominated award-winning journalist as well as author of the forthcoming 2025 novel, PEOPLE OF MEANS.Daphne Kalotay is the author, most recently, of the story collection THE ARCHIVISTS, winner of the Grace Paley Prize, a Boston Authors Club “Notable Book” and long-listed for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize and Massachusetts Book Award. National bestselling author of NIGHT SWIM and WOMEN IN BED; Jessica Keener is the Co-Chair with Randy Susan Meyers and, from the start, the driving force of Writers for Blue.From the iconic story collection BLACK TICKETS through 6 more indelible books of fiction to her 2024 Pulitzer Prize winning novel, NIGHT WATCH Jayne Anne Phillips is—as Caroline Leavitt said on A Mighty Blaze—‘everyone's literary heroine.'Rishi Reddi is the PEN New England award winning author of KARMA AND OTHER STORIES and the novel PASSAGE WEST; when not writing, she is an environmental lawyer and lobbies for sound climate policy in her day-job. Julia Rold is a writer, playwright and Novel Incubator alum who has worked on political campaigns in Massachusetts, NH, NY, Florida, and her home state of Kentucky.LINKS TO RESOURCES:DIRECT LINK TO WritersForBlue DONATION PAGE.WRITERS FOR BLUE website: https://writersforblue.com/Our partners:WRITERS FOR DEMOCRATIC ACTION (WDA)A MIGHTY BLAZEMarkers for Democracy: https://markersfordemocracy.org/postcarding (get out the vote cards to Democratic voters. has a monthly writing bootcamp online)Swing Blue: https://swingbluealliance.org/ (coordinating with Working America on postcard campaign focused on Healthcare for independent voters in PA)VoteForward: https://votefwd.org/instructions (letter-writing you can download yourself. Excellent examples of positive, nonpartisan "let's go vote!" messages)More suggested messages (specifically for postcards to swing state voters), stats to support the effort, and ways to order postcards: https://turnoutpac.org/If folks are interested in supporting Dems in Arizona, Wednesday night at 7pm ET, my Swing Left group is hosting an Arizona Zoom Fundraiser. Sign up here. Door-to-door canvassing resources.Canvassing in NH: https://www.mobilize.us/massdems/event/627702/Canvassing in PA: https://www.mobilize.us/2024pavictory/event/645465/https://www.31ststreet.org sends out weekly emails with canvassing, donating, phone banking, and letter writing opportunities. Sign up!One way of targeting critical races is to think about donating to Crimson Goes Blue. It's a Harvard group, but don't be put off by that! They do great research, and their record in giving to races that turned out to be super tight, and where money made the difference is impressive. Highly recommended! Here's a Slide with a lot of resources about door-to-door canvassing. LISTS OF AND INFO ON BANNED BOOKS:https://socialjusticebooks.org/booklists/banned-books/SWING LEFT: VOLUNTEER IN A VARIETY OF WAYS— LETTER-WRITING, POST-CARDING, CANVASSING, PHONE-CALLING and MORE for DEMOCRAT CANDIDATES UP AND DOWN THE BALLOT:PEN AMERICA, sponsoring many activities such as WRITING LETTERS to free political prisoners around the world and teaching writing in prisons; also programs addressing online abuse and misinformation:Photo by sydney Rae on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Join Ocean House owner and author Deborah Goodrich Royce for a conversation with bestselling author Dawn Tripp as they discuss her new book, Jackie. About Dawn Tripp: Dawn Tripp is the author of the novel Georgia, which was a national bestseller, a finalist for the New England Book Award, and the winner of the Mary Lynn Kotz Award for Art in Literature. She is the author of three previous novels: Game of Secrets, Moon Tide, and The Season of Open Water, which won the Massachusetts Book Award for Fiction. Her poems and essays have appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review, Harvard Review, AGNI, Conjunctions, and NPR. Tripp lives in Massachusetts with her sons. About Jackie: Jackie is the story of a woman—deeply private with a nuanced, formidable intellect—who forged a legacy out of grief and shaped history even as she was living it. It is the story of a love affair, a complicated marriage, and the fracturing of identity that comes in the wake of unthinkable violence. When Jackie meets the charismatic congressman Jack Kennedy in Georgetown, she is twenty-one and dreaming of France. She has won an internship at Vogue. Kennedy, she thinks, is not her kind of adventure: “Too American. Too good-looking. Too boy.” Yet she is drawn to his mind, his humor, his drive. The chemistry between them ignites. During the White House years, the love between two independent people deepens. Then, a motorcade in Dallas: “Three and a half seconds—that's all it was—a slivered instant between the first shot, which missed the car, and the second, which did not. . . . A hypnotic burst of sunlight off her bracelet as she waved.” This vivid, exquisitely written novel is at once a captivating work of the imagination and a window into the world of a woman who led many lives: Jackie, Jacks, Jacqueline, Miss Bouvier, Mrs. Kennedy, Jackie O. For more information about bestselling author Dawn Tripp, please visit www.dawntripp.com. For information on Deborah Goodrich Royce and the Ocean House Author Series, visit www.deborahgoodrichroyce.com
Want to join the podcast? Come together with other listeners in a deep dive into this summer's episodes, discussing ideas, asking questions, and sharing your experiences about issues brought up in our interviews. Perfect for writers at every level. Only a few spots available. Email 7amnovelist@substack.com for more info.Today we get to hear from Annie Weatherwax whose much-lauded novel, All We Had, was adapted by Katie Holmes for her directorial debut. But Annie and I will be talking about how her career as a visual artist inspires her writing and vice versa, particularly as a writer and artist with dyslexia. Watch a recording of our live webinar here. The audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Weatherwax's debut and many books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Annie Weatherwax is an author and artist who spent her early career sculpting superheroes and cartoon characters for Nickelodeon, DC Comics, and Pixar. Winner of the Robert Olen Butler Prize for Fiction, her debut novel All We Had, was a finalist for the Massachusetts Book Award and is now a major motion picture from Tribeca films. In 2017, she received The Hamilton Life Achievement Award for individuals with dyslexia. In 2021, she was the inaugural fellow at New Yorker Cartoonist, James Stevenson's Lost and Found Lab. Character sketches and stories from her collection, “Odd Balls and Relationships,” appeared in the winter 2023/24 issue of Ploughshares Magazine. Her work exploring the relationship between language and vision, visual art and literature has been published in the New York Times and Publishers Weekly. Her most recent endeavor is "Monster in a Dress”—an animated short about her journey with gender, identity and personhood. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
(This podcast was recorded live on June 22, 2024 at Arvida Book Co in Tustin, California.) Dawn Tripp is the author of the novel Georgia, a national bestseller. She is the author of three previous novels: Game of Secrets, Moon Tide, and The Season of Open Water, which won the Massachusetts Book Award for Fiction. Her poems and essays have appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review, Harvard Review, AGNI, Conjunctions, and NPR, among others. She serves on the board of the Boston Book Festival and on the board of Gnome Surf: A non-profit Surf Therapy Organization focused on creating a culture shift towards kindness, love, and acceptance for athletes of all abilities. She graduated from Harvard and lives in Massachusetts with her sons. Her new novel is JACKIE. Dawn joins Barbara DeMarco-Barrett to discuss historical fiction and the research involved, surprises in the writing of the novel, why she chose the present tense, getting down the voice, and more. For more information on Writers on Writing and extra writing perks, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. Support the show by buying books at our bookstore on bookshop.org. We've stocked it with titles from our guests, as well as some of our personal favorites. You'll support independent bookstores and our show by purchasing through the store. Finally, on Spotify listen to an album's worth of typewriter music like what you hear on the show. Look for the artist, Just My Type. Email the show at writersonwritingpodcast@gmail.com. We love to hear from our listeners. (Recorded on June 22, 2024) Host: Barbara DeMarco-BarrettHost: Marrie StoneMusic and sound editing: Travis Barrett (Stream his music on Spotify, Apple Music, Etc.
Today, we hear from one of our most beloved Boston-area writers, Marjan Kamali, whose lates novel, THE LION WOMEN OF TEHRAN, will be released on July 2. We're talking to Marjan about how she handled the passage of time in writing the book.Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Kamali's latest and many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Marjan Kamali is the award-winning author of the forthcoming The Lion Women of Tehran (out July 2024), The Stationery Shop (Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster), a national and international bestseller, and Together Tea (EccoBooks/HarperCollins), a Massachusetts Book Award finalist. She is a 2022 recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship. Marjan's novels are published in translation in more than 25 languages (21 languages for The Stationery Shop and 10 languages for Together Tea). Her essays have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Literary Hub, and The Los Angeles Review of Books. Marjan holds a bachelor's degree in English literature from the University of California, Berkeley, a Master of Business Administration from Columbia University, and a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from New York University. Born in Turkey to Iranian parents, she spent her childhood in Turkey, Iran, Germany, Kenya, and the U.S. Marjan is currently the Fannie Hurst Writer-in-Residence at Brandeis University. She lives in the Boston area with her family.Photo Credit: David E. Lawrence 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
JOE THE SALAMANDER -MEET THE AUTHOR Podcast: LIVE - Episode 161Originally aired Wednesday June 19,2024Featuring Author TIMOTHY GAGER.ABOUT TIMOTHY: Bestselling Author, Timothy Gager has published 18 books of fiction and poetry, which includes his latest novel, Joe the Salamander. He hosted the successful Dire Literary Series in Cambridge, MA from 2001 to 2018, and started a weekly virtual series in 2020. He has had over 1000 works of fiction and poetry published, 18 nominated for the Pushcart Prize. His work also has been nominated twice for a Massachusetts Book Award, The Best of the Web, The Best Small Fictions Anthology and has been read on National Public Radio. In 2023, Big Table Publishing published an anthology of twenty years of his selected work, with 150 pages of new material: The Best of Timothy Gager.Timothy was the Fiction Editor of The Wilderness House Literary Review, and the founding co-editor of The Heat City Literary Review. A graduate of the University of Delaware, Timothy lives in Dedham, Massachusetts.Watch or listen to all episodes at www.IndieBookSource.com
Want to join the podcast? Come together with other listeners in a deep dive into this summer's episodes, discussing ideas, asking questions, and sharing your experiences about issues brought up in our interviews. Perfect for writers at every level. Only a few spots available. Email 7amnovelist@substack.com for more info.Today, we hear from Dawn Tripp, whose latest novel, JACKIE, was released in June. We're talking to Dawn about voice and the emotional level of a story (which is to say, we're talking about interiority).Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Tripp's latest and many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Dawn Tripp is the author of the novel Georgia, which was a national bestseller, a finalist for the New England Book Award, and a winner of the Mary Lynn Kotz Award for Art in Literature. She is the author of three previous novels: Game of Secrets, Moon Tide, and The Season of Open Water, which won the Massachusetts Book Award for Fiction. Her poems and essays have appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review, Harvard Review, AGNI, Conjunctions, and NPR, among others. She serves on the board of the Boston Book Festival and on the board of Gnome Surf: A non-profit Surf Therapy Organization focused on creating a culture shift towards kindness, love, and acceptance for athletes of all abilities. She graduated from Harvard and lives in Massachusetts with her sons. 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
The idea of “interiority” is all the talk these days, but what actually is it? How is it different from exposition and simply telling a reader about a character's thoughts and feelings? How do you access that deeper level of character development and voice from which great interiority comes? We've got two master writers and teachers today to help us out: Dawn Tripp and Christopher BoucherWatch a recording of our live webinar here. The audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.I also recommend the following Substack articles about Interiority, the first from Brandon Taylor and the second from Courtney Maum.Christopher Boucher is the author of the novels How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive, Golden Delicious and Big Giant Floating Head (a 2019 Massachusetts Book Award Finalist). He's also an Associate Professor of the Practice of English at Boston College and the managing editor of Post Road Magazine.Dawn Tripp is the author of the novel Georgia, which was a national bestseller and a finalist for the New England Book Award, and three previous novels: Game of Secrets, Moon Tide, and The Season of Open Water, which won the Massachusetts Book Award for Fiction. Her new novel, Jackie, about Jacqueline Kennedy, will be released in June.Photo by Daniel Jericó on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Richard Hoffman is the creative nonfiction editor at Solstice and is the author of seven books, including two memoirs and four books of poetry. He's won a Massachusetts Book Award for his poetry and is an Emeritus Writer in Residence at Emerson College. Over the 16 years that Richard Hoffman has been involved with Solstice, he's happily seen it evolve to be ever more conscious of including more diverse voices in a literary conversation that was once upon a time literally “segregated.” For him, the essay form is often most attractive when a writer is positioning their personal content in a larger, societal context. In this episode, the focus was on two essays from the magazine and two other essays from Hoffman's recent essay collection, Remembering the Alchemists. The Soltice essay “How Much Time Do You Want for Your Progress” by Allen M. Price uses repetitions of an entry in his childhood notebook to reflect on the negative impact of racism on his maturing psyche. Adrianna Paramo's essay “A Minute of Silence” unflinchingly explores a time when her controlling mom had her receive a gynecological exam given her concerns about maintaining her daughter's virginity. Hoffman's two essays recounted here, “The Egg” and the title piece deal, respectively, with grieving over a lost opportunity to be closer to his now deceased mom and on how Eisenhower's warning about the country's “military-industrial complex” has come to complete, unfortunate fruition. Dan Hill, PhD, is the author of ten books and leads Sensory Logic, Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
Richard Hoffman is the creative nonfiction editor at Solstice and is the author of seven books, including two memoirs and four books of poetry. He's won a Massachusetts Book Award for his poetry and is an Emeritus Writer in Residence at Emerson College. Over the 16 years that Richard Hoffman has been involved with Solstice, he's happily seen it evolve to be ever more conscious of including more diverse voices in a literary conversation that was once upon a time literally “segregated.” For him, the essay form is often most attractive when a writer is positioning their personal content in a larger, societal context. In this episode, the focus was on two essays from the magazine and two other essays from Hoffman's recent essay collection, Remembering the Alchemists. The Soltice essay “How Much Time Do You Want for Your Progress” by Allen M. Price uses repetitions of an entry in his childhood notebook to reflect on the negative impact of racism on his maturing psyche. Adrianna Paramo's essay “A Minute of Silence” unflinchingly explores a time when her controlling mom had her receive a gynecological exam given her concerns about maintaining her daughter's virginity. Hoffman's two essays recounted here, “The Egg” and the title piece deal, respectively, with grieving over a lost opportunity to be closer to his now deceased mom and on how Eisenhower's warning about the country's “military-industrial complex” has come to complete, unfortunate fruition. Dan Hill, PhD, is the author of ten books and leads Sensory Logic, Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies
Richard Hoffman is the creative nonfiction editor at Solstice and is the author of seven books, including two memoirs and four books of poetry. He's won a Massachusetts Book Award for his poetry and is an Emeritus Writer in Residence at Emerson College. Over the 16 years that Richard Hoffman has been involved with Solstice, he's happily seen it evolve to be ever more conscious of including more diverse voices in a literary conversation that was once upon a time literally “segregated.” For him, the essay form is often most attractive when a writer is positioning their personal content in a larger, societal context. In this episode, the focus was on two essays from the magazine and two other essays from Hoffman's recent essay collection, Remembering the Alchemists. The Soltice essay “How Much Time Do You Want for Your Progress” by Allen M. Price uses repetitions of an entry in his childhood notebook to reflect on the negative impact of racism on his maturing psyche. Adrianna Paramo's essay “A Minute of Silence” unflinchingly explores a time when her controlling mom had her receive a gynecological exam given her concerns about maintaining her daughter's virginity. Hoffman's two essays recounted here, “The Egg” and the title piece deal, respectively, with grieving over a lost opportunity to be closer to his now deceased mom and on how Eisenhower's warning about the country's “military-industrial complex” has come to complete, unfortunate fruition. Dan Hill, PhD, is the author of ten books and leads Sensory Logic, Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature
EPISODE 1936: In this special KEEN ON show from DLD in Munich, Andrew talks to Martin Puchner, author of CULTURE: THE STORY OF US, FROM CAVE ART TO K-POP, about on the future of artistic creativity in the age of the smart machineMartin Puchner, the Byron and Anita Wien Professor at Harvard University, is a prize-winning author, educator, public speaker, and institution builder in the arts and humanities. His writings range from philosophy and theater to culture and technology and have been translated into many languages. Through his best-selling Norton Anthology of World Literature and his HarvardX MOOC Masterpieces of World Literature, he has brought four thousand years of literature to audiences across the globe. His book, The Written World, which tells the story of literature from the invention of writing to the Internet, has been widely reviewed in The New York Times, The Times (London), the Financial Times, The Times Literary Supplement, The Atlantic, The Economist, among others, covered on radio and television, and has been translated into some twenty languages. It appeared on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list and received the Massachusetts Book Award. His book The Language of Thieves has been praised as an unusual combination of scholarship and memoir, and the writing, compared to Stevenson's Treasure Island and Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. An adventurous foray into the philosophy of language, it is also a reckoning with Germany's past. His book Literature for a Changing Planet is based on the inaugural Oxford University Lectures in European History, delivered in November 2019, has been reviewed in the Financial Times, The New York Review of Books and other venues. It calls for a new approach to storytelling and climate change. His most recent book, Culture: The Story of Us, tells a global history of culture that raises fundamental questions about how culture works, and how different cultures should relate to one another.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.
Jealousy and Exhaustion are two of the most common, and most difficult, obstacles to deal with in your writing career, yet we all suffer from them at one time or another. How do you tamp down your jealousy of other writers when the feeling makes you feel like an awful person in the first place? How do you deal with the long process of writing and publishing when you're already exhausted by the idea of it? We've got writers Marjan Kamali, Liesl Swogger, and Alex Ferraro to help us out.Watch a recording of our live webinar here. The audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.Liesl Swogger is a graduate of Novel Incubator, with a new pretend deadline of March for her current revision of her novel, A Single Season. Her novel is based in part on her own experience in the world of ballet.Marjan Kamali is the award-winning author of The Stationery Shop, a national and international bestseller, and Together Tea, a Massachusetts Book Award finalist. She is a 2022 recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship. Her new novel, The Lion Women of Tehran comes out in July 2024.Originally from Texas, Alex Ferraro is at work finishing his dark and gritty Novel Incubator thriller about a sheriff gone bad and the Texas Ranger trying to bring him to justice.Photo by negar nikkhah on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
September 2023 Dante's Oliver de la Paz is the Poet Laureate of Worcester, MA for 2023-2025. He is the author and editor of seven books: Names Above Houses, Furious Lullaby, Requiem for the Orchard, Post Subject: A Fable, and The Boy in the Labyrinth, a finalist for the Massachusetts Book Award in Poetry. His newest work, The Diaspora Sonnets, is published by Liveright Press (2023) and is longlisted for the National Book Award. With Stacey Lynn Brown he co-edited A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry. Oliver serves as the co-chair of the Kundiman advisory board. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Poetry, American Poetry Review, and elsewhere. He has received grants from the NEA, NYFA, the Artist's Trust, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship, and has been awarded multiple Pushcart Prizes. He teaches at the College of the Holy Cross and in the Low-Residency MFA Program at PLU. Website: https://www.oliverdelapaz.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oliver.delapaz1 Instagram: odelapaz Twitter (X): @Oliver_delaPaz Threads; @odelapaz Blue Sky: @oliverdelapaz.bsky.social TikTok: odeladog27 Lynne Kemen lives in Upstate New York. Her chapbook, More Than a Handful, was published in 2020. She is published in Silver Birch Press, The Ravens Perch, Poetica Review, Stone Canoe, Spillwords, Topical Poetry, Fresh Words, The Ekphrastic Review, Lothlorien Poetry, and Blue Mountain Review. Lynne is the Interim President of Bright Hill Press. She is an Editor for the Blue Mountain Review and a lifetime member of The Southern Collective Experience. She has a new book, Shoes for Lucy, that will be published in early 2023 by SCE. website: https://lynnekemen.com/ Facebook: Lynne Kemen Twitter (X): @psychadv Instagram: lynnekemen Luke Johnson is the author of Quiver (Texas Review Press), a finalist for The Jake Adam York Prize, The Levis Award, The Vassar Miller Prize and the Brittingham. His second book A Slow Indwelling, a call and response with the poet Megan Merchant, is forthcoming from Harbor Editions Fall 2024. You can find more of his work at Kenyon Review, Prairie Schooner, Narrative Magazine, Poetry Northwest and elsewhere. Connect on Twitter at @Lukesrant or through email: writerswharfmb@gmail.com. Website: lukethepoet.com Songs Provided by: Christa Wells www.patreon.com/christawells https://open.spotify.com/artist/3gCNiuPNPiAA5UQSgb8Uby?si=2PSZA0SJQrmnwme_fP6kbw Instrument by: Justin Johnson www.justinjohnsonlive.com https://open.spotify.com/artist/151RUyDTIDJM8gXwGJbv7z?si=Ti4xx1_kTIGTJgEa182Rew Special Thanks Goes to: Wild Honey Tees: www.wildhoneytees.com Lucid House Press: www.lucidhousepublishing.com UCLA Extension Writing Program: The Crown: www.thecrownbrasstown.com Mercer University Press: www.mupress.org Mr. Classic's Haberdashery: theemanor.org Woodbridge Inn: www.woodbridgeinnjasper.com The Red Phone Booth: www.redphonebooth.com The host, Clifford Brooks', The Draw of Broken Eyes & Whirling Metaphysics, Athena Departs, and Old Gods are available everywhere books are sold. His chapbook, Exiles of Eden, is only available through his website: www.cliffbrooks.com/how-to-order Check out his Teachable courses on thriving with autism and creative writing as a profession here: brookssessions.teachable.com
Allegra Goodman discusses the first pages of her latest novel, Sam, how she discovered the voice of her young protagonist through freewriting, how she complicated that voice as her protagonist aged, the limitations and gifts of writing in the present-tense, 3rd-person limited point of view, and how silence helps a writer stay true to her characters.Goodman's first pages can be found here.Help local bookstores and our authors by buying this book on Bookshop.Click here for the audio/video version of this interview.The above link will be available for 48 hours. Missed it? The podcast version is always available, both here and on your favorite podcast platform.Allegra Goodman's novels include Sam (a Read With Jenna Book Club selection), The Chalk Artist (winner of the Massachusetts Book Award), Intuition, The Cookbook Collector, Paradise Park, and Kaaterskill Falls (a National Book Award finalist). Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Commentary, and Ploughshares and has been anthologized in The O. Henry Awards and Best American Short Stories. She has written two collections of short stories, The Family Markowitz and Total Immersion and a novel for younger readers, The Other Side of the Island. Her essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and The American Scholar. Raised in Honolulu, Goodman studied English and philosophy at Harvard and received a PhD in English literature from Stanford. She is the recipient of a Whiting Writer's Award, the Salon Award for Fiction, and a fellowship from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced study. She lives with her family in Cambridge, Mass, where she is writing a new novel. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
This week, I spoke to the incredibly warm and super inspiring author, Marjan Kamali. Marian's latest novel, The Stationery Shop of Tehran has been adored by readers all over the world, and praised for its epic and beautiful love story. The book is set amidst massive political upheaval in Iran in 1953. We follow two young lovers, Roya and Bahman, who become estranged for decades, until they are reunited 60 years later in the United States. The Stationery Shop of Tehran is a really stunning novel, exploring what happens when we lose our homes and our country, finding and rebuilding ourselves, love, the importance of closure, and how amid hardship and loss, there is also much to gain. Marjan Kamali is the award-winning author of The Stationery Shop, a bestseller, and Together Tea, a Massachusetts Book Award finalist. She is a 2022 recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship.Marjan's novels are published in translation in more than 20 languages (19 languages for The Stationery Shop and 8 languages for Together Tea). Her essays have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Literary Hub, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. She holds a bachelor's degree in English literature from the University of California, Berkeley, a Master of Business Administration from Columbia University, and a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from New York University. Born in Turkey to Iranian parents, Kamali spent her childhood in Turkey, Iran, Germany, Kenya, and the U.S. She currently teaches creative writing at GrubStreet and lives in the Boston area with her family.I loved every second of speaking with Marjan, and hope you do too. If you enjoyed the podcast, please follow the Diverse Bookshelf on your podcast platform of choice and connect with me on social media. I would really appreciate it if you could rate and leave a review, as it helps more people find the podcast. www.instagram.com/readwithsamiawww.instagram.com/thediversebookshelfpod Support the show
Sympathy for the devil (and understanding a bit of that devil in yourself). Author Randy Susan Meyers helps us understand our antagonist's deeper worlds, making them more believable, interesting, and worth spending time with.Find Randy's most recent book and more of my favorites on the 7am Novelist Bookshop page.The drama of Randy Susan Meyers' internationally bestselling novels, including Accidents of Marriage, The Widow of Wallstreet, and The Comfort of Lies, is informed by over twenty years of working with families impacted by emotional and physical violence. The Massachusetts Center of the Book chose three of her novels as "Must Read Books" and as finalists for the Massachusetts Book Award. The Murderer's Daughters, Meyers' debut novel, was chosen as One Book, One Community Read by the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Boston. Meyers lives in Boston with her husband. She teaches at Boston's GrubStreet and Writer in Progress in Northampton, MA.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
How do you know when it's time to put a book away? How do you find your voice again in moments of doubt? And when is that doubt useful, even necessary, to the writing process as a whole? We talk to authors Dawn Tripp and Jane Roper about their experience with the highs and lows of the writing life.For a list of my fave craft books and the most recent works by our guests, go to our Bookshop page.Dawn Tripp's fourth novel Georgia was a national bestseller, finalist for the New England Book Award, and winner of the Mary Lynn Kotz Award for Art in Literature. She is the author of three previous novels: Game of Secrets, Moon Tide, and The Season of Open Water, which won the Massachusetts Book Award for Fiction. Her essays and poems have appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review, Harvard Review, AGNI, Conjunctions, and NPR, among others. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and lives in Massachusetts with her sons. Her fifth novel will be published by Random House in 2025.Jane Roper is the author of two novels, The Society of Shame, and Eden Lake, and a memoir, Double Time: How I Survived–and Mostly Thrived–Through the First Three Years of Mothering Twins. Her writing has appeared in Salon, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, The Millions, Poets & Writers, The Rumpus, Cognoscenti, Writers' Digest and elsewhere, and has been included in the anthology Labor Day: True Birth Stories by today's Best Women Writers. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Jane currently lives just north of Boston with her husband, rad teenage twins, and two cats, one of whom sucks. 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
It's not as hard as you think—and far more integral than you might know. Dariel Suarez helps us break down the important of context for writers and readers both.For a list of my fave craft books and the most recent works by our guests, go to our Bookshop page.Dariel Suarez was born and raised in Havana, Cuba. He is the author of the novel The Playwright's House (Red Hen Press), finalist for the Rudolfo Anaya Fiction Award and the Massachusetts Book Award, and the story collection A Kind of Solitude (Willow Springs Books), winner of the Spokane Prize and the International Latino Book Award for Best Collection of Short Stories. Dariel is an inaugural City of Boston Artist Fellow and the Education Director at GrubStreet. 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
Grace teaches the Tisch Scholars foundation course "Civic Identity, Reflection, and Action," and in the 1+4 Bridge Year Program and Civic Action Gap Semester for the Tufts First-Year Global Programs. She taught writing for many years at Tufts University and Grub Street, and is currently the Fannie Hurst Writer-in-Residence at Brandeis University. Grace is the author of THE BODY PAPERS, which won the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant writing and the Massachusetts Book Award for Nonfiction. In 2022, she was awarded fellowships from United States Artists, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Brother Thomas Fund, and in the fall, will join the English Department at Brown University where she will teach nonfiction writing. During the podcast we get to hear insight into her award winning memoir, The Body Papers where she talks about racism at school after you and your family immigrated to the US in the 70s. We get to learn about how she grew up facing a multitude of challenges and how she overcame them. Grace discusses how she went back to the Philippines with her husband and tried to reclaim a lost piece of herself. Finally giving words of advice to those who have or are experiencing racism or bullying at school or abuse at home.
Life is a Ride---Overcoming Huge Challenges in Unconventional Ways
Tim Gager joins the podcast to talk about his vast writing career, how addiction and recovery informed his writing (pre- and post-recovery), and discusses his latest two books and a potential upcoming limited mini-series. Timothy Gager has published 18 books of fiction. He has had over 1000 works of fiction and poetry published, 17 nominated for the Pushcart Prize. His work also has been twice nominated for the Massachusetts Book Award, The Best of the Web, The Best Small Fictions Anthology and has been read on National Public Radio. Currently, a screenplay for his novel is under production consideration. Tim can be reached at: http://www.timothygager.com https://timothygager.blogspot.com/ Tim's books can be found on Amazon and other major online retailers, as well as at the following independent book store site: https://bookshop.org/p/books/joe-the-salamander-timothy-gager/18530606?ean=9781952232695&fbclid=IwAR3JPN_UUUQFqJs7bsUGVxN3CORAQ_PphZRkRxs1uCIHL3j58kyAwcGaPrw
Establishing a clock in your book adds tension and interest to every page. A clock can be the simple sense of time passing in the background of your story ensuring us that everything in the front story matters, an expected upcoming event that adds interest or anxiety, or the pressure on a character to accomplish a goal/desire within a set period of time. It's the container for your book. It's why you've chosen to write it in that time period in the first place. To help us wade through these ideas are authors Sabina Murray and Steve Yarbrough.Steve Yarbrough Steve Yarbrough is the author of twelve books, most recently the novel Stay Gone Days, due out in April 2022. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for Fiction, the California Book Award, the Richard Wright Award and the Robert Penn Warren Award. He has been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. The Unmade World won the 2019 Massachusetts Book Award for Fiction. The son of Mississippi Delta cotton farmers, Steve is currently a professor in the Department of Writing, Literature and Publishing at Emerson College. He has two daughters—Lena Yarbrough and Antonina Parris—and is married to the Polish writer Ewa Hryniewicz-Yarbrough. They divide their time between Boston and Krakow. Steve is an aficionado of jazz and bluegrass music, which he plays on guitar, mandolin and banjo, often after midnight.Sabina Murray is the author of three short story collections and four novels including her most recent, The Human Zoo, set in the Philippines under Duterte's presidency. Her third collection of short stories, Vanishing Point, a collection of stories with gothic themes, is due out soon. Murray is also a screenwriter and wrote the script for the film Beautiful Country, released in 2005. Murray has been a Michener Fellow at UT Austin, a Bunting fellow at Radcliffe, a Guggenheim Fellow, and has received the PEN/Faulkner Award, a Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a UMass Research and Creativity Award and Samuel Conti Fellowship, and a Fred Brown Award for The Novel from the University of Pittsburgh. She now lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, where she teaches in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Massachusetts. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
This week, Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by New York Times bestselling author Katherine Howe. Katherine and Maureen discuss how history and major events in our past have inspired Katherine's work. To her surprise, her genealogy yielded an unexpected connection to some of her charactersRelated Episodes:Episode 190: Writing Genealogical Crime Mysteries with Nathan Dylan GoodwinEpisode 189: Mathew Pearl on Narrative Non-Fiction and the Taking of Jemima BooneLinks:Katherine HoweSign up for my newsletter.Watch my YouTube Channel.Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos.Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course.Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course.Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation.About My Guest:Katherine Howe is a New York Times bestselling and award-winning writer of historical fiction. Her adult novels are The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, which debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list in 2009, and The House of Velvet and Glass, ( USA Today bestseller in 2011). For young adults, Katherine has written Conversion, ( 2015 Massachusetts Book Award in young adult literature), and a New York City-based literary ghost story called The Appearance of Annie van Sinderen, (2016 “Must Read” for young adults by the Massachusetts Center for the Book). In 2014 she edited The Penguin Book of Witches for Penguin Classics, a primary source reader on the history of witchcraft in England and North America. The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs, ( Henry Holt and Co 2019). She co-wrote Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty with Anderson Cooper. She has appeared on “Good Morning America,” “CBS This Morning,” NPR's “Weekend Edition,” the BBC, and the History Channel, and she hosted “Salem: Unmasking the Devil” for National Geographic. About Maureen Taylor:Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She's the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show. She's been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Vivid-Pix Restore is a really easy-to-use photo improvement tool. It does the work for you? You can restore scanned prints, slides, documents, and digital camera images in seconds. It is fast and easy and affordable. It uses patented artificial intelligence, which restores images with one click. And then you can fine-tune. Well, here's the good news. It's on sale this week@maureentaylor.com. It's usually $49. 99 this week. It is $10 off at $39. 99. Support the show
Ilan Mochari is the author of the acclaimed debut novel Zinsky the Obscure which earned rave reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and Booklist. Boston's NPR station named it one of 10 “Good Reads for the Summer.” Ilan's short stories, poems, and essays have been widely published, appearing or forthcoming in McSweeney's, Salamander, Solstice, Hobart, Juked, J Journal, Slate, Valparaiso Fiction Review and elsewhere. His work has been nominated for multiple Pushcart Prizes as well as the Derringer Award, and he is the recipient of a Literature Artist Fellowship grant from the Somerville Arts Council.Marjan Kamali is the award-winning author of The Stationery Shop , a national bestseller, and Together Tea , a Massachusetts Book Award finalist. Kamali's novels are published in translation in more than 20 languages. Her essays have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Literary Hub, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. Kamali holds a bachelor's degree in English literature from the University of California, Berkeley, an MBA from Columbia University, and a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from New York University. She currently teaches creative writing at GrubStreet. She is a 2022 recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship. 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
How to get yourself in the right place to write, and how to use what you already have on the page to find your way forward, with authors Grace Talusan and Jessica Keener.Grace Talusan is the author of The Body Papers, which won the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing and the Massachusetts Book Award in Nonfiction. Her writing has been supported by the NEA, the Fulbright, US Artists, the Brother Thomas Fund, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. She teaches in the Nonfiction Writing Program at Brown University. Jessica Keener's latest novel, Strangers in Budapest, was an Indie Next pick, a "best new book” selection by Entertainment Weekly, Chicago Review of Books, January Magazine, Real Simple, and a Southern Independent Bookstore Association (SIBA) bestseller. Her debut novel, Night Swim, was a national bestseller, followed by Women in Bed, her collection of award-winning stories. She has taught writing at Brown University, Boston University, Grub Street, and the Story Summit, and is currently completing a new novel. An anniversary edition of Night Swim is forthcoming in February 2023. And here are some of the things we talked about.First, Nancy Krusoe's method of “burrowing” which she discusses in her contributor's notes for her story “Landscape and Dream” in The Best American Short Stories 1994:Secondly, Douglas Bauer's The Stuff of Fiction: Advice on CraftAlso the idea from Virginia Woolf of “gathering in,” most helpful for revision.And finally, one of our marvelous webinar participants (Allison Grinberg-Funes) shared a writing software tool called “focusmate”: “It's a software where you can schedule 25 or 50 minute sessions and be on video with someone. At the beginning, you say what you're working on, then you get to work! You stay in the seat. At the end of the time period, you tell the person how much you accomplished. It's free for 3 sessions a week. More than that is $5/mo and it's honestly worth it in my opinion!” 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
Number One Bestselling Author, Timothy Gager has published 17 books of fiction and poetry. He hosted the successful Dire Literary Series in Cambridge, MA from 2001 to 2018, and started a weekly virtual series in 2020. He has had over 1000 works of fiction and poetry published, 17 nominated for the Pushcart Prize. His work also has been nominated for a Massachusetts Book Award, The Best of the Web, The Best Small Fictions Anthology and has been read on National Public Radio. Timothy is the Fiction Editor of The Wilderness House Literary Review, and the founding co-editor of The Heat City Literary Review. A graduate of the University of Delaware, Timothy lives in Dedham, Massachusetts with some fish and a rabbit, and he is employed as a social worker. Joe the Salamander, is his third novel. IN THIS EPISODE: 1:11 How NOT to start an interview! 2:41 Introducing Tim Gager 4:32 The birth of his daughter AND his first book gets accepted by a publisher! 6:57 From Ebook to Print: Tim convinces/demands that his publisher PRINT his next book 10:48 His path to sobriety 12:22 Eight published books on poetry 14:27 Lessons learned during The Shutdown 20:08 How to write 17 books 28:05 Sticking to a schedule & knowing how to live 32:45 His latest book: Joe the Salamander 41:18 Two stories that help shine a light on autism 46:45 Inspiration - How 130 words of a Flash Fiction piece turned into an 80,000 word novel 48:57 Tim's new book - it may not be finished for a decade 59:45 Revival tents, hot coals, snake handlers, Scientology, Hare Krishna's, and Time Share's 1:07:05 Dar's experience with his Norwegian friends and film crew
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you'll hear about: How the Common got started What is involved in running a literary journal Why grants and institutional support matter so much in the literary arts The importance of finding mentors and building a network How the Common creates community Our guest is: Jennifer Acker , who is the founder and editor in chief of The Common, and author of the debut novel The Limits of the World, a fiction honoree for the Massachusetts Book Award. Her memoir “Fatigue” is a #1 Amazon bestseller, and her short stories, essays, translations, and reviews have appeared in Oprah Daily, Washington Post, Literary Hub, n+1, and The Yale Review, among other places. Acker has an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars and teaches writing and editing at Amherst College, where she directs the Literary Publishing Internship and LitFest. She lives in western Massachusetts with her husband. Our guest is: Elizabeth Witte, who is a writer and editor based in western Massachusetts. She is a recipient of the Massachusetts Cultural Council's Artist Fellowships in Poetry and author of the chapbook, Dry Eye (Dancing Girl Press); her work appears in a variety of journals, including Prelude, Word For/ Word, and Denver Quarterly. She is Associate Editor of The Common and directs the journal's education program The Common in the Classroom. Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-creator and co-producer of the Academic Life. She is a historian of women and gender. Listeners to this episode might also be interested in: Fatigue, by Jennifer Acker Amherst College The Bennington Writing Seminars https://www.bennington.edu/writing-seminars The Common More about the Common in the Classroom can be found here The Common in the Classroom, The Common Young Writers Program A podcast from The Common magazine on The New Books Network “This is the Place” Amherst College LitFest The Whiting Literary Magazine Prize Learn more about The Alternative Press conversation with co-founder Ken Mikolowski (courtesy of Centre For Print Research, UWE Bristol); and the Press's Multiple Originals project The Poetry Foundation You are smart and capable, but you aren't an island and neither are we. We reach across our mentor network to bring you experts about everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we'd bring on an expert about something? DM us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you'll hear about: How the Common got started What is involved in running a literary journal Why grants and institutional support matter so much in the literary arts The importance of finding mentors and building a network How the Common creates community Our guest is: Jennifer Acker , who is the founder and editor in chief of The Common, and author of the debut novel The Limits of the World, a fiction honoree for the Massachusetts Book Award. Her memoir “Fatigue” is a #1 Amazon bestseller, and her short stories, essays, translations, and reviews have appeared in Oprah Daily, Washington Post, Literary Hub, n+1, and The Yale Review, among other places. Acker has an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars and teaches writing and editing at Amherst College, where she directs the Literary Publishing Internship and LitFest. She lives in western Massachusetts with her husband. Our guest is: Elizabeth Witte, who is a writer and editor based in western Massachusetts. She is a recipient of the Massachusetts Cultural Council's Artist Fellowships in Poetry and author of the chapbook, Dry Eye (Dancing Girl Press); her work appears in a variety of journals, including Prelude, Word For/ Word, and Denver Quarterly. She is Associate Editor of The Common and directs the journal's education program The Common in the Classroom. Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-creator and co-producer of the Academic Life. She is a historian of women and gender. Listeners to this episode might also be interested in: Fatigue, by Jennifer Acker Amherst College The Bennington Writing Seminars https://www.bennington.edu/writing-seminars The Common More about the Common in the Classroom can be found here The Common in the Classroom, The Common Young Writers Program A podcast from The Common magazine on The New Books Network “This is the Place” Amherst College LitFest The Whiting Literary Magazine Prize Learn more about The Alternative Press conversation with co-founder Ken Mikolowski (courtesy of Centre For Print Research, UWE Bristol); and the Press's Multiple Originals project The Poetry Foundation You are smart and capable, but you aren't an island and neither are we. We reach across our mentor network to bring you experts about everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we'd bring on an expert about something? DM us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you'll hear about: How the Common got started What is involved in running a literary journal Why grants and institutional support matter so much in the literary arts The importance of finding mentors and building a network How the Common creates community Our guest is: Jennifer Acker , who is the founder and editor in chief of The Common, and author of the debut novel The Limits of the World, a fiction honoree for the Massachusetts Book Award. Her memoir “Fatigue” is a #1 Amazon bestseller, and her short stories, essays, translations, and reviews have appeared in Oprah Daily, Washington Post, Literary Hub, n+1, and The Yale Review, among other places. Acker has an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars and teaches writing and editing at Amherst College, where she directs the Literary Publishing Internship and LitFest. She lives in western Massachusetts with her husband. Our guest is: Elizabeth Witte, who is a writer and editor based in western Massachusetts. She is a recipient of the Massachusetts Cultural Council's Artist Fellowships in Poetry and author of the chapbook, Dry Eye (Dancing Girl Press); her work appears in a variety of journals, including Prelude, Word For/ Word, and Denver Quarterly. She is Associate Editor of The Common and directs the journal's education program The Common in the Classroom. Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-creator and co-producer of the Academic Life. She is a historian of women and gender. Listeners to this episode might also be interested in: Fatigue, by Jennifer Acker Amherst College The Bennington Writing Seminars https://www.bennington.edu/writing-seminars The Common More about the Common in the Classroom can be found here The Common in the Classroom, The Common Young Writers Program A podcast from The Common magazine on The New Books Network “This is the Place” Amherst College LitFest The Whiting Literary Magazine Prize Learn more about The Alternative Press conversation with co-founder Ken Mikolowski (courtesy of Centre For Print Research, UWE Bristol); and the Press's Multiple Originals project The Poetry Foundation You are smart and capable, but you aren't an island and neither are we. We reach across our mentor network to bring you experts about everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we'd bring on an expert about something? DM us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you'll hear about: How the Common got started What is involved in running a literary journal Why grants and institutional support matter so much in the literary arts The importance of finding mentors and building a network How the Common creates community Our guest is: Jennifer Acker , who is the founder and editor in chief of The Common, and author of the debut novel The Limits of the World, a fiction honoree for the Massachusetts Book Award. Her memoir “Fatigue” is a #1 Amazon bestseller, and her short stories, essays, translations, and reviews have appeared in Oprah Daily, Washington Post, Literary Hub, n+1, and The Yale Review, among other places. Acker has an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars and teaches writing and editing at Amherst College, where she directs the Literary Publishing Internship and LitFest. She lives in western Massachusetts with her husband. Our guest is: Elizabeth Witte, who is a writer and editor based in western Massachusetts. She is a recipient of the Massachusetts Cultural Council's Artist Fellowships in Poetry and author of the chapbook, Dry Eye (Dancing Girl Press); her work appears in a variety of journals, including Prelude, Word For/ Word, and Denver Quarterly. She is Associate Editor of The Common and directs the journal's education program The Common in the Classroom. Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-creator and co-producer of the Academic Life. She is a historian of women and gender. Listeners to this episode might also be interested in: Fatigue, by Jennifer Acker Amherst College The Bennington Writing Seminars https://www.bennington.edu/writing-seminars The Common More about the Common in the Classroom can be found here The Common in the Classroom, The Common Young Writers Program A podcast from The Common magazine on The New Books Network “This is the Place” Amherst College LitFest The Whiting Literary Magazine Prize Learn more about The Alternative Press conversation with co-founder Ken Mikolowski (courtesy of Centre For Print Research, UWE Bristol); and the Press's Multiple Originals project The Poetry Foundation You are smart and capable, but you aren't an island and neither are we. We reach across our mentor network to bring you experts about everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we'd bring on an expert about something? DM us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life
She studied English at Harvard, where she spent Saturdays in the library reading mysteries. She studied film in London and Paris. Her bestselling series of Edwardian mysteries, starring Alexander von Reisden and Perdita Halley, has been published in 14 languages. Two of the books have been named New York Times Notable Books. The Vanished Child, the first book in the series, is being made into a musical in Canada. Crimes and Survivors, about the Titanic and the people who survived her wreck, was published right in the middle of the pandemic--a good time to think about survival. Sarah's young adult ghost thriller, The Other Side of Dark, won both the Agatha (for best YA mystery of the year) and the Massachusetts Book Award for best YA book of the year. Her Chasing Shakespeares, a novel about the Shakespeare authorship, has been called “the best novel about the Bard since Nothing like the Sun” (Samuel R. Delany) and has been turned into a play. Sarah lives in Boston with her family and not enough cats. She is a member of the Sisters in Crime Education Committee and the Strong Women: Strange Worlds steering committee. She's also a member of Mystery Writers of America, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and International Thriller Writers.https://www.amazon.com/Sarah-Smith/e/B001KHTS2I/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_1https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4386164.Sarah_Smithhttps://www.sarahsmith.com/Today's episode is brought to you by John's full series of crime thrillers available right now. You can get them through Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/John-A.-Hoda/e/B00BGPXBMM%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share You can also sign up for the newsletter at http://www.JohnHoda.com to get a free copy of John's new novella Liberty City Nights.Thank you for listening. If you have a moment to spare please leave a rating or comment on Apple Podcasts as that will help us expand the circle around our campfire. If you have any questions please feel to reach out to me via my website http://www.johnhoda.com
His 2020 novel "The Bear" just won the Massachusetts Book Award for fiction. We revisit a conversation he had with WBUR's Chris Citorik at his New Hampshire home.
Description:Happy Day, Friend! On this week's podcast episode, I'm talking about grief, loss, and meaning. My guest this week is author, Maryanne O'Hara. Maryanne O'Hara is the author of LITTLE MATCHES: A Memoir of Grief and Light. Her daughter Catlin died at 33, after a lifetime of living with Cystic Fibrosis and a harrowing last two years waiting for a lung transplant that finally came but was unsuccessful. In her grief and search for answers, Maryanne trained as an end-of-life doula. Her favorite aspect was creating legacy projects, something she didn't do with Caitlin because of her single-minded focus on her survival. She planned to do it with her mother, but with a sudden illness in the midst of Covid, that opportunity slipped awayMaryanne O'Hara is also the author of the novel Cascade – the Boston Globe Book Club's inaugural pick, a finalist for the Massachusetts Book Award, and a People Book of the Week. The former associate fiction editor of Ploughshares, she has taught creative writing at Emerson College and Clark University, and has had her writing recognized by the artist grants programs of the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the St. Botolph Club Foundation. Little Matches is based on the 9LivesNotes blog she kept while her daughter, Caitlin, waited for a lung transplant. O'Hara is a Reiki master and was recently certified by the University of Vermont's Larner College of Medicine as an end-of-life doula so that she might better speak to the state of end-of-life care in our culture. Maryanne and I talk about: ~ her journey with her daughter when diagnosed with cystic fibrosis; ~ what challenge has taught her about life, death, and fear; ~ what it means to “grow the soul”; ~ end-of-life doula work and life interviews; ~ her new book, Little Matches: A Memoir of Grief and Light~ and so much more! It was such a moving conversation filled with so much depth, love, and meaningful insights. I hope you gain a ton of value from it. If you enjoyed this episode, please share with a friend or family member, and make sure to purchase a copy of Maryanne's new book, Little Matches. To connect with Maryanne O'Hara, click the links below. If you have any questions, thoughts, or comments: connect with me on social media @atheadavis! And, don't forget to subscribe so you can stay tuned in to all the mindful living love.Stay connected
Authors on the Air host Pam Stack welcomes Cadwell Turnbull, 10 Most Anticipated authors of 2021 According to Independent Booksellers. Publishers Weekly, in a starred review, said Turnbull dives into the complexities of injustice and identity in this powerhouse contemporary fantasy". Cadwell has this to say about his writing: My short fiction can be found in the pages of Asimov's Science Fiction, Lightspeed, and Nightmare to name a few. My Nightmare story “Loneliness is in Your Blood” was selected for The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018. My Asimov's novelette “Other Worlds and This One” was also selected as a notable story for the anthology. My short story “Jump” was selected for the Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 and featured on LeVar Burton Reads. The Lesson was the recipient of the 2020 Neukom Institute Literary Award in the debut category. It has also been optioned by AMC for a television series in collaboration with The Mission Entertainment. Since its publication, The Lesson has been nominated for a SOVAS Award in fiction, an Audie Award in Science Fiction, and an AAMBC Literary Award. The novel has been shortlisted for the 2020 VCU Cabell First Novelist Award and longlisted for the 2020 Massachusetts Book Award. My latest novel No Gods, No Monsters has received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, and Booklist, as well as positive reviews from NPR and The New York Times. For more see https://cadwellturnbull.com/about/ Host Pam Stack is a cat wrangler, book junkie and an internationally awarded advocate for women and children. More at www.facebook.com/authorsontheair or www.authorsontheair.com. This is a copyrighted podcast owned by the Authors on the Air Global Radio Network LLC.
Authors on the Air host Pam Stack welcomes Cadwell Turnbull, 10 Most Anticipated authors of 2021 According to Independent Booksellers. Publishers Weekly, in a starred review, said Turnbull dives into the complexities of injustice and identity in this powerhouse contemporary fantasy". Cadwell has this to say about his writing: My short fiction can be found in the pages of Asimov's Science Fiction, Lightspeed, and Nightmare to name a few. My Nightmare story “Loneliness is in Your Blood” was selected for The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018. My Asimov's novelette “Other Worlds and This One” was also selected as a notable story for the anthology. My short story “Jump” was selected for the Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 and featured on LeVar Burton Reads. The Lesson was the recipient of the 2020 Neukom Institute Literary Award in the debut category. It has also been optioned by AMC for a television series in collaboration with The Mission Entertainment. Since its publication, The Lesson has been nominated for a SOVAS Award in fiction, an Audie Award in Science Fiction, and an AAMBC Literary Award. The novel has been shortlisted for the 2020 VCU Cabell First Novelist Award and longlisted for the 2020 Massachusetts Book Award. My latest novel No Gods, No Monsters has received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, and Booklist, as well as positive reviews from NPR and The New York Times. For more see https://cadwellturnbull.com/about/ Host Pam Stack is a cat wrangler, book junkie and an internationally awarded advocate for women and children. More at www.facebook.com/authorsontheair or www.authorsontheair.com. This is a copyrighted podcast owned by the Authors on the Air Global Radio Network LLC.
Authors on the Air host Pam Stack welcomes Cadwell Turnbull, 10 Most Anticipated authors of 2021 According to Independent Booksellers. Publishers Weekly, in a starred review, said Turnbull dives into the complexities of injustice and identity in this powerhouse contemporary fantasy". Cadwell has this to say about his writing: My short fiction can be found in the pages of Asimov's Science Fiction, Lightspeed, and Nightmare to name a few. My Nightmare story “Loneliness is in Your Blood” was selected for The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018. My Asimov's novelette “Other Worlds and This One” was also selected as a notable story for the anthology. My short story “Jump” was selected for the Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 and featured on LeVar Burton Reads. The Lesson was the recipient of the 2020 Neukom Institute Literary Award in the debut category. It has also been optioned by AMC for a television series in collaboration with The Mission Entertainment. Since its publication, The Lesson has been nominated for a SOVAS Award in fiction, an Audie Award in Science Fiction, and an AAMBC Literary Award. The novel has been shortlisted for the 2020 VCU Cabell First Novelist Award and longlisted for the 2020 Massachusetts Book Award. My latest novel No Gods, No Monsters has received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, and Booklist, as well as positive reviews from NPR and The New York Times. For more see cadwellturnbull.com/about/ Host Pam Stack is a cat wrangler, book junkie and an internationally awarded advocate for women and children. More at www.facebook.com/authorsontheair or www.authorsontheair.com. This is a copyrighted podcast owned by the Authors on the Air Global Radio Network LLC.
On the latest episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot interviews author Matthew Pearl about his latest book THE TAKING OF JEMIMA BOONE. Matthew Pearl's novels have been international and New York Times bestsellers translated into more than 30 languages. His nonfiction writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, The Atavist Magazine, and Slate. The New York Daily News raves "if the past is indeed a foreign country, Matthew Pearl has your passport." Matthew has been chosen Best Author for Boston Magazine's Best of Boston and received the Massachusetts Book Award for Fiction. The Taking of Jemima Boone is his nonfiction debut.
On the latest episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot interviews author Matthew Pearl about his latest book THE TAKING OF JEMIMA BOONE. Matthew Pearl's novels have been international and New York Times bestsellers translated into more than 30 languages. His nonfiction writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, The Atavist Magazine, and Slate. The New York Daily News raves "if the past is indeed a foreign country, Matthew Pearl has your passport." Matthew has been chosen Best Author for Boston Magazine's Best of Boston and received the Massachusetts Book Award for Fiction. The Taking of Jemima Boone is his nonfiction debut.
On the latest episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot speaks with author Matthew Pearl about his latest book "The Taking of Jemima Boone." His novels have been international and New York Times bestsellers translated into more than 30 languages. His nonfiction writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, The Atavist Magazine, and Slate. The New York Daily News raves "if the past is indeed a foreign country, Matthew Pearl has your passport." Matthew has been chosen Best Author for Boston Magazine's Best of Boston and received the Massachusetts Book Award for Fiction. The Taking of Jemima Boone is his nonfiction debut. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/eliot-parker/support
In this episode of “Keen On”, Andrew is joined by Matthew Pearl, the author of “The Taking of Jemima Boone: Colonial Settlers, Tribal Nations, and the Kidnap That Shaped America”, to tell the little-known true story of the kidnapping of legendary pioneer Daniel Boone's daughter and the dramatic aftermath that rippled across the nation. Matthew Pearl is a writer of fiction and nonfiction. He is the co-founder of the digital magazine Truly*Adventurous and his nonfiction writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, The Atavist Magazine, and Slate. His books have been international and New York Times bestsellers translated into more than 30 languages. Matthew has been chosen Best Author for Boston Magazine's Best of Boston and received the Massachusetts Book Award for Fiction. Visit our website: https://lithub.com/story-type/keen-on/ Email Andrew: a.keen@me.com Watch the show live on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ajkeen Watch the show live on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ankeen/ Watch the show live on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lithub Watch the show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LiteraryHub/videos Subscribe to Andrew's newsletter: https://andrew2ec.substack.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Goethe zog es ins „Land, wo die Zitronen blüh'n", Freud sehnte sich sein Leben lang stets nach dem nächsten Rom-Urlaub und US-Filmstars wie Liz Taylor, Humphrey Bogart oder Rita Hayworth aus dem klassischen Hollywood-Kino der 1950er Jahre machten das malerische ligurische Fischerdorf Portofino zur glamourösen Kulisse der Jetset-Sommerfrische. Das deutet schon an: Die Sehnsucht nach dem sonnigen „Bella Italia“ und seiner unvergleichlichen Lebensart zwischen Pasta und Piazza ist eine gemeinsame deutsch-amerikanische Eigenheit, die sich beiderseits tief eingeprägt hat. Wie es dazu kam, was das Phänomen mit Migration zu tun hat und welche Erlebnisse man auf Italienreise keinesfalls verpassen darf, besprechen wir mit dem vielfach ausgezeichneten Autor von Leading Men, dem brillanten Roman über Truman Capotes lust- und leidvolle Jahre im an Sinnesfreuden so reichen „Stiefel“: Christopher Castellani ist Sohn italienischer Einwanderer und wuchs (wie Joe Biden) als Arbeiterkind in Wilmington, Delaware auf. Derzeit lebt er in Boston, wo er Künstlerischer Leiter von Grub Street ist, dem größten und führenden unabhängigen Zentrum für Kreatives Schreiben in den USA. Er gewann u.a. den Massachusetts Book Award und ein Guggenheim Fellowship. Leading Men wird aktuell verfilmt, Star-Regisseur Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name) leitet die Produktion. Die deutsche Perspektive vertritt Uta-Beate Schroeder, Vizedirektorin und Leiterin des Kursprogramms für Kinder und Jugendliche am Carl-Schurz-Haus, die seit Jahrzehnten mit Leidenschaft zwischen Toskana und Apulien unterwegs ist und selbst in Bostons traditionsbewusstem italienischen Viertel gelebt hat. Shownotes: "Leading Men" by Christopher Castellani "The Neapolitan Novels" by Elena Ferrante "The Rose Tattoo" / "A Streetcar Named Desire" by Tennessee Williams "Call Me By Your Name" by Luca Guadagnino (film) / "Call Me By Your Name" by André Aciman (book) "The Inheritance" by Matthew Lopez "Die Göttliche Komödie" by Dante Alighieri "Der Name der Rose" by Umberto Eco Kurzgeschichten by Italo Calvino "Tod in Venedig" / "Der Leopard" by Luchino Visconti "La Strada" by Federico Fellini "Mamma Roma" by Pier Paolo Pasolini Moderation & Redaktion: René Freudenthal Produktion & Mitarbeit: Hanna Langreder Original-Logo zum Podcast: Simon Krause Original-Musik zum Podcast: Edward Fernbach
In this episode, the Crew goes behind the scenes with New York Times bestseller Tess Gerritsen and acclaimed thriller writer Gary Braver to discuss their collaborative thriller, CHOOSE ME. “A spellbinding mystery. Gerritsen and Braver's expert storytelling is on full display.”―Karin Slaughter, New York Times and #1 international bestselling author International bestselling author Tess Gerritsen has written twenty-eight suspense novels, with more than thirty million copies sold. Her books have been translated into forty languages, and her series featuring homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles inspired the hit TNT television series Rizzoli & Isles, starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander. Gary Braver―pen name of college professor Gary Goshgarian―is the bestselling author of eight critically acclaimed mysteries and thrillers, including Gray Matter and Flashback, the first thriller to win the Massachusetts Book Award. His work has been translated into several languages; two have been optioned for film, including Elixir. As Gary Goshgarian, he teaches science fiction, horror fiction, bestsellers, and fiction writing at Northeastern University. Don't forget to subscribe to our channel, hit the "LIKE" button, and leave a comment. And if you want to learn more about the guys from The Crew or see additional author interviews, visit us at http://www.thecrewreviews.com Follow us on social media Twitter | https://twitter.com/CREWbookreviews Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/thecrewreviews Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/thecrewreviews/
The unique power of children's books in presenting diverse stories. "Welcoming Elijah: A Passover Tale with a Tail," winner of the National Jewish Book Award in Children's Picture Book. Welcoming Elijah by celebrated author Lesléa Newman, unites a young boy and a stray kitten in a warm, lyrical story about Passover, family, and friendship. Lesléa (pronounced “Lez-LEE-uh”) Newman is the author of 75 books for readers of all ages, including A Letter to Harvey Milk; October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard; I Carry My Mother; The Boy Who Cried Fabulous; Ketzel, the Cat Who Composed; and Heather Has Two Mommies. She has received many literary awards, including creative writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Artists Foundation, two American Library Association Stonewall Honors, the Massachusetts Book Award, the Association of Jewish Libraries Sydney Taylor Award, the Highlights for Children Fiction Writing Award, a Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Fiction Writing grant, the James Baldwin Award for Cultural Achievement, the Cat Writer's Association Muse Medallion, and the Dog Writers Association of America's Maxwell Medallion. Nine of her books have been Lambda Literary Award Finalists. Ms. Newman wrote Heather Has Two Mommies, the first children's book to portray lesbian families in a positive way, and has followed up this pioneering work with several more children's books on lesbian and gay families: Felicia's Favorite Story, Too Far Away to Touch, Saturday Is Pattyday, Mommy, Mama, and Me, and Daddy, Papa, and Me. She is also the author of many books for adults that deal with lesbian identity, Jewish identity and the intersection and collision between the two. Other topics Ms. Newman explores include AIDS, eating disorders, butch/femme relationships, and sexual abuse. Her award-winning short story, A Letter To Harvey Milk, has been made into a film and adapted for the stage.
For author Christopher Castellani, the proud son of Italian immigrants, the desire to tell the Italian American story through his writing has been a constant motivation. Yet, despite his abundant talent, irrepressible passion, and keen sense of his ethnic experience in America, upon entering the literary world, Christopher encountered one deep-seated -- and often discouraging -- preconception about Italian Americans: that we are people who don't read! So, Christopher set out to dispel that myth with a body of work in which the Italian American experience is a driving force behind his story. The first of his five critically-acclaimed novels, "A Kiss from Maddalena," winner of the Massachusetts Book Award in 2004, was inspired by the story of his Italian immigrant mother. His newest novel, "Leading Men" (for which he received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the MacDowell Colony, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council) tells the true-life tale of Frank Merlo, partner and soothsayer of playwright Tennessee Williams and an unknown Italian American whose steady presence might just be what helped Williams achieve his greatest fame and literary success. Set to become a major motion picture, this award-winning novel is the result of decades of work by this passionate Italian American. Join us as we sit down with Christopher Castellani and discuss whether or not Italian Americans really are literary people, and how it is we can provide more opportunities for our story to be told. Of course, since this is the Italian American Podcast, we'll cover everything from exploring the impact of Elena Ferrante's “Neapolitan Novels” on Italian American culture to debating the merits of the movie “Fatso." Get ready for another wonderful conversation with a brilliant Italian American novelist!
Internationally bestselling author Tess Gerritsen took an unusual route to a writing career. A graduate of Stanford University, Tess went on to medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, where she was awarded her M.D. While on maternity leave from her work as a physician, she began to write fiction. In 1987, her first novel was published. Call After Midnight, a romantic thriller, was followed by eight more romantic suspense novels. She also wrote a screenplay, “Adrift”, which aired as a 1993 CBS Movie of the Week starring Kate Jackson. Her series of novels featuring homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles inspired the TNT television series “Rizzoli & Isles” starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander. Now retired from medicine, she writes full time. She lives in Maine. You can learn more at: https://tessgerritsen.com/ Gary Braver is the Bestselling and Award-winning author of eight critically acclaimed mysteries and thrillers including Elixir, Gray Matter, and Flashback, which is the only thriller to ever win the prestigious Massachusetts Book Award. He was born and raised in Hartford, CT and holds a BS degree in physics and an MA and PhD in English. Before settling into college teaching, he worked as a project physicist. An avid bicyclist, hiker, and scuba diver, he lives with his wife outside of Boston. Find out more here: https://garybraver.com/ And for more about our host Lisa Kessler visit http://Lisa-Kessler.com Book Lights - shining a light on good books!
Join us as we celebrate WANA LIVE!'s first birthday! Our writer this week is the incomparable Jennifer Haigh AND we will be announcing an exciting new WANA LIVE! initiative as a thank you for being here with us this past year. JENNIFER HAIGH is a novelist and short story writer. Her novel HEAT AND LIGHT won a Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and was named a Best Book of 2016 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and NPR. Her previous books include FAITH, THE CONDITION, BAKER TOWERS and MRS. KIMBLE, winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award for debut fiction, and the short story collection NEWS FROM HEAVEN, winner of the Massachusetts Book Award and the PEN New England Award in Fiction. Her short stories have been published in Granta, The Atlantic, The Best American Short Stories and many other places. Jennifer Haigh has been awarded grants by the James Michener Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. She lives in Boston. https://www.jennifer-haigh.com/
Inner Voice – a Heartfelt Chat with Dr. Foojan on KMET 1490 AM / ABC News Radio. In this segment –Being efficient and purposeful in Life- Dr. Foojan shares the Tip of the Week about how to stop wasting your good time and energy on pointless thoughts and emotions and how to become efficient in spending your mental and emotional energy. Then she shares the answer in the Ask Me segment of why we use sarcasm and the effects of it. She brings you MARYANNE O'HARA the author of the novel Cascade—the Boston Globe Book Club's inaugural pick, a finalist for the Massachusetts Book Award, and a People Book of the Week. In this show, they talk about her latest book “Little Matches – A Memoir of Grief and Light” based on the 9LivesNotes blog she kept while her daughter, Caitlin, waited for a lung transplant. A great conversation about life, the end of life, growing your soul, the emotional aspects of coming to term with your life, and much more. https://www.maryanneohara.com. Please check out my website: www.foojan.com Remember to Subscribe, Listen, Review, Share! Find me on these sites: *iTunes (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/i...) *Google Play (https://play.google.com/music/m/Inpl5...) *Stitcher (https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=185544...) *YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/DrFoojanZeine ) Platforms to Like and Follow: *Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/DrFoojanZeine/) *Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/Dr.FoojanZe...) *Twitter (https://www.twitter.com/DrZeine/) *LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/DrFoojanZ...)
Jennifer Acker is founder and editor in chief of The Common, and author of the debut novel The Limits of the World, a fiction honoree for the Massachusetts Book Award. Her memoir “Fatigue” is a #1 Amazon bestseller, and her short stories, essays, translations, and reviews have appeared in the Washington Post, Literary Hub, n+1, Guernica, The Yale Review,and Ploughshares, among other places. Acker has an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars and teaches writing and editing at Amherst College, where she directs the Literary Publishing Internship and LitFest. She lives in western Massachusetts with her husband. Without These Books is a thank-you-inspired Video/Podcast. Each episode celebrates authors, books, and characters that changed us as writers, readers, and as people. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast. Watch on our YouTube channel or at withoutbooks.org.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.Jennifer Acker selected The Transit Of Venusby Shirley Hazzard for her episode of Without These Books.
https://www.paultremblay.net Paul Tremblay has won the Bram Stoker, British Fantasy, and Massachusetts Book awards and is the author of The Cabin at the End of the World, Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, A Head Full of Ghosts, the crime novels The Little Sleep and No Sleep Till Wonderland, and the short story collection, Growing Things and Other Stories. He is currently a member of the board of directors of the Shirley Jackson Awards, and his essays and short fiction have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly online, and numerous year’s-best anthologies. He has a master’s degree in mathematics and lives outside Boston with his family. _________________________________ Hosts: Christie Stratos https://christiestratos.com Jennifer Anne Gordon www.JenniferAnneGordon.com Heather Gooden https://www.hmgoodenauthor.com/ Thanks to Pam Stack - Executive Producer - Authors on the Air Global Radio Network https://www.blogtalkradio.com/authorsontheair Thanks to Roman Sirotin - Video/Audio Producer / Media Coordinator - Authors on the Air Global Radio Network www.romansirotin.com Thanks to our sponsor Mickey Mikkelson https://www.creative-edge.services @Copyrighted by Authors on the Air
https://www.paultremblay.net Paul Tremblay has won the Bram Stoker, British Fantasy, and Massachusetts Book awards and is the author of The Cabin at the End of the World, Disappearance at Devil's Rock, A Head Full of Ghosts, the crime novels The Little Sleep and No Sleep Till Wonderland, and the short story collection, Growing Things and Other Stories. He is currently a member of the board of directors of the Shirley Jackson Awards, and his essays and short fiction have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly online, and numerous year's-best anthologies. He has a master's degree in mathematics and lives outside Boston with his family. _________________________________ Hosts: Christie Stratos https://christiestratos.com Jennifer Anne Gordon www.JenniferAnneGordon.com Heather Gooden https://www.hmgoodenauthor.com/ Thanks to Pam Stack - Executive Producer - Authors on the Air Global Radio Network https://www.blogtalkradio.com/authorsontheair Thanks to Roman Sirotin - Video/Audio Producer / Media Coordinator - Authors on the Air Global Radio Network www.romansirotin.com Thanks to our sponsor Mickey Mikkelson https://www.creative-edge.services @Copyrighted by Authors on the Air
Today on A Bookish Home my guest is Raúl The Third, this year's Massachusetts Book Award winner in the children's picture book and early reader category for Vamos! Let's Go to the Market. I had the honor of serving as a juror in this category and was so happy to get to discuss this wonderful picture … Continue reading Ep. 69: Raùl the Third, Mass. Book Award Winner for Vamos! →
Today we have a special episode all about the Massachusetts Book Awards! The winners and honorees were just announced yesterday. My guest is author Michelle Hoover, the 2020 Coordinator for the Massachusetts Book Awards, who I served with as a lead juror in the children's picture book and early reader category. Michelle will give some … Continue reading Ep. 64: Author Michelle Hoover Shares the 2020 Massachusetts Book Award Winners →
Martín Espada was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1957. He has published more than twenty books as a poet, editor, essayist and translator. His forthcoming book of poems from Norton is called Floaters.Other books of poems include Vivas to Those Who Have Failed (2016), The Trouble Ball (2011), The Republic of Poetry (2006), Alabanza (2003), A Mayan Astronomer in Hell’s Kitchen (2000), Imagine the Angels of Bread (1996), City of Coughing and Dead Radiators (1993) and Rebellion is the Circle of a Lover’s Hands (1990). He is the editor of What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Age of Trump (2019). His many honors include the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the Shelley Memorial Award, the Robert Creeley Award, the National Hispanic Cultural Center Literary Award, an American Book Award, an Academy of American Poets Fellowship, the PEN/Revson Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship. The Republic of Poetry was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His book of essays and poems, Zapata’s Disciple (1998), was banned in Tucson as part of the Mexican-American Studies Program outlawed by the state of Arizona, and reissued by Northwestern University Press. A former tenant lawyer, Espada is a professor of English at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Learn more about Mr. Espada here: http://www.martinespada.net/and here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/martin-espada Special thanks to Robin Van Westerlaak and Alan's Breakfastfor generously providing the song Allt I Lagi for Martín Espada's episode.Learn more about Alan's Breakfast here:https://www.instagram.com/alansbreakfastofficial/?hl=nlhttps://open.spotify.com/album/1jqYR7zDWrKY4CTex0rEMZ?si=2uFt231gRDO5OxeXhG6qLgMix: Rogier Trompwww.rogiertromp.nl True North World Podcast is a division of MAKER MAGAZINE | PODCASTLearn more about MAKER hereFollow True North World Podcast on InstagramTrue North World Podcast is produced by Orlando H. Jousset: Instagram
Listen along as The Story Seeds Podcast host Betsy Bird chats with Rajani LaRocca (author of "Midsummer’s Mayhem," a Kirkus Best Book of 2019 and long-listed for the 2020 Massachusetts Book Award as a must-read title in MG/YA Literature.) They go behind the scenes and talk about what it was like meeting Liyana and growing her story seed about a girl trying to fit in with her famous family with the help of a magic mirror on Episode 5 “The Hungry Mirror.” In this author interview, Rajani also shares tips on writing and talks about how, by working hard, she balanced her love of science and writing to become both a doctor and an award-winning author!Authors, books, and genres of writing mentioned in this episode: Shakespeare, Madeleine L'Engle, Richard Seltzer, William Carlos WilliamsGenres of writing mentioned in this episode: science fiction, fantasy, fairy taleBooks mentioned in this episode: Midsummer’s Mayhem by Rajani LaRoccaSnacks mentioned in this episode: carrot halva, chanachurCalls to ActionKids: Call The Story Seeds Hotline at 646-389-5153, email us at storyseeds@literarysafari.com, or visit our website to submit your story ideas. You can also join The Story Seeds Society, our kids listeners club.Grownups: Visit www.storyseedspodcast.com for subscription links, to sign up for our newsletter, and to download our printable activity e-zines for your kids (or the kid in you!) that offer opportunities to read, write, and get creative alongside listening to each episode . You can also follow us on Instagram @storyseedspod, on Twitter @litsafarimedia, and on Facebook @literarysafari. Get our Imagination Lab: Experiments in Creativity activity book! It pairs perfectly with the podcast and features tons of episode-inspired prompts and projects! Order your copy here!This episode is also available on YouTube. Subscribe here. Show creditsMatt Boynton and Ania Grzesik of Ultraviolet Audio for the sound mixing, design, and score of our bonus episode. Theme music is composed and performed by Andrew VanWyngarden. And, our host is Betsy Bird. The Story Seeds Podcast is a creation and production of Literary Safari www.literarysafari.com
This week’s Story Seeds collaboration brings together 12 year old creative rockstar Liyana and Rajani LaRocca, author of the 2019 middle-grade hit Midsummer’s Mayhem (a Kirkus Best Book of 2019 and a Must Reads in the 2020 Massachusetts Book Awards) .Rajani helps Liyana grow this story seed:A girl who doesn’t fit in with her family of celebrities (her mom is a Bangladeshi supermodel and her dad is a Japanese soccer player) gets a magic mirror from a fairyFollow this magical Story Seeds adventure with host Betsy Bird as Rajani and Liyana: Go on a hunt at a New York City antique store to find an (almost) magic mirrorTalk about the 3 key ingredients for an excellent urban fairytale: fairies, fantasy, and foodCelebrate and represent biracial characters inspired by Liyana’s heritageThe episode concludes with this week’s storytime (15:49) where Rajani reads the story she grew from Liyana’s story seed: Aina and the Mirror.Books and media mentioned in this episode: Snow White by the Brothers Grimm, Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll, Harry Potter by JK Rowling, Midsummer’s Mayhem by Rajani LaRocca, Little Women by Louisa May AlcottFood mentioned in this episode: channachur, okra, hot dogs, pizza, and doughnutsCalls to ActionBonus Episode: Check back next week to hear Betsy's interview with Rajani. You’ll get to hear about not only her writing career, but wait ... guys ... she’s a doctor too!Kids: Call The Story Seeds Hotline at 646-389-5153, email us at storyseeds@literarysafari.com, or visit our website to submit your story ideas. You can also join The Story Seeds Society, our kids listeners club.Grownups: Visit www.storyseedspodcast.com for subscription links, to sign up for our newsletter, and to download our printable activity e-zines for your kids (or the kid in you!). You can also follow us on Instagram @storyseedspod, on Twitter @litsafarimedia, and on Facebook @literarysafari. Get our Imagination Lab: Experiments in Creativity activity book! It pairs perfectly with the podcast and features tons of episode-inspired prompts and projects! Order your copy here!This episode is also available on YouTube. Subscribe here. Show creditsProduced and written by Sandhya Nankani, Anjali Sakhrani, and Kayla Fedeson. Scoring, mixing, and sound design by Ania Grzesik and Matt Boynton of Ultraviolet Audio. Field audio recorded by James Boo. Hosted by Betsy Bird. Music by Andrew VanWyngarden, Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter/musician and co-founder of MGMT. The Story Seeds Podcast is a creation and production of Literary Safari www.literarysafari.com
"We tend to denigrate older people in our society, especially older women, and we act as if they’re these silly bitties who are cute, we can pat them on the head and chuckle with them. For me it’s the opposite. Older women are these mountains of strength, they’re who I look up to." - Marjan Kamali Marjan Kamali is the author of the novels The Stationery Shop and Together Tea. Born in Turkey to Iranian parents, she has lived in seven countries across five continents. Her first novel was a Massachusetts Book Award finalist, translated into several languages, and adapted for the stage. It follows a mother and daughter as they embark on a return journey to Iran. Her second novel, The Stationery Shop, hailed by The Wall Street Journal as a moving tale of lost love, was one of Newsweek’s Best Summer Reads and one of NPR’s best books of 2019. Connect with Marjan on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and on her website. Marjan's book recommendation: The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna by Juliet Grames Also mentioned in this episode: I'm Writing You From Tehran by Delphine Minoui -- We donate 5% of all our sales to a different feminist organization each month. Our January charity is Welcoming America. Get $5 off your Feminist Book Club Box with the code PODCAST at feministbookclub.com/shop. -- JOIN US IN MINNEAPOLIS! Sunday, February 2, 2020 at 2:00pm CST at The Irreverent Bookworm We'll be discussing The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Wamariya RSVP on Facebook -- This episode is brought to you in collaboration with A Shop of Things, a curated collection of trendy goodies with a feminist bent. Learn more at ashopofthings.com -- Website: http://www.feministbookclub.com Instagram: @feministbookclubbox Twitter: @fmnstbookclub Facebook: /feministbookclubbox Goodreads: Renee // Feminist Book Club Box and Podcast Email newsletter: http://eepurl.com/dINNkn -- This podcast is produced on the native land of the Dakota, Sioux, and Anishinabewaki peoples. Logo and web design by Shatterboxx Editing support from Phalin Oliver Original music by @iam.onyxrose Transcript for this episode: bit.ly/FBCtranscript58
Heather Corbally Bryant teaches in the Writing Program at Wellesley College. She has taught at the Pennsylvania State University, the University of Michigan, and Harvard College where she won awards for her teaching. She received her A.B. with honors in History and Literature from Harvard. She received her PhD in Literature from the University of Michigan. Her academic publications include, How Will the Heart Endure: Elizabeth Bowen and the Landscape of War (University of Michigan Press, 1992). It was awarded the Murphy Prize for best first book. In 2018, she published her work of creative nonfiction, You Can’t Wrap Fire in Paper, which explores her grandmother’s years as a journalist in Shanghai during the 1920s. Since 2011 she has published six books of poetry with the Finishing Line Press: Cheap Grace, Compass Rose, My Wedding Dress, Thunderstorm, Eve’s Lament, and James Joyce’s Water Closet (forthcoming). The Parallel Press Poetry Series of the University of Wisconsin at Madison published her chapbook, Lottery Ticket (2013). In addition, she has published poems in The Christian Science Monitor, In Other Words, and Fourth & Sycamore. James Joyce’s Water Closet, her seventh book of poems, won honorable mention in the Finishing Line Press Open Chapbook Competition of 2018 and is going to be nominated for a Pushcart Prize. It is forthcoming in the fall of 2018. Her eighth book of poems, Island Dream Songs, a full-length collection, will be published in early 2019. Thunderstorm has been nominated for a Massachusetts Book Award.
Lesléa Newman is the author of 70 books for readers of all ages, including A Letter to Harvey Milk; October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard; I Carry My Mother; The Boy Who Cried Fabulous; Ketzel, the Cat Who Composed; and Heather Has Two Mommies. Lesléa just released a new book of poetry titled Lovely. She has received many literary awards, including creative writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Massachusetts Artists Foundation, two American Library Association Stonewall Honors, Massachusetts Book Award, Association of Jewish Libraries Sydney Taylor Award, Highlights for Children Fiction Writing Award, a Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Fiction Writing grant, James Baldwin Award for Cultural Achievement, Cat Writer's Association Muse Medallion, and the Dog Writers Association of America's Maxwell Medallion. Nine of her books have been Lambda Literary Award Finalists. Ms. Newman is a popular guest lecturer, and has spoken at numerous college campuses including Harvard University, Yale University, University of Oregon, Bryn Mawr College, Smith College and the University of Judaism. From 2008-2010 she served as the Poet Laureate of Northampton, MA. She is currently a faculty mentor at Spalding University's brief residency MFA in Writing program. Recently published books include the poetry collection I Carry My Mother (Golden Crown Literary Society Award and Massachusetts Center for the Book "Must Read" title); picture book Here Is The World: A Year of Jewish Holidays (Sydney Taylor Notable); and Ketzel, The Cat Who Composed (Massachusetts Book Award, Sydney Taylor Award, and Cat Writers Association Best "Litter-ary" Award). Forthcoming titles include two picture books, Sparkle Boy (Lee and Low, 2017) and Gittel's Journey: An Ellis Island Story (Abrams, 2018).
Celeste Ng grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Shaker Heights, Ohio. She attended Harvard University and earned an MFA from the University of Michigan. Her debut novel, Everything I Never Told You,won the Hopwood Award, the Massachusetts Book Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and the American Library Association's Alex Award. She is a 2016 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, and her latest novel is Little Fires Everywhere.Susie Boyt is the author of five other acclaimed novels and the much-loved memoir My Judy Garland Life which was shortlisted for the PEN Ackerley Prize, staged at the Nottingham Playhouse and serialised on BBC Radio 4. She has written about art, life and fashion for the Financial Times for the past fourteen years and has recently edited The Turn of the Screw and Other Ghost Stories by Henry James. She is also a director at the Hampstead Theatre. Her latest novel is Love & Fame. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
In honor of Halloween, we are releasing a re-broadcast of our episode featuring a master of horror and award-winning author Paul Tremblay '93. Tremblay won the Massachusetts Book Award in 2016 for his fifth novel, “A Head Full of Ghosts” — a book so frightening that Stephen King tweeted that it scared even him. In this episode, we talk to the author and AP calculus teacher at St. Sebastian's School in Needham, Mass., about how he went from a master's degree in math to writing fiction, his analytical approach to the writing process, and his advice for younger authors.
Horror writer Paul Tremblay '93 won the Massachusetts Book Award in 2016 for his fifth novel, “A Head Full of Ghosts” — a book so frightening that Stephen King tweeted that it scared even him. In this episode, we talk to the author and AP calculus teacher at St. Sebastian's School in Needham, Mass., about how he went from a master's degree in math to writing fiction, his analytical approach to the writing process, and his advice for younger authors.
In her fifth novel, HEAT AND LIGHT, Jennifer Haigh returns to Bakerton, Pennsylvania, a dying coal town that's offered a second chance when the natural gas industry comes to town. It has been named a Best Book of 2016 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and NPR. Her previous books include FAITH, THE CONDITION, BAKER TOWERS and MRS. KIMBLE, winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award for debut fiction, and the short story collection NEWS FROM HEAVEN, winner of the Massachusetts Book Award and the PEN New England Award in Fiction. Her short stories have been published in Granta, Electric Literature, The Best American Short Stories and many other places. A native of western Pennsylvania and a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, she now lives in Boston.
Jennifer Haigh's new novel is called Heat and Light. She is the author of four previous novels: Faith, The Condition, Baker Towers and Mrs. Kimble, winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award for debut fiction. Her short story collection News From Heaven won the Massachusetts Book Award and the PEN New England Award in Fiction. Haigh's short stories have appeared in The Atlantic, Granta, The Best American Short Stories and many other places. She lives in Boston. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Authors Between the Covers: What It Takes to Write Your Heart Out
Author Dawn Tripp movingly reveals artist Georgia O'Keeffe as a woman striving to live the life she believes in in her new book, “Georgia,” an imagined story of the life of the infamous artist. The book draws readers in from page 1 as she writes: “I no longer love you as I once did, in the dazzling rush of those early days. Time itself was feverish then, our bodies filled with fire … the metallic scent of the dark room, smells of sweat and linseed oil, a stain of cocoa on the dining room table. It was all smashed together back then — art, sex, life — mixed into the perfect color, every shadow had a substance, shape, and tone … My hands are cool now, the past remade and packed away. Sometimes, though, late at night the air lifts and I feel it — the faint burn of your eyes on my closed lids. Still. That sense of you rushing back in.” The book goes on to describe the passionately complicated relationship that O’Keafe had with the recipient of the note above — her manager and husband, famed photographer Alfred Stieglitz. This is the fourth book by the author of the Boston Globe bestseller, “Game of Secrets,” who is also the winner of the Massachusetts Book Award for fiction for “The Season of Open Water.” *The Harvard grad explains that “Georgia” has been the toughest topic she has tackled — not only because Georgia O'Keeffe was so complex, but because it took nearly a year for her to find the voice of the character. Tripp's journey into “Georgia” began in the fall of 2009 as she basked in the 125 paintings in the exhibit, “Georgia O'Keeffe: Abstraction,” at the Whitney Museum of Fine Art. “I felt overturned as I moved from piece to piece, and began to draw together an entirely new understanding of O'Keeffe and her art,” Tripp explains, noting it was a century ago in 1915 when O'Keeffe, then 27, began painting abstract art in an era when few artists, much less women, were bold enough to do so. “As I moved past the paintings, I wanted to know who was the woman, the artist, who made these works? Why was she not recognized for her sheer visionary power during her lifetime? And of course, what was her 30-year relationship really like with Alfred Stieglitz, the man who ‘discovered' her?” For more than a year, Tripp dove into the psyche of the woman who is celebrated as a central figure in 20th century art: “I read five or six biographies about her, and filled notebooks with thoughts and ideas because I still write longhand. I looked at O'Keeffe's art, Stieglitz's photographs of her, and the work of other artists in their circle. Then I started taking my own photographs every day because I was trying to see the world the way a visual artist might see the world.” Still, the voice of O'Keeffe wasn't speaking to her — until one Sunday afternoon in April 2010. “It was an oddly warm spring day in Massachusetts, so I took my sons down to the river to play. They had their jeans rolled up and they were kicking around in the water and I was lying in the sun, when I suddenly ‘heard' the first words for the novel: ‘I no longer love you as I once did in the dazzling rush of those early days.' I remember that moment so clearly. I suddenly sat up feeling O'Keeffe's voice inside of me. I looked around and the whole world was different. I started the book the following day.” A sensuous 316-page work of historical fiction, available February 9, 2016, is the result. “Fiction is a curious tool to get at a different side of the truth,” Tripp insists. “It's what novelist Vladimir Nabokov called, ‘the shimmering go-between.' That's the space that I wanted to write into, the space between what took place in O'Keeffe's life — and what could have.” Don’t miss this episode of Authors Between the Covers.
Christopher Castellani is the son of Italian immigrants and a native of Wilmington, Delaware. He resides in Boston, where he is the artistic director of Grub Street, one of the country's leading non-profit creative writing centers. He is the author of three critically-acclaimed novels, A Kiss from Maddalena (Algonquin Books, 2003)—winner of the Massachusetts Book Award in 2004— The Saint of Lost Things (Algonquin Books, 2005), a BookSense (IndieBound) Notable Book; and All This Talk of Love (Algonquin, 2013), a New York Times Editors' Choice and finalist for the Ferro-Grumley Literary Award. He is currently working on a new novel. The Art of Perspective: Who Tells the Story a collection of essays on writing, is now available from Graywolf. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep. 5, 2015. Christian G. Appy discusses "American Reckoning: The Vietnam War and Our National Identity" as part of a special presentation on the human side of war at the 2015 Library of Congress National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. Speaker Biography: Christian G. Appy is a professor of history at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is the author of three books on the Vietnam War, including “Working-Class War: American Combat Soldiers and Vietnam” and “Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered from All Sides,” which won the Massachusetts Book Award for nonfiction. Appy has also written the book “Cold War Constructions: The Political Culture of United States Imperialism, 1945-1966.” His most recent work is “American Reckoning: The Vietnam War and Our National Identity." For transcript, captions, and more information, visit http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=7019
Jim Shepard '78, a Connecticut native, teaches creative writing and film at Williams College. His work has been published in McSweeney's, Granta, The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, Harper's, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Ploughshares, Triquarterly, and Playboy. His short story collection , "Like You'd Understand, Anyway" won the Story Prize in 2007, and was nominated for a National Book Award in 2007. The novel Project X won the 2005 Massachusetts Book Award. Along with writing novels and short stories, Shepard has also drafted two screenplays.
This week we talk to Roland Merullo about focusing on our internal life Roland Merullo is the author of nine novels, including Breakfast with Buddha and Lunch with Buddha, A Little Love Story and American Savior. Merullo's nonfiction writing includes Revere Beach Elegy:A Memoir of Home and Beyond" target="_blank">Revere Beach Elegy, a memoir that won the 2000 Massachusetts Book Award for Non-Fiction, and the travel book The Italian Summer, His essays have appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, Readers Digest among many others. At various points in his life, he has worked in a parking garage, worked for the United States Information Agency in the former Soviet Union, served in the Peace Corps in Micronesia, worked as a carpenter, and taught creative writing and literature at Bennington and Amherst Colleges. In This Interview Roland and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable. Choosing our own thoughts. How all that we are is a result of our thoughts. Using humor to convey deeper subjects. His definition of spirituality Focusing on our interior life. The relationship between thought, emotion and behavior. Learning to see our conditioned thoughts. How we never catch up to God or the Divine Intelligence. Learning to be less materialistic- focusing on the things we can't touch or define. Is the human race evolving? Not knowing the answer to the big questions. His meditation practice. How meditation has helped him with depression. How he uses his writing as a vehicle of hope. Choosing the positive instead of the negative. Not passing our pain on to others. Worshipping false gods. The spiritual ideas in the Breakfast with Buddha and Lunch with Buddha books. How often spiritual leaders laugh. Did Jesus and Buddha laugh often? Roland Merullo Links Roland Merullo Homepage Roland Merullo Facebook Roland Merullo Twitter Roland Merullo Amazon Author Page Some of our most popular interviews that you might also enjoy: Dan Harris Todd Henry- author of Die Empty Randy Scott Hyde See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Chinese-American novelist Gish Jen is the author of numerous award-winning books, including the novels World and Town, Mona In the Promised Land, The Love Wife and Typical American, and the collection of stories, Who's Irish?. World and Town (2011), which follows themes as ambitious as globalization, fundamentalism, immigration, and America in the aftermath of Sept. 11, won the Massachusetts Book Award, was a NY Times Editors’ Choice, and was a finalist for the prestigious International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Typical American was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Tiger Writing: Art, Culture and the Interdependent Self, a collection of her Massey Lectures at Harvard, will be published by Harvard University Press in 2013. Jen has become an authority on themes of identity in fiction. Her novels often portray individuals, families, and entire communities struggling with questions of race, religion, and upbringing—asking us, in short, what it means to identify as American. Her second novel, Mona in the Promised Land (Vintage, 1997), features a Chinese-American who converts to Judaism, while The Love Wife (2005) portrays an interracial Asian-American family with both biological and adopted children. "As soon as you ask yourself the question, 'What does it mean to be Irish-American, Iranian-American, Greek-American,' you are American," she has said. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Jen is also the recipient of grants from the Guggenheim foundation, Radcliffe Institute and the National Endowment for the Arts. She was awarded a Lannan Literary Award in Fiction in 1999 as well as the Mildred and Harold Strauss Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, the Atlantic Monthly, and Best American Short Stories of the Century, edited by John Updike.