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Vauhini Vara is a journalist, novelist, short story writer, and playwright. She began her journalism career as a technology reporter at the Wall Street Journal and later launched, edited and wrote for the business section of the New Yorker's website. Her latest book, Searches, is a work of journalism and memoir about how big technology companies are changing our understanding of our selves and our communities. Her debut novel, The Immortal King Rao, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Prize, and the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize. On April 15, 2025, Vauhini Vara came to the studios of KQED in San Francisco to talk about "Searches" and her writing journey with New York Times deputy business editor Pui-Wing Tam.
Jia Tolentino joins us to discuss how to finally accept all sides of you: Why your un-productivity matters most; When your shame is good; How to make your real life bigger than your internet life; How to let motherhood energize you instead of drain you; and How to stop scrolling in the middle of the night. Plus, we talk acid trips, the sorority rush that Jia and Amanda shared, why Glennon's friends track Jia's words – and whether Glennon's mug shot will inspire Jia's next show. About Jia: Jia Tolentino is a staff writer at The New Yorker, a screenwriter, and the author of the New York Times bestseller Trick Mirror. In 2020, she received a Whiting Award as well as the Jeannette Haien Ballard Prize, and has most recently won a National Magazine Award for three pieces about the repeal of Roe v. Wade. Trick Mirror was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Prize and the PEN Award and was named one of the best books of the year by the New York Public Library, the New York Times Book Review, the Washington Post, NPR, the Chicago Tribune, GQ, and the Paris Review. Jia lives in Brooklyn. TW: @jiatolentino IG: @jiatortellini To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Starting Over with a Creative Life featuring Nell PainterIn this episode, we talk to the renowned historian and bestselling author Nell Painter, who left her wildly successful academic career to enter art school at the age of 65 — an experience she documented in her book, Old in Art School, A Memoir of Starting Over, which was named a National Book Critics Circle finalist. We talk about working with constraints, overcoming unfair criticism, healthy creative addictions like yarn and ink, and we even talk about the role of women without children. At 82, Nell shows no signs of slowing down. It's an episode you don't want to miss. Takeaways: Age should never be a barrier to creativity.Role models can play a big part in your creative journey, especially for women.You shouldn't listen to other people's views of yourself; it's what you think about yourself that matters.Constraints are opportunities, which is a big part of the No Time to be Timid manifesto. Resources: Check out Nell's website.Follow her on instagram @nellpainter.
The Author Events Series presents Katie Kitamura | Audition: A Novel REGISTER In Conversation with Adam Dalva One woman, the performance of a lifetime. Or two. An exhilarating, destabilizing Möbius strip of a novel that asks whether we ever really know the people we love. Two people meet for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. She's an accomplished actress in rehearsals for an upcoming premiere. He's attractive, troubling, young-young enough to be her son. Who is he to her, and who is she to him? In this compulsively readable, brilliantly constructed novel, two competing narratives unspool, rewriting our understanding of the roles we play every day – partner, parent, creator, muse – and the truths every performance masks, especially from those who think they know us most intimately. Taut and hypnotic, Audition is Katie Kitamura at her virtuosic best. Katie Kitamura is the author of four previous novels, most recently A Separation and Intimacies, which was longlisted for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award and was a finalist for a Joyce Carol Oates Prize. She is a recipient of the Rome Prize in Literature, a Lannan fellowship, and many other honors, and her work has been translated into twenty-one languages. She teaches in the creative writing program at New York University. Adam Dalva's writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and The New York Review of Books. He serves on the board of the National Book Critics Circle and is a Contributing Fiction Editor of The Yale Review. The 2024/25 Author Events Series is presented by Comcast. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 4/9/2025)
Jeff is back from vacation and joins Rebecca to talk NBCC winners, escalating legal challenges to book bans, Penguin Random House sales info, recent reading, and more. Subscribe to the podcast via RSS, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. Sign up for the Book Riot Podcast Newsletter and follow the show on Instagram and Bluesky. Get more industry news with our Today in Books daily newsletter. Trust your reading list to the experts at Tailored Book Recommendations who have recommended over 160,000 books to readers of all kinds. Let TBR match you with your next favorite read! Get started for only $18 at mytbr.co! This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Discussed in this Episode: The Book Riot Podcast Patreon Email your Moms, Dads, and Grads Recommendations to podcast (at) bookriot (dot) com. NBCC Award winners Iowa's book ban bill blocked again by federal judge The biggest book censorship stories of the year so far Bishop who urged Trump to “have mercy” will publish 2 books for kids PRH sales up 8.5% in 2024 James Patterson is teaming up with…Mr. Beast RIP NaNoWriMo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
According to the LA Times book critic Bethanne Patrick, every generation gets the Gatsby it deserves. And our generation, the social media generation, has gotten it with Careless People, by the Sarah Wynne Williams, Facebook's former global policy director, which draws obvious parallels between Facebook and The Great Gatsby. Williams explicitly compares Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg to Fitzgerald's lazily destructive Tom and Daisy Buchanan. She describes how the company prioritized business growth over ethical concerns, focusing on particularly disgraceful incidents in Myanmar and Brazil. And she reveals Sandberg's extravagant lifestyle ($13,000 on lingerie) and Zuckerberg's awkward interactions with world leaders. Patrick suggests the now best-selling book serves as a cautionary tale about powerful tech companies that "will do whatever it takes to get what they want."Bethanne Patrick maintains a storied place in the publishing industry as a critic and as @TheBookMaven on Twitter, where she created the popular #FridayReads and regularly comments on books and literary ideas to over 200,000 followers. Her work appears frequently in the Los Angeles Times as well as in The Washington Post, NPR Books, and Literary Hub. She sits on the board of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and has served on the board of the National Book Critics Circle. She is the host of the Missing Pages podcast. 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
Trans stories are not confined to political rhetoric and headlines. The world of creative writing is replete with narratives that explore complex worlds of gender and how identity intersects with people's lives and relationships. In a new collection of one novel and three stories, bestselling author Torrey Peters's keen eye for the rough edges of community and desire push the limits of trans writing. In Stag Dance, the titular novel, a group of lumberjacks working in an illegal winter logging outfit plan a dance that some of them will attend as women. When the most unlikely of the axmen announces his intention to dance as a woman, he finds himself caught in a strange rivalry, inviting a cascade of obsession, jealousy, and betrayal that culminates on the big night in an exploration of gender and transition. A trio of shorter tales surround Stag Dance: “Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones” imagines a gender apocalypse brought about by an unstable ex-girlfriend. “The Chaser” presents a secret romance between roommates at a Quaker boarding school, and “The Masker” details a Vegas party weekend that turns dark when a young crossdresser must choose between two guides: a mystery man who thrills but objectifies her, or a veteran trans woman who offers sisterhood and cynicism. Peters' talk and work is especially timely surrounding ongoing conversations about trans rights in our nation but is an invitation to any fiction reader. Torrey Peters is the bestselling author of the novel Detransition, Baby, which won the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel and was named one of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century by The New York Times. It was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Prize, a finalist for the Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize, and longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction. She has an MFA from the University of Iowa and an MA in comparative literature from Dartmouth. Peters rides a pink motorcycle and splits her time between Brooklyn and an off-grid cabin in Vermont. Aster Olsen is the author of the novella Performance Review. She lived most of her life in the gorgeous swampy parts of Florida people don't visit on vacation, but now lives in Seattle, where she spends her time swimming in alpine lakes alongside aquatic insect larvae. A professional scientist, she rejects the binary oppositional positioning of STEM and Art and seeks to collapse and expand imposed categories and narratives to further understanding. Her writing is found in Lilac Peril, Hey Alma, Autostraddle, Inner Worlds, Itch.io, and elsewhere. She is the creator, editor, and publisher of TRANSplants Zine, a zine series about transness and place, and runs the trans open mic reading and art series please (t)read with me. Find more at asterolsen.com. Ebo Barton comes from salt— from the moment before worlds converge. You may have seen Ebo's work in the book Black Imagination and heard in the audiobook read by Grammy and Tony award winner Daveed Diggs. You have also seen Ebo's work online on Write About Now, Button Poetry, and All Def Poetry channels. In 2016, they placed 5th in the World at the Individual World Poetry Slam. In 2017, they co-wrote and co-produced the award-winning play Rising Up. In 2018, they played “Invisible One” in Anastacia Renee's Queer. Mama.Crossroads and reprised the role in 2019. Ebo debuted his first published collection of poetry, Insubordinate, in 2020. As the Director of Housing Services at Lavender Rights Project, and a Washington State LGBTQ Commissioner, Barton's impact transcends artistic endeavors. A leader in arts and activism, Ebo Barton is committed to creating opportunities for others to organize, heal, and rejoice. Corinne Manning is the author of the acclaimed story collection We Had No Rules. Once upon a time, they reimagined the publishing industry with the literary project The James Franco Review (it made sense from 2014-2017). Their creative work and literary criticism are published widely, including in The New York Times. Corinne lives in Seattle and works as a teaching artist through Seattle Arts & Lectures and their own mentorship project Deeper, Wider. Amber Flame is an interdisciplinary artist garnering residencies with Hedgebrook, Baldwin for the Arts, Millay Arts, and more. A former church kid from the Southwest, Flame's first collection of poetry, Ordinary Cruelty, was published in 2017 through Write Bloody Press. Flame's second book, apocrifa, a love story told in verse, launched in May 2023 from Red Hen Press. Flame is Deputy Publisher at Generous Press, a new romance venture publishing inclusive love stories, and Program Director for Hedgebrook, a literary organization serving women. Amber Flame is a queer Black dandy mama who falls hard for a jumpsuit and some fresh kicks. Presented by Town Hall Seattle and Seattle Public Library. Buy the Book Stag Dance Charlie's Queer Books
Description:Delve into the world of SpaceX and move past the flurry of Elon-related news of late with SPACEX: ELON MUSK AND THE FINAL FRONTIER, by Brad Bergan. GUESTBrad Bergan is a writer and executive editor in New York. His words have appeared in or on VICE, the National Book Critics Circle, The World Economic Forum, nft now, NBC News, Business Insider, and elsewhere. He was the senior editor of Interesting Engineering, is the author of the book "Space Race 2.0," and remains the founding editor of the now-defunct Sonder Q, in Ho Chi Minh City. Sometimes he reads from the rooftops of Brooklyn or near Chinatown, but he rarely, if ever, leaves the city.
Few observers are more insightful than the critic William Deresiewicz at identifying the changing landscape of American culture. In my latest conversation with Deresiewicz, best known for his book Excellent Sheep, we explore how young American men are increasingly drawn to right-wing politics while feeling socially devalued and alienated by progressive rhetoric. Deresiewicz critiques universities for embracing a censorious left-wing ideology that has become intellectually stagnant. He contrasts this with the creative ferment happening on the right, while at the same time rejecting Trump's authoritarian tactics against universities. Deresiewicz argues that art has lost its cultural significance as consumption has become disposable, and notes that a new counter-elite is attempting to destroy the established liberal elite rather than join its exclusive club.Here are the 5 KEEN ON AMERICA takeaways in our conversation with Deresiewicz: * Young men, particularly those without elite educations, are increasingly drawn to right-wing politics partly due to economic changes, dating app dynamics, and what Deresiewicz perceives as dismissive rhetoric from the progressive left.* Universities have embraced a "far left progressive ideology" that has been repeatedly rejected by voters even in traditionally liberal areas, yet Deresiewicz condemns Trump's authoritarian tactics against these institutions.* The political left has become intellectually stagnant, with creative energy now more visible on the right, while progressive spaces have become censorious and intolerant of debate.* Art has lost its cultural significance as streaming platforms and internet culture have turned creative works into disposable "content," diminishing both audience engagement and artistic seriousness.* A new counter-elite (represented by figures like Trump and Musk) isn't seeking admission to established power structures but rather aims to destroy them entirely, representing a significant shift in elite dynamics.William Deresiewicz is an award-winning essayist and critic, a frequent speaker at colleges, high schools, and other venues, and the author of five books including the New York Times bestseller Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life. His most recent book is The End of Solitude: Selected Essays on Culture and Society. His current project is a historically informed memoir about being Jewish. Bill has published over 300 essays and reviews. He has won the Hiett Prize in the Humanities, the National Book Critics Circle's Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, and a Sydney Award; he is also a three-time National Magazine Award nominee. His work, which has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Harper's, The London Review of Books, and many other publications, has been translated into 19 languages and included in over 40 college readers and other anthologies. Bill taught English at Yale and Columbia before becoming a full-time writer. He has appeared on The Colbert Report, Here & Now, The New Yorker Radio Hour, and many other outlets and has held visiting positions at Bard, Scripps, and Claremont McKenna Colleges as well as at American Jewish University and the University of San Diego. His previous books are The Death of the Artist: How Creators are Struggling to Survive in the Age of Billionaires and Big Tech, A Jane Austen Education, and Jane Austen and the Romantic Poets. Bill is a member of the board (directorial, editorial, or advisory) of The Matthew Strother Center for the Examined Life, a retreat and study program in Catskill, NY; The Metropolitan Review, a new literary journal; Tivnu: Building Justice, which runs a Jewish service-learning gap year and other programs in Portland, OR; the Prohuman Foundation, which promotes the ideals of individual identity and shared humanity; Circle, a group coaching and purpose-finding program for college and graduate students; and Clio's, a selectively curated, chronologically organized bookstore in Oakland.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 the daily KEEN ON show, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy interview series. 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.Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. 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
Host Jason Blitman talks with Kristen Arnett (Stop Me If You've Heard This One) about grief, art, optimism, and their shared Florida experience. Jason is then joined by Guest Gay Reader Torrey Peters, who discusses what she's been reading and shares insights into Stag Dance, her latest book following her breakout novel, Detransition, Baby.Kristen Arnett is the author of the New York Times-bestselling novel Mostly Dead Things and the award-winning collection Felt in the Jaw. A queer writer based in Florida, she has written for The New York Times, Guernica, McSweeney's, The Guardian, and elsewhere. She has been a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award and a winner of the Ninth Letter Literary Award in Fiction and the Coil Book Award.Torrey Peters is the bestselling author of the novel Detransition, Baby, which won the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel and was named one of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century by The New York Times. It was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Prize, a finalist for the Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize, and longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction. She has an MFA from the University of Iowa and an MA in comparative literature from Dartmouth. Peters rides a pink motorcycle and splits her time between Brooklyn and an off-grid cabin in Vermont.Buy Stop Me If You've Heard This OneBuy Stag DanceBOOK CLUB!Use code GAYSREADING at checkout to get first book for only $4 + free shipping! Restrictions apply.http://aardvarkbookclub.com SUBSTACK!https://gaysreading.substack.com/ WATCH!https://youtube.com/@gaysreading FOLLOW!Instagram: @gaysreading | @jasonblitmanBluesky: @gaysreading | @jasonblitmanCONTACT!hello@gaysreading.com
Mystics and prophets have reported receiving visions from the Divine for centuries—”Thus saith the Lord…”—Hildegard of Bingen, Teresa of Avila, Ignatius of Loyola, Catherine of Siena, or Julian of Norwich. The list goes on.But what would you think if you met a seer of visions in the present day? Maybe you have.What about a prophet whose visions came like a movie screen unfurled before him, the images grotesque and vivid, all in the unsuspecting backwoods setting of Lookout Mountain, deep in the south of Tennessee.Would you believe it? Would you believe him? The beauty of fiction allows the reader to join the author in asking: What if?That's exactly what Jamie Quatro has allowed us to do in her newest work of literary fiction, Two-Step Devil.What if an earnest and wildly misunderstood Christian is left alone on Lookout Mountain? What if the receiver of visions makes art that reaches a girl who's stuck in the darkest grip of a fraught world? What if the Devil really did sit in the corner of the kitchen, wearing a cowboy hat, and what if he got to tell his own side of the Biblical story?On today's episode novelist Jamie Quatro joins Macie Bridge to share about her relationship to the theological exploration within her latest novel, Two-Step Devil; her experience of being a Christian and a writer, but not a “Christian Writer”; and how the trinity of main characters in the novel speak to and open up her own deepest concerns about the state of our country and the world we inhabit.Jamie Quatro is the New York Times Notable author of I Want to Show You More, and Fire Sermon. *Two-Step Devil* is her latest work and is the winner of the 2024 Willie Morris Award for Southern Writing, and it's also been named a New York Times Editor's Choice, among other accolades. Jamie teaches in the Sewanee School of Letters MFA program.SPOILER ALERT! This episode contains substantial spoilers to the novel's plot, so if you'd like to read it for yourself, first grab a copy from your local bookstore, then two-step on back over here to listen to this conversation!About Jamie QuatroJamie Quatro is the New York Times Notable author of I Want to Show You More, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award and the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Prize, and Fire Sermon, a Book of the Year for the Economist, San Francisco Chronicle, LitHub, Bloomberg, and the Times Literary Supplement. Her most recent novel, Two-Step Devil, is the winner of the 2024 Willie Morris Award for Southern Writing. It has also been named a New York Times Editor's Choice, a 2025 ALA Notable Book, and a Best Book of 2024 by the Paris Review and the Atlanta Journal Constitution. A new story collection is forthcoming from Grove Press.Quatro's fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Harper's, the New York Review of Books, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of fellowships from MacDowell, Yaddo, Bread Loaf, and La Maison Dora Maar in Ménerbes, France, where she will be in residence in 2025. Quatro holds an MA in English from the College of William and Mary and an MFA in fiction from the Bennington College Writing Seminars. She teaches in the Sewanee School of Letters MFA program, and lives with her family in Chattanooga, Tennessee.Show NotesGet your copy of Two-Step Devil by Jamie QuatroClick here to view the art that inspired Jamie Quatro's Two-Step DevilProduction NotesThis podcast featured Jamie Quatro with Macie BridgeEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan RosaProduction Assistance by Macie Bridge, Alexa Rollow, Zoë Halaban, Kacie Barrett & Emily BrookfieldA Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/aboutSupport For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give
Many people say their experience of time changes after they have children, a phenomenon that Diego Báez captures in “Inheritance.” In this poem, a past, present, and future starring the same child shift ceaselessly in a parent's mind, like photos flipped through in an album, dots placed on a timeline, moments that one wishes they could build monuments for.Diego Báez, is a writer and educator in Chicago, where he teaches at the City Colleges of Chicago. He earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Rutgers University - Newark. A writer of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, Báez's work has been published in Freeman's, The Rumpus, The Georgia Review, The Thing Itself Journal, Number Eleven Magazine, and Hobart. His poetry has appeared in Luna Luna, la fovea, Granta, and elsewhere. He serves as a Director of the Board for the National Book Critics Circle and the International David Foster Wallace Society. Báez was an inaugural fellow at CantoMundo in 2010. Yaguareté White, published in 2024 by The University of Arizona Press, is his debut poetry collection.Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.We're pleased to offer Diego Báez's poem and invite you to subscribe to Pádraig's weekly Poetry Unbound Substack newsletter, read the Poetry Unbound book, or listen to past episodes of the podcast. We also have two books coming out in early 2025 — Kitchen Hymns (new poems from Pádraig) and 44 Poems on Being with Each Other (new essays by Pádraig). You can pre-order them wherever you buy books.
Yesterday, we ran Bethanne Patrick's five best novels of 2024. Today, we feature her top non-fiction of the year including new books about reality television, Robert Louis Stevenson's wife and Handel's Messiah. ‘Tis the season. Enjoy!Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bethanne Patrick maintains a storied place in the publishing industry as a critic and as @TheBookMaven on Twitter, where she created the popular #FridayReads and regularly comments on books and literary ideas to over 200,000 followers. Her work appears frequently in the Los Angeles Times as well as in The Washington Post, NPR Books, and Literary Hub. She sits on the board of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and has served on the board of the National Book Critics Circle. She is the host of the Missing Pages podcast.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.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. 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
Pity the novelist. In a year which brought us the unbelievable non-fiction of a second Trump victory and the establishment of Luigi Mangione as an American folk hero, what can novelists do to stretch our imagination? But according to the LA Times literary critic, Bethanne Patrick, novelists do, indeed, still have something to tell us. And to make her case, she discusses her five favorite works of fiction of 2024 from masterful novelists like Percival Everett, Yael van der Wouden and Danzy Senna. Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bethanne Patrick maintains a storied place in the publishing industry as a critic and as @TheBookMaven on Twitter, where she created the popular #FridayReads and regularly comments on books and literary ideas to over 200,000 followers. Her work appears frequently in the Los Angeles Times as well as in The Washington Post, NPR Books, and Literary Hub. She sits on the board of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and has served on the board of the National Book Critics Circle. She is the host of the Missing Pages podcast.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.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. 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
Ann Fessler is an author, filmmaker, and installation artist. Her work addresses the gap between the authoritative history one learns in history books, and that same history as understood by those who lived it. She has spent more than thirty years bringing stories of ordinary people, and the first-person narratives of adoption, into the public sphere through her visual works and Writing.Fessler traveled the country to interview more than 100 women who lost children to adoption during the 28 years that followed WWII when a perfect storm of circumstances led to an unprecedented 1.5 million non-family surrenders. With the support of a 2003-04 Radcliffe Fellowship at Harvard, Fessler researched the history of the era and later combined her research and interviews in a non-fiction book, The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Lost Children to Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade (The Penguin Press, 2006).The book, which places the women's stories within the social history of the time period and her own story as an adoptee was called “wrenching, riveting” by the Chicago Tribune; “a remarkably well-researched and accomplished book” by the New York Times; and “a blend of deeply moving personal tales, bolstered by solid sociological analysis—journalism of the first order” by the San Francisco Chronicle. The Girls Who Went Away was chosen as one of the top 5 non-fiction books of 2006 by the National Book Critics Circle and was awarded the Ballard Book Prize, given annually to a female author who advances the dialogue about women's rights. In 2011, The Girls Who Went Away was chosen by readers of Ms. magazine as one of the top 100 feminist books of all time.Website: annfessler.comInstagram: @annfessler_artistFilm by Ann Fessler: A Girl Like HerThe Girls Who Went Away by Ann FesslerExciting News! We will be reading and discussing: You Should Be Grateful: Stories of Race, Identify, and Transracial Adoption by Angela Tucker in Season 9.Here is a link to order her book: bookshop link.Magic Mind Adoptee 20 LinkUSE THE CODE AND LINK TO RECEIVE 20% OFF YOUR SUBSCRIPTIONmagicmind.com/adoptee20RESOURCES for AdopteesS12F Helping AdopteesFireside Adoptees Facebook GroupReckoning with the Primal Wound DocumentaryDr. Liz Debetta: Migrating Toward Wholeness MovementHiraeth Hope & HealingMoses Farrow - Trauma therapist and advocateUnraveling Adoption with Beth SyversonAdoptees Connect with Pamela KaranovaThank you to our Patreons! Join at the $10 level and be part of our monthly Zoom /ADOPTEE CAFE community. This is an adoptee-only space. The next meeting is Support the showTo support the show - Patreon.
Last week, the Los Angeles Times book critic, Bethanne Patrick, came on the show to talk about the best new non-fiction books for the Fall. Today she is back to talk new novels by great fictional writers like Allan Hollinghurst, Rachel Kushner and Paula Hawkins. For those of you for whom American reality is currently too depressing, Patrick's list of great new literature will be of particular solace. Bethanne Patrick maintains a storied place in the publishing industry as a critic and as @TheBookMaven on Twitter, where she created the popular #FridayReads and regularly comments on books and literary ideas to over 200,000 followers. Her work appears frequently in the Los Angeles Times as well as in The Washington Post, NPR Books, and Literary Hub. She sits on the board of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and has served on the board of the National Book Critics Circle. She is the host of the Missing Pages podcast.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.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. 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
There are some seriously heavyweight new non-fiction books this Fall including memoirs by Al Pacino and Ketanji Brown Jackson, as well as an intriguing new historical analysis of the recently departed Queen Elizabeth and that inevitable pre-election Bob Woodward tome on the misbehavior of you-know-who. But for our resident book maven, Bethanne Patrick, the most intriguing non-fiction release of the Fall is by a much less well known author. The Harvard art and culture historian Sarah Lewis' The Unseen Truth: When Race Changed Sight in America, Patrick believes, is a major work that allows us to perceive the real truth about America in our age of hyperreality. And Sarah Lewis, she suggests, is up there with Isabel Wilkerson as an American treasure of truth-telling. So expect to see Lewis on the show in the not too distant future.Bethanne Patrick maintains a storied place in the publishing industry as a critic and as @TheBookMaven on Twitter, where she created the popular #FridayReads and regularly comments on books and literary ideas to over 200,000 followers. Her work appears frequently in the Los Angeles Times as well as in The Washington Post, NPR Books, and Literary Hub. She sits on the board of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and has served on the board of the National Book Critics Circle. She is the host of the Missing Pages podcast.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.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. 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
Since the publication of his first book The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell has garnered influence and fame through his fascinating analyses of our world. The New York Times Book Review wrote that “in the vast world of nonfiction writing, Malcolm Gladwell is as close to a singular talent as exists today.” A Guggenheim fellow, and a finalist for both the National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle award, Gladwell's books reveal his endless interests and insights, from the influence of our unconscious on our decisions, to what lies behind the rise and fall of everything from crime to epidemics. Gladwell's writings made him a New York Times bestseller for five books, and created the term “Gladwellian perspective” to describe the numerous authors, and people, who are influenced by Gladwell In the fall of 2024, Gladwell returns to the ideas of his debut book, and his following rapid rise to fame, in Revenge of the Tipping Point. With two decades of experience as an author, public figure, and widely known thinker, Gladwell brings a new and intimate eye to his classic text. On October 13, 2024, Malcolm Gladwell came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco for an onstage conversation with Caterina Fake.
In this episode of the Watchung Booksellers Podcast, book critics Kate Tuttle and Mark Rotella discuss the process and importance of reviewing books. Kate Tuttle is a book critic, essayist, and editor. A past president of the National Book Critics Circle and judge for the National Book Award, she edits the books pages of the Boston Globe. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and elsewhere. A Kansas native, she now lives in New Jersey after stints in Boston and Atlanta.Mark Rotella is the Director of the Coccia Institute for the Italian Experience in America and teaches in the Creative Writing Program at Montclair State University. In addition, he serves as thesis advisor in the MFA Program at Columbia University.Formerly, Rotella was the Senior Editor at Publishers Weekly and Board Member at National Books Critics Circle. He is the author of several books, including Stolen Figs: And Other Adventures in Calabria and Amore: The Story of Italian American Song. He has been featured in The New York Times, NYT Book Review, The L.A. Times, Washington Post, and more, and has appeared on outlets including National Public Radio, Entertainment Tonight, and ABC News.Resources:What the Ocean Holds (The New York Review)National Book Critics CirclePublishers WeeklyThe Boston GlobeKirkus ReviewsLibrary JournalTLSNY TimesNew York Review of BooksLA TimesWashington PostWall Street JournalVanity FairBrooklyn Book FestivBooks:A full list of the books and authors mentioned in this episode is available here. Register for Upcoming Events.The Watchung Booksellers Podcast is produced by Kathryn Counsell and Marni Jessup and is recorded at Silver Stream Studio in Montclair, NJ. The show is edited by Kathryn Counsell and Bree Testa. Special thanks to Timmy Kellenyi and Derek Mattheiss. Original music is composed and performed by Violet Mujica. Art & design and social media by Evelyn Moulton. Research and show notes by Caroline Shurtleff. Thanks to all the staff at Watchung Booksellers and The Kids' Room! If you liked our episode please like, follow, and share! Stay in touch!Email: wbpodcast@watchungbooksellers.comSocial: @watchungbooksellersSign up for our newsletter to get the latest on our shows, events, and book recommendations!
Today, we hear from Jamie Quatro whose latest novel, TWO-STEP DEVIL, releases in September. We're talking to Jamie about experimenting with form.Sorry! There's no audio/video version of this episode available. Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Quatro's debut and many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Jamie Quatro is the New York Times Notable author of I Want to Show You More, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award and the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Prize, and Fire Sermon, a Book of the Year for the Economist, San Francisco Chronicle, LitHub, Bloomberg, and the Times Literary Supplement. HER new novel, Two-Step Devil, is forthcoming from Grove Press in September 2024, to be followed by a story collection, Next Time I'll Be Louder. A finalist for the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction, she is the recipient of fellowships from MacDowell, Yaddo, Bread Loaf, and Maison Dora Maar in Ménerbes, France, where she will be in residence in the spring of 2025. Quatro holds an MA in English from the College of William and Mary and an MFA in fiction from the Bennington College Writing Seminars. She teaches in the Sewanee School of Letters MFA program and lives with her family in Chattanooga, Tennessee.Photo by National Library of Medicine on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
William Deresiewicz is a leading American writer best known as the author of Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life. And so, when Bill and I sat down in Portland for a KEEN ON America conversation, we discussed the crisis of a high-end university system that he, as a former professor at Yale, knows all too well. But Bill, a keen conversationalist, also talked about what it means to be both a Jew and an American in a country which simultaneously values personal reinvention and cultural identity. William Deresiewicz is an award-winning essayist and critic, a frequent speaker at colleges, high schools, and other venues, and the author of five books including the New York Times bestseller Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life, which was published in a 10th-anniversary edition in May 2024. His most recent book is The End of Solitude: Selected Essays on Culture and Society. His current project is a historically informed memoir about being Jewish. Bill has published over 300 essays and reviews. He has won the Hiett Prize in the Humanities, the National Book Critics Circle's Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, and a Sydney Award; he is also a three-time National Magazine Award nominee. His work, which has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Harper's, The London Review of Books, and many other publications, has been translated into 19 languages and included in over 40 college readers and other anthologies. Bill taught English at Yale and Columbia before becoming a full-time writer. He has spoken at over 170 educational and other venues and has appeared on The Colbert Report, Here & Now, The New Yorker Radio Hour, and many other outlets. He has held visiting positions at Bard, Scripps, and Claremont McKenna Colleges as well as at the University of San Diego. In 2024, he is serving as an inaugural Public Fellow at American Jewish University. His previous books are The Death of the Artist: How Creators are Struggling to Survive in the Age of Billionaires and Big Tech, A Jane Austen Education, and Jane Austen and the Romantic Poets. Bill is a member of the Board of Directors of Tivnu: Building Justice, which runs a Jewish service-learning gap year and other programs in Portland OR, of the Advisory Board of The Matthew Strother Center for the Examined Life, a live-in study program in Catskill NY, and of the Advisory Council of Project Wayfinder, which runs purpose-learning programs in schools across the US and beyond. And, since you're wondering, it's /də-REH-zə-WITS/.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.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. 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
What do Hum, Hitler's People and The Hypocrite have in common? They are all recommended new books from KEEN ON's best read regular guest, Los Angeles Times book critic Bethanne Patrick. As usual, she recommends six books, but - whether you are looking for a magically realistic novel about the Dutch resistance to Nazism or new non-fiction on Putin's Russia or the Scopes Trial - they all offer great late summer reading. Bethanne Patrick maintains a storied place in the publishing industry as a critic and as @TheBookMaven on Twitter, where she created the popular #FridayReads and regularly comments on books and literary ideas to over 200,000 followers. Her work appears frequently in the Los Angeles Times as well as in The Washington Post, NPR Books, and Literary Hub. She sits on the board of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and has served on the board of the National Book Critics Circle. She is the host of the Missing Pages podcast. 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.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. 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
What a treat. LA Times book critic Bethanne Patrick and I got the opportunity to talk today with the great Andrew O'Hagan, author of Caledonian Road, his new blockbuster novel about the state of contemporary Britain. It's a fabulous read and O'Hagan was no less fab, generously dedicating an hour to our questions. As O'Hagan explained, for all his horror at the Dickensian squalor of contemporary Britain, Caledonian Road remains his most defiantly optimistic novel, particularly in its brilliantly uplifting ending. And it's his most personally generous novel too. Caledonian Road took 10 years to finish and he acknowledges pouring the experience of his own life as a glamorous north London literati into its quasi-autobiographical narrative. Enjoy. Andrew O'Hagan, a Scottish novelist and essayist, is a winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction, a three-time nominee for the Booker Prize, the editor-at-large of the London Review of Books, and a contributor to The New Yorker. He lives in London.Bethanne Patrick maintains a storied place in the publishing industry as a critic and as @TheBookMaven on Twitter, where she created the popular #FridayReads and regularly comments on books and literary ideas to over 200,000 followers. Her work appears frequently in the Los Angeles Times as well as in The Washington Post, NPR Books, and Literary Hub. She sits on the board of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and has served on the board of the National Book Critics Circle. She is the host of the Missing Pages podcast.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.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. 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
Catherine Gray, the host of Invest In Her, interviews Barbara Basbanes Richter is a dynamic storyteller and entrepreneur. As the host of the podcast "Writing for Immortality" and founder of DIYBook and In Ink Ghostwriting, Barbara breathes life into words, helping people write their stories with clarity and confidence. Barbara holds a BA and MA in French Language and Literature from Smith College and Tufts University. She is a founding member of the Ticknor Society, a voting member of the National Book Critics Circle, and a member of the Grolier Club, the country's oldest bibliophilic association. Currently residing in Westchester, New York, with her family and beloved basset hounds, Barbara continues to enrich the landscape of literature and entrepreneurship by contributing to the domains of storytelling and literary access. www.sheangelinvestors.com https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/writing-for-immortality/id1726828796 https://www.diybook.us/ https://www.ininkghostwriting.com/
Bethanne Patrick, the world's best read woman and KEEN ON's official literary maven, has six recommended new books to read this June. Three non-fiction works and three novels, they extend from books all about women, to the dangers of jelly fish to a gay Hungarian in the Lavender Scare Hollywood of the Fifties. So something for everyone and Bethanne even suggests whether each book should be read on the porch or the porch. No excuses. Y'all have something to read in June. Bethanne Patrick maintains a storied place in the publishing industry as a critic and as @TheBookMaven on Twitter, where she created the popular #FridayReads and regularly comments on books and literary ideas to over 200,000 followers. Her work appears frequently in the Los Angeles Times as well as in The Washington Post, NPR Books, and Literary Hub. She sits on the board of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and has served on the board of the National Book Critics Circle. She is the host of the Missing Pages podcast.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.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. 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
What kind of life do you really want to be living? What kind of life has meaning for you? And if you have children, and even, like me, have ones thinkinga about college, what kind of life should they be thinking about? This was a true privilege to speak with William Deresiewicz and hear his thoughts on these questions. William Deresiewicz is an American author and essayist who has written the New York Times bestseller Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life, published May, 2024 in a 10th-anniversary edition. Some of his essays are published in his recent book The End of Solitude: Selected Essays on Culture and Society. Mr. Deresiewicz has won the Hiett Prize in the Humanities, the National Book Critics Circle's Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, and a Sydney Award. He taught English at both Yale and Columbia and is currently serving as an inaugural Public Fellow at American Jewish University. Here's a link to the article that introduced me to his work.
This episode's guest is Carlos Lozada, an opinion columnist at the New York Times and co-host of the weekly Matter of Opinion podcast. He is the author of The Washington Book: How to Read Politics and Politicians (2024) and What Were We Thinking: A Brief Intellectual History of the Trump Era (2020). Previously, he was a book critic and senior editor at the Washington Post and the managing editor of Foreign Policy magazine. Lozada has won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism and the National Book Critics Circle citation for excellence in reviewing. He has been a Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University and a professor of political journalism at the University of Notre Dame. A native of Lima, Peru, he became a U.S. citizen in 2014. Interview by Dartmouth student Bea Burack '25. Edited by Laura Hemlock. Music: Debussy Arabesque no 1. Composer: Claude Debussy
May might be almost finished, but you've still got time this Memorial weekend to begin reading one of Bethanne Patrick's recommended new books. And this month, Patrick's list is really scintillating - extending from fresh fiction by Claire Messud, Kaliane Bradley and Colm Toibin to new non-fictional books by George Stephanopoulos, Nina St. Pierre and Alan M. Taylor. So no excuses. Watch/listen to Patrick - the best read person in the world - and then beg, buy or steal one of her recommended new books.Bethanne Patrick maintains a storied place in the publishing industry as a critic and as @TheBookMaven on Twitter, where she created the popular #FridayReads and regularly comments on books and literary ideas to over 200,000 followers. Her work appears frequently in the Los Angeles Times as well as in The Washington Post, NPR Books, and Literary Hub. She sits on the board of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and has served on the board of the National Book Critics Circle. She is the host of the Missing Pages podcast.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.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. 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
James Shapiro spoke at the Institute in 2014 about Shakespeare in America, the anthology he edited for the Library of America. He is the Larry Miller Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. Professor Shapiro is the author of many books on Shakespeare, including Shakespeare in a Divided America, which was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Critics Circle award for non-fiction. In addition, he is the author of Rival Playwrights: Marlowe, Jonson, Shakespeare (1991); Shakespeare and the Jews (1996); Oberammergau: The Troubling Story of the World's Most Famous Passion Play (2000); 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare (2005), which was awarded the Samuel Johnson Prize for the best non-fiction book published in Britain; and Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? (2010). His essays and reviews have appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Guardian, and the New York Review of Books. He is currently Shakespeare Scholar in Residence at the Public Theater in New York City. 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
James Shapiro spoke at the Institute in 2014 about Shakespeare in America, the anthology he edited for the Library of America. He is the Larry Miller Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. Professor Shapiro is the author of many books on Shakespeare, including Shakespeare in a Divided America, which was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Critics Circle award for non-fiction. In addition, he is the author of Rival Playwrights: Marlowe, Jonson, Shakespeare (1991); Shakespeare and the Jews (1996); Oberammergau: The Troubling Story of the World's Most Famous Passion Play (2000); 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare (2005), which was awarded the Samuel Johnson Prize for the best non-fiction book published in Britain; and Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? (2010). His essays and reviews have appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Guardian, and the New York Review of Books. He is currently Shakespeare Scholar in Residence at the Public Theater in New York City. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
James Shapiro spoke at the Institute in 2014 about Shakespeare in America, the anthology he edited for the Library of America. He is the Larry Miller Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. Professor Shapiro is the author of many books on Shakespeare, including Shakespeare in a Divided America, which was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Critics Circle award for non-fiction. In addition, he is the author of Rival Playwrights: Marlowe, Jonson, Shakespeare (1991); Shakespeare and the Jews (1996); Oberammergau: The Troubling Story of the World's Most Famous Passion Play (2000); 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare (2005), which was awarded the Samuel Johnson Prize for the best non-fiction book published in Britain; and Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? (2010). His essays and reviews have appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Guardian, and the New York Review of Books. He is currently Shakespeare Scholar in Residence at the Public Theater in New York City. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies
James Shapiro spoke at the Institute in 2014 about Shakespeare in America, the anthology he edited for the Library of America. He is the Larry Miller Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. Professor Shapiro is the author of many books on Shakespeare, including Shakespeare in a Divided America, which was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Critics Circle award for non-fiction. In addition, he is the author of Rival Playwrights: Marlowe, Jonson, Shakespeare (1991); Shakespeare and the Jews (1996); Oberammergau: The Troubling Story of the World's Most Famous Passion Play (2000); 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare (2005), which was awarded the Samuel Johnson Prize for the best non-fiction book published in Britain; and Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? (2010). His essays and reviews have appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Guardian, and the New York Review of Books. He is currently Shakespeare Scholar in Residence at the Public Theater in New York City. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history
James Shapiro spoke at the Institute in 2014 about Shakespeare in America, the anthology he edited for the Library of America. He is the Larry Miller Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. Professor Shapiro is the author of many books on Shakespeare, including Shakespeare in a Divided America, which was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Critics Circle award for non-fiction. In addition, he is the author of Rival Playwrights: Marlowe, Jonson, Shakespeare (1991); Shakespeare and the Jews (1996); Oberammergau: The Troubling Story of the World's Most Famous Passion Play (2000); 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare (2005), which was awarded the Samuel Johnson Prize for the best non-fiction book published in Britain; and Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? (2010). His essays and reviews have appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Guardian, and the New York Review of Books. He is currently Shakespeare Scholar in Residence at the Public Theater in New York City. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies
In this episode, Barbara talks to Carlin Romano, a renowned critic and champion of intellectual discourse. Romano, a former critic-at-large for the Chronicle of Higher Education and the Philadelphia Inquirer and current critic-at-large for Moment Magazine, offers his sharp insights on the decline of critical thinking in book reviews and the state of literary criticism in America. He laments the shift towards praise and publicity, arguing for the importance of tough critique. But Romano's intellectual journey extends far beyond literature. He passionately defends his provocative thesis: America, with its diverse perspectives, free expression, and abundance of philosophical resources, boasts the most philosophical culture in history. He even explores the power of provocative statements in igniting philosophical debates. The conversation takes a fascinating turn as Romano discusses his controversial departure from the National Book Critics Circle. He clarifies his stance on the organization's anti-racism statement, dispelling misconceptions about his opposition to certain aspects. Romano also raises concerns about the lack of diverse thought and the growing influence of left-leaning politics within the NBCC. Beyond the world of criticism, Romano reflects on the changing landscape of college campuses, grappling with the challenges of fostering free speech and civil discourse in an increasingly polarized environment. The episode concludes with a glimpse into Romano's personal reading life, a fitting end to a conversation that celebrates intellectual curiosity and the power of ideas. Books: America the Philosophical, Carlin Romano https://tinyurl.com/mr2w8yxj Night, Elie Wiesel https://tinyurl.com/bddva2t4 Tarzan Edgar Rice Burroughs https://www.edgarriceburroughs.com/series-profiles/the-tarzan-series/ Conceived with Malice https://tinyurl.com/32k3fevr Palestine 1936, Oren Kessler https://tinyurl.com/ye5hj262 Clancy Martin, How Not to Kill Yourself https://tinyurl.com/2et69a7t 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War, Benny Morris https://tinyurl.com/mrxp5hfh Wit, Margaret Edson https://tinyurl.com/4j4kja8r Forest Dark, Nicole Kraus https://tinyurl.com/5cykp9cm Metaphysical Animals https://tinyurl.com/mwzycsbr Magazine: Moment Magazine https://momentmag.com/ Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Background 01:55 Early Days and Education 04:23 Career in Journalism and Literary Criticism 06:15 The Decline of Book Sections and Literary Criticism 09:30 The State of Literary Criticism in America 16:36 Teaching Journalism and the Failure to Communicate 28:03 The Role of Provocative Statements 33:17 Free Speech and the National Book Critics Circle 33:45 Controversy and Misunderstandings: Carlin Romano's Departure from the NBCC 38:39 The Changing Landscape of American Literary Criticism 41:33 Challenges of Fostering Free Speech and Civil Discourse on College Campuses 01:03:51 Reading for Pleasure: Carlin Romano's Current Book List
Molly talks with Diego Báez about his book, "Yagueareté White: Poems (Camino del Sol). ABOUT YAGUEARETÉ WHITE: POEMS In Diego Báez's debut collection, Yaguareté White, English, Spanish, and Guaraní encounter each other through the elusive yet potent figure of the jaguar. The son of a Paraguayan father and a mother from Pennsylvania, Báez grew up in central Illinois as one of the only brown kids on the block—but that didn't keep him from feeling like a gringo on family visits to Paraguay. Exploring this contradiction as it weaves through experiences of language, self, and place, Báez revels in showing up the absurdities of empire and chafes at the limits of patrimony, but he always reserves his most trenchant irony for the gaze he turns on himself. Notably, this raucous collection also wrestles with Guaraní, a state-recognized Indigenous language widely spoken in Paraguay. Guaraní both structures and punctures the book, surfacing in a sequence of jokes that double as poems, and introducing but leaving unresolved ambient questions about local histories of militarism, masculine bravado, and the outlook of the campos. Cutting across borders of every kind, Báez's poems attempt to reconcile the incomplete, contradictory, and inconsistent experiences of a speaking self that resides between languages, nations, and generations. Yaguareté White is a lyrical exploration of Paraguayan American identity and what it means to see through a colored whiteness in all of its tangled contradictions. ABOUT DIEGO BAEZ Diego Báez is a writer, educator, and abolitionist. He is the author of Yaguareté White (Univ. Arizona, 2024), a finalist for The Georgia Poetry Prize and a semi-finalist for the Berkshire Prize for Poetry. A recipient of fellowships from CantoMundo, the Surge Institute, the Poetry Foundation Incubator for Community-Engaged Poets, and DreamYard's Rad(ical) Poetry Consortium, Diego has served on the boards of the National Book Critics Circle, the International David Foster Wallace Society, and Families Together Cooperative Nursery School. Poems have previously appeared or are forthcoming in Freeman's, Poetry Northwest, and Latino Poetry: A New Anthology. Diego lives in Chicago and teaches poetry, English composition, and first-year seminars at the City Colleges, where he is an Assistant Professor of Multidisciplinary Studies. _______________________________________________________________ One easy way to support this show is to rate and review Read Between the Lines wherever you listen to our podcast. Those ratings really help us and help others find our show. Read Between the Lines is hosted by Molly Southgate and is produced/edited by Rob Southgate for Southgate Media Group. Follow this show on Facebook @ReadBetweentheLinesPod Follow our parent network on Twitter at @SMGPods Make sure to follow SMG on Facebook too at @SouthgateMediaGroup Learn more, subscribe, or contact Southgate Media Group at www.southgatemediagroup.com. Check out our webpage at southgatemediagroup.com
Reading Writers' first season draws to a close. To celebrate, Charlotte and Jo speak with the wise, bold, and original Merve Emre, who brings news of a secret Plautian aspect to Erich Segal's 1970 novel Love Story—the big book so bad it wrecked its author's career. Or was it?Merve Emre is the Shapiro-Silverberg Professor of Creative Writing and Criticism at Wesleyan University and the Director of the Shapiro Center for Creative Writing and Criticism. Her books include Paraliterary: The Making of Bad Readers in Postwar America, The Personality Brokers (selected as one of the best books of 2018 by the New York Times, The Economist, NPR, and The Spectator), The Ferrante Letters (winner of the 2021 PROSE award for literature), and The Annotated Mrs. Dalloway. She has been awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize, the Robert B. Silvers Prize for Literary Criticism, and the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing by the National Book Critics Circle. She is a contributing writer at The New Yorker.Send questions, requests, recommendations, and your own thoughts about any of the books discussed today to readingwriterspod at gmail dot com. Charlotte is on Instagram and Twitter as @Charoshane. She writes semi-regularly in newsletter form, with additional work linked on charoshane.comJo co-edits The Stopgap and their writing lives at jolivingstone.comLearn more about our producer Alex at https://www.alexsugiura.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
I do enjoy our regular new books show with Bethanne Patrick, the astonishingly widely read book critic of Los Angeles Times. For April, she recommends freshly published books by Salman Rushdie, Erik Larsen, Amor Towles, Mohamed Amer Meziane, Patric Gagne & Leif Enger. Of these, she picks Leif Enger's new novel, I Cheerfully Refuse, as the best book for April. But I'm so intrigued by Mohamed Amer Meziane's The States of the Earth, that I've already booked him to appear on the show. I'd also like to get Patric Gagne on KEEN ON - after all, who wouldn't want a psychopath on their show?Bethanne Patrick maintains a storied place in the publishing industry as a critic and as @TheBookMaven on Twitter, where she created the popular #FridayReads and regularly comments on books and literary ideas to over 200,000 followers. Her work appears frequently in the Los Angeles Times as well as in The Washington Post, NPR Books, and Literary Hub. She sits on the board of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and has served on the board of the National Book Critics Circle. She is the host of the Missing Pages podcast.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.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. 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
Host Tim Z. Hernandez speaks with writer and educator Diego Báez. Diego is the author of Yaguarete White (Univ. Arizona, 2024), a finalist for the Georgia Poetry Prize and a semifinalist for the Berkshire Prize for Poetry. A fellow at CantoMundo, the Surge Institute, and the Poetry Foundation's Incubator for Community-Engaged Poets, Báez has served on the boards of the National Book Critics Circle, the International David Foster Wallace Society, and Families Together Co-operative Nursery School. His poems, book reviews, and essays have appeared online and in print. He lives in Chicago and teaches at the City Colleges.You can visit Diego's website at: https://www.diegobaez.com/
We would all be way more ignorant without omnivorous book critic and regular KEEN ON guest Bethanne Patrick. This month she recommends six new books by Russell Banks, Adam Philips, Percival Everett, Andrew Dubus III, Marie Mutsuki Mockett & Adelle Waldman. So don't complain you've got nothing to read. No excuses. Bethanne Patrick maintains a storied place in the publishing industry as a critic and as @TheBookMaven on Twitter, where she created the popular #FridayReads and regularly comments on books and literary ideas to over 200,000 followers. Her work appears frequently in the Los Angeles Times as well as in The Washington Post, NPR Books, and Literary Hub. She sits on the board of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and has served on the board of the National Book Critics Circle. She is the host of the Missing Pages podcast. 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.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. 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
National Book Critics Circle board member J. Howard Rosier previewed some of the nonfiction books being released this spring. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In episode 1991, Andrew talks to the LA Times book critic, Bethanne Patrick, about six intriguing new non-fiction books about our contemporary age of inequality, existential anxiety and political and environmental upheaval. Bethanne Patrick maintains a storied place in the publishing industry as a critic and as @TheBookMaven on Twitter, where she created the popular #FridayReads and regularly comments on books and literary ideas to over 200,000 followers. Her work appears frequently in the Los Angeles Times as well as in The Washington Post, NPR Books, and Literary Hub. She sits on the board of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and has served on the board of the National Book Critics Circle. She is the host of the Missing Pages podcast. 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
In this episode, I speak with my colleague at TU, Boris Dralyuk on Vladmir Nabokov's delightful take on the campus novel, Pnin. We explore our endearing hero's journey from being a man on the wrong train to becoming an American behind the wheel at long last. I hope you enjoy our conversation. Boris Dralyuk is a poet, translator, and critic. He holds a PhD in Slavic Languages and Literatures from UCLA, and has taught there and the University of St Andrews, Scotland. He currently teaches in the English Department at the University of Tulsa. His work has appeared in the Times Literary Supplement, The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, London Review of Books, The Guardian, Granta, and other journals. He is the author of My Hollywood and Other Poems (Paul Dry Books, 2022) and Western Crime Fiction Goes East: The Russian Pinkerton Craze 1907-1934 (Brill, 2012), editor of 1917: Stories and Poems from the Russian Revolution (Pushkin Press, 2016), co-editor, with Robert Chandler and Irina Mashinski, of The Penguin Book of Russian Poetry (Penguin Classics, 2015), and translator of Isaac Babel, Andrey Kurkov, Maxim Osipov, Mikhail Zoshchenko, and other authors. He received first prize in the 2011 Compass Translation Award competition and, with Irina Mashinski, first prize in the 2012 Joseph Brodsky / Stephen Spender Translation Prize competition. In 2020 he received the inaugural from the Washington Monthly. In 2022 he received the inaugural from the National Book Critics Circle for his translation of Andrey Kurkov's Grey Bees. You can find him on X . Jennifer A. Frey is the inaugural dean of the , with a secondary appointment as professor of philosophy in the department of philosophy and religion. Previously, she was an Associate Professor of philosophy at the University of South Carolina, where she was also a Peter and Bonnie McCausland faculty fellow in the . Prior to her tenure at Carolina, she was a Collegiate Assistant Professor the Humanities at the University of Chicago, and a junior fellow of the . She earned her Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh and her B.A. in philosophy and Medieval Studies (with a Classics minor) at Indiana University-Bloomington. In 2015, she was awarded a multi-million dollar grant from the John Templeton Foundation, titled “Virtue, Happiness, and the Meaning of Life,” She has published widely on virtue and moral psychology, and she has edited three academic volumes on virtue and human action. Her writing has been featured in First Things, Image, Law and Liberty, The Point, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal. She lives with her husband and six children in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She is on X
EPISODE 1973: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to the LA Times book critic, Bethanne Patrick, about six intriguing new fiction and non-fiction books to read in February.Bethanne Patrick maintains a storied place in the publishing industry as a critic and as @TheBookMaven on Twitter, where she created the popular #FridayReads and regularly comments on books and literary ideas to over 200,000 followers. Her work appears frequently in the Los Angeles Times as well as in The Washington Post, NPR Books, and Literary Hub. She sits on the board of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and has served on the board of the National Book Critics Circle. She is the host of the Missing Pages podcast. 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.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. 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
As more than 100,000 Palestinians have been killed or seriously injured in Israel's ongoing attack on Gaza, we present for this hour journalist and author Chris Hedges speaking on "The Death of Israel: How a Settler Colonial State Destroyed Itself." Hedges argues that if the Gaza slaughter continues, supported by the United States, the UK and Europe, it signals a dangerous new world order. Plus Headlines. He spoke January 18, 2024 at the The Islamic Society of Central New Jersey. He was introduced by Omayma Mansour and the Q&A was moderated by Saffet Catovic. Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent for fifteen years for The New York Times, where he served as the Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief for the paper. He previously worked overseas for The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor, and NPR. He is the host of show The Chris Hedges Report. He was a member of the team that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for The New York Times coverage of global terrorism, and he received the 2002 Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism. Hedges, who holds a Master of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School, is the author of the bestsellers American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle and was a National Book Critics Circle finalist for his book War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning. He writes an online column for the website ScheerPost. He has taught at Columbia University, New York University, Princeton University and the University of Toronto. This show was produced for radio and podcast by Esther Iverem. Hedges was recorded by Skalli Events at The Islamic Society of Central New Jersey on January 18, 2024. The show is made possible only by our volunteer energy, our resolve to keep the people's voices on the air, and by support from our listeners. In this new era of fake corporate news, we have to be and support our own media! Please click here or click on the Support-Donate tab on this website to subscribe for as little as $3 a month. We are so grateful for this small but growing amount of monthly crowdsource funding on Patreon. PATREON NOW HAS A ONE-TIME, ANNUAL DONATION FUNCTION! You can also give a one-time or recurring donation on PayPal. Thank you!
Notes and Links to Martha Anne Toll's Work For Episode 221, Pete welcomes Martha Anne Toll, and the two discuss, among other topics, her early reading and writing and written word-heavy household, her love of music and other artistic pursuits, and the way muses have worked in her life and in her novel, ideas of grief, survivor's guilt and connection, real-life tragedies and heroes from the Holocaust that informed her writing, and other salient themes from her book like permanence, memory, and connection. Martha Anne Toll's debut novel, THREE MUSES, was shortlisted for the Gotham Book Prize and won the Petrichor Prize for Finely Crafted Fiction. THREE MUSES has received glowing tributes since it came out in September 2022. She writes fiction, essays, and book reviews, and reads anything that's not nailed down. She brings a long career in social justice to her work covering authors of color and women writers as a critic and author interviewer at NPR Books, the Washington Post, Pointe Magazine, The Millions, and elsewhere. She also publishes short fiction and essays in a wide variety of outlets. Toll is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and serves on the Board of Directors of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. ' Her second novel, DUET FOR ONE, will be out in early 2025. Buy Three Muses Martha's Website New York Journal of Books Review of Three Muses At about 2:00, Martha provides a cool definition At about 2:25, Martha talks about her future project-her book coming out in 2025, and she shouts out places to buy Three Muses At about 4:20, Martha discusses her early reading and writing life, and the ways in which her parents influenced her habits At about 7:15, Martha traces her writing journey At about 8:40, Martha talks about inspiring and beloved writers (like Alex Chee, Garth Greenwell, Kiese Laymon, Vikram seth and shirley hazzard) and writing in contemporary times, as well as how working as a book reviewer affects her own reading for pleasure At about 10:55, Martha speaks to Pete's questions At about 12:10, Martha gives seeds for Three Muses, including how she had ideas based on a real-life story from the Holocaust and the Greek view of three muses At about 14:10, Pete and Martha lay out some of the book's exposition At about 15:30, Martha responds to Pete wondering about how the protagonist John was roused by a dance from Katya/Katherine At about 16:45, Martha reflects on Katya's problematic and ongoing collaboration and personal relationship with the director Boris At about 20:05, Pete lays out some of Katya's traumas At about 20:50, Martha talks about Janko/John's horrific childhood and the loss of his family in Mainz, Germany, in the Holocaust-Martha describes how her cousin Alan Boucher's memoir informed some parts of the book At about 22:25, Martha speaks about the guilt-inducing “Sophie's Choice” that afflicts and saves John/Janko's; she expounds upon his survivor's guilt At about 24:30, Pete and Martha compare Janko's story with that of Elie Wiesel and the ways in which iit was so gutting to see people killed in the camps so close to Liberation At about 26:30, The two discuss the idea of reinvention as seen through John in the book, and Martha expands on “unlikely heroes” who helped John to survive At about 29:20, Martha discusses Barney and Selma Katz, who “adopt” John, and she talks about John's own psychoanalysis and psychologist training At about 31:05, The two discuss themes in the book of memorializing, living “in the present tense,” and how memory guides the characters' actions At about 33:05, Pete traces John and Katya's connections, and Martha debates how and if the “innate” connections are there At about 36:00, Pete asks Martha about any responsibilities/urgency to get Holocaust stories on the page At about 37:45, Martha speaks of art and its “incredibl[e] importan[ce]” and the power of fiction At about 38:55, Martha shouts out Forgottenness by Tanja Maljartschuk as an example of the power of memory At about 39:55, Martha responds to Pete's question about the emotional toll of writing her book You can now subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, and leave me a five-star review. You can also ask for the podcast by name using Alexa, and find the pod on Stitcher, Spotify, and on Amazon Music. Follow me on IG, where I'm @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where I'm @chillsatwillpo1. You can watch this and other episodes on YouTube-watch and subscribe to The Chills at Will Podcast Channel. Please subscribe to both my YouTube Channel and my podcast while you're checking out this episode. I am very excited that starting in February with Episode 220, I will have one or two podcast episodes per month featured on the website of Chicago Review of Books. The audio will be posted, along with a written interview culled from the audio. A big thanks to Rachel León and Michael Welch at Chicago Review-I'm looking forward to the partnership! Sign up now for The Chills at Will Podcast Patreon: it can be found at patreon.com/chillsatwillpodcastpeterriehl Check out the page that describes the benefits of a Patreon membership, including cool swag and bonus episodes. Thanks in advance for supporting my one-man show, my DIY podcast and my extensive reading, research, editing, and promoting to keep this independent podcast pumping out high-quality content! NEW MERCH! You can browse and buy here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ChillsatWillPodcast This is a passion project of mine, a DIY operation, and I'd love for your help in promoting what I'm convinced is a unique and spirited look at an often-ignored art form. The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com. Please tune in for Episode 221 with Andrew Leland, a writer, audio producer, editor, and teacher. His first book, The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight, about the world of blindness (and figuring out his place in it), was published in July 2023 by Penguin Press, to great acclaim and receiving many awards. The episode will air on January 31.
Barbara Richter is an accomplished author, public speaker, French-to-English translator, and founder of DIYBook and In Ink Ghostwriting. Raised in a home steeped in books and greatly influenced by her father, an award-winning editor and National Book Award finalist, Barbara's upbringing richly nurtured her literary heritage and profoundly honed her critical thinking skills. Barbara's multifaceted career, marked by her roles as the Managing Editor for Literary Features Syndicate, columnist for Fine Books and Collections Magazine, and contributor to The Wall Street Journal, The New York Daily News, and The Sewanee Review, has firmly established her as a prominent figure in both modern literature and entrepreneurship. Building off her extensive writing expertise, Barbara launched DIYBook in 2023, a comprehensive solution designed to make book writing and publishing accessible and affordable for authors at all levels, from novices to seasoned professionals. The platform is a step-by-step process equipped with weekly email prompts catering to various categories such as trauma, military service, relationships, and more. This tailored approach simplifies writing and publishing by providing structured guidance, helping users overcome writer's block, lack of direction, and feeling overwhelmed. DIYBook's support system includes various tools and resources to enhance writing quality and efficiency, thereby making the publishing journey more approachable for anyone with a story to tell. Barbara is also the founder of In Ink Ghostwriting (2014), one of the premier ghostwriting firms in the NYC area with clients from around the world, which delivers an assortment of writing services. From business books to memoirs and novels, the firm caters to a diverse clientele, such as best-selling authors, NFL players, Fortune 500 CEOs, artists, musicians, doctors, entrepreneurs, and attorneys. This all-inclusive service range sets In Ink Ghostwriting apart, offering not just writing and publishing mastery but also essential design services with a skilled graphic design artist who can provide clients with the option to enhance the visual appeal of their books. Her foray into ghostwriting was spurred by her distinctive ability to encapsulate the voices and ideas of those with compelling stories but limited writing proficiency or time. Barbara holds a BA and MA in French Language and Literature from Smith College and Tufts University. She is a founding member of the Ticknor Society, a voting member of the National Book Critics Circle, and a member of the Grolier Club, the country's oldest bibliophilic association. Currently residing in Westchester, New York, with her family and beloved basset hounds, Barbara continues to enrich the landscape of literature and entrepreneurship, contributing significantly to the domains of storytelling and literary access. 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
Notes and Links to Aniefiok Epoudom's Work For Episode 220, Pete welcomes Neef Epoudoum, and the two discuss, among other topics, his early reading and writing, varied fiction and nonfiction writers and their influences on him, the pull of creative nonfiction on him as he discovered favorite writers and their favorite writers, the ways in which he engenders trust with interview subjects, and salient themes and topic from his book, including the UK's Windrush Generation, the ways in which UK grime and rap have grown together and separately, the racism and classism that has shaped so much of modern UK grime and rap, the standout artists who have carved their names in UK music folklore, how these people are shaped by societal forces, and more. Aniefiok “‘Neef” Ekpoudom is a writer and storyteller from South London whose work documents community and culture in contemporary Britain. His debut book Where We Come From: Rap Home and Hope in Modern Britain is a social history of British Rap. It will be released via Faber & Faber in August 2023. As a journalist, he writes longform essays and profiles for The Guardian, GQ and more. From charting a history of Black Football culture in South London to mapping the forces of migration and music that formed J Hus, his writing weaves social, cultural and narrative history to explore the current, lived realities of peoples across the UK. Aniefiok's writing has featured in a number of essay collections and anthologies, including #Merky Books titles Keisha The Sket (2021) and A New Formation: How Black Players Shaped The Modern Game (2022), as well as SAFE: On Black British Men Reclaiming Space (Trapeze, 2019). Aniefiok was named on the Forbes' 30 Under 30 List for Media & Marketing. He is a British Journalism Award winner for his work with The Guardian. He has also been named Culture Writer of the Year at the Freelance Writing Awards, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He has worked with Nike, Netflix, Google, BBC, the Premier League, adidas, YouTube, Metallic Inc, COPA 90 and more. Buy Where We Come From: Rap, Home & Hope in Modern Britain Aniefiok's Website At about 3:20, Neef talks about his mindset being two weeks away from his book's publication and shares his experience in narrating the audiobook At about 6:35, Pete shares glowing blurbs for Where We Come From from Caleb Azumah Nelson and Musa Okwonga At about 7:15, Neef discusses places at which to buy his book, like Pages in Hackney, Seven Oaks Bookshop, and Libreria Bookshop At about 8:05, Neef talks about his language and reading lives during his childhood At about 10:50, Neef talks about the impact that US and UK rap had on him as a kid At about 14:45, Neef talks about the ways in which US rap and its genres and subgenres were/are viewed in the US, and how UK rap has been blended with Jamaican Sound System and US hip hop At about 17:00, Neef responds to Pete's question about his formation as a writer At about 18:15, Neef traces his return to heavy reading in university and his exposure to creative nonfiction/New Journalism legends like Gay Talese and Joan Didion At about 21:20, Neef talks about the contemporary writers who thrill him and challenge him, like Wright Thompson, Hanif Abdurraqib, David Finkel, Gary Smith, and Jacqueline Woodson At about 26:25, Pete inquires about how Neef engenders trust from his interview subjects for his profiles At about 29:30, Neef discusses his evolving goals that informed his book At about 32:25, Neef responds with why he started the book at a show for Giggs At about 36:35, Neef explains the importance of UK grime as using 140 beats per minute, as well as some forebears of UK rap and grime-the Windrush Generation and Jamaican Sound System At about 42:30, Neef gives background on the amazing story of Cecil Morris and “Pirate Radio” At about 47:05, Neef describes So Solid's garage music as a forebear of darker grime music that was to come At about 49:30, Neef and Pete discuss parallels between more raw, honest American rap and some years later with Despa and in UK grime At about 51:45, The two discuss the immigrant communities of South Wales that Neef so expertly charts when writing about Astroid Boys At about 56:50, Neef gives background on how class often manifests in British life, and how writing the book changed the ways he saw class functioning At about 1:00:33, Neef discusses the fusing of rap and grime and Cadet's and Despa's and others At about 1:02:00, Neef talks about the power of Despa's “Meet the Artist” show At about 1:04:30, Neef speaks to the legacy of Cadet after his tragic death in an auto accident At about 1:09:20, Neef and Pete highlight how music helped with Pa Salieu's anxieties At about 1:10:00, Neef and Pete discuss the book's last few chapters and the ways in which Neef depicts the ways in which music has changed At about 1:12:35, Neef speaks to what he sees for the future of grime and rap and other UK music forms and highlights strong signs of continued substance in the music of current stars At about 1:16:00, Neef speaks about “lower barriers to entry” in current music for women and others, “flattening the playing field” for those often ignored At about 1:17:00, Neef speaks about exploring new projects, probably in fiction, and continuing to explore storytelling about contemporary At about 1:18:00, Southampton FC shout out! You can now subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, and leave me a five-star review. You can also ask for the podcast by name using Alexa, and find the pod on Stitcher, Spotify, and on Amazon Music. Follow me on IG, where I'm @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where I'm @chillsatwillpo1. You can watch this and other episodes on YouTube-watch and subscribe to The Chills at Will Podcast Channel. Please subscribe to both my YouTube Channel and my podcast while you're checking out this episode. I am very excited that starting in late January with this episode, I will have two podcast episodes per month featured on the website of Chicago Review of Books. The audio will be posted, along with a written interview culled from the audio. A big thanks to Rachel León and Michael Welch at Chicago Review-I'm looking forward to the partnership! Sign up now for The Chills at Will Podcast Patreon: it can be found at patreon.com/chillsatwillpodcastpeterriehl Check out the page that describes the benefits of a Patreon membership, including cool swag and bonus episodes. Thanks in advance for supporting my one-man show, my DIY podcast and my extensive reading, research, editing, and promoting to keep this independent podcast pumping out high-quality content! NEW MERCH! You can browse and buy here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ChillsatWillPodcast This is a passion project of mine, a DIY operation, and I'd love for your help in promoting what I'm convinced is a unique and spirited look at an often-ignored art form. The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com. Please tune in for Episode 221 with Martha Anne Toll, whose debut novel, THREE MUSES, was shortlisted for Gotham Book Prize and won the Petrichor Prize for Finely Crafted Fiction; has worked as a critic and author interviewer at NPR Books, the Washington Post, Pointe Magazine, The Millions, and elsewhere. Martha publishes short fiction and essays in a wide variety of outlets; member of the National Book Critics Circle. The episode will air on January 24.
It's been a long time since you've seen an author interview here on Book Dreams, but we were recently given the chance to interview Roz Chast, and who could possibly say no to that?! Roz is a beloved New Yorker cartoonist with a style all her own, and Eve and Julie have both been big fans of her work for decades. She is as funny, insightful, and distinctive in person as she is in her drawings, and it was a joy to get to speak with her. Take a listen to hear about everything from her latest book, in which she illustrates her dream world; to what it's like to submit cartoons and cover art to The New Yorker; to the role anxiety plays in her cartoons and in her life. Roz Chast is a cartoonist for The New Yorker and has published more than a thousand cartoons in the magazine since 1978. She is also the author of a number of books, including Going Into Town, What I Hate from A to Z, and the #1 New York Times bestseller Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant, which won the National Book Critics Circle award and the Kirkus Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her latest book, I Must Be Dreaming, is a USA Today bestseller, a New Yorker Best Book of the Year, a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice, and a Washington Post Best Graphic Book of the Year. The Miami Book Fair is an “eight day literary party” founded by Miami Dade College that's been held every November in Miami, Florida since 1984. The Fair plays host to more than 450 international authors reading and discussing their work, as well as more than 250 publishers and booksellers exhibiting and selling books, with special appearances by antiquarians showcasing signed first editions, original manuscripts, and other collectibles. Many thanks to our friends at Miami Book Fair for coordinating this episode with Roz. Find us on Twitter (@bookdreamspod) and Instagram (@bookdreamspodcast), or email us at contact@bookdreamspodcast.com. We encourage you to visit our website and sign up for our newsletter for information about our episodes, guests, and more. Book Dreams is a part of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy. Since you're listening to Book Dreams, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows about literature, writing, and storytelling like Storybound and The History of Literature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Roxane Gay is the author of the essay collection Opinions: A Decade of Arguments, Criticism, and Minding Other People's Business, available from Harper. Roxane's other books include the essay collection Bad Feminist, which was a New York Times bestseller; the novel An Untamed State, a finalist for the Dayton Peace Prize; the memoir Hunger, which was a New York Times bestseller and received a National Book Critics Circle citation; and the short story collections Difficult Women and Ayiti. A contributing opinion writer to the New York Times, she has also written for Time, McSweeney's, the Virginia Quarterly Review, the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, The Rumpus, Bookforum, and Salon. Her fiction has also been selected for The Best American Short Stories 2012, The Best American Mystery Stories 2014, and other anthologies. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly literary podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, etc. Subscribe to Brad Listi's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch @otherppl Instagram YouTube TikTok Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jia Tolentino joins us to discuss how to finally accept all sides of you: Why your un-productivity matters most; When your shame is good; How to make your real life bigger than your internet life; How to let motherhood energize you instead of drain you; and How to stop scrolling in the middle of the night. Plus, we talk acid trips, the sorority rush that Jia and Amanda shared, why Glennon's friends track Jia's words – and whether Glennon's mug shot will inspire Jia's next show. About Jia: Jia Tolentino is a staff writer at The New Yorker, a screenwriter, and the author of the New York Times bestseller Trick Mirror. In 2020, she received a Whiting Award as well as the Jeannette Haien Ballard Prize, and has most recently won a National Magazine Award for three pieces about the repeal of Roe v. Wade. Trick Mirror was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Prize and the PEN Award and was named one of the best books of the year by the New York Public Library, the New York Times Book Review, the Washington Post, NPR, the Chicago Tribune, GQ, and the Paris Review. Jia lives in Brooklyn. TW: @jiatolentino IG: @jiatortellini To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices