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Annie Hartnett discusses the inspiration behind her quirky road trip novel The Road to Tender Hearts and why she breaks all the rules in writing her stories. Annie Hartnett joins me to discuss her latest bestselling novel, The Road to Tender Hearts, and the inspiration behind this road trip story. We explore the heartfelt and humorous moments that showcase a wonderfully quirky found family, which even includes a psychic cat.She also shares the surprising real-life inspirations for her unforgettable characters and explains how literary mischief is woven into their worlds.In this quirky conversation, Annie and I discuss: Why Annie made a death-predicting cat named Pancakes the emotional engine of the novel—and how a real-life nursing home cat named Oscar inspired this unforgettable character.How playing with point of view and narrator's voice keeps her writing fresh, and why she's unconcerned with grammar "rules."How Annie's own cross-country trip in her twenties helped shape the emotional core of this incredible road trip story.BONUS BOOK LIST: This week, I'm sharing an accompanying book list of 29 books about road trips, including new releases and backlist titles, that speak to the ripple effects of substance use across families and generations.Meet Annie HartnettAnnie Hartnett is the author of Unlikely Animals, which won the Julia Ward Howe Prize for fiction and was longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize.She is also theauthor of Rabbit Cake, a finalist for the New England Book Award and a Kirkus Reviews best book of the year. Hartnett has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the MacDowell Colony, the Sewanee Writers' Conference, and the Associates of the Boston Public Library. Along with writer Tessa Fontaine, she co-runs the Accountability Workshops for writers, helping them commit to routines and embrace the long, slow, joyful, terrible process of doing the work. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband, daughter, and dog.Mentioned in this episode:Browse the 2025 MomAdvice Summer Reading Guide (with ads) or download the 48-page reading guide ($7) to support our show. If you are a show patron, check your inbox for your copy as part of your member benefits—thank you for supporting my small business! Join the May Book Club Chat (Beautyland)BONUS BOOK LIST: 29 Books About Road Trips to Read NowDownload Today's TranscriptThe Road to Tender Hearts by Annie HartnettUnlikely Animals by Annie HartnettRabbit Cake by Annie HartnettRed Dog Farm by Nathaniel Ian MillerMarried with ChildrenJane the VirginFargoRaising ArizonaKaren RussellThe Frightening and Wonderful Things That Will Happen to You When You Publish Your First Novel by Rufi ThorpeBookshop.org pays a 10% commission on every sale and matches 10% to independent bookstores!Connect With Us:Join the Book Gang PatreonConnect with Annie on Instagram or her WebsiteConnect with Amy on Instagram, TikTok, or MomAdviceGet My Happy List NewsletterGet the Daily Kindle Deals NewsletterBuy Me a Coffee (for a one-time donation)
B.A. Shapiro's The Lost Masterpiece can be preordered on Amazon HERE.Berthe Morisot was a female Impressionist painter active in Paris during the second half of the 19th century. She exhibited her work alongside famed Impressionist artists Monet, Degas, and Renoir, among others, and was the only woman to be included in the first major show of Impressionist art in 1874. Despite the many limitations she faced as a female artist of her time, Morisot established herself as an integral member of the Impressionist group. She also modeled for a number of paintings by Manet, and though she was married to his brother, many believe that Manet and Morisot were engaged in a long-run secret affair.B.A. Shapiro is a New York Times best selling author. In 2013, she was awarded the New England Book Award for Fiction for her novel, The Art Forger. Over her impressive career as an author, she has written both novels and screenplays, as well as a non-fiction self help book. Be sure to follow ArtMuse on Instagram & TikTok. Donate to ArtMuse HERE.ArtMuse is produced by Kula Production Company.Today's episode was written by host Grace Anna.There are accompanying images, resources and suggestions for further reading on the ArtMuse website and Instagram.
Annie Hartnett is the author of “Unlikely Animals: The Novel” which won the Julia Ward Howe Prize for fiction and was longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize. She is also the author of “Rabbit Cake,” a finalist for the New England Book Award. Her latest novel is “The Road to Tender Hearts” which is a darkly comic and also warm hearted story about an old man on a cross-country mission to reunite with his high school crush.
Host Jason Blitman talks to Annie Hartnett (The Road to Tender Hearts) about the roots of her humor, why no one can sit in the backseat of her car, and her short-lived foray into greeting card writing. Jason is then joined by Guest Gay Reader Debbie Millman, who shares what she's been reading, why she had to stop listening to the audiobook of Barbra Streisand's memoir, and the story behind her new book, Love Letter to a Garden--which includes recipes from her wife, Roxane Gay. Debbie's TED "Love Letters" can be found here:https://www.ted.com/talks/debbie_millman_love_letters_to_what_we_hold_dearAnnie Hartnett is the author of Unlikely Animals, which won the Julia Ward Howe Prize for fiction and was longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize. She is also the author of Rabbit Cake, a finalist for the New England Book Award and a Kirkus Reviews best book of the year. Hartnett has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the MacDowell Colony, the Sewanee Writers' Conference, and the Associates of the Boston Public Library. Along with writer Tessa Fontaine, she co-runs the Accountability Workshops for writers, helping them commit to routines and embrace the long, slow, joyful, terrible process of doing the work. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband, daughter, and dog.Debbie Millman has been named “one of the most creative people in business” by Fast Company, and “one of the most influential designers working today” by GDUSA. Millman is an illustrator, author, educator, and host of the podcast Design Matters. Broadcasting for 19 years, Design Matters is one of the first and longest running podcasts in the world. The show won a Cooper Hewitt National Design Award in 2011, and Apple has named it one of their “All Time Favorites” three times. In 2023 the show won two Webby's, three Communicator Awards, a Signal Award, three awards from The Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts, and earned an Ambie nomination.SUBSTACK!https://gaysreading.substack.com/ BOOK CLUB!Use code GAYSREADING at checkout to get first book for only $4 + free shipping! Restrictions apply.http://aardvarkbookclub.com WATCH!https://youtube.com/@gaysreading FOLLOW!Instagram: @gaysreading | @jasonblitmanBluesky: @gaysreading | @jasonblitmanCONTACT!hello@gaysreading.com
I am delighted to have another conversation with James Crews, a return guest who is joining me for a conversation about his book, Unlocking the Heart: Writing for Mindfulness, Courage, and Self-Compassion. James is the author of the essay collection, Kindness Will Save the World, and editor of several bestselling poetry anthologies, including The Wonder of Small Things (winner of the New England Book Award), Healing the Divide, The Path to Kindness (winner of the Nautilus Books for a Better Life Award), and How to Love the World, which has over 140,000 copies in print. He has been featured on NPR's Morning Edition, and in People Magazine, The Boston Globe, The New York Times Magazine, The Sun Magazine, and The Washington Post. He is the author of five prize-winning books of poetry, including Unlocking the Heart, and his poems have appeared in Ploughshares, The New Republic, and other journals. James lives with his husband in the woods of Southern Vermont. At the end of September, James surprised me with the gift of his book, Unlocking the Heart and what a gift it was! I'll talk more about it in our conversation, but the book really did help unlock my heart. During February and a time of reflection on my transformative experience after falling and time in the hospital in December, I worked with the book, reflecting on the poems and James' thoughts about them, and using the writing prompts to journal. Being opened to vulnerability and held by the poems in the book was a special gift. As you will no doubt hear, James is a gentle soul whose conversation about poetry, spirituality, and life is healing. Both the words he uses and the tender way he speaks them is a balm for our painful and anxious times. Among other things, we talked about: How we are all poets … And, as James said, "We are all going around having moments and those moments are asking for expression. Our materially focused culture has caused us to be separated from spiritual practice and poetry can help us build a practice if we keep showing up. Writing poetry is about noticing and giving space to what you're noticing. Reading poetry trains you in the practice of noticing. Take some time to ease into this episode. I promise you will be soothed and come away craving more poetry in your life…. Learn more about James & to sign up for free weekly poems & writing prompts, visit: https://www.jamescrews.net/. Buy his books, including, Unlocking the Heart: Writing for Mindfulness, Courage, and Self-Compassion.All books: Amazon Author page Unlocking the Heart: Unlocking the Heart Substack / Podcast: https://substack.com/@jamescrews Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/james.crews.poet Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/crewspoet Become a patron to support this podcast and get special member benefits, including a membership community, a virtual sangha, and a subscription to my Everyday Buddhism Substack:https://www.patreon.com/EverydayBuddhism Check out my Substack for ongoing chapter releases of my new serial book, Living Life As It Is and the weekly podcast, Words From My Teachers: https://wendyshinyohaylett.substack.com/ If this podcast has helped you understand Buddhism or help in your everyday life, consider making a one-time donation here: https://donorbox.org/podcast-donations Support the podcast through the affiliate link to buy the book, Everyday Buddhism: Real-Life Buddhist Teachings & Practices for Real Change: Buy the book, Everyday Buddhism Support the podcast and show your support through the purchase of Everyday Buddhism merch: https://www.zazzle.com/store/everyday_buddhism NOTE: Free shipping on ALL (unlimited) items (Everyday Buddhism merch or gifts from other stores) if you join Zazzle Plus for $19.95/year: https://www.zazzle.com/zazzleplus
Anna Noyes's debut novel is The Blue Maiden and was a New York Times Editors' Choice, with starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Forward. Her short story collection, Goodnight, Beautiful Women, was a finalist for the Story Prize and the New England Book Award, as well as a New York Times Editors' Choice. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She lives in New York, on Fishers Island. We talked about witches, familial relationships, giving up on the novel you think you are writing and writing the one you are meant to create, the publishing industry, historical fiction, living on an island, and Shirley Jackson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“I believe that telling our story, even the story of a moment, the story of an emotion, is one of the most healing things we can do,” says James Crews, poet, teacher and speaker. His new book, Unlocking the Heart: Writing for Courage, Mindfulness and Self-Compassion blends poetry, essays and writing prompts to help readers tell their own stories. We speak about this unusual blending of genres, writing as a healing practice, and how to write titles and first lines that draw people in. James Crews is the editor of several bestselling books, including The Path to Kindness and How to Love the World, which has over 100,000 copies in print. He has been featured in The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, The Christian Science Monitor, and on NPR's Morning Edition. The author of four prize-winning books of poetry and of the book Kindness Will Save the World, James also speaks and leads workshops on kindness, mindfulness, and writing for self-compassion. He lives with his husband on forty rocky acres in the woods of Southern Vermont. AND The Wonder of Small Things just won the New England Book Award for Poetry! He also hosts a monthly writing community and sends out a weekly newsletter.To purchase signed books and join his newsletter: https://linktr.ee/jcrewsjrMore on James Crews: https://www.jamescrews.net/For info on his monthly writing community: https://www.themonthlypause.com/ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emergingform.substack.com/subscribe
Jessica Shattuck is The New York Times Bestselling author of the novels Last House, The Women in the Castle, a New York Times Bestseller, #1 Indie Next Pick, and winner of The New England Book Award; Perfect Life, and The Hazards of Good Breeding, which was a New York Times Notable Book, a Boston Globe Editor's Choice Best Book of the Year, and a finalist for the 2003 PEN/Winship Award. Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Guernica, Glamour, Open City, and The Tampa Review among other publications. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and three children. We talked about research, setting her novel in two time periods, oil in Iran, the CIA, Vermont, how idealism and activism may change as we age, and patience in the long journey of writing a novel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
It's November 3, 1957. As Sputnik 2 launches into space, carrying Laika, the doomed Soviet dog, a couple begin their day. Virgil Beckett, an insurance salesman, isn't particularly happy in his job but he fulfills the role. Kathleen Beckett, once a promising tennis champion with a key shot up her sleeve, is now a mother and homemaker. On this unseasonably warm Sunday, Kathleen decides not to join her family at church. Instead, she unearths her old, red bathing suit and descends into the deserted swimming pool of their apartment complex in Newark, Delaware. And then she won't come out. A riveting, single-sitting read set over the course of eight hours, The Most (Little, Brown, 2024) masterly breaches the shimmering surface of a seemingly idyllic mid-century marriage, immersing us in the unspoken truth beneath. Jessica Anthony is the author of three previous books of fiction, most recently the novel Enter the Aardvark, a finalist for the New England Book Award in Fiction. A recipient of the Creative Capital Award in Literature, Anthony wrote The Most while guarding the Mária Valéria Bridge in Štúrovo, Slovakia. She Lives in Portland, Maine. Recommended Books: Patricia Highsmith, Price of Salt Stories of Shirley Jackson (the tooth and the renegade) Carson McCullers, Member of the Wedding Alice Childress, Trouble in Mind Andre Breton, Mad Love Adam Ehrlich Sachs, Gretel and the Great War Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro Against World Literature, is forthcoming with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
It's November 3, 1957. As Sputnik 2 launches into space, carrying Laika, the doomed Soviet dog, a couple begin their day. Virgil Beckett, an insurance salesman, isn't particularly happy in his job but he fulfills the role. Kathleen Beckett, once a promising tennis champion with a key shot up her sleeve, is now a mother and homemaker. On this unseasonably warm Sunday, Kathleen decides not to join her family at church. Instead, she unearths her old, red bathing suit and descends into the deserted swimming pool of their apartment complex in Newark, Delaware. And then she won't come out. A riveting, single-sitting read set over the course of eight hours, The Most (Little, Brown, 2024) masterly breaches the shimmering surface of a seemingly idyllic mid-century marriage, immersing us in the unspoken truth beneath. Jessica Anthony is the author of three previous books of fiction, most recently the novel Enter the Aardvark, a finalist for the New England Book Award in Fiction. A recipient of the Creative Capital Award in Literature, Anthony wrote The Most while guarding the Mária Valéria Bridge in Štúrovo, Slovakia. She Lives in Portland, Maine. Recommended Books: Patricia Highsmith, Price of Salt Stories of Shirley Jackson (the tooth and the renegade) Carson McCullers, Member of the Wedding Alice Childress, Trouble in Mind Andre Breton, Mad Love Adam Ehrlich Sachs, Gretel and the Great War Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro Against World Literature, is forthcoming with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. 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
It's November 3, 1957. As Sputnik 2 launches into space, carrying Laika, the doomed Soviet dog, a couple begin their day. Virgil Beckett, an insurance salesman, isn't particularly happy in his job but he fulfills the role. Kathleen Beckett, once a promising tennis champion with a key shot up her sleeve, is now a mother and homemaker. On this unseasonably warm Sunday, Kathleen decides not to join her family at church. Instead, she unearths her old, red bathing suit and descends into the deserted swimming pool of their apartment complex in Newark, Delaware. And then she won't come out. A riveting, single-sitting read set over the course of eight hours, The Most (Little, Brown, 2024) masterly breaches the shimmering surface of a seemingly idyllic mid-century marriage, immersing us in the unspoken truth beneath. Jessica Anthony is the author of three previous books of fiction, most recently the novel Enter the Aardvark, a finalist for the New England Book Award in Fiction. A recipient of the Creative Capital Award in Literature, Anthony wrote The Most while guarding the Mária Valéria Bridge in Štúrovo, Slovakia. She Lives in Portland, Maine. Recommended Books: Patricia Highsmith, Price of Salt Stories of Shirley Jackson (the tooth and the renegade) Carson McCullers, Member of the Wedding Alice Childress, Trouble in Mind Andre Breton, Mad Love Adam Ehrlich Sachs, Gretel and the Great War Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro Against World Literature, is forthcoming with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature
Join Ocean House owner and author Deborah Goodrich Royce for a conversation with bestselling author Dawn Tripp as they discuss her new book, Jackie. About Dawn Tripp: Dawn Tripp is the author of the novel Georgia, which was a national bestseller, a finalist for the New England Book Award, and the winner of the Mary Lynn Kotz Award for Art in Literature. She is the author of three previous novels: Game of Secrets, Moon Tide, and The Season of Open Water, which won the Massachusetts Book Award for Fiction. Her poems and essays have appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review, Harvard Review, AGNI, Conjunctions, and NPR. Tripp lives in Massachusetts with her sons. About Jackie: Jackie is the story of a woman—deeply private with a nuanced, formidable intellect—who forged a legacy out of grief and shaped history even as she was living it. It is the story of a love affair, a complicated marriage, and the fracturing of identity that comes in the wake of unthinkable violence. When Jackie meets the charismatic congressman Jack Kennedy in Georgetown, she is twenty-one and dreaming of France. She has won an internship at Vogue. Kennedy, she thinks, is not her kind of adventure: “Too American. Too good-looking. Too boy.” Yet she is drawn to his mind, his humor, his drive. The chemistry between them ignites. During the White House years, the love between two independent people deepens. Then, a motorcade in Dallas: “Three and a half seconds—that's all it was—a slivered instant between the first shot, which missed the car, and the second, which did not. . . . A hypnotic burst of sunlight off her bracelet as she waved.” This vivid, exquisitely written novel is at once a captivating work of the imagination and a window into the world of a woman who led many lives: Jackie, Jacks, Jacqueline, Miss Bouvier, Mrs. Kennedy, Jackie O. For more information about bestselling author Dawn Tripp, please visit www.dawntripp.com. For information on Deborah Goodrich Royce and the Ocean House Author Series, visit www.deborahgoodrichroyce.com
Today, we hear from Jessica Anthony whose latest novel, THE MOST, will be released in July. We're talking to Jessica about how to cover a large amount of time by using time itself as your organizing principal, especially when writing a short novel or novella.Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Anthony's debut and many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Jessica Anthony is the author of three books of fiction, The Convalescent, which won the Amanda Davis Highwire Fiction Award from McSweeney's, Chopsticks, which she coauthored with graphic designer Rodrigo Corral, and most recently the novel Enter the Aardvark, a finalist for the New England Book Award in Fiction. A recipient of the Creative Capital Award in Literature, Anthony wrote The Most while guarding the Mária Valéria Bridge in Štúrovo, Slovakia. She lives in Portland, Maine.Photo: Matt Cosby 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
For episode 80, we welcome Jessica Anthony back to the show. She has long been one of our favorite writers and she returns this month with a new novel titled The Most (out July 30 from Little Brown). Jessica Anthony is the author of three books of fiction, most recently the novel Enter the Aardvark, a finalist for the New England Book Award in Fiction. Her debut, The Convalescent, won the inaugural McSweeney's Amanda Davis Highwire Fiction Award in 2004. A recipient of the Creative Capital Award in Literature, Anthony wrote The Most while guarding the Mária Valéria Bridge in Štúrovo, Slovakia. She lives in Portland, Maine. Preorder the book on Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-most-jessica-anthony/20862156?ean=9780316576376 You can see some of the upcoming events for the novel here: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/contributor/jessica-anthony/ Contact Dave & Matt: Email - concavityshow@gmail.com Twitter - https://twitter.com/ConcavityShow Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/concavityshow/ Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/concavityshow Threadless Merch Store - https://concavityshow.threadless.com/
Please go to Firefly Creative Writing to see if any of our cozy writing workshops are for you. The Fall schedule will be on the website for July 11th. For $50 off, use code: FATJOYCrystal Maldonado (she/her) is a young adult author with a lot of feelings that she's channeled into romcoms for fat, brown girls. She shares what it was like to write the stories she wished she'd had when she was growing up, the gatekeeping she had to overcome to get published, and her ‘glimmers' writing practice that connects her to joy each day. Crystal has written several books, including The Fall of Whit Rivera, which People Magazine called a “pumpkin-spice-latte-flavored treat”; Fat Chance, Charlie Vega, which was a New England Book Award winner, a Cosmopolitan Best New Book, and a Kirkus Best YA Fiction of 2021; and No Filter and Other Lies, which was named a POPSUGAR and Seventeen Best New YA. Her middle grade debut, Camp Sylvania: Moon Madness—a paranormal summer camp story featuring two fat besties, co-written with #1 New York Times bestselling author Julie Murphy—releases in spring 2024.Please connect with through her website, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and tiktok. This episode's poem is called “My friends got married today…” by Yesika Salgado.Connect with Fat Joy on the website, Instagram, subscribe to the Fat Joy newsletter, and watch full video episodes on YouTube. Want to share some fattie love? Please rate this podcast and give it a joyful review. Our thanks to Chris Jones and AR Media for keeping this podcast looking and sounding joyful.
Morgan Talty live-comments on his own Goodreads review, then discusses his debut novel, Fire Exit, as well as why he enjoys interacting with his online reviewers, the expectations people bring to indigenous fiction, being an objective reader of his own work, building emotion around an idea, balancing darkness with tenderness, Alice Munro, writing from the perspective of a white man, and more! Morgan Talty is a citizen of the Penobscot Indian Nation. His debut short story collection, Night of the Living Rez, won the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, the American Academy of Arts & Letters Sue Kaufman Prize, the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize, the New England Book Award, the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 Honor, and was a Finalist for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, the 2023 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Prize, and The Story Prize. His writing has appeared in The Georgia Review, Granta, Shenandoah, TriQuarterly, Narrative, Lit Hub, and elsewhere. Talty is an assistant professor of English in Creative Writing and Native American and Contemporary Literature at the University of Maine, Orono, and he is on the faculty at the Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing as well as the Institute of American Indian Arts. He lives in Levant, Maine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Morgan Talty is the author of the debut novel Fire Exit, available from Tin House. Talty is a citizen of the Penobscot Indian Nation. His debut short story collection, Night of the Living Rez, won the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Sue Kaufman Prize, the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize, the New England Book Award, the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 Honor, and was a finalist for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award, and The Story Prize. His writing has appeared in The Georgia Review, Granta, Shenandoah, TriQuarterly, Narrative, Lit Hub, and elsewhere. Talty is an assistant professor of English in Creative Writing and Native American and Contemporary Literature at the University of Maine, Orono, and he is on the faculty at the Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing as well as the Institute of American Indian Arts. He lives in Levant, Maine. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly literary podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Subscribe to Brad Listi's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch @otherppl Instagram 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
Want to join the podcast? Come together with other listeners in a deep dive into this summer's episodes, discussing ideas, asking questions, and sharing your experiences about issues brought up in our interviews. Perfect for writers at every level. Only a few spots available. Email 7amnovelist@substack.com for more info.Today, we hear from Dawn Tripp, whose latest novel, JACKIE, was released in June. We're talking to Dawn about voice and the emotional level of a story (which is to say, we're talking about interiority).Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Tripp's latest and many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Dawn Tripp is the author of the novel Georgia, which was a national bestseller, a finalist for the New England Book Award, and a winner of the Mary Lynn Kotz Award for Art in Literature. She is the author of three previous novels: Game of Secrets, Moon Tide, and The Season of Open Water, which won the Massachusetts Book Award for Fiction. Her poems and essays have appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review, Harvard Review, AGNI, Conjunctions, and NPR, among others. She serves on the board of the Boston Book Festival and on the board of Gnome Surf: A non-profit Surf Therapy Organization focused on creating a culture shift towards kindness, love, and acceptance for athletes of all abilities. She graduated from Harvard and lives in Massachusetts with her sons. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Neema Avashia is the daughter of Indian immigrants and was born and raised in southern West Virginia. She has been an educator and activist in the Boston Public Schools since 2003 and was named a City of Boston Educator of the Year in 2013. Her first book, Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place, was published by West Virginia University Press in March 2022. It has been called “A timely collection that begins to fill the gap in literature focused mainly on the white male experience” by Ms. Magazine, and “A graceful exploration of identity, community, and contradictions,” by Scalawag. The book was named Best LGBTQ Memoir of 2022 by BookRiot, was one of the New York Public Library's Best Books of 2022, and was a finalist for the New England Book Award, the Weatherford Award, and a Lambda Literary Award. Neema lives in Boston with her partner, Laura, and her daughter, Kahani. Julia H. Lee is professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Irvine. She is the author of three books: Interracial Encounters: Reciprocal Representations in African and Asian American Literatures, 1896-1937 (New York University Press, 2011), Understanding Maxine Hong Kingston (University of South Carolina Press, 2018), and The Racial Railroad (New York University Press, 2022). With Professor Josephine Lee, she is co-editor of Asian American Literature in Transition, 1850-1930 (Cambridge University Press, 2021), a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2022. You can find her on Instagram @julia.x.lee. 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
Neema Avashia is the daughter of Indian immigrants and was born and raised in southern West Virginia. She has been an educator and activist in the Boston Public Schools since 2003 and was named a City of Boston Educator of the Year in 2013. Her first book, Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place, was published by West Virginia University Press in March 2022. It has been called “A timely collection that begins to fill the gap in literature focused mainly on the white male experience” by Ms. Magazine, and “A graceful exploration of identity, community, and contradictions,” by Scalawag. The book was named Best LGBTQ Memoir of 2022 by BookRiot, was one of the New York Public Library's Best Books of 2022, and was a finalist for the New England Book Award, the Weatherford Award, and a Lambda Literary Award. Neema lives in Boston with her partner, Laura, and her daughter, Kahani. Julia H. Lee is professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Irvine. She is the author of three books: Interracial Encounters: Reciprocal Representations in African and Asian American Literatures, 1896-1937 (New York University Press, 2011), Understanding Maxine Hong Kingston (University of South Carolina Press, 2018), and The Racial Railroad (New York University Press, 2022). With Professor Josephine Lee, she is co-editor of Asian American Literature in Transition, 1850-1930 (Cambridge University Press, 2021), a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2022. You can find her on Instagram @julia.x.lee. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-american-studies
Neema Avashia is the daughter of Indian immigrants and was born and raised in southern West Virginia. She has been an educator and activist in the Boston Public Schools since 2003 and was named a City of Boston Educator of the Year in 2013. Her first book, Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place, was published by West Virginia University Press in March 2022. It has been called “A timely collection that begins to fill the gap in literature focused mainly on the white male experience” by Ms. Magazine, and “A graceful exploration of identity, community, and contradictions,” by Scalawag. The book was named Best LGBTQ Memoir of 2022 by BookRiot, was one of the New York Public Library's Best Books of 2022, and was a finalist for the New England Book Award, the Weatherford Award, and a Lambda Literary Award. Neema lives in Boston with her partner, Laura, and her daughter, Kahani. Julia H. Lee is professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Irvine. She is the author of three books: Interracial Encounters: Reciprocal Representations in African and Asian American Literatures, 1896-1937 (New York University Press, 2011), Understanding Maxine Hong Kingston (University of South Carolina Press, 2018), and The Racial Railroad (New York University Press, 2022). With Professor Josephine Lee, she is co-editor of Asian American Literature in Transition, 1850-1930 (Cambridge University Press, 2021), a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2022. You can find her on Instagram @julia.x.lee. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/gender-studies
Neema Avashia is the daughter of Indian immigrants and was born and raised in southern West Virginia. She has been an educator and activist in the Boston Public Schools since 2003 and was named a City of Boston Educator of the Year in 2013. Her first book, Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place, was published by West Virginia University Press in March 2022. It has been called “A timely collection that begins to fill the gap in literature focused mainly on the white male experience” by Ms. Magazine, and “A graceful exploration of identity, community, and contradictions,” by Scalawag. The book was named Best LGBTQ Memoir of 2022 by BookRiot, was one of the New York Public Library's Best Books of 2022, and was a finalist for the New England Book Award, the Weatherford Award, and a Lambda Literary Award. Neema lives in Boston with her partner, Laura, and her daughter, Kahani. Julia H. Lee is professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Irvine. She is the author of three books: Interracial Encounters: Reciprocal Representations in African and Asian American Literatures, 1896-1937 (New York University Press, 2011), Understanding Maxine Hong Kingston (University of South Carolina Press, 2018), and The Racial Railroad (New York University Press, 2022). With Professor Josephine Lee, she is co-editor of Asian American Literature in Transition, 1850-1930 (Cambridge University Press, 2021), a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2022. You can find her on Instagram @julia.x.lee. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biography
Neema Avashia is the daughter of Indian immigrants and was born and raised in southern West Virginia. She has been an educator and activist in the Boston Public Schools since 2003 and was named a City of Boston Educator of the Year in 2013. Her first book, Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place, was published by West Virginia University Press in March 2022. It has been called “A timely collection that begins to fill the gap in literature focused mainly on the white male experience” by Ms. Magazine, and “A graceful exploration of identity, community, and contradictions,” by Scalawag. The book was named Best LGBTQ Memoir of 2022 by BookRiot, was one of the New York Public Library's Best Books of 2022, and was a finalist for the New England Book Award, the Weatherford Award, and a Lambda Literary Award. Neema lives in Boston with her partner, Laura, and her daughter, Kahani. Julia H. Lee is professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Irvine. She is the author of three books: Interracial Encounters: Reciprocal Representations in African and Asian American Literatures, 1896-1937 (New York University Press, 2011), Understanding Maxine Hong Kingston (University of South Carolina Press, 2018), and The Racial Railroad (New York University Press, 2022). With Professor Josephine Lee, she is co-editor of Asian American Literature in Transition, 1850-1930 (Cambridge University Press, 2021), a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2022. You can find her on Instagram @julia.x.lee. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies
Neema Avashia is the daughter of Indian immigrants and was born and raised in southern West Virginia. She has been an educator and activist in the Boston Public Schools since 2003 and was named a City of Boston Educator of the Year in 2013. Her first book, Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place, was published by West Virginia University Press in March 2022. It has been called “A timely collection that begins to fill the gap in literature focused mainly on the white male experience” by Ms. Magazine, and “A graceful exploration of identity, community, and contradictions,” by Scalawag. The book was named Best LGBTQ Memoir of 2022 by BookRiot, was one of the New York Public Library's Best Books of 2022, and was a finalist for the New England Book Award, the Weatherford Award, and a Lambda Literary Award. Neema lives in Boston with her partner, Laura, and her daughter, Kahani. Julia H. Lee is professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Irvine. She is the author of three books: Interracial Encounters: Reciprocal Representations in African and Asian American Literatures, 1896-1937 (New York University Press, 2011), Understanding Maxine Hong Kingston (University of South Carolina Press, 2018), and The Racial Railroad (New York University Press, 2022). With Professor Josephine Lee, she is co-editor of Asian American Literature in Transition, 1850-1930 (Cambridge University Press, 2021), a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2022. You can find her on Instagram @julia.x.lee. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/lgbtq-studies
Neema Avashia is the daughter of Indian immigrants and was born and raised in southern West Virginia. She has been an educator and activist in the Boston Public Schools since 2003 and was named a City of Boston Educator of the Year in 2013. Her first book, Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place, was published by West Virginia University Press in March 2022. It has been called “A timely collection that begins to fill the gap in literature focused mainly on the white male experience” by Ms. Magazine, and “A graceful exploration of identity, community, and contradictions,” by Scalawag. The book was named Best LGBTQ Memoir of 2022 by BookRiot, was one of the New York Public Library's Best Books of 2022, and was a finalist for the New England Book Award, the Weatherford Award, and a Lambda Literary Award. Neema lives in Boston with her partner, Laura, and her daughter, Kahani. Julia H. Lee is professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Irvine. She is the author of three books: Interracial Encounters: Reciprocal Representations in African and Asian American Literatures, 1896-1937 (New York University Press, 2011), Understanding Maxine Hong Kingston (University of South Carolina Press, 2018), and The Racial Railroad (New York University Press, 2022). With Professor Josephine Lee, she is co-editor of Asian American Literature in Transition, 1850-1930 (Cambridge University Press, 2021), a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2022. You can find her on Instagram @julia.x.lee. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-south
The idea of “interiority” is all the talk these days, but what actually is it? How is it different from exposition and simply telling a reader about a character's thoughts and feelings? How do you access that deeper level of character development and voice from which great interiority comes? We've got two master writers and teachers today to help us out: Dawn Tripp and Christopher BoucherWatch a recording of our live webinar here. The audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.I also recommend the following Substack articles about Interiority, the first from Brandon Taylor and the second from Courtney Maum.Christopher Boucher is the author of the novels How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive, Golden Delicious and Big Giant Floating Head (a 2019 Massachusetts Book Award Finalist). He's also an Associate Professor of the Practice of English at Boston College and the managing editor of Post Road Magazine.Dawn Tripp is the author of the novel Georgia, which was a national bestseller and a finalist for the New England Book Award, and three previous novels: Game of Secrets, Moon Tide, and The Season of Open Water, which won the Massachusetts Book Award for Fiction. Her new novel, Jackie, about Jacqueline Kennedy, will be released in June.Photo by Daniel Jericó on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
The power that can come from seeing your own experiences reflected in stories cannot be understated. This week In the Den, Jen chats with New York Times bestselling author Mackenzi Lee about the importance of representation, and queer representation in particular, in literature. Representation matters because what we see in the media doesn't just reflect reality. It has the potential to shape it. Books that depict and normalize queer relationships, queer identities, and queer stories in books help increase understanding in general, and give LGBTQ young people a vision of what their future could be. Special Guest: Mackenzi LeeMackenzi Lee holds a BA in history and an MFA from Simmons College in writing for children and young adults. She is the author of ten books, including The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue, which was a New York Times bestseller, received a 2018 Stonewall Book Award Honor, and won the New England Book Award; and a series of novels for Marvel which tell the origin story of your favorite MCU antiheroes. Her adult debut, LADY LIKE, is forthcoming from Dial Press. In 2020, Forbes Magazine included her on their list of 30 Under 30 in media. She currently lives in Los Angeles with a fridge full of Diet Coke and a dog that weighs more than she does. Links from the Show: Mackenzi's website: https://www.mackenzilee.com/ Mackenzi on IG: https://www.instagram.com/themackenzilee/?hl=en Join Mama Dragons today: www.mamadragons.com In the Den is made possible by generous donors like you.Help us continue to deliver quality content by becoming a donor today at www.mamadragons.org. Connect with Mama Dragons:WebsiteInstagramFacebookDonate to this podcast
Maya Williams is a religious Black multiracial nonbinary suicide survivor who is currently the seventh poet laureate of Portland, Maine. Maya's debut poetry collection, Judas & Suicide, was selected as a finalist for the New England Book Award in July 2023, and is available via Game Over Books. Eir second poetry collection, Refused a Second Date, is available via Harbor Editions this October. They have contributed essays to venues such as Black Girl Nerds, Stylist, The Daily Beast, LGBTQ Nation, Honey Literary, The Rumpus, and more. Host: Ryanne Music by: Sammus Edited by: Jamie Broadnax
About tattoos, great books, and the dark side of the subjunctive. Phuc Tran is the author of "Sigh, Gone: A Misfit's Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the Fight to Fit In," published by Flatiron Books in 2020. "Sigh, Gone" received the New England Book Award and the Maine Literary Award, and it was also named a Best Book of the Year by Amazon. Phuc received a bachelor's degree from Bard College and a master's degree from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and he spent more than 20 years as a high school Latin teacher. In addition to his work as a classicist, writer, teacher, and tattoo artist, Phuc is known for his popular TEDx presentation entitled “Grammar, Identity, and the Dark Side of the Subjunctive.” A resident of Portland, Maine, he is also an occasional contributor to Maine Public Radio. Recorded in November of 2023. Quintilian is supported by a Bridge Initiative Grant from the Committee for the Promotion of Latin and Greek, a division of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South. Music: "Echo Canyon Instrumental" by Clive Romney Comments or questions about this podcast may be directed to ryangsellers@gmail.com. Thanks for listening! If you're enjoying Quintilian, please leave us a rating and/or a review on your favorite podcast distribution platform.
Mona Awad is the bestselling author of the novel Rouge, available from Marysue Rucci Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. Awad's other books include the novels All's Well, Bunny, and the story collection 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl. Bunny was a finalist for a Goodreads Choice Award and the New England Book Award. It was named a Best Book of 2019 by Time, Vogue and the New York Public Library. It is currently being developed for film by Jenni Konner and New Regency Productions. All's Well was a finalist for a Goodreads Choice Award. 13 Ways won the Amazon Best First Novel Award and was shortlisted for the Giller Prize. Awad currently teaches fiction in the creative writing program at Syracuse University. She is based in Boston. *** 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
Jason and Brett talk to Mona Awad (Rouge) about the key ingredients of a fairy tale, the cult of the beauty industry, and how her own biracial background influenced her writing this contemporary gothic Snow White. Mona Awad is the author of the novels All's Well, Bunny, and 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl. Bunny was a finalist for a Goodreads Choice Award and the New England Book Award. It was named a Best Book of 2019 by TIME, Vogue, and the New York Public Library. It is currently being developed for film with Bad Robot Productions. All's Well was a finalist for a Goodreads Choice Award. 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl was shortlisted for the Giller Prize. Awad's forthcoming novel Rouge, is being adapted for film by Fremantle and Sinestra. This spring, Margaret Atwood named Awad her ‘literary heir' in The New York Times's T Magazine. She teaches fiction in the creative writing program at Syracuse University and is based in Boston.**BOOKS!** Check out the list of books discussed on each episode on our Bookshop page:https://bookshop.org/shop/gaysreading | By purchasing books through this Bookshop link, you can support both Gays Reading and an independent bookstore of your choice!Join our Patreon for exclusive bonus content! Purchase your Gays Reading podcast Merch! Follow us on Instagram @gaysreading | @bretts.book.stack | @jasonblitmanWhat are you reading? Send us an email or a voice memo at gaysreading@gmail.com
First pages are impossible… so we're hearing from authors about how they got them right. In this episode, BA Shapiro discusses the first pages of her latest novel, Metropolis. We learn about how she worked with six very different points of view, how she handled narrative distance, how she decided where to start and why, the power of questions, the necessity of playing with time, and her advice to writers about their own first pages: Get it wrong. Shaprio's first pages can be found here.Help local bookstores and our authors by buying this book on Bookshop.Click here for the audio/video version of this interview.The above link will be available for 48 hours. Missed it? The podcast version is always available, both here and on your favorite podcast platform.B.A. Shapiro is the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of nine novels, including Metropolis (May, 2022), The Collector's Apprentice, The Muralist and The Art Forger, which won the New England Book Award for Fiction, among other honors. Her books have been selected as Community Reads throughout the country and have been translated into over a dozen languages. She holds a PhD in sociology and has directed research projects for a residential substance abuse facility, worked as a systems analyst/statistician, headed the Boston office of a software development firm, and served as an adjunct professor teaching sociology at Tufts University and creative writing at Northeastern University. She likes writing novels the best. Barbara splits her time between Boston and Naples, Florida.Thank you for reading The 7am Novelist. This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
How do you know when it's time to put a book away? How do you find your voice again in moments of doubt? And when is that doubt useful, even necessary, to the writing process as a whole? We talk to authors Dawn Tripp and Jane Roper about their experience with the highs and lows of the writing life.For a list of my fave craft books and the most recent works by our guests, go to our Bookshop page.Dawn Tripp's fourth novel Georgia was a national bestseller, finalist for the New England Book Award, and winner of the Mary Lynn Kotz Award for Art in Literature. She is the author of three previous novels: Game of Secrets, Moon Tide, and The Season of Open Water, which won the Massachusetts Book Award for Fiction. Her essays and poems have appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review, Harvard Review, AGNI, Conjunctions, and NPR, among others. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and lives in Massachusetts with her sons. Her fifth novel will be published by Random House in 2025.Jane Roper is the author of two novels, The Society of Shame, and Eden Lake, and a memoir, Double Time: How I Survived–and Mostly Thrived–Through the First Three Years of Mothering Twins. Her writing has appeared in Salon, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, The Millions, Poets & Writers, The Rumpus, Cognoscenti, Writers' Digest and elsewhere, and has been included in the anthology Labor Day: True Birth Stories by today's Best Women Writers. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Jane currently lives just north of Boston with her husband, rad teenage twins, and two cats, one of whom sucks. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
On this week Tricia speaks with award-winning author Rajani LaRocca about representation, STEM, creativity and much much more. Rajani LaRocca is a physician and award-winning author of books for young people. She was born in Bangalore, India, immigrated to the U.S. as a baby, and spent most of her childhood in Louisville, Kentucky. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Medical School, she trained in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she's been working as a primary care internal medicine physician since 2001. She lives in eastern Massachusetts with her family and impossibly cute dog. Rajani has always been an omnivorous reader of novels, nonfiction, comic books, and cereal boxes. She is now an omnivorous writer of award-winning books for young readers: novels and picture books, fiction and nonfiction, in prose and poetry. Her middle grade novel in verse, Red, White, and Whole, won a 2022 Newbery Honor, the 2022 Walter Dean Myers Award, the 2022 Golden Kite Award, and the 2021 New England Book Award, as well as other honors. She is the author of numerous other acclaimed novels and picture books, including Midsummer's Mayhem, Seven Golden Rings, and more. She also co-hosts the STEM Women in KidLit Podcast. The books Rajani read as a child helped shape who she is today in ways she's still discovering. Books inspired her to pursue medicine, made her yearn to live in different worlds, and helped her consider what it's like to walk in someone else's shoes. A lifelong book lover, she never saw herself in a book until she was an adult—and when she did, it was world-changing and mind-blowing. She believes that everyone deserves to see themselves in the pages of a book; that writing and reading diversely promotes empathy; and empathy makes the world a better place. Learn more about her at www.RajaniLaRocca.com and on Twitter and Instagram @rajanilarocca. Additional links discussed on the show this week: https://diversebooks.org/walter-winner-rajani-larocca-on-red-white-and-whole-and-being-caught-between-worlds/ https://stemwomenkidlit.buzzsprout.com/ https://www.rajanilarocca.com/novels/ Apply to be a leader of learning at Learning2 in 2023 https://learning2.org/ For a transcript of the episode: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gn3miiTNphDqnM9FFXjNs-3kGOy167Mshu07fr9RVtM/edit?usp=sharing
When we hear about the climate crisis, it can often be framed as a future or somehow distant dilemma. But environmental justice advocates point to the many ways present-day discriminatory practices and policies have resulted in stark instances of environmental racism here in the U.S. One acclaimed Connecticut author is using his latest work of science fiction to reframe the climate crisis as inherently local, all while confronting issues of race, class, and gentrification. Tochi Onyebuchi's Goliath envisions his home of New Haven in the not-to-distant future, ravaged by climate crisis and abandoned by the mostly-white class of people who can afford it. Like his previous work of fiction, Riot Baby, Goliath carries pressing real-world implications. This hour, he joins us to discuss. GUESTS: Tochi Onyebuchi: Author, Goliath; Winner, New England Book Award; Finalist, Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and NAACP Image Award Cat Pastor contributed to this report which originally aired September 9. 2022.Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Because you need a lot of tools in your toolbox for holding up your book's middle, today we discuss additional tension tricks as well as the all-important idea of the Crucible. Helping us out our authors Desmond Hall and Erica Ferencik.Devoted to authenticity in her craft, Erica Ferencik spent weeks in the northern Maine wilderness to research her debut best seller, The River at Night. For her “hair-raisingly vivid” (Kirkus) follow-up, Into the Jungle, Ferencik journeyed a hundred miles up the Amazon to experience firsthand the lush and perilous Peruvian jungle. Inspired and informed by a month-long trip to Greenland, Ferencik sets the New York Times, Oprah Daily, Los Angeles Times, and Wall Street Journal's editors' pick, GIRL IN ICE, in one of the most unforgiving, unforgettable landscapes imaginable.Desmond Hall was born in Jamaica, West Indies, and moved to Jamaica, Queens. He's the author of YOUR CORNER DARK, a YA novel that was one of Bank Street's Best YA novels of 2022, a finalist for the New England Book Award, A Nominee for the Yalsa audio book award, Essence Magazine's 19 Children's book list, and included on several MUST READ lists including Buzzfeed and WBUR. He's worked as both a high school biology teacher and English teacher, counseled at-risk teens from Riker's Island prison, and served as Spike Lee's creative director in the advertising business. He's also written and directed the HBO movie, A DAY IN BLACK AND WHITE, which was nominated for the Gordon Parks Award. He's written and directed the theater play, STOCKHOLM, BROOKLYN, which won the audience award at the Downtown Theater Festival at the Cherry Lane Theater. He's also served on the board of the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, and was a judge for the Addys, and the Downtown Urban Arts Film Festival. Hall was named one of Variety Magazine's 50 Creatives to watch. 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
First person may grant you intimacy with your character and the reader as well as help you establish the voice of your book, but it can also limit the experience you put on the page. We're looking at the pleasures and pitfalls of this popular point-of-view choice today with authors Maya Shanbhag Lang and Lauren Acampora.Maya Shanbhag Lang is the author of What We Carry, named a New York Times Editors' Choice and a Best Book of 2020 by Amazon, Parade, Times of India, Bookshop.Org, and others. She is also the author of The Sixteenth of June, long listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and hailed a "Must Read Novel" by CBS and In Style. She holds a PhD in Comparative Literature and lives with her daughter in New York.Lauren Acampora is the author of The Wonder Garden, winner of the GLCA New Writers Award and a finalist for the New England Book Award; and The Paper Wasp, longlisted for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize. Her most recent novel, The Hundred Waters, was named a Best Book of 2022 by Vogue. Lauren is a 2021 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Fiction from The New York Foundation for the Arts. Her writing has appeared Paris Review, Guernica, The New York Times Book Review, and LitHub, among other places. She lives in Westchester County, New York with her husband and daughter. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
The book of the moment for today's episode is Fat Chance, Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado. Just a forewarning for those of you listening, this is NOT a spoiler-free zone. We will be discussing this book in all of its glory, which of course includes revealing the ending. Crystal Maldonado is a young adult author with a lot of feelings. Her debut novel, Fat Chance, Charlie Vega, is a 2021 New England Book Award winner, a Cosmopolitan Best New Book, and a POPSUGAR Best New YA Novel. Her newest novel, No Filter and Other Lies, explores teenage life in the social media age—and the lies we tell to ourselves and others. By day, Crystal works in higher ed marketing, and by night, she's a writer who loves Beyoncé, glitter, shopping, and spending too much time on her phone. Her work has been published in Latina, BuzzFeed, and the Hartford Courant. She lives in western Massachusetts with her husband, daughter, and dog. If you enjoyed this episode, I encourage you to leave a review on whichever platform you are listening on, if applicable. If you have any further questions regarding topics discussed throughout the episode feel free to join our Hardcover Hoes Discord Server via the link in the show notes, or send us an email at hardcoverhoespod@gmail.com. Feel free to recommend books to cover in future episodes as well! Discord Server: https://discord.gg/zpvW4FyuPF TikTok, IG, Twitter: @HardcoverHoes Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/993967071461813/ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
In this week's episode, Melissa and Desiree interview special guest Crystal Maldonado! Crystal is a young adult author with a lot of feelings. Her debut novel, Fat Chance, Charlie Vega, is a 2021 New England Book Award winner, a Cosmopolitan Best New Book, and a POPSUGAR Best New YA Novel. Her next novel, No Filter and Other Lies, explores teenage life in the social media age—and the lies we tell to ourselves and others. By day, Crystal works in higher ed marketing, and by night, a writer who loves Beyoncé, shopping, spending too much time on her phone, and being extra. Her work has also been published in Latina, BuzzFeed, and the Hartford Courant. She lives in western Massachusetts with her husband, daughter, and dog.
Check out this New release from the "Boston Gems" series part of the new fall season of Takin A Walk. Join Host Buzz Knight and Best Selling Author William Martin as they walk and talk at The North Bridge in Concord Massachusetts. William is the "King of the historical thriller" including his latest "December 41." Check out show notes here. William Martin: An American Author and His Love of History Reading is the foundation of a good writer and one of the most important skills to possess. It allows one to develop an arsenal of ideas and find unique ways to write about a topic. It also makes one a better writer by providing inspiration and developing writing skills. Join this conversation and meet William Martin, a “storyteller whose smoothness matches his ambition.” (Publisher's Weekly) In his boyhood, William Martin loved what he later called "big stories on broad canvases." He read the historical novels of C.S. Forester and Esther Forbes. He sat transfixed by the big movies of the early sixties. So, after college, he went to Hollywood to try his hand at screenwriting but discovered that his instincts were better suited to novels. His first, "Back Bay," introduced treasure hunter Peter Fallon to a new kind of adventure that joined the contemporary mystery-thriller to the historical novel. In his twelve novels (including six bestselling Peter Fallon adventures), Martin has tracked national treasures across the landscape of the American imagination, chronicled the lives of the great and the anonymous in American history, and brought to life legendary American locations, from Cape Cod to Washington DC in "The Lincoln Letter." And after the publication of his Gold Rush epic, "Bound for Gold," the Providence Journal called him "the king of the historical thriller." "December '41," published in the summer of '22, provides readers with another propulsive journey through American history. He has also written an award-winning PBS documentary on the life of Washington, a cult-classic horror movie, has contributed book reviews to the Boston Globe and The New England Quarterly, and has taught writing across the country, from the Harvard Extension School to the legendary Maui Writers Conference. He lives near Boston with his wife and has three grown children. He received the 2005 New England Book Award, "an author whose work stands as a significant contribution to the region's culture." He has also won the Samuel Eliot Morison Award and the Robert B. Parker Award. Tune in! During this episode, you will learn about; [00:00] Episode intro and our today's walk at Boston with Author William Martin [03:15] How his love for historical research and findings came into being [04:43] Aspiring to become a movie director and how the ambition hit the wall [07:53] Writing his book; December '41 [09:37] What it took to crack the success code with his book; Back Bay [12:02] How he develops the sinister and nasty characters for different scenes of writing [15:27] What influenced the sense of humor in his books [16:46] Time and resources needed from start to finish and publish a book [25:10] The future of William's writing [26:40] Ending the show and call to action Notable Quotes The easiest way to get into the movie business was to write a good screenplay. The arrogance to accept corrections and setbacks is what keeps young people stagnating. If you are not a writer, you should be a great reader. To be a good writer, you should also be a great reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader. William's Books Mentioned and Other Resources Back Bay: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0089VKMA0/ December '41: A World War II Thriller: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09CNF9RT7/ Stephen King Robert B. Parker Connect With William Martin Website: https://www.williammartinbooks.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Martinbooks
When we hear about the climate crisis, it can often be framed as a future or somehow distant dilemma. But environmental justice advocates point to the many ways present-day discriminatory practices and policies have resulted in stark instances of environmental racism here in the U.S. One acclaimed Connecticut author is using his latest work of science fiction to reframe the climate crisis as inherently local, all while confronting issues of race, class, and gentrification. Tochi Onyebuchi's Goliath envisions his home of New Haven in the not-to-distant future, ravaged by climate crisis and abandoned by the mostly-white class of people who can afford it. Like his previous work of fiction, Riot Baby, Goliath carries pressing real-world implications. This hour, he joins us to discuss. GUESTS: Tochi Onyebuchi: Author, Goliath; Winner, New England Book Award; Finalist, Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and NAACP Image Award Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
William Martin is the New York Times bestselling author of twelve novels, a PBS documentary, book reviews, magazine articles, and a cult-classic horror movie, too. His first Peter Fallon novel, Back Bay, established him as "a master storyteller." He has been following the lives of the great and anonymous in American history ever since, taking readers from the Mayflower in Cape Cod to Ford's Theater in The Lincoln Letter to the South Tower on 9/11 in City of Dreams. Bound for Gold (2018), sweeps readers back to California in the legendary year of 1849 and "solidifies his claim as king of the historical thriller" (Providence Journal). And his latest, the "propulsive" December '41, captures the atmosphere in the United States int he weeks after Pearl Harbor. He was the 2005 recipient of the prestigious New England Book Award, given to an author "whose body of work stands as a significant contribution to the culture of the region." In 2015, the USS Constitution Museum gave him the Samuel Eliot Morison Award, for "patriotic pride, artful scholarship, and an eclectic interest in the sea and things maritime." And in 2018, the Mystery Writers of America (New England Chapter) gave him the Robert B. Parker Award. He serves on the boards of many of Boston's historical and cultural organizations, lives near Boston with his wife, and has three grown children. QUICK LINKS: E-mail the author: mail@WilliamMartinBooks.com Use this address to stay in touch!
Mackenzi Lee holds a BA in history and an MFA in creative writing from Simmons college. She is the author of the New York Times bestselling Montague Siblings series, which kicked off in 2017 with The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue, which was a New York Times bestseller, an ABA bestseller, has been optioned for film by Greg Berlanti for HBO, was a 2018 Stonewall Honor Book, and won the New England Book Award. Mackenzi is also the author of Bygone Badass Broads, a collection of short biographies of women in history you probably don't know about but definitely should, based on her viral twitter series of the same name; and The History of the World in 50 Dogs, which is the same thing but dogs. She is currently finishing a series with Marvel detailing the origin stories of fan-favorite antiheroes from the MCU and comics-iverse, including Loki, Nebula, and Gamora. In 2020, Mackenzi was included on the Forbes 30 under 30 media list. Her short fiction and nonfiction has appeared in the Boston Globe, Atlas Obscura, Teen Vogue, and Bust magazine, among others. Interviewer Kay Huggins is a creative, the owner of Aphelion Editing and Consulting, and the host of The Raindrop Corner Podcast. As a longtime resident of Jacksonville, Florida, they have sought to support local artistry, foster thought-provoking content, and aid in human rights advocacy. For over a decade, their life has been dazzled with project management, technology industries, logistics, writing, and production. Through the intersectionality of Kay's craft, they aim to champion the community by providing a platform to marginalized groups. Currently, Kay is writing their debut novel and enjoying leisure moments with their wife and fur babies. Sign Up for Library U to hear about the latest Lit Chats and catch them live! — https://jaxpubliclibrary.org/library-u-enrollment Mackenzi Lee Borrow Mackenzi Lee's books from our catalog: https://jkpl.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/default/search/results?qu=AUTHOR%3D%22mackenzi+lee%22&te= Website: http://www.mackenzilee.com/ Kay Huggins Website: https://www.kaylareneehuggins.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/kayisadragon Jacksonville Public Library Website: jaxpubliclibrary.org Twitter: twitter.com/jaxlibrary Facebook: facebook.com/JaxLibrary Instagram: instagram.com/jaxlibrary YouTube: youtube.com/user/jaxpubliclibraryfl Contact Us: jplpromotions (at) coj.net
In Episode 117, Annie Hartnett, author of Unlikely Animals, shares the intriguing backstory behind her new novel. She is wonderfully candid and shares interesting tidbits from the germ of the idea, through some of the editing process, all the way to the finished book and finding a publisher. This post contains affiliate links, through which I make a small commission when you make a purchase (at no cost to you!). Highlights How interesting information transitions to the idea to write a book. The importance of voice in her stories. How she infuses comedy into her writing and embraces the potential for silliness. Annie shares the experience of having her second book under her belt and how that affects her confidence going forward. The difficulty in talking about and promoting a multi-faceted book. Cover design and summary decisions for Unlikely Animals. Why she chose to tell the story in the collective voice. The atmospheric place she lived when she began writing Unlikely Animals. Annie answers lightning round questions about some delightfully weird elements in the book. Annie's Book Recommendations [33:09] Two OLD Books She Loves The Electric Woman by Tessa Fontaine | Amazon | Bookshop.org : [33:18] We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry | Amazon | Bookshop.org : [34:56] Two NEW Books She Loves Walk the Vanished Earth by Erin Swan | Amazon | Bookshop.org : [36:30] More Than You'll Ever Know by Katie Gutierrez | Amazon | Bookshop.org : [40:05] One NEW RELEASE She's Excited About Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson (November 8, 2022) | Amazon | Bookshop.org : [42:24] Last 5-Star Book Annie Read Sigh, Gone by Phuc Tran | Amazon | Bookshop.org : [46:26] Other Books Mentioned Rabbit Cake by Annie Hartnett : [1:20] The Last Chairlift by John Irving (October 18, 2022) : [20:54] The Mothers by Brit Bennett : [24:42] Our Town by Thornton Wilder : [28:04] Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders : [28:15] Wild by Cheryl Strayed : [34:13] Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters : [35:27] When I'm Gone, Look for Me in the East by Quan Barry : [35:48] How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu : [37:16] Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel : [37:38] Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel : [38:19] Are You Sleeping by Kathleen Barber : [40:45] Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson : [42:45] The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson : [45:30] Perfect Little World by Kevin Wilson : [45:35] About Annie Hartnett Website | Twitter | Instagram In addition to her new book, Unlikely Animals, Annie Hartnett is the author of Rabbit Cake, which was listed as one of Kirkus Reviews's Best Books of 2017 and a finalist for the New England Book Award. She has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Sewanee Writers' Conference, and the Associates of the Boston Public Library. She studied philosophy at Hamilton College, has an MA from Middlebury College, and an MFA from the University of Alabama. When she began writing Unlikely Animals, she was living in the groundskeeper's house in a cemetery. She now lives in a small town in Massachusetts with her husband, daughter, and darling border collie, Mr. Willie Nelson.
While visiting friends in New Hampshire, Hartnett became fascinated with nineteenth-century robber baron Austin Corbin's historical estate, and a real life Doctor Doolittle that worked there! This surreal property, Corbin''s Park, became a secret, exclusive hunting park that still exists today. The true story is fascinating and it's no surprise it inspired Unlikely Animals—already receiving rave reviews! “Hartnett masterfully balances a story of deep loss with the perfect amount of hilarity and tenderness.”—Booklist (starred review) “Hartnett's whimsical storytelling casts a spell.”—Publishers Weekly “This is a big novel doing big things. It bears some similarity to Hartnett's much- loved first novel, Rabbit Cake. . . . But Unlikely Animals is a broader, brassier, and even more fiercely tender story. In this, her second novel, Hartnett lands an astonishing leap as a storyteller.”—The Rumpus “Wistfully charming . . . This unapologetically genre-bending tribute to life and death, and the beautiful weirdness found in both, has potential to spark exceptional book club discussions.”—Shelf Awareness Author Annie Hartnett released her first novel, Rabbit Cake, in 2017 to critical acclaim. Numerous media outlets included it on their “Best of ” lists, and it was named a finalist for the New England Book Award, long-listed for The Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize, and shortlisted for The Crook's Corner Book Prize for Best Debut set in the South. Reviewers called it “[a] treasure” (People Magazine) and “truly terrific and original” (Booklist). Now, I'm excited to share that Hartnett has knocked it out of the park once more with her second novel, UNLIKELY ANIMALS (Ballantine Hardcover; On Sale 4/12/2022). When I first started reading this tender, funny, quirky story, I realized quickly that I had never encountered anything like it before.
Young Adult Author Crystal Maldonado joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss boyband fan fiction, the one book that made her feel like there might be room for her stories, googling everything, being shy about being a writer, her actual rejections from publishers, covid interfering with her publishing schedule, her book baby taking a backseat to her human baby, being grateful for the publishing delay, wishing she had shared her writing sooner, and sending Roxane Gay a copy of her book. Crystal Maldonado is a young adult author writing inclusive stories about fat, brown girls. Her debut novel, Fat Chance, Charlie Vega, is a 2021 New England Book Award winner, while her newest, No Filter and Other Lies, explores teenage life in the social media age. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband, daughter, and dog. Crystal: Query | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound | Libro FM QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon If links aren't clickable, find them here: https://bit.ly/qqqmaldonado This page includes affiliate links. Please use them if you'd like to support the show.
This week, we are joined by the wonderful Debbi Michiko Florence — author of middle grade novels Keep It Together, Keiko Carter, a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection and New England Book Award finalist and Just Be Cool, Jenna Sakai, starred review from Kirkus, Amazon Best Books, and a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. Debbi's newest book, Sweet and Sour, comes out 9/6/22! Follow Debbi on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/debbi_michiko_florence/Follow Debbi on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DebbiMichikoFollow Debbi's Website: https://debbimichikoflorence.com/Pre-Order Sweet and Sour: https://bookshop.org/lists/scbwi-podcastsFollow SCBWI on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scbwi/Follow SCBWI on Twitter: https://twitter.com/scbwiFollow SCBWI on Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@therealscbwiJoin SCBWI: https://www.scbwi.org/join-scbwi/Support the show
Annie Hartnett is the author of Rabbit Cake, which was listed as one of Kirkus Reviews‘s Best Books of 2017 and a finalist for the New England Book Award. She has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Sewanee Writers' Conference, and the Associates of the Boston Public Library. She studied philosophy at Hamilton College, has an MA from Middlebury College, and an MFA from the University of Alabama. When she began writing Unlikely Animals, she was living in the groundskeeper's house in a cemetery. She now lives in a small town in Massachusetts with her husband, daughter, and darling border collie, Mr. Willie Nelson. Recommended Reading: Good Grief: On Loving Pets, Here and Hereafter by E. B. Bartels · How High We Go In the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu · Notes On an Execution by Danya Kukafka Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Annie Hartnett is the author of novels RABBIT CAKE (Tin House Books, 2017) and UNLIKELY ANIMALS (Ballantine/Random House, 2022). Unlikely Animals was the April 2022 book club selection for Good Housekeeping magazine and Amerie's Book club. It received starred reviews from Booklist and Bookpage, and was an April Indie Next pick. Rabbit Cake was listed as one of Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of 2017, was a finalist for the New England Book Award, an Indies Introduce and an Indie Next Pick, and was long-listed for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize. It received starred reviews from Publisher's Weekly, Kirkus, and Library Journal, and was People magazine's Book of the Week. It is currently under option with Amazon Studios (more on that here!).Annie has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the MacDowell Colony, Sewanee Writers' Conference, and the Associates of the Boston Public Library. She holds degrees from the MFA program at the University of Alabama, Middlebury College's Bread Loaf School of English, and Hamilton College. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband, daughter, and dog.Visit anniehartnett.com Here to Save You podcast: @HTSYpodIntro roll for WTPC
Frankie's Guests are Richard Friesen, Annie Hartnett, and Jocelyn Delk Adams. Richard Friesen author of A Private Conversation with Money has spent 30 years in the financial world, trading on the floors of major exchanges, building a trading firm, as a therapist reviewing over 1000 financial assessments, and coaching hundreds of clients in groups and private sessions. Richard's training as a therapist opens the door to the deeper drivers of financial and money behaviors that no longer serve us, yet we repeat them over and over again. https://conversations.money/Annie Hartnett released her first novel, Rabbit Cake, in 2017 to critical acclaim. Numerous media outlets included it on their “Best of ” lists, and it was named a finalist for the New England Book Award, long-listed for The Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize and shortlisted for The Crook's Corner Book Prize for Best Debut set in the South. Her second novel, Unlikely Animals, is a tragicomic novel about familial expectations, imperfect friendships, and the possibility of resurrecting that which had been thought irrevocably lost. http://www.anniehartnett.com/Jocelyn Delk Adams is the founder, author, national television personality and brand ambassador behind the award-winning cookbook Grandbaby Cakes and the food website Grandbaby-Cakes.com Super Chef Jocelyn will discuss how to freshen up your menu and will share 3 Spring-inspired dinner and dessert dishes made with affordably priced organic ingredients. https://grandbaby-cakes.com/............Frankie Boyer is an award winning talk show host that empowers listeners to live healthy vibrant lives http://www.frankieboyer.com
This week's Bookin' features Ilube Nommo Award, New England Book Award, and Alex Award winning author Tochi Onyebuchi, who discusses his new novel Goliath, which is published by our friends at Tordotcom. Topics of discussion include Economic Law, writing for young adults vs not so young adults, gangs, Connecticut novels, space exploration and global warming, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, cigarettes, Cormac McCarthy, and much more. Copies of Goliath can be purchased here with FREE SHIPPING.
Lily King discusses the title story from her collection "Five Tuesdays in Winter." The story is available at most local libraries and should be read before listening to the podcast. I apologize--normally I am able to provide a copy of the story on my website but apparently Grove Atlantic does not have serial rights to the individual stories. Lily King is the award-winning author of five novels. Her most recent novel, Writers & Lovers, was published on March 3rd, 2020, and her first collection of short stories, Five Tuesdays in Winter, was released on November 9, 2021. Her 2014 novel Euphoria won the Kirkus Award, The New England Book Award and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Award. Euphoria was named one of the 10 Best Books of 2014 by The New York Times Book Review. It was included in TIME's Top 10 Fiction Books of 2014, as well as on Amazon, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, Publishers Weekly, and Salon's Best Books of 2014. Kelly Fordon's (podcast host) latest short story collection I Have the Answer (Wayne State University Press, 2020) was chosen as a Midwest Book Award Finalist and an Eric Hoffer Finalist. Her 2016 Michigan Notable Book, Garden for the Blind, (WSUP), was an INDIEFAB Finalist, a Midwest Book Award Finalist, Eric Hoffer Finalist, and an IPPY Awards Bronze Medalist. Her first full-length poetry collection, Goodbye Toothless House, (Kattywompus Press, 2019) was an Eyelands International Prize Finalist and an Eric Hoffer Finalist and was adapted into a play, written by Robin Martin, which was published in The Kenyon Review Online. This is the second "Let's Deconstruct a Story" podcast offered in collaboration with the Grosse Pointe Public Library in Michigan. The GPPL has committed to purchasing ten books by each author this season to give to their patrons! If you are a short story writer who has tried to make money in this game then you know what a big deal this is! My hope is that other libraries will follow the GPPL's lead and be inspired to buy books by these talented short story writers. I will be contacting many libraries this year to suggest this programming. Please feel free to do the same if you enjoy this podcast.
Is it possible for one person to write both award-winning literary speculative fiction and Marvel's newest “Captain America” series and also be a former civil rights lawyer, a film school graduate, and be less than 35 years old? If the person in question is author Tochi Onyebuchi, the answer is yes. In this episode, Julie and Eve talk with Tochi about his new novel, Goliath, a sweeping science fiction epic set in a post-apocalyptic America only thirty years from today. They also talk about Tochi's other new big project: in April Marvel Comics is debuting a new “Captain America” series, written by Tochi, that stars Sam Wilson as the first Black Captain America. In this wide ranging interview, Julie, Eve, and Tochi discuss everything from how he interwove themes of race, class, gentrification, climate change, and allyship in Goliath to what it was like for Tochi to go from being a Marvel fan to a Marvel author. Tochi describes, too, the array of themes that he is exploring with this new “Captain America” series: “If Captain America is a mimesis or even a synecdoche of America, then…what is it gonna look like if Captain America, as embodied in Sam Wilson, is enlisted in an effort at regime change? … What is that going to mean for Captain America, as is the subtitle of the book, ‘a symbol of truth'?” Tochi Onyebuchi is the author of the new novel Goliath, which is a New York Times Editor's Choice pick and the most anticipated pick for USA Today, Bustle, Buzzfeed, Goodreads, and Nerdist. He is also the author of the “Beasts Made of Night” series, “The War Girls” series, Marvel's “Black Panther Legends” limited series, and Marvel's upcoming “Captain America: Symbol of Truth” series. His first novel for adults, Riot Baby, was a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and NAACP Image awards, and winner of the New England Book Award for Fiction, the Ignite Award for Best Novella, and the World Fantasy Award. 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
Andrea Wang is an acclaimed author of children's books. Her book Watercress was awarded the Caldecott Medal, a Newbery Honor, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, a New England Book Award, and a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor. Her other books, The Many Meanings of Meilan, Magic Ramen, and The Nian Monster, have also received awards and starred reviews. Her work explores culture, creative thinking, and identity. She is also the author of seven nonfiction titles for the library and school market. Andrea holds an M.S. in Environmental Science and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing for Young People. She lives in Colorado with her family. During this podcast, Andrea talks about winning awards, her writing process, early family life, and what it means to put your heart into your work. Website: https://andreaywang.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/AndreaYWang Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/andrea.c.wang Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andreawhywang/
Tochi Onyebuchi's new novel Goliath (Tordotcom, 2022) features a phenomenon familiar to those of us who live in cities—gentrification. Like the gentrifiers of today who push out old-timers with high rents and coffee boutiques, Onyebuchi's urban colonizers are taking over property in communities that have suffered from underinvestment and systemic racism. But unlike gentrifiers of today, who often leave behind comfortable lives in the suburbs, the gentrifiers in Goliath are returning from comfortable lives on space stations where those with means had fled years earlier to escape pollution and environmental degradation on Earth. Onyebuchi sees in the story of David and Jonathan—returnees from who take over a home in a Black and Brown community in New Haven—parallels to frontier narratives. “I've read a lot of westerns and western-inflected literature, and the ways in which people have written about the American West were very fundamental in how I approached the characters of David and Jonathan. You have people going out west historically for all sorts of reasons. ‘Oh, that's where my fortune is.' Or they're like, ‘Oh, like, there are no rules out there. I can totally remake myself.'” In David and Jonathan's case, their relationship is broken. “They think, ‘Oh, if we just change the scenery, that'll make things better, we'll be able to start over.… We can make this work on Earth. It's virgin territory, this place where we can build something together.' That in many ways is the animating impulse, of course, completely or almost completely disregarding the fact that Earth is already home to a lot of people.” Tochi Onyebuchi is the author of the Beasts Made of Night series; the War Girls series; and the non-fiction book (S)kinfolk. His novel Riot Baby—which he discussed on the podcast in 2020—was a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and NAACP Image Awards and winner of the New England Book Award for Fiction, the Ignyte Award for Best Novella, and the World Fantasy Award. He has degrees from Yale, New York University, Columbia Law School, and the Paris Institute of Political Studies. Rob Wolf is the host of New Books in Science Fiction and the author of The Alternate Universe and The Escape. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature
Tochi Onyebuchi's new novel Goliath (Tordotcom, 2022) features a phenomenon familiar to those of us who live in cities—gentrification. Like the gentrifiers of today who push out old-timers with high rents and coffee boutiques, Onyebuchi's urban colonizers are taking over property in communities that have suffered from underinvestment and systemic racism. But unlike gentrifiers of today, who often leave behind comfortable lives in the suburbs, the gentrifiers in Goliath are returning from comfortable lives on space stations where those with means had fled years earlier to escape pollution and environmental degradation on Earth. Onyebuchi sees in the story of David and Jonathan—returnees from who take over a home in a Black and Brown community in New Haven—parallels to frontier narratives. “I've read a lot of westerns and western-inflected literature, and the ways in which people have written about the American West were very fundamental in how I approached the characters of David and Jonathan. You have people going out west historically for all sorts of reasons. ‘Oh, that's where my fortune is.' Or they're like, ‘Oh, like, there are no rules out there. I can totally remake myself.'” In David and Jonathan's case, their relationship is broken. “They think, ‘Oh, if we just change the scenery, that'll make things better, we'll be able to start over.… We can make this work on Earth. It's virgin territory, this place where we can build something together.' That in many ways is the animating impulse, of course, completely or almost completely disregarding the fact that Earth is already home to a lot of people.” Tochi Onyebuchi is the author of the Beasts Made of Night series; the War Girls series; and the non-fiction book (S)kinfolk. His novel Riot Baby—which he discussed on the podcast in 2020—was a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and NAACP Image Awards and winner of the New England Book Award for Fiction, the Ignyte Award for Best Novella, and the World Fantasy Award. He has degrees from Yale, New York University, Columbia Law School, and the Paris Institute of Political Studies. Rob Wolf is the host of New Books in Science Fiction and the author of The Alternate Universe and The Escape. 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
Tochi Onyebuchi's new novel Goliath (Tordotcom, 2022) features a phenomenon familiar to those of us who live in cities—gentrification. Like the gentrifiers of today who push out old-timers with high rents and coffee boutiques, Onyebuchi's urban colonizers are taking over property in communities that have suffered from underinvestment and systemic racism. But unlike gentrifiers of today, who often leave behind comfortable lives in the suburbs, the gentrifiers in Goliath are returning from comfortable lives on space stations where those with means had fled years earlier to escape pollution and environmental degradation on Earth. Onyebuchi sees in the story of David and Jonathan—returnees from who take over a home in a Black and Brown community in New Haven—parallels to frontier narratives. “I've read a lot of westerns and western-inflected literature, and the ways in which people have written about the American West were very fundamental in how I approached the characters of David and Jonathan. You have people going out west historically for all sorts of reasons. ‘Oh, that's where my fortune is.' Or they're like, ‘Oh, like, there are no rules out there. I can totally remake myself.'” In David and Jonathan's case, their relationship is broken. “They think, ‘Oh, if we just change the scenery, that'll make things better, we'll be able to start over.… We can make this work on Earth. It's virgin territory, this place where we can build something together.' That in many ways is the animating impulse, of course, completely or almost completely disregarding the fact that Earth is already home to a lot of people.” Tochi Onyebuchi is the author of the Beasts Made of Night series; the War Girls series; and the non-fiction book (S)kinfolk. His novel Riot Baby—which he discussed on the podcast in 2020—was a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and NAACP Image Awards and winner of the New England Book Award for Fiction, the Ignyte Award for Best Novella, and the World Fantasy Award. He has degrees from Yale, New York University, Columbia Law School, and the Paris Institute of Political Studies. Rob Wolf is the host of New Books in Science Fiction and the author of The Alternate Universe and The Escape. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science-fiction
Trigger Warning: Discussions of child abuse Relive my interview with Phuc Tran, author of his 2020 critically-acclaimed childhood memoir, "Sigh, Gone" . This interview was recorded back in December 2020 after spending the Covid lockdown year promoting his memoir virtually. This video version can be seen exclusively through Spotify. Look below for more information on this episode. Original show note: (S4, EP 12) Viet-American best-selling and critically acclaimed author Phuc Tran joined me for the Season 4 finale for this episode. Last Spring, he released his award-winning memoir, "Sigh, Gone" which traced back to his upbringing in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in the 80s and early 90s after his family fled from Vietnam after the war. I spoke with Phuc back in late December to discuss his struggles with assimilation in a rural white community, his father's abuse. He explaied how seeking therapy played a role in being able to write his story while healing the wounds from his turbulent past with his parents. Check out more on this episode and follow Phuc Tran on IG @Phucskywalker. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bio: Phuc Tran has been a high school Latin teacher for more than twenty years while also simultaneously establishing himself as a highly sought-after tattooer in the Northeast. Tran graduated Bard College in 1995 with a BA in Classics and received the Callanan Classics Prize. He taught Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit in New York at the Collegiate School and was an instructor at Brooklyn College's Summer Latin Institute. Most recently, he taught Latin, Greek, and German at the Waynflete School in Portland, Maine. His 2012 TEDx talk “Grammar, Identity, and the Dark Side of the Subjunctive” was featured on NPR's Ted Radio Hour. His acclaimed memoir, SIGH, GONE: A Misfit's Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and The Fight To Fit In, received the 2020 New England Book Award for Nonfiction. He tattoos in Portland ME where he lives with his wife and two daughters. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/banhmichronicles/support
Join bestselling author Nathaniel Philbrick on October 20, 2021, who delivered the J. Harvie Wilkinson, Jr. Lecture based on his newest book, “Travels with George: In Search of Washington and His Legacy." When George Washington became president in 1789, he undertook a tour of the ex-colonies to talk to ordinary citizens about his new government, and to imbue in them the idea of being one thing—Americans. In the fall of 2018, Nathaniel Philbrick embarked on his own journey into what Washington called “the infant woody country” to see for himself what America had become in the 229 years since. Writing in a thoughtful first person about his own adventures with his wife Melissa and their dog Dora, Philbrick follows Washington's presidential excursions. The narrative moves smoothly between the eighteenth and twenty-first centuries as we see the country through both Washington's and Philbrick's eyes. Written at a moment when America's founding figures are under increasing scrutiny, Travels with George grapples bluntly and honestly with Washington's legacy as a man of the people, a reluctant president, and a plantation owner who held people in slavery. Nathaniel Philbrick is the author of several bestselling books, including In the Heart of the Sea, winner of the National Book Award; Mayflower, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; Valiant Ambition, winner of the George Washington Prize; Bunker Hill, winner of the New England Book Award; In the Hurricane's Eye; and Travels with George: In Search of Washington and His Legacy. The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.
"We have to remain open and empathetic when examining the past and each other or we risk siloing ourselves into a self-reinforcing of our preconceptions." Historian Nathaniel Philbrick joins the podcast, armed with his new book in hand Travels with George: In Search of Washington and His Legacy. Does George Washington still matter? Philbrick argues for Washington's unique contribution to the forging of America by retracing his journey as a new president through all thirteen former colonies, which were then an unsure nation. When George Washington became president in 1789, the United States of America was still a loose and quarrelsome confederation and a tentative political experiment. Washington undertook a tour of the ex-colonies to talk to ordinary citizens about his new government, and to imbue in them the idea of being one thing–Americans. This trip is what Daniel refers to as "The original political listening tour." Daniel and Nathaniel also discuss, of course, the role music played in Washington's life and why, now more than ever, it is essential to study the humanity, the foibles, the flaws of historical figures rather than to cancel or whitewash. Support Talking Beats with Daniel Lelchuk. Nathaniel Philbrick was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he attended Linden Elementary School and Taylor Allderdice High School. He earned a BA in English from Brown University and an MA in America Literature from Duke University, where he was a James B. Duke Fellow. He was Brown University's first Intercollegiate All-American sailor in 1978, the same year he won the Sunfish North Americans in Barrington, RI. After working as an editor at Sailing World magazine, he wrote and edited several books about sailing, including The Passionate Sailor, Second Wind, and Yaahting: A Parody. In 1986, Philbrick moved to Nantucket with his wife Melissa and their two children. In 1994, he published his first book about the island's history, Away Off Shore, followed in 1998 by a study of the Nantucket's native legacy, Abram's Eyes. He was the founding director of Nantucket's Egan Maritime Institute and is a research fellow at the Nantucket Historical Association. In 2011 Philbrick's Why Read Moby-Dick? was a finalist for the New England Society Book Award and was named to the 2012 Listen List for Outstanding Audiobook Narration from the Reference and User Services Association, a division of the ALA. That year Penguin also published a new edition of his first work of history, Away Off Shore. In 2013 Philbrick published the New York Times bestseller, Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution, which was awarded both the 2013 New England Book Award for Non-Fiction and the 2014 New England Society Book Award as well as the 2014 Distinguished Book Award of the Society of Colonial Wars. Philbrick's writing has appeared in Vanity Fair, The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and The Boston Globe. He has appeared on the Today Show, the Morning Show, Dateline, PBS's American Experience, C-SPAN, and NPR. He and his wife Melissa still live on Nantucket.
Rachel Klein is sacked from her job at the White House after she sends an email criticizing Donald Trump. As she is escorted off the premises, she is hit by a speeding car, driven by what the press will discreetly call “a personal friend of the President.” Does that explain the flowers, the get-well wishes at a press briefing, the hush money offered by a lawyer at her hospital bedside? Rachel's recovery is soothed by comically doting parents, matchmaking roommates, a new job as aide to a journalist whose books aim to defame the President, and unexpected love at the local wine store. But secrets leak, and Rachel's newfound happiness has to make room for more than a little chaos. Will she bring down the President? Or will he manage to do that all by himself? Rachel to the Rescue is a mischievous political satire, with a delightful cast of characters, from one of America's funniest novelists. ELINOR LIPMAN was born in Massachusetts and is the author of more than a dozen novels. Her first one, Then She Found Me, was published in 1990 and was adapted into a film starring Helen Hunt, Bette Midler, and Colin Firth. She won the New England Book Award in 2001, and her novel My Latest Grievance won the Paterson Fiction Prize. She lives in Manhattan, as well as in upstate New York. ELINOR LIPMAN is the award-winning author of over a dozen novels, including The View from Penthouse B and The Inn at Lake Devine; one essay collection, I Can't Complain; and Tweet Land of Liberty: Irreverent Rhymes from the Political Circus. She lives in New York City. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/steve-richards/support
Trigger Warning: Discussions of child abuse (S4, EP 12) Viet-American best-selling and critically acclaimed author Phuc Tran joined me for the Season 4 finale for this episode. Last Spring, he released his award-winning memoir, "Sigh, Gone" which traced back to his upbringing in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in the 80s and early 90s after his family fled from Vietnam after the war. I spoke with Phuc back in late December to discuss his struggles with assimilation in a rural white community, his father's abuse. He explaied how seeking therapy played a role in being able to write his story while healing the wounds from his turbulent past with his parents. Check out more on this episode and follow Phuc Tran on IG @Phucskywalker. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bio: Phuc Tran has been a high school Latin teacher for more than twenty years while also simultaneously establishing himself as a highly sought-after tattooer in the Northeast. Tran graduated Bard College in 1995 with a BA in Classics and received the Callanan Classics Prize. He taught Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit in New York at the Collegiate School and was an instructor at Brooklyn College's Summer Latin Institute. Most recently, he taught Latin, Greek, and German at the Waynflete School in Portland, Maine. His 2012 TEDx talk “Grammar, Identity, and the Dark Side of the Subjunctive” was featured on NPR's Ted Radio Hour. His acclaimed memoir, SIGH, GONE: A Misfit's Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and The Fight To Fit In, received the 2020 New England Book Award for Nonfiction. He tattoos in Portland ME where he lives with his wife and two daughters. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Season 4 is sponsored by Red Scarf Revolution (RSR). RSR aims to bring awareness to the tragedies, atrocities and cultural destruction the Cambodian people endured from 1975 to 1979 under the Khmer Rouge regime and how that period impacts us today. With that awareness, Red Scarf Revolution advocates the silenced art, music, culture, and language, with designs that incite the resiliency of the Cambodian people. Visit them at www.redscarfrevolution.com to check out their merch line and to learn more about their work, or follow their Instagram at red_scarf_revolution or on their Facebook. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/banhmichronicles/support
Jane Brox’s fifth book, Silence, was published in January 2019 and explores the nuances of quiet - both forced and voluntary. Her previous book, Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light, was named one of the top ten nonfiction books of 2010 by Time magazine. She is also the author of Clearing Land: Legacies of the American Farm; Five Thousand Days Like This One, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in nonfiction; and Here and Nowhere Else, which won the L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award. She has received the New England Book Award for nonfiction, and her essays have appeared in many anthologies including Best American Essays, The Norton Book of Nature Writing, and the Pushcart Prize Anthology. She is currently on the faculty of Lesley University’s low-residency MFA Program. In this interview, she speaks with Georgia Sparling. Find essays by Jane and more information on our episode page.
Renegade Thinkers Unite: #2 Podcast for CMOs & B2B Marketers
A little tenderness goes a long way when trying to reach an audience. If you want to develop a brand message that has meaning, emotional storytelling could be the key to your next marketing campaign. As bestselling author Chris Bohjalian illustrated in Part I of this Renegade Thinkers Unite episode, storytelling is all about touching the audience on a personal level. In Part II of this episode, Bohjalian talks about the mechanics behind some of the deeply emotional themes he has communicated to his readers over the years. The author’s eloquent words are sure to inspire your marketing team, as he provides narrative advice that can help your brand convey a powerful story. Meet the Guest Chris Bohjalian is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of 20 books. His work has been translated into over 30 languages and three times become movies. His new book, The Flight Attendant, lands March 13, 2018. Bohjalian's books have been chosen as Best Books of the Year by The Washington Post, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Hartford Courant, The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Bookpage, and Salon. His awards include the ANCA Freedom Award for his work educating Americans about the Armenian Genocide; the ANCA Arts and Letters Award for The Sandcastle Girls, as well as the Saint Mesrob Mashdots Medal; the New England Society Book Award for The Night Strangers; the New England Book Award; Russia’s Soglasie (Concord) Award for The Sandcastle Girls; a Boston Public Library Literary Light; a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Trans-Sister Radio; a Best Lifestyle Column for Idyll Banter from the Vermont Press Association; and the Anahid Literary Award. Bohjalian is a Fellow of the Vermont Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has written for a wide variety of magazines and newspapers, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, Reader’s Digest, and The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine. He was a weekly columnist in Vermont for The Burlington Free Press from 1992 through 2015.
Renegade Thinkers Unite: #2 Podcast for CMOs & B2B Marketers
Marketing is all about telling stories. Who could share better storytelling insights than #1 New York Times bestselling author Chris Bohjalian who also started his career in account service at J. Walter Thomson? A character-driven novelist who imports his own emotional experiences into many of his deeply descriptive works, Bohjalian has mastered the ability to connect with his readers. The wordsmith shares his strategy for hooking in audiences and discusses his genuine approach to engaging with fans on social media. Chris Bohjalian is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of 20 books including Midwives, Sleepwalker and The Guest Room. His work has been translated into over 30 languages and three times become movies. Bohjalian's new book, The Flight Attendant, lands March 13, 2018. His books have been chosen as Best Books of the Year by The Washington Post, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Hartford Courant, The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Bookpage, and Salon. Bohjalian's awards include the ANCA Freedom Award for his work educating Americans about the Armenian Genocide; the ANCA Arts and Letters Award for The Sandcastle Girls, as well as the Saint Mesrob Mashdots Medal; the New England Society Book Award for The Night Strangers; the New England Book Award; Russia’s Soglasie (Concord) Award for The Sandcastle Girls; a Boston Public Library Literary Light; a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Trans-Sister Radio; a Best Lifestyle Column for Idyll Banter from the Vermont Press Association; and the Anahid Literary Award. He is a Fellow of the Vermont Academy of Arts and Sciences. Bohjalian has written for a wide variety of magazines and newspapers, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, Reader’s Digest, and The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine. He was a weekly columnist in Vermont for The Burlington Free Press from 1992 through 2015. After graduating from Amherst College, Bohjalian started his career in advertising as an account executive at J. Walter Thompson where he met the host Drew Neisser. In this episode, you'll learn among other things the dramatic story that pushed Bohjalian out of New York City and into the verdant hills of Vermont.
What do you imagine one of the best captains on the entire east coast to look like? The first image that pops into my mind is a burly gray bearded gristly old man. How about if I told you the captain was an attractive brunette women? Everything about Linda Greenlaw, a best selling author and television celebrity, defies tradition in the very best possible way. She is a women who empowers other women and helps us challenge what it is to be a woman, what it means to be a mother, and how to live life to its fullest. Join us as we talk to her about her book Lifesaving Lessons- Notes from an Accidental Mother, when she shares her adventures as a mother of an adopted teenage girl, who had been sexually abused. SHOW SUMMARY Link to Segment 1: Linda Greenlaw, described as one of the best captains on the entire east coast, shares her story of how at 46 yo she accidentally became a mother of a 15 year old teenager. How did Linda’s life change after deciding to become a mother? What did she learn about herself and life after adopting a teenager? Link to Segment 2: Linda Greenlaw, author of Lifesaving Lessons- Notes from an Accidental Mother, shares the story of how her idyllic community and she changed after discovering a pedophile had been living among them for years. How could an entire close knit community be duped for so long? Why didn’t her daughter reach out to the community for help? Link to Full 24 min episode BLOG POST FROM OUR GUEST SOURCE: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION FROM LINDAGREENLAWBOOKS.COM How did you go from fishing to writing? It was thanks to Sebastian Junger’s very generous portrayal of me in his book, The Perfect Storm. After that, publishers basically invited me to write a book. I ended up getting an agent, who told me to write what he explained was called a proposal, for a book that ended up being The Hungry Ocean. He sent it around to editors.Then there was a phone auction and Hyperion won. It wasn’t something I’d ever imagined doing. In college, I’d majored in English because I liked to read, but I’d never taken creative writing courses. I am an old-fashioned letter-writer, but that’s not the same as writing a book. I guess I just had some confidence that I could do it. What was your impression of the movie The Perfect Storm? Did you like the way you were portrayed? I was thrilled with Warner Bros choice of Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio to play Linda Greenlaw, and I was amazed at the special effects. The movie was Hollywood’s version of speculation as to what could have happened to the Andrea Gale, and maybe it was a little far-fetched. I don’t necessarily agree with their speculation. But I thought the movie was a nice tribute to a way of life of people who choose to go to sea. Are you still fishing? I was hauling lobster traps up until July 7, when I started the book tour. Unfortunately I’m going to miss most of the season on the book tour. Who hauls your traps while you’re away on book tour? My dad takes care of the traps and the boat while I’m gone. He actually prefers it when I’m gone, because it’s more fun to captain the boat than to be sternman. I’m very lucky to have my dad, that’s for sure. How is your mother? My mother is a breast cancer survivor. She’s feisty as ever, so I think she’s doing great. How do you write – what is the process? I am very disciplined about my writing. I treat it like I do fishing, in that it’s a job, its hard work, and I have to do it every day to do it well. I write every day from when I get up in the morning to about lunchtime and then I try to do something physical and outside the rest of the day. I write longhand in a notebook, making all of my corrections and changes on paper, and eventually I take the time to type it in to MS word. Did you ever get married? No, I’m not married but I have a very nice man in my life right now. ABOUT OUR GUEST Linda Greenlaw, America’s only female swordfishing captain, is author of three New York Times bestselling books about life as a commercial fisherman: THE HUNGRY OCEAN (1999), THE LOBSTER CHRONICLES (2002) and ALL FISHERMEN ARE LIARS (2004). She is the winner of the U.S. Maritime Literature Award in 2003, and the New England Book Award for nonfiction in 2004. Time Magazine called her 2005 RECIPES FROM A VERY SMALL ISLAND, co-authored with her mother Martha Greenlaw, a “must-have cookbook”. Additionally, she’s written two mysteries: SLIPKNOT (2007) and FISHERMAN’S BEND (2008). Linda is featured in the hit Discovery Channel series Swords: Life on the Line. The second season of Swords will premier in August 2010. Greenlaw’s latest book SEAWORTHY: A SWORDFISH BOAT CAPTAIN RETURNS TO THE SEA is a chronicle of her return to swordfishing after ten years as a lobsterman and marks her return to non-fiction and high-seas adventure. Greenlaw first came to the public’s attention in Sebastian Junger’s THE PERFECT STORM, where Junger called her “one of the best captains … on the entire east coast.” She’s also been featured on Good Morning America, Today, CBS Sunday Morning, The Martha Stewart Show, and National Public Radio. She lives on Isle au Haut, Maine.
Lily King grew up in Massachusetts and received her B.A. in English Literature from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and her M.A. in Creative Writing from Syracuse University. Her novels include The Pleasing Hour, Father of the Rain, and Euphoria. Her work has won various awards including a New York Times Notable Book award, and a Kirkus Award for Fiction. Euphoria won the New England Book Award for Fiction 2014 and was a finalist in the National Book Critics Circle Awards. Euphoria was named one of the 10 Best Books of 2014 by The New York Times Book Review. www.lillykingbooks.com More about First Draft at aspenpublicradio.org/programs/first-draft
William Martin appears at the 2013 Library of Congress National Book Festival. Speaker Biography: William Martin is the award-winning New York Times best-selling author of 10 novels, a PBS documentary, book reviews, magazine articles and a cult-classic horror movie (Roger Corman's "Humanoids from the Deep"). His first Peter Fallon novel, "Back Bay," established him as a master of historical fiction. He has been following the lives of the great and anonymous in American history ever since and has taken readers from the pilgrims to 9/11. Martin was the 2005 recipient of the prestigious New England Book Award, given to an author "whose body of work stands as a significant contribution to the culture of the region." His latest historical thriller is "The Lincoln Letter." For captions, transcript, and more information visit http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=6112