Podcasts about pen bellwether prize

At what cost revolution? In Fabienne Josaphat's new novel, “Kingdom of No Tomorrow,” 20-year-old Nettie Boileau trades the turmoil of Duvalier's Haiti for the tumult of 1960s America. Settling with her aunt in Oakland, she is drawn to the social programs spearheaded by the burgeoning Black Panther Party. But her focus on healing and public health is soon subsumed by the revolution and her passionate relationship with Black Panther leader Melvin Mosley. Josaphat drew on her own family's history for insight into the activism of the Panthers. Her father, an attorney, was imprisoned during Francois Duvalier's reign in Haiti. And she remembers reading her father's books as a child, biographies and memoirs of leaders in the Civil Rights Movement. “I remember starting to do my research about the Black Panthers and thinking to myself, ‘I think I know about this already but I don't know how. Where did I learn this?'” she tells Kerri Miller on this week's Big Books and Bold Ideas. “And then I realized, it was probably me going through [my father's] books.”Josaphat brings the gift of those books full circle with her new novel as she brings the inner workings of the Black Panthers to fresh light, including how the fight for social justice didn't always mean equal rights for women. Guest: Fabienne Josaphat was born and raised in Haiti. Her new novel “Kingdom of No Tomorrow” was awarded the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction in 2023. Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

PEN/Bellwether winner Fabienne Josaphat spoke with me about being born into storytelling, writing socially engaged fiction, and the revolution and injustice at the center of her new novel KINGDOM OF NO TOMORROW. Fabienne Josaphat was born and raised in Haiti, and graduated with an MFA in Creative Writing from Florida International University. Her sophomore novel KINGDOM OF NO TOMORROW was the 2023 winner of the PEN / Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. Barbara Kingsolver established the biennial prize in 2000 to highlight previously unpublished works of fiction that addressed issues of social justice. Barbara Kingsolver, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Demon Copperhead, said of the book, "This beautifully convincing slice of history is powered not just by good research, but by lots of suspense, compelling characters, and understated political themes that …. bring the fierce vision of the Black Panthers to new generations of readers, adding some stunning context to the modern Black Lives Matter movement." In addition to fiction, Josaphat writes non-fiction, screenplays, and is an anthologized poet. Her work has been featured in The African American Review, The Washington Post, Teen Vogue, The Master's Review, Grist Journal, and many others. [If you're a fan of The Writer Files, please click FOLLOW to automatically see new interviews. And drop us a rating or a review wherever you listen] In this file Fabienne Josaphat and I discussed: Why her grandfather's stories helped shape her into a writer The surreal journey from award-winner to publication of her second novel How the Black Panthers were maligned by mainstream media The importance of preserving the oral storytelling tradition of her culture What writers can do to tame distraction And a lot more! Show Notes:  PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction - PEN America Kingdom of No Tomorrow by Fabienne Josaphat  (Amazon) Fabienne Josaphat on Instagram Fabienne Josaphat on Twitter Kelton Reid on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For this repeat show, we revisit Tiokasin's conversation with Rebecca Clarren, author of “The Cost of Free Land: Jews, Lakota, and an American Inheritance” (Viking, 2023). Rebecca has been writing about the American West for more than 20 years. She is the winner of the 2021 Whiting Nonfiction Grant for her work on “The Cost of Free Land.” Her journalism, for which she has won the Hillman Prize, an Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship, and 10 grants from the Fund for Investigative Journalism, has appeared in such publications as MotherJones, High Country News, The Nation, and Indian Country Today. Her debut novel, “Kickdown” (Sky Horse Press, 2018), was shortlisted for the PEN/Bellwether Prize. Learn more about Rebecca at www.rebecca-clarren.com, @RebeccaClarren (Twitter) and @Rclarren (Instagram). Production Credits: Tiokasin Ghosthorse (Lakota), Host and Executive Producer Liz Hill (Red Lake Ojibwe), Producer Karen Ramirez (Mayan), Studio Engineer, Radio Kingston Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Audio Editor Kevin Richardson, Podcast Editor Music Selections: 1. Song Title: Tahi Roots Mix (First Voices Radio Theme Song Artist: Moana and the Moa Hunters Album: Tahi (1993) Label: Southside Records (Australia and New Zealand) 2. Song Title: Love Theme from Spartacus Artist: Terry Callier Album: TimePeace (1998) Label: Verve Records 3. Song Title: Come and Get Your Love Artist: Redbone Album: Wovoka (1973) Label: Epic Records AKANTU INTELLIGENCE Visit Akantu Intelligence, an institute that Tiokasin founded with a mission of contextualizing original wisdom for troubled times. Go to https://akantuintelligence.org to find out more and consider joining his Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/Ghosthorse

Tiokasin spends the full hour with Rebecca Clarren, author of “The Cost of Free Land: Jews, Lakota, and an American Inheritance” (Viking, 2023). Rebecca has been writing about the American West for more than 20 years. She is the winner of the 2021 Whiting Nonfiction Grant for her work on “The Cost of Free Land.” Her journalism, for which she has won the Hillman Prize, an Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship, and 10 grants from the Fund for Investigative Journalism, has appeared in such publications as MotherJones, High Country News, The Nation, and Indian Country Today. Her debut novel, “Kickdown” (Sky Horse Press, 2018), was shortlisted for the PEN/Bellwether Prize. Learn more about Rebecca at www.rebecca-clarren.com, @RebeccaClarren (Twitter) and @Rclarren (Instagram). Production Credits: Tiokasin Ghosthorse (Lakota), Host and Executive Producer Liz Hill (Red Lake Ojibwe), Producer Karen Ramirez (Mayan), Studio Engineer, Radio Kingston WKNY 1490 AM and 107.9 FM, Kingston, NY Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Audio Editor Kevin Richardson, Podcast Editor Music Selections: 1. Song Title: Tahi Roots Mix (First Voices Radio Theme Song) Artist: Moana and the Moa Hunters Album: Tahi (1993) Label: Southside Records (Australia and New Zealand) (00:00:22) 2. Song Title: Love Theme from Spartacus Artist: Terry Callier Album: TimePeace (1998) Label: Verve Records (00:28:30) 3. Song Title: Come and Get Your Love Artist: Redbone Album: Wovoka (1973) Label: Epic Records (00:52:20) AKANTU INTELLIGENCE Visit Akantu Intelligence, an institute that Tiokasin founded with a mission of contextualizing original wisdom for troubled times. Go to https://akantuintelligence.org to find out more and consider joining his Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/Ghosthorse

Growing up, Rebecca Clarren only knew the major plot points of her tenacious immigrant family's origins. Her great-great-grandparents, the Sinykins, and their six children fled antisemitism in Russia and arrived in the United States at the turn of the 20th century, ultimately settling on a 160-acre homestead in South Dakota. Over the next few decades, despite tough years on a merciless prairie and multiple setbacks, the Sinykins became an American immigrant success story. What none of Clarren's ancestors ever mentioned was that their land, the foundation for much of their wealth, had been cruelly taken from the Lakota by the United States government. By the time the Sinykins moved to South Dakota, America had broken hundreds of treaties with hundreds of Indigenous nations across the continent, and the land that had once been reserved for the seven bands of the Lakota had been diminished, splintered, and handed for free, or practically free, to white settlers. In The Cost of Free Land, Clarren melds investigative reporting with personal family history to reveal the intertwined stories of her family and the Lakota, and the devastating cycle of loss of Indigenous land, culture, and resources that continues today. Clarren grapples with the personal and national consequences of this legacy of violence and dispossession. What does it mean to survive oppression only to perpetuate and benefit from the oppression of others? By shining a light on the people and families tangled up in this country's difficult history, The Cost of Free Land invites readers to consider their own culpability and what, now, can be done. Rebecca Clarren has been writing about the rural West for more than twenty years. Her journalism, for which she has won the Hillman Prize, an Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship, and 10 grants from the Fund for Investigative Journalism, has appeared in such publications as MotherJones, High Country News, The Nation, and Salon.com. Her debut novel, Kickdown (Sky Horse Press, 2018), was shortlisted for the PEN/Bellwether Prize. Rena Priest is an enrolled member of the Lhaq'temish (Lummi) Nation. She served as the 6th Washington State Poet Laureate (2021-2023) and was named the 2022 Maxine Cushing Gray Distinguished Writing Fellow. Priest is also the recipient of an American Book Award, an Allied Arts Foundation Professional Poets Award, and fellowships from the Academy of American Poets and Indigenous Nations Poets. She is the author of three books and editor of two anthologies. Her work appears in print and online at Poetry Magazine, Poets.org, Yellow Medicine Review, High Country News, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College.  The Cost of Free Land: Jews, Lakota, and an American Inheritance Third Place Books

Winner of the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction delves into her debut novel, Moonrise Over New Jessup, with Story Made Project podcast host Matt Sawyer.Jamila Minnicks: Jamila Minnicks' novel Moonrise Over New Jessup (Algonquin Books, 2023) won the 2021 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. In 2022, she was awarded a Tennessee Williams scholarship for the Sewanee Writers' Conference, and she also earned a residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Her short fiction and essays have been published in CRAFT, Catapult, Blackbird, The Write Launch, and elsewhere. Her piece, Politics of Distraction, was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Minnicks is a graduate of the University of Michigan, the Howard University School of Law, and the Georgetown University Law Center. She lives in Washington, DC.HostMatt Sawyer: Matt is an educator, podcaster, writer, and hip-hop artist based in Macon County, North Carolina. He is the creator of the Story Made Project, an exploration for and of stories that make a difference in our world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle discusses her debut novel, Even As We Breath, with her friend and fellow North Carolinian, Matt Sawyer. The book made Clapsaddle the first member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians the first member to publish a novel.Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle: Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle, an enrolled citizen of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and resides in Qualla, NC with her husband, Evan and sons Ross and Charlie. She holds degrees from Yale University and the College of William and Mary. Her debut novel, Even As We Breathe, was released by the University Press of Kentucky in 2020, a finalist for the Weatherford Award and named one of NPR's Best Books of 2020. In 2021, it received the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award. Her first novel manuscript, Going to Water is winner of the Morning Star Award for Creative Writing from the Native American Literature Symposium (2012) and a finalist for the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction (2014). Clapsaddle's work has appeared in Yes! Magazine, Lit Hub, Smoky Mountain Living Magazine, South Writ Large, Our State Magazine and The Atlantic. After serving as executive director of the Cherokee Preservation Foundation, Annette returned to teaching at Swain County High School for over a dozen years. She is the former co-editor of the Journal of Cherokee Studies and serves on the Board of Directors for the Museum of the Cherokee Indian and is the President of the Board of Trustees for the North Carolina Writers Network. Clapsaddle established Bird Words, LLC in 2022 and works as an independent contractor and consultant.HostMatt Sawyer: Matt is an educator, podcaster, writer, and hip-hop artist based in Macon County, North Carolina. He is the creator of the Story Made Project, an exploration for and of stories that make a difference in our world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Meg Waite Clayton discusses the first pages of her latest novel, The Postmistress of Paris, how she reached out on social media to find experts to help her write her opening (and it worked!), her method of drafting in the first person to draw her closer to her third person narrative, and the best advice she ever got: “Use extraordinary actions to illuminate ordinary emotions.”Clayton'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.Meg Waite Clayton is the author of eight novels, most recently the international bestseller The Postmistress of Paris, which is a Good Morning America Buzz Book, New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice, Publishers Weekly notable book, Indie Next booksellers pick, and an Amazon Editors' Pick recommended by People Magazine and USA Today. HerJewish Book Award finalist The Last Train to London, is a national and international bestseller, and is published or forthcoming in 20 languages. Her screenplay for the novel was chosen for the prestigious Meryl Streep- and Nicole Kidman-sponsored The Writers Lab. Meg's prior novels include the #1 Amazon fiction bestseller Beautiful Exiles; the Langum Prize honored The Race for Paris; The Wednesday Sisters, named one of Entertainment Weekly's 25 Essential Best Friend Novels of all time (on a list with The Three Musketeers!); and The Language of Light, a finalist for the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. She mentors for the OpEd Project and is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and the California bar.  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

Gayle Brandeis joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about losing her mother to suicide and finding a way to write about it, her work across genres, leaning into what makes us unique on the page, trusting ourselves to discover what our work wants to become, why there is no better time to write than now, editing for connection with readers, the importance of play in our work, and her new collection Drawing Breath: Essays on Writing, the Body, and Loss.   Also in this episode: -speculative nonfiction  -organizing principles in essays -choosing the right container for our work   Books mentioned in this episode: Craft in the Real World by Matthew Salesses A Constellation of Ghosts by Laraine Herring We Were Witches by Ariel Gore Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde The Suicide Index by Joan Wickersham   Gayle Brandeis is the author, most recently, of the essay collection Drawing Breath: Essays on Writing, the Body, and Loss (Overcup Press). Earlier books include the memoir The Art of Misdiagnosis (Beacon Press), the novel in poems, Many Restless Concerns (Black Lawrence Press), shortlisted for the Shirley Jackson Award, the poetry collection The Selfless Bliss of the Body (Finishing Line Press), the craft book Fruitflesh: Seeds of Inspiration for Women Who Write (HarperOne) and the novels The Book of Dead Birds (HarperCollins), which won the PEN/Bellwether Prize, Self Storage (Ballantine), Delta Girls (Ballantine), and My Life with the Lincolns (Henry Holt BYR), chosen as a state-wide read in Wisconsin. Gayle's essays, poetry, and short fiction have been published in places such as The Guardian, The New York Times, The Washington Post, O (The Oprah Magazine), The Rumpus, Salon, and more, and have received numerous honors, including the Columbia Journal Nonfiction Award, a Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Award, Notable Essays in Best American Essays 2016, 2019, and 2020, the QPB/Story Magazine Short Story Award and the 2018 Multi Genre Maverick Writer Award. She was named A Writer Who Makes a Difference by The Writer Magazine, and served as Inlandia Literary Laureate from 2012-2014, with a focus on bringing writing workshops to underserved communities. She teaches in the MFA programs at Antioch University and University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe.   Connect with Gayle: Twitter: https://twitter.com/gaylebrandeis Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gaylebrandeis/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gayle.brandeis Website: www.gaylebrandeis.com -- Ronit Plank is a writer, teacher, and editor whose work has been featured in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Writer's Digest, The Rumpus, American Literary Review, Hippocampus, The Iowa Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named a 2021 Best True Crime Book by Book Riot and was a Finalist in the National Indie Excellence Awards, the Housatonic Book Awards, and the Book of the Year Awards. Her fiction and creative nonfiction have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes, the Best of the Net, and the Best Microfiction Anthology, and her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts' Eludia Award. She is creative nonfiction editor at The Citron Review and lives in Seattle with her family where she is working on her next book.   More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ More about WHEN SHE COMES BACK, a memoir: https://ronitplank.com/book/ More about HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE, a short story collection: https://ronitplank.com/home-is-a-made-up-place/ Connect with Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://twitter.com/RonitPlank https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank   Background photo: Canva Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll's Fingers

Jamila Minnicks' debut novel Moonrise Over New Jessup tells the story of a 1950s-era, all-Black Alabama town that is resistant to desegregation and the opposing political viewpoints that threaten a young couple's burgeoning romance. Praised by Barbara Kingsolver for its dive into the ''deep complexity of the American Civil Rights movement'' by way of ''compelling characters and a heart-pounding plot,'' it won the 2021 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. Minnicks has published work in the literary journals CRAFT, The Write Launch, and The Silent World in Her Vase, and her short story ''Politics of Distraction'' was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. (recorded 2/22/2023)

Morowa Yejidé is a native of Washington, DC, is the author of the critically acclaimed novel Time of the Locust, which was a 2012 finalist for the PEN/Bellwether Prize, long listed for the 2015 PEN/Bingham Prize, and a 2015 NAACP Image Award nominee. Her most recent novel, Creatures of Passage, was shortlisted for the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence and a 2021 Notable Book selection by NPR and the Washington Post. She lives in the DC area with her husband and three sons. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

MOROWA YEJIDÉ, a native of Washington, DC, is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Time of the Locust, which was a 2012 finalist for the PEN/Bellwether Prize, long-listed for the 2015 PEN/Bingham Prize, and a 2015 NAACP Image Award nominee; and Creatures of Passage, which was short-listed for the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence and was a 2021 Notable Book selection by NPR and the Washington Post. She lives in the DC area with her husband and three sons. NEPHTHYS KINWELL IS A TAXI DRIVER OF SORTS in Washington, DC, ferrying passengers in a 1967 Plymouth Belvedere with a ghost in the trunk. Endless rides and alcohol help her manage her grief over the death of her twin brother, Osiris, who was murdered and dumped in the Anacostia River. Unknown to Nephthys when the novel opens in 1977, her estranged great-nephew, ten-year-old Dash, is finding himself drawn to the banks of that very same river. It is there that Dash—reeling from having witnessed an act of molestation at his school, but still questioning what and who he saw—has charmed conversations with a mysterious figure he calls the “River Man.” When Dash arrives unexpectedly at Nephthys's door bearing a cryptic note about his unusual conversations with the River Man, Nephthys must face what frightens her most. Morowa Yejidé's deeply captivating novel shows us an unseen Washington filled with otherworldly landscapes, flawed super-humans, and reluctant ghosts, and brings together a community intent on saving one young boy in order to reclaim itself.

Walter Bennett Walter is a writer, former lawyer, law professor, and judge. While practicing law, he valued the art of storytelling. In 2012, he published his first novel–Leaving Tuscaloosa–which won the Alabama Author’s Award and was a finalist for the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction and the Crook’s Corner Book Prize for debut novels set in the American South. His most recent novel, The Last First Kiss, is a love story also set in the South. Here’s where you can find him: His website For more episodes, visit ZayZoh.com. Also, follow me on Facebook.

Hey one more thing before you go, what do you do when you have an illustrious career as an attorney and a judge, but you have this deep-down desire to put words to paper? You become a novelist! In this Friday Over The Teacup episode, we're Going to talk about reinventing your life as a novelist and creating A piece of work that explores old memories, betrayals, mistakes, missed chances, a look at how life could have been, all wrapped up in the middle of a hurricane, and we're going to talk about the journey into creating this Intriguing and unique novel. I'm your host Michael Herst and this is Over The Teacup- That Thing About “The Last First Kiss.” My Guest in This Episode is Walter Bennett he is a writer and former lawyer, judge, and law professor. His first novel, Leaving Tuscaloosa, won The Alabama Author's Award, and was a finalist for the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction and the Crook's Corner Book Prize for debut novels set in the American South. He has published short fiction and essays in both print and online journals, including Blackbird, The Courtland Review, Eclipse and Voices. An essay on trout fishing, “Black Quill,” appears in A stream: American Writers on Fly Fishing He has written numerous articles on the law; and a highly acclaimed book: The Lawyer's Myth: Reviving Ideals in the Legal Profession. Find more at https://beforeyougopodcast.com

Anita Gail Jones is a writer, visual artist, and oral tradition storyteller originally from Albany, in southwest Georgia. In response to the outcome of the 2020 presidential election and the long odds on the campaigns for two Georgia senate seats, Anita co-founded “The Peach Corps,” a grassroots organization that focused on voting turnout in the community where she grew up. In tandem with efforts of others throughout Georgia, this resulted in the wild upset elections of Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. Southwest Georgia is also the setting for her debut novel, Peach Seed Monkey. The manuscript was recently selected as a Top 10 Finalist in the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. Anita is also Executive Director of The Gaines-Jones Education Foundation, a small family charity she co-founded with her husband, Robert Roehrick 18 years ago. Gaines-Jones need-based scholarships are awarded to eligible Black students in southwest Georgia and the San Francisco Bay Area where Anita and family live.

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Katherine Seligman, winner of the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction.  Her new novel is At the Edge of the Haight, which is published by our friends at Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.  Topics of discussion include homelessness at the border of Golden Gate Park and the Haight, how tech companies have affected the wealth gap in San Francisco, what happens when people don't trust the police, Amoeba Music and the Booksmith, social work, how trauma can influence one to drop out of society, and much more. Copies of At the Edge of the Haight can be purchased here with FREE SHIPPING.

A ''gifted magician of words'' (Time), Barbara Kingsolver is the author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Poisonwood Bible, a postcolonial epic about an evangelical American family's undoing in the Congo. She is the author of several essays and works of creative nonfiction, and her other novels include The Lacuna, Flight Behavior, and Unsheltered. She is founder of the PEN/Bellwether Prize, winner of the National Humanities Medal, and recipient of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. How to Fly, Kingsolver's second collection of poetry, reflects on both the exquisitely noted and overlooked workaday wonders of the untamed worlds inside and around us.   (recorded 10/29/2020)

On this episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot speaks to North Carolina author Annette Clapsaddle about her new novel EVEN AS WE BREATHE. Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle is an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), holds degrees from Yale University and the College of William and Mary. Her work Going to Water won the Morning Star Award for Creative Writing from the Native American Literature Symposium and was a finalist for the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. She is coeditor of the Journal of Cherokee Studies and serves on the board of trustees for the North Carolina Writers' Network. She resides in Qualla, North Carolina. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/eliot-parker/support

On this episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot speaks to North Carolina author Annette Clapsaddle about her new novel EVEN AS WE BREATHE. Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle is an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), holds degrees from Yale University and the College of William and Mary. Her work Going to Water won the Morning Star Award for Creative Writing from the Native American Literature Symposium and was a finalist for the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. She is coeditor of the Journal of Cherokee Studies and serves on the board of trustees for the North Carolina Writers' Network. She resides in Qualla, North Carolina.

Two sisters are struggling to save their land when a gas well explodes on a neighboring ranch in western Colorado, setting off a disturbing chain of events. Their father has died, the older sister has become unraveled and the younger sister is mauled by an angry cow. Her ex-boyfriend is buying up oil and gas rights and downplays a spate of cancer-related deaths near his wells. The company offers the sisters bottled water when the river starts bubbling. There’s also an Iraqi war veteran who helps the sisters while he’s on probation from his job as a police officer, putting his own marriage at risk. This is a moving debut novel about family, land, and the preservation of both in rural America. Award-winning journalist Rebecca Clarren has been writing about the rural West for twenty years. Her journalism, for which she has won the Hillman Prize, an Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship, and nine grants from the Fund for Investigative Journalism, has appeared in such publications as MotherJones, High Country News, The Nation, and Salon.com. Her debut novel, Kickdown (Arcade, 2018) was shortlisted for the PEN/Bellwether Prize. She lives in Portland, Ore. with her husband and two young sons. When she’s not writing, Rebecca can be found hiking, running with friends, or telling people what books to read. If you enjoyed today’s podcast and would like to discuss it further with me and other New Books network listeners, please join us on Shuffle. Shuffle is an ad-free, invite-only network focused on the creativity community. As NBN listeners, you can get special access to conversations with a dynamic community of writers and literary enthusiasts. Sign up by going here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two sisters are struggling to save their land when a gas well explodes on a neighboring ranch in western Colorado, setting off a disturbing chain of events. Their father has died, the older sister has become unraveled and the younger sister is mauled by an angry cow. Her ex-boyfriend is buying up oil and gas rights and downplays a spate of cancer-related deaths near his wells. The company offers the sisters bottled water when the river starts bubbling. There’s also an Iraqi war veteran who helps the sisters while he’s on probation from his job as a police officer, putting his own marriage at risk. This is a moving debut novel about family, land, and the preservation of both in rural America. Award-winning journalist Rebecca Clarren has been writing about the rural West for twenty years. Her journalism, for which she has won the Hillman Prize, an Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship, and nine grants from the Fund for Investigative Journalism, has appeared in such publications as MotherJones, High Country News, The Nation, and Salon.com. Her debut novel, Kickdown (Arcade, 2018) was shortlisted for the PEN/Bellwether Prize. She lives in Portland, Ore. with her husband and two young sons. When she’s not writing, Rebecca can be found hiking, running with friends, or telling people what books to read. If you enjoyed today’s podcast and would like to discuss it further with me and other New Books network listeners, please join us on Shuffle. Shuffle is an ad-free, invite-only network focused on the creativity community. As NBN listeners, you can get special access to conversations with a dynamic community of writers and literary enthusiasts. Sign up by going here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With a ''special gift for the vivid evocation of landscape and of her characters' state of mind'' (New York Times Book Review), Barbara Kingsolver is the author of The Poisonwood Bible, a finalist for both the Pulitzer and the Orange prizes. Her other novels include The Bean Trees, The Lacuna, and Flight Behavior. She is founder of the PEN/Bellwether Prize, winner of the National Humanities Medal, and recipient of the James Beard Award. Unsheltered tells the story of a woman who, amid familial strife and sea change, researches the history of her rural New Jersey home and discovers a kindred spirit in its harried 19th century occupant. Watch the video here. (recorded 10/19/2018)

In today’s episode, author Lisa Ko discusses her debut novel, “The Leavers,” which chronicles the powerful and intertwining stories of a boy in search of his own identity, and the mother who was separated from him at a formative age. “The Leavers” was shortlisted for the National Book Award in addition to winning the Pen/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, and also named a one of the best books from 2017 by NPR, Entertainment Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed, and Bustle. “The Leavers” is available now on Scribd.

  This week we're chatting with The New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Who Fell From the Sky, Heidi W. Durrow! She's also the winner of Barbara Kingsolver’s 2008 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction and a book club favorite. The Girl Who Fell From the Sky was hailed as one of the Best Novels of 2010 by The Washington Post, a Top 10 Book of 2010 by The Oregonian, a Top 10 Buzz Book of 2010 by The Boston Herald, and a Top 10 Debut of 2010 by Booklist. In 2011, Durrow was nominated for a NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Debut.She is also an award-winning podcaster and host of "The Mixed Experience," where she explores the multiracial experience in pop culture, academia, and history. Durrow is also the founder and executive director of the Mixed Remixed Festival, an annual public event celebrating the mixed-race experience. It is the largest nationwide gathering of multiracial people in the country. You can follow her here:  Facebook https://www.facebook.com/author.heidi.durrow/ Twitter @heididurrow We also got into the horror of the Las Vegas mass shooting (and what Congress needs to do instead of sending "thoughts + prayers" ). And we sound the air horn for Moms Demand Action, an org that continues to put in the work toward gun sense in America. Listen in.

Lisa Ko is the author of The Leavers, a novel which won the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction and will be published by Algonquin Books in May 2017. Her writing has appeared in Best American Short Stories 2016, The New York Times, Apogee Journal, Narrative, O. Magazine, Copper Nickel, Storychord, One Teen Story, Brooklyn Review, and elsewhere. A co-founder of Hyphen and a fiction editor at Drunken Boat, Lisa has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the MacDowell Colony, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, Writers OMI at Ledig House, the Jerome Foundation, Blue Mountain Center, the Van Lier Foundation, Hawthornden Castle, the I-Park Foundation, the Anderson Center, the Constance Saltonstall Foundation, and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center. Born in Queens and raised in Jersey, she lives in Brooklyn.

Orhan's Inheritance (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill)  In her extraordinary debut, Aline Ohanesian has created two remarkable characters--a young man ignorant of his family's and his country's past, and an old woman haunted by the toll the past has taken on her life. When Orhan's brilliant and eccentric grandfather Kemal--a man who built a dynasty out of making "kilim" rugs--is found dead, submerged in a vat of dye, Orhan inherits the decades-old business. But Kemal's will raises more questions than it answers. He has left the family estate to a stranger thousands of miles away, an aging woman in an Armenian retirement home in Los Angeles. Her existence and secrecy about her past only deepen the mystery of why Orhan's grandfather willed his home in Turkey to an unknown woman rather than to his own son or grandson. Left with only Kemal's ancient sketchbook and intent on righting this injustice, Orhan boards a plane to Los Angeles. There he will not only unearth the story that eighty-seven-year-old Seda so closely guards but discover that Seda's past now threatens to unravel his future. Her story, if told, has the power to undo the legacy upon which his family has been built. Moving back and forth in time, between the last years of the Ottoman Empire and the 1990s, Orhan's Inheritance is a story of passionate love, unspeakable horrors, incredible resilience, and the hidden stories that can haunt a family for generations. Praise for Orhan's Inheritance: "Aline Ohanesian draws from her family's own dark history to create a tender, powerful story of love and reclamation.Orhan's Inheritance is a breathtaking and expansive work of historical fiction and proof that the past can sometimes rewrite the future." --Christina Baker Kline, author of Orphan Train “A harrowing tale of unimaginable sacrifice...A novel that delves into the darkest corners of human history and emerges with a tenuous sense of hope.” – Kirkus Reviews, starred review “To take the tumultuous history of Turks and Armenians in the early part of this century, and to tell the stories of families and lovers from the small everyday moments of life to the terrible journeys of death, to make a novel so engrossing and keep us awake - that is an accomplishment, and Aline Ohanesian's first novel is such a wonderful accomplishment.” - Susan Straight, author of Highwire Moon “Readers who were moved by the work of Carol Edgarian, Mark Mustian, and Nancy Kricorian will appreciate the historical authenticity and passion that Aline Ohanesian brings to this story of the Armenian Genocide. Orhan's Inheritance is heartfelt and sincere.”— Chris Bohjalian, author of The Sandcastle Girls “From its first startling image, Orhan's Inheritance will seep under your skin and leave an indelible mark upon your heart. What lucky readers we are to inherit Aline Ohanesian's gorgeous work.” —Gayle Brandeis, author of Delta Girls “Orhan's Inheritance is a remarkable debut from an important new voice. It tells us things we thought we knew and shows us we had no idea. Beautiful and terrible and, finally, indelible.” – Luis Alberto Urrea, author of Queen of America Aline Ohanesian's great-grandmother was a survivor of the Armenian Genocide. Her history was the kernel for the story that Ohanesian tells in her first novel, Orhan's Inheritance. Ohanesian was a finalist for the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Fiction and "Glimmer Train"'s Short Story Award for New Writers. Born in Northridge, California, she lives and writes in San Juan Capistrano, California, with her husband and two young sons. Her website is www.alineohanesian.com.

Time of the Locust: Travel into the heart and mind of an extraordinary autistic boy in this deeply imaginative debut novel of a mother’s devotion, a father’s punishment, and the power of love. Sephiri is an autistic boy who lives in a world of his own making, where he dwells among imagined sea creatures that help him process information in the “real world” in which he is forced to live. But lately he has been having dreams of a mysterious place, and he starts creating fantastical sketches of this strange, inner world. Brenda, Sephiri’s mother, struggles with raising her challenged child alone. Her only wish is to connect with him—a smile on his face would be a triumph. Meanwhile, Sephiri’s father, Horus, is sentenced to life in prison, making life even lonelier for Brenda and Sephiri. Yet prison is still not enough to separate father and son. In the seventh year of his imprisonment and the height of his isolation, Horus develops supernatural mental abilities that allow him to reach his son.  Morowa Yejidé’s (pronounced: Moe-roe-wah Yay-gee-day) ?short stories have appeared in the Istanbul Review, Ascent Aspirations Magazine, Underground Voices, the Adirondack Review, and others.  Her story "Tokyo Chocolate" was nominated in 2009 for the Pushcart Prize, anthologized in the best of the Willesden Herald Stories, and reviewed in the Japan Times.Time of the Locust was a 2012 finalist for the national PEN/Bellwether Prize. She is also the recipient of the Norris Church Mailer Scholarship from Wilkes University. Website: http://www.morowayejide.com/