We're joined by Athena Dixon ( The Loneliness Files , Tin House Books) to talk about a famous novel she hated when she was first made to read it, and why it spoke to her so much more strongly when she revisited it years later. You can find links to order Athena's new essay collection via Tin House . You can sign up for Mike's Substack here: https://mikeingram.substack.com/ And if you like our podcast, $5/month can help us keep it going, plus give you access to two bonus episodes each month (and ...
Nov 13, 2023•1 hr 3 min
Author Adam O'Fallon Price (The Hotel Neversink) returns to talk about a great--if tough to categorize--Don Carpenter novel, Hard Rain Falling . We talk about the novel's many plot swerves, and the depth and surprise in its portrayal of complicated men. Plus: an update on Tom's fancy "white glove service" desk from West Elm. For more on Adam, you can follow him on Twitter , or visit his website . If you like the podcast, and want more of it in your life, we're doing two monthly bonus episodes fo...
Oct 30, 2023•1 hr 20 min
Our guest this week is the series editor for The Best American Science and Nature Writing , and author of the book The Possibility of Life: Science, Imagination, and Our Quest for Kinship in the Cosmos . She had us read an Ursula LeGuin novella about a "generation ship," a science fiction trope involving humans traversing the universe in search of a new planetary home. Did she pick this specifically to troll Mike, who is on the record as a sci fi skeptic? It's entirely possible! We talk about wh...
Oct 16, 2023•1 hr 11 min
We're joined by novelist James Hynes (Sparrow, The Lecturer's Tale, Next) to talk historical fiction. What are we looking for when we read a historical novel, and how is that different from what we want from actual history? How can writers put themselves inside the consciousness of someone living in a different time and place? For our book this week, we read Light , by Eva Figes, a slim 1984 novel that recouts a day in the life of the artist Claude Monet. We also talked about Jim's new book, Spa...
Oct 02, 2023•1 hr 6 min
We're talking YA sports books with Defector Media editor/co-owner Dan McQuade, who gave us two classics of the genre to read. Hoop Crazy was written in 1950 by Clair Bee, who was also a college basketball coach of some renown. The book features a Gallant type who has to defend his school's top-ranked team from the dangers of both racism and the three-point shot. Dan's second selection was Iron Duke, a 1938 novel by New Yorker writer John Tunis, who never considered himself a children's author, d...
Sep 18, 2023•1 hr 30 min
We're always happy for an excuse to revisit the work of Denis Johnson, so when this week's guest said he wanted to discuss Johnson's novel Angels, we were all in. We talk to Nick about being a self-taught writer, the fine line between funny and sad, and why Johnson's portrayals of substance abuse and mental health struggles spoke to him. You can pick up a copy of Nick's first book, a collection of stories, here . If you like the podcast, consider joining our Patreon , where $5 a month gets you a...
Sep 05, 2023•1 hr 10 min
We talk with the creators of Chill Subs, an online portal for all things literary publishing, about the state of lit mags, why finding places to submit your work is such a chore, and why they created a site that attempts to make it easier. Karina Kupp and Benjamin Davis joined us from Poland and Georgia, respectively, to chat about their own experiences in the lit world, and their ambitious plans for Chill Subs. You can check out their site here: https://www.chillsubs.com/ You can read the Roxan...
Aug 21, 2023•1 hr 14 min
We're joined by New York Times bestselling author Edan Lepucki, whose newest novel, Time's Mouth, is out now from Penguin Random House. We talk about her recent love of Larry McMurtry, why she'll never publish a short story collection, and why people need to get over their prudishness when it comes to literary depictions of sex. You can find all things Edan at her website, including links to order her new book, and to subscribe to her Substack: https://www.edanlepucki.com/ If you like our podcas...
Aug 07, 2023•1 hr 11 min
This week we're unlocking one of our bonus episodes, usually available only to Patreon subscribers. This is the inauguaral episode in our Summer of Shorts season, in which we're discussing both short stories and short pants. In this episode we take on a Ling Ma short story and also a pair of "conspiracy shorts" that are supposed to protect you from electromagnetic fields. If you like the episode, and want to hear the rest of the Summer of Shorts season, you can subscribe to our Patreon for just ...
Jul 31, 2023•1 hr 12 min
We're joined by the author of SINK to talk about difficult memoirs, how various kinds of privilege play out in workshop, and why he likes writing that forces you to get a little lost. Check out more from Joseph--and buy his book--via his website: https://www.josephearlthomas.net/ You can learn more about Blue Stoop Philly, including local literary events and course offerings, here: https://www.bluestoop.org/ And if you like our podcast, and want more of it in your life--including two bonus episo...
Jul 17, 2023•1 hr 11 min
We're joined by Irish author Mark O'Connell (A Thread of Violence, Notes from an Apocalypse, and To Be a Machine, which won the 2019 Rooney Prize for Irish literature) to discuss a John Banville novel, The Book of Evidence, a fictionalized account of a famous Irish murder. O'Connell's newest book is actually a nonfiction exploration of that same murder, which took place in the early 80s and made headlines around the country, in part because the murderer was a well-known Dublin socialite. We talk...
Jul 02, 2023•1 hr 19 min
We're joined by Sebastian Castillo--author, most recently, of SALMON--to discuss a very strange, and strangely funny, novel.
Jun 19, 2023•1 hr 6 min
We're joined by Libby Cudmore--author of the "hipster mystery" novel The Big Rewind--to talk about her experiments in flash fiction, her relationship to genre, and why she loves Dave Housley's LOONEY. You can find Libby on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/LibbyCudmore And if you like our show, please consider joining the Patreon. Just five bucks a month gets you access to bonus episodes, including our special Summer of Shorts season: https://www.patreon.com/BookFight...
Jun 05, 2023•1 hr 6 min
We're joined by fiction writer Sarah Anne Strickley (Incendiary Devices) to talk about what it's like to be one half of a literary power couple. Plus a strange Brian Evenson novella, Sarah's path toward weirdness in her own fiction, and whether the Iowa Writers Workshop will live inside our heads forever. Check out Sarah's work--including her new book--at her website: https://www.sarahannestrickley.com/ And if you'd like more Book Fight in your life, join our Patreon and get two bonus episodes a...
May 22, 2023•1 hr 9 min
We're joined by the founding editors of Great Place Books--Emily Adrian and Alex Higley--to talk about why they started a new press, and the kinds of books they're hoping to publish. We also discuss Rivka Galchen's short story, "How I Became a Vet," from a recent issue of The New Yorker. You can learn more about Great Place Books here: https://www.greatplacebooks.com/ You can read "How I Became a Vet" here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/03/13/how-i-became-a-vet Alex on Twitter: https:/...
May 08, 2023•1 hr 20 min
We're joined by Nic Brown, author of several books, most recently the memoir Bang Bang Crash, about his life as a rock drummer. Nic was also a grad school classmate of ours at the Iowa Writers Workshop, so we decided to revisit Stop-Time, the famous memoir by Frank Conroy, who was in his final years of running the program when we were students there. You can find Nic (and his book) here: https://www.nicbrown.net/ If you like the show, and want more of it, you can Subscribe to our Patreon for $5 ...
Apr 24, 2023•1 hr 13 min
We're joined by John Cotter, author of the memoir Losing Music, out this week from Milkweed Editions. The book is about an incurable inner-ear disorder that came on suddenly, and inexplicably, and how John has had to reckon with the gradual loss of his hearing, and the host of other issues that brings with it. John picked a famous Maxine Hong Kingston essay for us to read, one that offers an interesting model for writing about what we don't know. You can learn more about John, and find links to ...
Apr 10, 2023•1 hr 13 min
Return guest Christopher Gonzalez (I'm Not Hungry But I Could Eat) joins us to talk about the difference between gay stories and queer stories, writing long, and how not to be a creepy weirdo on Twitter. You can read Alejandro Varela's story, "Carlitos in Charge," here, via Harper's: https://harpers.org/archive/2019/10/carlitos-in-charge-alejandro-varela/ Learn more about Chris and his work here: https://chris-gonzalez.com/ If you want to support the podcast, you can join our Patreon for just $5...
Mar 27, 2023•1 hr 13 min
We're joined by fan favorite Laura McGrath, who is back on the show to help us understood the cultural phenomenon that is Colleen Hoover. McGrath, our colleague at Temple University, studies the business of literature--and teaches a class on best-sellers--but she hadn't read any Hoover until we forced her to do it for the podcast. So we hope you're appreciative, listeners! You can keep up with Laura's scholarly work, including her forthcoming book, at her website, here: https://laurabmcgrath.com...
Mar 13, 2023•1 hr 23 min
We're joined by the short story writer Art Taylor—winner of multiple Agatha awards, and author of two collections—to discuss an unconventionally structured story by Joyce Carol Oates. Art also teaches creative writing at George Mason University in Virginia, and we spend some time talking about how we approach structure with our students. You can find Art's books, and everything else he's up to, at his website: https://arttaylorwriter.com/ If you like the podcast, please consider supporting us! F...
Feb 27, 2023•1 hr 7 min
We're joined by Tod Goldberg, author of more than a dozen books, including Gangsterland and The Low Desert, to talk about what he learned about crime writing from Elmore Leonard. Plus, why are MFA programs still so often biased against writers of genre fiction? And what are the challenges of writing a series of novels with the same lead character? You can learn more about Tod, and his books, here: https://todgoldberg.com/ If you like the podcast, and would like more of it, we're releasing two bo...
Feb 13, 2023•1 hr 26 min
We're joined by V.V. Ganeshananthan, author of two critically acclaimed novels, most recently Brotherless Night, which takes place during the Sri Lankan Civil War. Sugi is also a former grad school classmate of ours, and she began Brotherless Night back when all three of us were at Iowa together. So one thing we talk about is that process, and what it's like to write and rewrite a novel over more than fifteen years. For our reading, Sugi chose Horacio Castellanos Moya's Senselessness, the first ...
Jan 30, 2023•1 hr 15 min
We're joined by writer and editor Aaron Burch, whose novel Year of the Buffalo came out in November. Aaron is also a long-time literary editor, having founded Hobart in the early 2000s and, more recently, HAD , which has made "skull collecting" the newest badge of literary coolness. For our reading, Aaron chose Chris Bachelder's debut novel from 2001, Bear v. Shark , which he remembered loving and wanted to revisit. We talk about what makes a work of fiction feel dated--which may go against conv...
Jan 16, 2023•1 hr 18 min
We're joined by several of the Barrelhouse editors for our annual holiday episode. This year we're reading the David Baldacci novel The Christmas Train, which follows a salty, Mark Twain-loving writer on a cross-country train trip filled with heartwarming hijinks. There's a boa constrictor. There's an Aretha Franklin stand-in. There's an old guy who loves to lecture people about the magic of train travel. And maybe ... love? You can learn more about Barrelhouse here: https://www.barrelhousemag.c...
Dec 19, 2022•1 hr 11 min
We're joined by Siân Griffiths (author of Scrapple, and The Heart Keeps Faulty Time) to discuss a short story she regularly teaches and that her students often dislike, in large part because it involves killing cats. And it turns out Mike might be on Team Siân's Students, though for somewhat different reasons (not that he cares for cats being killed, either!). We talk about the pedagogical benefits of having your students read something they may not like, and debate where the line is between a g...
Dec 12, 2022•59 min
We're joined by Shannon Wolf, a British writer and poet currently making her home in the U.S., who picked this episode's book after hearing us on a previous episode ask, hypothetically, whether there might be a novelization of the movie Legally Blonde. Shannon, a superfan of the film, knew it was actually based on a novel, though the story of that novel's publication is a bit of a twisty one. And while Amanda Brown's book lays out the basic plot and character arcs that we all know and love from ...
Nov 28, 2022•1 hr 6 min
We're joined by Amy Butcher—author, most recently, of Mothertrucker—who tells us about the outsized influence Jo Ann Beard's work has had on her own writing, including her decision to write creative nonfiction in the first place. We also dig into some of the difficult genre questions posed by Beard's work. Is it fair to call a piece nonfiction when so much of it involves the invention of another person's interior life? What does the term "essay" really encompass? And do these genre distinctions ...
Nov 14, 2022•1 hr 5 min
We're joined by Jen A. Miller--freelance writer and reporter, and author of Running: A Love Story --to talk about why she loves regency romance novels, and in particular those that explore queer relationships. Jen's book pick for us was The Queer Principles of Kit Webb , the first book in a new series from Cat Sebastian. We talk about the "rules" of romance novels, why they often don't get the respect of other kinds of books, and how contemporary romance authors are challenging the heteronormati...
Oct 31, 2022•1 hr 4 min
We're joined by Stephanie Feldman--author, most recently, of the novel Saturnalia (The Unnammed Press, 2022)--who introduces us to a funny, and surprisingly moving short story about a fictional New Jersey cryptid, Walkdog. The story, by Sofia Samatar, takes the form of a student research paper, but as it progresses we realize it's less about the cryptid in question than about the paper writer's secret relationship with a boy everyone in school makes fun of for being a nerd. You can learn more ab...
Oct 17, 2022•1 hr 4 min
We're joined by Elizabeth McCracken (author, most recently, of the novel The Hero of This Book, out Oct. 4 from Harper Collins) to discuss Mary Gaitskill's 2005 novel Veronica, a book that until recently Elizabeth was scared to re-read. We talk carnality in fiction, and the sweatiness of early 80s New York City. Plus: we compare notes on our time at the Iowa Writers Workshop, discuss trigger warnings for undergrad classes, and Elizabeth explains why for years she quietly pretended to have read D...
Oct 03, 2022•58 min
