Julie Myerson discusses the immersive structure of her new novel, how her real life influenced her fiction, dealing with intense public backlash and rediscovering her confidence as a writer, Elizabeth Strout, and so much more! Julie Myerson is the author of ten novels, including the bestselling Something Might Happen and The Stopped Heart, and three works of nonfiction, including Home: The Story of Everyone Who Ever Lived in Our House and The Lost Child. As a critic and columnist, she has writte...
Jan 16, 2024•57 min
Yael Goldstein-Love discusses her time- and genre-bending novel, The Possibilities, trying to put motherhood into words, using quantum mechanics to explain the paradox of parenthood, the way parents birth a child’s mind, mom rage, writing humor, her newest project, and more! Yael Goldstein-Love is the author of the novels The Passion of Tasha Darsky, described as “showing signs of brooding genius” by The New York Times, and The Possibilities, a speculative thriller about the psychological transi...
Dec 12, 2023•51 min
Andrew Porter discusses his new collection, The Disappeared, how his process changes depending on what he’s working on, trying to hold a novel in his head all at once as he’s drafting, moving from writing stories to writing a novel and back again, when and how he thinks about structure, and more! Andrew Porter is the author of the short story collection The Theory of Light and Matter (Vintage/Penguin Random House), which won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, the novel In Between Day...
Nov 28, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Season 4Ep. 11
Athena Dixon discusses her new book, The Loneliness Files, the cases that inspired the essays, how social media can help and harm the creative process, writing on her phone, being ghosted for writing opportunities, being transparent in the industry, working without an agent, and more! Born and raised in Northeast Ohio, Athena Dixon is a poet, essayist, and editor. She is the author of the essay collection The Loneliness Files, out now on Tin House, The Incredible Shrinking Woman and No God In Th...
Nov 14, 2023•54 min•Season 4Ep. 10
Rachel Cantor discusses her new novel, Half-Life of a Stolen Sister: A Novel of the Brontës, writing a modern take on historical characters, finding her way to the novel’s innovative form, finding a balance in voice and tone, finding a publisher for this book without an agent, and more! Rachel Cantor is the author of the novels A Highly Unlikely Scenario and Good on Paper. Her short stories have appeared in The Paris Review, One Story, Ninth Letter, and The Kenyon Review, among other publication...
Oct 17, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Season 4Ep. 9
In this truly wonderful and enlightening episode, E.J. Koh discusses her debut novel, the magic of dogs, familial relationships, how poetry helped her communicate, magnanimity, how imagination and creativity are essential aspects of apology, her hope for Korea, and more! E. J. Koh is the author of the memoir The Magical Language of Others, which won a Washington State Book Award, Pacific Northwest Book Award, Association for Asian American Studies Book Award, and was longlisted for the PEN Open ...
Oct 10, 2023•58 min•Season 4Ep. 8
Kathleen Rooney discusses her new novel, which is based on silent film star Colleen Moore and the fairy castle she created, as well as the best kind of weirdos, nailing the unique voice of her protagonist, researching the silent film era, and more! Kathleen Rooney is a founding editor of Rose Metal Press, a nonprofit publisher of literary work in hybrid genres, as well as a founding member of Poems While You Wait, a team of poets and their typewriters who compose commissioned poetry on demand. S...
Oct 03, 2023•54 min•Season 4Ep. 7
Chloé Caldwell discusses her memoir, The Red Zone, as well as the ambitious decision to center a book around her period/PMDD, periods in pop culture, women’s changing bodies, the euphoria of seeing menstruation depicted realistically, structuring and restructuring her book, and more (about periods)! Chloé Caldwell is the author of The Red Zone: A Love Story (Soft Skull, 2022) and three more books: the essay collection I’ll Tell You in Person (Coffee House/Emily Books, 2016), the critically accla...
Sep 26, 2023•56 min•Season 4Ep. 6
Cleo Qian discusses moving between poetry and fiction, the inspiration behind some of the stories in her debut collection, allowing her book to age as she revised, honoring the privacy of writing, and more! Cleo Qian (she/her) is a fiction writer and poet from California. She received her MFA from NYU. Her work has appeared in over 20 outlets; was a winner of the Zoetrope: All Story Short Fiction Competition; has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, twice longlisted for the DISQUIET Prize, and...
Sep 19, 2023•50 min•Season 4Ep. 5
Eden Robins (Franny Stands Up) discusses her new novel, catharsis in comedy, how being a funny woman is STILL transgressive, the terror of writing the jokes for the book, the intermingling of trauma and pain and humor, Chicago history, and more! Eden Robins loves novels best, but they take forever so she also writes short stories and self-absorbed essays at places like Catapult, USA Today, LA Review of Books, Apex magazine, Shimmer, and others. Her debut novel When Franny Stands Up was named a b...
Sep 12, 2023•55 min•Season 4Ep. 4
Ben Purkert discusses the rich text of toxic masculinity, writing a novel that engages with authenticity and a character who has no idea who he is, the role Judaism plays in the book, poetry being his first love, the dearth of heterosexual male intimacy, writing complex female characters, and more! Ben Purkert is the author of the debut novel, The Men Can’t Be Saved (Abrams/Overlook). His poetry collection, For the Love of Endings (Four Way Books, 2018), was named one of Adroit’s Best Poetry Boo...
Sep 05, 2023•59 min•Season 4Ep. 3
Daniel Hornsby discusses his new novel, Sucker, as well as the difficulty of editing a book’s opening, tech hubris, writing a character who inhabits the punk/DIY world and is full of shit, caves are great but spelunking is idiotic, Celine Dion is a time lord, and so much more! Plus: Alex has returned for one ep only! Keep up with all things Great Place Books and Alex's novel True Failure! Daniel Hornsby is the author of the novels Sucker and Via Negativa, and his stories and essays have appeared...
Aug 29, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Season 4Ep. 2
Isabel Kaplan discusses her bestselling novel, NSFW, writing an authentic codependent relationship, pushing past catharsis and resolution rather than crafting a traditional ending, her use of dialogue and conversation, querying agents at age 12, what it’s like to have a viral essay, and more! And: stay tuned at the end to hear excerpts from some exciting new small press releases from Grant Maierhofer and Shannon McLeod! Isabel Kaplan is the author of the national bestselling novel NSFW, which wa...
Aug 22, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Season 4Ep. 1
Today, Ben Hinshaw discusses his debut novel, Exactly What You Mean, as well as shaping this novel-in-stories, how parenthood changed his writing, locating and maintaining his authentic voice, his process, the weird feelings that accompany publication, and more! Ben Hinshaw’s writing has received an O. Henry Award and appeared in Granta, Harvard Review, Story, The Carolina Quarterly, The White Review and elsewhere. He earned his MA in creative writing at UC Davis and has received grants and scho...
Jul 25, 2023•1 hr•Season 3Ep. 20
Today, Kathleen Hale talked about the extensive research and work that went into her new book, SLENDERMAN: Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls, as well as how she rewrote its 680+ page manuscript, how being canceled brought her to the story, the Wisconsin justice system, and more. Kathleen Hale is a true crime author and TV writer based in Los Angeles. She is the author of four books. Her work has been featured in Vanity Fair, among other outlets. Hale...
Jul 11, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Season 3Ep. 19
Today, Anne K. Yoder (The Enhancers) discusses her “poet’s novel”; writing a dystopian, cross-genre, fictional pharmaceutical packet; the long revision process; running the arts collective/press Meekling Press; and more! Anne K. Yoder is the author of the novel The Enhancers, which was selected as a must-read by Wired, Vulture, Nylon, and elsewhere. Her fiction, essays, and criticism have appeared in Fence, BOMB, Tin House, NY Tyrant, and MAKE, among other publications, and has been recognized i...
Jun 27, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Season 3Ep. 18
Today, Tania James discusses her new romp of a novel, LOOT, and how it helped her re-find her way as a writer, staying in it over a long career, researching 18th century Mysore and Europe, working with Knopf, and more! Tania James is the author of the novels The Tusk That Did the Damage and Atlas of Unknowns and the short-story collection Aerogrammes. Her fiction has appeared in Freeman’s, Granta, The New Yorker, O, The Oprah Magazine, One Story, and A Public Space. Tania has been a fellow of Ra...
Jun 13, 2023•56 min•Season 3Ep. 17
Today, Jessica Anne (Sex with My Family) and Joshua Bohnsack of Long Day Press talk about collaborating on this short, vicious, beautiful book; cows; maintaining rawness in the work; Jessica’s theater background informing her writing; endings; Long Day’s forthcoming manual on muskrat removal (!); and more! Jessica Anne is Neo-Futurist, Lit & Luz artistic associate, author of A Manual for Nothing, and Visiting Lecturer at Roosevelt University. Her new book is Sex with My Family. Long Day Pres...
May 30, 2023•58 min•Season 3Ep. 16
Today, S.L. Wisenberg discusses her Juniper Prize winning essay collection, The Wandering Womb: Essays in Search of Home, as well as inspiration, encountering herself when revisiting and revising her work, finishing, locating her fear as a prompt, and more! S. L. Wisenberg is editor of Another Chicago Magazine and author of the fiction collection, The Sweetheart Is In, and two nonfiction books, Holocaust Girls: History, Memory, and Other Obsessions and The Adventures of Cancer Bitch. The recipie...
May 24, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Season 3Ep. 15
Today, Jane Wong reads from her new memoir, Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City, and discusses transforming her collection of essays into a non-linear memoir, “Wongmom.com,” working in poetry and prose, “writing up to the present,” writing the hard stuff, tonal shifts, and more! Jane Wong is the author of How to Not Be Afraid of Everything from Alice James Books (2021) and Overpour from Action Books (2016). Her debut memoir, Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City, is forthcoming from Tin House in May, 20...
May 09, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Season 3Ep. 14
Today, John Milas discusses his new novel, the difference between terror and horror, perception vs. time, working with Roxane Gay, the real Militia House, writing a speculative literary military novel, the nostalgia of 2010, and more! John Milas is the author of the forthcoming novel THE MILITIA HOUSE (Henry Holt, 2023). He enlisted in the US Marine Corps at age nineteen and subsequently deployed to the Helmand Province of Afghanistan in support of OEF 10.1. He was honorably discharged from acti...
May 02, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 3Ep. 13
Today, Courtney Zoffness discusses Spilt Milk (memoirs), why pregnancy and early parenthood is a fertile time for creatives (haha see what I did there), moving between fiction and nonfiction, “going long,” working with McSweeney’s, and more! Courtney Zoffness is the author of the memoir-in-essays SPILT MILK, out now in paperback. Spilt Milk was named a best debut of the year by BookPage and Refinery29, and a “must-read” by Publishers Weekly and Good Morning America. Also a fiction writer, Zoffne...
Apr 25, 2023•56 min•Season 3Ep. 12
Today, Marisa Crane talks about their debut novel, establishing a world right away, being a “tragically first-person writer,” BookTok, parents reading their children’s books, and more! Marisa Crane is the author of the novel I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself. Their stories and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, Passages North, Joyland, The Offing, No Tokens, The Florida Review, TriQuarterly, Lit Hub, Catapult, F(r)iction, and elsewhere. An attendee of the Tin House Works...
Apr 11, 2023•57 min•Season 3Ep. 11
Today, Ethan Chatagnier discusses his debut novel, bending genres, finding his way to a novel he could complete, doing just enough but not too much research, getting owned by copy editors, and more! A Pushcart Prize winner, Ethan Chatagnier’s stories have appeared in the Kenyon Review, Georgia Review, and New England Review, and been listed as notable in The Best American Short Stories. He is the author of the story collection Warnings from the Future and lives in Fresno, California, with his fa...
Mar 28, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Season 3Ep. 10
Today, Matthew Vollmer (All of Us Together in the End) talks to us about his new memoir, living and writing in mystery, discovering creative nonfiction, writing about family, writing about the pandemic, and more! Matthew Vollmer is the author of two short-story collections—Future Missionaries of America and Gateway to Paradise—as well as three collections of essays—inscriptions for headstones, Permanent Exhibit, and This World Is Not Your Home: Essays, Stories, & Reports. He was the editor o...
Mar 14, 2023•51 min•Season 3Ep. 8
Today, Lydia Conklin talks to us about their collection RAINBOW RAINBOW, writing humor and joy, Lorrie Moore, deciding to publish their collection before their novel, working with Catapult, and more! Lydia Conklin has received a Stegner Fellowship, a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award, three Pushcart Prizes, a Creative Writing Fulbright in Poland, a grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation, a Creative Writing Fellowship from Emory University, work-study and tuition scholarships from Bread Lo...
Mar 07, 2023•49 min•Season 3Ep. 8
Today, Ling Ma talks to us about her story collection, Bliss Montage, as well as starting from scratch, editing in a postpartum haze, fragrances, and more! Ling Ma is a writer hailing from Fujian, Utah, and Kansas. She wrote the novel Severance and, more recently, the story collection Bliss Montage, both published by FSG. She lives in Chicago with her family. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 28, 2023•54 min•Season 3Ep. 7
Today, Jac Jemc (Empty Theatre) talks to us about the impetus for writing a novel about Empress Sisi and King Ludwig, trimming hundreds of pages as she drafted, using her time wisely, Donald Barthelme, what it feels like to bask in the buzz, and more! Jac Jemc is the author of The Grip of It, My Only Wife, A Different Bed Every Time, and the story col- lection False Bingo, which won the Chicago Review of Books Award for fiction, was a Lambda Literary Award finalist, and was long-listed for the S...
Feb 14, 2023•59 min•Season 3Ep. 6
Today, Ursula Villarreal-Moura talks to us about her new collection, hating and then learning to love flash fiction, Muriel Spark, how Roberto Bolaño would blurb her forthcoming novel, and more! Ursula Villarreal-Moura is the author of Math for the Self-Crippling, which was selected by Zinzi Clemmons as the Gold Line Press fiction contest winner, and Like Happiness, forthcoming with Celadon Books. A graduate of Middlebury College, she received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and was a VONA/V...
Feb 07, 2023•59 min•Season 3Ep. 5
Today, Kevin Maloney (The Red-Headed Pilgrim) talks to us about fictionalizing his own life, writing about sex, writing a book that was “like On the Road combined with Napoleon Dynamite,” working with Two Dollar Radio, and more! Kevin Maloney is the author of The Red-Headed Pilgrim, out now on Two Dollar Radio, Horse Girl Fever, out onCLASH Books in 2024, and Cult of Loretta. At times a TJ Maxx associate, grocery clerk, outdoor school instructor, organic farmer, electrician, high school English ...
Jan 31, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 3Ep. 4
