On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan is joined by Monique Roffey to discuss her novel, The Mermaid of Black Conch, out now from Knopf. Monique Roffey is a senior lecturer in creative writing at the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University. She is the author of seven books, four of which are set in Trinidad and the Caribbean region. The Mermaid of Black Conch won the 2020 Costa Book of the Year Award and was short-listed for several other major prizes. R...
Aug 05, 2022•29 min
This week, The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan revisits a Books & Books virtual event with multidisciplinary artist Blitz Bazawule in conversation with Beasts of Prey author Ayana Gray. Bazawule’s debut novel, The Scent of Burnt Flowers, set in the mid-1960s, tells the story of a Black couple, Melvin and Bernadette, who have fled the United States for Ghana after Melvin kills a racist assailant in self-defense. “The literary world has given me so much in terms of freedom and the ability t...
Jul 22, 2022•52 min
Ada Calhoun is the New York Times bestselling author of St. Marks Is Dead, Wedding Toasts I'll Never Give, and Why We Can't Sleep. She has written for the New York Times, the New Republic, and the Washington Post. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jul 15, 2022•40 min
On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan is joined by Geraldine Brooks to discuss her latest novel, Horse, out now from Viking. Geraldine Brooks is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel March and the international bestsellers The Secret Chord, Caleb’s Crossing, People of the Book, and Year of Wonders. She has also written the acclaimed nonfiction works Nine Parts of Desire and Foreign Correspondence. Born and raised in Australia, Brooks lives in Massachusetts. Learn more...
Jul 08, 2022•33 min
On today’s episode of The Literary Life, at a live event at Books & Books, special guest Amanda Keeley is joined by Ottessa Moshfegh to discuss her latest novel, Lapvona, out now from Penguin Press. Ottessa Moshfegh is a fiction writer from New England. Eileen, her first novel, was shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Man Booker Prize, and won the PEN/Hemingway Award for debut fiction. My Year of Rest and Relaxation and Death in Her Hands, her second and third novel...
Jul 01, 2022•56 min
On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan is joined by Mark Kurlansky to discuss his latest book, The Importance of Not Being Ernest: My Life with the Uninvited Hemingway, out now from Books & Books. Subscribe now to The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you find your podcasts! Mark Kurlansky is the New York Times bestselling author of Milk!, Havana, Paper, The Big Oyster, 1968, Salt, The Basque History of the World, Cod, and Salmon, among...
Jun 24, 2022•52 min
On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan is joined by Hernan Diaz to discuss his latest book, Trust, out now from Riverhead Books. Hernan Diaz is the author of two novels translated into more than twenty languages. His first novel, In the Distance, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award. He has also written a book of essays, and his work has appeared in The Paris Review, Granta, Playboy, The Yale Review, McSweeney’s, and elsewhere. He has received a Gugg...
Jun 17, 2022•37 min
On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan is joined by Alexander Maksik to discuss his latest book, The Long Corner, out now from Europa Editions. Alexander Maksik is the author of three previous novels: You Deserve Nothing (Europa, 2011), a New York Times and IndieBound bestseller; A Marker to Measure Drift, which was a New York Times Notable Book; and Shelter in Place (Europa, 2016), named one of the best books of the year by the Guardian and the San Francisco Chronicle. He is t...
Jun 06, 2022•47 min
On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan is joined by Steve Almond to discuss his latest book, All the Secrets of the World, out now from Zando. ________________________________ Subscribe now to The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you find your podcasts! Steve Almond is the author of ten books of fiction and nonfiction, including the New York Times bestsellers Candyfreak and Against Football. He teaches Creative Writing at the Neiman Fellow...
May 27, 2022•51 min
On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan is joined by Don Winslow to discuss his latest book, City on Fire, out now from William Morrow. ________________________________ Subscribe now to The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you find your podcasts! Don Winslow is the author of twenty-two acclaimed, award-winning international bestsellers, including the New York Times bestsellers The Force and The Border, the #1 international bestseller The Ca...
May 20, 2022•39 min
On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan is joined by Peter Balakian to discuss his latest poetry collection, No Sign, out now from University of Chicago Press. Peter Balakian is the author of Black Dog of Fate, winner of the PEN/Martha Albrand Prize for Memoir and a New York Times Notable Book, and June-tree: New and Selected Poems 1974-2000. He is the recipient of many awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship. He holds a Ph.D. in American Civilization from Brown University and...
May 14, 2022•47 min
On today’s episode of The Literary Life, at a live event at Books & Books, Connie Ogle interviews Douglas Stuart to discuss his new novel, Young Mungo, out now from Grove Atlantic. Douglas Stuart is a Scottish-American author. His New York Times-bestselling debut novel Shuggie Bain won the 2020 Booker Prize and the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. It was the winner of two British Book Awards, including Book of the Year, and was a finalist for the National Book...
May 06, 2022•1 hr 5 min
On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan is joined by Jeff Deutsch to discuss his new book, In Praise of Good Bookstores, out now from Princeton University Press, from a live event at Books & Books. Subscribe now to The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you find your podcasts! Jeff Deutsch is the director of Chicago’s Seminary Co-op Bookstores, which in 2019 he helped incorporate as the first not-for-profit bookstore whose mission is book...
Apr 29, 2022•42 min
Joining Mitchell Kaplan from Ukraine is Marjana Savka and Victoria Amelina, with Askold Melnyczuk in Boston. Marjana Savka was born in Kopychyntsi, Ternopil oblast, in 1973. She published her first poetry collection, Naked Riverbeds, at the age of twenty-one. Eight other books, for which she received several awards, have appeared since then, including four poetry collections and three children’s books. A former actress and journalist, she edited We and She, an anthology of poems by female writer...
Apr 15, 2022•48 min
On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan is joined by Diana Abu-Jaber to discuss her new book, Fencing With the King, out now from W.W. Norton. ________________________________ Subscribe now to The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you find your podcasts! Diana Abu-Jaber is the award-winning author of seven books of fiction and nonfiction, including Crescent and The Language of Baklava. She lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Learn more about ...
Mar 18, 2022•35 min
Joining Mitchell Kaplan from Ukraine is Dr. Olha Poliukhovych, writer, philosopher, and professor of humanities at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Ukraine’s oldest university. From Boston, Askold Melnyczuk, acclaimed novelist, short story writer, founding member of Writers for Democratic Action, and co-editor of From Three Worlds, an anthology of Ukrainian writers. "When I read or hear the news from abroad, I see Ukrainian crisis, conflict, Ukrainian-Russia conflict…It’s not a co...
Mar 04, 2022•47 min
When Deesha Philyaw stans see that she’s read and endorsed a book, big chances are, they're buying that book. “The thing I wanna say about blurbing, first, is it could be a full-time job. I’m happy to share these books with you today but for each one there are two that I couldn’t say yes to blurbing, just because I didn’t have time…The blurbs are really important so I try to do as many as I can,” shared Deesha. On this new episode of The Literary Life, you’ll hear Mitchell and Deesha talk about ...
Feb 18, 2022•1 hr 2 min
On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan talks with Julie Otsuka about her new novel, The Swimmers, out next month from Knopf. ________________________________ Subscribe now to The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you find your podcasts! Julie Otsuka was born and raised in California. She is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and her first novel, When the Emperor Was Divine, won the 2003 Asian American Literary Award and the 2003 Americ...
Feb 11, 2022•38 min
Richard Blanco, inaugural poet for Barack Obama’s second term as president and Elisa New, creator, director and host of PBS’s Poetry in America series, are Mitchell Kaplan’s guests this week. Richard's poem, "Looking for the Gulf Motel," is featured as season three of the acclaimed series begins. “The episode with Richard is a wonderful example of the opportunity we had to really get into the cultural life of Cuban-American families,” said Elisa. “Often people say “I don’t get poetry” and I ask,...
Feb 04, 2022•35 min
On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan is joined by Anjanette Delgado, Yaddyra Peralta, and Mia Leonin to discuss their new anthology, Home in Flordia: Latinx Writers and the Literature of Uprootedness, out now from University Press of Florida. ________________________________ Subscribe now to The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you find your podcasts! Anjanette Delgado is a Puerto Rican writer and journalist based in Miami. She is the au...
Jan 28, 2022•46 min
On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan talks to Kerri Maher about her latest book, The Paris Bookseller, out now from Berkley Books. Kerri Maher is the author of The Girl in White Gloves, The Kennedy Debutante, and, under the name Kerri Majors, This Is Not a Writing Manual: Notes for the Young Writer in the Real World. She holds an MFA from Columbia University and was a writing professor for many years. She now writes full-time and lives with her daughter and dog in a leafy sub...
Jan 21, 2022•32 min
“Some people don’t want to read about younger people, because they can’t relate to it. But for me, reading a book like Open Water or Sally Rooney’s book Beautiful World, Where Are You, it’s like looking at the lifestyle of people who live on a different planet. That’s how much older I am now, but it’s really interesting to me because people in their twenties look at life differently than I do.” This week, in a new ongoing series on The Literary Life, What Are You Reading, Mitchell Kaplan and Mia...
Jan 14, 2022•42 min
On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan talks to Valerie Miles about two of her recent new works, the anthology A Thousand Forests in One Acorn: An Anthology of Spanish-Language Fiction, out now from Open Letter Books, and the translation of Cremation by Rafael Chirbes, out now from New Directions Publishing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 10, 2021•52 min
On this week's episode, live from the Miami Book Fair, Mitchell Kaplan talks with Paul Auster about his masterful new book, Burning Boy: The Life and Work of Stephen Crane, out now from Henry Holt and Co. Paul Auster is the bestselling author of 4 3 2 1, Sunset Park, Invisible, The Book of Illusions, and the New York Trilogy, among many other works. In 2006 he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature. Among his other honors are the Prix Médicis étranger for Leviathan, the Independ...
Dec 03, 2021•58 min
This week on The Literary, Mitchell Kaplan talks with Bob Spitz about his new biography, Led Zeppelin. Bob Spitz is the award-winning author of the biographies Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child and The Beatles, both New York Times bestsellers, as well as seven other nonfiction books and a screenplay. He helped manage Bruce Springsteen and Elton John at crucial points in their careers. He’s written hundreds of major profiles of figures, ranging from Keith Richards to Jane Fonda, from Pau...
Nov 26, 2021•50 min
On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan talks to Amor Towles about his latest novel, The Lincoln Highway, out now from Viking. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nov 19, 2021•47 min
This week, Mitchell Kaplan talks with Miami Book Fair program director Lissette Mendez and Madeline Pumariega on the almost 40 years of the Fair, how it's changed over the years, and how this year will be conducted. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nov 12, 2021•40 min
Mitchell Kaplan has been a bookseller and has owned the independent bookstore Books & Books for almost 40 years. Enter The Literary Life where every Saturday you’ll hear candid conversations with Mitchell and his guests. If you love books, writers or are a passionate reader, this podcast is for you. Listen to this week’s episode to hear the Books & Books team talk about some of their favorite books for everyone on your holiday list. Shop the recommendations here from Mitchell, head book ...
Nov 05, 2021•1 hr
On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan talks to Tananarive Due about her latest novel, The Between, out now in paperback from Harper Perennial. ________________________________ Subscribe now to The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you find your podcasts! Tananarive Due is an award-winning author who teaches Black Horror and Afrofuturism at UCLA. She is an executive producer on Shudder’s groundbreaking documentary Horror Noire: A History of...
Oct 29, 2021•53 min
On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan talks to Lauren Groff about her new novel, Matrix, out now from Riverhead Books. ________________________________ Subscribe now to The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you find your podcasts! Lauren Groff is a two-time National Book Award finalist and the New York Times bestselling author of the novels The Monsters of Templeton, Arcadia, and Fates and Furies, and the short story collections Delicate E...
Oct 15, 2021•37 min
