An interview from the archives with Sue William Silverman about her memoir, The Pat Boone Fan Club: My Life as a White Anglo Saxon Jew ( University of Nebraska). This week’s Write the Book Prompt is to write about a fantasized, imagined or real relationship with a star. From Pat Boone to David Cassidy, Britney Spears to Timothee Chalamet, heart throbs have always energized teens. You could write from a fan’s perspective, a star’s, that of an agent, a producer, a chauffeur. Good luck with your wo...
Jan 11, 2022•37 min•Ep. 713
A conversation from the archives with Vermont children’s author Elizabeth Bluemle , about her picture book, TAP TAP, BOOM BOOM ( Candlewick Press ). My son and I once experienced a hurricane in Florida. Those of you who know storms might remember Charlie, in 2004. We stayed in a motel in Winter Park–a second-story room with an outside entry that looked out at the parking lot. The storm was fierce and loud. We lost electricity and the room went dark, but outside the winds were furious and sounded...
Dec 30, 2021•55 min•Ep. 711
Interview from the archives with award-winning author Joshua Ferris on his novel, To Rise Again at a Decent Hour ( Little Brown and Company ). This week’s Write the Book Prompt is to write about a visit to the dentist. Your scene, story or poem might involve the patient’s perspective, that of the dentist, the hygienist. Maybe you write about the waiting room, a moment in the parking lot, or the dreaded chair itself. Good luck with your work in the coming week, and tune in next week for another p...
Dec 30, 2021•47 min•Ep. 710
Vermont Author Joy Cohen , whose debut novel is 37 ( Guernica Editions ). This week's Write the Book Prompt was generously offered by my guest Joy Cohen during our conversation. She suggests making two lists: the first, a list of 10 characters . They can be actual people in your life, such as your mom or dad, your best friend, the pharmacist, the mail carrier, people that you know really well or don't know at all. They could include fictional characters from movies or books. Just make a list of ...
Dec 15, 2021•51 min•Ep. 709
Poet A.E. Hines , whose debut collection is Any Dumb Animal ( Main Street Rag ). A new prompt for the week comes from A.E. Hines, and touches on something we discussed during the interview you just heard: Write a poem that explores duality, by comparing and contrasting two topics that are generally considered opposites. For example: Where is the light in the darkness? Or, pick one or multiple things that are considered hard, and describe them as soft. Describe a moment of gratitude in the midst ...
Dec 07, 2021•33 min•Ep. 708
A new interview with Swiss Author Peter Stamm , whose latest story collection is It's Getting Dark ( Other Press ). Peter Stamm generously suggested a Write the Book Prompt for today’s show. Go to the cemetery and see what the stones tell you about the people who are buried there. You’ll learn from the stones themselves, but also from their names and dates, from details occasionally listed on the stones, from any flowers left at the graveside. You’ll be surprised by how much you might learn abou...
Dec 07, 2021•31 min•Ep. 707
Wendy Sanford , author, editor, and a founding member of the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective . Her debut memoir is These Walls Between Us: A Memoir of Friendship Across Race and Class ( SheWrites Press ). On Wendy Sanford’s website you can go to a page titled Meet Mary Norman: Leading the way for women in New Jersey corrections work 1968-1993. On that page are a series of events that shaped Mary Norman’s life and the people she worked with. These are interesting stories that highlight her ...
Dec 02, 2021•55 min•Ep. 706
Author and Journalist Jonah Lehrer, whose new book is Mystery: A Seduction, A Strategy, A Solution ( Avid Reader Press ). This week’s Write the Book Prompt was suggested by my guest, Jonah Lehrer: Read a detective story and look for the false clues planted in the first five pages, or in Act I, depending on the work. In a Poe story or a Conan Doyle, there are so many missed leads, and you forget about them once you know the ending. But to create the surprise, a lot of work needs to be done. There...
Nov 15, 2021•48 min•Ep. 705
A conversation from the archives with the author Anne Lamott about her book Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son's First Son ( Riverhead ), which concerns being a grandparent. I myself became a Nana (again) last week, and so I've uploaded this interview without re-recording the intro and outro. Please excuse this lapse. I'm busy helping out. This week's Write the Book Prompt is to write some memory of your own grandmother, grandfather, or perhaps another person who filled that role for yo...
Nov 12, 2021•26 min•Ep. 704
Award-Winning Nigerian Author Uwem Akpan , whose debut novel is New York, My Village ( Norton ). This week’s Write the Book Prompt is to write about a time that your own success or advancement was stymied by bureaucracy, as visitors to America can be stymied by the process of trying to get a visa. Was your experience further complicated by some kind of prejudice or racism? If not, how might that have changed things for you? Was your goal a matter of life and death, professional success, or merel...
Nov 02, 2021•45 min•Ep. 703
Vermont Author Michael Freed-Thall , whose debut novel is Horodno Burning ( Rootstock ). Consider this Write the Book Prompt, inspired by my conversation with Michael: try using history as a frame from which to hang your characters in writing a story, poem, essay or longer piece. As you work, be sure you are accurately rendering the historical period, researching the industry, technology, customs, and events of the period. Good luck with your work in the coming week, and tune in next week for an...
Oct 26, 2021•31 min•Ep. 702
Vermont Author Melissa Perley , whose 2019 book The Violin Family ( Rootstock ) was recently named a winner in the Children’s Category of the 2021 Indie Reader Discovery Awards. Here's a musical Write the Book Prompt: listen to a piece of music and try to describe it in your work. It's harder than it sounds! Good luck with your work in the coming week, and tune in next week for another prompt or suggestion. Music Credit: Aaron Shapiro 702...
Oct 26, 2021•26 min•Ep. 701
A conversation from the archives with Vermont author and former president of Vermont College of Fine Arts , Thomas Christopher Greene , about his novel The Headmaster's Wife ( Thomas Dunne ). On Friday, at a football game in Burlington High School's stadium, community members were treated to a very special halftime show featuring many students and teachers appearing in drag. According to The Washington Post, and yes, this was covered by The Washington Post, the idea came from Andrew LeValley, an...
Oct 24, 2021•45 min•Ep. 700
Award-winning author Donald Antrim , whose new memoir is One Friday in April: A Story of Suicide and Survival ( Norton ). In presenting his viewpoint that suicide is a disease, Donald Antrim experiments early in the book with a presentation of labels and names for mental illness. As you heard in the interview, this list begins, “Depression, hysteria, melancholia, nervousness, neurosis…” and goes on for nearly two pages. This week’s Write the Book Prompt is to use a list of words in an interestin...
Oct 16, 2021•40 min•Ep. 699
Award-winning director and playwright Lisa Peterson , who has penned a translation of Hamlet for the Play on Shakespeare project, a series published by ACMRS Press. This week’s Write the Book Prompt is to choose a piece of your work and try to translate it for a different audience than it was originally intended. Change the language so that it might have made sense three hundred years ago. Or put it into words you could read to a child. Change it to appeal to someone from a different culture. If...
Oct 05, 2021•42 min•Ep. 698
Award-winning author Ruth Ozeki , whose latest novel is The Book of Form and Emptiness ( Viking ). In our conversation, Ruth mentioned that she has to dig really deep to find her characters and fully understand them. This week’s Write the Book Prompt is to consider a character you are working on; perhaps someone you don’t fully understand yet. Ask yourself these questions about this character: What does he or she want? (And from here on, I’m going with she, to make life easier…) Has she had it b...
Sep 30, 2021•34 min•Ep. 697
Vermont Author and former WTB Co-Host Gary Miller , whose new nonfiction book for students and their teachers is There's No Way to Do It Wrong!: How to Get Young Learners to Take Risks, Tell Stories, Share Opinions, and Fall in Love with Writing . Gary generously offered us one of his many writing prompts to use for a Write the Book Prompt today. And that prompt is to begin with the sentence, “They told me, but of course I didn’t listen.” See where it takes you. Write for seven minutes. And ther...
Sep 23, 2021•22 min•Ep. 696
Vermont Poet Ralph Culver , whose new collection is A Passable Man (Mad Hat Press). In his poem, "Tableau," Ralph Culver writes about one person sharing a space with two other versions of himself, presumably over time (though this is never stated overtly). For a Write the Book Prompt, try experimenting with a similar moment that captures multiple expressions of one person - perhaps three ages, three states of mind, or three memories. Whatever strikes you as interesting. Good luck with this, and ...
Sep 23, 2021•30 min•Ep. 695
Interview with the poet Maggie Smith , whose new collection of poems, is Goldenrod ( One Signal ). This week’s Write the Book Prompt, suggested by my guest, Maggie Smith, is based on the work of Joe Brainard, who wrote the book I Remember . The book is essentially prose poetry, and each line begins with the words “I remember.” Maggie says that the idea is that if you do that over a couple of pages in a big rush without editing yourself or self-censoring, or even trying, you may find yourself con...
Sep 18, 2021•53 min•Ep. 694
An interview from the archives with the author Jessica Hendry Nelson , who has a new book out - co-authored with fellow former Write the Book Guest Sean Prentiss : Advanced Creative Nonfiction: A Writer's Guide and Anthology , just out from Bloomsbury . During this interview, we talked about her memoir, If Only You People Could Follow Directions ( Counterpoint ). This week’s Write the Book Prompt is inspired by the title of my guest’s memoir, If Only You People Could Follow Directions. Write a l...
Sep 13, 2021•56 min•Ep. 693
Vermont Author Nancy Hayes Kilgore , in a conversation about her new novel, Bitter Magic ( Sunbury Press ). As we mentioned during our interview, one character who Nancy Hayes Kilgore describes in Bitter Magic is the devil himself. He appears to Isobel Gowdie in a spot where a tree had stood only moments before. She depicts him as a blonde man wearing green, but during their encounter he changes. This week’s Write the Book Prompt is to write a character based on a famous non-human entity: a lepr...
Sep 03, 2021•47 min•Ep. 692
An interview from the archives with consultant and teacher Carolyn Conger, PhD , about her book Through the Dark Forest: Transforming Your Life in the Face of Death ( Plume ). This week’s Write the Book Prompt was inspired by the book, Through the Dark Forest: Transforming Your Life in the Face of Death. No matter where you are in life - age-wise, health-wise, or otherwise - this week consider what you’ve left unfinished so far in your life, and what you would like to do about it. Maybe also kee...
Aug 27, 2021•28 min•Ep. 691
Poet, editor, scholar, and musician Tony Trigilio , whose new collection is Proof Something Happened , winner of the 2020 Marsh Hawk Poetry Prize . This week’s Write the Book Prompt was generously suggested by my guest, Tony Trigilio. This prompt is adapted from John Daido Loori's The Zen of Creativity: Cultivating Your Artistic Life. Sit with an object/memory/experience until it begins to reveal itself to you -- its details, contours, emotions, and so on. Be open to the possibility that you mig...
Aug 17, 2021•47 min•Ep. 690
Best-selling author Caroline Leavitt , whose novel With or Without You just came out in paperback ( Algonquin Books ). This week’s Write the Book Prompt was generously offered by my guest, Caroline Leavitt. Write a page about two people who are in love without mentioning passion, desire, kids or any other words associated with love. Good luck with your work in the coming week, and tune in next week for another prompt or suggestion. Music Credit: Aaron Shapiro 690...
Aug 10, 2021•45 min•Ep. 689
Interview from the archives with poet and prose writer Barbara Henning , regarding her book A Swift Passage ( Quale Press ). I have family visiting this week - lots of loved ones filling our two guest rooms, and sleeping on the floor in the finished basement, and in one case staying in the dining room. It’s a lot of fun, and a bit of a clown car. Today’s Write the Book Prompt is to imagine a house full of visitors. What might look like in your case? Where will everyone sleep? How do they all get...
Aug 10, 2021•52 min•Ep. 689
Bestselling author Christina Baker Kline , whose novel The Exiles , came out in paperback this month from Custom House . This week’s Write the Book Prompt was generously offered by my guest, Christina Baker Kline, who suggests writing the details of your morning, making sure to include all five senses in the first paragraph. Good luck with your work in the coming week, and tune in next week for another prompt or suggestion. Music Credit: Aaron Shapiro 688...
Jul 29, 2021•57 min•Ep. 688
Local author, yoga practitioner, and teacher Kyle Ferguson , whose new book (with co-author Anthony Grudin) is Beyond Hot Yoga: On Patterns, Practice and Movement ( North Atlantic Books ). Kyle's reading during our interview is excepted from Beyond Hot Yoga: On Patterns, Practice, and Movement by Kyle Ferguson and Anthony Grudin, published by North Atlantic Books, copyright © 2021 by Kyle Ferguson and Anthony Grudin. Used by permission of publisher. One concept discussed in the book is that of “...
Jul 20, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 687
Author Patrick Hicks , whose new novel is In the Shadow of Dora: A Novel of the Holocaust and the Apollo Program ( Stephen F. Austin University Press ). This week’s Write the Book Prompt was generously suggested by my guest, Patrick Hicks. In order to develop new characters and make them believable, it's crucial to know their likes and dislikes. Patrick spends quite a bit of time doing character sketches before he starts writing in order to know their backgrounds and personalities. For fun, he s...
Jul 13, 2021•52 min•Ep. 686
Award-winning Irish Author Rachel Donohue , whose new novel is The Temple House Vanishing ( Algonquin ). This week’s Write the Book Prompt was generously offered by my guest, Rachel Donohue, who suggests writing a paragraph in which your character is in one mood at the beginning, and a different mood by the end. Good luck with your work in the coming week, and tune in next week for another prompt or suggestion. Music Credit: Aaron Shapiro 685...
Jul 11, 2021•55 min•Ep. 685
Interview from the archives with Vermont Poet Daniel Lusk . This conversation took place at the time that his collection Kin was published ( Maple Tree Editions ). This week’s Write the Book Prompt comes from a local writer and artist who lives in Bristol, Vermont: Lily Hinrichsen. Choose one of the works of art on her website , and write an ekphrastic poem. Ekphrastic comes from the Greek word for description. Here’s a definition from the Poetry Foundation: an ekphrastic poem is a vivid descrip...
Jul 03, 2021•50 min•Ep. 684
