#PodcastersForJustice 2021 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Abdulrazak Gurnah, spoke to me about life after becoming a laureate, the difference between authors and writers, and his latest novel "Afterlives." The Nobel Prize in Literature 2021 was awarded to Abdulrazak Gurnah "for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents" The Tanzanian-born British novelist and Professor Emeritus ...
Sep 02, 2022•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast #PodcastersForJustice Pushcart Prize-winning short story writer and debut novelist, LaToya Watkins, spoke to me about landing the cover of Publishers Weekly's Writers to Watch Fall 2022, the legacy of William Faulkner, and her debut "Perish." LaToya Watkins holds a PhD from the University of Texas at Dallas and her writing has appeared in A Public Space, The Sun, McSweeney's, Kenyon Review, The Pushcart Prize Anthology, and elsewhere. Her debut is Perish, a novel "... about a Black Texan family,...
Aug 26, 2022•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast #PodcastersForJustice Longtime literary critic and publishing insider, Bethanne Patrick, spoke to me about how she became a famed reviewer, where she puts all the books, and her new investigative podcast "Missing Pages." Bethanne Patrick is a writer, author, and critic whose monthly column on hot books appears in The Washington Post. An influencer in the book world, Bethanne (@TheBookMaven) has over 200K Twitter followers and originated the popular #FridayReads tag. She is also host to the all-n...
Aug 19, 2022•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast #PodcastersForJustice #1 New York Times bestselling author, Mark Greaney, returned to talk about hanging out on the red carpet with Netflix "The Gray Man" stars Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans, turning a failed screenplay into a hit audio play, and his latest, "Armored." "Even if you finish a whole book and it doesn't get published, I promise you you're a much better author at the end of that process than you were at the beginning..." – Mark Greaney Mark's debut international thriller, The Gray Man...
Aug 12, 2022•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast #PodcastersForJustice New York Times and #1 Sunday Times bestselling author, Sarah Pearse, spoke to me about Agatha Christie's legacy, how to write plausible police procedurals, and the place that inspired her latest, "The Retreat." Sarah Pearse is the author of The Sanatorium, a stunning crime fiction debut, instant New York Times and international bestseller, as well as a Reese’s Book Club selection and critical success. Her second novel, The Retreat, is Book Two in her bestselling Detective E...
Aug 05, 2022•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast #PodcastersForJustice Addendum: Hey just a quick addendum on this week's redux, I am out of town this week and enjoying the sweatiest summer of all time with my kids, but I wanted to revisit a fantastic episode with now National Book Award Winner, Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction Winner, Pushcart Prize nominee, NAACP Image Award nominee, and Carnegie Medals For Excellence Longlist nominee Jason Mott. Congrats! Enjoy, I’ll catch you next week with some fresh writerly wisdom. New York Times be...
Jul 29, 2022•34 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast #PodcastersForJustice #1 New York Times bestselling author, Emily Henry, spoke to me about her past life as a YA mid-lister, the Romance Renaissance, writing your way out of darkness, and her latest "Book Lovers." Emily Henry is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of People We Meet on Vacation and Beach Read, and has sold over a million copies of her novels. Her latest, Book Lovers, was an instant #1 New York Times bestseller, multiple Most Anticipated Read of 2022, and has been described a...
Jul 22, 2022•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast #PodcastersForJustice New York Times bestselling author, Ashley Poston, spoke to me about her pivot away from YA, the importance of fan fiction, and her paranormal romance debut "The Dead Romantics." Ashley Poston’s bestselling YA novels have been featured by Teen Vogue, Entertainment Weekly, Buzzfeed, and more. Her highly-anticipated pivot to romance is The Dead Romantics, a story about a millennial ghostwriter who believes romance is dead, a humorous and heartfelt novel with a fresh, slightly ...
Jul 15, 2022•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast #PodcastersForJustice New York Times bestselling author, Eleanor Brown, spoke to me about the difference between writers and authors, why adoptive families are just like any other family, and her latest novel "Any Other Family." Eleanor Brown's critically acclaimed debut novel, The Weird Sisters, was a New York Times and #1 international bestseller with over half a million copies sold. The novel earned excellent reviews from The New York Times, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, People, USA Today, and m...
Jul 08, 2022•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast #PodcastersForJustice New York Times bestselling author, and screenwriter-producer, Dennis Lehane, spoke to me about what he learned from Clint Eastwood, working on "Mr. Mercedes" with David E. Kelley, and his new Apple TV+ show "Black Bird." Dennis Lehane is the bestselling author of 13 novels including four adapted into films of the same name: 2003's Academy Award-winning film Mystic River, directed by Clint Eastwood; 2007's Gone Baby Gone; 2010's Shutter Island directed by Martin Scorsese, an...
Jul 01, 2022•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast #PodcastersForJustice New York Times bestselling thriller writer Riley Sager, spoke to me about why he publishes under a pen name, how to write Hitchcockian suspense, and his latest "The House Across the Lake." Riley Sager is the bestselling author of six novels, most recently Home Before Dark and Survive the Night. His award-winning first novel, Final Girls, was a national and international bestseller that has been published in 30 countries. His latest novel, The House Across the Lake, has been...
Jun 24, 2022•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast #PodcastersForJustice Bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner, Geraldine Brooks, spoke to me about why "truth is stranger than fiction," letting story drive narrative, and the overheard conversation that led to her latest, "Horse." 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 (recently optioned by Olivia Colman). Her latest novel, Horse, is described as "...
Jun 17, 2022•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast #PodcastersForJustice Seven-time Emmy nominee and co-creator of the hit TV series "How I Met Your Mother," Carter Bays, spoke to me about working with David Letterman, being a recovering TV writer, and his debut novel "The Mutual Friend." Carter Bays is best known as the co-creator of the sitcom How I Met Your Mother which ran on CBS for nine seasons. A companion series, How I Met Your Father, starring Hilary Duff, premiere on Hulu in 2022. His latest is The Mutual Friend, described as a "... th...
Jun 10, 2022•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast #PodcastersForJustice New York Times bestselling author, Clare Pooley, spoke to me about rising from the ashes, writing as therapy, her nostalgia for the bygone commute, and her latest "Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting." Clare's blog-to-memoir deal, The Sober Diaries, was published in 2017 to critical acclaim. Her debut novel - The Authenticity Project – was a New York Times bestseller. Inspired by her own experiences, it's been translated into thirty-two languages, was a Radio 2 Bookclub pick...
Jun 03, 2022•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast #PodcastersForJustice Mexican-American writer and historian, Isabel Cañas, spoke to me about how to binge-write a novel, her fear of the dark, and swinging for the fences with her gothic debut "The Hacienda." Isabel is a speculative fiction writer, and world traveler – currently working on her Ph.D. dissertation in medieval Islamic literature – who writes fiction inspired by her research and heritage. Her debut novel is the highly-anticipated gothic, The Hacienda, "... a haunted house story with...
May 27, 2022•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast #PodcastersForJustice New York Times bestselling author, Emma Straub, spoke to me about why everything in life is timing, how to write a book for yourself, time travel, and her latest "This Time Tomorrow." Emma is the bestselling author of five novels — including All Adults Here, The Vacationers, Modern Lovers, and Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures — the short story collection Other People We Married. Her books have been published in 20 countries. Her latest, This Time Tomorrow, has been named One...
May 20, 2022•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast #PodcastersForJustice Award-winning author and Pulitzer Prize finalist, Hernan Diaz, spoke to me about rejection, his unusual path to literary stardom, subverting reader expectations, and his latest novel "Trust." Hernan was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award. His first novel, "In the Distance," won the Saroyan International Prize, the Cabell Award, the Prix Page America, and the New American Voices Award, among other distinctions. His latest novel, Trust, h...
May 13, 2022•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast #PodcastersForJustice Award-winning author and broadcaster, Elizabeth Day, talked to me candidly about How to Fail, hanging out with Gloria Steinem, genre equality, and how she wrote her compeller, "Magpie." Elizabeth is a novelist, lauded journalist, and host of the chart-topping podcast, How To Fail, which has featured guests including Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Gloria Steinem, and Brene Brown. Her latest novel, Magpie, was published in the UK in September 2021 and became an instant Sunday Times be...
May 06, 2022•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast #PodcastersForJustice Critically acclaimed and award-winning author, Michelle Huneven, talked to me about her former life as an LA food critic, how to write self-referential fiction, and the spiritual detective work behind her latest novel "Search." Michelle's books have been New York Times Notables and finalists for the LA Times Book Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is the recipient of a Whiting Award for Fiction, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a James Beard Award for feature...
Apr 29, 2022•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast #PodcastersForJustice Emmy-nominated screenwriter and author, Sascha Rothchild, spoke to me about her humble beginnings in LA, working with Marc Maron on GLOW, and how to write a "bingeable" thriller like her debut, "Blood Sugar." Sascha has written and produced lauded TV shows including GLOW (2017), The Bold Type (2017), and The Carrie Diaries (2013), and was named Variety's “10 TV Writers to Watch” 2015. Her long-form journalism, "How to Get Divorced by 30," was adapted into both an acclaimed ...
Apr 22, 2022•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Andrew Lipstein reads excerpts from "Last Resort," backed by an original Storybound remix with sound design and arrangement by Jude Brewer. Andrew Lipstein is a writer based in Brooklyn. His debut novel "Last Resort" is out now from Farrar, Straus & Giroux in the US, and Weidenfeld & Nicolson in the UK. His second novel will be published in 2023, also by FSG and W&N. He also works on the product design team at Kabbage, a fintech startup, and was previously at Meural, an art tech startup and his ...
Apr 15, 2022•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast #PodcastersForJustice The bestselling author and educator, Jennifer Close, spoke with me about writing her first book on unemployment, how to write a novel in 12 weeks, and her latest, "Marrying the Ketchups." Jennifer is the bestselling author of Girls in White Dresses, The Smart One, and The Hopefuls. Her latest is Marrying the Ketchups (available from Knopf | April 26, 2022), described as a "comedy of manners about three generations of a Chicago restaurant family," and "... a love letter to s...
Apr 08, 2022•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast #PodcastersForJustice Award-winning international journalist, author, and serial pundit, Adam Skolnick, returned for a mostly uncensored chat about assholes, mind-altering substances, the craft of writing, and the meaning of Jack Kerouac's 100th birthday. Adam is an award-winning independent journalist and author covering adventure sports, environmental issues, and civil rights for outlets such as The New York Times, Outside, ESPN, BBC, and Men’s Health, among others. He is also the author of On...
Apr 01, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast #PodcastersForJustice Internationally bestselling and award-winning Danish novelist, Sara Blaedel, spoke to me about overcoming a learning disorder, how to write Nordic Noir, and her latest novel, "A Harmless Lie." Sara has been dubbed Denmark’s “Queen of Crime,” and is the author of the globally bestselling Detective Louise Rick series. Over 3 million copies of Blaedel’s books have sold in Denmark alone, and the author is published in 38 countries. Her most recent hit, and 10th in the Louise Ri...
Mar 25, 2022•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast #PodcastersForJustice New York Times bestselling author, Rosie Walsh, talked with me about finding her voice, transitioning from romcom to "emotional thriller," and her latest, The Love of My Life. Rosie Walsh has lived and traveled all over the world, working as a documentary producer and writer. Her American debut, Ghosted, was a New York Times bestseller and has sold more than one million copies worldwide. Her second novel is The Love of My Life, described as a "...stay-up-all-night page-turn...
Mar 18, 2022•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast Award-winning journalist and acclaimed author, Brandon Presser, spoke to me about his credo as a globetrotter, the Instagram-ification of travel, and his latest non-fiction novel, "The Far Land." Brandon has a degree in art history and architecture from Harvard University, has worked in Paris at the Louvre, in Tokyo as an architectural apprentice, and in Thailand as a scuba diving professional. He has also traveled to over 130 countries, written over 50 travel books, and was awarded a Society of...
Mar 11, 2022•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast #PodcastersForJustice Award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling novelist, C.J. Box, spoke to me about his early years as a small-town reporter, how to write a novel in 3-4 months, and his latest Joe Pickett book, Shadows Reel. C.J. is the author of 30+ novels including 22 Joe Pickett novels, seven stand-alone novels, including The Bitterroots; and the story collection Shots Fired. Over ten million copies of his books have been sold in the U.S. and abroad. He has won the Edgar, Anthony, a Fren...
Mar 04, 2022•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast #PodcastersForJustice Critically acclaimed, internationally bestselling novelist, Stephanie Wrobel, spoke to me about her humble beginnings as a copywriter, turning her thesis into a bestseller, and the process of writing This Might Hurt. Stephanie is the author of Darling Rose Gold, an instant bestseller of 2020 that received rave reviews, and was nominated for multiple awards, including the Edgar Award for Best First Novel. Her follow-up is This Might Hurt, described as "...a dark, thrilling n...
Feb 25, 2022•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast #PodcastersForJustice Award-winning short story writer and novelist, Kim Fu, spoke to me about speculative vs. science fiction, how to critique the future, and her collection Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century. Kim is the author of two novels and a collection of poetry. Her novel For Today I Am a Boy won the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction and was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award, and a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice. Her debut story collection, Lesser Known Monster...
Feb 18, 2022•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast #PodcastersForJustice This week four women with several combined decades of experience in the writing and publishing industries joined me for a roundtable to talk about ... How the last two years have changed how writers and publishers approach their business/craft The difficulties of getting an indie book on the New York Times bestsellers list Self vs. traditional publishing pathways and distribution models How fast do you need to go, speedboat or yacht? Hybrid models for writers Trends for 202...
Feb 11, 2022•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast