“I leave that book feeling less alone, because I've been welcomed into somebody else's humanity, and I feel like they've shared part of themselves with me and that feels communal…” Maggie Smith’s bestselling You Could Make This Place Beautiful transcends traditional memoir in a staggering take on divorce, motherhood and what it means to be a writer in a way only the poet could deliver. Smith speaks about the vulnerability of sharing your life through words, the freedom of nontraditional literary...
Apr 22, 2023•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast "All of them, in my mind… were wrestling with the same question, which is — what do I do with either the burden of family or what do I do with the found family that I've made?" Victor LaValle’s Lone Women takes supernatural suspense to early 1900s Montana as one young woman sets out to leave her past and family secrets behind. LaValle talks about the history that inspired this novel, the connection between this story and one of his previous books, the upcoming streaming adaptation of The Changel...
Apr 20, 2023•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast “You get to learn a bit about the social issue of Native women and girls going missing and that's really what I hope a lot of people will take away from this, having more awareness…” Nick Medina’s debut novel Sisters of the Lost Nation defies genre — mixing mystery, horror and family drama into the story of one teen girl as she searches for the women who’ve gone missing on her tribe’s reservation, including her own sister. Medina joined us to discuss the unusual way his ideas came to him, preser...
Apr 18, 2023•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast “I can even still have my festively neurotic characters, but they can be working their way toward a happy ending, instead of working their way towards crushing disappointment.” Curtis Sittenfeld’s Romantic Comedy is a playful, smart and fizzy look at love and pop culture through the eyes of a charming and relatable late-night TV writer. Sittenfeld joins us to talk about how a good novel feels like eavesdropping, what makes a character likable, surprising literary influences and more with Poured ...
Apr 13, 2023•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast “I never start a book out with ideas. I always start a book out with people in places, and what could happen here.” Charles Frazier, author of Cold Mountain , brings readers to the Great Depression-era American West with impeccably researched history in his new novel, The Trackers , featuring a vivid cast holding secrets and ambitions that transcend the past. Frazier talks about the photograph that inspired the characters, the excitement and drama of book tours, taking his time to get the langua...
Apr 11, 2023•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast “It was going to be a story about American instability, and precarity, and what happens when we aren't able to access the things that we need — and yet still have to try to care for each other anyway.” Nicole Chung’s newest memoir, A Living Remedy , reflects on the tragic inequality of access to the American healthcare system and the way it directly affected her family. Chung talks with us about privilege and class, how writing this memoir changed her, her literary influences and more with Poure...
Apr 08, 2023•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast “Loneliness is such a universal experience for so many of us — and I do hope that the book is a balm for that and helps make readers feel less alone…” Gina Chung’s debut novel Sea Change explores family ties, grief and growing up through a complicated protagonist that readers will love to root for — and yes, there really is an octopus. Chung joins us to talk about sad girl characters, allowing women to feel anger, how we never stop “coming of age” and more with Poured Over host, Miwa Messer. Thi...
Apr 06, 2023•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast “We all want the same thing; we want respect and security and to be loved — and that's what storytelling does, it connects the similarities that we have.” Jeannette Walls, author of The Glass Castle , returns with Hang the Moon , a novel that follows feisty Sallie Kincaid as she comes into her own in the upheaval of Prohibition-era Virginia. Walls talks with us about the language of historical fiction, the differences between writing a memoir and a novel, the impact of telling your story and mor...
Apr 04, 2023•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast “I live on art. I'm an art vampire, that’s how I sustain myself.” Jacqueline Holland’s debut novel The God of Endings weaves together themes of motherhood, mortality and the human condition in a vampire novel unlike any we’ve seen before. Holland joins us to discuss vampire lore, the power of art, how her novel grew out of a grad school novella, why you should always read the book rather than watch the movie and more with guest host, Kat Sarfas. We end the episode with TBR Topoff book recommenda...
Mar 30, 2023•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast “As a kid, you don't know any of that. You're just like, wow, this sounds magical , like, how could this be the sea? How could this be land? How can that just happen? And I think that speaks to a particular quality of life in Singapore, and growing up in Singapore, and all of the changes that you see happening before your eyes…” Rachel Heng’s new novel, The Great Reclamation , is an epic story of love and power and family (with a magical twist) set in mid-century Singapore. She joins us on the s...
Mar 28, 2023•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast “I'm so interested in the moment when the reader takes over … I wanted it to be a book that feels like I'm walking alongside the reader, learning as they learn.” Katherine May’s first book, Wintering , was a finalist for the Barnes & Noble 2020 Book of the Year, and we’ve been waiting, waiting, waiting for her follow-up, Enchantment . Katherine joins us on the show to talk about the importance of humor, holding space for joy and curiosity and wonder in her work, journaling (and the scrappy begin...
Mar 23, 2023•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast “Look at all the advances we've made in the last 50 years, look at the way that culture and medicine and technology and science have advanced since the Beatles broke up, since we were involved in Vietnam, but the poverty rate has been incredibly stubbornly persistent and I think it's rather shameful for the richest country in the history of the world.” Reading Matthew Desmond’s books will make you smarter, break your heart, make you mad, and push you to think differently about poverty — all in ...
Mar 21, 2023•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Who gets to tell our stories? Two debut authors use their powerful voices to show strong female characters navigating family, race and colonialism with unfailing humor and heart. Claire Jiménez’s What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez follows a family in the wake of a tragedy as they attempt to move on — and up. Jiménez talks with us about finding the voice in her work, telling Puerto Rican stories, how she uses perspective and humor and more. In Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou we find a young Taiwa...
Mar 18, 2023•2 hr 35 min•Transcript available on Metacast From the trenches of WWI to the coast of Australia, these two debut novels depict the ubiquity of coming of age, even when the circumstances are drastically different. In Alice Winn’s In Memoriam , two young men find love and tragedy on the fields of battle. Winn talked with us about how the story came into being, the extensive research required to create her characters and their world, her literary influences and more. Thirst for Salt by Madelaine Lucas follows a young woman through a newfound ...
Mar 16, 2023•1 hr 22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Family dynamics, for better or worse, are front and center in these two novels from two striking voices in fiction. Jenny Jackson’s debut, Pineapple Street , brings us to an upper-class suburb in New York City — an old-money family, new romance, heartbreak and the kinds of drama only the one-percent can deliver. Jackson joins us to talk about publishing as an author rather than an editor, the intrigue of Brooklyn Heights, how to write humor and more. In Hello Beautiful , Ann Napolitano follows f...
Mar 14, 2023•1 hr 25 min•Transcript available on Metacast "I'm also trying to make use of how innate I think curiosity is for people, because curiosity is kind of a way towards hope… it's in that direction." Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock by Jenny Odell, author of How to Do Nothing , asks readers to look at the concept of time, how it relates to the structure of our society and how it can change the way we live our lives. Odell joins us to talk about commodifying time and leisure, the language we use to describe time, the authors and ...
Mar 09, 2023•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast “I'm interested in how deceptions can make you feel more of yourself or can unlock something in you that you didn't know you had.” Eleanor Catton, Booker Prize-winning author of The Luminaries , is back with Birnam Wood — part eco-thriller, part social and political satire, wholly insightful. This propulsive novel is prescient, timely, and all-too relatable in our present day. Catton joins us in conversation about creating her characters, Shakespeare’s use of prophecy and power, how the story wa...
Mar 07, 2023•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast “How do you spot a ‘we should not be friends’ friendship? It's when someone shows you who they are, and you like it.” Will Schwalbe, author of The End of Your Life Book Club , tells us how an unexpected friendship with a polar-opposite grew into a lifelong journey through love, losses and triumphs. Schwalbe and Chris Maxey, former Navy SEAL and founder of the Island School, join us to talk about Schwalbe's new book, We Should Not Be Friends: A Story of a Friendship , meeting through a Yale secre...
Mar 04, 2023•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast "Each time I wrote a story that belonged in this book… It held some pain. It held some love. It held some hope, some longing..." Eloghosa Osunde’s debut novel Vagabonds! is an inventive, mythic whirlwind through the city of Lagos, Nigeria. Told through interconnected short stories, this raw, painful, and ultimately hopeful work sheds light on an often-unseen world and its diverse inhabitants. Osunde talks with us about the significance and spark of inspiration behind the title, writing a novel i...
Mar 02, 2023•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast “I feel like we're in a real golden age of fantasy that's exploring diversity from lots of different perspectives, and telling lots of stories that need to be heard at the moment — I feel really honored to be working within that space.” A Day of Fallen Night has what readers want in high fantasy: strong women, masterful worldbuilding and, of course, dragons. Samantha Shannon’s prequel to her highly acclaimed The Priory of the Orange Tree , is a welcome return to the lands and skies of this mysti...
Feb 28, 2023•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast “When you've been disappointed for that long in your life — what kind of people are you? What do you become?” A Country You Can Leave , the debut novel from author Asale Angel-Ajani, is an unconventional family story following a Russian mother and Black, biracial daughter as they navigate class, trauma and relationships in California’s desert. Angel-Ajani joins us in conversation about discovering her characters, the portrayal of motherhood, her literary influences, and more with Poured Over hos...
Feb 25, 2023•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast “I'm one of those writers that … I think I know the story I want to write when I'm going in with a novel … but by the time I get into the middle of it, it's like I've discovered a totally different story.” Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀’s A Spell of Good Things explores class, love, and family ties with interwoven narratives of struggle, heartbreak and hope in Nigeria. She joins us to talk about her cast of unforgettable characters, how misogyny permeates life and literature, what surprised her while writing...
Feb 23, 2023•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast “It's a literary, feminist, boarding school murder mystery — everyone's favorite genre.” I Have Some Questions for You is the thrilling and inventive new novel from Rebecca Makkai, author of The Great Believers , a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Part murder mystery, part timely take on issues that readers will connect with, this novel will keep you intrigued from cover to cover. Makkai joins us to talk about unreliable narrators, living on a boarding school campus, ...
Feb 21, 2023•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast “No one in this cast believes that they have a home — they have houses, but they don't have homes. They were born into this country, they were born into these places, but they don't feel like their homes.” Within the rich setting of 1940s Trinidad, Kevin Jared Hosein’s sweeping novel Hungry Ghosts brings readers into the world of two families connected by class, power and mystery. A distinctive new voice in Caribbean literature, Hosein has crafted a story that is gothic, propulsive and will reso...
Feb 16, 2023•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast “I wouldn't have written the book if I were not hopeful. I mean, the act of writing this book was a prayer for our country — it's making the case that there's another way of looking more deeply under the surface of our country, a way of seeing it that can enlighten us…” From Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson, Caste combines history, social commentary and individual narratives into a work that is wholly original, stunningly written and impressively researched. Wilkerson joins us to t...
Feb 14, 2023•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast “Maureen’s journey is about going to the dark — and when you go right into the dark, you then find the light and the kind of renewal — and of all of them, this book felt to me a book about rebirth, which felt the right place to end.” Following The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy , Rachel Joyce’s Maureen completes her series of novels revolving around a cast of characters that you can’t help but connect with. Whether you’ve read them all or are ready t...
Feb 09, 2023•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast “For us, horror stories are a long, dark, scary tunnel. You hear sounds you don't want to hear; you see things that are going to stick in your head. But if you keep putting one foot after the other, that speck of light at the end is going to grow a little bit bigger and a little bit bigger and one day you step out into daylight.” Stephen Graham Jones’ second installment in the Indian Lake Trilogy, Don’t Fear the Reaper , is a big-hearted, blood-soaked romp that rivals the very best slasher films...
Feb 07, 2023•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast “That was only three years ago, where I read a protagonist I could relate to on a deeper level, for the first time. Subconsciously, it gave me the idea of, oh, maybe you can write how you want to write… it was kind of that seed of — there is space for stories like this, I can use my own voice to tell a story.” Jessica George’s debut novel Maame is a coming-of-age story that reminds us that where there is sadness and loss we can find laughter, growth and love. Readers will go on a journey of disc...
Feb 02, 2023•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast These two novels explore the gulf between expectation and reality, ambition and opportunity, and what happens when life veers off from your carefully planned path. Kashana Cauley and Matthew Salesses each give us indelible casts of characters to follow as they face career upheaval, challenges to their identities and find new love in unexpected ways. Listen to this Double Shot episode with both authors in conversation separately with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with T...
Jan 31, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Transcript available on Metacast “I love finishing reading a book and thinking, I feel privileged to have read that, I feel dignified . I feel like that book sort of thought of me as sacred… I want to write the kind of books that I most love to read.” From Paul Harding, author of Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Tinkers , comes This Other Eden — an intricate novel inspired by the fascinating true story of Malaga, an island in Maine that held one of the first integrated communities after the Civil War. Harding joins us to talk abou...
Jan 26, 2023•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
