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 “At any given time, there's a choir of ideas and nagging voices in my head — chatter that I had to contend with I guess — in the end it ends up with this model of working and living in which everything is happening simultaneously.” Aleksandar Hemon, author of National Book Award Finalist The Lazarus Project , has no shortage of accomplishments, including screenwriting credits on Sense8 and The Matrix: Revolutions . He’s back with The World and All That it Holds , an epic love story spanning deca...
Jan 24, 2023•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast This Double Shot episode features two authors, one familiar and one who soon will be, each tackling similar themes. Through fiction and essays these authors explore social politics and sexual freedom — listen in as both talk separately with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Madyson. A Guest at the Feast is a collection of essays by Colm Tóibín on topics ranging from his own cancer diagnosis, how reading the diaries of Thom...
Jan 21, 2023•1 hr 20 min•Transcript available on Metacast “I wanted to spend time with a family and haunted house books are always about families.” Grady Hendrix’s bone-chilling novels The Final Girl Support Group and Horrorstör will have fans knocking at the door for his newest book, How to Sell a Haunted House . This new take on a classic horror story forces readers to confront one of the most frightening things there is: family. Hendrix joins us to talk about what makes a home into a haunted house, the horrifying history of puppets and dolls, the di...
Jan 19, 2023•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast Two witty novels, two funny women, and two engaging interviews await you in this Double Shot episode of Poured Over. This pair of authors and their stories of relationships and what happens when they end fit so well together - if you’re a fan of one, you’re sure to love the other. Listen in as both authors talk separately with host Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Jamie and Madyson. Schitt’s Creek writer Monica Heisey’s debut novel REALLY GOOD, ACTUA...
Jan 17, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Transcript available on Metacast “That's one of those epiphanies - I realized if I wanted to be taken seriously, I needed representation. And who better than to do it than a man who doesn't exist, who's really me? Yeah, it was the perfect decoy.” You’ve heard her plucking guitar strings & heartstrings – now Margo Price sits down with guest host Allyson Gavaletz to talk about her new album Strays, songcraft, exorcising demons, trading jokes with Willie Nelson and being honest with herself on this episode of Poured Over. Featured...
Jan 14, 2023•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast “I remember being in an English class in high school (12th grade actually). We were reading The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot, and I announced to the teacher that I could have written a better ending … And I remember the look of shock on the teacher's face because she probably thought I was so arrogant and presumptuous. I don't know how I would have ended it. But I remember thinking that I could have I could have come up with a better ending.” Who among us hasn’t been tempted to rewrite a cl...
Jan 12, 2023•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast “And I always tend to start a book with a very popcorn sensibility, like, oh, well, this’ll be fun, we're gonna have a little romp . And then to tell the story, honestly, you tend — especially when you're talking about things like institutional power and social influence and economic influence — you're going to bump up against some pretty heavy themes. And that certainly happened with Ninth House and again with Hell Bent .” No one does magic and mayhem and unforgettable characters like Leigh Bar...
Jan 10, 2023•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast “But now, with the rise of new money, it's like there's this moment in India, when new money was eclipsing old money. And that's the moment that I basically find really interesting because I happen to be right there observing, and just talking to people and listening and picking up stories.” You might have missed Deepti Kapoor’s debut, A Bad Character , in 2014; you absolutely do not want to miss Age of Vice , her fast-paced, epic novel of crime and corruption (and the first of three volumes in ...
Jan 05, 2023•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast Our January Discover and B&N Book Club picks have lots in common: both are debut novels with indelible characters and an unforgettable story, both are graduates of UT’s Michener Center for Writers — think of this episode as an audio boxed set, as both authors sit down separately with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. Tracey Rose Peyton knew she was taking on a major challenge with a narrative about enslaved women in 1850’s Texas — and even tossed an entire early draft — but she knew she had what ...
Jan 03, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Transcript available on Metacast We're closing out 2022 with something new: A Poured Over Double Shot with host Miwa Messer. Cormac McCarthy doesn’t really do interviews — If you want to know about the work, it’s on the page, he says. Jenny Jackson and Chip Kidd are part of the team that publish McCarthy; Jenny’s been his editor for the last eight years, and Chip has designed McCarthy’s hardcover jackets from 1992’s All the Pretty Horses all the way up to this fall’s The Passenger and Stella Maris , along with the recent reissu...
Dec 15, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast “They have traveled for most of the day using what little daylight the season offers leaving Ferrara Dawn and riding out to what he had told her was a hunting lodge, far in the northwest of the province. 'But this is no hunting lodge' is what Lucrezia had wanted to say when they reach their destination, a high walled edifice of dark stone flanked on one side by dense forest and on the other by a twisting meander of the Po River. She would have liked to turn in her saddle and ask, 'Why have you b...
Dec 13, 2022•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast “It is an amazing, amazing translation experience….But it took a long time to get to the point where the language started moving because you have to start out sort of in English laying down a rock, rocks, and then a rock and a rock, building a wall. It doesn't move, and it's just right, right next to the ground. And because you can't obviously start translating in full sentences really. My whole idea was this to just stick absolutely close to the earth of her syntax and build up. And you build a...
Dec 08, 2022•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast “One of my favorite places to take a little walk around is the public cemetery, which is on a little hill that overlooks the bay. And you know, if you ever wanted to be buried somewhere, that's the place to be buried. And right across the street from it, and a little ways down the road is this beautiful canyon you can walk up. The trees are covered with Spanish moss, and there's fog. And so it's perfect place — if you believe in ghosts — to see one.” A murder mystery set in 1850’s Monterey, Cali...
Dec 06, 2022•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast “Storytelling can just be you understanding yourself, but it turns into something else when it's a shared piece — so much of anything in life is practice, and just pure showing up…I think that's just important to remember, you're not always going to feel inspired or inspirational, or you're not going to feel you've done your best. And you just have to ignore that voice and keep going.” Lauren Graham ( Talking as Fast as I Can ) is an absolute delight on the page and on the screen ( Gilmore Girls...
Dec 01, 2022•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
