Category: Podcasts

Javier tells James about his journey to the United States at the age of 9. They discuss the power of teachers, the Undocupoets Campaign, transcendent readings, struggling to find an ending, and his collection of poems, UNACCOMPANIED (fall 2017). Then, Jennifer De Leon talks about opportunities for teen writers, #WeNeedDiverseBooks, and her experiences teaching in the YAWP program at Grub Street in Boston.

Javier and James Discuss:

Yusef Komunyakaa

Sharon Olds

Alejandro Zambra

Valeria Luiselli

Dick Scanlan

Roberto Bolano

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Jorge Luis Borges

ONE STORY

Yaddo

MacDowell Colony

Pablo Neruda

Rebecca Faust

Squaw Valley Writers’ Workshops

Napa Valley Writers’ Conference

Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference

Alberto Rios

BIG FISH by Daniel Wallace

UC- Berkeley

NYU

Olive B. O’Connor

Peter Balakian

Carolyn Forche

Wallace Stegner Fellowship

Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship

UndocuPoets Campaign

Sibling Rivalry Press

Wil S. Hylton

Matthew Salesses

Monica Sok

Jennifer and James Discuss:

YAWP (Young Adult Writers Program)

Grub Street

Val Wang

Celeste Ng

Teen Ink

826

WriteBoston

New England Young Writers’ Conference

Champlain College Young Writers’ Conference

Iowa Young Writers’ Studio

Sewanee Young Writers’ Conference

Reggie Gibson

Junot Diaz

ROLL OF THUNDER, HEAR MY CRY by Mildred D. Taylor

#WeNeedDiverseBooks

VONA (Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation)

Set in Spain in the late 70s, Gabrielle’s debut novel, THE SLEEPING WORLD, represents something deeply personal to her. She tells James about writing through grief, how the novel grew from a short story inspired by a song, as well as world building, dirt, and ‘the spaghetti mind.’ Plus Janet Geddis, the owner of Avid Bookshop in Athens, GA, shares exciting news and she and James geek out over upcoming fall titles.

James and Gabrielle Discuss: 

Keith Waldrop

LADY AND THE TRAMP

Jamaica Kincaid

“Runaway”, THE NATIONAL

SOY CUBA dir by Mikhail Kalatozov

PEPI, LUCI, BOM AND OTHER GIRLS LIKE MOM dir. by Pedro Almodovar

Alberto Garcia-Alix (photographer)

NADA by Carmen Laforet

Elena Ferrante

RAY OF THE STAR by Laird Hunt

Toni Morrison

Audre Lorde

Alice Walker

WHAT BELONGS TO YOU by Garth Greenwell

James and Janet Discuss:

Deirdre Sugiuchi

Al Dixon

WE SHOW WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED by Clare Beams (10/25)*

THE MORTIFICATIONS by Derek Palacio (10/4)#

HOW TO SHAKE THE OTHER MAN by Derek Palacio

Nouvella Books

COMMONWEALTH by Ann Patchett (9/13)*

LITTLE NOTHING by Marisa Silver (9/13)#

THE REACTIVES by Masande Ntshanga*

MERCURY by Margot Livesey (9/27)#

BOWIE by Simon Critchley (9/13)#

REPUTATIONS by Juan Gabriel Vasquez (9/20)#

THE SOUND OF THINGS FALLING by Juan Gabriel Vasquez

A FAMILY IS A FAMILY IS A FAMILY written by Sara O’Leary, ill. by Qin Leng*

THE SLEEPING WORLD by Gabrielle Lucille Fuentes*#

*Janet Recommends

#James Recommends

The interconnected stories in YOU MAY SEE A STRANGER took Paula Whyman over a decade to compile. She gives James some advice for writing sex scenes and explains how she writes with such honesty. Then, Daniel Menaker tells James about deciding to represent Paula’s book, editing Alice Munro’s stories, his career at Random House, and what made his time at The New Yorker so special. And somewhere a dog barks. Quite frequently.

Paula and James discuss:

Yaddo

THE BREAST by Philip Roth

PLOUGHSHARES

THE HUDSON REVIEW

American University

VIRGIN FICTION (anthology)

WORLD VIEW

Porter Square Books

Joanna Rakoff

Philip Roth

T.C. Boyle

Martin Amis

Jamie Quatro

Alyssa Nutting

OLIVE KITTERIDGE by Elizabeth Strout

McSWEENEY’S

Jane Austen

Oliver Sacks

Daniel Menaker

Sewanee Writers’ Conference

Mike Levine

ONE STORY

Hannah Tinti

Marie-Helene Bertino

Maribeth Batcha

Billy Goldstein

James and Daniel discuss: 

The New Yorker

Paula Whyman

Alice Munro

“Royal Beatings” by Alice Munro

Richard Avedon

Michael Chabon

LIVES OF MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS by Sheila Munro

Daniel Halpern

Tim Duggan

Roger Angell

Charles McGrath

William Maxwell

MY MISTAKE by Daniel Menaker

Matthew Klam

SUNY Stonybrook

Tina Brown

Harold Evans

Bill Buford

Robert Gottlieb

William Shawn

Michael Cunningham

Susan Minot

David Foster Wallace

Antonya Nelson

David Remnick

Alberto Vitale

“Wenlock Edge” by Alice Munro

After some negative pre-publication reviews, Jamie Quatro feared the worst. Then, critic James Wood and the NYTBR (among others) hailed her collection, I WANT TO SHOW YOU MORE, as a classic. Jamie and James talk about conflating writer and subject matter, depicting the female gaze and female sexuality, and writing novels vs short stories. Then, the agent Anna Stein joins the show to go over what an agent does, how to find one, and mistakes writers make along the way.

Jamie and James Discuss: 

Jesse Donaldson tells James about the Oxycodone scourge, the effect it has had on his home state of Kentucky, and how it informed his debut novel, THE MORE THEY DISAPPEAR. He also recommends writing while gardening, and recalls the time he drove to New York with a tape-playing robot. Plus Lauren Cerand joins the show to discuss book publicity.

Chris and James go through Chris’s life from set maker and creator of latex fish to author of the brilliant GOLDEN DELICIOUS and HOW TO KEEP YOUR VOLKSWAGEN ALIVE. They talk about how writers want to hear from you, how random kindnesses led to their careers, and how Chris came upon his writing style. Then, Kim Liao discusses her essay “Why You Should Aim for 100 Rejections a Year,” which was published on lithub.com.

CHRIS AND JAMES DISCUSS:

Powell’s Books

Kevin Sampsell

Boris Vian

JESUS’ SON by Denis Johnson

HOUSEKEEPING by Marilynne Robinson

TROUT FISHING IN AMERICA by Richard Brautigan

THE FAERIE QUEENE by Edmund Spenser

Sam Shepard

Harold Pinter

Caryl Churchill

Spalding Gray

A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Charles Dixon

BIG RIVER: THE ADVENTURE OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN by Roger Miller

Geoffrey Wolff

Tobias Wolff

Jayne Anne Phillips

Margot Livesey

Junot Diaz

George Saunders

CIVILWARLAND IN BAD DECLINE by George Saunders

DOGWALKER by Arthur Bradford

Andre Dubus

Andre Dubus III

Arielle Greenberg

Mary Caponegro

Cheryl Strayed

Salvador Plascencia

100 YEARS OF SOLITUDE by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

INFINITE JEST by David Foster Wallace

KIM AND JAMES DISCUSS:

Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich

Slice Literary Conference

AWP Conference

Kevin Larimer

POETS & WRITERS MAGAZINE

Lithub

Black Lawrence Press

Vermont Studio Center

Mark Powell pulls double duty to talk about both writing (as the author of four novels, most recently, THE SHELTERING) and MFA programs (he helped start the program at Stetson University). They chat about Mark’s circuitous route to writing from his childhood in South Carolina to his time in divinity school to his slow realization that he needed to write about his own life.

Pauls tells James about his new book, DOG GONE, his path to sobriety, his favorite pencil, and how his life has (thankfully) changed since their days at Middlebury College. Plus Emily Crowe from Odyssey Bookshop suggests summer reading (listed below), discusses the value of independent bookstores, and makes suggestions for a good book event.

James and Pauls Discuss:

Baker & Spice Bakery Portland, OR

Oakley Skis

Tesla Automobiles

The Rotring Tikky- The Official Pencil of Pauls Toutonghi

Knopf

Salman Rushdie

Bill Clegg

Tim O’Connell

Renee Zuckerbrot

LitHub

Joy Williams

Karen Russell

Jim Shepard

GOODHOUSE by Peyton Marshall

Skip Horack

Printer’s Row Book Festival

Watermark Books

Jay Parini

Emily and James discuss:

HOMEGOING by Yaa Giasi*

THE SPORT OF KINGS by C.E. Morgan*

THE PRINCE & THE PAUPER by Mark Twain

ALL THE LIVING by C.E. Morgan

CHURCH OF MARVELS by Leslie Parry*

THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy

THE REASON I JUMP by Naoki Higashida (translated by David Mitchell)*

Tom Franklin & Beth Ann Fennelly

*= Summer reading recommendation

It’s an all-out poetry extravaganza! Sarah Holland-Batt (THE HAZARDS) talks to James about creating a collection, poems as river stones, inadvertent plagiarism, waterproof editions of her books, and The Childbearing Hips. Plus Rebecca Morgan Frank discusses editing the fantastic online journal MEMORIOUS.

Mona and James talk about her brilliant book 13 WAYS OF LOOKING AT A FAT GIRL and its portrayal of a woman struggling with body image and dysmorphia. She discusses the magic of thirteen, the happiness in sadness, and the beauty of Novembral Musings. Plus Robin Kall on the Point Street Reading Series.