Eliza Knight talks fantastic flappers, star studded dancers, and incredible female stars in this episode of the Fall for the Book Podcast. From the underappreciated legacy of Adele Astaire, sister to Fred Astaire, to Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe's unlikely friendship. She is the author of Starring Adele Astaire, Why Can't We Be Friends, and m…

Edward Cahill discusses his novel Disorderly Men, which follows three gay men in pre-Stonewall NYC, who find their fates thrown together during the police raid of a Village bar. Cahill talks identity, shame, 'disorderly conduct, and James Baldwin, in this episode of the Fall for the Book podcast.Watershed Lit

Vandana Khanna sits down to talk about her poetry collection Burning Like Her Own Planet, the ancient Hindu text The Ramayana, women's rage and power, and of course, Beyonce.Watershed Lit

Nicole Glover discusses her genre bending Murder and Magic series - The Conductors, and The Undertakers. Set in post-Civil War society, they feature Hetty and Benji - two former Conductors on the Underground Railroad, as they solve murders using celestial magic.Watershed Lit

Annie Rains stops by in this bonus holiday episode of the Fall for the Book Podcast to talk about her novel "Through The Snowglobe," a mashup of "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Groundhog's Day." Romance, Christmas, and second (and third and fourth) chances shape this heartwarming novel.Watershed Lit

Carol Mitchell and Josh Denslow sit down to talkabout the collaborative process of creating Denslow's new book Super Normal, a novel over 15 years in the making. Mitchell, one of many talented editors with Stillhouse Press, worked with Denslow as managing editor of Super Normal through the COVID-19 pandemic. In this episode, they discuss the proces…

M.P. Woodward talks about his own experience in the Intelligence community, and how it helped him write his new espionage thriller, Dead Drop, where international nuclear negotiations turn allies into enemies.Watershed Lit

Caty Borum talks satire, humor, and the power of uplifting voices through comedy in this episode of the Fall for the Book Podcast. Borum is Executive Director of the Center for Media & Social Impact, and the author of The Revolution Will be Hilarious: Comedy for Social Change and Civic Power.Watershed Lit

In this episode of Moonshine Murmurs, Michelle Ross sits down with Taylor Schaefer to discuss her writing process for flash fiction, working collaboratively with Kim McGowan, the pros and cons of publishing with small presses, and more. Ross is the author of three short story collections: Shapeshifting, There’s So Much They Haven’t Told You, and Th…

Mojgan Ghazirad discusses her autobiographic novel, The House on Sun Street, about a young girl growing up during the Islamic Revolution. She talks about the power of storytelling, changing identities, and the dangers of book banning.Watershed Lit

Vanessa Riley talks about her novel Queen of Exiles, about the first black queen of Haiti after the Haitian Revolution. Marie-Louise Christophe then lived in exile where she became the first 'media-stalked' royal in an impressive tale.Watershed Lit

Kathryn Savage, author of the debut lyric essay Groundglass, breaks down Superfund sites, the “body burden” of pollution, and the importance of hearing those whose voices often are silenced.Watershed Lit

Salar Abdoh discusses martyrdom, (in)humanity in war, and dichotomies of art, peace, and violence in the Middle East, in his powerful novel Out of Mesopotamia.Abdoh was born in Iran and splits his time between Tehran and New York City. He is the author of the novels Tehran at Twilight, The Poet Game, and Opium; and he is the editor of Tehran Noir. …

Dr. Debra Lane, a 30 year veteran of the education systems in the US and abroad, sits down to talk about resilience in school for students and instructors, the changing role of women in education, and what needs to change to help make students more successful in school.Watershed Lit

Bruce Holsinger, author of The Displacements, and Matt Bondurant, author of Oleander City, sit down with Kara Oakleaf and Suzy Rigdon for the first episode of 2023. They talk superstorms, climate change, disaster response in their tales of a near future Category 6 hurricane and the true devastation in Galveston, TX in the early 1900s.…

On the final episode of the year, Sisters Frances & Ginger Park talk about family history and memory, collaborating on a long list of children's books and a memoir, and the best chocolate pairings for their newest books, That Lonely Spell, and The Hundred Choices Department Store.Watershed Lit

Latif Askia Ba and editor Tommy Sheffield discuss disability, community and the art of the poetic form in Latif’s debut poetry collection The Machine Code of the Bleeding Moon, a meditation on the body, the possibilities of imagination, and the human capability for compassion and aid.For Full Transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13E2sXoMY…

Combat veteran and former paratrooper Bill Glose discusses his story collection, All the Ruined Men, as well as the toll of war on soldiers, and the power of poetry and writing, on this episode of the Fall for the Book Podcast.Watershed Lit

A Calm and Normal Heart author Chelsea T. Hicks talks about revitalizing the Wazhazhe ie language, creating art, fashion, and poetry, and her story collection in this episode of The Fall for the Book Podcast. Hicks is an enrolled citizen of the Osage Nation and she belongs to the Pawhuska District.Watershed Lit

In the first episode of the Fall for the Book Podcast's season, Alma Katsu curls horror and the supernatural through her historical fiction - from the Donner Party to the Titanic, to Japanese internment campus during WWII in her newest book The Fervor. She talks research, Japanese folklore, and more. She even talks about how she helped predict the …

On this episode of the Fall for the Book Podcast, Pamela N. Harris, author of the debut YA novel When You Look Like Us sits down to talk about defying stereotypes, writing your own experiences, the power of representation in books, and of course, Leonardo DiCaprio.Watershed Lit

For our fourth episode of Globally Lit, a podcast of international literature and translation, we interview Intan Paramaditha, who wrote the foreword to Budi Darma's short story collection, People from Bloomington. In the second portion of the episode, writer and translator Lily Meyer converses with Darma's English translator, Tiffany Tsao, about h…

Janice Northerns discusses her childhood in arid West Texas, changing life and land, and coming back to writing later in life. This episode of the Fall for the Book podcast features her work in the debut collection Some Electric Hum.Watershed Lit

Revising poems and restoring life. Poet Phil Goldstein discusses his debut book of poetry, HtBaBaS, a narrative of surviving childhood sexual abuse, the art of revision, and how a careful and conscientious inquiry of one's memories can help us learn to revise and restore our lives.Watershed Lit

Brandie June, author of the YA fantasy novel Gold Spun, chats about her fairy tale retelling of “Rumpelstiltskin,” which gives the princess more agency, playwriting, doing aerial arts, and more, all on this episode of the Fall for the Book Podcast. Purchase her book here: https://bookshop.org/lists/fall-for-the-book-podcast…

Claudia Kalb, author of Spark: How Genius Ignites, From Child Prodigies to Late Bloomers talks about the role of memory and luck, and the "rage to master" their skills that make each of the 13 profiled geniuses -- including Pablo Picasso, Yo-Yo Ma, and Julia Child-- so incredible.Watershed Lit

For our third episode of Globally Lit, a podcast of international literature and translation, we interview Danish writer Mathilde Walter Clark, who discusses her latest novel, Lone Star. In the second portion of the episode, Clark's translator, K.E. Semmel, converses with writer and translator Misha Hoekstra about his work on Lone Star. At the end,…

Jim Peterson takes readers on a surreal journey in his short story collection The Sadness of Whirlwinds. In this first episode of the 2022 season of The Fall for the Book Podcast, he discusses how each tale dabbles or drips with magical realism and why it's important for the reader to ask questions.Watershed Lit

Ethel Rohan discusses the importance of "uncomfortable" stories, how memories can shape a character's future, and the power of small moments, all on this episode of The Fall for the Book Podcast. Rohan is the author of In Case of Contact, which won the Dzanc Short Story Collection Prize.Watershed Lit

Two writers discuss power, position, and moving forward: M.M. Bailey in her flash piece “Smaller,” and Yermiyahu Ahron Taub in his poem “The Light at the Beginning of the Tunnel.” Bailey and Taub are two of the hundred writers from DC, Maryland, and Virginia featured in This is What America Looks Like – the first anthology from The Washington Write…

Richard Washer, resident playwright at The Rose Theatre Company discusses his new play, Dubliners in Exile after actors perform a scene. In the play, James Joyce wakes up disoriented from a deep sleep to a timeless world at once strange and yet familiar where he knows something important needs to get done quickly, but he can’t remember what it is. …

Jesse DeLong and Beth Gilstrap infuse every word of their poetry and prose with atmospheric tension, using nature to explore what it means to be human. DeLong’s poetry collection The Amateur Scientists Notebook uses scientific tables, field guides and more to draw the natural world together with philosophy, memory, and family. Gilstrap’s Deadheadin…

Mason Creative Writing presents 12 diverse writers each year in its Visiting Writers Series where they are joined by a host to talk about craft, content, and the art of creative writing. In this episode, fiction faculty member Helon Habila talks with Tope Folarin, author of A Particular Kind of Black Man.…

Heather Young discusses her novel, The Distant Dead, set in the high desert hills. Called “electrifying, ambitious, and crushingly beautiful,” by Kirkus Reviews, Young’s novel is a taught literary thriller which tackles the opioid epidemic, poverty, and deeply buried secrets.Watershed Lit

Two writers examine pressing issues of identity, legacy, and historical memory in their work. Poet Sandra Beasley writes through the lens of Washington D.C. and Virginia’s history to examine race, politics, disability advocacy and more in her collection Made to Explode: Poems. Chris Stuck’s debut short story collection Give My Love to the Savages t…

On our second episode of Globally Lit, a podcast of international literature and translation, we will celebrate April's National Poetry month by welcoming the great Palestinian poet Najwan Darwish, who will discuss his latest collection of poems Exhausted on the Cross. Then, Najwan's translator, Kareem James Abu-Zeid, will be in conversation with w…

Ride the rails and guard the infamous Sing Sing prison with Ted Conover, author of six books, most recently Immersion: A Writer’s Guide to Going Deep. Conover sits down with Tim Denevi in this edition of the Creative Writing Program's Visiting Writers series. Find out more at https://creativewriting.gmu.edu/…

Celebrate Children's Book Week with Megan Wagner Lloyd, author of Allergic, and Paper Mice, and Nadine Poper, author of Porcupette and Moppet talk the art and craft of writing kids' books, and the little known facts of the children's book publishing world!Watershed Lit

Tania James, author of The Tusk That Did The Damage sits down with Karen Russell, author of Sleep Donation and Swamplandia! to discuss writing toward ambiguity, crazy stories, and more in this edition of the Creative Writing Program's Visiting Writers series.Watershed Lit

Arthur Sze sat down with Kara Oakleaf and Suzy Rigdon to discuss revisiting fifty years' worth of poetry in his latest collection, The Glass Constellation, finding freedom within structure, and the importance of poetry in daily life.Watershed Lit

On our inaugural episode of Globally Lit, a podcast of international literature and translation, we first welcome Moroccan author Abdellah Taia to discuss his novel A Country for Dying. Next, the novel’s translator, Emma Ramadan, is in conversation with wonderful French language translator Laura Marris. And finally, Aliza Cohen reviews A Beautiful …

Ayşe Papatya Bucak sat down with Kara Oakleaf and Suzy Rigdon to discuss mythology, re-imagining the past, and re-imagining the form of her short stories in her newest collection, The Trojan War Museum.Watershed Lit

Poet and memoirist Reginald Dwayne Betts spoke from the road with Kara Oakleaf and Suzy Rigdon about his poetry collection Felons, "gateway literature," and his ambitious Million Book Project, which will put 500 books in prisons around the country.Watershed Lit

Karen Russell, award-winning author of Swamplandia!, Vampires in the Lemon Grove, Orange World, Sleep Donation, and more sits down with Fall for the Book's Kara Oakleaf and Suzy Rigdon to talk magic, ghosts, and writing to uncertainty.Watershed Lit

Navigate the Puzzle of Polynesia with Sea People author Christina Thompson. She sits down with Kara Oakleaf to uncover the mysteries of this ten million square miles of ocean and the people who navigated it.Watershed Lit

Danielle Evans, author of The Office of Historical Corrections and Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self, sits down with Kara Oakleaf to talk short stories, YA, and giving herself permission to write long.Watershed Lit

Award-winning author Rion Amilcar Scott sits down with Fall for the Book Director, Kara Oakleaf to discuss his newest short story collection, The World Does Not Require You.Watershed Lit

Andre Perry discusses his debut essay collection Some of Us Are Very Hungry Now, exploring form and telling stories across multiple platforms, and writing against a narrative.Watershed Lit

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Fall for the Book and the Visiting Writers Series presents a discussion with Jane Brox, author of Silence: A Social History of One of the Least Understood Elements of Our Lives.Watershed Lit