Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchJane Hirshfield, "The Asking: New and Selected Poems" (Knopf, 2023)
Episode 134
When poet Jane Hirshfield first arrived at Tassajara Monastery nearly fifty years ago, a Zen teacher told her that it was a good idea to have a quest…
2 years, 9 months ago
Christian Kiefer, "The Heart of It All" (Melville House, 2023)
Episode 358
In The Heart of It All (Melville House, 2023), Christian Kiefer imagines a group of factory workers and their families living in a once vibrant Ohio …
2 years, 9 months ago
Hannah Kaner, "Godkiller" (Harper Voyager, 2023)
Episode 76
Hannah Kaner’s debut novel Godkiller (Harper Voyager, 2023) takes place in Middren, a country where gods have been banned as the result of a brutal c…
2 years, 9 months ago
Alyssa Noelle Coelho, "The Alchemy of the Beast" (Saved by Story, 2023)
Episode 133
"I wept as time stopped, and I wept as time refused to cease."
Grieving her faith, her love, and her identity, twenty-one-year-old Scarlett V. Leonel…
2 years, 9 months ago
John Fulton, "The Flounder: Stories" (Blackwater Press, 2023)
Episode 100
The riddles of desire, youth, old age, poverty, and wealth are laid bare in this radiant collection from a master of the form. From inner-city pawnsh…
2 years, 9 months ago
Amy Berkowitz, "Gravitas" (Éditions du Noroît/Total Joy, 2023)
Episode 132
Frank, conversational, and darkly funny, Gravitas examines the tendency of MFA programs to teach women that their lives aren’t worth writing about. T…
2 years, 9 months ago
Dong Li, "The Orange Tree" (U Chicago Press, 2023)
Episode 131
Dong Li’s The Orange Tree (U Chicago Press, 2023) is a collection of narrative poems that braids forgotten legends, personal sorrows, and political u…
2 years, 9 months ago
A Better Way to Buy Books
Episode 109
Bookshop.org is an online book retailer that donates more than 80% of its profits to independent bookstores. Launched in 2020, Bookshop.org has alrea…
2 years, 9 months ago
Patrick E. Horrigan, "American Scholar" (Lethe Press, 2023)
Episode 357
Patrick Horrigan’s novel, American Scholar (Lethe Press 2023) centers on James (Jimmy) Fitzgerald, who teaches American Literature at a prestigious u…
2 years, 9 months ago
Em X. Liu, "The Death I Gave Him" (Solaris, 2023)
Episode 157
Em X. Liu’s The Death I Gave Him (Solaris, 2023) brings a science fiction twist to Shakespeare’s beloved Hamlet.
Working at Elsinore Labs, Hayden Lich…
2 years, 9 months ago