Writers on Writing
A weekly podcast hosted by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett and Marrie Stone on the art and business of writing.
Episodes
Literary agent Maria Whelan
Maria Whelan is an agent at Mushens Entertainment, in London. Prior to that, for more than 8 years she worked as an assistant and agent at InkWell Management in New York. She began her career in publishing as a Foreign Rights Assistant at Janklow & Nesbit in New York. Maria graduated from University College Dublin with a BA in English and Drama, then obtained her Master’s in Literature and Moderni
Liam Higginson, author of THE HILL IN THE DARK GROVE
Debut Welsh author Liam Higginson has written an atmospheric, psychologically suspenseful, creepy novels told in gorgeous literary prose. It’s also steeped in Welsh mythology and tradition but manages to also grapple with contemporary issues. The Hill in the Dark Grove will keep you up at night, whether you’re compulsively turning the pages or you can’t sleep after what you’ve just read.
Liam
Claire Vaye Watkins, author of YELLOW PINE
Claire Vaye Watkins was born in Bishop, California and raised in the Mojave Desert on the Amargosa River. A graduate of the University of Nevada Reno, she earned her MFA from the Ohio State University in 2010. Claire is the author of three novels—Gold Fame Citrus, I Love You but I've Chosen Darkness, and Yellow Pine—and the short story collection Battleborn. She has received the Story Prize, the D
Michael Cunningham, author of UNSAYABLE: A LIFE IN WRITING
Michael Cunningham is the author of eight novels, including the 1999 Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Hours and his 1990 novel, A Home at the End of the World. Both of these novels were adapted to screen and The Hours was made into an opera that premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in 2022. He’s also the author of the story collection, A Wild Swan and Other Tales.
Unsayable: A Life in Writing is
Teddy Wayne, author of THE AU PAIR
Teddy Wayne is the author of the novels The Au Pair, The Winner, The Great Man Theory, Apartment, Loner, The Love Song of Jonny Valentine, and Kapitoil. He is the winner of a Whiting Writers’ Award and an NEA Creative Writing Fellowship as well as a finalist for the Young Lions Fiction Award, PEN/Bingham Prize, and Dayton Literary Peace Prize. A former columnist for the New York Times and McSweene
Stacey Abrams, author of CODED JUSTICE
Stacey Abrams served eleven years in the Georgia House of Representatives, seven as minority leader. She was the first Black woman to become the gubernatorial nominee for a major party in U.S. history. She’s also a prolific NYT bestselling writer across a variety of genres. Stacey has published 17 books over the past 25 years including fiction, nonfiction, romance, memoir, children’s books, poli
Elizabeth Strout, author of THE THINGS WE NEVER SAY
Elizabeth Strout is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Things We Never Say, Tell Me Everything; Lucy by the Sea; Oh William!, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Olive, Again; Anything Is Possible, winner of the Story Prize; My Name Is Lucy Barton; The Burgess Boys; Olive Kitteridge, winner of the Pulitzer Prize; Abide with Me; and Amy and Isabelle, winner of the Los Angeles T
Douglas Stuart, author of JOHN OF JOHN
Douglas Stuart is one of those unicorn authors who seemed to have appeared out of thin air and took the literary world by storm. His 2019 debut novel, Shuggie Bain, would be rejected 44 times before winning the Booker Prize, becoming a finalist for the National Book Award and being named the Sunday Time’s 25 Best Novels of the 21st Century. Then would come Young Mungo in 2022, which sealed Douglas
Hafeez Lakhani, author of ABUNDANCE
Hafeez Lakhani was born in Hyderabad, India and raised in suburban South Florida. His fiction and essays have appeared in Crazyhorse, Exposition Review, Salt Hill, Tikkun, The Cortland Review, and The Southern Review, and have garnered fellowships from PEN America and The Center for Fiction. He was twice recognized with a Notable Essay in Best American Essays and twice nominated for a Pushcart Pri
Annie Hartnett, author of THE ROAD TO TENDER HEARTS
Annie Hartnett is the award-winning author of three novels: Rabbit Cake, Unlikely Animals, and the national bestseller The Road to Tender Hearts, which won the 2025 New England Book Award for fiction and was named a best book of 2025 from NPR, LitHub, and Southern Living. It’s now out and available in paperback, published by Ballentine.
Along with the writer Tessa Fontaine, Annie co-runs Account
Steven Rowley, author of TAKE ME WITH YOU
Steven Rowley is the New York Times bestselling author of Lily and the Octopus, a Washington Post Notable Book of 2016, The Editor, named by NPR as one of the Best Books of 2019, The Guncle, a Goodreads Choice Awards finalist for 2021 Novel of the Year and winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor, The Celebrants, a TODAY Show Read With Jenna Book Club pick, and the instant USA Today Bestsell
Tom Perrotta, author of GHOST TOWN
Tom Perrotta’s eleven works of fiction include Election and Little Children, both of which were made into Oscar-nominated films, and The Leftovers, which was adapted into a critically acclaimed, Peabody Award-winning HBO series. He’s now been on the podcast five times with Marrie. First in 2007 with The Abstinence Teacher, again in 2011 for The Leftovers, Mrs. Fletcher in 2017, and Tracy Flick Ca
Cassandra Neyenesch, author of A LITTLE BIT BAD
Cassandra Neyenesch is a Brooklyn-based writer, activist, and curator. Cassandra’s reviews and cultural pieces have appeared in The Guardian, Brooklyn Rail, HuffPost, Public Books, The International Herald Tribune, and Art in America. She has a recent story in the New Yorker and her debut novel A Little Bit Bad was published in June.
I love this novel. Literary, with plot—a mystery runs through
Ada Limón, author of AGAINST BREAKING: ON THE POWER OF POETRY
Ada Limón is likely best known for her role as the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States. Her signature project, "You Are Here," focused on connecting poetry with the natural world, including installations in seven National Parks. She also wrote "In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa," which was engraved on NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft which launched in 2024 to explore Jupiter’s icy moon.
Estelle Erasmus, author of WRITING THAT GETS NOTICED
Estelle Erasmus is a 2025 TEDx Speaker and an award-winning writing professor at New York University. An award-winning journalist, she has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Slate, Next Avenue/PBS, HuffPost, Business Insider, Marie Claire, WIRED, AARP the Magazine, and more. Her essays for The New York Times and The Washington Post have gone globally viral, and she has appeared o
Jayne Anne Phillips, author of SMALL TOWN GIRLS
Jayne Anne Phillips has been on the podcast at least three times. First in 2000, with her novel MotherKind. Again in 2014 with Quiet Dell, and the last time in 2023 with Night Watch, before it was announced as the Pulitzer Prize winner. Raymond Carver pronounced her first story collection Black Tickets “stories unlike any in our literature…a crooked beauty” and established Jayne Anne as a writer “
T.C. Boyle, author of NO WAY HOME
T. Coraghessan Boyle is the author of thirty books of fiction, including The Tortilla Curtain, Talk to Me, I Walk Between the Raindrops, and most recently, No Way Home. He received a Ph.D. degree in Nineteenth Century British Literature from the University of Iowa in 1977 and his M.F.A. from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1974. His work has been translated into more than two dozen for
Louise Erdrich, author of PYTHON’S KISS
Louise Erdrich in one of those relatively rare authors who has won both a National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize. She’s authored 19 novels as well as story collections, poetry collections, children’s books and nonfiction. Her first novel, Love Medicine, was the only debut ever to with the National Book Critic Circle Award for Fiction.
The Round House won the National Book Award in 2012. The Ni
Dylan Landis, author of LIST OF ALL POSSIBLE DESIRES: A Novel in Stories
Dylan Landis is the author of three works of fiction in the Rainey Royal Cycle, set in 1970s Greenwich Village: List of All Possible Desires, a novel in stories; the novel Rainey Royal, a New York Times Editors’ Choice; and the novel in stories Normal People Don’t Live Like This. Her work has appeared in O. Henry Prize Stories and Best American Nonrequired Reading, and she has received a National
Anne Enright, author of ATTENTION: WRITING ON LIFE, ART, AND THE WORLD
Anne Enright has written eight novels, most recently The Wren, The Wren, for which she was on the show in 2023. She won the Man Booker Prize for The Gathering and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and was the inaugural Laureate for Irish Fiction. In 2022, she was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Irish Book Awards.
Her latest collection of essays is Attention: Writ
Allegra Goodman, author of THIS IS NOT ABOUT US
Allegra Goodman’s new book, This Is Not About Us, is a Late Show With Stephen Colbert Book Club Selection. Her novels include Isola (a Reese’s Book Club selection and Libby award winner), Sam (a Read With Jenna Book Club selection), The Chalk Artist (winner of the Massachusetts Book Award), and more. Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker and elsewhere and has been anthologized in The O. Henr
Kate Schatz, author of WHERE THE GIRLS WERE
Kate Schatz is the New York Times bestselling author of the "Rad Women" book series, including Rad American Women A-Z, Rad Women Worldwide, Rad Girls Can, and Rad American History A-Z, as well as "Do the Work: An Antiracist Activity Book" co-written with W. Kamau Bell.
Her latest is Where the Girls Were. She joins Marrie Stone to talk about bringing history and culture alive in your fiction; ho
Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, author of LAKE EFFECT
Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney is the author of the instant New York Times bestselling novels The Nest (named a best book of the year by People, the Washington Post, and NPR) and Good Company (a Read with Jenna selection). She has been a guest on Today, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and NPR’s All Things Considered. Her work has been translated into more than 28 languages, and The Nest is in development as
Jordy Rosenberg, author of NIGHT NIGHT FAWN
Jordy Rosenberg is a professor in the MFA program at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He’s the author of the 2018 novel, Confessions of the Fox, which was the NYT Editors’ Choice selection, shortlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and a Lambda Literary Award and a recipient of a number of other accolades. His latest, Night Night Fawn, is part novel, part autofiction, part u
Larissa Pham, author of DISCIPLINE
Larissa Pham’s writing has appeared in The Nation, the New York Times Book Review, Aperture, Bookforum, Art in America, Granta, the Paris Review Daily, and elsewhere. Her essays and short fiction have been anthologized in Kink (Simon and Schuster, 2021); Wanting: Women Writing on Desire (Catapult, 2023); and Critical Hits, an anthology of writing on video games (Graywolf, 2023). She holds an MFA i
Bret Anthony Johnston, author of ENCOUNTERS WITH UNEXPECTED ANIMALS
Bret Anthony Johnston is the internationally bestselling author of the novels We Burn Daylight and Remember Me Like This, as well as the award-winning story collection Corpus Christi. He edited the craft book, Naming the World: And Other Exercises for the Creative Writer. His work has been widely translated and appears in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Esquire, The Paris Review, The Best American S
Reena Shah, author of EVERY HAPPINESS
Reena Shah is a writer, editor, and teacher. Her work has been featured in the Masters Review, Electric Literature, Joyland, BBC, the American Prospect, National Geographic and the Guardian, among other publications. She has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the Millay Arts, Tin House, and the Fulbright Foundation. She received an MFA in fiction from the Michener Center for Writers, wh
Mark Haddon, author of LEAVING HOME: A MEMOIR IN FULL COLOUR
Mark Haddon might be best known for his 2003 breakout novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. But it’s only the tip of a body of work that stretches across genres and artforms. He’s the author of three other adult novels, including The Porpoise and two collections of short stories. Dogs and Monsters came out last year. He’s also written poetry and plays. Before The Curious Inci
Richard Lange, author of JOE HUSTLE
Richard Lange is the author of the story collections, Dead Boys and Sweet Nothing, and the novels, This Wicked World, Angel Baby, The Smack, Rovers, and Joe Hustle. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the International Association of Crime Writers’ Hammett Prize, The Short Story Dagger from Great Britain’s Crime Writers Association, and the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award from the Am
Ann Packer, author of SOME BRIGHT NOWHERE
When Ann Packer’s latest novel, Some Bright Nowhere, was chosen by Oprah for her book club last November, we saw what an impact this book was making on so many folks and their experiences with dying loved ones. The book was written in a record four months – in contrast to her novel The Dive from Clausen’s Pier which took nearly 10 years. It’s a masterclass in subtle conflict, in putting ordinary p
Andrea Bartz, author of THE LAST FERRY OUT
Andrea Bartz is a journalist and the New York Times bestselling author of the Reese’s Book Club pick We Were Never Here, The Spare Room, The Lost Night, and The Herd. Her thrillers have been optioned by Netflix, Hulu, and other production companies, and more than half a million copies of her books have been sold worldwide. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Marie Claire, Vogue, and she's
Elizabeth McCracken, author of A LONG GAME: NOTES ON WRITING FICTION
Elizabeth McCracken is the author of nine books across several genres — novels, short story collections, autofiction, and now a craft book about writing. Her novel, The Giant’s House, was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1996. Thunderstruck & Other Stories won the Story Prize in 2015 and was longlisted for the National Book Award. She’s appeared in five editions of The Best American Shor
Marrie Stone’s BEST OF 2025
Last year, I compiled my first-ever “Best Of the Year” show. It was such fun to make, and received such a great response from listeners, that I decided to make it an annual tradition. While I could only include a handful of authors from the past year, this episode provides a fun Whitman’s Sampler of the kinds of conversations available in our archives.
Listen as Adam Johnson, Wally Lamb, and Chri
Nicholas Boggs, author of BALDWIN: A LOVE STORY
Nicholas Boggs is the New York Times bestselling author of Baldwin: A Love Story, the first major biography of the iconic figure in more than three decades. He is the recipient of a 2023 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant and fellowships from the Leon Levy Center for Biography, the Scholars-in-Residence program at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Gilder Lehrman Center and Bei
A. Muia, author of A DESERT BETWEEN TWO SEAS
We’ve been following A. Muia and her writing journey for several years. She’s been a longtime listener of the podcast and supporter of the show. We chatted in 2022 about getting an agent, the frustrations of the publishing industry and how to break into it, and all the things talented writers who have a strong manuscript but few publishing contacts encounter when trying to get their work published
Tod Goldberg, author of ONLY WAY OUT
Tod Goldberg is the author of the new novel, Only Way Out, published by Thomas & Mercer. He’s also the New York Times bestselling author of 16 books including the acclaimed Gangsterland quartet. His short fiction and essays appeared widely and have been selected in Best American Mystery & Suspense and Best American Essays. Tod is a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California, Ri
Megha Majumdar, author of A GUARDIAN AND A THIEF
Megha Majumdar’s A Burning came out in 2020. It was an instant NYT bestseller and was nominated for a number of prestigious awards, including the National Book Award, and was named one of the best books of that year by a number of media outlets.
Her latest, A Guardian and a Thief, is enjoying perhaps even more success. It was a finalist for the National Book Award and was Oprah’s pick for Octobe
Eric Beetner, author of REAL BAD, REAL SOON: A Carter McCoy Novel
Eric Beetner has been hailed as “the new maestro of noir,” by Ken Bruen and LitReactor said he’s “The 21st Century’s answer to Jim Thompson.” He has written more than 30 novels and his 100+ short stories have been featured in over 35 anthologies, including Palm Springs Noir, the Akashic anthology I edited that includes a story of Eric’s, one of my favorites. Along the way he’s been nominated for t
Adam Johnson, author of THE WAYFINDER
Adam Johnson won the Pulitzer Prize in 2013 for his novel, The Orphan Master’s Son. He won the National Book Award in 2015 for his story collection, Fortune Smiles. He also authored Parasites Like Us and Emporium. Every novel and story is unlike anything that’s come before it. His latest, The Wayfinder, is no exception. Set over 1,000 years ago in the South Pacific, it weaves together the stories
Paul Trammell, author, podcaster, sailor
Paul Trammell lives on a sailboat, currently at anchor in Bocas del Toro, Panama. He is the author of ten books and co-author of three more. His latest, Identity Crisis, is a nautical thriller inspired by his taking on a sailing hitchhiker and his mother’s resulting fear for his safety. This follows his psychological thriller Until They Bury Me, which explores the dangers of falling in love too f
Joan Silber, author of MERCY
Joan Silber is the author of ten books of fiction, as well as The Art of Time in Fiction which looks at how fiction is shaped and determined by time, with examples from world writers. She’s been on the show three times in the past to talk about Fools, which was longlisted for the National Book Award and finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award; Secrets of Happiness, which was a Washington Post Best Boo
REPLAY: fiction writer Melissa Bank
Melissa Bank, who passed away in 2022, was a fabulous writer and an incredible person. We met a few times in person, out here in Southern California when we were both speakers at the Literary Guild, and in NYC when I traveled there for conferences. She came on the show a couple of times, for Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing and The Wonder Spot. Her output was modest though her books became best
Gish Jen, author of BAD, BAD GIRL
Gish Jen describes her childhood as “a master class in perseverance.” The daughters of withholding mothers learn to reject rejection, she writes. And that’s proven great training for a writer.
Jen’s 10th book — Bad, Bad Girl — is part novel, part memoir, part autofiction. When her mother passed in 2020, Jen began keeping a journal, and writing notes to her mother in an attempt to understand her.
REPLAY: Literary agent MATTHEW CARNICELLI
Matthew Carnicelli is the president of Carnicelli Literary Management, located in New York City and the Hudson Valley. He represents bestselling and award-winning authors publishing books in the areas of history, current events, sports, business, memoir, biography, health, literary fiction, and graphic novels. Since becoming an agent in 2004, he has focused on helping leading thinkers, journalists
Janelle Brown, author of WHAT KIND OF PARADISE
Janelle Brown is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels I’ll Be You, Pretty Things, Watch Me Disappear, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, and This Is Where We Live. Pretty Things—named a Best Book of 2020 by Amazon—is currently being adapted for television.
Before becoming a novelist, Janelle worked as a senior writer at Salon, and began her career as a staff writer at Wired, working
Replay: ELMORE LEONARD, legendary writer
Today we’re going to replay a show from 2007. Barbara DeMarco-Barrett is joined by Elmore Leonard, an American novelist, short story author and screenwriter many of you are familiar with. He was, according to British journalist Anthony Lane, "hailed as one of the best crime writers in the land." Mostly working in the genres of westerns and crime, more than 30 of his stories were adapted to the scr
Bruce Holsinger, author of CULPABILITY
Bruce Holsinger’s Culpability was Oprah’s big pick this summer. No surprise. It’s a novel that gives book clubs a lot of contemporary ethical issues to talk about. From self-driving cars to drones to chatbots, technology isn’t just changing our daily lives, it’s changing our laws, our relationships, our sense of self. And it’s reshaping the way we talk about responsibility and culpability.
Culpa
Barbara DeMarco-Barrett, author of POOL FISHING
Today, the microphone turns on Writers on Writing founder and host Barbara DeMarco-Barrett. She joins Marrie Stone to talk about her latest story collection, Pool Fishing. Barbara’s venture into noir fiction began with the short story, “Crazy for You,” originally published in Akashic Book’s, Orange County Noir, later included in USA Noir: Best of the Akashic Noir Series. She’s also the editor and
Patrick Ryan, author of BUCKEYE
One Story Magazine Editor Patrick Ryan cut his teeth on the short story form. Author of the critically acclaimed collections The Dream Life of Astronauts and Send Me, Ryan has spent a career editing masters like Joy Williams, Colum McCann, Alice Munro and Ann Beattie. For forty years, he’s tried his hand at novels, but nothing stuck. Until now.
Ryan’s debut novel is Buckeye. The book has already
Paul Bradley Carr, author of THE CONFESSIONS
Paul Bradley Carr is the author of the new novel, The Confessions. He has written three memoirs about his adventures in and around Silicon Valley. He was the Silicon Valley columnist for The Guardian, senior editor at TechCrunch, and cofounder of PandoDaily. His writing has also appeared in The Wall Street Journal, HuffPost, and National Geographic. He lives in Palm Springs with his family and is
Michelle Huneven, author of BUG HOLLOW
Michelle Huneven is the author of six novels including Round Rock, Jamesland, Off Course, Blame, Search and — most recently — Bug Hollow. Bug Hollow is a story about the Samuelsons, who lose their 18-year-old son in an accident. The book ripples out from there in a kaleidoscopic way, following the parents, siblings, girlfriend and others into the distant future and around in time to see how their
Crissy Van Meter, author of CREATURES
Crissy Van Meter’s novel, Creatures (Algonquin Books, 2020), was a Belletrist Book pick, an NPR Book of the Year, a finalist for the WILLA Literary Award, and longlisted for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award. Her writing appears in Vice, Guernica, Buzzfeed, and Catapult. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the New School and teaches creative writing at The Writing Institute at Sarah Lawren
Richard Curtis, literary agent & digital pioneer
Literary agent Richard Curtis was a pioneer in the e-book industry. Having worked in publishing for nearly 50 years, he understands nuances, trends, and the long arc of what makes authors and publishers successful. He adapted his agenting model to accommodate the consolidations of the publishing houses and what those changes meant for agents and writers. He’s written several books on those topics,
Stefanie Leder, author of LOVE, COFFEE, AND REVOLUTION
Stefanie Leder is a TV showrunner and writer whose credits include the MTV teen dramedy Faking It, TBS comedy Men at Work, Netflix’s Boo, Bitch, and the long-running ABC Family comedy Melissa & Joey. She is also a guest lecturer on television writing at the Low Residency MFA at UCR. Bilingual in English and Spanish, she spent a year abroad in Costa Rica and has worked for a nonprofit on Fair Trade
Ed Park, author of AN ORAL HISTORY OF ATLANTIS
Ed Park is the author of the novels Same Bed Different Dreams (2023), a Pulitzer Prize finalist and winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and Personal Days (2008), a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award. His fiction, essays, and reviews have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, Harper’s, The Atlantic, Bookforum, McSweeney’s, and elsewhere. He is a founding editor of The
Jill Ciment, author of THE BODY IN QUESTION
Jill Ciment, author of The Body in Question, was born in Montreal, Canada. She is the author of Small Claims, a collection of short stories, novels, and novellas; The Law of Falling Bodies, Teeth of the Dog, The Tattoo Artist, Heroic Measures, and Act of God, and the memoirs, Half a Life and Consent. She has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including the National Endowment for the
Amy Bloom, author of I’LL BE RIGHT HERE
The New Yorker has said that Amy Bloom “gets more meaning into individual sentences than most authors manage in whole books.”
She is the author of five novels: White Houses, Lucky Us, Away, Love Invents Us and – most recently – I’ll Be Right Here. She’s also authored three collections of short stories: Where the God Of Love Hangs Out, Come to Me (finalist for the National Book Award), and A Blin
Richard Bausch, author of THE FATE OF OTHERS
An acknowledged master of the short story form, Richard Bausch's work has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, Gentleman's Quarterly, Harper's, The Missouri Review, The New Yorker, Narrative, New Letters, Playboy, Ploughshares, and The Southern Review, and his stories have been widely anthologized, including The Best American Short Stories, O. Henry Prize Stories, and Pushcart Prize Stories
Chris Whitaker, author of ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK
Chris Whitaker is the author of four novels including Tall Oaks, All the Wicked Girls, We Begin at the End and All the Colors of the Dark (now out in paperback). The New York Times bestseller has sold more than one million copies. But more extraordinary is Chris’s story of becoming a professional writer and how these bestsellers get written.
He joins Marrie Stone to talk about his unusual path i
Caroline Fraser, author of MURDERLAND
Born in Seattle, Caroline Fraser holds a Ph.D. in English and American literature from Harvard. Formerly on the editorial staff of The New Yorker, she is the author of three previous nonfiction books, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder, God's Perfect Child: Living and Dying in the Christian Science Church, and Rewilding the World: Dispatches from
Wally Lamb, author of THE RIVER IS WAITING
Wally Lamb is the author of six New York Times bestselling novels: I’ll Take You There, We Are Water, Wishin’ and Hopin’, The Hour I First Believed, I Know This Much Is True, and She’s Come Undone. He also edited Couldn’t Keep It to Myself and I’ll Fly Away, two volumes of essays from students in his writing workshop at York Correctional Institution, a women’s prison in Connecticut, where he was a
Gillian McAllister, author of FAMOUS LAST WORDS
Gillian McAllister graduated with an English degree before working as a lawyer. She lives in Birmingham, England, where she now writes full-time. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller Wrong Place Wrong Time and the Sunday Times bestsellers Everything But the Truth, Anything You Do Say (titled The Choice in the US), No Further Questions (titled The Good Sister in the US), The Evidence
Jess Walter, author of SO FAR GONE
We don’t have many guests return to the show six times. Jess Walter is now one of them. Barbara DeMarco-Barrett has interviewed him three times — for his novels Beautiful Ruins and The Financial Lives of the Poets, as well as his story collection We Live in Water. He’s been on with Marrie Stone for The Cold Millions and the story collection The Angel of Rome. There are a few reasons we’re always
Darrow Farr, author of THE BOMBSHELL
Darrow Farr is a Salvadoran-American writer who was a Stegner Fellow in Fiction at Stanford University from 2017-2019 and received an MFA in Creative Writing from The Michener Center at the University of Texas. She was born and raised outside of Philadelphia, where she now lives with her husband and son. The Bombshell is her debut novel.
Darrow joins Barbara DeMarco-Barrett to talk about why she
Richard Russo, author of LIFE AND ART: ESSAYS
Richard Russo is the author of ten novels, most recently Somebody’s Fool, Chances Are, Everybody’s Fool and That Old Cape Magic; two collections of stories; one previous essay collection about writing — The Destiny Thief: Essays on Writing, Writers and Life; and the memoir Elsewhere. In 2002 he received the Pulitzer Prize for Empire Falls, which, like Nobody’s Fool, won multiple awards for its scr
Charlotte Wood, author of STONE YARD DEVOTIONAL
Charlotte Wood is the author of seven novels and three books of non-fiction. Her novel Stone Yard Devotional was shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize. It was described by the UK Guardian as ‘a quiet novel of immense power’ and has been praised by authors Anne Enright, Tim Winton, Karen Joy Fowler, Hannah Kent and Paula Hawkins among others. Her previous books include The Luminous Solution, a book
Vauhini Vara, author of SEARCHES: SELFHOOD IN THE DIGITAL AGE
Vauhini Vara grew up alongside internet startup companies. She was in middle school when AOL sent those first floppy discs to our homes, inviting us to dial up to the world wide web. A graduate of Stanford and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she became a tech writer for The Wall Street Journal and a business reporter for The Atlantic, The New Yorker and other publications. In 2017, Vara profiled Sam A
Jennifer Haigh, author of RABBIT MOON
Jennifer Haigh’s first novel, Mrs. Kimble, won the PEN Hemingway Award for debut fiction. Mercy Street, was named a Best Book of 2022 by The New Yorker and won the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award. Her short stories have been published widely, in the Atlantic, Granta, The Best American Short Stories, and many other places. Published in eighteen languages, her work has been recognized
Andrew Porter, author of THE IMAGINED LIFE
Andrew Porter is the author of two story collections, The Disappeared and The Theory of Light and Matter. He’s also the author of the novel In Between Days. His latest, out this month, is The Imagined Life and it treads on some familiar territory as the others. Andrew joins Marrie Stone to talk about it.
His work has been compared to Richard Yates and John Cheever. He talks about those influence
Tova Mirvis, author of WE WOULD NEVER
Tova Mirvis is the author of the memoir The Book of Separation as well as three novels, Visible City, The Outside World and The Ladies Auxiliary, a national bestseller. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe Magazine and Real Simple, and her fiction has been broadcast on NPR. She lives in Newton, MA with her family. Her most recent novel is We Would N
Brian Selznick, author and illustrator of RUN AWAY WITH ME
In 2007, with his Caldecott-winning masterpiece The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian Selznick invented a new way of storytelling. The book became the basis for the 2011 Oscar-winning movie Hugo, directed by Martin Scorsese.
Brian is the author and illustrator of many other books for children, including Wonderstruck (also a movie), The Marvels, Kaleidoscope, and Big Tree, which was named one of the
Colum McCann, author of TWIST
Colum McCann first came on the podcast in 2010 to talk about his National Book Award winning novel, Let the Great World Spin. He most recently returned in 2020 with his New York Times bestseller Apeirogon. He’s back this month with a stunning new novel, Twist. He joins Marrie Stone to talk about the book and his inspiration.
They also discuss the need for stories in this current historical momen
Scott Turow, author of PRESUMED GUILTY
Scott Turow is a writer and former practicing lawyer and the author of 13 bestselling works of fiction, including Presumed Innocent. Scott has also published two nonfiction books, including One L, about his experience as a law student. His books have been translated into more than 40 languages, sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, and have been adapted into movies and television projects. H
Charlotte McConaghy, author of WILD DARK SHORE
Charlotte McConaghy is an Australian author living in Sydney with her partner and two children. She has a Masters Degree in Screenwriting from the Australian Film Television and Radio School, and a number of published SFF works in Australia. Her novel Migrations was her first foray into adult literary fiction, published in North America by Flatiron Books, and by Penguin Random House in Australia a
Eowyn Ivey, author of BLACK WOODS, BLUE SKY
Eowyn Ivey was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2013 for her debut novel, The Snow Child. Her latest, Black Woods, Blue Sky, offers a dark fairytale, a love story of a different kind, and depicts a mother-daughter relationship like none we’ve read before.
Ivey joins Marrie Stone to talk about the backstories behind the novel. They also chat about writing different points of view,
Adam Ross, author of PLAYWORLD
Adam Ross is the author of Mr. Peanut, selected as one of the best books of the year by The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Economist. He’s been a fellow in fiction at the American Academy in Berlin and a Hodder Fellow for Fiction at Princeton University. He is editor of The Sewanee Review. Born and raised in New York City, he now lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with his two daughters. His
Laila Lalami, author of THE DREAM HOTEL
Laila Lalami’s fifth novel, The Dream Hotel, is a dystopian story for our time. Set in Los Angeles in the near-distant future, the novel follows Sara –– a museum archivist and mother — who just landed at LAX from London and is retained by the Risk Assessment Administration for a crime they believe she might commit based on data and algorithms the government uses to track its citizens through their
Tana French, author of THE HUNTER
Tana French is the New York Times bestselling author of eight previous books, including The Searcher, The Likeness, and The Witch Elm. Her novels have sold over three million copies and won numerous awards, including the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, and Barry awards, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Best Mystery/Thriller, and the Irish Book Award for Crime Fiction. She’s been called a mystery wri
Eric Puchner, author of DREAM STATE
Eric Puchner is the author of two story collections — Music Through the Floor and Last Day on Earth. His first novel, Model Home, was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award in Fiction. His latest novel, Dream State, publishes February 18. He joins Marrie Stone to talk about it.
They discuss controlling time in a novel, since the book takes place over generations and moves not linearly but fluidly
Literary Agent Renee Fountain
Renee Fountain is president of Gandolfo Helin & Fountain Lit Mgmt. She’s been in the publishing industry for more than 30 years. She’s worked at Harcourt and Simon & Schuster with some of the best writers and illustrators in publishing, has managed iconic classics like Raggedy Ann and Nancy Drew, and brokered film and television options. Renee also spent five years with the CW Television Network a
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