The Ungrateful Stranger: Whose Story Deserves Welcome?
On a spring evening in 2016, the day after Donald Trump won a series of primaries cementing his candidacy, I stepped into a hushed auditorium in midtown Manhattan and found…
Dismantling the Mother Shelf: Expanding Our Thinking About Women’s Stories of Parenthood
When it comes to the Mother Shelf, it’s tempting to shrug our collective shoulders and say, Well, that’s just how book marketing works. But the uncomfortable truth is that publishers,…
My Brilliant Frenemy
The contentious bond between Joan Didion and Eve Babitz
Q: Can an author make a living from royalties?
The general population is slowly getting the message that things are really hard for traditionally published authors right now, in ways it was not hard twenty or even five years…
Episode 236: Creating Hindu Fantasy Worlds
Shveta Thakrar (Star Daughter, The Dream Runners), Kritika H. Rao (The Surviving Sky), Roshani Chokshi (Aru Shah, The Star Touched Queen), and Ram V (The Many Deaths of Laila Starr)…
Grieving a Friendship w/MariNaomi
Join host Ned Buskirk in conversation with award-winning author & illustrator MariNaomi, talking about their new & ninth book, I THOUGHT YOU LOVED ME, a collage-comics graphic memoir about a…
Indigenous Futurisms
From TV and film to novels and video games, the artistic movement of Indigenous Futurisms has been gaining momentum and breaking cultural barriers. I talk with professor and author Grace…
SHELF LIFE—Tastes Like War with Grace M. Cho – Virginia Festival of the Book
Grace M. Cho discusses her latest book, Tastes Like War, which was a nonfiction finalist for the 2021 National Book Award. Part memoir, part sociological investigation, Tastes Like War offers…
Martha Wells, “Rogue Protocol: The Murderbot Diaries”
Wells has incorporated aspects of herself in Murderbot, a fact that resonates with readers. “I have some problems with anxiety and OCD and I’ve put those into the character… and…
Meet The Women Who Are Building A Better Romance Industry
A trio of black women at Kensington Publishing is challenging the old, predominantly white narratives of who gets to fall in love. {read}