A war has either started or is about to; bombs are going off in the city, but people seem strangely disengaged. Della’s activist friends seem more concerned about the next sex party or the finer points of vegan ideology, and customers at the vegan café where she works talk of leaving the country for a […]
Dec 13
Randa Abdel-Fattah : Discipline
Randa Abdel-Fattah’s new novel Discipline is set in Sydney, Australia in 2021 during Ramadan. Discipline follows two Palestinians there, one in media and one in academia, where each has to confront questions of silence and complicity in their respective fields. As Israel intensif ... Show More
1h 56m
Dec 6
Jazmina Barrera : The Queen of Swords
Jorge Luis Borges called her the “Tolstoy of Mexico” and César Aira the “greatest novelist of the 20th century,” so why is it likely that you haven’t read or even heard of Elena Garro before now? And given that Garro was, like her fantastical stories, not beholden to the truth wh ... Show More
1h 58m
Dec 2021
How Award-Winning Novelist Vanessa Veselka Writes
#PodcastersForJustice Award-winning author and essayist, Vanessa Veselka, spoke to me about her transformation as an artist, writing out of necessity, and the journey from nervy debut to National Book Award longlist. Vanessa is the author of the debut novel Zazen, which won the P ... Show More
50m 9s
Jul 2022
A Novel About Brilliant Young Game Designers
<p>Gabrielle Zevin’s new novel, “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow,” is set in the world of video game design, and follows two friends named Sadie and Sam as they collaborate on what becomes a very successful game.</p><p>“A friend of mine described the book as being what it’s ... Show More
49m 24s
Apr 2023
Ep 375: Short novels that contain whole worlds
There’s something particularly enticing about a short book that delivers an incredible reading experience. Today's guest Vanessa A. Bee joins Anne to talk about short books that tell great stories in small packages. Vanessa is an author, mother, wife, and attorney who lives in Wa ... Show More
50m 15s
Jan 2021
#309 Kate Elizabeth Russell: Writing Fiction & Setting Boundaries
Kate Elizabeth Russell is a writer, based in Oregon. Her debut novel, My Dark Vanessa, was published in 2020 and has been translated into thirty-five languages. It’s been both a Sunday Times Bestseller and a New York Times Bestseller. Stephen King himself described it as ‘a hard ... Show More
30m 51s
Sep 2016
Magic Lessons Ep. 208: “Leap Into the Fire” featuring Martha Beck
This week on Magic Lessons, Elizabeth Gilbert advises Hope, a spoken-word poet in Ohio. A self-described introvert, Hope wants to take her poetry to the next level, but she's scared to submit her work to journals and enter poetry slams. She's paralyzed by a deep fear of rejection ... Show More
1h 19m