From debut authors to Pulitzer Prize winners, Writers on Writing tackles a little of everything — novels, short stories, memoir, poetry, and more, as well as interviews with agents and publishers.
Unlike other shows dedicated to discussing books, we focus on the art, craft, and business of writing. Writers appreciate the opportunity to talk about the artistic elements of their job — the thousands of decisions that must be made to produce a manuscript. There’s no aspect of craft, creativity, and publishing we don’t explore.
We’ve hosted well over 1,500 authors on the show including Elizabeth Strout, S.A. Cosby, Ann Patchett, Amor Towles, and George Saunders. Expert advice from some of the industry’s top writers allows us to offer a show that’s been called “your own personal MFA program” (with no financial strain).
Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Host: Marrie Stone
Music and sound editing by Travis Barrett
Subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Amazon, Spotify, Stitcher, Google, or your favorite podcast app.
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EPISODES
(2001 - present)
Mystery Writer Anthony Horowitz on Writers on Writing, KUCI-FM
Anthony Horowitz might be the most prolific and successful author living in the U.K. today. He’s murdered more characters, fictionally, than any other living writer. Creator of the Alex Rider series, commissioned by the Conan Doyle estate to write two new Sherlock Holmes mysteries and the Ian Fleming estate to write a James Bond novel, Horowitz has penned over 50 books. He’s also written for television and screen.
Horowitz joins Marrie Stone to talk about the second in his latest series, Moonflower Murders. He was on the show in 2017 to talk about the first, Magpie Murders. In addition to exploring Horowitz’s obsessive writing personality, they chat about magic, the inspiration of art, and the problems with the recent HBO series The Undoing. They also talk about our current socio-cultural climate and the unseen traps writers can fall into without warning. For mystery writers, Anthony’s insights and advice are invaluable. For fans of his fiction, you’ll enjoy stepping behind the pages to see how the magic is made.
(Broadcast date: December 30, 2020)
Essayist Michele Morano on Writers on Writing, KUCI-FM
Unrequited love and unconsummated romance is the subject of Michele Morano’s latest memoir-in-essays, Like Love. These fourteen essays explore romantic friendships, dangerous crushes, familial infatuations, and the complicated emotions surrounding parental love. Morano’s essays feel at once daring, vulnerable, insightful, and full of familiar emotions most of us dare not name. She joins Marrie Stone to talk about love, longing, and desire, but also about craft, technique, and the art of writing an effective essay.
What separates an essay from an anecdote? What’s the difference between therapeutic writing and art? What are some effective techniques for accessing old memories? What’s the sign that you’re stumbling into something worthwhile to write about? Morano talks about all this and more.
(Broadcast date: December 16, 2020)
Literary agent Betsy Amster on Writers on Writing, KUCI-FM
Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow
Nicole Krauss on Writers on Writing, KUCI-FM
Nicole Krauss may be best known for her novels, which include Man Walks into a Room, History of Love, Forest Dark, and Great House. But several of her short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Best American Short Stories, the Atlantic, and elsewhere. For the first time, she's published a collection of her stories and joins Marrie Stone to talk about them. To Be a Man explores issues of gender in its many forms—parenthood, childhood, romantic partnerships, and friendships. The men in her stories are fathers, sons, soldiers, artists, and lovers with human fallibility and the desire for redemption.
Krauss talks about how motherhood changed her perspective on gender issues, how films and other art forms inform her work, the reasons she's reluctant to teach writing, and so much more.
(Broadcast date: December 2, 2020)
(Record date: October 14, 2020)
Phil Klay on Writers on Writing, KUCI-FM
In 2014, Phil Klay shocked the literary world with his National Book Award winning visceral short story collection, Redeployment, a multi-dimensional account of the Iraq war based on his four years of service there.
Six years later he’s returned with his debut novel, Missionaries, a sensitive and meticulously researched exploration of America’s involvement in foreign wars (notably Columbia, Afghanistan, and Iraq). Following four main characters—two Americans and two Columbians—the novel details the price of war from every angle and every point of view.
Klay joins Marrie Stone to talk about the book. He shares his research process, his organizational tools, and how he came to understand each of his characters. War buffs, literary fiction enthusiasts, and aspiring and established writers alike should find something useful and inspiring in Klay’s conversation.
(Record date: October 26, 2020)
(Broadcast date: November 18, 2020)
Merrill Markoe on Writers on Writing, KUCI-FM
Sharon Harrigan on Writers on Writing, KUCI-FM
Trained young as a poet, Sharon Harrigan came later in life to the novel and the memoir. Her debut novel, Half, emerged from an award-winning short story. Sharon joins Marrie Stone to talk about the novel, as well as her circuitous writing path, getting an MFA later in life, and finding the confidence to play with an unconventional point of view. She shares a wealth of writing advice she's received along the way, the advantages of publishing with a university press, and how she discovered the novel's through-line after she finished writing it. She also talks about how studying movies and television series can teach plot and structure, and so much more.
(Record date: October 20, 2020)
Novelist Shari La Pena on Writers on Writing, KUCI-FM
Memoirist Nick Flynn on Writers on Writing
Rumaan Alam on Writers on Writing, KUCI-FM
Rumaan Alam’s latest novel, Leave the World Behind, became a finalist for the National Book Award before it was even released. Exploring themes of race, class, climate change, gender politics, geopolitical turmoil, and more—all under the sunny guise of a summer vacation on Long Island—Alam’s novel begins as one kind of story and soon turns into another.
Alam joins Marrie Stone to talk about the book, his unconventional path to becoming a novelist, and about writing the white American experience as an Indian man. He shares how Twitter helped him write the novel, how an editor’s insights made him rethink the novel’s point of view, and the many books that helped him along the way (including Stephen King’s Pet Sematary). There’s mounds of wonderful advice for writers, and fantastic backstory for avid readers.
(Broadcast date: November 4, 2020)
(Record date: October 30, 2020)
Jess Walter, author of The Cold Millions, on Writers on Writing, KUCI-FM
Novelist Jess Walter has never left his hometown—the Spokane Valley in eastern Washington—where his grandfather (also Jess Walter) landed in the 1930s as a train-hopping, itinerant worker. Inspired by the places around him, an old 1911 postcard, generational stories passed down, and the sense of history repeating, Walter has spun a sweeping saga whose themes of class, wealth, corruption, and public protests—all set more than a century ago—still ring true today.
Walter joins Marrie Stone to discuss The Cold Millions. He talks about how disparate ideas cling together like falling snowflakes and, by the time they land, create multidimensional stories. He talks about the moment when research becomes so ingrained that he’s able to make the leap into fiction without remembering what’s real and what’s invented. He talks about the shape of stories, how this novel looks like a river in his mind, with moments of rapid movement and other quiet periods of stillness. For historical fiction readers, Walter fans, and writers interested in craft, there’s something for everyone in Walter’s conversation.
(Broadcast date: October 21, 2020)
(Record date: September 8, 2020)
Jody Forrester & Lucie Britsch on Writers on Writing, KUCI-FM
Memoirist Jody Forrester, author of Guns Under the Bed and novelist Lucie Britsch, author of Sad Janet join Barbara DeMarco-Barrett to discuss the art, craft, and business of writing.
(Broadcast date: September 30, 2020)
Novelist John Boyne on Writers on Writing, KUCI-FM
Novelist John Boyne, A Traveler at the Gates of Wisdom and Heart's Invisible Furies, joins Barbara DeMarco-Barrett to discuss the art, craft, and business of writing.
(Broadcast date: September 16, 2020)
Stepanie Kent & Logan Smalley, Co-Creators of "The Call Me Ishmael Phone Book," on Writers on Writing — KUCI-FM
While sharing a drink at a literary pub in New York, Steph Kent & Logan Smalley mused about their favorite first lines in novels. Settling on Moby Dick's notorious "Call Me Ishmael," they wondered what would happen if Ishmael had a phone number that book lovers could call. It didn't take long for Ishmael to have his own number. Voicemails began pouring in from around the country as callers shared their most memorable reading experiences, favorite titles, books that changed and shaped their lives, and even one special copy of Beloved that cost a friendship.
Steph and Logan join Marrie Stone to talk about The Call Me Ishmael Phone Book, which includes not only their favorite voicemail messages about books and authors, but interviews with independent bookstores around the United States, literary museums, author grave sites, and so much more. They talk about how the idea began, and how it grew. They share some of their favorite stories, and how the project is still evolving.
They invite you to call Ishmael at (774) 325-0503 to share your own reading experiences or listen to the experiences of others. Visit their website for more information, or follow them on Instagram and Twitter.
(Record date: October 12, 2020)
Short Story Author Susan Buttenwieser on Writers On Writing, KUCI-FM
Debut author Susan Buttenwieser joins Marrie Stone to talk about her collection, We Were Lucky With the Rain. Named one of Poets & Writers 5 Debut Authors Over 50, Susan shares fantastic advice for writers publishing without agents. She discusses how to seek out strategic literary journals for publication, the advantages of small presses (and Four Way Books in particular), and knowing when to let your work go.
She also provides insights into how to shape an effective short story, her revision process, her attraction to adolescent narrators, and much more.
Finally, Susan talks about her work in women's prisons, helping those silenced voices tell their stories.
(Record date: October 8, 2020)
Literary Thriller Co-Authors Smith Henderson & Jon Marc Smith on Writers on Writing, KUCI-FM
As Smith Henderson and Jon Marc Smith prove, not all novelists are loners. The two decided to collaborate while partaking of a few substances at Tim O'Brien's wedding back in the early 2000s. Fifteen years, one screenplay, and two books later their first novel, Make Them Cry, debuted in September.
This literary joyride through a Mexican drug cartel has a rich cast of characters—a compromised DEA agent, a bookish sicario, a cartel fugitive, crooked cops, CIA agents, former military operatives and more, each with fascinating backstories and motivations.
Smith Henderson (author of Fourth of July Creek) and Jon Marc Smith join Marrie Stone to talk about how the book came to be, the extensive research it required, the intricacies of how their collaboration works, why they had to throw the first draft of the novel away and begin again, the importance of routine, and so much more. They also share that mind-bending story of Tim O'Brien's wedding.
(Record date: October 6, 2020)
Eric Weiner on Writers on Writing, KUCI-FM
To many of us, it might feel like the world has lost its way. The very nature of truth seems up for grabs. Eric Weiner returns readers to the teachings of both the ancient and modern philosophers. How do we know what we know? How do we get out of bed each morning? How should we fight? How do we cope? How can we show kindness? How to age and, finally, how to die.
Weiner, a former NPR foreign correspondent and prolific travel writer, joins Marrie Stone to talk about his latest book, The Socrates Express: In Search of LIfe Lessons from Dead Philosophers. They hash through philosophy, philosophers, and how old wisdom applies to your daily life and your writing life. Their conversation touches on stoicism, the nature of knowledge and wisdom, the benefits of aging, and how to remain creative in a noise-filled world. It’s also filled with insights for writers: the advantages of walking, the simplicity of making lists, the benefits of aging, and more.
(Broadcast date: October 7, 2020)
(Recording date: September 24, 2020)
Novelist Deborah Gaal on Writers on Writing, KUCI-FM
Deborah Gaal, author of The Dream Stitcher, joins Marrie Stone to talk about her latest novel, Synchronicities on the Avenue of the Saints. While watching a family member struggle with bipolar disorder after exhausting all remedies offered by western medicine, Gaal discovered another way to interpret the condition. This became the foundation for her second novel.
She talks about the role of magical realism in her everyday life, and how she incorporates some mystical aspects into her own writing practice. Gaal also shares the process that went behind her decision to self publish, how her first novel went on to receive various awards and recognition, and how her background in corporate America, as well as the theater, informs her writing.
(Recording date: September 29, 2020)
Caroline Leavitt on Writers on Writing, KUCI-FM
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Caroline Leavitt, who has penned 12 published novels to date, joins Marrie Stone to talk about her latest, With or Without You. She also talks about the many important lessons she’s learned about writing along the way (often the hard way).
Hear how “Humans of New York” inspires her characters’ looks, how her own demons creep into her novels, and why she invests so much time and energy in promoting the work of other writers. She also discusses the importance of John Truby's Anatomy of a Story and its impact on her work. Listeners can contact Marrie Stone to access Caroline's private worksheets for story structure and plotting their own novels. Visit Marrie's website for more information on how to contact her for those documents.
(Broadcast date: September 23, 2020)