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.
.
EPISODES
(2001 - present)
Lee Kravetz discusses Sylvia Plath on Writers on Writing
Lee Kravetz—author of Supersurvivors: The Surprising Link Between Suffering and Success and Strange Contagion: Inside the Surprising Science of Infectious Behaviors and Viral Emotions and What They Tell Us About Ourselves—takes on the life and legacy of Sylvia Plath in his debut novel, The Last Confessions of Sylvia P.
Kravetz joins Marrie Stone for a deep dive into the enduring influence of Sylvia Plath and her work, and how she—along with Anne Sexton—pioneered the genre of confessional poetry, leading in part to punk rock and the memoir as we know it today. The Last Confessions of Sylvia P. is at once a compelling mystery, a psychological study, a slice of historical literary fiction, and an homage to some of the greatest poets of the mid-20th century.
Kravetz spent years in the publishing industry. He decided on an advanced degree in psychology instead of an MFA. And he opted to leave nonfiction behind in favor of fiction. He shares all the insights and wisdom he's gained along the way, as well as mounds of writing advice. Listeners will learn the importance of putting on their shoes, and how a dog determined Kravetz next project, among many other great stories.
Record date: February 28, 2022
Broadcast date: March 14, 2022
Coolest American Stories 2022 w/Mark Wish, Mary Taugher & David Ebenbach
Chigozie Obioma on "Writers on Writing"
Nigerian author Chigozie Obioma was twice shortlisted for the Booker Prize for his novels The Fishermen (2015) and An Orchestra of Minorities (2019). With fluidity in several languages, and immersion in disparate cultures and literature, Obioma brings his unique voice to the page. He also tackles challenging points of view, from a madman in The Fishermen to the chi—the Igbo personal life force or guardian angel—in An Orchestra of Minorities.
Obioma teaches in the creative writing program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and brings the strength of his experience in teaching and writing, as well as the wisdom he's gained in straddling different cultures and languages to the conversation. He joins Marrie Stone to talk about his childhood in Nigeria, how his native language impacts his work, choosing challenging points of view, and the remarkable way he sold his first novel.
(Broadcast date: February 28, 2022)
Sara Gran, The Book of the Most Precious Substance
Weike Wang, author of "Joan is Okay," on Writers on Writing
Weike Wang planned to pursue a career in medicine. She obtained a bachelor's degree in chemistry and a doctorate in public health, both from Harvard University. But she also earned an MFA from Boston University and it changed the trajectory of her career. Joan is Okay is her second novel. Her debut novel, Chemistry, won the Pen/Hemingway Award in Fiction and a Whiting Award in 2018.
Joan is Okay tackles issues of race, culture, gender, family and economics, all set against the backdrop of the pandemic. Wang joined Marrie Stone to talk about unlearning how to write like an academic, finding the voice for an elusive character, how writing in the collage structure paid unexpected dividends, and more.
(Record date: January 27, 2022
Broadcast date: February 14, 2022)
Benjamin Percy, The Unfamiliar Garden
Tessa Hadley, author of "Free Love," on Writers on Writing
In the spirit of The Lost Daughter, Tessa Hadley's latest novel explores one of the biggest taboos of western culture—women who leave. The British author has penned eight novels and three collections of short stories. She's known in the industry as "a writer's writer," admired by contemporaries like Zadie Smith, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Hilary Mantel and Anne Enright.
Hadley joins Marrie Stone to talk about Free Love. She discusses some of the enduring themes in her fiction, the freedom of setting a novel in the 1960s, how she tackles her sex scenes, and why this novel came easily to her when others mostly don't.
Hadley came late to publishing, her first novel making its debut when the author was 46. She discusses the advantages of publishing later in life, and how she approaches her different roles as novelist versus short story writer.
(Record date: January 13, 2022)
(Broadcast date: January 31, 2022)
Debut novelist April Davila with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
New Yorker Staff Writer Kathryn Schultz, author of "Lost and Found"
Kathryn Schulz lost her father in 2016, only a year after falling in love with fellow New Yorker staff writer Casey Cep, whom she would marry in 2018. The confluence of tragedy and discovery moved her to write the memoir, Lost and Found, a book full of personal accounts of loss, discovery and the mystery of what conjoins them. It leads the reader not only through Schulz's experiences, but the more universal experience of loss and revelation by using philosophy, science, poetry and other disciplines. The result is a beautiful meditation on the ordinary experiences of everyday life, as well as the profound mysteries of love and loss.
Schulz joins Marrie Stone to talk about the memoir, how she settled on its structure, how she's built the deep well of scientific, philosophical, spiritual and literary knowledge she drew from, and more.
Schultz is a staff writer for the New Yorker Magazine. She won the Pulitzer Prize for her 2015 article, "The Really Big One." She's also the author of the 2010 book, Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error.
Download audio. (Broadcast date: January 17, 2022)
T. Jefferson Parker, A Thousand Steps
Jacquelyn Mitchard on Writers on Writing
Poet Donna Hilbert, author of "Threnody," on Writers on Writing
Donna Hilbert is the author of nine collections of poetry and two works of fiction. She's taught extensively in private workshops and classroom settings. She joins Marrie Stone to discuss her latest collection, Threnody, and how grief has informed her work for over two decades. She talks about knowing when a poem is finished, the importance is composing with pen and paper, various types of poems, and other insightful advice for poets and writers.
(Broadcast date: December 17, 2021)
Steven Kent Mirassou on Writers on Writing
The Mirassou family has been growing grapes and crafting wines in California since 1854, making them one of America's oldest winemaking families. Steven Kent Mirassou joins Marrie Stone to talk about his debut book, Lineage: Life and Love and Six Generations in California Wine.
Part insight into the wine industry and part memoir, the book is a philosophical exploration into what makes a meaningful life and a sensual homage to food, wine, family, and community. Mirassou shares his twin passions (literature and wine) and how he managed to successfully combine them. He talks about structuring the many varied strands of narrative, finding a coherent structure for the book, accessing difficult memories, and much more.
(Broadcast date: December 3, 2021)
Gary Shteyngart, author of "Our Country Friends," on Writers on Writing
Gary Shteyngart joins Marrie Stone to talk about his latest novel, Our Country Friends. Recognizing the severity of the pandemic in March 2020, Shteyngart abandoned another novel to address what was unfolding in our nation in real time. Our Country Friends has been described as Chekov meets "The Big Chill."
Shteyngart talks about writing a novel contemporaneously with world events, how Russian literature informed the work, when he knows it's time to abandon a novel, avoiding stereotypes and more. He also shares his recent piece in the New Yorker about his botched circumcision, and how that event impacted the novel.
(Broadcast date: November 22, 2021)
Barbara Seranella (from 2006)
Novelist Elizabeth Strout, Oh, William!
Robert Olen Butler on "Writers on Writing"
In addition to winning the Pulitzer Prize in fiction, and a number of other awards, Robert Olen Butler is a master of teaching craft and process. He's taught fiction workshops for decades, most recently at Florida State University. In 2001, Butler released a 34-hour online craft intensive (available on YouTube) which follows him in every step of the process of writing a short story. He's also the author of the craft book From Where You Dream.
In this episode, Butler shares some of the highlights of his many years of teaching, including the two epiphanies every novel should contain, the benefits of having a bad memory, how to use the "compost of your imagination," how to approach writing like a method actor, and other insights and advice. Butler also reads from his latest novel, Late City.
Butler will be in conversation with Marrie Stone at the Miami Book Fair on Wednesday, November 17, at 12:00 p.m. (ET). You can learn more here.
(Broadcast date: October 27, 2021)
Diane DiPrima on Writers on Writing
This is a show I recorded in 2001 with the late poet Diane DiPrima when her memoir, Recollections of My Life as a Woman, was published. City Lights just released Spring and Autumn Annals, which made me remember this interview with Diane. Perhaps you heard it when it was broadcast (and podcast) 20 years ago, not long after Writers on Writing began.
Download audio.
(Broadcast date: June 2001)
Ha Jin, author of "A Song Everlasting," on Writers on Writing
Ha Jin moved to the U.S. from China in his late 20s. He joins Marrie Stone to talk about his immigrant experience, and some of the things he experienced as a child growing up in China, including the Cultural Revolution, his own family’s experience with book burning, and how the 1989 massacre in Tiananmen Square solidified his decision to remain in the United States.
The conversation also covers a lot of craft issues. The importance of knowing the ending of a novel before you begin, the challenges of writing a linear novel (with little to no backstory), how to tackle dialogue, and other advice he imparts to his students.
Jin learned English through the lens of literature, and that’s made all the difference in his writing. A Song Everlasting is published by Pantheon Books.
(Broadcast date: October 16, 2021)
Lauren Groff, author of "The Matrix," on Writers on Writing
Lauren Groff, author of MATRIX, joins Marrie Stone to talk about the novel. Author of six books of fiction, Groff's work has won The Story Prize and was twice a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction. She talks about the surprising inspiration for the novel, her time spent in a convent with Benedictine nuns, her research process for this 12th century novel, and so much more.
(Podcast date: October 1, 2021)