2020 Interviews

Eduardo C. Corral reads from Guillotine (Graywolf Press 2020). We talk about attentiveness, structuring books, audience and interiority. We also talk about expanding possibilities and French pop… Read more: Eduardo C. Corral

Kaveh Akbar reads poems from Calling A Wolf A Wolf (Alice James Books 2017) and Pilgrim Bell (Graywolf 2021). We talk about technology of language–its limitations and… Read more: Kaveh Akbar

Natalie Bakopoulos discusses her novel Scorpionfish (Tin House 2020). We talk about first swims, balconies and growing into your writer self. We also talk about Elena Ferrante,… Read more: Natalie Bakopoulos

Elizabeth Wason talks about science writing and her work as managing editor for Resources for the Future, a DC think tank. We talk about getting accessible expert… Read more: Elizabeth Wason

Ebony Roberts reads from The Love Prison Made and Unmade: My Story (Amistad 2019). We talk about fathers, fairytales, prisons, resilience and writing memoir.  We talk about… Read more: Ebony Roberts

Michael Dickman reads from Days & Days (Knopf 2019). We talk about interconnectedness, structure, place and butterflies.

Catherine Lacey reads from Certain American States: Stories (Picador 2018) in a special Fundraiser 2020 episode of Living Writers. We talk about websites, irresolution, humor, dogs, and her… Read more: Catherine Lacey

While in Ann Arbor, Kristin Hersh, Grant-Lee Phillips, and John Doe talk about their The Exile Follies 2020 tour. We talk about collaboration and process, mystery, and creating experience.… Read more: Kristin Hersh, Grant-Lee Phillips and John Doe

John Barr and Dan Murphy talk about their book Start By Believing: Larry Nassar’s Crimes, the Institutions that Enabled Him, and the Brave Women Who Stopped a Monster (Hachette… Read more: John Barr and Dan Murphy

Ilya Kaminsky reads from Deaf Republic (Graywolf Press 2019). We talk about language and silence, fabulism, the imagined town of Vasenka with its puppet theater, and poets… Read more: Ilya Kaminsky

Kiley Reid reads from her debut novel Such A Fun Age (Putnam 2019). We talk about listening to your characters, writing about class and race, and building strong plots.

Rion Amilcar Scott reads from The World Doesn’t Require You: Stories (Liveright Publishing Corporation/W.W.Norton & Company 2019). We talk about narrative forms, beautiful lines and building a world. We… Read more: Rion Amilcar Scott

Carmen Bugan reads from Lilies from America: New & Selected Poems (Shearsman Books UK 2019). We talk about narrative poems, memoir, and recording a documentary. We also talk about… Read more: Carmen Bugan

Poet Shane McCrae reads from The Gilded Auction Block (FSG Originals 2019). We talk about history and the contemporary moment, meter, narrative, epigraphs and a robot bird.  

Guest host Frank Uhle talks with Mike McGonigal, editor of Maggot Brain magazine from Third Man Records, about the joys and challenges of print-only publishing, Detroit gospel… Read more: Mike McGonigal