Laura Lippman discusses how poetry feeds her spirit and looks back on her longstanding run with indelible character, Tess Monaghan, who has appeared in a dozen novels. While sharing her writing experiences, she invites listeners to take a seat on her (theoretical) analyst's couch to uncover snags interfering with meaningful storytelling. 

Laura was a reporter for twenty years, including 12 years at The (Baltimore) Sun. She began writing novels while working fulltime and published seven books about “accidental PI” Tess Monaghan before leaving daily journalism in 2025. Her work has been awarded the Edgar ®, the Anthony, the Agatha, the Shamus, the Nero Wolfe, Gumshoe and Barry awards. She also has been nominated for other prizes in the crime fiction field, including the Hammett and the Macavity. She was the first-ever recipient of the Mayor’s Prize for Literary Excellence and the first genre writer recognized as Author of the Year by the Maryland Library Association. She grew up in Baltimore and attended city schools through ninth grade. After graduating from Wilde Lake High School in Columbia, Md., and attended Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Her other newspaper jobs included the Waco Tribune-Herald and the San Antonio Light. She returned to Baltimore in 1989 and has lived there since. She is the daughter of Theo Lippman Jr., a Sun editorial writer who retired in 1995 but continues to freelance for several newspapers, and Madeline Mabry Lippman, a former Baltimore City school librarian. Her sister, Susan, is a local bookseller. Her newest novel is MURDER TAKES A VACATION. 

Learn more at Lauralippman.com

Special thanks to Net Galley for an advance review copy. 

Intro reel, Writing Table Podcast

2024 Outro Recording

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