Virginia Evans’ debut novel, THE CORRESPONDENT, was the breakout novel of 2025, and is now clocking 25 consecutive weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. In honor of the one-year anniversary of its publication, we’re running this live interview from last year, in which Virginia talks about why she wrote a novel in letters, how she survived years of rejection, and what inspired her to create her retiree protagonist, the prickly but very funny Sybil van Antwerp.

John Kenney may not consider himself a humor writer, but his novel about a divorced obituary writer who accidentally posts his own obituary is very funny. In this interview, Kenney talks about why he loves writing about “middle-aged, slightly broken men,” the role of humor in coping with grief, how he became a contributor to The New Yorker after years of trying, and what contemporary novel he’s read four times and will probably read again. 

Welcome to The Castle Hill Author Talks, a podcast celebrating great writers and great books. I'm your host, Karen Dukess, a bestselling author and a complete and total bookworm. For each episode, I interview a writer with a new book, maybe one you've heard about, and definitely one I think you should know about. My interviews are lively and fun with no spoilers. They're for readers and for writers. This is a podcast that will guide you and inspire you, helping you choose your next great read and maybe even spurring you to get on with your own writing. The Castle Hill Author Talks are a project of Truro Center for the Arts on Cape Cod. I like to say that they're one of the few good things to come out of the pandemic. They started on Zoom in 2021 when authors found themselves unable to go on tour to promote their books. Since then, we've had great conversations with an amazing lineup of bestselling and prize-winning authors. We love talking about books, and we have a great lineup of author interviews coming. We hope you'll join the conversation