First Draft with Sarah Enni

Dan Santat, Caldecott Award-winning author and illustrator of The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend, talks about his newest picture book, After the Fall, an immigrant kid learning about Santa Claus, writing books that reveal other people’s stories, how much anxiety sucks, and the different ways he is interpreting Asian identity in his work.

Gaby Dunn and Allison Raskin, New York Times best-selling co-authors of I Hate Everyone But You, talk about the dangers of walking and reading, differentiating character from author, what REALLY makes readers uncomfortable, and writing a friendship rom-com.

Gaby Dunn & Allison Raskin Show Notes

Modern Tarot by Michelle Tea

The Waterboy (movie)

Carrie by Stephen King

"The Price of Nice Nails," the New York Times feature story about nail salons

Robert Rodriguez (director and producer)

Quentin Tarantino (director and writer)

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Issa Rae (actress, writer, producer)

Desperate Housewives (TV show)

Friday Night Lights (TV show)

Victoria Aveyard (listen to her First Draft interview here)

District 9 (movie)

Star Trek (tv show)

Legally Blonde

Atlanta (TV show)

Living Single (TV show)

"The Ascendancy of the 'Awkward Older Sister,'" from The Atlantic

Amy Schumer

Jennifer Lawrence

Insecure (TV show)

Grace Helbig

Part of Me, the Katy Perry documentary

Summer in the City (song)

Stephanie Beatriz

The animated .gif about ladies supporting ladies

Shine Theory by Anne Friedman

Call Your Girlfriend podcast

Allison's text chain of writing advice

Gaby Dunn and Allison Raskin, New York Times best-selling co-authors of I Hate Everyone But You, talk about the dangers of walking and reading, differentiating character from author, what REALLY makes readers uncomfortable, and writing a friendship rom-com.

Marie Lu, New York Times bestselling author of the LEGEND and the YOUNG ELITES series, talks about her newest book, WARCROSS as well as BATMAN: NIGHTWALKER and the forthcoming KINGDOM OF BACK. Marie chats about the lag between the eternal optimism of tech and moral questioning of its powers, how writing about evil characters was almost too much for her, and the responsibility of writing a real woman's story.

Marie Lu 2.0 Show Notes

Nice Try, Jane Sinner by Lianne Oelke

Marie Lu's first First Draft interview

Zelda (video game)

Tahereh Mafi (listen to her First Draft episode here or read the transcript here)

Assassin's Creed (video game)

Street Fighter (video game)

Mortal Kombat (video game)

World of Warcraft (video game)

Overwatch (video game)

Battlefield (video game)

Call of Duty (video game)

Pokémon Go (video game)

Batman: Nightwalker by Marie Lu

Leigh Bardugo (listen to her First Draft interview here)

Batman (animated series)

Darkwing Duck (animated series)

The Dark Knight (movie)

The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Mozart's sister, Maria Anna Mozart

Amadeus (movie)

Pan's Labyrinth (movie)

Hamilton (musical)

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Renee Ahdieh (listen to her First Draft interview here)

Marie Lu, New York Times bestselling author of the LEGEND and the YOUNG ELITES series, talks about her newest book, WARCROSS as well as BATMAN: NIGHTWALKER and the forthcoming KINGDOM OF BACK. Marie chats about the lag between the eternal optimism of tech and moral questioning of its powers, how writing about evil characters was almost too much for her, and the responsibility of writing a real woman’s story.

Emily Ziff Griffin, debut author of LIGHT YEARS, talks about her childhood dream of being a dancing lawyer, gifs and art semiotics, the unquantifiable fairy dust that makes some art transcend, and how teenagers experience time differently.

Emily Ziff Griffin Show Notes

Phillip Seymour Hoffman

The Angelika Film Center

The Creative Fire by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés, including her thoughts on creativity and the myth of Persephone

Frozen (movie)

Moana (movie)

Wonder Woman (movie)

Study about emojis and linguists

Virginia Heffernan, journalist and writer

Wet Hot American Summer (movie)

Capote (movie)

Emily Ziff Griffin, debut author of LIGHT YEARS, talks about her childhood dream of being a dancing lawyer, gifs and art semiotics, the unquantifiable fairy dust that makes some art transcend, and how teenagers experience time differently.

Sabaa Tahir, NY Times bestselling author of the An Ember in the Ashes series, shares spooky happenings in the desert hometown, waxes poetic about good journalistic writing, and talks giving suffering children a happy ending in her books, being an eight-year overnight success, and writing books in elbows of time.

Sabaa Tahir Show Notes

The Shannara series by Terry Brooks

Dragon Riders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey

Ansel Adams (photographer)

Stranger Things (TV show)

Seven Daughters and Seven Suns by Barbara Cohen and Bahija Lovejoy

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

"Living a Half-Life While Waiting for Those Lost," the Washington Post story about women in Kashmir

Image of Liberian child soldier wearing a teddy bear backpack, Georges Gobet/Getty Images

Holly Goldberg Sloan

Margaret Stohl (listen to her First Draft interviews here and here)

Melissa de la Cruz

George R. R. Martin "gardener or architect"

Shannon Hale

All the President's Men (film)

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

My Left Foot (movie)

Sarah Henning

Sabaa Tahir, NY Times bestselling author of the An Ember in the Ashes series, shares spooky happenings in the desert hometown, waxes poetic about good journalistic writing, and talks giving suffering children a happy ending in her books, being an eight-year overnight success, and writing books in elbows of time.

Jeramey Kraatz, author of middle grade series The Cloak Society and Space Runners, on how superhero cartoons got him into reading, writing hamster stories as birthday presents, the difference between middle grade and young adult, and being more productive with a full-time job.

Jeramey Kraatz Show Notes

Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes

X Men (cartoon TV series)

Batman (cartoon TV series)

The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

Powerless by Tera Lynn Childs

Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud

Joan Didion

Meghan Daum

David Sedaris

Soman Chainani

The Southern Festival of Books

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

The Incredibles (movie)

My Hero Academia (anime series)

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Mad Max: Fury Road (movie)

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (movie)

George by Alex Gino (MG book)

Alex London (a.k.a. C.A. London - listen to his First Draft interview here)