2017 has been quite a year for our inaugural GrottoPod guest, Shanthi Sekeran. Her novel, Lucky Boy, has been named to several “best of” lists, including NPR’s Best Books of 2017, and she’s travelled far and wide -- from Nashville to Honolulu to Edinbu...

Guinevere de la Mare, author of I’d Rather Be Reading, calls the compilation of art and essays “a love letter to reading.” De la Mare's life-long love of reading led her to create the Silent Book Club, a “happy hour for introverts” that now has chapter...

How do agents spend their time? This week, Jennifer March Soloway, associate agent at the Andrea Brown Literary Agency, joins her old running buddy BQ and Larry in the GrottoPod to clear up some of the mysteries surrounding the agent-writer relationshi...

This week, seven-time novelist Cristina Garcia joins the GrottoPod to discuss the evolution of both her best-selling debut novel Dreaming in Cuban (1992) and herself, tracking her path from Havana to the Bay Area (with stops in New York, Miami,

How’s your NaNoWriMo coming? This week, Larry and BQ pause at the annual novel-writing sprint’s halfway point to reflect on their experiences keeping up a 1,700-words-per-day pace, and to discuss the ins and outs of speed-dating your latest writing pro...

Activist, sex worker, lecturer, Juggalo, editor and writer Kitty Stryker has no shortage of interests and no trouble staying busy. Already a widely-published journalist and essayist, her new book Ask: Building Consent Culture,

Kaitlin Solimine thought her future would be in international business -- until a high-school Mandarin class changed the course of her life. Two decades later, this former exchange student, East Asian Studies major, Harvard-Yenching scholar and U.S.

Sometimes writers just need a pep talk. Fortunately, Grant Faulkner's new book provides 52 of them. Faulkner, the author of Pep Talks: 52 Insights and Actions to Boost Your Creative Mojo and Executive Director of National Novel Writing Month joins the ...

The Long Winters frontman John Roderick joins us on the GrottoPod this week and talks about how making a splash -- anywhere -- can lead to a book deal. Roderick, who formed the long-running Seattle band with fellow ex-Harvey Danger member Sean Nelson,

This week, Larry and BQ honor San Francisco’s biggest (and liveliest) literary festival, Litquake, by focusing this guest-free episode on literary readings: what makes them succeed (or not!), how they build community and why writers -- and aspiring wri...