KGNU Radio Book Club

The March 2025 edition of the Radio Bookclub welcomes local author Erika Krouse for a return visit. Erika's latest book is a collection of short stories called Save Me Stranger. This episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the Boulder Bookstore on March 12. This episode was broadcast on KGNU on March 26, 2025.

In this special podcast-only conversation, author Kristin Koval speaks about how she became a writer after many years of working as a corporate lawyer and why she moved from New York City to Colorado. 

 The February 2025 selection for the Radio Bookclub is Penitence, the debut novel by author Kristin Koval. Set in a fictional ski town in southwest Colorado, the book centers on a shocking crime—a fratricide—that tests the limits of a family's capacity for forgiveness. 

In this podcast-only episode of the Radio Bookclub, author Kaveh Akbar talks about using dream sequences in his novel Martyr! and how the novel also explores themes of identity.

The January selection for the Radio Bookclub is Martyr! the debut novel by Iranian American poet Kaveh Akbar. A finalist for the 2024 National Book Award, the book examines the concept of martyrdom and what it means to have a meaningful death.

 In this podcast-only episode of the Radio Bookclub, author Steven Dunn talks more about writing books collaboratively as well as his new projects, which includes a travel book about the rapper Nas. 

The December selection for the Radio Bookclub is Tannery Bay, a novel co-written by Steven Dunn and Katie Jean Shinkle. The story takes place in the fictional town of Tannery Bay, where residents are stuck in a perpetual July. Caught in this eternal loop, the townspeople unite in defiance of The Owners, who control the local tannery, casino, and newspaper.

With elements of magical realism, the novel explores themes of Black joy, Queer joy, and the transformative power of art and love.

Steven Dunn joined the Radio Bookclub to discuss the novel. The episode aired on KGNU on Thursday, Dec. 26, at 9 a.m.

In this podcast-only episode of the Radio Bookclub, author William T. Taylor speaks more about the history of horses. He talks about efforts to domesticate zebras, how we’re rethinking archaeology and historical research to include Indigenous perspectives.

Dr. William T. Taylor is an Assistant Professor and Curator of Archaeology at the University of Colorado-Boulder, whose work explores the domestication of the horse and the ancient relationships between people and animals. In his new book Hoof Beats: How Horses Shaped Human History, he explores how four dynamic pulses (hoof ‘beats’) in the story of humans and horses – their initial domestication, the invention of horse transport, the explosive shift to mounted riding, and their dispersal into the New World – transformed ancient societies and created the world we live in today.

In this podcast-only episode of the Radio Bookclub, author Bonnie Garmus speaks more about her best-selling novel Lessons in Chemistry, and answers questions from the audience at this live taping of the Bookclub at the Boulder Library Foundation’s 50-year gala celebration on September 26, 2024.