kt literary podcast

This week’s guest. Doan Phuong Nguyen is a middle grade author, photographer, daydreamer, and creative girlie girl. She was born in Vietnam and immigrated to the United States when she was in elementary school. She received her MFA in Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Rachel Werner joins us today to talk about the art (and grind) of becoming a full time writer. She gives us freelance tips, marketing ideas, and talks about the importance of an email newsletter! She’s an author, content creator and media consultant from Madison Wisconsin. She’s the founder of The Little Book Project WI as well as a teaching artist for Hugo House, The Loft Literary Center and Lighthouse Writer' Workshop. She’s written a cook book, and a science book for kids. Her next kidlit book with Capstone (“Moving and Grooving to Fillmore’s Beat”) will be released in Fall 2023. It seems there’s nothing she can’t do.

In this episode, Parrish Turner joins Chelsea and Renee to talk about the HarperCollins union, the 2022 strike, and the passion for the job that keeps him going.

Katy James joins us today to talk about her book TOO MUCH MAN. It's a fun, flirty debut about a grumpy former hockey player and a bisexual coffee-shop owner refuse to commit—to themselves or each other. We talk about identity, hockey, and Katy's day job as an archivist and rare book librarian.

THE MANY HALF-LIVED LIVES OF SAM SYLVESTER is about an autistic trans kid navigating their new school while finding friends—and love, along the way. It’s written by Maya MacGregor, and though they are no stranger to publishing, it’s their debut YA novel!

Maya and Allegra talk about the joys of bringing Sam and their story to life, the exciting time we’re in for queer stories, and telling this story to their past selves. Both these people are fantastic and when we wrapped up our interview, my cheeks hurt from smiling so much. I hope this interview makes you feel the same way.

Meet our new agent, Kari Sutherland! We are so excited to have her on the team!

Patty is an educator, an accomplished horse woman, and a fantasy super fan. She joined me to talk about her new novel FORGING A NIGHTMARE, her love of messing with established mythology, and how she brought her characters to life. We also talk about the racist and bigoted book banning that’s gone on in her district in Pennsylvania. If you’re in the book world, you’ve heard about this. This story has been featured in CNN, the New York Times, and the Washington Post, and many other news outlets. Patty and I discuss the book ban and and the amazing group of students and teachers who stood up and said, “no”!

What the heck is going on with supply chain issues? Why aren't there more books? What can we do about it? What advice do we have for authors?

This week, Sara Megibow joins the podcast to talk about all these issues and more! We get granular about how books are made, what the "pain points" are in the process, and what that means for books releasing now. And though it all sounds a little depressing, we promise, it isn't! We also talk about a few tangible things that authors and readers can do to get through this.

This is an episode for veteran authors, debut authors, authors on submission, and readers alike.

Mayonn Paassewe-Valchev has always been a storyteller. From her youth in Liberia, to her time living in the Netherlands, and now residing with her family in Georgia, stories have played an important part in her life.

In this interview we talk about mythology, capturing oral storytelling on the page and how she did that in her new book THE LEOPARD BEHIND THE MOON.

Considering a post-pandemic trip to a quaint English Village? Be sure to add this book to your packing list.

Maureen Johnson, Jay Cooper, and Kate Testerman get together to discuss the new book YOUR GUIDE TO NOT GETTING MURDERED IN A QUAINT ENGLISH VILLAGE. We discuss the most dangerous element of a quaint English Village, the thing that would probably get us killed, the age-old place to dump a bodë (It's IKEA) and whether or not The Doctor (the Timelord) can be considered an English detective.

Buy the book.

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Jay Cooper's Twitter, Instagram

Kate Testerman's Twitter Instagram