Michael Cunningham is the author of eight novels, including the 1999 Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Hours and his 1990 novel, A Home at the End of the World. Both of these novels were adapted to screen and The Hours was made into an opera that premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in 2022. He’s also the author of the story collection, A Wild Swan and Other Tales.   Unsayable: A Life in Writing is his latest. It feels written just for this audience, the folks who listen to this podcast. Unsayable goes from the specific stuff on the word-level (lessons on finding the right descriptions and opening lines) to the macro of living as a writer (like dealing with bad reviews and doing things in your personal life that make you seem more interesting).

Michael takes us inside his process of choosing the right words and phrases. Inside his teaching process to how he guided one student to find a resonant ending. And inside his thinking process of becoming a writer in the first place. It’s extremely personal and therefore surprisingly universal. It’s all the things we love in the very best of our writers, and an embedded MFA experience cherried on top. He joins Marrie Stone to talk about it.  

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(Recorded on July 16, 2026)

Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Host: Marrie Stone
Music: Travis Barrett (Stream his music on Spotify, Apple Music, Etc.)