First Draft Episode #322: Jennifer Niven

Jennifer Niven is the Emmy Award-winning #1 New York Times bestselling author of ten books, including YA novels All the Bright Places, Holding up the Universe, Breathless, and Take Me With You When You Go (with David Levithan).

This episode is brought to you by Laura Sibson’s Edie in Between, a modern-day Practical Magic about love, loss, and embracing the mystical, available now.

And by The Splendor by Breeana Shields, out from Page Street Publishing now.

Links to Topics Mentioned In This Episode:

• Penelope Niven, biographer and author of Carl Sandburg: A Biography and Carl Sandburg: Adventures of a Poet, Thornton Wilder: A Life, Steichen: A Biography, memoirist (Swimming Lessons: Life Lessons From the Pool, From Diving In to Treading Water) and co-author of James Earl Jones’s autobiography, Voices and Silences.

• The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea by Sebastian Junger

• Jon Krakauer, author of Into the Wild, Into Thin Air, Under the Banner of Heaven, Missoula, and more

• Carl Sandburg, three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning poet (for Cornhuskers and Complete Poems) and biographer (for his four-book series, Abraham Lincoln: The War Years).

• Will Schwalbe, author of The End of Your Life Book Club and Books For Living: Some Thoughts on Reading, Reflecting, and Embracing Life, and co-author of Send: Why People Email So Badly and How to Do It Better with Dave Shipley

• Jennifer’s original agent, John A. Ware, who passed away in 2013. Read his obituary in Publisher’s Weekly.

• Jennifer’s current agent, Kerry Sparks at the Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency

• David Levithan, editorial director at Scholastic and the author of many young adult novels, including Boy Meets Boy, Every Day, and co-author with Rachel Cohn of Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist and Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares.

• Ava Dellaira, author of Love Letters to the Dead and In Search of Us. Listen to her First Draft interviews here and here.

🎙️ Enjoy this episode? Check out…

• Nicola Yoon, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Everything, Everything and The Sun Is Also a Star talks about her new YA, Instructions For Dancing and her brand new publishing venture: co-publisher of Joy Revolution, a Random House young adult imprint dedicated to love stories starring people of color. Hear her First Draft interviews here and here.

• Morgan Matson, New York Times bestselling author of YA contemporary novels, including Save the Date, The Unexpected Everything, and Take Me Home Tonight. Hear her First Draft interviews here, here, and here.

• Mary H. K. Choi, New York Times bestselling author of Emergency Contact, Permanent Record and Yolk. Hear her First Draft interviews here and here.

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