Today, I’m talking to Kristin Vukovic and Jo Piazza, who are co-instructors of the Adriatic Writers Conference that takes place on the island of Lošinj in Croatia’s Kvarner Bay. Jo finished her most recent novel during the conference, titled THE PARISIAN HEIST which will be released on Bastille Day, and Kristin, who founded the conference, got her inspiration there for her debut, THE CHEESEMAKER’S DAUGHTER. We’ll be talking about the importance of setting in fiction and how to navigate a country’s complex history if your reader might not share it.

Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.

Join us for Kristin’s reading at Belmont Books, January 15.

And for more info about the Adriatic Writer’s Conference, click here.

I don’t charge for subscriptions, but if you’d like, you can support my work with with a small donation here.

To find Vukovic’s and Piazza’s latest books as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.

Kristin Vuković’s award-winning debut novel, THE CHEESEMAKER’S DAUGHTER, was published in August 2024. She is the founder of Adriatic Writers Conference—the first literary conference of its kind in Croatia—and has written travel and lifestyle articles for the New York Times, BBC Travel, Travel + Leisure, Virtuoso, Robb Report, AFAR, Fodor’s, and Public Books, among others. She received the 2024 Rising Star Award in Arts and Culture from the Association of Croatian American Professionals, and two Golden Pen awards for her writing about Croatia from the Croatian National Tourist Board, most recently in May 2024. She was also named a “40 Under 40” honoree by the National Federation of Croatian Americans Cultural Foundation. She holds a BA and MFA from Columbia University and lives in New York City with her husband and daughter.

Jo Piazza is a bestselling author, journalist, and podcast host whose work explores ambition, identity, and modern womanhood. She is the creator and host of the acclaimed podcast Under the Influence, which examines influencer culture, media, and how the internet shapes our ideas about success, beauty, and belonging. Jo is the author of multiple bestselling books, including Everyone Is Lying to You, The Sicilian Inheritance, Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win, and How to Be Married, blending sharp cultural insight with propulsive storytelling. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, Elle, and more.

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Today our roundtable focuses on Climate Fiction: What is it? Why do authors write it? What role does it have in today’s literature, in our environment, in the way writers and others see the world? We’ll discuss these questions and a whole lot more with our authors: Ash Davidson, author of Damnation Spring; Wren James, creator of The Climate-Conscious Writers Handbook and founder of the Climate Fiction Writers League; Emma Pattee, a climate journalist, author of Tilt, and the person who coined the term “Climate Shadow”; Tim Weed, author of The Afterlife Project, a finalist for Prism Prize in Climate Literature; and Kate Woodworth, author of Little Great Island and creator of the grassroots climate change initiative, Be the Butterfly.

Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for only a few weeks. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.

Important Links:

Climate Fiction Writers League Substack and Handbook landing page.

Database of Climate Fiction writers.

Wren James’ Green Rising.

Kate Woodworth’s Be the Butterfly initiative.

To find our roundtable authors’ latest book as well as many other books by our guests, visit our Bookshop page.

I don’t charge for subscriptions, but if you’d like, you can support my work with with a small donation here.

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Ash Davidson is the author of the nationally bestselling novel Damnation Spring, which was named a best book of the year by the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek and Amazon and was a New York Times Editor’s Choice and a Washington Post notable book. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, her work has been supported by the Arizona Commission on the Arts, MacDowell, and the National Endowment for the Arts. She lives in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Wren James is the award-winning British author of many young adult novels, including a speculative novel about climate change, Green Rising. They are the founder of the Climate Fiction Writers League, the creator of The Climate-Conscious Writers Handbook and the editor of Future Hopes Hopeful stories in a time of climate change. They are on the Society of Authors’ Sustainability Steering Committee and work as a consultant on climate storytelling with a focus on optimism and hope for museums, production companies, and major brands and publishers. Their books have sold more than 200,000 copies in eight languages.

Emma Pattee is a climate journalist and a fiction writer. She has written about the climate crisis for The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and more. In 2021, she coined the term “Climate Shadow” to describe an individual’s potential impact on climate change. Her debut novel, Tilt, is a national bestseller, a New York Times Book Review’s Editors’ choice, and was named a best book of the year by TIME, NPR, Vogue and Scientific American. Emma lives in Oregon with her two children.

Tim Weed is the author of four books of fiction. His most recent novel, The Afterlife Project, was a Library Journal Best Books of 2025 pick and a New Scientist Best New Science Fiction Book of the Month choice. His essays and articles have appeared in numerous journals including Writers Digest and The Writer’s Chronicle. A member of the core faculty of the Newport MFA in Creative Writing, Tim is a former featured expert for National Geographic Expeditions.

Kate Woodworth is the award-winning author of Little Great Island, a novel about a small Maine island community needing to find a new way forward after the lobster fishery collapses due to climate change. She is also the creative force behind the grassroots climate change initiative, Be the Butterfly, that invites everyone to perform one small act or behavioral change to help mitigate climate change. Kate’s first novel, Racing into the Dark, about a family reeling from the impact of a sister’s mental illness, will be re-issued in April, 2026. After 30 years living in Salt Lake City, Kate returned to the Boston area in 2005.

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A short and special episode for those of you interested in our unique in-person novel revision program, now in its fifteenth year.

For more info: https://grubstreet.org/write/novel-incubator

To attend our student showcase on January 12, register here: https://grubstreet.org/event/novel-incubator-alumni-celebration-showcase

And for our next info session, visit: https://grubstreet.org/event/novel-incubator-info-w2026

Today, we’re talking to Josh Barkan, an author of three books of fiction, who has turned at last to memoir writing. We discuss his experience in writing about a particular moment in his life before his subject gave him his ending. Ten years later, he revised the book again in the aftermath. How did the writing change him and his subject? How did those years benefit his book and his understanding of what happened?

Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for a few weeks. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.

I don’t charge for subscriptions, but if you’d like, you can support my work with with a small donation here.

To find Barkan’s books as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.

Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.

JOSH BARKAN won the Lightship International Short Story Prize and was runner-up for the Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction, the Paterson Fiction Prize, the Juniper Prize for Fiction, and the Eric Hoffer Award for memoir. He is the recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and his writing has appeared in Esquire. He has taught creative writing at Harvard, NYU, the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, Hollins University and MIT. His books include the novel Blind Speed and short story collections Before Hiroshima and Mexico (Hogarth/Penguin Random House)—named one of the five best story collections of 2017 by Library Journal. His latest book is the memoir Wonder Travels. He lives in Boston.

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Today, we’ve got one of my favorites, Milo, who has just published his debut novel to critical acclaim. It’s called THE LILAC PEOPLE. He’s going to be talking to us about writing challenging fiction in an age when we’re suffering a flattening and simplifying of our culture.

I don’t charge for subscriptions, but if you’d like, you can support my work with with a small donation here.

To find Todd’s latest book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.

Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.

Milo Todd (he/him) is a writer, speaker, and instructor. He’s a Lambda Literary Fellow, a Massachusetts Cultural Council grantee, and co-editor in chief for the award-winning LGBTQ+ literary journal, Foglifter Journal. He also runs The Queer Writer newsletter. His debut novel, THE LILAC PEOPLE, is a national bestseller, a Goodreads Choice Award finalist, a New England Book Award Finalist, an Indie Next Pick, an Amazon Editor’s Pick, an Apple Best of the Month Pick, and has received starred and/or glowing reviews from such places as Publishers Weekly, Foreword Reviews, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, the Boston Globe, the LA Times, the Washington Post, WBUR, Electric Lit, and more. About THE LILAC PEOPLE, Shelf Awareness said Milo “has made an enormous contribution to historical fiction” and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette called Milo “an important new voice in American fiction.”

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Today, I’m talking to Jessica Francis Kane, author of the recently released novel, FONSECA, based on a trip that acclaimed English writer Penelope Fitzgerald took in the Winter of 1952 in an attempt to inherit a personal and creative lifeline from two elderly relatives. We’ll be talking about how Jessica wove personal letters into the narrative as well as how she managed the point of view of a literary personality that many readers know and love.

Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for a few weeks. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.

I don’t charge for subscriptions, but if you’d like, you can support my work with with a small donation here.

To find Kane’s latest book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.

Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.

JESSICA FRANCIS KANE is the author of two short story collections, Bending Heaven and This Close, which was named a best book of the year by NPR. Her first novel, The Report, was a finalist for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, the Indie Booksellers’ Choice Award, and a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection. Her second novel, Rules for Visiting, was a national and LA Times bestseller. It was selected for the Indie Next List of the American Booksellers Association and was named a best book of the summer and/or year by Oprah Magazine, Good Housekeeping, The Wall Street Journal, The San Francisco Chronicle, Vulture and The Chicago Tribune. Her latest novel, Fonseca, has been named a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice and a best book of the year by Kirkus, Esquire, and BookPage.

Today, we’ve got one of our star Novel Incubator alums, Emily Ross, who has just published her second novel, SWALLOWTAIL, a book that combines mythology, teenage longing, and small-town murder. It’s one of the first books out from the new Galiot Press. We’ll be talking about how Emily, normally an intuitive writer, had to sink her teeth into the more intentional plotting and structure of a mystery thriller, while not leaving her characters behind.

Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.

I don’t charge for subscriptions, but if you’d like, you can support my work with with a small donation here.

To find Ross’s latest book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.

Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.

Emily Ross is the author of the mystery thriller, Swallowtail, which Publishers Weekly says maintains plenty of “nerve-shredding tension” and of the International Thriller Writers Awards finalist, Half in Love with Death. She won the Al Blanchard best story award for her short story, “Let the Chips Fall”, which appeared in Devil’s Snare: Best New England Crime Stories 2024.

Today we have another of our roundtables and we’re focusing on voice: What really is voice? How does a writer create it? Change it? How do we differentiate between the writer’s voice and that of the narrator or character? When is voice too writerly or too uninspired? And how is it different from style? We’ll talk about these questions and a whole lot more with our four authors: Juliet Faithfull, Stacy Mattingly, Andrea Meyer, and Emily Ross.

Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for a few weeks. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.

I don’t charge for subscriptions, but if you’d like, you can support my work with with a small donation here.

To find books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.

Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.

Juliet Faithfull is a Spanish-British-American writer who grew up in Brazil. Liar’s Dice, her first novel which will be released in April, was a winner of the 2024 Irish Writers Centre’s Novel Fair and a semifinalist for the James Jones First Novel Fellowship.

Stacy Mattingly is coauthor of the New York Times bestseller Unlikely Angel, an Atlanta hostage story now a feature film, Captive. She was a 2024-25 Fulbright U.S. Scholar to Bosnia and Herzegovina, where she has collaborated with writers for more than a decade. She teaches at Boston University, where she earned an MFA in fiction, and is an associate professor at Berklee College of Music. She has led workshops for the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation and the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program. Her recently completed first novel is set in present-day Sarajevo.

Andrea Meyer is an author, editor, writing instructor, and book coach who has written three novels, a screenplay for MGM, numerous essays and film articles, and teaches fiction and nonfiction writing at GrubStreet.

Emily Ross is the author of the mystery thriller SWALLOWTAIL (coming from Galiot Press in November 2025) and the International Thriller Writers Thriller Awards finalist, HALF IN LOVE WITH DEATH. She won the Al Blanchard best story award for her short story, “Let the Chips Fall”, which appeared in Devil’s Snare: Best New England Crime stories 2024. She is a graduate of Grub Street’s Novel Incubator and lives in Quincy, MA, with her husband and Obi-Wan Kenobi, their very playful cat.

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Good morning everyone. Today’s short episode is dedicated to Charles Coe, who passed away suddenly this weekend. His death is a shock to a lot of us. He was a beloved poet, educator, arts advocate, and friend to many many writers and creatives across New England and beyond. Charles helped our group Writers for Democrat Action raise funds for Kamala Harris the fall before last. As part of the event, he read a really thoughtful piece about how he approaches political writing, including two poems of his own that he shared. His words aren’t only a testament to his work, but also helpful in considering our roles as writers in the political sphere. Rest of peace, Charles. We’ll miss you.

We’ve got one of Boston’s best literary citizens with us, Jessica Kent. She’s the founder of Literary Boston, a website that covers the local literary community, marketing advice for authors, and a chance to take your own literary history tour. Today, she’ll be sharing with us a list of ways for you to connect to your literary community and be a stronger literary citizen. We’ll also talk her efforts to put literary Boston on the map, as well as how she started her work with Literary Boston in the first place.

Read Kent’s post: “How is Building Content Strategy Like Plotting a Novel?”

Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for a few weeks. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.

I don’t charge for subscriptions, but if you’d like, you can support my work with with a small donation here.

To find books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.

Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.

Jessica A. Kent is a freelance marketing writer by day and creative writer by night. She’s the founder of Literary Boston, a website that covers the local literary community. Other past literary roles include library assistant, bookseller, and book festival director. She holds a BFA in Creative Writing from Emerson and a Master’s in Literature from Harvard, where her thesis on Moby-Dick and Calvinism won the Director’s Prize. Her short fiction has appeared in the North American Review, the Emerson Review, and others, and has received the Leah Lovenheim Award for Short Fiction. She recently graduated from GrubStreet’s Novel Incubator program, where she’s working on a novel about paramedics in 1970s Boston.

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