This week, author Tom Piazza discusses his novel The Auburn Conference with Booklist editor Donna Seaman. This conversation originally took place September 10, 2023 and was recorded live at the American Writers Museum. AWM PODCAST NETWORK HOME About The Auburn Conference: It is 1883, and America is at a crossroads. At a tiny college in [...]

This week, author Kathleen Rooney discusses her new book From Dust to Stardust, a novel about Hollywood, the cost of stardom, and selfless second acts, inspired by an extraordinary true story. Rooney is joined by writer and lecturer Ignatius Aloysius. This conversation originally took place September 6, 2023 and was recorded live at the American [...]

In this episode, we’ll discuss the life and work of Betty Friedan. The feminist writer and activist acclaimed as the mother of second-wave feminism, and pathbreaking author of The Feminine Mystique, was powerful and polarizing. As a journalist she covered racism, sexism, labor, class inequality, and anti-Semitism. As a wife and mother, she struggled to [...]

In this episode, we’ll discuss the life and work of poet Phillis Wheatley Peters. Kidnapped in West Africa, Wheatley Peters was renamed after the ship that brought her to Boston to be sold as a slave. A precocious child, she was given an education, which was unusual at a time when enslaved African-Americans could be [...]

This week, authors and editors Lauren DeJulio Bell, Rebecca Makkai, and Daiva Markelis discuss their contributions to the collection Growing Up Chicago. This conversation originally took place May 15, 2022 and was recorded live at the American Writers Festival. AWM PODCAST NETWORK HOME About Growing Up Chicago: Growing Up Chicago is a collection of coming-of-age stories [...]

This week, contributing authors Jac Jemc, Juan Martinez, Joe Meno, and Luis Alberto Urrea discuss their work in the collection Small Odysseys: Selected Shorts Presents 35 New Short Stories. This conversation originally took place May 15, 2022 and was recorded live at the American Writers Festival. AWM PODCAST NETWORK HOME About Small Odysseys: A must-have for [...]

This week, author Jabari Asim discusses his novel Yonder with journalist Evan F. Moore. This conversation originally took place May 15, 2022 and was recorded live at the American Writers Festival. About Yonder: The Water Dancer meets The Prophets in this spare, gripping, and beautifully rendered novel exploring love and friendship among a group of enslaved Black strivers [...]

This week, journalist Todd Brewster discusses his book Seen and Unseen: Technology, Social Media, and the Fight for Racial Justice, which he co-authored with Marc Lamont Hill. Brewster is interviewed by author Catherine Adel West. This conversation originally took place May 15, 2022 and was recorded live at the American Writers Festival. AWM PODCAST NETWORK [...]

This week, award-winning author Elizabeth Nunez discusses her novel Now Lila Knows, with Booklist editor Donna Seaman. This conversation originally took place May 15, 2022 and was recorded live at the American Writers Festival. AWM PODCAST NETWORK HOME More about Now Lila Knows: Lila Bonnard has left her island home in the Caribbean to join [...]

In this episode, we’ll discuss the life and work of the late Cormac McCarthy, whose novels about wayward characters in the rural American South and Southwest are noted for their dark violence, dense prose, and stylistic complexity. During his long career, McCarthy wrote twelve novels, two plays, five screenplays, and three short stories, many of [...]