The Bookshop Podcast

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In this episode, I'm chatting with Terry Craven from Desperate Literature in Madrid about his art, working at Shakespeare & Company in Paris, the Desperate Literature Short Literature prize, and his life in Madrid.

Desperate Literature is a joint project between Craig Walzer, Corey Eastwood, Charlotte Delattre, and Terry Craven. Between them, they own Atlantis Books in Santorini, Greece, Book Thug Nation, and Human Relations in Brooklyn, NY, US.

Desperate Literature is a new international bookshop in Madrid, Spain. Along with the very best collection of used English books in the city, the shop also carries a large selection of quality books in Spanish, French, and a variety of other languages.

Desperate Literature

Terry Craven on Instagram

Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize

Joan Fleming, books

The Living Mountain, Nan Shepherd

Jan Carson on The Bookshop Podcast

Sara Baume on The Bookshop Podcast

Diary of a Film, Niven Govinden

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Mandy Jackson-Beverly
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In this episode, I'm chatting with Dr. Paula Marantz Cohen about empathy, Shakespeare, teaching, and her book Of Human Kindness: What Shakespeare Teaches Us About Empathy.

Paula Marantz Cohen is Distinguished Professor of English at Drexel University where she teaches courses in literature, film, and creative writing. She is the recipient of the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching and is a co-editor of jml: Journal of Modern Literature.

Cohen is the author of four nonfiction books and five novels and is the producer of the documentary film, Two Universities and the Future of China. Her play, The Triangle, about John Singer Sargent, Henry James, and Edith Wharton, was a finalist in the Julie Harris Playwriting Competition. Her essays, stories, and reviews have appeared in The Yale Review, The American Scholar, The Southwest Review, the Times Literary Supplement, Raritan, The Hudson Review, and other publications. She writes a weekly online column, “Class Notes,” for The American Scholar and is the host of The Drexel Interview, a  TV show based in Philadelphia that is broadcast on over 350 local stations, including 150 PBS stations, throughout the country.         

Cohen holds a B.A. in French and English from Yale College and a Ph.D. in English Literature from Columbia University.

Paula Marantz Cohen

Of Human Kindness: What Shakespeare Teaches Us About Empathy, Paula Marantz Cohen

Mr. B: George Balanchine’s 20th Century, Jennifer Homans

Plato’s Republic, Plato

Thick: And Other Essays, Tressie McMillan Cottom

Daniel Deronda, George Eliot

Middlemarch, George Eliot 

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Mandy Jackson-Beverly
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In this episode, I'm chatting with Rosamund De Le Hey, the co-owner of Mainstreet Trading Company, about opening a general store, the four things she wanted to make sure her store included to draw in customers, Bookshop.org, and books!

Husband and wife team Rosamund and Bill De Le Hey opened Mainstreet Trading Company in 2008. The store is located in St Boswells, Scottish Borders, and has won numerous awards, including Britain’s Best Small Shop, Independent Bookshop of the Year, and Deli of the Year. 

Rosamund has spent her life in books, from reading under the covers by flashlight to launching and promoting Harry Potter while children’s marketing director at Bloomsbury. She moved home to Scotland in 2003, becoming partial to a bacon roll on the red-eye train while commuting to London. In 2008, she and her husband, Bill, opened The Mainstreet Trading Company. Rosamund served as President of the Booksellers Association between 2016 and 2018.

Bill worked as a freelance photographer in London from 1992 to 2004, working for publications ranging from The Telegraph to Car Magazine. On moving to Scotland, he followed his passion for good food, retraining as a chef at The Edinburgh School of Food and Wine. It proved timely to the launch of Mainstreet, where Bill heads up all things food and drink, and drove the launch of Mainstreet Deli in 2012. Bill is now best described as a cheesemonger/wine merchant who is nuts about natural wines.

Mainstreet Trading Company

Invisible Child, Andrea Elliott

Eastbound, Maylis De Kerangal (author) Jessica Moore (translator)

Mend the Living, Maylis De Kerangal (author) Jessica Moore (translator)

 The Golden Mole, Katherine Rundell

Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer 

Mad Honey, Jodi Picoult, and Jennifer Finney Boylan

 Ben Macintyre 

James Holland

Lean Fall Stand, Jon McGregor

Where There’s A Will, Emily Chappell

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Mandy Jackson-Beverly
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In this episode, I'm chatting with author Stephanie Cotsirilos about her novella My Xanthi, Greek heritage, The Writer's Hotel, and books!

Stephanie Cotsirilos is an essayist in the anthology of New England writers, Breaking Bread (Beacon Press), and was published finalist in Mississippi Review’s Prize in Fiction. Twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, her work has appeared in numerous print and online venues, including McSweeney’s, The New Guard, New Millennium Writings, Brilliant Flash Fiction, and various media. In 2021, she was awarded the Patrice Krant fellowship in residence at Storyknife’s inaugural retreat for women writers in Alaska. Stephanie’s novella is titled My Xanthi, published with Los Galesburg Press.

Stephanie Cotsirilos

My Xanthi, Stephanie Cotsirilos

Storyknife Writers Retreat

The Writer’s Hotel

Night of the Living Rez, Morgan Talty

My Broken Language, Quiara Alegria Hudes

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Mandy Jackson-Beverly
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In this episode, I’m back at the Library of Congress chatting with Stephanie Stillo and special guest Marianna Stell about the Giant Bible of Mainz, scribes, the digitalization of medieval manuscripts, and books!

 Stephanie Stillo is the Curator of the Lessing J. Rosenwald  Collection and Aramont Library in the Rare Book and Special Collection Division.  

Marianna Stell is a Reference Librarian, Rare Books and Special Collections Division, and Medievalist at the Library of Congress.

From the Vaults! Library of Congress

The Giant Bible of Mainz

The Giant Bible of Mainz (LOC)

John O’Donohue

 To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings, John O’Donahue

 The Island of Missing Tree, Elif Shafak

 Diagramming Devotion, Jeffrey F Hamburger

 The Red Widow, Sarah Horowitz

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In this episode, I'm chatting with Linda Kass, co-owner of Gramercy Books in Bexley, Ohio, about her career as a journalist and author, the four ingredients needed to create an excellent indie bookshop, and Pelotonia!

Gramercy Books is a locally-owned, independently-minded neighborhood bookstore located in the heart of Bexley, Ohio. Their philosophy is simple: they’re about inspiration and discovery, community and adventure. The booksellers at Gramercy Books connect readers and writers with books they love and host special events and ongoing visits by authors, poets, and songwriters that provoke conversation. The name, Gramercy, comes from the French word “grand merci,” which translates to “big thanks” or “many thanks.”

Their inviting space includes a new café concept from Kittie’s, featuring Stumptown coffee, breakfast items, savory and sweet snacks, and their iconic cupcakes.

Gramercy Books

Books by Linda Kass

Linda Kass Author Website

Books by Kazuo Ishiguro

Pelotonia

Books by Temple Grandin, PhD 

Books by Maggie Smith

Books by James Clear

Books by Claire Keegan

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Mandy Jackson-Beverly
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In this episode, I'm chatting with author and poet David Ebenbach about his new poetry collection What's Left To Us By Evening, publishing, his creative process, and his short story The Guy We didn't Invite to the Orgy.

David Ebenbach is a writer. Chronically preoccupied with the human condition. He’s been writing ever since he was a kid, when he kept his whole family awake by banging away on an enormous manual typewriter, and he’s never wanted to stop.

 David’s now the author of nine books of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction, and his work has picked up awards along the way: the Drue Heinz Literature Prize, the Juniper Prize, the Patricia Bibby Award, and more.

Born and raised in the great city of Philadelphia, these days David does most of his writing in Washington, DC, where he lives with his family—because he uses a laptop now, he doesn’t keep them awake with his typing—and where he works at Georgetown University, promoting inclusive, student-centered teaching at the Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship, and teaching creative writing and literature at the Center for Jewish Civilization and creativity through the Master’s in Learning, Design, and Technology Program.

David Ebenbach

What's Left To Us By Evening, David Ebenbach

David Ebenbach's Books

The Guy We Didn't Invite to the Orgy, (audio) David Ebenbach

Catalogue of Unabashed Gratitude, Ross Gay

The Night Divers, Melanie McCabe

Such Color, Tracy K. Smith

Friday Black, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

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Mandy Jackson-Beverly
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In this episode, I'm chatting with author Ellen Pall about her new novel Must Read Well, her career as a journalist, and the craft of writing.

ELLEN PALL is the author of more than a dozen novels, including Among the Ginzburgs, Corpse de Ballet, and Slightly Abridged. She has also written many features about people in the arts for The New Yorker and The New York Times, and published numerous personal essays, most recently in The New York Review of Books.

Ellen grew up on Long Island, went to college at U.C. Santa Barbara, then moved to Los Angeles. There, she wrote eight Regency Romances under the pen name Fiona Hill. (Not to be confused with the former U.S. National Security Council official Fiona Hill. Very different person.) After ten years, she left California for New York, where she promptly began work as a journalist, wrote novels under her own name, and met her husband, the international human rights advocate Richard Dicker. She now divides her time between New York and L.A.

Ellen Pall

Must Read Well, Ellen Pall

The Rising Tide: A Vera Stanhope Novel, Ann Cleeves

Mercury Pictures Presents, Anthony Marra

Intimacies: A Novel, Katie Kitamura

Books by Fiona Hill

Bancroft Books

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Mandy Jackson-Beverly
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In this episode, I’m chatting with Jacqui Delbaere, the owner of The Little Green Bookshop, and bookseller, and in-store pianist Tim Jenkins about Herne Bay, literary events, and where to visit, dine and explore in the seaside town on the north coast of Kent in southeast England.

 The Little Green Bookshop

 The Whalebone Theatre, Joanna Quinn

 Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell

 Persuasion, Jane Austin

 The Power Of Now, Eckhart Tolle

 The Seawomen, Chloe Timms

 Lucy Strange Books

 This Beating Heart, Laura Barnett

 Julie Wassmer Books

 Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times, Katherine May

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Mandy Jackson-Beverly
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In this episode, I’m chatting with David Rocklin about his novels, creativity in Los Angeles, Roar Shack, and books!

 David Rocklin grew up in Chicago and graduated from Indiana University with a BA in Literature. After attending law school, he pursued a career as an in-house attorney and continues to serve as a mediator. David is the author of The Night Language and The Luminist. He lives in California with his wife and children.

The Luminist, David Rocklin

The Night Language, David Rocklin

Dave Rocklin

 2 Revere Place, Aruni N. Wijesinghe

 Light Skin Gone to Waste: Stories, Toni Ann Johnson

 We Are Bridges, A Memoir, Cassandra Lane

 HOMEGOING, Yaa Gyasa

 Roar Shack

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Mandy Jackson-Beverly
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