The National Writers Series Podcast

For this week's podcast, we're looking back to one of our first National Writers Series conversations ever, featuring author and Detroit Free Press columnist Mitch Albom. This conversation took place in April 2011 - exactly one decade ago - and iit's the first of three conversations Albom has held with the NWS over the years. 

In this conversation, NWS co-founder Doug Stanton talks with Albom a few days after the paperback release of his fourth (non-sports) book, Have A Little Faith. They talked about Albom's experiences writing the autobiography of Bo Schembechler, the genesis of his hugely-successful Tuesdays With Morrie, and the feeling of victory when you make a reader cry...

Michael Connelly is a famed New York Times #1 bestselling author who has written dozens of books in the crime, mystery, and legal genres. His debut book, "The Black Echo," was published in 1992 and introduced the world to his famous detective: Harry Bosch. Connelly joined the National Writers Series for this conversation back in November 2012 following the release of his then-latest Bosch novel, "The Black Box."

How did his work as an investigative journalist help inform the details that went into his many crime novels? Why would he only write in a walk-in closet? And what about the responsibility that comes with writing 18 novels about the life of his most famous character?

While we await the final season of Amazon's "Bosch" TV adaptation—and since a new Bosch spinoff series was just announced a few weeks ago—we thought we'd take the opportunity to look back on this wonderful examination of his writing process. We open with guest host and fellow crime novelist Bryan Gruley who asked Connely to describe his perfect writing environment…

Karl Marlantes was one of the first guests to ever appear at the National Writers Series. He first joined us in 2010 when he came to discuss his debut book, “Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War.” That book - released in March of that year - drew on Karl’s experiences as a Marine in Vietnam. 

This discussion comes from 2019, when Karl returned to discuss his latest novel, “Deep River.” It was inspired by the history of his ancestors, who immigrated to Washington from Finland in the early 20th century. Karl talks this hour with fellow author and military veteran, Benjamin Busch. Benjamin started the discussion by asking Karl to talk about the difficult process of getting his first book published...

Harlan Coben has published over 30 novels, and his book "Tell No One" was recently into a film of the same name. In the past few years, Harlan’s created three TV shows available on Netflix: No Second Chance, The Five, and Safe. His latest thriller, "Win," just came out this week - so we thought that was a great reason to look back to our NWS conversation with this amazingly prolific writer.

NWS co-founder Doug Stanton spoke with Harlan on the stage of the Traverse City Opera House back in July 2015, and at that time, his book “The Stranger” had just come out. Doug asked Harlan to tell him about how he balances his work with his family life...

Diana Gabaldon’s bestselling Outlander series of novels begins by telling the story of a young nurse during World War II who travels back in time to 18th century Scotland. Diana has published eight Outlander books, and is working on her ninth, called Go Tell the Bees That I Have Gone. 

The books have been developed into a hugely popular TV show on Starz, which had yet to premiere when this conversation took place in July 2014. Diana talks this hour with Deb Leonard, a member of the board of directors for the Book Industry Charitable Foundation, and a bookseller at Literati Bookstore in Ann Arbor. Their conversation was recorded at the Traverse City Opera House, where Deb asked Diana if she could describe her books to someone who’s never read them...

"The Curse of Oak Island" on the History Channel just completed its eighth season. It’s also a book by journalist Randall Sullivan, who first wrote about the island for Rolling Stone in 2004. In the book, Sullivan goes deeper into the long history of treasure hunting on the island and delves into the many theories about what’s buried there. 

One of the creators and stars of the show is engineer, entrepreneur, and native Michigander Marty Lagina. In this conversation, recorded in October 2019, Randall and Marty spend an hour talking with Patrick Livingston, news director for WPBN and WGTU-TV in Traverse City. To start this week's episode, Patrick asked Randall why people are so interested in The Curse of Oak Island...

Alice Walker published her first book in 1968, making 2018 the 50th anniversary of her writing career. She’s authored dozens of works since then, including poetry, essays, short stories and novels. Alice won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel The Color Purple, becoming the first African American to receive that honor. Alice Walker is also known for her activism for human rights. Her latest book is a collection of poetry called Taking the Arrow Out of the Heart. Alice talks this hour with Detroit Free Press columnist Rochelle Riley. Rochelle asked Alice what her proudest moment has been so far.

Author Lee Child is best known for his Jack Reacher thriller series. The series has been adapted into two films starring Tom Cruise as the title character. Lee’s 24th book in the series, Blue Moon, came out in 2019. 

Lee visited Traverse City in 2012 and spoke with NWS co-founder Doug Stanton on the stage of the City Opera House. Doug started by asking Lee to take him through a typical day of writing...

Joe Hill was born with the name Joseph King: he’s the son of legendary author Stephen King. But Joe writes under the last name “Hill” out of a desire to succeed on his own merits. Now he’s recognized as one of today’s best horror writers.  

Hill is a New York Times #1 best-selling author whose novels include NOS4A2, Horns, Heart-Shaped Box and The Fireman. His latest book is Strange Weather, which is made up of four short novels. Joe talks this hour with fellow author (and native Michigander) Loren Estleman, who is best known for a series of crime novels featuring the investigator Amos Walker. 

Joe started off talking about and reading from one of the stories from Strange Weather. This event took place at the City Opera House in downtown Traverse City in October 2018.

Margaret Atwood is the author of over 40 books spanning many genres, including poetry, essays, and fiction. Her books include “Hag-Seed,” which is a retelling of Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest” and a graphic novel called “Angel Catbird” featuring a cat-bird superhero. Her most famous work is "The Handmaid's Tale," which was adapted into an award-winning TV series in 2016 by Hulu.  

In this episode of the NWS Podcast, Margaret Atwood joins guest host Doug Stanton. She starts this evening's discussion by talking more about how she came to write “Angel Catbird.” This event was recorded at the Traverse City Opera House in October 2016.