Author Nicole Glover joins UpperPen to discuss The Starseekers, exploring NASA, the influence of Hidden Figures, the history of African Americans in public television, and how magic intersects with real-world history.I found that this book literally combined my favorite topics! Nicole basically rooted around in my brain and pulled out everything, except the horror. The Starseekers is preceded by The Conductors, The Undertakers, and The Improvisors. You can find so much extra information about the Rhodes family on Nicole's website: https://nicole-glover.com/.

Also, I cannot stress how much I loved the audiobook. Shout out to the narrator Bahni Turpin!

Author The Longwinded One joins UpperPen to discuss Get Trucked, his LitRPG reverse-isekai novel on Royal Road, and the companion app Endr, which lets readers see the in-world app used to isekai characters.

The app is out now on the Google App Store and iOS.

Get Trucked is still being released on Royal Road. Go show The Longwinded One some love for this fun book.

Author Edward Ashton joins UpperPen to discuss his new novel After the Fall, exploring love and power imbalance, personal storytelling, and the influence of Kurt Vonnegut’s dark comedy on his work.

Author Kate Quinn joins UpperPen to discuss The Astral Library, magical libraries as sanctuaries, choosing books to live inside, costume design, and the craft of building safe havens for lost and lonely characters.

The Astral Library is in stores everywhere February 17th, 2026!

Author Helen Phifer joins UpperPen to discuss her upcoming novel The Vanishing Bookstore, exploring Salem, Massachusetts, witches and womanhood, mystery pacing, and the craft behind a powerful, violent opening.

Translator Anne McKnight joins UpperPen to discuss Long Take, a collection of interviews and writings from Akira Kurosawa. We explore Kurosawa’s films, his childhood influences, the challenges of translation, and his work as a wartime propagandist filmmaker.

Author The Longwinded One and narrator Chris Tucci discuss The Breaking Annwn (Book 2 of The Four Treasures Saga), exploring tonal shifts in LitRPG series, writing with friends, and producing a multi-narrator audiobook.

In this episode, author The Longwinded One and narrator Chris Tucci talk about the evolution of The Four Treasures Saga, focusing on The Breaking Annwn, a darker, more serious second installment in the series.

Author Suzannah Rowntree joins UpperPen to discuss The Werewolf of Whitechapel. In this episode, Rowntree talks about her novel The Werewolf of Whitechapel, a dark reimagining of Victorian England that blends history, horror, and social critique. We also discuss how historical fiction can interrogate injustice, why monsters often represent systems of power, and how the past continues to haunt the present.Whether you’re a reader of historical fiction, gothic horror, or a writer interested in using real history as narrative fuel, this conversation offers insight into how fiction can reveal deeper truths.Suzannah Rowntree is the author of The Werewolf of Whitechapel, book 1 of Miss Sharp's Monsters, historical horror that reimagines Victorian England through the lens of werewolves, gender, and power. https://suzannahrowntree.weebly.com/gaslampfantasy.htmlYouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@UpperPenPodcast

UpperPen.com

New episodes Fridays at 11 AM ESTSubscribe for conversations on craft, publishing, and books.

In this episode, acclaimed translator, poet, and scholar Jeffrey Angles takes us inside his translation of The Luminous Fairies and Mothra by Shin’ichirō Nakamura, Takehiko Fukunaga, and Yoshie Hotta, offering deep insight into the origins of the film, the cultural landscape of Japan in the early 1960s, and the complexities of bringing Japanese prose into English.

Whether you're a fan of kaiju films, Japanese literature, translation craft, or cultural history, this is a rare look at the story that helped define one of Japan’s most iconic movie monsters.

#Mothra #Kaiju #JapaneseLiterature #BookTranslation #JeffreyAngles #TheLuminousFairiesAndMothra #JapaneseHistory #Translation

Watch the interview on YouTube

Editor R.B. Wood of Ruadán Books joins UpperPen to discuss how to submit your fiction, what kinds of stories editors are looking for, how to stand out from the slush pile, and how writers can explore cities—and themselves—through storytelling.