Jayne Anne Phillips, author of “Night Watch”

Jayne Anne Phillips’s first book of stories, Black Tickets (published in 1979 when she was only 26), won the prestigious Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Featured in Newsweek, Raymond Carver pronounced Black Tickets “stories unlike any in our literature…a crooked beauty” and established Jayne Anne as a writer “in love with the American language.” She was praised by Nadine Gordimer as “the best short story writer since Eudora Welty” and Black Tickets has since become a classic of the short story genre. 

Since then, she’s written an additional collection of short stories and six novels. Her latest, Night Watch, was longlisted for the National Book Award. It’s considered part of a trilogy of war novels alongside Machine Dreams (about Vietnam) and Lark and Termite (about Korea). Others include Quiet Dell, Shelter, and Mother Kind. All of these works have garnered prizes, praise and critic attention.

Jayne Anne Phillips joins Marrie Stone to talk about Night Watch. They discuss writing a Civil War story that speaks to our times, the research required of historical fiction and how to organize it, accessing the voices of another time, writing difficult scenes, how to manage the element of surprise for both the reader and the writer, and much more.

For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. We’re also excited to announce the opening of our new bookstore on bookshop.org. We’ve stocked it with titles from our guests, as well as some of our own personal favorites. By purchasing through the store, you’ll support both independent bookstores and our show. New titles will be added all the time (it’s a work in progress). Finally, on Spotify you can listen to an album’s worth of typewriter music like what you hear on the show. Look for the artist, Just My Type. Email the show at writersonwritingpodcast@gmail.com. We love to hear from our listeners.

(Recorded on November 30, 2023) 

Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Host: Marrie Stone
Music and sound editing: Travis Barrett (Stream his music on Spotify, Apple Music, Etc.)

Literary agent Mark Tavani

Mark Tavani started his publishing career in 2000 with Ballantine Books and spent more than 23 years with Penguin Random House, Bantam, Del Rey, and G.P. Putnam's Sons. He edited bestsellers and award-winners across numerous categories of fiction and nonfiction, including books by Jim Abbott, Steve Berry, C.J. Box, Justin Cronin, Clive and Dirk Cussler, Jeffery Deaver, Lisa Gardner, Jack McCallum, Lisa Scottoline, Bill Simmons, and R.L. Stine. He recently joined the David Black Literary Agency, where he represents both fiction and nonfiction. Mark has a degree in Creative Writing from the University of Pittsburgh. He is an adjunct professor with NYU's School of Professional Studies and lives with his wife, his daughters, and a headstrong dog in Rutherford, New Jersey. 

Mark Tavani joined Barbara DeMarco-Barrett to talk about what he’s looking for, the dreaded comps, the category of bookclub fiction, submitting memoir, ageism in publishing (or not), why MFAs and the literary community involvement are important, how to know if an agent is the right fit for you, and so much more.

For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. We’re also excited to announce the opening of our new bookstore on bookshop.org. We’ve stocked it with titles from our guests, as well as some of our own personal favorites. By purchasing through the store, you’ll support both independent bookstores and our show. New titles will be added all the time (it’s a work in progress). Finally, on Spotify you can listen to an album’s worth of typewriter music like what you hear on the show. Look for the artist, Just My Type. Email the show at writersonwritingpodcast@gmail.com. We love to hear from our listeners.

(Recorded on November 17, 2023) 

Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Host: Marrie Stone
Music and sound editing: Travis Barrett (Stream his music on Spotify, Apple Music, Etc.)

Nathan Hill, author of “Wellness”

Nathan Hill first came on the show in 2017 with his ­best-selling debut novel, The Nix, which was named the #1 book of the year by Audible and Entertainment Weekly, and one of the year’s best books by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, Slate, and many others.

Wellness came out this year. It’s also a New York Times bestseller and was selected by Oprah Winfrey for her book club in September. Nathan joins Marrie Stone to talk about it, along with how his characters reveal themselves to him, how he manages time in a novel, how he weaves copious amounts of research into the narrative, how he plays with unconventional points of view, and much more. He also shares his thoughts on getting an MFA, how he found his agent, and his advice to aspiring novelists who feel stuck on the outside of the publishing industry.

Along the way, the conversation references an article Nathan wrote for Oprah’s Magazine, “How to Write a Novel in 7 Easy Steps.” It’s funny, irreverent, but has some great advice.

For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. We’re also excited to announce the opening of our new bookstore on bookshop.org. We’ve stocked it with titles from our guests, as well as some of our own personal favorites. By purchasing through the store, you’ll support both independent bookstores and our show. New titles will be added all the time (it’s a work in progress). Finally, on Spotify you can listen to an album’s worth of typewriter music like what you hear on the show. Look for the artist, Just My Type. Email the show at writersonwritingpodcast@gmail.com. We love to hear from our listeners.

(Recorded on November 21, 2023) 

Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Host: Marrie Stone
Music and sound editing: Travis Barrett (Stream his music on Spotify, Apple Music, Etc.)

Matt Coyle, author of ODYSSEY’S END

Matt Coyle, author of the new novel, Odyssey’s End, is the author of the best-selling Rick Cahill crime novels. He knew he wanted to be a crime writer when he was 14 and his father gave him The Simple Art of Murder by Raymond Chandler. He graduated with a degree in English from University of California at Santa Barbara. His foray into crime fiction was delayed for 30 years as he spent time managing a restaurant, selling golf clubs for various golf companies, and in national sales for a sports licensing company. His tenth crime novel is Odyssey’s End. Matt lives in San Diego, where he’s at work at his next novel.

Matt joined Barbara to talk about writing a series versus a standalone, being a pantser, how he keeps the tension going, writing about emotional experiences he hasn’t personally gone through, time locks, and much more.

For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. We’re also excited to announce the opening of our new bookstore on bookshop.org. It’s stocked with titles from our guests, as well as some of our own personal favorites. By purchasing through the store, you’ll support both independent bookstores and our show. New titles will be added all the time (it’s a work in progress). Finally, on Spotify you can listen to an album’s worth of typewriter music like what you hear on the show. Look for the artist, Just My Type. Email the show at writersonwritingpodcast@gmail.com. We love to hear from our listeners.

(Recorded on October 20, 2023) 

Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Host: Marrie Stone
Music and sound editing: Travis Barrett (Stream his music on Spotify, Apple Music, Etc.)

Literary Agent Susan Golomb

Back in the 80s, literary agent Susan Golomb plucked Jonathan Franzen’s manuscript from her slush pile. They’ve worked together ever since. She founded the Susan Golomb Literary Agency in 1988 with Franzen as her first client, and joined Writers House in 2015. Susan represents other notables such as Glen David Gold, William T. Vollmann, Rachel Kushner, Imbolo Mbue, Angie Kim, and Nell Zink. She joined me to talk about the state of publishing and how it’s changed, where A.I. is taking the industry, what she looks for in her clients, query letter dos and don’ts, why comp titles frustrate her, her feelings about MFAs, and much more.

Along the way, we referenced two articles. The first, a recent New Yorker article about how changes in the publishing industry impact writers. And the second, an essay her client — Vauhini Vara — wrote about her own experiences with artificial intelligence.

For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. We’re also excited to announce the opening of our new bookstore on bookshop.org. We’ve stocked it with titles from our guests, as well as some of our own personal favorites. By purchasing through the store, you’ll support both independent bookstores and our show. New titles will be added all the time (it’s a work in progress). Finally, on Spotify you can listen to an album’s worth of typewriter music like what you hear on the show. Look for the artist, Just My Type. Email the show at writersonwritingpodcast@gmail.com. We love to hear from our listeners.

(Recorded on November 3, 2023) 

Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Host: Marrie Stone
Music and sound editing: Travis Barrett (Stream his music on Spotify, Apple Music, Etc.)

Memoirist Kim Foster, author of The Meth Lunches: Food and Longing in an American City

Kim Foster is the author of the memoir The Meth Lunches: Food and Longing in an American City. Kim is a James Beard Award-winning food writer who writes about people at the intersection of food and mental illness, family separation, poverty, addiction, trauma, and incarceration. You can read her work on her weekly newsletter on Substack and find her on Instagram. She lives in Las Vegas, Nevada with her husband, David, their four kids, and many animals.

Kim joins Barbara DeMarco-Barrett to discuss hybrid publishing, surprises in writing her memoir, when she knew this would be a book, writing about food that isn’t pretty, learning to never write anyone off, and much more.

For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. We’re also excited to announce the opening of our new bookstore on bookshop.org. We’ve stocked it with titles from our guests, as well as some of our own personal favorites. By purchasing through the store, you’ll support both independent bookstores and our show. New titles will be added all the time (it’s a work in progress). Finally, on Spotify you can listen to an album’s worth of typewriter music like what you hear on the show. Look for the artist, Just My Type. Email the show at writersonwritingpodcast@gmail.com. We love to hear from our listeners.

(Recorded on October 13, 2023) 

Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Host: Marrie Stone
Music and sound editing: Travis Barrett (Stream his music on Spotify, Apple Music, Etc.)

Literary Agent Betsy Amster

Betsy Amster is the principal agent of the Betsy Amster Literary Agency, which she opened in 1992. Located in Los Angeles, the agency handles publishing rights and all ancillary rights such as film, TV, audio, electronic, and foreign. They work with both first-time and established writers and represent literary fiction, upscale commercial women's fiction, voice-driven mysteries and thrillers, narrative nonfiction (especially by journalists), travelogues, memoirs (including graphic memoirs), social issues and trends, psychology, self-help, popular culture, women's issues, history & biography, lifestyle, careers, health and medicine, parenting, cooking and nutrition, gardening, and quirky gift books. 

Before opening the agency, Betsy spent ten years as an editor at Pantheon and Vintage and two years as editorial director of the Globe Pequot Press. She has been described in the Los Angeles Times as “a dogged prospector of literary talent” and celebrated in a profile in the ASJA newsletter for her “no-nonsense style and whimsical sense of humor.” She frequently teaches classes on publishing at UCLA Extension’s Writers Program and participates in panels at the LA Times Festival of Books.

Betsy has been on the show at least six times in the past (you can find those interviews in our archives). But much has been happening in both the publishing world and the world at large lately. Betsy joins Marrie to talk about all those changes, including her take on the consolidation of many of the publishing houses, the impact of A.I. on writers and how she feels about writers using ChatGPT to write their query letters, as well as projects she’s working on now that have her excited. They chat about query letters, how long to wait before assuming a rejection, what writers can do to improve their odds, and much more.

For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. We’re also excited to announce the opening of our new bookstore on bookshop.org. We’ve stocked it with titles from our guests, as well as some of our own personal favorites. By purchasing through the store, you’ll support both independent bookstores and our show. New titles will be added all the time (it’s a work in progress). Finally, on Spotify you can listen to an album’s worth of typewriter music like what you hear on the show. Look for the artist, Just My Type. Email the show at writersonwritingpodcast@gmail.com. We like to hear from our listeners.

(Recorded on October 17, 2023) 

Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Host: Marrie Stone
Music and sound editing: Travis Barrett

Clemence Michallon, author of THE QUIET TENANT

Clémence Michallon, author of The Quiet Tenant, was born and raised near Paris, France. She studied journalism at City, University of London, received a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University, and has written for The Independent since 2018. Her essays and features cover true crime, celebrity, culture, and literature. She divides her time between New York City and Rhinebeck, New York.

Clémence joins Barbara DeMarco-Barrett to discuss how The Quiet Tenant began; multiple point of view; how she kept the tension ratcheted up throughout the novel; how it is that crime writers write dark stories yet often appear to be happy, perky people; revising; the crossover from journalism to fiction; and getting an agent.

For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. We’re also excited to announce the opening of our new bookstore on bookshop.org. We’ve stocked it with titles from our guests, as well as some of our own personal favorites. By purchasing through the store, you’ll support both independent bookstores and our show. New titles will be added all the time (it’s a work in progress). Finally, on Spotify you can listen to an album’s worth of typewriter music like what you hear on the show. Look for the artist, Just My Type. Email the show at writersonwritingpodcast@gmail.com. We love to hear from our listeners.

(Recorded on Sept. 19, 2023) 

Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Host: Marrie Stone
Music and sound editing: Travis Barrett

Angie Kim, author of “Happiness Falls”

Angie Kim came to fiction in her 40s, after careers in both law and business, and some challenging years mothering three boys who each faced medical complications. Her debut novel, Miracle Creek, won the Edgar Award, the ITW Thriller Award, the Strand Critics’ Award and the Pinckley Prize, and was named one of the best books of the year by Time, The Washington Post, Kirkus Reviews and the “Today” show.

Her second novel, Happiness Falls, came out in August by Hogarth. A NYT bestseller and Good Morning America Book Club pick, it will appeal to mystery and thriller lovers, philosophers, those active in the special needs and autism communities, and anyone who generally loves a thought-provoking and engaging read.

Angie joins Marrie Stone to talk about it. They discuss how both her childhood and her prior careers influence her fiction, how she used a combination of freewriting and her obsession with narrative architecture to structure this novel, how mysteries can be used as a Trojan horse in fiction, using creative literary devices to reveal character in a novel, the perils and pleasures of first person, and so much more. Angie also shares her story of finding her agent, what to look for in an agent, query letters, and shares other book business insights.

For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. We’re also excited to announce the opening of our new bookstore on bookshop.org. We’ve stocked it with titles from our guests, as well as some of our own personal favorites. By purchasing through the store, you’ll support both independent bookstores and our show. New titles will be added all the time (it’s a work in progress). Finally, on Spotify you can listen to an album’s worth of typewriter music like what you hear on the show. Look for the artist, Just My Type. Email the show at writersonwritingpodcast@gmail.com. We like to hear from our listeners.

(Recorded on October 7, 2023) 

Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Host: Marrie Stone
Music and sound editing: Travis Barrett

David Ulin, author of THIRTEEN QUESTION METHOD

David L. Ulin is the author, most recently, of the novel, Thirteen Question Method. His other books include Sidewalking: Coming to Terms with Los Angeles, The Lost Art of Reading: Books and Resistance in a Troubled Time; and Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology, which won a California Book Award. For Library of America, he has edited Didion: The 1960s and 70s and Didion: The 1980s and 90s.

David Ulin is the books editor of Alta and the former book editor and book critic of the Los Angeles Times. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, Harper's, The Paris Review, and The Best American Essays 2020. The recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, and Ucross Foundation, as well as a COLA Individual Master Artist Grant from the City of Los Angeles. He is a Professor of English at the University of Southern California, where he edits the journal Air/Light.

David Ulin joined Barbara DeMarco-Barrett to talk about cinematic writing, Chekhov’s gun, embodying a protagonist, the “literature of disintegration” and why he’s a fan, tulpas, noir, and much more.

For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. We’re also excited to announce the opening of our new bookstore on bookshop.org. We’ve stocked it with titles from our guests, as well as some of our own personal favorites. By purchasing through the store, you’ll support both independent bookstores and our show. New titles will be added all the time (it’s a work in progress). Finally, on Spotify you can listen to an album’s worth of typewriter music like what you hear on the show. Look for the artist, Just My Type. Email the show at writersonwritingpodcast@gmail.com. We like to hear from our listeners.

(Recorded on September 22, 2023) 

Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Co-Host: Marrie Stone
Music and sound editing: Travis Barrett

Shelley Read, author of “Go As a River”

Shelley Read’s debut novel, Go As a River, published last February to instant international bestseller success. The story follows 17-year-old Victoria Nash through the mid-20th century as she endures grief, hardship, and loss in her western Colorado town. It’s a coming-of-age novel, an environmental novel, and a novel about displacement and reclamation. It’s also an incredible apprenticeship for novelists on excellent writing, and its publication backstory is almost as great as the story itself. Shelly joined Marrie Stone to talk about all of it.  

In addition to discussions about craft, voice, and rooting the themes of your novel in specific scenes, they talk about Shelley’s road to publication, finding her agent, enduring rejection, and why Shelley finally committed to writing a novel after three decades of encouraging her students to do the same.

For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. We’re also excited to announce the opening of our new bookstore on bookshop.org. We’ve stocked it with titles from our guests, as well as some of our own personal favorites. By purchasing through the store, you’ll support both independent bookstores and our show. New titles will be added all the time (it’s a work in progress). Finally, on Spotify you can listen to an album’s worth of typewriter music like what you hear on the show. Look for the artist, Just My Type.

(Recorded on September 19, 2023) 

Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Co-Host: Marrie Stone
Music and sound editing: Travis Barrett

Ben Purkert, author of THE MEN CAN’T BE SAVED

Ben Purkert is the author of the poetry collection, For the Love of Endings. His work appears in The New Yorker, The Nation, and The Kenyon Review, among others. He is the founder of Back Draft, a Guernica interview series focused on revision and the creative process. He holds degrees from Harvard and New York University, and he currently teaches at Rutgers. The Men Can’t be Saved is his first novel.

Ben joins Barbara DeMarco-Barrett to talk about making unlikeable characters redeemable, how Judaism plays a role in Ben’s life and his fiction, the crossover from poetry to fiction, choosing POV, and more.

For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. We’re excited to announce the opening of our new bookstore on bookshop.org. We’ve stocked it with titles from our guests, as well as some of our own personal favorites. By purchasing through the store, you’ll support both independent bookstores and our show. New titles will be added all the time (it’s a work in progress). To listen to past interviews, visit our website. Finally, on Spotify you can listen to an album’s worth of typewriter music like what you hear on the show. Look for the artist, Just My Type.

(Recorded on August 17, 2023) 

Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Co-Host: Marrie Stone
Music and sound editing: Travis Barrett

Lisa Teasley, author of the short story collection “Fluid”

Lisa Teasley is the author of two novels (Heat Signature and Dive) and two short story collections (Glow in the Dark and, most recently, Fluid).

She joined Marrie Stone to talk about her latest collection, Fluid, which publishes on September 26th. Along the way, she shared why she gave up publishing for over 15 years (although she never gave up writing) and what brought her back around. She also shared her unique but likely relatable perspectives on agents, how to market your work without an agent, and the advantages of small presses.

The conversation also covered structure (including references to Jane Alison’s Meander, Spiral, Explode), various approaches to ordering stories in a collection, flash versus traditional short fiction, Lisa’s approach to visual versus written art, and so much more.

For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. We’re excited to announce the opening of our new bookstore on bookshop.org. We’ve stocked it with titles from our guests, as well as some of our own personal favorites. By purchasing through the store, you’ll support both independent bookstores and our show. New titles will be added all the time (it’s a work in progress). Finally, to listen to past interviews, visit our website.

(Recorded on September 6, 2023) 

Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Co-Host: Marrie Stone
Music and sound editing: Travis Barrett

Ashley Audrain, author of THE WHISPERS

Ashley Audrain’s debut novel, The Push, was an instant New York Times bestseller. She has served as the publicity director of Penguin Books Canada, and prior to that, worked in public relations. She lives in Toronto, where she and her partner are raising their two young children. The Whispers is her second novel and a #1 international bestseller.

Ashley joins Barbara DeMarco-Barrett to talk about writing interiority, the importance of the ticking clock, writing unlikeable characters, writing chronologically, naming characters, and why she writes short chapters.

For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website.

(Recorded on August 11, 2023) 

Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Co-Host: Marrie Stone
Music and sound editing: Travis Barrett

Anne Enright, author of “The Wren, the Wren”

Anne Enright is the author of eleven novels, including the 2007 Booker Prize winner The Gathering. She’s written many short stories and a non-fiction work called Making Babies: Stumbling into Motherhood. She also served as the first Laureate of Irish fiction from 2015 – 2018.

Anne joined Marrie Stone from Galway, Ireland to talk about her latest novel, The Wren, the Wren, forthcoming by Norton later in September. The book has been named a Most Anticipated Book of the Year by The Millions and Literary Hub. They talk about poetry – writing poetry as a non-poet and how Anne used it to structure the novel. They discuss the Irish literary tradition (and what national literary traditions really mean). Anne talks about rendering characters from different generations, how her novels are in conversation, and much more.

For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. A big thanks to new patrons Amy Brown and Mariah Martin. To listen to past interviews, visit our website.

(Recorded on August 23, 2023) 

Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Co-Host: Marrie Stone
Music and sound editing: Travis Barrett

Halley Sutton, author of THE HURRICANE BLONDE

Halley Sutton is a writer and editor who lives in Los Angeles. She graduated from Otis College of Art and Design with a master's degree in writing, and from University of California, Santa Cruz with a degree in creative writing. Her first novel, The Lady Upstairs, was published by Putnam in 2020, and was nominated for a Lefty award. Her second novel, The Hurricane Blonde, was published by Putnam in August 2023. Her writing has appeared in Ms., The Daily Beast, The Los Angeles Review of Books, CrimeReads, CrimeSpree Magazine, and more.

Halley Sutton joins Barbara DeMarco-Barrett to talk about Hollywood history, writing backstory, naming and creating characters, revision, what to leave out, and more.

For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website.

(Recorded on July 21, 2023) 

Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Co-Host: Marrie Stone
Music and sound editing: Travis Barrett

Dennis Palumbo, author of Writing from the Inside Out & the Daniel Rinaldi mystery series

Formerly a Hollywood screenwriter (My Favorite Year, Welcome Back, Kotter), Dennis Palumbo is a licensed psychotherapist whose work with creative people has been featured on CNN, NPR, and in The New York Times and Los Angeles Times.

He’s also the author of the popular nonfiction book, Writing From The Inside Out. His mystery fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and The Strand, and is collected in From Crime to Crime. His series of award-winning mystery thrillers (the latest of which is Panic Attack) feature Daniel Rinaldi, a psychologist and trauma expert who consults with the Pittsburgh Police. Recently, Dennis served as consulting producer on the Hulu TV series The Patient.

Dennis joins Barbara Demarco-Barrett to talk about the why writers procrastinate, self-worth, the habit of endlessly revising, finding time to write, the writers strike, and writers’ worries.

For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website.

(Recorded on July 21, 2023) 

Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Co-Host: Marrie Stone
Music and sound editing: Travis Barrett

Julie Schumacher, author of “The English Experience”

Julie Schumacher is the author of nine novels, including five for younger readers. Three of her adult novels follow Jason Fitger, an English professor at an obscure midwestern liberal arts college known as Payne University. Dear Committee Members, The Shakespeare Requirement and, now, The English Experience all shine satirical light on academia and our cultural shift away from the humanities.

Julie joins Marrie Stone to talk about the state of satire and how she was able to satirize a profession she’s still working in (and the people involved in that profession). She also discusses the challenges and constraints she sets up for herself when writing, handling a big cast of characters, using letters and essays in fiction, and how she organizes her written notebooks. They also discuss Julie’s thoughts on MFAs, turning real life events into fiction, and much more.

For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website.

(Recorded on August 9, 2023) 

Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Co-Host: Marrie Stone
Music and sound editing: Travis Barrett

T.C. Boyle, author of BLUE SKIES

T. Coraghessan Boyle is the author of thirty books of fiction, including, most recently, The Harder They Come (2015), The Terranauts (2016), The Relive Box (2017), Outside Looking In (2019), Talk To Me (2021) and I Walk Between the Raindrops (2022). 

He received a Ph.D. degree in Nineteenth Century British Literature from the University of Iowa in 1977, his M.F.A. from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1974, and his B.A. in English and History from SUNY Potsdam in 1968. He has been a member of the English Department at the University of Southern California since 1978, where he is Distinguished Professor of English. 

His stories have appeared in most of the major American magazines, including The New Yorker, Harper's, Esquire, The Atlantic Monthly, Playboy, The Paris Review, GQ, Antaeus, Granta and McSweeney's, and he has been the recipient of a number of literary awards, including the PEN/Faulkner Prise for best novel of the year (World's End, 1988); the PEN/Malamud Prize in the short story (T.C. Boyle Stories, 1999); and the Prix Médicis Étranger for best foreign novel in France (The Tortilla Curtain, 1997). He currently lives near Santa Barbara with his wife and three children.

His most recent novel is Blue Skies.

T.C. Boyle joins Barbara DeMarco-Barrett to talk about writing climate fiction, dealing with heavy themes while keeping it light and not didactic, his influences, short stories, revision, crickets, and more.

A shout-out to our patrons: thank you, as always, for your support. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website.

(Recorded on June 30, 2023) 

Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Co-Host: Marrie Stone
Music and sound editing: Travis Barrett

Ellen Keith, author of “The Dutch Wife” and “The Dutch Orphan”

Ellen Keith is the author of the international bestselling novel, The Dutch Wife and, most recently, The Dutch Orphan. Both novels take place during the WWII occupation of The Netherlands.

Ellen joined Marrie Stone from her home in Amsterdam. They discussed finding new stories in saturated literary topics, why third person works well for historical fiction, the benefits of multiple points of view, working with dark material, managing backstory, how to humanize unsympathetic characters, and much more.  

A shout-out to our new July patrons — Lodi, Anne, Erin, Dawn, and Thomas. Thank you for your support. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website.

(Recorded on July 26, 2023) 

Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Co-Host: Marrie Stone
Music and sound editing: Travis Barrett