AWM Author Talks

This week, we honor the 53rd anniversary of the Stonewall Riots with comic artist Archie Bongiovanni, who discusses their graphic novel The Stonewall Riots: Making A Stand for LGBTQ Rights , a History Comics book. Archie is joined by journalist Andrew Davis, executive editor of the Chicago-based LGBTQ+ media outlet Windy City Times. This conversation was recorded live during our American Writers F...

This week, we are excited to release the first of many episodes recorded live during our American Writers Festival on May 15th, 2022, which featured more than 75 leading writers from across the country. In this episode, writer Vincent Tirado discusses their young adult novel Burn Down, Rise Up with journalist Andrew Davis. We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer. AWM PODCAST NETWORK HOME

This week, AWM Program Director Allison Sansone chats with author and historian Aaron Sachs about his new book Up from the Depths: Herman Melville, Lewis Mumford, and Rediscovery in Dark Times , a double portrait of two of America’s most influential writers that reveals the surprising connections between them—and their uncanny relevance to our age of crisis. This conversation originally took place...

This week, author Karl Marlantes discusses his novel Deep River , which the Washington Post called, “an engrossing and commanding historical epic about one immigrant family’s shifting fortunes.” This conversation originally took place August 7th, 2019 and was recorded live at the American Writers Museum. We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer. AWM PODCAST NETWORK HOME

This week, opera librettist Gene Scheer discusses the process of transforming Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick into a critically acclaimed opera. He is joined by Northwestern University Professor Betsy Erkkila. This conversation originally took place April 24, 2019 and was recorded live at the American Writers Museum. We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer. AWM PODCAST NETWORK HOME

This week, Fortune 500 CEO Douglas Conant and writer Amy Federman discuss their co-authored book The Blueprint: Six Practical Steps to Lift Your Leadership to New Heights . They are interviewed by John Estey, immediate past Chair of the Board of Trustees of the American Writers Museum. This conversation originally took place April 7, 2021 and was recorded live via Zoom. We hope you enjoy entering...

This week, editor Andrew S. Curran and biological anthropologist Nina G. Jablonski discuss Curran’s new book Who’s Black and Why?: A Hidden Chapter from the Eighteenth-Century Invention of Race . Curran co-edited the book with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. This conversation originally took place May 4th, 2022 and was recorded live via Zoom. We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer. AWM PODCAST NET...

This week, bestselling author Jennifer Finney Boylan discusses her memoir Good Boy: My Life in Seven Dogs with special guest Kathy Griffin. This conversation originally took place May 13th, 2020 and was recorded live via Zoom. Programming note: this conversation includes adult themes and language, listener discretion is advised. We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer.

This week, 93XRT radio host Terri Hemmert chats with critically acclaimed singer-songwriter Joan Osborne about the music industry, songwriting, and her cover album Songs of Bob Dylan . This conversation originally took place May 18th, 2019 and was recorded live at the American Writers Museum. We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer. AWM PODCAST NETWORK HOME

This week, we chat with Katherine Schweit, the former head of the FBI’s active shooter program and author of the recent book Stop the Killing: How to End the Mass Shooting Crisis . Schweit is interviewed by Chad Riley, a member of the Chicago Council of the AWM. This conversation originally took place March 31, 2022 and was recorded live at the American Writers Museum. We hope you enjoy entering t...

This week, AWM Program Director Allison Sansone chats with editor Jennifer Minton Quigley about her recent anthology Lolita in the Afterlife: On Beauty, Risk, and Reckoning with the Most Indelible and Shocking Novel of the Twentieth Century . They are joined by contributing writers Bindu Bansinath, Aleksandar Hemon, and Laura Lippman. This conversation originally took place March 31, 2021 and was...

This week, AWM Program Director Allison Sansone chats with bestselling author Elizabeth Berg about her recent memoir I’ll Be Seeing You , a beautifully written, poignant love story of caring for her parents in their final years. This conversation originally took place November 16th, 2020 and was recorded live via Zoom. We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer.

This week, Daniel Ellsberg, the man who released the Pentagon Papers, discusses his book The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner with journalist Rick Perlstein. This conversation originally took place December 7th, 2017 and was recorded live at the American Writers Museum. We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer.

This week, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Deborah Blum discusses her recent book The Poison Squad , which tells the dramatic true story of how food was made safe in the United States and the heroes, led by Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley, who fought for change. This conversation originally took place August 15, 2019 and was recorded live at the American Writers Museum. We hope you enjoy entering the mi...

This week, we talk about science writing! Anthropologist and author Sarah Parcak discusses her book Archaeology From Space: How the Future Shapes Our Past with Adler Planetarium astronomer and artist Lucianne Walkowicz. This conversation originally took place August 13th, 2019 and was recorded live at the American Writers Museum. We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer. AWM PODCAST NETWORK...

This week, AWM President Carey Cranston chats with writer and educator Deborah Nelson Linck, author of the forthcoming illustrated biography Pauli Murray: Shouting for the Rights of All People . This conversation originally took place February 22nd, 2022 and was recorded live via Zoom. This program is presented in conjunction with the launch of our newest online exhibit titled, Pauli Murray: Survi...

This week, writer-director Rebecca Hall discusses her recent Netflix film Passing with Northwestern University professor Dr. Ivy Wilson. This conversation originally took place October 21st, 2021 and was recorded live at the American Writers Museum. Quick programming note: we enter this conversation in progress. We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer.

This week, writers Nancy Johnson and Catherine Adel West discuss Johnson’s hit debut novel The Kindest Lie . This conversation originally took place February 8th, 2022 and was recorded live at the American Writers Museum. We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer. AWM PODCAST NETWORK HOME

This week, AWM Program Director Allison Sansone chats with author Hanif Abdurraqib and illustrator Ashley Evans about their new children’s book Sing, Aretha, Sing! , a striking picture book biography about the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. This conversation originally took place February 2nd, 2022 and was recorded live via Zoom. We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer. AWM PODCAST NETWOR...

This week, author Angela Terry talks about her novel Charming Falls Apart with Olivia Bedi and Katy Mickelson, members of the Chicago Council of the American Writers Museum . This conversation originally took place January 27th, 2021 and was recorded live via Zoom. Throughout this episode, you will hear references to Angela’s new novel, which is now available. The novel is called The Trials of Ade...

This week, for our first episode of 2022, AWM President Carey Cranston sits down with Layla Saad, author of the New York Times bestselling book Me and White Supremacy . This conversation originally took place February 5th, 2020 and was recorded live at the American Writers Museum. Layla will be joining us this coming February 17th for a virtual event to discuss the new edition of Me and White Supr...

This week, tune into a conversation between Jonathan Lethem, award-winning author of The Fortress of Solitude , and Stacie Williams, whose book Bizarro Worlds references Lethem’s characters and storylines to explore racism and gentrification. This conversation originally took place March 15th, 2019 and was recorded live at the American Writers Museum. We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a write...

This week, editors Nina Bennett and Marie Bennett discuss rediscovering and reprinting 1920s author Gertrude Beasley’s banned memoir My First Thirty Years . They are joined by Beasley scholar Dr. Celia Marshik, Professor of English at Stony Brook University. This conversation originally took place December 8th, 2021 and was recorded live via Zoom. We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer. A...

This week, bestselling author Scott Turow discusses his novel The Last Trial with Olivia Bedi, a member of the AWM Board of Trustees. This conversation originally took place June 24th, 2020 and was recorded live via Zoom. We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer. AWM PODCAST NETWORK HOME

This week, award-winning writers Sigrid Nunez and Charlotte Wood discuss Nunez’s 2020 novel What Are You Going Through . This conversation originally took place September 24th, 2020 and was recorded live via Zoom. We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer. AWM PODCAST NETWORK HOME