The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan

Literary Hub has a new podcast! Hosted by LH podcasts editor Drew Broussard, this new weekly show goes behind the scenes at Lit Hub, diving deeper into everything interesting, dynamic, strange, and wonderful in literary culture. Featuring appearances by Lit Hub staff, recurring columnists like Kristen Arnett and Maris Kreizman, and special guests talking about the news of the day and so much more....

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this edition of The Literary Life, John Grisham is live at Books and Books in Coral Gables for a great night with a room full of readers, basking in the brilliance of a master storyteller. John's new book is The Exchange, and he brings back Mitch McDeer, the hero of The Firm -- and he talks with Mitchell Kaplan about this new book and much, much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit meg...

Books & Books recently had the pleasure of hosting three-time National Book Award finalist and best-selling author Lauren Groff, presenting her new novel, The Vaster Wilds. The New York Times calls it “a lonely novel of hunger and survival.” The brilliant Groff reads from her adventure novel and answers questions from her audience of fans. This new episode of The Literary Life was recorded at Book...

Nathan Hill is the guest on this edition of The Literary Life. His new novel Wellness is one of the most anticipated books of the year: following his critically acclaimed The Nix, Wellness tells the story of a marriage at its inception and then into its future. Two days after Oprah selected Wellness for her book club, Nathan visited Books and Books and his humor, poignancy, and flat-out brilliance...

Books and Books in Coral Gables, our flagship store, is right across the street from the Coral Gables Cinema. Our indie bookstore so close to this indie cinema is my idea of heaven. Over the years, we've had many collaborations and just a few weeks ago, during the cinema's first run showing of Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, Kai Bird, the co-author of American Prometheus (which Christopher Nolan...

Imagine this: my guest has published over 105 novels and has sold over 450 million copies of his books. That's right, 450 million copies. That's the output of Dean Koontz and my revealing conversation with him covers lots of territory: his book collection, his love of reading, his new works, his thoughts on artificial intelligence, his writing process, how he researches, his openness about overcom...

Campbell McGrath is among South Florida's most revered poets recognized with the MacArthur Genius Award, a Kingsley Tufts poetry Award and by admirers from Robert Pinsky to Elizabeth Alexander. His newest collection is Fever of Unknown Origin and on this edition of The Literary Life, we celebrate its publication with a reading at the Coral Gables location of Books & Books. Introducing Campbell is...

On this edition of The Literary Life, what makes for a happy life, a fulfilling life? Robert Waldinger and Mark Schulz, the directors of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, have just published The Good Life: Life Lessons from the World's Longest Scientific Study on Happiness. Their invaluable insights emerge from the revealing personal stories of hundreds of participants in the Harvard study t...

At a time when the state of Florida has become ground zero for those who want to silence the voices of so many, we at Books & Books found it critical to bring Chasten Buttigieg to the Miami area to celebrate the publication of the young-adult edition of his memoir, I Have Something to Tell You. Chasten was joined in conversation with the Deputy Executive Director of the national LGBTQ Task Force,...

Anne Berest, the author of The Postcard -- one of the most acclaimed and beloved French novels of recent years -- came to Books & Books and dazzled a room full of readers. Let's join those readers on this episode of The Literary Life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ana Veciana-Suarez is the author of several books, including the historical novel Dulcinea, the young adult novel, Flight to Freedom, and a collection of essays, Birthday Parties in Heaven: Thoughts on Life, Love, Grief, and Other Matters of the Heart. A previous novel, The Chin Kiss King, was nominated for the prestigious IMPAC Award. In 2019 she won a Cintas Fellowship for Creative Writing for h...

On this edition of The Literary Life, an evening of readings at Books and Books from the 2022 Prison Writing Awards Anthology. The evening was sponsored by PEN America's Prison and Justice Writing Program along with Exchange for Change, a Miami-based organization whose mission is as follows: "We believe in the value of every voice, and we give our students an opportunity to express themselves with...

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder is confirmation yet again of David Grann's prodigious talent. Like he did in Killers of the Flower Moon and The Lost City of Z, David has taken a story that, while not unknown, is not known enough, and he brings it to life in all its exoticism and savagery. David Grann is my guest on this episode of The Literary Life, and his talk was recorded in...

Photographer, model, and muse to two of the greatest musicians of our time, Pattie Boyd is Mitchell’s guest on this edition of The Literary Life. Her new book, My Life In Pictures (published by Real Art Press) is a stunning collection of her personal photographs capturing the essence and zeitgeist of the Bohemian rock and roll world of the 1960s and early ‘70s. Mitchell spoke to Pattie about all o...

On this edition of The Literary Life, it's my hope that listening to Shelly Read (Go as a River) talk about her life in Western Colorado and its influence on her engaging story of Victoria and how she perseveres over three decades, confronting love and disappointment and the harsh and beautiful reality of her life, will compel you to take a chance on this debut. You won't be sorry. As Bonnie Garmu...

On this edition of The Literary Life, join Ruth Dickey, the Executive Director of the National Book Foundation, and a live audience at Books and Books for an evening honoring Alexandra Chang, Joseph Hahn, Crystal Hana Kim and Alyssa Songsiridej, all recipients of the five under 35 prize selected by past National Book Award winners and finalists, or previous five under 35 honorees. Unfortunately, C...

Alisha Fernandez Miranda is the author of a coming-of-middle age memoir, My What If Year, coming from Zibby Books in 2023. Detailing her year of unpaid internships in the dream jobs of her childhood, the book follows Alisha on her quest to figure out what might have happened if her life had taken a different path. Her story has been featured in Business Insider and Moms Don’t Have Time to Write. A...

Patricia Engel is the author of Infinite Country, a New York Times bestseller and Reese’s Book Club selection; The Veins of the Ocean, winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize; It’s Not Love, It’s Just Paris, winner of the International Latino Book Award; and Vida, a finalist for the Pen/Hemingway and Young Lions Fiction Awards, New York Times Notable Book, and winner of Colombia’s national book...

Tracy Kidder has won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the Robert F. Kennedy Award, among other literary prizes. His books include Mountains Beyond Mountains, Strength in What Remains, The Soul of a New Machine, House, Among Schoolchildren, Old Friends, Hometown, and A Truck Full of Money. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emma Straub is the New York Times-bestselling author of four other novels--All Adults Here, Modern Lovers, The Vacationers, and Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures--and the short story collection Other People We Married. Her books have been published in twenty countries. She and her husband own Books Are Magic, an independent bookstore in Brooklyn, New York. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit meg...

On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan is joined by Quentin Tarantino to discuss his first work of nonfiction, Cinema Speculation, out now from Harper. Quentin Tarantino was born in 1963 in Knoxville, Tennessee. He is the writer-director of nine feature films, the winner of two Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay, and the author of the novel Once Upon a Time in Hollywood....

On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan is joined by Dani Shaprio to discuss her latest novel, Signal Fires, out now from Knopf. ________________________________ Subscribe now to The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you find your podcasts! Dani Shapiro s a best-selling novelist and memoirist and host of the podcast Family Secrets (now in its...

On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan is joined by David Maraniss to discuss his latest book, Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe, out now from Simon & Schuster. David Maraniss is an associate editor at The Washington Post and a distinguished visiting professor at Vanderbilt University. He has won two Pulitzer Prizes for journalism and was a finalist three other times...

On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan is joined by Cory Doctorow to discuss his latest book, Chokepoint Capitalism: How Big Tech and Big Content Captured Creative Labor Markets and How We’ll Win Them Back, out now from Beacon Press. Cory Doctorow is a bestselling science fiction writer and activist. He is a special advisor to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, with whom he has...