AWM Author Talks

This week, historian and author Kelly Lytle Hernández sits down with writer Michael Zapata to discuss her book Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands . The recently released book fills in one of the largest gaps in our history textbooks: the 1910 Mexican Revolution, which remade both Mexico and the United States. This conversation originally took place May 15, 2022 at the in...

This week, historian and author David W. Blight talks with scholar Keidrick Roy about the work and legacy of Frederick Douglass. Blight edited the recently published collection of Douglass’s public writings from the Library of America. This edition is the largest single-volume selection of Douglass’s writings ever published, including 34 speeches and 67 pieces of journalism. This episode is presen...

This week, author David Maraniss discusses his new book Path Lit By Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe , the definitive biography of a great American athlete who struggled most of his life to overcome racist stereotypes. 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 fina...

This week, bestselling mystery novelist Sara Paretsky chats with Booklist editor Donna Seaman about Overboard , the latest book in Paretsky’s “V.I. Warshawski” detective series. This conversation originally took place May 15th, 2022 at the American Writers Museum and was recorded live as part of the museum’s inaugural American Writers Festival . We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer.

This week, beloved children’s book authors Andrea Beaty and Betsy Bird chat about Beaty’s career, her writing process, the publishing industry, and how much fun it is to write for kids. This conversation originally took place May 15th, 2022 at the American Writers Museum and was recorded live as part of the Museum’s inaugural American Writers Festival . We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a wri...

This week, singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson and writer Bekah Brunstetter discuss the process of adapting The Notebook , the romance novel by Nicholas Sparks, into a musical for the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. The world premiere musical opens September 6th, 2022. Learn more here. This conversation originally took place August 17th, 2022 and was recorded live at the American Writers Museum. We h...

This week, author and Broadway director Schele Williams discusses her children’s picture book Your Legacy: A Bold Reclaiming of Our Enslaved History with journalist Arionne Nettles. This conversation was recorded live at the American Writers Museum on May 15, 2022 as part of the inaugural American Writers Festival . We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer. AWM PODCAST NETWORK HOME

This week, author Kim Michele Richardson discusses her new book The Book Woman’s Daughter with American Writers Museum Program Director Allison Sansone. This conversation was recorded live for the American Writers Festival on May 15, 2022 in Chicago. We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer. AWM PODCAST NETWORK HOME

This week, journalist and author Kosoko Jackson discusses his young adult novel Survive the Dome with writer and educator Jacoby Cochran. The Hate U Give meets Internment in this pulse-pounding thriller about an impenetrable dome around Baltimore that is keeping the residents in and information from going out during a city-wide protest. This conversation was recorded live at the American Writers F...

This week, acclaimed writers Maxine Hong Kingston and Viet Thanh Nguyen discuss Kingston’s writing and legacy in light of the new collection of Kingston’s work from the Library of America , edited by Nguyen. This conversation was recorded live for the American Writers Festival on May 15, 2022 in Chicago. We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer. AWM PODCAST NETWORK HOME

This week, bestselling author Sudhir Venkatesh discusses his new book, The Tomorrow Game: Rival Teenagers, Their Race for a Gun, and a Community United to Save Them . This conversation originally took place July 6th, 2022 and was recorded live at the American Writers Museum. We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer. AWM PODCAST NETWORK HOME

On July 11th, 1960, Harper Lee’s iconic novel To Kill A Mockingbird was originally published. To celebrate the 62nd anniversary of this literary event, this week screenwriter Aaron Sorkin chats with professor Ivy Wilson about how he adapted Lee’s novel for the stage. This conversation was recorded for the American Writers Festival on May 15th, 2022, which featured more than 75 leading writers from...

This is a special week…it is our 100th episode! To celebrate, we’re counting down our top ten most listened-to podcasts from the past three years and sharing highlights from each. From poets to journalists to novelists and more, we hope you enjoy entering the minds of these writers. Listen to the full episodes below: Alice McDermott, Joseph O'Neill & Daniel Mulhall : Irish-American Writers and...

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.