Creative, Inspired, ALIVE

Hello Protagonists! Welcome to another episode of the Creative, Inspired, ALIVE podcast—where we go behind the scenes with the storytellers shaping our culture. Our guest, Mara Brock Akil , is an award-winning writer, producer, director, and showrunner. At the age of 30, she became the youngest African American showrunner on broadcast network television with her sitcom Girlfriends . She created BE...

Hello, Protagonists! Welcome to another episode of the Creative, Inspired, ALIVE podcast—where we go behind the scenes with the storytellers shaping our culture. Our guest, Jessica Goldstein, is a style, arts, and humor writer. Her work has appeared in The New York Times , The Washington Post , Marie Claire , Vulture , and the humor site McSweeney’s Internet Tendency . Her debut novel, Retro , pub...

Hello, Protagonists! Welcome to another episode of the Creative, Inspired, ALIVE podcast—where we go behind the scenes with the storytellers shaping our culture. Our guest, Sarah MacLean, is a New York Times , Washington Post & USA Today bestselling author. Vulture Magazine writes - “MacLean is a master at weaving passion and vulnerability equally in her characters. When it comes to historical rom...

Hello, Protagonists! Welcome to another episode of the Creative, Inspired, ALIVE podcast—where we go behind the scenes with the storytellers shaping our culture. Our next guest, Donna Jackson Nakazawa , is an award-winning science journalist and an internationally-recognized speaker whose work explores the intersection of neurobiology and human emotion. Her book, Girls on the Brink: Helping Our Da...

Hello, Protagonists! Welcome to another episode of the Creative, Inspired, ALIVE podcast—where we go behind the scenes with the storytellers shaping our culture. Our next guest, Laurie Frankel , is the New York Times bestselling, award-winning author known for emotional, character-driven fiction exploring modern family dynamics, including This Is How It Always Is , One Two Three , and Family Famil...

Hello, Protagonists! Welcome to another episode of the Creative, Inspired, ALIVE podcast—where we go behind the scenes with the storytellers shaping our culture. Our next guests are three amazing book publicists from Lavender PR–Carla Bruce, Brittani Hilles, and Amelia Possanza. This team has over three decades of combined experience at publishers like HarperCollins, Little, Brown, Riverhead Press...

Hello, Protagonists! Welcome to another episode of the Creative, Inspired, ALIVE podcast—where we go behind the scenes with the storytellers shaping our culture. Our next guest, Stacey Lee , is a NYT and Indie bestselling author of historical and contemporary YA and middle grade fiction, including The Downstairs Girl , a Reese’s Book Club pick, Kill Her Twice , a school Library Journal best book o...

Hello, Protagonists! Welcome to another episode of the Creative, Inspired, ALIVE podcast—where we go behind the scenes with the storytellers shaping our culture. Our next guest, Rebecca Serle , is the New York Times bestselling author of Once and Again , Expiration Dates , One Italian Summer , In Five Years , and The Dinner List , to name a few. Serle also developed the hit TV adaptation Famous in...

This spring, I’m going to try a small experiment: a live studio for writers actively building a novel, where I’ll read your opening pages and we’ll work on them together, live. ____ Atelier Skye: The Studio for Serious Novelists Here’s what this will look like: Twelve novelists. Six Saturdays. Live sessions. Direct developmental critique. No recordings. No passive consumption. A working studio. Th...

Hello, Protagonists! Welcome to another episode of the Creative, Inspired, ALIVE podcast—where we go behind the scenes with the storytellers shaping our culture. Our next guest, Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, is the author of the instant New York Times bestselling novels The Nest (named a best book of the year by People, the Washington Post, and NPR) and Good Company (a Read with Jenna selection). Her w...

Hello, Protagonists! Welcome to another episode of the Creative, Inspired, ALIVE podcast—where we go behind the scenes with the storytellers shaping our culture. Our next guests, Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegmund-Broka , are a married Romance writing team! They met and fell in love in high school. Austin went on to graduate from Harvard, while Emily graduated from Princeton. Together, they are t...

Hello, Protagonists! Welcome to another episode of the Creative. Inspired. ALIVE podcast—where we go behind the scenes with the storytellers shaping our culture. Our guest, TARA MOHR, is an internationally renowned coach and educator on women’s leadership and well-being. She is also the author of Playing Big: Practical Wisdom for Women Who Want to Speak Up, Create, and Lead , which empowers women...

Hello, Protagonists! Welcome to another episode of the Creative. Inspired. ALIVE podcast—where we go behind the scenes with the storytellers shaping our culture. Our guest, Deepa Anappara , won the Edgar Award for Best Novel and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction for her debut novel, Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line . Anappara is also the co-editor of Letters to a Writer of Colour , a...

Hello, Protagonists! Welcome to another episode of the Creative, Inspired, Alive podcast—where we go behind the scenes with the storytellers shaping our culture. New Year, New Name! - Creative. Inspired. Happy is now Creative, Inspired, ALIVE! Our guest today is Roshani Chokshi, New York Times Bestselling author . Her books have been translated into over two dozen languages, and one of them was ev...

Happy New Year, Protagonists! Welcome to our (slightly) new name and logo. In this Letters from the Creative Life post, you can read about what this new name means to us, and what you can look forward to here in the upcoming year. xo, Joanna & Evelyn What does ALIVE mean? Finding my Tentacle and Showing Up All the Way to Life Last year, Evelyn invited me to bring some elements of my creativity coa...

(This is the audio version of our latest Substack .) In this post, you’ll find our 2026 preview, including: 🎉 Our (Slightly) New Name 📚 Book Club Picks for the first months of 2026 🫶🏼 Mini Creativity Coaching sessions coming next year 📖 January Book Club invite + Discussion Questions More details in our Substack HERE ! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscri...

Today we have a special holiday edition of the show for you. Our guests are Emily Stone , author of Yours for the Season, and Matthew Norman , author of Grace and Henry’s Holiday Movie Marathon . Today, we talk about: * the ins and outs of writing books that are timed for a specific season or holiday, * balancing light and heavy topics in fiction, such as love and grief, * what to do when no one s...

Welcome back to Letters from the Creative Life . These occasional essays explore the quieter corners of living: small reflections on art, ambition, and the tender balancing act of building a meaningful life in a noisy world. Think of them as letters from my life to yours. If you’re listening to this on a podcasting platform rather than Substack, this will be the last episode of this podcast season...

My guest today is Simon & Schuster senior editor Lara Jones , who also happens to be my editor for The Incredible Kindness of Paper . Today, we talk about: * how she became an editor, * an explanation of Big 5 publisher structure and their imprints (like Atria and Emily Bestler Books, under the umbrella of Simon & Schuster) * the difference between women's fiction and romance genres, * what editor...

My guest today is New York Times bestselling author Clare Leslie Hall . Her novel, Broken Country , was also a Reese's Book Club pick earlier this year. Today, we talk about: * what stories draw Clare's attention, * the importance of backlist and how those books can come back to surprise you * pen names and their purpose in publishing, * how she harnesses ideas once they appear, * blending genres:...

Hello, Protagonists! My guest today on CREATIVE. INSPIRED. HAPPY is Hattie Williams, a former book publicist whose debut novel, Bitter Sweet , is about... a book publicist who falls for a legendary author she's working for . Hattie has not only worked in publishing as a publicist but also in marketing and editorial, and before that, she was a musician and songwriter who has toured across Europe. T...

Welcome to another episode of the Creative. Inspired. Happy. podcast—where we go behind the scenes with the storytellers shaping our culture. My guest today is Nikki Erlick, New York Times Bestselling author of The Measure , which was a TODAY Show/Read with Jenna book pick. Nikki's work has been translated into 24 languages worldwide, and her newest novel, The Poppy Fields , is out now . Today, we...

Hello, Protagonists, Welcome back to Letters from the Creative Life . These occasional essays explore the quieter corners of living: small reflections on art, ambition, and the tender balancing act of building a meaningful life in a noisy world. Think of them as letters from my life to yours. Enjoy! The Invisible Thread: What Authors and Readers Offer Each Other Years ago, when I was still unpubli...

My guest today on CREATIVE. INSPIRED. HAPPY is Lisa Jewell, #1 New York Times and international bestselling author of 24 novels . Her latest psychological thriller, Don't Let Him In , is out now . Today, we talk about: * Lisa's preferred reading format—physical books, ebooks or audio books—and her “dark” secret as a reader, * Why she writes and what has kept her going in such a long and successful...

How changing my perspective of ordinary moments became my quiet rebellion. Welcome back to Letters from the Creative Life . These occasional essays explore the quieter corners of living: small reflections on art, ambition, and the tender balancing act of building a meaningful life in a noisy world. Think of them as letters from my life to yours. Enjoy! This is the audio version of an essay I wrote...