DIY MFA Radio

Hey there word nerds! Today I'm thrilled to have author Kiersi Burkhart on the show! Kiersi is an author and freelance writer living in windy, wild Wyoming. She is the co-author, along with Amber J. Keyser, of the middle grade series Quartz Creek Ranch ; four stand alone stories all about a summer horse camp in her own home state of Colorado.   She went to college at a small, and extremely remote...

Hey there word nerds! Today I am delighted to have author Chloe Benjamin on the show! Chloe received an MFA in fiction from the University of Wisconsin, and her first novel, The Anatomy of Dreams , received the Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award and was longlisted for the 2014 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Her latest novel, The Immortalists, received extraordinary pre-publication excitement an...

Hey there word nerds! Today I have the absolute pleasure of interviewing author Georgia Hunter on the show! Georgia's debut novel, We Were the Lucky Ones , is an emotional story about a Jewish family ripped away from each other at the start of the German and Russian occupation of Poland, and their extraordinary journey back to each other. And if that wasn't juicy enough, the novel is actually base...

Hey there word nerds! Today I am delighted to have Rodrigo Hasbún on the show! Rodrigo is a Bolivian novelist whose work has appeared in many top literary magazines such as Granta and Words Without Borders . In 2007, he was selected by the Hay Festival as one of the best Latin American writers under the age of thirty-nine for Bogotá39, and in 2010 he was named one of Granta's Best Young Spanish-La...

Hey there word nerds! Today I am delighted to have Dr. Eucabeth Odhiambo on the show! Eucabeth was born in Kenya and her gorgeous middle grade debut novel, Auma's Long Run ,is inspired by her memories growing up there as well as her own work experiences with children and educators affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa.   I read a lot of books for this show and while I'm not supposed to pick any favorites...

Hey there word nerds! Today I am so excited to have author Stef Penney on the show! S tef is a screenwriter and author. Her debut novel, The Tenderness of Wolves ,was the winner of the Costa Prize for Book of the Year and the Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year, and was translated into thirty languages. Stef followed up this success with her next highly acclaimed novel The Invisible Ones , and her...

Hey there word nerds! Today I am so excited to have bestselling co-authors Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi on the show! Angela and Becca co-founded the popular Writers Helping Writers site, a hub where authors can hone their craft, as well as One Stop for Writers, an innovative online library built to help writers elevate their storytelling. I happen to be part of their current cohort of Residen...

Hey there word nerds! Today I am so excited to have bestselling author Kat Martin on the show! Kat is the author of sixty-eight historical and contemporary romantic suspense novels, and with over sixteen million copies of her books in print in twenty countries outside the US, you could say Kat knows a thing or two about building a long-term career as an author. The first book of her most recent se...

Hey there word nerds! Today I am delighted to have author and editor Joe Fassler on the show! Joe earned his MFA from the University of Iowa Writing Program and is a senior editor at The New Food Economy. His writing has appeared in many journals including The Boston Review, Electric Literature , and Creative Nonfiction , but he's probably most well-known for the author interviews he conducts as p...

Hey there word nerds! Today I am delighted to have author Howard Kaplan on the show! Howard is a native of Los Angeles, but he has lived in Israel and traveled to numerous places across the world, including Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt. He also has had some incredible adventures in the former Soviet Union which, along with his time in Syria, inspired bestselling thriller The Damascus Cover . Publishe...

Hey there word nerds! Today I am delighted to have award-winning author Joan Dempsey on the show!   Joan's writing has been published in numerous places including The Adirondack Review and  Alligator Juniper , and she is the author of This is How it Begins . For this fascinating novel, that is a mix of literary fiction and mystery, she received a significant research grant from the Elizabeth Georg...

Hey there word nerds! Today I am so excited to have author D.P. Lyle on the show! In his writing career, Doug has received a Macavity and Benjamin Franklin Silver Award and has been nominated for a gazillion others including, but nowhere near limited to, the Edgar, Agatha, and Silver Falchion. He is the author of 17 books, including the thriller series of Samantha Cody, Dub Walker, and Jake Longly...

Happy Holidays word nerds! To help you enjoy this special week between Christmas and New Year's, we've got an awesome show for featuring author Stephen Morris! Stephen holds degrees in medieval history and theology from Yale and St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Academy. He is also a former priest of the Russian Orthodox Church. He has written several historical and contemporary fantasy books as...

Hey there word nerds! Today I have the pleasure of talking with author Ada Palmer on the show! Ada is an intellectual historian and the author of the four part science fiction series Terra Ignota. The first book in the series (also Ada's first science fiction novel), Too Like the Lightning, was a Hugo Best Novel Finalist in 2017 and is followed by Seven Surrenders and The Will to Battle which just...

Hey there word nerds! Today I am so excited to have author Ayobami Adebayo on the show! Ayobami's stories have appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies. She holds BA and MA degrees in literature in English as well as an MA in creative writing, and has received numerous fellowships and residencies. Her debut novel, Stay With Me , is set in her home country of Nigeria and was one of the Buz...

Hey there word nerds! Today I have the pleasure of chatting with author Danya Kukafka on the show! Danya's stunning debut novel,  Girl in Snow , received rave reviews right out of the gate from masters of the thriller genre like Paula Hawkins and Lee Child. This achievement is made even more remarkable when you consider that Danya is only 25 years old! After reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower...

Hey there word nerds! Today I am so excited to have doctor and writer Robin Cook on the show! Robin started his medical career as a general surgical resident and finished with an ophthalmology residency at Harvard. His literary career, however, began as he wrote his debut novel, The Year of the Intern , underwater inside a nuclear submarine. He followed this up with his novel Coma , which celebrat...

Hey there word nerds! Today I am delighted to have Jarett Kobek on the show! Jarett published his first novel, I Hate the Internet , last year with a small indie publisher and it immediately took on cult status and received rave reviews. His new book, The Future Won't Be Long , centers on one of the characters (Adeline) featured in I Hate the Internet and is set in my favorite city, New York! List...

Hey there word nerds! I am having the biggest fangirl moment of all time because today I have author A.J. Jacobs on the show! I was first introduced to A.J.'s work back when I was just an itty-bitty baby writer, and heard him give a talk on "faking it until you make it." DIY MFA was barely a twinkle in my eye at that point, so to say I hadn't yet made is a massive understatement. His talk was a li...

Hey there word nerds! Today I have the pleasure of hosting author Kathleen Hill on the show! Kathleen teaches in the MFA program at Sarah Lawrence College, and has also taught and lived in the country of Niger which is also where her debut novel Still Waters in Niger is set. Her debut received many accolades including being named a notable book by the New York and Los Angeles Times . Kathleen is a...

Hey there word nerds! Today I am so excited to have author Gin Phillips on the show! When I received the pitch for Gin's most recent book, Fierce Kingdom , it took my breath away. Not "oh this is cool" kind of take your breath away but punched-in-the-gut, heart-wrenching, "I don't think I can put this book down" kind of take your breath away. Fierce Kingdom is a book about a mother and her son, tr...

Hey there word nerds! Today I have the pleasure of speaking to middle grade author William Meyer! From the Indus River to the Italian Renaissance, no topic has piqued the imagination of this high school history teacher's students as intensely as the study of Ancient Egypt. As a result of both their interest and his own childhood curiosity about the mysteries of that era, he wrote the Horace j. Edw...

Hey there word nerds! Today I am delighted to have executive director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and cofounder of 100 Word Story, Grant Faulkner, on the show! His stories have appeared in dozens of literary magazines, like Tin House and The Southwest Review , plus his essays on creativity have been published in places like the New York Times and Writer's Digest . Grant's latest co...

Hey there word nerds! Today I have the pleasure of hosting novelist and screenwriter Augustus Rose on the show! Augustus has a strong passion for numerous weird, esoteric, and fringe concepts, and found a way to thread them all together in his stunning debut novel, The Readymade Thief . Listen in as we pick apart the many layers of Augustus's strange yet relatable novel, and learn how weave togeth...

Hey there word nerds! Today I have the absolute joy of hosting my dear friend, Jodi Kendall, on the show! Jodi and I go way back, to those days when DIY MFA was just the glimmer of an idea tickling the back of my brain. Jodi has nurtured a lifelong passion for animals, and has now turned that passion into a beautiful middle grade novel. I am so excited to share Jodi's debut, The Unlikely Story of...