DIY MFA Radio

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Alexander Weinstein. Alexander is the author of the collections Universal Love and Children of the New World , which was chosen as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and a best book of the year by NPR, Google, and Electric Literature. His fiction and interviews have appeared in Rolling Stone, World Literature Today, Best American Science Fiction &...

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Emily R. King. Emily is the author of the Hundredth Queen series, along with Before the Broken Star , Into the Hourglass , and Everafter Song in the Evermore Chronicles. Her latest novel is Wings of Fury , which was released earlier this year, and we'll be discussing it today. It is the first in the Wings of Fury duology; the second book, Crown of Cinders...

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Ana Maria Spagna. Ana Maria is the author of Uplake: Restless Essays of Coming and Going and several previous nonfiction books on nature, work, civil, indigenous, and LGBTQ rights. Her previous books include: Reclaimers , stories of elder women reclaiming sacred land and water, which was a finalist for the 2016 Rachel Carson Book Award from the Society of...

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing award-winning debut author Denny S. Bryce. Denny won the RWA Golden Heart® and was a three-time GH finalist, including twice for Wild Women and the Blues . She also writes book reviews for NPR Books and entertainment articles for FROLIC Media. Additionally, the former professional dancer and public relations professional is a self-proclaimed history geek....

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Leslie A. Rasmussen. Leslie was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She graduated with a bachelor's in communications from UCLA and went on to write television comedies for Gerald McRaney, Burt Reynolds, Roseanne Barr, Norm McDonald, Drew Carey, and Ralph Macchio, as well as The Wild Thornberrys and Sweet Valley High . She later earned a master's...

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Tasha Suri. Tasha is an award-winning author, occasional librarian and cat owner. Her books include the Books of Ambha duology and The Jasmine Throne , (which is out now). When she isn't writing, Tasha likes to cry over TV shows, buy too many notebooks, and indulge her geeky passion for reading about South Asian history. She lives with her family in a mil...

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Jas Rawlinson. Jas is a best-selling author, book coach, and resilience speaker who specialises in stories that change lives. Growing up in a small country town, Jas first fell in love with the power of literature as a young girl, and would often disappear into the world of writing to escape from the family violence in her home. It was here that she made...

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Jeff Arch. Jeff grew up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he spent two of his high school years at a boarding school much like the one depicted in his debut novel Attachments , which we'll be discussing today. In the '70s, he studied film/tv/theater production at Emerson College in Boston and then moved to LA, where he worked as a concert lighting design...

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing my dear friend Thien-Kim Lam. Thien-Kim writes stories about Vietnamese characters who smash stereotypes and find their happy endings. She and I first connected at an entrepreneurship event and instantly bonded over our love of books and our penchant for challenging the status quo of our respective industries. Thien-Kim is also the founder of Bawdy Bookwo...

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Suyi Davies Okungbowa. Suyi is a Nigerian author of fantasy, science fiction and other speculative works inspired by his West-African origins. His new novel, Son of the Storm , is the first in the epic fantasy trilogy called The Nameless Republic, and he is also author of the acclaimed and award-winning godpunk fantasy novel David Mogo . His shorter ficti...

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Rebecca Fish Ewan. Poet and cartoonist, Rebecca's passion is mingling text with visual art, primarily in ink and watercolor, to tell stories of place and memory. Her hybrid-form work has appeared in After the Art, Brevity, Crab Fat, Survivor Zine, Hip Mama, Mutha, TNB, Punctuate & Under the Gum Tree. Her illustrations and essay, "The Deepest Place on Eart...

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Rena Rossner. Rena hails from Miami Beach, Florida. She is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars Program and holds an MA in history from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Her debut novel, The Sisters of the Winter Wood was listed as "One of the 100 Best Books" of the year by Publisher's Weekly. She currently lives in Israel with...

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing C.L. Clark. Cherae graduated from Indiana University's creative writing MFA and was a 2012 Lambda Literary Fellow. In addition to writing, she has had various jobs as she's traveled the world, including: personal trainer, English teacher, editor, or some combination thereof. When she's not writing or working, she's learning languages, doing P90something,...

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing David Yoon. David is the author of the New York Times bestseller Frankly In Love , as well as the upcoming YA novel Super Fake Love Song and adult thriller Version Zero . He also drew the illustrations for his wife Nicola Yoon's #1 New York Times bestseller Everything, Everything . He and his wife are also heading up a new imprint of Random House Children...

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing someone I have the honor of considering both a colleague and friend, Chuck Wendig. Chuck is the New York Times bestselling author of Wanderers , Star Wars: Aftermath , the Miriam Black thrillers, and the Atlanta Burns books, as well as Zer0es and Invasive, alongside other works across comics, games, film, and more. He was a finalist for the John W. Campbe...

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Sophfronia Scott. Sophfronia is a novelist and essayist whose work has appeared in Time, People, O: The Oprah Magazine, as well as many other outlets. Her first novel, All I Need to Get By , was nominated for best new author at the African American Literary Awards and Sophfronia was hailed by Henry Louis Gates Jr. as "one of the best writers of her genera...

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Simon Stephenson. Originally from Edinburgh, Scotland, Simon is a writer and screenwriter now living in LA (with stop-overs in London and San Francisco along the way).  His first book was the memoir Let Not The Waves Of The Sea , about losing his brother Dominic in the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. It won Best First Book at the Scottish Book Awards in 201...

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Jeremy Hance. Jeremy is writer and freelance environmental journalist, who also happens to cohabitate with mental illnesses. He has named his OCD Steve and his depression goes by the name of Malachi. He is the author of the memoir Baggage: Confessions of a Globetrotting Hypochondriac. As a journalist, Jeremy is passionate about wildlife conservation, clim...

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Michelle Cox. Michelle is the author of the multiple award-winning Henrietta and Inspector Howard series. She also writes Novel Notes of Local Lore, a weekly blog dedicated to Chicago's forgotten residents. Her books have been praised by Kirkus, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and more. It's highly possible that Michell may have once lived i...

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing the award-winning author and my friend, Leanna Renee Hieber. Leanna is an actress, playwright and the author of thirteen Gothic, Gaslamp Fantasy novels for adults and teens. Her books have been published by Tor and Kensington Books and they include the Strangely Beautiful saga, the Magic Most Foul trilogy, the Eterna Files trilogy and The Spectral City se...

  Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Cynthia Leitich Smith. Cynthia is a New York Times bestselling author known for her award-winning children's and YA books. She writes both realistic contemporary stories and fantastical narratives, and most recently, she won the American Indian Youth Literature YA Award for Hearts Unbroken published by Candlewick. Today we'll be discussing one of her mo...

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Ellie Cypher. Ellie Cypher grew up in Northern California, received her B.S. in Neuroscience and Behavior from UC Santa Cruz and got her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the University of California Davis. She has lived and worked all over the world from New Zealand to Tasmania to the United Kingdom. When she is not writing, you can find her spending he...

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Sharon Harrigan. Sharon is the author of the new novel Half , which has received accolades from places like Booklist, Publisher's Weekly, Foreword Reviews, and the New York Journal of Books. She earned her a B.A. from Barnard College and an MFA in Creative Writing from Pacific University. She is also the author of the memoir Playing with Dynamite and she...

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Tim Waggoner. Tim is a critically-acclaimed author of over fifty novels and seven short story collections. He writes original dark fantasy and horror, as well as media tie-ins. He's also the author of a comprehensive book on writing horror called Writing in the Dark . His novels include Like Death , which is considered a modern classic in the horror genre...

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Julie Carrick Dalton. As a journalist, Julie has published more than a thousand articles in The Boston Globe, BusinessWeek, The Hollywood Reporter, Electric Literature, and other publications. She contributes to Dead Darlings, Writer Unboxed, and The Chicago Review of Books. A Tin House alum and graduate of GrubStreet's Novel Incubator, Julie holds a mast...