Finding the Throughline with Kate Hanley

Welcome to part two of my interview with Alma Katsu, award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of nine novels, including the historical horror novels, "The Hunger," "The Deep," and "The Fervor," and the spy novels, "Red Widow" and "Red London." Alma's newest book is "Fiend," which examines our fascination with the ultra rich in a setting that mixes dark fantasy with horror. In this episo...

My guest this week is Alma Katsu, the award-winning, critically acclaimed, New York Times bestselling author of nine novels. Alma has written two spy novels, "Red Widow" and "Red London," inspired by her 35-year career working in intelligence. She also writes novels that combine historical fiction with supernatural and horror elements."The Hunger" was a re-imagining of the story of the Donner Part...

In this final installment of my interview with Dolan Perkins Valdez, the New York Times bestselling author of “Wench,” “Bomb,” “Take My Hand,” and most recently, Happyland, we get a peek at where her personal throughline is leading her next and hear her answers to my fast final five questions about what she’s currently reading, listening to, and dreaming of eating. We covered:The visual artists wh...

Dolan Perkins Valdez, multiple award-winning author of “Wench,” “Bomb,” and “Take My Hand.” Her newest book, “Happyland,” is inspired by the true story of a secret community of formerly enslaved people in Appalachia. In this episode, we get into the nitty gritty of the ideas, thought processes, and beliefs that fuel her work, including:The part of writing a novel that can make her feel like “the b...

My guest this week is Dolan Perkins-Valdez, the New York Times bestselling author of the novels “Wench,” “Balm,” “Take My Hand,” and most recently, “Happy Land.” Her books are all inspired by fascinating facets of American history that are in danger of being forgotten. They have earned awards from the NAACP, the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and the American Bar Association. And...

Welcome to the final installment of my interview with Ann Tashi Slater, author of the new book, “Traveling in Bardo, the Art of Living in an Impermanent World.”- How staying attuned to the seasons inspires her (and the Japanese word for an aspect of summer I had never heard before but reminds me of my favorite place to spend a summer morning, AKA my porch)- The two books (and their authors) that h...

Welcome to part two of my interview with Ann Tashi Slater, author of the new book, “Traveling in Bardo: The Art of Living in an Impermanent World.” Bardo is a Buddhist concept that describes a transitional state, such as between death and rebirth, but also about being alive and in between being born and dying. In Traveling in Bardo, Anne shares how we can apply Buddhist teachings on acceptance, in...

My guest this week is Ann Tashi Slater, who for decades has written about her Tibetan American heritage and about Buddhism in Western society for the New Yorker, the Paris Review, the New York Times, and the Washington Post, among other outlets. Her brand new book, “Traveling in Bardo:The Art of Living in an Impermanent World,” helps us find meaning, happiness, and hope in an impermanent world. An...

Welcome back to the final installment of my interview with Nancy Johnson, author of “People of Means,” which was one of People magazine's most anticipated books of 2025, and “The Kindest Lie”, which was a book of the month club and Target book club selection. In today’s episode, I felt like we were getting a tour through Nancy’s vision board–as well as the things she’s doing to help make those vis...

Welcome back to part two of my interview with Nancy Johnson, author of “People of Means,” a story of class, culture, mothers and daughters, and the fight for racial equality in the not so distant American past. Nancy's first book, The Kindest Lie, was a Book of the Month Club selection and a Target book club pick. This episode gets into some real emotional terrain, including:- Her love-hate relati...

My guest this week is Nancy Johnson, whose newest novel, “People of Means,” is a propulsive story of race, class, and resistance in 1960s Nashville and 1992 Chicago. It was also one of People Magazine's most anticipated books of 2025. Nancy's debut novel, “The Kindest Lie,” was a Target book club pick and a New York Times editor's choice. A native of Chicago's South Side, Nancy has worked for more...

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In the second part of my conversation with Lisa See, author of Lady Tan's Circle of Women, The Island of Sea Women, and more, we talked about the interior side of writing–things like dealing with your inner critic and dealing with the parts of writing and of life you would really rather not do, including:- The fascinating tidbit of information her research taught her about Los Angeles- How the Chi...

This week my guest is Lisa See, the New York Times bestselling author of so many beloved books, including Lady Tan's Circle of Women, The Island of Sea Women, Snow Flower and the Secret Ban, Shanghai Girls, and Dreams of Joy. Lisa's books often center the experience of women across time and cultures, particularly stories that have been lost, forgotten, or deliberately covered up. This week’s episo...

My guest this week is Catherine Bush, whose critically-acclaimed fiction (her book “Blaze Island” was named a “Globe and Mail” best book of the year and “The Rules of Engagement” was a “New York Times” notable book) often addresses the climate question. For example, in her most recent collection, “Skin”, a man falls in love with the wind. In this final part of our interview, we covered:- How and w...

In part two of my conversation with Catherine Bush, author of five novels and the story collection “Skin,” we did a deep dive into the inner work required to nurture a multi-decade writing career, including: - Making peace with your personal process–even when it’s slow, messy, and meandering- The story in her new collection that her editor wanted to nix–and how she made it work- Embracing Annie Di...

This week my guest is Catherine Bush, author of five novels, including the widely acclaimed “Blaze Island,” “Accusation,” and “The Rules of Engagement.” Catherine's brand new book is “Skin,” her first collection of stories. Catherine is a professor of creative writing at the University of Guelph and was a 2024 Landhouse Fellow at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society. She lives in T...

In this third and final installment of my conversation with author and Pushcart-nominated essayist and writing teacher (and new mom!) Sheree L. Greer, she said “we’re veering into therapy territory now, Kate,” when I asked her if there was anything she was in the process of shifting, which I took as a very good sign that we were getting into some very juicy thoughts! - Being the first person in yo...

In part two of my interview with Puschart-nominated essayist, novelist, and writing instructor Sheree L. Greer, we get into the nitty gritty of the thought processes, ideas, and attitudes that shape her work and her identity. We talked about:- Pushing your creative boundaries to try new genres and forms- How she gets through the discomfort of sharing personal work, and the payoff that comes on the...

My guest this week is writer, author, teacher, and arts administrator, Sheree L. Greer. Sheree is the author of two novels, “Let the Lover Be” and “A Return to Arms,” and an award-nominated essayist, with two of her essays having been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Sheree is also the founder of Kitchen Table Literary Arts—a Tampa Bay writing community dedicated to nurturing the literary art of Bl...

Welcome back to the final installment of my interview with Jinwoo Park, debut author of Oxford Soju Club, which is coming out in September of this year. In today’s episode, Jinwoo shared some really great insights about how embracing your creativity filters out into all parts of your life, especially relationships. I left this conversation feeling like I was walking on clouds–very hopeful and insp...

In this second part of my interview with Jinwoo Park, author of the soon to be released “Oxford Soju Club,” an award-winning thriller, we talk about the interior side of building a life as a writer. We discussed:- How sharing social media content helps him be a better writer- Staying open to feedback- Appreciating the one- and two-star reviews- The hard-won realization that publishing a book isn’t...

My guest this week is Jinwoo Park, author of the soon-to-be-released “Oxford Soju Club,” which is coming out in September of this year—a riveting story about Korean spies, C.I.A. agents, false identities, love, and betrayal. It also earned Park the Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers Award from the Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop. We covered: - Using writing as a form of therapy to “figure myself out”-...

In this final part of my interview with Shannon Watts, activist and author of the brand-new book “Fired Up: How to Turn Your Spark into a Flame and Come Alive at Any Age,” we get a look at what's coming up next for her. I also ask her what she's reading, watching, listening to, drinking in her morning cup, and what she'd have for dinner tonight if she could have anything in the world. We talked ab...

In the second part of my interview with Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, host of the Substack newsletter "Playing with Fire", and author of the brand new book “Fired Up: How to Turn Your Spark into a Flame and Come Alive at Any Age”, we get into the mindset side of writing. We covered: - Reckoning with the enormity of needing to produce 60,000+ words for a book- The "small miracle" or...