Hopeton Hay Podcasts

I was really excited to interview my friend and fellow book lover, Deone Wilhite.  Deone and I were in a book club together in the mid-1990s in Austin, Texas. He is a community activist, a member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity, a long-suffering Dallas Cowboys fan, and a not-so-suffering UT Longhorns football fan.  On Facebook, he is well known for his book nerd alerts, grabbing the attention of h...

Join Hopeton Hay on Diverse Voices Book Review as he talks with Nicholas Buccola , author of One Man’s Freedom: Goldwater, King, and the Struggle Over an American Idea . Buccola explores how two iconic leaders—Barry Goldwater and Martin Luther King Jr.—shaped contrasting visions of freedom during a pivotal era in American history. Nicholas  is a writer, lecturer, and teacher who specializes in the...

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Tayyba Kanwal about her debut story collection, TALKING WITH BOYS .  In the conversation, Kanwal shared how her stories explore themes of cultural identity and female agency through the lens of Pakistani-Americans. With linked characters, the tales span Houston, Lahore, Pakistan; and Dubai, going as far back as 1950 to 2020. Tayyba Kanwal is...

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Elizabeth MacBride , co-author with Seth Levine of CAPITAL EVOLUTION: The New American Economy .  In the interview MacBride explores how the evolution of capitalism in America has led to systemic inequalities, discusses the impact of shareholder primacy and neoliberalism, and highlights the need for reforms that restore the middle class, prom...

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay and contributor Maya Hay interviewed Mona Awad , author of the novel WE LOVE YOU, BUNNY, the prequel-sequel to her 2019 novel BUNNY. WE LOVE YOU BUNNY is a darkly comic thriller set in the world of an elite MFA program, where a successful young author is kidnapped by her former classmates and forced to hear their point of view of the account of secret ri...

Diverse Voices Book Review contributor Chaitali Sen interviewed Gemini Wahhaj , author of the short story collection KATY FAMILY . In the conversation, they discussed the inspirations and themes behind the short story collection, exploring the complexities of immigrant life in Houston, the interplay of personal experience and social critique, and the role of discomfort and humor in storytelling. T...

This is the final of three episodes in the Diverse Voices Book Review Limited Podcast Series: Secret Lives of Fairy Tales.  Created and hosted by fairy-tale scholar and professor Kimberly J. Lau , the third episode features Kay Turner, a fairy tales scholar and editor of Transgressive Tales: Queering the Grimms . In the episode, Turner shares how she uses queer theory and the legacy of liberation...

This is the second of three episodes in the Diverse Voices Book Review Limited Podcast Series: Secret Lives of Fairy Tales.  Created and hosted by fairy-tale scholar and professor Kimberly J. Lau , the second episode features Ruth Bottigheimer , a fairy tales scholar and author of Grimms' Bad Girls and Bold Boys: The Moral and Social Vision of the Tales. In the episode, they discuss the hidden gen...

This is the first of three episodes in the Diverse Voices Book Review Limited Podcast Series: Secret Lives of Fairy Tales.  Created and hosted by fairy-tale scholar and professor Kimberly J. Lau , the first episode features Sarah Hines, a scholar of children's literature and the history of book publishing, with a special focus on Andrew Lang's Colored Fairy Book series and its illustrations. In th...

Diverse Voices Book Review has produced a new three-episode podcast limited series, Ever Wonder...the Secret Lives of Fairy Tales.  The creator and host is Kimberly J. Lau , a Professor of Literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she teaches courses on fairy tales, monster studies, popular culture, and twentieth- and twenty-first-century women’s fiction, all within the context...

Diverse Voices Book Review guest host Amran Gowani interviewed Dennard Dayle , author of the Civil War satire HOW TO DODGE A CANNONBALL . The story follows Anders, a White teenage flag twirler whose madcap journey finds him fighting for both armies, claiming to be an octoroon, escaping certain death far too many times, and examining the unresolved hypocrisies at the heart of America’s foundation....

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Chuck Collins , author of BURNED BY BILLIONAIRES: How Concentrated Wealth and Power Are Ruining Our Lives And Planet . The interview explored the impact of extreme wealth concentration on society, covering topics such as the racial wealth divide, climate disruption, affordable housing, and the influence of billionaire dynasties. Collins also...

In this episode of Diverse Voices Book Review, host Hopeton Hay interviewed Jarvis R. Givens , author of AMERICAN GRAMMAR: Race, Education, and the Building of a Nation .  Jarvis reframes the origin story of U.S. education by centering Black and Native experiences. He explains how early schooling was directly tied to land dispossession, slavery, and laws restricting literacy, showing education as...

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviews history professor Marc Egnal about his book CHALLENGING THE MYTHS OF US HISTORY: Seven Short Essays on the Past and the Present .  In this conversation, Egnal challenges the idea that American history is driven by lofty ideals. Instead, he argues that the demands of the upper class for growth and expansion have shaped the nation’s trajectory —...

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviews Amran Gowani , author of the financial thriller and satire LEVERAGE .  Gowani, a former organic chemist and financial analyst, draws from his personal experiences to create a social satire set in high finance.  The protagonist, Ali “Al” Jafar is a rising star at notorious hedge fund Prism Capital, but fortunes change fast on Wall Street. When...

In this episode of Diverse Voices Book Review, Hopeton Hay welcomes back Aaron Philip Clark to discuss THE BLUEST NIGHT , the third installment in his Trevor Finnegan crime series. Set in the seemingly idyllic yet shadowy enclave of Malibu, the novel explores themes of justice, race, and fractured family ties as Trevor and his estranged father, Sean, are forced into an uneasy partnership to invest...

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed David Wright Faladé , author of the novel, THE NEW INTERNATIONALS. Set in post–World War II Paris, Faladé’s novel explores a love triangle between Cécile, a young French Jewish woman; Seb, an ambitious Black student from a French West African colony; and Mack, an African American GI navigating the city’s vibrant yet fractured landscape. Falad...

Diverse Voices Book Review contributor Amanda Moore interviewed Southwestern Law School professor Andrea Freeman about her book, RUIN THEIR CROPS ON THE GROUND: The Politics of Food in the United States, from the Trail of Tears to School Lunch . With thoughtful analysis and a careful examination of historical events, Professor Freeman reveals how the U.S. government’s destruction of food resources...

In this episode of Diverse Voices Book Review, host Hopeton Hay welcomes back Rudy Ruiz , the author of THE BORDER BETWEEN US , which was just released in paperback. In the interview, Ruiz delves into his Mexican American roots and how they have profoundly influenced his writing. He discusses how his personal experiences growing up on the U.S.-Mexico border have shaped the themes and characters in...

In this episode of Diverse Voices Book Review, host Hopeton Hay welcomes back the acclaimed author Walter Mosley for an insightful discussion about his latest novel, GRAY DAWN , the 17th installment in the Easy Rawlins series. In the interview, Walter Mosley discusses the origins and development of his character Easy Rawlins, emphasizing the importance of representing the struggles and resilience...

On the latest episode of Diverse Voices Book Review, host Hopeton Hay welcomed Texas Book Festival’s Literary Director Hannah Gabel and Chief Operations Officer Dalia Azim for an inside look at the upcoming festival, set to take place November 8–9 in downtown Austin. With more than 300 authors slated to appear, the Texas Book Festival 2025 Authors include acclaimed voices such as Ada Limon , Imani...

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Joe Lansdale , author of HATCHET GIRLS , his 14th Hap and Leonard mystery novel. In this podcast episode, Joe Lansdale discusses his prolific writing career, the inspiration behind the Hap and Leonard series, and how his personal experiences and the unique setting of East Texas shape his storytelling. Joe R. Lansdale is the author of nearly f...

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Nathalie Etoke , author of BLACK EXISTENTIAL FREEDOM.  Published in 2022, BLACK EXISTENTIAL FREEDOM explores how Black freedom transcends political and economic success and lies in affirming one's humanity in the face of systemic dehumanization. Etoke draws on historical experiences, Black cultural expressions, and philosophical traditions to...

Diverse Voices Book Review host interviewed Robert Justice, author of the novel A DREAM IN THE DARK. Published in 2024, A DREAM IN THE DARK is his second novel in a planned trilogy focused on wrongful convictions. Justice shared how his novel incorporates themes of deferred dreams, systemic injustice, and jazz motifs, drawing on real-life wrongful conviction cases and literary influences like Ralp...

In October 2018, Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Kyle Longley , author of LBJ's 1968: Power, Politics, and the Presidency in America's Year of Upheaval.  1968 was an unprecedented year in terms of upheaval on numerous scales: political, military, economic, social, cultural. In the United States, perhaps no one was more undone by the events of 1968 than President Lyndon Bain...