The Avid Reader Show

Good Afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today we are happy to have as our guest Colum McCann. Colum has written Letters to a Young Writer: Some Practical and Philosophical Advice, published earlier this month by Random House. Colum is the award winning internationally bestselling author of Let The Great World Spin, Zoli, Dancer, This Side of Brightness and Songdo...

Good Afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today we are happy to have as our guest Colum McCann. Colum has written Letters to a Young Writer: Some Practical and Philosophical Advice, published earlier this month by Random House. Colum is the award winning internationally bestselling author of Let The Great World Spin, Zoli, Dancer, This Side of Brightness and Songdo...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today we are happy to have with us Paul La Farge author of The Night Ocean, published just last month by Penguin. Paul also wrote The Artist of the Missing, Haussmann, or the Distinction, Luminous Airplanes and The Facts of Winter. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Bard Fiction Prize and a fellowship from the NY...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today we are happy to have with us Paul La Farge author of The Night Ocean, published just last month by Penguin. Paul also wrote The Artist of the Missing, Haussmann, or the Distinction, Luminous Airplanes and The Facts of Winter. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Bard Fiction Prize and a fellowship from the NY...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Dan Chain SHAWN, author of Ill Will, published in March by Ballantine. Dan’s other works include the short story collection Stay Awake, the best seller Await Your Reply and Among The Missing a finalist for the National Book Award. Dan’s work has appeared in Best American Short Stories and the O. Henry Pri...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Dan Chain SHAWN, author of Ill Will, published in March by Ballantine. Dan’s other works include the short story collection Stay Awake, the best seller Await Your Reply and Among The Missing a finalist for the National Book Award. Dan’s work has appeared in Best American Short Stories and the O. Henry Pri...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Cara Hoffman, author of Running, published in February by Simon and Shuster. Cara is the author of the previous novels So Much Pretty, and Be Safe I Love you. She writes for the NYT, The Paris Review, Salon and NPR among others. She’s the winner of a Sundance Filmmaking Award and a MacDowell Fellowship. S...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Cara Hoffman, author of Running, published in February by Simon and Shuster. Cara is the author of the previous novels So Much Pretty, and Be Safe I Love you. She writes for the NYT, The Paris Review, Salon and NPR among others. She’s the winner of a Sundance Filmmaking Award and a MacDowell Fellowship. S...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of the Avid Reader. Today our guest is Ian Robertson, author of The Stress Test: How Pressure Can Make You Stronger and Sharper. Published in January by Bloomsbury USA. Ian is the Professor of Psychology at Trinity College, Dublin and the Founding Director of Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience. He has published in Nature, Brain, Journal...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of the Avid Reader. Today our guest is Ian Robertson, author of The Stress Test: How Pressure Can Make You Stronger and Sharper. Published in January by Bloomsbury USA. Ian is the Professor of Psychology at Trinity College, Dublin and the Founding Director of Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience. He has published in Nature, Brain, Journal...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Jami Attenberg, author of All Grown Up, published just yesterday by Houghton Mifflin. Jami’s debut collection of stories, Instant Love was published in 2006 followed by her novels The Kept Man and The Melting Season. Her best seller The Middlesteins appeared in 2012 and her latest work before All Grown up...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Jami Attenberg, author of All Grown Up, published just yesterday by Houghton Mifflin. Jami’s debut collection of stories, Instant Love was published in 2006 followed by her novels The Kept Man and The Melting Season. Her best seller The Middlesteins appeared in 2012 and her latest work before All Grown up...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Steve Erickson author of Shadowbahn, just published last week by Blue Rider Press, an imprint of Penguin. Steve is the author of ten novels, including (some of my favorites) Days Between Stations, Tours of the Black Clock, Arc d’X, Amnesiascope and Zeroville. He’s written for everyone---Esquire, Rolling S...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Steve Erickson author of Shadowbahn, just published last week by Blue Rider Press, an imprint of Penguin. Steve is the author of ten novels, including (some of my favorites) Days Between Stations, Tours of the Black Clock, Arc d’X, Amnesiascope and Zeroville. He’s written for everyone---Esquire, Rolling S...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Élan Mastai, author of All Our Wrong Todays, his first novel. Elan is first a screenwriter, and in fact, All Our Wrong Todays published just last week, by Dutton/Penguins going to be a movie and Elan is in the process of writing the screenplay for it right now. Elan has been writing for about fifteen year...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of the Avid Reader. Today our guest is Erica Ferencik, author of The River at Night published just last week by Scout Press an imprint of Simon and Shuster. Erica is a graduate of the MFA program in Creative Writing at BU. Her work has appeared in Salon and the Boston Globe and on NPR. You can find out more about her work on her website. The R...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of the Avid Reader. Today our guest is Erica Ferencik, author of The River at Night published just last week by Scout Press an imprint of Simon and Shuster. Erica is a graduate of the MFA program in Creative Writing at BU. Her work has appeared in Salon and the Boston Globe and on NPR. You can find out more about her work on her website. The R...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of the Avid Reader. Today our guest is Josh Barkan author of Mexico:Stories, published by Hogarth just last week. Josh teaches at NYU and is currently Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Hollings University. He holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers Workshop. His first published work was Before Hiroshima and his next work was the novel Blin...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Our guest today is Maxine Beneba Clarke, author of Foreign Soil, published by 37 INK/Atria on January 3rd. Maxine is a novelist, poet and editor living in Melbourne Australia. She was the Hazel Rowley Fellowship winner for Biography and also won the 2013 Victorian Premier Award for an Unpublished Manuscript. Foreign Soil is...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Our guest today is Maxine Beneba Clarke, author of Foreign Soil, published by 37 INK/Atria on January 3rd. Maxine is a novelist, poet and editor living in Melbourne Australia. She was the Hazel Rowley Fellowship winner for Biography and also won the 2013 Victorian Premier Award for an Unpublished Manuscript. Foreign Soil is...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Shanthi Sekaran, author of Lucky Boy, published earlier this month by Putnam. Shanthi teaches creative writing at California College of the Arts. And her work has appeared in best New American Voices and Canteen as well as online at Zyzzyva and Mutha Magazine and recently The New York Times. Her first nov...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Shanthi Sekaran, author of Lucky Boy, published earlier this month by Putnam. Shanthi teaches creative writing at California College of the Arts. And her work has appeared in best New American Voices and Canteen as well as online at Zyzzyva and Mutha Magazine and recently The New York Times. Her first nov...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of the Avid Reader. Today our guest is Josh Barkan author of Mexico:Stories, published by Hogarth just last week. Josh teaches at NYU and is currently Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Hollings University. He holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers Workshop. His first published work was Before Hiroshima and his next work was the novel Blin...

There's a reason that some readers view contemporary coming-of-age novels with suspicion. Too many play out the same way: An odd but winsome young person goes on some kind of journey of discovery, either literal or figurative, and learns something about himself or herself in the process. Often, there's an awkward romance. And the ending, whether happy or otherwise, can usually be described as bitt...

There's a reason that some readers view contemporary coming-of-age novels with suspicion. Too many play out the same way: An odd but winsome young person goes on some kind of journey of discovery, either literal or figurative, and learns something about himself or herself in the process. Often, there's an awkward romance. And the ending, whether happy or otherwise, can usually be described as bitt...