The Chills at Will Podcast

Notes and Links to Alejandro Heredia’s Work          Alejandro Heredia is a queer Afro-Dominican writer from The Bronx. His debut novel LOCA is out today (February 11) from Simon and Schuster. He has received fellowships from Lambda Literary, VONA, the Dominican Studies Institute, Kenyon Review, and Trinity College. In 2019, he was selected by Myriam Gurba as the winner of the Gold Line Press Fict...

Notes and Links to Jason De León’s Work   Jason De León is Director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology , Loyd E. Cotsen Endowed Chair of Archaeology, Professor of Anthropology and Chicana/o and Central American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.    De León is Executive Director of the Undocumented Migration Project (UMP) Inc. a 501(c)(3) research, arts, and education collect...

Notes and Links to David Ebenbach’s Work   David Ebenbach writes. He’s been writing ever since he was a kid, when he kept his whole family awake by banging away on an enormous manual typewriter, and he’s never wanted to stop.    In fact, David’s now the author of ten books of fiction , poetry , and non-fiction , and his work has picked up awards along the way: the Drue Heinz Literature Prize, the...

Notes and Links to Dan Gutman’s Work        New York Times best-selling and award-winning author Dan Gutman has written more than 190 books for readers from kindergarten through middle school. Dan’s My Weird School series includes 100+ titles, and has sold more than 35 million copies globally over the past 20 years. Dan also is the author of the best-selling Genius Files series, the Baseball Card...

Notes and Links to Keith O’Brien’s Work        Keith O'Brien is a New York Times bestselling author and award-winning journalist. He has written four books, been a finalist for the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sportswriting, been longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, and has contributed to multiple publications over the years.    O’Brien’s work has appeared in the N...

Notes and Links to Lydia Kiesling’s Work      Lydia Kiesling is a novelist and culture writer. Her first novel, The Golden State , was a 2018 National Book Foundation “5 under 35” honoree and a finalist for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award. Her second novel, Mobility , a national bestseller, was named a best book of 2023 by Vulture, Time, and NPR, among others. It was longlisted for the Joyce C...

Notes and Links to Carvell Wallace’s Work        Carvell Wallace is a writer and podcaster who has contributed to The New Yorker, GQ, New York Times Magazine, Pitchfork, MTV News, and Al Jazeera. His debut memoir, Another Word For Love (MCD, 2024), explores his life, identity, and love through stories of family, friendship, and culture and is a 2024 Kirkus Finalist in Nonfiction. He was a 2019 Pea...

Notes and Links to Maggie Sheffer’s Work           Marguerite (Maggie) Sheffer is a writer who lives in New Orleans. She is a Professor of Practice at Tulane University , where she teaches courses in design thinking and speculative fiction as tools for social change. Formerly, she taught English at the East Oakland School of the Arts, Castlemont High School, Life Academy, and GW Carver High School...

Notes and Links to Fernanda Trías’ Work    Fernanda Trías was born in Uruguay and is the award-winning author of three novels, two of which have been published in English. She is also the author of the short story collection No soñarás flores and the chapbook El regreso. A writer and instructor of creative writing, she holds an MFA in creative writing from New York University. She was awarded the...

Notes and Links to Rus Bradburd’s Work        Rus Bradburd’s latest book is the satirical novel, “Big Time.”  Rus attended Chicago Public Schools for eleven years before graduating from North Park College. After coaching basketball for fourteen seasons at UTEP and New Mexico State University, he left the game to study with Robert Boswell and Antonya Nelson —and pursue a life in writing. His five b...

Notes and Links to Greg Mania’s Work         Greg Mania’s words have been published in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, HuffPost, Oprah Daily, PAPER, among other international online and print platforms. He is also a contributing editor to BOMB Magazine, he hosts The Rumpus’s #ShowUsYourDesk on Instagram Live, and co-hosts Empty Trash, a reading series in Los Angeles. His debut mem...

Notes and Links to Lauren Markham’s Work       Lauren Markham is a writer based in northern California. She is the author of the recent A Map of Future Ruins: On Borders and Belonging (Riverhead, 2024) which The New Yorker listed as one of “The Best Books We’ve Read in 2024 So Far” and which Kirkus reviews called “a remarkable, unnerving, and cautionary portrait of a global immigration crisis.” A...

Notes and Links to Jessica Whipple’s Work      Jessica Whipple writes for adults and children from her home in Eastern PA. Her poetry has been published recently in Funicular, Door Is a Jar, and Green Ink Poetry, and online at Whale Road Review, Anti-Heroin Chic, and Pine Hills Review. Her poem "Broken Strings" has been nominated for a 2023 Pushcart Prize in poetry.    She has published two childr...

Show Notes and Links to Porochista Khanpour's Work   For Episode 258, Pete welcomes Porochista Khakpour, and the two discuss, among other topics, her harrowing departure from Iran to the US at a young age, her voracious reading and writing and storytelling, amazing life experiences that have fed her writing, her love of contemporary stan culture and KPop, how her latest book’s release is different...

Notes and Links to Mirin Fader’s Work      For Episode 257, Pete welcomes Mirin Fader for her second Chills at Will visit, and the two discuss, among other topics, her love of contemporary fiction, how her second book’s release is different than that of her first, seeds for her latest book-Dream, about the great Hakeem Olajuwon-coming from her previous blockbuster about Giannis Antetokounmpo, her...

Notes and Links to Andrew Maraniss’ Work      For Episode 256, Pete welcomes Andrew Maraniss, and the two discuss, among other topics, carefree days of baseball card trading, formative writers and social justice activists, seeds for his latest series on inspiring contemporary athletes and their fights for justice, “writing” versus “sportswriting,” Glenn Burke and his singular fight for equality, h...

Notes and Links to Chris Knapp’s Work      For Episode 255, Pete welcomes Chris Knapp, and the two discuss, among other topics, a fascination with Elena Ferrante, James Joyce, and other dynamic writers, the interplay between journalism and fiction writing, seeds for his debut novel, the significance of its title, the drawbacks and benefits of writing about such recent times, and salient themes and...

Notes and Links to Jami Attenberg’s Work        For Episode 254, Pete welcomes Jami Attenberg, and the two discuss, among other topics, seeds for her newest novel, the significance of its title, research and its connection to continuity, and salient themes and issues in her novel like grief and intergenerational traumas, the rapid development of digital technology and its ever-changing effects on...

Notes and Links to Akshaj Mehta’s Work      For Episode 253, Pete welcomes Akshaj Mehta, and the two discuss, among other topics, his early experiences with bilingualism, formative and transformative writers and writing, beautiful trips with his mother to the library, his interest in representation of multidimensional and diverse characters and stories, a paradigm shift in reading Steph Cha, his e...

Notes and Links to Byron Graves’ Work      For Episode 252, Pete welcomes Byron Graves, and the two discuss, among other topics, his early experiences with Ojibwe and English and bilingualism, formative and transformative writers and writing (X-Men!), both past and present, representation of multidimensional indigenous characters, Byron’s basketball career and its influence on his writing and worl...

Notes and Links to Alexandra Alessandri’s Work      For Episode 251, Pete welcomes Alexandra Alessandri, and the two discuss, among other topics, her early experiences with Spanish and English and bilingualism, formative and transformative writers and writing (Marquez! Allende! Santiago!), both past and present, representation in children’s lit and beyond, muses and the Las Musas Collective that s...

Notes and Links to Ben Tanzer’s Work      For Episode 250, Pete welcomes Ben Tanzer, and the two discuss, among other topics, his childhood love of books, formative and transformative writers and writing, bothy past and present, muses, Jim Carroll and his powerful and pivotal work, Ben’s podcast and motivations for living the creative life, and salient themes and issues in his novel like sacrifice...

Notes and Links to Jesse Katz’s Work      For Episode 249, Pete welcomes Jesse Katz, and the two discuss, among other topics, his childhood love of baseball, formative and transformative books and writers, lessons learned from early writing, LA and MacArthur Park lore, and salient themes and issues in the book like poverty and the punitive nature of powerful interests, grief, and various forms of...

Notes and Links to Katya Apekina’s Work      For Episode 248, Pete welcomes Katya Apekina, and the two discuss, among other topics, her language abilities and her extensive cross-cultural readings; motherhood, the loss of loved ones, and other catalysts for Mother Doll, and salient themes and issues in her collection like intergenerational traumas, women’s agency, fatalism, guilt, and redemption....

Notes and Links to Christina Cooke’s Work      For Episode 247, Pete welcomes Christina Cooke, and the two discuss, among other topics, her childhood love of books, formative and transformative books and writers, contemporaries and fellow debut writers with whom her books are in conversation, the outsized influence of Mamá Lou, and salient themes and issues in her book like diaspora, notions of “h...