The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan

On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Dr. Precious Symonette, Miami-Dade County Teacher of the Year and creative writing teacher, is joined by Ibram X. Kendi to discuss his latest book, Magnolia Flower, out now from One World. Dr. Ibram X. Kendi is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University and the founding director of the BU Center for Antiracist Research. He is a c...

On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan is joined by Jonathan Escoffery to discuss his debut collection, If I Survive You, out now from MCD. Jonathan Escoffery is the recipient of the 2020 Plimpton Prize for Fiction, a 2020 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, and the 2020 ASME Award for Fiction. His fiction has appeared in The Paris Review, American Short Fictio...

On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan is joined by Christopher M. Finan to discuss his new book, How Free Speech Saved Democracy: The Untold History of How the First Amendment Became an Essential Tool for Securing Liberty and Social Justice, out now from Steerforth Press. ________________________________ Subscribe now to The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan on iTunes, Spotify,...

On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan is joined by Javier Zamora to discuss his memoir, Solito, out now from Hogarth Press. Javier Zamora was born in El Salvador in 1990. His father fled the country when he was one, and his mother when he was about to turn five. Both parents’ migrations were caused by the U.S.-funded Salvadoran Civil War. When he was nine Javier migrated through...

On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan is joined by Dwyer Murphy to discuss his debut novel, An Honest Living, out now from Viking. Dwyer Murphy is a New York-based writer and editor. He is the editor-in-chief of CrimeReads, Literary Hub’s crime fiction vertical and the world’s most popular destination for thriller readers. He practiced law at Debevoise & Plimpton in New York Ci...

On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan is joined by Monique Roffey to discuss her novel, The Mermaid of Black Conch, out now from Knopf. Monique Roffey is a senior lecturer in creative writing at the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University. She is the author of seven books, four of which are set in Trinidad and the Caribbean region. The Mermaid of Black C...

This week, The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan revisits a Books & Books virtual event with multidisciplinary artist Blitz Bazawule in conversation with Beasts of Prey author Ayana Gray. Bazawule’s debut novel, The Scent of Burnt Flowers, set in the mid-1960s, tells the story of a Black couple, Melvin and Bernadette, who have fled the United States for Ghana after Melvin kills a racist assailant...

Ada Calhoun is the New York Times bestselling author of St. Marks Is Dead, Wedding Toasts I'll Never Give, and Why We Can't Sleep. She has written for the New York Times, the New Republic, and the Washington Post. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan is joined by Geraldine Brooks to discuss her latest novel, Horse, out now from Viking. Geraldine Brooks is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel March and the international bestsellers The Secret Chord, Caleb’s Crossing, People of the Book, and Year of Wonders. She has also written the acclaimed nonfiction works Nine Parts of Desir...

On today’s episode of The Literary Life, at a live event at Books & Books, special guest Amanda Keeley is joined by Ottessa Moshfegh to discuss her latest novel, Lapvona, out now from Penguin Press. Ottessa Moshfegh is a fiction writer from New England. Eileen, her first novel, was shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Man Booker Prize, and won the PEN/Hemingway Award for...

On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan is joined by Mark Kurlansky to discuss his latest book, The Importance of Not Being Ernest: My Life with the Uninvited Hemingway, out now from Books & Books. Subscribe now to The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you find your podcasts! Mark Kurlansky is the New York Times bestselling author of Milk!, H...

On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan is joined by Hernan Diaz to discuss his latest book, Trust, out now from Riverhead Books. Hernan Diaz is the author of two novels translated into more than twenty languages. His first novel, In the Distance, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award. He has also written a book of essays, and his work has appeared in T...

On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan is joined by Alexander Maksik to discuss his latest book, The Long Corner, out now from Europa Editions. Alexander Maksik is the author of three previous novels: You Deserve Nothing (Europa, 2011), a New York Times and IndieBound bestseller; A Marker to Measure Drift, which was a New York Times Notable Book; and Shelter in Place (Europa, 201...

On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan is joined by Steve Almond to discuss his latest book, All the Secrets of the World, out now from Zando. ________________________________ Subscribe now to The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you find your podcasts! Steve Almond is the author of ten books of fiction and nonfiction, including the New York...

On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan is joined by Don Winslow to discuss his latest book, City on Fire, out now from William Morrow. ________________________________ Subscribe now to The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you find your podcasts! Don Winslow is the author of twenty-two acclaimed, award-winning international bestsellers, incl...

On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan is joined by Peter Balakian to discuss his latest poetry collection, No Sign, out now from University of Chicago Press. Peter Balakian is the author of Black Dog of Fate, winner of the PEN/Martha Albrand Prize for Memoir and a New York Times Notable Book, and June-tree: New and Selected Poems 1974-2000. He is the recipient of many awards, in...

On today’s episode of The Literary Life, at a live event at Books & Books, Connie Ogle interviews Douglas Stuart to discuss his new novel, Young Mungo, out now from Grove Atlantic. Douglas Stuart is a Scottish-American author. His New York Times-bestselling debut novel Shuggie Bain won the 2020 Booker Prize and the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. It was the winner...

On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan is joined by Jeff Deutsch to discuss his new book, In Praise of Good Bookstores, out now from Princeton University Press, from a live event at Books & Books. Subscribe now to The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you find your podcasts! Jeff Deutsch is the director of Chicago’s Seminary Co-op Bookstores,...

Joining Mitchell Kaplan from Ukraine is Marjana Savka and Victoria Amelina, with Askold Melnyczuk in Boston. Marjana Savka was born in Kopychyntsi, Ternopil oblast, in 1973. She published her first poetry collection, Naked Riverbeds, at the age of twenty-one. Eight other books, for which she received several awards, have appeared since then, including four poetry collections and three children’s b...

On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan is joined by Diana Abu-Jaber to discuss her new book, Fencing With the King, out now from W.W. Norton. ________________________________ Subscribe now to The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you find your podcasts! Diana Abu-Jaber is the award-winning author of seven books of fiction and nonfiction, incl...

Joining Mitchell Kaplan from Ukraine is Dr. Olha Poliukhovych, writer, philosopher, and professor of humanities at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Ukraine’s oldest university. From Boston, Askold Melnyczuk, acclaimed novelist, short story writer, founding member of Writers for Democratic Action, and co-editor of From Three Worlds, an anthology of Ukrainian writers. "When I read or...

When Deesha Philyaw stans see that she’s read and endorsed a book, big chances are, they're buying that book. “The thing I wanna say about blurbing, first, is it could be a full-time job. I’m happy to share these books with you today but for each one there are two that I couldn’t say yes to blurbing, just because I didn’t have time…The blurbs are really important so I try to do as many as I can,”...

On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan talks with Julie Otsuka about her new novel, The Swimmers, out next month from Knopf. ________________________________ Subscribe now to The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you find your podcasts! Julie Otsuka was born and raised in California. She is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and her firs...

Richard Blanco, inaugural poet for Barack Obama’s second term as president and Elisa New, creator, director and host of PBS’s Poetry in America series, are Mitchell Kaplan’s guests this week. Richard's poem, "Looking for the Gulf Motel," is featured as season three of the acclaimed series begins.  “The episode with Richard is a wonderful example of the opportunity we had to really get into the cul...

On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan is joined by Anjanette Delgado, Yaddyra Peralta, and Mia Leonin to discuss their new anthology, Home in Flordia: Latinx Writers and the Literature of Uprootedness, out now from University Press of Florida. ________________________________ Subscribe now to The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you find y...