The Maris Review

KELSEY McKINNEY is a freelance features writer and cofounder of Defector Media. She previously worked as a staff writer at Vox, Fusion, and Deadspin. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, GQ, Cosmopolitan, and New York magazine, among other publications. Raised Evangelical in north Texas, she now lives in Washington, DC, with her husband and dog. God Spare the Girls is her first novel. L...

Tahmima Anam is the recipient of a Commonwealth Writers Prize, an O. Henry Prize, and has been named one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists. She is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times. Born in Bangladesh, she now lives in London where she is on the board of ROLI, a music tech company founded by her husband. Her latest novel is called The Startup Wife. Today's sponsor is Hell...

Yaa Gyasi was born in Ghana and raised in Huntsville, Alabama. She holds a BA in English from Stanford University and an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she held a Dean’s Graduate Research Fellowship. She lives in Brooklyn. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

KRISTEN RADTKE is the author of the graphic nonfiction book Imagine Wanting Only This. The recipient of a 2019 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant, Radtke is the art director and deputy publisher of The Believer. Her new graphic book is called Seek You. This episode's sponsor: This episode is sponsored by: Scribd. Go to try.scribd.com/maris for a 60-day free trial. HelloFresh. Go to HelloFresh.com/m...

Dana Spiotta is the author of Innocents and Others; Stone Arabia, A National Books Critics Circle Award finalist; and Eat the Document, a finalist for the National Book Award. Spiotta is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Rome Prize for Literature. Her most recent novel is Wayward. She lives in Syracuse, New York. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rivka Galchen is the recipient of a William Saroyan International Prize for Fiction and a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award, among other distinctions. She writes regularly for The New Yorker, whose editors selected her for their list of 20 Under 40 American fiction writers in 2010. Her debut novel Atmospheric Disturbances (2008) and her story collection American Innovations were both New York T...

Joan Silber is the author of nine books of fiction. Her last book, Improvement, was the winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award and was listed as one of the year's best books by The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Newsday, The Seattle Times, and Kirkus Reviews. Her previous book, Fools, was long-listed for the National Book Award and was a finalist for...

Ashley C. Ford is a writer, host, and educator who lives in Indianapolis, Indiana with her husband, poet and fiction writer Kelly Stacy, and their chocolate lab Astro Renegade Ford-Stacy. Her debut memoir is called Somebody’s Daughter. This episode's sponsor: This episode is also presented by HelloFresh. Go to HelloFresh.com/marisreview12 and use code marisreview12 for 12 free meals, including fre...

Katherine Heiny is the author of Standard Deviation and Single, Carefree, Mellow, and her short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and many other magazines. She lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with her husband and children, and is a former resident of London, The Hague, and Boyne City, Michigan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Zakiya Dalila Harris spent nearly three years in editorial at Knopf/Doubleday before leaving to write her debut novel The Other Black Girl. Prior to working in publishing, Zakiya received her MFA in creative writing from The New School. Her essays and book reviews have appeared in Guernica and The Rumpus. She lives in Brooklyn. Today's Sponsors: Scribd. Go to try.scribd.com/maris for a 60-day free...

A Paul and Daisy Soros fellow, Sanjena Sathian is a 2019 graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She has worked as a reporter in Mumbai and San Francisco, with nonfiction bylines for The New Yorker, The New York Times, Food & Wine, The Boston Globe, The San Francisco Chronicle, and more. Her debut novel is called Gold Diggers. This episode's sponsor: Aurate. For 15% off your first Aurate purchase,...

Elizabeth McCracken is the author of seven books, including The Souvenir Museum, Bowlaway, Thunderstruck & Other Stories, and The Giant’s House (a National Book Award finalist and one of my favorite novels of all time). Her stories have appeared in Best American Short Stories, won three Pushcart Prizes, a National Magazine Award, and an O. Henry Prize. She has served on the faculty at the Iowa Wri...

Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney is the author of the instant New York Times bestseller, The Nest, which is currently in development as a limited series by AMC Studios. She lives in Los Angeles with her family. This episode's sponsor: This episode is presented by Ancient Nutrition. Get 20% off your first order when you go to AncientNutrition.com and enter promo code MARIS at checkout. This episode is also...

Maggie Shipstead is the New York Times best-selling author of the novels Astonish Me and Seating Arrangements and the winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, a former Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford, and the recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Recommended Reading: Th...

Gabriela Garcia is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer's Award and a Steinbeck Fellowship from San Jose State University. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in Best American Poetry, Tin House, Zyzzyva, Iowa Review, and elsewhere. She received an MFA in fiction from Purdue and lives in the Bay Area. Of Women and Salt is her first novel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphon...

Over the course of 99 episodes, The Maris Review has featured casual yet intimate conversations with authors like Susan Choi, George Saunders, Raven Leilani, and David Sedaris. For the 100th episode celebration, host Maris Kreizman is joined by a few of her very favorites -- Alexander Chee, Morgan Parker, and Emma Straub -- to talk about reading as both a writer and a part of a literary community....

Melissa Febos is the author of the memoir Whip Smart and two essay collections: Abandon Me and her latest is Girlhood. She is an associate professor at the University of Iowa, where she teaches in the Nonfiction Writing Program. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on The Maris Review, Amy Solomon and Aparna Nancherla join Maris Kreizman to discuss the anthology Notes from the Bathroom Line: Humor, Art, and Low-Grade Panic from 150 of the Funniest Women in Comedy—which Amy edited, and Aparna contributed to—out now from Harper Design. Amy Solomon is a producer on HBO’s Silicon Valley and Barry. She currently runs Alec Berg’s production company, whe...

Jo Ann Beard is the author of the groundbreaking collection of autobiographical essays, The Boys of My Youth and Festival Days and the novel, In Zanesville. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Tin House, Best American Essays, and other magazines and anthologies. She teaches writing at Sarah Lawrence College.  Recommended Reading: The Copenhagen Trilogy by Tove Ditlevsen Orientation by Daniel...

Jessica Winter is an editor at The New Yorker and the author of the novel Break in Case of Emergency. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Bookforum, and other publications. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her family. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elon Green has written for The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, and The Columbia Journalism Review, and appears in the true-crime anthology Unspeakable Acts. He has been an editor at Longform since 2011. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Naima Coster is the author of What's Mine and Yours and Halsey Street, and a finalist for the 2018 Kirkus Prize for Fiction. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University, as well as degrees from Fordham University and Yale. She has taught writing for over a decade, in community settings, youth programs, and universities. She lives in Brooklyn with her family.  Learn more about you...

Anakana Schofield is an award-winning Irish-Canadian writer of fiction, essays, and literary criticism. Her previous novels are Malarky (2012) and Martin John (2015). The UK edition of Bina was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize 2020, and the US edition was just recently published. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on The Maris Review, Patricia Lockwood joins Maris Kreizman to discuss her book, No One Is Talking About This, out now from Riverhead. Patricia Lockwood was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana and raised in all the worst cities of the Midwest. She is the author of two poetry collections, Balloon Pop Outlaw Black and Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals, a New York Times Notable Book, and the me...

Rebecca Carroll is host of the podcast Come Through with Rebecca Carroll, and former cultural critic at WNYC. Her writing has been published widely, and she is the author of several interview-based books about race and blackness in America, including Sugar in the Raw: Voices of Young Black Girls in America. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and son. Her new memoir is called Surviving the Whit...