The Maris Review

Tara Isabella Burton is a contributing editor at the American Interest, a columnist at Religion News Service, and the former staff religion reporter at Vox.com. She has written on religion and secularism for National Geographic, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and more, and holds a doctorate in theology from Oxford. She is also the author of the novel Social Creature. Her latest book is c...

Lacy Crawford is the author of the novel Early Decision. She lives in Southern California with her family. Her memoir is called Notes On a Silencing.  Recommended Reading: The Wanderers by Meg Howrey Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Raven Leilani’s work has been published in Granta, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Narrative, Yale Review, Conjunctions, and The Cut, among other publications. Luster is her first novel. Recommended Reading: How Much Of These Hills Is Gold by C. Pam Zhang Lakewood by Megan Giddings These Ghosts Are Family by Maisy Card Days of Distraction by Alexandra Chang There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyo...

Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman are the hosts of Call Your Girlfriend, a podcast for long-distance besties. They wrote their new book, Big Friendship, together. Recommended Reading: Luster by Raven Leilani   In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado Pleasure Activism by Adrienne Maree Brown Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Counterpoint Press, publishers of The Disaster Tourist by Yun Ko-e...

Lynn Steger Strong's first novel, Hold Still, was released by Liveright/WW Norton in 2016. Her nonfiction has been published by Guernica, Los Angeles Review of Books, Elle.com, Catapult, Lit Hub, and others. She teaches both fiction and non-fiction writing at Columbia University, Fairfield University, and the Pratt Institute. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adrian Tomine is the author of Scenes from an Impending Marriage, Shortcomings, Summer Blonde, Sleepwalk, 32 Stories, and the comic book series Optic Nerve. He is also an illustrator for The New Yorker, Esquire, and Rolling Stone. He lives in Brooklyn.  The Loneliness of the Long Distance-Cartoonist is his latest. Recommended Reading: 365 Days by Julie Doucet The works of Richard Sala Learn more a...

Jenny Zhang was born in Shanghai and grew up in New York. She is the author of the poetry collection Dear Jenny, We Are All Find and the story collection Sour Heart. Her latest poetry collection is called My Baby First Birthday. Recommended Reading: The Teebs Tetralogy by Tommy Pico Magical Negro and Who Put This Song On by Morgan Parker Dear Friend, From My Life I Write to You in Your Life by Yiy...

Matt Ortile is the managing editor of Catapult. His writing has been published by BuzzFeed, Into, Self, and Out, among others. He lives in Brooklyn. This episode is sponsored by Penguin Random House Audio. Stay on top of your book club reading with audiobooks such as The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half, Elizabeth Kay’s Seven Lies, A Burning by Megha Majumdar, and...

Alexandra Petri is an American humorist and newspaper columnist at the Washington Post. She lives in Washington DC. Nothing Is Wrong And Here Is Why is her essay collection. Recommended Reading: Here For It by R. Eric Thomas War and Peace The Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau David Copperfield Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Zaina Arafat is a Palestinian-American writer. Her stories and essays have appeared in publications including The New York Times, Granta, and more. She holds an M.A. in international affairs from Columbia University, an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa. She grew up between the U.S. and the Middle East and currently lives in Brooklyn. Her debut novel is called You Exist Too Much. Learn more about...

Jayson Greene is a music writer and the author of Once More We Saw Stars. Recommended Reading: The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Marie-Helene Bertino is the author of 2 A.M. at the Cat's Pajamas and the story collection Safe as Houses. Her work has received The O. Henry Prize, The Pushcart Prize, The Iowa Short Fiction Award, and The Mississippi Review Story Prize. Her latest novel is called Parakeet. Recommended Reading Hex by Rebecca Dinerstein Knight Quotients by Tracy O’Neill These Ghosts Are Family by Maisy Card A Burn...

Ishmael Beah is the Sierra Leonean and American author of the novel Radiance of Tomorrow and the memoir A Long Way Gone, which was a #1 New York Times bestseller and has been published in more than 40 languages. A UNICEF Ambassador and Advocate for Children Affected by War, and a member of the Human Rights Watch Children’s Advisory Committee, Beah’s latest novel is called Small Family. Recommended...

Patrick Hoffman is a writer and private investigator based in Brooklyn. His first novel, The White Van, was a finalist for the Crime Writers’ Association Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award. His latest novel is called Clean Hands. Recommended Reading The Paying Guest by Sarah Waters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ivy Pochoda is the author of The Art of Disappearing, Visitation Street, and Wonder Valley, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist and winner of the Strand Critics Award. She lives in Los Angeles. Her latest novel is called These Women. Recommended Books Make Them Cry by Smith Henderson and John Marc Smith The Book of Lamps and Banners by Elizabeth Hand Take Me Apart by Sarah Sligar Learn more ab...

Susannah Cahalan is the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness, a memoir about her struggle with a rare autoimmune disease of the brain. Her second and most recent book is called The Great Pretender. Recommended Reading: The Collected Schizophrenias by Esme Weijun-Wang The Friend by Sigrid Nunez This episode is brought to you by Catapult, publishers...

Esmé Weijun Wang is the author of The Border of Paradise. She received the Whiting Award in 2018 and was named one of Granta’s Best of Young American Novelists of 2017. Her latest collection, The Collected Schizophrenias, received the Graywolf Nonfiction Prize. Recommended Reading: Real Life by Brandon Taylor Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls by T. Kira Madden Where Reason Ends by Yiyun Li D...

Amber Sparks is the author of The Unfinished World, and her fiction and essays have appeared in American Short Fiction, Paris Review, Tin House, Granta, and elsewhere. She lives in Washington, DC, with her husband, daughter, and two cats. This episode is brought to you by Kobo. If you like podcasts like this one, then you’ll love Kobo Audiobooks. Listening to audiobooks lets you fit more reading...

Teddy Wayne is the author of Loner, The Love Song of Jonny Valentine, and Kapitoil. He is the winner of a Whiting Writers' Award and an NEA Creative Writing Fellowship. He is a regular contributor to the New Yorker, the New York Times, and McSweeney's. His latest novel is called Apartment. This episode is brought to you by Kobo. If you like podcasts like this one, then you’ll love Kobo Audiobooks....

Laura Zigman is the author of Animal Husbandry (which was made into the movie, Someone Like You, starring Hugh Jackman and Ashley Judd), Dating Big Bird, Piece of Work and Her. Her latest novel is called Separation Anxiety. She lives in Cambridge with her husband, son, and deeply human Sheltie. This episode is brought to you by Kobo. If you like podcasts like this one, then you’ll love Kobo Audiob...

Rebecca Solnit is the author of more than 20 books, including A Field Guide to Getting Lost, The Faraway Nearby, and Wanderlust. She is also the author of Men Explain Things to Me and many essays on feminism, activism and social change, hope, and the climate crisis. Her new memoir is called Recollections of My Non-Existence. This episode is brought to you by Kobo. If you like podcasts like this on...

Kevin Nguyen is the features editor at The Verge and was previously a senior editor at GQ. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. His debut novel is called New Waves Recommended Books: Topics of Conversation by Miranda Popkey Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener Memorial by Bryan Washington This episode is brought to you by Kobo. If you like podcasts like this one, then you’ll love Kobo Audiobooks. Listening to...

Raised in the coastal town of Danvers, Massachusetts, QUAN BARRY is the author of the novel She Weeps Each Time You’re Born and of four books of poetry, including the collection Water Puppets. She lives in Wisconsin and teaches at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her latest novel is We Ride Upon Sticks. Recommended Reading: August Town by Kei Miller The Last Warner Woman by Kei Miller Imperial...

Lidia Yuknavitch is the nationally bestselling author of the novels The Book of Joan, The Small Backs of Children, and Dora: A Headcase, and of the memoir The Chronology of Water. She lives in Portland, Oregon. Verge is her first story collection. Recommended Reading: Heart Berries by Therese Maillot Cleanness by Garth Greenwell On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong There, There by Tommy...

Brandon Taylor is the senior editor of Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading and a staff writer at Lit Hub. He holds graduate degrees from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of Iowa, where he was an Iowa Arts Fellow at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in fiction. His debut novel is called Real Life. Recommended Reading: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf How Much of These Hills...