The National Writers Series Podcast

Erin French joined the National Writers Series at the City Opera House on November 8, 2023 with guest host Cara McDonald. Erin French is the owner and chef of The Lost Kitchen, a 40-seat restaurant in Freedom, Maine, that was recently named one of  TIME Magazine ’s World’s Greatest Places and one of “12 Restaurants Worth Traveling Across the World to Experience” by  Bloomberg . She is the author o...

Heather Cox Richardson joined the National Writers Series at Lars Hockstad Auditorium on October 17, 2023 with guest host Neal Rubin. Heather Cox Richardson  is a Professor of History at Boston College. She has written about the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Gilded Age, and the American West in award-winning books whose subjects stretch from the European settlement of the North American continent...

The National Writers Series was pleased to welcome V.E. Schwab to Lars Hockstad Auditorium on October 7, 2023 with guest host Beth Milligan. VICTORIA “V. E.” SCHWAB is the #1  New York Times  bestselling author of more than twenty books, including the acclaimed  Shades universe, the Villains series, the  City of Ghosts  series,  Gallant , and the international bestseller The Invisible Life of Addi...

Ken Follett joined the National Writers Series at the Alluvion on October 1st, 2023 with guest host Pat Livingston. Ken Follett is one of the world’s best-loved authors, selling more than 188 million copies of his 36 books. Follett’s first bestseller was “Eye of the Needle”, a spy story set in the Second World War. In 1989, “The Pillars of the Earth” was published and has since become Follett’s mo...

Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson joined the National Writers Series onstage at the City Opera House on September 19, 2023 with guest host Benjamin Busch. Authors Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson are both journalists at the  Wall Street Journal  who have covered gun culture and the industry, including mass shootings, for years. McWhirter, who lives in Georgia, is the author of  Red Summer: Th...

The National Writers series was thrilled to host award-winning science writer Ed Yong at the City Opera House on September 12, 2023 with guest host Ed Ronco. Ed Yong won several honors for his reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic, including the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting and the George Polk Award for science reporting. His first book,  I Contain Multitudes , was a  New York Times  best...

The National Writers Series was honored to host Jack Driscoll at the Alluvion on August 27, 2023 with guest host Brittany Cavallaro. Jack Driscoll  is a two-time NEA Creative Writing Fellowship recipient, a PEN/Nelson Algren Award winner, and the author of twelve books, including the story collections,  Wanting Only to Be Heard  (University of MA Press, 1992), winner of the AWP Grace Paley Short F...

Ann Patchett joined the National Writers Series onstage at the City Opera House on August 12, 2023 with guest host Erin Anderson Whiting. Ann Patchett  is the author of nine novels:  The Patron Saint of Liars ,  Taft ,  The Magician’s Assistant ,  Bel Canto ,  Run ,   State of Wonder ,  Commonwealth , The Dutch House  and  Tom Lake.  She was the editor of  Best American Short Stories, 2006 , and h...

Readers of all ages will love this Young Adult adaptation of the moving, hopeful, and refreshingly candid memoir by Chasten Buttigieg about growing up gay in his hometown of Traverse City. Chasten’s joyful, witty social media posts, have resonated deeply with a large audience looking for a touch of humanity in their politics. In this uplifting memoir,  I Have Something To Tell You ,  Chasten recou...

Meet Bonnie Garmus , author of Lessons in Chemistry , whose debut book immediately hit the New York Times Bestselling list. Lessons in Chemistry follows the story of chemist Elizabeth Zott, who is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it's the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research In...

Meet Jeannette Walls, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Glass Castle , her unforgettable childhood memoir that sold more than 5 million copies worldwide. Walls talks about her writing life and newest novel, Hang the Moon , with guest host Susan Odgers. Her highly anticipated novel follows the journey of Sallie Kincaid, a feisty and fearless, terrified and damaged young woman who refu...

The National Writers Series is pleased to partner with Interlochen Center for the Arts for An Evening with Ross Gay. NWS will livestream the event from Interlochen's Corson Auditorium. NWS and Interlochen Center for the Arts welcome Ross Gay who will discuss his latest book, Inciting Joy . Throughout the book, he explores how we can practice recognizing that connection, and also how we expand...

On March 10, New York Times Bestselling Author Dan Egan visited the City Opera House in Traverse City. He presented his new book, “The Devil’s Element, Phosphorus and a World Out of Balance.” Environmental reporter, Patrick Shea, was the guest host. Patrick works for Interlochen Public Radio, an NPR affiliate in northern Michigan.  Egan writes about phosphorus, the source of great bounty―and now g...

With "DRIVING THE GREEN BOOK: A Road Trip Through the Living History of Black Resistance" join award-winning broadcaster Alvin Hall on a journey through America’s haunted racial past using "The Green Book" as your guide.  For countless Americans, the open road has long been a place where dangers lurk. In the era of Jim Crow, Black travelers encountered locked doors, hostile pol...

Celebrated NPR correspondent Nina Totenberg delivers an extraordinary memoir of her personal successes, struggles, and life-affirming relationships, including her beautiful friendship of nearly fifty years with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Four years before Nina Totenberg was hired at NPR, where she cemented her legacy as a prizewinning reporter, and nearly twenty-two years before Ru...

Sports journalists Keith Gave and Tim Rappleye teamed up to write  A Miracle of Their Own: A Team, A Stunning Gold Medal and Newfound Dreams for American Girls. Gave and Rappleye's book is a riveting tale about Team USA's stunning Olympic win against the Canadian women's hockey team in 1998, when they captured the coveted gold medal, inspiring little girls everywhere to play a game of their o...

On December 13th, the National Writers Series welcomed Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and author Anna Quindlen to help answer some very important questions: What really matters in life? What truly lasts in our hearts and minds? Where can we find community, history, and humanity? In her lyrical new book Write for Your Life , the answer is clear: Through writing. This is a book for what Quindlen c...

Alice Wong's book, Year of the Tiger, highlights her life as an Asian American disabled activist, community organizer, media maker, and dreamer. She writes about her continued fight for disability justice, struggles with health insurance and bureaucracy. Author Stephanie Foo discusses Alice's book on her behalf.

On October 20th, 2022, Grammy-nominated musician, singer, songwriter, performer, Live Aid board member and author Margo Price joined the National Writers Series for a conversation about her new memoir: Maybe We'll Make It. Recorded live at the State Theater in downtown Traverse City, this conversation (guest hosted by NWS communications director Karl Klockars) covers her childhood, her struggles t...

On August 25th, 2022, two of Michigan’s greatest environmental authors— Dave Dempsey and Jerry Dennis —joined us on the NWS stage to talk about protecting the Great Lakes, the threats our water supply are facing, the dangers of climate change to our natural surroundings, and other topics covered in their books Great Lakes for Sale , Up North in Michigan and The Living Great Lakes . In Great Lakes...

One of the most popular videos on our YouTube channel over the past year is our conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anthony Doerr, guest hosted by his good friend Lysley Tenorio. The two held a great discussion about Anthony's new book "Cloud Cuckoo Land," released in September 2021. With the paperback release coming our way this September, we thought we'd go ahead and make their conve...

Do you remember where you were almost exactly a decade ago? If you were in the audience for our evening with #1 NYT Bestselling author Janet Evanovich, you do now! She joined the NWS in July 2012 for a conversation about her then-latest book Wicked Business with NWS co-founder Doug Stanton. In this conversation, they discuss the second in the Lizzy and Diesel supernatural mystery series, how she s...

This winter, we were joined by Michael Schur—the creator of TV's "The Good Place" and the co-creator of "Parks and Recreation" among other projects—to discuss his first book about philosophy and ethics: How to Be Perfect . Did we learn how to be perfect? Well, we learned how to be less imperfect, at the very least. Guest host Ed Helms (The Office, Rutherford Falls) led us through a conversation th...

Today is the first day of summer, so we thought we'd bring you one of the summer-y-est NWS events we've ever hosted! Author Emily Henry joined the National Writers Series for a virtual conversation with guest host Brittany Cavallaro in June of 2021 to talk about her newest NYT bestseller, "People We Meet On Vacation."  In this conversation, Brittany and Emily talk about how their shared trave...

In May 2022, retired cold-case investigator and true-crime icon Paul Holes joined the National Writers Series for a conversation about his new memoir "Unmasked: My Life Solving America's Cold Cases." He was joined on stage at the City Opera House by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Paige St. John.  In this conversation, Paige and Paul talk about how Paul used a breakthrough in DNA technology...