The National Writers Series Podcast

Critically acclaimed author George Saunders joined the National Writers Series for a conversation about his book "A Swim in a Pond in the Rain" with fellow short-story author and NWS Creative Writing Lab instructor Kevin Fitton.    Saunders is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of ten books, including "Lincoln in the Bardo," which won the Man Booker Prize; and "Tenth of December,"...

As part of the Winter/Spring 2022 Season, bestselling author Brad Meltzer joined the National Writers Series in early April (which explains the mention of snow at the beginning of the episode!).  In this conversation, Brad and guest host John Searles talk about Brad's career throughout the years, what he uses to motivate himself to write every day, the research that goes into his books, the m...

Since April is National Autism Awareness Month, we thought we'd look back on our 2013 conversation with bestselling author,  autism advocate, and professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University Temple Grandin.  Grandin joined the National Writers Series for a conversation about her then-newest book, The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum . The book discusses remarkable...

This week the NWS welcomes bestselling suspense/thriller novelist Brad Meltzer to the NWS stage!. In advance of that, we thought we'd take a look back at a recent conversation with a similar author: Brad Thor.  In this conversation, held virtually in the summer of 2020 following the release of "Near Dark," Brad and NWS co-founder Doug Stanton talk about everything from how the thriller genre...

This week, Northern Express published a list of 2022's Fascinating People: Northerners You Need to Know . On that list was United States Marine Corps Major General Michael Lehnert (Ret.), who was our guest host for this conversation with author Eric Fair in 2017. Lehnert was the first to serve as commander of the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, and since leaving the Marine Corps has been one of the...

With Eastern Europe looking at another conflict region opening up between Russia and Ukraine, we're looking back to a conversation with a person who's been a journalist, an author, and a special adviser to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Sarah Chayes offers us some still-timely insight into the inner workings of international politics.  In this discussion, guest host Jack Segal of...

This Friday (Feb. 4), we're talking about morals, ethics, and philosophy with Michael Schur , so we thought for this week's podcast we'd look back to another conversation about living a meaningful life. Dr. Lucy Kalanithi joined us in June 2016 to talk about the book she completed for her husband, neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi. This conversation is hosted by bestselling author and NWS co-founde...

In 2013, Michael Paterniti joined the NWS on the stage of the Traverse City Opera House for a conversation with NWS co-founder Doug Stanton. According to Paterniti, the greatest storyteller he ever met is a cheese maker in the small Spanish village of Guzman. When he joined us, Paterniti's latest was The Telling Room: A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge, and World's Greatest Piece of Cheese.  F...

This NWS Podcast episode celebrates the birthday week of critically-acclaimed master of suspense Karin Slaughter.  Slaughter’s first novel Blindsighted became an international success, was published in almost 30 languages, and made the Crime Writers’ Association’s Dagger Award shortlist for “Best Thriller Debut” of 2001.  She is also the author of the Will Trent series that takes place i...

For our last episode of the year, we wanted to bring you our conversation with author Debbie Macomber from 2015. Her work includes fiction, nonfiction, children’s books, knitting and cookbooks, and inspirational books. She’s also released a yearly Christmas-themed book for decades, hence the timing of this episode. At this point, she has more than 200 million copies of books in print; she’s publis...

It's been quite a while since this audio featuring Peter and Elmore Leonard has been publicly available and easily accessible, so let's look all the way back to 2009 with this week's podcast episode.  This conversation features stories including Elmore's interactions with actors like Charles Bronson and John Travolta; where his famous character names like Raylan Givens and Chili Palmer came f...

If you are a Hulu subscriber, you've undoubtedly seen promos for their new series Dopesick starring Michael Keaton. That show premiered a couple of weeks ago, and it's been getting some pretty good reviews. All of which made us think, hey - author Beth Macy joined us to talk about Dopesick back in 2018. Since then it's been adapted into the show you're watching now, and that's why we're bringing y...

What do Steve Miller, Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, and Diana Ross have in common? They all worked with legendary musician Ben Sidran. Sidran sat down with Traverse City musician Jeff Haas on October 11th, 2015 for a discussion about Sidran's newest book: There Was a Fire: Jews, Music and the American Dream. The book charts the myriad and unexpected ways that Jews influenced American music, includin...

On September 29th, 2013, the final episode of TV's legendary series "Breaking Bad" aired on AMC. We thought we'd take this opportunity to look back on series creator Vince Gilligan's appearance on the NWS stage the year prior. He joined us just a few months prior to the start of the show's amazing final season in February 2012. Gilligan - no stranger to northern Michigan, having attended the Inter...

Fall is a great time for a road trip (Tunnel of Trees, anyone?) and since A.J. Baime and Bryce Hoffman joined the NWS around this time in September 2014, we thought we'd revisit their discussion as a great soundtrack to your next long drive.  At the end of 2008, Ford Motor Company was in the fight of its life but when Congress threw it a taxpayer lifeline, Ford ignored it. Instead, the iconic...

September 1st is the publish date of "The Surgeon" in 2001. It's perhaps better known as the very first novel featuring detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles, who are now famously the lead characters in the long-running show "Rizzoli & Isles" on TNT.  Since it's the 20th anniversary of that book's release, we thought we'd revisit our chat with the author: Tess Gerritsen....

Since we have a superstar Young Adult author scheduled to join the NWS in the Fall 2021 Season (Friends of the NWS know who we're talking about!), we thought we'd look back at the first YA author to grace the NWS Stage: Maggie Stiefvater. Stiefvater is the author of "Shiver," the first novel in her famed Wolves of Mercy Falls series, which debuted in August of 2009. She joined us for a conversatio...

We've been spending a lot of time outside over the past few weeks and months, some of it wandering the Teichner Preserve on Lime Lake. We thought that since the Cherry Fest crowds have parted ways with the TC area once again, we might be able to convince some of you to head there as well. What better way to do that than to share our conversation with Martha Teichner, CBS Sunday Morning corresponde...

Benjamin Busch is probably best known for his acting career: He played the character of officer Tony Colicchio in the HBO series “The Wire” and has had roles in shows like "Generation Kill" and "The West Wing." Ben is quite active in many other creative pursuits, including writing, filmmaking, photography, and stonemasonry. He’s written many poems and essays for various collections and periodicals...

Colum McCann’s stunning novel, “Let the Great World Spin” (winner of the National Book Award for fiction) debuted right around this time of year back in 2009, and so this week we look back on his visit to the National Writers Series in June of 2013. McCann sat down with Leigh Haber, Books Editor for O, the Oprah Magazine , for a charming and wide-ranging discussion at the City Opera House. They co...

With Emily Henry joining the NWS on June 24, we thought we'd take this week's podcast episode back to 2014 to hear from another Emily whose work travels along a similar wavelength.   Emily Giffin has written seven novels that have been commonly described by critics as "chick lit," but Giffin takes exception to that characterization. Her novel "Something Borrowed" was made into a movie starrin...

Before there was Lisbeth Salander or Stephanie Plum, there was V.I. Warshawski. Today we celebrate the birthday of author Sara Paretsky, who joined the National Writers Series in 2013 to talk about Critical Mass , her then-newest detective novel featuring her famous investigator V.I. Warshawski (immortalized in the 1991 film by Kathleen Turner). In this week's episode, guest host Nancy Baker joins...

We're celebrating a double anniversary this week! Not only did author, journalist, and filmmaker Sebastian Junger join the National Writers Series for a conversation with co-founder Doug Stanton in May 2011, but his book The Perfect Storm was released on May 17th, 1996. Of course, The Perfect Storm -- which followed the fishing vessel The Andrea Gail as it fought to survive against a brutal Nor'Ea...

For this week's podcast, we celebrate the release of Nathaniel Philbrick's Mayflower - a book nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and released right around this date back in 2006 (at least according to our records).  Philbrick joined the National Writer Series also right around this date in May 2013, just days after the release of his newest book: Bunker Hill: A City, A Siege, A Revolution . In...

This week's podcast episode is a little different from our other entries. Sadly, former NWS guest author Jason Matthews passed away last week at age 69. Jason was the author of three best-selling spy thrillers including Red Sparrow , written based on his experiences working for the CIA over 33 years. We welcomed Jason to the NWS stage back in May 2013, where he and host Doug Stanton discussed how...