Write The Book: Conversations on Craft

An interview from the archives with novelist and story writer J. Robert Lennon . We discussed his story collection, See You in Paradise, published by Graywolf Press . Last year he published two more books with Graywolf, a novel called Subdivision and a story collection, Let Me Think .  This week’s Write the Book Prompt is to write a paragraph about a moment that takes place in a park. Maybe a dog...

An interview from the archives with award winning writer, educator and translator Wendy Call .  This week’s Write the Book Prompt is to choose one of the following sentences, and translate it into a language of your own design.  Tomorrow morning, as the sun shines up and over the eastern wall of your house, you will awaken to a gift of joy.  He ran through the woods and hopped the stones in a brig...

An interview with Pulitzer-Prize winning author Jennifer Egan about her new novel The Candy House  ( Scribner ). This week’s Write the Book Prompt was generously suggested by my guest, Jennifer Egan—an exercise she assigns her students that she says has been helpful. Imagine yourself in a physical place, such as a room that you know well from an earlier point of your life. Describe what is to your...

An interview with 2019 Quill Prose Prize winner, Carlos Allende ,  about his novel, Coffee, Shopping, Murder, Love ( Red Hen Press ).  This week’s Write the Book Prompt was generously suggested by my guest Carlos Allende. Create a character that does something reprehensible or immoral. The person can be anyone: from a child who broke the rules to a serial killer. Make that character sympathetic by...

Author Jori Lewis , whose debut nonfiction book is Slaves for Peanuts ( The New Press) . This week’s Write the Book Prompt was generously suggested by my guest, Jori Lewis. If you’re working on something and it’s not moving along well, try changing the perspective. And in doing this, keep in mind  the way one focuses a camera: focus in, pull out. Good luck with your work in the coming week, and tu...

An interview from the archives with bestselling author Meg Wolitzer , about her novel for young adults, Belzhar (Dutton Books for Young Readers). One of her latest projects is hosting Selected Shorts at New York's Symphony Space, hosted by Public Radio International . Seedlings, soil, compost, fertilizer. It’s gardening season. This week’s Write the Book Prompt is to write about a garden. Perhaps...

This month, the words of celebrated Vermont poet David Budbill  take center stage in Sutras for a Suffering World , a concert featuring Vermont and New York artists and music by composers William Parker, Erik Nielsen, and Evan Premo. I spoke with Vermont artists Lois Eby and Nadine Budbill , wife and daughter of the late David Budbill, about these concerts.  As literary executor of David Budbill's...

Vermont Author Jennifer McMahon , whose new novel is The Children on the Hill ( Simon & Schuster ).  Jennifer's recent reads include: The Fervor, by Alma Katsu My Heart Is a Chainsaw, by Stephen Graham Jones This week’s Write the Book Prompt was generously suggested by my guest, Jennifer McMahon, who sent me this note: At its heart, The Children on the Hill is an exploration of monsters and monstr...

Melanie Finn , winner of the Vermont Book Award in Fiction 2021, and author of The Hare ( Two Dollar Radio ).  Melanie's favorite recent reads include: Empireland, by Sathnam Sanghera On The Black Hill, by Bruce Chatwin Orlando, by Virginia Woolf   This week's Write the Book Prompt was generously suggested by my guest, Melanie Finn, who recommends starting "outside the box" when it comes to buildi...

Kurt Johnson and his daughter, Ellie Johnson , who have collaborated on a new novel titled The Barrens: A Novel of Love and Death in the Canadian Arctic ( Arcade ).  This week I have two Write the Book Prompts to offer, thanks to the generosity of my guests. Kurt Johnson suggests writing a paragraph the beginning and end of which you know ahead of time. Allow the middle to be more stream of consci...

Maya Rodale , best-selling and award-winning author of funny feminist historical fiction and romance. Her latest novel is Mad Girls of New York ( Berkley ). This week’s Write the Book Prompt was suggested by my guest, Maya Rodale, who said it was inspired by our conversation. Take this scenario and write it forward:  She was in a rush to get downtown–the sooner the better and definitely before it...

Michelle Huneven 's latest is Search , a funny novel about a congregational search committee, told as a memoir with recipes ( Penguin ). This week’s Write the Book Prompt comes from Michelle Huneven’s book, Search. It’s one that the search committee is offered when they begin working with the consultant named Helen: IMAGINE YOUR LIFE AS A MOVIE THAT YOU’VE STEPPED OUT OF TO BE HERE TODAY. WHAT’S T...

An interview from the archives - complete with the old music! - with Robert Boswell,  award-winning author of seven novels, including  Tumbledown ( Graywolf Press) . Robert Boswell published a book on craft in 2008, The Half-Known World. In this book, he details how important it is for writers to give themselves over to what he calls the "half-known world" of fiction, where surprise and meaning co...

An interview from the archives with Jacqueline Woodson , about her National Book Award winning memoir-in-verse, Brown Girl Dreaming ( Nancy Paulsen Books ). Have you ever tried to write a story in verse? Not necessarily a long story. Maybe an anecdote you would share with a friend about something that happened to you on a random Monday afternoon. This week’s Write the Book Prompt is to consider a...

Mark Wish and Elizabeth Coffey , editors of a new anthology: Coolest American Stories 2022 (Coolest Stories Press). This year marked the inaugural publication of the book, which will come out each January.  This week’s Write the Book Prompt is actually a publishing prompt (because we all know how hard it is to send out work once we've written it). Polish up your coolest, most twisty-turny story, m...

A conversation from the archives with the author Vikram Chandra about his nonfiction book, Geek Sublime: The Beauty of Code, the Code of Beauty  ( Graywolf Press ).  This week’s Write the Book Prompt is to include a few (let's say three) of the following items together in a story, scene, poem, or essay:  a dock fender for a boat  the bow of a violin a leaky pen a basketball hoop an Apple II Comput...

An interview from the archives with local author and Queen City Ghostwalk Guide Thea Lewis about her book Haunted Inns and Ghostly Getaways of Vermont , published by The History Press. This week’s Write the Book Prompt is to imagine a creepy scenario that has always frightened you. Maybe it has to do with going down into a basement, or up into an attic. Maybe it centers on a certain person who lea...

An interview with Rachel Foster , co-founder and executive council co-chair of World Without Exploitation , who recently wrote an opinion piece in Vermont Digger : "Burlington controversy part of effort to decriminalize sex trade," and Mary Speta , Chief Impact Officer for Amirah , an organization offering help to survivors of sexual exploitation. This week's interview is not about a specific book...

An interview with the author Karen Joy Fowler , whose new historical novel is Booth , which concerns the family behind one of the most infamous figures in American history: John Wilkes Booth. The book came out last week from Putnam . This week’s Write the Book Prompt was generously offered by my guest, Karen Joy Fowler, who suggests picking one of the great emotions:  fury, joy, envy, terror.  Wri...

An archive interview (from my Radiator broadcast days!) from the archives with New Hampshire author Toby Ball , author of three crime novels published by Overlook Press: The Vaults, about which we spoke in 2010,  Scorch City, which he wrote in 2011, and Invisible Streets  the third in the series and the subject of this conversation. This week’s Write the Book Prompt is to consider the following li...

A new interview with Vermont Author Kathryn Davis , who has a memoir out: Aurelia, Aurélia ( Graywolf Press ).  This week’s Write the Book Prompt was generously offered by my guest, Kathryn Davis, who teaches a novel writing class, among others. They have undertaken the exercise in that class of writing a “faux” novel. Without overthinking it, come up with a title and ten chapter headings for an a...

Vermont Author and Documentarian Jim Carrier , whose book Charity: The Heroic and Heartbreaking Story of Charity Hospital in Hurricane Katrina came out as an audiobook in 2021. This week's Write the Book Prompt was inspired by my interview with Jim Carrier, whose book Charity tells the story of one hospital in one storm, through the closer detailed narratives of individuals who were caught up in t...

Paula Martinac , author of seven novels. Since we spoke in 2017 about  The Ada Decades ( Bywater Books ), she has published three others. Her latest is  Dear Miss Cushman  ( Bywater Books ). This week’s Write the Book Prompt is to consider the next food item you see - fruit, meat, vegetable, fast food, food on the street, in a gourmet store, at a cafeteria, on your kitchen shelf - and write about...

Vermont author and exceptional literary citizen Nancy Means Wright passed away on January 19 at the age of 95. This week I aired an interview with Nancy from the early days of the show. Many thanks to Seven Days for granting me permission to read their obituary for Nancy on air (with the stipulation that I read it in its entirety).  This week’s Write the Book Prompt is to write a short or maybe ev...

An interview from the archives with the author Rachel Urquhart about her novel The Visionist ( Little Brown ). This week’s Write the Book Prompt is to invent a group that has diminished from a large, powerful organization or community to something smaller, with minimal influence. What does this group look like? What happened to change their situation? What characters come to mind when you consider...