AWM Author Talks

This week we discuss the legacy of Norman Mailer with J. Michael Lennon, Mailer’s archivist and authorized biographer, and Maureen Corrigan, book critic for NPR’s Fresh Air. This conversation was originally recorded August 27, 2018 and was recorded live at the American Writers Museum. We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS “Political power of the most frightening sort...

This week, we present an excerpt from a previously recorded conversation with author and historian Nicholas Buccola about his recent book The Fire Is Upon Us: James Baldwin, William F. Buckley Jr., and the Debate over Race in America . To watch the full program as well as view an accompanying photo slideshow, visit the American Writers Museum YouTube channel . We hope you enjoy entering the mind o...

This week, get your peanuts and Cracker Jack ready because we’re chatting with essayist Joe Bonomo and sportswriter Rick Telander about their favorite baseball writing. This program took place and was recorded in June when Major League Baseball was still on hiatus. We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS "Baseball especially encourages that, that feeling of connection t...

Today, in recognition of Indigenous Peoples Day, we talk with Native poets and performing artists Frank Waln and Tanaya Winder, who will also play some of their powerful music. We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer. Listen to more episodes here. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS “I really believe in helping people heal through the power of love and I try to infuse anything I write -- whether it’s poetr...

This week, AWM Facilities Supervisor, Cristina Carrera, chats with former U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera about his new collection Every Day We Get More Illegal . We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer. Find more podcast episodes here . EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS “Instead of more openness, the doors seem to be bigger and tighter and more locked up, in more ways than one. So I wanted to thi...

This week, AWM Assistant Director of Programming and Education, Sonal Shukla, chats with Adrianna Cuevas, debut author of the middle grade fantasy novel The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez . We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer. Find more episodes here . EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS “I pretty much live in my own head most of the time, so surrounding myself with my imagination and writing helps me g...

We continue celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month this week with singer-songwriter Louie Pérez, lead singer of Los Lobos, who chats with radio broadcaster Catalina Maria Johnson about his work and writing. We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer. Listen to all podcast episodes here . EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS “Everything I’ve written has always come from the experiences I had growing up. Y...

This week, AWM President Carey Cranston sits down with bestselling author and immigrant rights advocate Julissa Arce to kick off National Hispanic Heritage Month. We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer. Listen to more episodes here . EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS “I’ve been very motivated and very inspired by young undocumented people now who are out fighting for their rights and are chanting, ‘Undo...

This week, AWM President Carey Cranston sits down with author and historian Michelle Duster who discusses the indelible impact and lasting legacy of her great-grandmother, Ida B. Wells. We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer. Listen to more episodes here . EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS “[Wells] felt the need to write her own autobiography because she was concerned that the work that she did would so...

This week, AWM Program Director Allison Sansone sits down with Isabel Ibañez to chat about her Bolivian heritage, writing process, and her debut Young Adult Fantasy novel Woven in Moonlight . We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer. Listen to more episodes here . EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS “Home sort of felt like two places and I had to balance both of them. Those two identities, Isabel in Bolivia...

This week, we honor Ray Bradbury’s recent Centennial on August 22nd with more science fiction. The prolific writer John Scalzi talks about his novel The Consuming Fire , how he wrote it in just two weeks, and his affinity for wombats. Yes, wombats. We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer. Listen to more episodes here . EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS “I do the majority of my writing in the shower.” “On...

This week, journalist Dan Sinker talks with Annalee Newitz about Annalee’s recent time-traveling, punk rock novel The Future of Another Timeline . This is the second of four conversations with science fiction and fantasy writers in honor of  Ray Bradbury’s Centennial  on August 22. Admission to the AWM is also free of charge that day to celebrate Bradbury’s work and lasting legacy. Inter...

In this episode, American Writers Museum Program Director Allison Sansone chats with renowned screenwriter and comics writer J. Michael Straczynski about his recent memoir Becoming Superman: My Journey from Poverty to Childhood . We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer. Listen to more episodes here . EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS “There’s trying to dance, and there’s dancing. There’s trying to write,...

This week, Booklist editor Donna Seaman talks with Pulitzer Prize-winner and former U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey about her powerful new memoir Memorial Drive , which recounts the brutal murder of her mother at the hands of her former stepfather and the impact that moment has had on Trethewey's life and work. We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer. Listen to more episodes here . EP...

This week, Booklist editor Donna Seaman chats with Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage , which was a selection for Oprah’s Book Club. We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer. Listen to more episodes here . EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS "Prison is family separation. It’s happening on our border but it’s also happening right in our cities. Every person in prison is separated from your loved on...

This week, we are thrilled to present a discussion between award-winning poets Ross Gay and Eve L. Ewing, who talked about Gay’s recent collection The Book of Delights . We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer. Listen to more episodes here . EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS “My first impulse when I have a delight, when I have something that’s delightful...I want to share it. Or I want to yell it. Deligh...

This week, AWM Program Director Allison Sansone talks with writer and disabled rights advocate Keah Brown about her essay collection The Pretty One . We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer. Listen to more episodes here . EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS "What I want so badly is disabled characters who aren’t plot devices for somebody else. I want disabled characters who get angry and who get sad and wh...

This week, AWM Program Director Allison Sansone talks to award-winning poet Saeed Jones about his memoir How We Fight For Our Lives , which tells his incredible story of a young, black, gay man from the south fighting to carve out a place for himself in the world. We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer.  Listen to more episodes here . EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS “If America was going to hate...

This week, AWM Program Director Allison Sansone talks to National Book Award finalist David Treuer about his book The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee , a sweeping history of Native American life from the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890 to today. This conversation was originally recorded live at the American Writers Museum. We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer. Listen to more episodes here . EPI...

This week, we are pleased to present a discussion between AWM Program Director Allison Sansone and graphic novelist Ngozi Ukazu about the latest installment in her popular Check Please! series. We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer. Listen to more episodes here .

This week we are pleased to present Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist Laila Lalami, who chats with American Writers Museum President Carey Cranston about her forthcoming book Conditional Citizens . We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer. Listen to more episodes here .

This week we are pleased to present writers Viet Thanh Nguyen, Kao Kalia Yang, and Vu Tran who’ll discuss their contributions to the anthology The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives . This conversation was originally recorded at the American Writers Museum. We hope you enjoy entering the mind of a writer. Listen to more episodes here .

We are thrilled and honored to launch the American Writers Museum podcast with this discussion between writers Sandra Cisneros and Fernando A. Flores, who visited the AWM in May of 2019. Flores had just published his latest novel Tears of the Trufflepig and Cisneros joined him for this event to discuss the book, their writing processes, and their experiences growing up in Mexican-American househol...