Sofia Samatar returns to the podcast to talk to us about her new book, Friendly City: A Year of Walks. She shares some of her writing strategies, some behind-the-scenes of book publishing, and of course - why this town is worth writing about in the first place!
“Anyone can write about a large city—large cities are open to everyone—but small cities can only be portrayed by people who love them.”
A few mentions:
Ruby’s Arcade - A Harrisonburg original. - https://rubysarcade.com/
About Sofia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sofia_Samatar
https://www.jmu.edu/english/people/samatar-sofia.shtml
Parentheses - A Harrisonburg Bookstore: (Sofia's book launch is on December 5, 2025 at 5pm.)
https://www.parenthesesbooks.com/
If you don’t buy the book at Parentheses in person, you can still support the store by ordering it here:
