Shows
WritersCastPublishing Talks Interviews Thad McIlroy-Future of PublishingPublishing Talks started as a series of conversations with book industry professionals and others involved in media and technology, mostly talking about the future of publishing, books, and culture. It was great fun talking with people in the book industry about the evolution of publishing in the context of technology, culture, and economics.
In the past few years, I’ve talked with a variety of editors, publishers and others who have been innovators and leaders in independent publishing and bookselling in the past and into the present.
These conversations have been inspirational to me. I ha...
2025-11-2444 minWritersCastCarla Malden: Playback (a novel)Playback (A Novel) — Carla Malden — 9781644284872 — Hardcover — 216 pages — Rare Bird Books — Published August 12, 2025 — $28 — ebook versions available at lower prices
Time travel fiction is among my favorite literary genres. I’ve been reading time travel novels avidly since I was a kid. I am sure the first one I read was HG Wells’s Time Machine, probably before I was even 10 years old. And I’ve since read many more. Time and Again by Jack Finney and If I Never Get Back by Daryl Brock are two of the best books I have ever read, so good that I have read each of them...
2025-11-0832 minWritersCastWriterscastPublishing Talks started as a series of conversations I had with book industry professionals and others involved in media and technology, talking about the future of publishing, books, and culture. It was great fun discussing the evolution of publishing in the context of technology, culture, and economics.
More recently, I’ve also had conversations with a variety of editors, publishers and others who have been innovators and leaders in independent publishing and bookselling in the past and into the present.
These conversations have been inspirational to me. I have had the pleasure of speaking with vi...
2025-10-2438 minWritersCastHelen Sheehy: Just Willa (a novel)Just Willa (a novel)—Helen Sheehy—Cave Hollow Press—978-2-7342678-3-9—paperback—428 pages—$21.95—April 13, 2025—ebook versions available at varying lower prices
As many Writerscast listeners know, I only interview writers about books I like and enjoyed reading enough to want to share with my listeners. So every episode of this podcast does represent a certain “best of” approach to my reading, since you will never hear about the books I did not love, or could not bring myself to finish.
From among those many books I like, Helen Sheehy’s Just Willa is a special one – this i...
2025-10-1133 minWritersCastPublishing Talks Interview with Carol Fitzgerald of The Book Report NetworkPublishing Talks started as a series of conversations with book industry professionals and others involved in media and technology, mostly talking about the future of publishing, books, and culture. It was great fun talking with people in the book industry about the evolution of publishing in the context of technology, culture, and economics.
In the past few years, I’ve talked with a variety of editors, publishers and others who have been innovators and leaders in independent publishing and bookselling in the past and into the present.
These conversations have been inspirational to me. I hav...
2025-09-2340 minWritersCastTamara Dean: Shelter and Storm: At Home in the DriftlessShelter and Storm: At Home in the Driftless – Tamara Dean – University of Minnesota Press – 9781517918569 – Paperback – 224 pages – April 22, 2025 – $19.95 -ebook editions available at lower prices
Books like Shelter and Storm are all too often errantly categorized as “regional,” both by publishers and reviewers alike. That’s a problem, as if you think of this book as being “only” about the Driftless region, or Wisconsin, or even the Midwest as its “region,” too many readers might not be interested enough to read this book. It’s an irony for anyone writing from or about a specific place – it may be that through a deep understandin...
2025-09-0934 minWritersCastWriterscast: A Podcast About Books and Authors Publishing Talks started as a series of conversations with book industry professionals and others involved in media and technology, mostly talking about the future of publishing, books, and culture. It was great fun talking with people in the book industry about the evolution of publishing in the context of technology, culture, and economics. In the past few years, I’ve talked with a variety of editors, publishers and others who have been innovators and leaders in independent publishing and bookselling in the past and into the present. These conversations have been inspirational to me. I have had the pleasure of...
2025-08-2027 minWritersCastAnnalee Newitz: Automatic NoodleAutomatic Noodle – Annalee Newitz – Tordotcom – 9781250357465 – Hardcover – 176 pages – August 5, 2025 – $24.99 – ebook versions available at lower prices
Annalee Newitz is one of the best and most original science fiction writers I have read in a long time. I read their last novel, The Future of Another Timeline (it’s brilliant!) and couldn’t wait to read their next book. Automatic Noodle is simultaneously hilariously funny, sneakily political, and highly original. It’s pretty hard to resist and aside from the fact that it is a short book that leaves you wanting much more, it is one of my favorite books I have read in a long...
2025-08-0622 minWritersCastWriterscast: A Podcast About Books and Authors (Publishing Talks)Publishing Talks began as a series of conversations with book industry professionals and others involved in media and technology, mostly talking about the future of publishing, books, and culture. It was great fun talking with people in the book industry about the evolution of publishing in the context of technology, culture, and economics.
During the past several years, I’ve talked with a variety of innovators and leaders in independent publishing and bookselling from the past into the present.
These conversations have been inspirational to me. I have had the pleasure of speaking with visionaries an...
2025-07-1848 minWritersCastJeff Kisseloff: Rewriting Hisstory: A Fifty-Year Journey to Uncover the Truth About Alger HissRewriting Hisstory: A Fifty-Year Journey to Uncover the Truth About Alger Hiss – Jeff Kisseloff – 9780700638338 – Hardcover – 392 pages – University of Kansas Press – April 19th, 2025 – $34.99 -ebook versions available at lower prices
I’ve known about the Alger Hiss case since I was a kid, growing up in the early post-McCarthy era. And in my own family we had two close relatives, both writers, who were blacklisted, and many friends of my parents had been blacklisted at some point as well. So it was a milieu that made the Hiss story living history for me well into my adulthood. Hiss never gave up publicly...
2025-06-2538 minWritersCastMark van de Logt: Between the Floods: A History of the ArikarasBetween the Floods: A History of the Arikaras — Mark van de Logt — University of Oklahoma Press —Paperback — 9780806194905 — 384 pages — $29.95 – October 1, 2024 – ebook versions available at lower prices
During the past couple of years, I’ve read several really good books that recast the history of indigenous Americans both prior to, during, and after the invasion of North America by Europeans, first by explorers, fishermen and traders, and later by colonizers. Almost everything most of us learn about this part of the history of the Americas has been told and taught from the European perspective. Academic studies have similarly been mostly conducted b...
2025-06-1148 minWritersCastRachel Blau DuPlessis reading from The Complete DraftsAuthors Voices gives writers a platform for reading their work. It’s an honor for me to be able to present poet and literary critic Rachel Blau DuPlessis reading from her extraordinary long poem, Drafts, which she began in 1986 and completed in 2012.
Now the great Minneapolis-based independent literary publisher Coffee House Press is publishing The Complete Drafts for the first time in a beautiful two-volume boxed edition.
Up to now, only sections of this amazing long poem have been published, including The Collage Poems of Drafts (2011), Pitch: Drafts 77-95 (2010), Torques: Drafts 58-76 (2007), Drafts. Drafts 39-57, Pl...
2025-05-0825 minWritersCastNikkya Hargrove: Mama: A Queer Black Woman’s Story of a Family Lost and FoundMama: A Queer Black Woman’s Story of a Family Lost and Found — Nikkya Hargrove — Algonquin Books — 9781643751580 — Hardcover – 240 pages — October 15, 2024 — $29.00, ebook versions available at lower prices
“The book is deeply moving and shows how one woman managed to differentiate herself from her mom, find queer love, and discover her voice. I loved it.”–Katie Couric Media, “14 Best New Books Out This Fall, According to a Bookfluencer”
I’m fortunate to live in the same mid-sized Connecticut town as Nikkya, where she has founded a much-needed independent bookstore called Obodo Serendipity. Along with her wife and kids, she is working hard to...
2025-04-0338 minWritersCastDennis James Sweeney: How to Submit: Getting Your Writing Published with Literary Magazines and Small PressesHow to Submit: Getting Your Writing Published with Literary Magazines and Small Presses – Dennis James Sweeney – New World Library – Paperback – 9781608689361 – 216 pages – $18.95 – February 25, 2025 – ebook versions available at lower prices
This book is described by its publisher as “A comprehensive guide to getting published and building a literary reputation through small presses and magazines — and taking ownership of your own publishing life.” While I am very familiar with publishing marketing lingo, I think this description, while literally accurate, actually undervalues Sweeney’s book. He does offer us much more than just a “guide to getting published.” By talking to writers as a colleague and e...
2025-03-2031 minWritersCastWriterscastRiding Like the Wind: The Life of Sanora Babb — Iris Jamahl Dunkle — University of California Press — Hardcover — 9780520395442 — 416 pages — $27.95 — October 15, 2024 — ebook versions available at lower prices.
“This absorbing biography, written with both affection and admiration, shows Babb as one of the most indefatigable characters in American literary history.”—The New Republic
Perhaps sparked by years of exploring the shelves of used bookstores and the libraries of older writers, I’ve long been interested in learning about and reading works by “lost” writers, especially from the early to mid-twentieth century. At various times, I’ve sought out and published some relatively obscure novels and memoirs in hopes of...
2025-03-0335 minWritersCastEric Vickrey: Season of Shattered Dreams: Postwar Baseball, the Spokane Indians, and a Tragic Bus Crash that Changed EverythingSeason of Shattered Dreams: Postwar Baseball, the Spokane Indians, and a Tragic Bus Crash that Changed Everything – Eric Vickrey – Rowman & Littlefield – Hardcover – 9781538190722 – 176 pages – $34 – April 16, 2024
I am sure that most of my listeners already know that I have long been a dedicated baseball fan – at least since I was six years old and was captivated by seeing the New York Yankees play the Milwaukee Braves in the 1957 World Series on a tiny black and white television set along with my best friend at the time, Tony Grafton. As a kid, I absorbed baseball history like a sponge, reading everything I cou...
2025-02-0931 minWritersCastWriterscast: A Podcast About Books and AuthorsAn Alternative History of Cleveland – Jon Wlasiuk – Illustrated by Libby Geboy – Belt Publishing – Paperback – 9781953368799 – 244 pages – paperback – $19.95 – October 15, 2024
This is a terrific book published by the very fine independent Belt Publishing (now part of Arcadia Publishing, a company that specializes in books about locales). Belt has long focused on books about the midwest, specifically the rust belt from which its name derives. One of its goals has been to dispel myths about the midwest and its places, not just for outsiders, but for the people who live there themselves who often do not realize the depth of the places they inhabi...
2025-01-2235 minWritersCastPublishing Talks Interview with Jack David of ECW PressI began Publishing Talks a number of years ago as a series of conversations with book industry professionals and others involved in media and technology. Most of these interviews originally involved the future of publishing, books, and culture, talking with people in the book industry about how publishing is evolving in the context of technology, culture, and economics.
Later this series broadened to include conversations to go beyond the future of publishing. In an effort to document the literary world, I’ve talked with a variety of editors, publishers and others who have been innovators and leaders in...
2025-01-061h 00WritersCastB.A. Van Sise: On the National Language: The Poetry of America’s Endangered TonguesOn the National Language: The Poetry of America’s Endangered Tongues – B.A. Van Side – 978-0-7643-6814-1 – Hardcover – 176 pages – September 28, 2024 – $50.00 – Schiffer Publishing
This book was irresistible to me from the outset. I’ve long been interested in both the indigenous languages of the Americas, as well as how culture and language interact to define human beings as simultaneously unique and alike. B.A. Van Sise is a terrifically innovative and imaginative photographer, who has worked extensively with endangered-language speakers, students, and those who now seek to revitalize and rebirth formerly lost languages. He spent three years traveling the US to discover and...
2024-12-1138 minWritersCastOliver Radclyffe: Frighten the Horse (A Memoir)Frighten the Horses – Oliver Radclyffe – Roxane Gay Books – 978-0-8021-6315-8 – Hardcover – 352 pages – $28.00 – September 17, 2024 – ebook versions available at lower prices
This is flat out a remarkable story told by a remarkable person. We live in a time when people are so often simply categorized into identities, as if the naming of a version of self somehow explains who a person is. Labels do not tell stories: gay, straight, queer, trans. All are too reductive to have any meaning whatsoever. Every person is a complicated being, and most of us contain multiple versions of ourselves. Sometimes those versions simply...
2024-11-1935 minWritersCastPublishing Talks Interview with Ken Whyte of Sutherland HouseI began Publishing Talks a number of years ago as a series of conversations with book industry professionals and others involved in media and technology. Most of these interviews originally involved the future of publishing, books, and culture, talking with people in the book industry about how publishing is evolving in the context of technology, culture, and economics.
Later this series broadened to include conversations to go beyond the future of publishing. In an effort to document the literary world, I’ve talked with a variety of editors, publishers and others who have been innovators and leaders in...
2024-10-2254 minWritersCastAbraham Chang: 888 Love and the Divine Burden of Numbers888 Love and the Divine Burden Numbers: A Novel — Abraham Chang — Flatiron Books — Hardcover — 978-1-250-91078-3 — 400 pages — $29.99 — ebook $14.99 — May 7, 2024
I met Abe Chang several years ago when he was gainfully employed at Simon and Schuster as a sales rep. I was immediately impressed by his encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture and the pure joy he exuded as a person, always coming across as an authentic character who combined a sharp eye for detail and a unique sense of humor. I had literally no idea that he was also an accomplished poet, musician and evidently, a terrific novelist and storyteller at the same time...
2024-10-0332 minWritersCastPublishing Talks Interview with Leah Paulos Press Shop PRPublishing Talks began years ago as a series of conversations with book industry professionals and others involved in media and technology. Most of these interviews originally involved the future of publishing, books, and culture, talking with people in the book industry about how publishing is evolving in the context of technology, culture, and economics.
Later this series broadened to include conversations to go beyond the future of publishing. In an effort to document the literary world, I’ve talked with a variety of editors, publishers and others who have been innovators and leaders in independent publishing in the...
2024-09-0432 minWritersCastKevin Baker: The New York Game: Baseball and the Rise of a New CityThe New York Game: Baseball and the Rise of a New City — Kevin Baker — Knopf Publishing – 9780375421839 – Hardcover — 528 pages — $35.00 — March 5, 2024 — ebook versions available at lower prices
I am guessing that anyone who knows me well will be aware that baseball has been a lifelong passion. I’ve written baseball poetry and stories, interviewed former players, and talked to writers about baseball many times over the years. I’ve read hundreds of baseball books, and published a few as well. Among the legion of great baseball novels, Kevin Baker’s Sometimes You See it Coming is one of my all time favorites. And...
2024-07-3036 minWritersCastWriterscastCold Victory: A Novel — Karl Marlantes — Atlantic Monthly Press – 978-0-8021-6142-0 – Hardcover — 352 pages — $28.00 — January 9, 2024 — ebook versions available at lower prices
I have to confess at the outset that Karl Marlantes has become one of my favorite authors of recent times and his latest book Cold Victory, is yet another outstanding novel from this author, whose first novel, Matterhorn, was published in 2010 after a full thirty years of effort. I’ve had the pleasure and privilege of interviewing Karl for all three of his previous books, each of them very different in subject matter and approach. A characteristic t...
2024-06-2131 minWritersCastWriterscastTwenty Acres: A Seventies Childhood in the Woods – Sarah Neidhardt – University of Arkansas Press – Paperback – 320 pages – 9781682262276 – $29.95 – Published March 7, 2023. Audiobook and ebook versions available at varying prices.
Twenty Acres is a wonderful, rewarding family memoir that will resonate both for elder veterans of the sixties and seventies “back to the land” counter culture but most especially for their now adult children, of which author Neidhardt is one. She was just a baby when her quite intelligent, middle class, young, naive parents left Colorado Springs to move to an extremely isolated part of the Arkansas Ozarks, where despite being woefully unprepare...
2024-05-2332 minWritersCastWriterscastThe Farmall Century 1923-2023: The Evolution of Red Tractors and Crawlers in the Golden Age of International Harvester – Lee Klancher – Octane Press – Hardcover – 9781642341393 – 384 pages (11.8 x 10.5) – $59.95 – October 26, 2023
This fantastic coffee table book is a massive, well-researched, detailed, extensively illustrated, and very readable history not only of the International Harvester Farmall tractor, but of the people and company that built, marketed and sold it all over the world. Even if you have no interest whatsoever in tractors as motorized, wheeled devices, this story is compelling. Farming was once what the majority of Americans did for a living, and while the numbers of...
2024-04-2433 minWritersCastWriterscastThe Fast: The History, Science, Philosophy, and Promise of Doing Without—John Oakes—Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster—Hardcover —9781668017418—320 pages—$30—February 13, 2024—ebook versions available at lower prices
If you’re expecting to find a “how to guide to fasting” you will have to look elsewhere. John Oakes is far too good a writer and thinker to spend his time writing something simple like a guide book or even a “rah rah” tome aimed at encouraging you to take up the idea of “intermittent fasting” for yourselves. You might decide to try it out after reading The Fast, but that’s not his purpose and...
2024-03-0234 minWritersCastWriterscastThe Warner Brothers by Chris Yogerst, Foreword by Michael Uslan – University Press of Kentucky – Hardcover – 9780813198019 – 360 pages – $34.95 -September 5, 2023. eBook and audio book versions are also available at lower prices.
My grandfather, Jacob Wilk, worked for Warner Brothers as their east coast representative for almost thirty years, and my father wrote for television and film, as well as books, some of which were about Hollywood. I grew up on stories about “the old days” of Hollywood and my grandfather’s lifelong love of theater and film. He died when I was five years old, so any book that might offer even tidbi...
2024-02-1431 minWritersCastPublishing Talks Interview with Jane Friedman of Hot SheetPublishing Talks began first as a series of conversations with book industry professionals and others involved in media and technology, mostly talking about the future of publishing, books, and culture. It was great fun talking with people in the book industry about the evolution of publishing in the context of technology, culture, and economics. Over the years, I talked with a variety of editors, publishers and others, innovators and leaders in independent publishing and bookselling in the past, and into the present.
These conversations have been inspirational to me. I have had the pleasure of speaking with...
2023-12-2835 minWritersCastWriterscastThe Swine Republic: Struggles with the Truth about Agriculture and Water Quality – Chris Jones – Foreword by Tom Philpott – Ice Cube Press – 9781948509404 – 400 pages – $29.99 – June 1, 2023
When I saw the title of this book, I knew I would want to read it. How could I resist?
Ice Cube Press is an Iowa-based publisher that consistently publishes books that while often are focused on Iowa stories, readers anywhere should be reading. This book consists of a series of blog pieces written by Chris Jones while he was a Research Engineer with IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering at the University of Iowa. As a scientist, J...
2023-11-3032 minWritersCastBaron Wormser: The Road Washes Out in SpringThe Road Washes Out in Spring: A Poet’s Memoir of Living Off the Grid – Baron Wormser – Brandeis University Press – 9781684581603 – 214 pages – paperback – $24.95 – March 7, 2023 – ebook versions available at lower prices
Baron Wormser is a poet and prose writer whose work I have been familiar with for many years. Back in the 1970s, he and his wife Janet, moved to rural Maine as part of the “back to the land” wave that had been inspired by hippies and the Stewart Brand’s influential Whole Earth Catalog and especially the writings of the now almost mythic Helen and Scott Nearing, vegetarians who pioneered...
2023-10-0729 minWritersCastWriterscast His Majesty’s Airship: The Life and Tragic Death of the World’s Largest Flying Machine — Sam Gwynne — Scribner — 9781982168278 — 320 pages — hardcover — $32.00 – May 2, 2023 — ebook versions available at lower cost
Sam Gwynne is the author of the outstanding Empire of the Summer Moon, a book I really loved. In this new work, he tells the story of a very different sort, documenting the British airship R101, but covering essentially the entire rise and fall of “lighter than air” powered flight. Like so many other airships, R101 crashed horribly in 1930 and killed almost its entire crew, including the leadership of the British airship indu...
2023-08-2931 minWritersCastWriterscastPublishing Talks began as a series of conversations with book industry professionals and others involved in media and technology, mostly talking about the future of publishing, books, and culture. I’ve spent time talking with people in the book industry about how publishing is evolving in the context of technology, culture, and economics.
Later this series grew to include conversations that go beyond the future of publishing. In an effort to document the literary world, I’ve talked with a variety of editors, publishers and others who have been innovators and leaders in independent publishing in the past...
2023-07-2741 minWritersCastWriterscastPoets on the Road – Maureen Owen and Barbara Henning – City Point Press – 9781947951709 – Paperback – 176 pages – $18 – June 6, 2023 – ebook editions available at lower prices
This is a special book by two very special poets. I know I am biased. They are both friends of mine, and Maureen I have known for almost fifty years. This terrific travelog documents an amazing poetic journey they took in 2019, crossing the country in a small car, with stops for poetry readings, visits with other poets, cheap motels and funky meals from Brooklyn (where Barbara lives), first south, then west all the way to California and back to Denv...
2023-06-2125 minWritersCastWriterscastPublishing Talks began as a series of conversations with book industry professionals and others involved in media and technology, mostly talking about the future of publishing, books, and culture. I’ve spent time talking with people in the book industry about how publishing is evolving in the context of technology, culture, and economics.
Later this series broadened to include conversations that go beyond the future of publishing. In an effort to document the literary world, I’ve talked with a variety of editors, publishers and others who have been innovators and leaders in independent publishing in the past...
2023-05-0928 minWritersCastWriterscastMichael Wolfe
Publishing Talks began as a series of conversations with book industry professionals and others involved in media and technology, mostly talking about the future of publishing, books, and culture. I’ve spent time talking with people in the book industry about how publishing is evolving in the context of technology, culture, and economics.
Later this series broadened to include conversations that go beyond the future of publishing. In an effort to document the literary world, I’ve talked with a variety of editors, publishers and others who have been innovators and leaders in indep...
2023-03-0144 minWritersCastCornelia Maude Spelman: Missing: A MemoirMissing: A Memoir – Cornelia Maude Spelman – Jackleg Press – 9781737513445 – Paperback – 176 pages – $17.00 – July 15, 2022 – ebook versions available at lower prices
Cornelia Maude Spelman is best known as a children’s book author. This memoir of her family was spurred by her meeting with and friendship with the late New Yorker editor William Maxwell (himself an extraordinary writer as well), who knew her parents in the 1920s when they were at the University of Illinois together.
Cornelia plainly admired and enjoyed the company of Maxwell, but also was fascinated that he knew her parents before they had children, before their lives went i...
2022-10-2529 minWritersCastPublishing Talks: Interview with Dan Harke of Mayo Clinic PressPublishing Talks began as a series of conversations with book industry professionals and others involved in media and technology, mostly talking about the future of publishing, books, and culture. I’ve spent time talking with people in the book industry about how publishing is evolving in the context of technology, culture, and economics.
Some time back, this series broadened to include conversations that go beyond the future of publishing. In an effort to document the literary world, I’ve talked with a variety of editors, publishers and others who have been innovators and leaders in independent publishing in t...
2022-10-0523 minWritersCastBeatrice Hitchman: All of You Every Single OneAll of You Every Single One: A Novel – Beatrice Hitchman – Overlook Press – 978-1-4197-5693-1 – Hardcover – 320 pages – $26 – January 4, 2022 – ebook editions available at lower prices
This novel is an absolutely riveting book I truly enjoyed. And happily, it introduced me to the work of Beatrice Hitchman, who is a wonderful writer. Her story begins in 1910 with Julia Lindqvist, who is unhappily married to a well known Swedish playwright. She leaves him after falling passionately in love with a captivating Austrian woman, a tailor named Eve. Together, they escape to the much less restrictive environment of Vienna, where the story unfold...
2022-09-1437 minWritersCastPublishing Talks: Interview with Mark Hurst of Creative GoodPublishing Talks began as a series of conversations with book industry professionals and others involved in media and technology, mostly about the future of publishing, books, and culture. I’ve spent time talking with people in the book industry about how publishing is evolving in the context of fast-changing technology, culture, and economics.
Along the way, this series broadened to include conversations that go beyond the future of publishing. In an effort to document the literary world, I’ve talked with a variety of editors, publishers and others who have been innovators and leaders in independent publishing in t...
2022-07-1744 minWritersCastRobert Child: Immortal Valor: The Black Medal of Honor Recipients of World War IIImmortal Valor: The Black Medal of Honor Recipients of World War II – Robert Child – Osprey – 9781472852854 – 288 pages – hardcover – $30 – January 11, 2022 – ebook edition available at lower prices
It is remarkable to realize how few medals of honor were awarded for service during World War II – there were 432 Congressional medals given out of the over sixteen million men and women who served during that four year period during which America fought large scale brutal wars in both the Pacific and European theaters. It is therefore shocking to find out that not a single African American was among the 432 honorees, despite the fact that over one...
2022-05-2629 minWritersCastPublishing Talks: Interview with Jane FriedmanPublishing Talks started as a series of conversations with book industry professionals and others involved in media and technology, mostly talking about the future of publishing, books, and culture. It was great fun talking with people in the book industry about the evolution of publishing in the context of technology, culture, and economics.
Later this series broadened considerably. In the past few years, I’ve talked with a variety of editors, publishers and others who have been innovators and leaders in independent publishing and bookselling in the past and into the present.
These conversations have be...
2022-05-1037 minWritersCastSarah Vogel: The Farmer’s Lawyer: The North Dakota Nine and the Fight to Save the Family FarmThe Farmer’s Lawyer: The North Dakota Nine and the Fight to Save the Family Farm – Sarah Vogel – Bloomsbury – 9781635575262 – 432 pages – hardcover – $28 – ebook edition available at lower prices – November 2, 2021
Many Americans think of North Dakota and the other prairie states as being conservative culturally and equally unprogressive politically. But that view of these predominantly farming states neglects their long histories of progressive populism that goes back over 100 years. That’s true of North Dakota where the Nonpartisan League was active and strong from the 1920s onward (and into the present, where it still exists as the Democratic NPL — much like the Democrat...
2022-04-1434 minWritersCastBetsy Dovydenas: If You Want to Know How I Got BrainwashedIf You Want to Know How I Got Brainwashed: Story and Paintings – Betsy Dovydenas – City Point Press – 978-1-947951-40-2 – 224 pages – paperback – $24 – ebook edition available at lower prices
In many ways, this is a simple story. A woman becomes involved with a small local church and soon finds herself taken in by their practices, inculcated into what is evidently a religious cult, which she joins willingly. Gradually she loses her agency to the church and its practices. The church takes over her mind – the other members and the minister tell her how to live, what to do, and of cours...
2022-03-1527 minWritersCastPublishing Talks: Interview with George Slowik, Jr. of Publishers WeeklyPublishing Talks began as a series of conversations with book industry professionals and others involved in media and technology, mostly talking about the future of publishing, books, and culture. I’ve spent time talking with people in the book industry about how publishing is evolving in the context of technology, culture, and economics.
Some years ago, this series broadened to include conversations that go beyond the future of publishing. In an effort to document the literary world, I’ve talked with a variety of editors, publishers and others who have been innovators and leaders in independent publishing in th...
2022-02-2342 minWritersCastLan Samantha Chang: The Family Chao (A Novel)The Family Chao – Lan Samantha Chang – W.W. Norton – 9780393868074 – 320 pages – Hardcover – $29.00 – February 1, 2022. eBook versions available at lower prices.
This is a beautifully written and thoughtfully composed novel about three brothers in a Chinese American family living somewhat awkwardly in a small town in Wisconsin. It has elements of the picaresque, the humorous and a great deal of sadness and pain that suffuses all.
At the heart of the novel are the three sons of the family patriarch, Leo Chao, who with his wife established and operated the Fine Chao restaurant in this small heartland community for over thirt...
2022-02-0835 minWritersCastWilliam J. Peters: At Heaven’s Door-What Shared Journeys to the AfterLife Teach about Dying Well and Living BetterAt Heaven’s Door – What Shared Journeys to the Afterlife Teach about Dying Well and Living Better – William J. Peters – with Michael Kinsella – Simon and Schuster – 978-1-9821-5042-6 – Hardcover – 248 pages – $26.00 – January 18, 2022 – ebook editions available at lower prices
William Peters is a therapist who had worked for many years with people at the end of their lives. In 2000, when he was volunteering at the Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco , he experienced something very similar to what mystics describe and what some people who have been close to death have reported, the sense of floating in midair, completely out...
2022-01-2540 minWritersCastEnrique Salmón: Iwígara: American Indian Ethnobotanical Traditions and ScienceIwígara: American Indian Ethnobotanical Traditions and Science, The Kinship of Plants and People — Enrique Salmón –Timber Press — 978-1-60469-880-0 — Hardcover – $34.95 – ebook and audio book versions available at lower prices
This is a truly incredible and hugely inspiring book for me. Enrique Salmón, a member of the Raramuri tribe from Mexico, has spent a lifetime learning and studying the medicinal and cultural properties of North American plants. He now teaches at California State University-East Bay in Hayward, California. His work may place him in academia, but he is fully engaged in the natural world.
S...
2022-01-0937 minWritersCastPeter Quinn: Banished Children of Eve: A Novel of Civil War New YorkBanished Children of Eve: A Novel of Civil War New York – Peter Quinn – Empire State Editions (Fordham University Press) – 978-08232-9408-4 – 612 pages – paperback – $17.95 (eBook version is not available for this title)
Historical novels based in New York City have always appealed to me. I am not sure why. Maybe it has something to do with the time I spent with my grandparents, who lived in New York City, took me frequently to the Museum of the City of New York, and showed me many of the historical sites of the city. Maybe it is simply because so much of A...
2021-12-1035 min
Reader's Entertainment RadioBook World News with guest David Wilk for www.booktrix.comBook World News with guest David Wilk for www.booktrix.com
2008-07-0315 minReader's Entertainment RadioBook World News with Guest David WilkDavid Wilk talks about www.livewriters.com (site for book video) & www.booktrix.com (site for marketing)
2008-05-2215 min