” I wanted to go back and really, really understand my father, and piece the story together.” Ariana Neumann shares the writing of her book – When time stopped – A memoir of my father’s war and what remained. “I think we all have a narrative thread that we sort of weave through our lives…I Read More
“Walking in Stefania’s… shoes and feeling the weight of each decision as she made it. I think we need to feel that so that we wont ever forget it.” Sharon Cameron share with us the making of her historical novel – The light in hidden places – based on the a true story of remarkable Read More
“We like to think we would do something,,,find a way to be heroic..” Katrin Schulmann talks about her life and the stories behind her new novel -This Terrible Beauty. “How do we redeem ourselves, when we are a nation as Germany was…I wanted people to read it and reflect on their own lives and their Read More
“We really aren’t in the position anymore, where if you just get an email…..you can say with great confidence ‘This has to be a scam’.” Megan Angelo talks about the future of social media in her new novel – Followers. ” I really was trying to write the future from a more human standpoint; but Read More
“How do you talk about that which is too big to talk about? That moment of awe and wonder.” David Oates shares his wonderment in his memoir – The mountains of Paris – “It’s such a specialized cave we go into, to sort of change our mind for a bigger mind; that is a shared Read More
Marc Graham talks about his new book – Runes for Writers. “Writers are modern shamans. We are the magic makers, the dream walkers, the journeyers in to these other realms of consciousness.” “(We) are the bridge builders between ordinary humanity and the dream state where the muses live…. In ancient times when …we weren’t so Read More
“A lot of my stories kind of start off as these little jokes in my head and then I just decide whether I can expand them in to a short story… or something longer.” Sean Adams talks about writing speculative fiction and his novel – The Heap. ” I wanted to write something that had Read More
“You have to do a lot of things to help a child get better.” Christina Adams talks about her book, her son’s autism, and camel milk in – Camel Crazy, A quest for miracles in the mysterious world of camels. “I knew …I just had this passion…it was just something I had to do. ” Read More
“Immigrants have a very impactful presence wherever they go….They enter the new language but they live and dream in another language and sometimes those languages cross fertilize each other.” Ilan Stavans shares his insights on culture and language and his book – How Yiddish changed America and how America changed Yiddish – an anthology he Read More
“I am interested in exploring … how the past and the future collide with the present.” Micheal Zapata plays with many genres in his novel – The Lost Book of Adana Moreau. ” History reaches out towards the present almost as if it is another world…Science fiction does the same, but going the other way…What Read More
“I never thought that the power existed in me to be able to forgive myself and to forgive God.” Tom Voss speaks about – Where War Ends, a combat veterans 2,700 mile journey to heal – Recovery from PTSD and Moral injury through meditation. – the memoir he wrote with his sister Rebecca Ann Nguyen. Read More
“Girl be Brave connects us to each other through our common need to be brave. Especially in today’s society we have so many things coming at us all the time.” Cheryl Hale shares her life and her inspiration in her new book Girl be Brave. “My heart is in there, in those pages. I tried Read More
“Political scientists and the public at large, don’t pay attention to literature as a component of resistance.” Belgium during the Nazi occupation, E. R. Ramzipoor’s novel – The Ventriloquist – tells how the Belgian resistance published a newspaper poking fun at the Nazis. “There were so many ordinary people who resisted in these crazy creative Read More
“With historical fiction we have an opportunity to examine…a more specific piece of history. So, together with readers we are bringing this history out of the dark.” Ruta Sapetys and her new novel – The Fountains of Silence. “Why is it we know these names like Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, but we don’t know much about Read More
“Stories are important to understanding a life.” Dan Waters tracks down his own story in his memoir – “These Boys and their Fathers. “I just used everything I knew, to stick it together…(if) you can’t get at something straight on, you have to maybe go at it sideways. With this memoir, I had to go Read More
Born out of an “obsessive immersion” Robert Clark talks about his new memoir – My Victorians. “It was for some reason very important for me to be in the same space as these people. Just as important as reading their books or looking at their art.” Like a “literary stalker. ” I took refuge in Read More
“It’s not such and open and shut case, that it’s always the best to bring a child into the world who’s not wanted.” Jean T. Carney shares stories from her long life as a reporter, a psychologist and novelist with her book – Blackbird Blues . “I felt I had something to say.’…The way I Read More
“It took a long time for me to get the courage up…to write on my own,,, It was something I wanted so badly, I just didn’t give it up.” Nicole Meier talks about her novel – The Second Chance Supper Club and what it’s like navigating the changing world of book publishing. “Every book I Read More
Icelandic poet Kristin Eiriksdottir speaks about her new novel – A Fist or a Heart. “It is about this woman who is very much in the world…she has been a very sort of functional rational person… and she is losing that grip…along with losing riches in her memory…. I don’t like the word ‘hallucinations’ – Read More
“You can’t understand the history of Africa without understanding the travels of Livingston.” Petina Gappah shares her obsession in the making of her new novel – Out of Darkness, Shining Light. ” I’ve been thinking about this novel for a really, really long time…I got to know the mechanics of expedition life extremely well….My worry Read More
Paula Becker talks about writing her memoir, “For me it involved really trying to grapple with whose story this was; and ultimately I decided it was my story and I had the right to tell it.” Her book – A House on Stilts – Mothering in the Age of Opioid Addiction. “I didn’t feel ashamed Read More
“I really believe that their’s a transformation that can happen when you tell your story.” Keele Burgin comments upon her journey and her memoir – Wholly Unraveled. “Our childhoods don’t have to define us. It’s not easy to walk through the pain, but it”s worth it in the end…It turned the trauma into something more Read More
“It’s really important to have agency and be vulnerable.” Carla Sameth shares insights along with some of her joys and sorrows in her memoir in essays – One day on the gold line. “It’s about the challenges around race and identity and police violence….I kind of wrote the book I wanted to read. I wanted Read More
“I think it’s critical just to understand how this business works, what is expected of you as an author and it is so much beyond the writing these days.” Novelist Rea Frey gives advise to new writers and talks about her latest work of domestic suspense – Just because you’re mine. “To be a writer Read More
“I’ve actually been telling these types of stories my whole career.” Crime fiction mystery novelist Ed Rucker talks about his new book -Justice makes a Killing and how his years as a trial lawyer make his writing true to life. “Trying a case before a jury is much like telling a story. The defense have Read More
“I think a writer to me is somebody who is at large in the world and noticing things with a particular kind of attention.” Rachel Kushner shares her thoughts on writing and on her current novel -The Mars Room. “I was really struck by what happens when the long theatrical process of a trial is Read More
“If there was a way to do things environmentally and socially responsible, while making money – who wouldn’t want to do that.” Adam Hammes comes to Writers Voices with a practical vision for a better future, one business at a time. “Nothing comes into a business that didn’t come from some ecosystem…In my opinion, people Read More
“It’s really not important that your writing be that meticulous, as it is that it have a strong voice.” Steve O’Keefe on his new book – Set the Page on Fire. “I think it’s true for writers, that you have this voice that comes out when you’re writing quickly….Once you make that shift in your Read More
“When I write I see it as a movie. I think I write very visually.” Kari Bovee teaches and inspires, talking about her new historical fiction mystery – Grace in the Wings. ” (I) try and figure out the motivation that these people had and put them in a situation that they would have never Read More
“My over all goal was to harness the spirit of fun and whimsy and a kind of madcap adventure, and have that spirit infuse my novel.” Giggle and laugh along with Writers Voices as we talk with Rajani LaRossi about her new novel for children – Midsummer’s Mayhem. “She ( the main character) thinks of Read More
“It was as if I was betraying my gender by doing something that, you know, a man should be doing.” Author and poet Karen Auvinen talks about her memoir – Rough Beauty – 40 seasons of mountain living. “The memoir is really about my deep relationship with landscape which became a pretty deep relationship with Read More
“I’ve always been a story teller.” John Jamison shares his insights on life and writing, talking about his new book – Disbelief – the third of a series of Emily Graham thrillers. “Emily is the driving character, she is a living, breathing thing. ‘She’ carries the scars of every chapter of every book she’s been Read More
Julie Berry, her latest historical fiction novel – Lovely War ” We have this tendency to look at the past as though it’s not applicable to us; because they had weird hair styles and weird clothes and had outmoded technology; and even some goofy opinions and tastes, by our own measure. That therefore they weren’t Read More
“The nineteenth century is a distant land, it is so distant in time. So we need cultural and historical context to enrich the experience of the reader.” Les Klinger extols the usefulness of anthologies as he promotes his latest one – Ghost Stories – Forgotten Classic Tales. “We were looking for power, emotion, and the Read More
“I’m always interested in other people and their relationships and different kinds of marriages. I just listen and watch and just sort of soak it up”; Lea Geller talks about life, writing and her new book – Trophy Life. “Some of us move through life with more chaos around us than others, and I think Read More
“I think it almost has to happen as an accident. You realize how thrilled you are by it, how exciting it is and you think about doing it again.” Samantha Downing talks about serial killers and the writing of her novel – My Lovely Wife.. ” Everybody loves a good serial killer apparently….I think everyone Read More
“We wouldn’t have the Oscar winning film, ‘The Shape of Water’, without Millicent Patrick.” In this Writers Voices Mallory O’Meara reveals her obsession with movie monsters and her admiration for the subject of her new book, ‘The Lady from the Black Lagoon – Hollywood Monsters and the lost legacy of Millicent Patrick. “She designed the Read More
“You can’t exactly argue with what grips you…I began to imagine characters that became a part of the book, when I was seventeen.” H.S. Cross chronicles the progress of her imagination and shares a passage from her new novel Grievous. “”I think that ( this novel is) for people who really love to get lost Read More
“A lot of my crime fiction writing (has) dealt with the study of violence, the philosophy behind violence, why people do it and just as important, how it affects them afterwards.” E. A Ayer talks about the genre of crime fiction and his new novel – The Unrepentant. I see crime fiction writers as “trying Read More
“This is a story of a great superstition and a great love.” So begins our interview with Sofia Segovia, creator of The Murmur of Bees, a novel of historical fiction and magical realism. ” I want to write the human experience, I want to write the human condition in a historical moment and I want Read More
“I went from a household where I was not enough to a marriage where I was not enough.” Jane Pollak talks about the dissolution of her marriage and the writing of her memoir – Too much of not enough. “What I talk about in the memoir is how I came to value myself so much Read More
“It’s about experiences that are sort of unopened and what happens when you really open them up and look at them.” Songwriter and poet Doug Hoekstra shares his insights into life and poetry, talking about his new collection of poems – Unopened. ” All art does that, it forces you to unopen your life and Read More
“I was walking down the street in New York City and just lines of poetry started to drop into my head.” Laurie Halse Anderson speaks about her memoir in verse – Shout. ” I was thinking about the thousands and thousands of ( survivors of sexual abuse) who have shared their stories with me…. and Read More
“In almost all contemplative traditions…at the core of them is this sense of helping others, this sense of compassion.” Marc Lesser author and teacher talks with Writers Voices about his new book – Seven Practices of a Mindful Leader – lessons from Google and a Zen monastery kitchen -. ” I think we totally underestimate Read More
“… We need to help patients prepare for is all possible outcomes. As it stands we only talk about the good outcomes.” Sunita Puri author of – That Good Night – Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour, shares insights and stories of her time as a palliative care doctor. “Part of how I ended Read More
“If I have the true version of a scene or a story I stick with that….you cannot make anything up that is more interesting or rings truer than the truth.” Martha Hall Kelly talks about her writing and researching of historical fiction with her latest novel – Lost Roses. “The more I find out about Read More
“Writing this book (set in Germany during WW2) I thought alot about…what you would become numb to just by being there and experiencing things day after day, week after week and how would that look different to you than how it looks to us now, all these years later.” Jillian Cantor talks about her love Read More
“The tough stuff is the stuff you need to write about, ’cause that’s where the conflict is; that’s also where the challenge is, to figure out how to write about it.” Mitchell S. Jackson shares his insights on writing and his own life, talking about his “memoir in essays” – Survival Math. “And then for Read More
“How do you get people to listen to a story tha, I think, we are socialized to ignore?” Sandy Allen talks about her memoir of her uncle’s life – A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise. – A True Story about Schizophrenia. “I really wanted people to be able to hear just what Bob had gone through Read More
“My mother died when I was only thirty, she was fifty-seven. I hoped to give her a chance at another life…” John Thorndike talks about his motivation for writing his new historical novel – One Hundred Fires in Cuba. “Clare (the heroine) was generated by my mother…..The book is really her story and her battle Read More