QWERTY: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life
Books & Literature
About
Author Marion Roach Smith interviews the best writers in all genres to discover their process. QWERTY is about the real challenges of writing and the steps anyone can take to become a better storyteller. Join the conversation.
Episodes
- Ep. 164 Marion Winik
This episode features a discussion with writer and author Marion Winik, author of nine books including "First Comes Love." Winik shares insights on building a long writing career by writing what you know, drawing from her experiences with…
- Ep. 163 Huda Al-Marashi
Huda Al-Marashi, author of the middle grade novel Hail Miriam and the memoir First Comes Marriage, discusses transforming personal experiences into fiction. She has also written for The New York Times and The Washington Post.
- Ep. 162 Matti Friedman
Journalist and author Matti Friedman discusses his reporting career in Israel, Lebanon, Morocco, Moscow, the Caucasus, and Washington, DC. His work has appeared in major publications, and he is the author of five nonfiction books, includin…
- Ep. 161 Shelley Noble
This episode of the QWERTY podcast features Shelley Noble, a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. Noble, known for historical novels like "The Tiffany Girls" and "The Sisters of Book Row," discusses her work, which includes une…
- Ep. 160 Antonio Michael Downing
Antonio Michael Downing discusses his memoir Saga Boy and his novel Black Cherokee, focusing on writing into identity and his experiences as a Black and Indigenous writer. The episode explores themes of race, belonging, and self-discovery.
- Ep. 159 The Kansals
Father and son, Ruchin and Neil Kansal, are co-authors of the new book, The Kansal Clunker: The Car That Rebuilt Us , just out from Khoeler Books. It is getting rave reviews, including one from Kirkus proclaiming it “"An endearing and thou…
- Ep. 158 Tarpley Hitt
Writer and author Tarpley Hitt is a New York journalist and an editor and contributor at The Drift magazine. She has previously reported on culture and money for The Daily Beast and Gawker. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Book…
- Ep. 157 Melissa Fraterrigo
Melissa Fraterrigo is the author of the novel Glory Days (University of Nebraska Press), as well as the story collection The Longest Pregnancy (Livingston Press). Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in numerous literary journals and a…
- Ep. 156 Jane Hamilton
Today my guest is writer and author Jane Hamilton. Her first novel, The Book of Ruth, won the PEN/Ernest Hemingway Foundation Award for best first novel and was a selection of the Oprah Book Club. Her second novel, A Map of the World, was…
- Ep. 155 Matthew White
Matthew White is an author, interior designer, antiquarian, preservationist, and a former ballet dancer. He is the author of Italy of My Dreams: The Story of an American Designer’s Real-life Passion for Italian Style. He is an emeritus boa…
- Ep. 154 Winnie Li
Winnie M Li is an American author and activist who has written for travel guidebooks, produced independent feature films, programmed for film festivals, and developed eco-tourism projects. Her first novel Dark Chapter was nominated for an…
- Ep. 153 Kyle Austin Young
Writer and author Kyle Austin Young has a debut book that is for anyone who has ever dreamed of having a side-hustle, starting a business or following a dream. The book, Success is a Numbers Game: Achieve Bigger Goals by Changing the Odds,…
- Ep. 152 Jon Kinally
Jon Kinally is a long-time writer for television who, along with his writing partner, Tracy Poust, has written for such TV shows as Will & Grace, Ugly Betty, 2 Broke Girls as well as many others. Over the years, they have received seve…
- Ep. 151 Khadijah VanBrakle
Khadijah VanBrackle's debut novel, Fatima Takes the Cake , brings us to the intersection of culture, gender and religion and throws in some baking, which is a very fun addition. Her new novel, My Perfect Family , gives us an intergeneratio…
- Ep. 150 J.E. Thomas
The author and writer J. E. Thomas is an award-winning freelance journalist, whose first bok, Control Freaks, was a People Magazine Summer Must-Read as a Best of the Best pick by the Black caucus of the American Library Association. Her ne…
- Ep. 149 Joanna Choi Kalbus
Writer and author Joanna Choi Kalbus was born in North Korea and emigrated in wartime to The United States as a child, speaking no English. She was immersed in the California school system before the existence of English as a second langua…
- Ep. 148 Tia Levings
Tia Levings is a New York Times bestselling author, whose debut book is a memoir entitled A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy, recently published by St Martin’s Press. Along with being a New York Times bestseller, the…
- Ep. 147 Calliope Nicholas
Calliope Nicholas is the Co-Director and Manager of Residency Programs at Millay Arts, the artists residency program situated at the former home of Edna St. Vincent Millay, in Austerlitz, New York. The mission of Millay Arts is to support…
- Ep. 146 Melissa Hafting
Melissa Hafting is an ecologist, bird guide, author, and photographer. She founded the British Columbia Young Birders Program in 2014, which aims to bring together youth of all races, sexual orientations, and genders to look at birds on fu…
- Ep. 145 Bridgett Davis
Bridgett M. Davis is the author of the 2019 memoir, The World According to Fannie Davis, which was a New York Times editor’s choice, and a BuzzFeed, Parade and Kirkus best book of 2019. She is also the writer/director of the award-winning…
- Ep. 144 Shannon Downey
Shannon Downey, also known as Baddass Cross Stitch, is an artist, activist, craftivist, community builder, and general instigator. Her work inspires others to take action, think, discuss, engage with democracy and their community, and find…
- Ep. 143 Callan Wink
Writer and author Callan Wink has been awarded fellowships by the National Endowment for the Arts and Stanford University, where he was a Wallace Stegner Fellow. His stories and essays have been published in the New Yorker, Granta, Playboy…
- Ep. 142 Jessica Gutierrez
Jessica Gutierrez is a former journalist who has earned several awards for her work and is the current author of A Product of Genetics and Day Drinking: A Never Coming of Age Story, just published by Tiny Reparations House, a division of P…
- Ep. 141 Joan Wickersham
While Joan Wickersham is best known for her astonishing book, The Suicide Index , a National Book Award finalist, her work over her many years as a professional journalist, writer and tuhor, has taken her nearly everywhere, including to St…
- Ep. 140 Gloria Huang
Gloria L. Huang is a freelance writer whose fiction has appeared in literary journals including Michigan Quarterly Review, The Threepenny Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, Witness Magazine, Massachusetts Review, Pleiades, Southern Humaniti…
- Ep. 139 Nicole Graev Lipson
Today my guest is author Nicole Graev Lipson, whose work has appeared in The Sun, Virginia Quarterly Review, LA Review of Books, The Millions, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe, among other venues. Her work has been awarded a Pushc…
- Ep. 138 Brooke Randel
The author Brooke Randel has just published a memoir titled Also Here: Love, Literacy and the Legacy of the Holocaust, in which she explores the third generations's efforts to understand the Holocaust. In Also Here, she captures one woman'…
- Ep. 137 Julie Kabat
In the summer of 1964, the FBI found the smoldering remains of the station wagon that James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman had been driving before their disappearance. Shortly after this awful discovery, Julie Kabat’s belove…
- Ep. 136 Amy Wilson
Today my guest is writer, author and actor, Amy Wilson. She is the author of the memoir, When Did I Get Like This?: The Screamer, the Worrier, the Dinosaur-Chicken-Nugget-Buyer, and Other Mothers I Swore I'd Never Be, as well as the co-hos…
- Ep. 135 Anita Felicelli
Anita Felicelli's short stories have appeared in The Massachusetts Review, Midnight Breakfast, Air/Light, The Normal School, and elsewhere. She has contributed essays and criticism to the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Alta Journa…
- Ep. 134 Sarah LaBrie
Sarah LaBrie is a TV writer, librettist and memoirist whose new memoir, No One Gets to Fall Apart , is just out from Harper Collins. Listen in as host Marion Roach Smith asks the author about the vulnerability needed to write memoir, how t…
- Ep. 133 Liz Morrow
Liz Morrow is a ghost writer and collaborator for thought leaders and and industry experts. With Ariel Curry, she runs Hungry Authors, which coaches authors to publish their books. They have co-authored the new book, Hungry Authors, The In…
- Ep. 132 Teresa Wong
Comics artist and writer, Teresa Wong is the author of the 2019 graphic memoir Dear Scarlet: The Story of My Postpartum Depression , a finalist for The City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize and longlisted for CBC Canada Reads 2020. Her…
- Ep. 131 Sara Sherbill
Sarah Sherbill's memoir, There was Night and There was Morning: A Memoir of Trauma and Redemption , is just out from Union Sq. and Co., and chronicles a road to redemption after her father, a beloved rabbi in an Orthodox Chicago community…
- Ep. 130 Sarah Leavitt
Sarah Leavitt is a cartoonist and author of the graphic memoir, Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer’s, My Mother, and Me (2010), and the author of the award-winning historical fiction comic Agnes, Murderess (2019). Sarah is an assistant profe…
- Ep. 129 Brigit Bins
Brigit Binns is a prolific author of cookbooks, with more than 100,000 copies in print, including eleven titles she has authored for Williams Sonoma. She has also co-authored cookbooks, edited cookbooks and written 90 shows for the Food Ne…
- Ep. 128 Caro de Robertis
Caro De Robertis, whose pronouns are they/theirs, is a Uruguayan-American author and full tenured professor in the creative writing dept at San Francisco State University. They are the author of five novels and the editor of an award-winni…
- Ep. 127 Juli Min
Writer and novelist Juli Min is the editor-in-chief and fiction editor of the Shanghai Literary Review . Currently a resident of Shanghai, she was born in Seoul, Korea, and raised in New Jersey, and has just published her debut novel. Enti…
- Ep. 126 Deborah Paredez
Deborah Paredez is the author of the critical study, Selenidad: Selena, Latinos, and the Performance of Memory (Duke 2009) and the poetry collections, This Side of Skin (Wings Press 2002) and Year of the Dog (BOA 2020). Her poetry, essays,…
- Ep. 125 Rusty Gear
Rusty Gear is an Americana recording artist whose work explores the story of the USA and for whom the Qwerty Podcast host, Marion Roach Smith, writes lyrics. In this episode, they explore working together as creatives. What is the nature o…
- Ep. 124 Margaret Juhae Lee
Margaret Juhae Lee has been been published in The Nation, Newsday, Elle, ARTnews, The Advocate, The Progressive and most recently in The Rumpus and Ploughshares Blog. She received a Bunting Fellowship from Harvard University and a Korean S…
- Ep. 123 Lissa Soep
Lissa Soep knows how to reanimate the voices of the dead, and she is here to teach you how to get those voices into your memoir writing. She is a senior editor for audio at Vox Media and special projects producer and senior scholar-in-resi…
- Ep. 122 Alicia D. Williams
Storyteller, actor and award-winning author, Alicia D. Williams is on The Qwerty Podcast to talk about her new book, Mid Air, illustrated by Danica Novgorodoff and just published by Atheneum. Her book, Genesis Begins Again received the New…
- Ep. 121 Michael Jamin
Michael Jamin is an Emmy-nominated screenwriter who has been writing for television since 1996, and whose credits include Just Shoot Me, King of the Hill, Beavis & Butthead, Wilfred, Out of Practice, and Rules of Engagement. He’s also…
- Ep. 120 Janet Skeslian Charles
Janet Skeslien Charles is a New York Times and international bestselling author whose work has been translated into 37 languages. Her shorter work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, The Sydney Morning Herald , and Montana Noir . Her 2021…
- Ep. 119 Hal Schrieve
Hal Schrieve is the author of the 2019 book, Out of Salem , selected for the National Book Award Long List for Young People’s Literature. Hal works as a children’s librarian at the New York Public Library. As a librarian, Hal has written e…
- Ep. 118 Suzette Mullen
Suzette Mullen is the author of the new memoir, The Only Way Through is Out , just out from the University of Wisconsin Press. She is the founder of Your Story Finder, where she provides nonfiction book coaching. In 2021, she published a T…
- Ep. 117 Kevin Baker
Author, historian, essayist, bestselling novelist and commentator Kevin Baker has just published part one of his long-awaited two-part look into baseball and the city that formed it and was formed by it. Called The New York Game: Baseball…
- Ep. 116 Ani Gjika
Author, essayist, poet and activist Ani Gjika is an Albanian-born poet, literary translator, writer, and author of Bread on Running Waters (Fenway Press, 2013). A finalist for the 2011 Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize and 2011 May Sarton New Ham…
- Ep. 115 Meg Kissinger
Writer and author Meg Kissinger spent more than two decades traveling across the country to report on America’s mental health system for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. A Pulitzer Prize finalist, she has won two George Polk Awards, the Rob…