“I want to tell stories. I hate the whole, don't tell, show mantra because it's not true—it has its like moments like, you know, when the reader finishes something of mine, I want them to feel as if it's something they had experienced, as if it's like a memory for them. Because like, for me, that's always been the best stuff. And like that can be so hard to do.” If you haven’t yet read Morgan Talty’s debut linked story collection Night of the Living Rez, you’re in for an exceptional read; think There There by Tommy Orange or Jesus’ Son by Denis Johnson or The Candy House by Jennifer Egan. Morgan—who quotes Jane Austen and Audre Lorde in the course of this conversation—joins us on the show to talk about story structure and inspiration, representation and colonialism (in all its forms), the importance of humor, what he’s been reading and recommending, and more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky.   Featured Books (Episode) Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty A Calm and Normal Heart by Chelsea T. Hicks Where the Dead Sit Talking by Brandon Hobson The Last Catastrophe by Allegra Hyde The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters   Featured Books (TBR Topoff) The Nick Adams Stories by Ernest Hemingway My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).

“He thinks of himself as a character in a fairy tale in a way who's going on a quest. And there's so many stories like that about a character who's going in search of a lost loved one, whether it's a daughter, a mother, a son, there's this sense of I'm going off to find you. And that's really powerful.” Celeste Ng follows her massive hit Little Fires Everywhere with a novel set in a world that “looks like ours, but with the volume kind of turned up to 11” in Our Missing Hearts, an indelible story about family and identity, art and connection. Celeste joins us on the show to talk about the novel she never planned to write, mothers and sons, coming-of-age (for adults and children), Asian American history, pushing against our ideas of hero figures, being a word nerd and her love of Shakespeare, her literary influences and more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TNR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky.   Featured Books (Episode): Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison Beloved by Toni Morrison The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston China Men by Maxine Hong Kingston Tripmaster Monkey by Maxine Hong Kingston Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu Featured Books (TBR Topoff): Things We Lost to the Water by Eric Nguyen The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).

“I want to escape into these like incredible, immersive situations, really. But I think I try and balance this kind of creation of a world or this world building with the dialogue. And that's where things like the humor come in. And particularly with this one, because it's quite a gritty subject. But it was really important to have that joy and have that humor. And to my mind that comes very akin with the bravery in the book and the courage in the book, there is this kind of ability, even under these immense pressures, to have these moments of joy…” Jess Kidd’s ghostly and gothic novels — including Things in Jars and now, The Night Ship, our latest B&N Book Club pick — are some of our absolute favorites. She joins us on the show to talk about the true story behind The Night Ship, the places her research took her, connecting her characters, how writing flash fiction and short stories influence her novels, The Epic of Gilgamesh and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer.   Featured Books (Episode): The Night Ship by Jess Kidd Mr. Flood’s Last Resort by Jess Kidd Things in Jars by Jess Kidd The Epic of Gilgamesh (Andrew George, translator) Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).

“So you know, something that is a big part of my project…is actually this idea that we deserve pleasure. I think that pleasure and care, these are antidotes against various kinds of violence and degradation that we're all beset with. And so for me, when I wrote this novel, I did not write it for a critic at The New York Times, you know. I wrote it for the past version of me. And I wrote for someone who would need to read this, who would be reading this book after work on the subway.”  Sarah's Thankam Mathews is making a terrific debut with All This Could Be Different—longlisted for the 2022 National Book Award for Fiction and a finalist for our own Discover Prize—and she joins us on the show to talk about channeling her characters, subverting the coming-of-age novel, challenging the expectations of the immigrant experience, queerness, finding our people and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. Featured Books (Episode):  Normal People by Sally Rooney  Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid  Luster by Raven Leilani  The New Me by Halle Butler  Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays). A complete transcript of this episode is available here.

“I think I figured a lot of things out literally as I was writing the book. I'm usually an obsessive methodical writer, or I have everything, if not mapped out, I kind of know spatially, what's going to happen in a piece of writing. But with this, I just kind of had to write it to figure out what it was. For years, friends knew that I was working on this — friends who were in the book, actually. But I could never explain what it was nor could they imagine what it might be. You know, I would just say, I'm writing the story of us, I'm writing a story about Ken.” Whether he’s riffing on music or sports or Asian American icons like Maxine Hong Kingston, Hua Hsu’s work in The New Yorker is a joy to read. Now he’s turning inward in his new book, Stay True, a beautifully written story of unexpected friendship, shocking loss, and his own coming of age. Hua joins us on the show to talk about grief and growing up, inside jokes, his literary influences, changing the conversations we’re having about Asian America, and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer.   Featured Books (Episode) Stay True: A Memoir by Hua Hsu  A Floating Chinaman: Fantasy and Failure across the Pacific by Hua Hsu  The Hanging on Union Square by H. T. Tsiang  Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book by Maxine Hong Kingston    Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays with occasional Saturdays. A complete transcript of this episode is available here.

“I feel like very often when we have stories about womanizing characters, whether we piece those stories out, so we see each woman—individually or not, they don't really have stories. They don't really have lives except as they relate to that main character. So, it was always going to be each woman steps forward, each woman gets a chapter.” Laura Warrell takes us behind the scenes of her smart, sharp and deeply resonant debut novel Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm. She joins us on the show to talk about flipping the script, the women she writes about (and letting her characters be who they are), love and loneliness, her writing process and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky.    Featured Books (Episode):  Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm by Laura Warrell  Gorilla, My Love by Toni Cade Bambara    Featured Books (TBR Topoff):  Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays) here and on your favorite podcast app.    A complete transcript of this episode is available here. 

“I did nothing but read the entire time I was writing this….literally every waking moment, I was doing some type of research and a lot of research I did for this book was on joy and celebration and on community. Because, yes, we're going through all of these things, but there's a reason the cover is bright and celebratory, because that's also where the book goes, where the journey goes.” Hafizah Augustus Geter covers an incredible amount of ground in her memoir The Black Period: On Personhood, Race, and Origin: past and present, able-bodied and disabled, home and away, grief and love. She joins us on the show to talk about her family’s story, her father’s art (which appears in full color throughout the book), who gets to make history and why, her literary influences and more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer.   Featured Books:  The Black Period: On Personhood, Race, and Origin by Hafizah Augustus Geter  Little Devil in America by Hanif Abdurraqib  The Yellow House by Sarah Broom  Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer  Year of The Tiger by Alice Wong  Border and Rule by Harsha Walia     Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A complete transcript of this episode is available here. 

“I think I made a shrewd pick when I chose this character. Because the last thing you want is to be able to say—I understand everything about you—is a character with a lot of ambiguity. And I think some of that is calculated ambiguity. And some of it is probably caused by the fact that the historical record is erased in one way or another. But there’s plenty scope for creative conjecture with Cromwell.” That’s Hilary Mantel from this interview, which originally ran in March 2020 when The Mirror & the Light was published in hardcover. Once the Queen’s head is severed, he walks away. It’s a fabulous opening line, that first line of The Mirror & the Light, the final volume of Hilary Mantel’s stunning Wolf Hall trilogy. Anne Boleyn is dead and Thomas Cromwell, that brilliant self-made man, Lord Privy Seal, fixer and enforcer the man who drove the English reformation continues his ascent. And his fall, when it comes, is brutal. You may have heard at least part of the story behind the story; Hilary Mantel thought about Thomas Cromwell for 30 years before she started work on Wolf Hall in 2005. What she thought would be a single book became to bring up the bodies arrived in 2012, two years earlier than expected, because she realized 400 pages in that she needed a third volume to tell the story of Thomas Cromwell as it needed to be done. Both Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies won The Booker—Hilary Mantel is the only woman to have won the prize twice…

“Ever since we left, when I was 13, it's a place that I think about constantly. I think about it in hypothetical terms. It's something that I just sort of lose myself in all the time. I left before things really got complicated. I left when I was 13. What if I had stayed until now? And what if I had left and gone back? You know, the book kind of stemmed from this story that I had been working through in my mind, all of these hypothetical versions of myself. And then it turned into this.” Bobby Finger, writer and co-host of the celebrity and entertainment podcast Who? Weekly, breaks new ground in his debut novel, The Old Place. Inspired by his real-life roots in Texas, Finger explores the consequences of love and loss in this small-town narrative centered around a retired schoolteacher burdened by a decade-old secret. Bobby discusses his journey to writing a novel, his literary influences and creative process—and more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer.  And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky.   Featured Books (Episode):  The Old Place by Bobby Finger Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple  Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh    Featured Books (TBR Topoff):  Mrs. Fletcher by Tom Perotta  A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman    Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A complete transcript of this episode is available here. 

“I already had a kind of Don Quixote set up in mind. And so I was like, Wouldn't it be funny if Arthur was the sort of Sancho Panza in this? I'll just barely touch on it and see where it goes. And I thought he needs someone totally full of himself to shake him up…” Readers fell in love with Arthur Less — and Andrew Sean Greer took home a Pulitzer Prize for Less, the novel that introduced us to Arthur. Andrew joins us on the show to talk about his new novel, the not-really-a-sequel, Less Is Lost, turning tragedy into comedy, rewrites, what scares him as a writer, his literary influences, the writing advice that he still relies on and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we finish this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky.   Featured Books (Episode): Less (winner of the Pulitzer Prize) by Andrew Sean Greer The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer  The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells by Andrew Sean Greer Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer Chéri by Colette Don Quixote by Cervantes A Boy's Own Life by Edmund White Travels with My Aunt by Graham Greene Moby Dick by Herman Melville   Featured Books (TBR Topoff): A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood Bucky F*cking Dent by David Duchovny   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“This book feels very much…drawing from the Black Saints: Whitney Houston, Paul Mooney, Little Richard, Luther Vandross, almost my own canon, my own tradition, my own history, to make sense of what's happening now. I’m not going back to Homer, necessarily. I'm kind of trying to create a new lineage, because I feel that we've been betrayed by our presented histories.” Saeed Jones joins us on the show to riff on his incredibly personal and indelible new poetry collection Alive at the End of the World, along with the pervasiveness of grief, how both he and his writing have changed since he published his memoir, what’s up with his new podcast, Vibe Check, and much more with Poured Over’s host Miwa Messer.   Featured Books (episode) Alive at the End of the World by Saeed Jones Prelude to Bruise by Saeed Jones How We Fight for Our Lives by Saeed Jones Furious Cool by David Henry and Joe Henry   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A complete transcript of this episode is available here.

"Well, home is a complicated concept....So you've shaken me awake at three o'clock in the morning. Where's home? I’ll say Zanzibar without hesitation. Oh, but then on the other hand, I've been living here and working here for 50 years, my family, my children, and my grandchildren live here. The idea that this is not my home, it's just ridiculous. I just won't have it. You know, this is my home. So home is complicated, both are home, but it means something different." An epic story of life, loss, and love set against an unforgiving landscape of colonial violence, Afterlives is a multi-generational novel set in East Africa that is at once wistful, grounded—and unforgettable. 2021 Nobel Laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah joins us on the show to discuss his body of work, the legacy of colonialism, what it was like to win the Nobel and much more with Poured Over's host, Miwa Messer.   Feature Books (Episode): Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah Memory of Departure by Abdulrazak Gurnah Admiring Silence by Abdulrazak Gurnah   Featured Books (TBR Topoff): Home by Toni Morrison Dear Life by Alice Munro   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays) here and on your favorite podcast app.   A complete transcript of this episode is available here.

“I'm heading into my mid 70s and I really want to just get into a novel and live inside it. No sense of hurry. No deadline, no sense that anyone's waiting for this. I don’t want to talk to anyone about it, but I just want to inhabit it.” Award-winning author Ian McEwan’s new novel, Lessons, takes readers on an emotional journey through the life of one man and McEwan joins us on the show to talk about aging, writing a novel in lockdown, what kinds of books make us cry and much more with Poured Over's host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky.   Featured Books (episode): Lessons by Ian McEwan Atonement by Ian McEwan Herzog by Saul Bellow Cocoon by Zhang Yueran Finnegans Wake by James Joyce   Featured Books (TBR Topoff): Black Swan Green by David Mitchell Moonglow by Michael Chabon   This episode of Poured Over was produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A complete transcript of this episode is available here.

“I start with the emotion. I don't know what the story is. I don't know who the characters are necessarily. I'm working on very little like, I'm thinking, ‘oh, well, the way this light looks through a window’, or something — very few details here and there. But I don't know what happens in this story.” Join three amazing authors talking about their three fabulous fall reads: If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery, The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li and Bliss Montage by Ling Ma. The authors speak with Poured Over's host, Miwa Messer, about the balance between humor and dread, how they start a project, some of their favorite writers & more.   Featured Books (Episode) If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li Bliss Montage by Ling Ma Severance by Ling Ma How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Moshin Hamid Passing by Nella Larsen Quicksand by Nella Larsen The White Boy Shuffle by Paul Beatty Moby Dick by Herman Mellville Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls The Collected Poems of Frank O’Hara by Frank O’Hara   Featured Books (TBR Topoff): A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin Artist in the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro  St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised By Wolves by Karen Russell   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays) here and on your favorite podcast app.   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“…In this particular book, I think I wanted to combat the feeling that we were already inundated with, and even the feelings that are attached to social justice issues. I wanted to combat the feelings of anger and helplessness and all of that with joy.” Margaret Wilkerson Sexton follows her NAACP Image Award-winning novel The Revisioners with On the Rooftop, a stunning novel about a mother whose dream of stardom for her three daughters clashes with their own desires in a rapidly gentrifying 1950s San Francisco. Margaret joins us on the show to talk about wanting to write a book that sits in conversation with Fiddler on the Roof, how her research led her to the Harlem of the West, writing a love story for an older couple, her literary inspirations and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   Featured Books (Episode) On the Rooftop by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton The Revisioners by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton A Kind of Freedom by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton The Yellow House by Sarah M Broom The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat The Candy House by Jennifer Egan Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw All Aunt Hagar’s Children by Edward P. Jones The Known World by Edward P. Jones   Featured Books (TBR Topoff) Swing Time by Zadie Smith Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout   A complete transcript of this episode is here.

“That nine-year-old kid still follows me and is with me and is very much a part of me... And this is the hope for the book, not only for non-immigrants, but for immigrants, to really start to have that internal conversation about what we have been through. And I think this book is mostly for them. The book was for me, and then putting it around the world is for everybody. But I hope that non-immigrants can see that we don't want to do this, and that it's difficult, and that we carry this with us every single day.” Solito is the story Javier Zamora has been trying to get out ever since he started writing. Through choppy waters and unforgiving deserts, this intimate, gripping memoir is an immersive look into the consciousness of a young boy seeking to be reunited with his parents. Listen as Javier talks about reliving trauma, growing up undocumented, poetry as a gateway to therapy, and what it was like to give his nine-year-old self back his voice, with the host of Poured Over, Miwa Messer.   Featured Books (Episode) Solito by Javier Zamora Unaccompanied by Javier Zamora Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez   Featured Books (TBR Topoff) The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“I think about food constantly, but more so than anyone else it's the people I work with who are inspiring me now.... I'm always inspired by the people I cook with, and the people I work with in the restaurants, and they're, you know, they're the ones who are inspiring me most right now, because they're making it all happen.” Chef and restaurant owner, Mason Hereford’s new cookbook Turkey and the Wolf: Flavor Trippin’ in New Orleans is full of flavorful, fun recipes and beautiful photos that will delight any appetite. Mason talks about cooking with nostalgia, vintage McDonald’s plates, what his day in the restaurants looks like, what’s inspiring him in the kitchen now, and more with Poured Over guest host Kat Sarfas.   Featured Books (episode) Turkey and the Wolf: Flavor Trippin’ in New Orleans by Mason Hereford Without Getting Killed or Caught by Tamara Saviano   This episode of Poured Over was produced and hosted by Kat Sarfas and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“I think it is a conversation I'm having with my younger self, who loved the idea of time travel, who loved the idea that these people perhaps not so different from us, who quite quickly could imagine herself out of her body and into another world against all the laws of physics. And I know I'm not alone in that. I think so many people want to read for a moment in their day or week, of escape, but not mindless escape, but detailed, pleasurable, important escape…” Jessie Burton’s debut novel, The Miniaturist, is a stellar, entertaining work of historical fiction that sold a million copies in its first year and has been translated into 40 languages. Jessie returns to 17th century Amsterdam with an unforgettable cast of characters (including a few familiar faces) in her latest, The House of Fortune. She joins us on the show to talk about writing and rewriting, story points and Post-It notes, revisiting characters, her favorite authors and more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky.   Featured Titles (Episode) The House of Fortune by Jessie Burton The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton Brother of the More Famous Jack by Barbara Trapido   Featured Titles (TBR Topoff) The Binding by Bridget Collins The Distant Hours by Kate Morton   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays with occasional Saturdays.   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“I think they grew out of the setting of this weird island, this odd place, this place of southern stories and ghosts and food and how they are misfits, but they find their tribe, they find where they belong with other people who think they don't belong either. And I think that is a universal truth for us all.” Sarah Addison Allen’s charming new novel, Other Birds, is our September B&N Book Club pick and she joins us on the show to talk about ghosts, unconditional love, mothers and mothering, place as a character, the problem with notebooks, her writing process, and more with guest host Allyson Gavaletz. And we end the episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky.   Featured Books (episode) Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen Bittersweet by Susan Cain The Passion by Jeanette Winterson Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman   Featured Books (TBR Topoff) Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen   This episode of Poured Over was produced and hosted by Allyson Gavaletz and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A complete transcript of this episode is available here. 

“I think it's really important to remember that poetry has always sort of existed in the moment. It's full of the life that we're living right now. It is a remnant of the life that we're living right now. You know, distilled moments, it's the mess of our life. It's all of those things. And I think we do ourselves a disservice if we think those things don't include joy, that don't include breath and contentedness and moments of peace. And we all have that sometimes, as we struggle.” Ada Limón, our 24th US Poet Laureate and host of the poetry podcast The Slowdown, joins us on the show to take us behind the scenes of her newest book, The Hurting Kind, and talk about the purpose of art, honoring the slipperiness of time, the importance and pleasure of reading out loud, her literary inspirations and more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer.   Featured Books: The Hurting Kind by Ada Limón Lucky Wreck by Ada Limón The Friend by Sigrid Nunez Less by Andrew Sean Greer Chilean Poet by Alejandro Zambra   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this episode is here.

“We're all constantly translating ourselves to the world—we all are trying to take the inevitable stuff that happens in our psyche, our fears, and hopes and desires and dreams and trying to communicate that with others. And some of us are more successful at it than others.” A group of four friends find themselves at the center of a deadly battle between good and evil at an alternate 1800s Oxford University in Babel, the epic new novel from R.F. Kuang, author of the bestselling Poppy War series. Rebecca joins us on the show to talk about world-building, friendship, colonialism, her literary inspirations (including The Secret History by Donna Tartt), Victorian ideas of masculinity and queerness, how she writes, and more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from interns Issa and Jenna. Featured Books (episode) Babel by R.F. Kuang The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang The Secret History by Donna Tartt Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell by Susanna Clarke Racial Melancholia, Racial Dissociation by David L. Eng Featured Books (TBR Topoff): The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson Legendborn by Tracy Deonn Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays). A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“And so, then I thought, Who do I most admire? Who taught me the most, and also, they're doing it for completely selfless reasons, right? And I thought, Oh, that moment and the parking lot. So, I thought, I'm going to start a book in the parking lot of a McDonald's dumpster in a dying town and show you how, in the most unlikely places, magic is happening.” Beth Macy’s 2018 bestseller Dopesick and the Emmy-nominated Hulu streamer it inspired have helped changed our national conversation about Opioids and addiction. Her new book, Raising Lazarus, takes a new approach to our ever-growing crisis, focusing on solutions and the people bringing those solutions to our communities. Beth joins us on the show to talk about harm reduction, meeting people where they are, organizing at a local level, the lawsuit against Purdue Pharma and the behavior of the Sackler family, activism, and more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky.   Featured Books (episode) Raising Lazarus by Beth Macy Dopesick by Beth Macy Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe   Featured Books (TBR Topoff)            Undoing Drugs by Maia Szalavitz Death in Mud Lick by Eric Eyre   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“But I had fun growing up, you know, kids Double Dutch and playing football in the front yard, trash can basketball, running around 40 deep into projects with extended family, cutting the lights off—we really have fun. Of course, you've seen the drug selling, you've seen the dice games. We found a way to become comfortable in an uncomfortable situation.” Keith Corbin’s story is unlike any we’ve heard for a James Beard Award nominated chef, and he holds nothing back in his candid memoir, California Soul: An American Epic of Cooking and Survival. Keith joins us on the show to talk about representation, the realities of second chances (and why opportunity without support isn’t enough), fact-checking his memories with members of his community, the start of his friendship with fellow chef Daniel Patterson, unexpected loneliness and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer.   Featured Book: California Soul by Keith Corbin   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“To me, science is the rigorous attempt at understanding the world around you. And most people think that that means you're in a lab wearing a coat, working with test tubes. But I think that that's just a matter of using the scientific method in your everyday life. It's a matter of observing the world around you and being curious enough to ask questions and having the logic skills and some math and science skills to find the answers to those questions. But it goes beyond physics and chemistry. It goes beyond math. It goes beyond psychology and sociology, the social sciences.” Dr. Moiya McTier delivers a very fun and somewhat surprising look at our universe in her debut, The Milky Way: An Autobiography of Our Galaxy. Dr. McTier joins us on the show to talk about stepping outside of herself to find our galaxy’s voice, the importance of story (and how it relates to science), growing up in rural Pennsylvania, her hit Exolore podcast, why space isn’t just for billionaires, and more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we finish this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky.   Featured Books (Episode) The Milky Way: An Autobiography of Our Galaxy by Moiya McTier House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas   Featured Books (TBR Topoff)        Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku How I Killed Pluto by Mike Brown   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this episode is available here. 

“This is one of the great differences between journalism and literature, which I practice in. You write journalism in order for everything to be absolutely clear at the first reading … you write fiction in order to reflect the complexity of the world. And that complexity isn't necessarily grasped at first meeting.” Elizabeth Finch is the latest (and deceptively slim) new novel from Julian Barnes, author of the Booker Prize-winning novel The Sense of an Ending. He joins us on the show to talk about cutting to the chase, unreliable narrators, the intersection of time and memory and history, translating Flaubert, his friendships with fellow Booker Prize-winners Anita Brookner and Ian McEwan, electric typewriters and Blackwing pencils, and more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we finish this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky.   Featured Books: Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes Flaubert’s Parrot by Julian Barnes Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (translated by Frances Steegmuller Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (translated by Lydia Davis)   Featured Books (TBR Topoff) Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this episode is available here. 

“To me, the thing as a writer that you should always be working towards is like, how can I make this just be delicious for the reader?” Jana Casale has perfected the art of writing about the ordinary lives of women in such a way that fans of Elena Ferrante and Sally Rooney will flock to, and her latest story following the lives of three young women as they navigate love, How to Fall Out of Love Madly, is just out. Jana joins us on the show to talk about the lives and relationships of Millennial women, body image issues, self-love, loneliness, the influence one teacher had on her decision to be a writer, and much more with guest host, Elani Wilson. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky.   Featured Books (episode) How to Fall Out of Love Madly by Jana Casale Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy Hello, Molly! by Molly Shannon   Featured Books (TBR Topoff): Next Year, for Sure by Zoey Leigh Peterson Real Life by Brandon Taylor   This episode of Poured Over is produced and hosted by Elani Wilson and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“All three of the books that I have written during the pandemic have really been my way of going into another world and finding a place where none of this was happening. And that I could just relax and have fun. And so, I hope that my books are that kind of fun, joyous of maybe slightly salacious time for readers, too, because that's what I enjoyed as I was writing them.” Jasmine Guillory is one of our favorite rom-com authors, with her seventh and eighth books (By the Book and Drunk on Love) releasing this year. Jasmine joins us on the show to talk about writing Black leads in romance, her literary influences, releasing three books during the pandemic and connecting with readers in person again, her love for the Bay Area, the elements that make up a signature Jasmine Guillory novel, and much more with guest host, Elani Wilson. And we end this episode with a TBR Topoff with Marc and Rhys riffing on their favorite Jasmine Guillory novels   Featured Books (episode) Drunk on Love by Jasmine Guillory While We Were Dating by Jasmine Guillory By the Book by Jasmine Guillory Party of Two by Jasmine Guillory The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory Royal Holiday by Jasmine Guillory The Wedding Party by Jasmine Guillory Counterfeit by Kirstin Chen   This episode of Poured Over is produced and hosted by Elani Wilson and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“To write a young woman who refuses to define herself by anything other than her activism, her mind, her curiosity, that was just a delight, and she wasn't the most predictable character, but she was the one who told me what to do on every page.” How to describe Tess Gunty’s dynamic debut, The Rabbit Hutch? Think Jennifer Egan + Denis Johnson. Think polyphonic novel about climate change and gentrification and coming-of-age in a dying American Dream with an unforgettable 18-year-old as its heart. Tess joins us on the show to talk about loneliness and connection, South Bend and Studebaker automobiles, needing to leave home in order to write about it, how an anxious kid became a writer, mysticism, revision, the poets and writers who inspire her and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky.   Featured Books (episode) The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan NW by Zadie Smith Great House by Nicole Krauss Middlemarch by George Eliot   Featured Books (TBR Topoff) Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays, with occasional Saturdays.   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“But when I write, that's when I feel I can take part in society, I can contribute to ideas, and to teach and to share, and to say, I love you to society—to maybe talk about some of the difficult things in life, but to affirm that these experiences only serve to make life what it is.” From space aliens and cursed violins to a Queen of Hell with a heart, to found family, coming-of-age and living in your truest self, Ryka Aoki’s Light from Uncommon Stars is our latest Speculative Fiction Monthly Pick and it’s an absolute blast to read. Ryka joins us on the show to talk about world-building, the San Gabriel Valley, writing love stories, the evolution of science fiction, her literary inspirations, donuts and more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky.   Featured Book (episode) Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki   Featured Books (TBR Topoff) Blackwater Sister by Zen Cho The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays with occasional Saturdays. A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“There's just so much rich material in Hollywood during the 1940s—which is where much of the book is set—there is just sort of an endless rabbit hole you can go down. And of course, one of the problems with writing a book about the movie industry is that sitting around watching movies technically counts as research.” We still think about Anthony Marra’s incredible debut, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, years after first reading. His newest novel, Mercury Pictures Presents, is an epic story of family secrets, love and war, loyalty and reinvention that cuts between Hollywood and Mussolini’s Italy in the 1930s and 40s—and it’s the August B&N Book Club pick. Anthony joins us on the show to talk about mapping stories, the landscape of exile and imprisonment, the importance of humor, research and rewrites and snappy dialogue, his literary inspirations (including Zadie Smith and David Mitchell), and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book reviews from Marc and Becky.   Featured Books (episode): Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra Los Angeles in the 1930s: The WPA Guide to the City of Angels by Federal Writers Project of the Works Progress Administration Rules of Civility by Amor Towles   Featured Books (TBR Topoff): West of Sunset by Stewart O’Nan A Touch of Stardust by Kate Alcott   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“I just had so many questions about adoption and motherhood. And you know, you've read my books, you know that I'm very interested in what makes a family and how does our family influence us. And that's all part of this book, too.” From her sparkling debut, The Weird Sisters, to her latest, Any Other Family, Eleanor Brown writes big-hearted novels with hopeful endings about family and finding ourselves. She joins us on the show to talk about the story behind her latest novel, how questions and character drive her novels, capturing children’s voices on the page, how she approaches the writing process, what she’s been reading and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky.   Featured Titles (episode) Any Other Family by Eleanor Brown The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown The Light in Paris by Eleanor Brown All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung The Lioness by Chris Bohjalian The Foundling by Ann Leary Cult Classic by Sloane Crosley On Writing by Stephen King   Featured Titles (TBR Topoff) Run by Ann Patchett The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“What's really interesting about taste memory is it's not that you're trying to necessarily replicate the dish exactly as it was, I think you're actually just trying to replicate your memory of it, because your memory is always going to be the platonic ideal of it.” Eric Kim has a delightful approach to food, and his debut cookbook is a charming exploration of the Korean American table. He joins us on the show to talk about home cooking and how our family stories connect to food, representation (and how his parents landed in Atlanta), the politics of spam, his pantry must-haves, making kimchi, finding joy in a creative space, testing recipes with his mom, and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky.   Featured Books (episode) Korean American: Food That Tastes Like Home by Eric Kim   Featured Books (TBR Topoff) Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee I’ll Be the One by Lyla Lee Crying in H-Mart by Michelle Zauner   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“One thing I really have learned—or at least for myself about writing—is never to explain why a person is the way they are, just to make a dramatic case for why they are the way they are. So, the moments I have that are backstory, or that go back and forth in time, it's because that backstory or that moment of slippage of time is dramatically relevant to the present moment of the story.” Alice Elliott Dark (In the Gloaming) returns with Fellowship Point, a spectacular novel of friendship and family, love and loss, loyalty and legacy. She joins us on the show to talk about her modern 19th-century novel, where she’s been for the last few years, what we often take for granted when it comes to women’s lives, the craft of writing, her literary influences, what’s next for her and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer, live from our flagship store at Union Square in New York City. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky.   Featured Books (episode): Fellowship Point by Alice Elliott Dark In the Gloaming by Alice Elliott Dark The Hours by Michael Cunningham Middlemarch by George Eliott Matrix by Lauren Groff Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout   Featured Books (TBR Topoff): Nightwoods by Charles Frazier Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“I wish I could tell you that I went to a cabin and wrote it perfectly and got it in on time, and it just flowed out of me. But really, the truth of the matter is, it came in fits and starts. And it was written on notepads and half-filled notebooks and phone apps and bar napkins….I grew up in a time of a lot of white men writing, Oh, my sad childhood stories. And so, my whole thing was I'm not going to do that, I'm not going to do that.” Isaac Fitzgerald walks through the world with an open heart, and luckily for readers, he takes notes. Dirtbag, Massachusetts is his memoir-in-essays, and it covers plenty of ground, from his unconventional childhood and the librarians who helped change the trajectory of his life, to issues of class and code switching and complicated family dynamics, to the craft of writing and his literary inspirations. He joins us on the show to talk about all that and more, including a few things that didn’t make the book’s final draft, with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky.   Featured Books (episode) Dirtbag, Massachusetts by Isaac Fitzgerald Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay The White Boy Shuffle by Paul Beatty The Stories of Breece D’J Pancake  by Andre Dubus III, Breece D'J Pancake   Featured Books (TBR Topoff) Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“The primary intent of these books is to take a break... have something you can just curl up with for an afternoon. This is a book that is not going to hurt you. And I think that that's so vital in this day and age, to be able to just pause for a second. I want the book to feel like a cup of tea as well... But I wanted to give you the option of chewing on some of the stuff in there.” Hugo Award-winning author Becky Chambers is arguably a master of the space opera, with her complex, hopeful characters and her compelling world-building. Sibling Dex and Mosscap return in A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, the latest book in the Monk and Robot series and Becky joins us on the show to talk about creating a story that incorporates the same comfort as watching your favorite TV show for the 10,000th time, how a good cup of tea can make a bad day better, what’s on her TBR list, and much more with guest host, Allyson Gavaletz. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky.   Featured Books (Episode): A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers Spear by Nicola Griffith How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Ayoki   Featured Books (TBR Topoff): I, Robot by Isaac Asimov A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C. A. Fletcher   This episode of Poured Over is produced and hosted by Allyson Gavaletz and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this show is available here.

“When you're writing a children's book, it shares much relation with horror, because it has to be usually very immediate and very visceral and gripping. Because otherwise the kids are gonna get bored. And your window of opportunity to grab the reader is … longer with horror, you can do the slow creeping dread better, but you have to grab the reader, metaphorically, by the throat.” Whether you know her as Ursula Vernon or T. Kingfisher, one thing is for sure—this Hugo, Nebula, and Locus award-winning author always pulls us in with her captivating fantasies and chilling thrillers—which remains true of her two new books, Nettle & Bone and What Moves the Dead, both releasing this year. Ursula joins us on the show to talk about the fine line between writing children’s books and writing horror and her love for gothic stories, the artwork that inspired this stunning cover, mycology, the lesser-known life of Beatrix Potter, what she’s working on next and what games she’s playing, and much more with guest host, Kat Sarfas. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky.   Featured Books (Episode): What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings by Edgar Allen Poe The White People and Other Weird Stories by Arthur Machen The Willows by Algernon Blackwood The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison The Haunted Mesa by Louis L'Amour   Featured Books (TBR Topoff): The Initial Insult by Mindy McGinnis The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard   This episode of Poured Over is produced and hosted by Kat Sarfas and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this show is available here.

“But there is joy in advocating for changing of the world for the better, for not allowing the world to tell you who you shall be, but rather reimagining a world in which you can be anything.” Award-winning journalist and professor at Northeastern University Caleb Gayle delivers a stunningly original story of America in his first book, We Refuse to Forget: A True Story of Black Creeks, American Identity, and Power. Caleb joins us on the show to talk about growing up in Tulsa, Oklahoma and the aftermath of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre, the untold stories of marginalized communities, his hopeful outlook for the future of the country, and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky.   Featured Books (Episode): We Refuse to Forget: A True Story of Black Creeks, American Identity, and Power by Caleb Gayle   Featured Books (TBR Topoff): Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this show is available here.

“I decided to give myself the license to fail, and to write across gender, to write in the voice of a midwife's daughter. And if the book isn't working, fine, we'll write it from the perspective of the midwife's husband, from some other male character. But I loved it. It was so emancipating to not be me, to not be (at the time) this 30-something dude. And I loved it. And I think, my best books, my best characters, whether it's first person or third person, are women.”   Bestselling author and all-around charmer Chris Bohjalian has written 23 books, including our May 2021 B&N Book Club pick Hour of the Witch, The Flight Attendant—now a hit HBO series—and his latest, The Lioness. Chris joins us on the show to talk about his love of bookstores, not writing the same story twice, researching and asking questions and learning stories, letting his characters guide the plot and going back to the first sentence, geography as a character, and so much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with a TBR Topoff with Marc and Becky riffing on their favorite Bohjalian novels.   Featured Books: Water Witches by Chris Bohjalian Midwives by Chris Bohjalian The Red Lotus by Chris Bohjalian The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian Hour of the Witch by Chris Bohjalian The Lioness by Chris Bohjalian The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this show is available here.

“And so, too often, kids are raised to have empathy for people who look like them, or worship like them or act like them. And we're also taught to have empathy for people who deserve it. And I wanted to convey the importance of raising our kids to have empathy for people who don't look like them or don't live near them. And for us to not make our empathy almost like a tip in which it's transactional."   Award-winning, bestselling author and MacArthur Genius Grant recipient Ibram X. Kendi returns with How to Raise an Antiracist, a book that parents, caregivers and teachers won't want to miss. Ibram joins us on the show to talk about his own family's experiences, as well as the intersection of ableism and racism, learning from our children, the importance of joy, and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky.   Featured Books: How to Raise an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi Magnolia Flower by Zora Neale Hurston Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix of the National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning by Jason Reynolds, Ibram X. Kendi   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this show is available here.

“I never thought I would be writing something where there would be a lot of intricate feelings around the game engine. But then if you think about something like say, like Sally Rooney's Normal People, who would think that you could feel so much passion over whether like, they go to that dance together, you know?” Gabrielle Zevin’s delightful new novel, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is part love story, part coming of age and entirely unforgettable—which is why it’s our July B&N Book Club pick. Gabrielle joins us on the show for a spoiler-free conversation about her latest book, from the parallels between writing novels and video games, to Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson, money and class, creativity, friendship and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky.   Featured Books (episode) Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin The Storied Life of AJ Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton   Featured Books (TBR Topoff) The Animators by Kayla Rae Whitaker Ready Player One by Ernest Cline   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays). A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“The most important thing is the reader. I tell my students, Look, if you're writing about yourself, it's great that you want to get your feelings out. You want to maybe, you know, have some catharsis. You want to get the earliest things out. But, if you bore the reader, you're done. You know, and it's important to consider the fact that you're telling a story…this is not a therapy session, you know, you're telling a story. And hopefully that story enlightens, or maybe makes the reader think.” Brian Broome’s acclaimed memoir Punch Me Up to the Gods is a stunning story of love and loss, secrets and shame, sorrow and joy. He joins us on the show for a wise and often very funny conversation about spelling bees and ballet, addiction and recovery, how his memoir is in conversation with Gwendolyn Brooks and bell hooks and James Baldwin, what his students have taught him and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky.   Featured Books (Episode): Punch Me Up to the Gods by Brian Broome We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity by bell hooks   Featured Books (TBR Topoff) How We Fight For Our Lives by Saeed Jones Unprotected by Billy Porter   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“For me, and perhaps for both of us, I think that our greatest sort of skill set is audacity. It's so funny the way people sort of negatively connote ego, but I think it's necessary to have some, because one has to have a little bit of, I mean, like, when we were 20 years old, our whole thing was we're gonna rearrange and change the way people think of the book, right?” Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin have been friends for 20 years and that friendship has led to an incredible artistic collaboration in Ain’t Burned All the Bright and the now reissued My Name is Jason, Mine Too. Jason and Jason join us on the show to talk about how their collaboration works, how they make art (and when the medium matters), masculinity, the incredible range of artists and media that inspire them both, why paper and pencil is sometimes all that you need, and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky.   Featured Books: Ain’t Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin My Name is Jason, Mine Too by Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays). A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“It's so painful to me to feel as though the very notion of objective truth or that journalism could be a vehicle for expressing a kind of objective truth is under assault today.” Patrick Radden Keefe is one of the best longform journalists working today, and we’d follow his dogged reporting anywhere, from bestselling books like Say Nothing and Empire of Pain, to his work as a staff writer at The New Yorker, some of which is collected in his latest book, Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks. Patrick joins us on the show to talk about the art of the write-around and why access is overrated, how one story can lead to the next (or not), writing about morally complicated people (and the stories they tell themselves), the importance of media literacy and getting the facts right, his literary influences and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end the episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky.   Featured Books: Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks by Patrick Radden Keefe Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe Snakehead by Patrick Radden Keefe   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesday and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this show is available here.

"So much classic fantasy exists in this sort of timeless state where, you know, whatever fantasy world it's set in has kind of always existed....I've always been really interested in kind of disrupting that and kind of setting my books during periods of like, enormous change and upheaval, like, I'm really interested in the idea of a fantasy world that has not always been the same, because that's not how the world works, and kind of taking apart these things that are really taken for granted.”   Ava Reid knows how to do unforgettable fractured fairy tale retellings with fabulous, fierce heroines, hidden magic and family ties based on Hungarian and Jewish folklore. The Wolf and the Woodsman was her debut novel and her latest, Juniper & Thorn, is a gothic horror retelling of the Grimm Brothers’ The Juniper-Tree, and she joins us on the show to talk about world-building by starting from the present and working backwards, diversifying the stereotypical Eastern European fantasy setting, killing off characters for the right reason, designing the cover art, her upcoming YA fantasy debut, what she’s reading right now, and much more with guest host Kat Sarfas. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky.   Featured Books: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson The Juniper-Tree by Brothers Grimm      Matrix by Lauren Groff Our Crooked Hearts by Melissa Albert   This episode of Poured Over was produced and hosted by Kat Sarfas, and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this show is available here.

“I sort of figured that, having been interested in science from as long as I can remember, I would be a PhD student, and make a career for myself and research. And it turned out that the one hitch with that plan was that I am catastrophically bad at doing actual research. I was the world's worst graduate student….So instead, I thought that I would find a different purpose and better joy in talking and writing about science, which is what I did. That nourishes my soul much more; I get to learn about a lot of really cool things.” An Immense World is the delightful new book from The Atlantic staff writer Ed Yong, and he joins us on the show to talk about meeting animals on their own terms, the connection between Jane Austen and mice, peacocks and The Bee Gees; how hearing is also a kind of touch and how deer-like creatures transformed into whales; his pandemic puppy and his literary inspirations (including Mary Roach) and much more, with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky.   Featured Books: An Immense World by Ed Yong I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong How Far the Light Reaches by Sabrina Imbler H Is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this episode is available here.

“I wanted to write something that was going to take me away, literally and metaphorically, literally take me away from sitting with my feelings about the present moment and take me to another place and this time where you couldn't travel at all. I barely left the neighborhood to play out some imagined incredible drama … I think escapism has its purpose, you know, and so does fiction in general, if we want to live in the biggest world possible, we need everybody's imagination to be there in the ether so we can grab it and follow it and follow ourselves through this journey beyond what we know.” Acclaimed author Ottessa Moshfegh (Eileen, My Year of Rest and Relaxation) joins us on the show to take us behind the scenes of Lapvona, her unexpected new novel set in a medieval village. Ottessa riffs on putting so much of what disgusts her into this new novel, writing in the third person, faith, the importance of creating a new topography, what’s next for her and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and his guest bookseller, Becky.   Featured Books: Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh Homesick for Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh McGlue by Ottessa Moshfegh   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A complete transcript of this episode is available here.

“You know, Marlon James said something once, he said, if you're going to write about the enslaved, and you're not going to write about the resilience, and the brilliance, and the incredible ability to make a life in a brutal system, a life full of love and some joy, then he said, he's not interested in reading that book.” Geraldine Brooks, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, March, is known for her moving historical novels. Her latest, Horse, is a stunning new novel that transports readers between 1850s Kentucky and the present day following a legendary thoroughbred racehorse named Lexington. Geraldine joins us on the show to talk about the real-world experiences of her unforgettable characters and why we still talk about slavery, growing up on the mindset that books are food, reading poetry before writing as part of her creative process, her literary influences and so much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky.   Featured Books: Horse by Geraldine Brooks March by Geraldine Brooks Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks The Island of Adventure by Enid Blyton   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this show is available here.

“...A part of the point of the book was to not shy away from what we shy away from in real life. And one of the things we shy away from in real life is admitting for exactly how long we are a mess and don't know what we're doing.” From her classic essay collections, including I Was Told There Would Be Cake through her last bestselling novel, The Clasp, Sloane Crosley keeps us entertained with her trademark wit, voice and gimlet eye. Her latest, the genre-busting new novel, Cult Classic, is gobs of fun and utterly original, and Sloane joins us on the show to talk about love and relationships and finding our sense of self, the fantasy of consistency, aiming through the wood and at the chopping block, having the same editor (or therapist) for 14 years, her literary influences, and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer.    Featured Books: Cult Classic by Sloane Crosley The Clasp by Sloane Crosley The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. by Adelle Waldman Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark Pitch Dark by Renata Adler The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).   A full transcript of this show is available here.