A new 'Craftwork' episode, about how to build a rewarding creative life. My guest is Ben Tanzer, author of the novel The Missing, available from 7.13 Books. Tanzer is an Emmy winner. His work includes the short story collection Upstate, the science fiction novel Orphans and the essay collections Lost in Space and Be Cool. Ben is a storySouth and Pu…

José Vadi is the author of a memoir-in-essays called Chipped: Writing from a Skateboarder's Lens, available from Soft Skull Press. Vadi is also the author of an essay collection called Inter State. An award-winning essayist, poet, playwright and film producer, his work has been featured by the Paris Review, The Atlantic, the PBS NewsHour, Free Skat…

In today's flashback, an outtake from Episode 455, my conversation with author Min Jin Lee. The episode first aired on January 9, 2019. Min Jin Lee is the author of the novels Free Food for Millionaires and Pachinko, a finalist for the National Book Award, and runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. In 2022, Lee received the Manhae Grand Pri…

A new 'Craftwork' episode, about how to write good stories. My guest is Steve Almond, author of a new book on writing called Truth is the Arrow, Mercy is the Bow, available from Zando. Almond is the author of a dozen books of fiction and nonfiction, including All The Secrets of The World and the New York Times bestsellers Candyfreak and Against Foo…

Lydia Millet is the author of We Loved It All: A Memory of Life, available from W.W. Norton & Co. Millet is the author of A Children's Bible, shortlisted for the National Book Award and a New York Times Top 10 book of 2020. Her many other works of fiction have won awards from PEN Center USA and the American Academy of Arts and Letters; the story co…

In today's flashback, an outtake from Episode 559, my conversation with poet, artist, and television writer Tommy Pico. The episode first aired on January 9, 2019. Pico is a poet, artist, and tv writer. He is author of the books IRL, Nature Poem, Junk, and Feed, and he has written on the television shows Reservation Dogs, Resident Alien and Crystal…

A new 'Craftwork' episode, about how to get (somewhat) better at art. My guest is Nicholson Baker, author of Finding a Likeness: How I Got Somewhat Better at Art, available from Penguin Press. Nicholson Baker has written seventeen books, including The Mezzanine, Vox, Human Smoke, The Anthologist, and Baseless--also an art book, The World on Sunday,…

Alexandra Tanner is the author of the debut novel Worry, available from Scribner. Tanner is a Brooklyn-based writer and editor. She is a graduate of the MFA program at The New School and the recipient of fellowships from MacDowell and The Center for Fiction. Her writing appears in The New York Times Book Review, Gawker, and Jewish Currents, among o…

In today's flashback, an outtake from Episode 762, my conversation with author John Keene about his poetry collection Punks, which won the National Book Award for Poetry in 2022. The episode first aired on March 9, 2022. Keene is a writer, translator, professor, and artist who was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2018. In 1989, Keene joined the Dark Roo…

Catherine Lacey is the author of the novel Biography of X, available in trade paperback from Picador. Lacey is the author of the novels Nobody Is Ever Missing, The Answers, and Pew, and of the short-story collection Certain American States. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Award, the New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction …

Rowan Beaird is the author of the debut novel The Divorcées, available from Flatiron Books. Beaird is a writer whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, and The Common, among others. She is the recipient of the Ploughshares Emerging Writer Award, and her work has been nominated for a Pushcart. She has rece…

In today's flashback, an outtake from Episode 666, my conversation with author Stephen Graham Jones. It first aired on August 16, 2020. Stephen Graham Jones is the bestselling author of The Only Good Indians and My Heart Is a Chainsaw, among others. He has been the recipient of several awards including the Ray Bradbury Award from the Los Angeles Ti…

Téa Obreht is the author of the novel The Morningside, available from Random House. Obreht is the internationally bestselling author of The Tiger's Wife, which won the 2011 Orange Prize for Fiction and was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her second novel, Inland, was an instant bestseller, won the Southwest Book Award, and was a finalist fo…