Nov 5, 2019
Carmen Maria Machado joins me to discuss her memoir 'In the Dream House.'
'In the Dream House' is Machado’s wildly innovative account of a relationship gone bad, and a bold dissection of the mechanisms and cultural representations of psychological abuse. Tracing the full arc of a harrowing relationship, Machado...
Jun 18, 2019
Ryan Chapman joins me to discuss his debut novel 'Riots I Have Known.'
An unnamed Sri Lankan inmate has barricaded himself inside a prison computer lab in Dutchess County, New York. A riot rages outside, incited by a poem published in The Holding Pen, the house literary journal. This, our narrator’s final Editor’s...
May 15, 2019
Namwali Serpell joins me to discuss her debut novel 'The Old Drift.'
1904. On the banks of the Zambezi River, a few miles from the majestic Victoria Falls, there is a colonial settlement called The Old Drift. In a smoky room at the hotel across the river, an Old Drifter named Percy M. Clark, foggy with fever, makes a...
Apr 3, 2019
Nathan Englander joins me to discuss his new novel 'Kaddish.com.'
Larry is the secular son in a family of Orthodox Brooklyn Jews. When his father dies, it’s his responsibility to recite the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead, every day for eleven months. To the horror and dismay of his sister,...
Mar 12, 2019
Sam Lipsyte joins Stephen to discuss his new novel 'Hark.'
In an America convulsed by political upheaval, cultural discord, environmental collapse, and spiritual confusion, many folks are searching for peace, salvation, and—perhaps most immediately—just a little damn focus. Enter Hark Morner, an unwitting guru whose...