Writers on Writing

Dan Pope and John Mutter on Writers on Writing

Posted July 6 2015 by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett

Dan Pope, author of Housebreaking joins co-host Nicole Nelson to talk about the challenges of using shifting points of view with temporal overlaps, developing complex characters, and writing compelling dialogue. Then John Mutter, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Shelf Awareness, on the heels of that website’s tenth birthday, explains the role of Shelf Awareness in the book-selling marketplace, shares the site’s origin story, and talks about the process of deciding which books get reviewed and who reviews them.

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(Broadcast date: July 1, 2015)
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Mary-Beth Hughes and Lauren Acampora on Writers on Writing

Posted June 14 2015 by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett

Mary-Beth Hughes, author of The Loved Ones talks to Nicole Nelson about finding her way into her novel, using sensory detail to further the narrative, and drawing from her earlier career as a modern dancer (with the Merce Cunningham studio in New York) to tell her stories. Then Lauren Acampora, author of The Wonder Garden, talks about how her false start with a novel led to this book of inter-connected short stories that she had a blast writing, how growing up in the suburbs and later choosing to live there as an adult has influenced the tales she is drawn to, and how she finds the humor in reactions from readers who don’t read flap copy, thanks to a blog post by Rebecca Makkai about online reader reviews.

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(Broadcast date: June 10, 2015)

Vendela Vida and Samantha Harvey on Writers on Writing

Posted June 6 2015 by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett


Nicole Nelson talks to Vendela Vida, author of The Diver’s Clothes Lie Empty, about the challenges and fun of writing in the second person singular, why she doesn’t read her reviews, and the value of setting a daily word goal. Then SamanthaHarvey, author of Dear Thief, discusses how setting her novel in the form of a long letter allowed the protagonist to explore a wide territory, how her dissatisfaction with academic philosophy led to a realization that she could best explore philosophical questions through writing fiction, and how having real clarity of purpose when writing a novel, knowing what its “necessity” is, working in tandem with perseverance, is crucial.

Vendela will be at Skylight Books in Los Angeles on June 15, 2015 at 7:30P.M.                                                                                                                                                       
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(Broadcast date: June 3, 2015)


Nayomi Munaweera and Aline Ohanesian on Writers on Writing

Posted May 18 2015 by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett

Debut novelists Nayomi Munaweera, author of Island of a Thousand Mirrors, and my former student, Aline Ohanesian, author of Orhan’s Inheritance, join Marrie Stone to discuss writing as an exhile, the power of personal history, the effects of war and genocide on future generations, and how to make the political stories personal. 

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(Broadcast date: April 22, 2015)