
The Greenlight Bookstore Podcast
Great authors in conversation about their newest books, hosted by an independent bookstore in the heart of Brooklyn, NY. Books discussed are available for sale in our stores and at www.greenlightbookstore.com.
Latest episodes

Aug 26, 2021 • 60min
Episode QS64: Joan Silber + Margot Livesey (August 26, 2021)
This virtual launch event for Joan Silber’s newest novel Secrets of Happiness drew a passionate crowd for her conversation with fellow novelist Margot Livesey about themes of money, love, travel, and spirituality. Livesey and Silber talked about her desire to write “big and small at the same time” with closely observed interiority but wide scope in time and space, and how her works exist on a spectrum between novels and short stories, as well as literary influences and current favorites. (Recorded May 3, 2021)

Aug 19, 2021 • 1h 4min
Episode QS63: Stephanie Danler + Emma Roberts & Karah Preiss (August 19, 2021)
Bestselling memoirist Stephanie Danler celebrates the paperback release of her most recent work Stray with author Kara Preiss and actor Emma Roberts, co-founders of the literary website Belletrist. The trio talk about writing as a way to survive a troubled home life, the challenges, regrets, and requirements of memoir, and the fascinating taboos around money for artists and writers. (Recorded April 29, 2021)

Aug 13, 2021 • 59min
Episode QS62: Adam Mansbach + Saeed Jones (August 12, 2021)
Adam Mansbach, best known as creator of the parodic children’s book Go the F*ck to Sleep as well as several award-winning novels, opens up about his memoir of his brother’s suicide I Had a Brother Once in conversation with poet and memoirist Saeed Jones. Their moving and vulnerable conversation circles around the ways that grief runs up against cliches, taboos, and limted expressions of masculinity, and ways of grappling with it through poetry and paradox. (Recorded April 15, 2021)

Aug 5, 2021 • 55min
Episode QS61: J. Nicole Jones + Allie Rowbottom (August 5, 2021)
Greenlight neighbor J. Nicole Jones discusses Low Country, her new memoir of her South Carolina family, with Allie Rowbottom, Allie Rowbottom (author of the memoir Jell-O Girls). The two talk about the writing process, the book's grounding in Southern storytelling traditions, and the act of reclaiming stories through the retelling, especially for women. (Recorded April 14, 2021)

Jul 29, 2021 • 58min
Episode QS60: Michaela Carter + Kate Christensen (July 29, 2021)
Author (and indie bookstore owner!) Michaela Carter discusses her new book Leonora in the Morning Light, a novel of the real-life Surrealist artist Leonora Carrington, with fellow author Kate Christensen (The Great Man). The two novelists discuss the intersections of painting and writing, women artists as muses for each other, madness and dreams, and their shared love of writing about food. (Recorded April 12, 2021)

Jul 22, 2021 • 50min
Episode QS59: Rachel Kushner + Hari Kunzru (July 22, 2021)
National Book Award, National Book Critics Circle Award and Man Booker finalist Rachel Kushner discusses her new collection of nonfiction, The Hard Crowd: Essays 2000-2020, with fellow author Hari Kunzru (author of Red Pill and White Tears). The two authors discuss self-examination vs. self-mythologizing in writing about one's own life, writing about other people without making them into "nostalgic baubles", and the many life experiences, inspirations, and artistic points of reference that informed this collection. (Recorded April 8, 2021)

Jul 15, 2021 • 1h 2min
Episode QS58: Sanjena Sathian + Andrew Ridker (July 15, 2021)
Andrew Ridker (author of The Altruists) interviews his longtime friend Sanjena Sathian about her epic debut novel Gold Diggers, an Indian American family story with a magical twist. Their conversation encompasses alchemy, the real and metaphorical meanings of gold, the Desi community in Atlanta, various writing workshop experiences, and bucking the trope of the model minority through writing flawed, human characters. (Recorded April 7, 2021)

Jul 8, 2021 • 1h 1min
Episode QS57: Edward Hirsch + Victoria Change & Vijay Seshradi (July 8, 2021)
Poets Victoria Chang and Vijay Seshadri join Edward Hirsch to discuss '100 Poems to Break Your Heart'. They explore grief in poetry, reading and dissecting powerful pieces like 'Aphasia' and 'Blue Dress'. The podcast delves into the emotional depth of poetry, childhood fears, and the transformative power of art in capturing sorrow and personal journeys.

Jul 1, 2021 • 58min
Episode QS56: Dawnie Walton + Kiley Reid (July 1, 2021)
Dawnie Walton launches her debut novel, The Final Revival of Opal & Nev, a fictional oral history of a 1970s rock ’n’ roll duo, in conversation with fellow author Kiley Reid (author of Such a Fun Age). The two women talk about the challenges of writing about music and juggling multiple voices, their overlapping experiences with the Iowa Writers Workshop, and creating characters they wished existed in reality. (Recorded March 30, 2021)

Jun 24, 2021 • 1h 5min
Episode QS55: Craig Taylor + New York City actors (June 24,2021)
Craig Taylor's new book New Yorkers: A City and Its People in Our Time comes to life with local actors portraying some of the 75 fascinating city residents featured in the book! Taylor introduces readings by Craig Geraghty, Maggie Hoffman, Aaron Landsman, Hubert Point-Du Jour, Scott Shepherd, Erika Chong Shuch, Jahmorei Snipes, and Ben Williams, for a love letter to a city and the NYC theater community. (Recorded March 23, 2021)