Author2Author

Bill welcomes novelist Lauryn Chamberlain back to the show. Lauryn was born and raised in Michigan. She studied journalism and French at Northwestern University and then moved to New York City, where she worked for several years as a journalist, freelance writer, and content strategist (sometimes simultaneously). She currently lives in Toronto. She is the author of Friends From Home, and, most recently, Who We Are Now.

Between seven books and decades in newspapers, Stephen Kiernan has had nearly five million words in print. A graduate of Middlebury College, the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars and the Iowa Writers Workshop, his work has won dozens of awards, has been translated into many languages, and has been optioned for TV and film production. A performing guitarist since he was ten years old, he has recorded 3 CD's of original music, and has composed for theater, dance and film scores. He lives in Vermont.

Bill welcomes memoirist Beth Ann Mathews to the show.  Beth Ann Mathews grew up in the Midwest. She earned her undergraduate degree at Purdue University and her master’s degree in marine biology from the University of California at Santa Cruz. As a professor at the University of Alaska Southeast, she taught courses in biology, behavioral ecology, and marine mammalogy and led research on harbor seals, Steller sea lions, and harbor porpoises. A chapter from Deep Waters placed second in the 2018 Redwood Writers Memoir Contest. Deep Waters is Mathews’s first book. She now lives on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Find her online at elizabethannmathews.com

Bill welcomes author Janice Deal to the show. Janice Deal is the author of a novel, The Sound of Rabbits (Regal House Publishing, 2023), and two short story collections: The Decline of Pigeons (Queen's Ferry Press, 2013), and a linked collection, Strange Attractors (New Door Books, 2023). The Decline of Pigeons was a Flannery O'Connor Award finalist. The Sound of Rabbits was a finalist for both the Many Voices Project annual competition and the Black Lawrence Press Big Moose Prize, and received an Honorable Mention in the 2021 Landmark Prize for Fiction. Stories from Strange Attractors won The Moth Short Story Prize and the Cagibi Macaron Prize. Janice has also received an Illinois Arts Council Artists Fellowship Award for prose.

Bill welcomes debut novelist and retired neurosurgeon Gary Simonds to the show. Gary Simonds, MD is a retired neurosurgeon who’s treated tens of thousands of patients. He's the Founding Chief of Neurosurgery at the Carilion Clinic, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine (retired) and the author of three non-fiction books. Death’s Pale Flag, BQB Publishing, is his first novel.

Bill welcomes co-authors Alli Frank and Asha Youmans to the show. Alli Frank and Asha Youmans have co-written three novels together: Tiny Imperfections, Never Meant to Meet You, and THE BETTER HALF, which Mindy’s Book Studio will publish on July 1, 2023. Alli (who is white and Jewish) and Asha (who is Black and Baptist) found literary soulmates in each other after working together as teacher and school administrator in Seattle, WA. They discovered a shared mission as educators and as authors— to use humor, joy and compassion to write stories that encourage candid conversations about issues such as race, religion, culture, class, privilege, parenting, and education.

Bill welcomes bestselling mystery author Dana Stabenow to the show. Dana was born in Anchorage, Alaska and raised on a 75-foot fishing tender. She knew there was a warmer, drier job out there somewhere and found it in writing. Her first book in the bestselling Kate Shugak series, A Cold Day for Murder, received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America. Her most recent in the Shugak series - her 23rd! - is Not The Ones Dead.

Bill welcomes debut novelist Joe Milan Jr. to the show. Joe is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Waldorf University, was the David T.K. Wong Creative Writing Fellow at the University of East Anglia, UK, and a Black Mountain Institute and Barrick Ph.D. Fellow of Creative Writing at University of Nevada Las Vegas, USA. He has served as fiction editor at Witness and is an MFA graduate of the Vermont College of Fine Arts. He’s American with Korean ancestry and taught in Korea for nine years. His work has appeared in Broad Street, The Rumpus, F(r)iction, The Flexible Persona, LA Review of Books, The Kyoto Journal, and more. The All-American is his first novel.

Bill welcomes celebrated novelist Andre Dubus III to the show. Andre's books include the New York Times’ bestsellers House of Sand and Fog, The Garden of Last Days, and his memoir, Townie. His novel, Gone So Long, received starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and Library Journal and has been named on many “Best Books” lists, including selection for The Boston Globe’s “Twenty Best Books of 2018” and “The Best Books of 2018”, “Top 100”, Amazon. He has three new books out or forthcoming, his novel Such Kindness, June 2023, a collection of personal essays, Ghost Dogs: On Killers and Kin, due winter 2024, and, as editor, Reaching Inside: 50 Acclaimed Authors on 100 Unforgettable Short Stories, (Godine).​Mr. Dubus has been a finalist for the National Book Award, and has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, The National Magazine Award for Fiction, two Pushcart Prizes, and is a recipient of an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature. His books are published in over twenty-five languages, and he teaches full-time at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

Bill welcomes author and thought-leader Marc Lesser to the show. Marc is a speaker, facilitator, workshop leader, and executive coach. He is known for his engaging, experiential presentations that integrate mindfulness and emotional intelligence practices and training. He is the author of 5 books, includingFinding Clarity: How Compassionate Accountability Builds Vibrant Relationships, Thriving Workplaces, and Meaningful Lives, and CEO of ZBA Associates, an executive development and leadership consulting company. His podcast Zen Bones: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Times features cutting-edge interviews, supportive tools for creating more meaningful work, and potent mindfulness practices to develop yourself, influence your organization, and change the world.