Author2Author

Bill welcomes novelist Amy Engel to the show. Amy is a former criminal defense attorney who grew up in Iran and Missouri. Her debut novel, The Book of Ivy, published in 2014, won the Missouri Gateway Readers Award and the Georgia Peach Book Award. After this promising start, she's gone on to publish The Revolution of Ivy, The Roanoke Girls, and, her most recent, The Familiar Dark. Don't miss it!

Bill welcomes debut novelist Sahar Mustafah to the show. Sahar is the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, from which she draws inspiration for her fiction. She is an acclaimed writer of short stories, having been awarded the Guild Literary Complex Prize for fiction, a Distinguished Story honor from Best American Short Stories, and three Pushcart Prize nominations. The Beauty of Your Face is her first novel. Don't miss it!

Bill welcomes novelist, speaker, and productivity coach Allie Pleiter to the show. An avid knitter, coffee junkie, and devoted chocoholic, Allie writes both fiction and non-fiction. The enthusiastic but slightly untidy mother of two, Allie spends her days writing books, buying yarn, and finding new ways to avoid housework. Allie hails from Connecticut, moved to the midwest to attend Northwestern University, and currently lives outside Chicago, Illinois. The “dare from a friend” to begin writing has produced two parenting books, fourteen novels, and various national speaking engagements on faith, women’s issues, and writing. Don't miss it!

Bill welcomes novelist, speaker, and folklorist Kate Ristau to the show. Kate is an author, and the executive director of Willamette Writers. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times and The Washington Post, and she is the author of the middle grade series, Clockbreakers, and the young adult series, Shadow Girl, including her most recent, Shadow Queen. In her ideal world, magic and myth combine to create memorable stories with unforgettable characters. Don't miss it!

Bill welcomes celebrated Irish Novelist Anne Enright to the show. Anne has published three volumes of stories, one book of nonfiction, and several novels. In 2015, she was named the inaugural Laureate for Irish Fiction. Her novel The Gathering won the Man Booker Prize, and The Forgotten Waltz won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. Her latest novel is Actress. This show was prerecorded. Enjoy!

Bill welcomes poet Gloria Mindock to the show. Gloria Mindock is the founding editor of Červená Barva Press and one of the USA editors for Levure Litteraire (France). She is the author of, I wish Francisco Franco Would Love Me (Nixes Mate Books, 2018), Whiteness of Bone (Glass Lyre Press, 2016), La Portile Raiului (Ars Longa Press, Romania, 2010) translated into the Romanian by Flavia Cosma, Nothing Divine Here, (U Šoku Štampa., 2010), and Blood Soaked Dresses (Ibbetson, 2007).  Gloria has been published in numerous literary journals including Gargoyle, Web Del Sol, Poet Lore, Constellations: A Journal of Poetry and Fiction, Ibbetson, Muddy River Poetry Review, Unlikely Stories and Nixes Mate Review and anthology. Gloria has been awarded the Ibbetson Street Press Lifetime Achievement Award, and was the recipient of the Allen Ginsberg Award of Community Service by the Newton Writing and Publishing Center. Don't miss it!

Bill welcomes bestselling novelist Katrin Schumann. Katrin's work has been featured multiple times on TODAY and in Woman’s Day, The London Times and on NPR, as well as other national and international media. Her debut novel, The Forgotten Hours was a Washington Post and Amazon Charts bestseller. Her latest novel This Terrible Beauty has been called "luminous and unflinching," "unputdownable," and "hard to forget." It was chosen by SheReads as among the "Most Anticipated Women's Fiction in 2020." She's also the author of several nonfiction books. For the past ten years she's been teaching writing, most recently at GrubStreet and at local prisons through PEN New England. Don't miss it!

Bill welcomes memoirist Nadine Kenney Johnstone to the show. Nadine is the author of the memoir, Of This Much I'm Sure, winner of the CWA Book of the Year award. Coverage of her memoir has appeared in Cosmopolitan, Today’s Parent, MindBodyGreen, Metro, and Chicago Health Magazine, among others. She teaches at Loyola University and received her MFA from Columbia College in Chicago. Her other work has been featured in various magazines and anthologies, including Chicago Magazine, The Moth, PANK, and The Magic of Memoir. Nadine is a writing coach who presents at conferences internationally. She is a core faculty member at Story Studio.

Bill welcomes debut novelist Susan Zurenda to the show. After teaching literature, composition, and creative writing to thousands of high school and college students for 33 years, Susan turned her attention to putting a novel in her heart on paper, the genesis of which started with a short story that won a fiction prize some years ago and Bells for Eli  was published on March 2! During her years of teaching at Spartanburg Community College and then as an AP English teacher at Spartanburg High School, Susan published short stories and won numerous regional awards such as the South Carolina Fiction Prize (twice), the Porter Fleming Competition, The Southern Writers Symposium Emerging Writers Fiction Contest, The Hub City Hardegree Contest in Fiction, Alabama Conclave First Novel Chapter Contest, and The Jubilee Writing Competition (twice).  Since 2018, she has published six stories in literary magazines.

Bill welcomes memoirist and fiction writer Donna Conrad to the show. Donna  is an award-winning author, journalist, activist, and teacher. Her core values revolve around the concept of individual empowerment, a sustaining ideal running through the books she writes. She has studied writing with the likes of Alan Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Erica Jong. Her writing interests are varied and include articles for fine-art periodicals, memoir/narrative non-fiction, as well as historical, flash, and paranormal fiction. She teaches all of the above at writers’ conferences, including PNWA. Her first published book, "House of the Moon: Surviving the Sixties," has received rave reviews. Don't miss it!