Poured Over

Two historical novels with elements of fantasy and folklore will bring readers from the battlefields of World War One to the last years of the Qing Dynasty in China. Katherine Arden's The Warm Hands of Ghosts shows the terrors of war and the unsettling and fantastical things that can appear in its shadow. Arden joins us to talk about her extensive research, classical allusions in her writing and more with guest host, Jenna Seery. The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo bridges the mystical and the familiar with an expansive story featuring a detective and mysterious and sly (yet alluring) fox spirits. Choo talked with us about writing in this setting, cultural influences on her work, connections to nature and more with host, Miwa Messer. We end this episode with a TBR Topoff from booksellers, Marc and Mary. Featured Books (Episode): The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque Paradise Lost by John Milton The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo The Great Reclamation by Rachel Heng Featured Books (TBR Topoff): The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu

"I describe this as a love story steeped in loss." How We Named the Stars by Andrés N. Ordorica is a heartbreaking yet hopeful debut novel of first love, first loss and how we become ourselves. Ordorica joined us live at B&N Upper West Side to talk about growing into your identity, writing community legacy, his literary influences and more with guest host, Jenna Seery. This episode of Poured Over was hosted by Jenna Seery and mixed by Harry Liang. New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays) here and on your favorite podcast app. Featured Books (Episode): How We Named the Stars by Andrés N. Ordorica Diaries of a Terrorist by Christopher Soto Small Bodies of Water by Nina Mingya Powles Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

"To have freedom you have to give something up, to have love — to experience love as an action — there has to be something that you're willing to sacrifice…" Ours is the epic and lyrical debut novel by poet Phillip B. Williams, featuring unforgettable characters woven together with folklore and humanity's search for freedom. Williams joined us to talk about how his characters shaped the story, the influences of poetry on his prose, including myths and legends and more with Miwa Messer, the host of Poured Over. This episode of Poured Over was hosted by Executive Producer Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays) here and on your favorite podcast app. Featured Books (Episode): Ours by Phillip B. Williams Mutiny by Phillip B. Williams Blindness by José Saramago One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Cannibal by Safiya Sinclair

"The peril actually comes from us — our prejudice, our biases, and our conceived threats, not from artificial intelligence, so we need to reconsider what is human and how we're treating other human beings…" Unsettling and chilling, Bora Chung's Your Utopia is a story collection featuring robot vehicles, sentient elevators and futures both hopeful and terrifying. Chung joins us to talk about the dangers of human influenced A.I., caring for our future robot overlords, adding humor to horror and more with guest host, Jenna Seery. This episode of Poured Over was hosted by Jenna Seery and mixed by Harry Liang. New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays) here and on your favorite podcast app. Featured Books (Episode): Your Utopia by Bora Chung Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung R.U.R. by Karel Čapek

"You can write all the books you want — they are going to be very pretty, but if they don't tell the truth, comprehensively, it's just not worth the effort." Lucy Sante's memoir, I Heard Her Call My Name: A Memoir of Transition, is deeply personal and features expertly crafted prose that tells the author's journey to authenticity and freedom in her identity. Sante joins us to talk about the small steps that lead to a change in perspective, creating community, incorporating visual arts and more with Miwa Messer, host of Poured Over. This episode of Poured Over was hosted by Executive Producer Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays) here and on your favorite podcast app. Featured Books (Episode): I Heard Her Call My Name by Lucy Sante Low Life by Lucy Sante The Factory of Facts by Lucy Sante

"If you write about a person, you're writing about that person because they're special." The Book of Love by Kelly Link combines fantastical elements, varieties of love and a supernatural bargain — all set in a picturesque seaside town. Link joins us to talk about what led her from short stories to her first novel, how she created her magic system, the influence of music on her writing and more with guest host, Kat Sarfas. This episode of Poured Over was hosted by guest host Kat Sarfas and mixed by Harry Liang. New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays) here and on your favorite podcast app. Featured Books (Episode): The Book of Love by Kelly Link White Cat, Black Dog by Kelly Link The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch by Melinda Taub Your Utopia by Bora Chung The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman The Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss

"I am of the mind that a novel should not leave you with a thesis … I think a novel should reflect the deep parts of human behavior in such an accurate way that a wormhole forms…" With themes of race and class in a college town, Kiley Reid's Come and Get It balances characters you can't get enough of with a nonstop plot. Reid joins us to talk about money and marriage, power dynamics in academia, creating her crackling dialogue and more with Miwa Messer, host of Poured Over. This episode of Poured Over was hosted by Executive Producer Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays) here and on your favorite podcast app. Come and Get It by Kiley Reid Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid Paying for the Party by Elizabeth A. Armstrong & Laura T. Hamilton Monoculture by F.S. Michaels The Hours by Michael Cunningham

"I'm interested in the limitations of the mind — like that your brain really does only go down so many paths, and then there's a million paths that for some reason, it never goes down…" Sheila Heti's Alphabetical Diaries is a memoir in a form all its own. Told in order, sentence by sentence from A to Z, to tell a story of identity and change in a lyrically constructed way. Heti joins us to talk about the inception and writing of this book, intense and purposeful editing, creative process and more with Miwa Messer, host of Poured Over. This episode of Poured Over was hosted by Executive Producer Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays) here and on your favorite podcast app. Featured Books (Episode): Alphabetical Diaries by Sheila Heti Pure Colour by Sheila Heti How Should a Person Be? by Sheila Heti Ticknor by Sheila Heti

"I feel like these poems tell stories in and of themselves. And perhaps as an entire collection, they tell a greater story. … We're human beings — people laugh, love, hope, dream, dance, smile, live, die, just like everybody else. And Black people need to be reminded of that, and everybody else needs to be reminded of that." This Is the Honey is the new poetry collection edited by Kwame Alexander featuring carefully curated poems from contemporary Black poets. Alexander joins us on the show to talk about compiling a collection of pieces, his own connections to this work and themes of identity and community with Miwa Messer, host of Poured Over. This episode of Poured Over was hosted by Executive Producer Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays) here and on your favorite podcast app. Featured Books (Episode): This Is the Honey edited by Kwame Alexander Why Fathers Cry at Night by Kwame Alexander The Crossover by Kwame Alexander

What can we do when our storybook romance ends? Good Material lets us laugh our way through the thick of heartbreak with sharp wit, the warmth of friendships and all too relatable moments from the throes of a breakup. Alderton joins us to talk about writing from the male perspective, the things we all do when our hearts get broken, the unspoken grief when relationships don't work and more with guest host, Jenna Seery. We end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Mary. This episode of Poured Over was hosted by Jenna Seery and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays). Featured Books (Episode): Good Material by Dolly Alderton Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton Ghosts by Dolly Alderton Featured Books (TBR Topoff): Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren