Poured Over

“At any given time, there's a choir of ideas and nagging voices in my head — chatter that I had to contend with I guess — in the end it ends up with this model of working and living in which everything is happening simultaneously.”   Aleksandar Hemon, author of National Book Award Finalist The Lazarus Project, has no shortage of accomplishments, including screenwriting credits on Sense8 and The Matrix: Revolutions. He’s back with The World and All That it Holds, an epic love story spanning decades, countries, and political boundaries. Hemon joins us to talk about his multitudinous (and simultaneous) projects, his music career as Cielo Hemon, being a romantic (or not) and more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Jamie.   Featured Books:  The World and All That It Holds by Aleksandar Hemon  The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon    Featured Books (TBR Topoff):   The Passion by Jeanette Winterson  This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone    Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays with occasional Saturdays.  

This Double Shot episode features two authors, one familiar and one who soon will be, each tackling similar themes. Through fiction and essays these authors explore social politics and sexual freedom — listen in as both talk separately with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Madyson. A Guest at the Feast is a collection of essays by Colm Tóibín on topics ranging from his own cancer diagnosis, how reading the diaries of Thomas Mann led to the creation of The Magician (out in paperback now), the works of Marilynne Robinson and more. Tóibín joins us to talk about making private stories public, the lives of Popes and what he’s working on next.   Tom Crewe’s debut novel, The New Life, shows us two marriages and two affairs that buck tradition and showcases the struggles of lives deemed unconventional in 19th century London. Crewe talks with us about the reality of being gay in the 1800s, social class in Victorian England and the authors that have influenced him.     Featured Books (Episode):  A Guest at the Feast by Colm Tóibín  The Magician by Colm Tóibín   Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín  Washington Square by Henry James  Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann  The New Life by Tom Crewe    Featured Books (TBR Topoff):   Homo Irrealis by André Aciman   The Collected Oscar Wilde by Oscar Wilde    Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays with occasional Saturdays. 

“I wanted to spend time with a family and haunted house books are always about families.” Grady Hendrix’s bone-chilling novels The Final Girl Support Group and Horrorstör will have fans knocking at the door for his newest book, How to Sell a Haunted House. This new take on a classic horror story forces readers to confront one of the most frightening things there is: family. Hendrix joins us to talk about what makes a home into a haunted house, the horrifying history of puppets and dolls, the differences in writing a novel and writing for the screen, what he’s been reading lately and more with Poured Over guest host, Kat Sarfas. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Jamie.   Featured Books:  How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix  The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix  Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix  When Darkness Loves Us by Elizabeth Engstrom  The Elementals by Michael McDowell    Featured Books (TBR Topoff):  The Grip of It by Jac Jemc  The Rook by Daniel O’Malley   This episode of Poured Over was produced and hosted by Kat Sarfas and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).

Two witty novels, two funny women, and two engaging interviews await you in this Double Shot episode of Poured Over. This pair of authors and their stories of relationships and what happens when they end fit so well together - if you’re a fan of one, you’re sure to love the other. Listen in as both authors talk separately with host Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Jamie and Madyson. Schitt’s Creek writer Monica Heisey’s debut novel REALLY GOOD, ACTUALLY gets at the heart of the Millennial struggle as one twenty-something puts her life together again after divorce. Heisey joins us to talk about how we cope when relationships end, what happens when characters spend their lives online, how to find a voice as a comedic writer and more.   SMALL WORLD by Laura Zigman is a different kind of post-divorce novel that focuses on family in the wake of change. Zigman talks about how we get to know our families as adults, the many manifestations of grief, how to work through writer’s block and what she’s reading now.     Featured Books (Episode): Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey Small World by Laura Zigman Separation Anxiety by Laura Zigman The Idiot by Elif Batuman Bunny by Mona Awad   Featured Books (TBR Topoff): Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton Luck of the Titanic by Stacey Lee   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays with occasional Saturdays.  

“That's one of those epiphanies - I realized if I wanted to be taken seriously, I needed representation. And who better than to do it than a man who doesn't exist, who's really me? Yeah, it was the perfect decoy.”    You’ve heard her plucking guitar strings & heartstrings – now Margo Price sits down with guest host Allyson Gavaletz to talk about her new album Strays, songcraft, exorcising demons, trading jokes with Willie Nelson and being honest with herself on this episode of Poured Over.    Featured Media    Strays [B&N Exclusive, Baby Pink Vinyl]  Maybe We’ll Make It: A Memoir    This episode of Poured Over was produced and hosted by Allyson Gavaletz and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays with occasional Saturdays. 

“I remember being in an English class in high school (12th grade actually). We were reading The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot, and I announced to the teacher that I could have written a better ending … And I remember the look of shock on the teacher's face because she probably thought I was so arrogant and presumptuous. I don't know how I would have ended it. But I remember thinking that I could have I could have come up with a better ending.”  Who among us hasn’t been tempted to rewrite a classic? The very funny and smart debut novelist Oindrila Mukherjee joins us on the show to talk about The Dream Builders, the looming influence of American pop culture in India, building a fictional city from scratch, tossing out her entire first draft and starting over, her unconventional path to publication via an open submission call from her publisher Tin House, her writing advice, her love of literature in translation and more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer.   Featured Book: The Dream Builders by Oindrila Mukherjee   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).

“And I always tend to start a book with a very popcorn sensibility, like, oh, well, this’ll be fun, we're gonna have a little romp. And then to tell the story, honestly, you tend — especially when you're talking about things like institutional power and social influence and economic influence — you're going to bump up against some pretty heavy themes. And that certainly happened with Ninth House and again with Hell Bent.” No one does magic and mayhem and unforgettable characters like Leigh Bardugo. She takes readers behind the scenes of Hell Bent, her latest novel and the long-awaited follow-up to Ninth House, riffing on setting the series at Yale University, what she learned from writing movie trailers, the advice Holly Black gave her about screen adaptations, reading The Princess Bride, magic as a metaphor for power (and what happens to the metaphor when the power is real), how Louise Erdrich shifted the way Leigh felt about fiction, writing morally gray characters, vampires, what she’s been reading, what’s next for her (hint: character-driven standalone) and much more in a laughter-filled conversation with guest host Kat Sarfas.   Featured Books: Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo The Princess Bride by William Goldman That Self-Same Metal by Brittany N. Williams   This episode of Poured Over was produced and hosted by Kat Sarfas and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).

“But now, with the rise of new money, it's like there's this moment in India, when new money was eclipsing old money. And that's the moment that I basically find really interesting because I happen to be right there observing, and just talking to people and listening and picking up stories.” You might have missed Deepti Kapoor’s debut, A Bad Character, in 2014; you absolutely do not want to miss Age of Vice, her fast-paced, epic novel of crime and corruption (and the first of three volumes in a series featuring a cast of characters you won’t be able to shake). Deepti joins us on the show to talk about the inspiration behind her pulse-pounding new novel, the trio of characters at its center, the transformation of Delhi, her writing process, her literary influences (ranging from Dostoyevsky to Patricia Highsmith), and more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer.   Featured Books: Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor A Bad Character by Deepti Kapoor 2666 by Roberto Bolaño   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays with occasional Saturdays. 

Our January Discover and B&N Book Club picks have lots in common: both are debut novels with indelible characters and an unforgettable story, both are graduates of UT’s Michener Center for Writers — think of this episode as an audio boxed set, as both authors sit down separately with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer.   Tracey Rose Peyton knew she was taking on a major challenge with a narrative about enslaved women in 1850’s Texas — and even tossed an entire early draft — but she knew she had what she needed when she landed on the hypnotic first person plural voice for our January Discover pick, Night Wherever We Go. Tracey talks about her literary influences (including Toni Morrison, Marilynne Robinson, Julie Otsuka and Alice Walker), love of short novels, making sure to include moments of real joy in terrible times, and more.   Our January B&N Book Club pick, The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff, is a dark comedy set in modern-day India that started as a short story — one that she put in a drawer for ten or so years. Parini talks about how she got from a short story to her novel about second chances and women breaking free of society’s constraints, her favorite writers (including Zadie Smith and James McBride), the real-life inspiration behind her book’s title, writing women’s friendships, and more. (Join us for the B&N Book Club event in February if you’re looking for spoilers on this one.)   Featured Books (Tracey Rose Peyton): Night Wherever We Go by Tracey Rose Peyton The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka The Color Purple by Alice Walker   Featured Books (Parini Shroff): Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff White Teeth by Zadie Smith   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays with occasional Saturdays. 

We're closing out 2022 with something new: A Poured Over Double Shot with host Miwa Messer.  Cormac McCarthy doesn’t really do interviews — If you want to know about the work, it’s on the page, he says. Jenny Jackson and Chip Kidd are part of the team that publish McCarthy; Jenny’s been his editor for the last eight years, and Chip has designed McCarthy’s hardcover jackets from 1992’s All the Pretty Horses all the way up to this fall’s The Passenger and Stella Maris, along with the recent reissues of McCarthy’s backlist including Suttree, Blood Meridian and No Country for Old Men. They join us to talk about McCarthy’s surprising new books — his first since Pulitzer Prize winner The Road (2006), getting the jackets right and more in the first half of this Poured Over Double Shot episode. When a pal asked Cheryl Strayed to take over writing the “Dear Sugar” column in The Rumpus, her first thought was, “Who am I to give people advice? I'd never taken a class in psychology or gone to therapy or any of that stuff. But also, I was afraid specifically to write an advice column on the internet, because it was the age of snark…” Cheryl's open-hearted, non-judgmental letters to readers redefined the medium — and inspired two podcasts, Dear Sugars and Sugar Calling. Some of that work is collected in Tiny Beautiful Things, which was adapted into an acclaimed stage play by Nia Vardalos and is coming to Hulu next year as a series starring Kathryn Hahn (WandaVision). Cheryl joins us to talk about trust and empathy, finding freedom by writing letters to strangers, what she’s working on now and more in the second half of this episode. Featured Books: The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy Torch by Cheryl Strayed Wild by Cheryl Strayed Tiny Beautiful Things (10th Anniversary Edition) by Cheryl Strayed   Poured Over is Produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. We’re taking a break until 1/3/23, but we’ll be back with new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays) then.