Poured Over

Jessica George, author of the debut novel Maame, discusses the protagonist's relatable journey in a coming-of-age story exploring sadness, loss, laughter, growth, and love. She shares insights on finding her character's voice, processing grief, and hints at her next projects in a sentimental and laughter-filled conversation with host Miwa Messer.

These two novels explore the gulf between expectation and reality, ambition and opportunity, and what happens when life veers off from your carefully planned path. Kashana Cauley and Matthew Salesses each give us indelible casts of characters to follow as they face career upheaval, challenges to their identities and find new love in unexpected ways. Listen to this Double Shot episode with both authors in conversation separately with Poured Over's host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Jamie. Matthew Salesses combines professional basketball, K-dramas, and young love in his novel The Sense of Wonder. Salesses joins us to talk about the effect of Jeremy Lin, the structure of a novel vs. a K-drama, his teaching career and what he's reading now. In Kashana Cauley's The Survivalists, a young Black lawyer meets a man who thoroughly changes her life through love, coffee and doomsday prepping. Cauley talks with us about how she developed her characters, social class and real estate in New York City, the authors who influenced her and more. Featured Books (Episode): The Sense of Wonder by Matthew Salesses The Survivalists by Kashana Cauley Craft in the Real World by Matthew Salesses The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston No-No Boy by John Okada American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart Featured Books (TBR Topoff): Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu The Sellout by Paul Beatty 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 love finishing reading a book and thinking, I feel privileged to have read that, I feel dignified. I feel like that book sort of thought of me as sacred… I want to write the kind of books that I most love to read." From Paul Harding, author of Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Tinkers, comes This Other Eden — an intricate novel inspired by the fascinating true story of Malaga, an island in Maine that held one of the first integrated communities after the Civil War. Harding joins us to talk about his vibrant cast of characters, studying with Marilynne Robinson, the authors who have influenced him 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 (Episode): This Other Eden by Paul Harding Tinkers by Paul Harding Enon by Paul Harding The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett Moby Dick by Herman Melville The Tempest by William Shakespeare Featured Books (TBR Topoff): Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez 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).

"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).