Poured Over

“We were doing all of this for people we did not know and could not imagine. And as is the case, too, like, when you're planting trees, you hope that they're gonna outlive you. And the trees that were planted have outlived some of the people who are deeply involved in that project. Which is, you know…it's both this sorrow and it's a gratitude. We were addressing our needs. And our needs were actually to care for one another, and to join each other, and to love each other and to come to love to love each other, by making this thing for people who we did not know who may or may not be us.” So many of us have found pleasure and solace — and joy — in The Book of Delights by Ross Gay. He’s back with a new variation on that riff, Inciting Joy, and he joins us on the show to talk about variations on gardening, the connection between sorrow and joy, cover songs, football and footnotes, community, the pleasures of not doing anything, what’s he’s been reading and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Madyson.   Featured Books (Episode): Inciting Joy by Ross Gay Catalogue of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay The Bluest Nude by Ama Codjoe Or, On Being the Other Woman by Simone White Under the Sign of Saturn by Susan Sontag Notes on Sontag by Philip Lopate War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning by Chris Hedges   Featured Books (TBR Topoff): How to Love the World by James Crews Film for Her by Orion Carloto   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).

“When I came back, I was thinking about how to tell the story. And I wanted to meet people who, in one way or another, resembled the young people who I'd known as a kid and I was talking to various people, and I had some ideas. And then I got a call from a lawyer, whose name is Ken. And he called up and he said, You know, I've heard about what you're doing. And I have a client whose experience, I think, speaks to what you're trying to do…” Writer Nicholas Dawidoff (The Catcher was a Spy) spent eight years immersed in the story at the heart of his new book, The Other Side of Prospect: A Story of Violence, Injustice and the American City, and he joins us on the show to talk about the evolution of New Haven (and if it’s possible to go home again), inequality and the American Dream, racism and generational poverty, class, justice, his friendship with acclaimed poet Reginald Dwayne Betts and more with Poured Over's host Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Madyson. Featured Books (Episode): The Other Side of Prospect by Nicholas Dawidoff Felon by Reginald Dwayne Betts Manchild in the Promised Land by Claude MacKay   Featured Books (TBR Topoff) The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton Monster by Walter Dean Myers   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.

“By making a certain voice, then I'm going to force myself to do new things in that story. The voice is for me, very measured and realistic and regular, regular. But it's almost like DNA. Once you do that, then you're committed to continuing to do it, which means you're committed to finding some kind of power, even in that somewhat limited mode, which is great fun.” The only thing better than reading a short story by George Saunders is listening to him talk about how — and why — he does it. Liberation Day is his first collection of stories since The Tenth of December (a finalist for the National Book Award), and George joins us on the show to talk about his love of the short story form, how writing A Swim in a Pond in the Rain changed his work, learning to be comfortable with uncertainty, voice as ethos, keeping his readers from of mind as he writes (and rewrites), what’s next and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff Book Recommendations from Marc and Madyson.   Featured Books (Episode): Liberation Day by George Saunders The Tenth of December by George Saunders Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders   Featured Books (TBR Topoff): Boys, Beasts, and Men by Sam J. Miller The Cabinet by Kim Un-Su   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).

“There's kind of an aspect of melancholy that I love as a reader… But I can't write a book that I wouldn't want to read… Although I am interested in just sadness and like a certain beautiful quality…I can't write books that I don't want to live in, and I don't really want to live in just a depressed book. I don't want to just live in a depressed world, there has to be more fire than that.” Lydia Millet — finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize (Love in Infant Monkeys) and the National Book Award (A Children’s Bible) — joins us on the show to talk about her latest, Dinosaurs: A Novel, including how the story morphed while she was writing, illusions of normalcy, literal and figurative dinosaurs, how we talk to each other through books, and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Madyson.   Featured Book (Episode): Dinosaurs: A Novel by Lydia Millet   Featured Books (TBR Topoff): Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy   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 was always in a play, always in rehearsals. And if I wasn't in a play, I was counting the hours ‘til I could be in a play. Because it was the first time I felt a sense of belonging, a sense of community.” In Making a Scene, actress Constance Wu (Lyle, Lyle Crocodile) takes readers backstage in her own life in often hilarious — and always real and relatable — essays. She joins us on the show to talk about authenticity and big emotions, love, her big break (and what happened next), her literary inspirations including Elena Ferrante and Lily King, and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky. Featured Books (Episode): Making a Scene by Constance Wu Writers & Lovers by Lily King Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante   Featured Books (TBR Topoff) Hello, Molly! by Molly Shannon All the Women in My Brain by Betty Gilpin   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 think the knee-jerk reaction to pandemic literature — that I think a lot of readers might have as well, I don't want to read that because it's going to be triggering, it's going to be about, you know, CDC scientists brushing against the clock — there are actually very few pandemic novels that I can think of that actually operate on that level. They're thinking about Hollywood, probably, and not about literature. Most plague literature that I can think of, or dystopian literature generally, is about hope. It's about relationships, and family and the tiny little movements that occur in the wake of some sort of tragedy, the search for connection." Sequoia Nagamatsu's novel-in-stories, How High We Go in the Dark, is an absolute delight, even when the darkness shows (think Sea of Tranquility or Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel or Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell). He joins us on the show to talk about hope and love and grief, being a Bad Asian, music (and other soundtracks) connecting characters and story points, what surprised him as he was writing, his literary inspirations (starting with Italo Calvino) and more with Poured Over's host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky. Featured Books (Episode): How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu The Dead Fish Museum by Charles D'Ambrosio   Featured Books (TBR Topoff): On Such a Full Sea by Chang-rae Lee Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr 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 want to tell stories. I hate the whole, don't tell, show mantra because it's not true—it has its like moments like, you know, when the reader finishes something of mine, I want them to feel as if it's something they had experienced, as if it's like a memory for them. Because like, for me, that's always been the best stuff. And like that can be so hard to do.” If you haven’t yet read Morgan Talty’s debut linked story collection Night of the Living Rez, you’re in for an exceptional read; think There There by Tommy Orange or Jesus’ Son by Denis Johnson or The Candy House by Jennifer Egan. Morgan—who quotes Jane Austen and Audre Lorde in the course of this conversation—joins us on the show to talk about story structure and inspiration, representation and colonialism (in all its forms), the importance of humor, what he’s been reading and recommending, and more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky.   Featured Books (Episode) Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty A Calm and Normal Heart by Chelsea T. Hicks Where the Dead Sit Talking by Brandon Hobson The Last Catastrophe by Allegra Hyde The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters   Featured Books (TBR Topoff) The Nick Adams Stories by Ernest Hemingway My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson   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).

“He thinks of himself as a character in a fairy tale in a way who's going on a quest. And there's so many stories like that about a character who's going in search of a lost loved one, whether it's a daughter, a mother, a son, there's this sense of I'm going off to find you. And that's really powerful.” Celeste Ng follows her massive hit Little Fires Everywhere with a novel set in a world that “looks like ours, but with the volume kind of turned up to 11” in Our Missing Hearts, an indelible story about family and identity, art and connection. Celeste joins us on the show to talk about the novel she never planned to write, mothers and sons, coming-of-age (for adults and children), Asian American history, pushing against our ideas of hero figures, being a word nerd and her love of Shakespeare, her literary influences and more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TNR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky.   Featured Books (Episode): Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison Beloved by Toni Morrison The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston China Men by Maxine Hong Kingston Tripmaster Monkey by Maxine Hong Kingston Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu Featured Books (TBR Topoff): Things We Lost to the Water by Eric Nguyen The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa   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 want to escape into these like incredible, immersive situations, really. But I think I try and balance this kind of creation of a world or this world building with the dialogue. And that's where things like the humor come in. And particularly with this one, because it's quite a gritty subject. But it was really important to have that joy and have that humor. And to my mind that comes very akin with the bravery in the book and the courage in the book, there is this kind of ability, even under these immense pressures, to have these moments of joy…” Jess Kidd’s ghostly and gothic novels — including Things in Jars and now, The Night Ship, our latest B&N Book Club pick — are some of our absolute favorites. She joins us on the show to talk about the true story behind The Night Ship, the places her research took her, connecting her characters, how writing flash fiction and short stories influence her novels, The Epic of Gilgamesh and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer.   Featured Books (Episode): The Night Ship by Jess Kidd Mr. Flood’s Last Resort by Jess Kidd Things in Jars by Jess Kidd The Epic of Gilgamesh (Andrew George, translator) Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders   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).

“So you know, something that is a big part of my project…is actually this idea that we deserve pleasure. I think that pleasure and care, these are antidotes against various kinds of violence and degradation that we're all beset with. And so for me, when I wrote this novel, I did not write it for a critic at The New York Times, you know. I wrote it for the past version of me. And I wrote for someone who would need to read this, who would be reading this book after work on the subway.”  Sarah's Thankam Mathews is making a terrific debut with All This Could Be Different—longlisted for the 2022 National Book Award for Fiction and a finalist for our own Discover Prize—and she joins us on the show to talk about channeling her characters, subverting the coming-of-age novel, challenging the expectations of the immigrant experience, queerness, finding our people and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. Featured Books (Episode):  Normal People by Sally Rooney  Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid  Luster by Raven Leilani  The New Me by Halle Butler  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). A complete transcript of this episode is available here.