Poured Over

"We don't know our parents, I mean, we think we do; you know, all of us have a practice of dealing with contained worlds. And that practice begins with our families, it begins with our parents, because these are individuals that we don't fully understand, but we are completely dependent on for our survival... And so it creates this really interesting situation where, you know, we take them for granted in a certain way, we think we understand them, but we don't. I want to see if I could get that crossed in some small way, by showing these alternate realities…" Marjorie Liu joins Poured Over guest host Kat Sarfas to talk about her latest graphic novel, The Night Eaters: She Eats the Night, the first volume in a new series, along with their shared love of comics and graphic novels, how the story evolved for Marjorie, family, inherited trauma, the importance of play, sibling relationships, Dungeons & Dragons, creepy dolls and much more. Featured Books (Episode): The Night Eaters: She Eats the Night by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda The Monstress series of graphic novels by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton Featured Books (TBR Topoff): Neil Gaiman's Snow, Glass, Apples by Colleen Doran and Neil Gaiman Bunny by Mona Awad 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).

"I was always writing, and I think it goes back to that Charlotte's Web thing when I had that experience of something taking me out of this world. It was mysterious, and transcendent, and glorious. And I'm still searching for that every day — if I can find a story that will do that to me and just kind of mystify me and leave me a slightly different person than I was before." Jennifer Finney Boylan and Jodi Picoult joined us on stage at our flagship store on Union Square in New York City to talk about their bestselling novel, Mad Honey, along with keeping bees (and secrets), what they learned from their collaboration, why they write, their literary inspirations and much more with Poured Over's host, Miwa Messer. Featured Books (Episode): Mad Honey by Jennifer Finney Boylan and Jodi Picoult Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult I'm Looking Through You: A Memoir of Growing Up Haunted by Jennifer Finney Boylan Charlotte's Web by E.B. White Liberation Day 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).

Siddhartha Mukherjee, oncologist and Pulitzer Prize winner, discusses his latest book on gene therapy and cell therapy, the influence of literature on his writing, and the importance of storytelling in science. Topics also include the progress of gene therapy, the slow brain and mood disorders, and the non-chronological approach to writing his book.

"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).