Poured Over

"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.

Hua Hsu, author of 'STAY TRUE,' discusses grief, friendship, and coming of age in his memoir. He touches on Asian American icons, changing conversations about Asian America, and the process of writing his book. The podcast explores themes of self-discovery, authenticity in writing, and the evolution of the Asian American community.

"I feel like very often when we have stories about womanizing characters, whether we piece those stories out, so we see each woman—individually or not, they don't really have stories. They don't really have lives except as they relate to that main character. So, it was always going to be each woman steps forward, each woman gets a chapter." Laura Warrell takes us behind the scenes of her smart, sharp and deeply resonant debut novel Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm. She joins us on the show to talk about flipping the script, the women she writes about (and letting her characters be who they are), love and loneliness, her writing process 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): Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm by Laura Warrell Gorilla, My Love by Toni Cade Bambara Featured Books (TBR Topoff): Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays) here and on your favorite podcast app. A complete transcript of this episode is available here.

"I did nothing but read the entire time I was writing this….literally every waking moment, I was doing some type of research and a lot of research I did for this book was on joy and celebration and on community. Because, yes, we're going through all of these things, but there's a reason the cover is bright and celebratory, because that's also where the book goes, where the journey goes." Hafizah Augustus Geter covers an incredible amount of ground in her memoir The Black Period: On Personhood, Race, and Origin: past and present, able-bodied and disabled, home and away, grief and love. She joins us on the show to talk about her family's story, her father's art (which appears in full color throughout the book), who gets to make history and why, her literary influences and more with Poured Over's host, Miwa Messer. Featured Books: The Black Period: On Personhood, Race, and Origin by Hafizah Augustus Geter Little Devil in America by Hanif Abdurraqib The Yellow House by Sarah Broom Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer Year of The Tiger by Alice Wong Border and Rule by Harsha Walia 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.

"Ever since we left, when I was 13, it's a place that I think about constantly. I think about it in hypothetical terms. It's something that I just sort of lose myself in all the time. I left before things really got complicated. I left when I was 13. What if I had stayed until now? And what if I had left and gone back? You know, the book kind of stemmed from this story that I had been working through in my mind, all of these hypothetical versions of myself. And then it turned into this." Bobby Finger, writer and co-host of the celebrity and entertainment podcast Who? Weekly, breaks new ground in his debut novel, The Old Place. Inspired by his real-life roots in Texas, Finger explores the consequences of love and loss in this small-town narrative centered around a retired schoolteacher burdened by a decade-old secret. Bobby discusses his journey to writing a novel, his literary influences and creative process—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): The Old Place by Bobby Finger Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh Featured Books (TBR Topoff): Mrs. Fletcher by Tom Perotta A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman 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.

"I already had a kind of Don Quixote set up in mind. And so I was like, Wouldn't it be funny if Arthur was the sort of Sancho Panza in this? I'll just barely touch on it and see where it goes. And I thought he needs someone totally full of himself to shake him up…" Readers fell in love with Arthur Less — and Andrew Sean Greer took home a Pulitzer Prize for Less, the novel that introduced us to Arthur. Andrew joins us on the show to talk about his new novel, the not-really-a-sequel, Less Is Lost, turning tragedy into comedy, rewrites, what scares him as a writer, his literary influences, the writing advice that he still relies on and much more with Poured Over's host, Miwa Messer. And we finish this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky. Featured Books (Episode): Less (winner of the Pulitzer Prize) by Andrew Sean Greer The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells by Andrew Sean Greer Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer Chéri by Colette Don Quixote by Cervantes A Boy's Own Life by Edmund White Travels with My Aunt by Graham Greene Moby Dick by Herman Melville Featured Books (TBR Topoff): A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood Bucky F*cking Dent by David Duchovny 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 full transcript of this episode is available here.

"This book feels very much…drawing from the Black Saints: Whitney Houston, Paul Mooney, Little Richard, Luther Vandross, almost my own canon, my own tradition, my own history, to make sense of what's happening now. I'm not going back to Homer, necessarily. I'm kind of trying to create a new lineage, because I feel that we've been betrayed by our presented histories." Saeed Jones joins us on the show to riff on his incredibly personal and indelible new poetry collection Alive at the End of the World, along with the pervasiveness of grief, how both he and his writing have changed since he published his memoir, what's up with his new podcast, Vibe Check, and much more with Poured Over's host Miwa Messer. Featured Books (episode) Alive at the End of the World by Saeed Jones Prelude to Bruise by Saeed Jones How We Fight for Our Lives by Saeed Jones Furious Cool by David Henry and Joe Henry 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.

Abdulrazak Gurnah, an epic storyteller, discusses his multi-generational novel set in East Africa exploring life, loss, and love. They talk about the legacy of colonialism and the concept of home. The author also shares their experiences of journeying to the UK, their writing influences, and captivating book recommendations.