Poured Over

"I'm heading into my mid 70s and I really want to just get into a novel and live inside it. No sense of hurry. No deadline, no sense that anyone's waiting for this. I don't want to talk to anyone about it, but I just want to inhabit it." Award-winning author Ian McEwan's new novel, Lessons, takes readers on an emotional journey through the life of one man and McEwan joins us on the show to talk about aging, writing a novel in lockdown, what kinds of books make us cry 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): Lessons by Ian McEwan Atonement by Ian McEwan Herzog by Saul Bellow Cocoon by Zhang Yueran Finnegans Wake by James Joyce Featured Books (TBR Topoff): Black Swan Green by David Mitchell Moonglow by Michael Chabon This episode of Poured Over was 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 start with the emotion. I don't know what the story is. I don't know who the characters are necessarily. I'm working on very little like, I'm thinking, 'oh, well, the way this light looks through a window', or something — very few details here and there. But I don't know what happens in this story." Join three amazing authors talking about their three fabulous fall reads: If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery, The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li and Bliss Montage by Ling Ma. The authors speak with Poured Over's host, Miwa Messer, about the balance between humor and dread, how they start a project, some of their favorite writers & more. Featured Books (Episode) If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li Bliss Montage by Ling Ma Severance by Ling Ma How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Moshin Hamid Passing by Nella Larsen Quicksand by Nella Larsen The White Boy Shuffle by Paul Beatty Moby Dick by Herman Mellville Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls The Collected Poems of Frank O'Hara by Frank O'Hara Featured Books (TBR Topoff): A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin Artist in the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised By Wolves by Karen Russell 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) here and on your favorite podcast app. A full transcript of this episode is available here.

"…In this particular book, I think I wanted to combat the feeling that we were already inundated with, and even the feelings that are attached to social justice issues. I wanted to combat the feelings of anger and helplessness and all of that with joy." Margaret Wilkerson Sexton follows her NAACP Image Award-winning novel The Revisioners with On the Rooftop, a stunning novel about a mother whose dream of stardom for her three daughters clashes with their own desires in a rapidly gentrifying 1950s San Francisco. Margaret joins us on the show to talk about wanting to write a book that sits in conversation with Fiddler on the Roof, how her research led her to the Harlem of the West, writing a love story for an older couple, her literary inspirations and much more with Poured Over's host, Miwa Messer. 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). Featured Books (Episode) On the Rooftop by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton The Revisioners by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton A Kind of Freedom by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton The Yellow House by Sarah M Broom The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat The Candy House by Jennifer Egan Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw All Aunt Hagar's Children by Edward P. Jones The Known World by Edward P. Jones Featured Books (TBR Topoff) Swing Time by Zadie Smith Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout A complete transcript of this episode is here.

"That nine-year-old kid still follows me and is with me and is very much a part of me... And this is the hope for the book, not only for non-immigrants, but for immigrants, to really start to have that internal conversation about what we have been through. And I think this book is mostly for them. The book was for me, and then putting it around the world is for everybody. But I hope that non-immigrants can see that we don't want to do this, and that it's difficult, and that we carry this with us every single day." Solito is the story Javier Zamora has been trying to get out ever since he started writing. Through choppy waters and unforgiving deserts, this intimate, gripping memoir is an immersive look into the consciousness of a young boy seeking to be reunited with his parents. Listen as Javier talks about reliving trauma, growing up undocumented, poetry as a gateway to therapy, and what it was like to give his nine-year-old self back his voice, with the host of Poured Over, Miwa Messer. Featured Books (Episode) Solito by Javier Zamora Unaccompanied by Javier Zamora Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Featured Books (TBR Topoff) The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario 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.

"I think about food constantly, but more so than anyone else it's the people I work with who are inspiring me now.... I'm always inspired by the people I cook with, and the people I work with in the restaurants, and they're, you know, they're the ones who are inspiring me most right now, because they're making it all happen." Chef and restaurant owner, Mason Hereford's new cookbook Turkey and the Wolf: Flavor Trippin' in New Orleans is full of flavorful, fun recipes and beautiful photos that will delight any appetite. Mason talks about cooking with nostalgia, vintage McDonald's plates, what his day in the restaurants looks like, what's inspiring him in the kitchen now, and more with Poured Over guest host Kat Sarfas. Featured Books (episode) Turkey and the Wolf: Flavor Trippin' in New Orleans by Mason Hereford Without Getting Killed or Caught by Tamara Saviano 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). A full transcript of this episode is available here.

"I think it is a conversation I'm having with my younger self, who loved the idea of time travel, who loved the idea that these people perhaps not so different from us, who quite quickly could imagine herself out of her body and into another world against all the laws of physics. And I know I'm not alone in that. I think so many people want to read for a moment in their day or week, of escape, but not mindless escape, but detailed, pleasurable, important escape…" Jessie Burton's debut novel, The Miniaturist, is a stellar, entertaining work of historical fiction that sold a million copies in its first year and has been translated into 40 languages. Jessie returns to 17th century Amsterdam with an unforgettable cast of characters (including a few familiar faces) in her latest, The House of Fortune. She joins us on the show to talk about writing and rewriting, story points and Post-It notes, revisiting characters, her favorite authors and more with Poured Over's host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky. Featured Titles (Episode) The House of Fortune by Jessie Burton The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton Brother of the More Famous Jack by Barbara Trapido Featured Titles (TBR Topoff) The Binding by Bridget Collins The Distant Hours by Kate Morton 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.

"I think they grew out of the setting of this weird island, this odd place, this place of southern stories and ghosts and food and how they are misfits, but they find their tribe, they find where they belong with other people who think they don't belong either. And I think that is a universal truth for us all." Sarah Addison Allen's charming new novel, Other Birds, is our September B&N Book Club pick and she joins us on the show to talk about ghosts, unconditional love, mothers and mothering, place as a character, the problem with notebooks, her writing process, and more with guest host Allyson Gavaletz. And we end the episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky. Featured Books (episode) Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen Bittersweet by Susan Cain The Passion by Jeanette Winterson Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman Featured Books (TBR Topoff) Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen 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). A complete transcript of this episode is available here.

"I think it's really important to remember that poetry has always sort of existed in the moment. It's full of the life that we're living right now. It is a remnant of the life that we're living right now. You know, distilled moments, it's the mess of our life. It's all of those things. And I think we do ourselves a disservice if we think those things don't include joy, that don't include breath and contentedness and moments of peace. And we all have that sometimes, as we struggle." Ada Limón, our 24th US Poet Laureate and host of the poetry podcast The Slowdown, joins us on the show to take us behind the scenes of her newest book, The Hurting Kind, and talk about the purpose of art, honoring the slipperiness of time, the importance and pleasure of reading out loud, her literary inspirations and more with Poured Over's host, Miwa Messer. Featured Books: The Hurting Kind by Ada Limón Lucky Wreck by Ada Limón The Friend by Sigrid Nunez Less by Andrew Sean Greer Chilean Poet by Alejandro Zambra 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 here.

"We're all constantly translating ourselves to the world—we all are trying to take the inevitable stuff that happens in our psyche, our fears, and hopes and desires and dreams and trying to communicate that with others. And some of us are more successful at it than others." A group of four friends find themselves at the center of a deadly battle between good and evil at an alternate 1800s Oxford University in Babel, the epic new novel from R.F. Kuang, author of the bestselling Poppy War series. Rebecca joins us on the show to talk about world-building, friendship, colonialism, her literary inspirations (including The Secret History by Donna Tartt), Victorian ideas of masculinity and queerness, how she writes, and more with Poured Over's host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from interns Issa and Jenna. Featured Books (episode) Babel by R.F. Kuang The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang The Secret History by Donna Tartt Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell by Susanna Clarke Racial Melancholia, Racial Dissociation by David L. Eng Featured Books (TBR Topoff): The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson Legendborn by Tracy Deonn 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.

"And so, then I thought, Who do I most admire? Who taught me the most, and also, they're doing it for completely selfless reasons, right? And I thought, Oh, that moment and the parking lot. So, I thought, I'm going to start a book in the parking lot of a McDonald's dumpster in a dying town and show you how, in the most unlikely places, magic is happening." Beth Macy's 2018 bestseller Dopesick and the Emmy-nominated Hulu streamer it inspired have helped changed our national conversation about Opioids and addiction. Her new book, Raising Lazarus, takes a new approach to our ever-growing crisis, focusing on solutions and the people bringing those solutions to our communities. Beth joins us on the show to talk about harm reduction, meeting people where they are, organizing at a local level, the lawsuit against Purdue Pharma and the behavior of the Sackler family, activism, 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) Raising Lazarus by Beth Macy Dopesick by Beth Macy Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe Featured Books (TBR Topoff) Undoing Drugs by Maia Szalavitz Death in Mud Lick by Eric Eyre 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.