Poured Over

“I was very, very unintentionally smart in that I started it as a short story, I genuinely believed it was a short story, which was good, because if I hadn't sat down and said, I'm now going to write my first novel I'd probably still be working on it, but because it was a short story that got longer and became a long story, and then became a novella. And then like, Oh, I'm writing the book that I want in the world, both as a person and as an editor.” David Levithan’s Boy Meets Boy is one of the most charming rom-coms we’ve ever read, and David joins us on the show to talk about his development as a writer and editor, the power of story, his creative process, his writing partnerships with Rachel Cohn (Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares) and others, his literary influences, Heartstopper, what he’s learned from his readers and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end the show with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and his guest bookseller, Rhys. Featured Books: Boy Meets Boy (B&N Exclusive Edition) by David Levithan Every Day by David Levithan Answers in the Pages by David Levithan 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 didn't want it to be just a very overwhelming dark book. I mean, it has so much tragedy that I had to balance that I wanted to make it part of, you know, light and airy and fun and frothy and feminine to contrast with what's going to happen. I think there's power in that contrast ... I felt like it can't all be this very goth all the time, this very gothic world, the kind of fog-on-the-Moors kind of thing…” We were utterly thrilled by Sarai Walker’s debut novel, Dietland—inspired in part by beauty culture and in part by Fight Club (yep, that one)—and we’re delighted by her newest, The Cherry Robbers. Sarai joins us on the show to talk about sisterhood, love, marriage, romance, feminism, her literary inspirations (including Emily Dickinson and Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life), and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end the episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and his bookseller guest, Becky.   Featured Books: The Cherry Robbers by Sarai Walker Dietland by Sarai Walker Life After Life by Kate Atkinson   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 show is available here.

"And I had to actually give up and say, Okay, maybe I'll go to the grave not having written a novel, and I don't have to carry around shame about that. I can just do the kind of writing that I'm maybe better at or that it is my calling to do, and the moment I stopped putting so much pressure on myself and stopped making it a big ego drama about me, that actually opened up space in my creative life for me to enter the hearts and minds of all these characters who were all keeping secrets from one another.” Steve Almond—bestselling author, co-host of The Dear Sugars podcast, writing teacher—has just published his first novel, All the Secrets of the World, and he joins us on the show to talk about revisiting California in the 80s, keeping empathy for all of his characters, his literary influences (including Kurt Vonnegut, George Saunders and Lorrie Moore), share some great writing advice, and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Margie and Marc.   Featured Books: All the Secrets of the World by Steve Almond William Stoner and the Battle for Inner Life by Steve Almond Stoner by John Williams   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'm always coming back to Chicasetta, in the same way that Ernest Gaines always comes back to Bayonne parish. And William Faulkner always comes back to that county that I cannot pronounce, your top or whatever it is, right. You know, in the same way that Louise Erdrich returns to the particular reservation, I'm always coming back to these characters.” Finalist for the National Book Award, poet Honorée Fanonne Jeffers has conjured an epic and indelible story of an American family with The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois; beautifully written, it’s a story we never wanted to end (and you won’t either). Honorée joins us on the show to talk about love and home and family, the legacy of slavery, colorism, feminism, writing about Black joy, Lucille Clifton, and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and his bookseller guest, Becky. Featured Book: The Long Songs of W.E.B Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers 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 had a dream about them. I have like these really cinematic dreams. And I woke up from this one. And I was like, this is a fantastic, messy little story, this is a love triangle that I want to read about. I want to—as a reader, as a viewer—I want to see this play out. And the only way I could get it to play out was to you know, write it.” Critically acclaimed author Akwaeke Emezi (Freshwater, The Death of Vivek Oji, and Pet, among other novels) delivers a page-turning modern romance in their fabulous new novel, You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty. They join us on the show to talk about their love of romance novels and belief in love at first sight, grief and growing up, celebrity and food, fun and sex, their own work in the visual arts, the writers and artists who inspire them, and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end the episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Margie and Marc.   Featured Book:  You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi   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.

“…You have to have so much primary source material that you are drowning, you think you can never get through it all. That's the only way you get dialogue, you get all those details, you know, that really make you feel like you're there and kind of at you just like sinking into the story and forgetting everything else.” We’ll follow bestselling author Candice Millard anywhere at any time—her latest book, River of the Gods, takes us on the epic search for the head of the Nile River with Sir Richard Burton, John Hanning Speke and Sidi Mubarak Bombay, the man who helped them succeed (and stay alive). Candice joins us on the show to talk about the stories and the characters behind “one of the greatest mysteries in this history of human exploration,” her field research and writing process, human nature, disease and disaster, the writers who’ve inspired her and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations featuring Marc and his bookseller guest, Erin.   Featured Books: River of the Gods by Candice Millard The River of Doubt by Candice Millard   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.

“That was really what I wanted to get at. The relationships that you have with the people who you love so much, and who you're so close with that you don't have to talk to them all the time.” All of Emma Straub’s novels have big beating hearts, no matter who or what or where or when she’s writing about. This Time Tomorrow is her “autobiographical time travel novel” and it’s an absolute delight. Emma joins us on the show to talk about why she writes, giving herself permission to try something new, how she set her rules for time travel (and how she stays grounded), her horrifying teenage diaries, bookselling and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and bookseller guest Becky.   Featured Books: This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures by Emma Straub The Colossus of New York by Colson Whitehead Desperate Characters by Paula Fox   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.

“But then when I read that Raymond Carver said he didn't have the ability to write, you know, a full novel. He was a sprinter and I thought, Oh, maybe I could do it. Is there any such thing as a half a paragraph short story, because that was all I had the focus for. So, it took me a long, long time to write this book.” Actress (Cruel Intentions, Hellboy, Legally Blonde), model, muse to Karl Lagerfeld, mom to a young son, subject of an indelible documentary (Introducing, Selma Blair on discovery+), now author of the memoir Mean Baby, Selma Blair joins us on the show to talk about the title of her book, her relationship with her mother and mentors Ingrid Sischy of Interview Magazine and Carrie Fisher, her love of Joan Didion and C.S. Lewis, the village that came together to help her get her memoir into the world, living with multiple sclerosis and much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end the episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and his bookseller guest Becky.   Featured Books: Mean Baby by Selma Blair The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis   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.

“For me, part of the fun of coming-of-age novels, both reading and writing, is getting to have that adult perspective on these youthful moments and kind of allow you to make sense of them in a way you couldn't before; it can allow you to forgive yourself for some of the things maybe you did, it can allow you to laugh at some of the things that horrified you, and that can bring peace and joy and resolution.” It’s been a minute since Alison Espach’s debut novel The Adults — she joins us on the show to talk about the inspiration behind her new novel, Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance, writing love stories, sitting with grief, her obsession with the passage of time in life and in books, Lorrie Moore’s Self-Help, and much more with Poured Over’s Host, Miwa Messer. And we end the show with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Margie and Marc.   Featured Books: Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance by Alison Espach Self-Help by Lorrie Moore   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 was thinking about caretaking. And I was thinking about mothers because I lost my mom last year, but just the places that feel familiar and how they almost become characters in our heads. Like when I think about the house where I grew up, and I can remember it so specifically right down to the way like the closet smelled or when I think about all the time I spent in Cape Cod, the way the sand on the beach feels at low tide or the way the wind sounds when it's late at night.” Bestselling author Jennifer Weiner (Mrs. Everything and That Summer, among others) joins us on the show to take us behind the scenes of her newest novel, The Summer Place, and talk about love and loss, family and home, motherhood, money and much more with B&N’s Marie Cummings. And we end the show with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Margie and Marc.   Featured Book:  The Summer Place by Jennifer Weiner   This episode of Poured Over was produced and hosted by Marie Cummings and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (and occasional Saturdays)   A full transcript of this episode is available here.