Poured Over

If you were offered a life-changing do-over, would you take it? That's the central question at the heart of Miranda Cowley Heller's stunning debut novel, The Paper Palace. Miranda joins us on the show to talk about impossible choices, her love of Jane Austen, getting out of your own way, what poetry taught her about writing prose, and more. Featured books: The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller, Light Years by James Salter and 99 Stories of God by Joy Williams. Featured poets: Dorianne Laux, Sharon Olds, James Wright, Walt Whitman and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Produced/hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Poured Over is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

We stayed up impossibly late one night because we just had to know how Silvia Moreno-Garcia's The Gods of Jade and Shadow ends. (Sleep is overrated when you need to know if a young woman can help the Mayan God of Death reclaim his throne in Jazz-era Mexico). We did it again with the creepy, unsettling Mexican Gothic, one of our favorite books last year, and again with The Beautiful Ones, our May 2021 Speculative Fiction Monthly Pick. Silvia joins us on the show to talk about her new noir, Velvet Was the Night, breaking convention and writing across genres for each of her books, the importance of storytelling, and more. Featured titles: Velvet was the Night and Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Bath Haus by P.J. Vernon. Hosted/Produced by Kat Sarfas and engineered by Harry Liang. Poured Over is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Vianne and Isabelle, Leni, Elsa: Millions of readers have fallen head-over-heels for the heroines of Kristin Hannah's most recent blockbusters, each one an unforgettable literary page-turner combining character, story and emotional payoff. Kristin joins us on the show to take readers behind the scenes of three of her biggest books, her evolution as a writer and more. Featured books: The Four Winds, The Great Alone and The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah; We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker (a B&N Book Club Pick); Lightning Strike by William Kent Krueger; The Nickel Boys and Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead; The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien; and Whose Names Are Unknown by Sanora Babb. Produced/Hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Poured Over is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays. Follow us here for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.

Chicago, 1944. Aki Ito and her parents arrive in town, expecting to be met by Rose, their oldest daughter. But tragedy has struck, and now Aki Ito is determined to discover what happened to her sister in this historical thriller. Naomi Hirahara joins us on the show to discuss sisterhood and coming-of-age, Japanese-American Internment and the 100-442nd Infantry Battalion, and the influence Chester Himes, Walter Mosley and Barbara Neely had on her work — and more. Featured Books: Clark and Division and the Mas Arai series by Naomi Hirahara and Japanese Americans in Chicago, Illinois by Alice Kishiye Murata. Produced/Hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Everyone has a secret to protect in a small Scottish Highlands town in Charlotte McConaghy's new novel, Once There Were Wolves, the follow-up to her hit debut, Migrations (now in paperback). Charlotte joins us on the show to talk about writing literary fiction with crime elements, rewilding places and people, exploring empathy and hope through dark stories, and more. Featured books: Once There Were Wolves and Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy and The Overstory by Richard Powers. Produced/Hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Poured Over is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. New episodes drop Tuesday and Thursday. Follow us here for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.

Prepare to have your heart broken in all the best ways by Ash Davidson's miraculous debut novel, Damnation Spring — our August Discover Pick. She joins us on the show to talk about starting with endings (and making big last-minute story changes); grounding her beautiful prose in real-life stories and first-person research; her love for her characters, and more. Featured Books: Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson, East of Eden by John Steinbeck, Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner, The Round House by Louise Erdrich, How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C. Pam Zhang, and A Bitter Fog by Carol Von Strum. Produced/Hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Poured Over is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays.

If you love reading pulse-pounding stories about fictional spies, you'll love Ben Macintyre's thrilling true (and bestselling) stories about real-world spies, like The Spy and the Traitor, A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal, and Operation Mincemeat. His latest yes-this-is-absolutely-a-true-story (Ben has the documentation to prove it) book, Agent Sonya, has the pacing of a great novel and plenty of incredible details as the story cuts from Shanghai and Manchuria in the 1920s and 30s to Switzerland and the UK during WWII and into the Cold War (and beyond). Ben joins us on the show to talk about Ursula Burton — wife, mother and dedicated spy — John le Carré, and the joys of writing about espionage (Hint: It's all about the hunt). Featured book: Agent Sonya by Ben Macintyre. Produced/Hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Poured Over is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. New episodes drop every Tuesday and Thursday. Follow us here for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.

James Baldwin died in 1987, but his work still speaks to us — as if it was written last year, or last month, or even last week. Eddie S. Glaude, Jr. joins us on the show to discuss leaving the U.S. in order to write about Baldwin (and why Baldwin came back from Paris); why we're reaching for Baldwin now, more than three decades after his death; what Baldwin has to teach us about the intersection of memory, history, identity and race — and more. Featured books: Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own by Eddie S. Glaude, Jr.; No Name in the Street, Nothing Personal and Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin. Produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Poured Over is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

This is what we talk about when we talk about voice: Fern, Gwin and Jesenia are the heart of Carolyn Ferrell's acclaimed new novel, Dear Miss Metropolitan, and their voices are unforgettable. Their story is a story of trauma and grief and hope unlike any you've read before, though readers who love The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison and The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead won't want to miss this one. Carolyn joins us on the show to talk about her electrifying novel, the inspiration she draws from the work of Edward P. Jones, and more. Featured books: Dear Miss Metropolitan by Carolyn Ferrell, the short stories of Edward P. Jones, Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, and Ill Will by Dan Chaon. Produced/hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.

We've run out of superlatives to describe Helen Macdonald's memoir, H is For Hawk. She's followed her acclaimed bestseller — which showed many readers a new way of looking at the natural world — with a delightfully smart collection of essays in Vesper Flights, now out in paperback. Helen joins us on the show to talk about how birds' nests changed her understanding of home, writing in hotel rooms, and what the natural world can teach us about building community and more. Featured books: Vesper Flights and H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald, My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George, Missionaries by Phil Klay, and Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Produced/Hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.