10 Minute Writer's Workshop

Virginia Macgregor, an author celebrated for her authentic portrayal of young narrators, joins to discuss her latest novel, Wishbones. She shares her creative process of capturing the unique perspectives of children and teens facing complex situations. The conversation dives into the intricacies of writing believable young characters, emphasizing the role of personal experiences and cultural understanding. Macgregor also explores the 'ironic gap' in storytelling, merging youthful viewpoints with adult themes, and highlights how brain science informs character development.

Atul Gawande is a surgeon, professor at Harvard Medical School, and writes about medicine and ethics for the New Yorker. He’s author of several best-selling books, most recently, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End. The book questions the human cost of miraculous medicine, and urges a shift from the prevailing thought that human decline and death are signs of failures to instead think about how to make old age and the experience of dying better. Despite the grave topic, Gawande views it as a book about living. We spoke to him in the greenroom at The Music Hall in Portsmouth before a Writers on a New England Stage live event.Episode music by Uncanny Valleys.Please take a moment to take our listener survey at survey.megaphone.fm   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Celeste Ng came out of the gate strong. Her first novel, Everything I Never Told You, was a New York Times bestseller and Amazon's #1 Best Book of 2014. Her latest, Little Fires Everywhere, continues her exploration of family dynamics and the effect of being included or excluded from belonging. She has said in the past that her stories begin with images, so we began by asking her where those images come from.Episode Music by Cheetara Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Louise Penny was well into her forties when she published Still Life, the first in what has become the wildly popular Armand Gamache mystery series. The novels are set in Québec, where Gamache is Chief Inspector of the provincial police force. They are meticulously plotted, part police procedurals, part exploration of human nature - and the precarious balance between good and evil. Louise Penny is now out with the thirteenth in the series, Glass Houses.Episode Music by Dana Boulé. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Howard Axelrod was a junior at Harvard when an accident left him blind in one eye. The loss left him feeling shattered and isolated, eventually leading to a two-year stint living in the solitude of the Vermont woods. His memoir from that time is called The Point of Vanishing, named one of the best books of 2015 by Slate, The Chicago Tribune, and others.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alice Fogel is Poet Laureate of New Hampshire, and the author of six collections of poetry, including Interval: Poems Based on Bach's Goldberg Variations. Her most recent work is A Doubtful House. Episode Music by Little Glass Men Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Michael Cunningham is best known as the author of The Hours, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in fiction, which imagines a fateful day in the life of Virginia Woolf and its modern parallels. Nicole Kidman won an Academy Award for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in a film adaptation of the book. But he's a man of many genres - he's also co-written a screenplay, walked readers through Provincetown, Mass with a travelogue, and turned fairy tales on their heads, as he does in his recent collection of short fiction, A Wild Swan and Other Tales.Episode Music by Blue Dot SessionsAd Music by Uncanny Valleys Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode, we speak to Roxane Gay, author, essayist, teacher, and all around-superwoman. The author of New York Times bestsellers Bad Feminist and Difficult Women, her latest, Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body, is a candid and personal account of life inside her body, of weight, trauma, and self-care. We spoke to Roxane by phone from her home. Episode music by Blue Dot SessionsAd music by Uncanny Valleys  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Author, outspoken vegetarian, social media abstainer and writing teacher Jonathan Safran Foer is author of three novels: Everything Is Illuminated, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and, most recently, Here I Am, which follows four generations of a Jewish family grappling with identity, connection and disaster. His nonfiction book about factory farming, Eating Animals, was also a New York Times best-seller. Episode music by Broke For Free Ad music by Uncanny Valleys Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ian Rankin, renowned for his Inspector Rebus novels, discusses the richness of Edinburgh in his storytelling. He explains how his personal writing habits reflect in his characters, particularly the struggles of retired Rebus in his latest book. Rankin shares insights on overcoming creative blocks, emphasizing the importance of stepping back to regain inspiration. He reflects on his journey from academia to crime writing, revealing the challenges and triumphs of his early career. Embracing playfulness in writing, he likens writers to adventurous children exploring new worlds.