Farah Jasmine Griffin is the William B. Ransford Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, where she also served as the inaugural Chair of the African American and African Diaspora Studies Department. In her most recent book, Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature, published September 14 by W.W. Norton, Griffin pays homage to family and community through generations of Black geniuses.
Archives for March 2022
Ep. 289: Kit Mayquist on How to Work Backward from the Dark Moment
Kit Mayquist uses a technique not often talked about: working backward, not from the end, but from the dark moment, and it’s everything. A fan of everything spooky and indulgent, Kit Mayquist is a bisexual, trans masculine writer who can be found in the historic shadows of Boston, Massachusetts, hunched over his desk with a sullen Persian cat in his lap and surrounded by antiques. He has an MA in Medieval History from the University of Iceland, and a BA from Portland State University (and if you ask him, yes, Stumptown will always have the best coffee). Tripping Arcadia is his debut novel.
Ep. 288: Sabrina Benaim on Telling the Fearless Truth
Sabrina Benaim is a poet, storyteller, and workshop facilitator. She is one of the most-viewed spoken word poets of all time: her videos have reached more than one hundred million people. In 2017, her debut collection, Depression & Other Magic Tricks, was a Goodreads Choice Awards finalist, finishing just behind Rupi Kaur’s The Sun and Her Flowers. In 2020, she took part in the Heavy Hitters Festival alongside Ani DiFranco, Amber Tamblyn, and Mary Lambert. She lives in Toronto, Canada.
Ep. 287: Bonus Episode – What About Paid Reviews?
Rachael talks about paid reviews (you might be surprised!), how to write a personal essay, how to arrive at theme, and what’s going on with women’s fiction. Enjoy!
Ep. 286: Lana Harper On Hitting the NYT with a Queer Romcom!
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina meets The L Word in this fresh, sizzling New York Times bestselling rom-com by Lana Harper. Lana is the author of four YA novels about modern-day witches and historical murderesses written as Lana Papović. Born in Serbia, she grew up in Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria before moving to the US, where she studied psychology and literature at Yale University, law at Boston University, and publishing at Emerson College. She recently moved to Chicago with her family. Payback’s a Witch is her most recent release.