rejoins the show to celebrate the launch of her new project, (Meerkat Press)! We talk about how Dark Factory combines with to create a new world, and how — no matter what the innovation — it all begins with character. We get into her history of…

Author & biographer joins the show to celebrate her amazing new book, (WW Norton). We get into the tensions of being a mother & having a life in the arts, the definitions of motherhood and how women’s roles changed in the 20th century (and…

Painter Celia Paul rejoins the show for the US debut of her new book, (NYRB). We talk about how Celia found herself through corresponding with the late artist (d. 1938), the parallels between her life and Gwen’s, especially their respective…

Legendary author John Crowley rejoins the show to celebrate his new novel, (Tor Books), as well as his just-before-the-pandemic collections, and . We get into the career-long gestation of this novel, the role of Hugh O’Neill in the English-Irish…

Swedish cartoonist (okay: serietecknare) joins the show to celebrate the publication of her wonderful graphic novel (Drawn & Quarterly, tr. Hanna Strömberg). We get into her evolution as a cartoonist, how she copes with winter in northern…

Author & MFA teacher rejoins the show to celebrate (Yale University Press). We get into the notion of literary greatness, the immense craft and revision involved in good writing, the pride of seeing his students achieve lofty heights, and the…

Pulitzer Prize-winning art critic joins the show to talk about his career and the notions of artistic rivalry, influence and love, and how they came together in his 2017 book, . We get into how he got his start in art criticism in Australia, his love…

joins the show to celebrate her amazing new memoir, (Knopf)! We talk about the adventure of making a midlife leap — her departure from NYC after 30 years & her return to England —, the ways this memoir differs from , the moment she truly felt…

With her fantastic new book, (Metropolitan Books), explores how deification has been used for liberation and oppression. We talk religion, rationalism, colonialism, oppression, and mythmaking, and the strange ways in which cultures have collided in…

New Yorker staff cartoonist joins the show to celebrate his new book, (Mariner Books)! We get into the instant gratification of cartooning vs. the joy of writing a great piece of prose, the family dynamics that he’s been puzzling through for 7+…