How I Wrote This

An introduction to Season 3 of the podcast, this time featuring authors based in Brooklyn, New York, USAFollow on Instagram @HowIWroteThisthePodcastPromotional support from the Quebec Writers’ Federation

Adelle Waldman is the author of two novels: Help Wanted, published in 2024, and The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. which was named one of the year’s best books in 2013 by The New Yorker, The Economist, The New Republic, NPR, Slate, Bookforum, The Guardian and others. In this illuminating conversation that took place shortly after the US election, Adelle talks about the job she took at a big box store before writing a book about the exploitation of low wage workers; the US legislative proposal she recently drafted for a policy thinktank; and her love of expansive, psychological nineteenth century novels, especially those written by Jane Austin.Born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1977, Adelle attended Brown University in Rhode Island, worked as a reporter in Connecticut and Ohio, and wrote her breakout novel after moving to Brooklyn with her husband. Her essays and book reviews have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic. She joined Pamela in the Brooklyn Podcasting Studio.How I Wrote This is created and hosted by Pamela Hensley and presented by KnockAbout Media. Original music track “Attention to Details” by Tyler K. Rauman. You can listen and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, and iHeartRadio and follow us on Instagram @howiwrotethisthepodcast

Joseph O’Neill has written a family history and five novels including This is the Life, The Breezes, Netherland (which was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award), The Dog (longlisted for the Man Booker Prize) and most recently, Godwin. He also writes political reviews and essays as well as short stories, several of which have been published in The New Yorker and included as part of his 2018 collection, Good Trouble.Born in Ireland, Joe moved around as a child, living in Mozambique, Turkey and Iran until his parents settled in the Netherlands. In 1998, he moved to the US after earning his law degree at Cambridge and working as a barrister in the UK. Since 2011, he has been a distinguished visiting professor of Written Arts at Bard College. In this conversation, Joe talks about his love of language and sport, his interest in the American bourgeoisie, and how the damaged masculine specimen depicted in his latest novel, Godwin, became such an important political figure. He joined Pamela in the Brooklyn studio shortly after the US election.How I Wrote This is created and hosted by Pamela Hensley and presented by KnockAbout Media. Original music track “Attention to Details” by Tyler K. Rauman. You can listen and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, and iHeartRadio. Find out more at our website: www.howiwrotethisthepodcast.com

Hilary Leichter is the author of two novels and a lecturer at Columbia University. In this bonus content, listen to her reading from her latest, Terrace Stories. For an in-depth conversation with Hilary, see Episode 3.Follow on Instagram @HowIWroteThisthePodcast

Hilary Leichter’s debut novel Temporary, tells the story of a woman’s adventures in the gig economy,  something with which she has years of experience. Now a lecturer at Columbia University, she talks about the precariousness of temp work, the desire for permanence, and how time is an engine that drives fiction. In Terrace Story, her most recent novel, she returns to time in a story of three generations, expanding spaces, a fable, extinction, and the way we so often fear the wrong thing.  Hilary grew up in New Jersey and settled in New York, where she initially hoped to be an actress. Not until grad school did she realize she preferred creation to interpretation, and began publishing short stories in outlets like  n+1, The New York Times and The New Yorker. In 2020, her novel Temporary was longlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award and was a finalist for The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the NYPL Young Lions Fiction Prize. Terrace Story, her most recent novel, was named a best book of 2023 by Time Magazine, The New Yorker, and the LA Times. Just doors away from the apartment where she lived while writing Terrace Story, Hilary joined Pamela in the Brooklyn Podcasting Studio for this conversation.Novels on Hilary’s time travel syllabus include:The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel SparksKindred by Octavia ButlerThey Will Drown in Their Mother’s Tears by Johannes AnyuruThe Throwback Special by Chris BachelderHow I Wrote This is created and hosted by Pamela Hensley and presented by KnockAbout Media. Original music track “Attention to Details” by Tyler K. Rauman. You can listen and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, and iHeartRadio. Find out more at our website: www.howiwrotethisthepodcast.com

Daniel Allen Cox is the author of five books. In this bonus content, listen to him reading from his memoir, I Felt the End Before It Came For an in-depth conversation with Daniel, see Episode 2.Follow on Instagram @HowIWroteThisthePodcast

Since 2008, Daniel Allen Cox has published four novels and a memoir-in-essays. He was a finalist for the 2023 Grand Prix du livre de Montréal for his memoir, I Felt It Before the End Came: Memoirs of a Queer ex-Jehovah’s Witness, a nominee for a National Magazine Award for his essay “You Can’t Blame Movers for Everything Broken”, and a contributor to both the Best American Essays and Best Canadian Essays anthologies.   Raised as a Jehovah’s Witness, Daniel describes the religion as a cult for its use of coercive control and shunning, and for denying him the right to live as a queer man. His observations are adeptly woven into Shuck (2008), shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award and the ReLit Award; Krakow Melt (2010), shortlisted for the Lambda and ReLit awards as well as the American Library Association Over the Rainbow List; Basement of Wolves (2012) and Mouthquake (2015). From Montreal to Brooklyn to Krakow and back, Daniel finds his way among artistic and activist communities. In I Felt It Before The End Came, he steps away from fiction to tell his personal story. Listen now to hear this episode featuring Daniel Allen Cox. Follow us on Instagram @howiwrotethisthepodcast. Find out more at our website: www.howiwrotethisthepodcast.comHow I Wrote This is created and hosted by Pamela Hensley and presented by KnockAbout Media. You can listen and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, and iHeartRadio. Original music track “Attention to Details” by Tyler K. Rauman.

Jennifer Egan is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of seven books. In this bonus content, listen to her reading from her latest novel, The Candy House. For an in-depth conversation with Jennifer, see Episode 1.Follow on Instagram @HowIWroteThisthePodcast

Jennifer Egan is the Pulitzer Prize winning novelist of A Visit from the Goon Squad and the author of six other books as well as many nonfiction articles including a year-long series about homelessness in New York. Her 2017 novel, Manhattan Beach was awarded the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction while her latest, The Candy House, was named one of the New York Times’s 10 Best Books of 2022 and one of President Obama’s favourite reads that year. Growing up in San Francisco, Jenny moved to New York after completing her MA at Cambridge in the UK. She began writing while working several jobs and attending a workshop hosted by the poet Philip Schulz, where participants read their work aloud and she developed the habit she practises to this day. In 1996, Jenny was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship and in 2012 won the Pulitzer Prize. She served as President of PEN America from 2018-2021. She met me at the Brooklyn studio for this conversation. Follow on Instagram @HowIWroteThisthePodcastPromotional support from the Quebec Writers’ Federation

An introduction to Season 2 of the literary podcast about authors, their books, and the story behind their stories. This season takes place in Berlin.Follow on Instagram @HowIWroteThisthePodcastPromotional support from the Quebec Writers’ Federation

Sheana Lambert has published two collections of short stories, The Falling Woman and Oh, my darling and two novels, RadianceandPetra and been nominated for literary prizes including  the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, the Danuta Gleed Award, and the Frank O'Connor Award for the Short Story. A Canadian with German heritage, she talks about echoes from the past and how the artistic legacy of her great-grandfather, grandfather, mother - and aunt, an 80-year-old burlesque dancer who's been inducted into the Las Vegas Burlesque Hall of Fame - has left its mark on her.While an activist in the Canadian Peace Movement in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Shaena met Petra Kelly, the charismatic leader of the Green Party in West Germany, and Petra’s lover, Gert Bastien, who accompanied her. After the shock of her death, Petra became the subject of Sheana’s second novel.Off the Record, edited by John Metcalf, is the most recent collection of essays and short stories where you can find Shaena’s writing.  Listen to our conversation now.How I Wrote This is hosted by Pamela Hensley and presented by KnockAbout Media.  Original music track “Attention to Details” by Tyler K. RaumanFind out more at our website: www.howiwrotethisthepodcast.comFollow us on Instagram @howiwrotethisthepodcast

Wiebke von Carolsfeld grew up in Berlin, studied book binding in Cologne, and apprenticed at the publisher Kiepenheuer & Witch shortly after they’d acquired the rights to The Satanic Verses. When she emigrated to Toronto, for language reasons, she shifted her aspirations to film. Her first project resulted in a nomination for Best Editing at the Genies for the film Eisenstein.  Wiebke is one of only a handful of women in Canada who has directed three or more feature films. In 2002, she directed Marion Bridge, which starred Molly Parker and won Best First Canadian Feature at TIFF. She went on to direct Stay with Taylor Shilling and Aidan Quinn and The Saver, which won her a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2016 at the Canadian Screen Awards. The novel Claremont is Wiebke’s first book and it’s been optioned for a limited series on TV. She is currently at work on her next novel as well as the development of her next film, a thriller called Someone’s Daughter.Listen to our conversation now.How I Wrote This is presented by KnockAbout Media. Listen and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, and iHeartRadio.Find out more at our website: www.howiwrotethisthepodcast.com

Behzad Karim Khani is an author whose explosive debut novel Hund, Wulf, Schakal (Dog, Wolf, Jackal) tells a story of violence on the streets of Berlin, and the lives of two immigrant brothers from Iran. It’s a book that elicited rave reviews such as this one in the Suddeutschezeitung: “Sentences you’d want to frame…simply a great work of literature.”Behzad was a boy in Tehran when the Iran / Iraq war ended. With his family, he left and settled in Germany where his ethnicity marked him as an outsider. He grew up fast, fell in with gangs, and nearly went to prison for trafficking drugs. Things got better only when he moved to Berlin, got a job at a famous techno club, and became manager of the upscale restaurant next door where they welcomed guests like Quinten Tarantino and Karl Langerfeld. Three years later he opened a bar of his own and began trying to write movie scripts. Eventually one the scripts turned into a novel and in 2022 he published Hund, Wolf, Schakal and won a nomination for the Ingeborg Bachmann Award. In February, the book, which was adapted for the stage, premiered at the Maxim Gorki Theatre. Behzad’s recommended reads:Heinrich BöllPeter WeissChristian KrachtHow I Wrote This is presented by KnockAbout Media. You can listen and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, and iHeartRadio.Find out more at our website: www.howiwrotethisthepodcast.com

Jenny Erpenbeck is one of Germany’s most celebrated authors. She’s written four novels that have been translated into English, a memoir, several short stories, plays, and a few librettos, including the one she finished just before she spoke.Jenny writes about growing up in East Berlin and how her experience of the German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany) shaped her worldview. Her novel, The End of Days won the Hans Fallada Prize and the International Foreign Fiction Prize while Go, Went, Gone, which prompted the critic James Wood to predict that she would one day win the Nobel Prize, won the Thomas Mann Prize and was longlisted for the Man Booker International. Her latest novel, Kairos, is about a love affair that crumbles while the East itself falls apart.Listen to our conversation now.How I Wrote This is presented by KnockAbout Media. Listen and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, and iHeartRadio.Find out more at our website: www.howiwrotethisthepodcast.com

Andrea Wulf talks about gardens as windows into the politics, culture and science of a nation, why Alexander von Humboldt’s name belongs alongside Darwin, Einstein, and Newton; and how a group of young Germans in the small town of Jena introduced Romanticism and changed the world as we know it.Andrea is an historian who was born in India, grew up in Germany, and now lives in the UK. In London, where - for the first time - she was exposed to the English obsession with gardening, her response was to co-write a book about it. Twenty years later, she’d tackled nature, astronomy, exploration, and 18th century philosophy.Her books include This Other Eden, The Brother Gardeners, Chasing Venus, Founding Gardeners, The Invention of Nature, and Magnificent Rebels. She is a winner of the Costa Biography Award, the Royal Society Science Book Award, and many other international awards. Andrea’s recommended reads:Juli ZehStefan ZweigHow I Wrote This is presented by KnockAbout Media. Listen and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, and iHeartRadio.Find out more at our website: www.howiwrotethisthepodcast.com

Jonathan Garfinkel (http://jonathan-garfinkel.com/) is a Canadian playwright, poet, essayist and novelist who got his start in theatre in Georgia in the early 2000s. His plays include The Trials of John Demjanjuk: A Holocaust Cabaret, the controversial show about a man accused of being Ivan the Terrible; House of Many Tongues, which won him an nomination for a Governor Generals’ award, about the residents of a house in Gaza shared by an Israeli and a Palestinian; and Cockroach, the play adapted from the novel by Rawi Hage. Jonathan has also published essays, poetry, a memoir, and in 2023, his debut novel, In a Land Without Dogs the Cats Learn to Bark.

Ivana Sajko is a Croatian artist whose work crosses from literature to dance, theatre to music and experimental performance. Despite coming of age during Croatia’s War of Independence, she rejected the impulse to write about it. Later, she realized it had nevertheless affected her and influenced everything she writes.Ivana moved to Berlin in 2016 where she continued to write plays, teach, and perform on stage. She finished Love Novel, which was translated into English and published in Canada in February 2024 and tells the story of a young couple trapped in the economic realities of late capitalism. An artist and a scholar who can’t provide for themselves sink further into desperation as the electricity is cut off, the neighbours come knocking, and the baby won’t stop crying. Love Novel won the HKW Literaturpreis in German and was shortlisted for the 2023 Dublin Literary Award in English.

Julia Franck was born in 1970 in East Berlin in the former GDR (German Democratic Republic), a part of Germany that, at the time, was behind the Iron Curtain. As a child, she fled with her mother to the West and lived for nine months in a refugee camp, where they were interrogated by agents of the secret police. Five years later, when she was just thirteen, she left her mother’s home and returned to Berlin, this time living on the Western side with friends. Julia is the daughter of an actress and granddaughter of a sculptor whose family history has provided the backdrop for some of her most powerful books. The Blind Side of the Heart (called the Blindness of the Heart in the US), tells the story of a woman who abandons her son on a railway platform in 1945 after surviving the horrors of the Second World War. It was a story based on her own father’s childhood, a man she only met at the age of fourteen. The novel won the German Book Prize, the highest honour for literature in Germany, and went on to sell over a million copies. Two more of her books have been translated into English: Back to Back, based on her uncle’s life at the time when the Berlin Wall was being built; and West, which was adapted for the screen.Julia’s recommended reads:Herta Müller Judith HermannKatja OskampDana VowinckelHow I Wrote This is presented by KnockAbout Media. Listen and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, and iHeartRadio.Find out more at our website: www.howiwrotethisthepodcast.com