Writers at Work

With me today on Writers at Work is Addie E. Citchens, author of the new novel DOMINION, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. A family drama set in Dominion, Mississippi, it unfolds through the eyes of two women, Priscilla, wife of an abusive and well-to-do preacher and mother to five talented sons, and Diamond, girlfriend to Wonder Boy, the youngest of those five young men. Though warm and witty, the story is infused with a sense of dread on every page. It is Addie E. Citchens’ debut novel. Addie's work has appeared in the New Yorker, the Paris Review, and Oxford America's Best of the South, among other publications. Her writing about the blues and its history appeared in Mississippi Folklife and on the Mississippi Arts Hour. Earlier this year, her short story “That Girl” won the O. Henry Prize. It was originally published in the New Yorker and can be found on that magazine's website. Calling it, “absolutely outstanding,” of DOMINION Roxane Gay said, “it captures church, community, the South, and the gulf between the haves and have-nots with precision.” As a stranger to Priscilla and Diamond's world, I found DOMINION both captivating and an education, and a wonderful read.

My guest on this episode of Writers at Work is Steven C. Smith, author of HITCHCOCK AND HERRMANN: THE FRIENDSHIP & FILM SCORES THAT CHANGED CINEMA. Before we proceed, a little story. Back in 2011, I proposed to the Wall Street Journal a story on the centennial of the birth of Bernard Herrmann. Securing the assignment, I traveled to the University of Southern California in Santa Barbara to examine their Herrmann archives that includes almost all of his film scores, all written in Herrmann's own hand. I assumed an archivist would stay with me and help me see how Herrmann composed and orchestrated his great works. But the archivist left me alone among pages and pages of scores. I was lost. I come to music by rock and folk. My sight reading is limited to top line melodies and maybe the baseline. Herrmann wrote for a full orchestra or unusual combination of instruments. In one score, I recall, there were parts for seven organs to be played simultaneously. To help me understand what I had seen, I made two phone calls. One to John Williams, the composer and conductor, who earlier in his career played piano on Herrmann's sessions. The other was to Steven C. Smith, today's guest and author of A HEART AT FIRE’S CENTER: THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF BERNARD HERRMANN, an extraordinary biography I had read years earlier. Steven was very patient when he explained to me what Herrmann had achieved with his masterworks. For his first Herrmann book, Steven C. Smith received the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award. Variety said that Herrmann book was responsible for, "A huge uptick of interest in that once neglected now practically deified film composer." Steven also produced some 200 documentaries about film and music, and is a four-time Emmy nominee.

With me today on Writers at Work is Catherine Conybeare, author and academic, who is widely acknowledged as an authority on Augustine of Hippo, known to many as St. Augustine. Katharine's new book is AUGUSTINE THE AFRICAN, which considers him in the context of his African heritage. He was born in Thagaste, a city in present-day Algeria in North Africa. After about five years in Milan and Rome, agitated years according to the author, and following the death of his mother and son, he returned to the family home and in his mid-30s was ordained in Hippo, also in present-day Algeria. That remained his base until his death at age 75. Catherine is the Lesley Clark Professor in the Humanities, and professor of Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies at Bryn Mawr. Her research centers on late antiquity, especially the writings of St. Augustine. She's the author of four previous books, including THE IRRATIONAL AUGUSTINE, and more than 80 articles and reviews. As a lay reader, I found AUGUSTINE THE AFRICAN to be a marvel. One of the reasons is the quality of the prose. Though it is fortified with evidence that supports her conclusions, the story is never overburdened with gratuitous detail and it flows beautifully. What comes across is her delight in having discovered a new way to look at a man she describes as one of the most influential writers and thinkers in the history of humankind.

With me on this episode of Writers at Work is writer, director, producer and actor Anu Valia, whose debut feature film, WE STRANGERS, is now streaming, very likely on your favorite service. Anu has already accumulated a resume bursting with achievement. Her first mainstream success was LUCIA, BEFORE AND AFTER, the short film she wrote and directed that won the 2017 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Jury Award. She directed episodes of TV shows including NEVER HAVE I EVER, MIXED-ISH, LOVE LIFE, A.P. BIO, AND JUST LIKE THAT, THE BIG DOOR PRIZE, and THE AFTERPARTY. She became part of the Marvel cinematic universe as director of SHE-HULK: ATTORNEY AT LAW, shown on Disney+. Now we have WE STRANGERS. Let me read to you the Rotten Tomatoes review. "Quick-witted cleaner Rayelle takes a strange new job that spirals into the surreal when she claims she can speak to the dead. We Strangers is a darkly funny, sharp slice-of-life story about identity, power, and the quiet lines that divide us." Any writer-director would be pleased with such a review. Let's find out what it means to Anu Valia.

Joining me on this episode of Writers at Work is Charlie English, author of THE CIA BOOK CLUB. Its subtitle tells why I found, and I think you will find, Charlie's latest to be so fascinating: The Secret Mission to Win the Cold War with Forbidden Literature. From its headquarters in Manhattan, the CIA Book Club secretly sent millions of banned titles, pamphlets and other reading material into the East. By the 1980s, illicit literature was so pervasive in Poland that the state censorship machine was rendered all but useless. Soon the Iron Curtain fell. As Charlie confirms with his amazing tale, books really can set us free. Charlie is a former reporter and editor for the Guardian and a fellow of the Royal Geographic Society. He's the author of three nonfiction books that demonstrate an open-minded curiosity. He'll be speaking with us from London.

You may have heard that Thomas Perry, the best-selling mystery writer, died this week at age 78. I was immediately saddened by the news, not just for the passing of a skilled, dependable, and imaginative author, but for the loss of someone who had become a friend. Though Tom and I were members of the mystery community, I hadn't had the pleasure of getting to know him and his wife, Jo, also an acclaimed writer, until fairly recently. They went quickly to the top of my list of people I would seek at conferences for companionship and counsel. In this interview, recorded in February, I trust you'll get a sense of why I so admired Thomas Perry.  My guest on this episode of Writers at Work is author Thomas Perry, whose latest thriller is PRO BONO. Thomas had a long, exemplary career as a mystery and thriller writer. His debut, THE BUTCHER'S BOY, in 1983 won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel from the Mystery Writers of America. It was the first in a series in which three subsequent novels appeared three separate decades apart. His VANISHING ACT, featuring his recurring character Jane Whitefield, was named by Parade magazine as one of the 101 Best Mysteries of All Time. Tom was a PhD in literature, wrote and or produced for such TV shows as Star Trek, The Next Generation and Simon and Simon. He's enjoying well deserved attention these days, thanks to the FX series The Old Man, based on his 2017 novel of the same name. We of a certain vintage applaud Tom for creating a hearty protagonist who is AARP eligible but hardly in need of assistance. Since then, he's published eight more novels, including additions to the Butcher's Boy and Jane Whitefield series. Last year's HERO introduced readers to Justin Poole, a private security agent for Hollywood celebrities and the 1%. Booklist, Kirkus and Deadly Pleasures magazine called HERO the best thriller of the year. How lucky we would all be if we maintain such high standards across more than four decades and through 31 novels.

Before we begin, I want to tell you about an experience I had this week leading up to this Writers at Work interview. For the first time, I watched a movie as I was reading the short stories upon which it was based, not simultaneously, of course. I read the short stories in the evening, watched the film in the afternoon, read the short stories again, then watched the film one more time. The short stories, two in a collection of 12, and the film were written by the same author, Ben Shattuck, who is our guest today. THE HISTORY OF SOUND is the name of the collection and the film, and they share more than a title. I found Ben's interpretation of his prose to be uncanny, not just on plot points, but on its ambiance, its pacing, its color, and so on. I was deeply engaged in both, not quite hypnotized, but residing deeply within the words and images. Ben Shattuck is a writer and painter from coastal Massachusetts, a graduate and former teaching-writing fellow of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. His writing has appeared in the Harvard Review, The New Republic, the Paris Review Daily, and other publications. His paintings have been exhibited in galleries in New York, Boston, and Williamstown, Massachusetts, and the New Bedford Art Museum. His debut short story, “Edwin Chase of Nantucket,” was selected to appear in the anthology PEN AMERICA BEST DEBUT SHORT STORIES 2017. It also appears in THE HISTORY OF SOUND collection. Ben's first book, SIX WALKS, was published by Tin House in 2022. That memoir tracks the author's retracing of six walks taken by Henry David Thoreau. His second book, THE HISTORY OF SOUND: STORIES, was published by Viking in 2024. The film THE HISTORY OF SOUND opens in the US on September 12.

Joining me on this episode of Writers at Work is Susana M. Morris, author of the new POSITIVE OBSESSION: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF OCTAVIA E. BUTLER. For the uninitiated, Butler, who died suddenly in 2006 at age 58, was an American science fiction and speculative fiction writer who won the Hugo, Locus, and NEC Nebula awards for her work. In 1995, Butler became the first science fiction writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship. An Associate professor of Literature, Media and Communications at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Susana Morris is a black feminist scholar and a cultural critic whose writing has appeared in Cosmo, Ebony, and Gawker, among other publications. She is the author of several works including CLOSE KIN AND DISTANT RELATIVES: THE PARADOX OF RESPECTABILITY IN BLACK WOMEN'S LITERATURE. She received her Ph.D. from Emory University. In its review of POSITIVE OBSESSION, the New York Times wrote, “Morris creates a rounded portrait of a working writer whose unrelenting discipline was complicated by her self-doubts, her financial instability, and her obsession with the craft of writing. It's a portrayal that helps illuminate the real person behind the mythical figure of our imagination.” I say it is all that and more. I found POSITIVE OBSESSION to be a virtual tutorial on the writing life, filled with invaluable counsel from Susana Morris and her formidable subject on what is required to make a career writing the kind of books one wants to write, regardless of perceived obstacles. For that, I'm most grateful to Susana, and I'm glad to have a chance to tell her so.

With me today on Writers at Work is Chris Lang, writer, creator and executive producer of UNFORGOTTEN, the beloved British crime drama broadcast in the States on PBS Masterpiece. It's now in its sixth season. Chris began his career in TV as an actor, but fairly early on he wrote episodes of THE BILL, the long-running UK police procedural. In short order he wrote episodes of a number of TV series, including THE TUNNEL, the British-French adaptation of the Danish-Swedish crime series THE BRIDGE. Then he began a run of shows he created, leading to UNFORGOTTEN that launched in the UK in 2015. The series, which blends the reexamination of cold cases and an intimate gaze into the complicated lives of the investigating police officers, proved immediately popular. It has survived the departure of its star, Nicola Walker. Chris, who co-founded the production company TXTV, has had many other successes at home with popular series, some of which are available here to stream. His latest, I, JACK WRIGHT, is a family drama during comparisons to SUCCESSION. You can find it on BritBox. I hope he and you will forgive me when I suggest you visit Chris Lang's Wiki page. He's won and been nominated for too many awards to list here. The New Statesman says Lang is such a good writer, plot, dialogue, juicy subtext, he can do them all. And quite often I'll add.

I'm joined today on Writers at Work by Paul Muldoon, recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, the T.S. Eliot Prize, and the Irish Literature Prize for Poetry, among other acknowledgments. Some 30 collections of his poems have been published. Paul taught at Princeton and Oxford and served as poetry editor of the New Yorker. Of his poetry, Clair Wills, author of Reading Paul Muldoon, wrote, “Muldoon stands by the entrance or rabbit hole and seems to invite us inside.” Critics, she reported, agree that Muldoon's poetry is playful, tricksy, erudite, given to complex rhyming structures, full of references to seemingly unconnected objects and events, that it mucks around with cliche and is often frustratingly obscure. Undeniable, in other words. But today we won't be discussing Paul Muldoon's poetry. At least I don't think so. I contacted Paul to talk about Visible from Space, the new album by Paul Muldoon and Rogue Oliphant. Each song on Visible from Space marries Paul's lyrics with music and vocals by different members of Rogue Oliphant, a collective featuring Cait O'Riordan of the Pogues, David Mansfield of Bob Dylan's band, Warren Zanes of the Del Fuegos, among others. Produced by Tony Visconti, Visible from Space arrives on September 12th. Until then, you can find a few videos on YouTube. It isn't Paul's first venture into rock. He wrote lyrics for The Handsome Family and co-wrote the title track of Warren Zevon's album My Ride’s Here. Paul also edited THE LYRICS: 1956 TO THE PRESENT by Paul McCartney. He's been in bands for years, including Wayside Shrines, whose members Chris Harford and Ray Kubian contribute to Visible from Space.

My guest on this episode of Writers at Work is Denise Mina, the much admired and much honored writer from Scotland. Denise is best known for her crime novels. THE GOOD LIAR, available now, is her latest, but that is but a part of her impressive resume. Her first novel, GARNETHILL, was published in 1998 to spectacular reviews here in the States and. And leading to the Garnethill trilogy. Then came FIELD OF BLOOD, the first of Denise’s novels featuring journalist Patty Meehan. It led to a crime series broadcast on BBC. Established as a superior crime writer, Denise began to have her plays performed on radio and in theaters. Her short story, “Ida Tamson,” the tale of a grandmother trying to save her late daughter's child from her gangster's father, became her play of the same name. “Peter Manuel: Meet Me” reimagines the true story of a man who spent 11 hours carousing with a serial killer. She's written comedies and documentary for TV. One of the latter was the investigation of the life of Edgar Allan Poe. Denise adapted Stig Larson's Millennium trilogy for a series of graphic novels. All that while continuing to write more than a dozen novels of her own, set in different countries and different periods. She seems never to have shirked from a challenge. Denise was inducted into the Crime Writers' Association Hall of Fame.

With me on this episode of Writers at Work is writer and literary critic Heather Clark, whose latest is THE SCRAPBOOK, her fourth book and debut novel. Heather may be best known for RED COMET: THE SHORT LIFE AND BLAZING ART OF SYLVIA PLATH, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Prior to that, she published THE ULSTER RENAISSANCE: POETRY IN BELFAST 1962-1972 and THE GRIEF OF INFLUENCE: SYLVIA PLATH AND TED HUGHES. A recipient of a PhD from Oxford, Heather also published essays and criticisms in major media in the US and UK. THE SCRAPBOOK can be summarized as the story of an intense first love haunted by history and family memory, as it is on the dust jacket. I found it fascinating on several levels. Set in 1996, we indeed experience a tenuous love affair between two students, an American from Harvard and a visiting German, Anna. Anna, the American, follows Christoph to his home and he shows her his Germany, aware that her grandfather was among the GIs who witnessed the devastation at the Dachau concentration camp while his grandfather fought for the Wehrmacht, the Nazi armed forces. Thus we are treated to a subtly applied history lesson, one that deals with collective guilt and cultural divide even decades after the World War ended. What motivates Christoph and whether things will end well is a source of suspense as we accompany Anna venturing into worlds not her own.

With me today on Writers at Work is Adriana Trigiani, who has amid a remarkable career in the arts, primarily as a writer. Her current novel is THE VIEW FROM LAKE COMO, which she describes as a story of a woman who decides to build a life she can live in, and the house that goes along with it. The woman is an Italian-American from New Jersey. The house is in Carrera, Italy. And if you know anything about me and my work, you can pretty much guess that I love this novel. Adriana first drew notice as a playwright, then wrote for such TV programs as The Cosby Show. Her first screenplay, Three to Get Married, was produced in 1986. Almost 30 years later, she wrote and directed the major motion picture Big Stone Gap based on her novel of the same name. She adapted her novel Very Valentine for Lifetime and directed the feature film Then Came You. Adriana wrote and directed the award-winning documentary Queen of the Big Time, the story of her father's hometown of Rosetto, Pennsylvania. She hosts the podcast You Are What You Read and is the co-founder of the Origin Project, an in-school writing program in Appalachia that serves more than 1700 students in her home state of Virginia. As a bestselling novelist, Adriana may be best known for her Big Stone Gap series and also her Valentine trilogy. As I understand it, Adriana has published a novel in each of the past 20 years. Many of those books celebrate her Italian heritage and working women who are tireless in the pursuit of their ambitions. I should add here that Adriana is tireless in her commitment to her readers. I'm very eager to meet and converse with a writer after my own heart.

Joining me on this episode of Writers at Work is Tom Mead, whose latest novel, THE HOUSE AT DEVIL'S NECK, confirms he is a new master of the locked-room mystery. For the uninitiated, a locked-room mystery is a tale in which the crime in question is committed in circumstances under which it appears impossible for the perpetrator to enter the scene, commit the crime, and then leave undetected. Or at least that's what Wiki tells me. Typically, there's a supernatural element or the appearance of a supernatural element. The likes of John Dickson Carr, Agatha Christie, G.K. Chesterton, Arthur Conan Doyle and Edgar Allan Poe wrote locked-room mysteries in its golden age. More recently, Rachel Howzell Hall, Stieg Larsson, Adrian McKinty, and Ruth Ware, among others, have written well received locked-room tales. Perhaps it says more about me than the form itself, but frankly, I can never figure out how the crime is committed and by whom, and thus how to write a locked-room mystery is beyond me. THE HOUSE AT DEVIL'S NECK is Tom Mead's fourth novel featuring Joseph Spector, a retired magician and now an amateur investigator. The series is set in the late 1930s in and around London, and Tom fully exploits the atmosphere of the time and place. Nearby, and occasionally in opposition to Spector, is Inspector George Flint of Scotland Yard, a deliberate man unlikely to be swayed by anything other than facts. With a wink now and then, Tom taps into all the tropes and yet produces tales that drip with nostalgia, yet surprises and delights.

My guest on this episode of Writers at Work is Marie Rutkoski, whose latest novel, ORDINARY LOVE, is a bit of a departure for her. Marie may be best known for her books for children and young adults, beginning with the Kronos Chronicles, a trio of novels that blended fantasy and historical fiction. Then came the standalone THE SHADOW SOCIETY, a supernatural romance set in Chicago in an alternate universe, then followed by her popular Winners trilogy. Her next two books, THE MIDNIGHT LIE and THE HOLLOW HEART, are romantic fantasies with LGBTQ characters and strikingly handsome and enticing covers, which is neither here nor there, but they suit well tales of identity, class loyalty, and sexual yearning. In January 2022, Marie published her first book intended for adults: REAL EASY, a thriller set in the seedy strip club populated by women who are more than their bodies on display. Now she returns with ORDINARY LOVE. Set in the tony world of New York's Upper East Side, it is a story of love gone wrong and of love that may have gotten away. Having earned an MA and PhD at Harvard, Marie is a professor at Brooklyn College, where she teaches Shakespeare, Renaissance literature, and children's literature. Clearly, Marie follows a muse of her own and has enjoyed success doing so. Let's find out how she does what she does.

Joining me on this episode of Writers at Work is C. M. Kushins, author of COOLER THAN COOL: THE LIFE AND WORK OF ELMORE LEONARD, a biography of the master of American crime writing, a journalist whose work appeared in the Daily Beast, among other publications. Chad's previous works include biographies of Warren Zevon and Led Zeppelin's John Bonham. He left the world of rock for COOLER THAN COOL, the first in-depth biography of Elmore Leonard, who revealed his mastery of concision, forward motion and memorable dialogue in his 45 screenplay-friendly novels and countless short stories. My friend Charles Ardai, editor at Hard Case Crime, called Leonard the most influential crime writer of the last half-century. And that seems right. Chad interviewed Elmore Leonard's family and friends and had access to his files and planned memoirs and shares with us previously unpublished excerpts from Leonard's unfinished final novel. His deep dive into Leonard's formative stages, at least to my mind, cast Leonard in a new light. More than once, Chad revealed a bit of information about Leonard's background and motivations that made me think. Of course, that makes perfect sense, which means he encouraged me to see someone whose work I admired as if he were brand new to me. And what more can we ask for in a biography of a contemporary?

My guest today on Writers at Work is Dennis Lehane, an exceptional novelist and screenwriter whose body of work reveals the tender heart of his characters as they yearn, even as the world explodes around them. His novels and short fiction and the films adapted from them, MYSTIC RIVER, SHUTTER ISLAND, GONE, BABY GONE, and THE DROP among them, are now part of the American cultural and artistic landscape. In addition, he's written for, consulted on, or was involved in the production of episodes of such programs as THE WIRE, BOARDWALK EMPIRE, MR. MERCEDES, and now SMOKE, premiering on June 27 on Apple TV+. That, my friends, is as fine a resume as you'll find for a writer in our time. Before we proceed, I should tell you that Dennis and I shared an agent, and he invited me to contribute to his short story anthology, BOSTON NOIR. But my admiration for his work is unencumbered by anything other than my admiration for his work.

My guest on this episode of Writers at Work is Craig Thompson, author and graphic artist. His latest is the epic GINSENG ROOTS: A MEMOIR. Craig's first graphic novel, GOOD-BYE CHUNKY RICE, was published in 1999 and won high honors such as the Harvey and Ignatz Awards. That year he began his first masterwork, the 600-page BLANKETS, described as a memoir of first love and faith lost in rural Wisconsin. The Bloomsbury Review said it is a superb example of the art of cartooning, the blending of word and picture to achieve an effect that neither is capable of without the other. I disagree slightly, but okay. It won several awards and praise from the likes of Jules Pfeiffer, Alan Moore and Art Spiegelman. Now we have GINSENG ROOTS. It employs as its springboard the story of Craig's childhood, in which he and his siblings spent their summers harvesting ginseng. Ranging far in his tale, Craig conveys the history of agriculture In Wisconsin, the 300-year-old saga of the global Ginseng Trail, and the hardships faced and not always overcome by Ginseng farmers such as his parents and neighbors. Never far from the heart of Jensen ROOTS is his family story, informed by unforgiving labor, evangelical Christianity, and the conflicting need for home and escape as we meet the Thompsons as they are then and now. I found GINSENG ROOTS to be an astonishing work of storytelling, monumental in scope, yet never far from intimate. I don't think there was a page in which Craig didn't teach me about something I didn't know or made me rethink my opinions. I'm very eager to learn how he came to create a work I'll never forget.

Joining me on this episode of Writers at Work is Sarah Lampert, writer, executive producer and creative force behind Ginny and Georgia, the smash hit now in its third season on Netflix. Sarah is a bit of a miracle in today's media landscape. As I understand it, Sarah wrote the pilot during a writing class. This is her first program. I'll ask her to tell us how Ginny and Georgia came to be. I said smash hit a few seconds ago. How smash? In its second season launched in 2023, Ginny and Georgia was the most watched show on Netflix from January into June of that year; one episode achieved 162 million hours viewed and was in the top 10 list in 88 countries. But popularity is one thing and quality is another. For the uninitiated, Ginny and Georgia is the story of a family trying to find its place. Ginny is a 15-year-old who is whip smart and sensitive. Her younger brother Austin is a sweet magnet for bullies. And Georgia, who had Ginny at 15, is rebuilding a life after suffering abuse by men. Her assets are a quick wit, bottomless resolve and sexy charm. All three leads are abetted by a large cast of complex characters, most of whom are at least as imperfect as we all are and beset with problems worthy of a daytime soap opera. But Ginny and Georgia is much more than a soapy pastime, especially when we are with Ginny, who is experiencing high school life and what appears to be a social and sexual minefield. Sarah and the writers room keep several always believable, if incredible, plots moving forward. I found myself deeply engaged during several heartbreak scenes. And I should add, there's ample humor and murder in the mix.

Joining me on this episode of Writers at Work is Chris Pavone, author of THE DOORMAN. Described by the New York Times as a state of the city novel, a kaleidoscopic portrait of New York at a singularly strange moment, THE DOORMAN has drawn comparison to Tom Wolfe's THE BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES. Rightfully so, I'll add, as Chris displays a keen gift for ascetic satire but serves it without drawing attention to a flashy style. THE DOORMAN is Chris's sixth novel. Its predecessors include THE EXPATS, which won both the Edgar and Anthony Award, and the bestselling TWO NIGHTS IN LONDON. He's a veteran of the publishing and magazine industries, having worked as a copy editor, executive editor, deputy publisher and ghostwriter. As a journalist, his articles appeared in The Times and Salon, among other publications. Set in New York City, THE DOORMAN finds Chris on familiar terrain and new terrain. Familiar because he was raised here, new because he's known for his international thrillers with characters careening around Europe. As a longtime New Yorker, I found THE DOORMAN vivid and real, even when Chris placed me in situations I've yet to face, and entirely plausible. I'm happy to meet Chris and talk about his work and how he goes about it.