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Writers Who Read

Author: Gary Alan McBride

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Gary Alan McBride founded the Boulder, Colorado-based Writers Who Read novel study group in May of 2018. Since then he and other local writers have been analyzing 10 novels per year within 12-18 months of their publication. Gary is also the author of the WwR reference guide, Literary Forensics: How Reading Can Make You a Better Writer, available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook in bookstores and at online retailers worldwide. More information here: https://LiteraryForensicsBook.com.


WwR is focused 100% on today's fiction, mostly in advance of academic scholarship, so we live on the cutting edge of contemporary analysis. And that's how we like it. Our goal is to read like a writer and not wait for someone else to tell us what to think. That means we read with intent--to become better at noticing what the author is doing to manage our emotions and manipulate our point of view. And so it doesn't matter whether what we read is critically acclaimed or academically vetted, because we can learn the same lessons from bad writing as from highly polished prose. We use our own reactions to the text to discover where to dig, and we use Literary Forensics techniques to sift through the layers. Our goal is to uncover the author's intent and to identify the tools they used to create their story so we can use them in our own writing.


On our monthly podcast Gary is joined by Whitney Pinion, Mira Landry, and sometimes others guest readers. We discuss our own textual discoveries as well as insights gleaned from our group discussion, because as much as we can learn on our own, we can learn so much more about how to read and write when we listen to others' viewpoints.


And that's where you come in, dear listener. We invite you to join us each month, 10 months a year, for a new episode when we discuss the latest literary techniques and publishing trends so that you can try out these techniques for yourself and maybe add your voice to ours.


We are Writers Who Read.

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68 Episodes
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81: King of Ashes - S. A. Cosby

81: King of Ashes - S. A. Cosby

2026-08-2341:53

Mira Landry, Risë Keller, and Gary McBride talk about King of Ashes by S. A. Cosby, which is Writers Who Read book number 81. Discussion slides for this novel and all novels discussed are available at WritersWhoRead.com. You can learn more about Literary Forensics here, and find the book at bookstores everywhere.In every episode we analyze and discuss one novel that has been published within the past 18-24 months. We do this because we are writers who read with intent–we read to study content and form and to uncover techniques that we can apply to our own writing. We read like writers, turning our favorite authors into our writing teachers.We do this through Literary Forensics, a set of tools that allow us to look beyond the surface of plot points, down into the tapestry of themes, contexts, and symbols that hold the very intentions of the author.We uncover why they wrote this novel and how they did it.If you'd like to join our LIVE! meetings in person, find upcoming novel titles and event registration information here and be sure to sign up for our monthly newsletter.Writers Who Read has been meeting in Boulder, Colorado, since 2018, and we are affiliated with the Boulder Writers Alliance. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Up Next: King of Ashes - S. A. Cosby

Up Next: King of Ashes - S. A. Cosby

2026-08-0902:37

Mira, Risë, and Gary analyze another recently-published novel on the next episode of Writers Who Read. Next up: King of Ashes by S. A. Cosby.The Atlanta-based wealthy investment manager Roman Carruthers thinks he knows all about gangstas through his intimate connection with rap recording artists. Roman is a fixer, and he's used to solving any problem his clients present. Unfortunately, when his father is almost killed back home in Jefferson Run, VA, Roman discovers that his magic has no effect on the actual gangs who threaten his brother Dante and his family's crematory business. Should Roman fight fire with fire? And where would that lead? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
80: Atmosphere - Taylor Jenkins Reid

80: Atmosphere - Taylor Jenkins Reid

2026-07-2646:57

Whitney Pinion, Chelsea Pennington, and Gary McBride talk about Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid, which is Writers Who Read book number 80. Discussion slides for this novel and all novels discussed are available at WritersWhoRead.com. You can learn more about Literary Forensics here, and find the book at bookstores everywhere.In every episode we analyze and discuss one novel that has been published within the past 18-24 months. We do this because we are writers who read with intent–we read to study content and form and to uncover techniques that we can apply to our own writing. We read like writers, turning our favorite authors into our writing teachers.We do this through Literary Forensics, a set of tools that allow us to look beyond the surface of plot points, down into the tapestry of themes, contexts, and symbols that hold the very intentions of the author.We uncover why they wrote this novel and how they did it.If you'd like to join our LIVE! meetings in person, find upcoming novel titles and event registration information here and be sure to sign up for our monthly newsletter.Writers Who Read has been meeting in Boulder, Colorado, since 2018, and we are affiliated with the Boulder Writers Alliance. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Up Next: Atmosphere - Taylor Jenkins Reid

Up Next: Atmosphere - Taylor Jenkins Reid

2026-07-1202:54

Whitney, Chelsea, and Gary analyze another recently-published novel on the next episode of Writers Who Read. Next up: Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid.Reid writes novels about the “type of woman who I want to talk about, a woman who has naked ambition.” Atmosphere features Joan, an aspiring astronaut in the early 1980s, desperate to get into space, desperate to be one of the guys, who hides a secret she knows will get her kicked out of NASA's budding space shuttle program. We first meet Joan in her career as the steadying voice at mission control, attempting to guide the surviving crew of a harrowing spaceflight safely home. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
79: The Director - Daniel Kehlmann

79: The Director - Daniel Kehlmann

2026-06-2843:51

Whitney Pinion, Risë Keller, and Gary McBride talk about The Director by Daniel Kehlmann, translated from the German by Ross Benjamin in 2025, which is Writers Who Read book number 79. Discussion slides for this novel and all novels discussed are available at WritersWhoRead.com. You can learn more about Literary Forensics here, and find the book at bookstores everywhere.In every episode we analyze and discuss one novel that has been published within the past 18-24 months. We do this because we are writers who read with intent–we read to study content and form and to uncover techniques that we can apply to our own writing. We read like writers, turning our favorite authors into our writing teachers.We do this through Literary Forensics, a set of tools that allow us to look beyond the surface of plot points, down into the tapestry of themes, contexts, and symbols that hold the very intentions of the author.We uncover why they wrote this novel and how they did it.If you'd like to join our LIVE! meetings in person, find upcoming novel titles and event registration information here and be sure to sign up for our monthly newsletter.Writers Who Read has been meeting in Boulder, Colorado, since 2018, and we are affiliated with the Boulder Writers Alliance. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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