Writers at the Well

14 Episodes

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Alice Elliott Dark on the Inner Other: What if the Story is Seeking You?

2026-10-1401:00:40

Thirty years after it first appeared in The New Yorker, Alice Elliott Dark's story "In the Gloaming" has been published as a standalone book. In this conversation, Alice takes us back to the strange visitational experience of writing it. She talks about “the internal other,” where stories come from, and how she listens for them. She shares her 7-minute writing practice, her sunrise ritual, and her unusual perspective on grief. We also get a preview of Wherever You Are, her forthcoming novel w...

Ayad Akhtar on The Radiance: What If the Sentence Knows More than the Writer?

2026-09-2959:17

Ayad Akhtar, Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright and novelist, author of American Dervish and Homeland Elegies, joins host Tess Callahan to talk about his new novel, The Radiance. The book follows a writer (also named Ayad) who wakes from a hit-and-run accident into an unbidden state of heightened perception that unfolds over eight months as he navigates an academic scandal in a politically divided town. Ayad talks about writing as “melding” with a register of experience rather than execu...

Hallie Shepherd on Writing a Gothic Thriller with a Screenwriter's Intincts and a Poet's Heart

2026-09-2201:05:05

Novelist Tess Callahan interviews screenwriter, actress, and producer Hallie Shepherd about her debut novel Call Off the Dark, just out from HarperCollins. Shepherd’s dramatic and cinematic instincts are evident in this genre-bending gothic thriller/love story about a grieving young widow who reinvents herself as a tradwife in the dense woods of the Pacific Northwest. The novel is being adapted for TV by Warner Bros. and Berlanti Productions. Shepherd is co-owner of Fireshoe Productions...

Andrew Holecek on the Power of Darkness to Unleash Creativity

2026-05-1801:32:55

Dr. Andrew Holecek discusses Dark Retreat—a Buddhist practice of spending extended periods in complete darkness—and its transformative effects on creativity, healing, and spiritual insight. Dark Retreat is “big medicine” not to be undertaken lightly. Like any retreat, its power relies on its integration. His new book is: Total Eclipse of the Mind: Unleashing the Power of Darkness for Creativity, Healing, and Transformation Dr. Holecek is an interdisciplinary scholar-practitioner in Tibe...

George Saunders on Writing with Fierceness and Compassion

2026-01-2750:49

Novelist Tess Callahan sits down with George Saunders to discuss his new novel Vigil. Saunders reflects on writing morally complex characters, the balance between empathy and fierceness, and the challenges of inhabiting the consciousness of a character who is in his words "a real stinker." He discusses how revision, attention, and trust in the reader shape his work. George Saunders is the author of thirteen books, including the novel Lincoln in the Bardo, which won the Man Booker Prize,...

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