Novelist Scott Spencer talks with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett on Writers on Writing

Novelist Scott Spencer, author of Endless Love, Willing, Man in the Woods, A Ship Made of Paper, and more, was my guest for the entire hour.  I've loved his work for so long so it was a major treat to talk with him.

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 (Broadcast date: Sept. 24, 2014)

Rebecca Makkai and Stuart Rojstaczer

Rebecca Makkai, author of The Hundred-Year House, talks with Nicole Nelson about telling a story backwards, writing humor, and the Google problem for fiction. We also talked about her Ploughshares blog, where she covers everything from an alternative MFA program she envisions and why it's prudent to steer clear of movie quotes and song lyrics in fiction. Stuart Rojstaczer, author of The Mathematician's Shiva, talks about balancing tragedy with comedy, the similarities between writing an academic paper and writing a novel, and how the third time, novel-writingwise, can be the charm.

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(Broadcast date: September 17, 2014)

Elinor Lipman, novelist and essayist.

Elinor Lipman, the author of the novel, The View from Penthouse B, and the essay collection, I Can't Complain, spent an hour on the show talking about her work and writing and so much else with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett.

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(Broadcast date: May 15, 2012)

Novelist Bret Anthony Johnston

Bret Anthony Johnston, author of Remember Me Like This (Random House, 2014) joins Barbara for an hour of literary talk about his new novel, how it began, revising, and much more.

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(Broadcast date: Aug. 20, 2014)

Alex Tizon and Carl Phillips

Alex Tizon, the author of Big Little Man: In Search of My Asian Self, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. He joins Nicole Nelson for a conversation about stereotypes in fiction and other art, journaling, and writing about identity. Then Carl Phillips, the author of The Art of Daring: Risk, Restlessness, Imagination and a distinguished poet with awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, The Pushcart Prize, and the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Male Poetry, talks about intentional and unintentional daring, life as a form of revision, and why we read poetry. 

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(Broadcast date: August 13, 2014)