First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing

Best of 2024 - Kevin Barry

Kevin Barry is the author of the novels Night Boat to Tangier, which was longlisted for the Booker Prize, Beatlebone, and City of Bohane as well as three story collections including Dark Lies the Island. His stories and essays have appeared in the New Yorker, Granta and elsewhere. He also works as a playwright and screenwriter lives in County Sligo, Ireland.  His new novel is The Heart in Winter.We talked about the Irish in Butte, Montana, watching and writing westerns, Wuthering Heights, voice and character, Kevin’s writing process, comedy, and Annie Proulx. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

First Draft - Amina Gautier (Returns)

Amina Gautier is the author of four short story collections: At-Risk, Now We WillBe Happy, The Loss of All Lost Things, and The Best that We Can Do. Gautier is the recipient of the Blackwell Prize, the Chicago Public Library Foundation’s 21st Century Award, the International Latino Book Award, the Flannery O’Connor Award, and the Phillis Wheatley Book Award in Fiction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Best of 2024 - Kiley Reid

Kiley Reid is the author of Come and Get It and Such A Fun Age, which was a New York Times Best Seller and longlisted for the 2020 Booker Price. Her writing has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Playboy, The Guardian, and others. Reid is currently an assistant professor at the University of Michigan.We talked about religion and fiction, philosophy, acting, Buddhism, materialism, college age women, grace in fiction, what creative writing can and can’t do, not judging your fictional characters, and the background work she does that doesn’t make it into a novel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

First Draft - Simon Rich

Simon Rich has written for “Saturday Night Live,” Pixar and “The Simpsons.” He is the creator and showrunner of “Man Seeking Woman” (FXX) and “Miracle Workers” which he based on his books. His other collections include Spoiled Brats and Ant Farm. He is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker.  His new story collection is Glory Days.We talked about Ray Bradbury, the similarities between humor and science fiction, characters who are trying to reinvent themselves, humanizing characters who seem like they have no good qualities, the underdogs, writing for TV and sketch comedy versus fiction books, and family dynamics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Best of 2024 - Julia Alvarez

This is a selection for the Best of 2024 of First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing.Julia Alvarez has written novels including How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, In the Time of the Butterflies, ¡Yo!, In the Name of Salomé, Saving the World, Afterlife, collections of poems including Homecoming, The Other Side/ El Otro Lado, The Woman I Kept to Myself, nonfiction works including Something to Declare, Once Upon A Quinceañera, and A Wedding in Haiti, and numerous books for young readers including the Tía Lola Stories series, Before We Were Free, finding miracles, Return to Sender and Where Do They Go? Her new novel is The Cemetery of Untold Stories.  In 2013, she received the National Medal of Arts from President Obama.We talked about Julia's childhood, her parents reaction to her fiction, telling stories, aging, creativity, the stories we can pass on, and writing craft. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices