Episode #131: Erin Entrada Kelly, author of LALANI AND THE DISTANT SEA

 

Erin Entrada Kelly. Photo by Laurence Kesterson.

New York Times–bestselling author Erin Entrada Kelly was awarded the Newbery Medal for Hello, Universe.  Her debut novel, Blackbird Fly, was a Kirkus Best Book, a School Library Journal Best Book, an ALSC Notable Book, and an Asian/Pacific American Literature Honor Book. She is also the author of The Land of Forgotten Girls, winner of the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and You Go First, a New York Times bestseller, Spring 2018 Indie Next Pick, Kirkus Reviews Best Book, and School Library Journal Best Book.  Her book, Lalani and the Distant Sea, was released in September 2019.  She grew up in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and now lives in Delaware. http://www.erinentradakelly.com

 

Rachelle Cruz with Erin Entrada Kelly

 

Episode #128: Victor LaValle, writer and co-editor of A PEOPLE’S FUTURE OF THE UNITED STATES

Victor LaValle

Victor LaValle is the author of the short story collection Slapboxing with Jesus, four novels, The Ecstatic, Big Machine, The Devil in Silver, and The Changeling and two novellas, Lucretia and the Kroons and The Ballad of Black Tom. He is also the creator and writer of a comic book Victor LaValle’s DESTROYER.

He has been the recipient of numerous awards including a Whiting Writers’ Award, a United States Artists Ford Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Shirley Jackson Award, an American Book Award, and the key to Southeast Queens.

He was raised in Queens, New York. He now lives in Washington Heights with his wife and kids. He teaches at Columbia University.

He can be kind of hard to reach, but he still loves you.

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Thank you to our sponsor, Libro.FM!  Support your favorite independent bookstore and purchase your audiobooks from Libro.FM.  If you use the code WRITINGHOUR, you’ll get three audiobooks for the price of a one-month, $14.99 membership.

Episode #122: Lilliam Rivera, author of THE EDUCATION OF MARGOT SANCHEZ

Episode #122: Lilliam Rivera, author of THE EDUCATION OF MARGOT SANCHEZ!

Lilliam Rivera is an award-winning writer and author of The Education of Margot Sanchez, a contemporary young adult novel forthcoming from Simon & Schuster on February 21, 2017.

She is a 2016 Pushcart Prize winner and a 2015 Clarion alumni with a Leonard Pung Memorial Scholarship. She has been awarded fellowships from PEN Center USA, A Room Of Her Own Foundation, and received a grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation. Her short story “Death Defiant Bomba” received honorable mention in Bellevue Literary Review’s 2014 Goldenberg Prize for Fiction, selected by author Nathan Englander. Lilliam was also a finalist for AWP’s 2014 WC&C Scholarship Competition.

Lilliam’s work has appeared in Tin House, Tahoma Literary Review, Los Angeles Times, Latina, USA Today, Cosmo for Latinas, Sundog Lit, Midnight Breakfast, Bellevue Literary Review, The Rumpus.net, and Los Angeles Review of Books.

She hosts a monthly literary radio show, Literary Soundtrack, on RadioSombra.org. Past guests have included Laila Lalami, Victor LaValle, Matt Johnson, Sonia Manzano, Azar Nafisi, among others. She’s also moderated panels for the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, PEN Center USA and more.

Lilliam is represented by Eddie Schneider of JABberwocky Literary Agency. She lives in Los Angeles.

TBJ at AWP in Washington D.C.!

We took the show on the road to AWP (Associated Writing Programs) Conference in D.C.!  Check out our flash episodes (or flashisodes) here.

No Walls AWP

Interviews with Rio Cortez, Janice Sapigao, Joseph Legaspi, Esteban Rodriguez, Clem Heard, Dolapo Demuren live at the conference.

Episode #121: Jade Chang, author of THE WANGS VS. THE WORLD

Debut novelist Jade Chang is the author of The Wangs vs. the World, out on October 4th from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

She has worked as an arts and culture journalist and editor for publications like the BBC, Metropolis, Glamour, and The Los Angeles Times Magazine. She was recently an editor at Goodreads. Her first paying job after college was as a researcher for the J. Peterman catalog. (Yes, where Elaine worked on Seinfeld—it’s real!)

Jade is the recipient of a Sundance Arts Journalist fellowship, the AIGA/Winterhouse Design Criticism Award, and a Squaw Valley Writers Workshop scholarship. She lives in Los Angeles.