Authors & Audiences

To mark Black History Month, I talk this week to Lisa Stringfellow, whose debut middle-grade fantasy novel, A Comb of Wishes, was published last February by HarperCollins/Quill Tree Books. The paperback came out this month, and it tells the story of a 12 year old Black girl as she deals with loss and longing.
A Comb of Wishes won Kweli Journal’s inaugural Color of Children’s Literature Manuscript Award in 2019, has received starred reviews, and just this week, Lisa learned that she is a finalist in the Superior Achievement in a Middle Grade Novel category of the Bram Stoker Awards 2022, voted on by members of the Horror Writers Association.

Lisa also teaches English at a middle school in Boston, and so this episode marks the first of three shows in which we will look at the art and science behind Author School visits – how to get them, how to do them brilliantly, and hopefully, how to make some money from them. Look out for episodes #24 and #25 for more on school visits.

To find out more about Lisa, visit her website, or follow her on Instagram or Twitter.
To buy Lisa's debut MG novel, A Comb of Wishes, please consider buying it from her favorite indie bookstore, Brookline Booksmith. Or, to support other indie bookstores across the country, as well as this podcast through an affiliate link, please buy it from Bookshop.org.

Laurel also mentioned

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Louise Marburg is the author of three short story collections – The Truth About Me, No Diving Allowed and her latest one, You have reached your Destination, which came out in November. Her stories have also been published in any number of highly respected literary journals and she’s won awards for them too. Louise’s new collection captures turning points in the lives of twelve women, and Louise invites us to face ourselves and our own life journeys with sympathy, humor, and courage.
Louise originally trained as a designer at the Kansas City Art Institute, but then discovered that she wanted to write instead, and went on to get an MFA in Fiction from Columbia University.
During our discussion, Louise mentioned her recent article for The Daily Beast, entitled Are They Really Your Friends if They Don't Read Your Work? She also praised Eleanor Lipman's novel Ms. Demeanor, and she recommended following Amy Sedaris on Instagram.
She will be presenting her new collection in Houston, TX, on Saturday, January 14th at an event at Brazos Bookstore where she will be in discussion with author, Chris Cander.

To find out more about Louise, visit her website, or follow her on Instagram.
To buy her latest book, You have reached your destination, or any of her other books, please consider buying it from from Bookshop.org - as an affiliate, Authors & Audiences will receive a small fee from any purchase using this link, which will go towards the costs of keeping the podcast running. Many thanks.

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Tiffany D. Jackson is the NYT Bestselling, award-winning author of YA novels Monday’s Not Coming, Allegedly, Let Me Hear A Rhyme, Grown, White Smoke, Santa in The City, The Weight of Blood, and co-author of Blackout. A Coretta Scott King — John Steptoe New Talent Award-winner and the NAACP Image Award-nominee, she received her bachelor of arts in film from Howard University and has over a decade in TV/Film experience. The Brooklyn native is currently splitting her time between the borough she loves and the south, most likely multitasking.
In this Bonus episode featuring the A&A Q&A, Tiffany talks about the first book she ever bought herself (yes, it was a horror story), her first audiobooks, and her preference for cupcakes.
To find out more about Tiffany, visit her website, or follow her on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or Twitter.
To buy her latest book, THE WEIGHT OF BLOOD, or any of her other books, please consider buying it from from Kindred Stories, the Black-owned bookstore which organized the tour event in Houston where Tiffany and I met up again for the first time since our debut year, or from any black-owned bookstore near you, or order online for delivery by mail.
Tiffany mentions how much she loves Lamar Giles's new book, The Getaway, and you can order that book from Lamar's website.

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[It turns out that I incorrectly posted this episode back in April as just a 42 seconds-long clip. Oops! - frustratingly, I have only just realized, but I have now replaced the short clip with the full episode - So sorry everyone!]
Yesterday - on Saturday, April 27th, 2024 I helped celebrate Independent Bookstores Day by becoming one of the Guest Booksellers at Brazos Bookstore, my amazing local indie here in Houston TX at the invitation of Randi Null, the general manager. I'm not sure how many books I helped sell, but I certainly had a great couple of hours talking to the staff, the other authors who were Guest-Bookselling too, and of course, to the readers of all ages who were checking out the shelves and asking for recommendations so I could give you the chance to help us celebrate the indie bookstore network around the world too. I even got to talk to the Inprint Poetry Buskers - all Masters students at the University of Houston Creative Writing Program - who were on duty with their trusty typewriters, ready to produce an original poem to order - just give them a topic and then pick up your piece of original literary artwork a few minutes later.
Of course, because we were recording live in the store, the sound quality is rather louder than usual, and unfortunately, because I was trying out some new lapel mics for the interviews, my own sound is a little distorted at times. Huge apologies, but I hope you'll forgive all that and just enjoy soaking up the atmosphere of a bustling indie bookstore on a busy Saturday afternoon.
My fellow Guest Booksellers on the afternoon shift were Chris Cander and Sydney Dunlap, and the Inprint Poetry Buskers were Adrian Pachuca, Caleb Berg and Anna Barr.
Shoutouts to other indie stores mentioned by my guests:
Blue Willow Bookshop, Houston TX
Kaboom Books, Houston TX
Class Books, Houston TX
Buy the Book, Woodlands TX
Village Books, Woodlands TX
Moe's Books, Berkeley CA
Bad Animal, Santa Cruz CA
Literati, Ann Arbor MI
Dawn Treader, Ann Arbor MI
Curious Books, East Lancing MI
Parnassus Books, Nashville TN
Goldberry Books, Concord, NC
And also to the two libraries mentioned - Aurora IL Public Library, and Ms Nelson, the school librarian at Roberts Elementary School, Houston TX.
And thank you to all the readers and book-buyers who so willingly let me accost them and demand to know what books they'd chosen.

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I’m back with a new episode of Authors & Audiences, and I’m thrilled to be talking to Dr. Paige Quiñones, an award-winning American poet and author, currently living in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Paige discusses her journey from pre-med to a poetry PhD and tells me about the creation of her debut collection "The Best Prey," which won the 2020 Pleiades Press Lena Miles Weaver Todd Prize for Poetry. She shares insights into her writing practice, on how much she loves teaching creative writing, on her former role as managing editor at one of the US’s most important literary journals, Gulf Coast, and we also discuss the importance of presenting yourself and your work in a professional way when submitting work for publication.

And Paige and I have something for you if you ‘re thinking about submitting some of your short-form writing – like poetry, short stories, flash, essays etc – we tell you about our forthcoming webinar which is the first in the Authors & Audiences Guest Series, in which I’m joined by one of my amazing guests to offer advice, understanding and support in your own writing journey. The webinar is called Taking the Long View of Short Submissions, and it’s happening on Saturday November 2nd at 12pm Eastern, and which will be available after that as a recording on my website. Registration costs just $79 and not only will take you through all you need to know about the submission process, we’ll also help you get started on creating your own submission toolkit during out session. Plus we’ll answer all your burning questions too. To find out more, and to register for the webinar, carolineleechwrites.com/events

We've also created a free resource that we would love to send to you, called A Short Guide to Submitting Your Short-form Writing. So while the webinar will show you what to send out and how to send it out and who to send it to, the Short Guide will explain why it's important for you to start submitting your work, or to keep submitting your work, if you've already started. We set out the five most compelling reasons to start submitting your work right now, and we also give you five really useful and practical tips to help you as well. To get your free copy of our Short Guide, visit carolineleechwrites.com/shortsubmissionsTo order a copy of Paige's collection The Best Prey, visit the LSU Press website, and if you find yourself in Ljubljana, Slovenia, Paige recommends that you visit her favorite bookstore, Knjigarna Azil.

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