PWN's Debut Review
PWN’s Debut Review is a new podcast from Project Write Now, a nonprofit writing studio. Hosted by PWN instructors Ray Brunt and Courtney Harler, the podcast is devoted to debut art and its creators. Guests reveal their creative inspirations and motivations.
Episodes
For the final episode of Season Five, Courtney Harler speaks with two Courtneys, Courtney Zoffness and Courtney Maum. Maum is, of course, a returning guest, and Zoffness is new to the podcast.
Courtney Zoffness is the author of the debut memoir in essays called Spilt Milk, out in 2021 from McSweeney’s. As a fiction writer, Zoffness was the second-ever woman to win the Sunday Times Short Story Award in 2018, the world’s ric...
Today Courtney speaks with two talented memoirists, Amy Long and Emma Bolden.
Amy Long is the author of the debut memoir, Codependence, winner of the 2018 Essay Collection Competition with the Cleveland State University Poetry Center. Amy holds an MFA from Virginia Tech and an MA from the University of Florida. She’s also the creative genius behind Taylor Swift as Books, the very popular Instagram account.
Emma Bo...
In honor of National Poetry Month, we’ve invited back to the podcast one of our favorite poets, Mihaela Moscaliuc. Anna Qu, a prose writer, also joins the conversation.
Anna Qu is the author of the critically acclaimed Made in China: A Memoir of Love and Labor. She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Sarah Lawrence College and teaches writing, both fiction and nonfiction, for several graduate programs. She’s currently...
Today, for Episode Five of Season Five, I’m talking with Janice Obuchowski and William Pei Shih. Janice and William first met as scholars at the 2017 Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and now continue to admire and support one another’s work.
Janice Obuchowski is the author of The Woods, a short story collection that won the prestigious John Simmons Short Fiction Award and was published by the University of Iowa Press in 2022...
Krystal A. Sital and Peter Mountford join me for Episode Four of Season Five.
Krystal A. Sital is the author of the memoir Secrets We Kept: Three Women of Trinidad, a finalist for the PEN America Emerging Writers Award. Her essays have been anthologized in A Map Is Only One Story: Twenty Writers on Immigration, Family, and the Meaning of Home as well as Fury: Women’s Lived Experiences in the Trump Era. Her work has also be...
For Episode Three of Season Five, Courtney talks to Lisa Lee Herrick and Lee Herrick. Yes, to be clear, they are married.
Lisa Lee Herrick is an award-winning Hmong-American writer, illustrator, and producer. A 2021 PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow in Creative Nonfiction as well as a 2021 Finalist for the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing, Lisa is currently at work on her debut memoir.
Lee Herrick i...
For Episode Two of Season Five, Ray Brunt joins Courtney once more to talk with Pablo Cartaya.
Pablo is the award-winning author of several books for children and young adults, as well as a screenwriter, speaker, and educator. His debut novel, The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora, published in 2017. His latest novel, The Last Beekeeper, a climate dystopia, published in July of 2022.
Today’s topics include authenticity, ...
We launch Season Five with two wonderful writers, Rebecca Makkai and Meghan Lamb.
Rebecca is the author of four novels and a collection of short stories. Her novel The Great Believers was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Her latest novel, I Have Some Questions for You, publishes today from Penguin Random House.
Meghan has authored several books, as well. Her debut novel, Failure...
For Giving Tuesday, we chat with Nathalia Garcia, a first-generation Brazilian-American and brilliant emerging poet. In recent years, Nathalia has been both a dedicated student and an assistant instructor at Project Write Now. Jennifer Chauhan returns as guest cohost to recall her memories of first meeting Nathalia.
For this final episode of Season Four, Nathalia also shares her love of words, water, nature, and people watching. We ...
We have three guests today, an editor and two contributors of When There Are Nine, a poetry anthology in tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Rebecca Evans, one of the anthology’s editors, is a Jewish poet, memoirist, radio show cohost, writing instructor, war veteran, and mother. Carla Schick is a Queer activist for liberation and education as well as a lover of jazz and language. Harrison Solow is an award-winning author, university l...
Today’s guest, Mannikka Rosa, is an educator, entrepreneur, and spoken-word artist. She uses hip hop pedagogy to more fully engage her students in innovative ways through her consulting firm, The Educationalist Method.
Today, we talk about learning to love language in church, encouraging the shyest of learners, and promoting diversity in the performing arts. Rosa performs a thrilling, dynamic slam poem, and then further di...
Today we speak to Adam Vitcavage, founder of Debutiful, a literary webpage and podcast. Much like PWN’s Debut Review, Debutiful focuses on connecting readers and listeners with debut authors. Adam is also the Director of Events at Tattered Cover Bookstore in Denver, Colorado.
In Episode Four of Season Four, we talk to Adam about how to start a podcast, how to interview famous people, how to understand our mothers, and how ...
Jennifer Chauhan, the executive director of Project Write Now, joins us as guest cohost today. Courtney and Jennifer interview Raakhee Mirchandani, a journalist, podcaster, mother, and children’s book author. Mirchandani’s latest release, My Diwali Light, is in bookstores now.
In this third episode of Season Four, we talk to Raakhee about working for school newspapers, finding personal storytelling powers, celebrating diverse identi...
We continue Season Four with Courtney Maum, a writer and book coach. Maum’s debut memoir, The Year of the Horses, was released in May from Tin House. Maum has also previously published three novels and a very handy craft guide called Before and After the Book Deal.
In this second episode, Maum chats with us about parenting creative children, playing polo, recording audiobooks during the pandemic, favorite podcasts, home im...
Today, we launch Season Four with Chen Chen, a poet, essayist, instructor, and editor. His first collection, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities, won the prestigious Thom Gunn Award. His second collection, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency, is now available from BOA Editions. Also, a book of essays is forthcoming in 2023.
In this first episode of the brand new season, Chen shares h...
NOTE: This updated episode includes bonus material—on-site interviews with attendees at Alan Heathcock's book launch event this summer in Boise, Idaho, as well as congratulations from friends (and former podcast guests) Brittany Ackerman and Brandon Dudley.
Alan Heathcock joins us to close this summer’s Season Three. Al is the award-winning author of Volt, a collection of short stories, and a new novel, 40, out today...
Brett Riley joins us for Episode Three of Season Three. Brett is a writer and professor based in Las Vegas, Nevada. His debut young adult novel, Freaks, with Imbrifex Books, hit the shelves in March and the next book in the series, Travelers, will be available everywhere in August.
In this episode, we talk to Brett about the importance of authentic narratives for young readers. Then we delve deeply into the fraught function of viole...
In Episode Two of Season Three, we feature Cori Thomas, coauthor of the new memoir I Cried to Dream Again: Trafficking, Murder, and Deliverance, with Sara Kruzan. Cori is a playwright, screenwriter, actor, and activist of Liberian and Brazilian descent.
Today, we discuss Cori’s role in co-writing Sara’s groundbreaking memoir, her longtime advocacy for the rights of incarcerated individuals, and her other interests, such as pandemic ...
We’re launching Season Three with contributors to the new book called New Jersey Fan Club: Artists & Writers Celebrate the Garden State. Kerri Sullivan edited the collection, and she’s brought with her to the podcast two additional essayists: Brittany Coppla and Donnie Martino.
Today, we chat with all three writers about their contributions to the collection. They read from their work and share their creative inspirations. We t...
Popular Podcasts
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.