< Back Victory Colony, 1950 Bhaswati Ghosh July 12, 2022 Victory Colony, 1950 (Yoda Press, 2020) by Bhaswati Ghosh is a story of resilience about East Pakistani refugees who were forced to leave their homes in East Pakistan because of their Hindu faith. After Amala’s parent are killed in the violence following the partition of India in 1947, she and her brother manage to survive until they reach Calcutta. Within moments of disembarking from their train, Amala loses Kartik, and comes close to being hauled off by groping policemen. She’s saved by several young volunteers who steer Amala away and into a refugee camp. Manas, a student and the volunteer leader, comes from a privileged, wealthy family that doesn’t approve of fraternizing with refugees. But he cares about these poverty-stricken people, especially Amala. When conditions start deteriorating in the refugee camp, a group men and women manage to occupy a vacant plot of land nearby. There they begin to rebuild their lives with backbreaking work, in a society of their own making. Bhaswati Ghosh has written and translated fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from Bengali into English, and is the recipient of the Charles Wallace Trust Fellowship for Translation, for My Days with Ramkinkar Baij . Her writing has appeared in several literary journals including Literary Shanghai, HELD, Cargo Literary, Pithead Chapel, Warscapes, The Maynard as well as Indian Express, Scroll, The Wire, and the Dhaka Tribune. Bhaswati lives in Ontario, Canada and is currently working on a nonfiction book on New Delhi, India. The pandemic-induced lockdown inculcated a strange new interest -- watching a day-in-the-life vlogs of single Asian women -- mostly Japanese and South Korean. The presenters record their everyday lives -- cooking, cleaning, working at home or office; the unhurried ordinariness and simplicity of the videos helps Bhaswati relax and stay grounded even as the world keeps spinning into chaos and uncertainty. She also likes to sing, birdwatch, and explore new cuisines. Victory Colony 1950 is her debut novel. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

< Back The Heart of it All Christian Kiefer September 19, 2023 In The Heart of It All (Melville House, 2023), Christian Kiefer imagines a group of factory workers and their families living in a once vibrant Ohio town during the Trump era. The factory is the only place to work outside of Walmart, the grocery store, or a fast-food chain, and it’s owned by Mr. Marwat, a Pakistani man whose wife helps in the office, while their teenagers embrace American life. The family is upended when Mr. Marwat’s parents move in. The factory foreman, Tom Bailey, and his family’s lives are upended when their sick baby dies. Their daughter Janey’s life is upended when she befriends the only Black young man in the town. Mr. Marwat’s secretary Mary Lou’s life is upended when her mother moves into a nursing home and dies. All of their struggles are exacerbated by small injustices but eased by small kindnesses in this sweet and thoughtful glimpse into the lives of people just trying to get by. CHRISTIAN KIEFER’s novels have appeared on best of the year lists from Kirkus , Publishers Weekly, and Booklist and have received rave reviews in The Washington Post, Oprah.com, the San Francisco Chronicle, Brooklyn Rain, Library Journal, Huffington Post , and elsewhere. He is the author of the novels The Infinite Tides, The Animals, Phantoms, and the novella One Day Soon Time Will Have No Place Left to Hide. Christian is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize for his short fiction and has enjoyed a long second career in music, under the auspices of which he has collaborated with members of Smog, Pedro the Lion, DNA, 7 Seconds, John Zorn’s Naked City, Sun Kil Moon, Boxhead Ensemble, Califone, Cake, Kronos Quartet, Wilco, Low, Fun, Anathallo, and The Band, among many others. He holds a Ph.D. in American literature from the University of California at Davis and has served as contributing editor for Zyzzyva, fiction reader for VQR, and as the West Coast editor for The Paris Review . He teaches at American River College in Sacramento and is the Director of the Ashland University MFA. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

< Back Where My Body Ends and the World Begins Tony Romano August 9, 2018 Where My Body Ends and the World Begins (Allium Press, 2017) imagines what it might have been like for one of the survivors of a tragic fire that took place on December 1, 1958, in a Catholic school on Chicago’s west side. The fire broke out just before the end of the day at Our Lady of the Angels School and went unnoticed for a critical amount of time. Ninety-two children and three nuns were killed. The ‘Angels’ fire is still considered to be one of Chicago’s most horrendous tragedies. In his book, author Tony Romano imagines twenty-year old Anthony Lazzaro, who along with his best friend Maryann, survived the fire. The story opens with Anthony, suffering from an unnamed mental illness. He deliberately breaks his own leg, which had started to feel foreign to his body. Lipschultz, the retired cop who lives next door, thinks Anthony may have set the fire and that his strange behavior is just another sign of his guilt. Since the fire, Anthony’s family has fallen apart – his father disappears, and his mother takes a job far from home. In this beautifully-written, sensitive novel, Tony Romano considers how trauma can be overcome through the love of family and community. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Gluten-Free Recipes to Die For Dips and Sauces, Vegan, Vegetarian, Gluten Free Spinach & Green Pea Dip/Sauce Gorgeous color, bright flavor, and filled with nutrients! Read Recipe Entrees, Vegetarian, Gluten Free, Soup Chilled Minty Cucumber-Melon Soup The perfect and refreshing snack for a hot day! Read Recipe Gluten Free, Vegan, Baking Chocolate Hamantaschen These are hamantaschen for grown-ups. Not too sweet; just right. Read Recipe Muffins and Breads, Gluten Free, Baking, Breakfast Gluten-Free Pancakes We were desperate for pancakes so I tweaked another recipe I was working on to make these. Read Recipe Gluten Free, Cookies and Brownies Pistachio Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies It's hard to resist snagging these from the cookie sheet while they cool! Read Recipe Dips and Sauces, Vegan, Gluten Free, Vegetarian Easy Hummus I make this version of hummus when I’m out of tahini. Read Recipe Dips and Sauces, Gluten Free, Vegetarian, Vegan Green Bean and Walnut Spread Alene was proud of the recipe that she invented. Read Recipe Gluten Free, Vegetarian, Baking, Cookies and Brownies, Vegan Ginger-Molasses Cookies G.F. V. "Would you like a pot of chamomile tea?" Read Recipe Dips and Sauces, Vegetarian, Gluten Free, Vegan Guacamole Salad In last week's grocery order I forgot tortilla chips and ate this with a spoon! Read Recipe Breakfast, Vegan, Gluten Free, Vegetarian, Cakes & Pies & Icing Almond Berry Breakfast Cake (gluten-free/vegan) Now Alene began measuring ingredients for Ruthie’s strawberry breakfast cake. Read Recipe Entrees, Gluten Free Dover Sole with Roasted Butternut Squash and Capers A perfect meal for a date night in! Read Recipe Muffins and Breads, Gluten Free, Vegetarian, Baking, Vegan Gluten-Free/Nut Free/Vegan Banana Bread The recipes uses 2 bananas and a whole small seed apple. Read Recipe Gluten Free, Vegetarian, Dips and Sauces, Vegan Edamame – Avocado Dip Alene pulled out her old blender and made an edamame/avocado dip followed by a kale and parsley... Read Recipe Baking, Gluten Free, Cakes & Pies & Icing Apple Banana Chocolate Cake (gluten free) The recipe is going to be in my second book, SMOTHERED: A Whipped and Sipped Mystery Read Recipe Muffins and Breads, Baking, Vegan, Gluten Free, Cakes & Pies & Icing Best Chocolate Cake/Muffins GF. V. Didn’t I tell you I was going to be at my Aunt Ivy’s for a barbeque dinner at which I ate purely protein ... Read Recipe Vegan, Gluten Free, Baking, Dips and Sauces, Cakes & Pies & Icing Dairy-free Chocolate Frosting After a night in the refrigerator, it will be thick like a ganache. Read Recipe Soup, Vegetarian, Gluten Free, Entrees, Vegan Alene’s White Gazpacho She blended a white gazpacho and served it with homemade rolls for lunch, then let the kids lie in her bed watching... Read Recipe Entrees, Gluten Free Pecan-Pistachio Chicken Breasts This is a versatile recipe – no pecans in the house? Use only pistachios. Read Recipe Gluten Free, Vegan, Cookies and Brownies Peanut or Almond-Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies Who doesn't love freshly baked chocolate chip cookies? Read Recipe Muffins and Breads, Gluten Free Fudgy Chocolate Butternut Squash Muffins No dairy, low-sugar, healthful, delicious! Read Recipe All Recipes Baking Breakfast Cakes, Pies, & Icing Cookies & Brownies Dips & Sauces Entrees Gluten-Free Muffins & Breads Soup Vegan Vegetarian Load More

< Back This is How it Always Is Laurie Frankel December 10, 2018 In her new novel This is How it Always Is (Flatiron Books, 2017), Laurie Frankel tells the story of the Walsh-Adams family and how they grapple with the youngest child, the fifth son, who announces at age three that he wants to be a girl. While his four older brothers revel in typical boy behavior, Claude, who decides her name is now Poppy, wears dresses and purses to school. Local homophobia pushes the Walsh-Adams family to leave their big old farmhouse in Madison, WI. for a smaller home in Seattle. There, they decide to keep Poppy’s trans status a family secret. When Poppy is outed, her mother takes leave from her job and travels across the world to help her daughter figure out who she wants to be. Laurie Frankel is the New York Times bestselling, award-winning author of three novels. Her writing has also appeared in the New York Times , the Guardian , Publisher's Weekly , People magazine, Lit Hub , the Sydney Morning Herald , and other publications. She is the recipient of the Washington State Book Award and the Endeavor Award. Her novels have been translated into more than twenty-five languages and been optioned for film and TV. A former college professor, she now writes full-time. She was recently named one of the 50 Most Influential Women in Seattle where she lives with her family and makes good soup. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

< Back Hour of the Assassin Matthew Quirk April 24, 2020 After a decade spent protecting public officials, Nick Averose has the unique ability to think like an assassin. Now he works as a red-teamer, who tests security systems to find vulnerabilities. His latest assignment, to assess the security of a former CIA director’s home, goes horribly wrong, and Nick gets entangled in a vicious crime that rocks Washington D.C. He knows he’s been framed, and now they’re out to kill him. But who are they, and what do they want? Today I spoke with Matthew Quirk about his new book Hour of the Assassin (William Morrow, 2020). Quirk is the New York Times bestselling author of The 500, The Directive, Cold Barrel Zero , and Dead Man Switch . He studied history and literature at Harvard College and spent five years at The Atlantic reporting on crime, private military contractors, terrorism prosecutions, and international gangs. His first novel was nominated for an Edgar Award, and he lives in San Diego, California. When he is not writing, he spends his time hiking, skiing, and surfing. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

< Back One Kind Favor Kevin McIlvoy June 8, 2021 Based loosely on a tragic real-life incident in 2014, One Kind Favor (WTAW Press 2021) explores the consequences of the lynching of a young black man in rural North Carolina. After the lynching of Lincoln Lennox is discovered and subsequently covered up in the small fictional community of Cord, North Carolina, the ghosts who frequent the all-in-one bar and consignment shop take on the responsibility of unearthing the truth and acting as the memory for the town that longs to forget and continues to hate. A reimagined Kathy Acker, the groundbreaking literary icon, engages Lincoln in a love triangle and brings a transgressive post-punk esthetic to the mission. The down-the-rabbit-hole satirical storytelling of One Kind Favor, Kevin McIlvoy’s sixth novel, echoes Appalachian ghost stories in which haunting presences will, at last, have their way. Kevin McIlvoy has published five novels, A Waltz (Lynx House Press), The Fifth Station (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill; paperback, Collier/Macmillan), Little Peg (Atheneum/Macmillan; paperback, Harper Perennial), Hyssop (TriQuarterly Books; paperback, Avon), At the Gate of All Wonder (Tupelo Press); a short story collection, The Complete History of New Mexico (Graywolf Press); and a collection of prose poems and short-short stories, 57 Octaves Below Middle C (Four Way Books). His fiction has appeared in Harper's, Southern Review, Ploughshares, Missouri Review, and other literary magazines. He has taught fiction at Warren Wilson College and New Mexico State University and received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in fiction. For twenty-seven years, McIlvoy worked as fiction editor and editor in chief of the literary magazine, Puerto del Sol. He lives in Asheville, NC, plays blues harmonica, takes ballroom dancing classes with his wife, and has been a serious gardener for four decades. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

< Back To Lay to Rest our Ghosts Caitlin Hamilton Summie February 14, 2019 An 8-year-old awaits her father’s return from the war. A young man returns home to northern Minnesota for his sister’s funeral. A woman struggles to survive in New York City. Caitlin Hamilton Summie’s award-winning collection of short stories is peopled with characters who leave home, return home, or dream of home. The stories alternate between sweet, thoughtful, and sad, all expressing a universal longing for family, friendship and connection. To Lay to Rest our Ghosts (Fomite Press, 2017) won Silver in the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award for Short Stories, was selected for 35 Over 35’s annual 2017 list, and was named a Pulpwood Queen Book Club Bonus Book. It is also the winner of the fourth annual Phillip H. McMath Post Publication book award. Summie, who earned an MFA at Colorado State University, is the co-founder/owner of a book marketing firm and is online at caitlinhamiltonsummie.com . Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

< Back Because I Loved You Donnaldson Brown April 11, 2023 Today I talked to Donnaldson Brown about her new novel Because I Loved You (She Writes Press 2023). Sixteen-year-old Leni O’Hare loves her horse, so when her mother tries to sell it, she rides as far as she can. It’s 1972, and she ends up falling in love with another horse-lover. Seventeen-year-old Caleb McGrath plays football with Leni’s beloved older brother Foy, and dreams of a future far from East Texas. Leni and Caleb fall in love and make the plans of young lovers, but they’re both torn between their desire and following their dreams. Tragedy strikes and turns everyone’s world apart, Caleb’s brother Hank has just returned from Vietnam filled with rage, and Leni needs Hank’s help to escape. Leni and Caleb build their lives separately until they’re pulled together again in New York City in the 1980s. Passion isn’t quite enough in this wide-ranging tale of young love, consequences, and finding home. An attorney and former screenwriter, Donnaldson Brown ran the New York office of Robert Redford’s film development company for several years. A student of theater (and clowning), her spoken word pieces have been accepted for performance by The Deep Listening Institute’s Writers in Performance and Women & Identity Festivals in New York City, and in the Made in the Berkshires Theatre Festival in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. She’s been awarded multiple residencies. She is a longtime resident of both Brooklyn, New York, and western Massachusetts, and grew up riding horses on a family ranch in northeast Texas and in her native Connecticut. Ms. Brown is currently a facilitator and trainer with The Equus Effect, offering somatic based experiential learning with horses for veterans, first responders and others struggling with post-traumatic stress injuries. She is certified to teach meditation and several forms of yoga. Ms. Brown is also a proud mother who loves to sing, and cycle, and hike with her dogs. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

< Back A Coup: Turkish Trilogy Book 3 Phyllis Skoy October 31, 2023 A Coup , the third novel in Phyllis Skoy’s Turkish Trilogy (Black Rose Writing 2023) follows a young woman in Turkey. In the first book of the trilogy, Adalet, who has found new friends after a devastating earthquake killed her parents, destroyed their home, took her unborn baby, and left her scarred for life. Her husband leaves her for another woman, and as part of the divorce agreement, she’s forced to live far from the city. Now in the third book, Adalet is back in the city, visiting Nuray, a college friend who runs a small women’s magazine. It’s not long after an attempted coup against Erdogan, a strongman who is set to crush all opposition, and police suddenly show up and throw Nuray, her fellow journalists, and Adalet into a notorious prison. They’re in separate, filthy and horrifying cells, and Adalet has to confront the possibility of never getting out alive. This is a novel about regular people trying to live their lives in the aftermath of Turkey’s takeover by a populist authoritarian leader. Phyllis M Skoy’s first short story, “Life Before,” appeared as the Discovery of the Year in Bosque, 2013. What Survives , the first novel in the Turkish Trilogy (IP Books) was short listed for the Santa Fe Writers Project, a finalist in the New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards, and First Runner Up in the Eric Hoffer Grand Prize Short List. In 2022, Black Rose Writing reissued What Survives and published the prequel, As They Are . A Coup, the third novel in the trilogy, follows the lives of two women in the aftermath of the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey, a country which fascinates her. Myopia, A Memoir (IP Books 2017) describes what it was like to grow up with a refugee father still unknowingly consumed with the fears and struggles of his past. The author of various published short stories and essays, Skoy is a retired psychoanalyst who practiced in both New York City and Albuquerque before her retirement in 2018. She specialized in working with the deaf, with children, and with adults suffering from depression, anxiety, and trauma. She currently resides in Placitas, New Mexico with her husband and her Australian Cattle dog. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

< Back The Strange Inheritance of Leah Fern Rita Zoey Chin October 12, 2022 The Strange Inheritance of Leah Fern (Melville House 2022) by Rita Zoey Chin is equal parts coming of age, epic travel tale, quest to find a mother who disappeared, and journey of personal discovery. The story begins as Leah Fern is planning to commit suicide. She hears someone banging on her door, which is strange since she has no friends. The visitor is a lawyer who shares a box that sends Leah on the road following clues that she hopes will lead to the mother who abandoned her when she was six, 15 years before. North to Canada and west to the ocean, Leah consumes copious amounts of candy as she surmounts obstacles, learns how to navigate with a piece of magnetite, and recounts her happy carnival life, before her mother, the magician, disappeared. Rita Zoey Chin is the author of the widely praised memoir, Let the Tornado Come . She holds an MFA from the University of Maryland and is the recipient of a Katherine Anne Porter Prize, an Academy of American Poets Award, and a Bread Loaf scholarship. She has taught at Towson University and at Grub Street in Boston. Her work has appeared in Guernica , Tin House, and Marie Claire . Outside of writing, Zoey can often be found hiking with her dogs, making silver amulets in her metalsmithing studio, and concocting herbal brews in her kitchen. This is her first novel. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

< Back A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant’s Son Sergio Troncoso October 6, 2020 A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant’s Son (Cinco Puntos Press, 2020) is a collection of linked short stories, which Luis Alberto Urrea called “a world-class collection.” The book won the Kay Cattarulla Award for Best Short Story and the International Latino book Award for Best Collection of Short Stories. Troncoso fills these 13 linked stories with the struggles and triumphs of Mexican/American immigrants or their children who’ve settled in the United States. In a nod to philosophical perspectivism, the view that perception changes according o the viewer’s interpretation, Troncoso presents characters who return again and again, in different situations, from different perspectives. Sergio Troncoso is an American author of short stories, essays, and novels. He often writes about the United States-Mexico border, immigration, philosophy in literature, families, fatherhood, and crossing cultural, religious, and psychological borders. Currently president of the Texas Institute of Letters, Tronosco is a Fulbright scholar and has served as a judge for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the New Letters Prize for Essays. His work has recently appeared in CNN Opinion , New Letters , The Yale Review , Michigan Quarterly Review , and Texas Monthly. Previous books include From This Wicked Patch of Dust, which won the Southwest Book Award, and Crossing Borders: Personal Essays , winner of the Bronze Award for Essays from Foreword Reviews . He is also the author of The Nature of Truth and The Last Tortilla and Other Stories. When he is not reading or writing, Troncoso loves to bike and hike in the Litchfield hills (Connecticut). He is always on the lookout for great mozzarella and asadero cheese. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next