Podcast
AWM Author Talks
Hosted by Unknown Author · EN
In this weekly series, we air previously recorded conversations with leading authors, poets, graphic novelists, playwrights, songwriters, historians and more about craft, processes, influences, inspirations, and what it's like to live as a writer. These episodes are edited and condensed versions of our programs and they are a great way to discover new writers, listen to a program you missed, or relive a program that you loved!
16episodes
Episodes
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Episode 235: America at 250: Untold Stories
2w ago00:46:15Tap to summarizeThis week, we explore America at 250 years old, through lenses of migration, Black history, and queer liberation. Darius Bost and C. Riley Snorton discuss their book A Black Queer History of the United States. And Anna O. Law discusses her book Migration and the Origins of American Citizenship: African Americans, Native Americans, and Immigrants. Moderated by historian and author Valerie Gugala. This episode is the first of many to come from the 2026 American Writers Festival. Co-hosted by the American Writers Museum and Chicago Public Library, the American Writers Festival is a free literary event featuring in-depth conversations with diverse writers from across genres and backgrounds. This conversation took place June 7, 2026 and was recorded live at the Harold Washington Library Center. AWM PODCAST NETWORK HUB More about A Black Queer History of the United States: A sweeping and introductory Black queer history of the United States centering queer and trans contributions to the Black freedom movement from slavery to Black Lives Matter. Through storytelling and other narratives, Snorton and Bost show how the Black queer community has always existed, regardless of the attempts to stamp it out, and how those in it continue to fight for their rightful place in the world. More about Migration and the Origins of American Citizenship: Presents a story of constitutional development that traces the confluence of the logics of slavery and settler colonialism in historical legal rulings and public policy about U.S. migration and citizenship. The book examines the division of labor between the national and state/local governments that endured for over a century, reasons why that arrangement changed in the late nineteenth century, and what the transformation meant for people subject to those regimes of control. Drawing into one study the migration policy histories of groups of people that are usually studied separately, and combining the methodologies of political science, history, and law, Anna O. Law reveals the unmistakable effects of slavery and Native American dispossession in modern U.S. immigration policy. About the writers: DARIUS BOST is Associate Professor of Black Studies and Gender & Women’s Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is the author of Evidence of Being: The Black Gay Cultural Renaissance and the Politics of Violence (University of Chicago Press). VALERIE GUGALA is a historian and public speaker with a profound love for reading, particularly books that have faced censorship throughout history. Valerie’s keen interest in American history provides a rich backdrop for her talks, where she delves into the stories that have shaped the nation’s cultural and political landscape. With over 25 years of experience, Valerie has captivated audiences across the Chicago area and beyond. Her engaging presentations and insightful perspectives have made her a sought-after speaker for a wide range of groups and organizations. ANNA O. LAW is the Herbert Kurz Chair in Constitutional Rights in the Department of Political Science at CUNY Brooklyn College. She is an interdisciplinary scholar who is mostly a legal historian now. She completed her PhD in Government at the University of Texas at Austin. Her publications appear in political science, history, and law journals and investigate the interaction between law, history, and politics. Her first book, The Immigration Battle in American Courts (2010), examined the role of the federal judiciary in U.S. immigration. She teaches and researches in U.S. constitutional law, federal courts, U.S. immigration policy history, federalism, and race/ethnicity. C. RILEY SNORTON is Professor of English and Comparative Literature and jointly appointed with the Institute for the Study of Sexuality and Gender at Columbia University. He is the author of Nobody Is Supposed to Know: Black Sexuality on the Down Low (University of Minnesota Press, 2014) and Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity (University of Minnesota Press, 2017), and co-editor of Saturation: Race, Art and the Circulation of Value (MIT Press/New Museum, 2020) with Hentyle Yapp and The Flesh of the Matter: A Critical Forum on Hortense Spillers (Vanderbilt University Press, 2024) with Margo Natalie Crawford. He is also the co-author of A Black Queer History of the United States (Beacon Press, 2026) with Darius Bost. Snorton is currently working on his third single-author monograph, Black Trans Matters.
Transcribe →Episode 234: Rory O’Neill
3w ago01:09:31Tap to summarizeThis week, the American Writers Museum and the Consulate General of Ireland, Chicago present a conversation with writer, entertainer, drag queen, LGBTQ+ rights activist and 'Queen of Ireland' Rory O'Neill, also known as Panti Bliss. O'Neill visited the AWM to celebrate Bloomsday—the annual global celebration on June 16 of Irish writer James Joyce that commemorates the events of his 1922 masterpiece, Ulysses. O'Neill is joined by AWM President Carey Cranston for an alternative exploration of Joyce's work which sparkles with a few characters who can be considered part of the queer spectrum, through to LGBTQ+ writers and literature of today. O'Neill traverses the path to the equality and inclusion that exists in today's modern Ireland, vastly different from a century ago. O'Neill also discusses his own memoir Woman in the Making and his part in the campaign for marriage equality in Ireland in 2015. AWM PODCAST NETWORK HUB This conversation originally took place June 16, 2026 and was recorded live at the American Writers Museum. Content alert: this conversation includes adult themes, topics, and language. Listener discretion is advised.
Transcribe →Episode 233: Jennifer Keishin Armstrong – “Parks and Rec”
May 1800:48:16Tap to summarizeThis week, pop culture historian Jennifer Keishin Armstrong stops by to discuss her latest book Parks and Rec: The Underdog TV Show That Lit’rally Inspired a Vision for a Better America. Armstrong tells the definitive story of the creation and legacy of the beloved television show Parks and Recreation, with exclusive interview content from its cast, crew, and creators, as well as an introduction by Nick Offerman. Armstrong is interviewed by AWM Director of Programs Allison Sansone. The two are joined by special guest Ric Offerman, the mayor of Minooka, IL (and Nick Offerman's dad!) This conversation originally took place April 22, 2026 and was recorded live at the American Writers Museum. We hope you enjoy entering the Mind of a Writer. AWM PODCAST NETWORK HUB More about Parks and Rec: More than fifteen years after Parks and Recreation premiered, it has become a streaming and pop culture staple. It's beloved for its jokes, characters, and expressions—the show even created a now widely observed holiday, Galentine's Day. How did it all happen and how did the show transform from a ratings disappointment into a cult classic? Pop culture historian Jennifer Keishin Armstrong reveals all this and more in the definitive history of the show, which is as full of humor, optimism, and heart as Parks and Recreation itself. Through new and exclusive interviews, as well as deep insight and smart and entertaining pop culture analysis, Armstrong tells the story of how Parks and Recreation came to be: how it grew from The Office's success and Obama-inspired optimism, how producers assembled one of TV's most lovable casts but barely survived a mediocre first season, how the show found its voice by getting more political and more romantic, and how it became a cultural force despite middling ratings during its network run, going on to become a television savior of the Trump era and a modern classic. For fans of the show, readers who enjoy behind-the-scenes stories, and everyone who loves a nostalgic deep-dive, Parks and Rec is an exploration of its legacy as an enduringly lovable modern comedy classic full of optimism and heart. Lovingly told and deeply researched, Parks and Rec is the ultimate history of the show that taught us what's important in life: friends, waffles, and work. New York Times bestselling author JENNIFER KEISHIN ARMSTRONG has written nine books, including Seinfeldia, Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted, Sex and the City and Us, When Women Invented Television, and So Fetch: The Making of Mean Girls. She is the cofounder of the "Ministry of Pop Culture" Substack and a former local newspaper reporter. She lives in New Paltz, New York. She is also the co-host of the American Writers Museum podcast Dead Writer Drama.
Transcribe →Episode 232: Naoko Fujimoto
May 1100:44:54Tap to summarizeThis week, we chat with poet Naoko Fujimoto, a senior editor at RHINO Poetry. She stopped by the AWM the other week to discuss the work of translation, her poetry process, and her forthcoming book titled: of Women: 20 Japanese Female Poets / 20 Waka Poems, a collection of translated Japanese waka-poems, including text collage and haibun-style discourses on translation. This conversation originally took place April 28, 2026 and was recorded live at the American Writers Museum. We hope you enjoy entering the Mind of a Writer. AWM PODCAST NETWORK HUB More about of Women: of Women is a collection of translations of Japanese waka-poems from the seventh century to the twelfth century, featuring twenty female poets from this period, when Japanese women's literature flourished. This book includes poems by famous writers from the era, such as Sei Shonagon (The Pillow Book) and Murasaki Shikibu (The Tale of Genji), and introduces some lesser-known female poets as well. Waka compacts much information in a short form: words with double meanings, unfamiliar phrases, habits foreign to non-Japanese speakers, and hidden historical backgrounds. Direct translations would fail to capture the author's full intent, so of Women takes several approaches to capture the original sensory images, including text collage and haibun, short essays that provide historical context and introduce the author before each waka. NAOKO FUJIMOTO was born and raised in Nagoya, Japan, and studied at Nanzan Junior College. She was an exchange student and received a BA and MA from Indiana University. She is the author of the poetry collections We Face The Tremendous Meat On The Teppan, Where I Was Born, and Glyph:Graphic Poetry=Trans. Sensory, as well as four chapbooks. She is associate and translation editor of RHINO and translation editor of Tupelo Quarterly. She organizes an online community at Working On Gallery and is a Bread Loaf Translation full scholarship recipient and the 2023 Visiting Teaching Artist at the Poetry Foundation.
Transcribe →Episode 231: Marilyn Hacker & Deema K. Shehabi
May 400:48:25Tap to summarizeThis week, poets Marilyn Hacker and Deema K. Shehabi discuss their powerful new book Water to Water: Gaza Renga, a poetry collaboration in the call-and-response form of renga written during the conflict in Gaza. This conversation originally took place April 20, 2026 and was recorded live at the American Writers Museum. AWM PODCAST NETWORK HUB This episode is presented in conjunction with the American Writers Museum's special exhibit American Prophets: Writers, Religion, and Culture. This exhibit and programming series explores the profound ways writing reflects and influences our understanding of religion. American Prophets is now open. Praise for Water to Water: "[A] stunning sequence of renga… We celebrate these two voices, bleeding in and out of each other, quicksilver, mercurial, eloquent in song and silence, even as they celebrate the human spirit in a ruptured world." —Mimi Khalvati "This book's revolutionary form is most revolutionary of all in making serious political engagement and sophisticated poetic pleasure inseparable. —Fiona Sampson, Professor of Poetry, University of Roehampton About the authors: MARILYN HACKER is the author of twenty-one books of poems, including three collaborative books, and twenty-two collections of translations from the French. Over the course of her career, she has received numerous honors, including the National Book Award, the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation, the PEN/Voelcker Award, the Argana International Poetry Prize, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Ingram Merrill Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. She served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, editor of the Kenyon Review, and editor of the French literary journal Siècle 21. She lives between Paris and New York. DEEMA K. SHEHABI is a Palestinian American poet and editor. She is the author of Thirteen Departures from the Moon and the co-editor (with Beau Beausoleil) of Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here, for which she received NCBR's recognition award. She is also the winner of the Nazim Hikmet Poetry Prize in 2018 and a recipient of Best of the Net nomination in 2021 as well as several Pushcart Prize nominations. Her poems have been widely published in literary journals and her work has been translated into Arabic, French, and Farsi.
Transcribe →Episode 230: Kati Curts
Mar 2300:50:52Tap to summarizeThis week, religious studies professor Dr. Kati Curts discusses her book Assembling Religion: The Ford Motor Company and the Transformation of Religion in America, which illustrates how Henry Ford institutionalized a social gospel. Though Ford's efforts at the head of the Ford Motor Company have commonly been understood as secular, Ford himself was explicit that his work in engineering and auto production was prophetic and meant to remake the world. AWM PODCAST NETWORK HUB This episode is presented in conjunction with the American Writers Museum's new special exhibit American Prophets: Writers, Religion, and Culture. This exhibit and programming series explores the profound ways writing reflects and influences our understanding of religion. American Prophets is now open. This conversation originally took place March 5, 2026 and was recorded live at the American Writers Museum. More about Assembling Religion: Henry Ford did not just mass produce cars. As a member of the Episcopal Church, reader of New Thought texts, believer in the "gospel of reincarnation," mass marketer of antisemitic material, and employer who institutionalized a social gospel, Henry Ford’s contributions to American models of business were informed by and produced for an America he understood to be broadly Christian. Though Ford's efforts at the head of the Ford Motor Company have commonly been understood as secular, Ford himself was explicit that his work in engineering and auto production was prophetic and meant to remake the world. This religious history of Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company repositions them within critical studies of religion, examining how Ford transformed American religious practice in the twentieth century. Drawing directly on documents from Ford’s archive, it examines Ford's mass production methods and bureaucratic reforms as examples of prosperity gospel traditions, illuminating the ways manufacturing and technology intersect with American religious practice. Bridging American religious and industrial history, Assembling Religion offers a new and surprising way to understand Ford's impact on culture, commerce, and the technology of labor. DR. KATI CURTS is Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Sewanee: The University of the South. She is a historian of religion, specializing in the history and culture of nineteenth- and twentieth-century America. She teaches courses and researches at the intersections of religion, capitalism, and popular culture.
Transcribe →Episode 229: Oscar Brown, Jr.
Mar 1700:54:39Tap to summarizeThis week, Maggie and Africa Brown discuss the legacy of their father—Oscar Brown, Jr.—and perform some of his work. This conversation originally took place February 26, 2026 and was recorded live at the American Writers Museum. Maggie and Africa Brown love doing what they do best together—singing with theatrics on stage. These "2 Brown Sisters" energetically merge their foundations in jazz with the melting pot of their mixed musical upbringing. The Browns' harmonious vocal blend radiates sisterly love and their often comical chemistry on stage. Their shows are always enjoyable and steeped in a rich musical legacy, which they proudly carry on from their father, singer, composer, playwright, and activist, Oscar Brown, Jr. This episode is presented in conjunction with the American Writers Museum’s new special exhibit American Prophets: Writers, Religion, and Culture. This exhibit and programming series explores the profound ways writing reflects and influences our understanding of religion. American Prophets is now open. More about the episode: Oscar Brown, Jr. was a towering figure in American arts whose genius transcended categories. A poet, playwright, songwriter, actor, director, and activist, he embodied the very spirit of creativity fused with social conscience. Born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, Brown used his words and music as instruments of truth, courage, and transformation. His career spanned theater, television, film, and jazz, leaving a body of work that was all at once entertaining, revolutionary, and timeless. The 2 Brown Sisters grew up watching and internalizing their father at work, until they themselves began being part of the show. This performance offers songs and poetry to complement the celebration of African American History and Valentines Day. The 2 Brown Sisters will demonstrate glimpses of several of Oscar’s plays—written entirely in rhyming verse. They will also give insight into his own poetry form he called a "Long Song," which means: a poem with a large number of verses, that was composed to be accompanied with music or sung. Thanks to their upbringing, the 2 Brown Sisters know how to turn poetry into theatre. This activity is part of the Brown family's year-long centennial celebration for Oscar Brown, Jr., born October 10, 1926.
Transcribe →Episode 228: Rima Vesely-Flad
Feb 1600:57:05Tap to summarizeIn this episode, Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad discusses her book The Fire Inside: The Dharma of James Baldwin and Audre Lorde. Black, queer, feminist, Buddhist: The Fire Inside casts a fresh new light on the radical literary legacies of James Baldwin and Audre Lorde. This conversation originally took place January 29, 2026 and was recorded live via Zoom. AWM PODCAST NETWORK HUB This episode is presented in conjunction with the American Writers Museum’s new special exhibit American Prophets: Writers, Religion, and Culture. This exhibit and programming series explores the profound ways writing reflects and influences our understanding of religion. Travel through vibrant spaces that trace the many paths of American faith, from sacred rituals to songs of devotion. Discover rare artifacts and creative works from literature, film, music, and comedy along the way. This isn't just an exhibit—it's a shared journey of reflection, inspiration, and connection through the stories that move us all. American Prophets is now open. More about The Fire Inside: The Fire Inside explores the writings of Audre Lorde and James Baldwin through a Dharmic lens, revealing for the first time how two of America's greatest literary voices reflect—and expand—Buddhism's most timeless truths toward justice and liberation. Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad dives deeply into a dharma of liberation as lived by Baldwin and Lorde, offering timely lessons to help us each meet this moment. She explores the writers' enduring legacies to show that liberation depends not only on organizing and mass movements, but the generative power of inner well-being, authenticity, art, and embodiment. Each chapter shares how looking inward is the way forward, examining Baldwin and Lorde through key Buddhist principles. This book offers space for emerging conversations within spiritual communities—ones that don’t shy away from difficult or uncomfortable truths; that center—and celebrate—Black, queer, radical thought; and that embrace the ways our inner lives, creative fire, sensuality, and expressions of love can ignite and sustain revolutionary liberation. About the author: DR. RIMA VESELY-FLAD is the Visiting Professor of Buddhism and Black Studies at Union Theological Seminary. She is the author of Black Buddhists and the Black Radical Tradition: The Practice of Stillness in the Movement for Liberation (NYU Press, 2022) and Racial Purity and Dangerous Bodies: Moral Pollution, Black Lives, and the Struggle for Justice (Fortress Press, 2017).
Transcribe →Episode 227: Lisa Marie Gring-Premble & Martha Watson
Feb 1000:57:28Tap to summarizeThis week, scholars Lisa Marie Gring-Pemble and Martha Watson discuss their book Your Daughters Will Prophesy: Religion and Rhetoric in the Nineteenth-Century Woman’s Movement. Their work explores how four 19th-century women—Jarena Lee, Sarah Moore Grimké, Lucretia Coffin Mott, and Frances Willard—used the Bible to claim their voice on the moral questions of their day. This conversation originally took place January 27, 2026 and was recorded live via Zoom. AWM PODCAST NETWORK HUB This episode is presented in conjunction with the American Writers Museum's special exhibit American Prophets: Writers, Religion, and Culture. This exhibit and programming series explores the profound ways writing reflects and influences our understanding of religion. American Prophets is now open. We hope you enjoy entering the Mind of a Writer. More about Your Daughters Will Prophesy: Caught between their identity as Christians and social norms that silenced them, American women used scripture to claim moral and then rhetorical agency. They reinterpreted familiar biblical passages, recovered previously ignored stories about women, and contested passages used to circumscribe women’s activities. By strategically adopting a rhetorical posture of dissent, these women became prophetic voices in American society. In Your Daughters Will Prophesy, Lisa Marie Gring-Pemble and Martha Watson analyze the argumentative resources four women—Jarena Lee, Sarah Moore Grimké, Lucretia Coffin Mott, and Frances Willard—used to counter gendered restrictions and gain access to platform and pulpit, catalyzing what became known as the woman’s movement. About the authors: LISA MARIE GRING-PEMBLE is an associate professor at George Mason University. She is author of Grim Fairy Tales: The Rhetorical Construction of American Welfare Policy, and her writing has appeared in journals, including the Quarterly Journal of Speech and Rhetoric and Public Affairs. MARTHA WATSON is author and editor of several books, including Lives of Their Own: Rhetorical Dimensions in Autobiographies of Women Activists. She is a priest in the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland.
Transcribe →Episode 226: Mary Ann Ahern
Feb 200:58:41Tap to summarizeThis week, Emmy Award-winning journalist Mary Ann Ahern talks about covering religion, writing about Chicago's Pope, and shaping the public's perception and practice of faith. Ahern is interviewed by AWM President Carey Cranston. This conversation originally took place January 22, 2026 and was recorded live at the American Writers Museum. AWM PODCAST NETWORK HUB Mary Ann Ahern joined NBC 5 News in March 1989 and was named the station's Political Reporter in 2006. Most recently, Ahern was front-and-center at the Vatican for NBC 5 Chicago's extensive on-site coverage of one of the year's biggest international stories when Chicago native, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, became Pope Leo XIV. For her standout work at the Vatican, Ahern earned a pair 2025 Chicago/Midwest Emmy Awards. This episode is presented in conjunction with the American Writers Museum's new special exhibit American Prophets: Writers, Religion, and Culture. This exhibit and programming series explores the profound ways writing reflects and influences our understanding of religion. American Prophets is now open. American Prophets is supported by a grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. through its Religion and Cultural Institutions Initiative. We hope you enjoy entering the Mind of a Writer. More about Mary Ann Ahern: In her storied career, Ahern has covered political campaigns from the White House to Springfield to Chicago. She witnessed the transitions from Mayor Richard Daley to Mayor Rahm Emanuel to Mayor Lori Lightfoot to Mayor Brandon Johnson and traveled through the primary states for the 2008, 2012, 2016 presidential campaigns, just as she did in 1988 while a reporter in Atlanta. She has covered presidential election nights from Texas, Boston, New York and Chicago and has covered presidential inaugurations from Washington, D.C. She's gained recognition over the years for covering the religion beat and has reported from Rome on the selection of Pope Francis, Pope Benedict's farewell and the 2014 canonization of pontiffs John XXIII and John Paul II. Over the years she covered Pope John Paul II's many trips including Cuba and several World Youth Day events. Ahern followed Cardinal Joseph Bernardin's final years, the selection of both Cardinal Blase Cupich and Cardinal Francis George, the beatification of Mother Teresa, and the Pope's emergency meeting with the American Cardinals on the priest sex abuse crisis.
Transcribe →