Notes and Links to Peter Orner’s Work

Peter Orner is the author of eight books, most recently the novel, The Gossip Columnist’s Daughter, named one of the best books of 2025 by the New Yorker and the Chicago Tribune, as well as the essay collections, Still No Word from You, a finalist for the PEN Award for the Art of the Essay, and Am I Alone Here?, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. His story collection Maggie Brown and Others was a New York Times Notable Book. Other books include Love and Shame and Love (Winner of the California Book Award) Last Car Over the Sagamore Bridge, The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo (finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award), and Esther Stories. A recipient of the Rome Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship, Orner is also the editor of three books of oral history for the Voice of Witness series, and co-editor with Laura Lampton Scott of a new oral history series from McSweeney’s called “Dispatches.” His work has appeared in The New Yorker, the Atlantic, Harper’s, the Paris Review and has been awarded four Pushcart Prizes. With Yvette Benavides, he’s the co-host of the Lonely Voice Podcast on Texas Public Radio. Orner recently led short courses on James Joyce’s Ulysses, and Melville’s Moby-Dick for the Community of Writers/Writers’ Annex. He teaches at Dartmouth College and lives in Vermont.

At about 2:30, Peter responds to Pete’s question about the feedback he’s gotten since the publication of

At about 3:30, Peter expands on ideas of making Chicago concrete for his readers

At about 4:40, Peter gives background on family’s roots in Chicago and in Eastern Europe

At about 6:25, Mike Ditka slander?!

At about 7:50, Peter highlights Saul Bellow as a writer who influenced him, as well as Stuart Dybek, Betty Howland, and John Irving among others

At about 10:05, Peter reflects on David Foster Wallace as an “Illinois writer”

At about 12:10, Peter discusses Zadie Smith and Yiyun Li, and as impressive and chill-inducing contemporary writers

At about 13:30, Peter lists some reading favorites of his university students, and he expands on how they are “blown away” by James Joyce’s work

At about 15:00, The two fanboy over James Joyce’s “The Dead”

At about 16:15, Peter reflects on Pete asking if his The Gossip Columnist’s Daughter would be classified as “historical fiction”

At about 17:15, Peter expands on his view of the book’s epigraph from Chekhov

At about 18:15, Pete cites another great epigraph and great book from Jess Walter

At about 18:50, The two lay out the book’s exposition, and Peter describes the book’s inciting incident, a tragic death

At about 20:20, The two discuss the book’s beginning as in medias res

At about 21:30, Peter talks about the character of Babs as inspired by grandmother, and Pete shares about his Chicago grandfather’s longevity

At about 22:55, Peter expands on the idea of Jed, the book’s narrator, feeling that three key events in 1963 were a pivot point for the family

At about 26:15, Jack Ruby and the provinciality and “small world” of Chicago

At about 29:10, Pete and Peter lay out Jed’s college professor setup

At about 30:00, Peter explains the cause of death and theories and conspiracy theories around it

At about 31:35, Peter responds to Pete’s musings about the old-fashioned “imperative” headlines that

At about 33:00, Some of Cookie Kupcinet’s last writings are discussed

At about 34:30, Peter reflects on the travails and pressures of Cookie

At about 36:00, Some of the prodigious pull of Irv Kupcinet is discussed, and Pete compares Irv’s work to that of Ace in Casino

At about 37:55, Lou Rosenthal’s reticence and kinship with Robert Todd Lincoln are discussed

At about 39:00, Peter expands on a scene in which the “grieving” narrator walks by the house where his ex-wife and daughter live; he discusses the importance he places on place

At about 41:40, Sidney Korshak and his historical background and Chicago connection is discussed

At about 44:10, The two discuss doubts in the story about the way in which Cookie died

At about 45:20, Cookie’s legacy and the ways in which Jed, the narrator, gains a sort of obsession with conspiracy theories and marginalia

At about 48:20, Peter talks about the book’s storyline as a “family story” and using a “tiny kernel” as a “jump off” point for his book

At about 49:20, Peter responds to Pete’s questions about the state of the current conspiracy theories involving the Kupcinets and JFK’s assassination

At about 51:20, The two discuss the breakup of the friendship between the Rosenthals and Kupcinets, as Pete compares a turned-down piece of writing to the book’s storyline

At about 53:20, Peter reflects on the intrigue that comes with

At about 55:00, Peter expands on the “Captain” moniker his grandfather have, and that he played off in his book

At about 58:20, The two reflect on the memorable character of Solly

At about 1:01:00, Theories involving traumas and low points and broken relationships are discussed

At about 1:03:00, Pete highlights a resonant last scene

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The episode airs on February 13, three days after Pub Day for Moses and the Doctor.

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