Podcasts About Writing and Books

I love listening to interviews with writers, especially when they talk about the process of writing and the publishing world. I find I like listening even better than reading interviews. I've discovered books I would never dream of reading and usually find myself inspired to sit right down and start writing again.

I've found a handful of programs that I listen to regularly as podcasts, which I really enjoy. I have them all set up to automatically download onto my iPhone and I listen while I drive, when I grocery shop, while I wait in line at the post office and sometimes even when I'm cooking.

My favorites are:

-Writers on Writing with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett on KUCI -- this is a weekly show entirely dedicated to interviews with writers, agents, publishers, etc. If you listen to all of the back shows that are available (like I did one long fall when I flew back and forth to Seattle about a dozen times) you will feel as if you have earned an MFA.

-The Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC in New York -- this is a daily show and Lopatehas several segments a day on various items but he usually interviews a few writers, playwrights, stage actors, etc. during the week.

-Washington Post Bookworld -- even though the Post has dropped its book review as a separate section they continue to issue this podcast. There is usually a brief summary of the recent publishing news, then two interviews with newly published writers and then a few minutes of poetry at the end.

Slate's Audio Book Club -- this isn't an interview with writers but is an intense hour-long discussion of a book, sometimes current, sometimes not. The last one was McEwan's Saturday.

NPR Book Tour -- this is usually a recording of the author of a newly published author reading aloud at the Politics and Prose bookstore followed by a question and answer period.

KCRW's The Treatment -- this program usually is with a screenwriter or director and often is a detailed discussion of a recent project with a great discussion of craft

Book Lust with Nancy Pearl -- this comes from Seattle. Sometimes it's great but often the interview is with someone I've never heard of and don't find of interest once I listen.

Yaddocast -- this is my newest discovery. These are ten minute snippets which profile well-known writers who have been guests at the famous Yaddo colony. I've learned all sorts of interesting things so far -- did you know that Mario Puzo got a lot of his early work on "The Godfather" done at Yaddo?

New Yorker: Fiction -- this is a huge treat. The fiction editor of the New Yorker invites a current New Yorker published writer to pick out a story that was published in the past to read aloud. Then the editor and the current writer have a discussion about it. You get things like T. Coraghessan Boyle reading Tobias Wolff’s “Bullet in the Brain.”