First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing is a weekly show featuring in-depth interviews with fiction, non-fiction, essay, and poetry writers. First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing highlights the voices of writers as they discuss their work, their craft, and the literary arts. This weekly show hosted by Mitzi Rapkin is a celebration of creative writing and the individuals who are dedicated to bringing their carefully chosen words to print as well as the impact writers have on the world we live in.
Listen in the Podli app 🎧
Follow your favourite podcasts, listen offline and in the car with CarPlay and Android Auto, and always pick up where you left off. Free to try.
Sep 28, 2026 · 1:02:27
Margrét Ann Thors is a writer based in Reykjavík, Iceland. Originally from Fairfield County, Connecticut, she holds a BA, MA, and MFA from Columbia University and teaches at the…
Sep 21, 2026 · 1:18:24
Sebastian Barry was born in Dublin in 1955. The 2018–21 Laureate for Irish Fiction, he is the author of nine novels, five of which have been long- or shortlisted for the Booker…
Sep 14, 2026 · 1:15:57
Elizabeth Alexander is a prize-winning and New York Times best-selling author, renowned poet, educator, scholar, and cultural advocate. Her memoir, The Light of the World, was a…
Sep 7, 2026 · 1:14:59
Roberta Rossella Recchia was born in Rome and lived for a time in Lille, France, where she earned a master’s degree in international relations and cultures. She worked for ten…
Aug 31, 2026 · 32:22
James Salter grew up in New York City and was a career officer and Air Force pilot until his mid-thirties, when the success of his first novel, The Hunters(1957), led to a…
Aug 24, 2026 · 1:00:27
Jess Row is the author of the novels The New Earth and Your Face in Mine as well as a collection of essays, White Flights: Race, Fiction, and the American Imagination. His short…
Aug 17, 2026 · 1:17:15
Richard Russo is the author of 11 novels, including most recently, Under the Falls, Somebody’s Fool, Chances Are . . . , Everybody’s Fool, and That Old Cape Magic; two…
Aug 10, 2026 · 1:05:19
Michael Cunningham is a novelist, screenwriter, and educator. His novel The Hours received the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1999. He has taught at…
Aug 3, 2026 · 57:23
Rachel Eliza Griffiths is a poet, multimedia artist, memoirist and novelist. Her literary and visual work has been widely published in magazines, journals, and anthologies,…
Jul 27, 2026 · 56:57
Kevin Powers’ books, including The Yellow Birds, A Line in the Sand, A Shout in the Ruins and poetry collection Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting, have been…
Jul 20, 2026 · 49:32
Laura Dave is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Last Thing He Told Me, Eight Hundred Grapes and six other novels. Her books have been published in thirty-nine…
Jul 13, 2026 · 1:06:32
Emeline Atwood graduated from the Michener Center for Writers in 2023. She writes fiction and poetry and is a recipient of the Thomas T. Hoopes Prize, the Louis Begley Prize, the…
Jul 6, 2026 · 54:45
Emily Rapp Black is the author of Poster Child: A Memoir; The Still Point of the Turning World, which was a New York Times bestseller, Editor’s Pick, and a finalist for the…
Jun 29, 2026 · 1:00:31
Ben Fountain’s work has received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction, the Barnes & Noble…
Jun 22, 2026 · 1:01:55
Zinzi Clemmons was raised in Philadelphia by a South African mother and an American father. Her debut novel, What We Lose was named “Debut Novel of the Year” by Vogue, and…
Jun 15, 2026 · 1:05:08
Ruth Ozeki is a novelist, filmmaker, and Zen Buddhist priest. Her new short story collection is called The Typing Lady and Other Fictions. Her novels — My Year of Meats , All…
Jun 8, 2026 · 1:04:07
Emma Straub is the New York Times-bestselling author of seven books for adults: the novels American Fantasy, This Time Tomorrow, All Adults Here, The Vacationers, Modern Lovers,…
Jun 1, 2026 · 55:40
Lily King is the award-winning author of six novels. Her most recent novel is Heart the Lover. She has also published a collection of short stories, Five Tuesdays in Winter. Her…
May 29, 2026 · 1:03:06
Ross Gay is the author of four books of poetry: Against Which; Bringing the Shovel Down; Be Holding, winner of the PEN American Literary Jean Stein Award; and Catalog of…
May 25, 2026 · 1:04:51
Ramona Ausubel is a graduate of the MFA program at the University of California, Irvine. She is the author of the novel No One Is Here Except All of Us and the short story…
May 18, 2026 · 1:04:48
Hafeez Lakhani was born in Hyderabad, India and raised in suburban South Florida. His novel is called Abundance. His fiction and essays have appeared in Crazyhorse, Exposition…
May 11, 2026 · 1:05:40
Tom Perrotta is the bestselling author of eleven works of fiction, including Election and Little Children, both of which were made into Oscar-nominated films, and The Leftovers,…
May 4, 2026 · 1:07:02
Jim Newton is a journalist, teacher, and author of Justice for All, Eisenhower, Worthy Fights, and Man of Tomorrow. He was at the Los Angeles Times for twenty-five years as a…
Apr 30, 2026 · 35:58
Michael Cunningham is a novelist, screenwriter, and educator. His novel The Hours received the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1999. He has taught at…
Apr 27, 2026 · 44:20
Allegra Goodman is the author of Isola, Sam, Intuition, The Cookbook Collector, Paradise Park, and Kaaterskill Falls (a National Book Award finalist). Her fiction has appeared in…
Apr 20, 2026 · 1:03:56
Rachel Khong’s first novel Goodbye, Vitamin, won the 2017 California Book Award for First Fiction, and was a Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist for First Fiction. Her second…
Apr 13, 2026 · 1:04:00
Kate Schatz is a feminist author, educator, and public speaker. She's the New York Times-bestselling author of the "Rad Women" book series; the novel Where the Girls Were; the 33…
Apr 6, 2026 · 59:39
Camille T. Dungy is the author of America, A Love Story. She has also written the memoir Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden, the essay collection Guidebook to Relative…
Mar 30, 2026 · 1:04:01
Naeem Murr, a dual US and UK citizen, is the author of four novels: The Boy, a New York Times Notable Book; The Genius of the Sea; and The Perfect Man, which was awarded The…
Mar 27, 2026 · 1:04:24
Ada Limón is the author of seven books of poetry, including Startlement: New & Selected Poems; The Hurting Kind, which was a finalist for the Griffin Prize; The Carrying, which…
Mar 23, 2026 · 55:00
Andrea Mara is a number one international bestselling Irish author. Several of her books have been shortlisted for Irish Crime Novel of the Year awards. Someone in the Attic was…
Mar 16, 2026 · 1:02:42
Philip Schultz is the author of nine poetry collections, including the Pulitzer Prize–winning Failure. Some of his other works include Like Wings, winner of the American Academy…
Mar 9, 2026 · 1:00:03
Tayari Jones is the author of four novels including An American Marriage, which was an Oprah’s Book Club Selection and also appeared on Barack Obama’s summer reading list as well…
Mar 2, 2026 · 1:08:55
Bret Anthony Johnston is the author of the award-winning short story collection Corpus Christi, the novels We Burn Daylight and Remember Me Like This and the editor of Naming the…
Feb 27, 2026 · 1:15:43
Sebastian Barry was born in Dublin in 1955. His plays include of Boss Grady’s Boys, The Steward of Christendom, Our Lady of Sligo, The Pride Parnell Street, and Dallas Sweetman.…
Feb 23, 2026 · 49:52
R.L. Maizes is the author of A Complete Fiction. Her debut novel, Other People’s Pets, won the 2021 Colorado Book Award in Fiction and was a Library Journal Best Debut of…
Feb 16, 2026 · 1:05:14
David Guterson is the author of thirteen books, including the PEN/Faulkner Award winner Snow Falling on Cedars, which was made into a major motion picture, translated into…
Feb 9, 2026 · 53:40
Ann Packer is the author of four best-selling novels including Some Bright Nowhere, The Children’s Crusade, Songs Without Words, and The Dive from Clausen’s Pier, which received…
Feb 2, 2026 · 1:08:51
George Saunders is the author of twelve books, including Lincoln in the Bardo, which won the 2017 Man Booker Prize for best work of fiction in English, and was a finalist for the…
Jan 30, 2026 · 59:16
Torrey Peters is the author of the novel Detransition, Baby, which won the 2021 PEN/Hemingway award for debut fiction and was named a Best Book of the Century by the New York…
Jan 26, 2026 · 53:16
Daniyal Mueenuddin was brought up in Lahore, Pakistan, and Elroy, Wisconsin. A graduate of Dartmouth College and Yale Law School, his stories have appeared in The New Yorker,…
Jan 19, 2026 · 1:09:48
Ashley Shelby’s debut novel, South Pole Station, received praise from The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Public Radio and others. It was also named a New York…
Jan 12, 2026 · 1:08:01
Benjamin Wood was born in 1981 and grew up in Merseyside. Seascraper is his fifth novel. His previous works have been shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, the…
Jan 5, 2026 · 1:13:17
Marisa Silver is the author of the novels At Last, The Mysteries; Little Nothing, which was a New York Times Editor's Choice; Mary Coin, which was a New York Times bestseller…
Dec 29, 2025 · 1:06:28
Devon O’Neil is a freelance journalist based in Breckenridge, Colorado, and the author of The Way Out: A true story of survival in the Heart of the Rockies, published in November…
Dec 26, 2025 · 1:17:26
Michael Kleber-Diggs is a poet, essayist, and literary critic. He was born and raised in Kansas and now makes his home in Saint Paul, Minnesota. His debut poetry collection,…
Dec 22, 2025 · 1:06:49
Elizabeth McCracken is the author of nine books: Here’s Your Hat What’s Your Hurry, The Giant’s House, Niagara Falls All Over Again, An Exact Replica of a Figment of My…
Dec 15, 2025 · 57:38
Ruben Reyes Jr. is the son of two Salvadoran immigrants. He completed his MFA in fiction at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He is a graduate of Harvard College where he studied…
Dec 8, 2025 · 53:06
Megha Majumdar is the author of the novel A Guardian and a Thief, which is Oprah’s Book Club selection for October 2025. The novel is a finalist for the National Book Award and…
Dec 1, 2025 · 1:04:49
Paula Saunders is a graduate of the Syracuse University creative writing program and was awarded a postgraduate Albert Schweitzer Fellowship at the State University of New York…
Nov 28, 2025 · 1:06:34
Diane Seuss is the author of the poetry collections Frank: Sonnets, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; Still Life with Two Dead Peacocks and…
Nov 24, 2025 · 1:04:55
Tracy K. Smith is a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, memoirist, editor, translator and librettist. She served as the 22nd Poet Laureate of the United States from 2017-2019. Smith is…
Nov 17, 2025 · 58:45
Stewart O’Nan’s award-winning fiction includes Snow Angels, A Prayer for the Dying, Last Night at the Lobster, and Emily, Alone. His 2007 novel, Last Night at the Lobster, was a…
Nov 10, 2025 · 59:27
Angela Flournoy’s debut novel The Turner House was a finalist for the National Book Award and won the VCU Cabell First Novel Prize and was a finalist for the Center for Fiction…
Nov 3, 2025 · 57:09
Jonathan Parks-Ramage is a novelist, playwright, screenwriter and journalist. He is also the author of the novel Yes, Daddy named one of the best queer books of 2021 by…
Oct 31, 2025 · 53:41
Ben Okri is a poet, novelist, essayist, short story writer, anthologist, aphorist, and playwright. He has also written film scripts. His works have won numerous national and…
Oct 27, 2025 · 1:03:37
Jaquira Díaz was raised between Humacao, Fajardo, Puerto Rico and Miami Beach. She is the author of Ordinary Girls: A Memoir, winner of a Whiting Award, a Florida Book Awards…
Oct 20, 2025 · 51:06
Peter Orner is the author of seven acclaimed books including Maggie Brown & Others, Love and Shame and Love, Esther Stories, finalist for the Pen/ Hemingway Award, and Am I Alone…
Oct 13, 2025 · 58:58
Jane Hamilton lives, works, and writes in an orchard farmhouse in Wisconsin. Her short stories have appeared in Harper's magazine. Her first novel, The Book of Ruth, won the…
Oct 6, 2025 · 1:02:11
Ada Limón is the author of seven books of poetry, including Startlement: New & Selected Poems; The Hurting Kind, which was a finalist for the Griffin Prize; The Carrying, which…
Sep 29, 2025 · 1:06:32
Jason Mott is the author of two poetry collections, including We Call This Thing Between Us Love and five novels including The Returned, which was a New York Times bestseller and…
Sep 26, 2025 · 1:00:04
This is the fourth in the 12 for 12 Best of the last dozen years of First Draft in honor of the 12th anniversary. Abby Geni is the author of the novels The Wildlands and The…
Sep 22, 2025 · 1:07:25
Reginald Dwayne Betts is a poet, lawyer, and CEO and Founder of Freedom Reads, a not-for-profit organization that is radically transforming the access to literature in prisons…
Sep 15, 2025 · 1:11:49
Nini Berndt is a graduate of the University of Florida's MFA program in Fiction. Her first novel is There Are Reasons for This. She teaches writing at Lighthouse Writers Workshop…
Sep 8, 2025 · 1:08:15
Caleb Gayle is an award-winning journalist who writes about race and identity and is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine. His writing has been recognized by the…
Sep 1, 2025 · 1:01:35
Betsy Lerner is the author of the recently released novel, Shred Sisters. She is also the author The Bridge Ladies, The Forest for the Trees and Food and Loathing. With Temple…
Aug 29, 2025 · 1:13:49
Tracy K. Smith is the author of five poetry collections, including Such Color: New and Selected Poems; Wade in the Water, winner of the 2019 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in Poetry,…
Aug 25, 2025 · 1:02:00
Rachel Cockerell was born and raised in London, the sixth of seven children. Melting Point is her first nonfiction book. Her research has taken her to Texas, Ohio, New York, Tel…
Aug 18, 2025 · 1:00:09
Joy Harjo was the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States and is a member of the Mvskoke Nation. She is the author of more than ten books of poetry including Weaving Sundown in a…
Aug 11, 2025 · 1:07:19
Princess Joy L. Perry is the recipient of a Virginia Commission for the Arts Fellowship and a winner of the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Award. Her short stories have…
Aug 4, 2025 · 1:00:01
Ed Park is the author of the novels Same Bed Different Dreams, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and Personal Days, a finalist for…
Jul 28, 2025 · 57:45
Torrey Peters is the author of the novel Detransition, Baby, which won the 2021 PEN/Hemingway award for debut fiction and was named a Best Book of the Century by the New York…
Jul 25, 2025 · 1:04:32
Sue Monk Kidd writes fiction and non-fiction. Her novels include The Secret Life of Bees, The Mermaid Chair, The Invention of Wings, and The Book of Longings. Some of her…
Jul 21, 2025 · 1:06:21
Kristin Koval is a former lawyer who always wanted to be a writer but initially wandered down other paths. She attended Phillips Exeter Academy, Georgetown University and…
Jul 14, 2025 · 55:45
Robert Macfarlane is a British writer internationally known for his writing on nature, people, and place. His best-selling books include Underland, Landmarks, The Old Ways, The…
Jul 7, 2025 · 1:03:54
Andrew Porter is the author of four books, including the short story collection The Theory of Light and Matter, which won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, the novel…
Jun 30, 2025 · 1:05:13
André Alexis was born in Trinidad and grew up in Canada. His novel, Fifteen Dogs, won the 2015 Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. His…
Jun 27, 2025 · 1:06:21
Salar Abdoh is the author of Out of Mesopotamia, Tehran at Twilight, Opium, and The Poet Game, and editor and translator of the celebrated crime collection, Tehran Noir. He…
Jun 23, 2025 · 1:07:10
Lori Ostlund is the author of After the Parade, which was a Barnes & Noble Discover pick and a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the Ferro-Grumley Award.…
Jun 16, 2025 · 1:02:14
Ethan Rutherford’s new novel is The North Sun or the Voyage of the Whaleship Esther. He is the author of two story collections—Farthest South and The Peripatetic Coffin and Other…
Jun 9, 2025 · 1:06:46
Shelley Read’s debut novel, Go as a River, is an international bestseller that has been translated into thirty-four languages and is in development for film with the Mazur Kaplan…
Jun 2, 2025 · 1:08:21
Madeleine Thien is the author of four books, including Do Not Say We Have Nothing, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Granta,…
May 26, 2025 · 54:46
Lauren Groff is a three-time National Book Award finalist and The New YorkTimes–bestselling author of the novels The Monsters of Templeton, Arcadia, Fates and Furies, Matrix, and…
May 19, 2025 · 1:01:07
Kate Folk is the author of the novel Sky Daddy and the short story collection Out There. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in the New Yorker, n+1, the New York Times,…
May 12, 2025 · 1:06:04
Bob Johnson is an award-winning short story writer and graduate of the lowa Writers’ Workshop. His work has been published by The Common, Philadelphia Stories, Vol. 1 Brooklyn,…
May 5, 2025 · 1:06:38
Lynn Steger Strong is the author of the novels Hold Still, Want, Flight and The Float Test. Her non-fiction has appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, New York, The…
Apr 28, 2025 · 57:23
Vauhini Vara has been a reporter and editor for The Atlantic, The New Yorker, and the New York Times Magazine, and is the prize-winning author of The Immortal King Rao and This…
Apr 21, 2025 · 1:03:06
Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda is a literary translator. Born in Tokyo, and raised in Texas, she is the co-translator of Ryke Akutagawa’s Kappa and the translator for Yuko Tsushima’s…
Apr 14, 2025 · 1:10:42
Lynne Tillman is a novelist, short story writer, and cultural critic. Her novels are Haunted Houses; Motion Sickness; Cast in Doubt; No Lease on Life, a finalist for the National…
Apr 7, 2025 · 58:17
Colum McCann is the Dublin-born author of thirteen books. He has won numerous international honors including the U.S National Book Award and an Oscar. His work has been published…
Mar 31, 2025 · 1:01:27
Karen Russell is the author of six books of fiction, including the New York Times bestsellers Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove. She has received MacArthur and…
Mar 24, 2025 · 1:01:35
Mai Der Vang is the author of Primordial, Yellow Rain, and Afterland. Her honors include th Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets, an American Book…
Mar 17, 2025 · 58:55
Erika Krouse writes fiction and nonfiction. Her book Tell me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigationwon the Colorado Book Award for Creative Nonfiction and the 2023…
Mar 10, 2025 · 1:04:47
Sarah Gerard is the author of the essay collection Sunshine State, a New York Times Critics’ and NPR Best Book of the Year, a finalist for the Southern Book Prize, and longlisted…
Mar 3, 2025 · 1:08:46
Charlotte Wood is the author of seven novels and three books of non-fiction. Her novel Stone Yard Devotional was shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize. Her previous books include…
Feb 24, 2025 · 1:02:10
Paul Theroux is the author of many highly acclaimed works of fiction and nonfiction, including The Great Railway Bazaar, The Mosquito Coast, Riding the Iron Rooster, and Mr.…
Feb 17, 2025 · 52:18
Lidia Yuknavitch is the National Bestselling author of the novels Thrust, The Book of Joan and The Small Backs of Children, winner of the 2016 Oregon Book Award's Ken Kesey Award…
Feb 10, 2025 · 1:05:17
Sarah Chihaya is a book critic, essayist, and editor. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The Nation, New York magazine, The Atlantic, and The…
Feb 3, 2025 · 1:12:31
Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer has been writing and sharing a poem a day since 2006—a practice that especially nourished her after the death of her teenage son in 2021. Her daily…
Jan 27, 2025 · 1:09:09
Alan Shapiro was born in Boston, Massachusetts and graduated from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. Shapiro has published fourteen poetry collections, including A…
Listen in the Podli app 🎧
Follow your favourite podcasts, listen offline and in the car with CarPlay and Android Auto, and always pick up where you left off. Free to try.
Your podcast? Get the Podli badge for your site
