Top Books Podcasts

The Cosmic Library explores massive books in order to explore everything else. Here, books that can seem overwhelming—books of dreams, infinity, mysteries—turn out to be intensely accessible, offering so many different ways to read them and think with them. Season one considered Finnegans Wake; in season two, it was 1,001 Nights. Season three journeyed through and beyond the Hebrew Bible. In season four, we considered Journey to the West. For season five, we talk about a kind of writing that's filled many massive books: the American short story. Season six: The Brothers Karamazov.

Supporting fiction writers doing the hard work of revising unputdownable novels. The novel editing process is the creative crucible where you discover the story you truly want to tell—and it can present some of the most challenging moments on your writing journey. 

Developmental editor and book coach Alice Sudlow will be your companion through the mess and magic of revision. You’ll get inspired by interviews with authors, editors, and coaches sharing their revision processes; gain practical tips from Alice’s editing practice; and hear what real revision truly requires as Alice workshops scenes-in-progress with writers. 

It’s all a quest to discover: How do you figure out what your story is truly about? How do you determine what form that story should take? And once you do, how do you shape the hundreds of thousands of words you've written into the story’s most refined and powerful form? 

If you’ve written a draft—or three—but are still searching for your story’s untapped potential, this is the podcast for you. Together, let’s dig into the difficult and delightful work of editing your next draft.

A weekly podcast hosted by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett and Marrie Stone on the art and business of writing.

One poem. One guest. Each episode, Kamran Javadizadeh, a poetry critic and professor of English, talks to a different leading scholar of poetry about a single short poem that the guest has loved. You'll have a chance to see the poem from the expert's perspective—and also to think about some big questions: How do poems work? What can they make happen? How might they change our lives?

Fans of On Being and Los Culturistas love this 2024 GLAAD Media Award nominee for Outstanding Podcast. Featuring Carmen Maria Machado, Alison Bechdel, Jennifer Finney Boylan, Greg Louganis, Becky Albertalli, and so many more, guests from across the rainbow tell these authors how their books helped them overcome alienation, gender dysphoria, familial homophobia, and being outed. Essayist and Lambda Literary Fellow John Parker hosts the conversations with a gentle and energetic style, standing in as conversational partner for posthumous authors. Stay tuned to off-weeks which features new episodes of 7 Minutes in Book Heaven and The Gaily Show.

If you want to dissolve self-doubt, and free the words within, this is the writing podcast for you. In it, bestselling author Beth Kempton talks openly about all the things we often don't talk about when it comes to writing – including the importance of surrender, ritual, and trust. May the podcast help you write fearlessly, and with joy, and build a writing practice that nourishes you for the rest of your life. Be sure to bring a notebook and pen because there is a new writing exercise for you every week. #fearlesswriter 

A bookish podcast, featuring two friends who love spending time reading and sharing great books. In each episode, we will introduce a stack of books that are tied together with a common connection to help to take a deeper dive into each story. We want to provide a space to talk books that is friendly and deep, with a little hint of geek.