The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan

Latest Episodes:

Ellis Cose on the Short Life and Curious Death of Free Speech in America Oct 02, 2020

Show notes

On this episode of The Literary Life, Ellis Cose talks with Mitchell Kaplan about his new book, The Short Life and Curious Death of Free Speech in America, how writing the history of the American Civil Liberties Union led him to the project, and Banned Books Week.

Host: Mitchell Kaplan

Producer: Carmen Lucas

Editor: Justin Alvarez, Lit Hub Radio

https://booksandbooks.com/

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Carl Hiaasen on Satire as a Product of Anger Sep 25, 2020

Show notes

On this episode of The Literary Life, Carl Hiaasen talks with Mitchell Kaplan about his new novel, Squeeze Me, the ubiquity of Florida pythons, and getting his start writing satire during the Nixon era.

Host: Mitchell Kaplan

Producer: Carmen Lucas

Editor: Justin Alvarez, Lit Hub Radio

https://booksandbooks.com/

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Ayad Akhtar on Why Deep Reading Really Matters (Now More Than Ever) Sep 18, 2020

Show notes

Ayad Akhtar joins Mitchell Kaplan on this new episode of The Literary Life. Akhtar shares Homeland Elegies, “part memoir, part novel,” about an American son, his immigrant father, and their life in a post-9/11 America. Akhtar is a playwright, novelist Pulitzer Prize recipient who will serve as the next president of PEN America. Recorded in Miami and New York City.

Host: Mitchell Kaplan

Producer: Carmen Lucas

Editor: Justin Alvarez, Lit Hub Radio

https://booksandbooks.com/

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Alka Joshi on Reimagining Her Mother’s Past in The Henna Artist Sep 11, 2020

Show notes

Alka Joshi started out her life as an artist. Painting and drawing allow her to see colors, where everything is located in a scene, what people are wearing, the designs, patterns, then she “transfers them down to the paper.” On this episode, Joshi talks to Mitchell Kaplan about marrying her writing and art director past to create her first book, The Henna Artist, a loving tribute to her mother. Recorded in Miami and Monterey.

Host: Mitchell Kaplan

Producer: Carmen Lucas

Editor: Justin Alvarez, Lit Hub Radio

https://booksandbooks.com/

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Eric Weiner: In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers Sep 04, 2020

Show notes

“I look at the world as a laboratory of ideas. Despite the news, there’s good stuff happening out there as we’re speaking. And it’s that good stuff that I try to excavate in my writing,” Eric Weiner, best-selling author of The Geography of Bliss. Weiner joins Mitchell Kaplan to talk about his new travel book, The Socrates Express: In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers. Recorded in Miami and Washington, D.C.

Host: Mitchell Kaplan

Producer: Carmen Lucas

Editor: Justin Alvarez, Lit Hub Radio

https://booksandbooks.com/

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Dr. Michele Harper: Healing Yourself by Understanding How to Heal Others Aug 28, 2020

Show notes

Emergency room physician, Michele Harper, grew up in a complicated family. She went on to attend Harvard, where she met her husband. The end of her marriage brought the beginning of her self-healing. Harper shares her poignant stories from the ER with Mitchell Kaplan. Her book, The Beauty in Breaking: A Memoir. Recorded in Miami and Philadelphia.

Host: Mitchell Kaplan

Producer: Carmen Lucas

Editor: Justin Alvarez, Lit Hub Radio

https://booksandbooks.com/

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John Freeman on How “Citizenship is an active thing” Aug 21, 2020

Show notes

“If there is ever someone whose work and life cannot be squeezed into a neat category, it’s my guest this week on The Literary Life. Critic, editor, anthologist, essayist, poet, public intellectual, John Freeman is all of these,” Mitchell Kaplan. Freeman’s books include Dictionary of the Undoing, Tales of Two Planets, and his latest poetry book, The Park. Recorded in Miami and London.

Host: Mitchell Kaplan

Producer: Carmen Lucas

Editor: Justin Alvarez, Lit Hub Radio

https://booksandbooks.com/

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Ruth Behar on How Being a Lucky Broken Girl Made Her a Best-Selling Author Aug 14, 2020

Show notes

Ruth Behar explores her Cuban-Jewish-American roots. Behar talks with Mitchell Kaplan about her family and her coveted hand-made books created in Cuba by poet and artist Rolando Estévez. Her new book is Letters from Cuba.

Host: Mitchell Kaplan

Producer: Carmen Lucas

Editor: Justin Alvarez, Lit Hub Radio

https://booksandbooks.com/

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Edwidge Danticat, on “Everything Inside,” Her Award-Winning Short-Fiction Collection, an Encore Episode Aug 07, 2020

Show notes

Edwidge Danticat, the first two-time winner of The Story Prize, sat with her long-time friend Mitchell Kaplan, for a moving conversation last year. “Everything Inside” now out in paperback, has been selected by Reese Witherspoon as her Hello Sunshine book club pick for August.

Host: Mitchell Kaplan

Producer: Carmen Lucas

Editor: Justin Alvarez, Lit Hub Radio

https://booksandbooks.com/

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Susan Wiggs on The Power and Magic of Bookstores Jul 31, 2020

Show notes

“I like to think of a bookstore as what a candy store is for a kid,” said Susan Wiggs. The author of more than fifty books, talks with Mitchell about how teaching led her to become an author, writing one or two books each year, and her latest, The Lost and Found Bookshop. Recorded in Miami and a lovely island off Puget Sound.

Host: Mitchell Kaplan

Producer: Carmen Lucas

Editor: Justin Alvarez, Lit Hub Radio

https://booksandbooks.com/

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