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Michelle Huneven, author of BUG HOLLOW
Michelle Huneven is the author of six novels including Round Rock, Jamesland, Off Course, Blame, Search and — most recently — Bug Hollow. Bug Hollow is a story about the Samuelsons, who lose their 18-year-old son in an accident. The book ripples out from there in a kaleidoscopic way, following the parents, siblings, girlfriend and others into the distant future and around in time to see how their lives play out. It’s told in chapters – or stories – from each character’s perspective. And it’s largely set in Altadena, where Michelle is from. It’s really a love letter to that town that was so devastated by the wildfires this past January (though written well before the fires). While in the process of publishing Bug Hollow, Michelle lost two homes in the fire. She joins Marrie to talk about the book, as well as writing through tragedy and how she might process this event in her work. She also talks about the risks of being a perfectionist as a writer, and what helped her through that challenge. (She recommends this essay by Leslie Jamison). She shares how writing prompts led her to write this novel, the importance of having a trusted reader, the best training she received as a writer, and so much more. After the podcast ended, Michelle shared her 76 favorite writing prompts with us. These are prompts she used to write this novel, prompts she shares with her students, and prompts she uses in her own writing practice. We’re offering those prompts (one per day) over the next 10 weeks to our subscribers on Patreon. For more information on Writers on Writing and to become a supporter, visit our Patreon page. For a one-time donation, visit Ko-fi. You can find hundreds of past interviews on our website. You can help out the show and indie bookstores by buying books at our bookstore on bookshop.org. It’s stocked with titles by our guest authors, as well as our personal favorites. And on Spotify, you’ll find an album’s worth of typewriter music like what you hear on the show. It’s perfect for writing. Look for the artist, Just My Type. Email the show at [email protected]. We love to hear from our listeners! (Recorded on August 13, 2025) Host: Barbara DeMarco-BarrettHost: Marrie StoneMusic: Travis Barrett (Stream his music on Spotify, Apple Music, Etc.)
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Crissy Van Meter, author of CREATURES
Crissy Van Meter’s novel, Creatures (Algonquin Books, 2020), was a Belletrist Book pick, an NPR Book of the Year, a finalist for the WILLA Literary Award, and longlisted for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award. Her writing appears in Vice, Guernica, Buzzfeed, and Catapult. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the New School and teaches creative writing at The Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College. She is the founder of the literary project Five Quarterly and the contributing editor for Nouvella Books. She served on the board of directors for the youth-focused literary nonprofit Novelly. She lives in Los Angeles where she is the Head of Books forTeaTime Pictures. Crissy joins Barbara DeMarco-Barrett to talk about writing climate fiction, naming characters, research, fictionalizing real places, setting, and much more. For more information on Writers on Writing and to become a supporter, visit our Patreon page. For a one-time donation, visit Ko-fi. You can find hundreds of past interviews on our website. You can help out the show and indie bookstores by buying books at our bookstore on bookshop.org. It’s stocked with titles by our guest authors, as well as our personal favorites. And on Spotify, you’ll find an album’s worth of typewriter music like what you hear on the show. It’s perfect for writing. Look for the artist, Just My Type. Email the show at [email protected]. We love to hear from our listeners! Order Barbara’s upcoming short story collection, Pool Fishing. (Recorded on August 15, 2025) Host: Barbara DeMarco-BarrettHost: Marrie StoneMusic: Travis Barrett (Stream his music on Spotify, Apple Music, Etc.)
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Richard Curtis, literary agent & digital pioneer
Literary agent Richard Curtis was a pioneer in the e-book industry. Having worked in publishing for nearly 50 years, he understands nuances, trends, and the long arc of what makes authors and publishers successful. He adapted his agenting model to accommodate the consolidations of the publishing houses and what those changes meant for agents and writers. He’s written several books on those topics, and authors the popular Substack newsletter, Inside Agenting. But earlier this year, Richard discovered an A.I. tool that shocked even him. NotebookLM, a Google product released in 2023, turns difficult topics into engaging conversations. It can summarize PDFs, websites, YouTube videos, audio files, Google Docs, or Google Slides, and create realistic podcasts about the topic. We tasked it with introducing Richard on the podcast. You’ll hear that introduction, produced in less than five minutes, and what Richard thinks of it. He talks with Marrie about what these A.I. tools mean for writers and publishers, and how writers should be reacting in the moment. He also provides his thoughts on chasing industry trends, how to target the right agent for your work, how technology has always been upending the industry, and what might happen in this next revolutionary round of upheavals. For more information on Writers on Writing and to become a supporter, visit our Patreon page. For a one-time donation, visit Ko-fi. You can find hundreds of past interviews on our website. You can help out the show and indie bookstores by buying books at our bookstore on bookshop.org. It’s stocked with titles by our guest authors, as well as our personal favorites. And on Spotify, you’ll find an album’s worth of typewriter music like what you hear on the show. It’s perfect for writing. Look for the artist, Just My Type. Email the show at [email protected]. We love to hear from our listeners! (Recorded on July 31, 2025) Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Host: Marrie Stone Music: Travis Barrett (Stream his music on Spotify, Apple Music, Etc.)
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Stefanie Leder, author of LOVE, COFFEE, AND REVOLUTION
Stefanie Leder is a TV showrunner and writer whose credits include the MTV teen dramedy Faking It, TBS comedy Men at Work, Netflix’s Boo, Bitch, and the long-running ABC Family comedy Melissa & Joey. She is also a guest lecturer on television writing at the Low Residency MFA at UCR. Bilingual in English and Spanish, she spent a year abroad in Costa Rica and has worked for a nonprofit on Fair Trade Coffee and anti-sweatshop campaigns. Love, Coffee, and Revolution is her first novel. You can also read her award-nominated short story, “Not a Dinner Party Person” in Eight Very Bad Nights; A Collection of Hanukkah Noir, or in the upcoming The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2025. Stefanie joins Barbara DeMarco-Barrett at Arvida Book Company in Tustin, California, to talk on the patio before a live audience. They talk about bringing out a project after letting it sit for many years, writing for TV, the crossover from scriptwriting to writing fiction, why she plots, structure, and much more. For more information on Writers on Writing and to become a supporter, visit our Patreon page. For a one-time donation, visit Ko-fi. You can find hundreds of past interviews on our website. You can help out the show and indie bookstores by buying books at our bookstore on bookshop.org. It’s stocked with titles by our guest authors, as well as our personal favorites. And on Spotify, you’ll find an album’s worth of typewriter music like what you hear on the show. It’s perfect for writing. Look for the artist, Just My Type. Email the show at [email protected]. We love to hear from our listeners! (Recorded on July 20, 2025) Barbara’s book of short stories, Pool Fishing, will be published on September 16 by Kelp Books. Read more about it and pre-order here. Host: Barbara DeMarco-BarrettHost: Marrie StoneMusic: Travis Barrett (Stream his music on Spotify, Apple Music, Etc.)
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Ed Park, author of AN ORAL HISTORY OF ATLANTIS
Ed Park is the author of the novels Same Bed Different Dreams (2023), a Pulitzer Prize finalist and winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and Personal Days (2008), a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award. His fiction, essays, and reviews have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, Harper’s, The Atlantic, Bookforum, McSweeney’s, and elsewhere. He is a founding editor of The Believer and the former literary editor of The Village Voice, and has worked in newspapers and book publishing. An Oral History of Atlantis is his debut story collection. These 16 stories are utterly original and very funny. Some were written over a period of years, others in an hour. He joins Marrie Stone to talk about the collection and all the dozens of decisions that went into creating these stories. He also talks about his writing career, the things that made the biggest difference in his training, and his advice to writers. For more information on Writers on Writing and to become a supporter, visit our Patreon page. For a one-time donation, visit Ko-fi. You can find hundreds of past interviews on our website. You can help out the show and indie bookstores by buying books at our bookstore on bookshop.org. It’s stocked with titles by our guest authors, as well as our personal favorites. And on Spotify, you’ll find an album’s worth of typewriter music like what you hear on the show. It’s perfect for writing. Look for the artist, Just My Type. Email the show at [email protected]. We love to hear from our listeners! (Recorded on July 2, 2025) Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Host: Marrie Stone Music: Travis Barrett (Stream his music on Spotify, Apple Music, Etc.)
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