For Women of Letters, I had the great pleasure of talking with @emjsmith.bsky.social. We discuss her debut novel, her background in tech, how she navigated the transition to writing full-time, what she’s working on next, & so much more. 📚💙 womenofletters.substack.com/p/emily-j-smith

“I always was very, very focused on career, and in particular on being able to earn enough money through my career. I never really thought about family life, or what I wanted a partnership or a structure to raise kids within to look like.” Read or listen to our full interview with Corinne Low here:

For Women of Letters, I had the great pleasure of talking with @corinnelow.com. We discuss her new book, the economics of women’s lives, why she left a job at the top consulting firm in the world, becoming a tenured professor at Wharton, & so much more. 📚💙 womenofletters.substack.com/p/corinne-low

“I believe mentors are important because they’ve stood where you stood, and can advise you based on that, which is invaluable.” Our conversation with Nikkya Hargrove continues ⬇️

Her debut memoir, the importance of having mentors, the decision to open a bookstore and write full-time, & so much more— A wide-ranging interview with LAMBDA Literary Nonfiction Fellow Nikkya Hargrove. 📚💙 womenofletters.substack.com/p/nikkya-hargrove

“When I was working on Wall Street, I felt an intense chronophobia—the fear of the passing of time—afraid that I wouldn’t be able to do everything I wanted to do in this life. I felt that my days did not belong to me. Today, somehow, I feel time-rich.” Our conversation with Carrie Sun continues ⬇️

For @womenofletters.org, I had the great pleasure of talking with Carrie Sun. We discuss her widely acclaimed memoir, working at one of the most prestigious hedge funds in the world, why “process over outcome” is bad advice, & so much more. 📚💙 womenofletters.substack.com/p/carrie-sun

“ Place is such a central thing in my work and in my life. It’s the great love of my life. I couldn’t really spend 2 years researching a book in a place unless I’m in love with that place.” Read or listen to our full interview with Kapka Kassabova here:

“ Place is such a central thing in my work and in my life. It’s the great love of my life. I couldn’t really spend 2 years researching a book in a place unless I’m in love with that place.” Read or listen to our full interview with Kapka Kassabova here:

For @womenofletters.org, I had the great pleasure of talking with Kapka Kassabova. We discuss her experience of growing up in Bulgaria, her award-winning Balkan quartet of books, creating her own literary genre, & so much more. 📚💙 womenofletters.substack.com/p/kapka-kassabova

“Various people have said, ‘I failed to get a book deal.’ And I’m sitting here thinking, ‘Did you? Or did you just not get a book deal?’” Jennifer Baker on redefining success and failure:

“Various people have said, ‘I failed to get a book deal.’ And I’m sitting here thinking, ‘Did you? Or did you just not get a book deal?’” Jennifer Baker on redefining success and failure:

For @womenofletters.org, I had the great pleasure of talking with Jennifer Baker. We discuss the mentors who supported her work, how to establish boundaries, the importance of reframing the definition of ‘failure,’ & so much more. 📚💙 womenofletters.substack.com/p/jennifer-baker

“I was kind of stuck, in my articulation of that in the book, around wanting to make that point, but also wanting to not romanticize struggle.” Marianne Brooker on writing her Fitzcarraldo Essay Prize-winning book, Intervals:

I had the great pleasure of talking with Marianne Brooker for @womenofletters.org. We discuss her book Intervals, for which she won the 2022 Fitzcarraldo Essay Prize @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social; her current writing projects; & so much more. 📚💙 womenofletters.substack.com/p/marianne-brooker

When your Sunday has barely started and yet is already rich with the warm glow of a newly published Ayşegül Savaş story

I had the great pleasure of talking with Mary Jo Bang for @womenofletters.org. We discuss the books that shaped her thinking, her time studying with Lucie Brock-Broido, her current writing projects, & so much more. You can read the full interview at womenofletters.substack.com/p/mary-jo-bang. 📚💙

“Of course, there were teachers—although early on, I didn’t always know how to make use of their support.” Mary Jo Bang, author of nine books of poetry, on mentorship:

I had the great pleasure of talking with Elisa Gabbert for @womenofletters.org. You can read our interview at womenofletters.substack.com/p/elisa-gabbert. 📚💙

Noreen Masud — @noreenmasud.bsky.social — on some of her early influences as a writer. Read or listen to the full interview at: 📚 womenofletters.substack.com/p/noreen-masud 🎶 podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...

Noreen Masud — @noreenmasud.bsky.social — on some of her early influences as a writer. Read or listen to the full interview at: 📚 womenofletters.substack.com/p/noreen-masud 🎶 podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...

I had the great pleasure of talking with Noreen Masud — @noreenmasud.bsky.social — for @womenofletters.org. You can read or listen to our conversation at womenofletters.substack.com/p/noreen-masud. 📚💙

A thoughtful exchange with Cass Marketos on how she got to where she is today. You can read the latest Women of Letters interview here: womenofletters.substack.com/p/cass-marke...

I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from Cass over the years, so it was a joy to connect for @womenofletters.org. As she writes in this interview, “I’m a big believer in the idea that whenever you arrive is right on time.” It’s a form of hope I’ll be carrying with me through the months & years ahead.

“I’d been writing short stories during my lunch breaks and thought I could maybe get into a writing program. In part because I wanted to write, and in part because I didn’t seem to be good at anything else.” On becoming a writer, from Ayşegül Savaş:

“I’d been writing short stories during my lunch breaks and thought I could maybe get into a writing program. In part because I wanted to write, and in part because I didn’t seem to be good at anything else.” On becoming a writer, from Ayşegül Savaş:

I created a starter pack for women & non-binary folks who write across all sorts of genres and forms — novels, non-fiction, and everything in between. 📚💙

One of the topics that most frequently emerges, across all of the interviews we’ve conducted, is how rarely there’s a set path laid out at the beginning of someone’s career — and how, despite that, the wayfinding into their eventual success unfolds nonetheless. e.g., As Ayşegül explains:

Just released: it’s the Women of Letters interview with Ayşegül Savaş. womenofletters.substack.com/p/aysegul-sa...

“I write biography that challenges the way that a scene is set in a biography — it’s more a lyric scene, a sensory-rich scene, rather than fact, fact, fact.” Read or listen to our full interview with Iris Jamahl Dunkle here:

“The thing that drew me to Jack London was his book Valley of the Moon, which has a female protagonist. And I was like, ‘I love how he writes women!’ Well, the reason why he did that is because his wife wrote that part of the book.” Read or listen to the full interview here:

Big day for Women of Letters. It’s officially: - the launch of Season 2, *and* - the launch of our podcast! A lot of hard work went into both of these milestones. It would mean a lot if you gave this first episode a listen. 💗

Just released: launching both our second season *and* our podcast (!) 👩‍🔬, it’s the Women of Letters interview with Iris Jamahl Dunkle. womenofletters.substack.com/p/iris-jamah...

“Even though I was so nervous that, for many years, I wrote with a hot water bottle on my stomach, there was a door open in my town.” — Canadian author Candace Savage on how she became a writer. Read the full interview here: womenofletters.substack.com/p/candace-sa...

Earlier this week, we wrapped up the inaugural season of Women of Letters. I’m immensely proud of everything we’ve accomplished so far — and equally excited about what’s to come in future seasons: womenofletters.substack.com/p/season-one 🧵

“Kids of my generation feared nuclear annihilation just as today’s kids fear climate change; both are terrifying futures that diminish the significance of ordinary life. More than ever, we need cultural activities that knit us together in positive ways — what Virginia Woolf calls ‘building it up.’”

📚 “My advice to anyone interested in literature is to read, read, read. Put your phone in another room. After an hour of reading you might feel that you haven’t made very much progress, but after a day, a week of reading? Suddenly your brain is humming, crackling, and expanding.”

Out today!— It’s the Women of Letters interview with Frances Dickey 📝 womenofletters.substack.com/p/frances-di...

“The keeping of bees,” Jenna writes in her latest book, Revery, “is a blending of science and spirit; a passion that is, at its roots, an act of hope.” It was a finalist for the 2021 Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-fiction.

Out today!— It’s the Women of Letters interview with Jenna Butler 📝 womenofletters.substack.com/p/jenna-butler

Brb, basking in the glow of this response from a forthcoming @womenofletters.bsky.social interview

“I could not have figured out who I was without them,” Nancy writes in her memoir MY BRILLIANT FRIENDS of the three fellow scholars from the book’s title: Carolyn Heilbrun, Diane Middlebrook, and Naomi Schor. “Each of these women made my life worth living.”

📝 “When I graduated from college in 1961, I did not think I was following any kind of path. I never pictured myself as an academic, certainly not a successful one with a PhD (a degree, I thought, reserved for men).”

Over the *moon* to finally be sharing this with the world — for Women of Letters, I interviewed the incredible, iconic, inimitable Nancy K. Miller:

Out today!— It’s the Women of Letters interview with Nancy K. Miller 💬 womenofletters.substack.com/p/nancy-k-mi...

Simply obsessed with this passage from a forthcoming @womenofletters.bsky.social interview

“Hanging out,” Sheila writes in her latest book, “is about daring to do nothing much and, even more than that, about daring to do it in the company of others. … It’s about blocking out time and dedicating it to the work of interacting with other people.”

📚 “It was a revelation to me when I realized that I could write like I wanted to write without asking for or seeking permission to do it.”