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Adam Johnson, author of THE WAYFINDER
Adam Johnson won the Pulitzer Prize in 2013 for his novel, The Orphan Master’s Son. He won the National Book Award in 2015 for his story collection, Fortune Smiles. He also authored Parasites Like Us and Emporium. Every novel and story is unlike anything that’s come before it. His latest, The Wayfinder, is no exception. Set over 1,000 years ago in the South Pacific, it weaves together the stories of two families and two islands and their opposing views of the world. Adam joins Marrie Stone to talk about how he’s not only expanded the idea of what a novel can do, but reimagined it entirely. He talks about how oral traditions of storytelling informed the creation of this book and the massive amounts of research necessary to write it. He talks about what forces shaped the writer he’s become, and the many insights about story he shares with his students (Adam teaches in the Wallace Stegner Fellowship program at Stanford). This conversation contains a wealth of insights into craft, process, and storytelling. It also includes a passage from the book which Adam reads and dissects for the listener. (Warning: the passage contains difficult material. Listener discretion is advised.) 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 November 11, 2025) Host: Barbara DeMarco-BarrettHost: Marrie StoneMusic: Travis Barrett (Stream his music on Spotify, Apple Music, Etc.)
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Paul Trammell, author, podcaster, sailor
Paul Trammell lives on a sailboat, currently at anchor in Bocas del Toro, Panama. He is the author of ten books and co-author of three more. His latest, Identity Crisis, is a nautical thriller inspired by his taking on a sailing hitchhiker and his mother’s resulting fear for his safety. This follows his psychological thriller Until They Bury Me, which explores the dangers of falling in love too fast and assuming your college sweetheart is still the person you loved years ago. Paul has also written many nonfiction books, his latest being Sailing to Newfoundland. He is also the author of two self-help books about alcoholism (he is ten-years sober) the latest of which is The Joy of Living Clean and Sober. And he writes short stories (most of which are sci-fi) and poetry. These can be found on his Substack page. Paul writes and podcasts full time, but also finds time to surf, spearfish, and sail. His two podcasts are Offshore Sailing and Cruising with Paul Trammell and Dream Chasers and Eccentrics. His website is paultrammell.com Paul joins Barbara Demarco-Barrett to discuss self-publishing, being accountable, how he got started as a writer and self-publisher, and 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 November 7, 2025) Host: Barbara DeMarco-BarrettHost: Marrie StoneMusic: Travis Barrett (Stream his music on Spotify, Apple Music, Etc.)
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Joan Silber, author of MERCY
Joan Silber is the author of ten books of fiction, as well as The Art of Time in Fiction which looks at how fiction is shaped and determined by time, with examples from world writers. She’s been on the show three times in the past to talk about Fools, which was longlisted for the National Book Award and finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award; Secrets of Happiness, which was a Washington Post Best Book of the year and a Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction of the Year; and Improvement, which won The National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award. Her latest is Mercy. It’s told in six chapters, or six stories, each from a different character’s point of view (POV). It takes place over the course of 50 years and comes in at a lean 240 pages. Joan joins Marrie Stone to talk about the book, using it as a craft lesson to discuss managing time in fiction and POV choices, how to write about drug use and sex, and how to treat characters with generosity. One chapter appeared as a standalone piece in the New Yorker (“Evolution”), and Joan discusses that chapter in detail (she also talked about it with the New Yorker). Along the way, they also discuss how she’s been influenced by Alice Munro, Anton Chekov, and Grace Paley. Paley was one of Joan’s undergrad instructors and Joan shares one of Paley’s writing prompts. She also discusses the writers she teaches with respect to character generosity (including Chekov and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie). 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 October 30, 2025) Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Host: Marrie Stone Music: Travis Barrett (Stream his music on Spotify, Apple Music, Etc.)
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REPLAY: fiction writer Melissa Bank
Melissa Bank, who passed away in 2022, was a fabulous writer and an incredible person. We met a few times in person, out here in Southern California when we were both speakers at the Literary Guild, and in NYC when I traveled there for conferences. She came on the show a couple of times, for Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing and The Wonder Spot. Her output was modest though her books became bestsellers. She received an MFA from Cornell University and won the Nelson Algren Award for short fiction from the Chicago Tribune. I’ll always remember when I asked her to talk about how to write a novel, she said, “I don’t know how to write a novel.” What she knew how to do, she was, was write stories. Stories became chapters and chapters become a book. If you’ve never read these two books, check them out. My guess is you will become a fan. 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 October 7, 2007) Host: Barbara DeMarco-BarrettHost: Marrie StoneMusic: Travis Barrett (Stream his music on Spotify, Apple Music, Etc.)
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Gish Jen, author of BAD, BAD GIRL
Gish Jen describes her childhood as “a master class in perseverance.” The daughters of withholding mothers learn to reject rejection, she writes. And that’s proven great training for a writer. Jen’s 10th book — Bad, Bad Girl — is part novel, part memoir, part autofiction. When her mother passed in 2020, Jen began keeping a journal, and writing notes to her mother in an attempt to understand her. She also wanted to create a record of her life for her children and grandchildren. Not believing she could bridge the gap from family story to publishable book, Jen took a leap of faith and created a novel that everyone can relate to, or at least sympathize with. She joins Marrie Stone to talk about it. Jen shares what fiction gave her that strict memoir did not, and how she overcame her own doubts. She talks about the distinction between fine art and therapy, and what the creative process can give to writers. So much wisdom in this conversation for readers, writers, mothers and daughters. 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 October 17, 2025) Host: Barbara DeMarco-BarrettHost: Marrie StoneMusic: Travis Barrett (Stream his music on Spotify, Apple Music, Etc.)
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