Between The Covers : Conversations with Writers in Fiction, Nonfiction & Poetry

Between The Covers : Conversations with Writers in Fiction, Nonfiction & Poetry

Author: David Naimon, Milkweed Editions Language: English Episodes: 100
There's a particular kind of conversation that happens when a thoughtful reader sits down with a writer, one that moves beyond simple promotion into the real heart of the creative act. Between The Covers is built on that very premise. Hosted by David Naimon and presented with Milkweed Editions, this long-form interview podcast delves into the lives and minds of authors working across fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Each episode feels less like an interview and more like a privileged eavesdrop on a deep, meandering dialogue. You'll hear writers discuss not just their latest book, but the fragments of life, the stubborn questions, and the daily rituals that feed their work. Naimon’s approach is informed and curious, often leading guests into unexpected reflections on craft, influence, and the ideas that haunt them. The result is a consistently illuminating audio experience that feels like a private workshop in narrative, language, and thought. For anyone who loves the texture of words and the stories behind them, this podcast offers a sustained and intimate look at how literature is made. It’s a space where the finished book is just the starting point for a richer exploration.
Episodes
Omar El Akkad : One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:12:55
In late October 2023, weeks into Israel’s bombing of northern Gaza, the novelist Omar El Akkad retweeted a video taken by a Gazan man. This video showed a lifeless moonscape with endless empty streets of rubble, every bu…
Hélène Cixous : Rêvoir [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:29:37
Feminist and literary theorist, playwright, philosopher, memoirist and novelist Hélène Cixous returns to the show to discuss her latest genre-defying hybrid work of prose. Written during the first year of the pandemic, R…
Aria Aber : Good Girl [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:10:57
Poet Aria Aber’s debut novel Good Girl , set in the club scene of Berlin, is a book brimming over with sex and drugs and music, true. But really at its heart it is a book of self-making and unmaking, of self-destruction…
Zahid Rafiq : The World With Its Mouth Open [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:04:14
Today’s guest Zahid Rafiq discusses his debut short story collection The World With Its Mouth Open, eleven remarkable stories set in modern-day Kashmir. Prior to writing fiction Rafiq was a journalist and we explore the…
Tin House Live : Denis Johnson : 2004 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:10:23
We started 2024 with an archival recording of Denis Johnson from the first ever Tin House Writers Workshop in 2003. That episode was a three-part episode: Denis Johnson reading from the manuscript of his novella Train Dr…
Rodrigo Fresán : Melvill [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:57:43
How can a novel set during one brief moment near the end of Herman Melville’s father’s life, a moment lost to history and now fully overshadowed by his son’s enduring literary legacy, become a portal to discuss the world…
Dionne Brand : Salvage : Readings from the Wreck [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:11:03
What does it mean that a life can not only be animated by books but destroyed by them? That a self can be not only made by reading, but unmade by it? Dionne Brand’s latest book of nonfiction Salvage: Readings from the Wr…
Danez Smith : Bluff [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:53:11
Danez Smith’s poetry is so many things, a poetry of resistance, of elegy, of joy, of care, of repair. Their poetry is Afrofuturist and Afropessimist. It’s nature poetry, decolonial poetry, queer poetry, a poetry that is…
Kenzie Allen : Cloud Missives [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:33:17
Today’s conversation with Kenzie Allen, about her debut poetry collection Cloud Missives, is unusually wide-ranging. We look at the influence of archaeology, anthropology and cartography on her poetry, and on her notion…
Tin House Live : Torrey Peters on Strategic Opacity [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 45:45
Today’s craft talk—by Torrey Peters on “Strategic Opacity”— was recorded at the 2024 Tin House summer writers workshop. Peters explores the elements in works of fiction that actually don’t make sense—from William Shakesp…