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
Diana Khoi Nguyen : Root Fractures [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:39:49
Today’s conversation, with poet and multimedia artist Diana Khoi Nguyen, is not to be missed. Both of her books, Ghost Of and Root Fractures, engage with and are shaped by her brother’s absence and the family silence sur…
Álvaro Enrigue : You Dreamed of Empires [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 0:00
Today’s conversation with Álvaro Enrigue about his latest novel, You Dreamed of Empires, translated by Natasha Wimmer, is set during the relatively undocumented first encounter between Moctezuma and Hernán Cortés. The no…
Mathias Énard : The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers’ Guild [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:49:05
Is Mathias Énard’s latest book formally influenced by the Buddhist Wheel of Time, by Jewish undertaker guilds, by François Rabelais’s scatological and philosophical prose and linguistic wordplay, by Catholic altarpiece p…
Tin House Live : Denis Johnson : 2003 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:30:33
We are kicking off the new year with a serious blast from the past. A recording from the very first Tin House writers workshop in the summer of 2003 with novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, and screenwriter D…
Elle Nash : Deliver Me [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:47:07
Perhaps it is fitting that today’s episode, with writer and founding editor of Witch Craft Magazine, Elle Nash, is launched on the shortest day of the year, the longest night of darkness. Nash’s new novel Deliver Me expl…
Naomi Klein : Doppelganger : Part Two [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:28:12
Today’s part two of the conversation with Naomi Klein about Doppelganger highlights the Jewish elements in the book, and looks at them through the lens of Palestine and Israel. We discuss Zionism, Marxism, and the Jewish…
Kate Zambreno & Sofia Samatar : Tone [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:30:10
In Kate Zambreno & Sofia Samatar’s Tone they construct a shared voice, that of the “Committee to Investigate the Atmosphere.” Yes, they do this to investigate tone, in the writings of everyone from Nella Larsen to Claric…
Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore : Touching the Art [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:34:18
Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore returns to Between the Covers to talk about her remarkable new book, Touching the Art. A mixture of memoir, biography, criticism, and social history, Touching the Art is above all a complicate…
Bhanu Kapil : Incubation : A Space for Monsters [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:34:20
Bhanu Kapil’s postcolonial feminist road novel Incubation: A Space for Monsters has long been out of print. The book of hers that most engages with the mythos and reality of America, Incubation follows Laloo, a British w…
Colleen Burner : Sister Golden Calf [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:35
Colleen Burner’s novella Sister Golden Calf is the story of two sisters on the road set in a world without men. Inspired, in part, by Vanessa Veselka’s essay “Green Screen: The Lack of Female Road Narratives and Why it M…