Alexandra Andrews joins Zibby for an impromptu therapy session and conversation about her debut novel, Who is Maud Dixon? The two joke about how many drafts of the story Alexandra wrote before reaching publication, why she hates when other writers say they hate writing, and what it's like being married to another author.
Journalist and author Genevieve Gannon explains to Zibby how her latest novel, The Mothers, started as a failed newspaper article pitch about two families and an IVF mix up. She continues on to discuss why it's important for women to talk publicly about experiences with IVF and miscarriages, the influence her career in journalism has had on her novels, and how she outlined the characters to allow the story to focus on —you guessed it— the mothers.
Zibby is joined by bestselling author Mary Alice Monroe who has not one but three books coming out this year. Mary Alice shares how her own quarantine experience influenced the way the COVID-19 pandemic was explored in her book The Summer of Lost and Found, why her middle-grade novel, The Islanders, was written to help kids unplug, and the significance of writing a story for Reunion Beach to honor Dorothea Benton Frank.
"I didn't want to be preachy. I wanted to be me, who is not perfect and a friend, and give that out into the world." Writer and producer Quinta Brunson wanted the essays in her new book, She Memes Well, to display her personal growth parallel to the development of the Internet where she first began her career in comedy. She talks with Zibby about how writing the book allowed her to explore her relationships with her mother and what thinking critically about the Internet made her realize about life offline.
Emiko Jean realized that although she had always been a voracious reader, she never believed that she could be a writer because she had never read a YA book written by a Japanese American like herself while she was growing up. Now, Emiko is only just beginning to tell the kinds of stories she wants to see more of in the world. Her latest book, Tokyo Ever After, features a protagonist descended from Japanese royalty and was written to be a lighthearted and joyful read.
"I was left with an outline and a mission and the question of, 'Do I continue with this thing?' What does it mean to write a book with somebody who was so well-known and so beloved and who is no longer here?" Zibby is joined by Laurie Woolever, assistant to the late Anthony Bourdain and co-writer of their new atlas guide, World Travel. Laurie talks with Zibby about what the world was like in Bourdain's orbit, how their guide manages to capture all of his irreverence, and the mark he's left behind on the global culinary community.
Journalist and author Denene Millner is living every writer's dream: her imprint, Denene Millner Books, has just released their first season of books with Simon & Schuster. Focusing on stories for children that celebrate Black families and firsts, Denene has begun to cultivate a community and a platform just as she did when she started her column, My Brown Baby. She talks with Zibby about finding time for her own writing while serving as a doula for others' projects, and the role her own family plays in the stories she wants to tell.
When author Hannah Mary McKinnon experienced a professional failure, she realized she had an opportunity to pursue what she had always wanted to do: write a book. With her fifth book now out, it's clear that everything works out for a reason. Hannah's latest novel, You Will Remember Me, was inspired by a news story about a man who suffered retrograde amnesia and what happens to the people in his life that he forgot.
Jen Spyra, a former writer for The Onion and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, joins Zibby to talk about her new book of short stories, Big Time. Jen shares how she wanted to write stories that weren't TV-friendly (and that wouldn't be rejected in a writer's room), as well as how she drew inspiration by recalling events from her life and asking, "What if this had turned out differently?"
"When I'm drawing pictures for children in picture books, I know they're going to get stuff that maybe they don't have the actual vocabulary to articulate, but they will take in the story on a really deep level." Zibby talks with Marla Frazee, the author, and illustrator for favorites like Boss Baby and The Farmer and the Circus, about how she always knew she wanted to work with picture books. Marla also shares how adult emotions like heartbreak have inspired her children's books and the advice she tries to pass on to all of the artists who take her illustration class.
Zibby is joined by three very special guest hosts to interview Meredith Badger and Hilary Rogers, the duo behind Maddy Mara. Zibby and her kids ask about how the pair began their partnership, what it's like writing together while in different parts of the world, and how many Dragon Girls books they plan to write.
Former magazine editor and teacher Lindsey Palmer joins Zibby to discuss how her engagement —and the period of life where she felt like everyone was getting engaged and married— inspired her latest novel, aptly named Otherwise Engaged. The two talk about Lindsey's creative approach to writing universal experiences, the ways in which the feedback she received on her past two novels inspired elements of her third, and how the book's cover is truly just the surface.
Naima Coster's latest novel, What’s Mine and Yours, was an instant New York Times bestseller, not to mention both a Read with Jenna and Book of the Month Club pick. Naima talks with Zibby about the ways in which her intergenerational trauma has led her to write more optimistic familial dynamics, how it took her two years of deferring medical school to admit she wanted to be a writer, and why her self-doubt is essential to her writing process.
