Literaticast

It's the best time of year - HOLIDAY BOOK SHOPPING TIME! I'm joined by author and newly minted bookstore owner Lindsey Leavitt, whose gorgeous store Folklore Bookshop opened just this September. We talk a bit about what it is like to open a bookstore and the special things she and her co-owners are doing to help make their store stand out. More importantly, we give out book recommendations for EVERYONE on your shopping list! If you want to know what it's like to live the dream of opening your own bookstore, start at the top. If you want to dive STRAIGHT into the gift guide, recommendations start around the 21:30 mark. <3 Please shop local -- your bookstores need you! But if you want to shop online, the links in the show notes go to Bookshop.Org, which gives a percentage of every sale to independent bookstores like Folklore. Shownotes, including links to all the books we chatted about, can be found at www.jenniferlaughran.com/literaticast

The number of books being banned and challenged in schools and libraries has increased exponentially in the USA in recent years. These attacks on our freedom to read are not coming just from fringe zealots -- they are being embedded into legislation across the country, and that's a BIG problem for anyone who values public libraries, public schools, education, books, and, yanno... FREEDOM. Authors Against Book Bans is a coalition of authors who are fighting the good fight to help change that, and YOU can help! Authors David Levithan and Maggie Tokuda-Hall are two of the founding members of AABB, and they join me to discuss what book banning even is, why and where the problem is blowing up, and what readers and authors can do about it. Show Notes can be found at: https://www.jenniferlaughran.com/literaticast

Author Martha Brockenbrough joins me to discuss her new book FUTURE TENSE: HOW WE MADE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE -- AND HOW IT WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING. We're tackling your burning AI-related questions, such as: Should authors and illustrators be worried about AI? HOW worried? Are there ethical ways to utilize AI technology? How can AI help us, and how can it hurt? If Aunt Gladys won't stop posting weird AI images of big-eyed baby peacocks on her Facebook page, should you un-invite her to Thanksgiving dinner? Should we all throw our phones into the ocean and move to an underground bunker? MAYBE! Tune in to find out! Links to all the books we discussed, and more, can be found in the show notes: https://www.jenniferlaughran.com/literaticast

We're back from hiatus with special guest Brian LaRossa, who in addition to being an Executive Art Director at Scholastic, is an educator, pizza-maker, and all-around mensch. We tackle a variety of topics, like what IS an Art Director, how does the Art Department work with illustrators, what role do they play in the acquisitions process, how do typography and design affect the reading experience, and a whole lot more. It was a fun conversation, I learned a ton, and I hope you will also have fun listening to it! For full show notes, visit: https://www.jenniferlaughran.com/literaticast

Is this the year you've promised yourself you'd finally finish that manuscript, or stop playing on your dang phone so much and get into a healthier writing routine? Author Jami Attenberg joins me to talk about her new book 1000 WORDS: A Writer's Guide to Staying Creative, Focused and Productive All Year Round, as well as lots of other stuff: The differences between writing fiction and memoir, finding your writing compass, getting motivated when the creative well seems to have run dry, how to start writing again if you've been away from it for a while, the importance of building writerly community, plus the #1000wordsofsummer project, cult documentaries, and more! Links to all the books we chatted about are in the shownotes on my website: https://www.jenniferlaughran.com/literaticast