Reading Writers
Episodes
A Businessless Person: William C. Anderson on Thich Nhat Hanh’s Zen Battles
11 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In the Season 3 finale, Jo sells Charlotte on Alan Warner’s “amazingly textured” Movern Callar, which leads the hosts to reflect on some of the ...
Pain and Debasement: Rayne Fisher-Quann on Iris Owens' After Claude
04 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Charlotte puzzles over who exactly wrote Brighton Rock before Jo shares a newfound fascination with big machines, spurred in part by Don Gillmor’s O...
Tree-Based Horror: Nicholas Russell on Algernon Blackwood’s The Wendigo and Other Stories
25 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Jo and Charlotte turn their attention to Nobel Laureate Kenzaburo Oe’s mindblowing A Personal Matter and Troubled Lands: Stories of Mexico and Cuba,...
Tethered to Life: Maya Binyam on Joy Williams’ “The Excursion”
18 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Charlotte and Jo go deep on jealousy, self-hatred, and vulnerability in a conversation that touches on A Separate Peace, The Go-Between, Beowulf, and ...
Deeply Heterosexual: Jamie Hood on Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook
04 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Jo takes us on a whirlwind tour of their recent reading, including Mary Helen Washington’s Paule Marshall: A Writer’s Life, and Charlotte explains...
Uncategorizable Interactions: Brittany Newell on Samuel Delaney’s Times Square Red, Times Square Blue
28 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Charlotte and Jo revisit Rebecca Novack’s Murder Bimbo before taking a quick tour of the Russian Civil War and comrade crushes through Nikolai Ostro...
Bookforum Live! Stephanie Wambugu on Vincenzo Latronico’s Perfection
21 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
At last, the audio from December's Bookforum x Reading Writers live holiday event! The justly celebrated novelist Stephanie Wambugu joins Charlotte an...
Moral Discord: Noah Kulwin on Ross Macdonald’s Black Money
14 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The hosts discuss Stephanie Wambugu’s justly-hyped novel Lonely Crowds before they’re joined by Noah Kulwin, an avowed Macdonaldhead who details t...
Each Brick in This Wall: Hanif Abdurraqib on Gloria Naylor’s The Women of Brewster Place
07 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Charlotte and Jo spring into the new year with a conversation about ancient poetry: Beowulf, The Iliad, and Dante’s Inferno as translated by Mark Mu...
A Year in Reading
31 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this host-only bonus episode, Charlotte and Jo discuss some of their most memorable reads of 2025. Authors discussed include Arthur C. Clarke, Shon...
Stinking and Miserable: Clio Chang on Cheryl Strayed's Wild
17 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In a scandalous rejection of holiday spirit, Jo and Charlotte reflect on the dark, elegant pleasures of Gabrielle Wittkopf’s The Necrophiliac alongs...
A Certain Mistake: Jackie Ess on Tolstoy’s Resurrection
03 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Charlotte delves into Ecclesiastes through the work of liberation theologist Elsa Támez (When the Horizons Close) before Jo shares some of Pierre Guy...
French Sicko: Annelise Ogaard on Gabrielle Wittkop’s Murder Most Serene
26 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Jo and Charlotte discuss secret gardens, indoor kids, and Peter Pan’s baby teeth before they’re joined by culture-shaping Annelise Ogaard, who int...
Metaphysically Blown Away: Torrey Peters on Zoë Schlanger’s The Light Eaters
19 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Charlotte overcomes her resistance to novels about sexual abuse in order to read Kate Elizabeth Russell’s excellent My Dark Vanessa, after which Jo ...
Setting the House on Fire: Lauren Michele Jackson on Nettie Jones’ Fish Tales
12 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Jo discovers the seminal elegance of Sylvia Wynter’s Black Metamorphosis: New Natives in a New World, while Charlotte considers how well ...
First Draft of Reality: Rumaan Alam on Tina Brown’s The Vanity Fair Diaries.
05 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Reading Writers is BACK, and in partnership with Bookforum Magazine!In this first episode of Season 3, hosts Jo and Charlotte delve into the (separate...
Competing Fantasies: K. Austin Collins on Dennis Cooper’s The Sluts
01 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In an incendiary season finale, the insightful and hilarious K. Austin Collins joins to discuss Dennis Cooper's controversial classic, The Sluts. Othe...
Three Types of Loss: CharJo on Lorrie Moore and Scholastique Mukasonga
23 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Charlotte comes in salty about Lorrie Moore’s annoying 9/11 novel A Gate at the Stairs, while Jo has been awed by Cockroaches, Scholastique Mukasong...
A Natural Affinity: Shon Faye on Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch
12 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Charlotte and Jo enthuse briefly but ardently about friend of the pod’s Tony Tulathimutte’s Rejection and Helen Humphreys’ Followed By The Lark ...
Inheriting the Inescapable: Lovia Gyarkye on Marie NDiaye’s Ladivine
06 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Jo discovers one of the most fascinating books of all time with Extraterrestrial Languages by Daniel Oberhaus, while Charlotte issues her verdict on w...
Illegible Logic: CharJo on Paula Hawkins and Jacqueline Harpman
27 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In another host-only bonus episode, Jo reviews Paula Hawkins’ art mystery novel, The Blue Hour, and Charlotte rhapsodizes about Jacqueline Harpman’...
Bring A Pen: Emma Robinson on Dianne Brill’s Boobs, Boys, and High Heels
13 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Jo is refreshed by Trouble in the Cotswalds by Rebecca Tope but Charlotte quickly ruins their peace by connecting the sex in Heather Lewis’s violent...
Just Open the Door and Go: Marlowe Granados on Margaret Drabble’s The Millstone
06 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Jo opens their mind to further basketball books after reading Hanif Abdurraqib’s There’s Always This Year, while Charlotte (11:30) revisits a YA n...
A Stranger Comes to Town: Matt Korvette on Joan Samson’s The Auctioneer
30 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Charlotte is haunted by the lack of violence in Swedish dystopias (Kallocain by Karin Boye and Amatka by Karin Tidbeck) while Jo (17:00) delves into t...
Disposing of the Bodies: CharJo on J.M. Coetzee
23 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this special bonus episode, Jo and Charlotte talk about J.M. Coetzee, starting with Disgrace and moving to white South African literature, the lega...
Sobbing on the Floor: Sarah Miller on Elizabeth Jane Howard's The Cazalet Chronicles
16 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Charlotte and Jo discuss the mortifying ordeal of being (visually) perceived and other trials of embodiment as explored in Lucy Grealy’s Autobiograp...
Dread and Fascination: Sarah Thankam Mathews on Tayeb Salih's Season of Migration to the North
09 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Jo proselytizes about the marvelous medicinal powers of M.W. Craven’s Washington Poe novels before Charlotte (10:30) classes up the episode with a r...
Up Ladder Lane: Anna Fitzpatrick on David Grann's The Wager
02 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Season 2 comes out of the gate hot, with Charlotte learning about the Magna Carta through Sharon Kay Penman’s Here Be Dragons, and Jo (18:50) enrapt...
Father Son Romance: Merve Emre on Erich Segal's Love Story
24 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Reading Writers' first season draws to a close. To celebrate, Charlotte and Jo speak with the wise, bold, and original Merve Emre, who brings news of ...
Do It With Your Teeth: Daniel M. Lavery on The Prisoner of Zenda
18 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week Jo greets the universal subject in Rebecca Renner's Gator Country and Charlotte attacks and is attacked by Jane Eyre. (15:00) Then they're j...
Steamrolled: Hanna Phifer on Raven Leilani’s Luster
11 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Jo and Charlotte throw their souls into a conversation concerning C.S. Lewis, Narnia, medievalists, and Christianity before the luminous Hanna Phifer ...
Metaphysical Vertigo: Nicolás Medina Mora on Ben Lerner’s Leaving the Atocha Station
03 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Charlotte speculates on why Prep is still Curtis Sittenfeld’s best novel, and Jo (17:46) endorses Jeff Sharlet’s sensitive, surprising The Underto...
Completely Unconsoled: Tony Tulathimutte on Alasdair Gray’s 1982, Janine
27 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Jo (The Shipping News) and Charlotte (“Brokeback Mountain”) share notes on Iva Dixit-endorsed Annie Proulx before incendiary fiction writer Tony T...
No Caveats: Connie Wang on Sanmao’s Stories of the Sahara
13 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Jo recommends Augusto Higa Oshiro’s restrained The Enlightenment of Katzuo Nakamatsu, while Charlotte’s encounter with the first Twilight book (13...
Feelings and Vibes: Osita Nwanevu on Walt Whitman's Democratic Vistas
07 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The writers cast a wide net today as Charlotte goes meg gaga for M.T. Anderson’s Feed and Jo (15:00) expounds on the many pleasures of Iris Yamashit...
So Bridget-Coded: Lydia Kiesling on Kingsley Amis’s Lucky Jim
28 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Jo finds surprising depth to Susan Casey’s The Devil’s Teeth and Charlotte (8:35) fantasizes that her nonexistent celebrity romance novel is bette...
A Sodden Mushroom of a Man: Iva Dixit on Annie Proulx's The Shipping News
21 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Jo’s spent the weekend on two books that have their seal of approval—The Wren, the Wren by Anne Enright and The Wounded World: W.E.B. Du Bois and ...
But Did She Invent the Nose? Rachel Handler on Donna Tartt’s The Little Friend
07 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Jo recommends Tomorrow, Perhaps the Future, by Sarah Watling, while Charlotte (14:00) has some deep thoughts about The Bridges of Madison County and b...