Best Carrie J. Little Podcasts (2024)

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Margaret Drabble — The Millstone with Carrie Mullins 36:50

2d ago36:50

36:50

Send us a text Margaret Drabble’s 1965 novel The Millstone offers a nuanced portrayal of single motherhood in 1960s London. Author Carrie Mullins, whose 2024 nonfiction work The Book of Mothers explores literary depictions of motherhood, joins us to discuss Drabble’s fearless protagonist, Rosamund. Together, we explore how The Millstone captures th…

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🔒 Wicked Little Letters — The Film and Crime That Inspired It 14:01

9d ago14:01

14:01

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text In this week’s bonus episode Amy discusses the black comedy mystery film Wicked Little Letters starring Olivia Coleman and Jessie Buckley, then hones in on the real-life "poison-pen letter" incident the film is based on. Mentioned in this episode: British Airways in-flight safety film Wicked Little Letters tra…

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Elizabeth Garver Jordan — The Case of Lizzie Borden & Other Writings with Jane Carr and Lori Harrison-Kahan 41:27

16d ago41:27

41:27

Send us a text Elizabeth Garver Jordan’s riveting coverage of the Lizzie Borden trial for The New York World captivated true-crime junkies of the late 19th-century, and her lengthy career as a journalist, fiction writer and literary editor still resonates today. Lori Harrison-Kahan and Jane Carr, editors of a brand new collection of Garver Jordan’s…

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🔒 Blame it on the Bob (Haircut) 15:13

23d ago15:13

15:13

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text The bob haircut shocked and appalled when it was popularized in the 1920s. A bob devotee herself, Amy has a laugh in this week’s bonus episode as she reads newspaper reports from the era which blame the hair trend for a wide array of societal ills including economic collapse, bigamy and unwanted facial hair. S…

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Sanora Babb — Whose Names Are Unknown with Iris Jamahl Dunkle 43:56

1M ago43:56

43:56

Send us a text Growing up on the Great Plains and witnessing the struggles of migrant workers in California made Sanora Babb uniquely qualified to write the story of the Dust Bowl. Her novel Whose Names Are Unknown was slated for publication by Random House in 1939 until The Grapes of Wrath beat her book to the punch. John Steinbeck actually used B…

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🔒 How a "Lady of Lit" Inspired the Band Green Day 9:22

1M ago9:22

9:22

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text Look closely enough, and you can find “lost ladies of lit” almost anywhere — including at a rock concert! In this week’s bonus episode, Amy explains how a Saturday night spent attempting to sing along with Green Day on their world tour concert stop in Los Angeles started her down a lyrical rabbit hole that led…

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Eliza Haywood — The Female Spectator and Betsy Thoughtless with Kelly J. Plante 34:44

1M ago34:44

34:44

Send us a text Details of Eliza Haywood’s life may be murky today, but in the early 18th century, she was a literary force—writing plays and bestselling novels, editing periodicals, and ruffling the feathers of male contemporaries like Alexander Pope. Academic Kelly J. Plante joins us this week to discuss Haywood’s anonymous wartime writing for The…

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🔒 The Journal of Marie Bashkirtseff 19:08

2M ago19:08

19:08

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text Amy springboards off our discussion of last week’s “lost lady,” Mary MacLane, to further investigate the woman whose diary inspired her. From the age of 12 until her death at 25, Russian-born painter Marie Bashkirtseff detailed her daily life, frustrations, flirtations and family drama. First published in 1887…

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Mary MacLane — I Await the Devil's Coming with Cathryn Halverson 33:13

2M ago33:13

33:13

Send us a text Long before 'Brat Summer,' America was taken with Mary MacLane, a defiant and wildly egotistical 19-year-old resident of Butte, Montana, whose confessional diary implored the “kind devil” to deliver her from a life of bourgeois boredom. Professor Cathryn Halverson from Sweden’s Södertörn University joins us for this episode to discus…

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HIATUS ENCORE: M.F.K. Fisher — How to Cook a Wolf with Anne Zimmerman 40:56

2M ago40:56

40:56

Send us a text HIATUS ENCORE: Anne Zimmerman, author of the 2011 biography An Extravagant Hunger: The Passionate Years of M.F.K. Fisher, joins us to discuss Fisher and her World War II-era book How to Cook a Wolf, which was an attempt to teach people how to eat well and be well amidst personal and collective chaos. Discussed in this episode: An Ext…

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Sigrid Schultz — “The Dragon from Chicago” with Pamela Toler 44:48

2M ago44:48

44:48

Send us a text As Berlin bureau chief for The Chicago Tribune from 1925-1941, Sigrid Schultz deflected both sexism and danger to report the truth and speak truth to power. The Nazis dubbed her “that dragon from Chicago,” and her importance as an indomitable “newspaperman” (her term) telling Americans about the Third Reich's agenda can’t be understa…

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HIATUS ENCORE: Jane and Anna Maria Porter with Devoney Looser 44:31

3M ago44:31

44:31

Send us a text HIATUS ENCORE: Sisters Jane and Anna Maria Porters’ books took Regency-era England by storm just a few years ahead of Jane Austen, and their lives were chock-full of fascinating (and insufferable) characters, intriguing romantic escapades, event-filled interludes at the homes of wealthy acquaintances and desperate gambits to stay one…

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🔒 Caedmon Records — Lost Ladies of the Audiobook Industry 8:22

3M ago8:22

8:22

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text Amy discusses the good and bad of audiobook narration in this week’s bonus episode, then dives into the origins of the commercial audiobook industry. Founded in 1952, Caedmon Records was the brainchild of two young women who achieved their smash debut success by convincing Dylan Thomas to record himself readin…

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Hiatus Encore: The Letters of Zora Neale Hurston with Melissa Kiguwa 42:38

3M ago42:38

42:38

Send us a text HIATUS ENCORE: Zora Neale Hurston’s 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God is widely considered to be a masterpiece, yet were it not for a renewed push by author Alice Walker in the 1970s, Hurston and her legacy might well have been lost. We have Melissa Kiguwa, host of The Idealists podcast, joining us to discuss Zora Neale Hurston…

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🔒 Hedy Lamarr, Star Inventor 18:37

3M ago18:37

18:37

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text She was called “the most beautiful woman in the world,” but silver screen siren Hedy Lamarr was much more than just a pretty face. Looking to help combat German U-boats during WWII, she pioneered technology that today serves as the basis for wireless innovations like Bluetooth, GPS and Wifi. Lamar received sca…

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HIATUS ENCORE: Noel Streatfeild — Ballet Shoes and The Whicharts with Wendy-Marie Chabot 44:31

4M ago44:31

44:31

Send us a text Did you know that Noel Streatfeild’s 1936 children’s book Ballet Shoes is based on her earlier novel The Whicharts, a tawdrier and not-for-children “shadow twin” that was published five years prior? Find out why it’s our favorite of the two in this week’s episode with our guest, author and bookstagrammer Wendy-Marie Chabot. Discussed…

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🔒 The Secret Poetry of Austria's Empress "Sisi" 20:30

4M ago20:30

20:30

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text Long before an insatiable press laid siege to Catherine, Princess of Wales, Princess Diana, Meghan Markle and in-law to America’s “royal family,” Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, Empress Elizabeth of Austria was the beautiful royal everyone wanted a piece of. Feeling like a prisoner in a gilded cage, “Sisi” managed h…

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Ann Schlee (Rhine Journey) with Sam Johnson-Schlee and Lucy Scholes 34:01

4M ago34:01

34:01

Send us a text Pack your steamer trunks! We’re traveling to 19th-century Bavaria this week by way of Ann Schlee’s 1980 historical novel Rhine Journey, newly republished by McNally Editions. This Booker-Prize nominated travel tale features vivid period details, sultry psychological thrills and a protagonist on the brink of a personal revolution, all…

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🔒 A Bicentennial Backward Glance 21:15

4M ago21:15

21:15

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text Reflecting back on four years of literary “lost ladies,” Amy celebrates our 200th episode with a quirky list of yearbook superlatives to help jog your memory about some of our favorite titles, including the books “Most Likely to Make You Eat Your Vegetables,” “Most Likely to Up Your Selfie Game,” and “Most Lik…

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Miles Franklin (My Brilliant Career) 34:04

5M ago34:04

34:04

Send us a text An Australian author — and the 1979 film adaptation of her work — capture Kim and Amy’s fancy this week on the show. Published in 1901 and written when author Miles Franklin was only eighteen years old, My Brilliant Career became an instant classic of Australian literature and still delights readers with its feisty heroine, Sybylla M…

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🔒 Lost Ladies Meet AI 16:22

5M ago16:22

16:22

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text Things get weird on the show this week as Amy and Kim commune with some ladies of literature from beyond the veil… with a little bit of help from ChatGPT. Check out our “interview” with Restoration-era author and playwright Aphra Behn, then find out what happens when we play around with prompts for Virginia Wo…

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Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter, Lost Lady of Translation — with Jo Salas 32:12

5M ago32:12

32:12

Send us a text You may think you’ve never read anything by Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter, but if you’ve read any Thomas Mann, there’s a good chance you’ve seen her handiwork. Lowe-Porter was a writer and translator whose greatest (but largely unsung) success came in the form of translating 22 monumental works by the German literary giant. Her English tra…

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🔒 7 Middagh Street — The House of Literary Misfits 12:49

5M ago12:49

12:49

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text Writers Carson McCullers and W.H. Auden, literary editor George Davis, composer Benjamin Britten and burlesque star Gypsy Rose Lee... once upon a time they all lived together in a house in Brooklyn Heights, an early 1940s version of the sitcom "Friends," only this one populated by an ever-changing mix of creat…

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Elaine May — Miss May Does Not Exist with Carrie Courogen 45:55

6M ago45:55

45:55

Send us a text Guest Carrie Courogen, author of the acclaimed new bio "Miss May Does Not Exist," joins us to discuss comic genius Elaine May. Known for her groundbreaking work in comedy, screenwriting, directing, and acting, May rose to fame as part of the iconic comedy duo Nichols and May. Despite her significant contributions to films like "Toots…

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🔒 A Urinal, a "Punk" Baroness and a Dinner Party 16:33

6M ago16:33

16:33

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text Marcel Duchamp created one of the most influential works of art in the 20th century. Or did he? There are some who theorize that a woman — “proto-punk” poet and Dada-ist Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven — is the true genius behind the groundbreaking “Fountain” urinal sculpture that rocked the art world in 1917. Le…

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Kim and Amy Catch Their Book Breath 22:17

6M ago22:17

22:17

Send us a text In this special catch-up episode, we take a breather to share updates and insights from our recent reads, including works by Sylvia Townsend Warner and Radclyffe Hall. Amy introduces a quirky new business idea inspired by silent disco and Shakespeare, and we invite listeners to text feedback using a new ‘text us’ feature. Plus, we te…

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🔒 Lost Ladies and Their Pet Monkeys 16:53

6M ago16:53

16:53

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text Inspired by Barbara Comyns, who lived with an unusual assortment of pets over the years, this bonus episode explores female authors who owned pet monkeys. Amy discusses Virginia Woolf and her Nazi-disarming marmoset Mitz, Nellie Bly’s fez-wearing travel companion, McGinty, and other primates who captured the h…

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Barbara Comyns — Our Spoons Came From Woolworths and The Vet’s Daughter with Avril Horner 42:28

6M ago42:28

42:28

Send us a text Barbara Comyns was recently called, “the best English novelist you’ve never heard of” and her unsettling gothic novels are equal parts enchanting and horrific. Joining us is Avril Horner, author of "Barbara Comyns: A Savage Innocence," who offers insight into Comyns' unique blend of dark humor and her empathetic portrayals of vulnera…

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🔒 Ina Eloise Young, Lost Lady of Sports Reporting 20:25

7M ago20:25

20:25

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text Inspired by watching Caitlin Clark play in this year’s NCAA tournament, Amy is feeling uncharacteristically “sporty” in this week’s bonus episode. She’ll dive into the history of Ina Eloise Young, America’s first female sports editor at a daily newspaper whose coverage of the 1908 World Series so impressed oth…

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Enayat al-Zayyat — Love and Silence with Iman Mersal 35:54

7M ago35:54

35:54

Send us a text Dying by suicide shortly after her novel, Love and Silence, was rejected for publication in 1963, Egyptian writer Enayat al-Zayyat gained brief recognition when the book was finally published four years after her death. Discovering the novel in a Cairo market some 30 years later launched acclaimed Egyptian writer Iman Mersal on a dec…

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🔒 The "Ex-pat" Life with Anne Boyd Rioux 21:34

7M ago21:34

21:34

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text Have you ever wanted to hit the “pause” button on your life and simply start over? In 2022, Anne Boyd Rioux did just that, making the bold and audacious decision to leave her job as a tenured English professor, sell all her earthly possessions and embark on a European adventure. In this episode, Anne talks to …

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Kay Boyle — Fifty Stories with Anne Boyd Rioux 44:36

7M ago44:36

44:36

Send us a text An eyewitness to monumental moments in the 20th century, author Kay Boyle hung out with Left Bank artists and literary giants, chronicled the ravages of WWII, was blacklisted in the 1950s and was jailed for her Haight-Ashbury activism in the late 1960s. An intrepid modernist committed to a “Revolution of the Word,” this two-time O. H…

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🔒 The Viennese Waltz — Dance Revolution! 11:30

8M ago11:30

11:30

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text In this episode Amy explores the history of the 19th-century dance craze that made political leaders nervous, religious leaders aghast, dance instructors insecure and the masses primed for revolt! From Johann Strauss Jr.'s "pop star" status to popular representations in film, we're covering everything you ever…

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Speranza, a.k.a Oscar Wilde’s Mom 18:45

8M ago18:45

18:45

Send us a text In this week’s episode Kim and Amy discuss the life and work of “Speranza,” a.k.a Lady Jane Wilde, a.k.a. Oscar Wilde’s mom! An outspoken, rabble-rousing poet who championed Irish independence, she stirred up members of the Young Ireland movement while writing for Dublin’s radical newspaper “The Nation” in the 1840s. Oscar may have i…

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Whose Line is it Anyway? Elizabeth Taylor vs. Elizabeth Taylor 19:46

8M ago19:46

19:46

Send us a text In our first-ever "Game Show Edition" of the podcast, McNally Editions editor Lucy Scholes joins us for a lightning-round quiz pitting quotations from Elizabeth Taylor the actress vs. Elizabeth Taylor the author! Test your knowledge and join in the fun! For the full forty-minute episode in which we discuss the author Taylor's writing…

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🔒 Elizabeth Taylor Vs. Elizabeth Taylor (Full-length Edition) with Lucy Scholes 36:42

8M ago36:42

36:42

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text FULL LENGTH EDITION!!! In our first-ever "Game Show Edition" of the podcast, McNally Editions editor Lucy Scholes joins us to talk about the TWO Elizabeth Taylors! Lucy collaborated with Pushkin Press Classics on the short story collection A Different Sound, in which midcentury British novelist and short story…

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Emilie Loring —Uncharted Seas with Patti Bender 36:30

8M ago36:30

36:30

Send us a text Get ready to fall hopelessly in love with Emilie Loring, a New England native whose prolific output of richly-detailed romance novels feature the sort of charming characters and snappy dialogue reminiscent of films like The Philadelphia Story and It Happened One Night. Loring’s 30 years of commercial success continued long after her …

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🔒 Lost Ladies at the Academy Awards 18:50

9M ago18:50

18:50

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text Fasten on those Harry Winston jewels! With Oscar night approaching, Patreon members get “red carpet” access as Amy takes a look back at some of the films honored by the Academy over the decades which were written (or co-written) by women. Women’s representation in screenwriting categories at the Oscars has bee…

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Angela Milne — One Year’s Time with Simon David Thomas 39:40

9M ago39:40

39:40

Send us a text Blogger, podcaster and consultant for the British Library Women Writers series Simon Thomas returns to the show to discuss Angela Milne’s 1942 novel One Year’s Time. The book follows a year in the life of a 1930s-era “bachelor girl” named Liza who lives in London. Milne, the niece of Winnie the Pooh author A.A. Milne, was a contribut…

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🔒 Anna Katharine Green — The Leavenworth Case 22:16

9M ago22:16

22:16

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text In this bonus episode, Amy follows the clues to learn more about writer Anna Katharine Green (a.k.a "The Mother of the Detective Novel") whose late 19th-century mysteries inspired the likes of Agatha Christie and last week's "lost lady," Carolyn Wells. Green's 1878 debut novel The Leavenworth Case was an insta…

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Carolyn Wells — Murder in the Bookshop with Rebecca Rego Barry 36:17

9M ago36:17

36:17

Send us a text A pioneer of the detective/mystery genre who began writing locked-room mystery novels a decade before Agatha Christie, Carolyn Wells was a turn-of-the-twentieth century celebrity who counted Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Edison, and Mark Twain among her many famous friends and fans. Guest Rebecca Rego Barry, whose new book is The Vanish…

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🔒 The Winchester Mystery House and Shirley Jackson 16:58

9M ago16:58

16:58

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text In this bonus episode, Amy reflects on a recent trip to the Winchester Mystery House, an architecturally-unusual mansion in San Jose, California which helped inspired Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. In addition to exploring the life of Sarah Winchester and her legendary home, Kim and Amy discuss …

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Zelda Fitzgerald — Save Me the Waltz with Stephanie Peebles Tavera 38:48

10M ago38:48

38:48

Send us a text Zelda Fitzgerald is known as “the first American flapper” and an icon of the Jazz Age, but you may be surprised to learn that beneath the glittering facade, there was substance—and literary talent. Her sole published novel, “Save Me the Waltz,” is a poignant blend of beauty and biography that draws on her complex personal narrative, …

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HiATUS ENCORE: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala — Heat and Dust with Brigitte Hales 46:11

10M ago46:11

46:11

Send us a text As Merchant Ivory super fans, we were surprised (and chagrined!) that we’d been unaware of Ismael Merchant and James Ivory’s longtime collaborator, novelist and Academy Award winning-screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Hollywood screenwriter Brigitte Hales joins us to discuss Jhabvala and her Booker Prize-winning 1975 novel, Heat and …

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HIATUS ENCORE: Edna Ferber — So Big with Dr. Caroline Frick 44:33

10M ago44:33

44:33

Send us a text New full-length episodes beginning Jan. 30. Edna Ferber’s So Big was the top-selling novel of 1924 and it won a Pulitzer Prize, yet it’s little known now! Wildly popular in its day, So Big was adapted for film three times, the second of which (in 1932) starred Barbara Stanwyck and featured a young Bette Davis in one of her earliest r…

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HIATUS ENCORE: The Woman of Colour: A Tale with Leigh-Michil George 39:07

10M ago39:07

39:07

Send us a text Published anonymously six years prior to Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park—yet largely ignored for two centuries—the Regency-era epistolary novel The Woman of Colour: A Tale is the only one of its kind to feature a racially-conscious Black heroine at its center. Dr. Leigh-Michil George, a lecturer in the English Department at Geffen Acade…

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Hiatus Replay: Maud Hart Lovelace — The Betsy-Tacy High School Books with Sadie Stein 44:29

11M ago44:29

44:29

Send us a text New episodes beginning January 30. Ready for some Edwardian Era YA? Set in Minnesota at the turn of the 20th century, Maud Hart Lovelace’s delightful Besty-Tacy series is closely based on the author’s idyllic midwestern childhood. In this week’s episode we’re discussing the four books that span Betsy’s high school years (1906-1910): …

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Hiatus Replay: Lucia Berlin — A Manual for Cleaning Women with Mimi Pond 36:30

11M ago36:30

36:30

Send us a text Back with new episodes on January 30. Lucia Berlin has been called one of America's "best kept secrets.” We’ll be discussing Berlin’s engrossing short short story collection A Manual for Cleaning Women, published posthumously in 2015 and soon to be adapted for the screen by Pedro Almodovar. Joining us is a longtime friend of Berlin’s…

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Hiatus Replay: Amy Levy — Reuben Sachs with Dr. Ann Kennedy Smith 41:09

11M ago41:09

41:09

Send us a text We’re back January 30, 2024 with all new episodes. Did you know there was a controversial, now-forgotten 1888 novel written in response to George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda by a writer who has been described as “the Jewish Jane Austen?” Until recently, neither did we. Join us as we talk with Dr. Ann Kennedy Smith about author Amy Levy an…

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Hiatus Replay: Jane and Mary Findlater — Crossriggs with Julie and Shawna Benson 44:16

11M ago44:16

44:16

Send us a text We’re back January 30, 2024 with all new episodes. Sisters Jane and Mary Findlater were literary celebrities in their day and counted the likes of Henry James, Virginia Woolf, and Rudyard Kipling among their admirers. We’ll be discussing one of their joint efforts, Crossriggs, which is considered their finest work. Joining us are Hol…

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Carrie J. Little Podcasts

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