Radio Show

Writers’ Block on WHMP 

I host Writers’ Block on WHMP radio in Northampton, Massachusetts every Monday at 10:30 a.m., part of the daily morning show, Talk the Talk. My guests include writers, booksellers, publishing professionals, educators, librarians, and readers. You can listen live on the WHMP website, when the show airs again at 4:30 p.m., or via the podcast (see below). 

Writers’ Block on Podcast 

Episodes recorded before 2024 begin at about the three-quarters mark.

September 30, 2024: Fred Waitzkin, author of Anything Is Good

September 16, 2024: Bernard Schwartz, executive producer of literary programs for the Authors Guild Foundation, and poet/novelist Luis Alberto Urrea discussing the WIT Literary Festival at Shakespeare & Company in Lennox, Sept. 27-29

September 9, 2024: Rachel Kushner, author of Creation Lake

August 19, 2024: Whatcha Reading? with musician Tommy Harte

August 5, 2024: Marjan Kamali, author of The Lion Women of Tehran

July 22, 2024: Peg Duffy, manager of Northampton's Booklink Booksellers

July 15, 2024: Tammy Greenwood, author of The Still Point

July 11, 2024: Me! Talking about romance novels and the boom in romance-themed bookstores

July 8, 2024: Jendi Reiter, author of Origin Story

July 1, 2024: Ben Shattuck, author of The History of Sound

June 24, 2024: Valerie Joseph and Michael LaRiccia, writer and illustrator of This is What Maisie Believes

June 18, 2024: Catherine Newman, author of Sandwich

June 10, 2024: Emma Copley Eisenberg, author of Housemates

June 3, 2024: Poets Jen Jabaily-Blackburn (Girl in a Bear Suit) and Amanda Shaw (It Will Have Been So Beautiful)

May 20, 2024: Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster editor-at-large

May 13, 2024: Christopher Carlisle, author of Pickett's Dream

May 6, 2024: Cathie Mercier, director of the Center for the Study of Children’s Literature at Simmons University and curator of Pictures at Play: Metafiction in Art at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art (May 4–November 3, 2024)

April 29, 2024: Emily Crowe, Penguin Random House sales manager for New England and Upstate New York

April 15, 2024: Holly Gramazio, author of The Husbands

April 8, 2024: Margot Douaihy, author of Blessed Water, the second of the Sister Holiday mysteries

April 1, 2024: Ilyon Woo, author of  Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom

March 25, 2024: Discussion of 1980s romance novelist Sylvia Halliday, a.k.a. Louisa Rawlings, author of Dreams so Fleeting

March 18, 2024: Judge Michael Ponsor, author of Point of Order

March 11, 2024: Writers’ Block host, Megan Rubiner Zinn (that’s me!)

March 8, 2024: Perugia Press poet, Carolina Hotchandani, author of The Book Eaters, and Perugia Press editor, Rebecca Hart Olander

February 26, 2024: Rachel Lyon, author of Fruit of the Dead

February 19, 2024: Whatcha Reading? with Northampton High School Senior Katie James

February 12, 2024: Susan Elizabeth Phillips, author of Simply the Best

February 5, 2024: Anne Pinkerton, author of  Were You Close? A Sister's Quest to Know the Brother She Lost

January 30, 2024: Ilan Stavans, co-founder of Restless Books publishing

January 22, 2024: Jon Clinch, author of The General and Julia

January 8, 2024: Lisa Prolman, assistant director of Greenfield Public Library

December 18, 2023: John Sheirer, author of For Now: One Hundred 100-Word Stories

December 11, 2023: Ana Reyes, author of The House in Pines

December 4, 2023: Liz Rosenberg, owner of the Toy Box in Amherst, on buying books for kids 

November 27, 2023: Kevin and Dianne Germain, owners of Splendor Solis Books, an antiquarian bookshop (and website) in Northampton

November 20, 2023: Robert Radin, author of Noche Triste: A Memoir of Anorexia

November 13, 2023: James Jennings, author of Wings of Red

November 6, 2023: Crystal Maldonado, author of The Fall of Whit Rivera

October 30, 2023: Suzanne Michelle Smith, author of Ag and Gunner

October 23, 2023: Kim Coleman Foote, author of Coleman Hill

October 16, 2023: Whatcha Reading? with Laura Tilsley Garcia (recently retired CIO/vice president of information technology and library services at Greenfield Community College) and Velma Garcia (recently retired professor of government at Smith College)

October 9, 2023: Amy Chua, author of The Golden Gate

October 2, 2023: Mara Breen, Mount Holyoke professor of psychology and education, talking about her research on reading acquisition and reading comprehension

September 18, 2023: With the phones and internet down at WHMP, Bill interviews me about the books I love

September 11, 2023: Buz and Bill interview me about attending Steamy Lit Con and the Yale Popular Romance Fiction Conference

August 28, 2023: J. Vanessa Lyon, author of Lush Lives

August 14, 2023: Emily Todd and Matteo Pangallo, editors of Teaching the History of the Book

August 7, 2023: Megan Tady, author of Super Bloom (interview at the beginning of the podcast)

July 24, 2023: Richard Russo, author of Somebody’s Fool

July 17, 2023: Chloe Gong, author Immortal Longings

July 10, 2023: Writer, coach, and editor, Kate Senecal

June 26, 2023: Boston Globe books editor, Francie Lin

June 19, 2023: Whatcha Reading? with Kate Hudson, senior lecturer at the UMass Amherst College of Education

June 12, 2023: Jeremy Bushnell, author of Relentless Melt

June 5, 2023: Claire Fuller, author of The Memory of Animals

May 22, 2023: Yvette Lisa Ndlovu, author of Drinking from Graveyard Wells

May 16, 2023: Christina Lauren (Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings), authors of The True Love Experiment

May 15, 2023: Poet and Perugia Press editor, Rebecca Hart Olander

May 1, 2023: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of Chain Gang All-Stars

April 24, 2023: Susannah Noel, production editor at St. Martin’s Press

April 17, 2023: Whatcha Reading? with sixth grader, Elizabeth Galman, and her mother, UMass Amherst education professor Sally Pirie

April 10, 2023: Joan Grenier, owner of Odyssey Bookshop in South Hadley, Massachusetts

April 3, 2023: Jarrett J. Krosoczka, author and illustrator of Sunshine: How One Camp Taught Me About Life, Death, and Hope

March 27, 2023: Romance novelist Sarah MacLean and romance editor Jen Prokop, hosts of the Fated Mates podcast

March 20, 2023: John Sayles, author of  Jamie MacGillivray: a Renegade’s Journey

March 13, 2023: Whatcha reading? with writer and bookseller, Sean Norton

March 6, 2023: Jennifer Rosner, author of Once We Were Home

February 27, 2023: Margot Douaihy, author of  Scorched Grace

February 20, 2023: Mary Beth O’Connor, reading specialist at Ryan Road School in Northampton, Massachusetts

February 13, 2023: Madden Aleia, owner of Bookends in Florence, Massachusetts 

February 6, 2023: Whatcha Reading? with writer and musician, Nerissa Nields

January 30, 2023: James Cambias, author of The Scarab Mission

January 23, 2023: Antiquarian book dealer Hosie Baskin

December 19, 2022: MB Caschetta, author of A Cheerleader’s Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

December 12, 2022: Lexie Walters Wright, owner of High Five Books in Florence, Massachusetts

December 5, 2022: Pete Nelson, writer and composer of the stage musical, Last Request: A Love Story

November 28, 2022: Whatcha Reading? with Greg White, Smith College professor of government

November 21, 2022: Lisa Downing, director of Forbes Library in Northampton, Massachusetts

November 14, 2022: Andrea Hariston, author of Master of Poisons

November 7, 2022: Archer Mayor, author of Fall Guy

October 31, 2022: Writer Lisa Papademetriou on Nanoramo (National Novel Writing Month)

October 24, 2022: GennaRose Nethercott, author of Thistlefoot

October 17, 2022: Whatcha Reading? with Susan Rees, school nurse in Northampton

October 10, 2022: Lynda Cohen Loigman, author of The Matchmaker’s Gift

October 3, 2022: Roz Kreshak-Hayden, bookseller at Broadside Books in Northampton

October 26, 2022: Catherine Newman, author of We All Want Impossible Things