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