144 - Sofia Samatar - Local Writer - December 2, 2025

Sofia Samatar returns to the podcast to talk to us about her new book, Friendly City: A Year of Walks. She shares some of her writing strategies, some behind-the-scenes of book publishing, and of course - why this town is worth writing about in the first place! “Anyone can write about a large city—large cities are open to everyone—but small cities can only be portrayed by people who love them.” A few mentions: Ruby’s Arcade - A Harrisonburg original. - https://rubysarcade.com/ About Sofia: https://www.sofiasamatar.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sofia_Samatar https://www.jmu.edu/english/people/samatar-sofia.shtml Parentheses - A Harrisonburg Bookstore: (Sofia's book launch is on December 5, 2025 at 5pm.) https://www.parenthesesbooks.com/ If you don’t buy the book at Parentheses in person, you can still support the store by ordering it here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/friendly-city-a-year-of-walks-sofia-samatar/18c3d453de56a69e?ean=9781680600056&next=t