Roundtable: The Knotty Question of Voice

Today we have another of our roundtables and we’re focusing on voice: What really is voice? How does a writer create it? Change it? How do we differentiate between the writer’s voice and that of the narrator or character? When is voice too writerly or too uninspired? And how is it different from style? We’ll talk about these questions and a whole lot more with our four authors: Juliet Faithfull, Stacy Mattingly, Andrea Meyer, and Emily Ross.Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for a few weeks. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.I don’t charge for subscriptions, but if you’d like, you can support my work with with a small donation here.To find books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.Juliet Faithfull is a Spanish-British-American writer who grew up in Brazil. Liar’s Dice, her first novel which will be released in April, was a winner of the 2024 Irish Writers Centre’s Novel Fair and a semifinalist for the James Jones First Novel Fellowship.Stacy Mattingly is coauthor of the New York Times bestseller Unlikely Angel, an Atlanta hostage story now a feature film, Captive. She was a 2024-25 Fulbright U.S. Scholar to Bosnia and Herzegovina, where she has collaborated with writers for more than a decade. She teaches at Boston University, where she earned an MFA in fiction, and is an associate professor at Berklee College of Music. She has led workshops for the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation and the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program. Her recently completed first novel is set in present-day Sarajevo.Andrea Meyer is an author, editor, writing instructor, and book coach who has written three novels, a screenplay for MGM, numerous essays and film articles, and teaches fiction and nonfiction writing at GrubStreet.Emily Ross is the author of the mystery thriller SWALLOWTAIL (coming from Galiot Press in November 2025) and the International Thriller Writers Thriller Awards finalist, HALF IN LOVE WITH DEATH. She won the Al Blanchard best story award for her short story, “Let the Chips Fall”, which appeared in Devil’s Snare: Best New England Crime stories 2024. She is a graduate of Grub Street’s Novel Incubator and lives in Quincy, MA, with her husband and Obi-Wan Kenobi, their very playful cat.Photo by Jason Rosewell on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com