Books on the Bed

This week we visit with Jacquelyn Zong-Li Ross in Vancouver, British Columbia.  Jacquelyn Zong-Li Ross is a writer and editor based in Vancouver, the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Her fiction, poetry, essays, and art criticism have appeared in BOMB, C Mag, The Ex-Puritan, Fence, Mousse, and elsewhere, as well as in the chapbooks Mayonnaise and Drawings on Yellow Paper (with Katie Lyle). By day, she works as an editor at The Capilano Review. By night, she drafts suspended scenarios and propositions. The Longest Way to Eat a Melon, her debut collection of fictions, was published by Sarabande Books in 2025. She is at work on a novel. BUY AND READ THE LONGEST WAY TO EAT A MELON For more on Jacquelyn: jacquelynzross.com Jacquelyn's Books on the Bed: Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing by Hélène Cixous The Importance of Being Iceland by Eileen Myles The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli Pure Colour by Sheila Heti lettuce lettuce please go bad by Tiziana La Melia The Cloud Notebook by Ada Smailbegović Matt's gifts for Jacquelyn: Little Bird by Claudia Ulloa Donoso (translated by Lily Meyer) Undermajordomo Minor by Patrick deWitt Temporary by Hilary Leichter 

This week we visit with Alison Lyn Miller in Athens, Georgia. Alison Lyn Miller grew up in Hartwell, Georgia, and worked as a magazine editor in New York City and Dallas before moving to Athens, Georgia, in 2017. In 2020, she started reporting and writing about independent professional wrestlers around the state and published pieces in Sports Illustrated and Gravy. Her first book, Rough House (W.W. Norton, Jan. ’26), set in Georgia’s small-town professional wrestling scene, explores themes of escapism, self-actualization, performance and violence, and reveals the depth of an often-dismissed American pastime. She has written for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Washington Post, and Garden & Gun, among others, and has been awarded residencies at the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts & Science (2023) and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (2024). She is 2021 graduate of the Narrative Nonfiction MFA program at The University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism & Mass Communication. BUY AND READ ROUGH HOUSE For more on Alison: alisonlynmiller.com Alison's Books on the Bed: The Last Cowboys: A Pioneer Family in the New West by John Branch The Last Fine Time by Verlyn Klinkenborg The Library Book by Susan Orlean The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel Hiroshima by John Hersey Dirtbag Queen: A Memoir of My Mother by Andy Corren Matt's Gifts for Alison: Bookshop Cats by Daphne Du Meowier They Said They Wanted Revolution by Neda Toloui-Semnani A Race to the Bottom of Crazy: Dispatches from Arizona by Richard Grant Gene Smith's Sink: A Wide-Angle View by Sam Stephenson

This week we visit with Alice Martin in Waynesville, North Carolina. Alice Martin is a writer, reader, and teacher from North Carolina. She holds a PhD in Literature from Rutgers University and works as an Assistant Professor of English Studies at Western Carolina University, where she teaches fiction writing and American literature. She lives outside of Asheville, North Carolina with her husband, her son, and too many typewriters. Westward Women is her debut novel. For more on Alice: alicejmartin.com BUY WESTWARD WOMEN Alice’s Books on the Bed: The Extraordinary Work of Ordinary Writing: Annie Ray's Diary by Jennifer Sinor Envelope Poems: Poetry by Emily Dickinson (edited by Jen Bervin and Marta Werner) If I Had Two Wings: Stories by Randall Kenan The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood Bad Behaviour by Mary Gaitskill The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter Matt’s Gifts for Alice: The Night Journal by Elizabeth Crook Call It Horses by Jessie van Eerden Girl’s Girl by Sonia Feldman (forthcoming June 2nd)

This week we visit with Nathaniel Roy in Ypsilanti, Michigan.  Nathaniel Roy is a book designer, collage maker, photo taker, self-publisher, and a few other things. He's a graphic designer who specializes in book design, but for the right cause, he'll design just about anything. He's keenly interested in local, independent, and non-profit projects and is currently an in-house designer at the Ann Arbor District Library and available for freelance opportunities. His clients include Simon & Schuster, W. W. Norton, Wayne State University Press, University of Texas Press, Penn State University Press, Minnesota Historical Society Press. HIRE THIS GUY: nathanielroy.com Nate's Books on the Bed: The Clothing of Books by Jhumpa Lahiri Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman The Dark Interval: Letters on Loss, Grief, and Transformation by Rainer Maria Rilke Letters of Note: An Eclectic Collection of Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience by Shaun Usher Boom Town: The Fantastical Saga of Oklahoma City, Its Chaotic Founding... Its Purloined Basketball Team, and the Dream of Becoming a World-class Metropolis by Sam Anderson Matt's Gifts for Nate: The Salt Stones: Seasons of a Shepherd's Life by Helen Whybrow American Bulk by Emily Mester A History of Half-Birds by Caroline Harper New  

This week we visit with Ashleigh Bryant Phillips in Asheville, North Carolina.  Ashleigh Bryant Phillips is from rural Woodland, North Carolina. She's a graduate of Meredith College and earned an MFA from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. Her debut short story collection Sleepovers is the winner of the 2019 C. Michael Curtis Short Story Book Prize, selected by Lauren Groff. Her stories have appeared in The Oxford American, The Paris Review and others.  For more on Ashleigh: ashleighbryantphillips.com Ashleigh's Books on the Bed: Will You Please Be Quiet, Please by Raymond Carver Portraits and Dreams: Photographs and Stories by Children of the Appalachians  1976-1982, 2009-2018 by Wendy Ewald  Bambi by Felix Salten, translated by Damion Searls Free Day by Inès Cagnati, translated by Liesl Schillinger The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross The Royal Diaries: Cleopatra VII: Daughter of the Nile, Egypt, 57 B.C. by Kristiana Gregory Matt's Gifts for Ashleigh: Where the Roots Reach for Water: A Personal & Natural History of Melancholia by Jeffery Smith Reading Reconstruction: Sherwood Bonner and the Literature of the Post-Civil War South by Kathryn B. McKee Room Swept Home by Remica Bingham-Risher

This week we visit with Nilo Tabrizy in Brooklyn, New York. Nilo Tabrizy is the co-author (with Fatemeh Jamalpour) of For the Sun After Long Nights, a moving exploration of the 2022 women-led protests in Iran, as told through the interwoven stories of two Iranian journalists. She is an investigative reporter at The Washington Post working for the visual forensics team, where she covers Iran using open-source methods. Previously, she was a video journalist at The New York Times, covering Iran, race and policing, abortion access, and more. She is an Emmy nominee and the 2022 winner of the Front Page Award for Online Investigative Reporting. She received an M.S. in journalism from Columbia University and a B.A. in political science and French from the University of British Columbia. For more on Nilo: ntabrizy.com Nilo's Books on the Bed: Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám Women's Voices from Kurdistan: A Selection of Kurdish Poetry (edited by Farangis Ghaderi, Clémence Scalbert Yücel, Yaser Hassan Ali) Puerto Rico: A National History by Jorell Meléndez-Badillo An Anthology of the Experiences of Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Victims (Third Collection) by Hiroshima Association for the Success of the Atomic Bomb Exhibition Family Lexicon by Natalia Ginzburg (must-read afterword by Peg Boyers!) They Said They Wanted Revolution: A Memoir of My Parents by Neda Toloui-Semnani Matt's Gifts for Nilo: As Seeds We Grow: Student Reflections on Resilience (edited by Elise Boulanger) Heating the Outdoors and Between the Moments: Canadian Aboriginal Voices by Marie-Andrée Gill Daughters of Palestine by Leyla K. King      

This week we visit with Tessa Fontaine in Asheville, North Carolina.  Tessa Fontaine is the author of The Electric Woman: A Memoir in Death-Defying Acts and The Red Grove, her debut novel. Raised outside San Francisco, Tessa teaches in Warren Wilson’s MFA program, started Salt Lake City’s Writers in the Schools program, and has taught in jails and prisons for years. She co-founded and teaches the Accountability Workshops with writer and pal Annie Hartnett, and lives in Asheville, North Carolina, with her daughter, silly dog and sassy cat. For more on Tessa: tessafontaine.com Tessa's Books on the Bed: Sun Under Wood by Robert Hass Coming Through Slaughter by Michael Ondaatje Jazz by Toni Morrison The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews We the Animals by Justin Torres Matt's Gifts for Tessa: Leaving Biddle City by Marianna Chan Obit by Victoria Chang Chooch Helped by Andrea L. Rogers (illustrated by Rebecca Kunz)    

This week we visit with Andrea L. Rogers in Mountainburg, Arkansas.  Andrea L. Rogers is an award-winning author of historical and contemporary fiction across a variety of genres. Her first book, Mary and the Trail of Tears is historical fiction, which is pretty much horror for Native people. It was on both the NPR & American Indians in Children’s Literature best of 2020 lists. Her critically acclaimed Young Adult Horror Novel, Man Made Monsters, was released by Levine Querido in October 2022. It includes illustrations by Jeff Edwards (Cherokee). The novel received the Walter Award and several other accolades. She also authored a YA novel of Cherokee Futurism called The Art Thieves, released in August 2024. Her debut picture book about Southeastern tribes and wild onion dinners (the opposite of horror) is called When We Gather, illustrated by Madelyn Goodnight (Chickasaw). A second picture book, Chooch Helped, arrived in October 2024, illustrated by Rebecca Kunz(Cherokee). Chooch Helped won the 2025 Caldecott Medal. Andrea is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She currently attends The University of Arkansas in Fayetteville where she is a doctoral student in English. Andrea graduated with an MFA from the Institute for American Indian Arts. She taught Art and HS English in public schools for 14 years. She has three wonderful children. Andrea's Books on the Bed: A Golden Treasury of Song and Lyrics by Francis Turner Palgrave The Conquest of Texas: Ethnic Cleasing in the Promised Land, 1820-1875 by Gary Clayton Anderson The Ballad of Black Tom and The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History by Erik Larson Wasteland: The Great War and the Origins of Modern Horror by W. Scott Poole Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places by Colin Dickey Fall in Line, Holden! and Herizon by Daniel W. Vandever Matt's Gifts for Andrea: Roots of My Fears: Terrifying Stories of Ancestral Horror (Edited by Gemma Amor) The Ghost Variations by Kevin Brockmeier The Unsettled by Ayana Mathis

This week we visit with Michael Amos Cody in Johnson City, Tennessee.  Michael Amos Cody was born in the South Carolina Lowcountry and raised in the North Carolina highlands. He spent his twenties writing songs in Nashville and his thirties in school. He’s the author of the novels Streets of Nashville (Madville Publishing) and Gabriel’s Songbook (Pisgah Press) and short fiction that has appeared in Yemassee, Tampa Review, Still: The Journal, and elsewhere. His short story collection, A Twilight Reel (Pisgah Press) won the Short Story / Anthology category of the Feathered Quill Book Awards 2022. Cody lives with his wife Leesa in Jonesborough, Tennessee, and teaches in the Department of Literature and Language at East Tennessee State University. For more on Michael: michaelamoscody.com Michael's Books on the Bed: Wieland by Charles Brockden Brown Merciful Days by Jesse Graves This House of Sky by Ivan Doig One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko Dixie City Jam by James Lee Burke Matt's Gifts for Michael: Blood Sisters by Vanessa Lillie The Which Way Tree by Elizabeth Crook  

This week we visit with Nic Brown in Clemson, South Carolina.  Nic Brown is a writer and a musician. He has published several books, including the memoir Bang Bang Crash (Counterpoint 2023), which was named a book of the year by Library Journal and Booklist, and the novels In Every Way (Counterpoint 2015), Doubles (Counterpoint 2010), and Floodmarkers (Counterpoint 2009), which was selected as an Editors' Choice by The New York Times Book Review. His newest book, Violent Femmes' Violent Femmes, will be published by Bloomsbury on May 14, 2026, as part of their 33 1/3 series of books about music.  Nic's writing has appeared in The New York Times, Oxford American, and the Harvard Review, among many other publications.  A graduate of Columbia University and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Nic has served as the Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi and is now a professor at Clemson University. He is also a drummer. With his first band, Athenaeum, he released two records on Atlantic Records. The first single off their first album peaked at #14 on the Billboard Alternative Rock charts. He has since recorded and toured with many acts, including Ben Lee, Longwave, Skeleton Key, Kim Richey, Matt Pond PA, and Eszter Balint.  For more on Nic: nicbrown.net Nic's Books on the Bed: Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson Swimming Studies by Leanne Shapton Light Years by James Salter A Man Named Doll by Jonathan Ames Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel The Complete Guide to Stonescaping: Dry-Stacking, Mortaring, Paving & Gardenscaping by David Reed Matt's Gifts for Nic:  What Doesn't Kill You Open Your Heart by Max Hipp Streets of Nashville by Michael Amos Cody

This week we visit with Toni Jensen in Springdale, Arkansas.  Toni Jensen’s Carry is a memoir-in-essays about gun violence, land and Indigenous women’s lives (Ballantine 2020). An NEA Creative Writing Fellowship recipient in 2020, Jensen's essays have appeared in Orion, Catapultand Ecotone. She is also the author of the short story collection From the Hilltop. She teaches at the University of Arkansas and the Institute of American Indian Arts. She is Métis. For more on Toni: tonijensen.com Toni's Books on the Bed: Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich Winter in the Blood by James Welch Grassland by Richard Manning Hum by Jamaal May This Is Not Your City by Caitlin Horrocks Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones Matt's Gifts for Toni: Silver Box by Natachee Momaday Gray The Antidote by Karen Russell  Retablos: Stories from a Life Lived Along the Border by Octavio Solis   Graphic Design by Nathaniel Roy Design Music by Eliza Edens from her album Time Away From Time (2020)  

This week we visit with Damon Young in his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh writer DAMON YOUNG’s debut memoir, What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays (Ecco), won the Thurber Prize for American Humor. His new book, That's How They Get You: An Unruly Anthology of Black American Humor released on June 3rd, 2025. A founder of the culture blog Very Smart Brothas and creator and host of the Crooked Media podcast Stuck with Damon Young, Damon has been a contributing columnist for The Washington Post Magazine, a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, and a columnist for GQ and was the inaugural writer-in-residence at the University of Pittsburgh’s David C. Frederick Honors College. Buy his new book here! Damon's Books on the Bed: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien Catch-22 by Joseph Heller Killing Yourself to Live by Chuck Klosterman The Broke Diaries by Angela Nissel Supreme Clientele by Ghostface Killah (Album) Matt's Gifts for Damon: Good Women by Halle Hill English Lit by Bernard Clay Native Hoops: The Rise of American Indian Basketball, 1895-1970 by Wade Davies   Graphic Design by Nathaniel Roy Design Music by Eliza Edens from her album Time Away From Time (2020)

This week we visit with Kevin Brockmeier in his hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas.  In addition to his latest book, The Ghost Variations: One Hundred Stories, Kevin Brockmeier is the author of the novels The Illumination, The Brief History of the Dead, and The Truth About Celia; the story collections Things That Fall from the Sky and The View from the Seventh Layer; the children’s novels City of Names and Grooves: A Kind of Mystery; and a memoir of his seventh-grade year called A Few Seconds of Radiant Filmstrip. His work has been translated into eighteen languages. He has published his stories in such venues as The New Yorker, The Georgia Review, McSweeney’s, Zoetrope, Tin House, The Oxford American, The Best American Short Stories, The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, and New Stories from the South. He has received the Borders Original Voices Award, three O. Henry Awards (one, a first prize), the PEN USA Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and an NEA Grant. In 2007, he was named one of Granta's Best Young American Novelists. He teaches frequently at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and lives in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he was raised. For more on Kevin: kevinbrockmeier.com Kevin's Books on the Bed: The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino The Cockroaches of Stay More by Donald Harington The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars by Daniel Pinkwater Turtle Diary by Russell Hoban Crash by J.G. Ballard Matt's Gifts for Kevin: That's How They Get You: An Unruly Anthology of Black American Humor by Damon Young Little Worlds by Rob Amberg Yoke & Feather by Jessie van Eerden   Graphic Design by Nathaniel Roy Design Music by Eliza Edens from her album Time Away From Time (2020)  

This week we visit with Jen Fawkes in her hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas.  Jen Fawkes is the author of Daughters of Chaos, a literary alternate history in which a female Union spy discovers a secret society of magical women that spans millennia. Pulitzer Prize finalist Kelly Link called Daughters of Chaos "ferociously, radiantly compelling," and according to Publishers Weekly's starred review, the novel is a "dazzling historical fantasy . . . both the historical and fantastical elements come alive in Sylvie’s suspenseful narration, which is interwoven with the text of the imaginary play. Fawkes wows with this wildly original tale.” Jen's first book, Mannequin and Wife, was a 2020 Shirley Jackson Award Nominee, the winner of the 2023 Phillip H. McMath Post-Publication Book Award, and a Foreword INDIES gold medalist. Her collection Tales the Devil Told Me was a ForewordINDIES silver medalist, one of Largehearted Boy’s Favorite Collections of 2021, and a finalist for the 2022 World Fantasy Award for Single-Author Story Collection. Jen's short fiction has won numerous awards, including the 2021 Porter Fund Literary Prize, and has appeared in One Story, Lit Hub, the Iowa Review, swamp pink, Best Small Fictions, and many others. A two-time finalist for the Calvino Prize for fabulist fiction, Jen lives in Little Rock, Arkansas. For more on Jen: jenfawkes.com   Jen's Books on the Bed: Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls  Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez The Odyssey by Homer (Translated by Robert Fagles) Piranesi by Susanna Clarke Matt's Gifts for Jen: The Unseen by Roy Jacobsen (Translated by Don Barlett, Don Shaw) Seawomen of Iceland: Survival on the Edge by Margaret Willson   Graphic Design by Nathaniel Roy Design Music by Eliza Edens from her album Time Away From Time (2020)  

This week we visit with Amy Le Ann Richardson in Carter County, Kentucky. Amy Le Ann Richardson earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Spalding University (‘09) and is the author of two poetry chapbooks, Make Believe Worlds We Built Together (Bottlecap Press, 2023) and Who You Grow Into (Finishing Line Press, 2024), as well as a full collection, Out of Places (Pine Row Press, 2025). Her work has been featured in journals such as Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, Kentucky Monthly, Untelling, and Still: The Journal. She currently lives and works on her family farm in Carter County, Kentucky, where she writes, grows food, and engages with her community through art and environmental advocacy. You can find her artwork at www.chickenhousestudio.com and her farm at www.forgottenfoods.com. Also, see her Etsy store here: https://kymtnwriter.etsy.com Amy's Books on the Bed: The Book of Delights by Ross Gay Where You Come from Is Gone by Annie Woodford Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place by Neema Avashia When Stars Rain Down by Angela Jackson-Brown Strange As This Weather Has Been by Ann Pancake Gay Poems for Red States by Willie Edward Taylor Carver, Jr.  Matt's Gifts for Amy: Glass Jaw by Raisa Tolchinsky Thunder Song: Essays by Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe  

This week we visit with Kristen Renee Miller in Louisville, Kentucky. KRISTEN RENEE MILLER is the director and editor-in-chief at Sarabande Books. An award-winning poet and translator, she is a 2023 NEA Fellow and the translator of two books from the French by Ilnu Nation poet Marie-Andrée Gill. She is the recipient of honors from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, AIGA, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Gulf Coast Prize in Translation, and the American Literary Translators Association. Her work can be found widely, including in Poetry Magazine, The Nation, and Best New Poets. She lives in Louisville, Kentucky. For more about Kristen: kristenreneemiller.com Read Sarabande Books! sarabandebooks.org Kristen's Books on the Bed: Six Memos for the Next Millennium by Italo Calvino Mots d'Heures: Gousses, Rames: The d'Antin Manuscript by Luis d'Antin van Rooten Busman's honeymoon by Dorothy Sayers No one belongs here more than you. Stories by Miranda July Adverbs by Daniel Handler Madeleine Is Sleeping by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum Matt's Gifts for Kristen: The Song Poet: A Memoir of My Father by Kao Kalia Yang Daughters of Chaos by Jen Fawkes Sequoyah: The Cherokee Man Who Gave His People Writing by James Rumford

This week we visit with Isa Arsén in San Antonio, Texas. Isa Arsén is a certified bleeding heart based in South Texas, where she lives with her spouse and a comically small dog. Her work has been featured in Stone of Madness Press, The McNeese Review, and several independent anthologies and audiovisual projects. Her novels include SHOOT THE MOON (Putnam, 2023), and THE UNBECOMING OF MARGARET WOLF (Putnam, 2025). When not wrangling prose, Isa is a dialogue engineer & writer for interactive media. For more on Isa: inarsen.com Isa's Books on the Bed: H of H Playbook by Anne Carson The Ring of the Nibelung by P. Craig Russell The Charioteer by Mary Renault The Study of Counterpoint: from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum (translated and edited) by Alfred Mann The Art of Writing Nonfiction by Andre Fontaine and William A. Glavin, Jr.  The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy Matt's Gifts for Isa: The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather Lolly Willowes : or the loving huntsman by Sylvia Townsend Warner Moon Child (album) by Kelley Smith

This week we visit with Naomi Shihab Nye in San Antonio, Texas. Naomi Shihab Nye describes herself as a “wandering poet.” She has spent more than 40 years traveling the country and the world to lead writing workshops and inspiring students of all ages. Nye was born to a Palestinian father and an American mother and grew up in St. Louis, Jerusalem, and San Antonio. Drawing on her Palestinian-American heritage, the cultural diversity of her home in Texas, and her experiences traveling in Asia, Europe, Canada, Mexico, and the Middle East, Nye uses her writing to attest to our shared humanity. Naomi is the author and/or editor of more than 30 volumes of poetry, four novels, and an essay and short story collection. Learn more about Naomi at the American Academy of Poets.   Naomi's Books on the Bed: Garden Time by M.S. Merwin Every War Has Two Losers by William Stafford An Ordinary Woman by Lucille Clifton Does the Land Remember Me? A Memoir of Palestine by Aziz Shihab Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza by Mosab Abu Toha The Year I Stopped to Notice by Miranda Keeling Matt's Gifts for Naomi: The Listening Skin by Glenis Redmond George Masa: A Life Reimagined by Janet McCue and Paul Bonesteel Ways of Being Home by Cecilia Sotelo Cornejo (film)  

This week we visit with Elizabeth Crook in Austin, Texas.  Elizabeth Crook is the author of six novels: The Raven’s Bride and Promised Lands, The Night Journal, Monday, Monday, The Which Way Tree, and The Madstone. In 2023 Elizabeth received the prestigious Texas Writer Award from the Texas Book Festival and in 2025 the Texas Medal of Arts in Literary Arts and the Texas Institute of Letters' prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award. Elizabeth lived in Nacogdoches, Texas and then San Marcos, Texas with her parents and brother and sister until age seven when the family moved to Washington D.C., where her father was director of Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) for Lyndon Johnson. Two years later her father was appointed Ambassador to Australia and the family moved to Canberra. When they returned to Texas Elizabeth attended public schools in San Marcos, graduating from San Marcos High School. She attended Baylor University for two years and graduated from Rice University in 1982. Elizabeth's Books on the Bed: Silver Pennies (and More Silver Pennies) by Blanche Jennings Thompson  Precious Bane by Mary Webb A Tale of Two Cities and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens True Grit by Charles Portis Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry Now You Hear My Horn: The Journal of James Wilson Nichols, 1820-1887 by James Wilson Nichols Matt's Gifts for Elizabeth: The House Is on Fire by Rachel Beanland Gorilla by Lee Stockdale Call It Horses by Jessie van Eerden

This week we visit with Henry Wise in Staunton, Virginia. Henry is a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute and the University of Mississippi MFA program. A writer across multiple genres, his poetry has been published in Shenandoah, Radar Poetry, Clackamas, Nixes Mate Review, and elsewhere. His nonfiction and photography have appeared in Southern Cultures. "Holy City" is his first novel. For more on Henry: henrywise.com Henry's Books on the Bed:  Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad My Antonia by Willa Cather Legends of the Fall by Jim Harrison Go Down, Moses by William Faulkner West with the Night by Beryl Markham Joe by Larry Brown Matt's Gifts for Henry: Shutter and Exposure by Ramona Emerson Honeybee by Naomi Shihab Nye

This week we visit with Glenn Taylor in Morgantown, West Virginia. Glenn Taylor’s fourth novel, "The Songs of Betty Baach" won the 2023 Juniper Prize in Fiction. His first novel, "The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart" was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award. Glenn’s work has appeared in such venues as the Oxford American, The Guardian, Gulf Coast, and Huizache. Born and raised in Huntington, West Virginia, he now resides with his family in Morgantown, where he is at work on a new novel. For more on Glenn: glenntaylorbooks.org Glenn's Books on the Bed: The Milkweed Ladies by Louise McNeill good woman: poems and a memoir by Lucille Clifton Gringos by Charles Portis Trampoline by Robert Gipe  Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone by Eduardo Galeano Road-side Dog by Czeslaw Milosz Matt's Gifts for Glenn: God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer by Joseph Earl Thomas The Way the Moon by Holly Haworth

This week we visit with Ann Pancake in Reedsville, West Virginia.  Ann Pancake grew up in Summersville and Romney, West Virginia and graduated from WVU with a Bachelor of Arts in English. After teaching English in Japan, American Samoa and Thailand, she earned a Masters degree in English from the University of North Carolina and a doctorate in English Literature from the University of Washington. Pancake is—publicly and fervently—a West Virginia writer. She is the author of two story collections set in West Virginia: “Given Ground,” winner of the Bakeless Prize, and “Me and My Daddy Listen to Bob Marley,” a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. Her novel “Strange as This Weather Has Been” features a southern West Virginia family struggling with a mountaintop removal mine. It was named one of Kirkus Review’s Top Ten Fiction Books of the year, was a New York Times Editor’s Choice, won the 2007 Weatherford Prize and was a finalist for the 2008 Orion Book Award. “Strange as This Weather Has Been” is now cited and taught as a key piece of literature about Appalachian coal country. Ann's Books on the Bed: Braiding Sweetgrass and The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer Deer Man: Seven Years of Living in the Wild by Geoffroy Delorme The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Mind and Our World by Max Fisher Country Queers: A Love Letter by Rae Garringer The Chaneysville Incident by David Bradley Bloodroot by Bill King Matt's Gifts for Ann: Groundglass by Kathryn Savage Trinity by Zelda Lockhart  

This week we visit with Meredith McCarroll in Portland, Maine.  Meredith McCarroll was born and raised in Waynesville, North Carolina. She is the author of “Unwhite: Appalachia, Race, and Film” (2018) and co-editor of “Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy” (2019). She graduated from Appalachian State University, and later earned a Masters from Simmons College and a PhD from University of Tennessee. She lives now in Portland, Maine where she writes and teaches writing. For more on Meredith: meredithmccarroll.com Meredith's Books on the Bed: Heavy by Kiese Laymon Sleepovers: Stories by Ashleigh Bryant Phillips Cane by Jean Toomer Trampoline by Robert Gipe The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman and the Members of Tectonic Theater Project Matt’s Gifts for Meredith: The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty Cinema Ann Arbor by Frank Uhle Three Rivers Cornmeal Mix  

This week we visit with Elizabeth Gonzalez James in Sharon, Massachusetts.  Elizabeth Gonzalez James is a screenwriter and bestselling author of the novels, The Bullet Swallower and Mona at Sea, as well as the chapbook, Five Conversations About Peter Sellers. The Bullet Swallower was named a best book of 2024 by NPR, Esquire, and elsewhere, was a Book of the Month Club pick, and was featured on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” as one of their spring book club picks. Elizabeth was featured on the MSNBC documentary “My Generation” representing the Millennials. She has taught fiction writing at Grub Street, Pioneer Valley Writers Workshop, Story Studio, and elsewhere. Originally from South Texas, Elizabeth now lives with her family in Massachusetts. Elizabeth’s Books on the Bed: Jorge Luis Borges: Collected Fictions Temporary by Hilary Leichter The Dog of the South by Charles Portis CivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George Saunders Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Mona by Pola Oloixarac Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God Matt’s gifts for Elizabeth: Blood Test by Charles Baxter  Recollecting: Lives of Aboriginal Women of the Canadian Northwest and Borderlands by Sarah Carter and Patricia A. McCormack  

This week we visit with Rachel Beanland in Richmond, Virginia. Rachel is the author of two novels, The House Is On Fire (Simon & Schuster, 2023) and Florence Adler Swims Forever (Simon & Schuster, 2020). The House Is On Fire was selected as an Indie Next pick by the American Booksellers Association, a ‘GMA Buzz Pick’ by Good Morning America, a “most anticipated” book by the Washington Post, and one of the best books of 2023 by NPR and The New Yorker. Beanland’s debut novel, Florence Adler Swims Forever, was selected as a book club pick by Barnes & Noble, a featured debut by Amazon, an Indie Next pick by the ABA, and one of the best books of 2020 by USA Today. It was also named a New York Times Editors’ Choice and was recognized with the 2020 National Jewish Book Award for Debut Fiction. Beanland attended the University of South Carolina and earned her MFA in creative writing from Virginia Commonwealth University. She has taught at the College of William & Mary, Virginia Commonwealth University, and the University of Richmond, where she was the 2023-24 Writer-in-Residence. Beanland lives in Richmond, Virginia with her family. Rachel’s Books on the Bed: The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan Young Woman and the Sea: How Trudy Ederle Conquered the English Channel and Inspired the World by Glenn Stout The Richmond Theater Fire: Early America’s First Great Disaster by Meredith Henne Baker The Color of Water by James McBride The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl Matt’s gifts for Rachel:  The Price of a Child by Lorene Cary The Which Way Tree by Elizabeth Crook

This week we visit Kristen Gentry in Louisville, Kentucky. Kristen is the author of Mama Said, longlisted for the 2024 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection. She received her M.F.A. from Indiana University. Her award-winning fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and appeared in Electric Literature, Crab Orchard Review, and other journals. She is a VONA and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference alumna, former Director of Creative Writing at SUNY Geneseo, and a member of the inaugural Poets & Writers publicity incubator for debut writers. She lives and writes in her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky.   For more about Kristen and Mama Said: kristengentry.com Kristen's Books on the Bed: The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer Gorilla, My Love by Toni Cade Bambara Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts by Crystal Wilkinson Matt's Gifts for Kristen: Rattlebone by Maxine Clair Fifth Born by Zelda Lockhart    

This week we visit Gerry Wilson in Jackson, Mississippi. A seventh generation Mississippian, Gerry Wilson grew up in the red clay hills of the north that she writes about in her debut novel, THAT PINSON GIRL, released by Regal House Publishing in February 2024. A story, “Tell Me Anything,” appeared in Persimmon Tree in June 2024. Another story, “A Language of Their Own,” was runner-up for The Porch Fiction Prize 2024. “Life Line” was a finalist in decembermagazine’s Curt Johnson Prose Award for Fiction and was published in december in the spring of 2023. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous other journals. Gerry is a 2025 Mississippi Arts Commission Literary Artist Fellowship recipient. Gerry has a new Substack publication, “Stories I’m Old Enough to Tell,” where she writes—well—basically whatever is on her mind, but mostly about her writing journey. For more about Gerry: gerrywilson.com Gerry's Books on the Bed: The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien Can't Quit You, Baby by Ellen Douglas Music of the Swamp by Lewis Nordan A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor Light in August by William Faulkner A Curtain of Green & Other Stories by Eudora Welty Matt's Gifts for Gerry: The Five Wounds by Kirstin Valdez Quade Room Swept Home by Remica Bingham-Risher

This week we visit Natachee Momaday Gray in Coyote, New Mexico. Natachee is a New Mexican poet and artist whose work focuses on the melding of art and myth, ancestry and nostalgia, food and prayer, glamour, frivolity, and time. A native of Santa Fe, she has many artistic talents as a poet, hand fashioned bookmaker, fiction writer, Chanteuse, and film maker. In her uniquely creative voice, she draws on her Kiowa and Apache heritage to create compelling stories that transcend designation. Her debut poetry collection, Silver Box, can be found here and on my Staff Picks shelf at City Lights Bookstore (Sylva, NC).  Natachee's Books on the Bed: The Ancient Child by N. Scott Momaday Martin & Meditations on the South Valley by Jimmy Santiago Baca Historic Cookery: Authentic New Mexican Food by Fabiola de Baca Gilbert Hazards of Grace by Gary Worth Moody Earth Keeper: Reflections on the American Land by N. Scott Momaday A Book of Days by Patti Smith Matt's gifts for Natachee: The Animals of My Earth School by Mildred Kiconco Barya Moonrise Over New Jessup by Jamila Minnicks  

This week we visit Mildred Barya in Asheville, NC. Mildred is a native of Kabale, Uganda and the author of four books of poetry: The Animals of My Earth School, Men Love Chocolates But They Don't Say, The Price of Memory: After the Tsunami, and Give Me Room to Move My Feet. She is currently Associate Professor of Creative Writing & World Literature at the University of North Carolina - Asheville.  For more on Mildred's life and work: mildredbarya.com Mildred's Books on the Bed:  The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy The Book of Chameleons by Jose Eduardo Agualusa The Tarot Companion by Liz Dean Artful by Ali Smith Drinking from the River of Light by Mark Nepo Still I Rise (Poem) by Maya Angelou Matt's Gifts for Mildred: The Earth Keeper by N. Scott Momaday We Are Each Other's Harvest by Natalie Baszile   Episode timeline: 0:00 - 5:15 — Intro 5:16 - 43:15 — Gifts for Mildred and stories of Mildred's life 43:16 - 1:32:11 — Mildred's Books on the Bed    

This week we visit Jessie van Eerden in Roanoke, VA. Jessie is a native of Preston County, WV and the author of novels "Glorybound", "My Radio Radio", and 'Call It Horses", and portrait essay collection "The Long Weeping". Her new essay collection "Yoke & Feather" is out now, so go forth and read!  Jessie has taught for over twenty years in college classrooms and adult literacy programs, and she directed the low-residency MFA writing program of West Virginia Wesleyan College for seven years. She is Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Hollins University. For more on Jessie: jessievaneerden.com Jessie's Books on the Bed: The Murmuring Deep by Avivah Gottlied Zornberg Barrabas by Par Lagerkvist Houskeeping by Marilynne Robinson The Long Loneliness by Dorothy Day Deepstep Come Shining by C.D. Wright Rose by Li-Young Lee Matt's gifts for Jessie: Fire Sermon and A Life by Wright Morris   Episode timeline: 0:00 - 6:47 — Intro 6:48 - 52:35 — Gifts for Jessie, discussing Jessie's life and work 52:36 - 1:33:09 — Jessie's Books on the Bed    

CHARLES BAXTER is the author of the novels "The Feast of Love" (nominated for the National Book Award), "First Light", "Saul and Patsy", "Shadow Play", "The Soul Thief", and "The Sun Collective", and the story collections "Believers", "Gryphon", "Harmony of the World", "A Relative Stranger", "There’s Something I Want You to Do", and "Through the Safety Net". His stories have appeared in several anthologies, including The Best American Short Stories, The Pushcart Prize Anthology, and The O. Henry Prize Story Anthology. He has won the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story. Baxter lives in Minneapolis. Charles Baxter | Penguin Random House Conversation location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Charles' Books on the Bed: "The Night of the Hunter" by Davis Grubb "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov "If I Survive You" by Jonathan Escoffery  "The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter" "So Long, See You Tomorrow" by William Maxwell "The Widow's Children" by Paula Fox Matt's gifts for Charles: "The Librarianist" by Patrick deWitt "The Mountains Have Come Closer" by Jim Wayne Miller   Episode timeline: 0:00 - 4:05 — Intro 4:06 - 31:47 — GIfts for Charles, Backstory to "The Soul Thief", and discussing Charles' new book "Blood Test" 31:48 - 1:24:51 — Charles' Books on the Bed

Jim Minick is the author or editor of eight books, including Without Warning: The Tornado of Udall, Kansas (nonfiction), “The Intimacy of Spoons” (poetry), Fire Is Your Water, (novel), and The Blueberry Years: A Memoir of Farm and Family. Minick’s work has appeared in many publications including The New York Times, Poets & Writers, Oxford American, Orion, Shenandoah, The Sun, Conversations with Wendell Berry, Appalachian Journal, Wind, and The Sun. He serves as co-editor of Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel. Minick’s honors include the Jean Ritchie Fellowship in Appalachian Writing and the Fred Chappell Fellowship at UNC-Greensboro. Minick has also won awards from the Southern Independent Booksellers Association, Southern Environmental Law Center, The Virginia College Bookstore Association, Appalachian Writers Association, Radford University, and elsewhere. His poem “I Dream a Bean” was picked by Claudia Emerson for permanent display at the Tysons Corner/Metrorail Station. He’s garnered grants from the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, Augusta University, Georgia Humanities Council, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. To learn more about Jim:  jim-minick.com Interview Location: Smyth County, Virginia Jim’s Books on the Bed: The Meadow by James Galvin I Am One of You Forever by Fred Chappell Turn Me Loose: The Unghosting of Medgar Evers by Frank X Walker The Mountains Have Come Closer by Jim Wayne Miller Harper Single Volume American Literature, Third Edition Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier Matt’s gifts for Jim: The Song of Everything by Glenis Redmond The Good Lord Bird by James McBride Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams Jim's Bedside Books: Our Southern Birds by Emma Bell Miles The French Broad by Wilma Dykeman Waking by Ron Rash Divine Right’s Trip: A Novel of the Counterculture by Gurney Norman The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture by Wendell Berry Suttree by Cormac McCarthy The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje Episode timeline: 0:00 - 6:45 — Introduction 6:46 - 41:10 Matt's gifts for Jim and Jim's story 41:11 - 1:55:05 — Jim's Books on the Bed  

Glenis Redmond is the First Poet Laureate of Greenville, South Carolina. She is a Kennedy Center Teaching Artist, and a Cave Canem alumni. She has authored six books of poetry: Backbone (Underground Epics, 2000), Under the Sun (Main Street Rag, 2002), and What My Hand Say (Press 53, 2016), Listening Skin (Four Way Books), Three Harriets & Others (Finishing Line Press), and Praise Songs for Dave the Potter, Art by Jonathan Green, and Poetry by Glenis Redmond (University of Georgia Press).  Glenis was born on Shaw AFB in Sumter, South Carolina. She presently resides in Greenville. She was the founder of the Greenville Poetry Slam in the early 90’s. She received her MFA in Poetry from Warren Wilson College while touring full-time as a poet and mother-of-twins, Amber, and Celeste Sherer. She is now a Gaga to three grandchildren Julian and Paisley and newborn, Quinn. Glenis has spent almost three decades touring the country as a poet and teaching artist. Since 2014, she has served as the mentor poet for the National Student Poets Program through Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. In the past she has prepared these exceptional youth poets to read at the Library of Congress, the Department of Education, and for First Lady Michelle Obama at The White House. For more about Glenis: glenisredmond.com Interview location: Greenville, South Carolina Glenis' Books on the Bed: Generations: A Memoir by Lucille Clifton The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010 Gullah Spirit and Gullah Images by Jonathan Green Kindred by Octavia Butler Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston In Search of Color Everywhere by E. Ethelbert Miller (Editor) & Terrance Cummings (Illustrator) June Jordan's Poetry for the People Matt's gifts for Glenis: Call It Horses by Jessie van Eerden  Searching for Dr. Harris by Margaret Humphreys   Episode timeline:  0:00-4:52 — Intro 4:53-58:19 - Glenis' story 58:20-1:58:28 - Glenis' Books on the Bed

Mandi Fugate Sheffel was born and raised in Red Fox, KY. She owns and operates Read Spotted Newt, an independent bookstore in the coalfields of eastern Kentucky, and is currently the Sycamore Fund Project Coordinator at The Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky. She is the board vice chair of the Appalachian Arts Alliance and a Mountain Association board member. Mandi is a graduate of Eastern Kentucky University.  Visit Read Spotted Newt! readspottednewt.com Read some of Mandi's recent writing:  Appalachia deserves more than coal or cages. - Lexington Herald Leader We will rebuild in EKy. Then we must ask why 100-year floods are happening so often. Interview location: Hazard, KY Mandi’s Books on the Bed: The Beatinest Boy by Jesse Stuart Christy by Catherine Marshall Clay’s Quilt by Silas House Trampoline by Robert Gipe Fair and Tender Ladies by Lee Smith Kinfolks: The Wilgus Stories by Gurney Norman Matt’s gifts for Mandi: O Pioneers! By Willa Cather Outlawed by Anna North  

Kathryn Savage’s Groundglass: An Essay (Coffee House Press), explores topics of environmental justice and links between pollution and public health. Groundglass was named a best read of the year by the Sydney Morning Herald, a Yale Review Favorite Cultural Artifact of 2022, and was showcased in Orion Magazine, Lit Hub, and selected by EcoLit Books as a Best Environmental Book of 2022. Recipient of the Academy of American Poets James Wright Prize, her writing across forms has been supported by the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Jerome Foundation, Minnesota State Arts Board, Ucross Foundation, and Tulsa Artist Fellowship. Savage has studied creative writing at The New School, holds an MFA in fiction from Bennington College, and an MFA in poetry from the University of Minnesota. Recent writing appears or is forthcoming in American Short Fiction, BOMB Magazine, Ecotone Magazine, Guernica, VQR, World Literature Today, and the anthology Rewilding: Poems for the Environment. Currently she is an assistant professor of creative writing at The Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD). She is at work on a collection of short stories. To learn more about Kathryn: kathrynsavage.com Interview location: Minneapolis, MN Kathryn's Books on the Bed: Escapes by Joy Williams The Dry Heart by Natalia Ginzburg An Ideal Presence by Eduardo Berti What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah Fixer by Edgar Kunz Dear Memory by Victoria Chang Second Stack: Sing to It: Stories by Amy Hempel Wonderlands by Charles Baxter Matt's gifts for Kathryn: A History of Half-Birds by Caroline Harper New Return the Innocent Earth by Wilma Dykeman   Episode timeline: 0:00-5:29 — Intro 5:30-29:22 — Kathryn's story, history in Minneapolis, & Groundglass 29:23-1:59:47 — Kathryn's Books on the Bed & Second Stack  

Dr. ZELDA LOCKHART holds a PhD in Expressive Art Therapies, an MA in Literature, and a certificate in writing, directing and editing from the NY Film Academy. Her work as an author and expressive arts consultant and educator centers on the power of story and nature to connect us across barriers and to heal our generations. She is winner of the Lambda Literary Foundation 2024 Jim Duggins Outstanding Mid-career Novelist Prize. Her books include HarperCollins 2023 release Trinity (a novel) translated and released by HarperCollins France 2024 as Entends ma voix. Her other works include The Soul of the Full-Length Manuscript: Turning Life’s Wounds into the Gift of Literary Fiction, Memoir, or Poetry. Her other novels are Fifth Born which was a Barnes & Noble Discovery selection and a Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Award finalist, Cold Running Creek a Black Caucus of the American Library Association Honor Fiction award winner, and Fifth Born II: The Hundredth Turtle a 2011 Lambda Literary Award finalist. Lockhart is Director at Her Story Garden Studios: Inspiring Black Women to Self-Define, Heal, and Liberate Through Our Stories & Nature.  To learn more about Zelda: zeldalockhart.com Interview location: Durham, NC Zelda’s Books on the Bed: The Mimosa Tree by Vera and Bill Cleaver The Black Notebooks by Toi Derricote Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison Beloved by Toni Morrison Trinity by Zelda Lockhart Matt’s gifts for Zelda:  The Last Children of Mill Creek by Vivian Gibson Woman of Light by Kali Fajardo-Anstine   Episode timeline: 0:00-4:07 — Intro 4:08-9:08 — Matt presents gifts to Zelda 9:09-14:32 — Eliza Edens song "Garden of Sound" and ecology metaphor 14:33-1:49:35 — Zelda's Books on the Bed

Remica Bingham-Risher, a native of Phoenix, Arizona, is an alumna of Old Dominion University and Bennington College. She is a Cave Canem fellow and Affrilachian Poet. Among other journals, her work has been published in the New York Times, the Writer’s Chronicle, New Letters, Callaloo and Essence. She is the author of Conversion (Lotus, 2006) winner of the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award, What We Ask of Flesh (Etruscan, 2013) shortlisted for the Hurston/Wright Award and Starlight & Error (Diode, 2017) winner of the Diode Editions Book Award. Her first book of prose, Soul Culture: Black Poets, Books and Questions that Grew Me Up, was published by Beacon Press in 2022. Her next book of poems, Room Swept Home, was published by Wesleyan in February 2024. She is currently the Director of Quality Enhancement Plan Initiatives at Old Dominion University and resides in Norfolk, VA with her husband and children. Learn more about Remica: remicabinghamrisher.com Interview location: Norfolk, VA   Remica’s Books on the Bed: If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin Home by Toni Morrison The Book of Light by Lucille Clifton Joe Turner’s Come and Gone by August Wilson The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion Fast Animal by Tim Seibles Matt’s gifts for Remica: To ‘Joy My Freedom by Tera Hunter Somerset Homecoming by Dorothy Spruill Redford   Episode timeline: 0:00-3:33 — Intro 3:34-28:17 — Remica's family history, new book Room Swept Home, reading poems 28:18-42:10  — Matt presents gifts to Remica 42:11-1:38:59 — Remica's Books on the Bed  

Welcome to Books on the Bed!  Logo design by Nathaniel Roy - nathanielroy.com Theme music: Eliza Edens - "Ramble" (Instrumental) from Time Away From Time (2020) More about Eliza: eliza-edens.com