kt literary podcast kt literary

This week’s guest. Doan Phuong Nguyen is a middle grade author, photographer, daydreamer, and creative girlie girl. She was born in Vietnam and immigrated to the United States when she was in elementary school. She received her MFA in Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Rachel Werner joins us today to talk about the art (and grind) of becoming a full time writer. She gives us freelance tips, marketing ideas, and talks about the importance of an email newsletter! She’s an author, content creator and media consultant from Madison Wisconsin. She’s the founder of The Little Book Project WI as well as a teaching artist for Hugo House, The Loft Literary Center and Lighthouse Writer' Workshop. She’s written a cook book, and a science book for kids. Her next kidlit book with Capstone (“Moving and Grooving to Fillmore’s Beat”) will be released in Fall 2023. It seems there’s nothing she can’t do.

In this episode, Parrish Turner joins Chelsea and Renee to talk about the HarperCollins union, the 2022 strike, and the passion for the job that keeps him going.

Katy James joins us today to talk about her book TOO MUCH MAN. It's a fun, flirty debut about a grumpy former hockey player and a bisexual coffee-shop owner refuse to commit—to themselves or each other. We talk about identity, hockey, and Katy's day job as an archivist and rare book librarian.

THE MANY HALF-LIVED LIVES OF SAM SYLVESTER is about an autistic trans kid navigating their new school while finding friends—and love, along the way. It’s written by Maya MacGregor, and though they are no stranger to publishing, it’s their debut YA novel!

Maya and Allegra talk about the joys of bringing Sam and their story to life, the exciting time we’re in for queer stories, and telling this story to their past selves. Both these people are fantastic and when we wrapped up our interview, my cheeks hurt from smiling so much. I hope this interview makes you feel the same way.

Meet our new agent, Kari Sutherland! We are so excited to have her on the team!