WritersCast

Kim Dower reading her poems for National Poetry Month, 2026

[https://www.writerscast.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Kim-Dower-Publicity-photo-200x300.jpeg]https://www.writerscast.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Kim-Dower-Publicity-photo.jpegAuthors Voices gives writers and poets a platform for reading their work. It’s been too infrequent a series in the past. Starting in 2026, inaugurated by this wonderful reading by Los Angeles poet Kim Dower, we will be presenting a monthly reading series with a representation of poets I feel have not received enough attention for their work. Kim’s reading took place on April 1, 2026, the first day of National Poetry Month. Unfortunately we were delayed in publishing this episode, so apologies are due to the poet. In this reading, Kim presents a range of her poems from her previously published books. Kim Dower was born and raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and has lived in Los Angeles for many years, where she is well known both for her poetry as well as her work in book publicity under the name “Kim from LA.” Kim is the former City Poet Laureate for West Hollywood, California and is the author of five acclaimed books of poetry. Among her books has been a Los Angeles Times bestseller, a finalist for the 2023 Eric Hoffer Book Award, I Wore This Dress Today for You, Mom­. Dower’s poems have been featured on Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac and Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry, as well as in many anthologies and journals, including Ploughshares, James Dickey Review, Plume, and Barrow Street. She teaches poetry workshops for Antioch University, UCLA Extension, and the West Hollywood Library. Kim lives with her family in West Hollywood, California. Her books are all wonderful and frequently funny. I Wore This Dress Today for You, Mom­ What She Wants Sunbathing on Tyrone Power’s Grave Last Train to the Missing Planet Her website is here. [https://bit.ly/4dEL4lM] [https://www.writerscast.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/9781636280233-225x300.jpg]https://www.writerscast.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/9781636280233.jpg[https://www.writerscast.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/9781597096218-200x300.webp]https://www.writerscast.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/9781597096218.webp The post Kim Dower reading her poems for National Poetry Month, 2026 [https://www.writerscast.com/kim-dower-reading-her-poems-for-national-poetry-month-2026/] first appeared on WritersCast [https://www.writerscast.com].

Anne Enright: Attention: Writing on Life, Art, and the World

[https://www.writerscast.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/9781324124139-201x300.jpg]https://www.writerscast.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/9781324124139.jpgAttention: Writing on Life, Art, and the World — Anne Enright — W.W. Norton — Hardcover — 978-1-324-12413-9 — 288 pages — $29.99 — April 7, 2026 — ebook and audio book versions available, prices vary Anne Enright has quickly become one of my favorite writers over the past several years. Her fiction is superb, her characters fully alive, and the complex stories of their lives are gripping. She has rightfully won just about every major award, including the Man Booker, a Whiting Campbell award, the Andrew Carnegie Medal, and in 2022 a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Irish Book Awards. We talked in person in 2020 just prior to the pandemic about her beautiful novel, Actress, a great honor for me. Her newest book, Attention: Writing on Life, Art, and the World, collects nearly thirty years of her essays that cover a wide range of topics, always focusing with laser attention on what matters most about her subjects, mostly writers. Some you will know well, others, unless you are Irish or particularly well read in contemporary Irish lit will be new to you, as they were to me. You’ve probably read James Joyce, Alice Munro, Angela Carter, and Toni Morrison, for example, but you may be less familiar with John McGahern or Maeve Brennan. I think Enright’s personal approach to these writers and the stories of how they have affected her life bring her unique perspective to all of them. But there is more, much more in this collection than writing about writers. The book is divided into three sections: “Voices,” “Bodies,” and “Time.” The first section collects her writing about writers and the second presents her essays about women, their bodies and who will control them, while the third section is broader (as time is, isn’t it?) and less specific, including essays about Canada (beautiful), where Enright spent time in her youth, Honduras for a visit, children and religion (challenging), and traveling with her husband, among others. Enright’s writing is always spot on, simultaneously warm and tough. It’s a great read. And the essays always leave the reader thoughtful and engaged, which I like very much. We had a great talk about a great many things, some not included in the book at all. Talking to Anne Enright is like being in a room where a brilliant salon is taking place. The conversation is always great, and like her essays, spur one to thought and reflection. What more could you ask for? “…she is one of the best essayists alive.”—Megan Nolan, Observer Anne Enright’s blog [https://bit.ly/4uGeyGZ] Buy: Attention: Writing on Life, Art, and the World [https://bit.ly/4nfHp2j] Novels * The Wig My Father Wore (1995) * What Are You Like? (2000) * The Pleasure of Eliza Lynch (2002) * The Gathering (2007) * The Forgotten Waltz (2011) * The Green Road (2015) * Actress (2020) * The Wren, the Wren (2023) Short Story Collections * The Portable Virgin (1991) * Taking Pictures (2008) * Yesterday’s Weather (2009) – A collection of new and selected stories Non-Fiction * Making Babies: Stumbling into Motherhood (2004) – Essays on motherhood * Attention: Writing on Life, Art and the World (2026) [https://www.writerscast.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/750_Anne_Enright-300x200.png]https://www.writerscast.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/750_Anne_Enright.png The post Anne Enright: Attention: Writing on Life, Art, and the World [https://www.writerscast.com/anne-enright-attention-writing-on-life-art-and-the-world/] first appeared on WritersCast [https://www.writerscast.com].

Publishing Talks Interview: Luke Palder of MemoirGhostWriting.com

[https://www.writerscast.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/luke-palder_headshot-240x300.jpg]https://www.writerscast.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/luke-palder_headshot.jpgI discovered the very interesting Luke Palder by accident one day when I saw an ad he ran for his memoir writing and publishing business, MemoirGhostWriting.com. It sounded really interesting, and similar enough to some of my own work that I wanted to find out more about his work. Luke is a serial entrepreneur in book publishing and production – he is the founder and CEO of ProofreadingServices.com, MemoirGhostwriting.com, TranslationServices.com, and TranscriptionServices.com. As he says about himself – “I’m committed to enhancing communication—whether it’s through the written word, across different languages, or from audio to text. My passion lies in empowering writers to share their stories, assisting businesses to overcome language barriers, and enabling individuals to immortalize their spoken words in written form. Leading these companies, my goal is to maintain the highest standards of service, treating every project with meticulous attention to detail.” Publishing Talks has given me the opportunity to meet and talk to so many smart people in the book business. I really enjoy sharing the boundless creativity that motivates so many of us in the book business. Luke exemplifies those qualities and what this series of conversations is about. It was a pleasure to get to speak with him about his work and I am sure you will find this conversation of interest. We had a great conversation about his work, the book business and the importance of storytelling, among other subjects. His passionate commitment to people and their stories is visible in everything he does. Luke is a Yale College graduate who also studied at Yale Law School, the Yale School of Management (SOM), Cambridge University, and Peking University. He is the founder of ProofreadingServices.com, serving more than 25,000 clients globally over 13 years. And he rode a bicycle across the United States, covering more than 4,000 miles in 63 days. He lives and works in North Carolina. MemoirGhostWriting.com [https://bit.ly/3OCNx7F] ProofreadingServices.com [https://bit.ly/4u1mNgi] [https://www.writerscast.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/MemoirGhostwriting_2-lines-300x48.png]https://www.writerscast.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/MemoirGhostwriting_2-lines.png The post Publishing Talks Interview: Luke Palder of MemoirGhostWriting.com [https://www.writerscast.com/publishing-talks-interview-luke-palder-of-memoirghostwriting-com/] first appeared on WritersCast [https://www.writerscast.com].

Jack El-Hai: The Nazi and the Psychiatrist

[https://www.writerscast.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/nazi-and-psychiatrist-Sept-2025-200x300.jpg]https://www.writerscast.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/nazi-and-psychiatrist-Sept-2025.jpg The Nazi and the Psychiatrist: Hermann Göring, Dr. Douglas M. Kelley, and a Fatal Meeting of Minds at the End of WWII — Jack El-Hai — PublicAffairs — 9781610394635 — 304 pages — Published September 2, 2014 — Paperback — $21.99 (ebook available at lower prices; audiobook download also available) The Nazi and the Psychiatrist was originally published more than ten years ago. It had some terrific reviews, and then became, like most books published today, a “backlist” title mostly available from online retailers. But now that it has become the basis of the well received film, Nuremburg, directed by James Vanderbilt, with a star studded cast, including Rami Malek, Russell Crowe, and Michael Shannon, the book has been re-issued in paperback and has deservedly found many new readers. In my conversation with its author, Jack El-Hai, we talked mostly about the book itself, and not so much about what it is like for an author to find his book rediscovered because of a movie, though Jack did explain that the film only focuses on a small part of the story El-Hai explored in the book. The Nazi and the Psychiatrist takes on what was a complex relationship between the American psychiatrist Douglas M. Kelley and the 22 Nazis who became his patients as they were imprisoned before their trial as war criminals in the 1945-46 International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. Of course the key figure among the Nazis was Herman Göring, who was not only an important early supporter of Hitler, as well as one of the central figures in the rise of Nazism, the conduct of WWII as head of the Luftwaffe, and of course one of the architects of the Holocaust. At the time he was captured by the Americans, he expected to become the next leader of Germany. Kelley was brought in to examine the Nazi leaders who were to be the first tried for war crimes by the Allies – the idea being to determine whether they were each rational enough to stand trial for their horrific actions. As a psychiatrist, this gave him an exceptional opportunity – to gather information about the psychology of Nazis and to understand whether they were indeed within the range of normal human behavior or pathological. Kelley became especially close with Göring, a formidable figure, who ultimately committed suicide rather than experience the humiliating death by hanging to which he was sentenced by the Tribunal. Kelley’s life was deeply influenced by his experiences with the Nazis, and El-Hai, who had access to Kelley’s files and talked extensively with his surviving children, paints a compelling portrait of a man whose suffering was extreme and led ultimately to his own unfortunate suicide some years later. Given our present circumstances, a book about the psychological components of authoritarianism and the individuals who led Germany’s fascist enterprise cannot help to resonate. Reading this book will make you think about the nature of evil (and Arendt’s calling it “banal”) as well as the way that fascism masks the personal greed and pursuit of power that drove it. I do recommend this book at anyone who is trying to grapple with what is happening to us now. And this conversation will be illuminating as well. Jack El-Hai is an award-winning writer who has published innumerable articles and more than a dozen books. Jack’s other books include Face in the Mirror, The Lost Brothers,  and The Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius and His Tragic Quest to Rid the World of Mental Illness. He has contributed articles to Scientific American, Wired, Discover, GQ, The Atlantic, Smithsonian, Aeon, The Washington Post Magazine, and many other publications. He lives in Minneapolis. “This intimate and insightful portrait of two intersecting, outsized personalities‑‑one an exemplar of public service and the other an avatar of evil‑‑is as suspenseful as a classic Hitchcock film that hinges on an eerie psychological secret. Readers of The Nazi and the Psychiatrist will be riveted by Jack El‑Hai’s moving study of how good and evil can converge in a heightened instant and across a lifetime.”—Andrew Solomon, National Book Award winning author of Far from the Tree Author website [https://bit.ly/4156TFm] Buy the book [https://bit.ly/4sQOM2g][https://www.writerscast.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Jack-El-Hai-200x300.jpeg]https://www.writerscast.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Jack-El-Hai.jpeg[https://www.writerscast.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/face-mirror-1600x2435-1-197x300.jpg]https://www.writerscast.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/face-mirror-1600x2435-1.jpg The post Jack El-Hai: The Nazi and the Psychiatrist [https://www.writerscast.com/jack-el-hai-the-nazi-and-the-psychiatrist/] first appeared on WritersCast [https://www.writerscast.com].

Publishing Talks Interview: Kathleen Schmidt, Publishing Confidential

[https://www.writerscast.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Kathleen-Schmidt-300x300.jpg]https://www.writerscast.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Kathleen-Schmidt.jpgI started Publishing Talks as a series of conversations with book industry professionals and others involved in media and technology, mostly talking about the future of publishing, books, and culture. It has been great fun talking with people in the book industry about the evolution of publishing in the context of technology, culture, and economics. These conversations have been inspirational to me. I have had the pleasure of speaking with visionaries and entrepreneurs, editors, publishers and others who have influenced and changed contemporary literature and culture. I’ve also had the opportunity to speak with a number of friends and colleagues in the book business. I really enjoy the opportunities to find out about the boundless creativity that motivates so many of us in the book business, and I also really enjoy talking to others in the business, who like me, have tried to make sense of it all in some way or another. Today’s conversation is with Kathleen Schmidt, a long time book publicist whose Substack newsletter Publishing Confidential [https://bit.ly/4cDnh70], is widely read within the book business. Her newsletter is always a great source of thoughtful ideas and commentary about the current state of publishing and book marketing and promotion. I was inspired to speak with her after reading one of her truly great posts this past December, “Marketing + Publicity in 2026: Change Needs to Happen: The good, the bad, and the ugly. [https://bit.ly/4dcpCG7]” Here’s a key quote from that piece that caught my attention right away: > “The industry must accept that some books absolutely will not get attention from legacy media and move towards what works for each book, whether that’s a marketing-heavy campaign or just pitching podcasts. Why are we still creating arbitrary publicity plans for every title when we know most of it is b.s.?” She went on from there to provide a meaningful list of ideas and practices that any publisher, publicist or author can learn from, be inspired by, and adapt for their own best practices. I appreciate her honesty, willingness to try new things, and her understanding that failure is not a bad thing, but a way to learn and get better at what we do. Everyone in the book business is frustrated by the current media landscape and by the massive number of new (and old) book titles that makes getting attention for any new book so difficult, not to mention the competition from other media forms, social media included, that take attention away from books and reading. But that frustration needs to be converted into positive energy. Otherwise you may as well quit doing what you love to do. Having a chance to speak with Kathleen was rewarding for me, and I am sure will be for you as well. She’s smart, creative and realistic. I am sure she is a good marketer too. We need more radical honesty, more innovation and more enjoyment in book marketing! Her bio: Kathleen is the founder and CEO of Kathleen Schmidt Public Relations with three decades of experience spanning publicity, literary representation, acquisitions editing, and ghostwriting. She has worked on more than 50 New York Times bestsellers and led global media and branding campaigns for politicians, A-list celebrities, athletes, and other high-profile figures. I found another recent interview with Kathleen by Christelle Lujan at She Writes Magazine. [https://bit.ly/4rfOsZ1]  In that interviewsays: “First and foremost, I want Publishing Confidential to be a resource for authors to learn about the publishing industry.” And here are a couple more of her posts: 30 Years in Book Publishing: What I’ve Learned [https://kathleenschmidt.substack.com/p/30-years-in-book-publishing-what] Why Advertising Doesn’t Work for Books [https://kathleenschmidt.substack.com/p/why-advertising-doesnt-work-for-books] And here is her business website, Kathleen Schmidt Public Relations [https://kmspr.com/].[https://www.writerscast.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Publishing-Confidential.webp]https://www.writerscast.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Publishing-Confidential.webp The post Publishing Talks Interview: Kathleen Schmidt, Publishing Confidential [https://www.writerscast.com/publishing-talks-interview-kathleen-schmidt-publishing-confidential/] first appeared on WritersCast [https://www.writerscast.com].