Writers at Work

Rob Bowman

My guest on this episode of Writers at Work is Grammy winning music scholar, Rob Bowman, whose new book is LAND OF A THOUSAND SESSIONS: THE COMPLETE MUSCLE SHOALS STORY 1951-1985. If the role of Muscle Shoals, a town in Northwest Alabama, in modern music history doesn't immediately pop to mind, allow me to mention a few of the landmark tracks recorded there.
When A Man Loves a Woman by Percy Sledge, Land of a Thousand Dances by Wilson Pickett, You Better Move On by Arthur Alexander, I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You by Aretha Franklin, I'll Take You There by the Staple Singers, I'd Rather Go Blind by Etta James, If Loving You Is Wrong, I Don't Want To Be Right by Luther Ingram.
And then came the 1970s. In pursuit of the earthy funk sound captured in those studios, the rock and pop world invaded and the Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, Joe Cocker, Jimmy Cliff, Paul Simon, and Bob Seger cut major hits there with members of the fame house band sitting in.
Then country came calling. Willie Nelson, Hank Williams Jr., Mac Davis, Jerry Reed, and so on. To say Rob captures it all doesn't quite get it. Clocking in at 762 pages, including essential indices and with its fluid narrative style, LAND OF A THOUSAND SESSIONS at times feels like a minute-by-minute history.
Fortified with a generous supply of photography and printed on beautiful stock, the book is as appealing as it is essential. As a fan of the music made in Muscle Shoals, and as a music journalist, I loved it. In addition to his Grammy nominated liner notes that are worthy of independent publication, Rob is also the author of SOULSVILLE USA: THE STORY OF STAX RECORDS and THE LAST SOUL COMPANY: THE MALACO RECORDS STORY.

Marilyn Fu

With me today on Writers at Work is Marilyn Fu, screenwriter, whose ROSEMEAD starring Lucy Liu will open in New York on December 5. Directed by Eric Lynn, ROSEMEAD had its premiere at this year's Tribeca Film Festival and has been nominated for a slew of awards at such festivals worldwide. I've seen ROSEMEAD and found it deeply affecting and disturbing. I want to tread lightly because it is a finely woven tale I don't want to spoil. I'll ask Marilyn how we should proceed in discussing it.
Marilyn Fu is a graduate of Columbia University School of the Arts where she became the first recipient of the William Goldman Screenwriting Fellowship. As a reporter, she wrote for many Time Inc. publications. She wrote the screenplays for the 2014 thriller THE SISTERHOOD OF THE NIGHT, based on a Stephen Mullhauser short story, and the 2018 film THE HONOR LIST in which fourteen girls cope with the death of a friend. Moving forward, Marilyn wrote for the TV series THE BAXTERS and is a writer for THE COPENHAGEN TEST, a spy thriller to premiere in late December on Peacock.
As for ROSEMEAD, Marilyn received a 2025 Golden Horse Award nomination for best adapted screenplay, one of Asia's highest honors in cinema. Rosemead is the story of a Chinese American mother and son in Los Angeles whose lives are unraveling, mostly in secret from each other. It is based on a series that appeared in the Los Angeles Times.

Zorana Pringle

With me on this episode of Writers at Work is Zorana Pringle, author of THE CREATIVE CHOICE: THE SCIENCE OF MAKING DECISIONS TO TURN IDEAS INTO ACTION. Zorana is a senior research scientist at the Yale University Center for Emotional Intelligence, where she currently serves as the director of the Creativity and Emotions Lab.
She recently joined me at a live Writers at Work event in New Haven, and I wanted you to have an opportunity to hear her views on writing and creativity, and had a few questions for her that I didn't get to ask her on that night. As a writer, Zorana is a regular contributor to Psychology Today and Creativity Post. With more than 25 years as a scientist studying creativity, she brings insight into the nature of the creative process, from the first decision to engage with new ideas, to its culmination in creative performance and product.
Her work has been featured in the Harvard Business Review, Artnet, US News, Education Week, Science Daily, and other publications. Of The Creativity Choice, one reviewer wrote, "I've never read a clearer, more thoroughly researched, or more thoughtful framework for how we can all nurture creativity as a skill set. In the age of AI, when the last thing that will set humanity apart from machines is our creativity, I cannot think of a timelier moment for this book."

Todd Goddard

With me on this episode of Writers at Work is Todd Goddard, author of Devouring Time: Jim Harrison, A Writer's Life, the first biography of the protean American novelist, poet and screenwriter, Jim Harrison. Harrison's output indicates the magnitude of the task that confronted Todd, 21 novels and novellas, 20 volumes of poetry, essays, memoirs and other non-fiction works, and contributions to screenplays including the adaptation of his novella, Legends of the Fall.
As Todd reveals, Harrison forged a unique, a uniquely American form of storytelling through his connection to the land, to spiritual matters, by a voracious appetite for reading that began in early childhood, and by friendships with many of his contemporaries in the arts. Perhaps fittingly, Harrison died at his writing desk, pen in hand, in 2016 at age 78.
Todd Goddard earned his PhD in Literary Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his JD at the University of Connecticut Law School. He is an associate professor of Literary Studies at Utah Valley University. In Devouring Time, the scholarship is obvious and deftly distributed, but what's most wonderful about it is how Todd brings Harrison to such vivid life.
As Carl Hiaasen, who was a friend of Harrison said, "The biography is raw and revealing, yet with a sensitive eye for both the pain and the talent that made Jim one of modern America's most intriguing poets and novelists."

Robbie Arnott

With me on this episode of Writers at Work is Robbie Arnott, whose latest novel is DUSK, the hypnotic tale of adult twins, Iris and Floyd, who are in pursuit of a deadly puma across the Tasmanian wilderness. That desperate pursuit is also an attempt to escape from the reputation of their outlaw parents and perhaps find a place where they can belong.
DUSK is Robbie's fourth novel. His previous works have been acknowledged by nominations from many literary awards in Australia and beyond, including the Dylan Thomas Prize for Young Writers. His earlier novels, FLAMES, THE RAIN HERON, and LIMBERLOST are all available in the States. Last week, it was announced that Robbie was the winner of the ARA Historical Novel Prize, one of the richest literary awards in Australia, for DUSK. Of that novel, The Economist said, "This is a propulsive novel of survival and betrayal enriched by arresting depictions of nature." The Guardian added, "Arnott has an astonishing facility with language, and his prose imbues the Tasmanian wilderness with an extraordinary beauty."
I fully agree with those assessments.

Addie E. Citchens

With me today on Writers at Work is Addie E. Citchens, author of the new novel DOMINION, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. A family drama set in Dominion, Mississippi, it unfolds through the eyes of two women, Priscilla, wife of an abusive and well-to-do preacher and mother to five talented sons, and Diamond, girlfriend to Wonder Boy, the youngest of those five young men. Though warm and witty, the story is infused with a sense of dread on every page.
It is Addie E. Citchens’ debut novel. Addie's work has appeared in the New Yorker, the Paris Review, and Oxford America's Best of the South, among other publications. Her writing about the blues and its history appeared in Mississippi Folklife and on the Mississippi Arts Hour. Earlier this year, her short story “That Girl” won the O. Henry Prize. It was originally published in the New Yorker and can be found on that magazine's website.
Calling it, “absolutely outstanding,” of DOMINION Roxane Gay said, “it captures church, community, the South, and the gulf between the haves and have-nots with precision.” As a stranger to Priscilla and Diamond's world, I found DOMINION both captivating and an education, and a wonderful read.

Steven C. Smith

My guest on this episode of Writers at Work is Steven C. Smith, author of HITCHCOCK AND HERRMANN: THE FRIENDSHIP & FILM SCORES THAT CHANGED CINEMA. Before we proceed, a little story. Back in 2011, I proposed to the Wall Street Journal a story on the centennial of the birth of Bernard Herrmann.
Securing the assignment, I traveled to the University of Southern California in Santa Barbara to examine their Herrmann archives that includes almost all of his film scores, all written in Herrmann's own hand. I assumed an archivist would stay with me and help me see how Herrmann composed and orchestrated his great works.
But the archivist left me alone among pages and pages of scores. I was lost. I come to music by rock and folk. My sight reading is limited to top line melodies and maybe the baseline. Herrmann wrote for a full orchestra or unusual combination of instruments.
In one score, I recall, there were parts for seven organs to be played simultaneously. To help me understand what I had seen, I made two phone calls. One to John Williams, the composer and conductor, who earlier in his career played piano on Herrmann's sessions. The other was to Steven C. Smith, today's guest and author of A HEART AT FIRE’S CENTER: THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF BERNARD HERRMANN, an extraordinary biography I had read years earlier. Steven was very patient when he explained to me what Herrmann had achieved with his masterworks. For his first Herrmann book, Steven C. Smith received the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award.
Variety said that Herrmann book was responsible for, "A huge uptick of interest in that once neglected now practically deified film composer." Steven also produced some 200 documentaries about film and music, and is a four-time Emmy nominee.

Catherine Conybeare

With me today on Writers at Work is Catherine Conybeare, author and academic, who is widely acknowledged as an authority on Augustine of Hippo, known to many as St. Augustine. Katharine's new book is AUGUSTINE THE AFRICAN, which considers him in the context of his African heritage. He was born in Thagaste, a city in present-day Algeria in North Africa.
After about five years in Milan and Rome, agitated years according to the author, and following the death of his mother and son, he returned to the family home and in his mid-30s was ordained in Hippo, also in present-day Algeria. That remained his base until his death at age 75.
Catherine is the Lesley Clark Professor in the Humanities, and professor of Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies at Bryn Mawr. Her research centers on late antiquity, especially the writings of St. Augustine. She's the author of four previous books, including THE IRRATIONAL AUGUSTINE, and more than 80 articles and reviews. As a lay reader, I found AUGUSTINE THE AFRICAN to be a marvel.
One of the reasons is the quality of the prose. Though it is fortified with evidence that supports her conclusions, the story is never overburdened with gratuitous detail and it flows beautifully. What comes across is her delight in having discovered a new way to look at a man she describes as one of the most influential writers and thinkers in the history of humankind.