My first draft of this letter came out a little too sentimental so I’ll instead lead with the lede: I have a new podcast. It’s called BookSmitten, and I’m co-hosting it with a group of big-hearted children’s and YA authors (who all just happen to live here in Michigan). We’re talking about writing and craft, but also very much about reading. We’re talking about children’s books, and how they can be a source of hope and connection – and sometimes escape – amid everything else that’s happening in the world.
You can hear how this podcast came together in the first episode, embedded above and available in the usual places (Apple, Spotify, Google, Overcast, etc.) Toward the beginning, my co-host Patrick really gets at the sense of isolation that some of us had been feeling, and how stoked we all were to sit down, on a regular basis, and talk about books:
You know, there’s a lot of random, getting together with a writer friend at a coffee shop to talk about what we’re doing … a lot of get-togethers around books and writing. And you know, we’re isolated when we write and there is joy that we get in that, but it can’t happen without balancing that out with making real human connections around art and creativity, and just humanity and the world. So a resolution of mine being to try to reach out and make more connections, and this regular podcast makes that a lot easier for me.
There are too many things I want to excerpt from this episode, from Patrick and from our other co-hosts Kelly and Heather. So instead I’ll just encourage you again to listen and subscribe. We’ll be posting new episodes every other Wednesday.
