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Upstart Crow: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Upstart Crow Podcast
Dedicated to promoting books and culture through engaging and informative podcasts. Our mission is to inspire our listeners to explore the literary arts and appreciate the diversity of ideas within our amazing world. We invite a diverse range of writers, historians, and cultural influences to share their expertise. From established artists to up-and-coming creatives, our guests provide unique perspectives on writing, the literary arts, and culture. Hosted by Ken Budd, Jennifer Disano, and William Miller.
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- Yesterday43 min
Tara Leskowski - The Happiness of The Cold Read
A decade after making the horror film that launched their careers, a cast of actors reunites at the remote ski resort where the original movie was filmed. They're there to announce a sequel, but the past has a way of catching up with people. A mysterious disappearance, buried secrets, a demanding director, and a group of actors with plenty to hide make for a reunion that is anything but happy.In her fourth novel, The Cold Read, Tara Laskowski pays homage to horror movies while exploring the complicated relationship between fiction and reality. The original film, No One Can Hear You Scream, has become a cult classic, and its cast members have spent the intervening decade building very different lives. Now they're back together, but the events surrounding the original production haven't been forgotten.In this interview with host William Miller, Tara discusses the inspiration behind The Cold Read, her love of horror films, and the challenges of creating an ensemble cast of characters with multiple perspectives. She talks about how fictional stories take on lives of their own, how online fan communities can become armchair detectives, and why setting and atmosphere are so important to her storytelling.The conversation also looks back at Tara's journey from award-winning short fiction to suspense novels, including her earlier books One Night Gone, The Mother Next Door, and The Weekend Retreat. She shares her writing process, her fascination with character-driven suspense, and why sometimes a writer has to let beloved characters make terrible decisions.There is also a look at the humor that runs through her work, the appeal of isolated settings, the role of revenge and justice in fiction, and the sometimes unpredictable process of writing a novel.About Tara LaskowskiTara Laskowski is the author of four suspense novels: The Cold Read, The Weekend Retreat (2023), The Mother Next Door (2021), and One Night Gone (2019).She has also written two short story collections, Bystanders (2016), winner of the SFWP Literary Awards Program Grand Prize, and Modern Manners for Your Inner Demons (2012, revised and expanded in 2017).Tara has won the Agatha Award and Thriller Award for her short fiction and was the longtime editor of the online flash fiction journal SmokeLong Quarterly. She lives in Virginia with her husband, crime writer Art Taylor, and their son, Dashiell.Visit Tara's website:https://taralaskowski.com/Learn more about The Cold Read:https://harlequin.com/products/the-cold-readTopics DiscussedTara's transition from award-winning short fiction to writing novels.The inspiration behind The Cold Read and her love of horror movies.The fictional horror film No One Can Hear You Scream and the cast's reunion a decade later.The blending of fiction and reality, including the stories fans create around fictional characters and films.How online horror communities become amateur detectives when something goes wrong.Writing ensemble casts and using multiple points of view to tell a story.The importance of setting, weather, isolation, and atmosphere in suspense fiction.The challenges of writing mysteries without always knowing who the killer will be.The role of humor, sarcasm, revenge, and justice in dark fiction.Tara's writing process and why characters sometimes need to make mistakes.Her earlier novels, including One Night Gone, The Mother Next Door, and The Weekend Retreat.The continuing influence of her short fiction background and her years editing SmokeLong Quarterly.Key TakeawaysShort fiction and novels require different approaches. Tara explains how moving from flash fiction and short stories to writing 300-page novels was a significant challenge, even after publishing four novels.Characters drive suspense. Tara is particularly drawn to domestic and psychological suspense because of the opportunities to explore complicated characters, relationships, secrets, and self-sabotage.Multiple perspectives can reveal different truths. By telling stories through several characters, Tara allows readers to see the same events through different experiences and motivations.Fiction can take on a life of its own. The Cold Read explores how audiences interact with fictional worlds, creating fan theories, discussions, and even their own stories around the characters and events.Setting can become a character. From an isolated beach town to a wealthy family's winery and an abandoned ski resort, Tara uses geograph
- 1 weeks ago1h 0m
Shubha Sunder - The Push and Pull of Constructing a Life
Second of four in the Upstart Crow–Fairfax County Public Library Interview Series, celebrating America's 250th anniversary. More information about the series and upcoming interviews is available below.If a person has room and time to choose where and how to construct a life, what will they choose? How aware will they be of the process before, during, and after? How much awareness does it take to make wise choices? How will the person deal with the consequences of choosing?These are the overarching questions that run through the books of Shubha Sunder. Her stories are low-key and calm, but they bring to the forefront major decisions by individuals—decisions that stem from their past, determine their future, and limit their further options.In her first book, a collection of short stories titled Boomtown Girl, set in her native Bangalore, India, Sunder dramatizes ordinary lives in the 1990s in a part of India poised to jump into the anachronisms of the twenty-first century. The region would become India's Silicon Valley, even as the name of her hometown shifted from the Anglicized Bangalore to the more historic Bengaluru.These are everyday choices with big consequences: parents who overindulge their children; adults who move between the United States and India in search of better opportunities; children who want to attend college in the States but whose parents cannot afford it—or who don't have the grades; and young adults caught between letting their parents arrange their marriages and choosing for themselves the person with whom they will spend the rest of their lives. Quiet acts, but consequential ones.Now shift time forward. Take one of those young women and bring her to the United States, where she has earned her undergraduate degree and is staying for a year of Optional Practical Training—the title of Sunder's first novel and the program her central character enters after graduation.Framed almost entirely through conversations, the novel depicts the choices and challenges involved not so much in starting over as in simply getting started.Vulnerabilities abound in both the stories and the novel. Sunder captures her characters in those significant moments of vulnerability that accompany making choices—experiences shared by people everywhere.Shubha Sunder is a 2025 Whiting Award winner. Her collection of stories, Boomtown Girl, won the 2021 St. Lawrence Book Award, and her novel, Optional Practical Training, won the 2025 New American Voices Award and was a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. She lives in Boston and teaches in the creative writing MFA program at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.Key Takeaways• Home is not necessarily a fixed place. Sunder explores how the meaning of home changes as people move between countries, cultures, and different stages of life.• Immigration is an internal experience as much as an external one. The choices, questions, and evolving sense of identity that accompany immigration can be just as significant as the practical challenges of moving to another country.• Constructing a life involves vulnerability. Even people who appear confident and capable are often navigating uncertainty, competing expectations, and difficult decisions.• Opportunity and privilege are not the same as security. Even immigrants who have education, resources, and a legal path to remain in the United States can face considerable uncertainty.• Conversations can reveal character and move a story forward. Sunder explains how the unconventional structure of Optional Practical Training, told almost entirely through conversations, allows readers to understand her protagonist through the people she encounters.• Cultural expectations are constantly evolving. Through the characters in Boomtown Girl, Sunder examines the changing expectations surrounding marriage, family, education, ambition, and personal independence in 1990s Bangalore.• A writer's perspective can change over time. Sunder discusses how writing short stories about her native India helped prepare her to write about the immigrant experience in the United States.• Identity and belonging are ongoing negotiations. The experience of becoming an immigrant involves continually reassessing one's relationship with the place left behind and the place chosen as home.Topics Discussed• Growing up in Bangalore and the city's transformation during India's economic liberalization in the 1990s• The cultural shifts between traditional Indian family expectations and emerging Western influences• The characters and stories in Boomtown Girl, including questions of arranged marriage, family responsibility, ambition, and opportunity• The vulnerability of people navigating major life decisions<
- 2 weeks ago58 min
Liam Callanan - Stone Age Astronaut
What makes an extraordinary accomplishment disappear from the history books? And what does it take to leave one life behind and begin another?Liam Callanan, author of four novels, a short story collection, and his first work of nonfiction, Stone Age Astronaut, joins host William Miller for a conversation about aviation history, the art of storytelling, and the surprising connections between the two.Stone Age Astronaut tells the story of Lester Maitland, who piloted the first plane to cross the Pacific Ocean in 1927, just weeks after Charles Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic. While Lindbergh became a household name, Maitland's achievement largely faded from public memory. Callanan explores why, examining the extraordinary risks of the flight, the experimental navigation technology that helped guide the plane toward Hawaii, and the courage required to cross thousands of miles of open ocean in an era when aviation was still in its infancy.The conversation also explores Callanan's fiction, including The Cloud Atlas, Listen, All Saints, Paris by the Book, and When in Rome. Callanan discusses the historical research behind his work, the recurring presence of water and bears in his stories, the importance of emotional honesty, and the mysteries that draw readers deeper into a narrative. He also reflects on redemption, the possibility of changing one's life, and the people who help us find our way when we take a chance on something new.Find out more about Liam Callanan and his writings here.Topics DiscussedLester Maitland and Albert Hegenberger's historic 1927 flight from California to HawaiiWhy Maitland's achievement became less famous than Charles Lindbergh's transatlantic flightThe dangers of early aviation and the experimental technology used to navigate the PacificThe radio-beacon system, sextants, chronometers, and other tools used during the flightThe disastrous Dole Air Derby and the risks of early attempts to fly to HawaiiThe growth of aviation and the development of commercial air travel across the PacificThe archival research behind Stone Age Astronaut and the challenge of reconstructing forgotten historyThe Japanese balloon weapons that inspired Callanan's novel The Cloud AtlasHow Callanan's short stories and novels evolve through research, revision, and discoveryThe role of water as both a barrier and a means of connection in Callanan's fictionThe use of gesture, silence, and emotion to reveal a character's inner lifeThe mysteries, unexpected turns, and recurring themes that connect Callanan's booksHow characters confront major life changes, leave familiar circumstances behind, and seek new beginningsRedemption, mercy, and the people who help us navigate life's turning pointsKey TakeawaysLester Maitland's historic flight deserves a place alongside Lindbergh's achievement.Maitland and navigator Albert Hegenberger crossed the Pacific to Hawaii in 1927, accomplishing a remarkable feat at a time when aviation technology was still developing. Their flight was dangerous, technically demanding, and important to the future of military aviation. Yet its significance was overshadowed by Lindbergh's solo flight and the publicity surrounding it.Early aviation required extraordinary courage and ingenuity.The pilots and navigators of the 1920s had to rely on experimental equipment, astronomical navigation, radio signals, and careful calculations. Even the most promising technology could fail, leaving crews to fall back on older methods. The risks were real, and subsequent attempts to fly to Hawaii demonstrated just how unforgiving the Pacific could be.Historical research can uncover remarkable details hiding in the archives.Callanan describes finding original documents from Maitland and Hegenberger's flight, including a note passed between the men as they attempted to determine their position over the ocean. These artifacts brought the experience to life and helped Callanan reconstruct not only what happened, but what the flight felt like for the people involved.The best fiction often begins with a question that will not go away.Callanan's The Cloud Atlas grew out of research into Japanese balloon weapons used during World War II. A postcard discovered in the historical record helped spark the story. He explains how research can lead a writer toward a narrative that eventually becomes something more than the original facts alone could tell.Water, time, and survival connect many of Callanan's stories.Across his
- 3 weeks ago1h 5m
Lois Romano – Mary Todd Lincoln: An Inconvenient Widow
Lois Romano – Mary Todd Lincoln: An Inconvenient WidowThis is the first of four interviews in the Upstart Crow–Fairfax County Public Library Interview Series, presented as part of the celebration of America’s 250th anniversary. Details about the remaining three interviews appear below.“Tell people you’re reading a book about Mary Todd Lincoln, and they might well say something like, ‘Oh, wasn’t she crazy?’”When Abraham Lincoln met Mary Todd at a soiree, she was a young, intelligent, well-educated, and stylish woman from an affluent family. He was a country lawyer of humble origins. Both had big-time aspirations, and both were whip-smart. Together, they helped engineer his election to the highest office in the land.Lincoln became one of the most pivotal presidents in American history, taking office at a time when the presidency and the role of the first lady were under intense public scrutiny. Neither Abraham nor Mary was quite prepared for the unprecedented pressures that came with those positions.But crazy? Far from it. Mary had lost three sons and was sitting beside her husband when an assassin entered the room and fired a single shot into the back of his head. Lincoln died hours later. During those hours, Mary was unable to be alone with her husband because so many others wanted to be in the room. Men—all of them men.In the months that followed, Mary struggled to access money to support herself, despite her husband having left a substantial estate. The man responsible for managing that estate refused to release the funds to her. Her son Robert eventually brought her before a court, where testimony about her ability to care for herself and manage her finances led a jury to determine that she should be placed in a treatment facility. A few months later, Mary managed to secure her release.Lois Romano is a veteran national journalist who has worked as a reporter, editor, and columnist for The Washington Post and Politico. A keen observer of the relationship between politics and human nature, Romano brought her insights and extensive research to An Inconvenient Widow, telling Mary Lincoln’s story from beginning to end in a way that has rarely been explored before.In this episode of Upstart Crow, Romano joins host William Miller to discuss the research behind the book, the truth about Mary Todd Lincoln, and how she began a project that consumed more than five years.The conversation concludes with a live-stream audience Q&A, in which Romano answers questions about Mary Lincoln’s life, legacy, and treatment by history.Topics DiscussedLois Romano’s research and the writing of An Inconvenient WidowMary Todd Lincoln’s childhood, family background, and relationship with Abraham LincolnMary’s political ambitions and influence on Lincoln’s careerHow nineteenth-century media coverage shaped Mary Lincoln’s public reputationThe myths and historical assumptions surrounding Mary’s mental healthMary’s charitable work and support for formerly enslaved peopleThe financial struggles and public scrutiny she faced after Lincoln’s assassinationHer relationship with her son Robert and her confinement in a mental institutionHow Mary Lincoln’s story challenges traditional views of first ladies and women in American political historyKey TakeawaysMary Todd Lincoln’s reputation was shaped by bias as much as by history.Romano explains how inaccurate reporting, political hostility, and repeated stories helped establish a negative image of Mary that persisted for generations. Her research revisits the historical record to distinguish documented facts from long-standing assumptions.Mary Lincoln was a politically astute partner, not simply a burden to her husband.Mary was ambitious, intelligent, and deeply interested in politics. Romano argues that she and Abraham Lincoln shared a meaningful partnership and that Mary played a more consequential role in his rise than many accounts have acknowledged.The media scrutiny Mary faced was extraordinary for a first lady of her era.Unlike many women who had occupied the role before her, Mary was extensively covered in newspapers. Digitized historical reporting allowed Romano to compare contemporary accusations with the evidence and uncover how sensational coverage affected Mary’s legacy.Mary’s private struggles were compounded by the expectations placed on women.In a time when women could not vote and were expected to remain within the domestic sphere, Mary navigated political life, family responsibilities, public criticism, and financial uncertainty with limited control over her own circumstances.Mary’s efforts to survive were often portrayed as personal failings.</
- Sep 8, 202653 min
Ilan Stavans – A Nation Wrestles with God
Internationally known, award-winning writer and editor Ilan Stavans sees an anthology as something akin to a library where the books come down from the shelves at night and fly around, mixing and mingling and enriching each other in a great time of sharing.So it makes perfectly good sense that Stavans would mark the 250th birthday of his adopted country by editing a book of more than 100 works spanning four centuries—all connected by a shared theme: How Americans have grappled with God.The anthology includes fiction, essays, political pieces, songs, poems, speeches, sermons, comic strips, and even a photograph of a TIME magazine cover. Together, they explore a country founded on the principle that its people were “endowed by their Creator” with certain rights; a country that, a little more than 200 years later, put “In God We Trust” on its money and “One Nation, Under God” into the Pledge of Allegiance.Yet America is also a country where record numbers of people identify as religiously unaffiliated, while roughly 90 percent still profess to believe in a higher power.In this episode of Upstart Crow, Ilan Stavans talks with William Miller about the idea behind his anthology, the works he chose and why, and some of the nearly 100 pieces he removed from an early draft. They explore what Americans have done with the idea of God—and what that idea has done to the people of America.About Ilan StavansIlan Stavans has published more than 30 books and is well known for his investigations of language and culture, as well as his work in anthologies.Born in Mexico in 1961 to a Jewish family with roots in Eastern Europe, Stavans was raised in a multilingual environment. His autobiography, On Borrowed Words, appeared in 2001.He is known for his research on English, Spanish, Yiddish, Ladino, and, in particular, Spanglish. In 2003, he published Spanglish: The Making of a New American Language, which includes a lexicon of approximately 6,000 terms and a Spanglish translation of the first chapter of Don Quixote. He subsequently completed a Spanglish translation of the entire novel by Miguel de Cervantes.Stavans is the author of several award-winning short-story collections. The internationally released, award-winning feature film My Mexican Shivah, co-produced by John Sayles, was based on his story “Morirse está en hebreo.” His story The Disappearance, adapted for the stage by the experimental theater troupe DoubleEdge, has toured the world. His one-man show The Oven has been seen in cities across the United States.Stavans is also the author of Resurrecting Hebrew, books on love and the Bible, Dictionary Days: A Defining Passion, Quixote: The Novel and the World, and a biography of Gabriel García Márquez's career through the publication of One Hundred Years of Solitude.His work has been translated into fifteen languages. His lectures on Don Quixote and on visions of the divine across cultures are available from Recorded Books. Stavans is also editor-in-chief of Oxford Bibliography: Latino Studies.KEY TAKEAWAYS• America’s relationship with God is complicated. Ilan Stavans explores how Americans have questioned, negotiated, embraced, and sometimes weaponized religion throughout the country’s history.• Religion can be both medicine and illness. It can provide morality, community, and structure while also becoming a source of division, violence, and destruction.• Doubt is essential to being human. Stavans argues that questioning—not certainty—is at the heart of intelligence, belief, and personal growth.• An anthology is a conversation across time. A Nation Wrestles with God brings together more than 100 voices and perspectives, allowing writers from vastly different eras and backgrounds to “speak” to one another.• Literature gives us access to interior life. The conversation explores how writers such as Flannery O’Connor and Mark Twain reveal the complexity of what happens inside a character’s mind.• Language matters. Stavans discusses the importance of allowing dialects, slang, Spanglish, Yiddish, and other forms of language to retain their complexity rather than being “streamlined.”• America is shaped by perception. The discussion moves from Walter Lippmann and Rashomon to the question of whether there is a single reality—or simply the realities we perceive.• Technology and AI may threaten our interior voices. Stavans worries that increasingly powerful technology could diminish the space we have for uncertainty, reflection, and internal dialogue.• America’s religious identity is changing, but religion isn’t disappearing. Even as traditional religious participation declines, belief in some form of God remains widespread.</p
- Sep 1, 202652 min
Nicholas Reynolds and Katie S. Sanders – Ortiz’s War
From 1932 until the end of World War II, Peter J. Ortiz was almost constantly involved in international warfare—13 years of it—either fighting or gathering intelligence about fighting. He started in the French Foreign Legion, moved to the U.S. Marines when the United States entered the war, and was one of the first people to serve in America’s fledgling spy network, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).He was invaluable. He had grown up spending a lot of time in Europe and spoke at least five languages; some reports put the number as high as 10. By the end of the war, he had been decorated with two dozen medals from three countries. The subtitle to the book offers some insight as to why he was so acclaimed: "The Allies’ Secret Weapon Against the Nazis in France."Nicholas Reynolds graduated from Oxford University with a Ph.D. in modern history. Having grown up in the shadow of World War II and developing an interest in history and military history especially, he immediately joined the U.S. Marine Corps, serving as an infantry officer and then as an historian. He later served as a CIA officer, ending with a years-long stint as CIA Museum historian. He now teaches and writes.His books include Need to Know: World War II and the Rise of American Intelligence, which was designated a best book of 2022 by The New Yorker. He also wrote Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy (2017), which looks at the life and work of Ernest Hemingway and, in a way, links back to this book about Ortiz. In it, Nick looks at the OSS and Hemingway’s involvement with it in the closing days of World War II in Europe.Katie S. Sanders is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and an award-winning journalist who has written for National Geographic, The New York Times, Washington Post Magazine, New World, Time, Smithsonian, Vanity Fair, Insider, Glamour, and Marie Claire.Her reporting brought her to the CIA and the White House, and into the homes of many World War II veterans and Holocaust survivors. Her late grandfather, a Jewish-American bomber pilot who was shot down over France while dropping supplies behind enemy lines, was among those rescued by Peter Ortiz and the resistance fighters he led.It was this connection that brought her to team with Nick to write the story of Ortiz’s War.Buy Ortiz’s War wherever books are sold, including Amazon.Find out more about our guests on their websites:Nicholas ReynoldsKatie S. SandersFollow and tag @ortizswarbook.KEY TAKEAWAYS• Peter J. Ortiz was an extraordinary World War II warrior who served in the French Foreign Legion, U.S. Marine Corps, OSS, and British Special Operations Executive.• The OSS was essentially built from scratch during World War II, growing from virtually no organization into a major American intelligence operation.• Ortiz operated far beyond the traditional role of an intelligence officer, gathering intelligence, working with the French Resistance, recruiting couriers, conducting raids, and even stealing Gestapo staff cars.• His fluency in French, familiarity with France, and experience in the French Foreign Legion made him uniquely effective behind enemy lines.• Ortiz's leadership was defined as much by restraint as by courage. His decision to surrender to a vastly larger German force in order to protect a French village and give his men a chance to escape became one of the defining moments of his story.• Nick Reynolds and Katie Sanders explore what made extraordinary battlefield leaders like Ortiz and Wild Bill Donovan different, including their tolerance for risk, discomfort, and uncertainty.• Katie Sanders' connection to Ortiz is deeply personal: Ortiz helped save the life of her grandfather, a U.S. Army Air Forces pilot whose B-24 was shot down over France.• The authors combine military records, oral histories, contemporary accounts, and other archival material to separate the documented history of Ortiz from the many legendary stories that grew up around him.• At its heart, Ortiz's War is a story about courage, sacrifice, duty, leadership, and the extraordinary individuals who operated outside conventional molds during World War II."There's something extra in their makeup that is a tolerance for risk that a lot of us don't have." - Nick Reynolds"It's not only tolerance for risk, but it's tolerance for discomfort." - Katie SandersYou can also watch the full interview on our YouTube channel.Be sure to visit our <a href="https://upstartcrow.org"
- Aug 18, 202647 min
Marty Ross-Dolen – Always There, Always Gone
Marty Ross-Dolen’s memoir Always There, Always Gone, winner of the 2026 Ohio Book Awards Readers’ Choice Award, carries the subtitle “A daughter’s search for truth.” Marty Ross-Dolen is the daughter. What she searches for is a fuller knowing of her grandmother, her mother’s mother, about whom her mother will talk but can’t seem to do so without looking pained or breaking into tears. What Marty knows are the bare facts: Her grandmother and grandfather were killed in an airliner disaster over NYC in December, 1960, when a United flight from Chicago ran into a TWA flight from Columbus, Ohio. Everyone on both planes and six people on the ground were killed. Marty’s grandparents were executives in the family business, Highlights for Children. Marty’s mother was 14 at the time, and she and her four siblings were moved from Ohio to Texas to live with their uncle and aunt.So Marty constructs a portrait of her grandmother—the warmth, the wit, the vitality and charm—a portrait she drew from poring over correspondence, photos, records, family memorabilia. Along the way, she asks, “When do humans stop defining ourselves by tragedies?” When will we stop using words like survivor, hero, warrior to describe ourselves? Her answer: Possibly never again.What emerges is a memoir that bends the form memoirs usually take, that informs readers of the life of a woman who comes of age in the 1940s and becomes a mother working in a singular business during the 1950s, and then looks at the layering of lives and the impact of protracted mourning, and of healing through love.Marty Ross-Dolen is a graduate of Wellesley College and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She is a retired child and adolescent psychiatrist. She also earned an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Earlier, she worked in graduate-level workshops at the Ohio State University.Her essays have appeared in North Dakota Quarterly, Redivider, Lilith, Willow Review and the Brevity Blog, among others. Her essay “Diphtheria” was a notable essay in The Best American Essays series. She writes, teaches writing, and lives in Columbus, Ohio.In this episode of Upstart Crow, Marty Ross-Dolen discusses Always There, Always Gone, her memoir about family, grief, memory, tragedy and healing. She talks about her grandmother, the 1960 New York City plane crash that changed her family, her connection to Highlights for Children, and the process of reconstructing a life through photographs, letters, correspondence and family records.Key TakeawaysHow Marty Ross-Dolen used hundreds of letters and thousands of pages of family correspondence to reconstruct the life and personality of a grandmother she never knew.Why her memoir focuses on her grandmother’s life rather than allowing the tragedy of her death to define her.How the sudden loss of her grandparents shaped three generations of women in her family and became an exploration of multigenerational trauma.Why absence can have just as profound an impact on a family as the people who are actually present.The surprising role that Highlights for Children played in Marty’s family history and how her grandparents helped build the iconic children’s magazine.How seemingly small decisions can affect generations of people in ways we could never predict.Why memoir doesn't always have to follow a traditional chronological structure.How Marty used creative techniques, including erasure poetry and a game-show-style section, to tell a deeply personal family story.Why writers need to learn how to use feedback without necessarily following every piece of advice they receive.How writing a memoir can change the way we understand our own family history, grief, identity, and the stories that have been passed down to us.Hosted by William MillerFind out more about Marty and the book, on her website.Follow her on Facebook and InstagramYou can also watch the full interview on our YouTube channel.Be sure to visit our websiteThank you for listening to the Upstart Crow Podcast, a part of Watershed Lit RadioProduced by Upstart Crow PodcastRecording and Audio Production by Jon D PodComCopyright © 2026 Upstart Crow Podcast - All Rights Reserved
- Aug 11, 202642 min
Kathryn DeZur - Objects of Affection
Kathryn DeZur – Objects of AffectionThe things Kathryn DeZur focuses on—a doll, a quilt, bookshelves, a gun, an ashtray, a table, a finial—in this book of 15 essays are things that connect her to and shape her memories, which is to say that inform her sense of self, her history, her culture, the people around her. Hence, objects of affection.She is a daughter whose father was asked by her mother to leave the home before Kathryn was 1 and who did, leaving Kathryn to live in poverty with her alcoholic mother; and so, when Kathryn was 10, she had to pick out her mother’s burial clothes after the alcoholism took her mother’s life. She moved to live with her father, to a better life in some ways but he had two preoccupations, neither of which was Kathryn. Even in this carefully constructed sense of self, Kathryn shows, things and people can knock everything askew. Though even now she regards her father as that because he fulfilled the role, he wasn’t, it turns out, her biological dad.Before this book of personal essays, Kathryn published a poetry chapbook, Blue Ghosts, and she maintains samples of her photography at KDZ Photography on her website at kathryndezur.com.Individual essays by her have appeared in HerStry, Dorthy Parker’s Ashes, and The Nassau Review among other places. She lives and writes in the northern Catskill Mountains and she is a professor emerita in English at SUNY Delhi.Topics DiscussedThe relationship between objects, memory, and personal meaningHow memory shapes and reinforces our sense of identityThe ways memory can be reconstructed, incomplete, or unreliableGrowing up with an alcoholic parentKathryn's childhood in Oakland and her move to suburban San JoseChildhood experiences of loneliness, belonging, and people-pleasingHow art can provide distance and structure for processing difficult memoriesKathryn's mother's artistic life and influenceThe story behind the Easy-Bake OvenDiscovering that the man who raised Kathryn was not her biological fatherUsing DNA testing to uncover family historyDiscovering six half-siblings later in lifeThe ways genetics can manifest through mannerisms, speech, and behaviorThe significance of the essay "Nothing"The emotional meaning of home, safety, and permanenceBeing forced to leave a beloved home because of a threatening neighborKathryn's attempt to use minimalism and decluttering to regain a sense of controlWhy sentimental objects can carry profound emotional meaningThe story of Tammy, Kathryn's childhood dollThe connection between objects and feelings of belongingLetting go of possessions versus letting go of the pastFinding a second "Tammy" later in lifeSelf-forgiveness and the idea of self-abandonmentHow writing Objects of Affection became a form of reckoning with the pastKey TakeawaysMemory is creative. We don't simply retrieve memories; we reconstruct them, fill in gaps, and sometimes reshape them over time.Objects can become repositories of memory. A seemingly ordinary possession can carry layers of personal history, emotion, and meaning.Art can help us approach difficult experiences. The structure and distance created through writing and photography can make painful memories easier to examine.Belonging matters. Homes, objects, and relationships can become tangible representations of safety and permanence.Decluttering doesn't necessarily erase emotional history. Getting rid of objects doesn't mean getting rid of the memories attached to them.Identity isn't determined solely by biology. Kathryn's discovery about her biological father did not fundamentally change her understanding of who she was.Loss and replacement aren't the same thing. The second Tammy couldn't replace the childhood doll, but it could take on a new meaning.Self-forgiveness can be part of healing. Sometimes an object or experience can help us recognize where we've abandoned our own needs and begin to forgive ourselves.“Objects can serve as places of meaning and of memory and of experience and history.” - Kathryn DeZurFind out more about Kathryn and purchase Objects of Affection on her website.Follow Kathryn on Instagram. This entire episode is also available for viewing on our <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@upstartcrowpodcast" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blan
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About Upstart Crow
Dedicated to promoting books and culture through engaging and informative podcasts. Our mission is to inspire our listeners to explore the literary arts and appreciate the diversity of ideas within our amazing world. We invite a diverse range of writers, historians, and cultural influences to share their expertise. From established artists to up-and-coming creatives, our guests provide unique perspectives on writing, the literary arts, and culture. Hosted by Ken Budd, Jennifer Disano, and William Miller.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is Podzilla's Upstart Crow daily summary?
It's a free AI-powered email that summarizes new episodes of Upstart Crow as soon as they're published. You get the key takeaways, notable quotes, and links & mentions — all in a quick read.
How does the Upstart Crow podcast summary work?
When a new episode drops, our AI transcribes and analyzes it, then generates a personalized summary tailored to your interests and profession. It's delivered to your inbox every morning.
Is this an official Upstart Crow product?
No. Podzilla is an independent service that summarizes publicly available podcast content. We're not affiliated with or endorsed by Upstart Crow Podcast.
Can I get summaries of other podcasts too?
Absolutely! The free plan covers up to 3 podcasts, any in the catalog. Basic raises that to 15, Pro to 40 and Max to 100. Browse our full catalog at /podcasts.
What topics does Upstart Crow cover?
Upstart Crow covers topics including Arts, Books, Culture, Society & Culture. Our AI identifies the specific themes in each episode and highlights what matters most to you.
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Free forever for up to 3 podcasts. No credit card required.
Free forever for up to 3 podcasts. No credit card required.