RECORDED 2/2/15: You’re going to love Ravi Howard and his writing.  I first met Ravi in 2008 at a writer’s residency where I was putting the final touches on my manuscript which became my first novel, The Girl Who Fell From the Sky.  Ravi’s just published his second book, Driving the King, about Nat King Cole and an African-American veteran who has returned from abroad.  Get a copy now–it’s a really wonderful read!  You can listen to the interview here or download it from itunes.–Heidi Durrow

Ravi Howard received the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence in 2008 for the novel Like Trees, Walking, a fictionalized account of a true story, the 1981 lynching of a black teenager in Mobile, Alabama. Howard was a finalist for both the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award and the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award for Debut Fiction in 2008.

He has recorded commentary for National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, and his work has appeared in The New York Times, Massachusetts Review and Callaloo. He also appeared in the Ted Koppel documentary, The Last Lynching, on the Discovery Channel. Howard has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Hurston-Wright Foundation, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

His television production work has appeared on HBO, ESPN, Fox Sports 1, and NFL Network. He received a 2004 Sports Emmy for his work on HBO’s Inside the NFL.

Marie Mockett

RECORDED ON 1/12/15: I was so excited to talk with writer Marie Mockett on the podcast!  She has written an excellent new memoir, Where the Dead Pause and the Japanese Say Goodbye, as a follow-up to her amazing first novel, Picking Bones From Ash.

Marie’s story of returning to Japan after the devastating tsunami is incredibly moving. I loved it.

You can listen to my interview with her and learn more about her biracial and bicultural experience and about grief, and loss and healing here or download it from itunes.–Heidi Durrow

RECORDED January 8, 2015 9AM Eastern: I was excited to speak with writer Thomas Chatterton Williams, author of the book Losing My Cool . He’s just published a powerful essay appearing in Virginia Quarterly Review called “Black and Blue and Blond.”  Williams has a fascinating story and he’s a great writer who is pushing the discussion about the Mixed experience forward with new questions and new approaches.  You can download our conversation from itunes.  Or you can listen to the episode here.–Heidi Durrow

THOMAS CHATTERTON WILLIAMS is an American writer living in Paris. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the American Scholar, the Atlantic, n+1, Lui and many other places. His first book, Losing My Cool: Love, Literature and a Black Man’s Escape from the Crowd (Penguin Press, 2010), is a memoir that explores the extent to which, growing up in the hip-hop era, Williams bought into misguided and limited notions of his own blackness, which he later rejected. He is currently at work on a novel and a screenplay.

11/17/14: I can’t tell you how ridiculously excited I was to talk to Kiese Laymon, author of Long Division.  He is the real deal!  His novel  nearly made my head explode it was so good.  It’s funny, and heart-breaking and inventive and one of the most important books I’ve read in a long time.  Don’t miss this episode in which he really breaks it down and talks candidly about the fiction of race and tackles the “What are you?” question!  You can also download this episode (and all past episodes) on itunes—Heidi Durrow

Here’s a link to the Guernica interview I mentioned during the podcast: Hey Mama, by Kiese Laymon.

Kiese Laymon is a black southern writer, born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. Laymon attended Millsaps College and Jackson State University before graduating from Oberlin College. He earned an MFA from Indiana University and is the author of the novel, Long Division  and a collection of essays,  How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America. Long Division was named one of the Best Books of 2013 by a number of publications, including Buzzfeed, The Believer, Salon, Guernica, Mosaic Magazine, Chicago Tribune, The Morning News, MSNBC, Library Journal, Contemporary Literature, and the Crunk Feminist Collective. Both of Laymon’s book are finalists for the Mississippi Award for Arts and Letters in the fiction and nonfiction categories. Long Division is currently a finalist for Stanford’s Saroyan international writing award. Laymon has written essays and stories for numerous publications including Esquire, ESPN, Colorlines, NPR, Gawker, Truthout, Longman’s Hip Hop Reader, The Best American Non-required Reading, Guernica, Mythium and Politics and Culture. Laymon is currently at work on a new novel “And So On” and a memoir called 309: A Fat Black Memoir. He is an Associate Professor of English at Vassar College.

11/14/14: I was so excited to talk with Omilaju Miranda, the founder of a great resource, Mixed Diversity Reads.  The website and blog feature children’s books that reflect the true diversity of families including multiracial and multicultural families, families of transracial adoption, bilingual families and families with same-sex parents.  There are hundreds of reviews and recommendations on the website and the catalog continues to grow. You can also follow Omi on Twitter at @diversekidread.  Listen to our interview and the way that Omi breaks down the idea of the “collapsed” definition of black American identity and her embrace of the diversity of her experience through family, experience, and a continually evolving identity.  Seriously, this was a really deep interview.  And she also has some great recommended book reads for your young reader!  Listen to the interview here or download it on itunes.–Heidi Durrow

Bio

Omilaju Miranda is a creative writer who, in an effort to provide parents with a resource of books that reflect their children who are often overlooked in the children’s literature market, founded the Mixed Diversity Reads Children’s Book Review.  As she has grown the website, creating relationships with various members of the literacy and reading community, Omi has recognized the importance of this site as a resource for all parents, and education professionals. She hopes this site helps you bring great books into your child’s life.  She also runs another conversation, literary, and art blog, Parenting My Interracial Family which is a resource, serious conversation, and celebration of the lives, writing, and art of Parents and Children in interracial and transracial families.