The First Draft podcast started on a road trip, way back in 2014. Since then, it has grown and evolved into something I'm incredibly proud of. I've posted more than 140 interviews with dozens of New York Times best-selling writers, as well as winners of the Caldecott Award, the William C. Morris Young Adult Debut award, the Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature, and the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. Thanks to you, and other listeners, and amazing authors for making it all possible!
With the fourth anniversary of the first podcast episode coming up in July, I felt the time was right to go for another road trip. All my interviews are IRL, so I put my portable studio in a backpack and flew across the country. For the entire month of June, I'll be traveling -- Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Charleston, and Atlanta -- gathering 25+ interviews with amazing authors.
I'll be documenting it all at @FirstDraftPod on Instagram and @FirstDraftPod on Twitter. Stay tuned there to get an idea of what interviews you can look forward to hearing over the next few months!
Author Interviews (updated as I go):
- Courtney Summers (author of SADIE)
- Brendan Kiely (author of TRADITION)
- Amanda Maciel (author of TEASE and my editor for TELL ME EVERYTHING)
- Tochi Onyebuchi (author of CROWN OF THUNDER)
- Soman Chainani (author of THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL)
- Emily X. R. Pan (author of THE ASTONISHING COLOR OF AFTER)
- Sarah Burnes (agent at The Gernert Company)
- Tracey Neithercott (author of GRAY WOLF ISLAND)
- Sara Farizan (author of HERE TO STAY)
- Katie Cotugno (author of 9 DAYS AND 9 NIGHTS)
- Melissa Albert (author of THE HAZEL WOOD)
- Renée Watson (author of PIECING ME TOGETHER)
- Alex London (author of BLACK WINGS BEATING)
- Nova Ren Suma (author of A ROOM AWAY FROM THE WOLVES)
- Lindsay Smith (author of WEB OF FROST)
- Jessica Spotswood (author of THE LAST SUMMER OF THE GARRETT GIRLS and editor of TOIL AND TROUBLE)
- Linda Holmes (author of EVVIE DRAKE STARTS OVER)
- Sarah Dessen (author of ONCE AND FOR ALL)
- Roshani Chokshi (author of THE GILDED WOLVES)
- Ryan Graudin (author of INVICTUS)
- Nic Stone (author of ODD ONE OUT)
- Julian Winters (author of RUNNING WITH LIONS)
Update: The road trip has concluded! Thanks to everyone keeping up with my travels, thanks to all the authors who made time to chat with me, and thanks to my mom for knowing I wasn't ignoring her when I was researching for the interviews.
Look forward to hearing from all these authors (and more!) throughout 2018 and into the new year.