The Write Question

Earlier this spring, host Lauren Korn had the pleasure of chatting with some of NPR’s most notable podcast and news magazine hosts about recently published books. She spoke with Manoush Zamorodi about her book, ‘Body Electric: The Hidden Health Costs of the Digital Age and New Science to Reclaim Your Well-Being’ (Flatiron Books); Scott Simon about his book ‘Ulysses S. Cat and Other Animals I Have Known’ (W. W. Norton & Company); and Alex Mayyasi and Sarah Gonzalez about ‘Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life’ (W. W. Norton & Company). Three books, four guests, one episode celebrating the bookishness of NPR.

For this episode of ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn speaks with Sterling HolyWhiteMountain, Executive Director of the James Welch Native Lit Fest, taking place July 15-18, 2026.

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn speaks with poet Sean Hill about ‘The Negroes Send Their Love: Poems, Perspectives, and Possible Futures’ (Milkweed Editions).

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn speaks with Emily Haworth-Booth about motherhood and language in her debut novel, ‘Mare’ (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn speaks with Mac Barnett, National Ambassador for Children’s Literature and the author of ‘Make Believe: On Telling Stories to Children’ (Little, Brown & Company), his first book written for adults.

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn speaks with Courtney Maum, author of ‘Alan Opts Out’ (Little, Brown & Company).

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn speaks with Miriam Toews, author of the memoir ‘A Truce That Is Not Peace’ (Bloomsbury Publishing). Note: This conversation contains explicit references to suicide. If you or someone you love is struggling with a mental health crisis or in immediate danger, please call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ for NPR’s “Climate Solutions Week,” in 2026 leaning into local lessons, the TWQ team returns to Lauren Korn’s conversation with ecologist Mark Easter, author of ‘The Blue Plate: A Food Lover’s Guide to Climate Chaos’ (Patagonia Books).

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ in anticipation of her tour in Montana (Missoula, Bozeman, and Livingston), and in anticipation of NPR’s Climate Solutions Week, host Lauren Korn speaks with Hillary Rosner, author of ‘Roam: Wild Animals and the Race to Repair Our Fractured World’ (Patagonia Books).

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ a celebration of mothers in all forms—a conversation with poet Preeti Vangani, author of ‘Fifty Mothers’ (River River Books).

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn speaks with Kim Fu, author of ‘The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts’ (Tin House Books; Zando Projects).

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn speaks to anthropologist Sally Thompson, author of ‘Black Robes Enter Coyote’s World: Chief Charlo and Father De Smet in the Rocky Mountains’ (Bison Books; University of Nebraska Press). In this, the second half of their conversation, Lauren and Sally discuss Chiefs Victor and Charlo and the relationship between Jesuit missionaries and Montana’s native people. The two also talk at length about Chief Charlo’s 1876 speech, a lament of white politicians and settlers who evicted his people from the Bitterroot Valley after the tribe had always/only helped them, beginning with Lewis and Clark.

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn speaks to anthropologist Sally Thompson, author of ‘Black Robes Enter Coyote’s World: Chief Charlo and Father De Smet in the Rocky Mountains’ (Bison Books; University of Nebraska Press). In this, the first part of a two part conversation, Lauren and Sally discuss how this book was conceived and they dig into the figure of Father Pierre-Jean De Smet, his history and his motivations.

During this episode of ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn speaks with University of Montana journalism professor Jule Banville and audio producer Jad Abumrad about ‘The Obit Project,’ a collaborative podcast created by the UM School of Journalism and the Montana Media Lab that combines the art of audio storytelling and the obituary form to spotlight the multi-dimensional lives of real Montanans. This conversation was recorded in advance of Jad’s 2026 Dean Stone Lecture and University of Montana Democracy Summit Keynote Lecture, which takes place on April 13, 2026.

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn speaks with Wyoming-based author Nina McConigley about her novel, ‘How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder’ (Pantheon; Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group). Nina is a spring lecturer for the Elk River Arts & Lecture series; she will appear in Livingston on April 16, 2026.

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ for a live, pledge week episode, host Lauren Korn speaks with Allison De Jong: the Montana Natural History Center’s Communications Coordinator and the editor of ‘Montana Naturalist’ and ‘Field Notes.’

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn speaks with memoirist Fred Haefele, author of ‘The Essential Book of Pickup Trucks’ (Bison Books).

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn speaks with University of Montana alum Andrew Martin (MFA ‘13), author of ‘Down Time,’ published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn speaks with poet, author, and educator Maya Jewell Zeller about her memoir-in-essays, ‘Raised by Ferns’ (Porphyry Press).

In this episode of ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn speaks to journalist Leah Sottile about ‘Blazing Eye Sees All: Love Has Won, False Prophets, and the Fever Dream of the American New Age’ (Grand Central Publishing; Hachette Book Group). This is the second part of a two-part conversation.

In this episode of ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn speaks to journalist Leah Sottile about ‘Blazing Eye Sees All: Love Has Won, False Prophets, and the Fever Dream of the American New Age’ (Grand Central Publishing; Hachette Book Group). This is the first part of a two-part conversation.

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn speaks with Penobscot writer Morgan Talty, author of ‘Fire Exit’ (Tin House Books; Zando Projects), now available in paperback!

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn speaks with Joanna Pocock, author of ‘Greyhound’ (Soft Skull Press).

This mini episode of ‘The Write Question’ features used bookseller Crystal Koosman, owner of Last Best Books in Missoula, Montana. What does her used book ethic look like? What’s trending right now?

In advance of his appearance in Helena at MT Book Co. on Monday, February 2, 2026, novelist David Guterson, author of ‘Snow Falling on Cedars’ (Vintage Books), discusses his latest book, ‘Evelyn in Transit’ (W. W. Norton & Company).

In advance of his appearance in Livingston, Montana—as a guest of Elk River Arts & Lectures on January 23, 2026, at the Livingston Elks Lodge—novelist Colum McCann discusses the many themes and narratives found in his latest book, ‘Twist’ (Penguin Random House).

In this episode of ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn speaks with former Montana Poet Laureate Tami Haaland about her collection, ‘If I Had Said Beauty’ (Lost Horse Press).

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn speaks with Missoula, Montana-based writer Brian Buckbee, author of ‘We Should All Be Birds’ (Tin House Books; Zando Projects), written with Carol Ann Fitzgerald, who joins them for the first half of their conversation.

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn speaks with memoirist and renowned whitewater rafting guide Bridget Crocker, author of ‘The River’s Daughter’ (Spiegel & Grau), about her life lived along the Snake River in Wyoming.

This is the second part of a two-part conversation with University of Montana alumna Alice Bolin (MFA , ‘11), author of ‘Culture Creep: Notes on the Pop Apocalypse’ (Mariner Books; HarperCollins).

This is the first part of a two-part conversation with University of Montana alumna Alice Bolin (MFA , ‘11), author of ‘Culture Creep: Notes on the Pop Apocalypse’ (Mariner Books; HarperCollins).

Host Lauren Korn speaks with Andrew Limbong about NPR’s 2025 interactive book list of staff favorites, “Books We Love.”

On this episode of ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn speaks with debut novelist Eliana Ramage, author of ‘To the Moon and Back’ (Avid Reader Press, Simon & Schuster).

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn returns to her conversation with poet Christine Wu, author of ‘Familial Hungers’ (Brick Books). This episode first aired June 19, 2025.

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn speaks with novelist and memoirist Abi Maxwell, author of ‘One Day I’ll Grow Up and Be a Beautiful Woman’ (Alfred A. Knopf), now available in paperback.

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn speaks with novelist Shobha Rao, author of ‘Indian Country’ (Crown Publishing Group). Shobha will be in Bozeman at Country Bookshelf on November 17th (with Shane Doyle); in Hamilton at Chapter One Bookstore on November 19; and in Missoula at Fact & Fiction Books on November 20, 2025.

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ the second of a two-part conversation with novelist Chris Whitaker, author of ‘All the Colors of the Dark’ (Crown Publishing Group). This conversation was recorded live at the Ravalli County Museum in Hamilton, Montana, in partnership with Chapter One Bookstore.

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn speaks with co-owner of Hamilton’s Chapter One Bookstore, Marisa Neyenhuis—about her parents’ pledge parties and about the books she’s loving and recommending this year—for a live pledge week episode.

This mini episode of ‘The Write Question’ is actually an excerpt of a much longer conversation with Lorissa Rinehart, author of ‘Winning the Earthquake: How Jeannette Rankin Defied All Odds to Become the First Woman in Congress,’ which publishes this Tuesday, November 4, 2025 (St. Martin’s Press). Absent from this excerpt, but included in the extended conversation, is Karen Sterk, the CEO of the Jeannette Rankin Foundation.

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ the first of a two-part conversation with novelist Chris Whitaker, author of ‘All the Colors of the Dark’ (Crown Publishing Group). This conversation was recorded live at the Ravalli County Museum in Hamilton, Montana, in partnership with Chapter One Bookstore.

This week on ‘The Write Question, host Lauren Korn speaks with poets Corrie Williamson, author of ‘My Mother’s Bear Gun,’ and Joe Wilkins, author of ‘Pastoral, 1994,’ both published by River River Books.

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn speaks with Helena, Montana-based novelist Sally Blakely, author of ‘Friends to Lovers’ (Canary Street Press).

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn speaks with Irish author Kevin Barry, author of ‘The Heart in Winter’ (Doubleday Books; Penguin Random House) and the featured speaker at the inaugural Festival of Irish Writing in Butte, Montana: October 3-4, 2025.

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn returns to her conversation with journalist Amy Gamerman, author of ‘The Crazies: The Cattleman, the Wind Prospector, and a War Out West’ (Simon & Schuster). This is the second part of a two-part conversation and originally aired April 3, 2025.

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn returns to her conversation with poet Keetje Kuipers, author of ‘Lonely Women Make Good Lovers’ (BOA Editions). This conversation originally aired on May 1, 2025.

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn returns to her conversation with journalist Amy Gamerman, author of ‘The Crazies: The Cattleman, the Wind Prospector, and a War Out West’ (Simon & Schuster). This is the first part of a two-part conversation and originally aired March 27, 2025.

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn returns to her conversation with writer and translator Laura Marris, author of ‘The Age of Loneliness’ (Graywolf Press). This episode originally aired February 27, 2025.

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn returns to the second and final part of a two-part conversation with world-renowned wildlife biologist Diane K. Boyd, author of ‘A Woman Among Wolves: My Journey Through Forty Years of Wolf Recovery’ (Greystone Books). This conversation originally aired January 9, 2025.

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn returns to the first part of a two-part conversation with world-renowned wildlife biologist Diane K. Boyd, author of ‘A Woman Among Wolves: My Journey Through Forty Years of Wolf Recovery’ (Greystone Books). This episode originally aired January 2, 2025.

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn returns to her conversation with conservation journalist Ben Goldfarb, author of ‘Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet’ (W. W. Norton & Company).

Host Lauren Korn returns to her conversation with poet, essayist, and cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib, author of ‘There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension’ (Penguin Random House).