Books on the Bed

Naomi Shihab Nye

This week we visit with Naomi Shihab Nye in San Antonio, Texas.
Naomi Shihab Nye describes herself as a “wandering poet.” She has spent more than 40 years traveling the country and the world to lead writing workshops and inspiring students of all ages. Nye was born to a Palestinian father and an American mother and grew up in St. Louis, Jerusalem, and San Antonio. Drawing on her Palestinian-American heritage, the cultural diversity of her home in Texas, and her experiences traveling in Asia, Europe, Canada, Mexico, and the Middle East, Nye uses her writing to attest to our shared humanity.
Naomi is the author and/or editor of more than 30 volumes of poetry, four novels, and an essay and short story collection.
Learn more about Naomi at the American Academy of Poets.
 
Naomi's Books on the Bed:
Garden Time by M.S. Merwin
Every War Has Two Losers by William Stafford
An Ordinary Woman by Lucille Clifton
Does the Land Remember Me? A Memoir of Palestine by Aziz Shihab
Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza by Mosab Abu Toha
The Year I Stopped to Notice by Miranda Keeling
Matt's Gifts for Naomi:
The Listening Skin by Glenis Redmond
George Masa: A Life Reimagined by Janet McCue and Paul Bonesteel
Ways of Being Home by Cecilia Sotelo Cornejo (film)
 

Elizabeth Crook

This week we visit with Elizabeth Crook in Austin, Texas. 
Elizabeth Crook is the author of six novels: The Raven’s Bride and Promised Lands, The Night Journal, Monday, Monday, The Which Way Tree, and The Madstone. In 2023 Elizabeth received the prestigious Texas Writer Award from the Texas Book Festival and in 2025 the Texas Medal of Arts in Literary Arts and the Texas Institute of Letters' prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award.
Elizabeth lived in Nacogdoches, Texas and then San Marcos, Texas with her parents and brother and sister until age seven when the family moved to Washington D.C., where her father was director of Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) for Lyndon Johnson. Two years later her father was appointed Ambassador to Australia and the family moved to Canberra. When they returned to Texas Elizabeth attended public schools in San Marcos, graduating from San Marcos High School. She attended Baylor University for two years and graduated from Rice University in 1982.
Elizabeth's Books on the Bed:
Silver Pennies (and More Silver Pennies) by Blanche Jennings Thompson 
Precious Bane by Mary Webb
A Tale of Two Cities and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
True Grit by Charles Portis
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
Now You Hear My Horn: The Journal of James Wilson Nichols, 1820-1887 by James Wilson Nichols
Matt's Gifts for Elizabeth:
The House Is on Fire by Rachel Beanland
Gorilla by Lee Stockdale
Call It Horses by Jessie van Eerden

Henry Wise

This week we visit with Henry Wise in Staunton, Virginia.
Henry is a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute and the University of Mississippi MFA program. A writer across multiple genres, his poetry has been published in Shenandoah, Radar Poetry, Clackamas, Nixes Mate Review, and elsewhere. His nonfiction and photography have appeared in Southern Cultures. "Holy City" is his first novel.
For more on Henry: henrywise.com
Henry's Books on the Bed: 
Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
My Antonia by Willa Cather
Legends of the Fall by Jim Harrison
Go Down, Moses by William Faulkner
West with the Night by Beryl Markham
Joe by Larry Brown
Matt's Gifts for Henry:
Shutter and Exposure by Ramona Emerson
Honeybee by Naomi Shihab Nye

Glenn Taylor

This week we visit with Glenn Taylor in Morgantown, West Virginia.
Glenn Taylor’s fourth novel, "The Songs of Betty Baach" won the 2023 Juniper Prize in Fiction. His first novel, "The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart" was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award. Glenn’s work has appeared in such venues as the Oxford American, The Guardian, Gulf Coast, and Huizache. Born and raised in Huntington, West Virginia, he now resides with his family in Morgantown, where he is at work on a new novel.
For more on Glenn: glenntaylorbooks.org
Glenn's Books on the Bed:
The Milkweed Ladies by Louise McNeill
good woman: poems and a memoir by Lucille Clifton
Gringos by Charles Portis
Trampoline by Robert Gipe 
Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone by Eduardo Galeano
Road-side Dog by Czeslaw Milosz
Matt's Gifts for Glenn:
God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer by Joseph Earl Thomas
The Way the Moon by Holly Haworth

Ann Pancake

This week we visit with Ann Pancake in Reedsville, West Virginia. 
Ann Pancake grew up in Summersville and Romney, West Virginia and graduated from WVU with a Bachelor of Arts in English. After teaching English in Japan, American Samoa and Thailand, she earned a Masters degree in English from the University of North Carolina and a doctorate in English Literature from the University of Washington.
Pancake is—publicly and fervently—a West Virginia writer. She is the author of two story collections set in West Virginia: “Given Ground,” winner of the Bakeless Prize, and “Me and My Daddy Listen to Bob Marley,” a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. Her novel “Strange as This Weather Has Been” features a southern West Virginia family struggling with a mountaintop removal mine. It was named one of Kirkus Review’s Top Ten Fiction Books of the year, was a New York Times Editor’s Choice, won the 2007 Weatherford Prize and was a finalist for the 2008 Orion Book Award. “Strange as This Weather Has Been” is now cited and taught as a key piece of literature about Appalachian coal country.
Ann's Books on the Bed:
Braiding Sweetgrass and The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Deer Man: Seven Years of Living in the Wild by Geoffroy Delorme
The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Mind and Our World by Max Fisher
Country Queers: A Love Letter by Rae Garringer
The Chaneysville Incident by David Bradley
Bloodroot by Bill King
Matt's Gifts for Ann:
Groundglass by Kathryn Savage
Trinity by Zelda Lockhart
 

Meredith McCarroll

This week we visit with Meredith McCarroll in Portland, Maine. 
Meredith McCarroll was born and raised in Waynesville, North Carolina. She is the author of “Unwhite: Appalachia, Race, and Film” (2018) and co-editor of “Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy” (2019). She graduated from Appalachian State University, and later earned a Masters from Simmons College and a PhD from University of Tennessee. She lives now in Portland, Maine where she writes and teaches writing.
For more on Meredith: meredithmccarroll.com
Meredith's Books on the Bed:
Heavy by Kiese Laymon
Sleepovers: Stories by Ashleigh Bryant Phillips
Cane by Jean Toomer
Trampoline by Robert Gipe
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman and the Members of Tectonic Theater Project
Matt’s Gifts for Meredith:
The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty
Cinema Ann Arbor by Frank Uhle
Three Rivers Cornmeal Mix
 

Elizabeth Gonzalez James

This week we visit with Elizabeth Gonzalez James in Sharon, Massachusetts. 
Elizabeth Gonzalez James is a screenwriter and bestselling author of the novels, The Bullet Swallower and Mona at Sea, as well as the chapbook, Five Conversations About Peter Sellers. The Bullet Swallower was named a best book of 2024 by NPR, Esquire, and elsewhere, was a Book of the Month Club pick, and was featured on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” as one of their spring book club picks. Elizabeth was featured on the MSNBC documentary “My Generation” representing the Millennials. She has taught fiction writing at Grub Street, Pioneer Valley Writers Workshop, Story Studio, and elsewhere. Originally from South Texas, Elizabeth now lives with her family in Massachusetts.
Elizabeth’s Books on the Bed:
Jorge Luis Borges: Collected Fictions
Temporary by Hilary Leichter
The Dog of the South by Charles Portis
CivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George Saunders
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Mona by Pola Oloixarac
Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God
Matt’s gifts for Elizabeth:
Blood Test by Charles Baxter 
Recollecting: Lives of Aboriginal Women of the Canadian Northwest and Borderlands by Sarah Carter and Patricia A. McCormack
 

Rachel Beanland

This week we visit with Rachel Beanland in Richmond, Virginia.
Rachel is the author of two novels, The House Is On Fire (Simon & Schuster, 2023) and Florence Adler Swims Forever (Simon & Schuster, 2020).
The House Is On Fire was selected as an Indie Next pick by the American Booksellers Association, a ‘GMA Buzz Pick’ by Good Morning America, a “most anticipated” book by the Washington Post, and one of the best books of 2023 by NPR and The New Yorker.
Beanland’s debut novel, Florence Adler Swims Forever, was selected as a book club pick by Barnes & Noble, a featured debut by Amazon, an Indie Next pick by the ABA, and one of the best books of 2020 by USA Today. It was also named a New York Times Editors’ Choice and was recognized with the 2020 National Jewish Book Award for Debut Fiction.
Beanland attended the University of South Carolina and earned her MFA in creative writing from Virginia Commonwealth University. She has taught at the College of William & Mary, Virginia Commonwealth University, and the University of Richmond, where she was the 2023-24 Writer-in-Residence. Beanland lives in Richmond, Virginia with her family.
Rachel’s Books on the Bed:
The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan
Young Woman and the Sea: How Trudy Ederle Conquered the English Channel and Inspired the World by Glenn Stout
The Richmond Theater Fire: Early America’s First Great Disaster by Meredith Henne Baker
The Color of Water by James McBride
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
Matt’s gifts for Rachel: 
The Price of a Child by Lorene Cary
The Which Way Tree by Elizabeth Crook

Kristen Gentry

This week we visit Kristen Gentry in Louisville, Kentucky.
Kristen is the author of Mama Said, longlisted for the 2024 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection. She received her M.F.A. from Indiana University. Her award-winning fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and appeared in Electric Literature, Crab Orchard Review, and other journals. She is a VONA and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference alumna, former Director of Creative Writing at SUNY Geneseo, and a member of the inaugural Poets & Writers publicity incubator for debut writers. She lives and writes in her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky.  
For more about Kristen and Mama Said: kristengentry.com
Kristen's Books on the Bed:
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange
Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer
Gorilla, My Love by Toni Cade Bambara
Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts by Crystal Wilkinson
Matt's Gifts for Kristen:
Rattlebone by Maxine Clair
Fifth Born by Zelda Lockhart
 
 

Gerry Wilson

This week we visit Gerry Wilson in Jackson, Mississippi.
A seventh generation Mississippian, Gerry Wilson grew up in the red clay hills of the north that she writes about in her debut novel, THAT PINSON GIRL, released by Regal House Publishing in February 2024. A story, “Tell Me Anything,” appeared in Persimmon Tree in June 2024. Another story, “A Language of Their Own,” was runner-up for The Porch Fiction Prize 2024. “Life Line” was a finalist in decembermagazine’s Curt Johnson Prose Award for Fiction and was published in december in the spring of 2023. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous other journals. Gerry is a 2025 Mississippi Arts Commission Literary Artist Fellowship recipient.
Gerry has a new Substack publication, “Stories I’m Old Enough to Tell,” where she writes—well—basically whatever is on her mind, but mostly about her writing journey.
For more about Gerry: gerrywilson.com
Gerry's Books on the Bed:
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
Can't Quit You, Baby by Ellen Douglas
Music of the Swamp by Lewis Nordan
A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor
Light in August by William Faulkner
A Curtain of Green & Other Stories by Eudora Welty
Matt's Gifts for Gerry:
The Five Wounds by Kirstin Valdez Quade
Room Swept Home by Remica Bingham-Risher