In the season finale, we chat with bestselling novelist, Dawnie Walton, about how her journalism background inspired the unusual structure of her first novel, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev. She digs into how she developed the many voices in the novel by finding the characters' syntax, deciding how they would curse, and listening to hours of The Dick Cavett Show. She talks about the challenges of writing her second book and the benefits of working with a wonderful editor. And she shares the one workshop note that changed everything!

Stay tuned for Season 2 in spring 2026!

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Dawnie Walton is a writer, editor, and author of the award-winning novel The Final Revival of Opal and Nev, named one of the best books of 2021 by The Washington Post, NPR, Esquire, and former U.S. President Barack Obama, among others. Her work explores identity, place, and the influence of pop culture. Formerly an editor at Essence and Entertainment Weekly, she has received fellowships from MacDowell and Tin House, and an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop (where she has since taught a fiction seminar). In partnership with acclaimed writer Deesha Philyaw and Longreads founder Mark Armstrong, she is the co-founder of Ursa Story Company, a podcasting and storytelling venture, and co-hosts and produces its shows. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in Oxford American, Bon Appetit, NPR, and Lithub. Born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida, she lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter.

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Buy The Final Revival of Opal and Nev on Bookshop.org or at your local bookshop.

Pre-Order Meryl's debut novel What You Should Worry About at Bookshop.org or Barnes & Nobles (coming out summer 2026)!

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Follow us on Instagram @itsallwritepod. And send us a note at itsallwritepod@gmail.com.

Support the show

In Episode 10 Loretta Lopez joins us. Her middle grade novel, City Girls, chronicles the lives of three middle schoolers facing some pretty big challenges, such as immigration, adultery, and a parent with cancer. Loretta explains how the book is intended for all audiences and was originally conceived for adults. She talks about how her work as a translator and therapist informs her writing and how an obsessive nature fuels her desire to write anywhere she can, even the public bus.

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Loretta Lopez is a Mexican-American author living in Brooklyn, NY. She is also a therapist and board member at The Brave House. Her debut novel, City Girls, published by Seven Stories Press in Spring 2024.

City Girls, was inspired by the lives of the girls she has worked with at The Brave House, a non-profit offering holistic services to immigrant girls. Part of the book's proceeds will go to supporting their mission.

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Buy City Girls on Bookshop.org or at your local bookshop.

Pre-Order Meryl's debut novel What You Should Worry About at Bookshop.org or Barnes & Nobles (coming out summer 2026)!

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Follow us on Instagram @itsallwritepod. And send us a note at itsallwritepod@gmail.com.

Support the show

In Episode 9, we are back from a fall hiatus with our professor Robert Lopez (of Stony Brook University), author of eight books and numerous pieces in literary journals & magazines. Robert shares his unconventional path to becoming a writer (without having read a full book 'till his 20s!), his thoughts on voice & form, how playing music impacts his fiction, and how teaching has allowed him to build a comfortable writing life for himself.

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Robert Lopez is the author of seven novels and one non-fiction book (listed below with links to purchase). His fiction, nonfiction, and poetry has appeared in dozens of publications, including Bomb, The Threepenny Review, Vice Magazine, New England Review, The Sun, and the Norton Anthology of Sudden Fiction – Latino. He teaches at Stony Brook University and has previously taught at Columbia University, The New School, Pratt Institute, and Syracuse University. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Robert's Books

• The Best People (novel, 2025)
• Dispatches from Puerto Nowhere: An American Story of Assimilation and Erasure (nonfiction, 2023)
• A Better Class Of People (novel-in-stories, 2022)
• All Black Full (novel, 2017)
• Good People (novel-in-stories, 2016)
• Asunder (stories, 2010)
• Kamby Bolongo Mean River (novel, 2009)
• Part of the World (novel, 2007)

For more of Robert's work visit his website: www.robertlopez.net

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