Leslie and Miriam discuss what Leslie's life might have looked like if on a trip to Las Vegas she hadn’t married the man who became her husband and, ultimately father of her daughter, and instead had returned home to New York un-hitched. Along the way they talk about having a complicated relationship with uncertainty, how underlining in books is a love language, and writing at truck-stops at 2am.

Leslie Jamison is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Recovering and The Empathy Exams; the collection of essays Make It Scream, Make It Burn, and the novel The Gin Closet, a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize. She writes for numerous publications including The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s, The New York Review of Books, and the Virginia Quarterly Review. She teaches at Columbia University and lives in in Brooklyn and Splinters, her extraordinary memoir of the end of a marriage and the beginning of motherhood - is out now and available in your local bookshop.

Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 5 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about another path their life might have taken. Together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives.

Produced by Neil Mason

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Karen and Miriam discusss what Karen's life might have been like if she’d returned to her native US after what was supposed to be a short trip to London, instead of staying put and building her life there. Along the way they talk about the weight of cultural norms & expectation, what it means to live far from family, and how painting and writing can help locate us, wherever we are.

Karen Raney is an academic, painter, former editor and a writer of fiction. Her novel All the Water in the World was the recipient of the 2017 Pat Kavanaugh Prize, shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award in 2020, and for two Society of Authors prizes in 2021. She is currently at work on her next novel.

Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 5 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about another path their life might have taken. Together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives.

Produced by Neil Mason

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Vanessa speaks to Miriam about what her life might have looked like if she hadn’t gotten married at the age of 30 and moved with her husband to Lagos - the setting of her incredible novel - and had instead moved to LA to pursue a dream of screenwriting. Along the way they discuss the way place can change you; ways to change your life, step by tiny step; and how the women of Selling Sunset manage to sell houses in those ridiculous stilettos.

Vanessa Walters has a background in international journalism and playwriting and is a Tin House and Millay Arts resident. She is the author of two previous YA books and film rights for her novel The Lagos Wife have been optioned by HBO. Born and raised in London, she currently lives in Brooklyn. The Lagos Wife is out now and can be found in your local bookshop.

Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 5 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about another path their life might have taken. Together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives.

Produced by Neil Mason

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.