Now Available: RTA Episode 3
Mateo Askaripour & Robert Jones Jr. on community, love, and purpose.
(top, left to right: Mateo Askaripour, Robert Jones Jr., Randy Winston)
Chapter 3 Guests: Robert Jones Jr. and Mateo Askaripour
Robert Jones, Jr. (formerly known as “Son of Baldwin”) is a Brooklyn, New York-based writer and public speaker. He is the author of The New York Times bestselling novel, The Prophets, which was a finalist for the 2021 National Book Award for Fiction. His writings have been featured in The New York Times, Essence, Variety, and The Paris Review. Subscribe to Robert's newsletter, Witness, at robertjonesjr.substack.com.
Mateo Askaripour wants people to feel seen. His first novel, Black Buck, takes on racism in corporate America with humor and wit. It was an instant New York Times bestseller and a Read with Jenna Today show book club pick. Askaripour was chosen as one of Entertainment Weekly’s “10 rising stars poised to make waves” and was named as a recipient of the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” prize. This Great Hemisphere is his second novel. He lives in Brooklyn.
About the host
Randy Winston is the Creative Director of Fiction at The Black List, and former Director of Writing Programs at The Center for Fiction, where he managed, curated, and directed the production of all writing courses, the illustrious First Novel Prize, the famed Susan Kamil Emerging Writer Fellowship, and the highly-sought Writers Studio membership. Prior to his work at The Center, Winston served as Fiction Editor of Slice Literary Magazine for 6 years and has over 10 years of executive admin experience in higher education. Before his MFA, Randy served as editor-in-chief of, formerly Southern Polytechnic State University, now Kennesaw State University’s, online and print student publication in Marietta, Georgia. He is a 2016 graduate of the MFA program in Creative Writing (Fiction) at The New School and sits on the board for Orion Magazine and WriteOn NYC.
About the series
A pillar of our Fiction educational resources, Read The Acknowledgements is a live visual podcast designed for book and writing professionals to share their industry experiences and help give writers a clear picture of the ecosystem that is publishing.
This podcast series exists, in part, to fundraise for writers and literary nonprofits in need. Attendance is free, and we encourage viewers and listeners to make donations to writer support funds such as the Authors League Fund, Hedgebrook, Baldwin for the Arts, and Lampblack's Direct Aid Fund.
Read the Acknowledgments is a subsidiary of The Black List, LLC.