Gary Alan McBride founded the Boulder, Colorado-based Writers Who Read novel study group in May of 2018. Since then he and other local writers have been analyzing 10 novels per year within 12-18 months of their publication. Gary is also the author of the WwR reference guide, Literary Forensics: How Reading Can Make You a Better Writer, available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook in bookstores and at online retailers worldwide. More information here: https://LiteraryForensicsBook.com.
WwR is focused 100% on today's fiction, mostly in advance of academic scholarship, so we live on the cutting edge of contemporary analysis. And that's how we like it. Our goal is to read like a writer and not wait for someone else to tell us what to think. That means we read with intent--to become better at noticing what the author is doing to manage our emotions and manipulate our point of view. And so it doesn't matter whether what we read is critically acclaimed or academically vetted, because we can learn the same lessons from bad writing as from highly polished prose. We use our own reactions to the text to discover where to dig, and we use Literary Forensics techniques to sift through the layers. Our goal is to uncover the author's intent and to identify the tools they used to create their story so we can use them in our own writing.
On our monthly podcast Gary is joined by Whitney Pinion, Mira Landry, and sometimes others guest readers. We discuss our own textual discoveries as well as insights gleaned from our group discussion, because as much as we can learn on our own, we can learn so much more about how to read and write when we listen to others' viewpoints.
And that's where you come in, dear listener. We invite you to join us each month, 10 months a year, for a new episode when we discuss the latest literary techniques and publishing trends so that you can try out these techniques for yourself and maybe add your voice to ours.
We are Writers Who Read.
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Gary introduces the 10 novels, published in 2025 and 2026, that will be covered in Season Four of Writers Who Read. In order, they are:
S4 #1: Tilt - Emma Pattee
S4 #2: Angel Down - Daniel Kraus
S4 #3: The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) - Rabih Alameddine
S4 #4: What We Can Know - Ian McEwan
S4 #5: Transcription - Ben Lerner
S4 #6: Yesteryear - Caro Claire Burke
S4 #7: My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein - Deborah Levy
S4 #8: Hollywood, Ending - John Green
S4 #9: The Radiance - Ayad Akhtar
S4 #10: Partita - Barbara Kingsolver
Discussion slides for all novels discussed are available at WritersWhoRead.com (https://WritersWhoRead.com/live). You can learn more about Literary Forensics here (https://LiteraryForensics.org), and find the book at bookstores everywhere (https://books2read.com/literaryforensics).
In every episode we analyze and discuss one novel that has been published within the past 18-24 months. We do this because we are writers who read with intent–we read to study content and form and to uncover techniques that we can apply to our own writing. We read like writers, turning our favorite authors into our writing teachers.
We do this through Literary Forensics, a set of tools that allow us to look beyond the surface of plot points, down into the tapestry of themes, contexts, and symbols that hold the very intentions of the author.
We uncover why they wrote this novel and how they did it.
If you'd like to join our LIVE! meetings in person, find upcoming novel titles and event registration information here (https://writerswhoread.com/live/) and be sure to sign up for our monthly newsletter (https://WritersWhoRead.com/signup).
Writers Who Read has been meeting in Boulder, Colorado, since 2018, and we are affiliated with the Boulder Writers Alliance (https://bwa.org).
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
15 Oct 2026
Literary Forensics interview
This bonus episode is actually an episode of Jason DeHart’s podcast, “Words, Images, and Worlds” where he interviews authors about their books and their process. You can find his podcast and videos on YouTube @WordsImagesWorlds, where he explores literacy through comics, media, fandom, and scholarship. Gary was Jason’s guest on an episode that dropped back in August of 2026, and, naturally, he talked (a lot!) about the creation of Literary Forensics, and how it arose from his work with Writers Who Read.
You can learn more about Literary Forensics here (https://LiteraryForensics.org), and find the book at bookstores everywhere (https://books2read.com/literaryforensics).
In every episode we analyze and discuss one novel that has been published within the past 18-24 months. We do this because we are writers who read with intent–we read to study content and form and to uncover techniques that we can apply to our own writing. We read like writers, turning our favorite authors into our writing teachers.
We do this through Literary Forensics, a set of tools that allow us to look beyond the surface of plot points, down into the tapestry of themes, contexts, and symbols that hold the very intentions of the author.
We uncover why they wrote this novel and how they did it.
If you'd like to join our LIVE! meetings in person, find upcoming novel titles and event registration information here (https://writerswhoread.com/live/) and be sure to sign up for our monthly newsletter (https://WritersWhoRead.com/signup).
Writers Who Read has been meeting in Boulder, Colorado, since 2018, and we are affiliated with the Boulder Writers Alliance (https://bwa.org).
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
23 Aug 2026
81: King of Ashes - S. A. Cosby
Mira Landry, Risë Keller, and Gary McBride talk about King of Ashes by S. A. Cosby, which is Writers Who Read book number 81. Discussion slides for this novel and all novels discussed are available at WritersWhoRead.com (https://WritersWhoRead.com/live). You can learn more about Literary Forensics here (https://LiteraryForensics.org), and find the book at bookstores everywhere (https://books2read.com/literaryforensics).
In every episode we analyze and discuss one novel that has been published within the past 18-24 months. We do this because we are writers who read with intent–we read to study content and form and to uncover techniques that we can apply to our own writing. We read like writers, turning our favorite authors into our writing teachers.
We do this through Literary Forensics, a set of tools that allow us to look beyond the surface of plot points, down into the tapestry of themes, contexts, and symbols that hold the very intentions of the author.
We uncover why they wrote this novel and how they did it.
If you'd like to join our LIVE! meetings in person, find upcoming novel titles and event registration information here (https://writerswhoread.com/live/) and be sure to sign up for our monthly newsletter (https://WritersWhoRead.com/signup).
Writers Who Read has been meeting in Boulder, Colorado, since 2018, and we are affiliated with the Boulder Writers Alliance (https://bwa.org).
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
Who has been a guest on Writers Who Read
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Stephen King
Holly Gibney
Emily and Rodney Harris
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Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
15 ratings
Spotify
4.7 / 5
12 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 36 / 100
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Quality
41
Social presence
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YouTube
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Engagement
77
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