Pen & Place cover art

Pen & Place

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Thousands of incredible audiobooks and podcasts to take wherever you go.
Immerse yourself in a world of storytelling with the Plus Catalogue - unlimited listening to thousands of select audiobooks, podcasts and Audible Originals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Pen & Place

By: Audible Originals, Amy Standen, Michael Epstein
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

About this listen

From Oahu to Detroit, "Little Saigon" to Brooklyn, authors from all walks of life take us to the real worlds that inspired their works. Hosted by reporters Amy Standen and Michael Epstein.

When you add Pen & Place to your library you will receive all 6 episodes, each with a runtime of approximately 15 minutes.

©2016 Audible Originals, LLC (P)2016 Audible Originals, LLC Art & Literature Authors Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Ep. 6: Natalie Baszile's Queen Sugar

    Ep. 6: Natalie Baszile's Queen Sugar
    Oct 24 2017
    What happens when a city girl from Los Angeles unexpectedly inherits 800 acres of sugarcane in southern Louisiana? Join author Natalie Baszile – along with former sugarcane farmer Rene Simon and other trusted sources – as she rediscovers her southern roots and mines the landscape for her novel Queen Sugar; the inspiration for the Oprah Winfrey Network TV show.
    Show More Show Less
    15 mins
    Try Premium Plus free
  • Ep. 5: Charlie LeDuff's Detroit: An American Autopsy

    Ep. 5: Charlie LeDuff's Detroit: An American Autopsy
    Oct 24 2017
    [Contains explicit content] Charlie LeDuff takes participatory journalism to new heights in an effort to highlight the tragedies and triumphs of Detroit. He's eaten cat food to lament the lack of funding for Meals on Wheels, and hit golf balls through abandoned buildings to draw attention to city blight. In this episode, we discover how he's tackled rampant arson and the rebuilding of Motor City.
    Show More Show Less
    15 mins
    Try Premium Plus free
  • Ep. 4: Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Sympathizer

    Ep. 4: Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Sympathizer
    Oct 24 2017
    Pulitzer-Prize winning novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen takes us to Southern California's Little Saigon, known for its strip malls and tract homes. There, Nguyen unearths a culture that is firmly set in the U.S. but always looking over its shoulder to Vietnam.
    Show More Show Less
    13 mins
    Try Premium Plus free
All stars
Most relevant  
I think like most avid readers I often wonder how the writing process works and what inspires authors to write the fabulous stories that they do. This seemed to offer the chance to gain some great insights direct from authors themselves. There are six episodes of 15 minutes each and for me they panned out as follows.

Episode 1 : William Finnegan who writes about his life as a surfer. He talked more about waves and surfing in general than any particularly inspirational place. I got more from the gorgeous noises of breaking waves from the soundtrack if I am honest, they would inspire anyone! Other than that this seemed a curious one to choose as the opener as it felt weaker than most of the others.

Episode 2 : Daniel Jose Older who writes paranormal novels. Here we are introduced to how he feels Brooklyn inspired his characters and stories and he definitely conveys his feeling for the place and how it inspired him.

Episode 3 : This one contains explicit content they say but not really very much. It features romantic novelist Kristen Ashley "whose Rock Chick series turns Denver into a raucous, freewheeling celebration of romance and sisterhood. " - don't ask me I really wouldn't know! Honest! I have to admit that lines like "I felt his God-given talent pressed against my belly" don't do much for me. However, Kristen's love for Denver did shine through and my lack of interest in her work didn't stop me enjoying hearing about it even if some of her fans did boggle the mind a touch and they did get given far too much of the episode.

Episode 4 : The most interesting to me as Viet Thanh Nguyen is the only one of the authors that I have read! Little Saigon, in Southern California, a suburb with a large Vietnamese population, the Vietnamese American Dream! Here possibly Pen and Place best meets its brief.

Episode 5 : Charlie LeDuff, a "participatory" journalist who highlights problems in his home city of Detroit. Quite a character and one whose passion comes through very strongly. LeDuff focuses on some tough issues and I found the stories in this one particularly engaging.

Episode 6 : Concludes the series with Natalie Baszile, author of Queen Sugar, explaining how her on-location research for a book she had spent six years writing was completed once the location was finally understood. This episode gave a very strong feel for how the place helped shape the book.

The journalists play a very much back seat role in most of the episodes relying on the authors themselves, other interviewees and the soundscape to carry the narrative. They're very unobtrusive which is a good choice for such short episodes. I don't think they fully met their brief in all of the installments, some seemed to be about the most interesting things they liked from their research rather than any consistent attempt to show how places inspired writers.

Everything in its Place

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I thought this audible show was great. Please can I have some more? I’m the sort of fanatic reader who loves it when an author reveals where their ideas come. There’s nothing more delightful than picking up a collection of stories to find a little insight by the author after each one revealing how the story came about. It’s like biting into a delicious chocolate cupcake and finding a secret yummy caramel centre. Now, I really want a cupcake. Damn! I’m not familiar with any of the authors featured here. I found the episodes fascinating. I would love to see this become a regular audible show.

Fascinting literary insights

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
So much to enjoy and get into here: lots of different voices with fascinating outlooks and stories. I really enjoyed all of these.

A feast for readers and writers

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I listened to this while commuting, which was a mistake because it deserved my full attention. I have to listen again when I'm not driving around hairpin bends

interesting

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.