Debut Author Podcasts

Each Debut Author Podcast is a conversation between our moderator Maggie Smith and a debut women's fiction author. 

Maggie Smith, a member of WFWA since 2015, hosts our podcast. Her debut novel, TRUTH AND OTHER LIES, placed third in the 2019 Rising Star competition and will be published in March 2022 by Ten16 Press. Her short story, THE DEVIL YOU KNOW, appeared in the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writer’s 2018 anthology False Face and she blogs on writing-related topics for the Chicago Writers Association and the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writer’s Association.  She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Chicago Writer’s Association and is the Managing Editor of their on-line literary publication The Write City Magazine.  A confirmed workshop junkie and avid Instagrammer, Maggie makes her home in Milwaukee. 

If you are a WFWA member and would like to submit your debut women's fiction for podcast consideration, please visit our submissions page.

Latest Podcast Episode

Debut Author Podcast: Madeleine Van Hecke

Madeleine Van Hecke writes dark stories to help women navigate the shadow side of life. A psychologist, former college professor, and author of two nonfiction books, Van Hecke returned to writing fiction during her retirement years.

Her debut novel, Once You Know, is a story of one flawed women’s struggle to survive betrayal and move herself and her family toward healing. Once You Know won the 2020 First Place in Women’s Fiction Incipere Award given by Entrada Publishing.  

Past Podcasts

First Name	Last Name	Debut Title (click for podcast)
Madeleine	Van Hecke	Once You Know
Paula	Adler	Return to Magnolia Bloom
Angela	Terry	Charming Falls Apart
Katey	Schultz	Still Come Home
Sarah	McCraw Crow	The Wrong Kind of Woman
Mary Helen	Sheriff	Boop and Eve’s Road Trip
Regina	Buttner	Absolution
Nguyễn	Phan Quế Mai	The Mountains Sing
Ehsaneh	Sadr	A Door Between Us
Valerie	Taylor	What's Not Said
Michele	Levy	Anna's Dance
Anita	Kushwaha	Secret Lives of Mothers and Daughters
Barbara	Conrey	Nowhere Near Goodbye
J.L.	Cole	Silver Heights
Susan	Payne	Forever Kind of Woman
A.H.	Kim	A Good Family
Tricia	Zacher	Many a Sudden Change
Amanda	Brainerd	Age of Consent
Lindsey	Cook	How to Bury Your Brother
Stephanie	Newman	Barbarians at the PTA
Pamela	Raleigh	Sandshell Island
Anju	Gattani	Duty and Desire
Tracey	Enerson Wood	The Engineer's Wife
Jacqueline	Kang	The Club
Carol	LaHines	Someday Everything
Diane	Barnes	More Than
William	Schreiber	Someone To Watch Over
Dianne	Romain	The Trumpet Lesson
Lisa	Braxton	The Talking Drum
Sherri	Leimkuhler	What's Left Untold
Lainey	Cameron	The Exit Strategy
Marolyn	Krasner	The Radicals
Shawn	Keller Cooper	Drawing Down the Moon
Elizabeth	Gauffreau	Telling Sonny
Kelly	Duran	Can't Take It Back
Jae	Hodges	The Rose and the Whip
Jamie	Beck	If You Must Know
Sharina	Harris	(Im)perfectly Happy
Kathleen	West	Minor Dramas and Other Catastrophes
Alison	Hammer	You and Me and Us
Sally	Suen	Crystal Cove
Diane	Byington	If She Had Stayed
Donna Koros	Stramella	Coffee Killed My Mother
Rebecca	Hodge	Wildland
Barbara Linn	Probst	Queen of the Owls
Joanne	Kukanza Easley	Sweet Jane
Linda	Rosen	The Disharmony of Silence
Michelle	Davis	Learning to Bend
Kimmery	Martin	The Queen of Hearts
Sarah	Robinson	Every Last Drop
Jennifer	Gold	The Ingredients of Us
Sarah	Jones	Summer Squall
Lorelei	Brush	Uncovering
Ellen	LaCorte	The Perfect Fraud
Leanne	Treese	The Language of Divorce
Kathleen	Barber	Are You Sleeping
Judy	Kundert	Sky Queen
Leslie M.	Rollins	Good-Time Girl
Marlene	Adelstein	Sophie Last Seen
Jess	Woods	The Process of Fraying
Kimberly	Lynne	A Pocketwatch, Spray Paint & Morphine
Amber	Cowie	Rapid Falls
Kaela	Coble	Friends & Other Liars
Suanne	Schafer	A Different Kind of Fire
Leah	Decesare	Forks, Knives and Spoons
Erin	Bartels	We Hope for Better Things
Romalyn	Tilghman	To the Stars with Difficulties
Jennifer	Klepper	Unbroken Threads
Leslie Schweitzer	Miller	Discovery
Sarahlyn	Bruck	Designer You
Heather	Frimmer	Bedside Manners
Reyna Marder	Gentin	Unreasonable Doubts
Megan A.	Clancy	A Burden of a Daughter
Ann	Griffin	Another Ocean to Cross
Julie	Maloney	A Matter of Chance
Johanne	Levesque	Trouble & Strife
Sally	Crosair	Come Back
Irene	Olson	Requiem for the Status Quo
Rachel	Dacus	The Renaissance Club
Denitta	Ward	Somewhere Still
Elena	Mikalsen	Wrapped in the Stars
Eldonna	Edwards	This I Know
Marianne	Hansen	The Unscripted Life of Lizzy Dillinger
Carrie	Mumford	All But What's Left
Barbara Solomon	Josselsohn	The Last Dreamer
Julie	Clark	The Ones We Choose
Anna	Quinn	The Night Child
Jennifer	Irwin	A Dress the Color of the Sky
Lori	Henriksen	The Winter Loon
Sweta Srivastava	Vikram	Louisiana Catch