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 was 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: Caitlin Avery

Caitlin Avery writes about women whose lives are amiss and can’t resist dangerous impulses. She's the author of the award-winning adventure/thriller, The Last Cruz, its recently released sequel, The Last Con, and the standalone contemporary fiction, Life of Cyn. Her first book, a coming-of-age memoir, is called Lightning in my Wires. When she's not inventing transformative adventures for her readers, she loves to indulge in them. A triathlete, mountain biker, backpacker, black-diamond skier, and yoga enthusiast, she lives outside of Boston with her husband and son, and the cat and dog who rescued her.


  First Name   Last NameDebut Title (click for podcast)   
Caitlin Avery Life of Cyn
Barbara Miller When You See Her
Allyson Rice The Key to Circus-Mom Highway
Roxana Trabulsi Of Mud & Honey
Brynn Brynn Barineau Jaguars and Other Game  
Patricia Hudson Traces
Kathy Maresca Porch Music
Georgia Day Of Sand and Bone
Amy Watson Closer to Okay
Linda Moore Attribution
Karen Heenan Coming Apart
Wendy Adair The Broken Hallelujah
Gloria Mattioni California Sister
Nancy Yeager When We Were Friends  
Anastasia Zadeik Blurred Fates
Suzanne Moyers 'Till All These Things Be Done
Judith Turner-Yamamoto Loving the Dead and Gone
Jacqueline Boulden Her Past Can't Wait
Carol Van Den Hende Orchid Blooming
Tamatha Cain Song of the Chimney Sweep
L Maristatter
Tiny Tin House
C.J. McGroarty Clara in a Time of War
Leslie Kain Secrets in the Mirror
  Special Episode WFWA's 10th Anniversary
Adele Holmes Winter's Reckoning
Carol Dunbar The Net Beneath Us
Angela Cairns Touch
Sharon Peterson The Do Over
Dianne Braley The Silence in the Sound
Rita Rowe Becoming Ruthless
Maggie Ginsberg Still True
Carolyn Clarke And Then There's Margaret
D.F. Kennedy The Truth
Staci Greason All the Girls in Town
Lisa Williamson Rosenberg Embers on the Wind
  Special Episode WFWA Founders
Nina Wachsman The Gallery of Beauties
Chris Posti Falling Apart, Falling for You
E.J. Tanda Queen of Secrets
Karla Huebner In Search of the Magic Theater
Jen Craven Best Years of Your Life
Robin Maass The Walled Garden
Jody Herpin Relative Consequences
Carol Orange A Discerning Eye
Suzanne Mattaboni Once In a LIfetime
Linda MacKillop The Forgotten Life of Eva Gordon
Grace Marcus Visible Signs
RLynn Johnson Cry of the Heart
Janis Daly The Unlocked Path
Erin Litteken The Memory Keeper of Kyiv
Melanie Mitzner Slow Reveal
Karen Winn Our Little World
Judith Brenner The Moments Between Dreams
Eileen Brill A Letter in the Wall
Kimberly Nixon Rock Bottom, Tennessee
Kris Spisak The Baba Yaga Mask
Zoe Disigny The Art of Traveling Strangers
Sarah Branson A Merry Life
Maggie Giles The Things We Lost
Jen Gilroy The Sweetheart Locket
J. Marie Rundquist All I'm Asking
Sita Romero Words We Cannot Say
Judy Lannon Nine Days
Lisa Roe Welcome to the Neighborhood
Erin Flanagan Deer Season
Shirley B. Novack The Story Of...
Kathy Strobos Partner Pursuit
Harriet Cannon Exiled South
Tammy Harrow All the Salt in the Sea  
Kerry Chaput Daughter of the King  
Cheryl Corriveau The Demanding River
Tonya Mitchell A Feigned Madness
Kimberly Sullivan Three Coins
Dawn Hogan Unbroken Bonds
Georgina Key Shiny Bits in Between
Kelley McNeil A Day Like This
Joani Elliott The Audacity of Sara Grayson
Maan Gabriel After Perfect
Luisa Ramondo Beyond the Cobblestones
JoAnn Catania A Scarcity of Virgins
Judy Stanigar Marika's Best Laid Plan
Pamela Stockwell A Boundless Place
Kalyn Fogarty What We Carry
Paulette Stout Love Only Better
Cherie L. Genua Greetings from Tucson
Rebecca Campbell Sandalwood
Special Podcast Episode with Star Award/Debut Finalists
Julia Brewer Daily No Names to Be Given
Sarah Adlakha She Wouldn't Change a Thing
Karen Martin Dancing the Labyrinth
C. D'Angelo The Difference
Penny Haw The Wilderness Between Us
Elizabeth de Veer The Ocean in Winter
Julee Balko The Things We Keep
Lyn Liao Butler The Tiger Mom's Tale
Amanda Johnson East of Manhattan
Kristina Parro Lucky: A Novel
Amanda Jane Schiller Wicked Games and Wasted Years
Maggie Smith Truth and Other Lies
Mary
Camarillo The Lockhart Women
Tavi Taylor Black Where Are We Tomorrow?
Jenn
Bouchard First Course
Kathleen M. Basi A Song For The Road  
Kris Clink Goodbye, Lark Lovejoy
Margaret
Rodenberg Finding Napoleon
K. Blanton Brenner Appaloosa Sky
Jennifer Jensen The Vice
Kristi Lee The Worst Thing I Could Do
Kate Allen Fear of Flying
Dorothy Staley Bear Woman Rising
Leslie A.
Rasmussen After Happily Ever After
Elissa Grossell
Dickey The Speed of Light
Libby
Hubscher Meet Me In Paradise
Debra Thomas Luz
Sarah Penner The Lost Apothecary
Jill
Caugherty Waltz in Swing Time
Christina
Consolino Rewrite The Stars
KD Allbaugh Face Down in Rising Sun
Jeannée
Sacken Behind the Lens
Beatryce
Ruby No Sweeter Touch
Gina
Wilkinson When the Apricots Bloom
Tiffany Meuret A Flood of Posies
Elizabeth  Chatsworth The Brass Queen
Shail
Rajan The Summer Breeze
L. Bordetsky-Williams Forget Russia
Christina
Tsirkas The Night Sender
Judith Teitelman Guesthouse for Ganesha
Kathy Sechrist Success is the Best Revenge
Joyce
Yarrow Sandstorm
Denny S. Bryce Wild Women and the Blues
Kathryn Holzman Real Estate, A Novel
Melissa Hunter What She Lost
Florence Reiss Kraut How to Make a Life
Geeta Schrayter Reaching Riverdale
Densie Webb When Robins Appear
Bhaswati Ghosh Victory Colony, 1950
KJ Dell’Antonia The Chicken Sisters
Rachel Mans McKenny The Butterfly Effect
Jaye Burke Venice
Grace Sammon The Eves
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  Unbroken Threads
Leslie Schweitzer Miller Discovery Discovery
Sarahlyn Bruck Designer You  Designer You
Heather Frimmer Bedside Manners  Bedside Manners
Reyna Marder  Gentin  Unreasonable Doubts  Unreasonable Doubts
Megan A. Clancy A Burden of a Daughter The Burden of a Daughter
Ann Griffin Another Ocean to Cross Another Ocean to Cross
Julie Maloney A Matter of Chance A Matter of Chance
Johanne Levesque Trouble & Strife 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 Wrapped in the Stars
Eldonna Edwards This I Know This I Know
Marianne Hansen The Unscripted Life of Lizzy Dillinger The Unscripted Life of Lizzy Dillinger
Carrie Mumford All But What's Left All But What's Left
Barbara Solomon Josselsohn The Last Dreamer The Last Dreamer
Julie Clark The Ones We Choose
Anna Quinn The Night Child The Night Child
Jennifer Irwin A Dress the Color of the Sky A Dress the Color of the Sky
Lori Henriksen The Winter Loon The Winter Loon
Sweta Srivastava Vikram Louisiana Catch Louisiana Catch