The Atlantic — 50 Best Podcasts of the Year

My dad is the gift that keeps on giving.  When Esquire Classic made #20 in a list of best podcasts of the year, My Father the Bachelor was singled out as the “gateway” episode.  I love that we beat out The New Yorker Radio Hour (#23) and Fresh Air (#24)

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20. Esquire Classic
Most literary podcasts adopt a familiar highbrow voice, but Esquire Classic makes English lit conversational. Each episode sees the show reexamine one great piece from the magazine, poring over all the insider details: what Susan Orlean was thinking when she profiled a 10-year-old boy, or why Richard Ben Cramer was the perfect foil for Ted Williams. By interweaving readings of the essays with conversations between the host and someone close to the piece (usually a writer or editor), the podcast contextualizes the making of essential literature.

Gateway Episode: “My Father the Bachelor, by Martha Sherrill

Banner Episode: “What It Takes, by Richard Ben Cramer

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/12/the-50-best-podcasts-of-2016/510698/

Esquire Classic: The Essential Martha Sherrill

Lucky for me, I got to spend time at Esquire magazine. For about a decade, on and off, I wrote profiles and essays for the magazine, before I started writing books. There were three talented editor-in-chiefs during my tenure — Terry McDonell, Ed Kosner, and David Granger. But the amazing man who assigned and edited my work was the incomparable Mark Warren, who cared as much about my work as I did. He recently left the magazine after 28 years. I’m certain his absence will be noticed.

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This June, just before Father’s Day, the Esquire Classic archive asked me for an interview about one piece I wrote in particular, “My Father, The Bachelor,” which has become one of the most visited and shared essays in the archives.

David Brancaccio, the host of public radio’s Marketplace (among other things) interviewed me at my favorite local radio station, WOMR in Provincetown, MA — not far from where I live.

Click on this collage and it will take you to the podcast — and links to some of my other pieces:

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REIMAGINING JAPAN

Japan is on everybody’s mind these days.  I was lucky to be asked to contribute an essay to a fantastic collection, Reimagining Japan,  just out. It is already #1 nonfiction book in Japan and sold out in English on Amazon, but more copies will be available soon. The other contributors are artists, writers, historians, economists, CEOs and even a soccer coach and a videogame creator. Gorgeously illustrated and beautifully packaged, it has been called the most comprehensive book about Japan ever.   You might have to wait a few weeks to hold it in your hands but, if it’s any consolation, so do I.

DOG MAN comes to Japan

Copies of Dog Man, translated into Japanese

   Just arrived in the mail from Japan:  copies of Dog Man, translated into Japanese and published by Odyssey, a small family-run press in the north of Japan.  I am so happy to see this amazing life story — which the Sawataishis were courageous to share so honestly with me  — making a way back to its home country.  At such a difficult and dispirting time for the north of Japan, I hope this story of endurance, personal fortitude and resourcefulness won’t just amuse and entertain readers, but inspire them.

New Collection from Esquire: Fathers and Sons

I’m not sure if I should be flattered — or very troubled — that I am the only woman writer in the new Esquire collection or that the subtitle is “What it Means To Be A  Man.”    Hey, I may not be a porcelain doll but I’m not a man, either!  Seriously, though, I’m very happy to be in great company, and to be able to read Tom Junod’s great essay again about his father’s fashion tips. It is one of the best things he’s ever done.

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