Read the Acknowledgments x Liz's Book Bar

Josefine, Maura, and Nana will discuss the purpose of their work, important questions emerging writers should ask their peers, the importance of book publicity, and why independent bookstores play a crucial role in the book world. Hosted by Randy Winston, Creative Director of Fiction at The Black List, Read the Acknowledgements is a live visual podcast on the business of books and writing for writers at all levels, book lovers, and publishing industry professionals. RTA is a subsidiary of The Black List.

Randy Winston is the Creative Director of Fiction at The Black List, and former Director of Writing Programs at The Center for Fiction, where he managed, curated, and directed the production of all writing courses, the illustrious First Novel Prize, the famed Susan Kamil Emerging Writer Fellowship, and the highly-sought Writers Studio membership. Prior to his work at The Center, Winston served as Fiction Editor of Slice Literary Magazine for 6 years. Before his MFA, Randy served as editor-in-chief of, formerly Southern Polytechnic State University, now Kennesaw State University’s, online and print student publication in Marietta, Georgia. He is a 2016 graduate of the MFA program in Creative Writing (Fiction) at The New School and sits on the board for Orion Magazine and WriteOn NYC. His interviews in print, online, and on stage have included Maggie Nelson, Mohsin Hamid, Yiyun Li, Mira Jacob, Aleksandar Hemon, Victor LaValle, Zakiya Dalila Harris, Tomi Adeyemi, A.E. Osworth, Kaitlyn Greenidge, Rumaan Alam, Deesha Philyaw, Megha Majumdar, Nicole Dennis-Benn, Lauren Wilkinson, Morgan Jerkins, Lisa Hsiao Chen, Alcy Leyva, Benjamin Lazar Davis, and Hugo McCloud, among others.

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah was raised in Spring Valley, New York, and now lives in the Bronx. His debut collection, Friday Black, was a New York Times bestseller, won the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Award and the Dylan Thomas Prize. His first novel Chain-Gang All-Stars was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction, shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize and selected as a New York Times Top Ten Books of the Year. Adjei-Brenyah is a National Book Foundation’s ‘5 Under 35’ honoree.

Josefine Kals began her career in 2009 at Penguin Random House’s Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, and over her fifteen years at KDPG she represented and worked on the book publicity campaigns for novelists, poets, and nonfiction authors alike, including Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Kaveh Akbar, Judy Blume, President Bill Clinton, Esi Edugyan, Yaa Gyasi, Margo Jefferson, Daniel Kehlmann, Jhumpa Lahiri, Robin Coste Lewis, Toni Morrison, Maggie O’Farrell, Michael Ondaatje, Orhan Pamuk, Tracy K. Smith, Art Spiegelman, Kevin Young, and Charles Yu. Josie joined Simon & Schuster in February 2024 as Vice President and Associate Publisher / Director of Publicity of the newly relaunched imprint Summit Books, which will begin publishing literary fiction and narrative nonfiction, with an accent on works in translation, next month. Some of the debut and prize-winning authors lined up for publication at Summit this year and beyond include Ayad Akhtar, Nelio Biedermann, Emma Donoghue, Elisa Shua Dusapin, Monique El-Faizy, Rob Franklin, Nneoma Ike-Njoku, Daniel Kehlmann, Amanda Uhle, and Katie Yee.

Maura Cheeks is the author of Acts of Forgiveness, named a most anticipated book by Elle, Real Simple, and more. Maura was named one of “10 Writers to Watch” by Publisher’s Weekly. Her other work has been published in the Paris Review, The New York Times, The Atlantic, Harvard Business Review, Tin House, and others. In 2019 she was awarded the Masthead Reporting Residency for The Atlantic’s first residency program where she worked on the feature article that would later inspire the idea for her novel. She is the owner and general manager of Liz’s Book Bar.

Host or Publisher Liz’s Book Bar