In our Season Two premiere, co-hosts Deesha Philyaw and Dawnie Walton talk with the beloved ZZ Packer, author of Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, a collection first published in 2003 that went on to inspire countless writers. Packer talks about how she found her voice, style, and authenticity as a young, Black, female writer who hadn’t even planned on becoming a writer. She addresses ideas of navigating both physical and figurative spaces and learning how to find a place in the literary world.

Reading List: Authors, Stories, and Books Mentioned


Drinking Coffee Elsewhere (ZZ Packer)

Zora Neale Hurston

Toni Morrison

Flannery O’Connor

James Alan McPherson (Elbow Room and Hue and Cry)

Lorrie Moore

Stuart Dybek

Percival Everett

James Baldwin

Anton Chekhov

Edward P. Jones (Lost in the City and The Known World)


Alice Munro

Imani Perry

Bryan Stevenson (Just Mercy)


Edwidge Danticat


Read more from Deesha Philyaw and Dawnie Walton: 


The Secret Lives of Church Ladies (Deesha Philyaw)


The Final Revival of Opal & Nev (Dawnie Walton)


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Episode editor: Kelly Araja
Associate producer: Marina Leigh
Producer: Mark Armstrong
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