Pen Pals: Will Schwalbe and Dani Shapiro
Inspired by the friendship of our co-keynote speakers, Pat Rosal and Ross Gay (register for your free tickets here) this year’s festival sees the introduction of a whole new kind of event, which we’re super-excited about. We’re calling it Pen Pals. Basically, the idea is that we’ve invited writers who are also good friends to sit down and chat about - well, whatever takes their fancy, really, but probably including: the writing life, their craft, publishing, books they love, and (fingers crossed) scurrilous gossip - and who knows what else. These will be unmoderated conversations, so literally anything could happen - but we know that the talks will be intimate, inspiring, and fascinating.
We’re beyond thrilled to announce the first of these literary chats, between beloved Unbound alum Will Schwalbe and revered novelist and memoririst, Dani Shapiro.
WILL SCHWALBE has worked in book publishing (currently as an editor at Macmillan); in digital media; and as a journalist, writing for various publications, including The New York Times and the South China Morning Post. He is the author of Books for Living, Send (co-written with David Shipley), and The End of Your Life Book Club, which was a #1 Indie Next pick, an Entertainment Weekly Best Book of the Year, and spent more than four months on the New York Times bestseller list. His most recent book is We Should Not Be Friends: The Story of a Friendship, which was published in February. Will has served on the boards of Yale University Press, Kingsborough Community College, and the Asian American Writers Workshop. He also served for several years as the chair of the International Freedom to Publish Committee of the Association of American Publishers.
DANI SHAPIRO is the author of eleven books, and the host and creator of the hit podcast Family Secrets. Her most recent novel, Signal Fires, was named a best book of 2022 by Time Magazine, Washington Post, Amazon, and others, and is a national bestseller. Her most recent memoir, Inheritance, was an instant New York Times Bestseller, and named a best book of 2019 by Elle, Vanity Fair, Wired, and Real Simple. Dani’s work has been published in fourteen languages and she’s currently developing Signal Fires for its television adaptation. Dani's book on the process and craft of writing, Still Writing, is being reissued on the occasion of its tenth anniversary in 2023. She occasionally teaches workshops and retreats, and is the co-founder of the Sirenland Writers Conference in Positano, Italy.
