Cooking the Books

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“The parallels between food & writing are so obvious and clear. It’s hard to talk about them because they’re inherent.” ~ Steven Brust

Cooking the Books is an ongoing interview project that explores the meeting points between genre fiction and food. We host written word essays AND podcasts.

Hey look! We’re on iTunes! (reviews appreciated!) Or you can Subscribe to the Podcast at feedburner!  |  Cooking the Books FAQ | Support us on Patreon! (very new)

Recent interviews include:

Edible Flowers and Occasional Poison : Cooking the Books with Arkady Martine, March 20, 2018

Candied Ginger and Ghost Eagles with Alexander London, October 17, 2018

Secret Messages: Cooking the Books with Lauren Teffeau, September 25, 2018

A Taste of Light: Cooking the Books with Jeannette Ng, August 27, 2018

Rocket Fuel: Cooking the Books With Mary Robinette Kowal, June 27, 2018

How to Feed Magic: Cooking the Books with Chelsea Polk, May 30, 2018

Dad Jokes Rock: Cooking the Books with Eric Smith, April 25, 2018

Schadenfreude Burrito: Cooking the Books with John Scalzi, March 1, 2018

Of Mangoes and Radium: Cooking the Books with Brooke Bolander, February 1, 2018

The Stitch of Story: Cooking the Books with Carmen Maria Machado, October 4, 2017

The Importance of Tangerines: Cooking the Books with Yoon Ha Lee, August 9, 2017

Lines of Supply: Cooking the Books with Malka Older, June 21, 2017

A Taste of Salt: Cooking the Books with Ruthanna Emrys, May 10, 2017

Double Trouble: Cooking the Books with Laura Ann Gilman and Mur Lafferty, February 7, 2017

Feeding Community: Cooking the Books with Nisi Shawl, October 3, 2016

Invasive Cuisine: Cooking the Books with Chuck Wendig, September 7, 2016

Space Weevils: Cooking the Books with David D. Levine, July 28, 2016

I‘ll Just Put the Kettle On: Cooking the Books with Emma Newman, June 28, 2016

The Kitchen Tree: Cooking the Books with Ada Palmer, May 25, 2016

25 Years of Moving the Conversation Forward: Cooking the Books with the Tiptree Motherboard, April 27, 2016

Fantastic Food & Fiction: Cooking the Books with Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel, March 28, 2016

A Penny for Your Sins: Cooking the Books with Matt Wallace, February 16, 2016

What We Talk About When We Talk About Suet: Cooking the Books with Charlie Jane Anders, January 25, 2016

Seven Minutes to Cannibalism: Cooking the Books with Lawrence M. Schoen, January 5, 2016

A Saga Press Cornucopia: Cooking the Books with Navah Wolfe & Joe Monti, December 8, 2015

Robot Sweet Tooth: Cooking the Books with Adam Christopher, November 19, 2015

Ghostfood: Cooking the Books with Jaime Lee Moyer, October 31, 2015

Calling the Muse: Cooking the Books with Ilana C. Myer, October 1, 2015

Superstitions and Flying Bighorn Sheep: Cooking the Books with Guest Host Elizabeth Bear, Grilling Fran Wilde, September 19, 2015

An Intimidation of Shrimp: Cooking the Books with Zen Cho, Aliette de Bodard, and Fran Wilde, August 11, 2015

Body Cakes: Cooking the Books with Karin Tidbeck, by Nene Ormes, July 14, 2015

Eat Your Heart Out: Cooking the Books with Amanda Downum, May 14, 2015

An Empire’s Hunger: Cooking the Books with Ken Liu, April 15, 2015

No Cookies for Ferrets: Cooking the Books with Jodi Meadows, March 26, 2015

Tea(s) in London(s): Cooking the Books with V.E. Schwab, February 19, 2015

Beneath Ceaseless Pies: Cooking the Books with Editor Scott H. Andrews, January 23, 2015

2014

The Infamous Lasagne Scene: Cooking the Books with Sara B. Elfgren and Mats Strandberg, December 19, 2014

Magic Wants to be Fed: Cooking the Books with Robin Hobb, November 4, 2014

It’s Hard to Fish From an Airship: Cooking the Books with Rajan Khanna, October 22, 2014

How to Cook a Shimmer: Cooking the Books with E. Catherine Tobler and the Shimmer Badgers, October 15, 2014.

The Clockwork Kitchen: Cooking the Books with Beth Cato, September 16, 2014

That’s Craft with a ‘C’: Cooking the Books with Max Gladstone, July 17, 2014

Blue Goo in Space: Cooking the Books with Adam Christopher, June 24, 2014

Cookies and Con-versation: Cooking the Books with Rachel Kory, May 15, 2014

When You’re What’s On the Menu: Cooking the Books with Mur Lafferty [co-hosted at Murverse.com] April 24, 2014 (podcast!)

Attack the Geek!: Cooking the Books with Michael R. Underwood [at GeekMom.Com] (April 9, 2014)

Many Things, All At Once: Cooking the Books with Russell Galen (March 13, 2014)barbook

The Sandwich Manifesto: Cooking the Books with David Edison (February 13, 2014)

Food of the Future – A Tor.com Roundtable with Elizabeth Bear, Aliette deBoddard, Ann Leckie, Rochita Loenen Ruiz, Benjanun Sriduangkaew, and Fran Wilde (January 30, 2014)

Cook All the Things: Cooking the Books with Miriam Weinberg (January 21, 2014)

2013

The Necessities of Tea: Cooking the Books with Ann Leckie (December 17, 2013)

Time You Can Eat: Cooking the Books with Bee Ridgway (November 20, 2013)

Reddit/fantasy Site of the Week AMA (October 20-27, 2013)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Cooking the Books with E.C. Myers (October 7, 2013)

Libations in Literature: Cooking the Books with Laura Anne Gilman (August 22, 2013)

SUPERFOOD: Cooking the Books with Shira Lipkin & Michael D. Thomas (August 8, 2013)

Food is Personal; Food is Political: Cooking the Books with Chuck Wendig (June 18, 2013)

Sensory Overload: Cooking the Books with Walter Jon Williams (May 31, 2013)

My Little Jhereg and the Lunch of Locke Lamora April Fools’ Bartender’s Guide: Cooking the Books with Steven Brust and Scott Lynch (April 1, 2013)

Their Words, Her Test Kitchen: Cooking the Books with Chelsea Monroe-Cassel (March 7, 2013)

What Heroes Eat : Cooking the Books with Saladin Ahmed (Feb. 25, 2013)

2012

Food that Takes You Home: Cooking the Books with Aliette de Bodard (Dec. 13, 2012)

The Strange Horizons Cooking the Books Roundtable (Nov. 26, 2012) Featuring Elizabeth Bear, Gregory Frost, Nalo Hopkinson, and Scott Lynch

The Killer in the Kitchen: Cooking the Books with Steven Brust (Nov. 13, 2012)

The Importance of Pie: Cooking the Books with James D. Macdonald (Oct. 9, 2012)

The Viable Paradise Kitchen, Part 1: Cooking the Books with MacAllister Stone (Sept. 25, 2012)

Foxhole Pizza and Interstellar Quail: Cooking the Books with Joe and Gay Haldeman (August 21, 2012)

A Place to Connect: Cooking the Books with Michael Swanwick and Marianne Porter (July 25, 2012)

The Chimerical Kitchen: Cooking the Books with Elizabeth Bear (March 20, 2012)

Recipes for History : Cooking the Books with Gregory Frost (February 16, 2012)

2011

Cooking the Books: Elephant Stew with Steven Gould (November 28, 2011)

Jump to:  Fran’s interviews elsewhere

41 comments

  5. […] Cooking the Books got its start at as a conversation at a writers’ workshop with author Steven Gould. We were talking about fantastical recipes, including one called Elephant Stew (it begins, “First, cut elephant into bite-sized pieces.”). Steven said “that sounds like a recipe for a novel,” and I realized cooking was a great way for me to talk to people and ask them craft questions under the guise of food. (So far, no one suspects a _thing_.) […]

  13. […] A published poet since the late ‘90s, Wilde’s first publication of genre interest was story ‘‘Everlasting’’ (2011) in Daily Science Fiction, and she has published more than a dozen stories since then, with appearances in Asimov’s, Nature, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Tor.com, and anthologies and small-press magazines. Debut novel Updraft, a fantasy set in a city of living bone above the clouds, appeared last year, with companion novels Cloudbound and Horizon (working title) forthcoming. Story ‘‘The Topaz Marquis’’ (2014) introduced her Gem Universe series, which will continue with novella The Jewel and Her Lapidary from Tor.com. Her ongoing series of interviews with other authors, Cooking the Books, explores the intersection of food and fiction at franwilde.wordpress.com/cooking-the-books. […]

  14. […] A published poet since the late ‘90s, Wilde’s first publication of genre interest was story ‘‘Everlasting’’ (2011) in Daily Science Fiction, and she has published more than a dozen stories since then, with appearances in Asimov’s, Nature, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Tor.com, and anthologies and small-press magazines. Debut novel Updraft, a fantasy set in a city of living bone above the clouds, appeared last year, with companion novels Cloudbound and Horizon (working title) forthcoming. Story ‘‘The Topaz Marquis’’ (2014) introduced her Gem Universe series, which will continue with novella The Jewel and Her Lapidary from Tor.com. Her ongoing series of interviews with other authors, Cooking the Books, explores the intersection of food and fiction at franwilde.wordpress.com/cooking-the-books. […]

  23. […] Publishing!) and telling us what foods go away first in an infomocracy universe. It’s all  for Cooking the Books this month, both here and at the extension kitchen over at The Booksmugglers! (check out Malka’s […]

  25. […] A published poet since the late ‘90s, Wilde’s first publication of genre interest was story ‘‘Everlasting’’ (2011) in Daily Science Fiction, and she has published more than a dozen stories since then, with appearances in Asimov’s, Nature, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Tor.com, and anthologies and small-press magazines. Debut novel Updraft, a fantasy set in a city of living bone above the clouds, appeared last year, with companion novels Cloudbound and Horizon (working title) forthcoming. Story ‘‘The Topaz Marquis’’ (2014) introduced her Gem Universe series, which will continue with novella The Jewel and Her Lapidary from Tor.com. Her ongoing series of interviews with other authors, Cooking the Books, explores the intersection of food and fiction at franwilde.wordpress.com/cooking-the-books. […]

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