Martha Anne Toll won the 2020 Petrichor Prize for Finely Crafted Fiction, and her novel, Three Muses, is forthcoming from Regal House Press (fall 2022). She is a frequent contributor to NPR Books, the Millions, the Washington Post, and other outlets. For her fiction and nonfiction, please visit her website, and tweet to her at @marthaannetoll.
34 entries by Martha Anne Toll
The former journalist talks strong women, Prohibition, and tackling daunting topics.
The debut novelist talks literary classics, messy first drafts, and crushing on Jakob Dylan.
There Are Rivers in the Sky
By Elif Shafak
A mesmerizing tale coursing with wisdom and water.
The novelist talks childhood demons, teaching prisoners, and writing in his sleep.
The novelist talks process, podcasts, and Days of Wonder.
The novelist talks research, women warriors, and the vagaries of publishing.
Transplant: A Memoir
By Bernardine Watson
A poignant account of enduring kidney disease while Black.
The Oud Player of Cairo: A Novel
By Jasmin Attia
A frustrating page-turner about a fascinating time and place.
A Union Like Ours
By Scott Bane
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Recalling a forbidden midcentury romance.
Recalling a forbidden midcentury romance.
The novelist talks family strife, Russia, and the influence of Brahms’ Second Symphony.
The Piano Student
By Lea Singer; translated by Elisabeth Lauffer
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A nuanced, occasionally problematic imagining of a real-life virtuoso's long-ago forbidden affair.
The writer talks Judaism, capturing music on the page, and his new novel's unconventional path to publication.
The Piano Student: A Novel
By Lea Singer; translated by Elisabeth Lauffer
A nuanced, occasionally problematic imagining of a real-life virtuoso's long-ago forbidden affair.
The debut novelist shares how he reimagined a long-ago (and real-life) Black community in Nova Scotia.
The Abundant Life
By Aaron Jacobs
A funny, madcap story that somehow doesn’t defy reality.
The Abundant Life: A Novel
By Aaron Jacobs
A funny, madcap story that somehow doesn’t defy reality.
The novelist talks Vietnam, feminist presses, and the birth of her audiobook.
The later-in-life debut novelist discusses the art of spinning stories.
Fates and Furies
By Lauren Groff
An inventive tale of one marriage told from two very different perspectives.
Two recent novels explore the subversive power of music
It’s more than just a phone setting.
An appreciation of Anthony Doerr's incandescent storytelling.
Are novels and memoirs simply different paths to the same destination?
A literary reflection on Independence Day by Martha Toll.
The escape from oppression into a vast diaspora is a theme that has preoccupied Jewish writers from Exodus to modern times: here are a few titles that treat this subject with refreshing originality.
Martha Toll writes of the thematic depth of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina.
Martha Toll discusses the pitfalls of translating literary works.
Martha Toll explores the pleasures of deliberate reading.
Martha Toll explores why so many recent novels are actually linked short stories
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