awakeners: a podcast about mentorship in the literary arts

This is Awakeners, a series of conversational interviews about mentorship in the literary arts. Awakeners is a Lit Hub Radio podcast and is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Robert Frost allegedly said he was not a teacher but an “awakener.” On every episode of this podcast, host Lena Crown speaks with writers, artists, critics, and scholars across generations who have awakened something for and within one another.

We stroll down memory lane, revisiting the early days of their relationship, and we close-read samples of their work for evidence of their mutual influence on one another. We talk about what has shaped their craft, their pedagogy, their careers, their love lives, and more—in short, we celebrate how our guests have changed each other’s lives. ​

On Episode 1, Lena interviews writers Leslie Jamison and Emmeline Clein, who went from working together at Columbia University in 2019 to publishing books just one week apart in 2024. We discuss what they talked about on their most recent lunch date, how Jamison’s “Archive Fever” class shaped Clein’s research, how both of their books engage with the (often maligned) desire to “revoke” or undo your decisions as a woman, and what they’ve learned from each other when it comes to writing about eating disorders, self-harm, and pain. 

Awakeners is created by Lena Crown and scored by Lorenzo Chiodo. Art by Gabe Crown.

For podcast inquiries, fill out the form on our website or reach me here:

admin at awakenerspodcast dot com