In Episode 25 of Literary Prospects, we talk with author Allison Pataki about her latest novel, Finding Margaret Fuller.
Allison is the New York Times bestselling author of The Traitor’s Wife, The Accidental Empress, Sisi, The Queen’s Fortune, The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post, and, most recently, Finding Margaret Fuller. She is also the author of the nonfiction memoir Beauty in the Broken Places and two children’s books, Nelly Takes New York and Poppy Takes Paris. A former news writer and producer, Allison has written for The New York Times, USA Today, and other outlets. She’s appeared on The TODAY Show, Good Morning America, and Morning Joe, and has several screenplay adaptations of her novels currently in development for film and television. Allison graduated from Yale University and lives in New York with her husband and family.
In this interview, Allison talks about how she got started writing historical fiction; the writing routine that’s allowed her to publish 10 books in 10 years; how she knows when she’s found her next subject; why many of us don’t know Margaret Fuller’s name, but should (she was the first woman allowed to study and Harvard and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s inspiration for Hester Prynne); and much more…