Maile Chapman with Larissa MacFarquhar: The Spoil
From Library Talks by The New York Public Library
April 15, 2026 · 58 min
About this episode
Maile Chapman discusses her novel 'The Spoil' and its themes of grief and the paranormal.
In this episode of Library Talks , acclaimed author Maile Chapman joins the podcast to discuss her first novel in fifteen years from acclaimed, The Spoil. As a young girl growing up on the outskirts of Tacoma in the 1970s, Mandy is preoccupied by the paranormal phenomena she reads about in magazines: alien visitations, ESP, the Bermuda Triangle. What follows is a gripping and often terrifying story of familial grief in which the past is both elusive and paralyzing. Maile Chapman worked on The Spoil during her 2010-2011 Fellowship at the Library's Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. She is joined in discussion by fellow writer Larissa MacFarquhar.
People in this episode
Guests: Maile Chapman, Larissa MacFarquhar
Topics covered
- literature
- paranormal
- familial grief
- author interview
- writing process
Keywords
- Maile Chapman
- Larissa MacFarquhar
- The Spoil
- paranormal
- familial grief
- Tacoma
- 1970s
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: The Spoil
Places: Tacoma
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