The First Thirty

Thursdays at 7:00pm on Instragram.

Upcoming Events

The 2026-2027 Season is going to be so great! Check this out! All chats are either live on Instagram at 7:00pm ET, or a video posted from a previously recorded conversation. Follow us @thefirstthirty or @junctionreads.

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September 24: I talk to Jowita Bydlowska about her memoir, Unshaming.

October 8: I chat with Kim Fahner about her poetry in The Pollination Field.

November 26: I talk to Greg Rhyno about his third in trilogy, Who By His Own Hand.

December 17: Christine Estima talks about writing Letters to Kafka.

January 7: Chris Klassen talks about writing and his latest, Harold Koenig.

February 4: Steven Mayoff joins us live to talk about his latest, Poor Man’s Opera.

March 4: Kern Carter comes to talk about writing his memoir, Don’t Tell Me How to Be Black.

March 11: Poet, Vanessa Shields joins me to chat about writing and her latest, We The Mourners.

March 18: Ann Cavlovic joins us live to chat about Count On Me and the writing life.

April 22: A conversation with Alex Boyd to be posted later, about Take This For The Pain, essays on the writing life.

April 22: Live in conversation with Maria Cichosz about her novel Middlemen.

May 27: Carmen Lansdowne chats live about Tracks In The Snow, a memoir of spirtuality.

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What is The First Thirty?

I started Junction Reads in 2014 because I love talking about writing, books and how writers live. I have to say the greatest joy is hearing how writers face and overcome the obstacles of writing something great with only the spark of an idea: something readers will not want to put down, writing that people will want to talk about.

Writers know, and readers too, the first pages are the most important in any novel, memoir or story. And I want to talk about it.

The First Thirty is an Instragram Live series where I will meet authors for a quick chat (30 minutes) to talk about writing, and how they shape those first pages to be a warm welcome to the reader; to include the hook that makes a reader want to keep reading, and to give us the characters we either want to love or really hate.