Meet Lynn Cullen & Priya Parmar TONIGHT!
Weekly News from Friends & Fiction—April 22, 2026
Tune in at 7pm ET tonight for this week’s episode!
Join us Wednesday, April 22nd at 7pm Eastern on the F&F Facebook page and YouTube channel as Ron Block & Patti Callahan Henry welcome two authors both with new novels about Hollywood icons—Lynn Cullen with hers about Marilyn Monroe, When We Were Brilliant, and Priya Parmar with hers about Katharine Hepburn, The Original.
Priya Parmar is the author of the novels Exit the Actress and Vanessa and Her Sister, a New York Times Notable Book, who also writes for musical theater. Her stunning new novel, The Original, plunges into the tumultuous life of screen icon Katharine Hepburn, a star whose passionate spirit and fluid sexuality shattered Hollywood’s rules and redefined what it meant to be a woman in film. Lynn Cullen is the nationally bestselling author of Mrs. Poe and The Woman with the Cure. Her dazzling new novel, When We Were Brilliant, is about the unlikely pair—blond bombshell Marilyn Monroe and serious photographer Eve Arnold—who made a deal that would change both of their lives. We are so excited to talk to both authors about these fascinating new books which paint a vivid picture of two iconic women and their fierce struggle for independence and authenticity in Hollywood’s Golden Age.
Watch the video broadcast of this interview as it airs on Wed 4/22 at 7pm ET on the F&F Facebook group page & YouTube channel. Catch the audio version on our podcast Fri 4/24.
Order Lynn’s new book and Priya’s new book on Bookshop.org! Shop all of our guests’ & hosts’ books in our F&F Shop on Bookshop.org!
Upgrade to our PAID Subscription for bonus Q&A’s with our guest authors which include a writing tip, book recommendation, and information about their works-in-progress, plus other great material not covered on the show!
Latest News from the Fab Four!
MARY KAY ANDREWS and family hosted granddaughter Molly’s pre-prom picture party last weekend—with 26 high schoolers and their parents, then the next morning hopped down to Fort Myers, Florida to speak at a fun luncheon at the Sidney & Berne Davis Arts Center. In between, she released details for her first two launch events for ROAD TRIP, which is out June 2. Buy tickets for the May 31 Atlanta launch party here. And join the F&F team including Patti Callahan Henry, Kristin Harmel, Meg Walker and Ron Block LIVE in Savannah on June 3. Buy tickets here.
KRISTIN HARMEL had a whirlwind weekend at the incredible Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, where she got to hang out with lots of favorite authors (Shelby Van Pelt, Jo Piazza, Sarah Mlynowski, Paula McLain, Allison Winn Scotch, Cynthia d’Aprix Sweeney, Thrity Umrigar, Milo Todd, Meredith Maran, Hannah Dasher, and S.A. Cosby, just to name a few), plus see several LA-based friends. This is definitely a festival to put on your list for the future; it was a booklover’s dream! Then Kristin celebrated coming home by chaperoning her son Noah’s elementary school band concert (Noah killed it on trumpet!). This week, if you’re in the Tampa Bay Area, catch her headlining the Tarpon Springs Book Festival this Saturday at 10am in downtown Tarpon Springs!
KRISTY WOODSON HARVEY is gearing up to leave for the SUMMER STATE OF MIND tour in just 8 days! What?! She is so excited to see so many of you on tour. She will be in NC, SC, FL, MO, IN, CA, and WA, so check out her full schedule to see if she’s in a town near you! She is hosting a fabulous giveaway over on Instagram right now – and there’s a HUGE Goodreads giveaway going on now too! She is so excited to pre-launch this one LIVE on Friends & Fiction next week, on April 29. You won’t want to miss that episode!
PATTI CALLAHAN HENRY had a wild NYC weekend of travel and fun as the co-chair of the Authors Guild Foundation Gala. It was truly electric and amazing with speeches that made us all cry from people like Percival Everett, Carla Hayden and Amy Tan. We passed our fundraising goal and had a blast doing it. It was amazing to see a year’s worth of work unfold in that room. Author pals and good friends joined the party and Patti’s whole team was there too – publisher, agent, and so many more, as well as our beloved Meg Walker and Ron Block. Check out her instagram for photos!
Upgrade to our PAID Subscription for an ongoing series of roundtable discussions and personal essays by the Fab Four about their careers, writing processes, and all things book and publishing related!
Upcoming Events
Kristy will be touring in May for her forthcoming book, Summer State of Mind. Stay tuned to her events page HERE.
MKA will be touring in June for her forthcoming book, Road Trip. Stay tuned to her events page HERE.
Kristin will be touring in July/August for her forthcoming book, Meet Me in Paris. Stay tuned to her events page HERE.
See Patti’s upcoming events HERE.
Join us Wednesday, June 3rd for an in-person Friends & Fiction Live event in Savannah to celebrate the launch of MKA’s Road Trip! Get full details and tickets HERE!
Want to know what our F&F Live events are all about? Watch this video compilation!
In Case You Missed It
On our most recent new episode of The Friends & Fiction Show, Mary Kay Andrews & Kristy Woodson Harvey welcomed iconic NYT-bestselling crime writer Tana French to discuss the third and final book in her million-copy-bestselling Cal Hooper trilogy, The Keeper, which just debuted at #4 on the NYT bestseller list upon its release.
You can WATCH that episode on Facebook or YouTube, or LISTEN to it on our podcast.
Coming Up on The Friends & Fiction Show
All shows can be watched on Facebook & YouTube each Wednesday evening at 7pm ET, and listened to on our podcast each Friday, all year long.
Already aired: Joshilyn Jackson, Missing Sister
WATCH | LISTEN
Already aired: Lucy Score, Mistakes Were Made
WATCH | LISTEN
SPRING 2026 SCHEDULE:
Already aired: Virginia Evans, The Correspondent & Allen Levi, Theo of Golden
WATCH | LISTEN
Already aired: Evelyn Clarke, The Ending Writes Itself
WATCH | LISTEN
Already aired: Tana French, The Keeper
WATCH | LISTEN
Lynn Cullen, When We Were Brilliant & Priya Parmar, The Original
Watch: 4/22 | Listen: 4/24
Kristy Woodson Harvey, Summer State of Mind
Watch LIVE: 4/29 | Listen: 5/1
Christina Baker Kline, The Foursome
Watch: 5/6 | Listen: 5/8
Kathryn Stockett, The Calamity Club
Watch: 5/13 | Listen: 5/15
Mary Kay Andrews, Road Trip
Watch LIVE: 5/27 | Listen: 5/29
Annabel Monaghan, Dolly All the Time
Watch: 6/3 | Listen: 6/5
Ann Patchett, Whistler
Watch: 6/10 | Listen: 6/12
Lisa See, Daughters of the Sun and Moon
Watch: 6/17 | Listen: 6/19
Lisa Jewell, It Could Have Been Her
Watch: 6/24 | Listen: 6/26
F&F 2026 Subscription Box with Oxford Exchange
The 2026 FRIENDS AND FICTION Subscription Box is available for purchase now, exclusively from our friends at Oxford Exchange.
This subscription includes three separate shipments:
1. MAY 2026: A hardcover, signed, first edition of Kristy Woodson Harvey’s forthcoming book SUMMER STATE OF MIND!
2. JUNE 2026: A hardcover, signed, first edition of ROAD TRIP by Mary Kay Andrews!
3. AUGUST 2026: A hardcover, signed, first edition of MEET ME IN PARIS by Kristin Harmel!
Get your subscription NOW from Oxford Exchange!
F&F Merch Store
We have a Friends & Fiction merch store with t-shirts, sweatshirts, coffee mugs and a book bag on Bonfire. We also have other items like wine tumblers, reading journals, and our original white v-neck logo tees available through Oxford Exchange.
Tees in New Colors!
We’ve added TWO NEW COLORS for our fan favorite name list tee-shirts. We now have them in a heathery hunter green and a kelly green—both of which match perfectly with the three new Fab Four books out in May, June & July! Get yours now and dress to match the books when you come out to Kristy, MKA & Kristin’s tour events!
F&F Official Book Club & 2025 Reading Challenge
Join Brenda Gardner & Lisa Harrison for monthly book club picks and live online author chats on the Facebook page for the F&F Official Book Club with Brenda & Lisa, where they’ve amassed nearly 40,000 of their own members. You can also follow the Book Club on Instagram and subscribe to their YouTube channel where you can catch past discussions, including their most recent chat with Sarah Fox about her new novel, Definitely Maybe Not a Detective. Mark your calendars for May 18th for their next author guest, Wade Rouse, when they’ll discuss his new novel, That’s What Friends Are For. The Book Club is also hosting the 2026 F&F Reading Challenge. Join them for a different category prompt each month to read outside your comfort zone. The April prompt is to read a book recommended by a favorite librarian and for May it’s to read a book about a female detective.
Stay in Touch!
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Find details about everything F&F on our WEBSITE.
Shop our guests’ & hosts’ books in our shop on BOOKSHOP.
Join the F&F Official BOOK CLUB with Brenda & Lisa.
Upgrade to our PAID Subscription for bonus content from our hosts and guests.
