Forum from the Archives: Tommy Orange and Kaveh Akbar Celebrate their Artistic Mind Meld

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KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 2 July 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

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Summary

Have you ever felt so creatively connected to someone that it’s like you share the same brain? That’s how acclaimed writers Tommy Orange and Kaveh Akbar describe their relationship. They’re best friends who wrote their recent novels “Wandering Stars” and “Martyr” by sending each other “cheernotes” in which they “waved [their] pom poms with genuine excitement at what the other’d just wrought from the ether,” as Akbar puts it. The two are embarking on a Bay Area driving tour to celebrate their friendship and art, and they join us on Forum. Guests: Tommy Orange, novelist, his books include "Wandering Stars" and "There There," which was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize. Kaveh Akbar, poet and novelist, his books include "Martyr!," a National Book Award finalist Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:46.2	From KQED.
0:47.5	Thank you, Ed. From KQVD in San Francisco, I'm Mina Kim.
1:06.3	Coming up on forum, have you ever felt so creatively connected to someone that it's like you share the same
1:11.7	brain? That's how acclaimed writers Tommy Orange and Kavei Akbar described their relationship.
1:17.2	Their best friends who wrote their recent novels, Wandering Stars and Martyr, by sending each other
1:22.4	cheer notes, or as Akbar puts it, they waved their pom-poms with genuine excitement at what the other had just wrought from the ether.
1:29.9	I spoke to Akbar and Orange in March, just as they were about to embark on a Bay Area driving tour to celebrate their friendship and heart.
1:37.2	We listened back to that episode next on Forum. I'm Mina Kim. You may know writer Tommy Orange for his celebrated novels,
1:54.4	Wondering Stars, and They're There, which was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize. And you may know Kaveh Akbar for his novel
2:02.2	Martyr, a 2024 National Book Award finalist or for his poetry collections. What you may
2:08.5	not know is that Akbar and Orange are best friends. And while writing their latest novels,
2:13.6	they exchanged pages of their work weekly and gave each other words of encouragement that Orange calls cheer notes.
2:20.1	So listeners, do you have a friend like that who's consistently given you artistic support?
2:25.5	Tommy Orange's wandering stars and Khabi Akbar's martyr are now out in paperback and the two are with us now on forum just before they launch a Bay Area tour together.
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