In this episode of Imposter Hour, hosts Liz Keenan and Greg Wands welcome Alison Buccola to talk about her gripping new novel The Ascent. Together, they unpack themes of imposter syndrome, motherhood, and the psychological tension of characters caught between truth and memory.

Alison opens up about her writing journey, the research behind the cult at the center of her novel, and how personal experience and societal pressures shape the way she writes women. They also dig into the mental load of being creative while parenting, and how gender bias and self-doubt can sabotage the writing process before you even open the document.

She shares what it’s like to promote a book while quietly panicking, how community sustains her through it all, and what’s next — including her upcoming novel about three sisters and the complexities of memory, identity, and perception.

In this episode of Imposter Hour, Liz and Greg sit down with Raúl Palma, Cuban-American author of the haunting and brilliant debut novel A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens. Together, they explore how Palma’s background in writing and academia intersects with imposter syndrome and how debt — both financial and emotional — becomes a kind of haunting in his work.

Raúl talks about his protagonist, a spiritual healer who doesn’t believe in ghosts, and how that contradiction mirrors the emotional weight many of us carry. From the mechanics of capitalism to the invisible toll of poverty, this conversation dives deep into the intersections of identity, creativity, and survival.

They also dig into how writing can be a form of self-care, especially when confronting the emotional landscape shaped by capitalism. Raúl shares how cultural identity informs his fiction, the role of support systems in sustaining a writing life, and what it means to feel “unauthorized” to tell your own story — and to write anyway.

In this episode of Imposter Hour, hosts Liz Keenan and Greg Wands sit down with author and former academic Lauren Nossett, whose novels The Professor and The Resemblance explore mental health, power dynamics, and identity within the framework of compelling thrillers.

Lauren discusses her transition from academia to fiction, the prevalence of imposter syndrome among both creatives and academics, and how writing became a space to process and interrogate societal expectations. They talk about the responsibility of writers to reflect real-world issues, the emotional weight characters can carry, and the ways thrillers can hold literary depth while remaining accessible.

The episode also touches on Lauren’s writing process, the joy of embedding literary references in her work, and her excitement for her next novel. Whether you’re a reader, writer, or both, this is a conversation about voice, community, and the art of telling meaningful stories within genre constraints.