Zibby Owens – NYC’s Most Powerful Book-fluencer
Zibby Owens is the creator and host of award-winning podcast Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books. Zibby, named “NYC’s Most Powerful Book-fluencer” by New York Magazine’s Vulture, conducts warm, inquisitive conversations with authors as wide-ranging as Alicia Keys and Lena Dunham to Delia Owens and Jennifer Weiner, making her show a top literary podcast as selected by Oprah.com in 2019 and 2020. She also created the Moms Don’t Have Time to Lose Weight community and hosts the accompanying podcast.
Before the pandemic, Zibby ran a literary salon, hosted her own book fairs, and was a frequent bookstore event moderator. During the quarantine, Zibby hosted a daily Instagram Live author talk show “Z-IGTV,” a weekly live show with her husband “KZ Time,” launched an online magazine with original author-written essays called We Found Time, and started Zibby’s Virtual Book Club. “Z-IGTV” is now a limited podcast on Spotify and is on YouTube. It has won multiple awards.
Zibby is a regular contributor to Good Morning America online and has recommended books in the Washington Post, Real Simple and other outlets. She has also contributed to Parents, Marie Claire, Redbook, the New York Times online, and many other publications. She has appeared on CBS This Morning, Good Morning America, the BBC, and many local news outlets. She currently has a two-book deal for children’s books with Flamingo, an imprint of Penguin Random House, and two upcoming anthologies with Skyhorse Publishing: Moms Don’t Have Time To: A Quarantine Anthology (02/16/21) and Moms Really Don’t Have Time To: A Second Anthology (11/21).
Zibby serves on the boards of the Mount Sinai Health System, the Mount Sinai Parenting Center, the Child Mind Institute, and co-chairs the Library Council of the New York Public Library. A graduate of Yale University and Harvard Business School, Zibby currently lives in New York with her husband, Kyle Owens of Morning Moon Productions, and her four children ages 6 – 13. She always has a book nearby.
ANTHOLOGIES
Zibby’s first anthology, Moms Don’t Have Time To: A Quarantine Anthology, will be released by Skyhorse Publishing on February 16th, 2021 and will include original essays from 60+ authors from her podcast. Essays are inspired by five things moms don’t have time to do: eat, breathe, work out, read, and have sex.
Her next anthology, Moms Really Don’t Have Time To: A Second Anthology, comes out in November 2021 and will have another 60+ essays by additional authors from her podcast writing on topics inspired by five more things moms don’t have time to do: write, get sick, sleep, lose weight, and see friends.
Zibby also has two children’s books forthcoming from Flamingo, an imprint of Penguin Random House, about a character named Princess Charming. The first book will launch in the summer of 2022.
BOOK CLUB
Zibby hosts a virtual book club every other Tuesday from 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm EST on Zoom. For the first 30 minutes, book club members discuss the book with Zibby. At 2:30 pm, the author joins in for a Q &A. Books alternate between fiction and memoir. A few past book club authors: Dani Shapiro, Inheritance, Fanny Singer, Always Home, Bess Kalb, Nobody Will Tell You This But Me, Laura Zigman, Separation Anxiety, Lori Gottlieb, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, and more!
PODCASTS
MOMS DON’T HAVE TIME TO READ BOOKS
Zibby Owens hosts the award-winning podcast Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books. Launched in March 2018, Zibby’s podcast has been downloaded more than 2 million times. With an informal, conversational, and warm manner, Zibby routinely gets authors to open up about what’s important to them, giving busy readers the back story to their favorite (or as yet undiscovered) books.
Hear from authors like Wally Lamb, Andre Agassi, Lena Dunham, Alicia Keys, Jennifer Weiner, Jeanine Cummins, Jamie Lee Curtis and Jamaica Kincaid on this podcast which airs five times a week. Click on author pics below (sorted by most recent) for show transcripts, links to buy, audio and more! Browse through the 500+ authors who have become a part of the Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books community.
MOMS DON’T HAVE TIME TO LOSE WEIGHT
It all started when Zibby posted on Instagram that she wasn’t feeling proud of her body and asked for tips. She got so many suggestions, comments, DMs, texts and emails about it that she decided to launch a community of like-minded souls, all trying to feel better tomorrow than they did today.
Now, in a private Instagram group @momsdonthavetimetoloseweight, and a Facebook Group, Zibby leads hundreds of women all doing what works for them with the support they need from others. Join the group for regular tips, resources, and support to regroup as a group.
She also launched a podcast, Moms Don’t Have Time to Lose Weight! Hear from members and experts firsthand about their journeys.