Li-Young Lee talks about scarcity, best words, A Love Supreme, and the attempt to understand our collective human mission. The featured book is The Undressing (Norton 2018) http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2018-09-06-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio *Please note: there were audio difficulties with our phone connection during the live program; this episode of Living Writers is not the usual length.
From the archives, December 7, 2005: In a conversation that is still timely today, Senator John McCain talks to host Ashley David about how a leader is defined by their ethics and personal values, and reads from the works of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and others as featured in his book Character Is Destiny. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2018-08-30-170001-EDT.mp3 Download… Read more: John McCain
Guest host Amanda Uhle talks with Luke Shaefer, co-author with Kathryn Edin of $2.00 A Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America. They talk about how poverty in the U.S. has deepened and expanded in the last 25 years and about the role of public policy in those changes. They also talk about eye-opening data and the… Read more: Luke Shaefer
Guest host Amanda Uhle talks with Abbey Mei Otis about her stories Alien Virus Love Disaster (Small Beer Press 2018). Strong and haunting science fiction. What more do you need for your poolside, or mountain top? http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2018-08-16-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
Guest host Amanda Uhle talks with poet & Pal of the Podcast Keith Taylor about his latest collection Ecstatic Destinations (Alice Greene & Co 2018). They talk about Canada, park benches and the joy of neighborhood walks. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2018-08-02-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
Guest host Amanda Uhle talks with Anna Clark about The Poisoned City (Metropolitan Books 2018), an acclaimed, thorough account of the causes, crisis, and aftermath of the Flint, Michigan water disaster. They talk about tragedy, courage, resilience, and the way forward. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2018-07-26-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
Guest host Amanda Uhle talks with Mokhtar Alkhanshali about being the subject of Dave Eggers’ book The Monk of Mokha (Knopf 2018). They also talk about grandmas, coffee and Yemen. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2018-07-19-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
Richard Russo reads from Destiny Thief: Essays on Writing, Writers and Life (Knopf 2018). We talk about looking backwards to make sense of things, creativity and mental illness, voice and honesty, Springsteen, and destiny. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2018-07-12-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio *taped on June 6th, 2018, anniversary of D-Day
Guest host Amanda Uhle talks with Julia Turshen about Feed the Resistance: Recipes and Ideas for Getting Involved (Chronicle Books 2017); they talk about about writing about food and eating, the important role of food in today’s resistance movement–and diversity and inclusion in the food industry. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2018-07-05-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio photo credit: still from Now and Again… Read more: Julia Turshen
Guest host Amanda Uhle talks with Fatima Farheen Mirza about her novel A Place For Us (SJP for Hogarth/Penguin 2018); they talk about family relationships, the challenges of writing a first novel, and how characters can live on after a story is done. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2018-06-28-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
Guest host Amanda Uhle speaks with Hannah Pittard about her novel Visible Empire (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2018), book tours, writing inspired by true events, racism, siblings, and the legacy of loss. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2018-06-21-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
Lillian Li reads from her debut novel Number One Chinese Restaurant (Henry Holt 2018). We talk about family, a donkey fable, working at a restaurant, and asking yourself questions as a writer. We also talk about duck. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2018-06-14-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
Michael A. Ferro reads from his debut novel Title 13 (Harvard Square Editions 2018). We talk about navigating the writing world, postmodernists, humor writing, government workers and the wood wasp. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2018-06-07-170001-EDT.mp3 Download audio
Jim Shepard reads from his story collection The World To Come (Vintage 2018). We talk about natural disasters, humanity, keeping in contact with the notion of play, last lines and beagles. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2018-05-31-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
Michael Zadoorian reads from his new novel Beautiful Music (Akashic Books 2018). We talk about his factory-town approach to writing and his strong sense of place; we also talk about his father’s struggle with Alzheimer’s, his novel The Leisure Seeker and Italy. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2018-05-24-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
David Sedaris came to town with his essay collection When You Are Engulfed in Flames (Little, Brown 2008). In this conversation, we talk about the wonders of the public library, Tobias Wolff and Matt Damon, and fact checking. We also talk about balancing humor, unstable fables and little known ant facts. *archives: taped June 9, 2008 *photo credit:… Read more: David Sedaris
Leah Stewart reads from her novel What You Don’t Know About Charlie Outlaw (Putnam 2018). We talk about identity, researching character, being an observer, voice and Cincinnati. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2018-05-10-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
Weike Wang reads from her debut novel Chemistry now out in paperback (Vintage Books 2018). We talk about voice, nontraditional chapters and leaps, writing the second book, dogs and fun facts about chemistry. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2018-05-03-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
Raymond McDaniel reads from his latest collection The Cataracts (Coffee House Press 2018). We talk about the ocean, 1981, micronauts, lyrical narrative and being a citizen. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2018-04-26-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
Mohja Kahf reads from Hagar Poems (University of Arkansas Press 2016). We talk about the intersecting stories of Hagar, Abraham and Sarah, traditional narratives, and reconfiguring stories for the current moment–and Mohja also reads poems from the new manuscript. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2018-04-18-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio Mohja Kahf with Rima Hassouneh of The Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies in the… Read more: Mohja Kahf