Hear poet Nancy K. Pearson read from her first collection “Two Minutes of Light” winner of the 2008 Perugia Press Prize. We’ll talk about winning a first book prize, addiction and survival, and Provincetown, too. We’ll also talk about confessional poetry, autobiography and art. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2008-12-31-161501-EST.mp3 Download Audio *this new program was taped on the 5th… Read more: Nancy K. Pearson
Hear poet Adam Zagajewski read from his latest book “Eternal Enemies” published this year by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. We’ll talk about Lvov, Poland and Milosz, Herbert, essays and eternity. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2008-12-24-161501-EST.mp3 Download Audio *this program was taped on the 4th of December.
Hear Honor Moore read from her book “The Bishop’s Daughter: A Memoir” published this May by W.W.Norton. We’ll talk about choosing the artist’s life as a way of the spirit and a way toward mystery. We’ll also talk about love, activism and the risk of writing memoir–how sometimes it begins with “secret pages.” Honor will also read… Read more: Honor Moore
Julian Levinson reads from his book “Exiles on Main Street: Jewish American Writers and American Literary Culture” published this year by Indiana University Press. We’ll talk about Walt Whitman, Emma Lazarus and The Rolling Stones. We’ll talk about the origins of this project– and why the introduction begins with this from Allen Ginsberg’s America: “America I still… Read more: Julian Levinson
From the archive: 2008 Amy Hempel reads from The Collected Stories (Scribner 2007). We talk about writing short shorts and writing prose poems–and about having that first line–how it shows you the way to the story. We hear a poem called “Sing to It.” And we talk about dogs. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2008-12-03-161501-EST.mp3 Download Audio Original airdate: December 3,… Read more: Amy Hempel
Hear poet Zilka Joseph read from “Lands I Live In” published by Mayapple Press in 2007. We’ll talk about Bob Dylan and Rabindranath Tagore. We’ll also talk about how each of us carries worlds within us–no matter the number of arrivals and departures. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2008-11-26-161501-EST.mp3 Download Audio
Tune in today for a conversation with Jim Shepard and Ron Hansen. A sort of homecoming–these two writers met here at Michigan some years ago, their offices across the hall from each other in Angell. Jim Shepard will read from his latest story collection “Like You’d Understand, Anyway” now in paperback from Vintage. Ron Hansen will read… Read more: Jim Shepard and Ron Hansen
John Hodgman, a famous minor television personality, offering “More Information Than You Require” published by Dutton on October 21, 2008. We’ll talk about the arduous journey of writing a trilogy (this is book two) and how fame and fortune has changed Hodgman’s writing as well as his wardrobe. Also included: the first of its kind–a radio thumb war. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2008-11-05-161501-EST.mp3… Read more: John Hodgman
Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum reads from Ms. Hempel Chronicles (Harcourt 2008) and Salvatore Scibona reads from The End (Graywolf Press 2008). We talk about the interior pyschology of a character– and the attention to the beauty of language leading to revelation. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2008-10-22-161501-EDT.mp3 Download Audio Original airdate: October 22, 2008
From the archive: 2008 Deborah Eisenberg reads from her latest collection of short stories Twilight of the Superheroes (Picador 2007). We talk about the glories of the short story–and plays and politics. We talk about public life, fiction and privacy. We also talk about empathy in fiction and economy of language. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2008-10-15-161501-EDT.mp3 Download Audio Photo credit:… Read more: Deborah Eisenberg
John Marshall reads from his book Meaning a Cloud published by Oberlin Press. We talk about chapbooks and broadsides, James Tate, and the shop in Seattle he co-owns with his wife–Open Books: A Poem Emporium. We also talk about how to structure a book that spans several decades of poems–and the marketplace. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2008-10-08-161502-EDT.mp3 Download Audio For… Read more: John Marshall
Sam Quinones reads from his book “Antonio’s Gun and Delfino’s Dream: True Tales of Mexican Migration” published by University of New Mexico Press in 2007. We’ll talk about creative nonfiction and journalism. We’ll talk about what it means to work for over a decade in your subject–the people, the politics. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2008-09-24-161501-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
Randa Jarrar reads from her debut novel “A Map of Home” published this September by Other Press. We’ll talk about writing a coming of age novel that takes place in Kuwait and Texas–and about how a story is still fiction when it is rooted to the writer’s biography, how the truths become more true in the fictional telling.… Read more: Randa Jarrar
Uwem Akpan reads from his first collection of stories “Say You’re One of Them” published this June by Little, Brown. We’ll talk about writing from the perspective and voice of a child. We’ll also talk about his work as a writer of fiction and essays–and his work as a Jesuit priest. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2008-07-23-163001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
Preeta Samarasan reads from her debut novel “Evening is the Whole Day” published this year by Houghton Mifflin. We’ll talk about setting and historical context with Malaysia as our focus. We’ll also talk about structure and first book tours–and life post-Michigan in France. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2008-07-16-161501-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
Janet Kauffman reads from her latest collection “Trespassing: Dirt Stories & Field Notes” published this year by Wayne State University Press for the Made in Michigan Writers Series. We’ll talk about the obvious: fiction and nonfiction in one book jacket, and the not so obvious–that should be: our surrounding landscape, pollution, CAFOs and buried water. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2008-07-09-163001-EDT.mp3 Download… Read more: Janet Kauffman
Tune in today to hear Miles Harvey read from his latest book “Painter in a Savage Land: The Strange Saga of the First European Artist inNorth America” published this summer by Random House. We’ll talk about investigating history as a creative writer: how to find the project and how to frame it. We’ll also talk about Florida… Read more: Miles Harvey
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
Tune in today to hear Lincoln Hall, writer and adventurer, read from“Dead Lucky: Life After Death on Mount Everest” published byTarcher/Penguin and released in May 2008 in the US. We’ll talk about how to write an emotional and dramatic story and getit as true as one can on the page. We’ll talk about choices instructure too, but… Read more: Lincoln Hall
Tune in today to hear Jeff Parker read from “Ovenman” published by TinHouse Books in 2007. We’ll talk about the first person voice-driven narrative and breakingaway from the tradition of the gifted narrator as in “The Catcher inthe Rye.” We’ll also talk about time as a landscape, skateboarding,juggling–and Florida, “a wonderful and terrible place.” Please… Read more: Jeff Parker
Hear author, educator, and environmentalist BillMcKibben. “The Bill McKibben Reader” is out this spring from HoltPaperbacks. We’ll talk about ideas from his book “Deep Economy: The Wealth ofCommunities and the Durable Future” as well as 350.org, his project toencourage a global grassroots campaign on climate change. Also we’ll talk about community radio, the predicament of “fighting,not writing” and… Read more: Bill McKibben
Tune in to hear author Daniel Handler talk about many things, some unfortunate and others not. We’ll talk about his latest book that’s out in paperback with Harper Perennial “Adverbs: A Novel” and Milan Kundera and the tuba. We’ll also hear about what it’s like to be the representative of Lemony Snicket and why one can’t travel… Read more: Daniel Handler
From the archives: 2008 C.D. Wright reads from her book of poems Rising, Falling, Hovering (Copper Canyon Press). We talk about misery and love, “making it up,” and what it means to be an American Artist. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2008-04-16-161501-EDT.mp3 Download Audio Photo credit: Forrest Gander Original airdate: April 16, 2008
textsound: an online audio publication: two of the founding editors, Anna Vitale and Laura Wetherington, join T in the studio. We talk about textsound’s mission and vision–and the experimental idea. We also talk about the online arts community, the Scandanavian connection and the art of arranging sound in journal form. Download Audio
From the archives: 2008 Richard Price reads from his novel Lush Life (Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2008) . We talk about Manhattan’s Lower East Side and his method for finding the story. We also talk about screenwriting versus the novel, dynamic dialogue and The Wire. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2008-03-26-161501-EDT.mp3 Download Audio Photo credit: Lorraine Adams Original airdate:… Read more: Richard Price
Randall Kennedy reads from Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal (Pantheon Books 2008). We talk about the power of language and Clarence Thomas as a case study. Download Audio
From the archive: 2008 Amy Hempel reads from The Collected Stories (Scribner 2007). We talk about writing short shorts and writing prose poems–and about having that first line–how it shows you the way to the story. We hear a poem called “Sing to It.” And we talk about dogs. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2008-12-03-161501-EST.mp3 Download Audio Original airdate: December 3,… Read more: Amy Hempel
From the archive: 2008 Deborah Eisenberg reads from her latest collection of short stories Twilight of the Superheroes (Picador 2007). We talk about the glories of the short story–and plays and politics. We talk about public life, fiction and privacy. We also talk about empathy in fiction and economy of language. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2008-10-15-161501-EDT.mp3 Download Audio Photo credit:… Read more: Deborah Eisenberg
John Marshall reads from his book Meaning a Cloud published by Oberlin Press. We talk about chapbooks and broadsides, James Tate, and the shop in Seattle he co-owns with his wife–Open Books: A Poem Emporium. We also talk about how to structure a book that spans several decades of poems–and the marketplace. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2008-10-08-161502-EDT.mp3 Download Audio For… Read more: John Marshall
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
From the archives: 2008 C.D. Wright reads from her book of poems Rising, Falling, Hovering (Copper Canyon Press). We talk about misery and love, “making it up,” and what it means to be an American Artist. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2008-04-16-161501-EDT.mp3 Download Audio Photo credit: Forrest Gander Original airdate: April 16, 2008
textsound: an online audio publication: two of the founding editors, Anna Vitale and Laura Wetherington, join T in the studio. We talk about textsound’s mission and vision–and the experimental idea. We also talk about the online arts community, the Scandanavian connection and the art of arranging sound in journal form. Download Audio
From the archives: 2008 Richard Price reads from his novel Lush Life (Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2008) . We talk about Manhattan’s Lower East Side and his method for finding the story. We also talk about screenwriting versus the novel, dynamic dialogue and The Wire. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2008-03-26-161501-EDT.mp3 Download Audio Photo credit: Lorraine Adams Original airdate:… Read more: Richard Price
