Author Archives: D-F

John Fulton reads from The Flounder and Other Stories (Blackwater Press 2023).  We talk about writing about place, the role of first sentences and first paragraphs in short stories, and listening to the language to find a shape for revision.… Read more: John Fulton

Jack Driscoll reads from Twenty Stories: New and Selected (Pushcart Press 2022). We talk about the music in language, place as character, hard work and tenderness. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2023-05-03-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio *Thanks to Sheryl Johnston for sending Twenty Stories *Thanks also to Cate Hotchkiss and… Read more: Jack Driscoll

While in Ann Arbor, Kristin Hersh, Grant-Lee Phillips, and John Doe talk about their The Exile Follies 2020 tour. We talk about collaboration and process, mystery, and creating experience. We also talk about how music is fearless. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2020-02-12-170001-EST.mp3… Read more: Kristin Hersh, Grant-Lee Phillips and John Doe

Jonathan Safran Foer talks about We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast (Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2019).  We talk about climate change mattering in our daily lives, about the power of choices, and… Read more: Jonathan Safran Foer

Lo Dagerman and Nancy Pick read from The Writer and The Refugee (originally published by Norstedts Förlag, Stockholm 2017; English translation 2019). We talk about being a detective in your own family mystery, long term research projects,… Read more: Lo Dagerman + Nancy Pick

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

Karen Dionne reads from The Marsh King’s Daughter (Putnam 2017). We talk about writing a psychological suspense, fairy tales, and the UP. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2017-11-02-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio  

Jill Darling reads poems from a geography of syntax (Lavender Ink 2016).  We talk about lyric intervention, topography, Gertrude Stein and movement. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2017-09-21-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio To learn more, click this link to head to the writer’s website.

Jonathan Safran Foer reads from his novel Here I Am published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. We talk about process, reflex and intuition. We also talk about valuing writing as an act of personal expression.  And how… Read more: Jonathan Safran Foer

Angela D. Dillard talks about her book Faith in the City: Preaching Radical Social Change in Detroit published by the University of Michigan Press.  We talk about good and bad religion, labor unions, activism, and key figures in Detroit’s history… Read more: Angela Dillard

R.J. Fox reads from his debut novel Love & Vodka: My Surreal Adventures in Ukraine published by Fish Out of Water Books. We are joined in the studio by Jon and Laurie Wilson, the publishers.… Read more: R.J. Fox

Martin Espada reads poems from The Trouble Ball (Norton 2011) and The Republic of Poetry (2006) and talks about his collection of essays The Lover of a Subversive Is Also a Subversive (The University of… Read more: Martin Espada

Nicholas Delbanco reads from his 29th book Dear Wizard: The Letters of Nicholas Delbanco and Jon Manchip White published by University of Michigan Press. We talk about the art of teaching, music and memories, and… Read more: Nicholas Delbanco

Kwame Dawes reads from Duppy Conqueror: New and Selected Poems (2013) published by Copper Canyon Press. We talk about movement, Marley, hope and memory. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2014-07-16-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio For more about the author, click here! photo credit:… Read more: Kwame Dawes

Karen Joy Fowler discusses her novel We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (Plume 2013). We talk about imagination, character, Kafka, Jane Austen, and animal – human relationship. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2014-07-02-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio For more about the author,… Read more: Karen Joy Fowler

From the archive: 2013 Farnoosh Fathi reads from Great Gus (Canarium Books 2013). We talk about Brazil, translation, Emily Dickinson, art and interviewing. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2013-03-13-163001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio Original airdate: March 13, 2013 Photo credit: Alan Bernheimer

From the archive: 2012 Toi Derricotte reads from The Undertaker’s Daughter (University of Pittsburgh Press 2011). We talk about nuns, about chaos, about balance and a sense of what’s true. We also hear Toi lead… Read more: Toi Derricotte

Carrie Fountain reads from Burn Lake (2010) published by Penguin Books. We talk about history and region in poems, naming a book, The Broken Spoke and dancing in Austin. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2012-09-19-163001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio For more about the… Read more: Carrie Fountain

Bruce Duffy reads from Disaster Was My God: A novel of the outlaw life of Arthur Rimbaud (2011) published by Doubleday. We talk about nonfiction novels–what is real, imagined–and the mystery of the boundaries that imagination… Read more: Bruce Duffy

Calvin Forbes reads from The Shine Poems published by Louisiana State University Press. We talk about radio and creating a character from a song–traveling, folklore, and the music of Janis Joplin and Donny Hathaway. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2012-02-22-163001-EST.mp3 Download… Read more: Calvin Forbes

Stacey D‘Erasmo reads from her latest novel The Sky Below published by Mariner Books. We talk about the worlds of journalism and fiction, Rome, and dancing. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2011-10-05-163001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio For more about the author, click here! photo credit:  Nina… Read more: Stacey D’Erasmo

Richard Ford reads from an anthology he edited, Blue Collar, White Collar, No Collar:  Stories of Work, published by HarperCollins (2011).  All proceeds benefit 826michigan.  We talk about work and character development, and also hear a short section… Read more: Richard Ford

Nicholas Delbanco reads from Lastingness: The Art of Old Age published by Grand Central.  We talk about what it means to work and create for a lifetime, with the time that is given you–and what work becomes… Read more: Nicholas Delbanco

Robert Fanning reads from his collection American Prophet out with Marick Press.  We talk about creating a character that speaks for an entire book of poems and what that allows to surface in the work.  We… Read more: Robert Fanning

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… Read more: Deborah Eisenberg