Jim “Tex” Manheim talk about his years with the Ann Arbor Observer, his popular Twitter/X/Threads feed E/I (English Idioms), and his incomparable work with sound design and DJing WCBN FM’s Down Home Show, Bill Monroe for Breakfast, and, more recently, The Drive Time Polka Party.… Read more: Jim “Tex” Manheim
Airea D. Matthews read from Bread and Circus (Scribner 2023). D came through town this June. We talk about hybrid memoir, economics, family, capitalism, and resistance. We also talk about erasure poems and making things visible, Sicily, and being a poet… Read more: Airea D. Matthews
David Lawrence Morse reads from The Book of Disbelieving (Sarabande Books 2023). We talk about the spark of a story. We also talk about utopia and dystopia, fables and parables–and disinformation and the craft of ethical persuasion. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2023-07-19-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio… Read more: David Lawrence Morse
Tune in today to hear David Maraniss talk about his latest Path Lit By Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe (Simon & Schuster 2022), the third biography in his sports trilogy which includes, When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince… Read more: David Maraniss
Tune in today to hear poet Katie Hartsock read from Wolf Trees (Able Muse Press) and poet Jennifer Metsker read from Hypergraphia and Other Failed Attempts at Paradise (New Issues). We talk about poems and process, birds and wolves, mental health, diabetes,… Read more: Katie Hartsock and Jennifer Metsker
Fred Moten reads from All That Beauty (Letter Machine Editions 2019), Field Trio(2014)and B Jenkins(Duke University Press 2010). We talk about the radical commitment to feeling, the small press poetry world, and multivocality. We also talk about contradictions, elegies and touchstones, The Undercommons,… Read more: Fred Moten
From the archives: Celeste Ng reads from her novel Little Fires Everywhere (Penguin Press 2017). We talk about creating suspense, Shaker Heights, and shifting perspectives. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2017-10-12-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio Original air date: October 12, 2017
John Barr and Dan Murphy talk about their book Start By Believing: Larry Nassar’s Crimes, the Institutions that Enabled Him, and the Brave Women Who Stopped a Monster (Hachette Books 2020). We talk about investigative reporting, making a book, choosing… Read more: John Barr and Dan Murphy
Poet Shane McCrae reads from The Gilded Auction Block (FSG Originals 2019). We talk about history and the contemporary moment, meter, narrative, epigraphs and a robot bird.
Guest host Frank Uhle talks with Mike McGonigal, editor of Maggot Brain magazine from Third Man Records, about the joys and challenges of print-only publishing, Detroit gospel music, and the state of the record industry. Mike McGonigal has… Read more: Mike McGonigal
Michigan Quarterly Review editor Khaled Mattawa, guest editor Benjamin Paloff and contributor Jeremiah Chamberlin talk about the Fall 2019 issue of Michigan Quarterly Review: What Does Europe Want Now? We talk about MQR’s mission, its history since 1962,… Read more: Michigan Quarterly Review
Khaled Mattawa reads poems from Mare Nostrum (Sarabande Books/Quarternote Chapbook Series #16). We talk about emotion of displacement, forms and songs, narrative and character, and lyric as witness and as call to action.
Summer host Amanda Uhle talks with Shelly Oria, author of New York 1, Tel Aviv 0 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2014), and coauthor of the digital novella, CLEAN, commissioned by WeTransfer and McSweeney’s. In September of 2019, Indelible in… Read more: Shelly Oria
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… Read more: Abbey Mei Otis
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… Read more: Fatima Farheen Mirza
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
Claire Messud reads from her novel The Burning Girl (Norton 2017). We talk about friendship, young narrators, stories within stories and what we can’t know about others. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2017-09-28-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio photo credit: Ulf Andersen
Maile Meloy reads from her novel Do Not Become Alarmed published by Penguin Random House.We talk about shifting perspectives, revisions after readers, the intrigue within conversations, and pirates. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2017-09-06-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio To visit this author’s website, click here!
Gail Offen, co-author of Iconic Restaurants of Ann Arbor talks with Amanda about eateries of the past and present, how restaurants are part of shaping communities, memorable meals, only-in-Ann Arbor treats (the fragel!), how liquor laws changed Ann Arbor dining, and… Read more: Gail Offen
Courtney Maum, author of the novels I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You and Touch, talks with Amanda about the fine art of predicting the future, the declining state of human interaction, and the importance of your sense of… Read more: Courtney Maum
Artist and activist Shanna Merola discusses her latest work We All Live Downwind. We talk about collage, art as activism, documentary photography, and research walls. We also talk about her work with the National Lawyers Guild and Know… Read more: Shanna Merola
N. Scott Momaday visited Ann Arbor to give the Inaugural Robert F. Berkhofer, Jr. Lecture on Native American Studies. We talk about stories, poems, and names – and also the Big House. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2016-03-16-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
Jamaal May reads from his first book Hum (2013) published by Alice James Books. Our conversation ranges across subjects from InsideOut Detroit, first books, second books, music, to Organic Weapon Arts. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2015-11-18-170001-EST.mp3 Download Audio For more about the author, click here!… Read more: Jamaal May
David Maraniss discusses his latest book Once In A Great City: A Detroit Story published by Simon & Schuster. We talk about researching in the labor archives at Wayne State, interviewing over a hundred people for this project… Read more: David Maraniss
Courtney Maum reads from her debut novel I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You out in paper with Touchstone. We talk about the ten year odyssey of making this book, love notes, organic links and lamination. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2015-04-29-170001-EDT.mp3… Read more: Courtney Maum
Poet Michael Morse reads from Void and Compensation out with Canarium Books. We talk about Simone Weil, grace and being lost. We also talk about myths, the structure of a book, and wings. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2015-01-28-170001-EST.mp3 Download Audio
Jim Ottaviani reads from his graphic novel Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas published by First Second. We talk about making comic books about the history of science, Feynman, and research as… Read more: Jim Ottaviani
Christine Montross reads from her book Falling Into the Fire: A Psychiatrist’s Encounters with the Mind in Crisis published by Penguin Press. We talk about ambiguity, doubt, and the inherent discomfort doctors have with helplessness. We also talk about… Read more: Christine Montross
Aaron McCollough reads from his book of poems Underlight published by Ugly Duckling Presse (2012). We talk about music, forms, and the book in an increasingly digital world. We also talk about the American self and passion. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2013-08-14-160001-EDT.mp3… Read more: Aaron McCollough
Edward Kelsey Moore reads from his debut novel The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can- Eat published by Knopf. We talk about ghosts, the cello, good storytelling, and courageous female characters. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2013-04-24-163001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio For more about the author, click here!… Read more: Edward Kelsey Moore
Michigan’s own Ellen Muehlberger reads from Angels in Late Ancient Christianity published by Oxford University Press. We talk about narrative, research, the City of God, “the half-known world” and, of course, angels–past and present. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2013-03-20-163001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
Heather McHugh reads from Upgraded to Serious (Copper Canyon Press 2009). We talk about syntactic flexibility and music and skeletons. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2013-01-23-163001-EST.mp3 Download Audio For more about the author, click here! Photo credit: WBEZ
From the archive: 2012 David Mitchell reads from his novel The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (Random House Trade paperback 2011). We talk about “word nerdery” and future novels circling one’s head like planes in a holding… Read more: David Mitchell
Hisham Matar reads from his novel Anatomy of a Disappearance published by The Dial Press. We talk about when fiction and the imagination intersect with what the writer knows first hand. We also talk about Libya, London and New York… Read more: Hisham Matar
Derek Mong reads poems from his debut collection Other Romes published by Saturnalia Books. We talk about “the Latin corpus,” octopuses, and putting together your first collection. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2011-09-14-163002-EDT.mp3 Download Audio For more about the author, click here!
Charles McLeod reads from his debut novel American Weather published by Random House UK. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2011-08-10-163001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
Sarah Messer, Mark Wunderlich and Raymond McDaniel talk about poems and craft. We hear new poems by all–and also selections from Messer‘s Bandit Letters, Wunderlich‘s Voluntary Servitude, and McDaniel‘s Saltwater Empire. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2011-04-20-163001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
From the archive: 2010 Ken Mikolowski reads poems from Big Enigmas (Past Tents Press). We talk about humor, art, and Detroit. We also talk about Ann Mikolowski‘s pocket portraits, reading with MC5 and Iggy and the Stooges, Ken’s most… Read more: Ken Mikolowski
From the archive: 2009 Lorrie Moore reads from her novel A Gate at the Stairs (Knopf 2009). We talk about the music of writing within the novel and the short story. We also talk about being part of… Read more: Lorrie Moore
Khaled Mattawa reads from his latest poetry collection Amorisco (2008) published by Ausable Press. We also hear selections from two books of his translations of Iman Mersal and Joumana Haddad–and talk about how working in translation impacts and informs his own… Read more: Khaled Mattawa
Author, educator, and environmentalist Bill McKibben talks about his book Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future as well as 350.org, his project to encourage a global grassroots campaign on climate change. Also we talk about community radio,… Read more: Bill McKibben
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… Read more: John Marshall
Jim “Tex” Manheim talk about his years with the Ann Arbor Observer, his popular Twitter/X/Threads feed E/I (English Idioms), and his incomparable work with sound design and DJing WCBN FM’s Down Home Show, Bill Monroe for Breakfast, and, more recently, The Drive Time Polka Party.… Read more: Jim “Tex” Manheim
Airea D. Matthews read from Bread and Circus (Scribner 2023). D came through town this June. We talk about hybrid memoir, economics, family, capitalism, and resistance. We also talk about erasure poems and making things visible, Sicily, and being a poet… Read more: Airea D. Matthews
David Lawrence Morse reads from The Book of Disbelieving (Sarabande Books 2023). We talk about the spark of a story. We also talk about utopia and dystopia, fables and parables–and disinformation and the craft of ethical persuasion. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2023-07-19-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio… Read more: David Lawrence Morse
Fred Moten reads from All That Beauty (Letter Machine Editions 2019), Field Trio(2014)and B Jenkins(Duke University Press 2010). We talk about the radical commitment to feeling, the small press poetry world, and multivocality. We also talk about contradictions, elegies and touchstones, The Undercommons,… Read more: Fred Moten
From the archives: Celeste Ng reads from her novel Little Fires Everywhere (Penguin Press 2017). We talk about creating suspense, Shaker Heights, and shifting perspectives. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2017-10-12-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio Original air date: October 12, 2017
John Barr and Dan Murphy talk about their book Start By Believing: Larry Nassar’s Crimes, the Institutions that Enabled Him, and the Brave Women Who Stopped a Monster (Hachette Books 2020). We talk about investigative reporting, making a book, choosing… Read more: John Barr and Dan Murphy
Poet Shane McCrae reads from The Gilded Auction Block (FSG Originals 2019). We talk about history and the contemporary moment, meter, narrative, epigraphs and a robot bird.
Guest host Frank Uhle talks with Mike McGonigal, editor of Maggot Brain magazine from Third Man Records, about the joys and challenges of print-only publishing, Detroit gospel music, and the state of the record industry. Mike McGonigal has… Read more: Mike McGonigal
Michigan Quarterly Review editor Khaled Mattawa, guest editor Benjamin Paloff and contributor Jeremiah Chamberlin talk about the Fall 2019 issue of Michigan Quarterly Review: What Does Europe Want Now? We talk about MQR’s mission, its history since 1962,… Read more: Michigan Quarterly Review
Wayétu Moore reads from She Would Be King (Graywolf Press 2018). We talk about magical realism, origin stories, Liberia, and One Moore Book.
Gala Mukomolov reads poems from Without Protection (Coffee House Press 2019). We talk about fierceness and vulnerability, fairytales, and astrology.
Khaled Mattawa reads poems from Mare Nostrum (Sarabande Books/Quarternote Chapbook Series #16). We talk about emotion of displacement, forms and songs, narrative and character, and lyric as witness and as call to action.
Summer host Amanda Uhle talks with Shelly Oria, author of New York 1, Tel Aviv 0 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2014), and coauthor of the digital novella, CLEAN, commissioned by WeTransfer and McSweeney’s. In September of 2019, Indelible in… Read more: Shelly Oria
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… Read more: Abbey Mei Otis
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… Read more: Fatima Farheen Mirza
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
Claire Messud reads from her novel The Burning Girl (Norton 2017). We talk about friendship, young narrators, stories within stories and what we can’t know about others. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2017-09-28-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio photo credit: Ulf Andersen
Maile Meloy reads from her novel Do Not Become Alarmed published by Penguin Random House.We talk about shifting perspectives, revisions after readers, the intrigue within conversations, and pirates. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2017-09-06-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio To visit this author’s website, click here!
Gail Offen, co-author of Iconic Restaurants of Ann Arbor talks with Amanda about eateries of the past and present, how restaurants are part of shaping communities, memorable meals, only-in-Ann Arbor treats (the fragel!), how liquor laws changed Ann Arbor dining, and… Read more: Gail Offen
Courtney Maum, author of the novels I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You and Touch, talks with Amanda about the fine art of predicting the future, the declining state of human interaction, and the importance of your sense of… Read more: Courtney Maum
Artist and activist Shanna Merola discusses her latest work We All Live Downwind. We talk about collage, art as activism, documentary photography, and research walls. We also talk about her work with the National Lawyers Guild and Know… Read more: Shanna Merola
N. Scott Momaday visited Ann Arbor to give the Inaugural Robert F. Berkhofer, Jr. Lecture on Native American Studies. We talk about stories, poems, and names – and also the Big House. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2016-03-16-170001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
Jamaal May reads from his first book Hum (2013) published by Alice James Books. Our conversation ranges across subjects from InsideOut Detroit, first books, second books, music, to Organic Weapon Arts. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2015-11-18-170001-EST.mp3 Download Audio For more about the author, click here!… Read more: Jamaal May
David Maraniss discusses his latest book Once In A Great City: A Detroit Story published by Simon & Schuster. We talk about researching in the labor archives at Wayne State, interviewing over a hundred people for this project… Read more: David Maraniss
Courtney Maum reads from her debut novel I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You out in paper with Touchstone. We talk about the ten year odyssey of making this book, love notes, organic links and lamination. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2015-04-29-170001-EDT.mp3… Read more: Courtney Maum
Poet Michael Morse reads from Void and Compensation out with Canarium Books. We talk about Simone Weil, grace and being lost. We also talk about myths, the structure of a book, and wings. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2015-01-28-170001-EST.mp3 Download Audio
Jim Ottaviani reads from his graphic novel Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas published by First Second. We talk about making comic books about the history of science, Feynman, and research as… Read more: Jim Ottaviani
Christine Montross reads from her book Falling Into the Fire: A Psychiatrist’s Encounters with the Mind in Crisis published by Penguin Press. We talk about ambiguity, doubt, and the inherent discomfort doctors have with helplessness. We also talk about… Read more: Christine Montross
Aaron McCollough reads from his book of poems Underlight published by Ugly Duckling Presse (2012). We talk about music, forms, and the book in an increasingly digital world. We also talk about the American self and passion. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2013-08-14-160001-EDT.mp3… Read more: Aaron McCollough
Edward Kelsey Moore reads from his debut novel The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can- Eat published by Knopf. We talk about ghosts, the cello, good storytelling, and courageous female characters. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2013-04-24-163001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio For more about the author, click here!… Read more: Edward Kelsey Moore
Michigan’s own Ellen Muehlberger reads from Angels in Late Ancient Christianity published by Oxford University Press. We talk about narrative, research, the City of God, “the half-known world” and, of course, angels–past and present. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2013-03-20-163001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
Heather McHugh reads from Upgraded to Serious (Copper Canyon Press 2009). We talk about syntactic flexibility and music and skeletons. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2013-01-23-163001-EST.mp3 Download Audio For more about the author, click here! Photo credit: WBEZ
From the archive: 2012 David Mitchell reads from his novel The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (Random House Trade paperback 2011). We talk about “word nerdery” and future novels circling one’s head like planes in a holding… Read more: David Mitchell
Hisham Matar reads from his novel Anatomy of a Disappearance published by The Dial Press. We talk about when fiction and the imagination intersect with what the writer knows first hand. We also talk about Libya, London and New York… Read more: Hisham Matar
Derek Mong reads poems from his debut collection Other Romes published by Saturnalia Books. We talk about “the Latin corpus,” octopuses, and putting together your first collection. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2011-09-14-163002-EDT.mp3 Download Audio For more about the author, click here!
Charles McLeod reads from his debut novel American Weather published by Random House UK. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2011-08-10-163001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
Sarah Messer, Mark Wunderlich and Raymond McDaniel talk about poems and craft. We hear new poems by all–and also selections from Messer‘s Bandit Letters, Wunderlich‘s Voluntary Servitude, and McDaniel‘s Saltwater Empire. http://beanball.wcbn.org/rss/Living_Writers/wcbn-living_writers-2011-04-20-163001-EDT.mp3 Download Audio
From the archive: 2010 Ken Mikolowski reads poems from Big Enigmas (Past Tents Press). We talk about humor, art, and Detroit. We also talk about Ann Mikolowski‘s pocket portraits, reading with MC5 and Iggy and the Stooges, Ken’s most… Read more: Ken Mikolowski
From the archive: 2009 Lorrie Moore reads from her novel A Gate at the Stairs (Knopf 2009). We talk about the music of writing within the novel and the short story. We also talk about being part of… Read more: Lorrie Moore
Khaled Mattawa reads from his latest poetry collection Amorisco (2008) published by Ausable Press. We also hear selections from two books of his translations of Iman Mersal and Joumana Haddad–and talk about how working in translation impacts and informs his own… Read more: Khaled Mattawa
Author, educator, and environmentalist Bill McKibben talks about his book Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future as well as 350.org, his project to encourage a global grassroots campaign on climate change. Also we talk about community radio,… Read more: Bill McKibben
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… Read more: John Marshall
