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 a community–and writing about loss–our collective and individual sorrows–our awkwardness and joy. And a few words about …
From the Archives: Donald Hall reads two poems that he wrote while teaching here at Michigan. We also talk about poetry as a vocation, Eagle Pond farm, a life inside and outside academia, the art of revision, baseball, Edgar Allan Poe, and writing with hope. https://umich.box.com/shared/static/3vke6zzar8tlfd7vatal7pheme28uffy.mp3 Download Audio photo credit: Linda Kunhardt/Courtesy of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt December 1, …
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 also talk about humor, Detroit, the vision within Elvisfest and the karaoke of a Master. https://umich.box.com/shared/static/ixw6u2mqn9t49c0r2vyl0reu12w7qjy3.mp3 Download Audio To visit …
Colson Whitehead reads from his novel Sag Harbor published by Doubleday. We talk about drawing on your own past and using elements of autobiography to frame what ideas you want to explore in your fiction. What are the risks and pay-offs involved? We also talk about summer at the shore and the 80s: music, fashion, and …
Jim Shepard reads from his latest story collection Like You’d Understand, Anyway in paperback from Vintage. Ron Hansen reads from his novel Exiles published with FSG. A sort of homecoming–these two writers met here at Michigan some years ago, their offices across the hall from each other in Angell Hall. https://umich.box.com/shared/static/n13yrp684hqfbu9zc0997pbel4nlxkw3.wav Download Audio
Patrick Lane and Lorna Crozier read poems from among their many poetry books including Last Water Song from Harbour Publishing and The Blue Hour of the Day published by McClelland & Stewart. We talk about the ways of “seeing”–how these ways might be determined without our even knowing it in our formative years. Patrick looks very close-up to things, and Lorna‘s vision requires …
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 poetry. We talk about his early years in Libya and what it is like to make a …
Nami Mun reads from new stories from Miles From Nowhere. We discuss the life of the writer inside and outside of academia, linked stories within a collection, and her experience with writers‘ residencies like Yaddo and The MacDowell Colony. We also talk about being a criminal investigator and a dramatist. For more about the author, click here! …
Michael Shilling reads from his debut novel Rock Bottom from Little, Brown & Company. We talk about writing from multiple character perspectives. We also talk about humor and pacing–and the challenge of creating a story as an insider within a particular culture or industry that others dream about. https://umich.box.com/shared/static/orkipz7tz3gmx1s780zktmb6uo852l56.wav Download Audio
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, the predicament of “fighting, not writing” and why nature writing is our century’s major contribution to literature. …
