James Lee Burke

Mystery writer James Lee Burke talks about his latest novel in the Dave Robicheaux series, THE GLASS RAINBOW. And poet Doug Anderson reads two poems.

Burke sees his fictional alter ego as the better man of the two — a hero who puts his life on the line defending the powerless and the abused. But Robicheaux is also haunted by his own psychic demons — his alcoholism, intimations of mortality, and moral ambivalence around the use of force against the forces of darkness.

Burke, who has written more than 20 books, won an Edgar Award for two of them, BLACK CHERRY BLUES and CIMARRON ROSE. His character Dave Robicheaux has been played by Tommy Lee Jones in the film The Electric Mist and by Alec Baldwin in Heaven’s Prisoners.

The setting for the latest novel in the Robicheaux series, The Glass Rainbow is the sugarcane and bayou country of Louisiana, where crime, corruption and the twisted strands of class and race are the ground for epic battles between good and evil. Robicheaux teams up with his best friend Clete Purcel to solve the mystery of the young woman’s murder. The trail heads at first into the seamier side of town, but then veers into a thorny thicket leading to the plantations of the most powerful people in the parish.

Tune into this wonderful conversation with James Lee Burke as he talks about his latest book, what’s happening to the Gulf Coast in the wake of the BP catastrophe, the history of the region, and his writing.

Read an article James Lee Burke wrote about writing

Also, Doug Anderson reads two poems, Petitionary Prayer on Nguyen Duy’s Roof, and a birthday poem, Sixty Seventh.
Read other poems by Anderson

Sneak Preview: Next week, Writers Voice talks with Harvey Sachs about his book, THE NINTH: Beethoven and the World in 1824

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Marisa Silver

Writers Voice spends the hour with fiction writer Marisa Silver, talking about the craft of writing, her new collection of short stories ALONE WITH YOU and her 2008 novel, GOD OF WAR.

The New York Times called Marisa Silver “one of California’s most celebrated contemporary writers”. We first spoke to her in 2008 about her wonderful novel, THE GOD OF WAR. Now she’s come out with an equally wonderful collection of stories, ALONE WITH YOU. They explore the ambiguities in human relationships — the push and pull we feel towards those we love — and the responsibilities we have toward one another.

I sat down with Silver at the office of her publisher, Simon and Schuster, in New York recently to talk about the craft of writing and her latest story collection of stories.

In addition to ALONE WITH YOU, Silver is the author of the 2001 story collection, BABE IN PARADISE, which was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her novel, GOD OF WAR was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for fiction. We spoke to her about it in 2008.

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Fernanda Eberstadt

Sadie Jones

Sadie Jones talks about her new novel, SMALL WARS. Set in war torn Cyprus in 1956, it tells the story of a young British solider, and the effects of that war on him, his wife and their family. And we hear from Fernanda Eberstadt about her acclaimed new novel RAT. It’s about a girl of extraordinary courage who travels from a hardscrabble region of France to London in search of her father.

When Hal Traherne, a main character in Sadie Jones’ novel SMALL WARS, is promoted to the rank of major in the British Army, the young soldier thinks he’s dedicating himself to a life in service of honor and courage. But then he’s sent to put down a rebellion by Cypriots who are seeking to overthrow the British and unite with Greece. Traumatized by the atrocities he sees his own troops committing — and unable to stop them — Hal finds his moral courage waning even as his courage in battle is proven. What happens to him takes a toll on his marriage, as trust and intimacy fall victim to his rage and self-loathing. The novel’s exploration of the impact of war on families is as relevant today as it is to the period in which the book takes place.

British author Sadie Jones’ acclaimed first novel, The Outcast, was a finalist for the Orange Prize. John Madden is directing a film version. SMALL WARS is her second novel.

Poet Jon Anderson reads his poem “Chimeras”. Writers Voice recorded the reading at a poetry event in South Hadley, Massachusetts in March.

And Jon Anderson reads a “Hand Dance”, an unpublished poem by Richard Wilbur (listen to the Web Extra).

Fernanda Eberstadt’s new novel RAT features one of the most appealing characters you’ll ever encounter in fiction. Fifteen-year-old Celia, whose nickname is Rat, lives in a hardscrabble region in the south of France where things are ready to explode at any moment, Eberstadt says. It’s a place where poverty abounds and racial tensions between poor whites, North African immigrants and gypsies are high. Rat is being raised by a single mother, who she loves and is more of a mother to, than the other way around. But it’s the father she’s never known that she’s thinking about mostly – and she intends to find him. In doing so, she tests the limits of her prodigious courage.

Eberstadt lived in southwestern France for several years and wrote a nonfiction book about the Gypsies there called LITTLE MONEY STREET. Born into a literary tradition, she’s the daughter of a writer and the granddaughter of poet Ogden Nash. Eberstadt has written essays for the New Yorker among other magazines, nonfiction books and novels. RAT is her sixth book.

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Lionel Shriver

Patrick Malone

Patient advocate and author Patrick Malone talks about his book, The Life You Save: Nine Steps to Finding the Best Medical Care-and Avoiding the Worst. It’s about how to keep from being a victim of medical errors. We’ll also talk with novelist Lionel Shriver about her new novel, SO MUCH FOR THAT. It’s about health insurance gone very wrong. And Martin Espada, Richard Wilbur and other poets read at a benefit for the children of Gaza.

Our Dysfunctional Health Care System

Medical mistakes claim more lives each year than breast cancer, AIDS, and car crashes combined — as much as 100,000 people, with an estimated 40,000 injuries every day. Lawyer Patrick Malone says these injuries are preventable, and you can keep them from happening to you. His book THE LIFE YOU SAVE proposes “nine steps to finding the best medical care and avoiding the worst.” Among them are when to know you have symptoms your doctor shouldn’t ignore and how to sort fact from hype in medical news.

Health insurance reform is now the law of the land — even though most of its benefits won’t kick in for another four years. The reform has come under attack from both the left and right: right wingers have gone into paroxysms of paranoia about it, claiming it will bring communism to America. The bill has also been criticized by progressives for not going far enough, and for being a boondoggle for the health insurance companies.

A black comedy about the American healthcare system

American novelist Lionel Shriver lives in England — where they have socialized medicine that covers everybody at a fraction of the cost of the U.S. healthcare system. Her new book takes on the predatory practices of American health insurance companies. The L.A. Times called it “a ferocious black comedy about the horrors of the American healthcare system”. She decided to write the novel when she learned that the leading cause of bankruptcy in the US is medical bills and a majority of those going broke have health insurance.

In addition to SO MUCH FOR THAT, Lionel Shriver is the author of We Need to Talk About Kevin, for which she won the 2005 Orange Prize. She’s written eight other novels and writes a column for The Guardian.

Martin Espada (photo by Doug Anderson)

Poetry for the children of Gaza

On March 25, eleven poets came together to read poems at a benefit for the children of Gaza, who are living in what some describe as the biggest prison in the world. 80% of families in Gaza live in poverty, unable to work or get the necessities of life because of the Israeli blockade. Malnutrition is rampant, especially for children. The event was called Moving Toward Home: A Reading for Gaza. It was a benefit for the Middle East Children’s Alliance.

We hear readings by four of the poets at the event: Richard Wilbur, Doug Anderson, Martin Espada, and Betsy Reyna.

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SJ Parris

Mark Lamster

Mark Lamster talks with host Francesca Rheannon about the great Flemish Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens’ career as an unofficial diplomat for the Spanish Crown. And mystery writer S.J. Parris tells us about Renaissance scientist Giordano Bruno’s visit to Oxford in 1583. She spins a murder mystery around the visit and around Bruno’s mission as a spy for the English Crown.

Mark Lamster

In his time, Peter Paul Rubens was the most sought after painter for the major and minor royalty of Europe. He was a shrewd businessman who levered his career as an artist into fabulous wealth. But he also had a hidden career as a secret diplomat for the Spanish Crown. His home town was Antwerp in Flanders. Along with Holland, it was part of the Low Countries, which at that time were colonies of Spain. And while Flanders was a docile colony, Holland was in the throes of a revolt against colonial rule. When the Dutch blockaded Antwerp, they choked off the vital artery of commerce that fed Flanders’ prosperity.

Rubens wanted peace and spent years trying to broker a peace deal for Spain with the European powers. He didn’t live to see it come to fruition, but the story of his efforts affords a fascinating window into the history of his time and the character of Rubens: a charismatic, pragmatic, artistic genius. Mark Lamster has written that story in a new book, MASTER OF SHADOWS: The Secret Diplomatic Career of Peter Paul Rubens.

Lamster writes on arts and culture for Design Observer and the Los Angeles Times, and is a member of the National Book Critics Circle. He’s also the author of SPALDING’S WORLD TOUR.

Web Extra: Mark Lamster reads an excerpt from MASTER OF SHADOWS.

S.J. Parris

In the previous segment, we traveled to the 17th century to talk about Peter Paul Rubens. Now we go a little further back in time with another story about an historical figure who also had a hidden career: Giordano Bruno. Sixteenth century Europe was a battleground between old ways of thought and new, between the narrow dogmas of the medieval period and the birth of science in the Renaissance. The great Renaissance thinker Giordano Bruno was an emblematic figure of that conflict, as well as one of its victims.

After being excommunicated by the Church for reading banned books, he wandered Europe teaching philosophy, mathematics, dabbling in magic, developing a philosophy of universal love, and writing a best seller how-to book on memory tricks. He also was a pioneer in astronomy, perhaps the first European to understand that the universe was infinite. He was ultimately burned at the stake for his heretical, free thinking views.

[sniplet amazon bookstore widget]

In 1583 Bruno landed in England, where Queen Elizabeth ruled over a Protestant land roiled by Catholic plots to bring England back into the Papal fold. There’s some indication that he worked as a spy for the Queen, reporting back on Catholic subversion. But he also went to Oxford in the hopes of getting a teaching job at the university. S.J. Parris has written a murder mystery built around Bruno’s visit to Oxford, HERESY.

S.J. Parris is also the author (under her real name, Stephanie Merritt), of the memoir, THE DEVIL WITHIN and the novels REAL and GAVESTON.

Richard Wilbur

In a subplot of HERESY, Giordano Bruno searches for the “lost volume” of the works of the mythical ancient Egyptian sage Hermes Trismegistus. He was said to have written 50,000 books, and to have been both a god and a mortal. We hear poet Richard Wilbur reading his poem about Trismegistus, recorded when we visited him at his home in Cummington, MA.

Read Wilbur’s poem, Hermes Trismegistus.

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Sue Barry

Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader talks about his latest book, ONLY THE SUPERRICH CAN SAVE US! It’s a “utopian fantasy” about a cadre of billionaires under the leadership of Warren Buffet who take on corporate America to save democracy and the planet. And neuroscientist Sue Barry talks about conquering a visual disability and training her brain to see normally. Her memoir is FIXING MY GAZE.

Saved by the super rich

What do Phil Donahue, Warren Buffet, Yoko Ono and Ted Turner have in common? Well, they’re all billionaires – and they’re all characters in Ralph Nader’s new book  Nader brings them together with 13 others like themselves to wage class warfare on corporate control and bring democracy back to America. It’s fiction, but Nader doesn’t call it a novel. He calls it “a fictional vision that could become a new reality.”

Ralph Nader was named by Time and Life magazines as one of the 100 most influential Americans of the twentieth century. We drive safer cars, breathe better air, and work in safer environments because of his crusades to protect consumers, citizens and workers. He was the force that got Congress to mandate better car safety, including seat belts, among many other consumer protection laws. But he tells WV Host Francesca Rheannon that he could never accomplish now what he did then, because corporate control of government and media is too great: ordinary citizens don’t have the clout anymore to get their concerns addressed, whether on health care, jobs or the environment.

It’s takes money, Nader says, the kind of money only the superrich have, to move the levers of power. His book, ONLY THE SUPERRICH CAN SAVE US!, is a call to action to progressive minded billionaires to leave a lasting legacy to their grandchildren: saving the planet.

Fixing my gaze

This past week, the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was all over the news.

The biggest new thing there was 3D TV. If you’ve ever seen a film in 3D, you know how amazingly different it is from regular movies. That experience was what it was like for neuroscientist Sue Barry when, for the first time in her life, she was able to see the world in three dimensions.

Born with her eyes misaligned – one eye crossed inward – her brain compensated by seeing only through the perspective of the other eye. She lacked the stereoscopic vision that gives our sight depth. Barry’s memoir, , recounts how she learned she didn’t have normal vision and the remarkable path she took to get it.

Sue Barry is professor of neurobiology at Mount Holyoke College.

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Writers Voice Ten Best of 2009

1. Richard Wilbur
2. Tracy Kidder
3. Nicholson Baker
4. Gail Hornstein
5. David Grann
6. Tyler Boudreau
7. Les Leopold
8. Kenneth Turan
9. Abraham Verghese
10. James W. Douglass

Richard Wilbur

I first met poet Richard Wilburat the memorial service for his friend and fellow poet Peter Viereck. I was struck by his genuine warmth and resolved to ask him to talk some day with Writers Voice about his work. That day took two years, but finally, in the summer of 2009, he welcomed me and my friend Christian McEwen into his spacious writing studio in Cummington, Massachusetts to talk about his new poems and old, the art of translation, and his evolution as a poet. Wilbur also read his poetry out loud for us in his deep, melodious voice.

Tracy Kidder has twice been a guest on Writers Voice, and both interviews are among my favorites. His writing is infused with a deep humanity and personal humility. We first spoke to him about his only memoir, MY DETACHMENT, back in 2005. This year, we talked to him about his brilliant and wonderful book about Deo, a refugee of genocide and war in Rwanda and Burundi: STRENGTH IN WHAT REMAINS.

Nicholson Baker is another writer who has graced Writers Voice with several wonderful interviews. He writes both fiction and nonfiction; in 2008, we talked with him about his meditation on the consequences of war, HUMAN SMOKE. This year, we spoke to him in a lighter vein about his delightful novel, THE ANTHOLOGIST.

Gail Hornstein

I loved the interview Gail Hornstein gave us about her book, AGNES’ JACKET. I am a lapsed clinical social worker, who left the field in large part because of the disrespect toward clients I felt was rife in the profession. Hornstein’s book recounts her own evolution of profound respect for people who suffer from mental disorders, particularly schizophrenia. She shared that with us, as well as her impassioned plea for the world to listen to and honor what patients tell us.

David Grann’s LOST CITY OF Z was one of the most terrific reads I encountered this year. Part mystery, part history, part memoir, it’s a fascinating account of Victorian explorer Percy Fawcett’s ill-fated expedition to the Amazon in the 1920’s. And when Grann, a comfort-loving Manhattan urbanite, follows Fawcett’s footsteps into the Amazon himself, things get really interesting. He tells us the story in this marvelous interview.

Tyler Boudreau

When former Marine Captain Tyler Boudreau came into the WMUA studio to talk about his Iraq war memoir, PACKING INFERNO: The Unmaking of a Marine, he kept me spellbound. He brought the same passion and brilliance to the interview he shows in his book. His experience in Iraq “unmade” him as a Marine, but it deepened him as a person.

How many of us really understand what went wrong when Wall Street crashed in 2008 and brought Main Street with it? In clear simple language, Les Leopold unpacked the crisis and how it happened when he talked with us about his book, THE LOOTING OF AMERICA. His previous interview with WV was about his terrific biography of the American labor hero, Tony Mazzochi, THE MAN WHO HATED WORK AND LOVED LABOR.

And I played an excerpt from an interview I did with Sea Change Radio when co-host Bill Baue and I caught up with Barney Frank just as the Senate Finance Committee was about to consider the biggest bank bailout in the nation’s history. The Senator treated us to some of his famous barbed wit and testy temper.

I hugely enjoyed this interview guest host Chris Rohmann did with LA Times drama critic Kenneth Turan about the late theater producer Joe Papp. Turan’s book, FREE FOR ALL, is filled with wonderful anecdotes told to him by many of the actors Papp nurtured, like George C. Scott, Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones and James Earl Jones. Rohmann got Turan going, as he shared the stories from the book in this fast-paced, free-wheeling interview.

Abraham Verghese

Early in 2009, we spoke with physician, novelist and memoirist Abraham Verghese about his semi-autobiographical novel, CUTTING FOR STONE. What I loved about the interview (and the book) was Verghese’s deeply compassionate — and passionate — view of the practice of medicine.

We also aired an archived interview with America’s holistic health guru, Dr. Andrew Weil, about his book, HEALTHY AGING.

The interview I did with James W. Douglass about his book JFK: Why He Died and Why It Matters, occasioned the only outraged listener response I have ever gotten (telling me “I should be ashamed” to “rehash much refuted arguments” about the assassination, the listener conclude, “Get this show off the air!”).

That listener is in the minority — 70% of Americans are convinced that JFK was murdered by a conspiracy, with the CIA as the most likely perpetrator. Nonetheless, airing such views usually brings down scorn and vituperation. Douglass gives a reasoned, sober and detailed analysis which deserves consideration if we are to take our commitment to democracy seriously. Far from a conspiracy “nut”, he’s been honored internationally for his work on behalf of peace and against nuclear weapons. It was that dedication to peace that drew Douglass into studying JFK’s own evolution toward peace — an evolution that may have led to his assassination. Listen and decide for yourself.

Don’t forget, we also have our best of 2008 list still on the site in case you missed any of those wonderful guests.

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Dahr Jamail

“Unembedded journalist” Dahr Jamail tells us about the profound impact on veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — and how they are fighting back. We also talk with mystery novelist Lisa Kleinholz, cookbook author Lora Brody and journalism prof and blogger B.J. Roche – they’re all panelists on the upcoming Write Angles writers conference taking place Nov 21, 2009 at Mount Holyoke College.

An Unembedded Journalist

Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan was about to be deployed to Iraq when he took the lives of thirteen people at Fort Hood earlier this month. He’d seen the effects of the war firsthand counseling veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. Rather than go to Iraq, he planned to die along with those he murdered Fort Hood suspect said his goodbyes before rampage. Though some suspect a Muslim extremist motive for the shootings, it’s telling that eighteen U.S. war veterans commit suicide every day. The toll is even higher for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Dahr Jamail’s first book, , looked at the devastation of the war in Iraq on Iraqi civilians. Now this unembedded journalist has come out with . The book is about how the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are affecting veterans who have come back home. They suffer from PTSD from battle, but also from sexual violence (against women soldiers), the failures of the veteran’s system, and continual redeployments. As a result, he says more soldiers are dying by suicide than are killed in combat.

[sniplet amazon search]

Some soldiers are fighting back – not through violence, but through political resistance, by talking with fellow soldiers, and even by fleeing the country. They’re also trying to make sure that other troops don’t have to go through what they did. Dahr Jamail writes of their courageous opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His book gives us insight into how the horrors of war can affect the human soul.

Write Angles

For the last 22 years our region has played host to Write Angles, a terrific writers conference. Francesca caught up with a few of the panelists to give you a preview.

Lora Brody is the bestselling author of 18 cookbooks, among them and, . She’s even got a cookbook about broccoli, which takes certain amount of courage. I caught up with her by phone in France’s beautiful southwestern region, the Dordogne, where she was leading her annual cooking tour.

Links

• Lora Brody’s Rugelach
• Lora Brody’s Christmas Stollen

Mystery writer Lisa Kleinholz is author of the Zoe Szabo mysteries, about a punk-rock journalist sleuth in rural New England. She started out by wanting to write regular fiction, but found it difficult to sell her first book. So she tried her hand at mystery writing and her career took off.

Links

• Read an excerpt from Lisa Kleinholz’ Exiles on Main Street.
• Read an excerpt from Lisa Kleinholz’ Dancing With Mr. D.

Our last Write Angles conference panelist is UMass journalism professor, BJ Roche. She was a correspondent and columnist for the Boston Globe before becoming a journalism professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and an online publisher. We invited her on to talk about online publishing. Her own blog, fiftyshift.com, is for, by and about women over 40.

Find out about the fiftyshift.com booklet Friends Indeed.

Lora Brody, Lisa Kleinholz and B.J. Roche will be speaking on their respective genre panels at the WA conference at the Willits Hallowell Center on the campus of MHC, November 21.

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Allan Kronzek

John Connolly

Irish mystery writer John Connolly tells us about his new spine-tingling and funny bone-tickling thriller for smart teens, THE GATES. And we air an archived interview with magician Alan Kronzek about THE SORCERER’S COMPANION, A Guide to the Magical World of Harry Potter.

The Gates of Hell Are About To Open, Want To Peek?

It’s that time of year again to turn away from the really scary things, like war, climate change and economic meltdowns to the lighter side of horror. Our first guest today is John Connolly. Best known for his Charlie Parker series, Connolly has also written a number of books that dip into the spookier side of fantasy fiction. One is , about a young boy who finds the characters in his books have come to life.

Connolly’s newest addition to that genre is . He jokingly calls it “a book about satanism for kids” — older kids, ages 12 and up. Grownups can enjoy it too, as I did. It reminded me of my own childhood fantasy favorites, like Edward Eager’s Half Magic, Edward Ormondroyd’s David and the Phoenix, and the Chronicles of Narnia of CS Lewis.

[sniplet amazon search]

Although THE GATES is in that vein of magical adventure, it’s more of a tongue-in-cheek romp through horror. It also has a smattering of fascinating facts about science and religion throughout.

An intrepid young boy, his spunky dachshund, and a soft-hearted demon named Nurd save the world from an invasion from Hell. It all happens when young Samuel Johnson notices some strange goings-on at a house in the neighborhood, 666 Crowley Road. It’s all the fault of the *Large Hadron Collider in Cern, Switzerland, which has opened a crack in space-time to let through a very nasty advance party sent by the Great Malevolence himself.

A Guide to the Magical World of Harry Potter

Performance magician Alan Kronzek really likes the Harry Potter series. He also knows a lot of magic lore, including the Philosophers Stone, shamanism, wizards, alchemists, basilisks and manticores. He talks with us about these and the connection between magic and religion and magic and science. He’s the author of the bestselling book, .

And check out our Halloween Book Picks For Kids (and Grownups!).

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Susan Stinson

Nicholson Baker

Nicholson Baker talks about his new novel, THE ANTHOLOGIST. His hero Paul Chowder is looking back over his whole life and wondering what it’s amounted to. He’s also facing the dreaded disease: writer’s block. And Susan Stinson is just finishing her new novel, SPIDER IN THE TREE. She tells us about her protagonist, the 18th century preacher Jonathan Edwards who preached fire and brimstone – and love.

Nicholson Baker

The protagonist of Nicholson Baker’s new novel bears an uncanny resemblance to the author himself – like the character, Paul Chowder, Baker has struggled with writing an introduction to a poetry anthology. They both write in the same barn loft, with the same view. They both write poems – good and serviceable, if not great. They’ve both even injured their fingers carrying heavy computers downstairs. And they’ve both struggled with disappointing loved ones and overcoming those disappointments.

By turns funny, poignant and expository, Baker’s new novel follows Chowder as he struggles to do the introduction and get it out to his increasingly anxious publisher. He also wants to get his girlfriend to come back – she’s left him in exasperation over his failure to put his nose to the grindstone and start, much less finish, the task. Along the way, Baker (through Chowder) leads the reader into a fascinating exploration of poetry in rhyme. He invites us to consider the uses of rhyme, how free verse usurped rhyme in modern poetry, and even some tips on how to write verse.

[sniplet amazon search]

As is typical in Baker’s fiction, not much happens, but much is observed, all in language that is filled with delightful turns of the phrase. Baker’s approach to fiction is influenced by John Updike, a friend and literary mentor. Among Baker’s other novels are and .

Baker writes non-fiction as well as novels. Last year, we spoke with him about HUMAN SMOKE: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization. It was a kind of anthology itself, composed as it was of clippings from historical documents, newspapers and other contemporary observations from those experiencing World War II. And Baker received a National Book Critics Circle Award in 2001 for another nonfiction book, .

Susan Stinson

“Many people consider [Jonathan Edwards] the most brilliant theologian the country has ever produced. His most famous sermon was ‘Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God’, but he also wrote quite lyrically and beautifully about beauty as religion and love.”

We last spoke with Susan Stinson when we interviewed Leonard Nimoy about his photography book THE FULL BODY PROJECT in 2006. Stinson was on a panel about cultural images of fat women, with Nimoy, Stinson and and author Leslea Newman. All three were guests on that episode of Writers Voice.

How the culture views fat women is a topic Susan Stinson has written about in her novels, such as FAT GIRL DANCES WITH ROCKS. But now, she’s turning her authorial talents to a very different kind of subject. She’s just finishing a novel, titled SPIDER IN A TREE, about the 18th century theologian and minister Jonathan Edwards, who preached in Northampton, Massachusetts.

His church, now named First Churches, is still in use. Hadley, MA, right across the Connecticut River from Northampton, is celebrating its 350th anniversary, and it’s where Jonathan Edwards’ sister fled after her brother was drummed out of the church by his congregation as a result of the so-called “Communion Controversy”. The novel also takes up the issue of Edwards’ ownership of slaves and explores what life was like during the Great Awakening.

Links

• Read an excerpt from SPIDER IN A TREE.
• Read Jonathan Edwards’ sermon, Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God.

Books Mentioned This Show

• check it out on Amazon.com
• check it out on Amazon.com
• check it out on Amazon.com
• check it out on Amazon.com

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Jean Kilbourne

Writers Voice host Francesca Rheannon talks with Dr. Jean Kilbourne about . Also this week, Francesca speaks with Matthew Aaron Goodman about his debut novel .

So Sexy, So Soon

We live in a society that gets hysterical about teaching sex education to high school students. The same society allows kids as young as preschool age to be targeted by a marketing industry selling products soaked in sex and violence. It’s cognitive dissonance. Whether it’s sexy clothes and Bratz dolls for girls or Grand Theft Auto and other violent fare for boys, our kids are being taught to treat themselves and others as objects to be exploited and conquered. Parents stand by helplessly while their kids go down before the media marketing onslaught. It’s a kind of child abuse that pervades our culture, yet we so seldom see it for what it is and are blind to its effects.

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Media critic Jean Kilbourne has been questioning the impact of advertising on our society for a long time. Her film series, Killing Us Softly, examined advertising’s image of women. Other films looked at alcohol and tobacco advertising. Her book  explored how advertising impacts how we think and feel. Now, with her co-author,  Diane E. Levin, Dr. Kilbourne has come out with SO SEXY SO SOON: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids.

Tips for Talking To Your Kids About Sex

Jean Kilbourne’s Resources for Change

Hold Love Strong

The main character of Matthew Aaron Goodman’s debut novel HOLD LOVE STRONG is:

Born to a thirteen-year-old in the bathroom of his family’s small apartment; Abraham Singleton enters a world laden with the obstacles inherent in an impoverished community. In spite of the crack epidemic and the HIV crisis that ravages his neighborhood, his family, the Singletons—cousins, an uncle, and aunt, Abraham and his mother—are held together by Abraham’s heroic grandmother, whose deep faith and stoic nature have always given them a sense of wholeness and hope. But when the family goes through seveal harrowing losses, not even his grandmother may be strong enough to lead them through.

Matthew Aaron Goodman

Goodman was not to the ghetto born. He’s white, Jewish and a graduate of the elite university, Brandeis. But he felt driven to take on the story of this family to process what he learned while working with ex-prisoners in creating The Leadership Alliance. The project united ex-prisoners and volunteer partners. Goodman’s respect and love for the people he works with comes through strongly in this wonderful and compassionate book. His most recent project is the Scholar’s Institute, a literacy project for Exalt, a program serving youth involved with the criminal justice system.

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Arecelis Girmay

Peter Brown

Francesca Rheannon talks with children’s book author and illustrator Peter Brown about and Katy Lorah of Friends of The High Line. Also, poet Arecelis Girmay talks with guest host, Christian MacEwen. 

New York’s The High Line was an elevated railway line that carried freight to and from New York’s meatpacking district on the west side from 1930 to 1980. But then the trains stopped and for the last thirty years, the High Line has lain dormant. Until this June, that is. That’s when the new High Line Park was opened. It celebrated its coming out party July 12, with such luminaries as Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Congressman Jerrold Nadler in attendance.

Illustrator and children’s book author Peter Brown takes the High Line as the inspiration for his charming new book, THE CURIOUS GARDEN. It tells how a little boy named Liam discovers a struggling garden high above a city that has no other green spaces. Liam decides to take care of the garden and under his tending, it spreads throughout the city, transforming it into a lush, green world.

Peter Brown is also the author of two books about an unconventional dog named Chowder, and The Flight of the Dodo. He also illustrated two books for older children written by Cat Wetherill, Snowbone and Barkbelly.

If you decide to enjoy the charms of the High Line, you can thank Friends of the High Line. It was founded in 1999 by residents of the High Line neighborhood to advocate for the High Line’s preservation and its reuse as public open space. Friends of the High Line’s Katy Lorah tells us how the organization kept its vision of a park alive for ten years until it could finally bring it to life.

If you decide to enjoy the charms of the High Line, you can thank Friends of the High Line. It was founded in 1999 by residents of the High Line neighborhood to advocate for the High Line’s preservation and its reuse as public open space. Friends of the High Line’s Katy Lorah tells us how the organization kept its vision of a park alive for ten years until it could finally bring it to life.

Read about the history of the High Line

More images of the High Line

UPDATE: The New York Times reports on the high salary of the Friends of the High Line’s executive director. He did a great job, but does he deserve so much?

Christian MacEwen talks with Aracelis Girmay, who writes writes poetry, essays, and fiction, as part of the series, Sparks from The Anvil, which Writers Voice is co-producing. The series features poets who have come to the Smith College Poetry Center.

Read more poems by Arecelis Girmay

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Jacqueline Sheehan

Jacqueline Sheehan talks about her new novel, NOW AND THEN. And host Francesca Rheannon talks with Sheehan about her previous novel, LOST AND FOUND in an archived interview from 2007.

How many times have you wished you could go back in time and change something so the troubles you’re dealing with today never happened? Whether that can ever happen is an idea explored in Jacqueline Sheehan’s new novel, NOW AND THEN.

It takes up the theme of trouble passed down through the generations. The novel travels back from the present day to a time in Ireland’s history suffering under the boot heel of English rule. The year is 1844, just before the beginning of the great potato famine that was part of Ireland’s long history of trouble. It’s protagonists are entangled in their own troubles, but when they find themselves cast onto the Irish shore more than a hundred years ago, they are given the chance to free themselves from their present. They are helped by an extraordinary Irish wolfhound, named Madigan.

In the second half of the show, we air a 2007 interview with Jacqueline Sheehan about her bestselling novel, LOST AND FOUND. In it, a widowed psychologist finds the path to her own recovery from grief with the help of a black labrador retriever with a healing touch. Sheehan also explores the psychological disorder, anorexia, and the brain condition, synesthesia.

Sheehan’s first novel is TRUTH. It’s based on the life of Sojourner Truth. Read an excerpt.

Marianne Boruch

Pushcart Prize-winning poet Marianne Boruch reads the poem, “Happiness: Three Definitions” . The recording was made in 2009 when she came to Smith College to give a talk.

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Jeff Sharlet

Thrity Umrigar

We talk with writer Howard Friel and Dr. Harvey Lederman in this rebroadcast of a 2006 interview about avian flu. Also, Thrity Umrigar on her new novel, THE WEIGHT OF HEAVEN. And Jeff Sharlet talks about the crusade for a Christian military.

The H1N1 flu is sweeping the globe. Although fears about its virulence have eased somewhat, we almost certainly will face a serious pandemic flu sometime: if not now, then in the future. In the current pandemic there has so far been only one fatality outside Mexico—where originally more than 100 deaths were attributed to the virus, but the toll is now down considerably. The last time flu was much in the news was in 2006, with the avian, or H5N1 virus. More people died, but it didn’t become a pandemic. That’s because the H5N1 avian flu is hard to transmit between people–at least so far. But the New York Times reports that might be changing–and cases of avian flu continue tare surging–and the fatality rate is high.

In 2006 I interviewed Howard Friel and primary care doctor Dr. Harvey Lederman about H5N1.  Friel has written several closely researched books on international affairs, including THE RECORD OF THE PAPER. In 2006, he wanted to find a way to protect his family in the case of a pandemic flu. So he turned his prodigious research talents to developing a formula for an herbal supplement designed to boost resistance to the virus. Then he teamed up with Dr. Lederman to write a medical paper about it, which was published in the peer-reviewed journal, Medical Hypotheses.

In her work, novelist Thrity Umrigar examines the chasms that can divide humans, like culture, class, and gender. Umrigar grew up in India and came to the U.S. when she was 21, so she knows intimately the experience of straddling cultures and divides.  Her latest novel is THE WEIGHT OF HEAVEN. It’s the story of a liberal American couple, Frank and Ellie Benton, who are struggling to deal with the death of their seven year old son. The tragedy came on them suddenly: they boy was well one day, and dead from a galloping infection the next. They move from their home in the U.S. to Girbaug, a town in India, as a way to try and put the past behind them. But it doesn’t work because the couple bring not only their personal grief along as baggage, but also their cultural assumptions, as well.

Thrity Umrigar is also the author of the novels BOMBAT TIME, THE SPACE BETWEEN US, and IF TODAY BE SWEET and the memoir, FIRST DARLING OF THE MORNING.

Jeff Sharlet’s journalistic beat is the inroads the Christian Right is making into the established instititions that govern our society. We’ve talked to him several times on Writers Voice–first about his book, THE FAMILY, which is about the elite Christian fundamentalists who have penetrated deeply into the highest levels of government. His latest article is about how Christian extremists are embedding firmly into the highest ranks of the military. It’s called “Jesus Killed Mohammed: the Crusade for a Christian military”. It’s just out in the May issue of Harper’s.

Listen to the extended interview with Sharlet.

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Dr. Andrew Weil

Abraham Verghese

Physician and author Abraham Verghese tells us about CUTTING FOR STONE, his first novel after publishing two acclaimed memoirs. And Dr. Andrew Weil talks about how to age healthy and well.

Abraham Verghese

Abraham Verghese’s, first book, his memoir , is used as a text in medical schools  because of its focus on empathy in the practice of medicine. His second book, , recounts his friendship with a medical resident whom he taught and with whom he played tennis–and the lessons Verghese learned about the limits of medicine as his friend succumbed to the disease of drug addiction.

Now Verghese has come out with his first novel, a love story as much about medicine as it is about twin brothers whose bond is tested by their passion for the same woman. follows the twins from their birth into adulthood. Born of the unlikely union of a nun and a surgeon in Ethiopia during the reign of Haile Selassie, the boys lose both their parents at the moment of their birth. Their mother dies; their father deserts them. But they are raised by two loving adoptive parents–both doctors at a mission hospital in Addis Ababa. And the twins become doctors themselves. Verghese’s novel draws the reader into a saga that reveals the universal connections between human beings, in love, in conflict and in healing.

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Dr. Andrew Weil

Andrew Weil tells us how the key to healthy aging lies not only in a good diet and exercise, but also in accepting the spiritual gifts of growing old. He gives us tips on how to make our later years some of the best of our lives. His book is .

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Hallie Ephron

Benjamin Binstock

Today’s theme is family secrets. We talk first with art historian Benjamin Binstock  about VERMEER’S FAMILY SECRETS: Genius, Discovery and the Unknown Apprentice. Then, a poem by Constatijn Huygens. And mystery writer Hallie Ephron delves into another family’s secrets in her debut solo novel, NEVER TELL A LIE.

The Little Street (click to enlarge)

Art historian Benjamin Binstock says you can find out a lot about painter Jan Vermeer‘s family secrets by looking at his paintings. Domestic violence, financial struggles, the difficult dynamics of debt and obligation are hidden among and behind the gorgeous colors and meticulously detailed interiors we see in Vermeer’s paintings. Binstock has analyzed the paintings and come to a startling conclusion: eight of his paintings were not by him–but by a member of his family. Binstock teaches at Queens College in New York.

We hear a poem by 17th century Dutch poet and composer Constantijn Huygens, “Friendly DIsagreement”.

Family secrets also figure in Hallie Ephron’s new mystery, . It’s about a young pregnant couple whose domestic bliss is disturbed when a woman from their past shows up at their yard sale. Hallie Ephron is a mystery book critic for the Boston Globe. She also blogs at Jungle Red, an online salon by six women mystery writers.

The Procuress (click to enlarge)

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Richard Michelson

Beverly Swerling

We talk to novelist Beverly Swerling about the latest in her historical series about Old New York, City of God: A Novel of Passion and Wonder in Old New York. Also, children’s book author Richard Michelson, tells us about his latest, AS GOOD AS ANYBODY: Martin Luther King and Abraham Joshua Heschel’s Amazing March Toward Freedom.

Beverly Swerling

New York was pro-slavery, but it also was seething with abolitionist fervor, promoted by the growing evangelical movement. But while the evangelicals condemned slavery, they promoted religious bigotry against Catholics and Jews. Swerling throws the reader into this cauldron of social change while telling a gripping story of love and betrayal, following two families, the Turners and the Devreys.

Read an excerpt from CITY OF GOD. And watch a great trailer.

Richard Michelson

Monday Jan 19 is Matin Luther King, Jr. day—and the day after, January 20, will see the inauguration of Barack Obama, the first African American president of the US. I wish King could have seen this day. But I also know that King would have wanted us to keep Obama’s feet to the fire on his promise to get out of Iraq—and I doubt he would have approved the war in Afghanistan that Obama has pledged to expand. King was opposed to violence and injustice on religious principle, as well as humanitarian grounds.

He was joined in this by his friend Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel—an opponent of the Vietnam War, along with King.  As children, the two men both were victims of hate –one here, the other in Europe. As grown ups they came together at the March on Selma to defeat hate and promote love between all people.

Richard Michelson has written many children’s books—and several have been on the theme of friendship between Jews and African Americans. Earlier on WV, we talked to him about Across the Alley, his book about the friendship between two boys in Brooklyn, one Jewish, the other black. His latest on that theme is .

Read an article from Peaceworks Magazine about Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rabbi Heschel.

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Update: We also have our best guests of 2009 list online too.

THE BEST OF 2008

1. Joan Wickersham, THE SUICIDE INDEX
2. Ron Suskind, THE WAY OF THE WORLD
3. Louise Erdrich, THE PLAGUE OF DOVES
4. Jeff Sharlet, THE FAMILY
5. Elizabeth Strout, OLIVE KITTREDGE
6. Pamela Thompson, EVERY PAST THING
7. Kevin Patterson, CONSUMPTION
   
8. Ta Nehisi Coates, THE BEAUTIFUL STRUGGLE
9. John Kessel THE BAUM PLAN FOR FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE
10. Terry Tempest Williams, MOSAIC

Kevin Patterson

Kevin Patterson tells us about the traditional life of the Inuit. A medical doctor who   works in clinics serving Inuit communities, he drew upon his experience to write a novel of stunning beauty and depth: CONSUMPTION.

Elizabeth Strout

Elizabeth Strout‘s wonderful novel, OLIVE KITTREDGE, uses the short story forms to create a novel about the inhabitants of a coastal town in Maine. The title character shows up as a major or minor character in many of the stories. The reader gets to see her from a variety of points of view: from that of herself, her family members and her neighbors.

Ron Suskind

Ron Suskind‘s book THE WAY OF THE WORLD is replete with many shocking revelations about the Bush Administration’s policy on war and terrorism–product of the author’s brilliant and careful journalism. But it’s also a work of the heart as much as of the mind. By telling compelling stories about the poeple in his book, Ron Suskind engages us to find, with them what he calls “the human solution” to the grave crises we face in this world.

Terry Tempest Williams

In MOSAIC: FINDING BEAUTY IN A BROKEN WORLD, Terry Tempest Williams takes us to  three places she connects through the themes of art and community: first, a workshop in Ravenna, Italy, where she learned the art of mosaic. Tempest Williams put that learning to use in Rwanda, working alongside survivors in a small village to build a memorial to victims of the genocide. Then she goes to Utah to study the last wild prairie dog communities in America, communities that are part, she says, of a critical and critically endangered ecological mosaic. She reminds us of the centrality of art in knitting the shattered pieces of our world together.

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Brian Wansink

Peter Filkins

Award-winning translator Peter Filkins talks about THE JOURNEY, a lost masterpiece of Holocaust literature by acclaimed author and survivor H. G. Adler which Filkins translated. Food psychologist Brian Wansink gives us tips on how to keep the pounds off during the Holiday season; and Native American storyteller Marge Bruchac tells us what really happened during the first Thanksgiving.

We talk with translator Peter Filkins about . A survivor of Auschwitz and Theresienstadt, Adler moved to London after World War II and began writing fiction, poetry, philosophy, and history–most of it centered around his experience of the Holocaust. His book about day-to-day life in Theresienstadt was one of the first such survivor accounts to emerge from the war.

But his fiction remained largely unknown, especially outside the German speaking world. Now, Peter Filkins has brought one of his greatest novels, the journey, to English readers. It’s the first-ever English translation of what is being called a lost masterpiece of Holocaust literature.

In addition to translating THE JOURNEY, Peter Filkins has translated the writings of Ingeborg Bachmann, for which he won an award. He’s also a poet. His work has appeared in, among others, the New Republic, the American Poetry Review, the Massachusetts Review, and the New York Times.

Also, food psychologist Brian Wansink gives us tips on how to keep the pounds off during the Holiday season in this excerpt from a 2009 WV interview. His book is . You can find Wansink’s YouTube channel here.

And finally, Native American storyteller Marge Bruchac tells us what really happened during the first Thanksgiving. She also recounts an Indian tale of how humans were given the gift of corn. She’s the co-author of and author of .

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Peter Manseau

Host Francesca Rheannon talks to Peter Manseau about his novel and to Elizabeth Hartley Winthrop about her new novel, .

SONGS FOR THE BUTCHER’S DAUGHTER traces the arc of Yiddish life and culture that  reached from the 1903 pogroms in Russia to the teeming streets of the Lower East Side in New York. The son of a Catholic priest and nun who left their Church vocations to get married, Peter Manseau knew little about Jewish culture until he got a job working for the National Yiddish Book Center in Amherst MA. In addition to this novel and a memoir, VOWS, Manseau is co-author of KILLING THE BUDDHA. He blogs at killingthebuddha.com, an online magazine of unconventional religious writing.

Elizabeth Hartley Winthrop’s novel DECEMBER opens as 11 year old Isabelle has refused to utter a word in nine months. Her parents Wilson and Ruth Carter are at their wit’s end. Four psychiatrists have abandoned her, declaring her silence to be impenetrable. No known trauma has precipitated their daughter’s muteness. It’s November–and her exclusive Manhatten private school is threatening to expel her unless she starts talking again by December. Winthrop’s novel says something about how a child can often act out the larger distress in a family and cause all the family members to confront the necessity of healing.

Also, we hear two poems from Mary Oliver and Seamus Heaney.

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