Host Francesca Rheannon talks with acclaimed novelist Paul Auster about his new work of fiction, MAN IN THE DARK.
Also, Jennifer Haigh tells us about her new novel, THE CONDITION.
And we’ll also air an excerpt from an interview we did last year with Michael Klare about his book, RISING POWERS, SHRINKING PLANET, THE NEW GEOPOLITICS OF ENERGY. He predicted at that time that the next resource war could be between Georgia as a US client state and Russia.
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About Francesca Rheannon
John Kessel, BAUM PLAN FOR FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE
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Host Francesca Rheannon speaks first with speculative fiction writer John Kessel, who makes thought experiments about real issues by placing them in imaginary contexts.
His latest collection, [amazon-product text=”THE BAUM PLAN FOR FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE AND OTHER STORIES” type=”text”]193152050X[/amazon-product], brings fantasy, science fiction, and magical realism to bear on the relations between the sexes, the conundrums of time travel, the windfalls of fortune, terrorism, and democracy.
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Kessel is the author of numerous stories, novels, and a play. He’s a frequent contributor to the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and he won the Nebula Award for his novella, Another Orphan. “Stories for Men”, which appears in his latest collection, won the 2002 James Tiptree Jr. Award. Kessel teaches writing at North Carolina State University.
You can download a copy of the book from Small Beer Press here.
Also, we talk with Elizabeth Strout about her latest novel, OLIVE KITTREDGE (archived interview).
Listen to Strout read from the book here.
Climate Change, Past, Present and Future
The current climate crisis isn’t the first time human beings have faced global climate change. Extreme weather, ice sheets melting into the Arctic ocean, and mega-droughts lasting a century or more: it all happened before, between the tenth and the fifteenth centuries. The global warming of the Middle Ages changed civilization, bringing both great disorder and great opportunity.
The audio for this episode is available upon request for a donation of $4.99 to Writers Voice. Contact writersvoice [at] wmua.org.
Jill Bolte Taylor’s Stroke of Insight
Neuroscientist Jill Bolte Taylor talks about her memoir, MY STROKE OF INSIGHT: A BRAIN SCIENTIST’S PERSONAL JOURNEY.
The audio for this episode is available upon request for a donation of $4.99 to Writers Voice. Contact writersvoice [at] wmua.org.
Wind Energy Island, Milk-N-Honey, and Families of the Vine
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We talk with Elizabeth Kolbert of the New Yorker about her recent article, “The Island in the Wind”. And Ellen Beckerman tells us about her new play, MILK AND HONEY. And finally, a clip from an archived interview with Michael Sanders about FAMILIES OF THE VINE: Seasons Among the Winemakers of Southwest France.
Melody Petersen
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Host Francesca Rheannon talks with reporter and author Melody Petersen about OUR DAILY MEDS. It’s about how the pharmaceutical industry has put marketing above medicine and corrupted our health care system in the process. Also, Maxine Kumin. talks about her poem “Nurture”. Continue reading
New Fiction from Margot Livesy and Ellen Cooney
We talk with novelists Margot Livesey ( THE HOUSE ON FORTUNE STREET) and Ellen Cooney (Lambrusco).
Livesey’s stunning new novel is about love, loss and the ambiguities of existence. Told from the point of view of four narrators, it explores how they try to make sense of their world when their lives are upended by the unexpected—and how their human frailties lead them to make choices that they long regret. Continue reading
Margot Livesey, HOUSE ON FORTUNE STREET
We talk with Margot Livesey about THE HOUSE ON FORTUNE STREET, her stunning new novel about love, loss and the ambiguities of existence. Told from the point of view of four narrators, it explores how they try to make sense of their world when their lives are upended by the unexpected–and how their human frailties lead them to make choices that they long regret. Along the way, the reader is challenged to examine his or her own sense of right and wrong — and the power of forgiveness.
Ta-Nehisi Coates, THE BEAUTIFUL STRUGGLE
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Host Francesca Rheannon talks with Ta-Nehisi Coates about his memoir, [amazon-product text=”The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood” type=”text”]0385527462[/amazon-product].
[Note: the original show episode has been replaced by the unedited, full interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates.] Continue reading
Poet Frannie Lindsey, LAMB
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Frannie Lindsey won the 2006 Perugia Press Award for her second poetry volume, LAMB. It was also the runner-up for the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets. Lindsey’s poems take up the themes of trauma and healing. Ellen Bass, author of The Courage to Heal, writes: Continue reading
Anthony Lewis on the First Amendment
Host Francesca Rheannon talks with two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anthony Lewis about his pithy and thought-provoking “biography” of the First Amendment, FREEDOM FOR THE THOUGHT WE HATE.
Louise Erdrich’s THE PLAGUE OF DOVES and more…
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Louise Erdrich says she worked on her latest work of fiction, [amazon-product text=”A PLAGUE OF DOVES” type=”text”]0060515139[/amazon-product] for nineteen years before publication. It was worth the wait. This week Francesca talks with Louise Erdrich and journalist Jeremy Scahill about his book, [amazon-product text=”BLACKWATER: The Rise of the Worlds Most Powerful Mercenary Army” type=”text”]156858394X[/amazon-product]. Continue reading
THE HAKAWATI and SO WRONG FOR SO LONG
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We talk with Lebanese writer Rabih Alameddine about his new novel, [amazon-product text=”THE HAKAWATI” type=”text”]0307386279[/amazon-product]. Framed around the story of a family in modern-day Lebanon, the novel weaves fiction, fable and epic into a wonderful tapestry.
And journalist and editor Greg Mitchell tells us about how the press and the punditocracy failed the public on Iraq. His book is [amazon-product text=”SO WRONG FOR SO LONG: How the Press, the Pundits and the President Failed on Iraq” type=”text”]1402756577[/amazon-product].
The audio for this episode is available upon request for a donation of $4.99 to Writers Voice. Contact writersvoice [at] wmua.org.
OLIVE KITTREDGE and THE END OF THE JEWS
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Francesca interviews novelist Elizabeth Strout about her Pulitzer Prize winning book, OLIVE KITTERIDGE, which uses a collection of short stories to create a novel about the inhabitants of a coastal town in Maine. And Adam Mansbach talks about his new novel, THE END OF JEWS.
Continue reading
Web Extra: Elizabeth Strout reads from OLIVE KITTREDGE
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Elizabeth Strout reads from her latest novel, [amazon-product text=”OLIVE KITTERIDGE” type=”text”]0812971833[/amazon-product].
We talked with novelist Elizabeth Strout about her new book, OLIVE KITTERIDGE. She uses a collection of short stories to create a novel about the inhabitants of a coastal town in Maine.