Kansas artist M. T. Liggett protests FEMA's rebuilding of
Greensburg, KS, from the movie What's the Matter with
Kansas? by by Laura Cohen and Joe Winston
10-09-09: Thomas Frank Unleashes The Predator State : Consuming the Consumer
Everybody reads differently, which is what makes reading such a wonderful way to entertain one's self — while expanding your outlook on the world. For example, check out Thomas Frank's Wall Street Journal piece on how Conservatives read liberal writer Kenneth Galbraith, Health Care and the 'Predator State'.
When you're done, grab a brew, pull up a chair and give a listen to my chat with Thomas Frank, where we cover the week's politics with our own reading of events — and talk about the movie based on his book, 'What's the Matter With Kansas?' Yes, events can be read as well, in fact, the core concept of reading, the skills of the reader, are called into play a lot more often than anyone might suspect. We read one another — we read the road in front of us or suffer the consequences. And we have to read the news, even if we watch it on television. Paper has not refused ink — and our ears do not refuse the words that are spoken in our general vicinity. We have to sift through them and give them meaning. Here's a link to my conversation with Thomas Frank.
10-08-09: Laurie R. King at the Book Passage Mystery Conference : Twelve Rules for Frivolous Fiction
Life got you down? This whole "fresh hell" deal giving you pause to think before you drag yourself out of bed to face a new day of torment and toil? Is hurtling into the future making you want to hurl in the present? Laurie R. King has some advice for you about taking your life, especially your life in writing, a bit too seriously.
You dont go to a mystery writing conference expecting to get a good dose of stand-up comedy about the process of writing itself, especially when the comedy doubles-down as solid advice for how to write your way out of a gods-damned paper bag. But Laurie R. King managed to do just that with her "lecture" — which is really a bad description of her hilarious speech — at the Book Passage Mystery Conference. When so many writers take themselves and their work so seriously, it's nice to see someone who excels by doing neither, and offers advice to other writers on how to achieve the same state of grace. That introduction, by the way is done by no less than Jacqueline Winspear. But what you want is the heart of the matter, so get to the heart via the gizzard of this linked MP3 audio file.
Hawk Towers, hand built by Jeffers.
10-07-09: Debbie Sharp on Robinson Jeffers and the Robinson Jeffers Fall Festival : The Edge of the Literary World
Poet Robinson Jeffers built a stone house on the edge of the world. It's called the Tor House, and it sits, literally, on the edge of the world, over the ocean in Carmel, California. Not surprisingly, Jeffers wrote more than a little about the natural beauty that, to a much lesser extent some 90 years later, still exists.
Every place has it's poet; and in Carmel, perhaps more than one. But when it comes to Tor House, perched on the cliff at Carmel Point, there's only one, and that's Robinson Jeffers, who built an incredible structure in an incredible place and the went on to write some incredible about that incredible place. Each Fall, the Tor House Foundation celebrates Jeffers, with tours, lectures and even a poetry walk. I spoke with Debbie Sharp, a docent for the Tor House foundation and a member of the board, about Jeffers, his admirers and the times in which he wrote. We're talking 1,000 pages of letters — and that would be the first volume in planned trilogy. You can hear our conversation about how poetry can save the world by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
10-06-09: Susan Henderson at Squaw Valley
"The stories were after me ...." — Susan Henderson
Yes, I'm still going through the audio I got at Squaw Valley, and there is still, as you shall hear some incredible stuff in there. Let's start today with Susan Henderson, who blogs at Litpark.com, is working on a fascinating project for NPR, and has a novel titled 'The Ruby Cup' coming out from HarperCollins next year. It all sounds so easy, doesn't it? Think again.
I interviewed Susan Henderson outdoors on the patio, while the creek ran and the sprinklers hissed behind us. She's a fascinating combination of light and dark. She laughs through much of the interview while telling stories of literary rejection that will curl your toes. Not surprisingly, her work, as she describes it, is rather on the dark and sort of surreal side. We talked about how she got into writing, starting with poetry then moving into short stories and novels.
I think that readers (and other writers) will find her story of getting agents and selling books very instructive as well as entertainingly told. I will warn readers that they are getting a look at the sausage factory of the publishing world, and your heart will break as you hear how much stuff that we, as readers, suspect would be just dandy reading, gets shot down arbitrarily or sidelined into oblivion. To hear these tales told in the cheerful voice of Susan Henderson, just follow this link to the MP3 audio file.
10-05-09: A 2009 Interview with Peter Richardson : Ramparts Magazine
"They knew to be successful, they had to make waves." — Peter Richardson
Peter Richardson was not quite old enough to be "in the mix" when Ramparts magazine had its run. When he was researching his book 'American Prophet: The Life and Work of Carey McWilliams,' the people he was talking to kept mentioning Ramparts. At first he was just curious about the magazine — at first.
Richardson's curiosity took him to the library, and eventually led him to write 'A Bomb in Every Issue: How the Short, Unruly Life of Ramparts Magazine Changed America.' He's out speaking about the book now, and you can keep track of where he is by checking out his blog and see some great photos of the Ramparts crew as well.
03-18-10: Commentary : Stephen Kessler Follows 'The Mental Traveler' : Bad Trips and Good Reading
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Alta Ifland and Stephen Kessler : "I had to do it; it was a way of both coming to terms with the experience, of documenting the experience, of commemorating it..."
03-17-10: Commentary : Ted Chiang Charts 'The Lifecycle of Software Objects' : Joshua Blue, Digital Chimps and Lives in Flux
03-15-10: Commentary : Elif Shafak Reveals 'The Forty Rules of Love' : Intimacy and Centuries
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Elif Shafak : "I know that culture that exists in my country, that is carried on by women, generations of women."
03-12-10: Commentary : Karl Marlantes Scales the 'Matterhorn' : World-Building in the Past
03-09-10: Commentary : Paul McHugh Meets 'Deadlines' : Murdering the California Coast
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Paul McHugh : "..the strengths of good writing go all the way, across all the genres..."
03-08-10: Commentary : Joe Hill Grows 'Horns' : Devil and Detail
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Joe Hill : "Eventually, the wicked and the unworthy will get their just desserts on the business end of the Devil's pitchfork."
03-05-10: Commentary : Henry Porter Calls 'The Bell Ringers' : It Takes The Village
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Four Books With Alan Cheuse : Thrillers! : Henry Porter, The Bell Ringers; Keith Thomson, Once a Spy; Jo Nesbo, The Devil's Star; Hennig Mankel, The Man From Beijing
03-04-10: Commentary : Jo NesbØ Earns 'The Devil's Star' : Rewind
03-01-10: Commentary : Adam Haslett Invests With 'Union Atlantic' : Abstract Power Abstracts Absolutely
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview With Adam Haslett : "With her, and with each character, how does the rhythm create a kind of musical argument?"
02-26-10: Commentary : Dan Simmons Heads for the 'Black Hills' : Unstuck in Life
02-23-10: Commentary : Adam Haslett Knows 'You Are No Stranger Here' : Stories from Strangers' Shoes
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Jedediah Berry Interviewed at SF in SF, February 13, 2010 : "...being at Small Beer has actually introduced whole worlds to me ..."
02-22-10: Commentary : Graeme Gibson's 'The Bedside Book of Birds' and 'The Bedside Book of Beasts' : A Feast for Your Mind, Your Eyes and Your Mind's Eye
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2009 Interview with Graeme Gibson : "Our common humanity, our common culture, will help make the connections."
02-19-10: Commentary : Ralph Waldo Ellison 'Three Days Before the Shooting ...' : One Book, Many Stories
Agony Column Podcast News Report : John Callahan and Adam Bradley and 'Three Days before the Shooting' : "I've moved through the phases of my own life, and I find those phases mirrored in the characters of this novel." — John Callahan "...capable of brilliance, eloquence and power; that's how I understand the second novel, as we see it in Three Days Before the Shooting, and that's certainly how I understand, and I think how Ellison understood, America." — Adam Bradley
02-18-10: Commentary : George Mann Scares Up 'The Ghosts of Manhattan' : Hard Core Pulp Action
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Speaking Frankly With Thomas Frank : From Tea to Shining Tea : "When I think about what I'm saying, it's so depressing..."
02-17-10: Commentary : Thomas More, Clarence Miller and 'Utopia' : Politics, Satire, Fantasy
02-15-10: Commentary : 'Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded' by John Scalzi : A Decade of Whatever
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni : "I have to work through the novel and then it comes to me, how it's going to end."
02-12-10: Commentary : Stephanie Merritt Becomes S. J. Parris : 'Heresy'
02-11-10: Commentary : Max Watman 'Chasing the White Dog' : Home-Made Hooch and Rebellion
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview With Sam Farr : : "The money came from Washington, but the uses for that money came from the local community."
02-10-10: Commentary : Anne Lamott Spots 'Imperfect Birds' : The Ties That Unbind
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Speaking Frankly: Thomas Frank on Re-Populism and Re-Launching The Baffler : "I have never seen 'populist backlash in a headline before."
02-09-10: Commentary : Douglas Clegg Returns to 'Neverland' : Is 1980's Horror Returning from the Grave?
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2009 Interview with David Drake, Part 2 / Complete : "I didn't have governor ... that is ... anything, endgame, was me killing somebody.""
02-08-10: Commentary : David Louis Edelman Completes Jump 225 : 'Geosynchron'
