|
New Letters on the Air
program schedule |
Please note the date listed is the satellite uplink date;
the day and time of broadcast is determined by individual stations. |
|
For a list of recent broadcasts, please
click here. |
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|
| July 23, 2010 |
Anne
Waldman |
| |
Co-founder with Allen Ginsberg of the Jack Kerouac
School of Disembodied Poetics, Anne Waldman discusses her connection with
the Beat Generation, the Naropa Institute (now University), and the
development of her creative work over the past 35 years. She reads from her
2009 collection Manatee/Humanity and also talks about her current
collaboration with her musician son, Ambrose Bye, with an excerpt from their
2009 compact disc, Matching Half.
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|
| July 30, 2010 |
Jack Fuller |
| Creative
Journalists series |
Former Chicago Tribune president, winner of the
Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing, and author of the 2010 book, What is
Happening to News: The Information Explosion and the Crisis in Journalism,
Jack Fuller discusses the differences in a journalist's approach to writing
from that of a novelist. The author of seven novels, he also talks about his
most personal story to date--his 2008 book, Abbeville, based loosely on his
grandfather's rise, fall, and rebirth in a small farm town in central
Illinois.
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|
| August 6, 2010 |
Jeannette
Walls |
| Creative
Journalists series |
A journalist who worked for such publications as
Esquire, New York Magazine, and MSNBC.com, Jeannette Walls
turned to memoir with her bestseller, The Glass Castle. She
discusses this book and her 2009 follow-up, Half Broke Horses.
Billed as a "true life novel," the second book relays stories about
Jeannette Walls' tough-as-nails grandmother, Lily, whose exploits in the
early 20th century demonstrate the tenacity of women in the American west.
Walls also discusses the fine line between memoir and fiction, and why she
labels this family memoir as a novel.
|
|
|
| August 13, 2010 |
Kurt
Andersen |
| Creative
Journalists series |
Co-founder of the infamous and now-defunct Spy
magazine, Kurt Andersen is a long-time journalist, who's also written
fiction and essays and is now famous as the host of the public radio
program, Studio 360. He discusses the sometimes alternating demands
of interviewing creative people and being creative in his own right and
reads from his novel Heyday and talks about his earlier novel, Turn of the Century.
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|
| August 20, 2010 |
Anna
Quindlen |
| Creative
Journalists series |
The recipient of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for
Commentary, Anna Quindlen had a long career in journalism and writing
syndicated columns, especially the 1980s series "Life in the 30s," which led
her to becoming an unintended voice of the baby boom generation. Quindlen
moved away from journalism to write fiction full-time in 1995, and developed
a successful career as a novelist. She discusses her journalistic roots and
the family dynamics at play in her 2010 novel, Every Last One.
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| August 26, 2010 |
Steve Lopez |
| Creative
Journalists series |
In this interview, taped before an audience at the
Kansas City Public Library, Angela Elam talks with Steve Lopez, about his
book, The Soloist, winner of the 2009 PEN Center USA Award for
creative non-fiction. The book chronicles Lopez' friendship with
schizophrenic virtuoso cellist Nathaniel Ayers, and was made into the movie
with the same title. Lopez is an award-winning columnist for the Los
Angeles Times and the author of three novels.
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|
recent new
letters on the air broadcasts |
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|
| July 16, 2010 |
Laura
Moriarty |
| |
Laura Moriarty's third novel, While I'm Falling, is out in paperback this week. It follows her previous
novels, The Rest of Her Life and The Center of
Everything. Though
the characters in all three books are very different, all explore complex
issues of mothers and daughters, the importance of family, and the
consequences of inattentiveness. Moriarty, who grew up in a military family
and has lived in numerous places around the world, talks about her love of
the open terrain and people of Kansas, the place she's adopted as home for
her and her characters.
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|
|
| July 9, 2010 |
Gary Snyder |
| |
The winner of the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, Gary
Snyder discusses the changing worlds of poetics and the environment.
Although his Zen-inspired poetry conveys themes existing in the natural
world, Snyder talks about why he would not describe himself as a "nature
writer." He also recalls his early career as a young poet in San Francisco
in the mid-1950s, and a particularly momentous reading at the Six Gallery
with Allen Ginsberg. He reads from his most recent new collection of poetry,
Danger on Peaks, published in 2005.
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|
|
| July 2, 2010 |
Take Me
Out to the Ballgame |
| |
What's more American than baseball around the 4th of
July? We pay tribute to the game and those who love it with this anthology
show featuring poetry and stories about baseball, including works by former
U.S. poet laureates, Donald Hall and Maxine Kumin, as well as fellow poets
Martin Espada, Jonathan Holden, and fiction writer Billy Lombardo, along
with an interview featuring the late Negro Leagues great, Buck O'Neil after
the release of his autobiography, I Was Right on Time.
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|
|
| June 25, 2010 |
Kathleen
Norris |
| |
"Acedia" was a once-common
notion--one of the "eight bad thoughts"--but it was folded into sloth as one
of the seven deadly sins and vanished from common use. Poet Kathleen
Norris, author of Dakota: A Spiritual Memoir and The Cloister
Walk, spent time researching acedia, the state of not caring about
anything. She describes her own struggle with this negative emotion
that differs from depression and explores the word in her newest non-fiction
book, Acedia and Me.
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|
| June 18, 2010 |
Michael
Chabon |
| |
Since winning the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for The Amazing Adventures of
Kavalier and Clay, an epic novel that brings together the creation of
Superman, Jewish myths, and forbidden love, Michael Chabon has written
novels that bring science fictional elements to literary fiction. He talks
about his newer book of essays on his creative process called
Maps and Legends, and his 2009
memoir, Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband,
Father, and Son.
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|
| June 11, 2010 |
C. Dale
Young |
| |
C. Dale
Young is a poet who admits that
90% of his time is taken up by
his day-job, working as an
oncologist in San Francisco.
In this interview with New
Letters magazine editor
Robert Stewart, Young discusses
the tradition of the
physician-poet, and "how the act
of writing a poem is a political
act." Also the poetry editor at
the New England Review,
Young discusses what moves him
as a poet. He reads from his
collection, Second Person,
and his forthcoming book,
Torn.
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|
|
| June 4, 2010 |
Martha
Serpas |
| |
Growing up in bayou country, the poet Martha Serpas became attached to the
landscape and to the culture of southern Louisiana. Not surprisingly,
poems about the environment and the endangered Gulf shores permeate her
work, including her 2006 collection,
The Dirty Side of the Storm, and her earlier book,
Côte Blanche. Raised Roman Catholic, Serpas also discusses the role
religion plays in her work and in her life as a lesbian and a hospital
chaplain. Her poetry is included in the environmental documentary
film, Veins
in the Gulf, debuting in fall 2010. Serpas recommends the
LA Gulf Response Coalition
to anyone interested in helping with the oil spill in Louisiana.
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|
|
| May 28, 2010 |
Tobias
Wolff |
| |
Old School, the 2003 novel by Tobias Wolff that was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner
Award, is a selection for the National Endowment for the Arts program "The
Big Read." In 2009, Wolff visited Kansas City to conclude the city-wide read of his novel, and
discussed it with Angela Elam in front of an audience at the Kansas City
Public Library. Wolff is also known for writing memoir, including This Boy's Life, and revealed why he chose to make this particular book
a work of fiction. His newest book is Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories.
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|
| May 21, 2010 |
Maria Finn |
| |
Fresh from a painful divorce, travel writer Maria Finn sought solace in
something that made her happy: tango lessons. In her 2010
memoir, Hold Me Tight and Tango Me Home, Finn recounts how tango slowly took
over her life, until a trip to the birthplace of the dance, Buenos Aires,
gave her the confidence to open her heart again. Finn discusses how she mingles memoir with history to create her
non-fiction.
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|
| May 14, 2010 |
Clancy
Martin |
| |
Chosen by
Publisher's Weekly as one of the Best Books of 2009,
How to Sell is a funny exposé novel about the jeweler's trade, in which
author Clancy Martin worked for many years before becoming an associate
professor of philosophy at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Martin
talks about writing this coming-of-age story about a 16-year-old Canadian
high school drop-out with New Letters on the Air's Max Mosley; they
discuss how he weaves philosophy and autobiography into this novel now out
in paperback.
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|
| May 7, 2010 |
Hilda Raz |
| |
A literary editor since she graduated from college, Hilda Raz became a
public poet after she was sent by Prairie Schooner to the Breadloaf writing conference to represent the
magazine, and there, found her own poetic voice as well. Raz talks about balancing the roles of editing, teaching and writing,
and her books that record her experiences with motherhood, surviving breast
cancer and coming to terms with her child's transsexuality. She reads from
her books All Odd and Splendid, What Happens, and
Trans.
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|
| April 30, 2010 |
Demetria
Martinez |
| |
Known for her journalistic
investigations in the 1980s into stories about El Salvadoran refugees,
Demetria Martinez is a fearless writer. Winner of the 2006 International Latino Book Award for her collection of essays and
poems called Confessions of a Berlitz-Tape Chicana, Demetria Martinez shares some of her stories about
her life. She reads from this book and her books of poetry, Breathing Between the Lines and The
Devil's Workshop.
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| |
|
| April 23, 2010 |
Beth Ann
Fennelly |
|
Beth Ann Fennelly has written four books in the last decade, working in
creative partnership with her husband, novelist Tom Franklin. Born in New
Jersey and raised in Illinois, she talks about her relocation to Mississippi
and how the south now reverberates in her work. She also discusses her life
as a poet, teacher, and now, mother. She reads from her poetry books,
Tender Hooks,
Open House, and
Unmentionables, and talks about her book of non-fiction,
Great With Child: Letters to a Young Mother.
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|
| April 16, 2010 |
Past
American Voices: Robert Dana |
| |
New Letters on
the Air remembers Robert Dana, former poet laureate of Iowa, who passed
away in February, 2010. Recorded on his 80th birthday in
2009, he reminisces about attending the Iowa Writers Workshop after World War II, and being in class with poets
Donald Justice and Henri Coulette. He reads poems in memoriam to those writers from his 2008 collection
The Other, and talks about the influences of growing up in immigrant
and working-class areas of Boston and small New England towns.
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|
|
| April 9, 2010 |
Robert
Pinsky |
| |
Former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky discusses his new
book of prose, Thousands of Broadways: Dreams and
Nightmares of the American Small Town. Raised in Long Branch,
New Jersey, where his family has a long history, Pinsky examines American
small town life, and how it plays in literature, such as in Faulkner's
The Hamlet. He also reads some poetry, talks about
his book, The Sounds of Poetry, and gives an
update on his Favorite Poem Project that was developed during his poet
laureateship:
www.favoritepoem.org.
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|
| April 2, 2010 |
The
Cruelest Month |
| |
"April is the cruelest month,
breeding Lilacs
out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring Dull
roots with spring rain." The
famous words of poet
T.S. Elliot prompted us to
mix this anthology of American
poets, who examine the mysteries
of love in various forms. Listen
to former Poets Laureate
Billy Collins,
Charles Simic,
Rita Dove, Donald Hall and
the current position holder,
Kay Ryan, whose poetry
initiative this year is with
community colleges. We
also hear from poets Randall
Mann, Debra Marquart, Elizabeth
Alexander, Alberto Rios, and
Claudia Emerson who offer their
poetic insights into the
ambiguous and enticing world of
love, on The Cruelest Month. Find out how to celebrate
Poem in Your Pocket Day on April
29th.
|
|
|
| March 26, 2010 |
Sandra
Cisneros |
| |
The founder
of the Macondo Foundation
to foster creativity among socially-engaged writers, Latina author
Sandra Cisneros talks about her
own growth as a writer of fiction, essays and poetry, and discusses her
groundbreaking classic novel,
The House on Mango Street, which was released in a special 25th
anniversary edition in 2009 with a new forward essay by Cisneros. She also
reads from this early work as well as from her more recent novel,
Caramello, and her poetry collection,
Loose Woman.
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|
|
|
|
| March 19, 2010 |
Jeannette
Walls |
| |
The author of the bestselling memoir,
The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls discusses this book and her 2009
follow-up,
Half Broke Horses. Billed as a "true life novel," the
second book relays stories about
Jeannette Walls' tough-as-nails grandmother, Lily, whose exploits in the
early 20th century demonstrate the tenacity of women in the American west.
Walls also discusses the fine line between memoir and fiction, and why she
opted to call this family memoir a novel.
|
|
|
| March 12, 2010 |
Sarah
Dunant |
| |
English writer Sarah Dunant, a former BBC radio reporter
and TV talk show host, is best known in this country as a writer of
historical fiction about women. Her bestselling novels include
The Birth of Venus, and
In the Company of the Courtesan, and the third in this triptych of
fiction about Renaissance Italy,
Sacred Hearts, gives insight into life at the convent. Dunant talks
about the meticulous research she does for her novels, and how her early
experience as a crime fiction writer taught her how to tell stories.
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|
|
| March 5, 2010 |
When
She Named Fire |
| |
An anthology of contemporary poetry by American women,
When She Named Fire, edited by poet Andrea Hollander Budy, features 460
poems by 96 contemporary female poets. Three of those poets join Budy for a
reading, recorded at the Writers Place in Kansas City— Robin Behn, Michelle
Boisseau and Jo McDougall—to celebrate this much-praised anthology. We also
go to our archives to include two more of the anthologized poems by Alice
Friman and Dorianne Laux.
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|
|
| February 19, 2010 |
Phyllis
Becker |
| |
A great promoter of poetry in Kansas City, Phyllis Becker serves on the
board of The Writers Place and is coordinator of the Riverfront Reading
Series. Her own publications include the 2008 book,
How I Came to Love Jazz and other Poems, an earlier chapbook,
Walking Naked Into Sunday, and her poetry set to music by jazz vocalist
Angela Hagenbach on the CD,
Poetry of Love.
|
|
|
| February 12, 2010 |
Natasha
Trethewey |
| |
Black History Month continues with an encore interview
with poet Natasha Trethewey, winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for
Native Guard, a book that traces her personal history of
growing up as a bi-racial child in the South along with poems about the
Union's first black regiment on the Gulf Coast during the Civil War. She
also discusses her earlier book,
Domestic Work, that won the first Cave Canem Poetry Prize.
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|
|
| February 5, 2010 |
Cave Canem |
| |
For Black History Month, New Letters on the Air celebrates the
poetry of
Cave Canem.
Founded in 1996 as a retreat and safe haven for black poets, the
organization has expanded from a one-week summer workshop in Pennsylvania to
sponsoring events and readings across the country, and they now have two
book awards. We'll listen to three poets, whose first books were published
as a result of winning the Cave Canem Poetry Prize--Natasha Tretheway, Major
Jackson, and Kyle Dargen. We'll also revisit the 2008
Cave
Canem Symposium, Black Poets Lean South, recorded at the University of Georgia,
featuring co-founders Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady.
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|
|
| January 29, 2010 |
Steve Lopez |
| |
In this interview,
taped before an audience at the Kansas City Public Library, Angela Elam
talks with Steve Lopez, about his book, The Soloist, winner of the
2009 PEN Center USA Award for creative non-fiction. The book
chronicles Lopez' friendship with schizophrenic virtuoso cellist Nathaniel
Ayers, and was made into the movie with the same title. Lopez is an
award-winning columnist for the Los Angeles Times and the author of
three novels.
|
|
|
| January 22, 2010 |
Aimee Nezhukumatathil |
| |
A first generation American poet and 2009
NEA fellow, Aimee Nezhukumatathil discusses her two books of
poetry: the multi-award winning Miracle Fruit and
At
the Drive-in Volcano. She talks about writing poetry
with a comic eye, and the poetic form for which she named
her dog, Villanelle. She also discusses how her unique
ethnic heritage—her father is from India and her mother from
the Philippines—and her interest in environmental writing
serve as creative influences in her work. |
|
|
| January 15, 2010 |
Michelle
Boisseau |
| |
A Sunday in God-Years takes its title
from the notion that inside the long stretch of geologic
time, human history happens in the blink of God's eye as he
rolls over during a Sunday nap. This fourth collection by
Michelle Boisseau is centered around the long poem, "A
Reckoning" made up of 15 sections that explore the
connections between the heirs of slave holders and slaves,
and the repercussions felt in today's society. A Sunday in
God-Years is a nominee for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize. |
|
|
| January 8, 2010 |
Joseph
O'Neill |
| |
Irish-born author Joseph O'Neill
discusses his latest novel, Netherland, which has been
favorably compared to The Great Gatsby, winning the 2009
PEN/Faulkner Award. Set in New York City immediately after
9/11, the novel details how two men, a Dutch financial
analyst and a Trinidadian entrepreneur, bond over the love
of cricket. Raised in Holland from the age of 12, O'Neill
currently resides in New York's Chelsea Hotel with his
family. He discusses how he uses such details in his
writing, and how his fiction was influenced by an early love
of poetry. |
|
|
| January 1, 2010 |
Mia Leonin |
| |
The guest feature
editor in the newest edition of New Letters magazine, Mia Leonin
currently resides in Miami, Florida, but grew up in small-town Missouri.
Raised by a single mother, she always thought she was part Filipino, until
she discovered her Cuban birth-father later in life, whom her mother then
led her to believe was dead. This is the background for her first book, a
coming-of-age story in poetry called Braid, and her 2009 memoir,
Havana and Other Missing Fathers. She also discusses the sound and
aural qualities of poetry, and her collaboration with her musician husband,
Carlos Ochoa, on the CD that is included in her 2008 book,
Unraveling the Bed. |
| |
|
| December 25, 2009 |
2009 Year
In Review |
| |
In this special anthology of excerpts
from previous programs, we look back at 2009 through the
lens of poetry, fiction, plays and non-fiction presented by
various writers for New Letters on the Air. Hear
from Tobias Wolff, U.S. Poet Laureate Kay Ryan, Sandra
Cisneros, Robert Olen Butler, Kai Wright, Alberto Rios,
James Still, and the late John Updike. |
|
|
| December 18, 2009 |
Annie
Barrows |
| |
Known for her Ivy
+ Bean series of
children's books, Annie Barrows never dreamed the outcome of
the request of her aunt, Mary Ann Shaffer, to revise
Shaffer's manuscript for The Guernsey Literary and Potato
Peel Pie Society. Barrows talks about her aunt's 20-year
passage from inspiration to book creation, which tells the
story of English islanders living through German occupation
during World War II. Barrows tells New Letters' Danette
Alexander about her role in the book's completion and reads
from the best-selling novel.
|
|
|
| December 11, 2009 |
Mitch Albom |
| |
Novelist, playwright,
journalist and screenwriter, Mitch Albom has written six books, including
the international bestseller, Tuesdays with
Morrie. With his newest book,
Have a Little Faith, he returns to
nonfiction, tracing the stories of two very different men--one, an
impoverished African-American urban pastor and the other, a suburban Jewish
Rabbi--and what he learned from both of them about faith and belief. Albom
reads from the book, and talks about
A Hole in the Roof
Foundation that it benefits. He also
discusses writing in the many different genres, and even sings one of his
songs from
Christmas in Detroit,
a CD collection that also benefits the
homeless.
|
|
|
| December 4, 2009 |
Heid E.
Erdrich |
| |
A member of the
Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe, Heid E. Erdrich was raised in Wahpeton,
North Dakota, where her parents taught at the Bureau of Indian Affairs
boarding school. Along with her sister and fellow writer, Louise Erdrich,
she co-founded the Turtle Mountain Writing Workshop and Birchbark House, a
non-profit indigenous language and literature clearinghouse. Heid E. Erdrich
talks about her very creative family, issues of genetics and identity, and
her three collections of poetry: The Mother's Tongue, Fishing
for Myth and National Monuments, which won the 2009 Minnesota
Book Award for Poetry.
|
| |
|
| November
27, 2009 |
Laura Moriarty |
| |
Novelist Laura Moriarty is the author
of the acclaimed book group favorite,
The Center of Everything,
as well as the two subsequent novels,
The Rest of Her Life
and While I'm Falling.
Though the characters in all three books are very different,
all explore complex issues of mothers and daughters, the
importance of family, and the consequences of
inattentiveness. Moriarty, who grew up in a military family
and has lived in numerous places around the world, talks
about her love of the open terrain and people of Kansas, the
place she's adopted as home for her and the characters in
her three novels. |
| |
|
|
November 20, 2009 |
Nathan Englander |
|
Nathan Englander discusses his novel,
The Ministry of Special Cases about Argentina's Dirty War in the 1970s.
In this interview, Englander
talks about the relationship between fathers and sons—which
plays a significant role in the novel—and the role that
Judaism plays in his novels, in his writing, and in his
life.
|
| |
|
|
November 13, 2009 |
Sarah Dunant |
|
English writer
Sarah Dunant has a certain degree of recognition in her home
country, hosting a nightly television talk show television
on the BBC, and working as a radio reporter for years.
Her fame in America, though, rests on her historical
fiction, The Birth of Venus, and
In the Company of the Courtesan. Her newest novel,
the third in this triptych of fiction about Renaissance
Italy, gives a glimpse into life at the convent. Dunant
talks about the meticulous research she does for every
novel, and also about how her early experience with crime
fiction taught her how to write novels.
|
| |
|
| November 6, 2009 |
Matthew Eck |
| |
Named one of the top five writers under 35 to watch by the
National Book Foundation in 2008, Matthew Eck discusses his
novel,
The Farther Shore, touted by Salon as "the
first great war novel of our generation." Set in an unnamed
location during an unnamed war, the novel unflinchingly
describes the life of soldiers on a reconnaissance mission.
Eck himself enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1992 and served in
Somalia and Haiti before returning to the U.S. to earn
degrees in literature and creative writing. |
| |
|
|
October 30, 2009 |
Debra Marquart |
|
Growing up on a
North Dakota farm, Debra Marquart couldn't wait to leave.
Now, she returns to the place repeatedly in her fiction,
essays and poetry. A multi-genre writer, Marquart has
led a life influenced by music and sound, dropping out of
college to join a rock band in the ‘70s. She reads
from The Hunger
Bone: Rock and Roll Stories,
From Sweetness
(poems) and The
Horizontal World: Growing Up Wild in the Middle of Nowhere
(essays). |
| |
|
|
October 23, 2009 |
Take Me Out to the Ballgame |
|
America's Pastime comes to a close for another year in
October with the Major League Baseball World Series. We pay
tribute to the game and those who love it with this
anthology show featuring poetry and stories about baseball,
including works by Donald Hall, Martin Espada, Jonathan
Holden, Maxine Kumin, and Billy Lombardo, along with an
interview featuring the late Negro Leagues great, Buck
O'Neil after the release of his autobiography, I Was
Right on Time.
|
| |
|
|
October 16, 2009 |
Kay Ryan |
|
In honor of the
start of her
second year as the 16th U.S. Poet Laureate, we present this
encore interview with Kay Ryan. Sometimes seen as a
poetry outsider, the California poet has spent her life
teaching remedial English in Marin County, rather than
making her living in the academic world of creative writing.
Known for her compact poems that revel in word play,
philosophy, and humor, Ryan reads from two of her books,
The Niagara River
and
Say Uncle,
and talks about what led her to poetry and the influence of
her recently deceased partner, Carol.
|
| |
|
|
October 9,
2009 |
Alberto Rios |
|
Born in a small
Arizona border town to a Mexican father and English mother,
Alberto Rios has become internationally
recognized as one of today's most talented Latino writers.
As a child he once lost the ability to speak in Spanish for
several years after being punished by teachers for using the
language, but today has become one of the most honored poets
in both Spanish and English. His poetry and short fiction
have received numerous awards and are often anthologized.
Most recently his memoir, Capirotada,
was selected as the One Book Arizona choice for 2009, and
his newest book of poetry is The Dangerous
Shirt.
|
| |
|
|
October 2, 2009 |
Gary Soto |
|
Continuing our celebration of Hispanic
Heritage Month, we go back to our archives for this 2005
conversation with fiction writer and poet,
Gary Soto. He talks about growing up as a poor
Mexican-American kid in Fresno, California, and how he
discovered the power of poetry as a young man. The author of
more than 70 books, Soto talks about why he now focuses on
writing books for children and young adults. He reads from
his poetry collection One Kind of Faith, and his book
of essays, The Effects of Knut Hamson on a
Fresno Boy, his novel Amnesia in a
Republican County, and his latest collection of
short stories, Help Wanted.
|
| |
|
|
September 25, 2009 |
Linda Rodriguez |
|
Winner of the 2009
Elvira Cordero Cisneros Award, Linda Rodriguez talks about
her debut poetry collection,
Heart's Migration, which
has been in the works for over 20 years.
The award, which was founded by Sandra Cisneros to
recognize exceptional writing talent and dedication to
nurturing the creativity of others, is presented by the
Macando Foundation.
Linda Rodriguez also talks about her involvement with
the Latino
Writers Collective in Kansas City, where pieces of her
manuscript were encouraged and developed.
|
|
|
|
September 18, 2009 |
Sandra Cisneros |
|
For Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15- October 15), Latina author
Sandra Cisneros discusses her groundbreaking classic novel,
The House on Mango Street, which was released in a special 25th
anniversary edition in 2009 with a new forward essay by Cisneros. The
founder of the Macondo
Foundation to foster creativity among socially-engaged writers, Cisneros
talks about her own growth as a writer of fiction, essays and poetry, and
reads from this early work as well as from her more recent novel,
Caramello, and her poetry collection,
Loose Woman.
|
|
|
|
September 11, 2009 |
"American Sanctuaries" |
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The American Library Association designates September as
library card sign-up month for students, so we've created
this audio anthology of poets, novelists, and memoirists,
who talk about how they found inspiration and refuge in the
libraries of their youth. Judith Ortiz Cofer, Junot
Díaz, Esmeralda Santiago, E.L. Doctorow, Anne Lamott and
others tell stories about the importance of libraries to
their development as writers and to our culture as a whole.
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September 4, 2009 |
Robert Olen Butler |
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Pulitzer Prize-winning short story writer, Robert Olen
Butler follows his recent story collections,
Intercourse
and Severance, with his novel,
Hell. Making humorous bows to Dante and Virgil,
Butler follows a TV newsman on his pursuit of a breaking
story about Satan through this underworld inhabited with
characters ranging from Henry the VIII's Anne Boleyn to
George Bush. He reads from the book and also talks about his
views on the creative process, which are included in his
non-fiction book, From Where You Dream.
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August 28, 2009 |
Hilda Raz |
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A literary editor since she
graduated from college, Hilda Raz became a public poet after
she was sent by Prairie Schooner to the Breadloaf
writing conference to represent the magazine, and there,
found her own poetic voice as well. Raz talks about
balancing the roles of editing, teaching and writing, and
her books that record her experiences with motherhood,
surviving breast cancer and coming to terms with her child's
transsexuality. She reads from her books
All Odd and Splendid,
What Happens, and
Trans.
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August 21, 2009 |
Tobias Wolff |
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Old School,
the
2003 novel by Tobias Wolff that was a
finalist for the Pen/Faulkner Award, is a selection for the
National Endowment for the Arts program "The Big Read."
Wolff talks with Angela Elam about this book in front of an
audience at the Kansas City Public Library where his
appearance concludes the city-wide read of Old School.
They also discuss fiction writing and his 2009 book,
Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories.
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August 14, 2009 |
Victoria Chang |
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Victoria Chang, author of the poetry
collections Circle and
Salvinia Molesta, discusses her poetry with New
Letters editor Robert Stewart. Chang, who works as a
business journalist, talks about mixing her "practical"
business role with the imaginative role as a poet, and talks
about how being the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants
influences her work.
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August 7, 2009 |
David Kirby |
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David Kirby, a
nationally renowned poet who has spent his career teaching
at Florida State University, is constantly on the move in
his work and is known for his comic poetry.
In this program, he reads from
his latest book The House on Boulevard
Street—a finalist for the 2007 National Book Award
in poetry—and discusses life in the "pobiz" (poetry
business) and the relevance of history and pop culture in
his work, with influences ranging from Dante to Dagwood.
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July 31, 2009 |
Aimee Nezhukumatathil |
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A
first generation American poet and 2009 NEA fellow,
Aimee Nezhukumatathil
discusses her two books of poetry: the multi-award
winning
Miracle Fruit and
At the Drive-in Volcano. She talks about writing
poetry with a comic eye, and discusses the poetic form for
which she named her dog, Villanelle. Her unique ethnic
heritage—her father is from India and her mother from the
Philippines—along with her interest in environmental writing
are creative influences in her work. |
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July 24, 2009 |
Frank McCourt |
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New Letters on
the Air
says goodbye to Frank McCourt, the author of a trilogy of
memoirs, including his bestselling debut book,
Angela's Ashes.
In this 1997 interview, the year he won the Pulitzer Prize
for this book that recounts his outwardly tragic childhood
with great Irish humor, McCourt talks about the importance
of writing and how 30 years as a high school teacher led to
this publication at age 66. Frank McCourt died
on Sunday, July 19, 2009.
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July 17, 2009 |
Annie Barrows |
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Known for her Ivy +
Bean series of children's books, Annie Barrows never
dreamed the outcome of the request of her aunt, Mary Ann
Shaffer, to revise Shaffer's manuscript for
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.
Barrows talks about the two stories involved in the writing
of this book: one of the English islanders living through
German occupation during World War II and the other of her
aunt's 20-year passage from inspiration to book creation.
Barrows tells New Letters' Danette Alexander about
her role in the book's completion and reads from the
best-selling novel.
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July 10, 2009 |
James Still |
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Like the
playwright, William Inge, who came from Independence, James
Still comes from another small town in Kansas--Pomona. In
this interview, Still talks about his beginnings, and how
that led to writing over 15 plays, including
The Heavens are Hung in Black, commissioned by
Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. to premiere in 2009 on
the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth. Currently the
playwright-in-residence at the Indiana Repertory Theatre,
Still reads from Iron Kisses and
his other 2009 play, The Velvet Rut, which premiered at The
Unicorn Theatre in Kansas City.
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Return to
the New Letters on the Air main page. |
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