Suzanne Lang talks with equestrian Lissa Bachner. When Lissa became blind, it was the healing partnership with her horse Milo that physically guided her to become a show jumping champion and emotionally provided Lissa the love and confidence she needed to define herself outside of blindness. The book is Milo’s Eyes, How a Blind Equestrian and Her Seeing Eye Horse Rescued Each Other. 

 

 

Suzanne also talks with Amy Turner about her memoir On the Ledge. Nearly being killed when a truck ran over her while crossing a street, triggered the deeper trauma of her childhood self, living in the shadow of her suicidal Dad. When she was just 4 years old the media captured  him standing high on the ledge of a hotel window, about to jump. He lived a long life, but it took her own near-death trauma to finally understand and shake her lifelong insecurity brought on by his suicide attempt.

 

Way out West.

 

Biographer of scrappy women, Theresa Kaminski talks about her book Queen of the West, The Life and Times of Dale Evans.

 

 

 

Then, author and long-time archivist for the Levi Strauss Company, Lynn Downey, brings her book American Dude Ranch: A Touch of the Cowboy and the Thrill of the West. 

 

A Novel Idea with Suzanne Lang, Sunday, October 30th at 10 a.m. KRCB 104.9, streaming at krcb.org.

 

 

 

Jori Lewis visits with her book Slaves for Peanuts, A Story of Conquest, Liberation, and a Crop that Changed History, a lyrical revelation that weaves together the natural and human history which altered West Africa and ensured that slavery would persist well into the 20th century.

Also featured is Judith Berlowitz with her historical fiction, Home So Far Away. It's an epic story set during the Spanish Civil War.

Suzanne Lang hosts A Novel Idea, first and fifth Sundays at 10am. Streaming and podcasting at krcb.org.

Keri Blankenship did not let her worst moments define her. Her book is Corrections in Ink, a Memoir, a candid self-portrait of her journey to elite figure skater and decline to heroin addiction and incarceration, then her transformation to award winning journalist, who works as an investigative reporter for the non-profit Marshall Project —focused on the criminal justice system. Keri joins Suzanne Lang in conversation. Also featured is KRCB’s Dr. Dianna Grayer and her artistic collaborator Anianela Montefalcon with their book Keenah’s First Speech, Our Blackness Will Never Fade. It’s A Novel Idea on KRCB 104.9 and streaming at krcb.org.

Marston Hefner is a young writer who plays with language and sentiment, with some of his pieces having a sort of absurdity that upon closer reading push through on an emotional level. Hefner joins Suzanne M. Lang in conversation. Suzanne also talks with Schuyler M. Wood on his first installment of The Tranquility Trilogy, A Crisis at Tranquility! It's A Novel Idea, Sunday, August 7th, 10:00 am PST on KRCB 104.9. Streaming at krcb.org.

Jillian Haslam grew up destitute and malnourished in the slums of Calcutta. She survived to climb out of poverty, achieve a successful career in banking, and become an honored humanitarian, motivational speaker, author, and educator. Her book is A Voice Out of Poverty, the Power to Achieve through Adversity, and Jillian joins Suzanne M. Lang in conversation A Novel Idea airs first and fifth Sundays at 10 am PDT on KRCB 104.9. Streaming at krcb.org.

Inner strength and agency over our lives is what we explore with Amy Edelstein, whose book is Adventure in Zanskar, a young woman’s solitary journey to reach physical and metaphysical heights, her story of solo trekking in one of the highest and remotest parts of northern India, the Zanskar Valley. We also talk with Kathleen C. Stone with her book They Called us Girls, Stories of Female Ambition from Suffrage to Mad Men. Sunday, July 3rd, 10am PT on KRCB Radio, 104.9 FM and streaming at krcb.org.

Best-selling nonfiction author Barbara Graham and award winner Caitlin Hamilton Summie join Suzanne M. Lang in conversation on their novels. Both women are longtime writers, steeped in the literary life, yet each has just published a first novel. Graham’s What Jonah Knew is a psychological thriller touching on inherited family trauma, Buddhism, and past lives. Summie’s carefully crafted Geographies of the Heart tells the bitter and sweet story of a family’s love and loss, and their evolution across the years. A Novel Idea every first and fifth Sundays at 10 am PDT on KRCB 104.9. streaming at krcb.org.

The Late 19th Century tells us as much about ourselves as looking in the mirror. Two writers explore the late 19th century, though one writes fiction and the other nonfiction, their methods of steeping themselves and their work in period detail is striking. Neal Thompson joins Suzanne Lang with his “narrative americana”, a nonfiction account of the Irish immigration of the 19th century in The First Kennedys, The Humble Roots of an American Dynasty. Also featured is Connie Hertzberg Mayo, whose novel, The Sharp Edge of Mercy is set in America’s first cancer hospital with themes of medical ethics, racial injustice, gay relationships, and workplace harassment.

Long-time NPR commentator, editor of Exquisite Corpse, novelist, and poet Andrei Codrescu joins Suzanne Lang in conversation on his life, writing, and language. His upcoming works include a collection of pandemic poetry, Too Late for Nightmares, and one of his earliest novels —revisited by his current self, Meat from the Goldrush. Suzanne also visits with novelist and poet Barbara Quick to talk about her latest novel What Disappears along with her volume of award-winning poetry The Light on Sifnos.