A Novel Idea

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.

Story, memory, place, and water converges with our two guests. Suzanne Lang is joined by Greg Sarris, author, educator and Tribal Chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria. Greg talks about his book Becoming Story, A Journey among Seasons, Places, Trees, and Ancestors. Julene Bair talks about The Ogallala Road, A Story of Love, Family, and the Fight to Keep the Great Plains from Running Dry. Both authors explore their roots, their environment, their choices, and how to integrate various elements of their experience with what they’ve come to know. Sunday, April 3rd at 10am PT on KRCB 104.9, streaming and podcasting at krcb.org.

Characters seem to tell their authors where the story is going, and that is part of the alchemy of writing novels. Suzanne Lang talks with Ruthie Marlenee about her novel Agave Blues. It's inflected with a bit of magic realism and the voices of ancestors. Suzanne also talks with best-selling author Meredith Hall on her work, Beneficence, a powerful and moving story of love, loss, and the healing power of family. Listen to KRCB’s A Novel Idea, Sunday, March 6th at 10am PST on KRCB 104.9 FM in Sonoma County. Streaming and podcasting at krcb.org.

Environmental historian Ann Vileisis goes deep and pulls together a fascinating story in Abalone, the Remarkable History and Uncertain Future of California’s Iconic Shellfish. Abalone has long been a source of wonder and value with its iridescent shell, hearty meat, and spiritual significance, but the once iconic shell fish is now nearly absent in the California waters. Join Ann in conversation with Suzanne Lang on KRCB’s A Novel Idea, Sunday, February 6th at 10 am PST, broadcasting at 104.9 FM, streaming and podcasting at norcalpublicmedia.org.

Good fiction invites us to be less alone, to question our own thoughts and perceptions, to laugh at ourselves and cry about what hurts. Join Suzanne M. Lang in conversation with Daniel Coshnear on his work of short stories, Separation Anxiety. Also on the show is Beth Kirschner. Her novel Copper Divide is set in the tumultuous winter of 1913 in Calumet Michigan in the copper country. It’s A Novel Idea, Sunday January 30th at 10am PT, 104.9 FM, streaming at krcb.org.

A young couple with four little children experienced a calling to the missionary life and found themselves living in the crisis time of independence in the African Congo. Turn Left at the Big Anthill is no fiction, it’s Rosemary Manchester’s memoir: a layered and fascinating story of a transitional time in Africa and in one woman’s life. Rosemary Manchester, former host of KRCB’s A Novel Idea, comes back to talk with Suzanne Lang. It’s A Novel Idea, Sunday, January 2nd at 10:00 am. On KRCB 104.9 FM, streaming at krcb.org.

It’s a sneak peek ahead to a conversation with Rosemary Manchester about her book Turn Left at the Big Anthill, a Memoir, her story of living in the Congo— with her four young children, during the tumultuous time of its independence from the Belgians. We also feature a dip into the archives and share conversations with Daniel Pyne, author and showrunner of the streaming series Bosch, and with Peter Richardson on his book No Simple Highway, A Cultural History of the Grateful Dead. Tune in Sunday, December 5th at 10am PST. It’s a Novel Idea with Suzanne Lang.

It’s two young new literary voices on this edition on KRCB’s A Novel Idea with Suzanne Lang.

Kendra Atleework’s book is Miracle Country, a Memoir of a Family and a Landscape; set in the Eastern Sierra, it is up there with the best of writing on California.

Also featured is Shruti Swamy with her novel The Archer, set in 1960s Bombay India which focuses on a dancer of Kathak, an ancient traditional form of Indian dance.

It’s A Novel Idea with Suzanne Lang. Sunday, November 7th at 10:00 am on KRCB 104.9 FM, streaming and podcasting at krcb.org.