Arts & Letters

Reflections on home, family, and the spiritual essence of place…

Geek out with the A&L team as we interview Stephanie Vanderslice, self-proclaimed writing geek--blogger, scholar, teacher, and mom ...

Escape with us to the shopping mall, as Matthew Newton and the Arts & Letters team craft a nostalgic love letter to the malls of America, with special focus on the Monroeville Mall in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. On this episode of Arts & Letters, we'll be talking with writer Matthew Newton about his Bloomsbury Object Lessons' book Shopping Mall , which chronicles its history, its relationship to us and our collective communities and our personal relationships to it. Newton writes: As a

Meet American prize-winning short story author: Amina Gautier. Today on Arts & Letters, we’ll be talking with award-winning writer Amina Gautier. Her third short story collection, The Loss of All Lost Things , published by Elixir Press is about reconstituting lives after imaginable and unimaginable losses. In this episode, we'll be examining her story "A Brief Pause." The Loss of All Lost Things won the Elixir Press Award in Fiction and the 2018 PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short

A Guided Tour of the Historic Cane Hill Museum Walk with us as we explore the Historic Cane Hill Museum. This show is our second in a series of two episodes. The first episode, "Still On Cane Hill," explored the musical project "Cane Hill" written by folk duo Kelly and Donna Mulhullan of Still On The Hill . In this episode of Arts & Letters, we take a guided tour of the Historic Cane Hill Museum with Lawrence McElroy, Museum Curator and Director of Arts and Culture of Historic Cane Hill, Inc

Settle in on your front porch rocking chairs and listen to musical tales of Doc Bean, Cousin Annie's Apple Pie, the Trail of Tears, and JD Wilbur's Pottery—all from the historic Northwest Arkansas town, Cane Hill. On this episode of Arts & Letters, we’ll be talking with musicians Kelly and Donna Mulhollan of the musical group Still On The Hill about their musical project Cane Hill -- a historical town with its Main Street, college, fountain on the square, and town doctor. Cane Hill was the

The Life of Legendary Story Chaser, Tim Samaras. On this episode of Arts & Letters, we’ll be talking with participant journalist Brantley Hargrove about his book The Man Who Caught the Storm: The Life of Legendary Tornado Chaser Tim Samaras . We'll hear about Samaras' early days growing up in Lakewood, Colorado as a tinkerer, his work focusing on blast testing, and his obsession with probing the inside of tornados. One of the most infamous of storm chasers, Samaras was driven by obsession to

Unearth the reasons why so many of us love Godzilla, with Professor Tsutsui as our guide. On this episode of Arts & Letters, we’ll be talking with William Tsutsui, former President of Hendrix College and a self-admitted aficionado of "all-things Godzilla." Tsutsui's book Godzilla On My Mind: Fifty Years of the King of Monsters. published by Saint Martin's Griffin, recovers Godzilla from b-movie status and celebrates the King of the Monsters. "In so, many ways, Godzilla remains a compelling

Imagine what James Baldwin might say if he were alive today. On this episode of Arts & Letters, we’ll be talking with writer Vincent Tolliver about his one-man play, James Baldwin: Striking a Match to America, An Address at Columbia University , which has been performed in Los Angeles and Atlanta. The play imagines James Baldwin alive today talking to the American people about writing, race, and reparations. An excerpt from the play: It is evening and Mr. James Baldwin walks on stage of an

Explore American Poetry. On this episode of Arts & Letters, we’ll be talking with poet Jericho Brown about his national book award finalist poetry collection The Tradition , published by Copper Canyon Press. This collection focuses on multiple mythic traditions and confronts injury, loss, and love. “Dark” I am sick of your sadness, Jericho Brown, your blackness, Your books. Sick of you Laying me down ... I’m sick Of your hurting. I see that You’re blue. You may be ugly, But that ain’t new.