This episode delves again into McCarthy's roots as we consider his intersections with Irish literature.  The guest in this episode is Tennessean by birth and now fully Texified, Richard R. Russell is Professor of English and director of graduate programs at Baylor University. He earned an M Phil at the University of Glasgow and his MA and PhD from the U of North Carolina.  Books include Seamus Heaney:  A Critical Introduction, Edinburgh University Press, Seamus Heaney's Regions. University of Notre Dame Press, June 2014. Modernity, Community, and Place in Brian Friel’s Drama. Syracuse University Press, Irish Studies series, 2013.  Poetry and Peace: Michael Longley, Seamus Heaney, and Northern Ireland. University of Notre Dame Press, 2010, and forthcoming James Joyce and Samaritan Hospitality by Edinburgh University Press.  He has published articles on McCarthy, including one on Beckett’s influences in English Studies and “Embodying Place: Ecotheology and Deep Incarnation in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road,” Christianity and Literature.

Thanks to Thomas Frye, who composed, performed, and produced the theme music and interludes for READING MCCARTHY.  

The views of the host and his guests do not necessarily reflect the views of their home institutions or the Cormac McCarthy Society. To contact me, please reach out to readingmccarthy(@)gmail.com. Find us on Twitter and Facebook; the website is at readingmccarthy.buzzsprout.com, and if you’d like to support the show you can click on the little heart symbol at the top of the page to buy the show a cappuccino, or you can support us at www.patreon.com/readingmccarthy.

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New! A book adaptation of many of the episodes focusing on McCarthy's Southern novels is forthcoming in December, 2026.  Click the link for details on Reading Cormac McCarthy: Scholars Discuss the Southern Novels.

Starting in spring of 2023, the podcast began accepting minor sponsorship offers to offset the costs of the podcast.  This may cause a mild disconnect in earlier podcasts where the host asks for patrons in lieu of sponsorships.   But if we compare it to a very large and naked bald man in the middle of the desert who leads you to an extinct volcano to create gunpowder, it seems pretty minor...