Free Library Podcast

Natashia Deón's debut novel Grace depicts the violent, terrifying world of the antebellum South, where the emancipation of slaves can bring anything but freedom. She is "not merely another new author to watch. She has delivered something whole, and to be reckoned with, right now" (New York Times). She explores, "with psychological acuity and absolutely no mercy, what the institution did to slave women-specifically, how it deprived them of the most basic chance to love, delight in and protect their own children" (New York Times). Recipient of a PEN Center USA Emerging Voices fellowship, Deón is an attorney, writer, law professor, and creator of the popular Los Angeles-based reading series Dirty Laundry Lit.

(recorded 7/20/2016)

Join us for a celebration of Jerry Pinkney Day! One of the most beloved artists in children's literature, Jerry Pinkney has illustrated more than 100 books over the course of his five-decade career. The recipient of the 2010 Caldecott Medal for his children's picture book The Lion and the Mouse, Pinkney grew up in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. His work touches upon personal and cultural themes of the African American experience, the majesty of wildlife, and the wisdom of folk tales. His many other awards include five Caldecott Honor Medals, five Coretta Scott King Book Awards, four Coretta Scott King Honor Awards, and a lifetime achievement award from the Society of Illustrators in New York.

In conversation with Lorene Cary, founder of Art Sanctuary and author of several books, including The Price of a Child and If Sons, Then Heirs.

(recorded 7/19/2016)

Evoking a gritty world that's at once weirdly familiar and utterly a ''world unto its own, a world vividly and powerfully brought to life by a literary stylist who packs a punch'' (Philadelphia Inquirer), Donald Ray Pollock's 2008 debut story collection, Knockemstiff, won the PEN/Robert Bingham Prize for its startlingly lurid and black-as-coal-humored tales of the stunted but resilient denizens of a southern Ohio town. He followed up three years later with The Devil All the Time, a novel about the entangled and inevitably violent journeys of an orphan, a preacher, and a pair of serial killers. In his latest offering, Pollock tells the story of three bank-robbing brothers' reckoning with the citizenry of a small Ohio town.

In conversation with Jason Freeman (recorded 7/18/2016)

Saxophonist and composer Benny Golson learned his instrument and the vocabulary of jazz while still in high school in Philadelphia. Over the course of an illustrious 60-year career, he has recorded more than 30 albums, written well over 300 compositions, and given hundreds of performances around the globe alongside dozens of jazz greats, including Benny Goodman, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Earl Bostic, and Art Blakey. ''A composer with an unusually brilliant melodic sense'' (New York Times), his major contributions to the world of jazz include the standards Killer Joe, Along Came Betty, Whisper Not, and Five Spot After Dark. His new book is a collection of anecdotes and photographs that recount the high and low notes of a life dedicated to jazz.  

In conversation with Jeff Duperon, host WRTI (recorded 6/23/2016)

Longtime newspaper and magazine reporter David Daley is the editor-in-chief of Salon and the Digital Media Fellow at the University of Georgia's Wilson Center for the Humanities. His new book tells the explosive true story of the process through which Republican legislators and political operatives have undermined the very tenets of the American electoral system by reshaping Congressional districts. Referred to by those in-the-know as ''ratf**king,'' this gerrymandering was engendered through the machinations of a small GOP cadre's bag of dirty tricks and dark money. Daley explains its far-reaching implications and how it occurred in the shadow of Barack Obama's historic 2008 election. 

(recorded 6/21/2016)

Justin Cronin is acclaimed for the first two ''addictive, terrifying, and deeply satisfying'' (Men's Journal) installments of in his vampiric post-apocalyptic trilogy, The Passage and The Twelve. A former creative writing teacher at La Salle University, he is the recipient of the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award, a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Stephen Crane Prize. His other New York Times bestselling novels include Mary and O'Neil and The Summer Guest. In the final installment of The Passage Trilogy, the ravaged world's last survivors begin to rebuild society even as they endure a final battle with the original agent of mankind's destruction. 

(recorded 6/16/2016)

''With originality, verve, and wit'' (San Francisco Chronicle), Alain de Botton's internationally bestselling nonfiction books examine love, work, friendship, travel, and the other fundamentals of everyday life. These works include On Love, How Proust Can Change Your Life, Status Anxiety, and The Architecture of Happiness. The cofounder of the acclaimed School of Life, a London-based international organization dedicated to a new vision of education, de Botton is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and an honorary fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects. His new novel charts the parabolic romantic partnership of an Edinburgh couple from puppy love through the pressures of their average daily existence. 

(recorded 6/15/2016)

Historian Adam Hochschild is the author of the National Book Critic's Circle Award finalist King Leopold's Ghost, a haunting portrait of Belgium's 19th-century brutal colonization of the Congo. His many awards include the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Nonfiction and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History. He is cofounder of Mother Jones magazine. His other books include an illuminating study of the atrocities of Stalinist Russia (The Unquiet Ghost), a history of the antislavery movement in the British Empire (Bury the Chains), and a chronicle of WWI's moral critics and dissenters (To End All Wars). Told from the perspectives of famous and little-known participants and observers, Spain in Our Hearts tells the story of heartbreaking civil war. (recorded 6/14/2016)

''Rich in narrative tension, nuanced humor, and moral heft'' (Los Angeles Times), Terry McMillan's bestselling novels include Waiting to Exhale-a watershed work in contemporary fiction about black women-and How Stella Got Her Groove Back, ''a sexy handbook of self-realization'' (The New Yorker). Both were adapted into popular films. The recipient of the Essence Award for Excellence in Literature, McMillan is also the author of A Day Late and a Dollar Short, Disappearing Acts, Getting to Happy, Who Asked You, and her American Book Award-winning debut novel Mama. Her new novel tells the story of a doctor who leaves her seemingly perfect but unfulfilling life in search of adventure and a second chance at love. 

(recorded 6/13/2016)

The junior United States senator from California for more than two decades, a lifelong Democrat, former Congresswoman, and seasoned scrapper, Barbara Boxer has devoted her tenure in public service to compassionate advocacy for women, families, privacy, and environmentalism, among other commitments. She is also the author of a political novel, A Time to Run, a story of idealism versus pragmatism, in-fighting, and public spin. She is the recipient of two Doctor of Laws honorary degrees, a frequent media commentator and sitcom cameo actor, and a grandmother of four who's celebrated more than 50 years of marriage. The Art of Tough tells the story of her personal life and influential tenure in the Senate.

(recorded 6/9/2016)