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Links to assorted local theater & book venues
Andrew Altschul discusses his latest novel, The Gringa, with host Richard Wolinsky. The Gringa tells the story of an American activist who goes to Peru in the early 1990s and becomes involved with a radical group who is eventually charged and incarcerated with terrorist crimes, based loosely on the real-life story of Lori Berenson. Paralleling that story is one of Andres, an American writer living in Peru years later, who must cope not only with his own feelings about politics and American influence around the world, but with the notion of American exceptionalism.
Extended 50-minute podcast
Margaret Atwood in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, discussing her books, Moral Disorder, Writing with Intent and The Penelopiad, recorded in December, 2006 in the KPFA studios.
The author of such novels as The Handmaid’s Tale and Oryx and Crake talks about her three recent works: Moral Disorder, a series of connected short stories; Writing with Intent, a collection of essays; and The Penelopiad, a comic take on the Odyssey from the perspective of Odysseus’ wife.
She also discusses the relation of memoir and fiction, America’s role in Afghanistan, her views about America from the perspective of a Canadian, genre fiction, and other issues
Complete 35-minute podcast
Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links
Note: Several theatre companies are postponing their September shows due to the Delta variant. Please be aware that these changes are being made day-to-day. Most in-person events require vaccination proof or recent negative Covid test, and masks. Check the venue before arrival.
Bay Area Book Festival Festival events streaming on-demand.
Alter Theatre. Brer Peach, an audio play by Andrew Saito, on-line October 21-December 12.
National, Misc:
Playbill List of Streaming Theatre: Updated weekly, this is probably the best list you’ll find of national and international streaming plays and musicals. Each week has its own webpage, so scroll down.
If you’d like to add your bookstore or theater venue to this list, please write [email protected]
The post Bookwaves/Artwaves, Sept 2, 2021: Andrew Altschul – Margaret Atwood appeared first on KPFA.
Links to assorted local theater & book venues
Isaac Asimov (1920-1992), in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded in New York City on August 10, 1983.
Isaac Asimov, who died at the age of 72 in 1992, was considered, along with Ray Bradbury and Robert Heinlein, one of the three great masters of American science fiction in the 20th century.
Isaac Asimov began sending in stories and getting published in science fiction magazines at the age of nineteen, and at the age of 21, with the publication of the short story “Nightfall” in John W. Campbell’s Astounding Stories magazine. moved into the first ranks of science fiction writers. That status was confirmed a year later with the publication of the short story, “Foundation,” later renamed “The Encyclopedists,” which would be the first of several short stories and novellas republished as the three volumes of the Foundation trilogy.
In the 1940s, he turned to a series of stories focused on robots, which became the collection I Robot and then in the 1950s turned to novels, including Pebble in the Sky, The Caves of Steel and The End of Eternity. Along the way, through his entire career, he wrote dozens of non-fiction books on a wide variety of topics, along with young adult novels, and mystery novels and short stories. In the end, the number of books he wrote or edited exceeded 500, not counting separate short stories and articles.
This interview was conducted in a New York City bookstore Asimov was visiting to sign copies of a new collection, The Union Club Mysteries, a year after his return to the world of the Foundation trilogy, Foundation’s Edge, was published. Because his two –volume autobiography had come out a couple of years earlier and dealt with the plots and themes of his fiction, the interview focused instead on his life as a writer and his work with editors and publishers.
A miniseries adaptation of the Foundation Trilogy is due to be released on the Apple + streaming app in September, 2021. Isaac Asimov Wikipedia entry.
Complete 47-minute Radio Wolinsky podcast.
Ray Bradbury, the legendary author who passed away in 2012, sat down for an interview with Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff in 1992 at his home in Los Angeles.
Though called a science fiction or fantasy writer, Ray Bradbury spanned all genres, from poetry to mystery to mainstream fiction. Among his works include The Martian Chronicles, Something Wicked This Way Comes, Farenheit 451 and The Illustrated Man.
This interview has been digitized and re-edited by Richard Wolinsky. Complete 38-minute Radio Wolinsky podcast.
Ray Bradbury Wikipedia entry
Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links
Note: Several theatre companies are postponing their September shows due to the Delta variant. Please be aware that these changes are being made day-to-day. Most in-person events require vaccination proof or recent negative Covid test, and masks. Check the venue before arrival.
Bay Area Book Festival In person: Heather Young, September 1, 6 pm, Sausalito Books by the Bay. 2021 Festival events streaming on-demand.
Alter Theatre. Brer Peach, an audio play by Andrew Saito, see website for details.
National, Misc:
If you’d like to add your bookstore or theater venue to this list, please write [email protected]
The post Bookwaves/Artwaves – August 26, 2021: Masters of Science Fiction: Asimov and Bradbury appeared first on KPFA.
Links to assorted local theater & book venues
Erik Larson, author of The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky.
Erik Larson is the author of several best-selling works of narrative non-fiction, including Dead Wake, In the Garden of Beasts and The Devil in the White City. His latest book takes us one year, from May 1940 to May 1941, a time which encompasses not only Winston Churchill’s first year as Prime Minister of England, but also the Blitz, the often daily air raids by the Germans on London, Coventry and other cities, which began at the same time and ended almost to the day one year later. We follow the Churchill family’s quotidian lives during that time, from watching to bombs to various wartime love affairs and break-ups, along with a look at how both the British and German governments worked during that year.
Complete 46-minute Radio Wolinsky podcast.
W.P. Kinsella, author of the now classic novel Shoeless Joe, which became the film Field of Dreams, died on September 16, 2016 at the age of 81. In this archive interview recorded April 19, 1988, he talks about the book and his career with Richard A Lupoff and Richard Wolinsky.
Over the past decades, Field of Dreams has become a classic, and last week Major League Baseball created a ballpark in the cornfields of Iowa in both celebration and exploitation of the movie and the themes from the film.
Digitized, remastered and edited in 2016 by Richard Wolinsky.
W.P. Kinsella Wikipedia entry
Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links
Note: Several theatre companies are postponing their September shows due to the Delta variant. Please be aware that these changes are being made day-to-day. Most in-person events require vaccination proof or recent negative Covid test, and masks. Check the venue before arrival.
Bay Area Book Festival In person: Heather Young, September 1, 6 pm, Sausalito Books by the Bay. 2021 Festival events streaming on-demand.
Alter Theatre. Brer Peach, an audio play by Andrew Saito, see website for details.
National, Misc:
If you’d like to add your bookstore or theater venue to this list, please write [email protected]
The post Bookwaves/Artwaves: August 19, 2021: Erik Larson – W.P. Kinsella appeared first on KPFA.
Links to assorted local theater & book venues
Jack Arnold, who died at the age of 75 in 1992, was the 1950s master of the science fiction film. Among the films he directed were It Came From Outer Space, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Revenge of the Creature, Tarantula, and The Incredible Shrinking Man. The Probabilities crew – Richard A. Lupoff, Lawrence Davidson and Richard Wolinsky – received a small stipend from a science fiction convention and flew to Los Angeles to interview Jack Arnold in his office at Universal Studios. The interview is undated but was recorded in around 1980, give or take a year.
It Came from Outer Space, along with two film noirs, were released in 1953, Creature from the Black Lagoon in 1954 and Revenge of the Creature in 1955. The first western, The Man from Bitter Ridge along with Tarantula and his work on This Island Earth also came from 1955. The rest of the westerns, along with The Incredible Shrinking Man and the Peter Sellers classic The Mouse That Roared, came between 1956 and 1959. After that, he directed a couple more A pictures, as he called them, but his primary work moved to television, and from then until his retirement in 1984, he was constantly working on projects for the small screen, interspersed with the occasional film.
Remastered and re-edited by Richard Wolinsky in July 2021.
Complete 75-minute podcast
Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links
Note: Several theatre companies are postponing their September shows due to the Delta variant. Please be aware that these changes are being made day-to-day.
Bay Area Book Festival Check website for streaming events from the 2021 Festival and upcoming events.
Alter Theatre. Brer Peach, an audio play by Andrew Saito, see website for details.
National, Misc:
If you’d like to add your bookstore or theater venue to this list, please write [email protected]
The post Bookwaves/Artwaves – August 12, 2021: Jack Arnold (1916-1992), film director, 1980 appeared first on KPFA.
Links to assorted local theater & book venues
Sean San Jose, the newly appointed Artistic Director of the Magic Theatre in Fort Mason Center, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky.
One of the founders and current Program Director of the legendary Campo Santo performance troupe, Sean San Jose is a noted Bay Area actor who has worked in several venues, including the Magic, Cal Shakes, ACT and Berkeley Rep. He’s also a playwright, director and most importantly, an activist in expanding the arts to unrepresented communities. He is also a guest lecturer at UC Berkeley and has served on several boards throughout the Bay Area artistic community.
The Magic is presenting a block party event at Fort Mason on Thursday, August 5th, starting with a VIP event at 5 pm and food trucks, music, and performance outdoors at 6 pm. For more information, go to the Magic Theatre Website.
Complete 44-minute podcast.
Theatre Review: The Song of Summer by Lauren Yee, directed by Bill English, at San Francisco Playhouse through August 14, 2021.
Tony Horwitz discussing his book, “Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War,” with host Richard Wolinsky, recorded November 12, 2011.
Tony Horwitz, who died in 2019 at the age of sixty, was a master of the non-fiction form. In books like Confederates in the Attic, Blue Latitudes and A Voyage Long and Strange, he turned his research and his own personal searches into narratives impossible to put down. His work with Civil War reenactcors led him to the story of John Brown, and in his 2011 book, Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid that Started the Civil War, he took a closer look at the Civil War, at abolitionists, and at the war against slavery. This interview was recorded at his hotel while he was on tour for Midnight Rising.
The complete 45-minute version of this program can be found as a Radio Wolinsky podcast.
Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links
Bay Area Book Festival Check website for streaming events from the 2021 Festival and upcoming events.
Alter Theatre. Brer Peach, an audio play by Andrew Saito, see website for details.
National, Misc:
If you’d like to add your bookstore or theater venue to this list, please write [email protected]
The post Bookwaves/Artwaves – August 5, 2021: Sean San Jose – Tony Horwitz appeared first on KPFA.
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