KPFA - Bookwaves/Artwaves

In-depth interviews with authors of fiction and narrative non-fiction, delving deeply into political and social issues, literary technique, and the life of the author. Hosted by Richard Wolinsky.

In-depth interviews with authors of fiction and narrative non-fiction, delving deeply into political and social issues, literary technique, and the life of the author. Hosted by Richard Wolinsky.

Richard Powers, whose latest novel is “The Overstory,” in conversation with Richard Wolinsky.

The author of “The Time of Our Singing” and “The Echo Maker” delves into the world of eco-terrorism and the secret life of trees in this epic story about eight individuals who, together and apart, come to see the forests of earth as our salvation, and the salvation of the planet. Based on prodigious research, Powers tells of the way trees communicate with one another, and spins stories based on real life confrontations between protestors and those who would destroy the lifeblood of the planet to pay off leveraged debt.

Richard Powers explores the effects of modern science and technology in his twelve novels. Along with the National Book award for “The Echo Maker,”  he has won many other awards over the course of his career, including a MacArthur Fellowship. Richard Powers has taught at the University of Illinois and Stanford Universities.

"The Overstory" recently won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

An extended 46-minute version of this interview is available as a Radio Wolinsky podcast. [1]

[1] https://kpfa.org/area941/episode/richard-powers-the-understory/

[caption id="attachment_311402" align="alignleft" width="230"] Cherilyn Parsons[/caption]

Cherilyn Parsons, the founder and executive director of the Bay Area Book Festival, talks about the festival with host Richard Wolinsky. The Bay Area Book Festival will be held May 4-5, 2019 throughout venues within walking distance in downtown Berkeley, and features such luminaries as Robert Reich, Joyce Carol Oates, Kim Stanley Robinson, Tayari Jones, Esi Edogyan, Jonathan Kellerman, and many other authors in over a hundred venues.

For more information on the Fair, go to https://www.baybookfest.org/ [1]

Complete 35-minute Radio Wolinsky podcast. [2]

[1] https://www.baybookfest.org/

[2] https://kpfa.org/area941/episode/the-bay-area-book-festival-2019/

[caption id="attachment_311391" align="alignleft" width="278"] Richard Wolinsky and Dave Eggers.[/caption]

Dave Eggers discusses his latest novel, "The Parade" with host Richard Wolinsky.

The author of several works of fiction and non-fiction, Dave Eggers is best known for the memoir "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius," a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He is also the founder of McSweeney's publishing house in San Francisco, and is an acclaimed journalist who writes for The Guardian and elsewhere.

"The Parade" takes place in an unnamed country as two contractors work to complete a road leading from a formerly rebellious part of the country into the capital city.

In this wide-ranging interview, he also talks about Trump rallies and their surprisingly diverse audiences, and about his career as a writer and screenwriter.

The complete 35-minute interview can be found as a Radio Wolinsky podcast. [1]

 

Recorded in the green room at KQED in San Francisco. Thanks to KQED and McSweeney's.

[1] https://kpfa.org/area941/episode/dave-eggers/

John Lanchester, whose latest novel is "The Wall," is interviewed by Richard Wolinsky.

The Wall takes place in a very possible future in which the world's beaches have disappeared as the planet has warmed and oceans have grown. Taking place in an unnamed country, which is clearly England, a wall has been built not only to protect the land from the rising seas, but to keep out refugees fleeing no longer inhabitable countries. The protagonist is a young man who must guard the wall, and if it's breached, he is forced out of the country.

John Lanchester is a novelist and essayist who has written for The London Review of Books, the Guardian and other publications.

Extended 41-minute Radio Wolinsky podcast. [1]

[1] https://kpfa.org/area941/episode/john-lanchester/

Tommy Orange, author of the novel "There There," in conversation with Richard Wolinsky.

Winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award, the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize, and the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. "There There" is set in and around Fruitvale and the Coliseum areas in Oakland, and looks at the lives of several Native Americans, young and old, as they converge for a giant pow-wow. The novel stretches back in time to the takeover of Alcatraz and forward to the present day, shattering stereotypes and delving into the real lives of the urban Native American.

Tommy Orange was born and raised in Oakland, and is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma.

An extended 33-minute version of this interview can be found as a Radio Wolinsky podcast. [1]

[1] https://kpfa.org/area941/episode/tommy-orange-there-there/

Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007), interviewed in 1991 by Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff. March, 2019 marked the 50th anniversary of the publication of “Slaughterhouse Five.”

In 1991, while on tour for his collection of essays, “Fates Worse Than Death,” Kurt Vonnegut Jr. stopped in the KPFA studios to speak with the hosts of the “Probabilities” program about his work, his career, and his feelings about life and politics.

This interview was originally recorded in September, 1991 and was digitized, remastered and re-edited in 2011 by Richard Wolinsky.

This was the last interview of any kind to occur in the off-air studio in KPFA’s old offices on Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley. The new radio station on Martin Luther King Jr Way was already operational but we were able to squeeze in this last one in the old building.

Complete 31-minute Radio Wolinsky podcast. [1]

[1] https://kpfa.org/area941/episode/encore-interview-kurt-vonnegut-1991/

Brian Garfield, who died on December 29, 2018, one month shy of his eightieth birthday, wrote at least sixty-five novels, most of them westerns, three collections of short stories, three books of non-fiction and several works for film and television. Though writing mostly in the western genre, he is best known for the revenge novel Death Wish, which became a hit movie starring Charles Bronson in 1974, along with Hopscotch, which became a successful film with Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson in 1980. His 1982 Western Films: A Complete Guide is still the definitive work on the subject.

In 1983,Richard Wolinsky, along with Richard A. Lupoff and Lawrence Davidson sat down with Brian Garfield to talk about his career. An extremely prolific writer at the time of the interview, and only in his early 40s, Brian Garfield’s output declined precipitously afterward, with only two novels and one non-fiction book published over the final 35 years of his life.

Brian Garfield’s best novel, Wild Times, is currently out of print, though a kindle edition is available for a low price. The mini-series of Wild Times and the musical Legs never came out on DVD and are unavailable for streaming, The original Death Wish and its sequels can be rented on Amazon and Hopscotch is available free on Kanopy through your public library. A remake of Death Wish came out in theaters in 2018, starring Bruce Willis, and promptly flopped. It is currently streaming on Epix.

This podcast was digitized and re-edited in 2019 by Richard Wolinsky. The podcast is dedicated to the memory of Patricia Lupoff, who was also present at the interview.

An extended 58-minute version of this interview can be found as a Radio Wolinsky [1] podcast.

[1] https://kpfa.org/area941/episode/brian-garfield-1939-2018/

Barry Eisler, whose latest novel is “The Killer Collective,” in conversation with Richard Wolinsky.

The author of fifteen novels in the thriller genre, plus short stories and essays, Barry Eisler is an attorney who spent three years working in the CIA before realizing he did not want a career in a government bureaucracy. Most of his novels feature a mixed race Asian/Caucasian assassin named Rain. Two other characters, a black ops specialist named Ben Treven and a Seattle detective named Livia Lone, also appear in various books. All three characters come together in “The Killer Collective,” which examines a government cover-up in the Secret Service, and outsourcing involving a mercenary army similar to Erik Prince’s company (formerly known as Blackwater).

In this interview, Barry Eisler discusses his career as a writer, secrecy in government, how he builds his novels, along with his use of technological extrapolation, which often pans out in real life.

Extended Radio Wolinsky podcast [1]

[1] https://kpfa.org/area941/episode/barry-eisler-the-killer-collective/