KPFA - Bookwaves/Artwaves

Douglas Preston, author of “The Lost City of the Monkey God”, now out in trade paper, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky.

Douglas Preston has written several works of fiction and non-fiction, including a best-selling series of thrillers co-written with Lincoln Child (the Agent Pendergast series). In his latest work of non-fiction, Preston delves into the story of a lost city in Honduras, in Mosquitia, and a civilization that vanished after the Spanish came to the Americas.

His story involves con men and crooks who spent decades looking for the city, then turns to a documentarian who became obsessed and eventually took state of the art equipment to discover whether such a city exists. In fact, he found two, and Douglas Preston was there. Still later, in 2015, Preston went on an expedition into the jungle to see what remains of the ruins, and while there contracted a rare and often fatal tropical disease which is currently in remission.

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

Douglas Preston website [2]

[1] https://kpfa.org/area941/episode/douglas-preston-lost-city-monkey-god/

[2] http://www.prestonchild.com/authors/preston/Author-Bios-Douglas-Preston;art63,97

Sue Grafton died on December 28, 2017 at the age of seventy-seven. Best known as the author of a series of mysteries featuring the detective Kinsey Millhone, Sue Grafton was at the forefront of the Sisters in Crime movement --- women authors who wrote crime fiction – starting with her first mystery, A is for Alibi in 1982, and continuing the alphabet through Y is for Yesterday. The final book in the series, Z is for Zero, was never written.

On April 17, 1989, on a book tour for F is for Fugitive, and again on April 13, 1992, for I Is for Innocent, Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff  spoke with Sue Grafton about the history of her career and her writing process. This program is taken from those two interviews.

An extended version of this program can be found as a Radio Wolinsky podcast. [1]

 

[1] https://kpfa.org/area941/episode/sue-grafton-1940-2017/

Helen Benedict, whose latest novel is “Wolf Season,” in conversation with Richard Wolinsky.

A journalist as well as novelist, Helen Benedict focuses on the effects of war, both on civilian and military populations. Her latest novel, “Wolf Season,” takes place in a small town near Albany, New York, where Iraq war veterans and Iraqi refugees both live and work, and what happens when a natural disaster forces them to interact. How does PTSD and trauma affect those who lived or fought in a war zone, and how does that trauma scar them afterward?

NOTE: A computer glitch caused the podcast version to air (minus the intro) instead of the Bookwaves version. Here is the version that was supposed to air:

[audio mp3="https://kpfa.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Benedict_Helen2017AP.mp3"][/audio]

An extended 41-minute version of this interview can be found as a Radio Wolinsky podcast. [1]

[1] https://kpfa.org/area941/episode/helen-benedict-wolf-season/

Kate Jessica Raphael, whose lastest novel is "Murder Under the Fig Tree: A Palestine Mystery" in conversation with Richard Wolinsky.

Activist and radio producer Kate Jessica Raphael discusses her latest novel "Murder Under the Fig Tree," which deals with the gay and lesbian communities in Palestine and Israel, and features her two detectives from "Murder Under the Bridge," a Palestinian detective and an American activist, both of whom join together to solve these murders.

In this wide-ranging interview, she discusses gay and lesbian life in the West Bank and Jerusalem, life in Israeli prisons, the American decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and other issues involving the Mideast.  Kate Jessica Raphael is a long-time producer and host at KPFA-FM and kpfa.org.

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

[1] https://kpfa.org/area941/episode/kate-jessica-raphael-murder-fig-tree/

Jeffrey Eugenides, whose latest book is a collection of short stories, “Fresh Complaint,” in conversation with Richard Wolinsky.

Jeffrey Eugenides won a Pulitzer Prize for his novel “Middlesex.” In the following decade, he’s released one novel, “The Marriage Plot,” and “Fresh Complaint,” this new collection of stories. In this wide ranging interview he discusses some of the stories in the new book, as well as their relation to his own life, and touches on the creation of both the earlier two novels.

Extended Radio Wolinsky podcast. [1]

[1] https://kpfa.org/area941/episode/jeffrey-eugenides-fresh-complaint/

[caption id="attachment_275390" align="alignleft" width="258"] Oliver Sacks and Bill Hayes[/caption]

Bill Hayes, author of "Insomniac City: New York, Oliver and Me," and co-editor of the posthumous collection of essays, "The River of Consciousness" by Oliver Sacks, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky.

The author of three previous books, Bill Hayes moved to New York in 2008 following the sudden death of his long-time partner in order to start fresh. After the move, he wound up becoming partners with noted neurologist and philosopher Oliver Sacks ("Awakenings"). This book, published two years after Sacks' death looks back on their lives together while at the same time taking verbal and visual photographs of random people in New York. Bill Hayes talks about Oliver Sacks, about his career, and about his life was irrevocably changed.

An extended version of this interview can be found as a Radio Wolinsky podcast.

Bill Hayes website [1]

[1] https://www.billhayes.com/

Margot Livesey discusses her latest novel, now in paperback, “Mercury,” with host Richard Wolinsky.

Margot Livesey is known for writing literary psychological thrillers. Born and raised in Britain, she’s lived in the United States for several years, and “Mercury,” a tale of obsession and misunderstanding, is her first set in America.

In this interview, she talks about writing the book, about her career as a writer, and about her work as a teacher of writing.

Extended 41-minute Radio Wolinsky podcast [1]

[1] https://kpfa.org/area941/episode/margot-livesey/

Roz Chast, whose latest book is "Going into Town: A Love Letter to New York" in conversation with Richard Wolinsky.

A regular cartoonist for the New Yorker since 1978, Roz Chast has developed a following for her quirky, strange and funny cartoons.. She started out in the National Lampoon and Village Voice but has since become a regular and familiar artist in the New Yorker.

In this interview, she talks about her start as an artist, discusses how cartoons wind up in the magazine, and focuses on her new book, a graphic guide-book to New York, originally written for her daughter but expanded into an often funny and probably helpful look at the Big Apple.

 

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

Roz Chast website [2]

[1] https://kpfa.org/area941/episode/roz-chast/

[2] http://rozchast.com/

Stephen Greenblatt, whose latest book is "The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve," winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in non-fiction for "The Swerve," in conversation with Richard Wolinsky.

The story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, though only a couple of pages in length, ha proven to be one of the most durable and consequential myths in the history of civilization. Notions such as original sin and the lowered status of women derive (via interpretation) from this awkward and problematic story.

In this wide-ranging interview, Stephen Greenblatt traces the myth and how it has affected society through examination of Saint Augustine (who created the notion of original sin) to Saint Jerome, and as enlightenment weakened the story's influence, through the poet Milton and modern ideas about cloning and in vitro fertilization.

Stephen Greenblatt website [1]

An extended 41-minute version of this interview can be found as a Radio Wolinsky podcast. [2]

[1] http://stephengreenblatt.com/

[2] https://kpfa.org/area941/episode/stephen-greenblatt/

Salman Rushdie, whose latest novel is "The Golden House," in conversation with Richard Wolinsky.

The author of "The Satanic Verses" and several other novels, discusses his latest work of fiction, which focuses on a wealthy Indian family living in New York, and concerns such topics as the relationship of wealth to criminal enterprises in New York and Bombay (Mumbai), the world of the artist in New York, the recent presidential election, film images in our culture, and more.

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

[1] https://kpfa.org/area941/episode/salman-rushdie-golden-house/