KPFA - Bookwaves/Artwaves

Hanya Yanagihara is the author of the novel A Little Life, which has become a literary sensation and was short-listed for the prestigious Man Booker Prize. She talks about her career and about how she came to write this long, intimate novel about the lives of four New Yorkers over the span of two decades. Hosted by Richard Wolinsky.

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

[1] https://kpfa.org/area941/episode/hanya-yanagihara-a-little-life/

Edward Abbey, who died at the age of 62 back in 1989 was a novelist, short story writer and non-fiction essayist who is now known as the father of the radical environmentalist movement and one of the great voices of America’s unfettered west. Through his novels and his essays and journals, He argued in defense of the wilderness and personal freedom against government and corporate forces that would inhibit both.

There are nine novels, a book of poetry, fourteen collections of essays and journals, three omnibus works, and two books of letters. One book became a classic film, Lonely are the Brave, another a less successful TV film.

After having published three novels to little effect, his publisher suggested an essay collection. Thus came, in 1965, Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness, and modern radical environmentalism was born.

Ten years later came his best known work, The Monkey Wrench Gang, a comic novel that focuses on sabotage in the name of environmentalism. It has obviously never become a film. In 1985, the novel was reissued as a hardback featuring illustrations by R. Crumb. He died four years later at the age of sixty two of complications from surgery.

This program is taken from an interview conducted on his book tour for the Monkey Wrench Gang reissue in July 1985, conducted by Richard Wolinsky and Lawrence Davidson. Edward Abbey insisted the interview occur over lunch at an outdoor café in the B&B where he was staying. Eventually the ambient noise became too great and the interview moved indoors. The poor sound quality is due not only to the original issues but to the state of the budget cassette.

Written, produced and hosted by Richard Wolinsky.

Also: Review of "La Cage aux Folles" at SF Playhouse.

Elmore Leonard (1925-2013) was a leading light in the field of crime and noir fiction. Author of such novels as Get Shorty, Stick, Rum Punch and other thrillers which became films, he also was the vision behind the now classic television show, Justified. 

In this documentary using material from interviews conducted in 1988 and 1989, host Richard Wolinsky lets Elmore speak, in his own words, about his career and his writing process. Produced by Richard Wolinsky.

Previously aired on January 2, 2014 and unavailable in the KPFA archives, a 36-minute version of this documentary can be found as a Radio Wolinsky podcast.

Interviews originally conducted by Richard A. Lupoff, Richard Wolinsky and Lawrence Davidson.

Film critic Richard Schickel (1933-2017) in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded in 2003.

Richard Schickel, who died on February 18, 2017 at the age of 84, spent forty-five years as film critic for Time Magazine. During his lifetime he wrote 36 books, most of them about film, and produced and directed thirty-four documentaries, all about film.

This interview was recorded while he was publicizing his book, "“Good Morning Mr. Zip Zip Zip: Movies, Memory and World War II." In the book he discusses his early love of movies, and more importantly, the movies as propaganda element during World War II. The interview occurred during the height of the invasion of Iraq, and of course that element came into play.

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

Also in this program: a review of "The Glass Menagerie" at Cal Shakes.

 

[1] https://kpfa.org/area941/episode/richard-schickel-1933-2017/

Jacqueline Woodson is interviewed by host Richard Wolinsky.  One of the leading writers of children’s and young adult fiction, Jacqueline Woodson’s latest adult novel, “Another Brooklyn,” tells the story of four African American girls growing up in Brooklyn during the 1970s, focusing on August, a transplant from the South with a single father, growing up during a turbulent era and struggling to find herself. “Another Brooklyn” is a finalist for this year’s National Book Award for fiction.

An extended 37 minute version of this interview can be found here. [1]

Jacqueline Woodson website. [2]

Also: Review of "Splendour" at Aurora Theatre Company.

[1] https://kpfa.org/area941/episode/jacqueline-woodson/

[2] http://www.jacquelinewoodson.com/

Carl Hiaasen, whose latest comic thriller is Razor Girl, is interviewed by Richard Wolinsky.

Carl Hiaasen is both a best-selling novelist and a weekly syndicated political columnist for the Miami Herald. Over the past thirty years, he’s been working both sides of the pavement, writing humorous crime novels for adults and young people, and devoting column inches to trenchant examinations of state and national politics. Two of his novels, Strip Tease and Hoot, became films.

On September 11, 2016, Richard Wolinsky had a chance to sit down with Carl Hiaasen just before an event at Book Passage Bookstore in Corte Madera, California.

Carl Hiaasen’s Sunday columns can be found on the Miami Herald Website  [1](it takes a while to find the most recent columns). You can also check out carlhiaasen.com. [2]

An extended version of this interview can be found as a Radio Wolinsky [3] podcast.

Special Thanks to Elaine Petrocelli and the folks at Book Passage Bookstore [4].

Also: Review of "An Octoroon" at Berkeley Rep.

[1] http://www.miamiherald.com/

[2] http://carlhiaasen.com/index.shtml

[3] https://kpfa.org/area941/episode/carl-hiaasen/

[4] http://www.bookpassage.com/

John Fisher, artistic director of Theatre Rhinoceros in San Francisco, discusses its latest production, the musical "Priscilla Queen of the Desert," at the Eureka Theater in San Francisco through July 1st. He also discusses the upcoming season as well as the production of Shakespeare's King Lear at Yerba Buena Gardens July 7th through 9th.

Theatre Rhino website [1]

Also: Previously unaired xcerpts from a 1998 interview with Gore Vidal, hosted by Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff. Complete interview can be found as a Radio Wolinsky podcast.

 

[1] http://therhino.org/

Gore Vidal, in conversation on March 11, 1998 with Richard Wolinsky and Richard A Lupoff.

Gore Vidal, who died in 2012 at the age of 86, was known for many things: a novelist, an essayist, a political pundit, screenwriter, playwright, actor and historian. Richard Wolinsky first had a chance to interview him in 1990 when he came to Berkeley to participate in a Pacifica Foundation event. That interview can be found as a Radio Wolinsky podcast [1].

The second interview, on March 11, 1998, occurred while Gore Vidal was publicizing his latest novel at the time, a comic science fiction fantasy novel, The Smithsonian Institution. The interview conducted by co-hosts Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff, was focused first on the book, and then on the politics of the time, including the demonization of the Clintons over health care, and then on Gore Vidal’s own history as a social critic. The interview has not been heard since its original broadcast nearly two decades ago.

Digitized and re-edited in 2017 by Richard Wolinsky. A shorter version of this interview aired on KPFA as an Arts-Waves program. There were two more interviews, another co-hosted with Richard A. Lupoff in 2000, and a final solo interview in 2006. Both will eventually be posted on Radio Wolinsky.

Complete interview on Radio Wolinsky. [2]

Also: Review of "The Legend of Georgia McBride" at Marin Theatre Company.

[1] https://kpfa.org/area941/episode/encore-podcast-gore-vidal-1990/

[2] https://kpfa.org/area941/episode/gore-vidal-1998/

Han Ong is a playwright whose latest work is "Grandeur," at the Magic Theater in San Francisco through June 25, 2017. He is interviewed by KPFA theater critic Richard Wolinsky. Han Ong has written several plays since the 1990s, and two novels, including the well-reviewed "Fixer Chao" in 2001. This is his second play following a twelve-year absence. "Grandeur" concerns a meeting between a journalist and the late poet and writer Gil Scott-Heron in 2010 upon the release of the album "I'm New Here," and a year before the poet's death.

Han Ong was born to Chinese parents and spent his first sixteen years in the Philippines before moving to Los Angeles and getting involved in the theater world. A high school dropout who received a MacArthur Genius Award, he is well known for his plays about dislocation and alienation.

An extended version of the interview can be found on KPFA's Bay Area Theater podcast.. [1]

Magic Theatre website. [2]

Also: a review of the play "The Roommate" at San Francisco Playhouse.

[caption id="attachment_264399" align="aligncenter" width="402"] Carl Lumbly as Gil Scott-Heron in "Grandeur:"[/caption]

[1] https://kpfa.org/area941/episode/interview-han-ong-grandeur/

[2] http://magictheatre.org/season/season

Wes Craven (1939-2015), noted director of horror and genre films, interviewed by Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff on October 13, 1999 while on tour for his one novel, "Fountain Society."

Wes Craven, who died at the age of 76 on August 30, 2015, was considered one of the masters of cinema’s horror genre. Best known for The Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream films, ,He was best known for two series of films, the Nightmare on Elm Street films, and the Scream series, which also served as an academic deconstruction of the genre. Starting life as a humanities professor, Wes Craven moved over to film as first a sound editor, and then film editor before turning to writing and directing with The Last House on the Left. Along with the first Nightmare film (and the deconstruction last New Nightmare entry), he directed all four Scream films, along with Red Eye, Cursed, The Serpent and the Rainbow, and the non-genre Meryl Streep vehicle, Music of the Heart.

His first and only novel, "Fountain Society," was published in 1999, and it was during his book tour that he stopped by KPFA where he was interviewed by Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff. That interview was digitized and re-edited in 2017 by Richard Wolinsky.

An extended version of this interview was posted March 2017 as a Radio Wolinsky podcast. [1]

Also: review of "Monsoon Wedding," at Berkeley Rep thru July 9, 2017.

[1] https://kpfa.org/area941/episode/wes-craven-1939-2015/