Amos Oz (1939-2018), author of “A Tale of Love and Darkness” and other books, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded in San Francisco in December 7, 2004, while he was on tour for his memoir, “A Tale of Love and Darkness”. Encore podcast originally posted on January 13, 2019.

Amos Oz, the noted Israeli novelist, short story writer, essayist and peace activist, and perennial Nobel Prize candidate, died on December 28th, 2018 at the age of 79. The author of forty books, he was a firm believer in the two-state solution who felt, over the previous decade, that the hope for peace appears to be slipping away. Today, it’s gotten worse of course.

Today his greatest work is considered to be the memoir of his family, set against the background of the rise of Nazi Germany, World War II, and the formation of the state of Israel, and culminating in the suicide of his mother. A Tale of Love and Darkness, was published in Israel in 2002 and two years later in the United States.

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R.L. Stine, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff, recorded in the KPFA studios on September 22, 1995 during the book tour for the adult novel, “Superstitious.”

On September 22, 1995, Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff had the chance to interview R.L. Stine in the KPFA studio about his first adult novel, Superstitious. At the time, both the first series of Fear Street and Goosebumps were still being written, and a 1990s Goosebumps TV series was yet to make its debut.

R.L. Stine, who recently turned 80 years old, is often called the Stephen King of young adult and children’s horror. With nearly 500 books under his belt alongside several film and TV adaptations, he is best known for two series and their later iterations, Fear Street and Goosebumps

A new Goosebumps series recently completed its run on Disney+ and Hulu, and the film Zombie Town debuted in theaters in September 2023 and is now available on Hulu.

He doesn’t go into it in the interview, but along with his books written as R.L. Stine, he also write dozens of humor books for kids under the name Jovial Bob Stine. What he does talk about here is his writing process, his thoughts about the work he does, and how it appears his various children and young adult books have created lifelong readers and improved test scores in elementary and high schools across the country.

To date, “Superstitious” is only one of four adult novels written by R.L. Stine. This interview was digitized, remastered and re-edited in November 2023 and has not been heard in over twenty five years.

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A.S. Byatt (1936-November 18, 2023), in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky on ​​​​​January 27, 2003 while on tour for the novel, “A Whistling Woman.” This would be the first of two interviews, the second in 2010 for her novel The Children’s Book.

Born Antonia Drabble and sister to novelist Margaret Drabble, A.S. Byatt spent her early professional life as a teacher before becoming a full time writer in 1983. In 1978 she began the first of a tetralogy, The Virgin in the Garden, which continued with Still Life, Babel Tower, and finally A Whistling Woman.

Her 1990 novel, Possession, probably her best known work, won the Booker Prize. and was turned into a successful film by Neil LeBute. Her novella Morpho Eugenia was adapted into a film titled Angels and Insects in 1995.

Over the course of her career, she wrote ten novels, the last of which was Ragnarok: The End of the Gods in 2011, along with six short story collections, a two-novella collection titled Angels and Insects, and nine essays and biographies. Her final work was a short story collection, Medusa’s Ankles, published in 2021.

This wide-ranging interview focuses not only on her most recent novel, but on the build-up to the American invasion of Iraq, which would happen in March, 2003, her views on Umberto Eco’s works, genre fiction, and other issues.

Remastered and re-edited by Richard Wolinsky, November 18-19, 2023.

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Tim O’Brien, whose latest novel, a contemporary satire, is “America Fantastica,” in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky, recorded at Book Passage on November 6, 2023.

The author of ten previous novels, winner of the National Book Award in 1978 for Going After Cacciato, and acclaimed for his linked collection of stories about the Vietnam War, The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien took a 20-year break from writing to help raise his late-in-life children. He returned with a non-fiction book about those years, Dad’s Maybe Years, and has now come out with a satirical novel, America Fantastica.

This new book, written before and during the Covid pandemic, focuses on the nature of lying, and how America has fallen into a pandemic of lying. A satire set in California, Texas and Minnesota, and focuses on a former journalist who made a career of lying, and on other assorted liars.

In the interview, Tim O’Brien discusses this new book, and also discusses his feelings about war, about Vietnam, and about being a writer.

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​​​​​Kazuo Ishiguro, in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky, recorded October 6, 2000 while he was on tour for his novel “When We Were Orphans.”

The winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature, Sir Kazuo Ishiguro is recognized today as one of the world’s leading authors. Nominated four times, he won the Booker Prize in 1989 for The Remains of the Day, and was most recently nominated for an Academy Award for his screenplay for the 2022 film “Living.”

In this interview, he discusses his most recent book at that time, When We Were Orphans, and talks about how he became a writer and the relationship of his Japanese heritage to his life in Great Britain, where he’s lived since he was six years old. His most recent novel, a parable, is titled Klara and the Sun, and was published in 2021. This interview was digitized, remastered and edited in November 2023 and has never been heard in its entirety.

Along with Living, which can be seen on Netflix, Kazuo Ishiguro has written screenplays for The Saddest Music in the World, now on AMC plus. An Adaptation of Never Let Me Go can be found on Starz, and one of An Artist of the Floating World is on Amazon Prime. Both The White Countess, for which he wrote the screenplay, and his adaptation of the Remains of the Day can be rented on various apps. A television series adaptation of Never Let Me Go was announced and then cancelled.

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Margaret Atwood, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded in the KPFA studios June 10, 2003 while on tour for the novel “Oryx and Crake.”

One of the most distinguished authors writing today, Margaret Atwood is best known for her novel “The Handmaid’s Tale,” and well as several other novels, short stories, poems, essays and political commentary.

In this interview from 2003, she discusses her science fiction novel “Oryx and Crake,” first of what later became a trilogy including ‘Year of the Flood” and “Maddadam,” as well as her views on the then-recent Bush invasion of Iraq and other topics.

This is the fifth of eight interviews with Margaret Atwood conducted between the years 1989 and 2013. The full interview is newly remastered and edited.

Margaret Atwood I, 1989: Cat’s Eye, The Handmaid’s Tale

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Ben Fountain, whose latest novel is “Devil Makes Three,” in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded at Book Passage Bookstore in Corte Madera, October 19, 2023.

Ben Fountain is the author of one previous novel, “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,” which won the  National Book Critics Circle Award and was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2012. His non-fiction book about the 2016 election, “Beautiful Country, Burn Again” was published in 2018. His earlier short stories were collected in “Brief Encounters with Che Guevara,” which won the PEN/Hemingway Award in 2007/

“Devil Makes Three” is a long dense novel set in Haiti in 1992, beginning with the coup that toppled the democratically elected government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and features four main characters: a young CIA agent on her first assignment, an American everyman who runs a dive shop, and a brother and sister from a wealthy family. The young American becomes a favorite of the leader of the coup, who is a scuba fanatic, and the story goes from there.

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Russell Banks (1940-2023), who died on January 7, 2023, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded in the KPFA studios on November 11, 2004 while on tour for his novel, The Darling.

Russell Banks, who died on January 7th, 2023 at the age of 82 was a master of long and short form fiction. In a career that began in 1975 and continued to his death, there were 14 novels, six collections of short stories, two volumes of poetry, and three works of non-fiction. Among his novels were Affliction and The Sweet Hereafter, both of which became critically acclaimed films, plus Continental Drift and Cloudsplitter. His most recent novel, The Magic Kingdom, was published in 2022. This is the second of two interviews and has not been heard in almost two decades. 2000 Interview with Russell Banks.

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Heather Cox Richardson discusses her latest book, “Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America,” with host Richard Wolinsky, recorded October 4, 2023.

A Professor of History at Boston College, Heather Cox Richardson began four years ago a daily newsletter on Facebook, “Letters from an American.” Today, that newsletter has become a must-read for anyone interested in how current history relates to the historical record. She is the author of “How the South Won the Civil War” and several other books, with her specialty being the history of the Republican Party in the 19th Century.

“Democracy Awakening” is a look at how America’s politics changed into the current crisis in democracy, what that crisis looks like, and using history as a guide, helps us understand where to go in the future.

In this interview, Prof. Richardson discusses much of this, with side-journeys into the 19th Century and some current issues.

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Mick Herron discusses his latest novel, “The Secret Hours,” and the Slough House series of of spy novels and stories with host Richard Wolinsky.

Mick Herron has written eight books in the Slough House series of novels about a tiny corner of MI5 for rejects and misfits, people who have screwed up but not been fired. They are known collectively as “Slow Horses,” which is the title of the television series starring Gary Oldman as their boss, Jackson Lamb.

“The Secret Hours” is located in the same world as the series, but serves as a stand-alone novel about an inquiry into MI5’s past, set up by a conservative government out to rein in the Secret Service.

In the interview, Mick Herron discusses the origins of the book and of the Slough House series, as well as his career as a writer, and his writing process. Recorded via Zencastr September 22, 2023.

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