December 29. 2016
Anne Rice, author of Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis and The Vampire Chronicles.
The latest novel in Anne Rice's series of books featuring Lestat and her other vampire characters hearkens back to the origins of Amel, the spirit in all vampires, back in Atlantis. Second in her current series.
December 22, 2016
Jonathan Safran Foer, author of the novel Here I Am.
Here I Am tells the story of a family in crisis set against powerful political forces in Washington DC. One of the NY Times Notable Books of 2016.
December 19, 2016
Emma Rice, co-adaptor & director of 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips at Berkeley Rep through January 15th.
December 5, 2016
John Lahr, author of Joy Ride: Show People and their Shows and Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh. John Lahr spent 21 years as theater critic for The New Yorker, writing profiles and reviews, some of which are collected in Joy Ride, which examines playwrights, directors and their shows. He is also the author of a recent biography of Tennessee Williams, which focuses on the playwright's later years. Recorded in September, 2015.
December 1, 2016
Jane Smiley, author of the Last Hundred Years trilogy: Some Luck, Early Warning, and Golden Age. An epic trilogy of novels, telling the story of one hundred years, year by year, from 1920-2019, in the life of an Iowan farming family, interacting with the economic and political and social news of the decades as they happen. Rebroadcast from Jan., 2016.
November 28, 2016
Martin Moran, playwright and performer, The Tricky Part and All The Rage, at A.C.T.’s Strand Theater November 29th through December 11th.
Interview recorded September, 2005 on publication of the book The Tricky Part, a memoir about childhood abuse and growing up gay.
November 24, 2016
Lynsey Addario, author of It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of Love and War.
A memoir about life in war zones, from Afghanistan and Iraq to Darfur. Riveting, and soon to be a film directed by Steven Spielberg. Rebroadcast from April 5, 2015.
November 21, 2018
Arthur Laurents (1917-2011), author of Original Story By.
Co-hosted by Richard A. Lupoff. Arthur Laurents was a playwright (Time of the Cuckoo), librettist (West Side Story, Gypsy), screenwriter, and theater director. In this interview recorded in San Francisco on April 7, 2000 while on tour for his memoir, Original Story By, he discusses his life and career.
November 17, 2016
James Gleick, author of Time Travel
The author of the highly acclaimed The Information takes a look at time travel in fact and fiction, from H.G. Wells to Albert Einstein. The strength of the book is the science, not the fiction, which only covers a handful of short stories and novels.
November 14, 2016
Ed Decker, Artistic Director, New Conservatory Theatre Center
November 10, 2016
Marisa Silver, author of Little Nothing.
A fairy tale set in the early years of the twentieth century, Little Nothing is about tranformations as an Eastern European girl goes through different manifestations in a backdrop of war and the changing face of civilization. Marisa Silver is a former film director.
November 7, 2016
Election Special: Carl Hiaasen and Adam Haslett. The Adam Haslett section is previously unaired, the Carl Haissen section is part of a longer Radio Wolinsky podcast.
November 3, 2016
Jacqueline Woodson author of Another Brooklyn.
The coming of age of four African American girls growing up in Brooklyn in the 1970s is a poetic tour de force, a finalist for the National Book Award. Jacqueline Woodson is better known as one of the premier writers of young adult and middle school fiction.
October 31, 2016
Gore Vidal, 1990. Recorded at KPFA.
The great novelist, playwright, essayist and political gadfly discusses his entire career.
October 27, 2016
Elizabeth Alexander, author of The Light of the World
The noted poet writes a memoir about grief and the death of her husband, using poetry and other literary devices to tell her story. Rebroadcast from 2015
October 24, 2016
American Conservatory Theatre Special. ACT Artistic Director Carey Perloff interviews playwright Tom Stoppard
October 17, 2016
October 20, 2016
Joel Selvin, author of Altamont: The Rolling Stones, The Hells Angels and the Inside Story of Rock’s Darkest Day.
A fascinating look at the legendary disastrous Altamont concert in December 1969 and its effect on music culture, from the role of the Rolling Stones and Hells Angels, to the culture wars raging inside the hippie community.
October 13, 2016
Joe McGinnis Jr., author of the novel, Carousel Court.
The son of the noted journalist, Joe McGinnis Jr shows how a family falls apart during the mortgage crisis of 2008 as they struggle to survive in a neighborhood of abandoned McMansions in California's Inland Empire.
October 10, 2016
Bill English, Artistic Director of San Francisco Playhouse
October 6, 2016
Susan Faludi, author of In The Darkroom
In the Darkroom is a memoir about Susan Faludi's reconnection with her estranged father, who had moved back to Hungary and had a sex-change operation. The book is about identity, not only sexual, but also national and religious, and reads like a novel.
October 3, 2016
Jonathan Lethem in Berkeley. Excerpts from a live interview recorded March 3, 3016 as a benefit for KPFA. Jonathan Lethem is the acclaimed author of Motherless Brooklyn, Fortress of Solitude, Chrome City and other novels. His latest novel, A Gambler's Anatomy, is released this month.
September 29, 2016
Carl Hiaasen, author of Razor Girl, and Miami Herald political columnist.
Carl Hiaasen is one of the best authors today in the field of comic crime novels. Razor Girl, as with previous books, is set in southern Florida (in this case Key West) and satirizes the state's politics and culture, including environmental issues and reality television.
September 26, 2016
W.P. Kinsella (1935-2016), author of Shoeless Joe.
Interview recorded April 19, 1988 with Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff. While Shoeless Joe became the film Field of Dreams, Kinsella was also a master of the short story and an underrated novelist.
September 5, 2016
Carolina de Robertis, author of The Gods of Tango, now out in trade paperback. The Gods of Tango tells the story of an young woman, an Italian immigrant to Buenos Aires, Argentina, at the turn of the 20th Century who strives to become a tango musician by disguising herself as a man.
Thursday September 1, 2016
Adam Hazlett author of Imagine Me Gone.
Imagine Me Gone uses autobiographical elements to tell the story, over several years, of the shadow of mental illness and suicide hovering over what otherwise would be a loving family.
Monday August 29, 2016
The Gershwin Project I: English Strunsky. Ira Gershwin's brother in law, recorded August 25, 1992. First in a series of interviews recorded in the 1990s about George and Ira Gershwin, most of which have never aired.
August 25, 2016
Matti Friedman, author of Pumpkinflowers.
Pumpkinflowers is the story of an Israeli outpost in southern Lebanon in the late 1990s, as seen from the eyes of conscripted Israeli soldiers who were stationed there. That war is now forgotten, and the hopefulness of the era has turned grim. Friedman served at the Pumpkin, and later went to Lebanon and saw the region as a tourist.
August 22, 2016
Jasson Minadakis, Artistic Director, Marin Theatre Company
August 18, 2016
Kim Addonizio, author of Bukowski in a Sundress and Mortal Trash. Poet, novelist and short story writer, Kim Addonizio has built up a reputation as one of the most original and quirky voices writing today. Her memoir, Bukowski in a Sundress, deals with issues involving being a writer, dealing with an elderly parent, and working through issues of childhood.
August 15, 2016
Garry Marshall 1934-2016. Garry Marshall, the creator of the classic TV series Happy Days and The Odd Couple, and director of such films as Pretty Woman and Overboard, came through the Bay Area in 2012 on a book tour for his memoir, My Happy Days in Hollywood. A terrific raconteur, he even talks about how Fonzie jumped the shark.
August 11, 2016
Justin Cronin, author of The City of Mirrors, third volume of "The Passage" series.
Justin Cronin's best-selling fantasy/science fiction post-apocalyptic trilogy details what happens following the outbreak of a virus that turns people into vampire zombies. But it's not your standard genre series because Cronin is a literary writer who deals with various issues present in today's environment.
August 8, 2016
Tony Taccone, Artistic Director of Berkeley Rep.
July 18-August 4: pre-empted
July 14, 2016
Jim Obergefell, co-author of Love Wins: The Lovers and Lawyers Who Fought the Landmark Case for Marriage Equality. Written like a thriller, Love Wins, co-written by journalilst Debbie Cenziper, tells the story of the marriage equality case against the backdrop of Jim and John’s relationship, and the relationships of others who also joined the case.
July 11, 2016
John Leguizamo, writer and performer, Latin History for Morons, at Berkeley Rep through August 14, 2016. (Also includes obituary for Lawrence Davidson, founder of this program when it was called Probabilities)
July 7, 2016
Barbara Cook, author of Then & Now: a memoir.
Barbara Cook was the original Cunegonde in the Leonard Bernstein musical Candide, the original Marian the Librarian in The Music Man, and the original Amalia in She Loves Me. After a bout with alcoholism and weight gain in the early 1970s, she emerged as one of the leading interpreters of the American popular song canon. This fascinating memoir follows her life and her career. The interview was recorded at her apartment in New York.
July 4, 2016
Paula McLain, author of Circling The Sun, now out in paperback. A novel about the early life of famed aviatrix Beryl Markham, set mostly in colonial Kenya and dealing with her complicated relationship with Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen) and other expatriates.
June 30, 2016
Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of The Sympathizer.
Viet Thanh Nguyen came over from Vietnam with his family at the time of the fall of Saigon. The Sympathizer is the story of a Communist exile in America following the end of the Vietnam War, both a spy and in some respects, a lover of American culture.
June 27, 2016
Edwin Outwater, conductor and Richard Lonsdorf, programmer, San Francisco Symphony Summer Concert Series.
June 23, 2016
Jamie Brickhouse, author of Dangerous When Wet: A Memoir of Booze, Sex and My Mother, which deals with his life growing up gay in Beaumont, Texas and ending up an alcoholic in New York. Jamie Brickhouse is a former publicity director for several large publishing houses who has also worked as a stand-up comedian and storyteller. His memoir deals with his relationship with his overbearing mother, and his move to New York, where he became the life of the party, until the party overwhelmed his life.
June 20, 2016
Contributor C.S. Soong with a special report on the re-opening of SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art). Excerpt of an interview with playwright Ayad Akhtar.
June 16, 2016
Whit Stillman, author and director of Love & Friendship (movie and book). Whit Stillman, director of films such as Metropolitan and Damsels in Distress, had his biggest commercial hit in 2016 with this wonderful adaptation of a Jane Austen epistolary novella, which he then turned into a novelization as if it was written by the older Austen, and then coupled his story with that of the original.
June 13, 2016
Tom Ross, Artistic Director of Aurora Theatre Company.
June 9, 2016
Adam Hochschild, author of Spain In Our Hearts: Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939. A brilliant history of the Spanish Civil War, focusing on a handful of Americans who wrote diaries and letters speaking of their involvement. With the rise of fascism in the United States, this history becomes extremely timely.
June 6, 2016
Yann Martel, author of The High Mountains of Portugal and Life of Pi. Rebroadcast from March 10, 2016.
Yann Martel became an international figure with the publication of his novel, Life of Pi, and the subsequent award-winning film by director Ang Lee. Yann Martel’s latest novel, The High Mountains of Portugal, consists of three sections, set in three different time periods, and is a philosophical investigation into the nature of faith.
June 2, 2016
Laura Tillman, author of The Long Shadow of Small Ghosts: Murder and Memory in an American City. This book is the true story of a horrific murder in Brownsville, Texas, and its relationship to the community, putting violent crime in the context of society at large.
May 30, 2016
Eric Ting, Artistic Director of California Shakespeare Theatre.
Fund Drive Pre-emptions.
May 5, 2016
Stewart O'Nan, author of the novel, City of Secrets. O'Nan's latest novel is a Graham Greene type thriller, set in Jerusalem in the aftermath of World War II, during the battles between various Jewish underground groups and British forces. A page turning literary thriller.
May 2, 2016
Evren Odcikin, director and Humaira Ghilzai, cultural consultant, The Most Dangerous Highway in the World, a Golden Thread production, at Thick House in San Francisco through May 29, 2016.
April 28, 2016
T. Geronimo Johnson, author of Welcome to Braggsville
Welcome to Braggsville is a novel in which college students from UC Berkeley go to a small town in Georgia to protest a Civil War re-enactment. Recorded live in front of an audience at Pegasus Bookstore on Solano Avenue in Berkeley.
Now out in trade paperback.
April 25, 2016
J. G. Ballard (1930-2009)
The author of several dystopian end of world novels, as well as the thinly disguised memoir, Empire of the Sun, J. G. Ballard was a key member of the English New Wave science fiction authors of the 1960s, a literary writer who delved deeply into speculative fiction. This interview was conducted by Richard Wolinsky, Richard A. Lupoff and Lawrence Davidson while Ballard was on tour for his novel set in Africa, The Day of Creation. Digitized, remastered and re-edited in 2016 by Richard Wolinsky.
April 21, 2016
Harlan Coben, author of the novel, Fool Me Once
The best-selling author of 28 fast-paced novels of suspense, Harlan Coben has won virtually every major award in the field. His latest book, Fool Me Once, features a protagonist suffering from PTSD, and as with all Coben novels, features unexpected twists. Great vacation reading.
April 18, 2016
Previously unaired excerpts from the Anna Quindlen and A.O. Scott interviews.
April 14, 2016
Anna Quindlen, author of the novel Miller's Valley.
Miller's Valley is set in the late 1960s and early 1970s about a girl in a soon-to-be lost town who comes of age and power with the rise of second wave feminism. Anna Quindlen is a former columnist for the NY Times and Newsweek.
April 11, 2016
Muriel Murch, author of The Bell Lap
The former KPFA host's collection of short stories is based on her life as a nurse, and deals with the doctor-nurse-patient relationship, illness, old age, and other health issues.
April 7, 2016
A.O. Scott, author of Better Living Through Criticism.
A.O. Scott is one of America’s foremost film critics. Since 2002, he’s shared the chief movie review slot at the New York Times with Mahnola Dargis. His book, Better Living Through Criticism: How to Think about Art, Pleasure, Beauty and Truth, takes a look at reviewing and criticism, at some of the challenges critics face, and at some of the issues that roll across his mind every time he writes a review.
April 4, 2016
Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble
Kelly Link writes short stories that employ fantasy and science fictional elements in a way that is remarkably unique. This collection shows her virtuosity and originality.
2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist. Rebroadcast
March 31, 2016
Jim Harrison (1937-2016)
Interview recorded in 2007 on tour for the novel, Returning to Earth. Jim Harrison, who died on March 26th, 2016 at the age of 78, was one of those figures people call “larger than life.” A novelist, essayist, poet, screenplay writer and master of the novella, Harrison dealt in his work with issues such as mortality, living the solitary life, redemption and absolution, work that, as the NY Times obituary said, captured the resonant, almost mythic soul of 20th-century rural America.
March 28, 2016
Kazuo Ishiguro, author of The Buried Giant, now out in trade paper. An allegorical fantasy novel dealing with the nature of genocide and remembrance, taking place in medieval England but based on more recent events.
Recorded at Book Passage in Corte Madera.Rebroacast.
March 24, 2016
Richard Price, author of The Whites, now out in trade paper.
Price's latest novel, written under the name Harry Brandt, tells the story of a group of cops obsessed with "white whales," people who committed crimes and got away with it. As with any Richard Price novel, the depth of characterization is the real key to the work. Rebroadcast from 2015.
March 21, 2016
Umberto Eco (1932-2016)
Recorded June 15, 2005 at KPFA while on tour for The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana. Re-edited for this tribute broadcast.
March 17, 2016
Hanya Yanagihara, author of the novel A Little Life.
A Little Life made a huge splash in the literary world. The story of a group of friends in New York, this long narrative received terrific reviews and was one of six finalists for the prestigious Man Booker Prize. It's stunning and intense and emotionally difficult. A major work.
March 14, 2016
Rachel Bonds, playwright, Swimmers, at Marin Theatre Company through March 27, 2016
March 10, 2016
Yann Martel, author of The High Mountains of Portugal.
Yann Martel became an international figure with the publication of his novel, Life of Pi, and the subsequent award-winning film by director Ang Lee. Yann Martel’s latest novel, The High Mountains of Portugal, consists of three sections, set in three different time periods, and is a philosophical investigation into the nature of faith.
March 7,2016
Jon Beavers, Ian Merrigan, Ramiz Monsef and Casey Lee Hurt, co-creators of The Unfortunates, a theatrical piece at A.C.T.’s Strand Theatre through April 10, 2016
February 22 - March 3, 2016
Fund Drive pre-emptions.
February 18, 2016
Fund Drive Special with KPFA Manager Quincy McCoy. Excerpts of interviews with Leonard Nimoy and Gore Vidal.
February 15, 2016
Matthew McCoy, Artistic Director of Bay Area Musicals.
February 11, 2016
Pamela Rotner Sakamoto, author of Midnight in Broad Daylight: A Japanese American Family Caught Between Two Worlds.
A fascinating look at a Japanese family with members on both sides of World War II, in America at an internment camp and in the army; in Japan in Hiroshima.
February 8, 2016
James Salter (1925-2015)
A writers' writer, James Salter wrote works of fiction and non-fiction as well as screenplays. Interview recorded October 7, 1997 while on tour for his memoir, Burning The Days. Hosted by Richard Wolinsky & Richard A. Lupoff. Remastered and re-edited by Richard Wolinsky in 2016.
February 4, 2016
Dennis Lehane, author of World Gone By.
Now out in trade paper. Recorded at Book Passage in Corte Madera, California. Rebroadcast.
February 1, 2016
Colin Blattel & Michael Socrates Moran of Ubuntu Theater Project in Oakland
January 28, 2016
Janice Y.K. Lee, author of The Expatriates
The Expatriates tells the story of three women from America dealing with being expats in Hong Kong.
Rick Moody, author of Hotels of North America
John Fisher, artistic director of Theatre Rhino
January 21, 2016
Rick Moody, author of Hotels of North America
Hotels of North America is an often screamingly funny book about an internet reviewer with issues. Moody's books are unclassifiable, ranging from science fiction and horror send-ups to experimental works on a variety of issues.
January 18, 2016
Margo Hall, actor, Gem of the Ocean by August Wilson, at Marin Theatre Company through Feb. 14, 2016
January 14, 2016
David Gans & Blair Jackson, authors of This Is All a Dream We Dreamed: An Oral History of the Grateful Dead.
A fascinating look at the life of the legendary San Francisco band from its start in the hippie days to the death of lead guitarist Jerry Garcia in 1994, told by those who were present.
January 11, 2016
Brian Katz, Artistic Director of Custom Made Theatre Company in San Francisco
January 7, 2016
Jane Smiley, author of Some Luck, Early Warning and Golden Age (The Last Hundred Years Trilogy)
An epic trilogy of novels, telling the story of one hundred years, year by year, from 1920-2019, in the life of an Iowan farming family, interacting with the economic and political and social news of the decades as they happen.
January 4, 2016
Jonathan Moscone, Director of Civic Engagement, Yerba Buean Center for the Arts, Former Artistic Director, California Shakespeare Theater (Cal Shakes).
