June 23, 2023
Sick and Writing: Two Poets Converse
Fleda Brown and Jennifer Sperry Steinorth talk about the impact of illness, and their own illnesses, on a writing life. Jennifer Sperry Steinorth: You and I have said that we’d […]
September 1, 2018
Below the Real World
Introduction Over thirty years ago I was introduced to Laurence Lieberman via his poem “The Coral Reef ” in a contemporary American literature class. Even if you’ve never been […]
October 1, 2007
A Conversation with Rebecca McClanahan
Rebecca McClanahan’s most recent books are Deep Light: New and Selected Poems 1987-2007 and The Riddle Song and Other Rememberings, which won the 2005 Glasgow Award for nonfiction. She has […]
July 1, 2007
A Conversation with Ian McEwan
Ian McEwan received the 2006 Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement. He is the author of nine novels, with a new one to appear in the summer of 2007, along […]
July 1, 2002
Public Dreaming: An Interview with David Malouf
David Malouf was born in Brisbane, Australia, in 1934, the descendant of Lebanese and English grandparents. In 1970, he established himself as a poet with Bicycle and Other Poems (published […]
July 1, 1998
Still Negotiating with the Images: An Interview with Yusef Komunyakaa
In 1994 Yusef Komunyakaa was awarded both the Pulitzer Prize and the Kingsley Tufts Award for his collection Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems. Born and raised in Bogalusa, Louisiana, […]
April 1, 1998
Rooted in a Small Space: An Interview with Kazuo Ishiguro
We are meeting at the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Chicago’s Gold Coast district, the perfect setting for an interview with Kazuo Ishiguro, straight out of his novel The Unconsoled. […]
April 1, 1998
A Harsh Day’s Light: An Interview with Marge Piercy
Even the directions for the journey on Route 6 to Marge Piercy’s home in bucolic Wellfleet, Massachusetts, have the feel of a literary odyssey. Follow Main Street west to the […]
July 1, 1995
I Am a Woman Writer; I Am a Western Writer: An Interview with Ursula Le Guin
Ursula Le Guin is America’s preeminent writer of science fiction. However, one should not be confused and call her only a science fiction writer, because—as she will tell you—since the publication […]
January 1, 1995
The City, the Waterworks, and Writing: An Interview with E. L. Doctorow
The author of nine novels—Welcome to Hard Times, Big as Life, The Book of Daniel, Ragtime, Loon Lake, Lives of the Poets, World’s Fair, Billy Bathgate, and The Waterworks, as […]
October 1, 1994
Moving toward Truth: An Interview with Dorothy Allison
In March 1993 Dorothy Allison’s novel, Bastard Out of Carolina, nominated for the 1992 National Book Award, had just been published in paperback, and she was at the Charles Hotel […]
July 1, 1994
Isn’t Reality Magic? An Interview with Rita Dove
Rita Dove was born in 1952 in Akron, Ohio, and holds a B.A. from Miami University and an M.F.A. from Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She has been a Fulbright Scholar studying […]