Free Library Podcast

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Zinzi Clemmons | What We Lose Jul 16, 2018

Show notes

Watch the video here. A cofounder and former publisher of Apogee Journal and a contributing editor for Literary Hub, Zinzi Clemmons has had work published in a variety of literary magazines, including Zoetrope: All Story, The Paris Review Daily, and Transition. Raised in Philadelphia to a South African mother and an American father, Clemmons teaches in Los Angeles at The Coleburn Conservatory and Occidental College. Her debut novel, What We Lose, tells the story of Thandi, a young woman caught between cultures as she struggles with love, unexpected motherhood, and the loss of the person who shaped her the most. (recorded 7/13/2017)

Kevin Hearne | Besieged with Chuck Wendig | Star Wars: The Aftermath Trilogy and Fran Wilde | Updraft Jul 16, 2018

Show notes

Watch the video here. In conversation with Dena Heilik, Department Head of Philbrick Hall, the fiction department of the Central Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia. Kevin Hearne is the author of the New York Times bestselling Iron Druid Chronicles, the ancient-Celtic-meets-contemporary-mayhem action-adventure series featuring 2,000-year-old Atticus O'Sullivan. In his latest adventure, the immortal Irishman dodges traps in ancient Egypt and soul-stealing demons at a Kansas carnival. Chuck Wendig's many works include the YA Heartland series, Blackbirds, and the Atlanta Burns books; the Emmy-nominated digital narrative Collapsus; a popular blog, terribleminds.com; and several celebrated books about writing. Wendig's New York Times bestselling Star Wars: Aftermath trilogy tells the canon story of the events that occurred between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. Fran Wilde's Nebula Award-nominated debut novel, Updraft, won the 2016 Andre Norton Award and the Compton Crook Award. Cloudbound is the second installment in the inventive Bone Universe saga, a series that explores a lofty society of towers populated by residents who strap on wings and soar the skies in search of their destinies. (recorded 7/14/2017)

Lawrence Wright | The Terror Years: From al-Qaeda to the Islamic State Jul 16, 2018

Show notes

Watch the video here. In conversation with Dick Polman, "Writer in Residence" at the University of Pennsylvania, and national political columnist at WHYY's Newsworks.org A longtime staff writer for The New Yorker, Lawrence Wright won the Pulitzer Prize for The Looming Tower, a ''wrenchingly intimate and boldly sweeping'' (The New York Times) narrative that explains the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and the intelligence mistakes that led to the 9/11 attacks. His other nonfiction books include In the New World, Thirteen Days in September, and Remembering Satan. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Society of American Historians, Wright has written and performed two one-man plays, co-produced the Emmy-winning documentary Going Clear, and is currently producing a television series based on The Looming Tower. In 10 watershed pieces first published in The New Yorker, his new book charts the course of Middle East terrorism since the 1990s. (recorded 7/27/2017)

Loudon Wainwright III | Liner Notes: On Parents & Children, Exes and Excess, Death & Decay, & a Few of My Other Favorite Things with Eileen Myles | Afterglow (a dog memoir) Jul 16, 2018

Show notes

Watch the video here. With a career spanning four decades, 26 studio albums, and untold scores of concerts, Loudon Wainwright III is one of the world's most loved singer-songwriters. A prolific actor in a variety of television and film roles, he can also boast of being the father of Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright, and Lucy Wainwright Roche, three musical luminaries in their own right. In his new memoir, the folk patriarch and son of a celebrated Life magazine columnist reflects on the ups and downs of his career, the inspirations for his art, and the familial relationships that have marked him the most. ''A kick-ass counter-cultural icon'' (The New Yorker), Eileen Myles is the celebrated author of nearly two dozen books of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, plays, and performance pieces, including Chelsea Girls, I Must Be Living Twice, and The Irony of the Leash. Her lengthy list of honors includes a Guggenheim Fellowship in nonfiction, the Clark Prize for Excellence in Art Writing, and an Andy Warhol/Creative Capital Arts Writers Grant. Afterglow is a multi-genre examination of the pet/pet-owner relationship told through the prism of Myles's 16-year relationship with her beloved pit bull Rosie. (recorded 9/12/2017)

Edward Snowden in Conversation with Jeremy Scahill | The Surveillance State Then and Now Jul 16, 2018

Show notes

Watch the video here. In 2013 NSA contractor Edward Snowden shook the pillars of the worldwide intelligence community when he revealed a trove of highly classified information that exposed astonishingly widespread mass U.S. surveillance overreach on a variety of international and domestic levels. Labeled a hero and whistleblower by some, he was formally charged with espionage and has been granted asylum in Russia, where he lives in an undisclosed location. In this one-of-a-kind interview, Snowden will discuss these revelations along with the current status of the surveillance state with Jeremy Scahill, investigative journalist, co-founder of the online journal The Intercept, and author of the bestselling books Blackwater, Dirty Wars, and The Assassination Complex. (recorded 9/11/2017)

Nicole Krauss | Forest Dark with Nathan Englander | Dinner at the Center of the Earth Jul 16, 2018

Show notes

Watch the video here. A ''fiction pioneer, toying with fresh ways of rendering experience and emotion'' (NPR), Nicole Krauss is the bestselling author of the acclaimed novels Man Walks into a Room, The History of Love, and Great House. Named one of Granta's Best Young American Novelists and The New Yorker's ''20 Under 40,'' she is the winner of the Saroyan Prize for International Literature and a finalist for the National Book Award, among many other honors. In Forest Dark, Krauss interweaves the disparate paths of an older lawyer and a young novelist searching for transcendence in an Israeli desert. Nathan Englander is the author of the story collections For the Relief of Unbearable Urges and What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, a Pulitzer Prize finalist and winner of the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award. In addition to his widely anthologized short fiction, he is the author of the novel The Ministry of Special Cases, a play titled The Twenty-Seventh Man, and works that have appeared in The New Yorker and The Washington Post, among other places. In his new novel, Englander illustrates the Israeli–Palestinian conflict via a political thriller that hinges on the complicated relationship between a guard and his secret prisoner. (recorded 9/14/2017)

Stephen Greenblatt | The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve Jul 16, 2018

Show notes

Watch the video here. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award for The Swerve: How the World Became Modern, Stephen Greenblatt is widely acclaimed as the father of New Historicism, which strives to understand works of literature within their historical and social contexts. His other books include the New York Times bestselling Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare, Hamlet in Purgatory, and Learning to Curse: Essays in Early Modern Culture. A two-time Guggenheim fellow and former president of the Modern Language Association, Greenblatt is Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University. The Rise And Fall of Adam and Eve delves into the boundless creation story of the founding parents of all humanity. (recorded 9/15/2017)

Tom Perrotta | Mrs. Fletcher Jul 16, 2018

Show notes

Watch the video here. ''A daring chronicler of our most profound anxieties and human desires'' (Washington Post), Tom Perrotta is the author of some of the most popular and critically acclaimed novels of our time, including Election, which was adapted into an Oscar-nominated film starring Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon; Little Children, which was adapted into a film for which he won an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay; and The Leftovers, named to several prominent best-of-the-year lists and adapted by HBO into a popular TV series. In Mrs. Fletcher, Perrotta tells the story of an empty-nester whose placid life is upended by an anonymous salacious text message. (recorded 9/19/2017)

Adam Gopnik | At the Strangers' Gate: Arrivals in New York Jul 16, 2018

Show notes

Watch the video here. In conversation with Meg Wolitzer, bestselling author of The Interestings among many novels. A writer for The New Yorker for more than three decades, Adam Gopnik is the author of Paris to the Moon, Angels and Ages: A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life, and The Table Comes First, an ''unapologetically intelligent yet charmingly witty'' (The Atlantic) bite into the deeper truths of food culture. A three-time recipient of the National Magazine Award and a winner of the George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting, Gopnik was decorated with the French Republic's medal of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters. At the Strangers' Gate is a memoir of his 1980s move to a peculiar New York that is both romantically familiar yet light years from today's incarnation. (recorded 9/22/2017)

Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook | Federal Donuts: The (Partially) True Spectacular Story Jul 16, 2018

Show notes

Watch the video here. Lauded for bringing the Middle Eastern, North African, Mediterranean, and Eastern European influences from Solomonov's titular Philadelphia restaurant to readers' home kitchens, Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook's Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking won the 2016 James Beard Book of the Year and Best International Cookbook award. Solomonov won the 2011 James Beard Award for ''Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic,'' and his restaurants have been recognized by Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, and Travel + Leisure. At once a madcap bio of their donut mini-empire, canticle to American passion, and collection of cult-favorite recipes, Solomonov and Cook's new book tells the ''hole'' story of all things ''Fednuts.'' In conversation with Tom Henneman, Bob Logue, and Felicia D'Ambrosio Moderated by culinary expert, food writer, and permanent judge on BRAVO's Emmy-winning series Top Chef, Gail Simmons. She also makes frequent television appearances on TODAY and Good Morning America, and is the author of the 2012 memoir Talking With My Mouth Full and the forthcoming cookbook Bringing It Home: Favorite Recipes from a Life of Adventurous Eating. She was named the #1 Reality TV Judge in America by the New York Post. (recorded 9/25/2017)

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