Episodes

  • September 4, 2025: The Bookwaves Archive: Jim Harrison – Susan Orlean

    September 4, 2025: The Bookwaves Archive: Jim Harrison – Susan Orlean
    Sep 4 2025
    Bookwaves/Artwaves is produced and hosted by Richard Wolinsky. Links to assorted local theater & book venues Two from the Bookwaves Archive Jim Harrison (1927-2016), “Returning to Earth,” 2007 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, illness, 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. Among his best known novels were Legends of the Fall and Wolf, both of which became major Hollywood films. This interview was recorded while he was on tour in 2007 for his novel, Returning to Earth, which revisits characters from his 2005 novel, True North. The conversation was wide-ranging, touching on not only his work but also life in New York after 9/11, the columnist David Brooks, the education system, and life in Hollywood in the ’90s. Susan Orlean, “Rin Tin Tin,” 2007 Susan Orlean has been a staff writer for the New Yorker since 1992. Along the way she’s written for Rolling Stone, the Boston Globe, Esquire, Vogue and other magazines. Her book, The Orchid Thief became the acclaimed Oscar-nominated film Adaptation. This interview, which was recorded in October 2011 during her tour for Rin Tin Tin, The Life and the Legend. The Library Book, which dealt with a fire at the Los Angeles Public Library, was published in 2018., and her most recent book, On Animals, was published in 2021. She has also been a staff writer for the HBO show, How To with John Wilson. Over all, to date, she’s written ten books and one Kindle single. Her memoir, Joyride, will be published in October 2025. (Photo: Susan Orlean website) The post September 4, 2025: The Bookwaves Archive: Jim Harrison – Susan Orlean appeared first on KPFA.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr
  • August 28, 2025: Carl Hiaasen, Master of the Comic Thriller

    August 28, 2025: Carl Hiaasen, Master of the Comic Thriller
    Aug 28 2025
    Bookwaves/Artwaves is produced and hosted by Richard Wolinsky. Links to assorted local theater & book venues Carl Hiaasen is a novelist best known for writing humorous and satiric crime thrillers set in Florida. His latest novel, Fever Beach, satirizes the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, corrupt nepo Florida Congress-critters, and rich right-wing geriatric billionaires. Until 2021, he was a regular columnist for The Miami Herald, appearing every Sunday to discuss political and social issues. He is interviewed by host Richard Wolinsky. In this in-depth interview, he discusses the writing of “Fever Beafch and how difficult it has been to create satire during the Trump years, his views on what’s happening in Washington and Florida, the adaptation of his novel “Bad Monkey” for Apple Plus, and his process of writing. Recorded August 13, 2025. The post August 28, 2025: Carl Hiaasen, Master of the Comic Thriller appeared first on KPFA.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr
  • August 21, 2025: Erik Larson: The Start of the Civil War

    August 21, 2025: Erik Larson: The Start of the Civil War
    Aug 21 2025
    Bookwaves/Artwaves is produced and hosted by Richard Wolinsky. Links to assorted local theater & book venues Erik Larson, “The Demon of Unrest,” 2024 ​​Erik Larson, author of “The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War,” in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky, recorded at Book Passage Bookstre on May 31, 2024. Erik Larson is the author of several bestsellers of non-fiction narrative, including The Devil in the White City, The Splendid and the Vile, and In The Garden of Beasts. His latest book, just out in trade paperback, concerns the days and months preceding the start of the Civil War, focusing on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, along with what life was like in the antebellum South at the time, the march to war, the election of Abraham Lincoln, and the various triggers that led to the Civil War. In this interview he discusses how he came to write the book, some of the more interesting facts about the time of the Civil War, and how he became an author of these best-sellling narratives. Photos: Richard Wolinsky. Complete Interview. The post August 21, 2025: Erik Larson: The Start of the Civil War appeared first on KPFA.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr
  • August 14, 2025: John Barth, Master of Metafiction

    August 14, 2025: John Barth, Master of Metafiction
    Aug 14 2025
    Bookwaves/Artwaves is produced and hosted by Richard Wolinsky. Links to assorted local theater & book venues John Barth (1930-2024) John Barth (1930-2024), who died on April 2, 2024 at the age of 93, was America’s leading writer of metafictional and post-modern fiction. This interview was conducted by Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff on November 12, 2001 in the KPFA studios, while on the book tour for the novel Coming Soon. John Barth began to receive notice for his two earliest novels, The Floating Opera and End of the Road in the late 1950s, but burst on the scene with his epic comic novel about colonial life in Maryland, The Sot-Weed Factor, and his allegory of the Cold War, set on a university campus, Giles Goat-Boy. His short story collection, Lost in the Funhouse and novella collection Chimera cemented his reputation as a writer of meta-fiction, as the stories zoom back on themselves and on the writing of those stories. From Wikipedia: “In his epistolary novel LETTERS (1979), Barth corresponds with characters from his other books. Later novels such as The Tidewater Tales (1987) and The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor (1991) continue in the metafictional vein, using writers as protagonists who interact with their own and other stories in elaborate ways. His 1994 Once Upon a Time: A Floating Opera casts Barth himself as the protagonist who on a sailing trip encounters characters and situations from previous works.” After the 2001 interview, he continued to work in the same vein with a triptych of novellas, Where Three Roads Meet in 2005, interrelated short stories set in a retirement community, The Development: Nine Stories in 2008, and Every Third Thought: A Novel in Five Seasons in 2011. A, book of collected stories was released in 2015 and Postscripts (or Just Desserts): Some Final Scribbling came out in 2022. This interview was both the last interview conducted with Richard Lupoff as co-host, and the final interview recorded and edited on analog tape. This program was digitized and edited in July 2024 by Richard Wolinsky. Complete 46-minute Interview Lorrie Moore is a celebrated short story writer and novelist. In this excerpt from an interview recorded April 8, 2014 while on tour for her collection, Bark, she discusses her writing and research process. Complete 40-minute Interview. Review of “The Return” a Golden Thread production at The Garret in ACT’s Toni Rembe Theatre through August 24, 2025. The post August 14, 2025: John Barth, Master of Metafiction appeared first on KPFA.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr
  • August 7, 2025: Nature Author Robert Macfarlane, “Is A River Alive?”

    August 7, 2025: Nature Author Robert Macfarlane, “Is A River Alive?”
    Aug 7 2025
    Bookwaves/Artwaves is produced and hosted by Richard Wolinsky. Links to assorted local theater & book venues Robert Macfarlane: “Is A River Alive?” Robert Macfarlane, whose latest book is “Is a River Alive,” in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky. The best-selling nature writer, and author of “Underland” and “The Old Ways” discusses the relationship of the human race to nature in the context of the rights of natural phenomena, specifically rivers. What rights does the earth have in terms of man’s hegemony? Where do we fit in nature? In this interview, recorded recorded June 11, 2025, he talks about his journey to three rivers: a cloud forest in South America, a dying river in India, and a river that runs through eastern Canada, along with a look at the spring near his home in England, and puts them all in context of environmentalism and politics. He is the author of several books, including “”Mountains of the Mind” and “Ghostways,” Robert Macfarlane teaches at Cambridge University. The post August 7, 2025: Nature Author Robert Macfarlane, “Is A River Alive?” appeared first on KPFA.
    Show More Show Less
    54 mins
  • Bookwaves/Artwaves – July 31, 2025: Isaac Asimov – Ray Bradbury

    Bookwaves/Artwaves – July 31, 2025: Isaac Asimov – Ray Bradbury
    Jul 31 2025
    Bookwaves/Artwaves is produced and hosted by Richard Wolinsky. Links to assorted local theater & book venues Isaac Asimov Isaac Asimov (1920-1992), in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded in New York City on August 10, 1983. Isaac Asimov, who died at the age of 72 in 1992, was considered, along with Ray Bradbury and Robert Heinlein, one of the three great masters of American science fiction in the 20th century. Isaac Asimov began sending in stories and getting published in science fiction magazines at the age of nineteen, and at the age of 21, with the publication of the short story “Nightfall” in John W. Campbell’s Astounding Stories magazine. moved into the first ranks of science fiction writers. That status was confirmed a year later with the publication of the short story, “Foundation,” later renamed “The Encyclopedists,” which would be the first of several short stories and novellas republished as the three volumes of the Foundation trilogy. In the 1940s, he turned to a series of stories focused on robots, which became the collection I Robot and then in the 1950s turned to novels, including Pebble in the Sky, The Caves of Steel and The End of Eternity. Along the way, through his entire career, he wrote dozens of non-fiction books on a wide variety of topics, along with young adult novels, and mystery novels and short stories. In the end, the number of books he wrote or edited exceeded 500, not counting separate short stories and articles. This interview was conducted in a New York City bookstore Asimov was visiting to sign copies of a new collection, The Union Club Mysteries, a year after his return to the world of the Foundation trilogy, Foundation’s Edge, was published. Because his two –volume autobiography had come out a couple of years earlier and dealt with the plots and themes of his fiction, the interview focused instead on his life as a writer and his work with editors and publishers.. Complete 47-minute Radio Wolinsky podcast. Ray Bradbury Ray Bradbury, the legendary author who passed away in 2012, sat down for an interview with Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff in 1992 at his home in Los Angeles. Though called a science fiction or fantasy writer, Ray Bradbury spanned all genres, from poetry to mystery to mainstream fiction. Among his works include The Martian Chronicles, Something Wicked This Way Comes, Farenheit 451 and The Illustrated Man. This interview has been digitized and re-edited by Richard Wolinsky. Complete 38-minute Radio Wolinsky podcast. The post Bookwaves/Artwaves – July 31, 2025: Isaac Asimov – Ray Bradbury appeared first on KPFA.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr
  • July 24, 2025: Gore Vidal Fund Drive Special

    July 24, 2025: Gore Vidal Fund Drive Special
    Jul 24 2025
    Bookwaves/Artwaves is produced and hosted by Richard Wolinsky. Links to assorted local theater & book venues Gore Vidal (1925-2012): “The Golden Age” Gore Vidal, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff, recorded on October 5, 2000 in San Francisco, California. Over a period of sixteen years from 1990 to 2006, Richard Wolinsky conducted four interviews with Gore Vidal, two of which involved co-host Richard A. Lupoff. This is the third chronologically of those interviews, conducted on October 5, 2000 while Gore Vidal was on tour for his novel The Golden Age, the final in his series of seven novels exploring American history and titled “Narratives of Empire.” The other novels in the series are Burr, 1876, Lincoln, Empire, Hollywood and Washington D.C. This conversation mostly concerns the period of The Golden Age, which encompasses the World War II and post-war era, focusing on the war itself, Roosevelt and Truman, Stalin, and the institution of the Cold War and the National Security State. The interview also tackles the Bush v Gore election season, and was conducted a month before Election Day. Digitized, remastered and re-edited in August, 2017 by Richard Wolinsky. The complete interview can be found as a Radio Wolinsky podcast. The post July 24, 2025: Gore Vidal Fund Drive Special appeared first on KPFA.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr
  • July 17, 2025: Martin Cruz Smith (1942-2025) Acclaimed Noir and Literary Novelist

    July 17, 2025: Martin Cruz Smith (1942-2025) Acclaimed Noir and Literary Novelist
    Jul 17 2025
    Bookwaves/Artwaves is produced and hosted by Richard Wolinsky. Links to assorted local theater & book venues Martin Cruz Smith: The Arkady Renko Novels Martin Cruz Smith (1942-2025, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded in the KPFA studio in 2004 and 2013. The great noir and detective author Martin Cruz Smith died of Parkinsons Disease on July 11, 2025 at the age of 82. A journalist originally, and then a writer of paperback fiction under a variety of pseudonyms, he began writing under his own name and became known following the publication of a horror novel, Nightwing, in 1977. Though it wasn’t until 1981 with the release of Gorky Park, a detective novel set in Soviet Russia and featuring investigator Arkady Renko, that he hit best-seller stardom. Over the next few years, he alternated non-series novels with entries in the Renko series, all to much acclaim. There are four Martin Cruz Smith interviews. The first two, both co-hosted with Richard A. Lupoff for Probabilities, were recorded in 1990 while on tour for Polar Star, the sequel to Gorky Park, and then again in 1996 for the award-winning stand-alone novel, Rose. These interviews have yet to be digitized. Today’s program focuses on the two later interviews> Part One: This interview was recorded December 9, 2004 while on the book tour for the Arkady Renko novel, “Wolves Eat Dogs.” Part Two: This interview was recorded December 9, 2013 while on the book tour for the Arkady Renko novel, “Tatiana.” Martin Cruz Smith Wikipedia page Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links Note: Shows may unexpectedly close early or be postponed due to actors’ positive COVID tests. Check the venue for closures, ticket refunds, and mask requirements before arrival. Dates are in-theater performances unless otherwise noted. Some venues operate Tuesday – Sunday; others for shorter periods each week. All times Pacific Time. Closing dates are sometimes extended. Book Stores Bay Area Book Festival See website for highlights from the 110th Annual Bay Area Book Festival, May 31 – June 1, 2025. Book Passage. Monthly Calendar. Mix of on-line and in-store events. Books Inc. Mix of on-line and in-store events. The Booksmith. Monthly Event Calendar. BookShop West Portal. Monthly Event Calendar. Center for Literary Arts, San Jose. See website for Book Club guests in upcoming months. Green Apple Books. Events calendar. Kepler’s Books On-line Refresh the Page program listings. Live Theater Companies Actors Ensemble of Berkeley. Summers at John Hinkel Park: Sundays 4 pm; The Taming of the Shrew through August 31st and Labor Day. See website for readings and events. Actor’s Reading Collective (ARC). Mary Jane by Amy Herzog, directed by Amy Kossow, November 6 – 30, Magic Theatre, Fort Mason. African American Art & Culture Complex. See website for calendar. Afro-Solo Theatre Company.See website for calendar. American Conservatory Theatre Kim’s Convenience by Ins Choi, Sept 18 – Oct 19, Toni Rembe Theatre. Aurora Theatre At Marin Theatre: Eureka Day by Jonathan Spector, August 28 – September 21. Awesome Theatre Company. See website for information. Berkeley Rep. The Reservoir .by Jake Brasch, Sept. 5 – Oct 12, Peets Theatre. See website for summer events. Berkeley Shakespeare Company See website for upcoming events and productions. Boxcar Theatre. The Illusionist with Kevin Blake, live at the Palace Theatre. Brava Theatre Center: See calendar for events listings. BroadwaySF: Shucked, Sept 9 – October 5, Curran. Les Miserables, Sept 24 – October 5, Orpheum. See website for complete listings for the Orpheum, Golden Gate and Curran Theaters. Broadway San Jose: & Juliet, Oct. 7-12; Some Like It Hot, Oct. 21-26. See website for other events. Center Rep: Indecent by Paula Vogel, September 7 – 28. Lesher Center. Central Stage. See website for upcoming productions, 5221 Central Avenue, Richmond Central Works Dada Teen Musical: The Play by Maury Zeff, Oct. 18 – Nov. 16, Cinnabar Theatre. Sherwood: The Adventures of Robin Hood by Ken Ludwig, September 12-28, Sonoma State. Club Fugazi. Dear San Francisco ongoing. Check website for Music Mondays listings. Contra Costa Civic Theatre Pippin, August 30 – Sept. 14. See website for other events. Golden Thread See website for upcoming productions. Hillbarn Theatre: Murder for Two, a musical comedy, October 9 – November 2, 2025. Lorraine Hansberry Theatre. Sunset Baby by Dominique Morisseau, directed by Margo Hall, September 11 – 28. Los Altos Stage Company. Cabaret, Sept. 4 -29. Lower Bottom Playaz August Wilson’s Two Trains Running, August 8 -31. August Wilson’s King Hedley II, November 8 -30. BAM House, Oakland. Magic Theatre. Jerry Garcia in the Lower Mission by Richard Montoya, August 29-30. See website for additional events. Marin Shakespeare Company: The Tempest, August 15 -September 14, Forest Meadow Amphitheater. See website for other events. Marin ...
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr