In this episode, Er Tai Gao and Robert Dorsett read from Gao's memoir: _In Search of My Homeland: A Memoir of a Chinese Labor Camp_. Dorsett translated the memoir into English, and Gao is an author, painter, critic, and Chinese dissident. He was the City of Asylum Las Vegas writer from 2003 to 2006 and continues to live in Las Vegas. This event was presented in partnership with the UNLV Department of English and the College of Liberal Arts. It took place December 2, 2009 in the Barrick Museum Au...
Dec 03, 2009•59 min
In this episode, novelist E.L. Doctorow -- author of _Billy Bathgate_, _Ragtime_, and _The March_ -- reads from his latest novel, _Homer and Langley_. Doctorow serves as the 2009 Elias Ghanem Chair in Creative writing at UNLV. This event was presented in partnership with the UNLV Department of English and with a generous gift from Jody Ghanem-Zapcal. It took place November 10, 2009 in the UNLV Student Union Ballroom in Las Vegas, NV.
Dec 02, 2009•1 hr 19 min
In this episode, Kay Ryan -- the 2009 U.S. Poet Laureate -- gives the opening reading at the 2009 Vegas Valley Book Festival. Ryan's poetry collections include _The Niagara River_, _Say Uncle_, and _Elephant Rocks_. She has received fellowships from the NEA and the Guggenheim Foundation and was awarded the 2004 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. This event was co-sponsored by the City of Las Vegas Office of Cultural Affairs and Nevada Humanities and took place November 5, 2009 in the Fifth Street School a...
Nov 07, 2009•1 hr 7 min
In this episode, U.S. Poet Laureate Kay Ryan explains how she writes, how her life has shaped her poetry, and her role as Poet-in-Chief. This interview took place on the November 4, 2009 edition of KNPR's "State of Nevada" and is used with the gracious permission of KNPR's "State of Nevada" which podcasts many segments of its programs. See knpr.org/son/feeds for more information.
Nov 07, 2009•30 min
In this episode, pre-eminent novelist E.L. Doctorow discusses his new book, _Homer and Langley_, and the notion of remaking history to create fiction. This interview took place on the November 3, 2009 edition of KNPR's "State of Nevada" and is used with the gracious permission of KNPR's "State of Nevada" which podcasts many segments of its programs. See knpr.org/son/feeds for more information.
Nov 07, 2009•35 min
In this episode, Raj Patel, a noted food scholar, discusses his life and career on the October 13, 2009 edition of KNPR's "State of Nevada." Patel appeared later that night as part of BMI's panel discussion "Food and Hunger: Eating in America." This audio segment is used with the gracious permission of KNPR's "State of Nevada" which podcasts many segments of its programs. See knpr.org/son/feeds for more information.
Oct 14, 2009•1 hr 27 min
In this episode, Alice Waters, the celebrated chef and author; Raj Patel, a noted food scholar; and David Mas Masumoto, a writer and organic farmer, discuss the topic "Food and Hunger: Eating in America." This event was presented in partnership with Three Square and took place October 13, 2009 in the UNLV Student Union Theatre in Las Vegas, NV.
Oct 14, 2009•1 hr 27 min
In this episode, novelist Christina Garcia reads from her latest novel, _A Handbook to Luck_, on the October 6, 2009 edition of KNPR's "State of Nevada." Part of the novel is set in Las Vegas and tells the story of an exiled Cuban magician and his act on the Strip. Garcia currently serves as BMI's 2009-10 Teaching Fellow in Creative Writing. This audio segment is used with the gracious permission of KNPR's "State of Nevada" which podcasts many segments of its programs. See knpr.org/son/feeds for...
Oct 07, 2009•39 min
In this episode, novelist Christina Garcia reads from new and recent work. The author of _Dreaming in Cuban_ and BMI's 2009-10 Teaching Fellow in Creative Writing, Garcia's other novels include _Monkey Hunting_ and _A Handbook to Luck_. This event was presented In partnership with the UNLV Department of English and took place October 6, 2009 in the UNLV Student Union Theatre in Las Vegas, NV.
Oct 07, 2009•1 hr 14 min
In this episode, 2008-09 Bennett Fellows Luljeta Lleshanaku, Mary Palevsky, and Robert Rosenberg discuss their lives, work, projects undertaken while serving at UNLV, and the challenges of their craft. BMI associate director and novelist Richard Wiley moderates. Lleshanaku, an acclaimed Albanian poet, has two collections in English: _Fresco_ and the forthcoming _Child of Nature_. Palevsky, former director of the Nevada Test Site Oral History Project, wrote the noted personal history _Atomic Frag...
Jul 11, 2009•1 hr 21 min
In this episode, 2008-09 Bennett Fellows Robert Rosenberg, Luljeta Lleshanaku, and Mary Palevsky discuss their latest works and the April 27, 2009 BMI event 'Craft: A Conversation.' This interview appeared on the April 24, 2009 edition of KNPR's 'State of Nevada.' Please visit http://blackmountaininstitute.org/ for more information on Rosenberg, Lleshanaku, and Palevsky and on the 'Craft: A Conversation' event. This audio segment is used with the gracious permission of KNPR's 'State of Nevada' w...
Apr 30, 2009•27 min
In this episode, novelist Russell Banks and writer, producer, and actress Guinevere Turner discuss the mechanisms that turn novels into movies. BMI Associate Director Richard Wiley moderates. Banks' novels include _The Reserve_, _Cloudsplitter_, _The Darling_, _The Relation of My Imprisonment_, _Continental Drift_, _Rule of the Bone_, _Affliction_, and _The Sweet Hereafter_. The latter two works were adapted into feature films that received widespread critical acclaim, and _The Darling_ is curre...
Mar 27, 2009•1 hr 19 min
In this episode, writer Russell Banks discusses his life and works and reads from two recent pieces of short fiction. Banks is the founding president of Cities of Refuge North America and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His novels include _The Reserve_, _Cloudsplitter_, _The Darling_, _The Relation of My Imprisonment_, _Continental Drift_, _Rule of the Bone_, _Affliction_, and _The Sweet Hereafter_. The latter two works were ada...
Mar 13, 2009•1 hr 26 min
In this episode, Albanian poet and Bennett Fellow Luljeta Lleshanaku discusses her life and work on the December 23, 2008 edition of KNPR's 'State of Nevada.' A selection of her work is available in English in a volume entitled _Fresco_; and while a Fellow at the BMI, she's working on a collection of essays on modern American culture. Lleshanaku will appear with Mary Palevsky and Robert Rosenberg -- the other two 2008-09 Bennett Fellows -- on Monday, April 27 at the Barrick Museum Auditorium at ...
Feb 25, 2009•33 min
In this episode, writer Russell Banks discusses his new novel _The Reserve_ on the February 19, 2009 edition of KNPR's 'State of Nevada.' Part love story, part murder mystery -- _The Reserve_ is set on the cusp of WWII and raises questions about class, politics, art, love, and madness. Generally regarded as one of the great novelists of the past 40 years, Banks will will serve as UNLV's Elias Ghanem Chair in Creative Writing from mid-February to mid-March and will appear in two upcoming BMI even...
Feb 23, 2009•46 min
In this episode, Farai Chideya, Susan Faludi, Katha Pollitt, and Dina Titus discuss 'Race, Gender, and the Transformation of American Politics.' Chideya is a multimedia journalist who has worked in print, television, and online. Her latest book is _Trust: Reaching the 100 Million Missing Voters_. She currently hosts NPR's 'News and Notes.' Faludi is the author of _Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man_ and _Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women_, which won the National Book Cri...
Jan 21, 2009•58 min
Farai Chideya, NPR Commentator and author of the book _The Color of our Future: Race in the 21st century_, and Katha Pollitt, columnist for _The Nation_ and author of the book _Learning to Drive and Other Life Stories_, discuss the impact of race and gender on the 2008 election on the December 3, 2008 edition of KNPR's 'State of Nevada.' Chideya and Pollitt appeared with Susan Faludi and Congresswoman Dina Titus later that day in a BMI forum held at UNLV entitled 'Race, Gender, and the Transform...
Jan 01, 2009•27 min
Poet, translator, and editor Charles Simic reads from and discusses new and selected work. Simic, the author of eighteen collections of poetry, served as U.S. Poet Laureate in 2007 and is professor emeritus of creative writing and literature at the University of New Hampshire. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1990 for his book of prose poems _The World Doesn't End_, and his 1996 collection, _Walking the Black Cat_, was a finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry. His most recent poetry volume ...
Nov 23, 2008•1 hr 38 min
Poet Charles Simic engages students and faculty in conversation. A casual affair, this event took place in the afternoon of October 21, 2008, in advance of Simic's formal reading which took place later that night. The audio from Simic's formal reading can be found reproduced as episode twenty-seven of the BMI podcast, and video from the reading and from this conversation event can be found in the multimedia section of the BMI website. Visit http://blackmountaininstitute.org/ for more information...
Nov 23, 2008•50 min
Oral historian and Bennett Fellow Mary Palevsky discusses her book _Atomic Fragments: A Daughter's Questions_ on the November 19, 2008 edition of KNPR's 'State of Nevada.' This audio segment is used with the gracious permission of KNPR's 'State of Nevada' which podcasts many segments of its programs. See knpr.org/son/feeds for more information.
Nov 23, 2008•31 min
BMI Executive Director Carol Harter appears on the 11/04/08 edition of KUNV-FM's _Our Metropolis_: a weekly, Las Vegas-focused issues and affairs program hosted by the Greenspun Media Group's John Katsilometes and produced by UNLV's Greenspun College of Urban Affairs journalism and media studies student Sandra Hernandez.
Nov 23, 2008•28 min
Author and Princeton professor Joyce Carol Oates discusses her career and new novel _My Sister, My Love: The Intimate Story of Skyler Rampike_ -- a thinly fictionalized account of the death of JonBenét Ramsey -- on the October 16, 2008 edition of KNPR's 'State of Nevada'. Oates appears Saturday, October 18, 2008 at UNLV as part of the BMI's Fall 2008 lecture season. This audio segment is used with the gracious permission of KNPR's 'State of Nevada' which podcasts many segments of its programs. S...
Oct 17, 2008•19 min
Black Mountain Institute (BMI) Podcast #23: Novelist and Bennett fellow Robert Rosenberg discusses his novel, _This Is Not Civilization_, on the September 29th, 2008 edition KNPR's 'State of Nevada.' This audio segment is used with the gracious permission of KNPR's 'State of Nevada' which podcasts many segments of its programs. See http://www.knpr.org/son/feeds for more information.
Oct 03, 2008•27 min
Black Mountain Institute (BMI) Podcast #22: Lebanese novelist and critic Elias Khoury, author of _Gate of the Sun_ and _Yalo_, and Israeli novelist and playwright A.B. Yehoshua, author of _A Woman in Jerusalem_ and _The Lover_, discuss the intractable situation that exists among Israel, Palestine, and Lebanon. Although great admirers of one another's work, Khoury and Yehoshua do not necessarily agree politically. Nobel Laureate and BMI Senior Fellow Wole Soyinka moderates. PLEASE NOTE that at ce...
Sep 26, 2008•1 hr 2 min
Black Mountain Institute (BMI) Podcast #21: Black Mountain Fellows Tom Bissell, Donna Hemans, and Josip Novakovich discuss writing about places an author doesn't reside and the influence of national identity on the creative imagination. Bissell's acclaimed memoir, _The Father of All Things_, contrasts today's Vietnam with that of the 1970s; Hemans' provocative _River Woman_ shows Jamaica and New York in a fresh perspective; and Novakovich's darkly humorous _April Fool's_ Day paints an absurdist ...
Sep 24, 2008•1 hr 21 min
Black Mountain Institute (BMI) Podcast #20: On the eve of the 2007 CNN Democratic presidential debate held in Las Vegas, Nevada State Senate Minority Leader and UNLV Professor of Political Science Dina Titus leads former CNN news anchor Aaron Brown, _New Yorker_ Washington correspondent Ryan Lizza, and _New Yorker_ staff writer and Iraq correspondent George Packer in a lively examination of election-year politics and the quest for leadership.
Sep 23, 2008•1 hr 26 min
Black Mountain Institute (BMI) Podcast #19: Tom Bissell, Black Mountain Fellow and author of the acclaimed memoir _The Father of All Things: A Marine, His Son, and the Legacy of Vietnam_, is joined by his father, Marine veteran John Bissell, in a conversation about their 2004 trip to Vietnam to retrace John's tour of duty. BMI Executive Director Carol C. Harter moderates.
Sep 17, 2008•1 hr 11 min
Black Mountain Institute (BMI) Podcast #18: Bennett fellows Donna Hemans, Tom Bissell, and Josip Novakovich discuss their experiences in Las Vegas on the 4/28/08 edition of KNPR's "State of Nevada" program. (This audio segment is used with the gracious permission of "KNPR's State of Nevada" which podcasts many segments of its programs. See http://www.knpr.org/son/feeds for more information.)
May 01, 2008•43 min
Black Mountain Institute (BMI) Podcast #17: In advance of the BMI's "Imagination in Exile" (4/2/08) panel event, writer and Bennett fellow Josip Novakovich discusses his work and native Croatia on the 4/2/08 edition of KNPR's "State of Nevada" program. (This audio segment is used with the gracious permission of "KNPR's State of Nevada" which podcasts many segments of its programs. See http://www.knpr.org/son/feeds for more information.)
Apr 03, 2008•13 min
Black Mountain Institute (BMI) Podcast #16: Audio from the Derek Walcott reading held 4/19/07 at UNLV in Las Vegas, NV. For more information on the event, visit: http://blackmountaininstitute.org/news-and-events/events-archive/2006-07/walcott/
Mar 09, 2008•46 min
