The 58th episode brings back the excellent Dr. Dianne Luce to discuss with us McCarthy’s 2006 play The Sunset Limited (or is it a novel in dramatic form?). Produced first by the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago in May of 2006, it later went on to open in New York. Dianne Luce saw it in Chicago during that opening run and we’ve both seen the Tommy Lee Jones directed film version which aired on HBO in 2011. The play shows two men, a cynical, atheist white professor and an evangelical Black ex-con, w...
Jun 05, 2025•1 hr 18 min•Season 4Ep. 58
This past December your not-so-intrepid host was able to make a pilgrimage to San Marcos, Texas, to visit the Wittliff Collection in the Alkek Library at Texas State University and plumb its treasure trove of McCarthy archives. My guest in this episode is Katie Salzmann, who has been Lead Archivist at The Wittliff Collections at Texas State since 2004. Prior to that, she worked with literary and historical manuscript collections at Southern Illinois University and Howard University. She holds a ...
Feb 12, 2025•44 min•Season 4Ep. 57
This episode has a history that winds like a West Texas border road. My guests are the Brothers Elmore, and we originally recorded it in April but one of the tracks went bad. So finally at the end of our collective academic semesters, we once again discussed No Country for Old Men, speculating about its origins, its commentary on neo-liberalism, the film adaptation, and how some critics tried to read the author through the novel. Twin brothers, the Elmores collaborate on their work on McCarthy. ...
Jan 01, 2025•56 min•Season 4Ep. 56
Episode 55 is a discussion with award winning novelist, short story writer, poet, and big-time McCarthy fan, Ron Rash. Ron attended Gardner Webb University in Boiling Rock NC and then earned his master’s in English at Clemson University. He is a writing and English faculty member at Western Carolina in Cullowhee, NC, where he serves as the John and Dorothy Parris Distinguished Professor of Appalachian Cultural Studies. Ron has won many (I mean, many ) honors and awards, including the Academy of ...
Nov 18, 2024•42 min•Season 4Ep. 55
This episode of READING MCCARTHY welcomes to the podcast for the first time Austin Smith. Austin studied history and literature at the University of Georgia. He has worked as a photographer and a professional adventure photographer, following the art into aviation, mountaineering, and motorcycle racing. He now leads a human resources consulting business in Denver, Colorado . A couple of years ago he hooked up an Airstream fifth wheel RV to his truck and, armed with a load of McCarthy novels, fol...
Oct 21, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Season 4Ep. 54
This 53rd episode of READING MCCARTHY takes a long ramble down THE ROAD, McCarthy’s 2006 Pulitzer Prize winning novel of a father and son enduring life in a harrowing, ashen landscape after some undisclosed apocalypse. For this discussion I’m glad to welcome back guest Dr. Bryan Vescio. Professor and Chair of English at High Point University in North Carolina, Dr. Vescio has previously joined us for discussions on Suttree and Cities of the Plain , among others. He is the author of the 2014 book ...
Aug 02, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Season 4Ep. 53
Episode 52 is a round table considering the impact of Ernest Hemingway’s writing on the works of Cormac McCarthy. Joining us for this discussion are Dr. Olivia Carr Edenfield, Professor of English at Georgia Southern University. She is a founding member of the Society for the Study of the American Short Story and Director of the American Literature Association. She has recently published a defense of the mother in The Road in the CMJ. Dr. Brent Cline is an associate professor of English at Hills...
Jun 24, 2024•1 hr 38 min•Season 3Ep. 52
Although the fact often goes unacknowledged, it is a truth that sometimes an author’s residence within and endurance in the canon is a result of how that author is perceived and taught in the academy. Most literary scholars are also professors and teachers. For this episode of Reading McCarthy I round up some of the usual suspects for a panel discussion upon teaching the works of McCarthy to students. The guests include Stacey Peebles, Chair of the English program, Director of Film Studies, and ...
May 04, 2024•1 hr 28 min•Season 3Ep. 51
The guest for our 50th episode is the OG himself, the redoubtable RICK WALLACH, who joins us for a rousing discussion of No Country for Old Men. Somehow both Batman and Godzilla are referenced as we consider both the novel and the Coen Bros. film. Rick Wallach has recently retired from teaching English at the University of Miami. He is a founder of the Cormac McCarthy society, the senior and primary editor of the Cormac McCarthy Society casebook series, and editor of the two-volume collection of...
Apr 05, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Season 3Ep. 50
In this episode we head across the border one more time for a consideration of the Border Trilogy as a whole. How does knowing how the story begins and ends change how we read any of the different parts? My guests on this filibuster over the border include Dr. Nell Sullivan, a Kentuckian who earned her BA in English from Vanderbilt University and earned her PhD from Rice University. She is currently Professor of English at University of Houston-Downtown, where she teaches courses in American lit...
Jan 16, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Season 3Ep. 49
The guest for this episode is Dr. Nick Monk, who joins me for a consideration of perhaps McCarthy’s most idiosyncratic work. The 90s were an exciting time for McCarthy fans. In 92 he published the award winning All the Pretty Horses, followed two years later by the next installment in the Border Trilogy, The Crossing. Before he would go on to close out the trilogy in 98, however, in 1995 he also published a strange and fascinating play, The Stonemason. The play is about the Telfairs, a family of...
Dec 16, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Season 3Ep. 48
Episode 47 of READING MCCARTHY considers the author’s references to and uses of disability in its many forms. My guest DR BRENT CLINE. He has published articles and chapters involving disability on Walker Percy, James Agee, and Daniel Keyes. His review of The Passenger/Stella Maris was published with The University Bookman. He teaches a seminar on McCarthy every two years. As always, readers should beware: there be spoilers here. Thanks to Thomas Frye, who composed, performed, and produced the m...
Nov 14, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Season 3Ep. 47
In this episode we ride to the end of the road in the last episode of the Border Trilogy, CITIES ON THE PLAIN. My guest for this foray is Dr. Bryan Vescio, Professor and Chair of English at High Point University in North Carolina. A guest on former episodes on faith and Suttree, Dr. Vescio is the author of the 2014 book Reconstruction in Literary Studies: An Informalist Approach , as well as numerous articles on American authors including Mark Twain, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, Nathanael W...
Oct 03, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Season 3Ep. 46
This is our final of 3 tribute episodes in the wake of Cormac McCarthy's passing this past June. Guests on this final tribute episode include: Dr. Steven Frye, professor and chair of English at California State University in Bakersfield. Steve has just stepped down as President of the Cormac McCarthy Society. He is the author of Understanding Cormac McCarthy (Univ. of South Carolina Press) and editor of The Cambridge Companion to Cormac McCarthy , and Cambridge UP’s Cormac McCarthy in Context . ...
Sep 11, 2023•1 hr 33 min•Season 3Ep. 45
In the wake of Cormac McCarthy's passing on June 13, 2023, a number of excellent tributes and discussion pieces were published. In this second of three tribute episode, we've asked for permission for the authors to read some of those tributes to McCarthy here on the podcast and we have also solicited a couple of others. The guests this episode include: Stacey Peebles, Chair of the English program, Director of Film Studies, and the Marlene and David Grissom Professor of Humanities at Centre Colle...
Aug 16, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Season 3Ep. 44
On June 13, 2023, we lost a literary giant. Cormac McCarthy, the greatest writer of our time (in this podcast's completely unbiased opinion) passed away in Santa Fe, New Mexico, his home these past couple of decades. E-mails and queries started pouring in, mostly asking, "are you going to do a special tribute podcast? And the answer to that, is yes. Episode 43 is the first of 3 planned tribute episodes to McCarthy. Joining us for this first panel is a roundup of some of the usual suspects: Diann...
Jul 29, 2023•1 hr 38 min•Season 3Ep. 43
Like the rest of the world I learned this past Tuesday, June 13th, that Cormac McCarthy had passed away at the age of 89. This episode had already been recorded, but I thought it would still serve as an initial and quick response to the need to offer a tribute: it's a compilation of the responses to the question What's your favorite McCarthy novel, and why? from the podcast's first 16 guests. The guests responding to the "favorite book and why" question this episode are: Steven Frye, Dianne Luce...
Jun 19, 2023•1 hr 18 min•Season 3Ep. 42
Episode 41 is our second excursion over the border as the Brothers Elmore and I finish our conversation about THE CROSSING. Returning as the guests are twin scholars Jonathan and Rick Elmore. That's right, twins. Jonathan Elmore is Associate Professor of English at Savannah State University and the Managing Editor of Watchung Review .. He is the editor of Fiction and the Sixth Mass Extinction: Narrative in an Era of Loss (Lexington) and co-author of An Introduction to African and Afro-Diasporic ...
May 31, 2023•39 min•Season 3Ep. 41
Episode 40 is a long ride through rough country as we dig into The CROSSING, McCarthy's masterful middle volume in the Border Trilogy. My guests today are twin scholars Jonathan and Rick Elmore. That's right, twins. Jonathan Elmore is Associate Professor of English at Savannah State University and the Managing Editor of Watchung Review .. He is the editor of Fiction and the Sixth Mass Extinction: Narrative in an Era of Loss (Lexington) and co-author of An Introduction to African and Afro-Diaspor...
May 12, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Season 3Ep. 40
Cormac still types his novels on an Olivetti typewriter and your host can't figure out Facebook. So for Episode 39 we bring in some expert help in the form of a lively discussion with Redditor supreme Joe Parslow. He has moderated the Cormac McCarthy subreddit for over a decade and has seen it grow from its first post in April 2012 to its current position as the largest online community devoted to the works of Cormac McCarthy. In March 2023 the membership of the subreddit approached 12,000 membe...
Apr 27, 2023•1 hr 13 min•Season 3Ep. 39
Today's guest is George Berridge. George began academic life as a journalist but like Hank Williams saw the light and also began digging deeply into American Literature. He's now the American Literature editor of the Times Literary Supplement. He lives and works in London. His exceptional review of THE PASSENGER and STELLA MARIS was published in October of last year. He joins me in a nice conversation about the role of the literary critic in modern journalism (with of course a focus on the works...
Mar 24, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Season 3Ep. 38
Frequent guests Steven Frye and Stacey Peebles join me for another roundup of All the Pretty Horses, the National Book Award winning novel which finally forced the literary world to sit up and take notice of McCarthy. We climb on and hold tight for this ride through this incredible novel. Stacey Peebles is Chair of the English program, Director of Film Studies, and the Marlene and David Grissom Professor of Humanities at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. She is the author of Welcome to the S...
Feb 26, 2023•1 hr 37 min•Season 3Ep. 37
Like Cormac McCarthy, Wes Morgan was born in the North—Albany, New York rather than Rhode Island—but came south at the age of 4. Wes grew up in Atlanta and earned BS degrees in Physics and Applied Psychology at Georgia Tech. In 1962 Wes moved to Knoxville and began working on his doctorate in psychology. He went on to work as a staff psychologist at Palo Alto Veterans Administration Hospital in California, where he met Marian, who would become his wife, Wes and his family returned to Knoxville i...
Jan 11, 2023•56 min•Season 3Ep. 36
Episode 35 takes a first ride across the border with the novel that would elevate McCarthy's profile and career. All the Pretty Horses won McCarthy the National Book Award following its publication in 1992 and was McCarthy's first best-selling novel. Our guest for this episode is Dr. Allen Josephs. A Hemingway scholar as well as a Cormackian, Allen Josephs is a past president of the Ernest Hemingway Foundation and Society and a past president of the South Atlantic Modern Language Association. He...
Dec 19, 2022•1 hr•Season 2Ep. 35
Some six weeks or so after the publication of McCarthy's first novel in 16 years, The Passenger, we have its slim companion volume, the little sister, if you will, Stella Maris. In this brief review, I again forego the normal conversation format to offer a quick first-take review of the newest McCarthy novel, one that many presume will be the last book of his published in his lifetime. The novel is composed of the recording of 7 interviews conducted with Alicia Western, genius and sister to The ...
Dec 08, 2022•26 min•Season 2Ep. 34
This episode is a thorough discussion of McCarthy's use of the animal kingdom in his works. My guest in this episode is Wallis Sanborn, Chair of the Department of English, Mass Communication, and Drama, and Graduate Program Head of the Master of Arts-Master of Fine Arts in Literature, Creative Writing, and Social Justice Program at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas. Dr. Sanborn is the author of Animals in the Fiction of Cormac McCarthy (2006) and The American Novel of War: A ...
Nov 22, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Season 2Ep. 33
After a sixteen year wait, we finally have a new novel by Cormac McCarthy grasped in our greedy little podcasting clutches. In this episode of the podcast, we break with form a bit. There's no guest discussion this episode; instead we offer a quick review of THE PASSENGER. Is it completely correct to call it McCarthy's "new novel" since we know he's been working on it since at least the early 90s? Has the wait been worth it? Will this prove a worthy finale to a remarkable career? Do you have to ...
Oct 25, 2022•31 min•Season 2Ep. 32
This episode delves again into McCarthy's roots as we consider his intersections with Irish literature. The guest in this episode is Tennessean by birth and now fully Texified, Richard R. Russell is Professor of English and director of graduate programs at Baylor University. He earned an M Phil at the University of Glasgow and his MA and PhD from the U of North Carolina. Books include S eamus Heaney: A Critical Introduction , Edinburgh University Press, Seamus Heaney's Regions . University of No...
Oct 10, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Season 2Ep. 31
The second part of our wonderful panel discussion of Cormac McCarthy’s masterful and shattering novel Blood Meridian . Our returning guests include: Steve Frye, who is professor and chair of English at California State University, Bakersfield and President of the Cormac McCarthy Society. He is the author of Understanding Cormac McCarthy (Univ. of South Carolina Press) and editor of The Cambridge Companion to Cormac McCarthy , and Cambridge UP’s Cormac McCarthy in Context . He has written numerou...
Aug 24, 2022•44 min•Season 2Ep. 30
Three returning guests join us for this first part of our interesting and engaging discussion of Cormac McCarthy’s magnum opus Blood Meridian. Steve Frye is professor and chair of English at California State University, Bakersfield and President of the Cormac McCarthy Society. He is the author of Understanding Cormac McCarthy (Univ. of South Carolina Press) and editor of The Cambridge Companion to Cormac McCarthy , and Cambridge UP’s Cormac McCarthy in Context . He has written numerous journal a...
Aug 09, 2022•55 min•Season 2Ep. 29
