Good Afternoon and welcome to another edition of the Avid Reader. Today our guest is Richard Thomas, author of Why Bob Dylan Matters, published by Dey Street Books in November of this year. Dr. Thomas is a professor of the classics at Harvard. He is also, curiously, a preeminent Dylan scholar who has published extensively about him and the literary tradition that surrounds him and in most cases predates him. He teaches a seminar at Harvard titled “Bob Dylan”. Bob Dylan has been a part of my life...
Nov 30, 2017•1 min
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Michael Meyer author of The Road to Sleeping Dragon: Learning China From The Ground Up, published in October by Bloomsbury. The book is the third in a trilogy of works by Mr. Meyer. The first two being The Last Days of Old Beijing and the second, In Manchuria. Michael’s writing has also appeared in the NYT, Time, The Financial Times, The WSJ and many other periodicals and publications. He is a former Pe...
Nov 25, 2017•56 sec
Mark Helprin is a man without a genre. He belongs to no literary school or movement. His books are not adventure stories or mysteries or thrillers or science fiction or fantasy or magical realism, yet elements of each of those can be found between the pages of his many novels. Which include A Dove of the East & Other Stories, Refiners Fire, Winters Tale (a classic), A Soldier of the Great War and the marvelous trilogy Swan Lake, A City in Winter and the Veil of Snows, collected in one beauti...
Oct 05, 2017•46 min
Mark Helprin is a man without a genre. He belongs to no literary school or movement. His books are not adventure stories or mysteries or thrillers or science fiction or fantasy or magical realism, yet elements of each of those can be found between the pages of his many novels. Which include A Dove of the East & Other Stories, Refiners Fire, Winters Tale (a classic), A Soldier of the Great War and the marvelous trilogy Swan Lake, A City in Winter and the Veil of Snows, collected in one beauti...
Oct 05, 2017•59 min
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Annalee Newitz author of her first novel Autonomous published September 19th by Tor (tomorrow). Annalee’s career started 15 years back in San Francisco at the Guardian. Later she worked at Wired and then founded the super cool io9 at Gawker. She edited io9 for 7 years then became the editor in chief at Gizmodo. Since last year she has been an editor at Ars Technica. She’s ben published in the New Yorker...
Sep 12, 2017•55 sec
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Annalee Newitz author of her first novel Autonomous published September 19th by Tor (tomorrow). Annalee’s career started 15 years back in San Francisco at the Guardian. Later she worked at Wired and then founded the super cool io9 at Gawker. She edited io9 for 7 years then became the editor in chief at Gizmodo. Since last year she has been an editor at Ars Technica. She’s ben published in the New Yorker...
Sep 12, 2017•30 min
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Gabriel Tallent, whose debut novel My Absolute Darling will be released tomorrow by Riverhead. Gabriel Received his BA from Williamette University. His stories have been published in Narrative and in the St. Petersburg Review. His thesis at Willamette was on the discursive construction of Pleasure in Samuel Richardson’s Pamela. But he also was a checker at Target, so that gives you a little bit of an id...
Sep 12, 2017•28 min
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Jill Bialosky author of Poetry Will Save Your Life published this month by Atria. Jill is the author of four acclaimed collections of poetry most recently The Players. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Atlantic and Best American Poetry. She is also the author of three novels and a NYT best selling memoir, History of a Suicide: My Sister’s Unfinished Life. Jill is an execut...
Sep 11, 2017•36 min
Sam Hankin of the Avid Reader discussed "Eastman was Here" on the Avid Reader radio show. Alex will be appearing at the Wellington Square Bookshop for a reading, Q&A and signing on Monday, September 11th at 7:00pm.
Sep 05, 2017•44 sec
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guests are Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman. Jimmy has served as an editor at the New York Observer and the Washington Examiner and as managing editor of the Huffington Post. His work has appeared in Slate, the Atlantic and CNN. Rob has written for Slate, the Atlantic and his scholarly works have appeared in History of Politcal Thought and the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal. Together the two have co-authored work...
Aug 07, 2017•37 min
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guests are Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman. Jimmy has served as an editor at the New York Observer and the Washington Examiner and as managing editor of the Huffington Post. His work has appeared in Slate, the Atlantic and CNN. Rob has written for Slate, the Atlantic and his scholarly works have appeared in History of Politcal Thought and the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal. Together the two have co-authored work...
Aug 07, 2017•1 min
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today we are happy to have as our guest for the second time, Alex Gilvarry. Alex’s first book was From The Memoirs Of a Non-Enemy Combatant. Alex has been a Norman Mailer fellow and has taught at Wesleyan and Manhattanville College. His first book won numerous awards. Eastman Was Here is the story of an author whose fading reputation, failing marriage and less than stellar character have led him to a crisis in his life. I...
Aug 07, 2017•28 min
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today we are happy to have as our guest for the second time, Alex Gilvarry. Alex’s first book was From The Memoirs Of a Non-Enemy Combatant. Alex has been a Norman Mailer fellow and has taught at Wesleyan and Manhattanville College. His first book won numerous awards. Eastman Was Here is the story of an author whose fading reputation, failing marriage and less than stellar character have led him to a crisis in his life. I...
Aug 07, 2017•44 sec
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today we are happy to have as our guest Katherine Hein author of this her first novel Standard Deviation, published in May by Knopf. We talked to Katherine last time about her short story collection Single, Carefree Mellow. Which was delightful, both the book and the conversation. Katherine writes for the New Yorker and the Atlantic as well as well as other periodicals. Standard Deviation. I have often wondered about what...
Jul 19, 2017•46 min
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today we are happy to have as our guest Katherine Hein author of this her first novel Standard Deviation, published in May by Knopf. We talked to Katherine last time about her short story collection Single, Carefree Mellow. Which was delightful, both the book and the conversation. Katherine writes for the New Yorker and the Atlantic as well as well as other periodicals. Standard Deviation. I have often wondered about what...
Jul 19, 2017•20 sec
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Matthew Klam whose new book and first novel Who is Rich was just released this month by Random House. Matthew’s first book was Sam The Cat and Other Stories. His work has been featured in the New Yorker, Harpers, Esquire, GQ and the Times Magazine. He’s taught at Johns Hopkins, St Albans, American and Stockholm University. And numerous workshops! Who is Rich? I don’t know whether I can really answer tha...
Jul 19, 2017•41 min
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Matthew Klam whose new book and first novel Who is Rich was just released this month by Random House. Matthew’s first book was Sam The Cat and Other Stories. His work has been featured in the New Yorker, Harpers, Esquire, GQ and the Times Magazine. He’s taught at Johns Hopkins, St Albans, American and Stockholm University. And numerous workshops! Who is Rich? I don’t know whether I can really answer tha...
Jul 19, 2017•53 sec
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid reader. Today our guest is Akhil Sharma, author of A Life Of Adventure and Delight, just released by Norton this month. Akhil’s first novel An Obedient Father won the 2001 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award. His second, for which I interviewed him a couple of years ago, Family Life, won the 2015 Folio Prize and the 2016 International Dublin Literary Award. He is an assistant professor in the creative writing MFA program at Rutgers. A...
Jul 19, 2017•28 min
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid reader. Today our guest is Akhil Sharma, author of A Life Of Adventure and Delight, just released by Norton this month. Akhil’s first novel An Obedient Father won the 2001 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award. His second, for which I interviewed him a couple of years ago, Family Life, won the 2015 Folio Prize and the 2016 International Dublin Literary Award. He is an assistant professor in the creative writing MFA program at Rutgers. A...
Jul 19, 2017•53 sec
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of the Avid Reader. Today our guest is Bryn Chancellor author of Sycamore, her debut novel published in May by Harper. Bryn’s short story collection is When Are You Coming Home? and her short fiction has also appeared in Gulf Coast, Blackbird, The Colorado Review and other magazines and reviews. Sycamore is a novel with a piece missing. The funny thing is, that missing piece drives the force of the entire narrative. In a little town, a town ...
Jun 12, 2017•22 min
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of the Avid Reader. Today our guest is Bryn Chancellor author of Sycamore, her debut novel published in May by Harper. Bryn’s short story collection is When Are You Coming Home? and her short fiction has also appeared in Gulf Coast, Blackbird, The Colorado Review and other magazines and reviews. Sycamore is a novel with a piece missing. The funny thing is, that missing piece drives the force of the entire narrative. In a little town, a town ...
Jun 12, 2017•49 sec
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Catherine Scott-Clark co-author with Adrian Levy of The Exiles: The Stunning Story of Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda In Flight. Catherine is an award winning investigative journalist who worked as a staff writer and foreign correspondent for the Sunday Times in London then joined The Guardian as senior correspondent. She and Adrian have published The Amber Room: The Fate of the World’s Greatest Lost Treas...
May 31, 2017•1 min
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today we are pleased to have with us Weike Wang author of Chemistry, her first novel, published in May by Knopf. Weike is a graduate of Harvard where she earned her undergraduate degree in chemistry and her doctorate in public health. She received her MFA from Boston University and her fiction has been published in Ploughshares, Glimmer Train and Redivider. Chemistry is an academic novel of sorts. It’s a love story too an...
May 31, 2017•1 min
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today we are pleased to have with us Weike Wang author of Chemistry, her first novel, published in May by Knopf. Weike is a graduate of Harvard where she earned her undergraduate degree in chemistry and her doctorate in public health. She received her MFA from Boston University and her fiction has been published in Ploughshares, Glimmer Train and Redivider. Chemistry is an academic novel of sorts. It’s a love story too an...
May 31, 2017•30 min
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Catherine Scott-Clark co-author with Adrian Levy of The Exiles: The Stunning Story of Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda In Flight. Catherine is an award winning investigative journalist who worked as a staff writer and foreign correspondent for the Sunday Times in London then joined The Guardian as senior correspondent. She and Adrian have published The Amber Room: The Fate of the World’s Greatest Lost Treas...
May 28, 2017•44 min
Good Afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Jonathan Safran Foer author of Here I Am, published last year but just being released in paperback tomorrow by Picador. As most of you know Jonathan’s previous works include Everything is Illuminated, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Tree of Codes and his non-fiction work Eating Animals. The title Here I Am ostensibly refers to Abraham’s response to God when the Lord calls out to him. The Lord tells...
May 22, 2017•28 min
Good Afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Jonathan Safran Foer author of Here I Am, published last year but just being released in paperback tomorrow by Picador. As most of you know Jonathan’s previous works include Everything is Illuminated, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Tree of Codes and his non-fiction work Eating Animals. The title Here I Am ostensibly refers to Abraham’s response to God when the Lord calls out to him. The Lord tells...
May 22, 2017•1 min
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of the Avid Reader. Today our guest is Joshua Ferris author of The Dinner Party and Other Stories, published this month by Little Brown and Company. This is Joshua’s first collection of short stories. His debut novel was Then We Came To An End, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. Next came The Unnamed in 2010 and Joshua’s third novel in 2014 is To Rise Again At A Decent Hour shortlisted for the 2014 Man Booker Prize. The storie...
May 19, 2017•52 min
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of the Avid Reader. Today our guest is Joshua Ferris author of The Dinner Party and Other Stories, published this month by Little Brown and Company. This is Joshua’s first collection of short stories. His debut novel was Then We Came To An End, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. Next came The Unnamed in 2010 and Joshua’s third novel in 2014 is To Rise Again At A Decent Hour shortlisted for the 2014 Man Booker Prize. The storie...
May 19, 2017•8 sec
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Lynda Mapes, author of Witness Tree: Seasons of Change with a Century-Old Oak, published in April by Bloomsbury. Lynda has been a reporter with the Seattle Times for nearly 20 years, covering Northwest tribes, nature and the environment. Her previous works include Washington, the Spirit of the Land, Breaking Ground: The Lower Elwha Klallam and The Unearthing of Tse-whit-zen Village. Lynda first encounte...
May 16, 2017•1 hr 53 min
