profiles
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Birnbaum V.
Ron Rash, Redux
Our man in Boston talks with writer Ron Rash about his latest book, America’s great regional voices, the high percentage of readers in New Zealand and Australia, and the misery that accompanies putting a novel together, where it’s rather more fun to stick pencils in your eyes.
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Reading Roulette
Nikolai Klimontovich
Our series of contemporary Russian literature continues—six months, six stories from some of Russia’s best working writers, plus interviews with their authors, all of it sponsored by Powells.com. This month we feature one of Moscow’s finest chroniclers.
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Birnbaum V.
Jess Walter
Our man in Boston sits down with the author of The Financial Lives of the Poets to talk about his latest novel, how to survive in Hollywood, the ins and outs of contemporary publishing, and that unheralded Paris of the Northwest, Spokane.
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Reading Roulette
Anna Starobinets
Today we’re launching a new series of contemporary Russian literature, with six stories in six months, including interviews with their authors, sponsored by Powells.com. Will one of them blow your mind? We begin with the “Queen of Russian Horror.”
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Profiles
The Heretic
For decades, the U.S. government banned medical studies of the effects of LSD. But for one longtime, elite researcher, the promise of mind-blowing revelations was just too tempting.
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Birnbaum V.
Kathryn Harrison
Our man in Boston and the author discuss her latest novel, Enchantments, the writing process, how book reviewing works at the New York Times, what it’s like to be nastied, and the life and times of two writers raising children without a television in the house.
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Birnbaum V.
Oscar Hijuelos
Our man in Boston talks to the Pulitzer-winning novelist about his new memoir, Thoughts Without Cigarettes, as well as nights in New York, parks in Berlin, how publishing currently compares to Indian restaurants, what life would be like if Mambo Kings hadn’t hit it big, and the difficulties of writing about yourself.
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Birnbaum V.
Thomas Mallon Redux
The rise and fall of Richard Nixon has been the subject of many histories, but perhaps none so insightful as Thomas Mallon’s latest novel Watergate. A conversation about crime, ambition, booze, and Christopher Hitchens.
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Profiles
H.P. Lovecraft, Author, Is Dead
Today marks the 75th anniversary of H.P. Lovecraft’s death. From Stephen King’s It to “The Call of Cthulhu,” a survey of the 20th century’s greatest horror writer’s afterlife of influence.
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Birnbaum V.
Ben Katchor
Our man in Boston talks to author and artist Ben Katchor about the history of picture-stories—from the days when literature included drawings to our current world of (sadly) more purified genres.
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LA Confidentials
Burn All the Liars
An unfinished autobiography and a 1980s biopic turned Frances Farmer, one of the great golden-era stars, into a lobotomized zombie. The main trouble: Frances Farmer wasn’t lobotomized. An investigation to set one of Hollywood’s most convoluted stories straight.
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Birnbaum V.
Russell Banks
Our man in Boston sits down for the sixth time with Russell Banks to discuss his latest novel, the movie business, Mitt Romney, the emigration of investigative journalists, and why it’s wise to wait until your 70’s before writing about obsessive love.