KPFA - Radio Wolinsky

Susan Hill, author of “The Woman in Black” and other novels, in conversation by phone with host Richard Wolinsky. The Woman in Black, a play by Stephen Mallatrat and directed by Robin Herford is playing in San Francisco at ACT’s Strand Theater through January 16th, and for more information you can go to act-sf.org, in New York through March 13, and in an open-ended run on the West End in London. Susan Hill has written over thirty novels, most of them stand-alones in the gothic ghost story genre, and eleven crime novels featuring her detective Simon Serrailer, the most recent being The Benefit of Hindsight, published in 2020, with A Change of Circumstance to be published in March, 2022. She’s also written six collections of short stories, an autobiography among nine non-fiction works, five plays, and 13 Children’s Books. She became a Dame of the British Empire in 2020. The post Susan Hill: “The Woman in Black”, 2021 appeared first on KPFA.

Anne Rice died of a stroke on December 11, 2021. This career-ranging interview was recorded on December 2, 2016 at Books Inc. in Opera Plaza in San Francisco, while she was on tour for her latest novel, “Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis.” Anne Rice achieved success in 1976 with her novel “Interview with the Vampire,” which spawned a series of novels titled “The Vampire Chronicles” and became a world-wide phenomenon. Along the way, she also wrote several other novels including the Mayfair Witches trilogy, Cry to Heaven, a series of books under pseudonyms, and the screenplay for “Interview with the Vampire” was turned into a successful film starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. By 2003, she’d written ten novels in the Vampire Chronicles and took a break, writing novels on the life of Jesus, on angels, and on werewolves. In 2014, she returned to her vampire hero, Lestat, with Prince Lestat. Prince Lestat and the Realm of Atlantis was the second in this latest series. Since the interview was recorded, Anne Rice published one more Lestat novel, Blood Communion: A Tale of Prince Lestat in 2018, which is her last solo novel to date, though it’s possible there are more to come. There are two novels written in collaboration with her son, novelist Christopher Rice, sequels to her 1989 novel Ramses the Damned. The Passion of Cleopatra was released in 2017 and The Reign of Osiris is scheduled for 2022. In gestation since the time of this 2016  interview, new television series based on the Mayfair Witches and The Vampire Chronicles have passed through several hands, and are now being developed by AMC. The post Anne Rice (1941 – 2021), 2016 appeared first on KPFA.

Nancy Opel, Broadway veteran performer, in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky, recorded November 22, 2021. Nancy Opel performs as the Ghost of Christmas Past in the touring production of A Christmas Carol, playing at the BroadwaySF Golden Gate Theatre through December 26, 2021. Nancy Opel has appeared in several Broadway shows, starting with the original productions of Evita and Sunday in the Park with George, and later Wicked, Beautiful, Honeymoon in Vegas, Memphis, revivals of Fiddler on the Roof and Gypsy, and most recently, Urinetown. On television, she’s appeared in The Big C, and Law and Order. In this interview she talks about preparing for her roles, singing in musicals, her work in Sunday in the Park and her current role in A Christmas Carol. The post Nancy Opel, Actress “A Christmas Carol” appeared first on KPFA.

Stephen Sondheim (1930 – November 26, 2021) in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded in San Francisco, November 6, 2010. Stephen Sondheim died at the age of 91 on November 26, 2021. A titan of American musical theater whose work both transcended and changed the genre itself, Sondheim was responsible for the lyrics for Gypsy and West Side Story — and his own shows, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, all became classics in the field. His lyrics were clever and deep – whether it be the torch song “Losing My Mind” from Follies, the history lesson, “Someone in a Tree” from Pacific Overtures, the gorgeous “Sunday” from Sunday in the Park, “Not While I’m Around” from Sweeney Todd, “Not a Day Goes By” from Merrily We Roll Along, “Send in the Clowns”… the list goes on. In this interview recorded following the publication of Finishing The Hat, first of his two-volume autobiography/collected lyrics, he discusses elements of musical theater, his view on “Mary Poppins” as a musical, how he crafts lyrics, what’s important in acting in his shows, his experiences writing for the TV show “Topper,” and spending time on the set of “Beat the Devil” with John Huston and Humphrey Bogart, and more. This interview will air on KPFA-FM in its entirety on Thursday, December 30, 2021 at 1 pm. A shorter version airs in syndication. Stephen Sondheim interview, for Look, I Made a Hat, the second volume of his autobiography/collected lyrics, recorded November 29, 2011 in his townhouse in New York City. The post Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021), “Finishing the Hat,” 2010 appeared first on KPFA.

Robert Jordan (1948-2003), author of “The Wheel of Time” series of fantasy novels, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky on January 13, 2003 in the KPFA studios, during the tour for book X, “Crossroads of Twilight.” ​​​​​Robert Jordan, whose real name was James Oliver Rigny, Jr.n, is today best known for his high fantasy series, “The Wheel of Time”. He got his start in the 1980s, first with a pair of historical novels and a western, and then a series of novels featuring Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian.. But it wasn’t until January, 1990, with the publication of “The Eye of the World”, first installment of “The Wheel of Time,” that his career took off. At the time of this interview on January 3, 2003 in the KPFA Studios, he’d published the first ten volumes of what was projected to be a twelve book series, and was on tour for that tenth book, “Crossroads of Twilight.” On March 23, 2006, Robert Jordan announced he’d been struck with a fatal heart illness and had at most four years to live. He continued work on the final book, “A Memory of Light,” and revealed plot details to his family in the months before he died. That final book was split into three books, starting with “The Gathering Storm,” and was completed by fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson, who had been chosen by his wife to finish the series. He died on September 18th, 2007, one month before his 59th birthday. The entire series was completed and the last volume, “A Memory of Light,” was published in 2013. This interview has never been heard in its entirety. On November 19, 2021, the first three episodes of the eight-episode first season of an adaptation of “The Wheel of Time” appeared on Amazon Prime, with the five episodes following one at a time over the following weeks. The post Robert Jordan (1948-2007), “The Wheel of Time” series, 2003 appeared first on KPFA.

Robert B. Parker (1932-2010) is known today as one of the most important writers of detective fiction during the final quarter of the 20th Century. His wise cracking Boston private eye, Spenser, Spenser’s sidekick Hawk, and girlfriend Susan Silverman have become iconic figures. When Parker died at the age of 77 in 2010, 38 Spenser novels had been published. Two more came out posthumously, and a third was completed by his agent. Novelist Ace Atkins has now written nine more Spenser novels. The series Spenser for Hire, starring Robert Urich and Avery Brooks ran for three seasons, and Brooks had a spin-off that ran for half a season, A Man Called Hawk. Several television movies were also made from Parker’s Spenser books, the most recent, Spenser Confidential, is actually based on one of Ace Atkins’ Spenser novels. This interview, hosted by Richard Wolinaky and Lawrence Davidson, was recorded in the spring of 1981 while Robert B. Parker was on tour for his novel, Early Autumn, and marked the first Probabilities interview with a mystery writer. His career hadn’t advanced under his first publisher, Houghton-Mifflin, and he switched to Delacorte, and Parker’s audience began to grow. This was his seventh Spenser novel, and his eighth over all (Wilderness had come out late in 1980 and Looking for Rachel Wallace was his first under the new contract. At the time of the interview, his first five novels were all out of print in paperback. Though he says in the interview his detective fiction would be limited to the Spenser series, eventually he branched out to write another series of nine books featuring Jesse Stone, a former LAPD detective who becomes the police chief in a small New Enngland town, and six novels featuring Sunny Randall, a female detective. Eventually there was some crossover between the three series. Along the way, he also wrote a handful of westerns, the Cole and Hitch series, and two books featuring Raymond Chandler’s detective, Philip Marlow. When Parker died in 2010 of a sudden heart attack, the family decided to let other writers continue the Spenser, Stone and western series, which go on to this day. The recording was digitized, remastered and re-edited in November 2021. The post The Probabilities Archive: Robert B. Parker (1932-2010), the early Spenser novels, 1981 appeared first on KPFA.

Vanessa Veselka, whose latest novel is “The Great Offshore Grounds,” in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky. “The Great Offshore Grounds” is an epic novel about two sisters on a quest to find themselves during the upheavals of the current era. It’s a detailed examination of feminism, of lives lived on the edge, and of life in the parts of America we hear little about. Vanessa Veselka’s first novel, “Zazen,” has just been reissued by Vintage. Published by a small press over a decade ago, it looks at the travails of young adults set against the backdrop of an ever-increasing political violence in America. Vanessa Veselka, the daughter of journalist Linda Ellerbee, left home at the age of fifteen and early in her life lived the life of a homeless vagabond, eventually becoming a professional musician in the Pacific Northwest, a union organizer, and a writer of fiction. The post Vanessa Veselka, “The Great Offshore Grounds,” “Zazen,” 2021 appeared first on KPFA.

P.D. James (1920-2014) was considered, along with Agatha Christie, Josephine Tey and Dorothy L. Sayers, one of the greatest British mystery writers. Most of her books involved a police commander and poet named Adam Dalgliesh, though she wrote several other novels, including the science fiction novel, “Children of Men,” which became a much-admired film in 2006. Two years before that novel was published, on February 1, 1990, Richard Lupoff and Richard Wolinsky interviewed P.D. James in the KPFA studios while she was on tour for her most recent Dalgliesh novel, “Devices and Desires.”  Most of the interview centered on her career. After the interview, she wrote several more Dalgliesh novels, and concluded her career in 2011 with a murder mystery sequel to “Pride and Prejudice, “Death Comes to Pemberley,” which is available streaming through PBS Masterpieces, Amazon and Apple TV. The Dalgliesh adaptations are not currently streaming. “Children of Men” is available to rent on several services. “Probabilities” began in 1977 on KPFA as a science fiction/fantasy program, and expanded into mysteries and other genres shortly afterward. The name was dropped in 1995, long after the program had begun to include mainstream fiction and narrative non-fiction. In 2001, recording switched from analog to digital, and the surviving interviews each must be digitized and re-edited from the original back-up cassettes.   Black & White photo: P.D. James in 1998, ANL/Shutterstock. The post The Probabilities Archive: P.D. James (1920-2014), 1990 appeared first on KPFA.

Richard Powers, author of “Bewilderment,” in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded via zencastr on September 27, 2021. Richard Powers is one of America’s most distinguished novelists. In 2006, his novel The Echo Maker, won the National Book Award and was a finmalist for the Pulitzer, and his most recent novel, The Overstory, was short-listed for the Booker Prize and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. “Bewilderment” is the story of a father and son relationship, set in a world slightly different from our own, in which a president much like Donald Trump won re-election. The father is an astrobiologist exploring planets based on spectroscopic input whose wife died before the book opens; he is dealing with his continued grief and with issues involving his brilliant son who has a host of psychological issues. Long-listed for the National Book Award, and the subject of excellent reviews, “Bewilderment” is a meditation on grief, on love, on science and on the wonders of nature. The post Richard Powers: “Bewilderment,” 2021 appeared first on KPFA.

This podcast was first posted on February 26, 2017. George Saunders, author of the novel Lincoln in the Bardo, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky. George Saunders is the highly acclaimed author of several short story collections, including “Tenth of December,” “CivilWarLand in Bad Decline,” “In Persuasion Nation” and others, along with political commentary that recently appeared in The New Yorker and other magazines. His latest novel takes place in the form of a fictional oral history from the perspective of several ghosts who survive after death in a Washington DC graveyard in 1862. Willie Lincoln, the favored son of Abraham Lincoln, has gotten sick and died, and during the course of the book, the President visits his son’s tomb. The book deals with the Civil War, with the relationship of blacks and whites in America, with beliefs about life and death, and with the relationship of history and memory. Lincoln in the Bardo won the 2017 Man Booker Prize. His latest book is a collection of essays, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading and Life, published in January, 2021.     The post George Saunders, “Lincoln in the Bardo,” 2017 appeared first on KPFA.