Patient advocate and author Patrick Malone talks about his book, The Life You Save: Nine Steps to Finding the Best Medical Care-and Avoiding the Worst. It’s about how to keep from being a victim of medical errors. We’ll also talk with novelist Lionel Shriver about her new novel, SO MUCH FOR THAT. It’s about health insurance gone very wrong. And Martin Espada, Richard Wilbur and other poets read at a benefit for the children of Gaza. Continue reading →
Journalist Ann Jones talks about Afghani women, the war in Afghanistan, and whether life is any better for its people since the US invaded their country. Continue reading →
Thomas Rice tells us about FAR FROM THE LAND: AN IRISH MEMOIR. He left his beautiful but hardscrabble family farm to emigrate to America in 1959. Also, we hear excerpts from a 2008 interview with Alphie McCourt about his memoir, A LONG STONE’S THROW. Continue reading →
In the spring of last year, Christian McEwen interviewed the poet, Marianne Boruch when she came to Smith College for its poetry reading series. Boruch is the author of seven volumes of poetry, as well as two volumes of prose. She was born in Chicago, grew up in a Polish Catholic family, and was already writing poems by the time she was in high school. Her work is strongly influenced by her Catholic childhood, as well as by her love of nature, and her interest in dreams. “I think we get into a dream state when we are writing,” she says. “We drop down under the surface and connect with that other realm.”
“I’d like to say I’m of the begging bowl theory of poetry. You put out your begging bowl and see what drops into it. I really don’t want to know where the poem is going. And of course revision is a great thing. You get a draft and start tinkering and find out where it really wants to go.”
Boruch currently teaches in Purdue University’s MFA program, and through the non-residential program for writers at Warren Wilson College. Her most recent book is [amazon-product text=”GRACE, FALLEN FROM” type=”text”]0819569534[/amazon-product].
This interview is part of a series of interviews of poets Christian McEwen is doing, called Sparks from the Anvil. Writers Voice is hosting several of the interviews. Sparks from the Anvil features poets who appear at Smith College’s poetry reading series.
Marijuana policy activist Mason Tvert talks with host Francesca Rheannon about the book he co-wrote, MARIJUANA IS SAFER: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink? It says marijuana should be treated legally no different than alcohol. And Peter Vickery tells us about his historical thriller, MADISON HOPPER AND THE AFRICAN AMERICAN BLOOD BROTHERHOOD. It’s the first in a mystery series about the struggle for civil rights in the early years of the 20th century. Continue reading →
Mark Lamster talks with host Francesca Rheannon about the great Flemish Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens’ career as an unofficial diplomat for the Spanish Crown. And mystery writer S.J. Parris tells us about Renaissance scientist Giordano Bruno’s visit to Oxford in 1583. She spins a murder mystery around the visit and around Bruno’s mission as a spy for the English Crown. Continue reading →
