All posts by Francesca Rheannon

About Francesca Rheannon

Francesca Rheannon is an award-winning independent radio producer. In addition to hosting Writer's Voice, she's a freelance reporter for National Public Radio and its affiliates. Recipient of the prestigious Nancy Dickerson Whitehead Award for reporting on substance abuse issues for her news series, VOICES OF HIV, produced for 88.5 WFCR public radio in western Massachusetts. She is also finishing a book on Provence (PROVINCE OF THE HEART) and working on a memoir of her father, THE ARGONAUTS.

Podcast

LONELINESS AS A WAY OF LIFE and MINDFULLY GREEN

Stephanie Kaza
Stephanie Kaza
Thomas Dumm
Thomas Dumm

We talk with Amherst College professor Thomas Dumm about LONELINESS AS A WAY OF LIFE (Harvard 2008). And environmental educator and Buddhist Stephanie Kaza tells us how to go MINDFULLY GREEN (Shambhala 2008). Continue reading

Podcast

Slow Money/Fast Money…and Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast

Woody Tasch
Woody Tasch
Katy Lederer
Katy Lederer

We talk with investor, venture capitalist and philanthropist Woody Tasch about [amazon-product text=”INQUIRIES INTO THE NATURE OF SLOW MONEY” type=”text”]1603580069[/amazon-product]. Then poet and former hedge fund executive Katy Lederer tells us about her collection, THE HEAVEN-SENT LEAF. And journalist Jeff Sharlet (THE FAMILY) gives us the context to President Obama’s appearance at the National Prayer Breakfast on February 5. Continue reading

Podcast

David S. Reynolds, WAKING GIANT and Wally Swist, MOUNT TOBY POEMS

David S. Reynolds
David S. Reynolds

We talk with cultural historian David S. Reynolds about his new book, WAKING GIANT: America in the Age of Jackson. And poet Wally Swist reads from his forthcoming collection, MOUNT TOBY POEMS. Continue reading

Podcast

Family Secrets: Ben Binstock and Hallie Ephron

Hallie Ephron
Hallie Ephron
Benjamin Binstock
Benjamin Binstock

Today’s theme is family secrets. We talk first with art historian Benjamin Binstock  about VERMEER’S FAMILY SECRETS: Genius, Discovery and the Unknown Apprentice. Then, a poem by Constatijn Huygens. And mystery writer Hallie Ephron delves into another family’s secrets in her debut solo novel, NEVER TELL A LIE. Continue reading

Podcast

Swerling’s CITY OF GOD and Michelson’s AS GOOD AS ANYBODY

Richard Michelson
Richard Michelson
Beverly Swerling
Beverly Swerling

We talk to novelist Beverly Swerling about the latest in her historical series about Old New York, City of God: A Novel of Passion and Wonder in Old New York. Also, children’s book author Richard Michelson, tells us about his latest, AS GOOD AS ANYBODY: Martin Luther King and Abraham Joshua Heschel’s Amazing March Toward Freedom. Continue reading

Podcast

Tyler Boudreau, PACKING INFERNO

Tyler Boudreau
Tyler Boudreau

Writers Voice spends the hour with former Marine Captain Tyler Boudreau. His brutally honest, brilliantly written memoir is PACKING INFERNO: The Unmaking of a Marine.

Boudreau also educates the public on veterans’ issues and is the founder of Collaborative Revolution. He is planning a 2009 cross country bicycle trip by veterans to “to positively re-invest their strength in America.” Continue reading

Podcast

Best of 2008

It was tough, but we did it: we winnowed down the list of wonderful guests and their books to the Ten Best Books featured on Writer’s Voice in 2008. This week’s show features excerpts from our interviews with four of them. In the fiction category, we talk with Kevin Patterson (CONSUMPTION) and Elizabeth Strout (OLIVE KITTREDGE). For nonfiction,  we hear from Ron Suskind (THE WAY OF THE WORLD) and Terry Tempest Williams (MOSAIC).

Update: We also have our best guests of 2009 list online too.

Continue reading

Podcast

Paul Roberts THE END OF FOOD, MP Barker’s A DIFFICULT BOY and poet Annie Boutelle

M. P. Barker
M. P. Barker
Paul Roberts
Paul Roberts

Paul Roberts tells us about THE END OF FOOD, we talk with M. P. Barker about her historical novel of early 19th century New England, A DIFFICULT BOY, and Annie Boutelle reveals the life of poet Celia Thaxter in BECOMING BONE. Continue reading

Podcast

H.G. Adler’s THE JOURNEY, Eating Tips for the Holidays, and a Thanksgiving story

Brian Wansink
Brian Wansink
Peter Filkins
Peter Filkins

Award-winning translator Peter Filkins talks about THE JOURNEY, a lost masterpiece of Holocaust literature by acclaimed author and survivor H. G. Adler which Filkins translated. Food psychologist Brian Wansink gives us tips on how to keep the pounds off during the Holiday season; and Native American storyteller Marge Bruchac tells us what really happened during the first Thanksgiving.
Continue reading

Podcast

Food for Health

Host Francesca Rheannon talks with food writer Betsy Block about THE DINNER DIARIES: Raising Whole Wheat Kids in a White Bread World . Funny and informative, it chronicles how Block got her family –even the pickiest eaters to change their eating habits. And Dr. John La Puma, AKA ChefMD, tells us how the most delicious meals can be good medicine for our bodies. His book is CHEF MD’S BIG BOOK OF CULINARY MEDICINE: A Food Lover’s Road Map to Losing Weight, Preventing Disease, and Getting Really Healthy. Continue reading

Podcast

Joan Wickersham, THE SUICIDE INDEX and Jennet Conant, THE IRREGULARS

Jennet Conant
Jennet Conant
Joan Wickersham
Joan Wickersham

Host Francesca Rheannon talks with writer Joan Wickersham about her powerful new memoir, [amazon-product text=”THE SUICIDE INDEX: Putting My Father’s Death in Order” type=”text”]0156033801[/amazon-product]. Also, we talk with Jennet Conant about [amazon-product text=”THE IRREGULARS: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington” type=”text”]0743294599[/amazon-product]. Continue reading

Podcast

Peter Manseau, SONGS FOR THE BUTCHER’S DAUGHTER and E.H. Winthrop, DECEMBER

Peter Manseau
Peter Manseau

Host Francesca Rheannon talks to Peter Manseau about his novel [amazon-product text=”SONGS FOR THE BUTCHERS DAUGHTER” type=”text”]1416538712[/amazon-product] and to Elizabeth Hartley Winthrop about her new novel, [amazon-product text=”DECEMBER” type=”text”]0307388573[/amazon-product]. Continue reading