literature

Ideas Matter: New York Council for the Humanities and Summer Reading

Joe Donahue — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 14:35:00 +0000

We are very happy to continue our new regular feature on The Roundtable, entitled – Ideas Matter: Checking in with the Public Humanities.

It is our chance to check in with the Humanities Councils throughout our 7-State area to discuss important ideas and why they do indeed matter.

This morning we spotlight New York State’s Summer Reading kick-off. Erika Halstead is program officer for the NY Council for the Humanities and she joins us to tell us more.

"Wool" by Hugh Howey

Joe Donahue — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:12:00 +0000

Wool is by Hugh Howey. In the summer of 2011, Wool was released as a standalone story with little thought that it would ever become so popular. It soon took on a life of its own, and reviewers clamored for more. The next four books were released to satisfy this demand, each one growing in size. Wool 5 is 250 pages long in print. All five books have now been collected in an Omnibus edition, but they were always meant to be read individually.

Woodstock Writer's Festival - April 18-21

Joe Donahue — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 15:35:00 +0000

The Woodstock Writers Festival is a collection of writers and their readers who meet for the weekend in Woodstock, NY from April 18-21.

It is the 4th annual event and there are plenty of events and panels. There will be panels on spirituality, comedy writing, Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll and discussions on poetry, the short story, and a look at the writing of memoir.

Among the writers who will be on hand are Cheryl Strayed, Lydia Davis, Philippe Petit, James Lasdun, Abigail Thomas, Ann Hood, Christa Parravani and many more.

To tell us more we welcome Festival Organizer Martha Frankel and festival headliner, Philippe Petit, whose new book is Why Knot?: How to Tie More Than Sixty Ingenious, Useful, Beautiful, Lifesaving, and Secure Knots!

Read Local! Red Hook Literary Festival

Joe Donahue — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 15:12:00 +0000

This year’s Read Local! Red Hook Literary Festival takes place this Friday through Sunday.

The fest will include “Stories on Stage” Hudson Valley Actors Read Hudson Valley Authors; I Want to Be in a Band! – a Music & Movement Program for kids featuring author and musician Suzzy Roche, and illustrator Giselle Potter; Telling Stories: Conversations with Fiction Writers featuring Owen King, Kelly Braffet, Frank Delaney, and Marshall Karp – and much much more! All events are free and open to the public.

Suzanna Hermans, Co-Owner of Oblong Books and Music; Helen Seslowsky, event coordinator, and author and broadcaster, Frank Delaney, join us.

"Who Was Dracula?: Bram Stoker's Trail of Blood" by Jim Steinmeyer

Ray Graf — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:12:00 +0000

In more than a century of vampires in pop culture, only one lord of the night truly stands out: Dracula. Though the name may conjure up images of Bela Lugosi lurking about in a cape and white pancake makeup in the iconic 1931 film, the character of Dracula—a powerful, evil Transylvanian aristocrat who slaughters repressed Victorians on a trip to London—was created in Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel of the same name, a work so popular it has spawned limitless reinventions in books and film.

But where did literature’s undead icon come from?

"The Accursed" by Joyce Carol Oates

Joe Donahue — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:10:00 +0000

The Accursed is a major historical novel from Joyce Carol Oates - an eerie, unforgettable story of possession, power, and loss in early-twentieth-century Princeton, a cultural crossroads of the powerful and the damned.

Will Schwalbe - The End of Your Life Book Club

Katie Britton — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 16:12:00 +0000

When Will Schwalbe’s mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer life for her family and friends didn’t come to a stop, but morphed into something even more beautiful. Her compassion towards others never faltered, her grown children learned more about themselves and her, and a bond solidified as Will and his mother unconsciously formed The End of Your Life Book Club.

Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American Masterpiece

Joe Donahue — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 15:12:00 +0000

Henry James has had many biographers, but Michael Gorra has taken an original approach to this great American novelist, combining elements of biography, criticism, and travelogue in re-creating the dramatic backstory of James’s masterpiece, Portrait of a Lady.

The Wharton Salon at The Mount

Joe Donahue — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 15:12:56 +0000

The Wharton Salon joins The Mount’s year-long celebration of Edith Wharton’s 150th birthday by putting Edith Wharton herself onstage this year in The Inner House, August 15-26. Adapted by Dennis Krausnick from Wharton’s 1934 autobiography, A Backward Glance, actress Tod Randolph plays Edith Wharton in a vivid account of Wharton’s public and private life directed by veteran Wharton director, Normi Noël.

Edventures

Joe Donahue — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 13:48:49 +0000

Mary Huber joins us in Studio A to talk about the upcoming Jane Austen Edventure to England in January.