Writers on the Air: Conversations About Books [Hardcover]

Donna Seaman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2005

Writers on the Air brings to print for the first time Donna Seaman's vibrant author interviews from her Chicago-based radio program, Open Books. In these conversations, authors discuss their inspirations, their favorite books, their working and research habits. Seaman also connects the author's books with other writing, creating “constellations” of related books and ideas to introduce readers to wonderful writing they might not discover on their own.

Seaman created her radio show Open Books in 1994, and has been co-producer and host ever since, conducting interviews with dozens of fiction writers, poets, essayists, memoirists, and nature writers.

Writers on the Air includes interviews with Diane Ackerman, Margaret Atwood, Lynda Barry, Madison Smartt Bell, Dennis Bock, T. C. Boyle, Peter Carey, Sandra Cisneros, Wade Davis, Chitra Divakaruni, Stuart Dybek, Julia Glass, Lee Gutkind, Aleksandar Hemon, Edward Hirsch, Edward P. Jones, Ward Just, Jamaica Kincaid, Alex Kotlowitz, Chang-rae Lee, Alan Lightman, Phillip Lopate, Barry Lopez, Alice McDermott, Anchee Min, Sy Montgomery, Kate Moses, Joyce Carol Oates, Alex Shakar, Paul West, Colson Whitehead, and Terry Tempest Williams.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this collection of interviews drawn from her Chicago radio show, Open Books, Seaman shows herself to be a consummate book lover, engaging everyone from first-time novelists, such as Julia Glass and Edward P. Jones, to old hands like Peter Carey, T.C. Boyle and Margaret Atwood. Although she has a tendency to fall back on plot or the basics of character and doesn't always let a conversation grow organically, there are times—as in a wonderfully thoughtful interview with Chitra Divakaruni and an odd and funny dialogue with the comic strip artist Lynda Barry—when Seaman allows the writers to wax philosophical. Focusing heavily on novelists, this volume gives a refreshingly various portrait of both the writers' personalities and the writing process, which ranges from organized and disciplined to scattershot. While devotees of what longtime Booklist editor Seaman calls "serious literature" (as opposed to "popular fiction," a distinction she comes back to time and again) and followers of particular writers will find much to admire here, the book suffers from its translation from spoken word to print. On the page, the interviews lose the intimacy radio confers, that sense a listener has of being invited into a conversation, sharing a small confidence. (Sept.)Correction: The publisher of Jed Perl's New Art City (reviewed last week) is Knopf, not Simon & Schuster.
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Review

"Seaman does not merely question her subjects—she engages them with her infectious enthusiasm and opinions . . . Highly recommended." —Library Journal

"Seaman is both passionate and generous on the air, and such caring tends to untie authorial tongues." —Chicago Sun-Times

"Insightful collections of interviews with authors abound, but none I have read is superior to Seaman's." —San Francisco Chronicle

"A rare feast of literary conversation." —Jay Parini, author, The Apprentice Lover

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 467 pages
• Publisher: Paul Dry Books; 1st Paul Dry Books Ed edition (September 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1589880218
• ISBN-13: 978-1589880214
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,121,285 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Library Journal review, September 7, 2005

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This review is from: Writers on the Air: Conversations About Books (Hardcover)

This review recently appeared in "Library Journal": "For this collection, essayist, editor, and book critic Seaman (In Our Nature: Stories of Wildness) culled interviews from her Chicago-based radio show, Open Books, in which she discusses the creative process and common assumptions about literature with a range of established, award-winning, and up-and-coming authors. As in the best author interviews that appear in the Paris Review, Seaman does not merely question her subjects--she engages them with her infectious enthusiasm and opinions, challenging them to articulate their methods, influences, and aesthetic judgments. In 'Worlds in Transition,' she talks to Alex Shakar about how he exploits the interstitial ground between full-blown sci-fi and literary fiction; in 'Worlds Within Worlds,' she examines the 'nexus between individual and society,' noting the importance of the neighborhood as 'a crucible of the self' in Stuart Dybek's work; and in 'Genre-Crossers,' she tackles the creative process head-on, discussing with Edward Hirsch the angelic and demonic forces of 'artistic possession.' She concludes with a look at creative nonfiction, exploring the complex and often misunderstood relationship between nature and culture. Authors interviewed include Margaret Atwood, T.C. Boyle, Julia Glass, and Phillip Lopate. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries.- Lee Ehlers, Greenville Cty. Lib. Syst., SC"