LIVELY WORDS

Session 13

While the stories of Midge’s wonderful short story collection Forgetting English confidently forge into exotic geographical territory, the hearts of these stories remain firmly anchored in the mysteries of character and the interesting ways people make their way in the world.

You couldn’t have asked for more summer-like weather on the late-June day Midge and I met up at Live Oak Park in North Berkeley. But still, it was nothing compared with the tropical heat of the island nation of Tonga, where her story takes place.

In this session, Midge reads an excerpt from “First Sunday,” which follows a city dweller who ventures to Tonga to visit her sister and quickly becomes caught up in the complexities of a relationship.

Session 14

The only thing better than encountering Antonya Nelson’s fiction in the New Yorker is seeing her read it in person. I caught up with her in Berkeley in early August after she and her husband Robert Boswell finished teaching at the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference.
In this session, she reads an excerpt from the great short story “Or Else.”

Session 15

Once, while attending one of Robert Boswell’s readings in Santa Fe in the early ’90s, I heard someone declare that Boswell was one of the boldest writers our country had. With the recent publication of his excellent short story collection The Heyday of the Insensitive Bastards, it’s safe to say that statement still holds true.
When I saw him in Berkeley in August, we had a chance to record him reading “Guests,” a story that captures the brutal shame of a childhood fistfight.

Session 18

Last summer we asked our friend Jacquie Moody-Fuller in Minneapolis to capture a few readings for us. Jacquie knows how to get things done. She sent back readings featuring Heather Herrman and Terri Ford.
In this session, Heather Herrman reads an excerpt of her novel-in-progress “Kiss the Pretty Green Girl Good-bye,” a look at what promises to be a compelling story based in part on the era and events that inspired the author of “The Wizard of Oz.”

Session 23

Nina Alvarez reads a wonderful and strangely beautiful excerpt from her novel-in-progress in this session. Nina one of the great people I met during my residency at the Vermont Studio Center in May and I’m excited to feature her work here. This reading is the second of a series I recorded in Vermont. I’ll be posting more in the months to come.