Virtual Memories Show 271: Christopher Brown “I don’t think I would write the kind of science fiction I write if I hadn’t had the experience of eating deep-dish pizza with Strom Thurmond during the Clarence Thomas hearings.” Science fiction author Christopher Brown joins the show to talk about his first novel, Tropic of Kansas (Harper…
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Virtual Memories Show 245: Eshkol Nevo & Paul Gravett “I never think of writing as something where I have to achieve something or pass on a message.” Israeli author Eshkol Nevo joins the show to talk about his new novel Three Floors Up (Other Press) and how he explained it to passport control on his…
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Virtual Memories Show 240: John Crowley & Michael Meyer “Writing has made people feel unsafe and uncomfortable since, oh, the Bible.” One of my favorite authors, John Crowley, returns to the show to talk about his “final dress novel,” the wonderful Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr (Saga Press). We talk about the…
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Virtual Memories Show 237: Ann Telnaes and Matt Wuerker “I did some hard-hitting cartoons during the Bush administration. . . . I kind of wish I held back a little because now it’s like, ‘Where do we go from here?’” –Ann Telnaes It’s a double-Pulitzer-winner episode! First, the great editorial cartoonist, animator and essayist Ann…
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Virtual Memories Show 227: Ben Schwartz “Twitter is the best source of political humor now. It’s better than any show on TV. It’s hard to compete with a million writers.” Comedy writer, journalist and screenwriter Ben Schwartz joins the show to talk serious laughs. We discuss his work on American humor between the wars, writing…
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Virtual Memories Show 218: RO Blechman “Time may have taught me things, but I don’t think I learned anything.” Legendary cartoonist, illustrator, animator, ad-man, artist RO Blechman joins the show to talk about his work and life. We get into the importance of play, the development of his trademark squiggly line (and how he feels…
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Virtual Memories Show 207: Garth Greenwell “Speaking a language inexpertly makes language visible, and malleable. You become aware of language not just as a medium but as matter itself, as something you manipulate, as something you have to work with.” Garth Greenwell joins the show to talk about the poetics of cruising (and cruising’s great…
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Virtual Memories Show #196: Myke Cole “I feel like the soul of writing is character, and the writers I admire the most are those who can evoke characters who are nothing like themselves.” Myke Cole joins the show to talk about military fantasy and his fantasies about the military, his journey from IT to CIA…
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Virtual Memories Show #190: Liza Donnelly “Frank Modell told me, ‘For the New Yorker, you have to draw better than you know how to.’” Liza Donnelly joins the show to talk about her careers as a New Yorker cartoonist, women’s rights activist and live-drawing legend! We get into the weird overlap of respectability, responsibility and…
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Virtual Memories Show #171: Jim Ottaviani “My willingness to pick and choose and throw out stuff that doesn’t work for the story may be part of my engineering background.” Jim Ottaviani joins the show to talk about his new graphic biography, The Imitation Game: Alan Turing Decoded, drawn by Leland Purvis (Abrams ComicArts). We get…
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Virtual Memories Show #165: Fred Kaplan (& #NJPoet’s Corner) “I asked someone who had worked at Tailored Access Operations [the NSA’s black bag division], ‘I’m in your cubicle at work; what am I seeing?’ and he said, ‘I’m sitting at a monitor, and I’m typing code. And behind me is a supervisor, and behind him…
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Virtual Memories Show #152: Carol Tyler “I don’t think you can go predict when you go into a long-term memoir project, that the people you’re writing about will see their lives profoundly change.” Carol Tyler spent 10 years making Soldier’s Heart: The Campaign to Understand My WWII Veteran Father: A Daughter’s Memoir (Fantagraphics). We sat…
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