With the recent release of The Peace Process: A Novella and Stories
- Eva Brann – Then & Now: The World’s Center and the Soul’s Demesne
– Listen to our conversation • MP3
- Jessa Crispin – The Dead Ladies Project: Exiles, Expats, and Ex-Countries
– Listen to our conversation • MP3
- Paul Di Filippo – A Palazzo in the Stars: Science Fiction Stories
– Listen to our conversation • MP3
- Michael Dirda – Browsings: A Year of Reading, Collecting, and Living with Books
– Listen to our conversation • MP3
- Bruce Jay Friedman – The Peace Process: A Novella and Stories
- David Gates – A Hand Reached Down to Guide Me: Stories and a novella
– Listen to our conversation • MP3
- Craig Gidney – Skin Deep Magic: Short Fiction
– Listen to our conversation • MP3
- Rachel Hadas – Talking To The Dead
– Listen to our conversation • MP3
- Nancy Hightower – The Acolyte
– Listen to our conversation • MP3
- Clive James – Latest Readings
– Listen to our conversation • MP3
- Diana Renn – Blue Voyage
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- Witold Rybczynski – Mysteries of the Mall: And Other Essays
– Listen to our conversation • MP3
- Elizabeth Samet – Leadership: Essential Writings by Our Greatest Thinkers (Norton Anthology)
– Listen to our conversation • MP3
(Other Press, 2015). We also discuss IVF babies, doing research “in character”, keeping the reader’s interest in a “road movie” novel, prioritizing imaginary facts above real facts, his pros & cons list for becoming a parent, the challenge of writing a novel about a father’s fear for his child’s safety, the long and short answer of “Where do you get your ideas?”, how he got James Salter to blurb his new book, and more! 
– Rupert Thomson
– Peter Stamm
– Mary Shelley
– Merritt Tierce
– James Salter
– James Salter
– Joy Williams
– Mary Gaitskill
, which was shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Prize and selected by David Bowie as one of his 100 Must-Read Books of All Time; 
, which was made into a feature film by Ana Kokkinos; and 
, which was shortlisted for the Costa Novel of the Year Award. His memoir, 
, was named Writers’ Guild Non-Fiction Book of the Year. He lives in London.
feeding into a 
digital recorder. I recorded the intro and outro on a 
. Processing was done in Audacity and Logic Pro.
We also talk about Charlie Hebdo, the historical arc of gay marriage covers, the contrasts of her multimodal education in France with the American model, which comics she started her kids off with, how she deals with the moving target of diversity, the evolution of women in the comics scene, and why kids are a fantastic audience. 
collection of comics with HarperCollins, then 
with Abrams, and launched the TOON Books imprint.
and his new book 
(Abrams Comicarts). In this live podcast, we talk about that transition, how he became political years after being a political cartoonist, the impact of Ohio’s rustbelt disintegration on his worldview, and the surprise of his success in Europe. How do you go from garbageman to winner of the Angouleme prize? Find out from Derf Backderf in this week’s Virtual Memories Show! 
(SLG Publishing, 2010). He followed that with the international bestseller, 
(Fantagraphics). This new 200-page work chronicles Bill’s mother’s affair with the cartoonist Lawrence Lariar, and explores notions of family, infidelity, art, vanishing New York, the transience of reputation and memory, and of course, comics. The book is so significant that I decided to have two separate sessions with Bill, one to discuss his background and his comics history, and the other to focus on Invisible Ink. In part 1, we tackle Bill’s discovery of underground comics and the scene in ’70s San Francisco, his fine art education, the inescapable importance of Robert Crumb, his collaboration with Art Spiegelman on Arcade magazine, how he wound up with a syndicated daily Zippy comic strip, his rediscovery of diners, muffler-men, and roadside advertising icons, his surprisingly youthful audience, the responsibility of blowing up his readers’ minds, and more! 
in his new book, 
(First Second), the massive implications of crowdfunding for cartoonists and other creators, the problems with ‘balance’ in comics pages, his rebellion against Facebook, the Laurie Anderson model of comics, how he defines success, how to keep a happy marriage inside the comics world, and more! 
is probably off the hook now, because I finally did a comic even more sentimental. So now I made Craig look like Gary Panter.”
– Scott McCloud
– Scott McCloud
– Scott McCloud
– Art Spiegelman
– Chris Ware
– Wendy Pini
– Frank Miller
– Alan Moore
– Kerascoët, Fabien Vehlmann
– Roz Chast
– Jules Feiffer
– Richard McGuire
– Matthew Farber
– Joan Didion
– Tom Hart
– Orwell
– Joshua Foer
– David Byrne
– Alice Munro
– Joyce Carol Oates
and a pair of 
in 1993. We caught up in his Chicago home and talked about writing, boxing, the art world, the White Sox, the creative flourish that’s seen him publish three novels in four years, the perils of success and exhausting your autobiography, the periods of life he’s interested in writing about, his first meeting with Iggy Pop, his childhood and the school-days’ balance of being a reader and being a jock, the narcissism of online living, Trainspotting over the years, Edinburgh’s failed gentrification, the ways that America’s friendlier than Scotland, and more! 
– Irvine Welsh
– Irvine Welsh
– Irvine Welsh
– Irvine Welsh
– Richard Allen
– Anthony Burgess
– James Kelman
– James Kelman
– David Gates
– Jill Leovy
– Colin Mcintyre
– James Joyce
– William S. Burroughs
– Dmitry Samarov
– Dmitry Samarov
– Martin Amis
– Harry Crews
– John Fante
– Don Fante
– Michael Chabon
– Jim Ruland
– Stuart Dybek
– Lydia Davis
– Lydia Davis
, 
, among other works. His latest novel is 
, and 
. Go 
– Maureen C. Miller
– Donna Tartt
– Timothy Snyder
(Berlin: Edition Imorde, 2015). His book on Byzantine textiles and their role in ritual and hierarchy, 
, was published by Oxford University Press in 2012.