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OUR LATEST SHOWS:
WHEN SHE NAMED FIRE
We kick off Women's History month
with readings from the new anthology of contemporary poetry by American women,
When She Named Fire. Edited by poet Andrea Hollander Budy,
the anthology features
461 poems by 96 contemporary female poets. Three of those poets -- Robin Behn,
Michelle Boisseau, and Jo McDougal -- join Budy for a reading recorded at the
Writers Place in Kansas City.
And hear additional readings
from archived interviews with poets Alice Friman, and Dorianne Laux,
whose work also is included in
this much-praised anthology, the
first of its kind in decades.
New Letters
on the Air pays tribute to
National Book Award-winning poet
Lucille Clifton,
who passed away on February 13,
2010. The author of numerous
books of poetry, children's
prose and verse about the
African-America experience,
Lucille Clifton
talks in this 1988
interview about our shared
history of slavery and reads
poetry from her books, including
Good Woman: Poems and a
Memoir, a finalist for the
Pulitzer Prize.
English writer
Sarah Dunant is recognized in her
home country as a former BBC television/radio host turned popular novelist.
Her fame in America, though, rests on her recent historical fiction,
The Birth of Venus, and
In the Company of the Courtesan. Dunant talks about her love of
history and research, but how it was her early experience with crime fiction
that taught her how to write novels. She discusses her newest novel,
Sacred Hearts, the third in her triptych of fiction about Renaissance
Italy, which explores life at a convent famous for its music, and the
resulting
soundtrack to the novel.
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ABOUT
NEW LETTERS ON THE AIR:
New Letters on the Air, hosted by
Angela Elam, is the half-hour radio companion to the literary quarterly magazine New Letters. Past guests include U.S. Poet Laureates Ted Kooser, Rita Dove, Billy Collins; Pulitzer Prize winning playwrights August Wilson, Suzan-Lori Parks, Tony Kushner and novelists Jim Harrison, Jane Smiley, Richard Russo. The program, which also features emerging writers of poetry, fiction, drama and creative non-fiction, is produced by the University of Missouri-Kansas City and distributed via Public Radio's Content Depot.
Angela Elam, Host of New Letters on the Air
THE STORY OF NEW LETTERS ON THE AIR:
New Letterson the Air celebrates its 30th year as one of the nation's leading audio-literature collectors and broadcasters.
David and Judy Ray began New Letterson the Air in 1977 as the radio companion to the distinguished literary quarterly New Letters. Rebekah Presson Mosby worked as a producer and then host from 1982 until 1995. Now, producer/host Angela Elam continues the tradition with New Letters editor Robert Stewart and other members of the New Letters staff. New Letters on the Air is not only a weekly program broadcast over many public radio stations, but is also one of the largest and best collections of recordings of contemporary authors, both from the United States and around the world.
Many of these important writers—Allen Ginsberg, Jane Kenyon, Howard Nemerov, Michael Dorris, James Dickey, John Gardner, Gwendolyn Brooks—have now passed from the literary scene. Many are Nobel laureates, winners of Pulitzer Prizes or National Book Awards. Most programs from our extensive archives are offered for sale on audiocassette or CD.
TIP You may use the left-side search parameters in any combination. You can search by author name, ID, Genre or Interview Year. For example, to find all authors who have a last name beginning with "A" simply put an "a" in the text box field, on the drop down box select On The Air and press the enter key.
SPONSORS:
Support for New Letters on the Air comes from the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency, and the University
of Missouri-Kansas City's College of Arts and Sciences.
of Missouri-Kansas City's College of Arts and Sciences.