Podcast appearances and mentions of allan gurganus

​​Host Meg Wolitzer presents stories about characters coping with problems, large and small—and then encountering someone or something with a solution. In “Shoulder-Top Secretary,” by Shinichi Hoshi, a door-to-door salesman unveils the must-have technology of the future. It's read by Thom Sesma.  In “It Had Wings,” by Allan Gurganus, performed by Marian Seldes, a celestial being offers up a possible remedy for the aches and pains of life.  And our final story, “The Toynbee Convector,” is a Ray Bradbury classic in which a time machine delivers a hero to our tumultuous present.  It's read by Mike Doyle. Doyle provides backstage commentary about his process.

Episode 4 brings us the incredible writing talent that is Ann Patchett, an "auto-buy" author for our hosts and the 2023 National Humanities Medal recipient for "putting into words the beauty, pain and complexity of human nature." The three start their conversation by diving into Elin and Ann's respective years at the Iowa Writers' Workshop before exploring  Ann's writing process, her friendship with Lucy Grealy, and her ability to nail human relationships on the page. They also discuss the release of Ann's latest novel Tom Lake, as well as Ann's favorite writers and what it's like owning Parnassus Books in Nashville.A special thank you to our Episode Sponsors:Nantucket Looms - limited time, 15% off with code BOOKS15Triple Eight DistilleryAnn Patchett Reading List:The Magician's Assistant by Ann PatchettBel Canto by Ann PatchettTruth & Beauty by Ann PatchettState of Wonder by Ann PatchettThese Precious Days by Ann PatchettCommonwealth by Ann PatchettThe Dutch House by Ann PatchettTom Lake by Ann PatchettWhat else are we reading in this episode:The Kite Runner by Khaled HosseiniThen We Came to the End by Joshua FerrisAutobiography of a Face by Lucy GrealyOur Town by Thornton WilderOther authors mentioned:Jane Smiley, Anna Quindlen, Tim Winton, Stephen King, Jodi Picoult, Frank Conroy, Allan Gurganus, Russel Banks, Grace Paley, John Irving, Lucy Grealy, Colson Whitehead, Colleen Hoover, Joyce Carol Oates, Tom Hanks, Kate DiCamillo, Elizabeth McCracken, Louise Erdrich, Elizabeth Strout, Harlan Coben, Andrew Sean Greer, Zadie Smith, Margaret Atwood, and V, formerly Eve Ensler. Follow/Subscribe to the 'Books, Beach, & Beyond' podcast now to stay current on new episodes.And find us on Instagram at @booksbeachandbeyondHappy Reading!

What to Read Wednesdays comes at you every other Wednesday and is your one stop for reading, watching, and listening recommendations from your favorite library staff members! This week's episode features an interview with Mark.  Books recommended include Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie, Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All by Allan Gurganus, The Witching Hour by Anne Rice, Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon, Pet Cematary by Stephen King, and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt.  To read about more recommendations, click here. To request any of these titles, just click here. Email us with book recommendations, suggestions, & feedback at whattoread@delawarelibrary.org 

In an essay specially commissioned for the podcast, Aisha Sabatini Sloan describes rambling around Paris with her father, Lester Sloan, a longtime staff photographer for Newsweek, and a glamorous woman who befriends them. In an excerpt from The Art of Fiction no. 246, Rachel Cusk and Sheila Heti discuss how writing her first novel helped Cusk discover her “shape or identity or essence.” Next, Allan Gurganus's reading of his story “It Had Wings,” about an arthritic woman who finds a fallen angel in her backyard, is interspersed with a version of the story rendered as a one-woman opera by the composer Bruce Saylor. The episode closes with “Dear Someone,” a poem by Deborah Landau.   To check out Captioning the Archives, the book Aisha Sabatini Sloan created with her father, Lester Sloan, visit McSweeney's.   This episode was sound designed and mixed by John DeLore, and mastered by Justin Shturtz. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Halloween, yes! Sweater-weather, dog costumes, candy discounts and more. Gather 'round for a good old-fashioned ghost story: Acclaimed actor Rufus Collins brings to life selections from “The Ghosts of Yaddo” by Allan Gurganus, author of several books of fiction, including Oldest Living Confederate Widow and his latest, The Uncollected Stories of Allan Gurganus. Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit, Regina DeLuise.

The celebrated podcast returns for its third season! Join us on an audio odyssey through the pages of The Paris Review, featuring the best fiction, poetry, interviews, and archival recordings, from the world's most legendary literary quarterly. This season features fiction by Yohanca Delgado, Venita Blackburn, Bud Smith, Allan Gurganus, and Edward P Jones. Poetry from Monica Youn, Deborah Landau, Jericho Brown, Antonella Anedda, and Natalie Scenters-Zapico. Plus excerpts of interviews with Joan Didion, Robert Frost, Rachel Cusk, and George Saunders. This season includes the voices of Phoebe Bridgers, Connor Ratliff, Jessica Hecht, and Amber Gray. Check out this trailer for a preview of the upcoming season, and subscribe now to hear the first episode on October 27th, 2021. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What to Read Wednesdays comes at you every other Wednesday and is your one stop for reading, watching and listening recommendations from your favorite library staff members! This week's episode we have a review from Mark at the Powell Branch. Books recommended include A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik, The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All by Allan Gurganus, and The Color of Magic and We Free Men by Terry Pratchett.   To read about more recommendations, click here. To request any of these titles, just click here. Email us with book recommendations, suggestions, & feedback at whattoread@delawarelibrary.org 

For our very special holiday edition, we share a few of our favorite things: Allan Gurganus reads “A Fool for Christmas,” composer Paul Moravec shares music from his new, Grammy-nominated album, "Sanctuary Road." Plus, a dose of Dolly Parton! Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Paul Moravec, Mark Campbell, Bach Festival Society of Winter Park, Kenny Rogers.

We are so excited about the new release of Andrea Edith Moore's debut recording of Daniel Thomas Davis' haunting and humorous work, Family Secrets: Kith & Kin. Set to texts of seven internationally renowned authors of the New South: Frances Mayes, Daniel Wallace, Allan Gurganus, Lee Smith, Randall Kenan, Michael Malone, and Jeffery Beam,  this series of interconnected dramatic portraits tell of murder, gossip, humor, regret, solace and ultimately…forgiveness. Get the inside story on this wonder new recording.Learn more and get the album here: https://www.andreaedithmoore.com/copy-of-family-secrets

I consider myself to be the luckiest person on earth. And I can tell you of several specific moments in my life that would convince you of it.Being lucky is a choice I made. Because the truth is that I could just as easily tell you of other moments in my life that would convince you that I am the unluckiest person on earth. Allan Gurganus says, “Stories only happen to people who can tell them.” And you, my friend, are a person who can tell them! You've been telling stories about yourself your whole life. And the person you've been telling them to is you. Have you been telling yourself stories about lucky breaks, moments of serendipity and happy adventures? Are you remembering all the delightful occasions when you were in exactly the right place at the right time to experience something wonderful? Or are you remembering only the hateful parents, the unfair bosses, the unspeakable abuses and the horrible injustices you've had to endure? The key to happiness is knowing what to leave out of the story you tell yourself about the forces that made you who you are.Like any published memoir, our own life stories should also come with a disclaimer: “This story that I tell about myself is only based on a true story. I am in large part a figment of my own yearning imagination.” And it's a good thing, too. As we will see, a life story is an intensely useful fiction. 1 Personally, I admire the Swedish tramp sitting in a ditch on Midsummer night. He was ragged and dirty and drunk, and he said to himself softly and in wonder, “I am rich and happy and perhaps a little beautiful.” 2 That tramp looked past the “truth” of the moment to see a greater truth beyond. You can do the same if you like. In fact, you should. Oh! Are you one of those people who believes you should always be “honest” with yourself and remember things exactly as they really and truly happened? Well, I've got some bad news for you: we humans are incapable of that.According to the Journal of Neuroscience (Sept. 2012,) every time you recall the memory of an event, you make your memory of that event less accurate. Instead of remembering the “truth” of the event, you're recalling the memory of the last time you remembered it, along with any mistakes that may have been introduced. Like a game of human telephone, those mistakes build on one another over time. 3 Tom Robbins said the same thing  – but a little more colorfully – back in 1971: “Hardly a pure science, history is closer to animal husbandry than it is to mathematics in that it involves selective breeding. The principal difference between the husbandryman and the historian is that the former breeds sheep or cows or such and the latter breeds (assumed) facts. The husbandryman uses his skills to enrich the future, the historian uses his to enrich the past. Both are usually up to their ankles in bullshit.” 4 Everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story.5We sometimes choose the most locked up, dark versions of the story, but what a good friend does is turn on the lights, open the window, and remind us that there are a whole lot of ways to tell the same story.6 I'm trying to be your good friend today. Pennie and I have a good friend named Susan Ryan who said something about life on Dec. 14, 2008, that was so profound that I wrote it down. “We get to show up. We get to step into this story.” Every day is a new opportunity to change your life. You have the power to say, “This is not how my story ends.” 7 Abraham Lincoln said it cleanest and best. “Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” No one can prove that Lincoln said it, but I have a very clear memory that he did. http://www.mondaymorningmemo.com/rabbithole/ (Indy said to tell you) he's waiting for you in the rabbit hole. I'll go with you. Roy H. Williams

Allan Gurganus joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss Grace Paley’s “My Father Addresses Me on the Facts of Old Age,” from a 2002 issue of the magazine.

This week we're kicking off our new seasonal feature, the Summer of Love, with what is supposedly the first story with gay characters to appear in the New Yorker (in 1974). The story was also the first story publication for Allan Gurganus, who is perhaps best known as the author of the novel Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. We talk about the story's interesting point-of-view shifts, and how it handles a difficult father-son relationship. In light of the recent Supreme Court decision on gay marriage, we also talk about the rather seismic shifts that have occurred in our lifetimes on issues of gay rights and gay acceptance. Also, we test our podcast-partner relationship by taking a quiz penned by Dr. Phil. For more, check us out online at bookfightpod.com. Thanks for listening!

We take a ride with the nationally-recognized St. Andrews University Equestrian Program. We tour the historic Radisson Governors Inn. And author Allan Gurganus talks about his new book.

In 1989, when Allan Gurganus published his debut novel, Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, he did something amazing: Through a work of fiction, he managed to bring to life what was, to date, the most divisive period in American history, the Civil War years—a time in which as many as 620,000 of our fellow citizens (2% of the population) died. Perhaps even more astounding, Gurganus made it clear that although the war ended in 1865, the fallout it produced has lingered in the national atmosphere ever since, burning through consecutive generations of “Yankees” and “Rebels” much the way General Sherman’s Army blazed its way across Georgia toward the sea.  Nearly 25 years after the book’s initial publication and 150 years since the launch of the four-year conflict that killed more Americans than all other U.S. wars combined (from the Revolution to Vietnam), it’s time to take a fresh look at Allan Gurganus’s brilliant first novel and remind ourselves of something we may have forgotten: When two parts of the same whole turn on each other, no one truly wins. 

Allan Gurganus says the three novellas that comprise his new book, "Local Souls," were written as modern fables or fairy tales.

If Allan Gurganus's first comic novel, "Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All," mapped the late nineteenth-century South, his latest book, "Local Souls," brings the twisted hilarity of Flannery O'Connor kicking into the 21st century. This first work in a decade offers three novellas mirroring today's face-lifted South, a zone revolutionized around freer sexuality, looser family ties, and superior telecommunications, yet it celebrates those locals who have chosen to stay local.

If Allan Gurganus's first comic novel, "Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All," mapped the late nineteenth-century South, his latest book, "Local Souls," brings the twisted hilarity of Flannery O'Connor kicking into the 21st century. This first work in a decade offers three novellas mirroring today's face-lifted South, a zone revolutionized around freer sexuality, looser family ties, and superior telecommunications, yet it celebrates those locals who have chosen to stay local.

Callahan's gift shop is drawing tourists & business to Calabash. Joy Salyers & Greg Bell preview this weekend's Folklife Festival. And author Allan Gurganus talks about his new book.

Author Allan Gurganus sits down with host Kecia Lynn to discuss his life, career and time at the Iowa Writer's Workshop.

Author Allan Gurganus sits down with host Kecia Lynn to discuss his life, career and time at the Iowa Writer's Workshop.

We're thrilled to bring you this story from producer Peter Solomon.  It's a gem.  We fell for this piece the first time we heard it.  The rebel yell. What did it sound like – that battle cry that terrorized union troops and rallied Confederates to battle?  Historians have clues from letters and diaries but still have never agreed. Producer Peter Solomon brings us a recording of what many believe is an authentic Rebel Yell ... and it's nothing we expected to hear.  Peter spoke with Waite Rawls, President of the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia, who offers his perspective.  We are also excited to bring you the comments of Allan Gurganus, author of Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All.  He was a featured speaker last Fall at an "The Audio Listening Institute" from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke and the Third Coast International Audio Festival.  Thanks to Mr. Gurganus being brilliant and to the Center for Documentary Studies for allowing us to rebroadcast their audio.  Peter produced this story as an assignment for the Feature Bureau at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, and it aired on public radio stations across the state of Virginia.  Peter's editor, Big Shed friend Lydia Wilson, had read an article about a rebel yell CD from the Musuem of the Confederacy. Peter explained, "I didn't really know anything about the subject before I got the assignment. I knew that there was an amusement park ride called the 'Rebel Yell' or it was something that you shouted at a football game. When I heard the actual sound of the Confederate soldiers demonstrating the yell I was shocked. I played it for a colleague who thought it sounded like a person being killed. I asked Waite Rawls to comment on this reaction. He ended up being a very good storyteller. He's articulate, knowledgeable about the history of the civil war and I was able to let him tell the story without writing any narration."  And thanks to Peter Solomon for sharing this with us.  Peter has worked as a jazz host and operations manager at WCVE-FM, Richmond since 1999. His background is in music.  Peter - "I am a big jazz nerd but in recent years my interests have turned to crafting radio features and that's the part of my job that I most enjoy."

DG Martin interviews Allan Gurganus - New Stories from the South In the third decade of the New Stories from the South series—the book welcomes a new editor—Allan Gurganus. In this latest collection, Gurganus combed through hundreds of short stories written in 2005 to assemble a muscular array of talent, twenty stories ranging from low-down, high-octane farce to dark, erotic suspense.

DG Martin interviews Allan Gurganus - New Stories from the South In the third decade of the New Stories from the South series—the book welcomes a new editor—Allan Gurganus. In this latest collection, Gurganus combed through hundreds of short stories written in 2005 to assemble a muscular array of talent, twenty stories ranging from low-down, high-octane farce to dark, erotic suspense.

Allan Gurganus talks intimately about the people who introduced him to art and literature during his childhood.

Alan Gurganus talks about his friendship with John Cheever and the use of autobiography in fiction--and life.

Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All; Harmony First a conversation with Alan Gurganus, then with novelist Susan Chehak.