Podcast appearances and mentions of Jay Parini

9:15 - Middlebury Professor and poet Jay Parini on what the Trump attack on high educations means for the classroom and the campus. 10 am - Vermont Humanities Council executive director Christopher Kaufman Illstrup on the proposed cuts to the National Endowment for the Humanities and what it means for Vermont. 10:30 - Discussion of the Bernie Sanders events around the country. 

A conversation between Dr Jay Parini, a prolific author and the D.E. Axinn Professor of English and Creative Writing at Middlebury College, and Dr Stephen Blackwood, the founding president of Ralston College, recorded on the occasion of the release of a Ralston College short course, “Robert Frost: The American Voice,” taught by Dr Parini. Dr Parini discusses the film adaptation of his most recent book Borges and Me (2020), shares stories of his friendships with literary figures including Jorge Luis Borges, W. H. Auden, and Iris Murdoch, explains why poetry matters, and shares the fruits of a life “lived in literature.” Applications are now open for next year's MA program. Full scholarships are available. https://www.ralston.ac/apply Authors, Artists, and Works Mentioned in this Episode: Jay Parini, Borges and Me Alan Cumming Jorge Luis BorgesBeowulf Robert Burns Isaiah Berlin Homer Aeschylus Dante Michel de Montaigne William Wordsworth W. B. Yeats Brian Friel, Dancing at Lughnasa Robert Burns, “A Red, Red Rose” William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet Iris Murdoch, The Bell W.H. Auden Boethius Jay Parini, Robert Frost: A Life Robert Frost, “Fire and Ice” Jay Parini, Robert Frost: 16 Poems to Learn by Heart Robert Frost, “The Road Less Traveled” Robert Frost, “After Apple-Picking” Robert Frost, “Birches” Robert Frost, “Directive” Robert Frost, “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” Gerard Manley Hopkins Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets

Today's poem is a shape poem dedicated to chefs, but (surprise?) it might be about more than cooking.John Hollander, one of contemporary poetry's foremost poets, editors, and anthologists, grew up in New York City. He studied at Columbia University and Indiana University, and he was a Junior Fellow of the Society of Fellows of Harvard University. Hollander received numerous awards and fellowships, including the Levinson Prize, a MacArthur Foundation grant, and the poet laureateship of Connecticut. He served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, and he taught at Hunter College, Connecticut College, and Yale University, where he was the Sterling Professor emeritus of English.Over the course of an astonishing career, Hollander influenced generations of poets and thinkers with his critical work, his anthologies and his poetry. In the words of J.D. McClatchy, Hollander was “a formidable presence in American literary life.” Hollander's eminence as a scholar and critic was in some ways greater than his reputation as a poet. His groundbreaking introduction to form and prosody Rhyme's Reason (1981), as well as his work as an anthologist, has ensured him a place as one of the 20th-century's great, original literary critics. Hollander's critical writing is known for its extreme erudition and graceful touch. Hollander's poetry possesses many of the same qualities, though the wide range of allusion and technical virtuosity can make it seem “difficult” to a general readership.Hollander's first poetry collection, A Crackling of Thorns (1958) won the prestigious Yale Series of Younger Poets Awards, judged by W.H. Auden. And in fact James K. Robinson in the Southern Review found that Hollander's “early poetry resembles Auden's in its wit, its learned allusiveness, its prosodic mastery.” Hollander's technique continued to develop through later books like Visions from the Ramble (1965) and The Night Mirror (1971). Broader in range and scope than his previous work, Hollander's Tales Told of the Fathers (1975) and Spectral Emanations (1978) heralded his arrival as a major force in contemporary poetry. Reviewing Spectral Emanations for the New Republic, Harold Bloom reflected on his changing impressions of the poet's work over the first 20 years of his career: “I read [A Crackling of Thorns] … soon after I first met the poet, and was rather more impressed by the man than by the book. It has taken 20 years for the emotional complexity, spiritual anguish, and intellectual and moral power of the man to become the book. The enormous mastery of verse was there from the start, and is there still … But there seemed almost always to be more knowledge and insight within Hollander than the verse could accommodate.” Bloom found in Spectral Emanations “another poet as vital and accomplished as [A.R.] Ammons, [James] Merrill, [W.S.] Merwin, [John] Ashbery, James Wright, an immense augmentation to what is clearly a group of major poets.”Shortly after Spectral Emanations, Hollander published Blue Wine and Other Poems (1979), a volume which a number of critics have identified as an important milestone in Hollander's life and career. Reviewing the work for the New Leader, Phoebe Pettingell remarked, “I would guess from the evidence of Blue Wine that John Hollander is now at the crossroads of his own midlife journey, picking out a new direction to follow.” Hollander's new direction proved to be incredibly fruitful: his next books were unqualified successes. Powers of Thirteen (1983) won the Bollingen Prize from Yale University and In Time and Place (1986) was highly praised for its blend of verse and prose. In the Times Literary Supplement, Jay Parini believed “an elegiac tone dominates this book, which begins with a sequence of 34 poems in the In Memoriam stanza. These interconnecting lyrics are exquisite and moving, superior to almost anything else Hollander has ever written.” Parini described the book as “a landmark in contemporary poetry.” McClatchy held up In Time and Place as evidence that Hollander is “part conjurer and part philosopher, one of our language's true mythographers and one of its very best poets.”Hollander continued to publish challenging, technically stunning verse throughout the 1980s and '90s. His Selected Poetry (1993) was released simultaneously with Tesserae (1993); Figurehead and Other Poems (1999) came a few years later. “The work collected in [Tesserae and Other Poems and Selected Poetry] makes clear that John Hollander is a considerable poet,” New Republic reviewer Vernon Shetley remarked, “but it may leave readers wondering still, thirty-five years after his first book … exactly what kind of poet Hollander is.” Shetley recognized the sheer variety of Hollander's work, but also noted the peculiar absence of anything like a personality, “as if the poet had taken to heart, much more fully than its author, Eliot's dictum that poetry should embody ‘emotion which has its life in the poem and not in the history of the poet.'” Another frequent charge leveled against Hollander's work is that it is “philosophical verse.” Reviewing A Draft of Light (2008) for Jacket Magazine, Alex Lewis argued that instead of writing “philosophizing verse,” Hollander actually “borrows from philosophy a language and a way of thought. Hollander's poems are frequently meta-poems that create further meaning out of their own self-interrogations, out of their own reflexivity.” As always, the poems are underpinned by an enormous amount of learning and incredible technical expertise and require “a good deal of time and thought to unravel,” Lewis admitted. But the rewards are great: “the book deepens every time that I read it,” Lewis wrote, adding that Hollander's later years have given his work grandeur akin to Thomas Hardy and Wallace Stevens.Hollander's work as a critic and anthologist has been widely praised from the start. As editor, he has worked on volumes of poets as diverse as Ben Jonson and Dante Gabriel Rossetti; his anthologist's credentials are impeccable. He was widely praised for the expansive American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century (1994), two volumes of verse including ballads, sonnets, epic poetry, and even folk songs. Herbert Mitgang of the New York Times praised the range of poets and authors included in the anthology: “Mr. Hollander has a large vision at work in these highly original volumes of verse. Without passing critical judgment, he allows the reader to savor not only the geniuses but also the second-rank writers of the era.” Hollander also worked on the companion volume, American Poetry: The Twentieth Century (2000) with fellow poets and scholars Robert Hass, Carolyn Kizer, Nathaniel Mackey, and Marjorie Perloff.Hollander's prose and criticism has been read and absorbed by generations of readers and writers. Perhaps his most lasting work is Rhyme's Reason. In an interview with Paul Devlin of St. John's University, Hollander described the impetus behind the volume: “Thinking of my own students, and of how there was no such guide to the varieties of verse in English to which I could send them and that would help teach them to notice things about the examples presented—to see how the particular stanza or rhythmic scheme or whatever was being used by the particular words of the particular poem, for example—I got to work and with a speed which now alarms me produced a manuscript for the first edition of the book. I've never had more immediate fun writing a book.” Hollander's other works of criticism include The Work of Poetry (1993), The Poetry of Everyday Life (1997), and Poetry and Music (2003).Hollander died on August 17, 2013 in Branford, Connecticut.-bio via Poetry Foundation Get full access to The Daily Poem Podcast at dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe

Guest Host David Horton of Radford University in Virginia asks Clay for a progress report on his adventure retracing John Steinbeck's “Travels with Charley” journey. Clay was in Middlebury, Vermont, at the time of the interview, still aglow from his interview with Steinbeck biographer Jay Parini of Middlebury College. Topics include the clunky joys of rural AM radio; whether it matters that not everything in Travels with Charley happened precisely as Steinbeck reports; and what Clay is learning along the way. They discuss the changes in America's highways between 1960 and today, including the Blue Highways far away from the Interstate Highway System. Clay talks about some of the other pilgrimages he has made so far in the journey: Jack Kerouac's grave in Lowell, Massachusetts; Thoreau's Walden Pond; and Montauk Point at the end of Long Island where Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders quarantined after their heroics in Cuba.

This week on The Learning Curve, guest co-hosts Alisha Searcy and Mariam Memarsadeghi interview Jay Parini, Professor of English and Creative Writing at Middlebury College. A poet, professor, and author of literary biographies, Parini discusses how he came to write Promised Land: Thirteen Books That Changed America. From William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation through The […]

This week on The Learning Curve, guest co-hosts Alisha Searcy and Mariam Memarsadeghi interview Jay Parini, Professor of English and Creative Writing at Middlebury College. A poet, professor, and author of literary biographies, Parini discusses how he came to write Promised Land: Thirteen Books That Changed America. From William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation through The Federalist Papers, Thoreau's Walden, and works by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain, and W.E.B. Du Bois, Parini explores how key works of fiction and nonfiction have shaped the American mind and character and guided our understanding of ourselves as a people and a nation. He closes the interview with a reading from Promised Land: Thirteen Books That Changed America.

Marcia Franklin talks with Idaho filmmaker Michael Hoffman, whose movie The Last Station has been nominated for two Academy Awards. Based on a novel by Jay Parini of the same name, The Last Station chronicles the final year in the life of Russian writer and philosopher Leo Tolstoy, who was locked in a battle with his wife Sophia about the rights to his works. Tolstoy is surrounded by acolytes who want him to leave the copyrights to his major novels such as War and Peace and Anna Karenina to the Russian people, while Sophia wants the Tolstoy family to keep the rights. Hoffman, who wrote and directed the script, shuttled for years between Boise and Germany, where the film was financed and made. He talks with Franklin about why he was attracted to the story, the process of making the film, and what it was like to direct Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer, who play the Tolstoys. Both are nominated for Academy Awards. Originally aired: 03/04/2010

First Sunday of Lent - Led by Jay Parini.

In which Jay Parini recounts the fictions and realities of his Borgesian adventure.

No Mondolivro de hoje, Afonso Borges fala sobre o livro “A travessia de Walter Benjamin”, escrito por  Jay Parini. A obra retrata a trajetória de Walter e sua fuga de Paris durante a Segunda Guerra. Para saber mais, confira o episódio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's not enough time in the day to spend it figuring out what to watch, hear and... do! So in Ross Recommends, Ross Stevenson does all the heavy-lifting for you with the help of experts and friends.In Episode 6, Ross recommends something to do again with Lehmo, something to give up with Mark Allen and someone to read with literary expert, Jay Parini. DO AGAIN1:05 - Jokes 10:30 - Lehmo recommends: A joke to teach kids GIVE UP21:01 - Golf 35:10 - Marko recommends: Only eating when you're hungry READ37:28 - Robert Frost's Poem, The Road Not Takenhttps://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44272/the-road-not-taken46:25 - Jay recommends: Robert Frost's Poem, Fire and IceSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The broadcaster Petroc Trelawny, host of the Radio 3 Breakfast show, and the crime writer Stuart MacBride, author of the bestselling Logan McRae and Ash Henderson crime thrillers, talk to Harriett Gilbert about books they love. Petroc's choice is dystopian J. B. Ballard novel The Drought, Stuart's is the Hollywood memoir by David Niven, The Moon's A Balloon, and Harriett's is Borges and Me by Jay Parini. Produced by Eliza Lomas. Comment on instagram at @agoodreadbbc

On today's inaugural episode we have poet, novelist, biographer, screenwriter, and Professor at Middlebury College, Jay Parini. Throughout his illustrious career, Parini has authored several biographies on writers including Robert Frost, John Steinbeck, and Gore Vidal. His novel about Leo Tolstoy, The Last Station, was adapted into an award winning movie in 2009 starring Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren. His most recent book, Borges and Me is about an excursion with Jorge Luis Borges in Scotland. It was published in 2020. We spoke over zoom in late June, and touched on everything from faith to politics to war. Jay Parini's insights are grounded in close readings and meditations on poetry, philosophy, and religious texts, and they provide a refreshing way of thinking about the polarized world we live in. Our conversation weaved between the artistic and political, and was filled with little nuggets of writing tips that stemmed from his 50 year teaching career. To read more about Parini's vast body of work visit his website: http://jayparini.com Writers & Musicians Mentioned - Critical Revolutionaries by Terry Eagleton - W.H. Auden - Robert Frost - Gerard Manley Hopkins - Ralph Waldo Emerson - Wilfred Owen - Siegfried Sassoon - Philip Levine - Louise Glück - Mary Oliver - Bob Dylan - James Taylor - Jackson Browne - Neil Young Music: Ludwig van Beethoven Sonata No. 26 in E-flat Major (Op. 81a) Fryderyk Chopin Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor (Op. 35)

Jay Parini is an American writer known for his poetry, novels, biography, screenplays, and criticism. Since before scientific knowledge of the natural world became widespread, poets have been examining man's connection to nature using 'language adequate to experience'. In this episode, Jay describes how the voice of the poet is more relevant than ever during a time when the pressing ailments of the world are directly related to the growing divide between man and nature. [Originally published June 28 2020, Ep 22] jayparini.com/ Website: noordenproductions.com/nature-revisited-podcast Support Nature Revisited: noordenproductions.com/support Nature Revisited is produced by Stefan van Norden and Charles Geoghegan. We welcome your comments, questions and suggestions - contact us at noordenproductions.com/contact

I have a book problem. It's a good kind of problem, if a heavy one. Learn the difference between these terms and hear a bonus passage about the Argentine writer, Jorge Luis Borges, a scene from Jay Parini's memoir, Borges and Me: an Encounter.

Today on Boston Public Radio: We begin the show by opening phone lines, talking with listeners about youth mental health during the pandemic. John Della Volpe talks about Gen Z's relationship to political activism, and the events that pushed them to action. Della Volpe is director of polling at Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics and a former Biden campaign adviser. His new book is: “Fight: How Gen Z Is Channeling Their Fear And Passion To Save America.” EJ Dionne discusses a surge in book ban efforts across the country. He also weighs in on the road ahead for President Joe Biden's first nominee to the Supreme Court. Dionne is a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution. His latest book is “Code Red: How Progressives and Moderates Can Unite to Save Our Country.” Dan Adams updates us on the latest headlines from the local marijuana industry, including Gov. Charlie Baker's filing of the Clardy Law, which would treat driving impairment from alcohol and marijuana the same way. Adams is a cannabis reporter and author of the “This Week in Weed” newsletter for the Boston Globe. Revs. Irene Monroe and Emmett G. Price III share their thoughts on the Pope's statement on COVID-19 information, and the state of the Supreme Court. Rev. Monroe is a syndicated religion columnist and the Boston voice for Detour's African American Heritage Trail. Rev. Price is founding pastor of Community of Love Christian Fellowship in Allston, the Inaugural Dean of Africana Studies at Berklee College of Music. Together they host the “All Rev'd Up” podcast at GBH. Richard Blanco shares some of his favorite winter-themed poems, including Wallace Stevens' “The Snowman,” Jay Parini's “Below Zero,” and Mark Strand's “Lines for Winter.” Blanco joins us regularly to lead Village Voice, a conversation about how poetry can help us better understand our lives. He's the fifth presidential inaugural poet in US history. His latest book, “How to Love a Country,” deals with various socio-political issues that shadow America. We end the show by asking listeners how they handled Saturday's snow storm.

Matt Crawford speaks with author Jay Parini about his book Borges and Me. A book fifty years in the making, hold on and get ready to go for a ride. As an aspiring author running from the Vietnam draft Parini finds himself at the great Scottish institution of St. Andrews. Through kismet and happenstance, he is asked to be a tour guide-caretaker for the blind and aged author, Jorge Luis Borges. What follows is a hysterical, poignant and meaningful jaunt though the Scottish Highlands in an old car, with a young author and a literary giant. A fun and touching read that will brighten your day and lend some great life perspective.

In this episode of “Keen On”, Andrew is joined by Jay Parini, the author of “Borges and Me: An Encounter”. Jay Parini is a poet, novelist, biographer, screenwriter, and critic. He's been writing poems, novels, biographies, and screenplays for four decades. Visit our website: https://lithub.com/story-type/keen-on/ Email Andrew: a.keen@me.com Watch the show live on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ajkeen Watch the show live on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ankeen/ Watch the show live on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lithub Watch the show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LiteraryHub/videos Subscribe to Andrew's newsletter: https://andrew2ec.substack.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jay Parini, novelist, poet, biographer, & professor of English & Creative Writing at Middlebury College, speaking about "Scranton in the Popular Imagination", a program on Tuesday, September 19, 2021, at 7:00 pm. at the Scranton Cultural Center. Parini will offer the keynote talk & will interact with a regional panel as well as the audience. The event is part of a two-year project supported by the NEH through an award to the University of Scranton. Registration is required: surveymonkey.com/r/ImagineScranton www.scranton.edu

Stuart and Eamonn are joined by writer and commentator, Jane Graham. This week - reactions to the SNP/Green Party deal, the Jess Brammar ‘bias' controversy and a listener question about breaking difficult stories. At the end of the show, Stuart, Eamonn and Jane share their media recommendations. RECOMMENDATIONS: Stuart: ‘Designated Survivor' - drama series on Netflix - www.netflix.com/gb/title/80113647 Eamonn: ‘The Boys In The Boat: An Epic Journey to the Heart of Hitler's Berlin' - book by Daniel James Brown' - www.waterstones.com/book/the-boys-in-the-boat/daniel-james-brown/9781447210986 Jane: ‘Borges and Me: An Encounter' - book by Jay Parini - www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/621066/borges-and-me-by-jay-parini/ For more information about Talk Media, go to: www.thebiglight.com/talkmedia

Seven Pillars with Alan Davies: S1 EP6 - Jay PariniJoining me in the studio this week to discuss his Seven Pillars is Jay Parini - an American writer and academic. He is known for novels, poetry, biography, screenplays and criticism. He has published novels about Leo Tolstoy, Walter Benjamin, Paul the Apostle, and Herman MelvilleI hope you his company as much as I did. Thanks, Alan. Please subscribe, rate and review. Get in touch with the show: hello@keepitlightmedia.com

Check out Angels in the Architecture:  https://canonpress.com/products/angels-in-the-architecture/ 

Check out Angels in the Architecture:  https://canonpress.com/products/angels-in-the-architecture/ 

This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by David Gallagher to discuss two new books about Jorge Luis Borges – one a collection of essays and remembrances by the great Latin American writer Mario Vargas Llosa, the other a more curious offering by the American writer and critic Jay Parini; David Baddiel on the insidious, pervasive, exclusionary nature of ‘progressive’ antisemitism; Alice Wadsworth and Lucy Dallas on food podcasts and the French comedy-drama Call My Agent!Medio siglo con Borges, by Mario Vargas Llosa (published in Spain by Alfaguara)Borges and Me: An encounter, by Jay Parini Jews Don't Count by David Baddiel 'The Sporkful' and 'Off Menu' available on podcast platformsCall My Agent!, Netflix See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jay Parini is a poet, novelist, professor of English at Middlebury College, and the author of several books, most recently "Borges and Me: An Encounter."

You can listen to the newsletter by clicking the play button above or you can click the “Listen in Podcast app” link and follow the directions to open this feed in your podcast app. Currently, you may find the feed on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify. It was my pleasure to interview Matthew Lee Anderson for our podcast last month. I'll start with the usual introductory matters. Matt is an Assistant Research Professor of Ethics and Theology at Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion and the Associate Director of Baylor in Washington. He's also an Associate Fellow at the McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Life at Oxford University, where he completed a D.Phil. in Christian Ethics. As you'll hear in the interview, Matt is the author of two books:  Earthen Vessels: Why Our Bodies Matter To Our Faith and The End of Our Exploring. Matt is also the founder of Mere Orthodoxy, a site that has consistently published thoughtful, irenic, and theologically informed Christian writing for over 15 years. Moreover, Matt's writing has appeared in Christianity Today, The Gospel Coalition, The Washington Post, and elsewhere. Finally, Matt's newsletter, The Path Before Us, offers moral and theological analysis of contemporary culture and politics. In our conversation, we ranged over a variety of topics, but I'd say that reflection on the moral life was a unifying theme. Below is an outline of the conversation with timestamps so that you can navigate your way to places of interest. I especially enjoyed our discussion of the role that literature can play in shaping our moral imagination beginning at the 40:34 mark. 1:54 — Matt's vision for Mere Orthodoxy and the nature of writing online10:20 — Earthen Vessels, issues related to the body19:05 — The End of Our Exploring, the distinction between doubt and inquiry, and the art of asking good questions28:13 — The work of theologian Oliver O'Donovan, author of Begotten or Made? and Resurrection and Moral Order35:37 — The task of moral reasoning40:34 — Literature and the moral life51:33 — Shakespeare1:01:47 — The value of memorization We hope you enjoy this conversation. You can look forward to others like it in the coming weeks and months. Peace, Michael SacasasAssociate DirectorStudy Center ResourcesOur Readings in the Christian Imagination reading group is now reading Alan Jacobs's The Year of Our Lord 1943, which focuses on the work of five Christian intellectuals—C. S. Lewis, W. H. Auden, T. S. Eliot, Jacques Maritain, and Simone Weil—who, in the middle of World War Two, turned their attention to the question of education and the life of the mind. We will discuss the first half the book on Monday, October 26th over Zoom at 8:00 p.m.The rest of our program is in full swing. Our Director's classes are meeting via Zoom and in-person and our Dante group meets via Zoom on Wednesday afternoons. If you have any questions about taking part in these events, please email Mike Sacasas at mike4416@gmail.com.Recommended Reading— Samantha Rose Hill explains why Hannah Arendt believed that loneliness could make individuals susceptible to totalitarianism. ‘Totalitarian solutions,' she wrote, ‘may well survive the fall of totalitarian regimes in the form of strong temptations which will come up whenever it seems impossible to alleviate political, social, or economic misery in a manner worthy of man.' When Arendt added ‘Ideology and Terror' to Origins in 1958, the tenor of the work changed. The elements of totalitarianism were numerous, but in loneliness she found the essence of totalitarian government, and the common ground of terror.— Earlier this year, Jay Parini reflected on his meeting with W. H. Auden:"I've learned a little in my life," he said. "Not much. But I will share with you what I do know. I hope it will help."He lit a cigarette, looked at the ceiling, then said, "I know only two things. The first is this: There is no such thing as time." He explained that time was an illusion: past, present, future. Eternity was "without a beginning or an end," and we must come to terms with what underlies time, or exists around its edges. He quoted the Gospel of John, where Jesus said: "Before Abraham was, I am." That disjunctive remark upends our notions of chronology once and for all, he told me.I listened, a bit puzzled, then asked: "So what's the second thing?""Ah, that," he said. "The second thing is simply advice. Rest in God, dear boy. Rest in God." This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit christianstudycenter.substack.com

In this episode prolific author, Jay Parini, talks about his new book, BORGES AND ME: An Encounter which recounts his time with with literary genius Jorge Luis Borges. He also shares a trove of stories including producing a feature film adaptation of his Gore Vidal biography with Michael Hoffman and Kevin Spacey.

Seventy-one-year-old Jorge Luis Borges as seen through the eyes of twenty-one-year-old Jay Parini in “Borges and Me: An Encounter.”

On the 244th birthday of the United States of America, the BXC brothers tackle some of their favorite biographies (excluding autobiographies, that's an episode for another day). Also discussed: what makes a compelling biography and how favorite biographies usually align with personal interests. BOOKS DISCUSSED/MENTIONED/RECOMMENDED IN THIS EPISODE: From John Current read: 'The Devil's Highway: A True Story,' Luis Alberto Urrea Recommended biographies: 'John Adams' by David McCullough; 'Wisdom and Innocence: A Life of G. K. Chesterton' by Joseph Pearce; 'Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare' by Stephen Greenblatt; Life of St. Columba by Adomnan of Iona; 'Truman' by David McCullough; 'The Man Who Went into the West: A Life of R. S. Thomas' by Byron Rodgers, 'Leadership in Turbulent Times,' Doris Kearns Goodwin Next read: 'Go Down, Moses,' William Faulkner From Jude Current read: 'Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression,' Morris Dickstein Recommended biographies: 'The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton' by Michael Mott; 'Melville: His World and His Work' by Andrew Delbanco; 'Van Gogh: The Life' by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith; 'One Matchless Time,' Jay Parini; 'The True Adventures of John Steinbeck, Writer' by Jackson Benson Next read: 'The Exorcist,' William Peter Blatty

Jay Parini is an American writer known for his poetry, novels, biography, screenplays, and criticism. Since before scientific knowledge of the natural world became widespread, poets have been examining man's connection to nature using 'language adequate to experience'. In this episode, Jay describes how the voice of the poet is more relevant than ever during a time when the pressing ailments of the world are directly related to the growing divide between man and nature. Website: noordenproductions.com/nature-revisited-podcast Nature Revisited is produced by Stefan van Norden and Charles Geoghegan. We welcome your comments, questions and suggestions - contact us at noordenproductions.com/contact

Episode 372 also includes an E.W. Essay titled "Hero." We share a brand new Uncle Cesare Essay written by our Associate Producer Dr. Michael Pavese titled "Ofermode." We have an E.W. poem called "Witness." Our music this go round is provided by these wonderful artists: Django Reinhardt, Stephane Grapelli, War, Bob Marley & the Wailers, Leon Redbone, Karl Blau, Carmen McRae, Branford Marsalis and Terrence Blanchard. Commercial Free, Small Batch Radio Crafted In the Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania... Heard All Over The World. Tell Your Friends and Neighbors...

My program last week presented poems by New England poets who considered some of the complex matters that are part of life in urban settings. Today I move to more rural settings and present equally complex poems by Vermont poets: Ellen Bryant Voight, John Engels, Major Jackson, Jay Parini, and Verandah Porche.

In his book Promised Land: Thirteen Books That Changed America, Jay Parini describes and analyzes three iconic works of fiction. Uncle Tom's Cabin, Parini writes, almost single-handedly created a mass audience for the antislavery movement. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn interrogated race in fundamental ways and introduced a distinctive vision of freedom. And On the Road inspired the Beat Generation and many subsequent countercultural tendencies and movements. Jay Parini, Promised Land: Thirteen Books That Changed America Anchor, 2010 (paper) Jay Parini, Borges and Me: An Encounter Doubleday, forthcoming The post Game-Changing Fiction appeared first on KPFA.

This episode, hosted by Jeremy Navarro, features Jay Parini reading his short autobiographical piece, "A Beer with Borges," and Genevieve Plunkett reading her O. Henry Award–winning story, "Something for a Young Woman." "A Beer with Borges" was originally published in NER in spring 2018, and "Something for a Young Woman" was published in NER in fall 2015.

Jay Parini has written biographies of some of the great American writers of the last 100 years. He's also published collections of poetry, literary criticism, and several novels. He was friends with the writer Gore Vidal for over thirty years and about whom Jay wrote the biography Empire of Self. He's also written a novel on the life of Jesus. He's been fascinated with the lives and influences of writers and has a unique insight into their process and the creation of their literary and public voices. Jay's new novel The Damascus Road, which will be released on April 2, 2019 in the United States. It follows the Apostle Paul and Luke as Paul transforms from a Jewish tent-maker to the most important and crucial figure in the spread of Christianity. Jay compares Luke and Paul's relationship to Sherlock Holmes and James Watson–with Apostle Paul as the erratic, eccentric and sexually ambiguous Benedict Cumberbatch type. This novel is already being adapted for NETFLIX.His novel on the last days of Leo Tolstoy, The Last Station, was adapted into an Academy Award Nominated Film with Christopher Plummer. This is the first episode in a series that plans to focus on voice. There are a few sound issues and, to be honest, I was nervous. My voice will develop though. It better.

"Slouching Toward Facisim..." We have for your listening pleasure Episode 290 of "Troubadours and Raconteurs with E.W. Conundrum Demure." Episode 290 features a grand conversation with Poet, Novelist, Biographer, Screenwriter,and Critic the great Jay Parini. Mr. Parini's acclaimed novel The Last Station – was made into an Academy Award-nominated film starring Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer. Jay talks with us from his office at Middlebury College in Vermont. We discuss Me Too, Monster Artists, Seperating an Artist's Work from Their Personal Life, Meeting Gore Vidal, His Upcoming Film Starring Kevin Spacey as Gore Vidal, Can't Trust Republicans with the Economy, Slouching Toward Facism, Journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Books as a Ladder to Heaven, Grandma Could've Beat Trump... This Episode also includes an EW Essay titled "Luxury." We have another wonderful essay from our Associate Producer Dr. Michael Pavese ( aka Uncle Cesare) Titled "Rotogravure."We have a poem called "Gazoontight." Our music this go round is provided by these wonderful artists: Django Reinhardt, Stephan Grapelli, the Clash, Amos Lee, Garland Jeffreys, Bob Dorough, Terry Morel, Jack Sheldon, Santana, Branford Marsalis and Terrence Blanchard. Commercial Free, Small Batch Radio Crafted In the Moosic Mountains of Pennsylvania... Heard All Over The World. Tell your Friends and Neighbors...

This week on StoryWeb: Robert Frost’s poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” In honor of the winter solstice Without a doubt, the most famous poem about winter is Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” In fact, Garrison Keillor says that this is perhaps the single most famous poem of any kind in the twentieth century. Frost himself called the poem “my best bid for remembrance.” Written nearly in the blink of an eye in June 1922 after Frost had been up all night finishing his long poem “New Hampshire,” the poem, said Frost, came to him nearly in an hallucination in just “a few minutes without strain.” It was published the next year in a collection of Frost poems also titled New Hampshire. It’s likely that you know this beloved poem – and also that you know other Frost poems, such as “After Apple-Picking,” “Birches,” “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” and of course “The Road Not Taken.” The thing about Frost’s poems is that they seem, at first glance, to be so simple, so straightforward. In “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” the poem’s speaker is returning home from an errand of some sort on the “darkest evening of the year,” that is, the winter solstice. He and his horse stop by a wood filling with snow. The horse is impatient to get home, but the man is entranced by the snow piling up in the woods, “lovely, dark and deep.” Anyone who has witnessed a deep snow knows the muffled quiet, the hush that descends as the “downy flake[s]” fall, that magical feeling of being transported almost to another world. Since I live in Colorado, I get to enjoy many such snowfalls each year, and I often say it is like being in a snow globe. But “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” is not just about being in a snow globe in New Hampshire, lovely as that image is. No, anyone who’s read the work of Robert Frost knows that there’s usually more going on in a Frost poem than at first meets the eye. Here, we can’t help but be intrigued by the lines at the poem’s end: “The woods are lovely, dark and deep, / But I have promises to keep, / And miles to go before I sleep, / And miles to go before I sleep.” Perhaps these lines are literally about a busy man who needs to attend to his obligations and not tarry too long in this transcendent landscape. And maybe he is thinking prosaically about the long journey still ahead toward home. But many readers have sensed that there is more at work here. Drawn into the otherworldliness of the dark woods filling up with snow, the speaker may be thinking on another level of the “sweet” relief that death may bring. Like sleep, death is a mystery, an unknowing, potentially a kind of oblivion that seems in some ways attractive to someone, like the poem’s speaker, who is too busy with obligations and errands. Might it be nice to simply succumb to these woods, “lovely, dark and deep” as they are? Then again, maybe this is just a slice-of-life nature poem about appreciating a supremely beautiful winter landscape. A former colleague of mine from my days teaching at West Virginia’s Shepherd University emphatically told students that the poem is not about death as it does not explicitly mention this subject. For that professor, the poem is literally about the narrator needing to get home so he can sleep. But this professor also told students that any given poem has only one meaning and that it is the teacher’s job to ensure that students understand each poem’s single interpretation. I am in a far different camp, as I believe that a rich poem can have multiple interpretations, maybe even contradictory meanings at the same time, that readers bring to the poem their own lives and experiences and that each reader has a unique experience of the poem. I ascribe to Archibald MacLeish’s philosophy: “A poem should not mean but be.” To sample a few of the many interpretations Frost’s poem has elicited, visit the University of Illinois’s outstanding Modern American Poetry website, where you’ll find excerpts from a dozen or so scholars. One critic included here, Clint Stevens, writes, “There is in the end the uncertainty in choosing between his death impulse and his desire to continue on the road of life. Which wins in the end, I think I know, but it scarcely matters; the speaker has had his solitary vision; whether he stays or goes, the woods will go with him and the reader, who are now well-acquainted with the coming night.” Well said, Mr. Stevens. Well said. To learn more about Frost, you might want to read the Poetry Foundation’s introduction to Frost’s work and philosophy. If you really want to delve into everything Frost, read Jay Parini’s outstanding biography, Robert Frost: A Life – and check out the Robert Frost postage stamp (along with other U.S. stamps dedicated to American poets!). The definitive collection of Frost’s poetry is The Poetry of Robert Frost. Visit thestoryweb.com/snowy for links to all these resources and to watch Frost recite this marvelous poem. At the very least, hearing him read the words will transport you to a magical, snowy world. And it just might cause you to reflect on the power of life – and death – beyond yourself. And the next time you are lucky enough to enjoy a lovely, deep snowfall, think of Frost’s poems. Happy winter, happy return of the light to all my StoryWeb listeners.

Pauls tells James about his new book, DOG GONE, his path to sobriety, his favorite pencil, and how his life has (thankfully) changed since their days at Middlebury College. Plus Emily Crowe from Odyssey Bookshop suggests summer reading (listed below), discusses the value of independent bookstores, and makes suggestions for a good book event.      James and Pauls Discuss: Baker & Spice Bakery Portland, OR  Oakley Skis Tesla Automobiles  The Rotring Tikky- The Official Pencil of Pauls Toutonghi  Knopf  Salman Rushdie  Bill Clegg  Tim O'Connell  Renee Zuckerbrot  LitHub  Joy Williams  Karen Russell Jim Shepard  GOODHOUSE by Peyton Marshall  Skip Horack  Printer's Row Book Festival  Watermark Books  Jay Parini    Emily and James discuss: HOMEGOING by Yaa Giasi*  THE SPORT OF KINGS by C.E. Morgan* THE PRINCE & THE PAUPER by Mark Twain  ALL THE LIVING by C.E. Morgan CHURCH OF MARVELS by Leslie Parry*  THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy  THE REASON I JUMP by Naoki Higashida (translated by David Mitchell)* Tom Franklin & Beth Ann Fennelly  *= Summer reading recommendation    http://tkpod.com // tkwithjs@gmail.com // Twitter: @JamesScottTK  Instagram: tkwithjs // Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tkwithjs

This week on StoryWeb: Leo Tolstoy’s novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich. Leo Tolstoy, the great Russian writer and philosopher, is known for his epic, huge-canvas novels, War and Peace and Anna Karenina. But I am also a fan of his much shorter work, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, a novella that has deeply moved me every time I have read it. The work is titled The Death of Ivan Ilyich because it is precisely not about Ivan’s living but about his passing from life (limited as his was) to death. The reader knows from the start – from the very title – that Ivan Ilyich will die. Indeed, the opening scene includes the announcement of his death to his former colleagues and is followed immediately by the scene of his funeral. Freed from that suspense, the reader can focus, as Tolstoy does, on Ivan Ilyich’s experience of dying. After the funeral scene, Tolstoy backs up 30 years and briefly tells the story of Ivan Ilyich’s life as a lawyer in the Russian Court of Justice. He went to law school as expected, married as expected, had children as expected, and moved up through the career ranks as expected. Ivan Ilyich at all times did what was expected of a man from his background. As Tolstoy writes, “Ivan Ilyich’s life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible.”   One day when hanging curtains in his new home, he falls and injures his side. Over time, the injury does not subside but instead becomes worse, until the pain is unbearable. Finally, Ivan Ilyich has no choice but to leave his job as a magistrate and take to his sick bed.   By far my favorite scene is the one in which Ivan Ilyich’s servant, Gerasim, comes in to Ivan’s sickroom and holds his master’s legs up for him. It is the only position in which Ivan does not feel pain. Ivan’s wife and children can hardly be bothered to visit Ivan at his deathbed. They are always in a hurry, ready to move back into their “real” lives as soon as possible. God help them if they had smart phones! But Gerasim stays with Ivan, sits with him, listens to him, but most importantly reaches out to him with the healing power of human touch. It is supremely intimate: one person being fully present with another human being, one person bearing witness to another’s life . . . and death. I described Leo Tolstoy at the beginning of this episode as a writer and philosopher. I suppose that many people think of him only as a writer and that those who know of his philosophy may dismiss it. It did have some rather outlandish components. Tolstoy declared his celibacy even though he was still married, much to his wife’s surprise and profound disappointment. He gave away virtually all of his inherited fortune so that he could live a life of poverty. And he renounced the copyrights to his earlier works, assigning them instead to his increasingly estranged wife. In addition, the constant presence of spiritual disciples in the Tolstoy household deeply angered Tolstoy’s wife. One source says that the Tolstoys’ later life as a couple was “one of the unhappiest in literary history,” because “Tolstoy's relationship with his wife deteriorated as his beliefs became increasingly radical.” Despite the unorthodox nature of Tolstoy’s philosophy, it proved influential, especially to 20th-century leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I especially admire his deep, abiding emphasis on love. Eschewing the trappings of conventional religion, Tolstoy developed his own version of Christianity. He very much subscribed to Jesus’s primary teaching, which held that the old commandments had now been replaced with one overarching commandment: “Love one another.” In fact, so deeply did Tolstoy embrace Christ’s teachings (especially those in the Sermon on the Mount) that he has been described as a Christian anarchist and pacifist. It is important to note that The Death of Ivan Ilyich was written after Tolstoy’s deep and profound spiritual conversion. Indeed, Gerasim represents the highest calling: he loves Ivan. He reaches out to another human being with love, compassion, caring. You can read the full novella online – or buy a hard copy for your collection. You can gain insights into Tolstoy’s last days by watching the film The Last Station, based on the novel by Jay Parini. For links to these resources, visit thestoryweb.com/Tolstoy. Listen now as I read Chapter VII from The Death of Ivan Ilyich. This is the scene in which Gerasim takes care of Ivan Ilyich tenderly and holds his master’s legs. How it happened it is impossible to say because it came about step by step, unnoticed, but in the third month of Ivan Ilych's illness, his wife, his daughter, his son, his acquaintances, the doctors, the servants, and above all he himself, were aware that the whole interest he had for other people was whether he would soon vacate his place, and at last release the living from the discomfort caused by his presence and be himself released from his sufferings. He slept less and less. He was given opium and hypodermic injections of morphine, but this did not relieve him. The dull depression he experienced in a somnolent condition at first gave him a little relief, but only as something new, afterwards it became as distressing as the pain itself or even more so. Special foods were prepared for him by the doctors' orders, but all those foods became increasingly distasteful and disgusting to him. For his excretions also special arrangements had to be made, and this was a torment to him every time—a torment from the uncleanliness, the unseemliness, and the smell, and from knowing that another person had to take part in it. But just through his most unpleasant matter, Ivan Ilych obtained comfort. Gerasim, the butler's young assistant, always came in to carry the things out. Gerasim was a clean, fresh peasant lad, grown stout on town food and always cheerful and bright. At first the sight of him, in his clean Russian peasant costume, engaged on that disgusting task embarrassed Ivan Ilych. Once when he got up from the commode too weak to draw up his trousers, he dropped into a soft armchair and looked with horror at his bare, enfeebled thighs with the muscles so sharply marked on them. Gerasim with a firm light tread, his heavy boots emitting a pleasant smell of tar and fresh winter air, came in wearing a clean Hessian apron, the sleeves of his print shirt tucked up over his strong bare young arms; and refraining from looking at his sick master out of consideration for his feelings, and restraining the joy of life that beamed from his face, he went up to the commode. "Gerasim!" said Ivan Ilych in a weak voice. "Gerasim started, evidently afraid he might have committed some blunder, and with a rapid movement turned his fresh, kind, simple young face which just showed the first downy signs of a beard. "Yes, sir?" "That must be very unpleasant for you. You must forgive me. I am helpless." "Oh, why, sir," and Gerasim's eyes beamed and he showed his glistening white teeth, "what's a little trouble? It's a case of illness with you, sir." And his deft strong hands did their accustomed task, and he went out of the room stepping lightly. Five minutes later he as lightly returned. Ivan Ilych was still sitting in the same position in the armchair. "Gerasim," he said when the latter had replaced the freshly-washed utensil. "Please come here and help me." Gerasim went up to him. "Lift me up. It is hard for me to get up, and I have sent Dmitri away."     Gerasim went up to him, grasped his master with his strong arms deftly but gently, in the same way that he stepped—lifted him, supported him with one hand, and with the other drew up his trousers and would have set him down again, but Ivan Ilych asked to be led to the sofa. Gerasim, without an effort and without apparent pressure, led him, almost lifting him, to the sofa and placed him on it. "Thank you. How easily and well you do it all!" Gerasim smiled again and turned to leave the room. But Ivan Ilych felt his presence such a comfort that he did not want to let him go. "One thing more, please move up that chair. No, the other one—under my feet. It is easier for me when my feet are raised." Gerasim brought the chair, set it down gently in place, and raised Ivan Ilych's legs on it. It seemed to Ivan Ilych that he felt better while Gerasim was holding up his legs. "It's better when my legs are higher," he said. "Place that cushion under them." Gerasim did so. He again lifted the legs and placed them, and again Ivan Ilych felt better while Gerasim held his legs. When he set them down Ivan Ilych fancied he felt worse. "Gerasim," he said. "Are you busy now?" "Not at all, sir," said Gerasim, who had learnt from the townsfolk how to speak to gentlefolk. "What have you still to do?" "What have I to do? I've done everything except chopping the logs for tomorrow." "Then hold my legs up a bit higher, can you?" "Of course I can. Why not?" and Gerasim raised his master's legs higher and Ivan Ilych thought that in that position he did not feel any pain at all. "And how about the logs?" "Don't trouble about that, sir. There's plenty of time." Ivan Ilych told Gerasim to sit down and hold his legs, and began to talk to him. And strange to say it seemed to him that he felt better while Gerasim held his legs up. After that Ivan Ilych would sometimes call Gerasim and get him to hold his legs on his shoulders, and he liked talking to him. Gerasim did it all easily, willingly, simply, and with a good nature that touched Ivan Ilych. Health, strength, and vitality in other people were offensive to him, but Gerasim's strength and vitality did not mortify but soothed him. What tormented Ivan Ilych most was the deception, the lie, which for some reason they all accepted, that he was not dying but was simply ill, and that he only need keep quiet and undergo a treatment and then something very good would result. He however knew that do what they would nothing would come of it, only still more agonizing suffering and death. This deception tortured him—their not wishing to admit what they all knew and what he knew, but wanting to lie to him concerning his terrible condition, and wishing and forcing him to participate in that lie. Those lies—lies enacted over him on the eve of his death and destined to degrade this awful, solemn act to the level of their visitings, their curtains, their sturgeon for dinner—were a terrible agony for Ivan Ilych. And strangely enough, many times when they were going through their antics over him he had been within a hairbreadth of calling out to them: "Stop lying! You know and I know that I am dying. Then at least stop lying about it!" But he had never had the spirit to do it. The awful, terrible act of his dying was, he could see, reduced by those about him to the level of a casual, unpleasant, and almost indecorous incident (as if someone entered a drawing room defusing an unpleasant odour) and this was done by that very decorum which he had served all his life long. He saw that no one felt for him, because no one even wished to grasp his position. Only Gerasim recognized it and pitied him. And so Ivan Ilych felt at ease only with him. He felt comforted when Gerasim supported his legs (sometimes all night long) and refused to go to bed, saying: "Don't you worry, Ivan Ilych. I'll get sleep enough later on," or when he suddenly became familiar and exclaimed: "If you weren't sick it would be another matter, but as it is, why should I grudge a little trouble?" Gerasim alone did not lie; everything showed that he alone understood the facts of the case and did not consider it necessary to disguise them, but simply felt sorry for his emaciated and enfeebled master. Once when Ivan Ilych was sending him away he even said straight out: "We shall all of us die, so why should I grudge a little trouble?"—expressing the fact that he did not think his work burdensome, because he was doing it for a dying man and hoped someone would do the same for him when his time came. Apart from this lying, or because of it, what most tormented Ivan Ilych was that no one pitied him as he wished to be pitied. At certain moments after prolonged suffering he wished most of all (though he would have been ashamed to confess it) for someone to pity him as a sick child is pitied. He longed to be petted and comforted. He knew he was an important functionary, that he had a beard turning grey, and that therefore what he longed for was impossible, but still he longed for it. And in Gerasim's attitude towards him there was something akin to what he wished for, and so that attitude comforted him. Ivan Ilych wanted to weep, wanted to be petted and cried over, and then his colleague Shebek would come, and instead of weeping and being petted, Ivan Ilych would assume a serious, severe, and profound air, and by force of habit would express his opinion on a decision of the Court of Cassation and would stubbornly insist on that view. This falsity around him and within him did more than anything else to poison his last days.    

The Last Station is essentially concerned with the sunset chapter of Leo Tolstoy's life (with far less drinking than witnessed in "Last Call" – a film about Fitzgerald's final years). Decades after writing his masterworks, Tolstoy struggles with the prospect of leaving the copyright of his work to the Tolstoyan Movement at the insistence of its leader, Vladimir Chertkov, though to the absolute dismay of his wife, Sofya Tolstoy. Meanwhile, Valentin Fedorovich Bulgakov writes in his diary. The film features a stellar cast including Christopher Plummer, Helen Mirren, Paul Giamatti and James McAvoy. The narrative takes some liberties in assuming the viewer has a working knowledge of Tolstoy (possibly even garnered from reading the film's source material, The Last Station by Jay Parini) making it a bit inaccessible to the casual viewer. Bulgakov's romantic subplot is a cinematic addition and not historically accurate. While beautifully shot and superbly acted, the film leaves something to be desired. It is somewhat disappointing this currently serves as the "Tolstoy Biopic." Follow @Infin8Gestation on Twitter • Visit InfiniteGestation.com Show Notes & Links The Last Station by Jay Parini Mark Twain (1835-1910) Tolstoyan Movement Mahatma Gandhi  Leo Tolstoy (Christopher Plummer) Vladimir Chertkov (Paul Giamatti) Valentin Fyodorovich Bulgakov (James McAvoy) Sofya Tolstoy (Helen Mirren) Masterpiece Theater

In 1914 the American poet Robert Frost published his collection 'North of Boston'. It was hailed as 'one of the most revolutionary books of modern times' by the English poet Edward Thomas. Matthew Hollis, who has written about the friendship between the two writers, is joined by Frost's biographer Jay Parini to discuss the poet. This programme presented by Matthew Sweet, was recorded in front of an audience at The Royal College of Music as part of the BBC Proms. To find out further information about the events which are free to attended go to bbc.co.uk/proms.

The Last Station

Renowned author and Middlebury College Professor Jay Parini charms his dinner audience with selections from his “Promised Land: Thirteen Books That Changed America.” From “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin” and “Walden,” through “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” to “How to Win Friends and Influence People” and “The Feminine Mystique,” Parini offers a compelling narrative on the evolution of American culture. Parini was the keynote speaker at the UC San Diego Library’s “Dinner in the Library,” which takes place annually in Geisel Library. Series: "Library Channel" [Humanities] [Show ID: 25715]

Renowned author and Middlebury College Professor Jay Parini charms his dinner audience with selections from his “Promised Land: Thirteen Books That Changed America.” From “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin” and “Walden,” through “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” to “How to Win Friends and Influence People” and “The Feminine Mystique,” Parini offers a compelling narrative on the evolution of American culture. Parini was the keynote speaker at the UC San Diego Library’s “Dinner in the Library,” which takes place annually in Geisel Library. Series: "Library Channel" [Humanities] [Show ID: 25715]

One of the most infamous films of the '70s, Myra Breckinridge was based on a novel by Gore Vidal about Myron, a young man trying to make it in Hollywood who becomes a gorgeous young woman. See Rex Reed change into Raquel Welch and spar with John Huston, Mae West, and more.

Childish Loves (W. W. Norton) Novelist Ben Markovits will read and sign the third and final entry is his critically acclaimed trilogy of novels surrounding the life of Lord Byron. "This story-within-a-story-within-a-story poses questions about the very nature of fiction." --Booklist "I've been a keen reader of this unfolding trilogy, in its totality a work of high intelligence and canny storytelling. . . . With Childish Loves, his concluding novel, Markovits reaches well beyond the usual confines of historical fiction, breaking the boundaries of the genre, in a moving finale that raises this trilogy to a level of artfulness that deserves a wide audience and deep appreciation." --Jay Parini, author of The Last Station and The Passages of H.M. Benjamin Markovits grew up in Texas, London and Berlin. He left an unpromising career as a professional basketball player to study the Romantics. Since then he has taught high-school English, edited a left-wing cultural magazine, and written essays, stories and reviews for, among other publications, the New York Times, the Guardian, the London Review of Books and the Paris Review. His novels include The Syme Papers, Either Side of Winter, Imposture, and A Quiet Adjustment. Markovits has lived in London since 2000 and is married with a daughter and a son. He teaches creative writing at the Royal Holloway, University of London.

Mariella talks to author of Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Paul Torday, about his new book. Sue Arnold reviews the latest crop of audio books from Faberge Eggs to Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. And novelist Jay Parini discusses the life and death of Herman Melville (author of Moby Dick and Billy Budd) which he has re-created in his new novel.

On our final festival day, we've got interviews with Hardeep Singh Kohli and Jay Parini; excerpts from today's Poetry Breakfast on whether poets or actors are better readers of verse; a chance to hear Burns expert Drew Clegg explore his love of the bard; and Poetry Cabaret with the wonderful Elvis McGonigle. With thanks to musicians Ewen Maclean and Gill Bowman for their permission to use their music in this podcast. Produced and presented by Colin Fraser for StAnza.

The choicest cuts from today's StAnza poetry festival. Includes an interview with and poetry from Swiss based sound poetry outfit Trio Pas Lundi; a chance to hear from StAnza lecturer Jay Parini on his memories of Alastair Reid and Jorge Luis Borges; excerpts from today's Poetry Breakfast on the state of Scottish poetry including Stuart Kelly and Roddy Lumsden, experimental poetry from Peter McCarey and a Dalek Love Song.

Chris Gondek speaks with (1) Steve Fraser, about how Americans have perceived Wall Street and its more well known investors throughout its history, and with (2) Jay Parini, about the importance of poetry for both individuals and for cultures.

Chris Gondek speaks with (1) Steve Fraser, about how Americans have perceived Wall Street and its more well known investors throughout its history, and with (2) Jay Parini, about the importance of poetry for both individuals and for cultures.