Books are written in solitude, but writers do some of their finest work with crowds—in public talks, interviews, and events. The best moments from those strange, dramatic interactions often go missing, however: either they’re never recorded, or nobody will ever find the recordings.
Fortunately, the New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany has been methodically recording thousands of writers’ events since 1983, when it was founded by the novelist William Kennedy. Now, the writer and radio producer Adam Colman is digging into those audio archives, listening to recordings from the likes of Raymond Carver, Grace Paley, Jamaica Kincaid, Margaret Atwood, and Samuel Delany. On The Writers Institute, you’ll hear them, too, along with writers who joined Adam in listening to the archival recordings. They include Jonathan Franzen, Susan Choi, Jonathan Lethem, Saeed Jones, and Amelia Gray. Tune in to hear what happens when intensely solitary work finds its way into the public realm and the wider world.
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Books are written in solitude, but writers do some of their finest work with crowds—in public talks, interviews, and events. The best moments from those strange, dramatic interactions often go missing, however: either they’re never recorded, or nobody will ever find the recordings.
Fortunately, the New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany has been methodically recording thousands of writers’ events since 1983, when it was founded by the novelist William Kennedy. Now, the writer and radio producer Adam Colman is digging into those audio archives, listening to recordings from the likes of Raymond Carver, Grace Paley, Jamaica Kincaid, Margaret Atwood, and Samuel Delany. On The Writers Institute, you’ll hear them, too, along with writers who joined Adam in listening to the archival recordings. They include Jonathan Franzen, Susan Choi, Jonathan Lethem, Saeed Jones, and Amelia Gray. Tune in to hear what happens when intensely solitary work finds its way into the public realm and the wider world.
Jonathan Lethem (with Ann Beattie, Samuel Delany, Denis Johnson, and William Kennedy)
The Writers Institute
53 minutes
3 years ago
Jonathan Lethem (with Ann Beattie, Samuel Delany, Denis Johnson, and William Kennedy)
The novelist Jonathan Lethem listens here to recordings of his own New York State Writers Institute events over the past two decades. This propels conversation into wild places. It turns out that going into familiar moments—even listening to one’s own voice—can prompt discoveries. There’s a chance to find, as Lethem puts it, “worlds within the world.”
William Kennedy describes a similar discovery here. Going back as a journalist to his hometown of Albany, NY, was “a revelation,” he says. The city that once bored him became, to the writer in search of stories, a place of proliferating character, of drama—a world full of worlds.
You’ll hear in this episode the reward of applying mind to matter. Says Lethem: “We have tables and chairs and apples and cherries and shirts and pants and socks, but everything else seems to me pretty much up for grabs. Once you put subjectivity and consciousness in the mix, it all gets pretty strange.”
On this episode:
Jonathan Lethem (conversation with Adam Colman). Books: Motherless Brooklyn and The Arrest.
Samuel Delany (from the archives). Books: Dhalgren and Nova.
Ann Beattie (from the archives). Books: What Was Mine and Another You.
Denis Johnson (from the archives). Books: Jesus' Son and Train Dreams.
William Kennedy (conversation with Adam Colman). Books: Very Old Bones and The Flaming Corsage.
Find out more about the New York State Writers Institute at https://www.nyswritersinstitute.org.
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The Writers Institute
Books are written in solitude, but writers do some of their finest work with crowds—in public talks, interviews, and events. The best moments from those strange, dramatic interactions often go missing, however: either they’re never recorded, or nobody will ever find the recordings.
Fortunately, the New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany has been methodically recording thousands of writers’ events since 1983, when it was founded by the novelist William Kennedy. Now, the writer and radio producer Adam Colman is digging into those audio archives, listening to recordings from the likes of Raymond Carver, Grace Paley, Jamaica Kincaid, Margaret Atwood, and Samuel Delany. On The Writers Institute, you’ll hear them, too, along with writers who joined Adam in listening to the archival recordings. They include Jonathan Franzen, Susan Choi, Jonathan Lethem, Saeed Jones, and Amelia Gray. Tune in to hear what happens when intensely solitary work finds its way into the public realm and the wider world.
