Nation of Writers

In this episode, we’ll discuss the life and work of Ursula K. Le Guin. As you can read on her website, UrsulaKLeGuin.com, she was, “a celebrated author whose body of work includes 23 novels, 12 volumes of short stories, 11 volumes of poetry, 13 children’s books, five essay collections, and four works of translation. The [...]

In this episode, we’ll discuss the life and work of iconic poet Walt Whitman, who grew up in working-class New York City and was largely self taught. Whitman’s poems celebrated America, freedom, and individualism. His unconventional free verse, without rhyme or meter, shocked many readers but others found Whitman’s style and voice distinctly American and [...]

In this episode, we’ll discuss the life and work of poet, author, educator and community builder Gwendolyn Brooks, who was born in Topeka, Kansas. She moved to Chicago at just a few weeks old, where she remained an integral figure in the city for the rest of her life. Her work often dealt with the [...]

In this episode, we’ll discuss the life and work of Edith Wharton, who was born in 1862 into a tightly controlled society at a time when women were discouraged from achieving anything beyond a proper marriage. Wharton broke through these strictures to become one of America’s greatest writers. Author of The Age of Innocence, Ethan [...]

In this episode, we’ll discuss the life and work of Zora Neale Hurston, who was, simply, extraordinary. She grew up in Eatonville, Florida, an all-black town, leaving home in her teens and working menial jobs in order to finish high school. She arrived in New York in the 1920s to study anthropology at Columbia University [...]

In this episode, we discuss the life and work of Chicago legend Nelson Algren, one of the most well known literary writers in America in the 40s and 50s who eventually fell into obscurity toward the end of his life. Algren is perhaps best known for his novels such as A Walk on the Wild [...]

In this episode, we discuss the life and work of Willa Cather. As one of the greatest American novelists of the 20th century, Cather was gifted in conveying an intimate understanding of her characters in relation to their personal and cultural environments—environments that often derived from Red Cloud, Nebraska where she spent most of her [...]

In this episode, we’ll discuss the life and work of Rudolfo Anaya. A writer powerfully attuned to the land, history, and people of his native New Mexico, Anaya is often viewed as one of the founders of contemporary Chicano literature. “What I’ve wanted to do,” Anaya reflected, “is compose the Chicano worldview…and clarify it for [...]

In this episode, we’ll discuss the life and work of Oscar Hijuelos, who became the first Latino to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1990 for his novel The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love. He wrote rich and radiant novels that brought the Cuban American immigrant experience into the heart of American literature, helping [...]

In this episode, we’ll discuss the life and work of Octavia E. Butler. Butler was an acclaimed American writer who defied genre, though she is most often associated with the realm of science fiction. The recipient of multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards, she is the author of such classics as Kindred, Parable of the Sower, [...]