Carmela Ciuraru and Paul Madonna

09/03/23 • 73 min

In the first half of this program, literary critic Carmela Ciuraru talks about her new book, Lives of the Wives, which shines a light on the lesser-known partners of historic literary giants. Weaving together themes of marriage, power, ego, and equity, this riveting deep dive explores relationship dynamics that are still relevant today.

Then, artist and author Paul Madonna, who’s known for combining drawing and stories in a wide range of genres - from his enigmatic art series All Over Coffee which ran for twelve years in the San Francisco Chronicle, to his large-scale public murals, to his entertaining and sharply-plotted mystery novels. Madonna’s new book, The Commissions, is a riveting mystery set between San Francisco and Amsterdam.

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Simone Stolzoff and Wendy MacNaughton

This week, we talk to the authors of two new books – one about our relationship to work, and another one about hospice and art. In the first half of this program, we talk to Simone Stolzoff. He’s the author of a new book, “The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming life from Work”. It takes a critical look at the way work has become so central to our identities - oftentimes at the expense of family, community and health.

For artist Wendy MacNaughton, drawing is a vehicle for connection. Her subjects are often people and places typically over-looked. That’s certainly the case with her new book, “How to Say Goodbye.” It’s a collection of portraits she drew during her time as artist in residence at a hospice center in San Francisco. MacNaughton was joined in this interview by her colleague Ladybird Morgan - a nurse, social worker, and palliative care consultant.

Both interviews were conducted in the studios of KQED in San Francisco on August 14, 2023, by neuroscientist, musician, and podcaster Indre Viskontas.

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Natalie Diaz and Hilton Als Encore

This week, our guest is poet Natalie Diaz in conversation with essayist and author Hilton Als. Natalie Diaz is an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian community and is the director of the Fort Mojave Language Recovery Program, where she works with the last remaining speakers of the Mojave language. Language and loss are explored throughout Diaz’s poetry, in collections including When My Brother Was an Aztec and Postcolonial Love Poem, which won her the Pulitzer Prize.

Hilton Als is another writer whose work explores American identity, in theater reviews, articles, and essays for The New Yorker, where he’s contributed since 1989. Als received the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Criticism, “for bold and original reviews that strove to put stage dramas within a real-world cultural context.” His writing explores race, sexuality, class, art, and American identity provocatively, exploding the boundaries of the genre in which it is contained. His most recent book is a memoir, My Pinup.

On February 9, 2023, Natalie Diaz and Hilton Als came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco for an onstage conversation, during which Diaz read from her work.