Posts From Author: stephen king
Writers and Storytelling: Larry Olmsted
Larry Olmsted is an award-winning journalist who has been a visiting professor at Dartmouth College, where he taught nonfiction writing. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Real Food / Fake Food and Getting into Guinness, a history of the Guinness Book of World Records, a book for which he broke three world records himself while researching, and the new book Fans: How Watching Sports Makes Us Happier, Healthier and More Understanding. He currently writes online columns for Forbes and USA Today, and he appears regularly on television and radio. On May 25th, Larry will join Amber Hunt, Gabriela Garcia, and Nancy Sherman in our next edition of “Seriously Entertaining” where they will each tell stories tied to the theme “I Scream, You Scream.” Register here for the show! What are you reading right now for solace or escape or entertainment? The new Equalizer reboot with Queen Latifah. Oh wait, that’s a TV show. I bought the new Stephen King book If It Bleeds at the start of pandemic but never opened it. I have stacks of unread “to read” books. Frankly I’ve been too busy with interviews and writing spin-off op-eds for own new book Fans, and I just listened to it in its entirety as an audio […]
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Writers and Storytelling: Melissa Faliveno
Melissa Faliveno is a writer, editor, musician, teacher, and Wisconsinite in New York City. Her debut essay collection, TOMBOYLAND, about gender, class, and the American Midwest, is forthcoming from Jill Soloway’s Topple Books on August 4, 2020. Her work has appeared in Poets & Writers, Prairie Schooner, DIAGRAM, Essay Daily, Green Mountains Review, Lumina, and Midwestern Gothic, among others, and received a notable selection in Best American Essays 2016. She has profiled USWNT star Megan Rapinoe and musicians Valerie June and Jason Isbell; and an essay about her life as a former roller derby skater (moniker: Harlot Brontë) was published in the anthology Derby Life. Born and raised in small-town Wisconsin and a first-generation college graduate, Melissa received a BA in English and creative writing from the University of Wisconsin and an MFA in nonfiction writing from Sarah Lawrence College, where she currently teaches in the graduate writing program. She will be joining Lilliam Rivera, Helen Macdonald, and Roger Rosenblatt on October 20 to tell stories tied to the theme “Nerves of Steel.” Register here for the show! What are you reading right now for solace or escape? Whew—not enough. I just finished Raven Leilani’s Luster, and while it offered […]
Read MoreLife in 2D: Dan Povenmire on the Greatest Cartoons Ever, Salsa Music, and Not Being A Jerk
Dan Povenmire is perhaps best known as the co-creator of the Disney Channel smash hit Phineas and Ferb. Though born in California, he was raised in Mobile, Alabama, where he discovered the joys of drawing and movie-making. He went to the University of South Alabama and USC School of Cinematic Art before embarking on a busy career as a writer, television director, producer, storyboard artist and actor. He’s worked on some of the biggest animated series of our time, including The Simpsons, Rocko’s Modern Life, SpongeBob SquarePants, Hey Arnold, and Family Guy, for which he was nominated for an Annie in 2005. He’s been nominated for ten Emmys in four different categories, including songwriting and voiceover performance, and won one for his writing. (We profiled Dan at greater length here.) I spoke to Dan this week about Phineas and Ferb‘s genesis and why Bullwinkle Moose would be the ultimate weapon in the event of a zombie apocalypse. Charles Arrowsmith: You and Jeff (“Swampy”) Marsh were pitching Phineas and Ferb on and off from the early 90s until Disney picked it up in 2007. What would a mid-90s Phineas and Ferb have looked like? Has its evolution been affected by the projects you’ve worked on, from The Simpsons onwards? Dan Povenmire: I think Phineas would […]
Read MoreCurtain Call: In Case of Emergency
A state of emergency is declared. You fly tonight. What do you take with you? Clothes? Thermos? Hatchet? Naaah: books, of course. Fortunately you know of a safehouse nearby. A safehouse by the name of SpeakEasy. That’s right, comrades, there’s a Seriously Entertaining way out of this crisis. Between our six guests next week, we have everything you need to survive In Case of Emergency. Don’t have your ticket yet? Fear not, there’s still a few left here. Your checklist: 1. Amor Towles. Author of the marvellous Manhattan merry-go-round Rules of Civility, which we reviewed a few weeks back, and its ebook follow-up Eve in Hollywood. Here’s Towles talking about the great American photographer Walker Evans and the genesis of his debut novel: 2. Evie Wyld‘s new book, All the Birds, Singing, was just published in the US. When it came out in the UK last year, the Guardian said that it “should enhance her reputation as one of our most gifted novelists”. We took a look at her debut, After the Fire, a Still Small Voice, earlier this week. In this clip, Wyld reads the opening to All the Birds, Singing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bn4sDbm3k8 3. J.D. McClatchy‘s new collection Plundered Hearts just came out to ecstatic reviews — the […]
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