For our second anniversary show—yes, we’ve been on the air two years now—Ed and I interviewed Carole Beers. Carol is the author of Saddle Tramps, a mystery that offers a gripping look behind the scenes of competitive Western horse shows. Prior to venturing into the mystery genre, Carole was a dance critic and journalist at the Seattle Times.
Literary Ashland with Dennis Powers
Our June guest was Dennis Powers, Professor Emeritus at SOU and author of numerous books both fiction and non-fiction. We talked about his maritime series of non-fiction books which began with The Raging Sea, an account of the worst Tsunami on the US West Coast, and includes the volumes The Treasure Ship, Sentinel of the Seas, Taking the Sea and Tales of the Seven Seas. Each book explores a fascinating topic along the West Coast of the United States.
Literary Ashland with Bill Gholson
For our May interview, Ed and I caught up with Bill Gholson. Bill teaches rhetoric and the nonfiction essay. He has a PhD in English with concentrations in rhetoric and contemporary American literature. A former high school English teacher, he has directed writing programs and has published on Kurt Vonnegut and rhetoric. More recently, he’s been writing poetry, which is the topic of our conversation.
Literary Ashland with Sharon Dean
It was a pleasure interviewing fellow author Sharon Dean on my radio show last Friday. Sharon is the author of the Susan Warner mysteries and a member of my writing group. She grew up in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. From Massachusetts, it was a small leap to the University of New Hampshire and a degree in English. When her husband was assigned to Pease Air Force Base in New Hampshire, she seized the opportunity to enter graduate school at UNH.
Armed with a Ph.D. and facing a declining job market, Sharon spent several years laboring on the adjunct teaching circuit before she began a full-time career at Rivier University in Nashua, New Hampshire. Four academic books later, Sharon has become professor emerita and has moved with, yes, the same husband to Ashland, Oregon. She has sworn off books that require footnotes and is reinventing herself as a writer of mystery novels.
Literary Ashland with Jim Risser
I wasn’t able to participate in this interview, so you can listen to Ed Battistella as he interviews Jim Risser on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Pulitzer Prizes.
Jim Risser was the Washington Bureau Chief for the Des Moines Register and won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 1976 for disclosing large-scale corruption in the American grain exporting trade.
