An Interview with Fiction Writer Becky Hagenston

“Our lives can be ruled by irrational beliefs, and that interests me as a fiction writer,” says author Becky Hagenston in conversation with James Madison Redd on the Schooner blog. Read the interview here.

Credit: Troy DeRego

 

Redd’s Interview with Chris Offutt in The Oxford American

Redd sent Chris questions via e-mail, and he responded from Kentucky via his “two-way wrist radio.”

Check it out in the Oxford American!

Redd’s Interview with Poet Beth Ann Fennelly

“I’ve always been jealous of what musicians have when they play together on stage because writers don’t get that…We had that a little bit with writing this novel.” Beth Ann Fennelly in Crooked Letter Review Series conversation about her and Tom Franklin‘s forthcoming novel, A TILTED WORLD. See the full conversation on the PRAIRIE SCHOONER blog here!

Dueling Writers & Honing the Creative Impulse: A Conversation with Beth Ann Fennelly

This conversation with Beth Ann Fennelly is the ninth in the Crooked Letter Interview Series hosted by the Schooner’s Southern Correspondent, James Madison Redd.  The following is a brief excerpt from their recent conversation at the University of Mississippi, familiarly known as Ole Miss.

Beth Ann Fennelly directs the MFA Program at Ole Miss, where she was named the 2011 Outstanding Liberal Arts Teacher of the Year. Her work has three times been included in THE BEST AMERICAN POETRY series. Fennelly has published three full-length poetry books, including OPEN HOUSE, TENDER HOOKS, and UNMENTIONABLES, all published by W. W. Norton. She has also published a book of nonfiction, GREAT WITH CHILD. She and her husband, the L.A. Times Book award winner Tom Franklin, co-wrote the novel, TILTED WORLD, forthcoming in October 2013.

Author Beth Ann Fennelly

Redd’s Review of Richard Lyons’ HOURS OF THE CARDINAL

James Madison Redd, in his first effort as editor of the monthly review series, PRAIRIE SCHOONER: BRIEFLY NOTED, reviews a significant book under the radar: Mississippi poet Richard Lyons’ HOURS OF THE CARDINAL.

See why you should read this timeless book at the PRAIRIE SCHOONER’S blog.

Hours of the Cardinal by Richard Lyons

Redd Named Blog Editor at Prairie Schooner

James Redd is the new editor for the blog at the literary magazine, the Prairie Schooner. Prairie Schooner is an internationally recognized literary magazine publishing stories, essays, and reviews since 1926. It is published in cooperation with the University of Nebraska Press and the Creative Writing Program of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln English Department and is endowed by the Glenna Luschei Endowed Editorship and Fund for Excellence at Prairie Schooner.

Redd’s Crooked Letter Interview Series began running on the blog in August 2012 and has featured acclaimed Mississippi authors such as Richard Ford and T.R. Hummer. Redd, the former Prairie Schooner Publicity Associate, will temporarily be taking over the blog’s reins. In addition to Redd’s Crooked Letter Series, the blog’s impressive list of blog series includes Nabina Das’ features on Indian writers, Ryan Van Winkle’s World Wide Poetry Studio, Richard Graham on comics, Natalie Diaz’s feature on Sports and Writing, as well as the concise monthly book review series: Prairie Schooner: Briefly Noted. Redd’s presence as editor will further advance the blog’s terrific contributions to literature.

James Madison Redd’s collection of stories, Taking the Cure, was a finalist for the St. Lawrence Book Award and one story was nominated for inclusion in Best New American Voices 2009. He is a winner of the Mari Sandoz / Prairie Schooner award. His fiction, poetry, and scholarship have or will appear in Fifth Wednesday, Fiction Southeast, Deep South Magazine, Penwood Review, Parting Gifts, Subliminal Interiors, Poetry for the Masses, Prairie Schooner: Briefly Noted, and other literary journals. Currently, he is an editorial assistant for Prairie Schooner and is continuing his doctoral studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His next project is a biography of the blues legend and civil rights activist, Willie King.

THE GIFT OF WRITING, A Conversation with OLYMPIA VERNON on air now!

Olympia Vernon is author of three critically-acclaimed novels: Eden, Logic, and A Killing in This Town. Vernon’s Eden won the 2004 Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. A special winter issue of CALLALOO (March 2012) featured an interview with Olympia Vernon, conducted by Charles Rowell, founder, as well as an excerpt from her fourth novel. Vernon currently lives in Louisiana.

Author Olympia Vernon

Redd: Often you write in the context of dramatic experiences in your life, such as when you wrote a novel in twenty-six hours after almost losing your life in a storm. What is the writing process like for you? From another viewpoint, you’ve said that before you write, “I will sometimes make a call to family/friends letting them know that I’m going in.” Has your dedication to writing affected those close to you?

Read more on the Prairie Schooner Blog here: http://prairieschooner.unl.edu/?q=blog/olympia-vernon-gift-writing