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Porches: The South and Her Writers

In 1999, Verb productions released it's first public radio series, Porches: The South and Her Writers. I drove around the south for 2 years, interviewing authors, scholars, editors and journalists in an attempt to figure out what made a capital S Southern Author. After about 40 interviews, I still couldn't tell you, but would point you in the direction of Lewis Nordan's definition, heard in program eight.

But what did come about was a good survey of writers in the South. These years set my course. I learned to become a self-contained shop, spending about eight months on the first program, and about two weeks on the last. Narration, editing, interviewing, protools, sales--all stuff I had to teach myself to do in order to deliver these 13 programs. The series, which included the last interview with National Book Award winner James Dickey, recorded just months before his death, as well as a great rambling conversation with the much-lamented Larry Brown, and some important insites from Sally Fitzgerald, the late Flannery O'Connor scholar.

These recordings, for the most part, have been languishing in my closet for 10 years. I can tell you that if you think it is painful to listen to recording of yourself, try listening to yourself ten years ago. I find the narration on these recordings to be a very specific type of hell.

1. James Dickey

2. Reynolds Price

3. Charles Frazier

4. Elizabeth Spencer

5. Clyde Edgerton

6. Kaye Gibbons

7. Lee Smith

8. Lewis Nordan

9. Flannery O'Connor (featuring Sally Fitzgerald)

10. Larry Brown

11. Barry Hannah

12. Josephine Humphreys

13. Padgett Powell

 

 

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