Alice Munro

September 24, 2020

The History of Literature #236 – Alice Munro | The Love of a Good Woman 3

What does it mean to be good? What does it mean to love and be loved? What sacrifices do we make in order to bring about happiness? And how can we do any of this if we’re uncertain about the nature of reality? In this episode, we conclude our look at Alice Munro’s classic novella, Continue reading

Authors, Fiction, history of literature, Podcast, Writing

Alice Munro, canadian literature, murder, Short Stories
September 23, 2020

The History of Literature #235 – Alice Munro | The Love of a Good Woman 2

Think about your life: Have you always gotten what you wanted? Have you LET yourself be happy? Have you kept secrets – from others, or even yourself? In this episode, Jacke returns to the great Canadian writer Alice Munro for Part Two of her novella-length masterpiece, “The Love of a Good Woman.” Help support the Continue reading

Authors, Fiction, history of literature, Podcast, Writing

Alice Munro, canadian author, murder, Short Stories
September 22, 2020

The History of Literature #234 – Alice Munro | The Love of a Good Woman

“She is our Chekhov,” said Cynthia Ozick, “and she is going to outlast most of her contemporaries.” Ozick was talking about the great Alice Munro, the Canadian writer whose short stories about ordinary women and men have garnered every literary prize imaginable. In this episode, the first of three Alice Munro Week special episodes, Jacke Continue reading

Authors, Fiction, history of literature, Podcast, Writing

Alice Munro, canadian author, missing body, murder, Nobel Prize, Short story
June 11, 2018

The History of Literature #146 – Power Ranking the Nobel Prize for Literature

http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL5546404287.mp3 The Nobel Prize for Literature has a special place in the literary landscape. We revere the prize and its winners – and yet we often find ourselves puzzled by the choices. The list of fantastic writers who never won a Nobel Prize is as long and distinguished as the list of those who did. Continue reading

Arts, Authors, books, Fiction, history of literature, novelists, Podcast, Writing

Alice Munro, Karl Ove Knausgaard, nobel prize for literature, the nobel prize committee, toni morrison
October 26, 2017

History of Literature #115 – The Genius of Alice Munro

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:32:04 — 63.5MB) | Embed Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Email | RSS | More She was born Alice Ann Laidlaw on July 10, 1931, in a small town called Wingham Ontario, the daughter of a mink farmer and a schoolteacher. Eighty years later, Alice Munro was the first Canadian to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Mike and Continue reading

Arts, Authors, books, Fiction, history of literature, Writing

aging, Alice Munro, dementia, relationships, the bear came over the mountain
May 12, 2017

The History of Literature #92 – The Books of Our Lives

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:04:05 — 44.3MB) | Embed Subscribe: iTunes | Android | Email | RSS | More “In the middle of life’s journey,” wrote Dante Alighieri, “I found myself in a selva oscura.” Host Jacke Wilson and frequent guest Mike Palindrome take stock of their own selva oscura Continue reading

Arts, Authors, books, Fiction, history of literature, Podcast, Writing

Alice Munro, elena ferrante, graham greene, haruki murakami, James Boswell and Samuel Johnson, javier marias, Jay McInerney, John D. Fitzgerald, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Leo Tolstoy, lorrie moore, Marcel Proust, Patrick O’Brian, Paul Celan, Rainer Maria Rilke, rene descartes, Thomas Mann
September 23, 2016

The History of Literature Episode 60 – Great Literary Endings

https://youtu.be/X7bInqjmEN4 Everyone always talks about the greatest openings in the history of literature – I’m looking at you, Call me Ishmael – but what about endings? Aren’t those just as important? What are the different ways to end short stories and novels? Which endings work well and why? In this episode, Jacke and Mike take a look at Continue reading

Arts, Authors, books, Fiction, history of literature, novelists, Podcast, Writing

Alice Munro, art of fiction, Charles Baxter, david lodge, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, henry james, james joyce, o. henry
September 2, 2016

History of Literature Podcast Ep. 57 – Borges, Munro, Davis, Barthelme – All About Short Stories (And Long Ones Too)

What makes a short story a short story? What can a short story do that a novel can’t? Can a story ever be TOO short? The President of the Literature Supporters Club stops by to discuss the length of fiction, with some help from Lydia Davis, Donald Barthelme, Edgar Allan Poe, Alice Munro, Italo Calvino, Jorge Luis Borges, Continue reading

Arts, Authors, books, Fiction, history of literature, Podcast, Writing

Alice Munro, donald barthelme, Edgar Allan Poe, italo calvino, jorge luis borges, lydia davis, Short Stories
July 4, 2016

The History of Literature #49 – MFA Programs (The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly)

For decades, the Master of Fine Arts degree has quietly dominated the American literary scene. There are now over 100 programs where professors and students go about the business of turning dreams into fiction through the alchemy – or as some would say, the meatgrinder – known as the writing workshop. It’s a phenomenon like Continue reading

Arts, Authors, books, Fiction, history of literature, Podcast, Writing

Alice Munro, chekhov, creative writing, david gates, Fiction, junot diaz, mfa programs, Poetry
December 2, 2015

Writers Laughing: A Jacke Wilson Gallery

Peace on earth, good will to all…and a photo gallery of great writers caught in the act of laughing. Happy holidays! Join us on the History of Literature podcast or at the Jacke Wilson blog for more literary delights. Get the History of Literature podcast: iTunes | Android | RSS | More Subscribe Options Try the latest History Continue reading

Arts, Authors, books, Fiction, history of literature, novelists, Writing

Alice Munro, anita desai, Flannery O’Connor, Gabriel García Márquez, garrett hongo, georges simenon, Henry Miller, j.r.r. tolkien, James Baldwin, Jean-Paul Sartre, john irving, joseph brodsky, kiran desai, kurt vonnegut, lorrie moore, margaret atwood, mary beard, norman mailer, pablo neruda, phillip roth, Ray Bradbury, Samuel Beckett, sandra cisneros, scott fitzgerald, seamus heaney, sherman alexie, Simone de Beauvoir, Stephen King, truman capote, w.e.b. dubois, Writers laughing, Zelda Fitzgerald, zora neale hurston