Big Table

Lili Anolik, whose Vanity Fair profile of the reclusive writer, re-started the Eve Babitz revival, discusses her Eve biography , Hollywood Eve (published by Scribner ) and, as the subtitle suggests, “The Secret History of LA." For our reading this episode, writer and critic Molly Lambert reads from Eve’s latest collection of unpublished later work, I Used to Be Charming (published by NYRB ) Music...

EPISODE : 4 THE INTERVIEW Jenn Shapland discusses her National Book Award-nominated memoir My Autobiography of Carson McCullers ( Tin House ), a brilliantly rendered hybrid which wrestles with identity, sexuality, and creativity. THE READING Carson in her own words. Courtesy of the NEA’s Big Read, actress Holly Hunter reads from Carson’s most famous novel The Heart is a Lonely Hunter . Credit: Mus...

EPISODE : 3 THE INTERVIEW Along for the Ride director Nick Ebeling unpacks the enigma of Dennis Hopper and his blacklisted years as seen through the eyes of the film’s star, Satya de la Manitou, Hopper’s decades-long “right-hand man". THE READING Director Nick Ebeling reads Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If,” a Hopper favorite. Credit: Music from The Last Movie trailer      

EPISODE: 2 THE INTERVIEW Professor and critic Eddie Glaude, Jr. discusses his latest book Begin Again ( Crown ), an intellectual look at James Baldwin’s most potent political writing from The Fire Next Time to No Name in the Street . THE READING James Baldwin in his own words throughout the episode courtesy of YouTube. Credit: Music by Beverly Glenn-Copland

EPISODE: 1   THE INTERVIEW Tosh Berman—poet, publisher, bookstore buyer, record store clerk, son of artists Wallace and Shirley Berman—discusses his memoir, entitled simply Tosh ( City Lights ). The subtitle says it all: “Growing up in Wallace Berman’s world.” THE READING   Tosh reads from Tosh , his memoir. Credit: Music by Thelonious Monk