The Story Talks Back

Born into a Yoruba family in Nigeria, Bayo Akomolafe is a philosopher, advocate, teacher, and deep observer of our world. After graduating summa cum laude in psychology at Covenant University, he was invited to take up a lecturing position. Instead, Bayo embarked on doctoral research into Yoruba indigenous healing systems, struggling to regain a sense of rootedness to his community. In this excerp...

In this wide-ranging interview, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon shares stories of his childhood in Northern Ireland, describes his "hunch by hunch" approach to writing, and reflects on his passion for rock music -- including his friendship and collaboration with the late Warren Zevon. Hailed by the Times Literary Supplement as “the most significant English-language poet” born since World...

In this excerpt from his forthcoming interview with The Story Talks Back, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon looks back to the stories of his childhood in Northern Ireland. He tells how storytelling was a way of life among the farmers he grew up with -- and how a fellow altar boy kept Muldoon up to speed on the latest American movies while they waited for the "Big Show" (high mass) to begin...

An interview with Joan Jeanrenaud -- cellist with Kronos Quartet for over 20 years. From 1978 to 1999, she participated in the development and premieres of hundreds of original works -- by Philip Glass, Terry Riley, John Cage, Hamza El Din, John Zorn, Frank Zappa, and many others. She took part in the quartet’s meteoric rise and its maturing into a central player in the new music scene,. When Jean...

In this excerpt from her forthcoming conversation with TSTB, Joan Jeanrenaud -- longtime cellist with Kronos Quartet -- recalls working with Terry Riley in the 1970s, when he was just beginning his career as a formal composer. As Riley transitioned from a purely improvised, non-written style, Kronos played a pivotal role in shaping such classic works as "G Song" and "Sunrise of the Planetary Dream...

An interview with Carolyn Forché, who upset the polite norms of the poetic establishment in 1981 with her breakthrough poetry collection, The Country Between Us. Centered on a cycle of poems inspired by Forché’s months reporting in war-torn El Salvador, the book was named the 1981 Lamont Poetry Selection and became a bestseller among poetry collections. Almost 40 years later, Forché was a National...

Even before Carolyn Forché published her breakthrough poetry collection The Country Between Us, the book caused controversy. Featuring stark, sometimes graphic depictions of war-torn El Salvador, where Forché had traveled in the late 1970s, the manuscript seemed destined to remain in a drawer -- until the poet took a fateful all-night car ride with legendary novelist Margaret Atwood. #poetry #poem...

An interview with Thomas Avino -- composer, poet, and painter with roots in the avant-garde New York City music and art worlds of the 1970s. While others were standing in line outside Studio 54, Avino was haunting the tiny clubs and lofts where Eugene Chadbourne, Arto Lindsay, and others were playing high-energy improvisational music -- an idiom that has since been absorbed into strains of mainstr...

In his early twenties, composer and painter Thomas Avino took lessons in saxophone -- and life -- from the legendary John Zorn. A pivotal figure in New York's downtown music scene of the 1970s and '80s, Zorn was intimidating to some -- but to Avino, he offered $10 lessons that transcended music and continue to shape him today.   Zorn photo by Nick Ruechel

David Cay Johnston is a best-selling author, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and founder of DCreport.org. In a career of 50 years (and counting), Johnston has exposed corrupt LA police officers (including the city’s police chief), tracked down murderers, revealed hidden inequities in the tax code, and become a recurring thorn in the side of the 45th president. In 2001, Johnston won a Pulitzer f...

In his forthcoming session with The Story Talks Back, Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston talks about every phase of his life and career -- from his childhood in California to his founding of the news site DCreport.org. In this moving excerpt, Johnston recalls how he got his start in journalism -- by covering the same subject that would win him a Pulitzer 40-odd years later. 

Tim Page is a Pulitzer Prize winning writer, editor and critic who has forged a remarkable career from his passionate interests. As a child, he became a minor celebrity when Kodak promoted his amateur filmmaking in a commercial. His lifelong love of music led him to become a world-class critic — with the The New York Times, The Washington Post, and others newspapers. Page has written or edited mor...

When Tim Page won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1997, it was the culmination of an aesthetic journey begun when he was a smalll child. In this excerpt from our forthcoming interview, Page reflects on the origins of his passion for music -- and how it led him to become a prolific writer before he even reached junior high school.   Photo: Young Timmy Page with his favorite companion -- the fam...

Linda Gray Sexton is a memoirist and novelist whose books include Searching for Mercy Street and Half in Love . As the daughter of legendary poet Anne Sexton, she was immersed as a child in a world of uncertainty, manipulation, and impending loss. When her mother finally took her own life in 1974 -- after many attempts -- it left a legacy of confusion and grief that Linda Sexton has borne with cou...

In this excerpt from my interview with Linda Gray Sexton -- memoirist, novelist, and daughter of the legendary poet Anne Sexton -- she talks about how her Mom helped her discover the pleasures of creating and collaborating ... but warned her against the writer's path.

In this excerpt from our interview with illusionist Kid Ace, he talks about his performing identity -- and how he feels about living in the everyday world.

As the founder, artistic director, and first violinist of Kronos Quartet, David Harrington has played a central role in developing a musical repertoire for the 21st century and beyond. He has worked with hundreds of composers across the globe and played thousands of concerts worldwide, from Carnegie Hall to Shanghai to Sydney. Now in its 47th year, Kronos has become perhaps the most important forc...

Dean Sluyter is a writer, teacher, lecturer, and expert on the Buddha dharma. His books include Fear Less, Natural Meditation, Cinema Nirvana, and The Zen Commandments. He has led meditation workshops across the US and in South America and has been featured in Oprah: The Magazine and elsewhere. For over 30 years, he taught English and literature at The Pingry School in New Jersey.

As the Managing Editor of the Los Angeles Times Magazine, and then Los Angeles magazine, Ann Herold worked with prize-winning writers and helped to shape hundreds of human interest features. At the University of Southern California, she schooled several generations of journalism students in the arts of copy editing, line editing, and magazine writing.  She is also a prize-winning journalist in her...

Born and raised in New York City, Kid Ace has become a top touring illusionist -- virtually and in person -- and has appeared on hundreds of stages across the US, as well as TV shows such as "Bill Nye Saves the World," "The Steve Harvey Show," and "The Kelly Clarkson Show."

Learn more about this new podcast and video interview show featuring writers, editors, musicians, illusionists, and many others. Theme music: From "Play" by Merlijn Twaalfhoven, performed by Kronos Quartet for their Fifty for the Future series. www.kronosquartet.org.