Shows
The Windham-Campbell Prizes PodcastSigrid Nunez on F. Scott Fitzgerald's THE GREAT GATSBYMike sits with Sigrid Nunez, recipient of a 2025 Windham Campbell Prize for Fiction, to discuss F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and whether or not it really is "the Great American Novel."
Sigrid Nunez is the author of ten books, including the National Book Award-winning novel The Friend (2018), which has been celebrated by the New York Times as one of the 100 best books of the 21st Century. The recipient of many awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship (2020), a
Berlin Prize Fellowship (2005), the Rome Prize in Literature (2001),
and a Whiting Award (1993), Nunez has taught at Boston...2025-06-1830 min
The Windham-Campbell Prizes PodcastTongo Eisen-Martin on Ayi Kwei Armah's THE HEALERSTo kick off the new season of The Windham-Campbell Prizes Podcast, host and prize director Michael Kelleher is joined by Tongo Eisen-Martin, recipient of a 2025 Windham-Campbell Prize for Poetry, to discuss Ayi Kwei Armah's 1979 novel The Healers.
Tongo Eisen-Martin was San Francisco’s eighth Poet Laureate (2021-2024). He is the author of three collections of poetry: Blood on the Fog (2021), selected by the New York Times as among the Best Poetry of 2021; Heaven is All Goodbyes (2017); and Someone’s Dead Already (2015). He has taught creative writing in prisons and is the author of We Char...2025-06-0432 min
Football Talk with Coach Chip: The PodcastFTCC: The Podcast Ep 44 "We Talk with Jack Byrne, DC at Campbell HS in New Hampshire"In episode 44, we welcome Coach Jack Byrne, the defensive coordinator for Campbell High School in Litchfield, New Hampshire. Coach Byrne is our first guest from New England.He has been in New Hampshire for the last 16 years and was the head coach at Windham High School for the last six seasons.You can contact him at coachjackbyrne@gmail.com or on Twitter/X @CoachJackByrne.Please email me at seagle.chip@gmail.com to get your copy of the Gun Power Spread System. The Offensive Line Manual...2025-04-0654 min
The Windham-Campbell Prizes PodcastHelen Garner on Henry Green's PARTY GOINGFor the final episode of the 2025 Winter Season, Mike talks with Helen Green, winner of a 2016 Windham-Campbell Prize for Non-fiction, about Henry Green's Party Going. They celebrate the joys of the NYRB Classics sale, the mysteries of Australian Rules football, and the joys of this ensemble novel.Helen Garner writes novels, stories, screenplays, and works of non-fiction. In 2006 she received the inaugural Melbourne Prize for Literature, and in 2016 she won the prestigious Windham–Campbell Literature Prize for Non-fiction. In 2019 she was honoured with the Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature. Her books in...2025-03-1228 minThe Windham-Campbell Prizes PodcastDionne Brand on José Saramago's SEEINGMike chats with Dionne Brand, winner of a 2021 Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction, about the timely power of José Saramago's Seeing.
READING LIST:
Seeing by José Saramago, tr. Margaret Jull Costa • Blindness by José Saramago, tr. Margaret Jull Costa • Saramago's Nobel Lecture
Dionne Brand is the award-winning author of twenty-three books of poetry, fiction and nonfiction. Her twelve books of poetry include Land to Light On; thirsty; Inventory; Ossuaries; The Blue Clerk: Ars Poetica in 59 Versos; and Nomenclature: New and Collected Poems. Her six works of fiction include At the Full and Change of the Moon...2025-02-2631 minThe Windham-Campbell Prizes PodcastOlivia Laing on Charlotte Brontë's VILLETTEMike chats with Olivia Laing, winner of a 2017 Windham-Campbell Prize for Nonfiction, about the strange and confounding (and wonderful) pleasures of Charlotte Brontë's Villette.READING LIST:Villette by Charlotte Brontë • Suppose a Sentence by Brian Dillon • Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson • The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath • Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy • The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard • Jane Eyre by Charlotte BrontëOlivia Laing is the author of several books of nonfiction and fiction including The Garden Against Time and the forthcoming The Sil...2025-02-1235 min
The Windham-Campbell Prizes PodcastAndré Alexis on Martha Baillie's THERE IS NO BLUEAndré Alexis (winner of a 2017 Windham Campbell Prize for Fiction) joins Michael Kelleher to kick off the 2025 winter season of the podcast with a vibrant discussion of Martha Baillie's memoir, There Is No Blue. TW: the book and this episode include discussion of suicide and abuse.Reading list: There Is No Blue by Martha Baillie • The Search for Heinrich Schlögel by Martha Baillie • Falling Hour by Geoffrey D. Morrison • Finnegans Wake by James JoyceFor a full episode transcript, click here.André Alexis was born in Tr...2025-01-2931 min
Book Cougars Podcast: Two Middle-Aged Women on the Hunt for a Good ReadEpisode 216 - Guest Spotlight with Michael Kelleher, Director of the Windham Campbell PrizesEmily is back in Connecticut, which means she and Chris were able to record this episode together at Book Cougars HQ. We are grateful for long-distance recording technology, but talking about books in person is much more fun!
Our special guest is Michael Kelleher, Director of the Windham Campbell Prizes. Mike explains that these awards are given to writers, not for a particular book, but in four categories: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and playwriting. This year’s festival dates are September 17-20 at Yale in New Haven, CT. If you can’t make it to Connecticut, some events, like Lydia Davis’s keyn...2024-09-101h 32
The Windham-Campbell Prizes PodcastKathryn Scanlan on Joseph Mitchell's JOE GOULD'S SECRETKathryn Scanlan (winner of a 2024 Windham Campbell Prize for Fiction) talks with Prize Director Michael Kelleher about legendary New Yorker journalist Joseph Mitchell's famous double-profile of New York fixture Joe Gould, the perils of running out of ideas, and the blurry line between fiction and reality.Reading list: Joe Gould's Secret by Joseph Mitchell • "Joe Gould's Teeth" by Jill Lepore • Bright Lights Big City by Jay McInerney • Old Mr. Flood by Joseph Mitchell Kathryn Scanlan is the author of two novels (Aug 9—Fog and Kick the Latch) and one collection of short...2024-09-0432 min
The Windham-Campbell Prizes Podcastm. nourbeSe philip on Kamau Brathwaite's BORN TO SLOW HORSESm. nourbeSe philip (winner of a 2024 Windham Campbell Prize for Poetry) talks with Prize Director Michael Kelleher about Kamau Brathwaite's tremendous collection, Born to Slow Horses, the lineage of Brathwaite's complex and playful work, and her own poetic connections to Brathwaite's writing.Reading list: Born to Slow Horses by Kamau Brathwaite • Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys • The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon • The Tempest by William Shakespearem. nourbeSe philip is an internationally renowned poet, novelist, playwright, and essayist. Across her diverse and rich body of work, philip has constant...2024-08-2131 min
The Windham-Campbell Prizes PodcastSonya Kelly on Jean-Dominique Bauby's THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLYSonya Kelly (winner of a 2024 Windham Campbell Prize for Drama) joins Michael Kelleher to admire and contemplate Jeremy Leggatt's translation of Jean-Dominique Bauby's memoir, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. They discuss film adaptations, writing emotions, keeping audiences happy, and more.Reading list: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby, tr. by Jeremy Leggatt • The Hours by Michael Cunningham • Once Upon a Bridge by Sonya KellyFor a full episode transcript, click here. Sonya Kelly is the author of five full-length plays, as well as num...2024-08-0733 min
The Windham-Campbell Prizes PodcastJen Hadfield on Annie Dillard's PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEKJen Hadfield (winner of a 2024 Windham Campbell Prize for Poetry) joins Michael Kelleher to wade through Annie Dillard's dense yet rewarding classic, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. They discuss difficult reading experiences, poetic attempts to unlock the ineffable and immense, the book's intense relationship to the natural world and how that has impacted Hadfield's own work, and more.Reading list: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard • Walden by Henry David Thoreau • Storm Pegs by Jen Hadfield • "An Transparent Eyeball" by Ralph Waldo EmersonFor a full episode transcript, click here.2024-07-2432 minThe Windham-Campbell Prizes PodcastChristina Sharpe on John Keene's COUNTERNARRATIVESChristina Sharpe (winner of a 2024 Windham Campbell Prize for Non-Fiction) joins Michael Kelleher to rave about 2018 Fiction prize-winner John Keene's Counternarratives. They discuss the pleasures of Keene's playful prose and his deep engagement with stirring questions of truth and history.Reading list: Counternarratives by John Keene • Ordinary Notes by Christina Sharpe • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain • James by Percival Everett • Playing in the Dark by Toni Morrison • The Awakening by Kate ChopinFor a full episode transcript, click here.Christina Sharpe is the Canada Research Chair in Bla...2024-07-1035 min
The Windham-Campbell Prizes PodcastChristopher Chen on Jorge Luis Borges's "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius"Christopher Chen (winner of a 2024 Windham Campbell Prize for Drama) joins Michael Kelleher to talk about the eternally fascinating Jorge Luis Borges story, ""Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius." Timelines slip, worlds collide, and Borges's lasting impact is felt.Reading list: "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" by Jorge Luis Borges • Italo Calvino • Rosicrucianism • Caught by Christopher Chen • Borges, Between History and Eternity by Hernán DíazFor a full episode transcript, click here.Christopher Chen is the author of more than a dozen formally innovative and politically provocative plays, includ...2024-06-2629 min
The Windham-Campbell Prizes PodcastDeirdre Madden on Marilynne Robinson's HOUSEKEEPINGDeirdre Madden (winner of a 2024 Windham Campbell Prize for Fiction) joins Michael Kelleher to talk about Marilynne Robinson's classic novel Housekeeping, siblings, writing with a density of language, and the unacknowledged humor present even in hard times.Reading list: Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson • Moby-Dick by Herman Melville • Carl Jung • William Shakespeare • Reading Genesis by Marilynne RobinsonFor a full episode transcript, click here.Deirdre Madden is a writer from Toomebridge, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The author of eight acclaimed novels, she has twice been a finalist for the Women’s P...2024-06-1234 min
The Windham-Campbell Prizes PodcastHanif Abdurraqib on Gloria Naylor's THE WOMEN OF BREWSTER PLACEHanif Abdurraqib (winner of a 2024 Windham Campbell Prize for Non-Fiction) joins Michael Kelleher to discuss his love for Gloria Naylor's The Women of Brewster Place, writing about cities, the importance of community, and more.Reading list: The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor • Mama Day by Gloria Naylor • Linden Hills by Gloria Naylor • Your Blues Ain't Like Mine by Bebe Moore Campbell • The Easy Rawlins novels by Walter Mosley • Waiting to Exhale by Terry McMillanFor a full episode transcript, click here.Hanif Abdurraqib is the auth...2024-05-2935 minThe Windham-Campbell Prizes PodcastTessa Hadley on Ivan Turgenev's FIRST LOVETessa Hadley (winner of a 2016 Windham Campbell Prize for Fiction) joins Michael Kelleher for the final episode of this winter mini-season to talk about Ivan Turgenev's First Love, translated by Isaiah Berlin. Reading list: First Love by Ivan Turgenev, tr. by Isaiah Berlin • The Odyssey by Homer • "A Nest of Gentlefolk" by Ivan Turgenev • Anna Karenina by Leo TolstoyTessa Hadley is the author of three previous collections of stories and eight novels. She was awarded the Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction, the Hawthornden Prize, and the Edge Hill Short Story Prize a...2024-02-2831 minThe Windham-Campbell Prizes PodcastJohn Keene on Mohamed Mbougar Sarr's THE MOST SECRET MEMORY OF MENJohn Keene (winner of a 2018 Windham Campbell Prize for Fiction) talks with Prize Director Michael Kelleher about Mohamed Mbougar Sarr's 2021 Prix Goncourt-winning novel The Most Secret Memory of Men, the joys of a shaggy dog story, the power of the sublime, and the limits of knowledge.Reading list: The Most Secret Memory of Men by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, tr. by Laura Vergnaud • Blackouts by Justin Torres • Bound to Violence by Yambo Ouologuem • Roberto Bolaño • Clarice LispectorJohn Keene is a writer, translator, professor, and artist who was named a MacArthur F...2024-02-2132 minThe Windham-Campbell Prizes PodcastBranden Jacobs-Jenkins on Caryl Churchill's FAR AWAYBranden Jacobs-Jenkins (winner of a 2016 Windham-Campbell Prize for Drama) chats with Prize Director Michael Kelleher about British theater legend Caryl Churchill's Far Away, the power of language on the page and stage, and the point of having a playwright at all. Reading list: Far Away by Caryl Churchill • Escaped Alone by Caryl Churchill • Top Girls by Caryl Churchill • Prince • Jasmine Lee Jones on Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun • Cristina and Her Double: Essays by Herta MüllerBranden Jacobs-Jenkins is a playwright whose plays include Girls, Everybody (Pulitzer Prize finalist...2024-02-1431 min
The Windham-Campbell Prizes PodcastYiyun Li on Georges Bernanos's MOUCHETTEYiyun Li (winner of a 2020 Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction) chats with Prize Director Michael Kelleher about French Catholic monarchist author Georges Bernanos's Mouchette, the joys of reading together, and why inarticulate characters often live the deepest lives. Reading list: Mouchette by Georges Bernanos, tr. by J.C. Whitehouse • War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy • Tolstoy Together • Peter Pan by J.M. BarrieYiyun Li is the author of several works of fiction—Wednesday's Child, The Book of Goose, Must I Go, Where Reasons End, Kinder Than Solitude, A Thousand Years of Good Prayer...2024-02-0730 min
The Windham-Campbell Prizes PodcastPercival Everett on Ralph Ellison's Invisible ManPercival Everett (winner of a 2023 Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction) joins Windham-Campbell Prize administrator Michael Kelleher for the last interview of the season, and it's a joyful exploration of Ralph Ellison's seminal novel Invisible Man, Everett's relationship to the book and its contemporaries, and the enduring power of a novel that makes you think.Reading list: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison • Moby Dick by Herman Melville • "Box Seat" by Jean Toomer • If He Hollers, Let Him Go by Chester Himes • Cotton Comes to Harlem by Chester Himes • Native Son by Richard Wright • "(What Did I Do To Be...2023-08-0833 min
The Windham-Campbell Prizes PodcastJasmine Lee-Jones on Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the SunJasmine Lee-Jones (winner of a 2023 Windham-Campbell Prize for Drama) joins Windham-Campbell Prize administrator Michael Kelleher for a wide-ranging conversation about the incredible power of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, linking the work of Hansberry and Jordan Peele, and the power of dreams.Reading List:
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
August Wilson's Century Cycle
Get Out by Jordan Peele
Magnolia by Paul Thomas Anderson
"A Love Supreme" by John Coltrane
Beneatha's Place by Kwame Kwei-Armah
Jasmine Lee-Jones is a writer and performer. Jasmine was a writer-on-attachment for the 2016 O...2023-07-2526 min
The Windham-Campbell Prizes PodcastSusan Williams on Charles Dickens's Bleak HouseSusan Williams (winner of a 2023 Windham-Campbell Prize for Non-Fiction) joins Windham-Campbell Prizes director Michael Kelleher to talk about the majesty and the drudgery of Bleak House, walking through history in the present, and the complicated realities of Charles Dickens the human.Reading List:
White Malice: The CIA and the Covert Recolonization of Africa by Susan Williams
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin
The Invisible Woman by Claire Tomalin
"Do They Know It's Christmas?" -- BandAid 1984
for a full episode transcript, click here.2023-07-1130 min
The First TimeMasters Series: Ling MaLing Ma is a writer hailing from Fujian, Utah and Kansas. She is the author of the novel Severance, which received the 2018 Kirkus Prize, the Whiting Award and the NYPL Young Lions Fiction Award and the 2022 short story collection Bliss Montage which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and The Story Prize. Ma’s Stories and excerpts have appeared in the New Yorker, The Atlantic, Granta, Virginia Quarterly Review, Vice, and more. She has been, until recently as we discuss in the interview, an assistant professor of practice in the Arts at University of Chicago. Ling Ma wa...2023-07-0251 min
The Windham-Campbell Prizes Podcastdg nanouk okpik on Layli Long Soldier's Whereasdg nanouk okpik (winner of a 2023 Windham-Campbell Prize for Poetry) joins Windham-Campbell Prizes director Michael Kelleher for a deep-dive into Layli Long Soldier's 2017 collection Whereas, examining the historical potency of poetry, the depth of an artistic friendship, and an appearance by a cat named Blue.Reading List:
"Eyes of a Blue Dog" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Poet Warrior by Joy Harjo
S.J.Res.14
Blood Snow by dg nanouk okpik
For a full episode transcript, click here. dg nanouk okpik is an Iñupiaq-Inuit poet fr...2023-06-2731 min
The Windham-Campbell Prizes PodcastDominique Morisseau on Pearl Cleage's What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary DayDominique Morisseau joins Windham-Campbell Prizes director Michael Kelleher to talk about the still-resonant power of Pearl Cleage's What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, representing Black men on the page and onstage, the AIDS epidemic and COVID, and why the writers of Family Guy seem to hate Meg.Reading List:
Idlewild, Michigan
for colored girls... by Ntozake Shange
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Family Guy (1999-present)
Flyin' West and Other Plays by Pearl Cleage
For a full episode transcript, click here.Dominique...2023-06-1335 min
The Windham-Campbell Prizes PodcastLing Ma on Rachel Ingalls's Mrs. CalibanLing Ma joins Windham-Campbell Prizes director Michael Kelleher to talk about tuning into the same frequency as Rachel Ingalls, crying on airplanes, and what it means to write about human-cryptid romance.READING LIST:
Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls
Times Like These by Rachel Ingalls
The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
Grumpy Old Men (1993)
For a full episode transcript, click here.Ling Ma is a writer hailing from Fujian, Utah, and Kansas. She wrote the novel Severance and the story...2023-05-3030 min
The Windham-Campbell Prizes PodcastAlexis Pauline Gumbs on Audre Lorde's The Black UnicornAlexis Pauline Gumbs joins Windham-Campbell Prizes director Michael Kelleher to talk about the beauty of Audre Lorde's poetry and why more people should know her as a poet as well as an essayist.READING LIST:
The Black Unicorn by Audre Lorde
Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
Broadside Press
"A Supermarket in California!" by Allen Ginsberg
For a full episode transcript, click here.Born in Summit, New Jersey in 1982, Alexis Pauline Gumbs is an activist, critic, poet, scholar, and educator. A...2023-05-1635 min
The Windham-Campbell Prizes PodcastDarran Anderson on Italo Calvino's Invisible CitiesDarran Anderson is our first guest on the show and he joins Windham-Campbell Prizes Director Michael Kelleher to talk about the ever-shifting magic of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities.READING LIST:
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
Derry Girls (2018-2022)
The Cloven Viscount by Italo Calvino
The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino
An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris by Georges Perec
Frank Lloyd Wright's Plan for Greater Baghdad
Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman
For a full episode transcript, click here.Darran...2023-05-0231 minThe Windham-Campbell Prizes PodcastComing SoonStarting May 2, join us every other Tuesday for conversations with the recipients of the 2023 Windham-Campbell Prizes about their favorite books. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices2023-04-2400 min
The New Yorker: The Writer's Voice - New Fiction from The New YorkerYiyun Li Reads “Wednesday’s Child”Yiyun Li reads her story “Wednesday’s Child,” which appeared in the January 23, 2023, issue of the magazine. Li is the author of two story collections and five novels, including “Must I Go” and “The Book of Goose,” which was published last year. She won the Windham Campbell Literature Prize in 2020.
Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices2023-01-1651 min
The First TimeSummer Series: Helen GarnerIn our fourth episode of our Summer Series we revisit our most popular ep ever! Kate speaks to Literary Queen, Helen Garner.
Helen Garner’s first book, Monkey Grip, was published in 1977. She is well known for her novels, short stories, journalism and essays, and for several influential works of non-fiction. In 2006 she received the inaugural Melbourne Prize for Literature, and in 2016 she won the prestigious Windham–Campbell Literature Prize for non-fiction. In 2019 she was honoured with the Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature. The first volume of her diaries, Yellow Notebook was published by Text in 2...2023-01-041h 03
Southword Poetry PodcastIshion Hutchinson: House of Lords and CommonsIshion Hutchinson was born in Port Antonio, Jamaica. He is the author of two poetry collections: Far District and House of Lords and Commons. He is the recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Joseph Brodsky Rome Prize, the Whiting Writers Award, the PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award, the Windham-Campbell Prize for Poetry and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, among others. He is a contributing editor to the literary journals The Common and Tongue: A Journal of Writing & Art and teaches in the graduate writing program at Cornell...2022-11-2540 min
Millennials Are Killing Capitalism"To Share Equally The Benefits of Living" - Dionne Brand on Nomenclature, Sanctioning All Revolts, and Registering Black Duration[Note: In the episode image the artwork behind Dionne Brand at the podium is by Torkwase Dyson, as is the cover art work for Nomenclature] In this conversation we are thrilled to welcome Dionne Brand to the podcast. This is a conversation with her new book Nomenclature: New and Collected Poems and also with a number of her lectures, interviews, and dialogues over the years. If we reference something not in Nomenclature we have done our best to include a link to it in the show notes. We ask questions about themes and ide...2022-11-101h 47
The Literary CityJerry Pinto, His Muse And The Education Of YuriSend us a textThe way I read the book, the story is about the travails of a young Indian who must make the long and labyrinthine transition from boy to man.A difficult job when a large offset of one's opportunities in middle class India is being beholden to family, with conservative family elders and conversations in a minefield of verbal taboos.It is hard to hold down an adult conversation with elders—always an uncomfortable thing—and incurably hard to avoid. To wit, when you are spoken to as a pe...2022-11-0839 min