Interview: Patrick Somerville

Patrick Somerville grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, went to college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and later earned his MFA in creative writing from Cornell University. He has taught writing at Cornell University, Auburn State Correctional Facility, and The Graham School in Chicago. His work has appeared in One Story, Epoch, GQ, Esquire, and Best American Nonrequired Reading, and his book of short stories, Trouble, was named by Time Out Chicago, as 2006's Best Book. His first novel, The Cradle, will be published by Little, Brown in March of 2009, when he will also be serving as the Blattner Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Northwestern University.

Somerville read from his work on September 18, 2008, in Cornell's Goldwin Smith Hall. This interview took place earlier the same day.

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Interview: Shauna Seliy

Shauna Seliy is the author of the novel When We Get There (Bloomsbury 2007). She has a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MFA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst; she has also received fellowships from Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony. From 2003 to 2004 she was the Writer-in-Residence at St. Albans School in Washington, DC. Her work has appeared in Other Voices, Meridian, the New Orleans Review, and the Alaska Quarterly Review. She teaches creative writing at Northwestern University.

Seliy read from her work on September 11, 2008, in Cornell's Goldwin Smith Hall. This interview took place the previous day.

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Interview: Irakli Kakabadze

Georgian writer, poet, and playwright Irakli Kakabadze has published more than 50 short stories since 1990 in Georgian, Russian and English publications; he's also published five books. His celebrated play “Candidate Jokola,” which was published in 2005, is a story of love between a Georgian man and Abkhaz woman. In his country, he is also known as a political activist; he was one of the first writers in Georgia to write about drugs and violence. In 1990 Kakabadze was awarded an award by “Tsiskari” magazine for his novel Allegro, and he is presently living in Ithaca as part of the Ithaca City of Asylum Writers Project.

Kakabadze read from his work on September 4, 2008, in Cornell's Goldwin Smith Hall. This interview took place the following day.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN (24MB MP3)