Acts & Facts

Richard Kraft

Host Richard Kraft invites writers, artists, scientists, musicians and people from all areas of life to select eight talismanic books, which have profoundly affected them. Richard’s probing, insightful questions open doors not only to the books, but also the arc of each guest’s life and work. read less

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Phong Bui, the publisher and artistic director of the Brooklyn Rail, speaks with Richard about frozen glimpses, trusting in one's anxiety, the difference between being and becoming, and learning English by watching television, as well as his choice of eight books.

Episodes

Phong Bui, the publisher and artistic director of the Brooklyn Rail, speaks with Richard about frozen glimpses, trusting in one's anxiety, the difference between being and becoming, and learning English by watching television, as well as his choice of eight books.

Mónica de la Torre

Mónica de la Torre

Poet and translator, Mónica de la Torre speaks with Richard about subversion, multiplicity, her youth in Mexico City, dreaming in both Spanish and English, and her eight talismanic books.

Thomas Evans speaks with Richard about his love of autodidacts, resisting specialization, the ethos of domesticity, and getting tattooed in Burma, as well as his choice of eight talismanic books.

Peter Gizzi speaks with Richard about poetry as a form of prayer, New York City in the 1980's, his love of the night, being told to do his homework by Allen Ginsberg, and his choice of eight talismanic books.

Patrick A. Howell

Patrick A. Howell

Patrick A. Howell tells Richard about his eight talismanic books, being a realist and an optimist, walking with his head in the clouds, and why Muhammad Ali was more powerful than Jimmy Carter.

Richard speaks with poet Ann Lauterbach about radical idealism, disobedient choices, the color of chaos, and living with groundhogs, as well as her list of eight talismanic books.

Jonathan Lethem

Jonathan Lethem

Jonathan Lethem tells Richard about his eight talismanic books and also talks about obscure heroes, his love of the search, growing up in the era of New York's "dystopian abandonment," and what he learned from watching his father paint.

Writer Albert Mobilio talks with Richard about his eight talismanic books, the difference between games and play, the "zone of perplexity," and the custom-built bookcase made by his father to house The World Book Encyclopedia.

Publisher Lisa Pearson speaks with Richard about dangerous books, resisting the center, sticking up for the underdog, and why she was more comfortable living in Berlin than Wisconsin, as well as her choice of eight talismanic books.

Marjorie Perloff

Marjorie Perloff

Richard talks with the renowned critic, Marjorie Perloff about her choice of eight talismanic books, fleeing Vienna as the Nazis came to power, why poets must embrace the new and why she regrets changing her name from Gabriele Mintz to Marjorie Perloff.