Episodes

Jacke talks to actress and novelist Meg Tilly about her unusual childhood, her life as a ballet dancer and Hollywood star, and her current life writing thrillers in the peaceful Pacific Northwest. THE RUNAWAY HEIRESS is the pulse-pounding story of a brave woman who finds herself falling for a big-shot film director while trying to stay one step ahead of the man who will do anything to find her. Meg Tilly may be best known for her acclaimed Golden Globe-winning performance in the movie Agnes of G...

Debut novelist A. Natasha Joukovsky ( The Portrait of a Mirror ) joins Jacke for a discussion of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray , Ovid's myth of Narcissus, the fascinating power of recursions, and a life lived in the worlds of literature, business, and art. THE PORTRAIT OF A MIRROR is a stunning reinvention of the myth of Narcissus as a modern novel of manners, about two young, well-heeled couples whose parallel lives intertwine over the course of a summer, by a sharp new voice in fict...

German artist Charlie Stein joins Jacke for a discussion of art in literature, including her series 100 Paintings Imagined by Authors , in which she and her partner Andy Best use textual clues and historical context to reimagine artworks that are described in great works of literature. You can see examples of their work at charliestein.com/100-paintings-imagined/ In appreciation to Charlie for joining us, we are donating to her preferred charity, Bärenherz Children's Hospice in Leipzig. Help sup...

Finally! At long last, Jacke responds to years of requests from his Brazilian listeners to take a closer look at Machado de Assis, the novelist whom critic Harold Bloom called simply "a miracle." In this episode, author and Brazilian friend Claudia Laitano joins Jacke to discuss Machado's life, works, and legacy. Enjoy! Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop . (We appreciate it!) Find out more at historyofliterature.com , jackewilson.com , or by following...

Born into a well-to-do family in New Zealand, Katherine Mansfield began writing fiction at the age of 10. But it was in England and continental Europe that her writing took flight, as she drew upon Chekhov and the new spirit of Modernism to advance (and perfect) the short story form before dying a tragically early death. Her work was "the only writing I have ever been jealous of…," Virginia Woolf wrote. "Probably we had something in common which I shall never find in anybody else.” In this episo...

It's the OG of experimental literature! (In English, anyway...) In this episode, Jacke takes a look at the wild and woolly Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne. And in spite of Dr. Johnson's famous claim that "nothing odd will do long - Tristram Shandy did not last!" we're still talking about this classic eighteenth-century novel. Who was Sterne? What rules did he break? And what power does it have for a reader today? Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop ...

Novelist Laurie Frankel joins Jacke to talk about her writing, her theater background, and her new novel One Two Three . Then Jacke and Laurie geek out on Shakespeare and choose the Top 10 Things To Love About Hamlet . Laurie Frankel is the New York Times bestselling, award-winning author of novels such as The Atlas of Love , Goodbye for Now , and the Reese’s Book Club x Hello Sunshine Book Pick This Is How It Always Is . Frankel lives in Seattle with her husband, daughter, and border collie. Sh...

As the world struggles to emerge from a global pandemic, Jacke takes a look at our relationship with nature, turning to William Wordsworth's classic sonnet "The World Is Too Much With Us" to see if its concerns are applicable today. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop . (We appreciate it!) Find out more at historyofliterature.com , jackewilson.com , or by following Jacke and Mike on Twitter at @thejackewilson and @literatureSC. Or send an email to jack...

Yang Huang, author of the new novel My Good Son , joins Jacke for a discussion of her childhood in China, how censorship restricted her ability to imagine stories, and how George Eliot's Middlemarch helped her break free from these limitations. We also discuss her work as a novelist and what it's like to be an Asian American during a period of highly visible anti-Asian sentiment. YANG HUANG grew up in China and has lived in the United States since 1990. Her novel MY GOOD SON won the University o...

Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) was a soldier, a civil servant, a playwright, and a poet. He was kidnapped by pirates and held prisoner for almost five years. Later in life, he turned to writing novels, and through his masterpiece Don Quixote , he became the most celebrated and important figure in Spanish literature. In this episode, Jacke takes a look at Cervantes' incredible life and his most indelible creations, including the ingenious (and deluded) knight, his trusty squire, and the blurry l...

Often called the Father of Comedy, the satirical playwright Aristophanes (c. 450 BCE - 388 BCE) used his critical eye and sharp tongue to skewer politicians and philosophers alike. In this episode, poet and classicist Aaron Poochigian joins Jacke to discuss his new translation of four plays by Aristophanes - and explains why these ancient Athenian comedies ( Clouds , Birds , Lysistrata , and Women of the Assembly ) are especially relevant today. Works Discussed Four Plays by Aristophanes (transl...

Italian writer Natalia Ginzburg (1916-1991) lived a fascinating life full of politics, war, exile, tragedy, love, loss, and literature. In her novels, short stories, poetry, plays, and essays, she drew upon her experience and her keen capacity for observation and invention to create some of the twentieth century's most arresting and enduring works. In this episode, Jacke takes a look at the political courage shown by Ginzburg and her family - and in particular her husband Leone Ginzburg, who at ...

In this special guest episode, scholar Anne Boyd Rioux joins Eve and Julie, the hosts of the Book Dreams podcast, to talk about why the Little Women we grew up with is not, in fact, Alcott’s original text--and why Little Women still matters. ABOUT BOOK DREAMS: Do you ever wonder what it would be like to open a bookstore? Or what it's like to edit iconic authors? Or what, exactly, bibliotherapy is and how you can sign up? We do too! In each episode of the Book Dreams podcast, authors Julie Sternb...

Jacke takes a look at the astonishing life and writings of the ultimate enfant terrible of poetry, Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud (1854-91), Symbolist poet, literary bad boy, and eventual mercenary arms dealer, who gave up literature by the age of 21 but whose brilliant work continues to fascinate and inspire. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop . (We appreciate it!) Find out more at historyofliterature.com , jackewilson.com , or by following Jacke and Mi...

During his life, Philip Larkin (1922-1985) was a beloved national figure, a bald and bespectacled librarian by day who spent his evenings writing smart, accomplished, and hilariously self-deprecating poems. After his death, his reputation and legacy became more complicated, as revelations about his personal life threatened to darken a once-bright sky. In this episode, Jacke takes a look at a near-perfect poet and a far-from-perfect person, reflecting on what we ask from art and artists, and what...

The Graduate ! Dustin Hoffman! Mike Nichols! Simon and Garfunkel! Mrs. Robinson! Plastics! Elaaaaaaaaine.... The movie version of The Graduate is one of the most beloved films of the twentieth century...but have you ever read the book? Jacke hasn't! That's why he's so pleased to present a guest episode from the Overdue podcast, in which hosts Andrew and Craig dive into The Graduate by Charles Webb. Enjoy! OVERDUE is a podcast about the books you've been meaning to read. Join Andrew and Craig eac...

Ralph Waldo Ellison (1913-1994) began life as an infant in Oklahoma City and ended it as one of the most successful and celebrated novelists in the world. And this reputation was largely due to one book, the masterpiece Invisible Man (1952), which transcended the limitations that the American reading public placed on African American writers to become what Time magazine later called "the quintessential American picaresque of the twentieth century." Admired by critics and bought in large numbers ...

Salman Rushdie (1947- ) became famous in the literary world in 1981, when his second novel Midnight's Children became a bestseller and won the Booker Prize. By the end of that decade, he was perhaps the most famous author in the world, as the fatwa calling for his execution made global headlines. Throughout these years, and despite nearly unimaginable circumstances, Rushdie has continued his devotion to the art of fiction, producing a dozen novels in addition to short stories and works of nonfic...

Djuna Barnes (1892-1982) was a journalist, an author, an artist, a poetic novelist, a beacon of modernism, an icon and an iconoclast. She was also a pioneer; a famous wit; an expatriate in Paris in the 1920s (where she befriended James Joyce and became one of the key members of the Lost Generation); a fixture of Greenwich Village both in the 1910s and in the decades after World War II; an early avatar of queer literature; and above all, a genius. In today's episode, Jacke looks at Djuna Barnes's...

Jacke and Mike take a look at the life and works of Thucydides (c. 460 to c. 400 B.C.), an Athenian general whose History of the Peloponnesian War has earned him the title of "the father of scientific history" or sometimes "the other father of history." We discuss the highlights of Thucydides, what it's like to read him in 2021, whether it's better to read him straight through or only for the famous parts (such as the Pericles funeral oration and the Melian dialogue) and how he compares with his...

Jacke takes a look at the life and works of American novelist Henry James (1843-1916). Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop . (We appreciate it!) Find out more at historyofliterature.com , jackewilson.com , or by following Jacke and Mike on Twitter at @thejackewilson and @literatureSC. Or send an email to jackewilsonauthor@gmail.com. New!!! Looking for an easy to way to buy Jacke a coffee? Now you can at paypal.me/jackewilson . Your generosity is much a...

She was admired by Dr. Johnson, revered by Jane Austen, and referred to as "the mother of English fiction" by Virginia Woolf. In this episode, Jacke takes a look at the life and works of Frances Burney (1752-1840), author of the influential early novels Evelina (1778), Cecilia (1782), and Camilla (1796). Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop . (We appreciate it!) Find out more at historyofliterature.com , jackewilson.com , or by following Jacke and Mike ...

Jacke hosts Jenny Minton Quigley, editor of the new collection LOLITA IN THE AFTERLIFE: On Beauty, Risk, and Reckoning with the Most Indelible and Shocking Novel of the Twentieth Century , for a discussion of Vladimir Nabokov's classic (and controversial) 1958 novel. Jenny Minton Quigley is the daughter of Lolita's original publisher in America, Walter J. Minton. Lolita in the Afterlife includes contributions by the following twenty-first century literary luminaries: Robin Givhan • Aleksandar He...

Jacke continues this week's look at Willa Cather by zeroing in on the style and substance of My Antonia (1918), Cather's celebrated novel about Bohemian immigrants struggling to survive on the unforgiving prairies of Nebraska. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop . (We appreciate it!) Find out more at historyofliterature.com , jackewilson.com , or by following Jacke and Mike on Twitter at @thejackewilson and @literatureSC. Or send an email to jackewilso...