BBC Radio 4 Interviews with the greatest American writers from 1939 to the present

The American Authors Collection

ROTH, VONNEGUT, MORRISON, UPDIKE, EGGERS...

Listen online to feature-length interviews with the greatest American writers from 1939 to the present.

A desert landscape.

To tie in with Mark Lawson's landmark Capturing America series, Front Row presents author interviews recorded between 1998 and 2009.

All are available here permanently.
A - Z American author interviews

* Edward Albee
Edward Albee (2004)

Playwright Edward Albee discusses his career.
* John Asbery
John Ashbery (2008)

John Ashbery talks about his career in a conversation recorded for Front Row and Capturing America.
* Patricia Cornwell
Patricia Cornwell (2001)

Patricia Cornwell discusses her life and her career as a crime writer.
* Don DeLillo
Don DeLillo (2003)

Don DeLillo author of Libra, Underworld and Cosmopolis.
* E L Doctorow
E L Doctorow (2010)

E L Doctorow talks about novels including Ragtime and Homer and Langley.
* Dave Eggers
Dave Eggers (2000)

Dave Eggers author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius talks to Mark Lawson.
* James Ellroy
James Ellroy (2009)

Ellroy talks about Blood's A Rover, which completes his Underworld USA Trilogy and why he has to shut himself away to write.
* John Irving
John Irving (2005)

John Irving author of A Prayer for Owen Meany and The Cider House Rules.
* Stephen King
Stephen King (1998)

Stephen King discusses writing horror
* Norman Mailer
Norman Mailer (2007)

Norman Mailer speaking in the last major broadcast interview of his life.
* Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison (2008)

Nobel prize winning author Toni Morrison talking to Mark Lawson at the Cheltenham Literary Festival.
* Walter Mosley
Walter Mosley (2010)

Walter Mosley books include a series featuring Private Investigator Easy Rawlins.
* Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates (2010)

Joyce Carol Oates author of over 50 novels including Blonde and Black Water.
* Marilynne Robinson
Marilynne Robinson (2005)

Marilynne Robinson author of novels including Housekeeping and Gilead.
* Philip Roth
Philip Roth (2007)

Philip Roth speaking as he published his last novel featuring the character Nathan Zuckerman Exit Ghost.
* Jane Smiley
Jane Smiley (2010)

Jane Smiley author of A Thousand Acres and Horse Heaven speaks to Mark Lawson.
* John Updike
John Updike (2002)

John Updike speaking on his 70th birthday.
* John Updike
John Updike (2008)

John Updike speaking in his last recorded interview.
* Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal (1999)

Gore Vidal discusses writing and politics.
* Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut (2006)

Kurt Vonnegut, the author of Slaughterhouse Five, speaking as he publishes a memoir called A Man Without a Country.
* August Wilson
August Wilson (2001)

Playwright August Wilson discusses his attitude to writing.
* Tom Wolfe
Tom Wolfe (1999)

Tom Wolfe explains the ideas behind new journalism.
* Tom Wolfe
Tom Wolfe (2004)

Tom Wolfe discusses new journalism and a novel depiciting sex amongst college kids; I Am Charlotte Simmons.