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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.

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 (2004)

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

Poet John Ashbery discusses his career.
Patricia Cornwell (2001)

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

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

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

Dave Eggers author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius talks to Mark Lawson.
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 (2005)

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

Stephen King discusses writing horror
Norman Mailer (2007)

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

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

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

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

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

Philip Roth speaking as he published his last novel featuring the character Nathan Zuckerman Exit Ghost.
John Updike (2002)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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