Wednesday, Jan 15 - Don Waters

Tonight on Bibliocracy, 8 PM on KPFK 90.7 FM in Southern California:  DON WATERS.  My guest tonight skirts not the thin line, but a very broad line, between satire and sincerity, picaresque and realism, in this case that line being the US border with Mexico, a wall, a metaphor, a state of mind and a terrific trope for the division and dualism in the life of his conflicted hero, a smart, broken-hearted thirty something slacker who genuinely cares for old people even as he sells them drugs.  After the prizewinning short story collection that got him lots of attention for smart, funny writing, my guest Don Waters has upped the ante with a morality and mortality tale, set in a retirement village in Arizona, that border and borderline state, in a short, punched-up, funny and roughly charming novel called, yes, Sunland.  Don Waters is the author of the previous story collection Desert Gothic, winner of the Iowa Short Fiction Award. His fiction has been anthologized in the Pushcart Prize, Best of the West, and New Stories from the Southwest.  A frequent contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle, he’s also written for the New York Times Book Review, Outside, The Believer, and Slate, among other magazines. He is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where he was an Iowa Arts Fellow.  But what, you ask, has he done lately?  Ha!  He’s written a sincerely and sarcastically and astute novel which sends up and yet shows empathy for generations of Americans, old and young.  Thanks for listening, on the radio or online live, or as a free download from the KPFK audio archives.  Support the only non-commercial, anti-corporate people’s media on the dial.  Support KPFK.  Find and friend me on Facebook, and do share the audio link with other readers, thinkers, listeners.