Michael Krasny Puts Pen to Paper

This fall, we will be publishing KQED host Michael Krasny's book, Off Mike: A Memoir of Talk Radio and Literary Life.  The book will be available in bookstores on October 1.  In a recent article, Contra Cost Times columnist, Bill Mann writes that “Krasny interweaves tales of his youth with literary-interview excerpts and stories from his radio career. It is the latter I savored the most, especially the numerous stories about Krasny's tempestuous days at top-rated KGO show..”

In the book, Michael Krasny describes his experiences as host of Forum—the popular KQED show with a reputation for interviewing the country’s leading literary figures, intellectuals, and policymakers. Whether Krasny is asking Joyce Carol Oates what fires her imagination, examining with Ian McEwan why Saul Bellow is wildly popular among British novelists, considering Tony Kushner’s remark that it is harder being gay than Jewish, or discussing with Umberto Eco why he loves comic books—he is witty, amusing, and often politically charged. Brought together in Off Mike, these vignettes and commentary cast a provocative lens on our times. The book includes vignettes from 47 interviews, including Joyce Carol Oates, Amy Tan, Alice Walker, Art Spiegelman, Tom Stoppard, Isabel Allende, and Joan Didion. (These links take you to Forum's audio interviews with these writers and artists.)