Jules Feiffer’s Pulitzer-winning comic strip ran for forty-two years in the Village Voice and one hundred other papers. A literary giant, Feiffer won an Obie Award for his play, Little Murders, plaudits for his screenplay Carnal Knowledge and an Oscar for his short animation Munro. In fact the list of his creative output is so distinguished I would need three pages to do it justice. . . for example do you remember the children’s classic The Phantom Tollbooth? So it was a delight to have Jules come in and chat with me about his life, his career, and his latest book Backing Into Forward which has received rave reviews in the New York Times and just about the entire review press. We not only had a ball, but Jules left me with a cartoon contribution to a new book I am working on called FAVORITE WORDS OF FAMOUS PEOPLE. More about that another time. Join me here and rejoice in the life of Jules Feiffer.

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Sam Lipsyte is a funny man who has written a funny book. The author of the story collection Venus Drive and the novels The Subject Steve, and Homeland, and winner of the Believer Book Award, Sam Lipsyte is taking the literary world by storm with his new novel The Ask. The Ask is the story of a development officer at a small undistinguished college in New York whose life is a series of tragi-comedies. It is hysterically funny, and inventive on every page. Join Sam, who also teaches creative writing at Columbia University, and I as we explore his life and new celebrity in the publishing world.

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Joe Hill is not only the award-winning author of Heart- Shaped Box, 20th Century Ghosts, and now Horns, he is also a super-nice guy, who is bright, witty, and fun to talk to. He also writes comic books. For all of you who may be wondering is Joe Hill really the son of Stephen King and Tabitha King, the answer is yes he is, and on the Frumkes show he candidly speaks with me about his relationship with his distinguished father and mother. All I can say is if I were Stephen King I’d be proud as hell of this young man who is not only a loving and devoted son, but an outsized talent of the first magnitude. Imagine trying to mine the same genre as Stephen King and bringing to it a totally original voice and style. I picked up Horns and couldn’t put it down. The word dynasty suddenly seems apt.

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T.C. Boyle, or Tommy Boyle, who made up his middle name Corraghasan or however the hell you spell it, is wildly imaginative, funny, and a great story-teller. Wild Child, his latest collection of short stories is a perfect example.  However if you’ve never read, met or heard Tommy before do drop into the Frumkes show and hear the two of us laugh and carry on. By the way T.C. Boyle lives in a house in Montecito California in which Frank Lloyd Wright one of his heroes, once lived.

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Tony’s book Last Words which he wrote with George Carlin is careening around the best-seller lists as I write this, but Tony himself is here with me in the studio taping an interview. What makes this particular interview special is that Tony and I, old friends, are having a rollicking time when a knock on the door of the studio signals to me that Bruce Jay Friedman is in the studio to meet me later for dinner. I invite Bruce into the interview and the three of us just have a great time on air. Please enjoy a rare treat as I try to stay on point in the company of two of our greatest comic minds.

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Originally Aired September 2004; Ferit Orhan Pamuk, or just Orhan Pamuk, won the Nobel prize for literature in 2006. He was born and still lives in Istanbul, though he has visited the U.S. and has taught at Columbia University. He is Turkey’s best-selling writer and the recipient of numerous prizes. Among his important works are My Name is Red; The Black Book; Snow; The White Castle; and Colors. He is a Muslim, though more in a cultural sense, and as a human rights activist has been outspoken about the Armenian genocide and also about Turkey’s treatment of the Kurds. Besides his huge writing talent and heart, Pamuk, at least in my opinion, is very funny.

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Elizabeth Kostova made history with the publication of The Historian, her novel about Vlad the Impaler on whom the original Dracula was modeled, which was translated into 44 languages. The book sold some 4 million copies and a film is in the works. Now after 5 years Elizabeth has written a novel called The Swan Thieves, about Robert Oliver, a gifted artist who attacks a painting in The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Why does he do it? Who is Leda? Join me and meet Elizabeth Kostova who knows the answers to these and any other questions you may have about Robert, or Vlad, or Swans, or love. She is a professor of literature at the University of Michigan as well as a talented writer. . . and very charming. Just cover your neck at night.

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Rebecca Newberger Goldstein is a philosopher, novelist, MacArthur Fellow who writes about subjects that fascinate her. Usually brilliant people like herself. In 36 ARGUMENTS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, her entertaining new novel, Rebecca introduces Cass Seltzer, a kind and gentle best-selling atheist who is drawn into a constellation of eccentric and interesting intellectuals from Harvard who both fuss over him and mesmerize him.  They are assorted poets, mystics, and geniuses including one six-year-old mathematical prodigy who is the son of a Hasidic Rebbe. Suffice that Goldstein’s novel is great fun as is Rebecca herself who in real life is as interesting as any of her characters and plays house with the redoubtable Steven Pinker. She knows whereof she speaks.

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Jasper Fforde is a British novelist unlike any you have ever read. He is a literary experimentalist of the first order who has carved out a special niche for himself within the literary world. His first novel The Eyre Affair was published in 2001 and followed by a series called Thursday Next about a literary detective of that name. He is unfailingly inventive, and clever, and fun to interview. But then what would you expect from a young man who owns and flies his own DH 82 Tiger Moth airplane. On the Frumkes Show Jasper discusses his life and the publication of his latest book Shades of Gray.

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Gail Godwin is a lovely lady and an elegant writer. She was raised in Asheville North Carolina and many of her books are set in the South. She was three times nominated for the National Book Award, and has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. In addition to writing she is an artist, and a librettist. Five of her novels have been on the New York Times Best-Seller List and her current novel Unfinished Desires is recommended by the NY Times Book Review. She serves with me on the Editorial Board of The Writer Magazine and is a charmer. Join Gail and me for a nice discussion.

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