17 September 2013

RAG RADIO / Thorne Dreyer : Award-Winning Novelist and Screenwriter Stephen Harrigan

Noted Texas writer Stephen Harrigan in the studios of KOOP-FM in Austin, Texas, Friday, September 6, 2013. Photos by Roger Baker / The Rag Blog.
Rag Radio podcast:
Award-winning novelist, screenwriter,
and journalist Stephen Harrigan
The author of the New York Times bestseller, The Gates of the Alamo, Harrigan has been selected to write the initial title and centerpiece work in an ambitious 16-volume history of Texas to be published by the University of Texas Press.
By Rag Radio / The Rag Blog / September 17, 2013

Award-winning author, screenwriter, and journalist Stephen Harrigan was our guest on Rag Radio, Friday, September 6, 2013.

Rag Radio is a weekly syndicated radio program produced and hosted by long-time alternative journalist Thorne Dreyer, and recorded at the studios of KOOP 91.7-FM, a cooperatively-run all-volunteer community radio station in Austin, Texas.

Listen to or download the podcast of our September 6 interview with Stephen Harrigan here:


Stephen Harrigan, the author of nine books of fiction and nonfiction,  has been selected to write the initial title and centerpiece work in an ambitious 16-volume history of Texas -- tagged the Texas Bookshelf -- to be published by the University of Texas Press.

Harrigan is the author of  The Gates of the Alamo, a New York Times bestseller and the recipient of the Spur Award for the best Novel of the West. Harrigan's novel, Remember Ben Clayton, also won the Spur Award, as well as the Jesse H. Jones Award from the Texas Institute of Letters and the James Fenimore Cooper Prize from the Society of American Historians for best historical novel.

The Eye of the Mammoth, a career-spanning collection of Harrigan's essays, was published in 2013 by the University of Texas Press.

Stephen Harrigan, left, with Rag Radio's
Thorne Dreyer and Tracey Schulz.
Steve Harrigan is an award-winning screenwriter who has written many movies for television. A longtime contributor -- and contributing editor -- to Texas Monthly, his articles and essays have appeared in a wide range of publications.

Also a Faculty Fellow at the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas, Steve is a founding member of the Texas Book Festival and of Capital Area Statues, Inc. Harrigan will be featured at the 2013 Texas Book Festival and is one of three writers being honored with the Austin Public Library Friends Foundation's 2013 Illumine awards for excellence in literary achievement.

On Rag Radio, we discuss the special demands of researching and writing historical fiction -- especially when the subject is an iconic event like the Battle of the Alamo, and Harrigan's revealing and often very funny experiences as an "A-List writer of B-List productions," while writing made-for-TV movies.

We also talk about Steve's participation in the massive Texas history project being undertaken by the UT Press; about the unique role that Texas Monthly magazine has played in encouraging and nourishing Texas writers; and about the recent death -- and significant legacy -- of Texas literary giant John Graves.


Rag Radio is hosted and produced by Rag Blog editor Thorne Dreyer, a pioneer of the Sixties underground press movement. Tracey Schulz is the show's engineer and co-producer.

Rag Radio has aired since September 2009 on KOOP 91.7-FM, an all-volunteer cooperatively-run community radio station in Austin, Texas. Rag Radio is broadcast live every Friday from 2-3 p.m. (CDT) on KOOP and is rebroadcast on Sundays at 10 a.m. (EDT) on WFTE, 90.3-FM in Mt. Cobb, PA, and 105.7-FM in Scranton, PA. Rag Radio is now also aired on KPFT-HD3 90.1 -- Pacifica radio in Houston -- on Wednesdays at 1 p.m.

The show is streamed live on the web and, after broadcast, all Rag Radio shows are posted as podcasts at the Internet Archive.

Rag Radio is produced in association with The Rag Blog, a progressive Internet newsmagazine, and the New Journalism Project, a Texas 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation.

Rag Radio can be contacted at ragradio@koop.org.

Coming up on Rag Radio:
THIS FRIDAY, September 20, 2013: Environmental researcher and climate change activist Bruce Melton.
Friday, September 27, 2013: In their first father/daughter interview, Newsman Dan Rather and Austin-based environmentalist Robin Rather.
Friday, October 4, 2013: Novelist Thomas Zigal, author of Many Rivers to Cross.
Note: Our interview with Chicago-based activist Michael James, originally scheduled for Friday, September 20, will be rescheduled on a date to be determined.

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