Rick Kleffel:Narrative Species–The Agony Column

I just listened to my first episode of this podcast. Rick’s interview with SGJ about I was a Teenage Slasher. I have listened to multiple SGJ interviews and so I know when he doesn’t have to think very hard, he has a few set-pieces of things he says. But Rick was just so astute and insightful and asked all the right questions which got the conversation to new places. What a remarkable reader and interviewer. Happy to find my new go to podcast about books.

Rick Kleiffel is a unique interviewing voice in the current literary landscape. He understands and explores genre and literary fiction in a single sweep, yet disparages neither. He's a great interviewer and manages to be both insightful without resorting to snobbery. I look forward to every episode. As a listener and fiction writer, it makes me glad to see there is good coverage coming from this show!

I can't stand the opening and closing tags and the context-free quotes offered as a podcast descrioption are frustrating as hell, but the content is very good. Rick gets a wide variety of writers to talk about their craft in an engaging and often entertaining way. Skip the first 25 seconds and you'll get a fine conversation. Well worth the download.

Rick Kleffel's interview with William Gibson is far and away the best of all the "Spook Country" related podcasts out there right now. Really brilliant stuff.