KPFA - Cover to Cover: Jovelyn's Bistro

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Cover to Cover: Jovelyn’s Bistro is a gathering place for a bouquet of artist: writers, musicians, performers, and dreamers.  It’s a soft‑lit bistro of the imagination, where the air is warm, the chairs are comfortable, and the conversations wander through the creative lives of the artists who join me. At the very end, answering the question What’s It like to be human?

  1. 2d ago

    Cover to Cover/ Jovelyn’s Bistro Welcomes John Amos, author of Call of The Beagle

    Amos’ riveting narrative transports readers to Balaklava, where the reporter watches in horror as 600 British cavalrymen ride straight into Russian guns during the catastrophic Charge of the Light Brigade.   Tormented by what he saw and driven to uncover the truth about the disaster, the reporter spends decades immersing himself in forgotten diaries, long-hidden letters, and interviews with the daughters of the fallen, piecing together the life and death of General Robert Dryden — who appeared to be smiling as he charged the gates of hell. But as the past resurfaces, the reporter must confront more than historical facts: the unquiet ghost of the general and the memory of a love he refuses to name.   The Call of the Bugle is a sweeping, multi-generational historical saga set against the stark reality of the Crimean War. It is a haunting meditation on valor and folly, memory and masculinity, and the unspoken costs of war. The post Cover to Cover/ Jovelyn’s Bistro Welcomes John Amos, author of Call of The Beagle appeared first on KPFA.

  2. Oct 27

    Jovelyn’s Bistro, Welcomes Author Elena Dudum

    THEY TOLD ME BACK HOME WOULD BE BEAUTIFUL A Palestinian Memoir By Elena Dudum On sale October 27th, 2026 “A deeply felt memoir of race and history that defies social erasures of the diasporic Palestinian experience, They Told Me Back Home Would Be Beautiful boldly explores how politicized identities, especially within the US, are shaped and manipulated by broader agendas.” —The Whiting Award Judges Citation   “Elena Dudum made a puddle of me, and the memoir genre, with this tonally distinct, absolutely riveting offering. Dudum summons new ways to write through home, to write to home, and she questions the ways we can use journeys home as an eraser of self. The work in They Told Me Back Home Would Be Beautiful feels infinite, genreless, almost, but so in the pocket. This is that good work.” —Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy In her Palestinian Christian home in San Francisco, Elena Dudum was raised in a household ruled by her father’s lectures. He taught her everything: the story of her grandparents’ flight from their homeland, the history of her family’s orange groves, and the ongoing occupation of Palestine. Above all, he taught her not to forget. Soon his lessons consumed her childhood, and Elena found herself shrinking from an inheritance that felt both sacred and suffocating. For years, she resisted it all until a family trip to Palestine shattered the abstraction of her homeland. Checkpoints, razed olive groves, soldiers—it was all plainly in front of her, as were the ghosts of her family’s past. What was once always just out of reach, now pressed against her body. Back in the United States, something in her quietly unraveled. She tried to outrun what she now knew by burying herself in elite institutions and the rising world of tech, where ambition was rewarded and history was inconvenient. Eventually, the inheritance she thought she could escape demanded reckoning. Braiding rich personal narrative with archival fragments and cultural critique, THEY TOLD ME BACK HOME WOULD BE BEAUTIFUL traces one woman’s journey as she returns—slowly, deliberately—to her father’s lessons, determined to claim them on her own terms.   About the Author   Elena Dudum is a Palestinian American writer whose work has appeared in The Atlantic, Time, Cosmopolitan, and Bon Appétit, among others. In 2025, she was awarded the Whiting Nonfiction Grant for Works-in-Progress for early chapters in They Told Me Back Home Would Be Beautiful. Her work has been supported by The de Groot Foundation, Tin House, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and Hedgebrook. Born in San Francisco, she now divides her time between New York and London. They Told Me Back Home Would Be Beautiful is her first book. The post Jovelyn’s Bistro, Welcomes Author Elena Dudum appeared first on KPFA.

  3. Oct 20

    Jovelyn’s Bistro of Cover to Cover, Engages with writer Sharon Cameron

    From SHARON CAMERON, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Reese’s Book Club pick The Light in Hidden Places, comes a new novel based on an extraordinary true story set in the most hellish circumstances possible—the Sobibor death camp in Poland in 1943.   UP FROM THE ASHES The post Jovelyn’s Bistro of Cover to Cover, Engages with writer Sharon Cameron appeared first on KPFA.

  4. Oct 13

    Cover to Cover invites Jane Loeb Rubin to Jovelyn’s Bistro to discuss her lastest book.

    Jane Loeb Rubin’s Mayhem in the Mountains—fourth in her acclaimed Gilded City Series—plunges readers into this forgotten chapter where firebrand heroine Ella Levine finds her voice against rising antisemitism.     1924 in the Catskills sizzled with chaos. The region’s turbulent history during that era could easily have erased any trace of the Borscht Belt’s grand hotels. Prohibition fueled bootleggers and whiskey stills-Dutch Schultz ran an underground distillery in nearby Ulster County. Meanwhile, the Ku Klux Klan stormed north after WWI, targeting new immigrants they viewed as threats to the American way of life. Amid the turmoil, the Isaacson family stood their ground, fiercely defending their land, livelihoods, and each other. The post Cover to Cover invites Jane Loeb Rubin to Jovelyn’s Bistro to discuss her lastest book. appeared first on KPFA.

  5. Sep 15

    Jovelyn Bistro, Welcomes Author; Roselyn Teukolsky,

    A Reluctant Spy, follows a grieving widow who, on the day of her husband’s funeral, is recruited by the FBI to infiltrate a dark-web cybercrime network. Kirkus Reviews called it “a captivating story of a woman who untangles mysteries and comes to know the importance of self-worth,” The post Jovelyn Bistro, Welcomes Author; Roselyn Teukolsky, appeared first on KPFA.

  6. Sep 8

    Author :Roberta Samuels’ join Cover to Cover: Jovelyn’s Bistro

    In Lost: An Ancient Artifact Adrift In Sarasota Bay, an award-winning mystery, Barbara Waldheim returns from France with her partner, Sam, to find her home in disarray due to a deceitful renter and unexpectedly becomes involved in an ICE investigation, a terrorist financing scheme and insider dealings at the art museum. Can the unwitting couple help save an important relic for posterity-and shed new light on the Middle East's little-known contribution to the course of Western civilization? Author Roberta Samuels’ latest book is part of her “Art Mystery Series,” which includes two prior installments, Missing and Vanished. She also penned a novel of romance, art, history, and culture that is loosely based on her own life, French Lessons: One Woman’s Tale of Sex, Wine, and House Renovation in La Belle France. The post Author :Roberta Samuels’ join Cover to Cover: Jovelyn’s Bistro appeared first on KPFA.

  7. Sep 1

    Cover to Cover: Jovelyn’s Bistro – Welcomes Author: Lean De Forest

    Leah De Forest was born in Geelong, Australia, and lives in Boston. Her debut novel, ANY KIND OF KNOWN TOMORROW, is coming 9/15/26 from Betty, an imprint of WTAW Press. Her fiction, essays and criticism have appeared in Griffith Review, CRAFT Literary, Ohio University’s Quarter After Eight, Bodega Magazine, Fiction Writers Review, LEON Literary Review, Monash University’s Verge 2020,  Kill Your Darlings, Eureka Street, Overland, and The Canberra Times. She serves as a senior editor at Bloom, a literary website featuring authors who debut at 40 or older, and publishes The Point of View Playbook, a craft resource for writers, on Substack. Leah teaches writing at the Harvard Extension School (where she is also an academic advisor in the graduate writing program), was a contributor in fiction at the 2022 Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and holds an MFA from the Program For Writers at Warren Wilson College. A former ward of the State, Leah has worked as a journalist, book reviewer, columnist, speech writer, and public servant. The post Cover to Cover: Jovelyn’s Bistro – Welcomes Author: Lean De Forest appeared first on KPFA.

  8. Aug 25

    Cover to Cover: Jovelyn’s Bistro, in conversation with Debra Levine, Author of: Jazzed

    “Gay, sinewy and exotic, with nerves of steel, Jack Cole never quite fit in or became accurately recognized by the industry, but he was the driving force behind so much of Broadway’s and Hollywood’s dancing brilliance back in the glory days. Debra Levine peels back the dance veils and other layers with extraordinary reporting and insight, to reveal a groundbreaking creator who had complicated associations with Gwen Verdon, Gene Kelly and dozens of other artistic collaborators who brought jazz to the masses. Did he really wear high heels to show Marilyn Monroe her ‘Diamonds’ routines? Believe it. Did Fosse blatantly mimic his moves over and over again? Didn’t everybody? Levine’s immensely readable book gets to the bottom of the dazzle that put Cole on top.” —Michael Musto, entertainment columnist     About the Author Debra Levine is a Hollywood-fascinated dance critic whose discovery of Jack Cole turned her aesthetic world on its head. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Dance Magazine, Huffington Post, and more. She is the founder of artsmeme, a fine arts blog.               The post Cover to Cover: Jovelyn’s Bistro, in conversation with Debra Levine, Author of: Jazzed appeared first on KPFA.

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Cover to Cover: Jovelyn’s Bistro is a gathering place for a bouquet of artist: writers, musicians, performers, and dreamers.  It’s a soft‑lit bistro of the imagination, where the air is warm, the chairs are comfortable, and the conversations wander through the creative lives of the artists who join me. At the very end, answering the question What’s It like to be human?

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