Open Book

(Penguin Books)On this episode of WUTC's "Open Book," Richard Winham speaks with Rollo Romig, author of "I Am on the Hit List: A Journalist's Murder and the Rise of Autocracy in India."Rollo Romig(rolloromig.com)

Jennifer Boulanger(jenniferboulanger.info)(Aired Thu 5/22/25) On this episode of WUTC's "Open Book," Richard Winham speaks with Jennifer Boulanger, the author of "A Song for Olaf: A Memoir of Sibling Love at the Dawn of the HIV-AIDS Pandemic," published by Mnemosyne Books.(Mnemosyne Books)

(Walnut St. Publishing)On this episode of WUTC's "Open Book" with Richard Winham, Paul Luikart - author, teacher and painter - talks about his latest work of short-form storytelling: "Mercy."Paul Luikart(Paul Luikart)

(Cast Iron Storytelling)On this episode of "Open Book" on WUTC, Richard Winham showcases "Mileage," the one-year anniversary show by Cast Iron Storytelling - this Sunday at Barking Legs Theater in Chattanooga.

Mark L Brooks(marklbrooks.com)On this episode of WUTC's "Open Book," Richard Winham speaks with Mark L. Brooks, an alum of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga whose debut novel is "Laying Autumn's Dust: A Southern Tragedy About Betrayal, Revenge, and Murder," published by Co-Pilot Publishing.(Co-Pilot Publishing)

(Kehrer Verlag)On this episode of WUTC's "Open Book," Richard Winham speaks with Pamela Thomas-Graham, author and photographer of the forthcoming book "When Words Fail: A Photographic Journey through New York City."Pamela Thomas-Graham(Buck Ennis via Simon & Schuster)

(craiglea123 / Creative Commons)On this episode of WUTC's "Open Book," Richard Winham speaks with two poets in back-to-conversations: Mia S. Willis from Charlotte, NC - and Chattanooga's own Christian J. Collier.Mia S. Willis(Mia S. Willis)Christian J. Collier(Christian J. Collier)

Deanna Raybourn(Holly Virginia Photography)On this episode of "Open Book," Richard Winham speaks with Deanna Raybourn, author of "Kills Well with Others."Her novel - a sequel to "Killers of a Certain Age," a New York Times best seller - offers another bloody good adventure for four female assassins who band together again as they prepare for retirement.(Penguin Random House)

Jared Sullivan(Mackenzie Wray)(Aired 12/14/24) Jared Sullivan, an alum of UTC, talks about his book "Valley So Low: One Lawyer's Fight for Justice in the Wake of America's Great Coal Catastrophe" - on the coal ash disaster in Kingston, TN in 2008 and its aftermath - on this episode of WUTC's "Open Book" with Richard Winham.(Penguin Random House)

Matthew Hubbard(Mandy Rhoden Photography)(Aired Sat 11/16/24) Author Matthew Hubbard is Richard Winham's guest for this episode of WUTC's "Open Book."

Peggy Douglas(Southern Exposure)(Aired Sat 11/09/24) On this episode of "Open Book," Richard Winham shares the first part of his conversation with Peggy Douglas of "Southern Exposure."

Andrew K. Clark(Andrew K. Clark)(Aired Sat 10/19/24) On this episode of "Open Book," Richard Winham speaks with Andrew K. Clark, Appalachian Gothic writer and poet who lives near Asheville, NC - and shares the first part of his conversation with Peggy Douglas of "Southern Exposure."Peggy Douglas(Southern Exposure)

Richard Jackson in 2022.(Angela Foster / UTC)Richard Jackson - who established the creative writing program on our campus, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga - talks about his latest collection of poems, "Where the Wind Comes From," on this episode of "Open Book" with WUTC's Richard Winham.

(matsuyuki / Creative Commons)On this episode of "Open Book," Richard Winham speaks with Michael Ake, Holly Morse-Ellington and Kashun Parks of Cast Iron Storytelling from Next Exit Productions - and author Mark Anderson.

Laura Hankin(Penguin Random House)Laura Hankin - whose latest novel and first romcom is "One-Star Romance" - is Richard Winham's guest on this episode of "Open Book."

Tasha Coryell(Emily Covington)On this Open Book, my first guest is Tasha Coryell - whose just published novel is titled "Love Letters To a Serial Killer."In the excerpt from the opening pages of the novel, read by Andi Arndt, the young woman Hannah talks about her life - alone much of the time - in Minnesota. It’s the preamble to her decision to write to an accused serial killer, William, in prison awaiting trial in Atlanta for the murder of four young women.My second guest on this show is Jason Tinney. Playwright and actor, Jason is also a short story writer. This is a story about the first time he visited the barber shop with his dad when he was a kid.

(infomatique / Creative Commons)(Aired 5/18/24)For this "Open Book," my first guest is Stephen Eoannou. When I was a very young lad living in a London suburb, I spent many of my days dreaming of riding a horse, six guns strapped to my waist on the dusty roads of the Old West. The Lone Ranger was my hero and I waited eagerly each week to catch up with his adventures on the 9” screen of the family television. I wasn’t alone. The show had an international audience in the millions - one of whom is my guest, Stephen Eoannou. He was watching the show in Buffalo, New York, the city where the character was created by a writer called Fran Striker in the midst of the Depression in the 1930’s. For reasons Mr. Eoannou will explain, Fran Striker has never really been credited with creating the character and writing the stories that introduced him to an audience hungry for a hero in the dark hopeless days of the Depression.Stephen Eoannou(Stephen Eoannou)My other guest on this show is singer and songwriter Pi Jacobs - who, according to her bio, draws inspiration for her sultry, bluesy songs from her unconventional upbringing in “The Land of Weed and Wine” - aka Northern California.Pi Jacobs(Karman Jeanne Kruschke)

(Jo Naylor / Flickr)(Aired 5/11/24)In this Open Book, my guest is a practicing psychiatrist who writes under the name James Champion. He decided to use a different name when writing his first novel to protect the patients he writes about in his account of the two years he spent in medical school as a clinical resident.“The clinical years of medical school are a unique and challenging experience,” he said - a period in which he was moving to a different rotation (including gynecology, cardiology, pediatrics psychiatry and neurosurgery) every one to two months for two years. During that time in a small town in Kentucky, he met a motley cast of patients - including one with blue skin (the result of an overdose of oxycontin, a widely abused drug in the community) and worked with a hostile OB-GYN given to throwing tantrums almost daily.A novel by a doctor writing under the nom de plume Samuel Shem inspired him to write about his experiences as a clinical resident. Shem’s novel, first published in the late 1970’s, is a satirical account of the life of a medical student working as a resident in a hospital. The book’s account of the often abusive working conditions was controversial at the time, but it did help improve working conditions for future medical students.

(Cast Iron Storytelling)(Aired 4/13/2024) For the first half of this week’s "Open Book," my guests are the local playwrights, actors and producers Jason Tinney and Holly Morse-Ellington. Jason Tinney(Cast Iron Storytelling)Holly Morse-Ellington(Cast Iron Storytelling)In the second half of the show, my guest is Melodie Edwards. Her first novel was a re-imagining of "Jane Eyre," in which she pulled Jane and her prickly love interest Edward Rochester from the mid-19th Century into the present day. In her just published second novel, a re-imagining of Jane Austen’s "Persuasion," she’s brought Anne Elliott forward from earlier in the 19th Century into the present day in a village just north of Niagara Falls on the Canadian side of the border. Melodie Edwards(Dahlia Katz Photography)Setting these iconic novels in the modern world gives Melodie the opportunity to explore the ways in which the world has changed, but human nature and the intimate dance between men and women remains essentially unchanged. But, the world has changed and the challenge for Melodie, as she wrote in an introduction to the novel, was finding a way to keep her protagonists Anne Elliott and Ben Wentworth inn the dance.

Jason Tinney - at the launch of "Cast Iron Storytelling" at Barking Legs Theater in Chattanooga in April 2024.(Cast Iron Storytelling)Richard Winham talks to Jason Tinney - actor, writer and producer - about his latest project "Cast Iron Storytelling." The series of curated stories from ordinary people was launched in April at Barking Legs Theater in Chattanooga - and returns there on Saturday, June 22nd and Sunday, June 23rd.Jason Tinney - and storytellers Taylor Boyd, Cathy Scott and Ginger Birnbaum - at the launch of "Cast Iron Storytelling" at Barking Legs Theater in Chattanooga in April 2024.(Cast Iron Storytelling)(Cast Iron Storytelling)