Major Contemporary Writers: Donald Barthelme / interviewed by Charles Ruas andJudith Sherman

Author reads and discusses selections from several of his novels and short stories.

Program 1:
Donald Barthelme reads selections from his latest novel, The Dead Father, and his uncollected stories (Bought a Little City, The Great Hug, The Agreement, Nothing: A Preliminary Account). In the interview with Judith Sherman and Charles Ruas, Donald Barthelme discusses how he became a writer and the relationship of his work to the visual arts.

Program 2:
Donald Barthelme discusses with Charles Ruas and Jusy Sherman the direction of his writing, the relationship of his shorter pieces to his novels, and those writers he admires, and the direction his experimentation in works of fiction and his essays. City Life, Sadness, Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural Acts.

Program 3:
Donald Barthelme reads the children's book he wrote for his daughter. He reads selections from Guilty Pleasures in the course of an interview by Charles Ruas and Judith Sherman in which the nature of political satire and language as well as his method of teaching creative writing are discussed. Also, the Friends of the Family, a dramatization of two stories from Donald Barthelme's Come Back, Dr. Caligari.
The Slightly Irregular Fire Engine
A Children's Book & Guilty Pleasures
A Collection of Parodies
Polical Satires & Other Pieces

Program 4:
Donald Barthelme reads selections from his first novel, Snow White and his first collection of short pieces (Come Back Dr. Caligari). In the interview with Judith Sherman and Charles Ruas, he discusses his social satire of the sixties in Snow White, and his early career as a writer.

CONTAINS SENSITIVE LANGUAGE!

Technical Direction: Judith Sherman
Producer: Linda Rosechild-Harris
Executive Producer: Charles Ruas