Vick Mickunas introduced the Book Nook author interview program for WYSO in 1994. Over the years he has produced more than 1500 interviews with writers, musicians, poets, politicians, and celebrities.
He has interviewed historians (Studs Terkel, David McCullough, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Gary Wills), politicians (Mario Cuomo, Sherrod Brown, George McGovern, John Kasich, Donald Trump), pundits (Karl Rove, Ann Coulter, Ralph Nader, Christopher Hitchens), movie stars (Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Peter Ustinov, Bruce Campbell), romance writers (Nora Roberts, Janet Dailey), astronauts (John Glenn, Buzz Aldrin, Gene Cernan), diplomats (Richard Holbrooke, Jose Ramos Horta), humorists (Bill Bryson, Gary Shteyngart, Dave Barry, Sarah Vowell), food writers (Amanda Hesser, Michael Ruhlman, Judith Jones), poets (Galway Kinnell, Nikki Giovanni, Billy Collins, Herbert Woodward Martin), crime writers (P.D.James, James Lee Burke, Robert Crais, Don Winslow, Denise Mina, Ian Rankin, Adrian McKinty, Philip Kerr), horror novelists (Clive Barker, Joe Hill, Danielle Trussoni, Paul Tremblay) and music legends from bands like The Animals, Duran Duran, Joy Division, The Doors, and The Rolling Stones.
Vick has interviewed some of the leading writers of our time, people like Pat Conroy, James McBride, Anne Lamott, Donald Ray Pollock, Tom Robbins, Kate Atkinson, Gary Shteyngart, Walter Mosley, Connie Schultz, and Amy Tan.
Listen to the Book Nook with Vick Mickunas for intimate conversations about books with the writers who create them.
Vick Mickunas reviews books for the Dayton Daily News and the Springfield News Sun.
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Columbus native Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, music critic, and please forgive the use of this term; social media influencer. -
Music historian Deke Dickerson's biography of the music legend Merle Travis. Travis made his first record in Dayton while performing under an assumed name.
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Lawrence Block has published over 200 books. He is now in his eighties and his output has been greatly reduced. Even so, he is still full of surprises. A few years ago he told me that he had probably published his final novel. Then he wrote "Dead Girl Blues." I assumed that would definitely be it though, that he was finished with novels. Fortunately I was wrong, Lawrence just put out yet another fine novel, "The Burglar Who Met Fredric Brown." Over the years I have interviewed him five times. During this conversation he offered up a tantalizing hint, thathe is working on something. He would not say what. I cannot wait to find out what it is.
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Hap Cawood was for many years the editor of the editorial pages for the Dayton Daily News. Hap is the author of the novel "The Miler." His daughter Shuly is a prolific writer. Shuly writes poetry, prose, fiction, non-fiction, essays, short stories, and memoir. Over the years that I have hosted the program I have interviewed fathers and daughters but never at the same time. For example, James Lee Burke has made many appearances on the show. His daughter Alafair Burke has too. I would love to interview them together. I doubt that will ever happen though. When I had the chance to have Hap and Shuly together in the studio I knew that it could be something special. I surprised them when I suggested that perhaps they might want to interview one another. I did not give them any advance warning about my plans. Even so, they still agreed to do it. So that's what we did!
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Last year Vick Mickunas received an email from the author Ralph Keyes. He's known Ralph for over 25 years. And Ralph has written many superb books. He went to Antioch College and lived in Yellow Springs for decades. Now Ralph lives in Portland. He e-mailed Vick to tell him about a book he thought he'd might want to cover. It was a picture book for children; "Watercress" by Andrea Wang.
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During the 1930's the city of Cleveland was a scary place because a serial killer was on the loose. A man named Eliot Ness was running the Cleveland police department and he was trying to solve this series of gruesome murders. It wasn't easy. In fact, it was impossible. True crime is very popular these days. This account of those horrific crimes gaveme nightmares.
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Twenty years ago Vick Mickunas interviewed John Talliaferro, author of Great White Fathers: The True Story of Gutzon Borglum and His Obsessive Quest to Create the Mt. Rushmore National Monument.
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Vick Mickunas shares an interview he did with Harry Lonsdale back in 2003.
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Vick Mickunas spoke to Carol Siyahi Hicks about her novel, The Color of Acceptance.
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Vick Mickunas welcomes Alan Maimon to the program to speak about his book, Twilight in Hazard-an Appalachian Reckoning.
