Hallie Linden yearns to write for the New York Times. At the moment, she’s stuck at a daily newspaper in tiny Green Meadow, Indiana, a town known for its amusement park and nothing else. It’s 1989, and juicy reporting jobs are hard to find. She resolves to work hard, win a few awards, and then welcome the job offers.
In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host David Ahrens speaks with Cynthia Simmons. She’s author of a recent novel called Wrong Kind of Paper, the story of a young reporter in a small town who resists the corporate journalist demand to avoid “controversy.”
The novel unexpectedly turns into a two track thriller — one uncovering the deadly corruption and the other is the fight to get the story published.
Before her career as a reporter, novelist and professor of media law, Cynthia Simmons was the News Director of WORT-FM. Since then, she’s held numerous prestigious reporting positions, and is now the Associate Teaching Professor at Penn State, where she teaches mass media law.
In this interview, she also shares with Ahrens the special contribution of listener-supported radio by providing the information necessary for a democracy to function.
Author Beth Nguyen discusses her new memoir, "Owner of a Lonely Heart"
Poet Daniel Khalastchi on Wordplay, the Collision of Images, and White Whales
Angela Trudell Vasquez on Poetry in her Life
Madison Poet Cynthia Marie Hoffman On “Exploding Head”
Bending Granite Tells Tales Of Leading Organizational Change
Ann Garvin On Writing Her First Book At Age Fifty
Fragile Institutions: Shibani Mahtani And Timothy McLaughlin on the 2019 Protests in Hong Kong
Jacquelyn Mitchard On The Importance of Titles
A conversation with Greg Mickells, retiring director of Madison Public Library
It’s Not Nothing: Essayist Peter Coviello on How Our Favorite Books and Songs Help Us Make Worlds Together
Madison's Shoshauna Shy on bringing poetry to the public
Heather Swan’s Lyrical Language Of Beauty And Devastation
Thomas Pearson, Author Of An Ordinary Future, On Disability And Difference
The Dane County Farmers' Market Cookbook With Food Writer Terese Allen
Prof. Stephen Kantrowitz, ”Citizens Of A Stolen Land: A Ho-Chunk History Of The 19th Century United States.”
The Life And Music Of Al Jarreau
Poet Tacey M. Atsitty on Risking Your Heart and Being Swallowed Up
UW Prof. Stephen Kantrowitz, "Citizens of a Stolen Land: A Ho-Chunk History of the 19th Century United States "
Alison Townsend On The Spirit Of Place
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