Collection Description

Larry McCaffery is an SDSU professor emeritus of English. In addition to teaching, McCaffery built a reputation as an important postmodern and contemporary American literary critic known for identifying influential and innovative writers. Over the course of thirty years, he and his wife, Sinda Gregory (a scholar in her own right), conducted numerous interviews with notable postmodern and contemporary American writers. In total there are 71 interviewees, including Mark Danielewski, Samuel Delany, Raymond Carver, Joanna Russ, Ursula LeGuin, Raymond Federman, and William Gibson.

McCaffery's unique interview process started with a recorded interview on tape. He then made a loose transcription of the recorded conversation, making changes and rearranging sections as he went. Both McCaffery and the interviewee heavily edited this transcript, which eventually resulted in the creation of a final, collaborative manuscript. Some original audio recordings are reproduced here, while others are only available in our offline archives. This project was supported by a Recordings at Risk grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The grant program is made possible by funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

McCaffery’s interviews were published in several books: Anything Can Happen: Interviews with Contemporary American Novelists (1983); Alive and Writing: Interviews with American Authors of the 1980s (1986); Across the Wounded Galaxies: Interviews with Contemporary American Science Fiction Authors (1990); and Some Other Frequency: Interviews with Innovative American Authors (1995).

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Interview with Jerry Bumpus
Bumpus, at this time associate professor of English at San Diego State University, talks about editing and publishing anthologies and McCaffery asks questions about the process. Bumpus thinks that Anaconda is a good book, which he sent to “20 or something” publishers. McCaffery says that people think that the publishing situation “is getting worse.” Bumpus feels the same, saying that there is more good writing, but “publishing is backing off on publishing first novels. It’s a cost thing, I think.” “Only Esquire” among the “slick” magazines has published his short stories, “but I try them.” McCaffery asks why the slick magazines did not publish Bumpus’s work, and Bumpus answers that he thinks it’s the type of fiction that is the problem. McCaffery asks if Bumpus’s stories appeal to the average reader. Bumpus thinks they do, because people reading the magazines are better educated. McCaffery says that it sounds as if the editors and publishers are not willing to take a chance, and Bumpus agrees. McCaffery asks whether Bumpus is an innovator, and Bumpus replies that he is not as much an experimenter as other authors. He gets “unsure” of himself the farther away he gets from “realism.”, San Diego State University, This project was supported by a Recordings at Risk grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The grant program is made possible by funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Interview with Joanna Russ
Due to rights issues, the audio of this interview is not available online. Please contact San Diego State University, Special Collections and Archives if you wish to be granted access to the original audio. Larry McCaffery interviews Joanna Russ in her office at the University of Washington. Russ begins by discussing the use of inter-connected stories in her most recent collection, Extra(ordinary) People, as well as its use by author science fiction and fantasy authors. Russ explains that she finds herself “seeking out very commonplace ideas, very ordinary story lines and assumptions, and doing something else with them.” Russ discusses her use of anti-utopian ideas to counter-act the notion that utopias would easily be found. She discusses her issues with “polemical fiction” and the problems that it causes for science fiction writers. She discusses her history, beginning as a fan of the genre as a teenager and how as she became a published writer she would often find herself pigeon-hold because of her work. She explains her preference of writing science fiction rather than fantasy because she feels that fantasy actually has more constrictions and rules to abide by. Much of the later part of the conversation covers the work of herself and other female science fiction writers and their place in the genre. She concluded the interview by answering a question about the anger that permeates through her work. An edited version of this interview appears on pages 176 to 210 of Across the Wounded Galaxies: Interviews with Contemporary American Science Fiction Writers, ed. Larry McCaffery, 1990, University of Illinois Press., San Diego State University, This project was supported by a Recordings at Risk grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The grant program is made possible by funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Interview with John Irving
John Irving and Larry McCaffery meet in a restaurant and discuss fiction in general and Irving’s fiction specifically over lunch. The interview begins with a discussion of autobiographical fiction which Irving had been professed to disdain. Irving explains that much of writing is autobiographical in nature but that doesn’t mean it has to be true to real life (and gives, in an example strikingly similar to Samuel Delany’s response on the same question four years later, that the worst writing he sees from his students are the parts where the student claims it comes straight from real life). Irving mentions that the problem with autobiography in fiction is when readers look to the fiction to discover the writer’s biography. Irving notes that it’s to a writer’s advantage to lead an un-interesting life or your self-importance will override your writing. He comments, “Most autobiographical fiction is tyrannized by how much our unhappiness means to us. This unhappiness becomes an indulgence in our fiction.” The discussion then ranges from being a writing student (Irving notes that can save a young writer time by learning their own habits), the current world of fiction (which Irving mostly avoids, though noting his admiration for Gunter Grass) and the way that critics approach fiction. Much of the discussion focuses around the popularity of Irving’s most recent novel, The World According to Garp and its immense popularity and if anything has changed now that he is a “popular” writer. The majority of the interview is published, in slightly edited form, on pages 177 to 191 of Anything Can Happen: Interviews with Contemporary American Novelists, ed. Tom LeClair and Larry McCaffery, University of Illinois Press, 1983. The remainder of the interview was re-created by Irving asking himself the questions and the answers due to ones of the tapes of the interview having been stolen., San Diego State University, This project was supported by a Recordings at Risk grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The grant program is made possible by funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Interview with John Irving, with Irving reading questions and answers
With one of the tapes from their restaurant interview having been stolen, John Irving reads a series of supplied questions from Larry McCaffery and then answers them. Irving is uncomfortable with the process of doing this outside of the context of the interview and notes that he finds both the questions and his own answers to be wooden. Irving discusses aspects of his own fiction, including the prehistory in Setting Free the Bears, the maternal instincts and vulnerability of several of his male characters, the metafictional commentary that he allows his books to do on themselves and the use of sex. Irving concludes the interview with a discussion on the debate between John Gardner and William Gass over whether fiction needs to say something. Irving sides more with Gardner than Gass, noting “literature should be a sign of life rather than a celebration of death; and if a novel doesn’t address itself to something of human value, I don’t see much worth in it.” The majority of the questions (as put forward by Larry McCaffery) and the answers from Irving are published, in slightly edited form, on portions of page 187 (concerning the Gardner-Gass debate) as well as on pages 191 to 197 of Anything Can Happen: Interviews with Contemporary American Novelists, edited by Tom LeClair and Larry McCaffery, University of Illinois Press, 1983., San Diego State University, This project was supported by a Recordings at Risk grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The grant program is made possible by funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Interview with Jonathan Lethem
Larry McCaffery and Takayuki Tatsumi meet with Jonathan Lethem to discuss ideas on genre literature and Lethem’s work. Lethem begins with a discussion of his forthcoming book As She Climbed Across the Table and how it builds off both established science fiction tropes as well as the idea of the campus novel. Lethem describes the book as “John Barth’s version of Frankenstein.” Lethem mentions how he likes straddling between genre and other fiction: “I’m excited by [genre novels] but it’s precisely at their boundaries where they are at their most interesting.” Lethem discusses a variety of influences, noting how most of science fiction and specifically his first novel, Gun, with Occasional Music, is indebted to Lewis Carroll: “You’re wandering through this bizarre reality and you’re not bothering to notice that it’s an animal talking to you; what you’re engaging with is what a bad personality the animal has.” Lethem also notes that reviewers captured the book’s genesis precisely: “It was incredibly appropriate that everyone said Philip K. Dick meets Raymond Chandler because that’s what I was trying to do.” Lethem notes that he tries to do something beyond the normal concept of the genre. Lethem goes on to discuss a considerable number of influences as well as current authors. Lethem also describes future works including (though not named) Girl in Landscape, Motherless Brooklyn and Fortress of Solitude. At the conclusion of the interview, McCaffery says that he will read Lethem's new work (As She Climbed Across the Table) and send him further interview questions for a proposed publication. No second interview ever occurred and the interview was never published., San Diego State University, This project was supported by a Recordings at Risk grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The grant program is made possible by funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Interview with Kathy Acker
Larry McCaffery interviews Kathy Acker in her Greenwich Village apartment. The interview begins with a discussion of why Acker had recently moved back to the United States from England. Acker discusses her use of “I” in text and what it means in relation to her own identity. Acker discusses her use of appropriation in her fiction. Acker explains her view of the “shock” aspects of her work and whether she qualifies as “avant-garde.” Acker talks about her interest in myth rather than story. The interview goes in-depth on Acker’s most recent novels, In Memoriam to Identity and Empire of the Senseless. The final 68 minutes of the interview are a follow-up phone call in which McCaffery and Acker go over a typed transcript of the interview. McCaffery asks several questions regarding clarifications. There is considerable discussion of the threat of a lawsuit regarding Harold Robbins. There is a discussion of commerciality in Acker’s novel Blood and Guts in High School which was not in the original interview but is in the published version of the interview. Separate edited versions of the interview appear in Mississippi Review, Vol. 20, No. 1 / 2, pp. 83-97 and on pages 14 to 35 of Some Other Frequency: Interviews with Innovative American Authors, ed. Larry McCaffery, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996., San Diego State University, Digitized by the California Audiovisual Preservation Project (CAVPP) / California Revealed.
Interview with Kenneth Gangemi
Larry McCaffery and Sinda Gregory interview Kenneth Gangemi in Gangemi’s New York City apartment. After a discussion of travelling through the American Southwest, the interview begins with a discussion of Gangemi’s poetry. Gangemi explains the way his “list poems” are created. Gangemi explains how his work as a bartender has informed his writing. There is a discussion about “nonsense” writing, both by Gangemi and others. Gangemi describes his educational and literary background. Gangemi discusses the influence of film on his writing, specifically The Interceptor Pilot and The Volcanoes from Puebla. The last fifteen minutes of the conversation centers around San Diego as the three of them look at a map and discuss the area. Throughout the conversation, various authors and books are mentioned with Gangemi often pulling a book off a shelf and discussing it in detail with McCaffery and Gregory. An edited version of the interview appears on pages 80 to 101 of Some Other Frequency: Interviews with Innovative American Authors, ed. Larry McCaffery, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996., San Diego State University, This project was supported by a Recordings at Risk grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The grant program is made possible by funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Interview with Kōryū
Due to rights issues, the audio of this interview is not available online. Please contact San Diego State University, Special Collections and Archives if you wish to be granted access to the original audio. Larry McCaffery and Sinda Gregory interview the Japanese singer Kōryū, the singer and leader of the band Shang Shang Typhoon with translation assistance. The interview begins with a discussion of the way the band interacts with its fans and tries to create a community for the fans at their shows. Kōryū discusses his range of influences, specifically Bob Dylan. The history of the band’s formation and work together is discussed. The influence of Okinawa on Kōryū’s music is mentioned. The concept of music being able to be a force of change is discussed in-depth. There is discussion of the difference between musicians being part of a subculture in America as opposed to the music industry in Japan. The interview concludes with a discussion of the origin of the band’s name., San Diego State University, This project was supported by a Recordings at Risk grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The grant program is made possible by funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Interview with Leonard Michaels
Due to rights issues, the audio of this interview is not available online. Please contact San Diego State University, Special Collections and Archives if you wish to be granted access to the original audio. Larry McCaffery and Sinda Gregory interview Leonard Michaels in his office at the University of California, Berkeley. After a stretch of interview that is lost, Michaels describes the ideas and forms that go on into his short stories. Michaels’ explains his fondness for the structural achievement of what certain other authors do in their works. Michaels talks about how he continued to write about New York after he moved to California because he didn’t find his experiences in California to be credible. Michaels talks about the life of a writer when also teaching in academia. Trying to account for the portion of the interview that was lost, Michaels is asked about a review of his novel The Men’s Club that was written by Anne Tyler. This leads into a detailed discussion of the novel itself., San Diego State University, This project was supported by a Recordings at Risk grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The grant program is made possible by funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Interview with Lewis Shiner
Larry McCaffery and Sinda Gregory meet with Lewis Shiner at Surfer Restaurant in the Pacific Beach neighborhood of San Diego. Shiner discusses the evolution of his fiction through several genres but with a strong autobiographical quality throughout. Shiner discusses the cyperpunk movement and how he came to be a part of it. While the discussion includes Shiner’s influences, it mostly revolves around the research and personal aspects that lent itself to the writing of his novels Deserted Cities of the Heart, Slam and the then-forthcoming Glimpses. An edited version of this interview was published as “Skating Across Cyberpunk’s Brave New Worlds: An Interview with Lewis Shiner” in Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, 33, 3, p 177-196., San Diego State University, This project was supported by a Recordings at Risk grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The grant program is made possible by funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Interview with Lydia Davis
Speaking very softly, Davis asks if “Edie” will be participating in the interview, with the answer yes. McCaffery asks about the inspiration for stories and mentions Davis’s “Pastor Arlene’s Newsletter.” McCaffery asks about Davis’s writing process, which she says is “different in each case.” She writes under a “time constraint” and keeps a notebook. Edie asks about her use of pronouns, and both interviewers ask about stories with no names. Davis has “lost interest” in “making up names” and talks about selection of events and points of view. She mentions her short story “Lord Royston’s Tour” and passages from a book on the Suzuki method and her work as a translator. McCaffery asks why she does not write novels. On the 2nd side Davis says it would be hard to sustain “the intensity of interest for a long piece.” She juggles many unfinished stories, and she cannot work at one thing at time, but she must keep from being overwhelmed. Edie asks about emotional distance, and McCaffery asks about the function of her notebooks, and they discuss emotional versus cerebral writing. "Each thing is written for the joy of writing,” Davis says. McCaffery and Davis discuss the function of language. McCaffery asks if there is a reason she does not use first person, and she says she needs distance. Edie asks if Davis sees herself in a “postmodern” mode, but Davis does not see herself as part of a group. McCaffery asks what authors influenced Davis. She mentions Samuel Beckett for his style, and Kafka for his emotion. They discuss French modern writers, Vladimir Nabokov, and Gertrude Stein. On tape 2 McCaffery asks if her work deals with “women’s issues." McCaffery asks about Davis’s very short fiction, and whether Davis considered making stories longer. This appears to be the interview on which the piece “Deliberately, Terribly Neutral” was based, in Larry McCaffery’s 1996 book Some Other Frequency:Interviews with Innovative American Authors., San Diego State University, This project was supported by a Recordings at Risk grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The grant program is made possible by funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Interview with Lyn Hejinian
Larry McCaffery, Sinda Gregory and Brian McHale interview Lyn Hejinian in Berkeley. The interview begins with a in-depth discussion of Hejinian’s most recent work, Oxota: A Short Russian Novel, including its construction, its style and what kind of work it is. There is a discussion of the idea of “mistranslation” and what can result from that. Hejinian discusses her place as a postmodernist poet and as a member of the school of “Language poetry.” There is a discussion of the San Francisco aspect to the Language poets. There is audio distortion throughout the last ten minutes of the interview. An edited version of the interview appears on pages 121 to 145 of Some Other Frequency: Interviews with Innovative American Authors, ed. Larry McCaffery, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996., San Diego State University, Digitized by the California Audiovisual Preservation Project (CAVPP) / California Revealed.

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