We've Moved!

Visit SDSU’s new digital collections website at https://digitalcollections.sdsu.edu

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).

Back to top

Pages

Interview with Robert Kelly
Larry McCaffery and Sinda Gregory interview Robert Kelly in New York City. Despite poetry taking up the bulk of Kelly’s published work, the question in the interview focus primarily on his prose. Kelly explains that he always wanted to be a writer, listing it as his profession on his application for a New York Public Library card when he was just 14 and that his writing allows him to write the books he wants to read. Kelly’s one novel, The Scorpions, is discussed, including Robert Duncan’s contention that it had “sinned against the spirit of story” with Kelly discussing the use of the term “story”. Kelly explains the anti-Cartesian tradition that he writes in and its literary history. Throughout the discussion, various Latin American writers, most notably Jorge Luis Borges and their style and content are discussed. Kelly discusses the difference between silence and language and what each one can add to his work. The end of the interview focuses on the idea of “post-modern” writing, what it means and what the future of the term is. An edited version of this interview appears on pages 170 to 195 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 Ron Hansen
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 Ron Hansen in Hansen’s house in Mountain View. The interview begins with a discussion of the origins of Hansen’s most recent novel, Mariette in Ecstasy. Hansen describes the background and research in writing his first two novels. Hansen discusses his biography. McCaffery and Hansen discusses their mutual Catholic upbringings and how Hansen’s impacted his fiction. Hansen concludes by describing the plot to what would become his 1996 novel Atticus., 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 Ron Silliman
Larry McCaffery and Sinda Gregory meet with Ron Silliman at their house in San Diego to discuss his work. The interview begins with Silliman’s history, how he decided to become a writer, his formal education and his influences. From there, the interview ranges much around Silliman’s specific works and what they should be classified as, with Silliman preferring the term “prose” rather than fiction. There is considerable discussion on the forms that Silliman’s works take and the influences that help mold those forms. Silliman goes into detail about several of his projects and the various ideas that formed them. Silliman discusses many other artists, including poets, philosophers and composers whose works are similar or provide inspiration. An edited version of this interview appears on pages 240-256 of Alive and Writing: Interviews with American Authors of the 1980s, ed. Larry McCaffery and Sinda Gregory, University of Illinois Press, 1987., 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 Ron Sukenick, 1981
Larry McCaffery and Ron Sukenick meet in Raymond Federman’s house in Buffalo, with Federman and his wife coming in and saying hello part-way through the interview. They discuss the state of post-modernism in American literature as well as Sukenick’s most recent work. Sukenick discusses the use (and lack) of realism in his published works. He gives a brief history and discusses his life’s history’s impact on his work. The discussion ranges around what qualifies as post-modernism, how that can flow into other art forms such as music or painting and what kind of future it has in literature. An edited version of the interview appears on pages 280 to 297 of Anything Can Happen: Interviews with Contemporary American Novelists, ed. 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 Ron Sukenick, 1999
Larry McCaffery meets Ron Sukenick at his house in Boulder. Their discussion covers the current state of post-modernist literature and whether it still has anything to say. Much of the discussion revolves around a recent article in which McCaffery posited a return to modernism, an idea that Sukenick firmly disagrees with. Sukenick laments the current state of discourse in the field, giving several notable examples of public disagreements between people currently working in post-modernism. Sukenick spends a considerable amount of the interview discussing rhetoric and its use in literature, its history in literature and how it affects not only what people write but how they write it. An edited version of the interview is published on pages 227 to 250 of Musing the Mosaic: Approaches to Ronald Sukenick, Matthew Roberson ed., State University of New York Press, 2003., 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 Russell Hoban
As a sound test, Hoban recites part of Edward Lear’s “The Courtship of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo.” Gregory asks about Canterbury Cathedral with its painting of St. Eustace, given its appearance in Hoban’s book Riddley Walker. They talk about the book and wordplay. Hoban discusses Schrodinger and H. P. Lovecraft. Hoban discussed his works in progress. He lists Joseph Conrad and “years of science fiction” as influences. On the second side Hoban discusses “all the nice things science fiction has done for me." McCaffery says critics have connected Hoban to dystopian fiction. “I don’t think my writing is pessimistic,” Hoban asserts. Gregory asks about the duality of human beings as creators and destroyers, mentioning Hoban’s book Pilgermann. They all discuss life and death and their representation in Hoban’s work. At the beginning of the second tape Hoban reads from his review of the performance piece “No Weapons for Mourning” by the Impact Theatre Co-operative. Hoban discusses the “mythopoeic” way of thinking. McCaffery cites a Hoban quote about fantasy being vital, and they talk about this and Hoban’s descriptions of sound. Starting the second side of the second tape, they talk about process and revision. Gregory read Riddley Walker, and thought that book was “wonderful” but Hoban’s earlier ones were just “good,” so she asks what changed. Hoban says he feels closest to his book Kleinzeit, where he found what he thinks of as his authentic voice. He discusses writing the books Riddley Walker, Turtle Diary, The Mouse and His Child, The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz, and Kleinzeit. They discuss recurring images and his related personal life. As influences, Hoban mentions Dickens and Jorge Luis Borges, and talks about John Berger and his book G. Hoban discusses Le Guin’s and his own fiction. McCaffery asks about the differences between men and women in Hoban’s books. They discuss what Hoban calls “the male principle” and “the female principle." An edited version of this interview appears on pages 126 to 150 of Alive and Writing: Interviews with American Authors of the 1980s, ed. Larry McCaffery and Sinda Gregory, 1987, 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 Samuel Delany
Larry McCaffery and Sinda Gregory interview Samuel Delany at his apartment in 1983 in the upper West Side of Manhattan (with considerable traffic noise). The interview begins with a discussion of science fiction, why Delany writes it and what it can do with language that more mundane fiction is unable to do. Delany notes that language that is considered metaphorical in more mundane fiction can be literal in science fiction. The interview begins with specific questions about the formal experimentation in The Einstein Intersection and quickly moves to the general, discussing experimentation in Delany’s fiction and in science fiction in general. Throughout the three and a half hour interview, questions continually return to specific points in Delany’s fiction, ranging from questions about whether he would ever write “mundane fiction” (only as an exercise), whether science fiction can do what other writing forms cannot (yes, and when things are censored based on an idea it is usually because of poor prose not the subject itself), what it is like to be one of the few black science fiction writers (Delany likens it to a clubhouse that does not allow others until the others simply break down the door and announce they are there) and the use and place of autobiography in fiction (Delany, in an answer very similar to John Irving's from four years before in an interview not published by this time, mentions that among his writing students, the worst writing are the parts where the students claim it comes straight from real life). They then discuss gender and sexuality. The interview continues with discussions of Delany’s dyslexia and its influence on both language and character. A small portion of Delany’s answer on race is excerpted in Volume 15, Issue 1 of Fiction International. An edited version of the entire interview is included in McCaffery and Gregory’s book Alive and Writing: Interviews with American Authors of the 1980s, 1987, University of Illinois Press, p 83-110. A different edited version of the entire interview is included in McCaffery's book Across the Wounded Galaxies: Interviews with Contemporary American Science Fiction Writers, 1990, University of Illinois Press, p 71-104., 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 Stephen Wright
This interview is currently unavailable online due to copyright restrictions. Contact Special Collections & University Archives (askscua@sdsu.edu) to arrange for onsite access. Larry McCaffery meets with Stephen Wright at Wright’s home in New York. The majority of the interview concerns Going Native, Wright’s then forthcoming novel (which would be published a year later) and the ideas and process by which the novel was written. After some discussion on the current state of American culture and Wright’s belief that there is no truth behind the idea of the “death of the novel”, the interview focuses on Wright’s first two books, M31: A Family Romance and Meditations in Green. An extra segment after the initial conclusion of the interview concerns Wright’s work on his newest book, The Amalgamation Polka which would not be published until 2006. After the conclusion of the interview, McCaffery records a few notes on ideas that were discussed over dinner between himself and Wright., 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 Steve Dixon
Larry McCaffery and Sinda Gregory interview Steve Dixon in Dixon's Riverside Drive apartment in Manhattan. McCaffery asks a question about revising, to which Dixon says, “In the end I’m looking for perfection in style as I’m revising it, to leave no word unturned.” They discuss how most writers cannot articulate their process. To McCaffery Dixon seems like a writer of urban fiction, and Dixon says he is “picking up something from the air” and writing about his experiences. McCaffery describes the process of turning interviews into published material. He and Gregory talk about what makes Dixon’s work distinct, and Dixon speaks of humor and dealing with life. McCaffery asks what he thinks of teaching creative writing. Dixon says he thinks the students improve their writing, and that he has something to offer. But sometimes he has “misgivings about teaching.” Dixon realizes that his “5-page sentences” and “30-page paragraphs” may “turn off” some readers, but he is just having fun. Dixon talks about his writing process. They discuss editing and literary magazines, mention Harold Jaffe and his editing. A fourth person named Michael has joined them. Dixon wants sometimes to get away from “traditional style” and “do it my own way.” McCaffery talks about writers who are self-conscious, and he and Gregory mention “static” stories and lack of resolution. “I like stories that just sort of peter out,” Dixon says, but the ending sometimes surprises him. They discuss writing poetry, and Dixon says he discarded his poems. McCaffery asks about influences on Dixon, and Dixon names writers from Ernest Hemingway to Robert Coover. Gregory talks about a letter from a writer that says Dixon possesses a “fundamental quality of maleness” as a writer, not meaning “macho” but qualities not usually written about. They talk about Jerome Klinkowitz and Steve Katz. McCaffery asks about Dixon’s background. Dixon says he was “a newsman in Washington” who had had a foundation in literature. Eventually he went to Stanford, in 1964, and became a published writer. Gregory asks about his main characters, and McCaffery asks if “those personas are you.” Dixon says they may “grow out of some . . . part of me.”, 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 Steve Erickson
The other voice on the tape is that of interviewer Takayuki Tatsumi. Music from a previous recording is still audible on this tape. Erickson says that there was always something unresolved about each book that led to the next, beginning with Arc d'X. In answer to a question from Tatsumi, Erickson says he destroyed earlier manuscripts, explaining that once his book Days Between Stations was published he could not “go back.” Along with rock and roll music, movies were “the two great American art forms of the 20th century” following World War II, Erickson says. Tatsumi asks about a theme of “slavery” in Erickson’s novels, and Erickson speaks of “issues of submission and domination.” Erickson says Americans have “come to find freedom to be more of a burden,” and have “profound disillusionment” with “the illusion of American innocence” as shown in “Forrest Gump” the movie. Tatsumi and McCaffery ask about the Vietnam War. McCaffery asks the definition of “nuclear imagination." They talk about his book Leap Year, Sally Hemings, the book and movie “Wizard of Oz,” the rest of the Oz books, and how cartoons affect writers’ narrative sensibility. Erickson is talking about Leap Year as side 2 begins. Tatsumi and Erickson discuss Thomas Jefferson, slavery, and Erickson’s native American roots. McCaffery steers the conversation back to Arc d’X. Tatsumi mentions “narrative drive,” and Erickson says he thinks his writing is about all the old themes, including memory, the theme of his work in progress, Amnesiascope. Erickson feels that his books might not be popular because they cannot be put into a particular niche,. McCaffery asks about the use of computers and they discuss contemporary writers, including Thomas Pynchon, then Erickson’s book Tours of the Black Clock. and the films of Alfred Hitchcock. The first side of tape 3 begins with Erickson and Tatsumi discussing experimental writing and film, particularly “Woman in the Dunes.” An edited transcript of this interview was published in Contemporary Literature, Volume 38, issue 3 (Fall 1997), pages 394-421., 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 Steve Katz
In answer to a question from an unknown interviewer (Jim) working with McCaffery, Katz talks about his books Florry of Washington Heights and Swanny’s Ways. McCaffery and Katz discuss Katz’s interest in quantum mechanics and literary devices. Jim asks about global politics, and Katz mentions the Korean War in Swanny’s Ways. McCaffery and Katz discuss how the threat of nuclear war in the 1950s. They talk about the process of writing Swanny’s Ways and “West Side Story.” Influences on Wier & Pouce include hanging out in jazz clubs in New York and appreciating the contributions of Black musicians. Jim asks about using the alphabet to treat relationships in the book. Katz expects to use the same device in his next book, tentatively titled Double Exposure. Katz discusses Tolstoy’s War and Peace and Wier & Pouce. McCaffery and Katz discuss elimination and substitution of traditional compositional elements such as character. Katz says his novels are “politically engaged.” McCaffery and Katz discuss his piece on the death of John F. Kennedy. They discuss Katz’s 1977 visit to San Diego State University. Jim and Katz discuss how his work in Tai chi influenced his writing. McCaffery says about “Three Essays” and Katz talks about the use of the second person. Katz discusses contemporary music, including meeting Tony Scott. At the beginning of the next tape, Katz and McCaffery discuss jazz and using time as a formal element in Creamy & Delicious. McCaffery and Katz discuss markets and “serious” writing. Jim asks about roots, and Katz says he is “still a New Yorker” and references Florry of Washington Heights Katz discusses his process. McCaffery asks whether the incidents in Stolen Stories actually happened, and Katz says yes. Katz lists contemporary writers he likes, including Jorge Luis Borges, Jim Thompson, Robert Coover, and Marianne Hauser. Asked about his attitude toward women, Katz discusses this in personal terms and about characters. McCaffery asks about multimedia performances. On the last side, McCaffery and Katz again discuss images. Katz sees value in “forcing the reader to imagine other possibilities.” McCaffery mentions the interview as if it were going into “the book,” and also speaks of The Paris Review., 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 Susain Daitch
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 Susan Daitch. Daitch describes what will be her 2001 novel Paper Conspiracies. Daitch then explains how she came to write her first novel, L.C. from its inspiration in art installations by Hans Haacke and Juan Downey. McCaffery and Daitch discuss the narrative structure of Daitch’s novel The Colorist. Daitch explains how her books begin with a situation rather than a character. There is discussion of the current state of graphic novels and how it influenced The Colorist. Daitch ends the interview with a brief history of her personal life. An edited version of this interview appears in Review of Contemporary Fiction. Summer93, Vol. 13 Issue 2, 68-82., 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.

Pages

Bookmark

Bookmarks: