Richard Russo on Writers on the Record With Victoria Lautman

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Richard Russo and Victoria Lautman, Harold Washington Library, The Loop, Chicago

Last night Richard Russo was the Season Six opener for a series of author interviews called Writers on the Record. The interviews are conducted by Victoria Lautman front of a live audience and then later broadcast on the radio at 98.7 WFMT.

I went to a few of these interviews years ago when they were held at the Looking Glass Theater. I saw Frank McCourt and Elizabeth Kostova there. And then? I don’t know. I guess I kind of forgot it existed for a few years, until I just happened to remember or come across it again recently.

I’m glad I went last night. Writers on the Record is now held at the Cindy Pritzker Auditorium at the Harold Washington Library. Which, by the way, was the first library in Chicago that I’ve been to. And they wouldn’t let me get a library card. That’s a different story, though. Anyway, Victoria is a fabulous interviewer and I’ve read 3 of Richard Russo’s books so I found it really interesting to hear some of the background and his writing process.

This has been quite the literary week for me. On Tuesday I finished the book Mysteries of Pittsburgh and Wednesday night I went to a reading at The Whistler. There were a bunch of writers from a site called The Nervous Breakdown who each read different pieces. Pretty entertaining, plus, who doesn’t love the drinks at The Whistler? Especially after a hard day?