Russell Banks (1940-2023), who died on January 7, 2023, in conversation with Richard A. Lupoff and Richard Wolinsky, recorded in the KPFA studios on June 7, 2000 while on tour for his short story collection, The Angel on the Roof. First of two interviews.
Russell Banks, who died on January 7th, 2023 at the age of 82 was a master of long and short form fiction. In a career that began in 1975 and continued to his death, there were 14 novels, six collections of short stories, two volumes of poetry, and three works of non-fiction. Among his novels were Affliction and The Sweet Hereafter, both of which became critically acclaimed films, plus Continental Drift and Cloudsplitter. His most recent novel, The Magic Kingdom, was published in 2022. The interview was digitized, remastered and edited in January 2023