Episode #27: Ernie Brill

Ernie Brill writes fiction and poetry about everyday people. His I Looked Over Jordan and Other Stories explores race and class among hospital workers. The actress Ruby Dee purchased, adapted, and performed the story Crazy Hattie Enters Ice Age for her and her husband’s PBS TV series “With Ruby and Ossie.” Brill won a New York State Council for The Arts Fiction Grant. He received his BA and MA in English from San Francisco State College. Brill has published widely fiction, poetry and essays in the US and Canada (River Styx, Other Voices, Z, U. of Minnesota, Prentice Hall Ontario Canada. Favorite writers include Virginia Woolf, Richard Wright, Mahmoud Darwish, Hyseoon Kim, Gwendolyn Brooks, Sterling A. Brown, Pedro Pietri, Pablo Neruda.
Active Muse

Ernie’s Readings:

  • Intake – 9:55
  • End of Faculty Meeting – 27:13
  • Longshore – 42:31

Michael’s Beer Pairings: 

Interview Highlights: 

  • How a chapbook about hospitals came to be – 12:30
  • A short story on PBS “With Ossie and Ruby” – 17:50
  • Buzz words at Meetings – 29:38
  • Early advocacy for multicultural literature – 30:37
  • The value of art to society – 46:56
  • How our life’s work may hurt us – 49:20

COMING NEXT MONTH: Jeff LaFerney, YA author of time travel and sci-fi

UPCOMING EVENTS: Gabriel’s Horn is accepting submissions for its anthology

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