Literature and popular music are not worlds that usually intersect, at least not in most people鈥檚 minds. But Bob Dylan鈥檚 Nobel Prize in literature and Kendrick Lamar鈥檚 Pulitzer Prize in music prove that these two forms not only intersect, but have been connected for decades.
is a singer and professor of American literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her new book 鈥溾�� (Columbia University Press/2018) reveals that writers of the 1950s were more than inspired by popular music, they regularly borrowed from it.
Southern writer Flannery O鈥機onnor鈥檚 popular short story 鈥淎 Good Man is Hard to Find鈥� is believed to be based on the Bessie Smith song of the same name. The Appalachian folk ballad 鈥淭he Daemon Lover鈥� has had a few iterations in literature including Donald Davidson adapted his book 鈥淭he Big Ballad Jamboree鈥� and half a century later was recorded by Bob Dylan.
Dore joins host Frank Stasio to talk about her new book. On Dore and her husband of the 1970s power pop group will host a book launch party and rock show on the roof of the that brings together their shared passions for popular music.
