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Story category: literature
The End of "Pages," an Omen for Bookstores
Story air date: Thursday, February 05, 2009
Many people in the Champaign-Urbana area had a soft spot for Pages for All Ages, a bookstore that welcomed local readers for more than 20 years to its single store, first in Champaign, then in Savoy. Pages abruptly closed its doors for good this week, citing the economy. It’s not been an easy go for independent book retailers over the last few years, especially as Amazon and other Internet outlets joined Borders and Barnes and Noble as major competitors. The director of the American Booksellers Association, Avin Mark Donmitz, says Pages fell by the wayside as the group’s other members are preparing for a difficult immediate future. He spoke to AM 580’s Tom Rogers.
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business • community life • culture • economy • lifestyle • literature • mediaAnna Quindlen on the Primary Fight
Story air date: Thursday, May 08, 2008
Thousands of women flock to the UI campus for the largest women's conference in the nation, the Biennial Conference for Women. Among this year's guests is Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and novelist Anna Quindlen. She also writes a biweekly column for Newsweek, alternating with conservative commentator George Will. One of Quindlen's present prime topics is the Democratic Presidential campaign. She shared her thoughts on the race with AM 580's Michael Koliska.
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literature • media • politicsAthlete/Novelist
Story air date: Friday, February 29, 2008
An accident in her teens left Arley McNeney with only partial use of her legs, but it led her to success in wheelchair basketball. That experience provides the background for the University of Illinois graduate student’s first novel entitled "Post." McNeney played with Canada’s national wheelchair basketball team, which won a bronze medal in the 2004 Olympics. Now, her novel is shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize in the "best first book" category. AM 580’s Michael Koliska spoke with McNeney off the court during the National Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Championships in Champaign.
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disability • literature • people • sportsPost-Soviet Dissent
Story air date: Friday, June 15, 2007
Russian author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is the subject of a three-day forum at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. At age 88, the author of “The Gulag Archipelago” rarely leaves his home near Moscow. But his wife and two of his sons are taking part in the forum. AM 580’s Jim Meadows talked with Natalya Solzhenitsyn about her husband’s work since returning to Russia.
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history • literature • RussiaVolume #10,000,000 at the UIUC Library
Story air date: Friday, October 10, 2003
University Librarian Paula Kaufman (left, with rare books librarian Alvan Bregman) talks with AM 580's Tom Rogers about the milestone book for the nation's largest state-university library -- a book that's a love-letter of sorts to the facility.
