An MTSU English professor’s work with one of America’s most prominent authors was the focus of a recent “MTSU On the Record” radio program.

Dr. Will Brantley

Host Gina Logue’s interview with Dr. Will Brantley of the Department of English about the works of author Edmund White first aired Oct. 1 on WMOT-FM Roots Radio 89.5 and www.wmot.org. You can hear their conversation above.

Brantley and Nancy McGuire Roche, a lecturer at Vanderbilt University and Watkins College of Art, co-edited “Conversations with Edmund White,” a compilation of interviews with the author of “A Boy’s Own Story,” “The Beautiful Room is Empty,” “The Farewell Symphony” and other works.

White, whose experience as a gay man informs a great deal of his work, won the 2018 PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Career Achievement in American Fiction and the 2019 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation.

“He tries different things and he has, essentially, two different modes — one very experimental and the other more accessible — and he fluctuates between those two,” Brantley said.

“But he’s just a terrific storyteller. He takes you to places where you haven’t been. He can be very funny. He can be very bitchy. He’s just a terrific writer.”

The book concludes with Brantley and Roche’s own interview with the author, who is a professor of creative writing at Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts.

To hear previous “MTSU On the Record” programs, visit the searchable “Audio Clips” archives at www.mtsunews.com.

For more information about the radio program, contact Logue at 615-898-5081 or WMOT-FM at 615-898-2800.

Award-winning author Edmund White, center, enjoys a visit with Nancy McGuire Roche, left, and MTSU English professor Will Brantley, right, co-editors of “Conversations with Edmund White.” Brantley will discuss the book on the Oct. 1, 2019, edition of “MTSU On the Record” on WMOT-FM Roots Radio 89.5 and online at www.wmot.org.  (Photo submitted)