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Don Swaim Interviews

Audio Interviews with Alice Adams

Alice Adams, author of Superior Women, After the War and A Southern Exposure, talks with Don Swaim in this 1984 interview
about her journey from the literary town of Chapel Hill, N.C. to her successful writing career in San Francisco. In between, her life took many adventurous turns, like a short publishing stint in New York, and across the Atlantic for an exciting life in Paris.

Listen in on the conversation as she shares with Don Swaim her successes, her weaknesses, and her obstacles as a woman writer.

Listen to the Alice Adams interview with Don Swaim, September 17, 1984, RealAudio
(30 min. 23 sec.)

A year later, Adams returns to chat with Don Swaim in New York, just before heading back to San Francisco - literally, she went to the studios with her bags. In this candid and intimate conversation, both Swaim and Adams reveal their - what seems like - a long friendship. Adams talks about her collection of short stories titled Return Trips: Stories, and her
inability to stick with one project.

"I have a short attention span," she says. "I must have several things in air at one time. I'm old enough to be quite used to confusion."

In this unique conversation, Adams relaxes in front of the microphone enough to show the softer side of herself. To learn more about her, click on the link below.

Listen to the Alice Adams interview with Don Swaim, September 9, 1985, RealAudio
(22 min. 01 sec.)

In this last interview in 1991, Adams describes her methods for writing her new novel, Caroline's Daughters. Her routine may be consistent, but the stories take on a life of their own.

"A lot of the fun for me as a writer is seeing what happens to (my characters) once I've set them up," she says.

Swaim and Adams finish out the conversation with comments on the publishing world - a sometimes brutal, sometimes rewarding aspect of writing.

Listen to the Alice Adams interview with Don Swaim, April 14, 1991, RealAudio
(27 min. 53 sec.)

MP3 File (1984)

MP3 File (1985)

MP3 File (1991)

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