Program Information

    When English professor Don Noble was asked by the University of Alabama Center for Public Television & Radio in 1988 to host a series of interviews with writers, he agreed without hesitation. "One of my academic fields is contemporary literature, so I’m very interested in living writers. I thought the program would give me an opportunity to meet these people I’d been reading and studying."

    Since venturing into broadcasting Noble has hosted over 100 half-hour shows featuring interviews with writers including literary "stars" such as James Dickey, John Barth, Peter Taylor, Ray Bradbury, Shirley Ann Grau, and Anne Rivers Siddons. His latest series, Bookmark, airs at 11:00 a. m. each Sunday on Alabama Public Television.

    "Whenever possible we’ve tried to promote Alabama authors." Noble adds. "We’ve talked to Vicki and Dennis Covington, Mark Childress, Madison Jones, Eugene Walter, Elise Sanguinetti, Bob Inman, Howell Raines, Gay Talese, Don Keith, and Albert Murray, just to name a few."

    On Bookmark, Noble often spends a half-hour with a single writer, engaging them in a thoughtful and extended conversation. He says if it works it indeed looks like a conversation rather than a formal interview or an interrogation.

    Noble interviews journalists, poets, novelists, and screenwriters for the series. "But I’m most comfortable with the fiction writers. After all, that’s my academic background. When I interviewed Richard Wilbur, who was poet laureate of the United States and is certainly one of our most celebrated and respected poets, it was immediately clear to him that I didn’t really understand his poetry. But he was so kind and generous that he guided me through the half-hour."

    Noble’s job is to direct the interview, to keep the writer talking about the things that interest the audience. "It’s harder than it looks," he says. "First, you have to keep the writer relaxed and yet create some energy through the conversation. Then you also have to get the writer to trust you, to believe that you’ll ask the right questions. And that takes a lot of preparation and reading."

    Noble’s task is complicated because often his guests feel out of their element. They’re used to working with words on paper.

    "We visited Vicki Covington, an Alabama novelist, and she was clearly uncomfortable. I mean, we’d re-arranged her furniture, set up a dozen lights, and then put her in front of a camera. But during the interview the videographer fainted and fell over on her. That really loosened her up."

    There’s always the possibility of problems. "The air conditioning went out once when we were taping at Birmingham-Southern College and we all nearly melted under the lights. Our equipment blew fuses in Elise Sanguinetti’s house in Anniston--she may still be in the dark. Jet noise covers up our audio sometimes and during outdoor interviews the sun comes in and out and drives the crew crazy.

    "But it’s been a lot of fun. I’ve read some great literature and I’ve met some interesting people. We’ve found that there is an audience for our public television programs. And we’re not done. There are a lot more writers we want to talk to."