I was saddened to learn that Garrison Keillor will be ending The Writer's Almanac program this spring. I have listened to that daily program since it began in 1993 - first as a radio program and later as a podcast. I was fortunate to have several of my poems featured on the show. Each day, you got a poem read aloud in his good radio voice with some almanac-style notes on things about the day, mostly about writers.
Apparently, the Almanac just wasn't paying its way and Garrison Keillor is leaving radio in favor of writing. He has a full shelf of books written already and lots of audio collections. Many of those concern his fictional town, Lake Woebegone, and come from his long-running radio program A Prairie Home Companion.
How many radio shows became major motion pictures? PHC became a move and it was directed by Robert Altman. And an impressive cast: Keillor, Woody Harrelson, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Kline, Lindsay Lohan, Virginia Madsen, John C. Reilly, Maya Rudolph, Meryl Streep, and Lily Tomlin. Wow!
He still writes frequent columns, newsletters, and has a new audiobook, Serenity at 70, Gaiety at 80, coming out (here is a preview), so he hasn't given up on reading aloud to us.
The show's ending leaves a poetry gap that I hope someone else fills.
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