Enjoy our podcast–Chris Crutcher, Seattle Public Library, January 21, 2007 (mp3; 53:13)–featuring teacher, family therapist, and award-winning author Chris Crutcher. Experience Crutcher at his very best as he recounts stories related to his popular novels.

Crutcher was the featured speaker at a fundraiser for the Freedom to Read Foundation on Sunday, January 21, 2007. The Seattle Public Library hosted the event, sponsored in part by HarperCollins, and held in conjuction with the 2007 American Library Association Midwinter Meeting.

Crutcher is one of the most popular authors in the young-adult genre. His works include Athletic Shorts: Six Short Stories, Chinese Handcuffs, The Crazy Horse Electric Game, The Deep End, Ironman, Running Loose, The Sledding Hill, Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, Stotan! and Whale Talk.

He is the recipient of YALSA’s 2000 Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award, Writer Magazine’s 2004 Writers Who Make A Difference Award, the National Council of Teachers of English’s 1998 National Intellectual Freedom Award, and the prestigious ALAN Award, given by the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents. In 2005 Crutcher also was honored by the National Coalition Against Censorship at its tribute to free speech and its defenders (PDF).

Crutcher’s Whale Talk is one of 2005’s most challenged books, and his Athletic Shorts is one of 2006’s most challenged books.

• To listen to the PODCAST, left click on it. It might take a few minutes to download.
• To download it, right click on it, and save link as (Mozilla) or save target as (IE) to your computer.

If you need software, you may need to follow the prompts to download free software when you try to listen to the interview, or use the following links: QuickTime Player, Xanim (Linux), Windows Media Player, or iTunes.

Music featured at the beginning and end of this podcast is “Quando o dia vem,” by Every Single Soul and available on ccMixter. The music is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 license.

See also Banned Books Week.