T.C. Boyle: Is There Still Hope?

Thomas Coraghessan Boyle has written widely read books such as World’s End, The Tortilla Curtain, Dr. Sex, Water Music, The Road to Wellville and—so far published only in Germany—No Way Home. His works have been translated into two dozen languages, and some have been adapted for film. This is the the freely accessible original English version of the podcast. An AI-translated version is available exclusively to ZEIT podcast subscribers. A free trial subscription is available at https://www.zeit.de/podcastabo. T.C. Boyle was born in New York and grew up in precarious circumstances: both of his parents, immigrants from Ireland, were alcoholics; as a young man he struggled with drug problems himself and barely managed to finish school. During his studies, he discovered his love of writing. Boyle initially worked as a teacher at his former problem school in order to avoid being drafted into the Vietnam War. His first published short story, about his experiences with heroin use, secured him a place in the prestigious Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa. Among his teachers there were John Irving and John Cheever. Boyle earned a doctorate in nineteenth-century English literature, although his dissertation was a collection of short stories, Descent of Man. Shortly thereafter he received a position at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where he founded the creative writing program. He taught there until his retirement. Since his debut novel Water Music, T.C. Boyle has published almost every year—either a novel or a collection of short stories. He lives with his wife Karen Kvashay in Montecito, near Santa Barbara, and has three children. Fragen, Kritik, Anregungen? Schreiben Sie eine Mail an [e-mail]. Seit dem 15.01.2025 sind Teile des Archivs von Alles gesagt? nur noch exklusiv mit einem Digital- oder Podcastabo der ZEIT zu hören – auf zeit.de, auf Apple Podcasts und auf Spotify. Ein kostenloses Probeabo können Sie hier abschließen. Wie Sie Ihr Abo mit Spotify oder Apple Podcasts verbinden, lesen Sie hier. [ANZEIGE] Mehr über die Angebote unserer Werbepartnerinnen und -partner finden Sie HIER. [ANZEIGE] Mehr hören? Dann testen Sie unser Podcastabo mit Zugriff auf alle Dokupodcasts und unser Podcastarchiv. Jetzt 4 Wochen kostenlos testen. Und falls Sie uns nicht nur hören, sondern auch lesen möchten, testen Sie jetzt 4 Wochen kostenlos DIE ZEIT. Hier geht's zum Angebot.