• [Tape 1]. Eric Bogosian reads from Notes from Underground (excerpts), Ceramic tile, Godhead, The Pages, The Shining Star, Inner baby, The glass, The recoving male, Great bunch a guys, and Little dog.
• [Tape 2]. Eric Bogosian interview with Kay Bonetti.

• [Tapes 1-2]. Laura Hendrie reads Stygo (excerpts)
• [Tape 3]. Laura Hendrie interview with Kay Boneti [i.e. Bonetti].

• [Tapes 1-4]. William Maxwell reads So long, see you tomorrow
• [Tape 5]. William Maxwell interview with Kay Bonetti.

Elizabeth Spencer discusses all of her novels and a number of her short stories. She speaks of the theme of personal liberation along with her fascination for double lives and use of the labyrinth and the fairy tale. She also talks at length about her southern up-bringing and her experiences living in Italy and Canada as they have affected her sensibility and writing.

Gladys Swan reveals the techniques of her craft and the evolution of her art. She discusses her interest in the visual arts, how her fiction often springs from fascination with certain striking images and how character and situation evolve from this fascination.

Michael Ondaatje discusses "The English patient" at length, along with "In the skin of a lion" and "Running in the family". He also speaks of the relationship between author and character, his attention to editing and book design, and the influence of jazz and the immigrant experience on his work.

Paulette Jiles defends the tradition of oral story telling aginst what she calls the 150 year "literary fashion" of realism, and explains the aesthetic principles behind her chosen role as tale-teller and modern fabulist.

• Northern reporter
• Paper matches
• Night flight from Attiwapiskat
• My sleeping bag
• Horror stories
• Letter from Sioux Lookout
• Manual of etiquette for young ladies crossing Canada by train (excerpts)
• Cousins (excerpts).

In addition to solid discussion of The Chaneysville incident, the author talks as well about South Street. He also talks about his family history, and the limiting aspects of race on how he is perceived both as an individual and as a writer.

An interview with Jamaica Kincaid, author of such fictional works as Annie John, Lucy, and At the bottom of the river. Ms. Kincaid discusses writing for the New Yorker and how she uses personal relationships and childhood experiences as material for her fiction.

West Virginia-reared Richard Currey talks candidly about his thematic concerns, the process of transforming data from one's own experience into fiction, his views on literature of the Vietnam era, and his attempts to "achieve the compression, the velocity, the intensity of poetry, with the narrative satisfaction of fiction."

Of the selections read, Fatal light is a novel about a nameless medical corpsman's tour of duty in Vietnam; the short story Believer's flood is about a retired coal miner and union man and their encounter with Pinkerton goons; and the short story The wars of heaven is a monologue by a mortally wounded killer.

Presents an interview with Chinua Achebe made by Kay Bonetti during the author's residence at the University of Mass.

Presents Chinua Achebe reading excerpts from two works. He reads chapter three from the Arrow of God, a tale of the colonial and missionary encroachment upon traditional Ibo culture, and excerpts from Anthills of the savannah, a novel about the making of a dictator in contemporary Africa.

Presents an interview with Gloria Naylor made by Kay Bonetti. Gloria Naylor talks about her life and her work.