Bill Peak

The Library Guy: The Space Between Us with Thrity Umrigar

June 18, 2021 by Bill Peak Leave a Comment

Thrity Umrigar, a Distinguished Professor of English at Case Western Reserve University, is the author of seven novels, a memoir, and three children’s books. The Washington Post called Umrigar’s novel The Space Between Us, “a story intimately and compassionately told against the sensuous background of everyday life in Bombay …. Umrigar is a skilled storyteller, and her memorable characters will live on for a long time.”

Bill interviewed Umrigar as part of the Talbot County Free Library’s 6 Annual Chesapeake Children’s Book Festival, but the stories she shares with him of growing up as a Zoroastrian in Hindu- and Muslim-dominated India will be of interest to all ages.

The Library Guy is made possible through a partnership between the Talbot County Free Library and the Spy Newspapers.

The Library Guy: Finding Harriet Tubman’s Home with Julie Schablitsky

April 28, 2021 by Bill Peak Leave a Comment

As part of The Spy’s partnership with the Talbot County Free Library, Bill Peak interviews Dr. Julie Schablitsky, Chief Archaeologist for the Maryland Dept. of Transportation’s State Highway Administration.

Dr. Schablitsky and her team announced earlier this month the discovery of the spot in Dorchester County where Harriet Tubman’s father, Ben Ross, had his home, and where Harriet would have spent some of her childhood and learned much of her tradecraft.

Speaking of the find, Douglas Mitchell, a direct descendant of Ben Ross, said, “On this joyous occasion, more than 160 years after Ben Ross departed his humble cabin never to return, all freedom-and-justice-loving Americans are Ross kin, celebrating this immensely important archaeological discovery and the priceless revelations it is destined to offer.”

The Library Guy is made possible through a partnership between the Talbot County Free Library and the Spy Newspapers.

The Library Guy: The Problem of Alzheimer’s with Dr. Jason Karlawish

April 17, 2021 by Bill Peak Leave a Comment

This month, Bill Peak, the Library Guy, talks with Dr. Jason Karlawish about his new book, The Problem of Alzheimer’s.

Dr. Karlawish is a Professor of Medicine, Medical Ethics and Health Policy, and Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania and Co-Director of the Penn Memory Center, where he cares for Alzheimer’s patients and their caregivers. He is a leading authority—perhaps the leading authority—on Alzheimer’s. He is also a terrific writer and storyteller.

Bill, whose father was a doctor who eventually developed Alzheimer’s, learned a lot from both the book and its author.

This video is approximately forty minutes in length. For more information about the Talbot County Free Library please go here.

A podcast version is available here:

The Library Guy: Donald Hall Award Winning Poet Joy Priest

December 19, 2020 by Bill Peak Leave a Comment

Bill’s guest today is the young poet Joy Priest, whose very first book of poetry, Horsepower, won the prestigious Donald Hall Prize for Poetry last year. She has also just won the Stanley Kunitz Poetry Prize in June.

Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in ESPN, Gulf Coast, Mississippi Review, The Rumpus, Virginia Quarterly Review, and Best New Poets 2014, 2016, and 2019, among others. Priest is the winner of the 2019 Gearhart Poetry Prize from The Southeast Review, and the 2016 College Writers’ Award from the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation.

She was the 2018 Gregory Pardlo Scholar at The Frost Place and is the recipient of fellowships and support from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Kentucky Arts Council, the Kentucky Foundation for Women, and the University of South Carolina, where she received her MFA in Poetry with a certificate in Women & Gender Studies.

This video podcast is approximately forty-seven minutes in length. The Library Guy is co-produced with the Talbot County Free Library and the Spy Newspapers. Photography courtesy of Landon Antonetti.

The Library Guy: Ann Finkbeiner on Wars in Space

November 27, 2020 by Bill Peak Leave a Comment

The Library Guy, Bill Peak, speaks with Ann Finkbeiner, author of an article in the November edition of Scientific American entitled, “Orbital Aggression: How do we prevent war in space?” Finkbeiner explains why America depends so heavily on its satellite fleet, how our global adversaries are already toying with the idea of destroying those satellites, and how a major attack upon them could, quite literally, endanger civilization.

Bill Peak Spends Some Time with Author Alice McDermott

November 4, 2020 by Bill Peak 1 Comment

Bill Peak, the Mid-Shore’s “library guy,” has just completed an interview for the Spy with Alice McDermott, who has been called “the Virginia Woolf of American letters.” Peak’s interview was performed as part of a partnership between the Talbot County Free Library and The Spy to introduce area readers to the poets and writers behind some of our country’s best literature.

Alice McDermott’s eighth and most recent novel, The Ninth Hour, made it to the Best Books of 2017 lists of The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and Time Magazine, among others. Her seventh novel, Someone, was long-listed for the National Book Award. Three of her previous novels, After This, At Weddings and Wakes, and That Night were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. Charming Billy won the National Book Award. That Night was also a finalist for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award.

McDermott’s stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Harpers, Commonweal, and elsewhere. She has received the Whiting Writers Award, the Corrington Award for Literary Excellence, and the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for American Literature. In 2013, she was inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame. McDermott retired last year from Johns Hopkins, where, for the past 23 years, she served as the Richard A. Macksey Professor of the Humanities.

This video is approximately sixty minutes in length. You can also listen to this as a podcast at the following:

For more information about

The Library Guy: Celeste-Marie Bernier on Frederick Douglass’s Family

September 26, 2020 by Bill Peak Leave a Comment

In honor of Frederick Douglass Day, Bill Peak’s guest today is Professor Celeste-Marie Bernier, Professor of United States and Atlantic Studies at the University of Edinburgh, and a world-renowned Frederick Douglass scholar. Bill speaks with her about her latest book, If I Survive, and the remarkable Walter O. Evans archive of Frederick Douglass Family correspondence and art it chronicles, including letters home from Lewis Henry Douglass, who fought with the illustrious 54th Massachusetts at Fort Wagner.

This video is approximately thirty-four minutes in length. Photo credits; National Park Service, Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, Washington D.C. For more information about the Talbot County Free Library please go here.

The Library Guy: USNA Poet Temple Cone Talks to Bill Peak

August 12, 2020 by Bill Peak 1 Comment

The Library Guy’s guest today is Temple Cone, Professor of English at the U.S. Naval Academy. Cone is the author of four books of poetry: Guzzle, That Singing, The Broken Meadow (which received the 2010 Old Seventy Creek Poetry Press Series Prize), and No Loneliness (which received the 2009 FutureCycle Press Poetry Book Prize). He has also published seven poetry chapbooks.

In today’s interview, he will be reading poems from the most recent of these: Southrenody. Cone holds a Ph.D. in Literature from the University of Wisconsin, an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Virginia, an M.A. in Creative Writing from Hollins University, and a B.A. in Philosophy from Washington & Lee University. From 2018-2019, he served as the first Poet Laureate of the City of Annapolis.

This video is approximately twenty-five minutes in length. The Library Guy is co-produced with the Talbot County Free Library and the Spy Newspapers.

The Library Guy: Poet Meredith Davies Hadaway Talks to Bill Peak

July 2, 2020 by Bill Peak

The Library Guy’s guest today is Meredith Davies Hadaway, a poet who writes about her life and experiences living on the banks of the Chester River.

Hadaway is the author of three collections of poetry: At The Narrows, The River Is a Reason, and Fishing Secrets of the Dead. She has received fellowships from the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, an Individual Artist Award from the Maryland State Arts Council, and multiple Pushcart nominations. Her collection, At The Narrows, won the 2015 Delmarva Book Prize for Creative Writing. In addition to publishing poetry and reviews in numerous literary journals, she served for ten years as poetry editor for The Summerset Review. Hadaway holds an MFA in Poetry from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is a former Rose O’Neill Writer-in-residence at Washington College, where she taught English and creative writing.

This video is approximately fifteen minutes in length

The Library Guy is made possible through a partnership between the Talbot County Free Library and the Spy online newspapers. Future interviews with local literary figures are planned.

The Library Guy: Poet Sue Ellen Thompson Talks to Bill Peak

June 1, 2020 by Bill Peak

Today, Bill Peak, also known as the Library Guy for many years for his devotion to the Talbot County Free Library, continues his series with writers with a conversation with award-winning poet Sue Ellen Thompson.

Thompson is the author of five books of poetry, including her most recent work, They, which tells the story—through poems and the found poetry of postcards—of the poet’s sometimes troubled relationship with her transgender child, and the connection they find through the author’s father. She also edited The Autumn House Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry. Eleven of Thompson’s poems have been read by Garrison Keillor on his Writer’s Almanac radio show. . In 2010, Thompson received the Maryland Author Award, which is given once every four years to a Maryland poet in honor of his or her body of work. Sue Ellen lives in Oxford, Maryland.

The Library Guy is made possible through a partnership between the Talbot County Free Library and the Spy online newspapers. Future interviews with local literary figures are planned. A link to Peak’s interview with Thompson will be made available on the library’s website: www.tcfl.org.

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