Richard Wolinsky co-hosted and produced "Probabilities," a program devoted to science fiction, mystery and mainstream fiction, from 1977 to 1995 on KPFA-FM. from 1995 through 2001, he co-hosted and produced the Thursday edition of "Cover to Cover," taking over the interview segments solo in early 2002. Along the way, he has spoken with most of the English speaking world's leading authors, including Ken Follett, Joseph Heller, William Kennedy, Margaret Atwood, Anne Rice, Gore Vidal, Mary Higgins Clark, Joyce Carol Oates, Salman Rushdie, and many others.
Lillian Ross of The New Yorker called her interview "the best I've ever experienced that sounded interesting to me and that sounded true to me." Richard Powers called Wolinsky "a great interviewer" and Jeffrey Eugenides said his discussion was "a great interview."
Richard Wolinsky's interviews have been published in numerous venues, including the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Heavy Metal magazine, and Mystery Scene Magazine, and such books as Feast of Fear: Conversations with Stephen King, The Louis L'Amour Companion, and Macabre II: Stephen King & Clive Barker. Recent political interviews can also be heard at alternet.org
During the 1980s, Wolinsky's programs on the American musical theatre have won accolades in the local Bay Area press. His documentary on the life of Leonard Bernstein was honored with an award from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters.
Born and raised in New York City with a BA (Philosophy) from SUNY Binghamton and an MA (Philosophy) from the New School for Social Research, NYC, Richard moved to the Bay Area in 1975 and began volunteering at KPFA in May, 1976.
From November 1978 through September 1992, Richard Wolinsky was editor/chief writer of the KPFA-FM (Berkeley) publication Folio, the flagship program guide of the Pacifica radio network. Since that time, he has served as free-lance commercial copywriter, marketing consultant, website coordinator and copywriter, and editorial advisor to several companies and municipalities around the Bay Area. In 1998, he served as Associate Producer for a segment on the Broadway musical which appeared on CNN's Entertainment Weekly and Fortune magazine programs.
Richard Wolinsky is co-author (with Richard A. Lupoff and Lawrence Davidson) and editor of "The Girl in the Brass Brassiere: An Oral History of Science Fiction 1920-1950" to be published in the near future, and has written an unpublished mystery novel set in Hawaii, "Aloha, Ladyboy".
Richard also gives classes and tutoring to authors seeking help with the interview process through Book Passage Bookstore in Corte Madera and San Francisco. He recently hosted an interview with Salman Rushdie in front of an audience at Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga.
