Transcript:
“Sharp shafts of light puncture the sky and in two heartbeat it's spring. The ice relents on a high blue pond and the frogs take note and they catch up after a winter silence.”
<sounds of bullfrogs>
- an audio clip from "Postcards From The Wind" plays
RAVERA:
Thursdays on KUNR “Postcards from the Wind” delivers a two-minute slice of time and place of Fil-o-sophic audio snapshot. Every segment has its own heartbeat and a calm wisdom that stretches beyond the moment taking us to wherever the wind takes KUNR contributor, Fil Corbitt.
This evening at six, Fil will receive the Silver Pen Award, part of the Nevada writer's Hall of Fame, honoring writers who work in or write about the state. On the way to address rehearsal for the induction ceremony, Fil dropped by KUNR. Fil, you’re a recipient this year of the Silver Pen Award, how did you find out that you've got this accolade coming?
CORBITT:
Yeah, actually it's a good story. I did not have any idea that I might be getting this award, the Silver Pen, and I was in Guayllabamba Ecuador, me and my partner were about to go on a field recording trip, deep into the Amazon, and it was right before, it was the night before we were turning off our phones for good, or the night we were turning them off, because in the morning we were waking up before sunrise to go on this trip and go way out of cell service. And I checked my email one last time before turning the phone off and was like, what's this? And yeah, it was a, a congratulations letter that I had gotten the Silver Pen, which was a total surprise and really exciting, and then a thing I just got to carry with me with my phone off. You know, going into the jungle for a couple of weeks.
RAVERA:
Do you know if any of your radio work has been included? Is it like the whole body of work?
CORBITT:
From what I understand, I mean, I'm a I'm a writer, but I write for radio specifically, so I think it refers to both the postcards, the wind, the longer form podcast, and then also just print work as well that I've done, but I write, you know, natively for radio. So it was, I think that was part of why it was so unexpected is, because, you know, I don't, I don't have any books out yet. Maybe one day.
RAVERA:
Did you know when you were young that you wanted to write for radio and be in radio or how did that interest come around for you?
CORBITT:
I didn't until college, and I dropped out of, I went to UNR, here, and I dropped out of college my sophomore year, and went on a hitchhiking trip across America. And I was kind of lost. I didn't know what I wanted to do. And I was picked up by two sisters in Colorado. And I remember sitting in the back seat and they had This American Life on the radio, which I had heard before. You know, I grew up listening to KUNR, but I had never really listened to it closely like that. And as I was in the back seat, was like, wait, this is maybe something I would want to do, you know, storytelling and making kind of like cool audio worlds. And so I finished the hitchhiking trip, and when I came back, I enrolled in the Reynolds School of Journalism. And that's how I got into radio.
RAVERA:
Fil where can people check out your work?
CORBITT:
If, people want to hear my work, the best place to find it is thewind.org. The whole full podcast is up there. You could also just search for the wind in your podcast app, and I've got a new season coming out, starting December 2nd, will be episode one, of season seven.
RAVERA:
I really appreciate your time today.
CORBITT:
Yeah. Thank you for having me.
RAVERA:
Tickets to the 39th annual Writer's Hall of Fame at Wells Fargo Auditorium at the U N R Knowledge Center tonight at six are available online through the library.UNR.edu address. For KUNR public radio. I'm Michele Ravera
