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\xa0Our guest is Calvin Trillin. \xa0The journalist, humorist, poet, and novelist started his professional career in the early 1960\u2019s at Time Magazine, and soon after became a staff writer for The New Yorker, where he continues to contribute.\xa0 He also writes for The Nation.\xa0 He is the author of 32 books, including memoir, novels, verse, and food writing.\xa0 His new book,\u201cThe Lede: Dispatches From A Life in the Press\u201d, collects writings about journalism and its practitioners.\xa0 This conversation with writer Steven Winn was recorded at the studios of KQED in San Francisco on February 22, 2024.

This was hardly Trillin\u2019s first appearance on City Arts & Lectures - he\u2019s been on our stage more than any other guest, a total of 19 times since his first appearance in 1982. \xa0So we close out this hour with excerpts from three of those programs that showcase some of Trillin\u2019s many talents beyond serious journalism.\xa0

Calvin Trillin began writing about regional food specialties during his travels as a reporter, and then in books like \u201cAmerican Fried\u201d and \u201cAlice, Let\u2019s Eat\u201d. In 2008, Trillin was joined by two distinguished women of the culinary world, former Gourmet magazine editor Ruth Reichl. and the founder of Berkeley\u2019s Chez Panisse, Alice Waters - to discuss one of his obsessions \u2013 Buffalo chicken wings. \xa0
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\nCalvin Trillin also developed a journalistic sideline that he describes as \u201cDeadline Poet\u201d and in 2012, he explained how that got started to Steven Winn.

And finally, no Calvin Trillin City Arts & Lectures program would be complete without the story of the tic-tac-toe-playing chicken of New York\u2019s Chinatown.\xa0 In a 1998 appearance, Trillin introduced the chicken to actor and comedian Robin Williams and interviewer Wendy Lesser.