005 John Tibbetts' 1984 interview with Frederik Pohl

Episode five of the AboutSF podcast is a recording of a 1984 interview John C. Tibbetts conducted with Science Fiction writer Frederik Pohl. John Tibbetts, associate professor in the department of Film and Media Studies at the University of Kansas, has donated recorded audio interviews with luminaries in the fields of Science Fiction and Fantasy, including Ray Bradbury, Frederick Pohl and Stephen King, among others, to the J. Wayne and Elsie M. Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction in Lawrence, KS. The interviews, gathered during the course of a lifetime of reading, collecting, and writing about Science Fiction, include conversations with Poul Anderson, Jack Williamson, L. Sprague de Camp, children’s book author Chris Van Allsburg, and many more.

This interview with Frederik Pohl seemed like an appropriate selection for the first of the podcast episodes using the Tibbetts interview material since the theme for the 2011 Campbell Conference is “Alternating Currents: Frederick Pohl and Theodore Sturgeon.” If you’d like to learn more about the Campbell Conference, please visit the Center for the Study of Science Fiction website.

I would also like to note that Mr. Tibbetts’ forthcoming book The Gothic Imagination: Conversations on Fantasy, Horror and Science Fiction in the Media will published by Palgrave Macmillan in October, 2011, so everyone should check it out.

Without further adieu, here is John’s interview with Fred Pohl from 1984, in which Mr. Pohl discusses his collaborations with Cyril Cornbluth, the influence of the New Wave on his writing, and even his poetry. We’re honored to have received such a wonderful donation from John Tibbetts, and we hope that this interview, and many others, may be of interest to fans and scholars alike.