Naked and Hungry

By Alex Granados,

Published October 26, 2011 at 11:32 AM EDT

Pittsboro writer Ashley Memory never thought she had the endurance to complete a novel, but her dad’s encouragement changed all that. Seeing all the other novels out in the market, he told Memory that she could do it too. Her debut novel, "Naked and Hungry" (Ingalls Publishing Group/2011) features a protagonist who is a lot like her father. It’s the story of a man down on his luck who takes on big business when it tries to pollute the small town he loves. Host Frank Stasio talks to Memory about her debut novel, "Naked and Hungry."

Alex Granados

Alex Granados joined The State of Things in July 2010. He got his start in radio as an intern for the show in 2005 and loved it so much that after trying his hand as a government reporter, reader liaison, features, copy and editorial page editor at a small newspaper in Manassas, Virginia, he returned to WUNC. Born in Baltimore but raised in Morgantown, West Virginia, Alex moved to Raleigh in time to do third grade twice and adjust to public school after having spent years in the sheltered confines of a Christian elementary education. Alex received a degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also has a minor in philosophy, which basically means that he used to think he was really smart but realized he wasn’t in time to switch majors. Fishing, reading science fiction, watching crazy movies, writing bad short stories, and shooting pool are some of his favorite things to do. Alex still doesn’t know what he wants to be when he grows up, but he is holding out for astronaut.

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Frank Stasio

Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.

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