“Everyone loves the dead girl,” writes Alice Bolin in her new collection, “Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession” (William Morrow/HarperCollins). It’s a provocative claim that leaves Bolin, a University of Memphis visiting assistant professor of English, with some ’splaining to do — perhaps during her appearance on the Idyllwild Arts campus at 7:30…

I sat in Stephen Savage’s home studio on a beautiful fall afternoon. It’s comfortable warm tones of light, a dark leather couch, coffee table, and music equipment was meticulously placed throughout the studio. The light from multiple computer monitors cuts through the room with piercing cold tones as Savage tells me about his newest podcast…