Z107.7 Local News for Sunday 04/12/26 - Interview with Kurt Schauppner on his new novel
April 12, 2026·3 min
1. Z107.7 (z1077fm.com) airs a local news segment on April 12, 2026, featuring an interview about Kurt Schopner's new novel The Trick of Singularity.
2. Reporter Gabriel Hart conducted the interview with Schopner and his publisher Rich Seuss of Cholla Needles; host Robert Hayden introduces and closes the segment.
3. The segment's purpose is to introduce Morongo Basin listeners to a locally published novel that explores love, loss, and identity through reverse-chronological fiction.
4. Schopner's previous books include Shards of Broken Glass, The First Book of Exile, Ghosts of Hyde County, and the story collection Songs Without Words.
5. The Trick of Singularity follows protagonist Nathan Lee, a gay man who begins the novel in an assisted living home contemplating the end of life for himself and his peers.
6. The narrative then moves backward through Nathan Lee's working years and further still to the origin of what Schopner calls his becoming "a grumpy old fart."
7. Schopner describes the book as his most autobiographical novel, stating "This one has a little more autobiography in it" and warning that readers "can learn a lot more about Kurt than you ever wanted to know."
8. He explicitly maps his own life onto the protagonist: both Schopner and Nathan Lee are gay, both lost a singular first love, and both spent years in relationships they knew were shadows of that first connection.
9. Schopner states plainly: "When you find out that the person you love can never truly love you back, that's not a good thing. And I did that to a lot of people."
10. The novel's central theme, in Schopner's words, is that some people have only one true love, and "there's nothing we can do about it."
11. Despite the heavy subject matter, Schopner says he deliberately injects humor into the novel: "No matter what I'm writing I know that I'm gonna go dark and I don't want to bludgeon the audience too much."
12. He describes this balance of darkness and comedy as "a long tradition" in literature, framing it as a conscious craft decision rather than tonal inconsistency.
13. Publisher Rich Seuss of Cholla Needles says agreeing to publish the third Schopner book was "a no-brainer," citing personal resonance with the care-home scenes through his own mother-in-law.
14. Seuss praises the novel's language as grounded in reality: "it's a story that anybody will read and understand."
15. Schopner is also an active songwriter, adding a dimension to his creative practice beyond fiction.
16. He will perform at the High Desert Fringe Festival on Saturday, April 18, where copies of The Trick of Singularity will be available for sale.
17. The interview is conversational and low-key, with Schopner speaking in a candid, self-aware register that includes mild self-deprecation.
18. The format is a produced local news segment — brief, reporter-narrated, with embedded quotes rather than a live roundtable discussion.
19. Listeners interested in literary fiction dealing with grief, identity, and aging, or in supporting Morongo Basin local authors, will find this engaging.
20. Listeners seeking in-depth craft discussion, a long-form author interview, or broad-audience subject matter may find the segment too brief and regional.
