Cunard Line, host of the renown and very popular Liner Notes, the new literary travel series hosted by Paul Holdengräber, is proud to help celebrate Memorial Day on the radio. The latest production, entitled “War and Place,” spans the years of history, politics and personal experience offering a reflective and thought provoking global resonance of Memorial Day.

From Normandy to Pearl Harbor…Vietnam to Sierra Leone, the fields on which soldiers have battled are a litany of the world’s most beautiful and most forbidding places. The trials contested there are woven into our culture, and their powerful meanings, embedded in our greatest art and literature.

In an extraordinary “Algonquin roundtable” of writers who have explored these locations as pathways not only to history but to the human heart, “War and Place” is both spellbinding and spontaneous, capturing the reflections and analysis of nearly a dozen notable guests, including former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, novelist Robert Stone, architect Michael Arad, and photographer Steve McCurry.

The one-hour episode, which airs on Monday, May 26, was selected among the “Editor’s Picks” for Memorial Day specials on the influential Public Radio Exchange. It was recorded at the Captain’s Table aboard Queen Mary 2 and is presented by Cunard Line.

Holdengräber’s guests for “War and Place” include:

• Author and broadcaster Tom Brokaw, sharing memories of his moving visits to Normandy and Pearl Harbor and how they have enabled him to understand the great sacrifices of ordinary people;

• Writer Maxine Hong Kingston, who helps veterans put their memories on paper with “writing and healing workshops”;

• Novelist Robert Stone (“Dog Soldiers”), discussing the cultural legacy of Vietnam;

• Former Marine and author Wayne Karlin (“War Movies: Journeys to Vietnam”), sharing stories about soldier/authors on both sides of the Vietnam conflict;

• Writer Dana Sachs (“A House on Dream Street”), portraying the new Vietnam and explaining why Americans are surprisingly welcome there;

• Photographer Steve McCurry, discussing his famous “Afghan Girl” image and sharing what he finds when he travels to war zones;

• Psychoanalyst Emmanuel Kalftal, traveling to Dachau, where his parents met, to find a living memorial;

• Architect Michael Arad, discussing his award-winning design for the 9/11 memorial at the former World Trade Center;

• Paris Review editor Phillip Gourevitch who wrote “We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with our Families,” reflecting on those who suffered through the ethnic conflicts in Africa; and

• Reporter Deborah George, who takes listeners to post-war Sierra Leone to meet a young girl who will become her daughter.

More information on Liner Notes is available online at www.creativepr.org/programs, or by calling Creative PR at (888) 233-5650. The programming schedule is available online at www.cunard.com/linernotes. For local broadcast times, check with the public radio station in your community.

For more information about Cunard Line, contact your travel professional, call 1-800-7-CUNARD or visit www.cunard.com.

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About Liner Notes
Liner Notes, presented by Cunard Line, explores fascinating destinations and thought-provoking ways in which travel can be experienced and enjoyed. Hosted by cultural wunderkind Paul Holdengräber and recorded with notable and knowledgeable guests over lunch at the Captain’s table aboard Queen Mary 2, the series of themed, one-hour shows takes listeners on a journey of wit, wisdom and wanderlust, exploring destinations as they have been imagined and as they exist in literature, painting, film, music and myth.

Holdengräber is the cultural all-star whose literary happenings have turned the New York Public Library into a popular hot spot, and whose public events at the Institute for Art and Cultures in Los Angeles are renowned.

The conversations raise themes related to travel, for example “falling in love with a place,” “the benefits of wandering,” “lost in translation,” and “ex-patriot dreams.” Interviews with travelers and locals deepen the exploration of a place in fact and in fantasy.

Created by veteran public radio producers Jon Kalish and Marty Goldensohn, Liner Notes boasts a distinguished production team. With a multitude of locations and perspectives to match, along with a changing roster of brilliant and accomplished guests, Liner Notes is a unique and welcome addition to the public radio tradition of travel shows, providing memorable journeys of its own.