Half Mystic Radio features one poet each episode, reading their work set to songs by independent musicians. All genres. All styles. Emerging and established artists both. Intimate and electric and ephemeral and known. This kind of art is what we came for: the wreck, and not the story of the wreck. T…
Season II, episode VIII of Half Mystic Radio features Davon Clark’s poems “For Rappers With Colored Beads” and “I Want a God Whose Heaven is Golden”, and Chok Kerong’s song “A Sweeter Sound”. This season hosted by special guest Stephanie Dogfoot. #halfmysticspeaksHalf Mystic is an independent publishing house, literary journal, radio show, and arts organisation dedicated to the celebration of music in all its forms. You can find the full show notes, including the text of the two pieces featured in this episode, at: http://halfmystic.com/blog/hmr-ii-viiiDavon Clark is a Philadelphia-raised artist who is currently based in Chicago. He uses investigative journalism practices in his camerawork and poetry. His work looks to fill in the gaps left behind in coverage of the worlds that he lives in and peripheral to. His multimedia highlights include work with the Big Ten Network, City Bureau, and Sovereign Magazine. He’s a published international poetry slam champion. His poetry appears on Button Poetry, Write About Now, Poetry Slam, Inc., and more. He’s a 2017 CUPSI champion, 2-time NPS group piece finalist, 2018 Philly Pigeon Slam team member, and 2018 Pushcart Prize nominee. He likes flowers and the little things in life.Chok Kerong has established himself as one of Singapore’s most versatile talents. He has distinguished himself as an inventive pianist and organist, and has performed at such events as the Tokyo Jazz Festival, Singapore International Festival of Arts and the Melbourne International Jazz Festival. A composer and arranger of remarkable clarity and depth, his growing body of work includes music for big band, string quartet, hybrid ensembles, and more recently, projects that combine songwriting with contemporary music production.
Season II, episode VII of Half Mystic Radio features Anthony Thomas Lombardi’s poems “what happens when the addict finds himself drawn to deeper shades of blue?” and “the profits of gravity”, and Babushka’s song “Sherpa”. This season hosted by special guest Stephanie Dogfoot. #halfmysticspeaksHalf Mystic is an independent publishing house, literary journal, radio show, and arts organisation dedicated to the celebration of music in all its forms. You can find the full show notes, including the text of the two pieces featured in this episode, at: http://halfmystic.com/blog/hmr-ii-viiAnthony Thomas Lombardi is a Brooklyn Poets Fellow, a Tin House Writers Workshop alumnus, and a recipient of a scholarship from the Shipman Agency. A former music journalist, he served as Assistant Director for Polyphony Lit’s Summer Scholars Program, and is currently a poetry reader / contributor for The Adroit Journal. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in wildness, North American Review, Third Coast Magazine, Gigantic Sequins, RHINO Poetry, DIALOGIST, Tahoma Literary Review, and elsewhere. He lives in Brooklyn, NY with his cat, Dilla and is still recovering from his alliteration addiction.Babushka is a Singapore-based band playing original instrumental jazz, folk and world music. Babushka’s soundscape is a combination of 5 instruments—Fauzo’s electrifying guitar solos, Sophia’s free-flowing keyboard playing, Don’s rhythm chops and loops, Jennifer’s dynamic drumming and Jana’s improvisation full of surprises. Their repertoire consists of original jazz, folk and world music compositions—all instrumental. Each ambient tune has a story to tell and a place in mind, from treacherous mountain faces to sun-kissed beaches.
Season II, episode VI of Half Mystic Radio features Jihyun Yun’s poems “Savaging” and “Revisitations”, and Henry Finch’s song “Hessen”. This season hosted by special guest Stephanie Dogfoot. #halfmysticspeaksHalf Mystic is an independent publishing house, literary journal, radio show, and arts organisation dedicated to the celebration of music in all its forms. You can find the full show notes, including the text of the two pieces featured in this episode, at: http://halfmystic.com/blog/hmr-ii-viJihyun Yun is a Korean-American poet, educator & Fulbright Research Fellow. A winner of the Prairie Schooner Book Prize, her full length collection Some Are Always Hungry was published by The University of Nebraska Press in September 2020. She received her BA in Psychology from UC Davis, and her MFA from New York University where she was a fully funded fellow. Originally from California, she now resides in Ann Arbor, Michigan.Henry Finch is author of the chapbook Reversing Falls (forthcoming SurVision 2021), winner of the 2020 James Tate International Poetry Prize. A graduate of the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, his writing and translations appear in Apofenie, North American Review, Seattle Review, About Place, and many other journals. With Andra Rotaru, he co-edits Crevice (Romania). He lives in Berlin.
Season II, episode V of Half Mystic Radio features Jehanne Dubrow’s poems “What Do You Give the War That Has Everything” and “Hail and Farewell”, and John the Rabbit’s song “At Night, At Home, At Last”. This season hosted by special guest Stephanie Dogfoot. #halfmysticspeaksHalf Mystic is an independent publishing house, literary journal, radio show, and arts organisation dedicated to the celebration of music in all its forms. You can find the full show notes, including the text of the two pieces featured in this episode, at: http://halfmystic.com/blog/hmr-ii-vJehanne Dubrow is the author of seven poetry collections, including most recently American Samizdat, and a book of creative nonfiction. Her eighth collection of poems, Simple Machines, won the Richard Wilbur Poetry Award and will be published by the University of Evansville Press in 2020. And her ninth book of poems, Wild Kingdom, is forthcoming from Louisiana State University Press in 2021. Her work has appeared in Poetry, New England Review, and The Southern Review. She is a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of North Texas.John the Rabbit is the nom du guerre of poet, programmer and musician John Paul Davis. His first book, Crown Prince Of Rabbits, was published in 2017 by Great Weather For Media. His poems have been published in numerous magazines and journals. He is one-half of the indie pop duo Love In the Ruins. He lives with his wife, actress Mahira Kakkar, in New York City.
Content warning: this episode contains a homophobic slur.Season II, episode IV of Half Mystic Radio features Sara Hovda’s poems “Faggot Once Again Considers Their Body”, “My Own Gender”, and “One Year on Hormones”, and Cronkite Satellite’s song “Be Alone”. #halfmysticspeaksHalf Mystic is an independent publishing house, literary journal, radio show, and arts organisation dedicated to the celebration of music in all its forms. You can find the full show notes, including the text of the three pieces featured in this episode, at: http://halfmystic.com/blog/hmr-ii-ivSara Hovda was born and raised in rural Minnesota. She received her BA in English Literature and Creative Writing from Winona State University and her MA in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Some of her research interests include modern and contemporary poetry and poetics, queer poetics, and queer and feminist theory. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Nimrod, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Cleaver Magazine, and elsewhere.Cronkite Satellite is a one man band with a full band sound. He’s an international live looping musician as well as a multi-instrumentalist, producer, sound engineer, filmmaker, poet, graphic designer and educator. He currently has seven independently produced albums available, and is steadily performing gigs all around the planet. Previous tours include: America, China, Mexico, Indonesia, the Netherlands, Turkey, Qatar, Cambodia, Belgium, Thailand, Spain, Portugal, Romania, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Singapore and India.
Season II, episode III of Half Mystic Radio features Lyd Havens' poems "Unruly" and "206 Days Later", and Marla Bendini's song "Blossom". This season hosted by special guest Stephanie Dogfoot. #halfmysticspeaksHalf Mystic is an independent publishing house, literary journal, radio show, and arts organisation dedicated to the celebration of music in all its forms. You can find the full show notes, including the text of the two pieces featured in this episode, at: http://halfmystic.com/blog/hmr-ii-iiiLyd Havens is a poet currently living in Boise, Idaho. Their work has previously been published or is forthcoming in Ploughshares, The Shallow Ends, and Tinderbox Poetry Journal, among others. They are the author of the chapbook I Gave Birth to All the Ghosts Here (Nostrovia! Press, 2018), the winner of the 2018 ellipsis… Poetry Prize, and a 2019 finalist for the Brett Elizabeth Jenkins Poetry Prize. Lyd is currently a senior at Boise State University, where they will graduate with a BFA in Creative Writing in 2021.Marla Bendini is a transgender, non-binary visual and performance artist, club personality, musician, pole and aerial artist based in Singapore. Her trans identity and practice are profoundly interrelated. She created her persona in 2007 as an amalgamation between art and life, to explore multiple liminal identities and fluidity in perspectives. It was also to explore how the trans body allows one to occupy a new artistic space and challenge current understandings of identity.
Season II, episode II of Half Mystic Radio features Ben Togut's poems "Saudade: Autumn", "Elegy", and "Coercion Aubade", and Bennet Bay's song "Gone". This season hosted by special guest Stephanie Dogfoot. #halfmysticspeaksHalf Mystic is an independent publishing house, literary journal, radio show, and arts organisation dedicated to the celebration of music in all its forms. You can find the full show notes, including the text of the three pieces featured in this episode, at: http://halfmystic.com/blog/hmr-ii-iiBen Togut is a queer poet and singer-songwriter from New York City. He has received national recognition in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, as well as an honorable mention from the Wesleyan University Hamilton Prize for Creativity. His recent work is published or forthcoming in Hobart, The Offing, DIALOGIST, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, and elsewhere. He is an undergrad at Wesleyan University.Bennett Bay is a musician based in Singapore whose sound is inspired by everyday occurrences, personal values and pastoral imageries. An acoustic guitar stands at the core of his music, with flourishes of string quartets and brass trios in an attempt to keep the music as simple and natural as possible. His music harkens to Sigur Rós, Explosions in the Sky and Nick Drake.
Season II, episode I of Half Mystic Radio features Logan February's poems "A Monument", "The Gemini Man", and "Husband Is the Loveliest Word", and Love in the Ruins' song "Matt & Polly's Suite". This season hosted by special guest Stephanie Dogfoot. #halfmysticspeaksHalf Mystic is an independent publishing house, literary journal, radio show, and arts organisation dedicated to the celebration of music in all its forms. You can find the full show notes, including the text of the three pieces featured in this episode, at: http://halfmystic.com/blog/hmr-ii-iLogan February is a non-binary Nigerian poet and graduate student at Purdue University’s MFA program in Creative Writing. They and their work have been featured in The Guardian Life, Dazed, The Rumpus, Lambda Literary, Washington Square Review, Africa In Dialogue, and more. They are the author of In The Nude (Ouida Poetry, 2019 / PANK Books, 2021) and three chapbooks.Love in the Ruins is Dana Suchow and John Paul Davis. When they're not making music, Dana is a speaker and educator for women's empowerment; John is a poet and programmer.
Season I, episode VIII of Half Mystic Radio features Alvin Pang's poems "Untitled", "What It is Like to Go Blind Slowly", and "Humming (For Pooja)", and Daniel Gallie's song "Coming Home". #halfmysticspeaks Half Mystic is an independent publishing house, literary journal, radio show, and arts organisation dedicated to the celebration of music in all its forms. You can find the full show notes, including the text of the piece featured in this episode, at: http://halfmystic.com/blog/hmr-i-viii Alvin Pang is an internationally active poet and editor from Singapore. Featured in the Oxford Companion to Modern Poetry in English and the Penguin Book of the Prose Poem, he has been published in more than twenty languages, including Swedish and Croatian. His latest book is WHAT HAPPENED: Poems 1997-2017. Daniel Gallie listens for the melody that lies within the heart of every good poem, the voice in music that moves the heart, and the harmony of their union when they dance as one. With morning comes the gift of the day in which each moment opens itself to be mined fully, to gift its meaning, its pleasure, and its love as blessings for us to love in return for all that has been received and all that has yet to be given. The dawn is metaphor for the coming spring, the entry into life, and the renewed commitment to make this world a welcoming one to those who wish to come home to the person they were always meant to be.
Season I, episode VII of Half Mystic Radio features Erin Moran's poems "For Matthew", "When Angels Dress For Senior Prom", and "For Jan", and LYON's song "Le Jardin Zoologique de Nuit". #halfmysticspeaks Half Mystic is an independent publishing house, literary journal, radio show, and arts organisation dedicated to the celebration of music in all its forms. You can find the full show notes, including the text of the piece featured in this episode, at: http://halfmystic.com/blog/hmr-i-vii Erin Moran is a Philadelphia-based poet, freelance journalist, bookstore babe and recent graduate of Temple University. You can find her on Twitter or Instagram. LYON is the instrumental music project of Andrew Morgan. Modern classical, astral jazz, and experimental works inhabit a space inspired by the imagination of creators like David Axelrod, Alice Coltrane, Antônio Carlos Jobim, Air, and Alexandre Desplat. Collaborators include French author Pierre Ducrozet, poet Candice Wuehle, and Built to Spill cellist John McMahon.
Season I, episode VI of Half Mystic Radio features Hyejung Kook's poem "In All This Singing", and James Radcliffe's song "Breathe". #halfmysticspeaks Half Mystic is an independent publishing house, literary journal, radio show, and arts organisation dedicated to the celebration of music in all its forms. You can find the full show notes, including the text of the piece featured in this episode, at: http://halfmystic.com/blog/hmr-i-vi Hyejung Kook's poetry has appeared in the Massachusetts Review, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Pleiades, Verse Daily, the Beloit Poetry Journal, the Denver Quarterly, and elsewhere. Other works include an essay in The Critical Flame and a chamber opera libretto. Hyejung is a Fulbright grantee and a Kundiman fellow. James Radcliffe is an independent musician, writer, and spoken word artist, who has been creating original work and performing it live since he was 7 years old. His blog is read in 170+ countries, his releases have enjoyed the #1 spot on Bandcamp, and he has amassed over 120,000 followers across social media platforms. At the beginning of 2018 James took all of his music down from the internet and burned it. He is now hard at work on several secret projects which will be coming to fruition very soon.
Season I, episode V of Half Mystic Radio features Kate Bucca's poems "Known Quantity" and "August Storm", and Paola Bennet's song "Antidote". #halfmysticspeaks Half Mystic is an independent publishing house, literary journal, radio show, and arts organisation dedicated to the celebration of music in all its forms. You can find the full show notes, including the text of the two pieces featured in this episode, at: http://halfmystic.com/blog/hmr-i-v Kate Bucca holds a dual-genre MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts, where she served as the 2017 Vermont Book Award Fellow, and a BFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College. She is the author of a novel, Companion Plants (Fomite, 2014), and a poetry collection, Daughter Mountain Water Wife (Half Mystic Press, forthcoming, 2019), which was a finalist for the Hillary Gravendyk Prize and the Autumn House Press Rising Writer Contest. Her short fiction, essays, poetry, and paintings can be found in Welter, Limestone, Timber, The Nervous Breakdown, DigBoston, Half Mystic Journal, and elsewhere. Paola Bennet's unique brand of "sadgirl folk" evokes the melancholy sweetness of Sara Bareilles and Joni Mitchell, and lush intimations of her native New England, while maintaining a haunting edge and electric grit all its own. After self-producing her first EP in 2013, she worked independently with songwriting legend Scarlet Keys to hone most of the songs on the second, Something to Win (2014). In December 2016, she put out The Shoebox EP, her first studio release and the result of an Indiegogo campaign which raised 30 percent beyond its target goal. She released "Desert Sky", her first single in nearly two years, in July 2018.
Season I, episode IV of Half Mystic Radio features Wanda Deglane's poems "Aubade For a Nonexistent Child" and "September", and the Woodlands' song "Age of Atlas (Mellow Mix)". #halfmysticspeaks Half Mystic is an independent publishing house, literary journal, radio show, and arts organisation dedicated to the celebration of music in all its forms. You can find the full show notes, including the text of the two pieces featured in this episode, at: http://halfmystic.com/blog/hmr-i-iv Wanda Deglane is a 19-year-old Capricorn from Arizona. She is the daughter of Peruvian immigrants and attends Arizona State University. Her poetry has been published or forthcoming from Rust + Moth, Glass Poetry, L’Ephemere Review, and Former Cactus, among other lovely places. Wanda is the author of Rainlily (2018), as well as three forthcoming chapbooks. The Woodlands are Hannah and Samuel Robertson, a wife and husband singer-songwriter duo. Their songs are crafted of wonder and exploration, both within and faraway—poetic lyrics on ribbons of melody that wander the musings of human emotion. Their songs have been featured in over a hundred TV shows, ads, films and documentaries. The Woodlands have circled back around again to Oregon to continue living a simple and quiet life, waiting to be lured yet again by faraway travel and the writing of more songs.
Season I, episode III of Half Mystic Radio features Caitlyn Siehl's poems "By the Water", "To the Bone", and "Flower Boy", and Jonathan Meur's song "Cities & Seas". #halfmysticspeaks Half Mystic is an independent publishing house, literary journal, radio show, and arts organisation dedicated to the celebration of music in all its forms. You can find the full show notes, including the text of the two pieces featured in this episode, at: http://halfmystic.com/blog/hmr-i-iii Caitlyn Siehl is primarily interested in healing. Growing up in a small town in New Jersey, she began writing poetry three years ago with the intention of bringing pain to the surface, of clawing through the dirt and excavating it before singing it to sleep. She tries to be gentle with what hurts, and it has helped. Currently a student at Rutgers University, Caitlyn is studying film and journalism in the hopes of becoming a screenwriter. Jonathan Meur is a Paris-based French-Mauritian singer-songwriter addicted to the creative process. A fusion of folk, pop, rock and classical, his music has drawn comparisons to the likes of Sufjan Stevens, Kings of Convenience and Regina Spektor.
Season I, episode II of Half Mystic Radio features Stefan Y's poems "MLVLNT" and "Darling Amphibian", and ÊMIA's song "Routines". #halfmysticspeaks Half Mystic is an independent publishing house, literary journal, radio show, and arts organisation dedicated to the celebration of music in all its forms. You can find the full show notes, including the text of the two pieces featured in this episode, at: http://halfmystic.com/blog/hmr-i-ii Stefan Y lives in the Midwestern United States. He loves good tea and rooms full of books. ÊMIA is the electro-pop project of singer/songwriter and producer, Anh Le. Over the past decade, she has gained prominence online through her YouTube Channel (previously known as Anh Le Music) and through her collaborations with up-and-coming artists and producers through Soundcloud. Her covers, songwriting tutorials, and music videos have amassed over 16,000 subscribers and 3 million views on YouTube. She has been featured on online publications such as MTV Europe, Pilerats, Aviencloud, ENM, Purple Melon, PopJustice, and TrapStyle and praised for her relatable and “future pop” style of songwriting. She is currently releasing monthly singles, carving an exciting trajectory for herself in the music industry.
Season I, episode I of Half Mystic Radio features Emily Paige Wilson's poems "In the Voice of Belle Gunness" and "Still Life on I-95", and The River Has Many Voices' song "11:33 AM". #halfmysticspeaks Half Mystic is an independent publishing house, literary journal, and arts organisation dedicated to the celebration of music in all its forms. If you liked this episode, you'll love the fourth issue of Half Mystic Journal, which contains work from Emily Paige Wilson, The River Has Many Voices, and over 20 other artists. Issue IV: Grazioso is a volume full of the light that never drowned anything, the kind of light that knows only song. Emily Paige Wilson is the author of the chapbook I’ll Build Us a Home (Finishing Line Press, 2018). Her poetry has been nominated for Best New Poets, Best of the Net, and the Pushcart Prize. Her work can be found in The Adroit Journal, Hayden’s Ferry Review, PANK, and Thrush, among others. The River Has Many Voices is music that is born of the poetry and harmony of the hill country. TRHMV lives and writes in Austin, TX where he grew up.