Podcasts about apogee journal

Mina Seçkin's novel The Four Humors (Catapult, 2022) follows a young Turkish-American woman who, rather than grieving her father's untimely death, seeks treatment for a stubborn headache and grows obsessed with a centuries-old theory of medicine. Twenty-year-old Sibel thought she had concrete plans for the summer. She would care for her grandmother in Istanbul, visit her father's grave, and study for the MCAT. Instead, she finds herself watching Turkish soap operas and self-diagnosing her own possible chronic illness with the four humors theory of ancient medicine. Also on Sibel's mind: her blond American boyfriend who accompanies her to Turkey; her energetic but distraught younger sister; and her devoted grandmother, who, Sibel comes to learn, carries a harrowing secret. Delving into her family's history, the narrative weaves through periods of political unrest in Turkey, from military coups to the Gezi Park protests. Told with pathos and humor, Sibel's search for strange and unusual cures is disrupted as she begins to see how she might heal herself through the care of others, including her own family and its long-fractured relationships. Mina Seçkin completed her MFA at Columbia University, where she received the Felipe De Alba Fellowship and where she also received her bachelor degree. Her work has been published in Refinery 29, McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, Electric Literature, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. She serves as managing editor of Apogee Journal. Recommended Books: Tan Twan Eng, The House of Doors Lina Wolff, Carnality Aria Aber, Hard Damage Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mina Seçkin's novel The Four Humors (Catapult, 2022) follows a young Turkish-American woman who, rather than grieving her father's untimely death, seeks treatment for a stubborn headache and grows obsessed with a centuries-old theory of medicine. Twenty-year-old Sibel thought she had concrete plans for the summer. She would care for her grandmother in Istanbul, visit her father's grave, and study for the MCAT. Instead, she finds herself watching Turkish soap operas and self-diagnosing her own possible chronic illness with the four humors theory of ancient medicine. Also on Sibel's mind: her blond American boyfriend who accompanies her to Turkey; her energetic but distraught younger sister; and her devoted grandmother, who, Sibel comes to learn, carries a harrowing secret. Delving into her family's history, the narrative weaves through periods of political unrest in Turkey, from military coups to the Gezi Park protests. Told with pathos and humor, Sibel's search for strange and unusual cures is disrupted as she begins to see how she might heal herself through the care of others, including her own family and its long-fractured relationships. Mina Seçkin completed her MFA at Columbia University, where she received the Felipe De Alba Fellowship and where she also received her bachelor degree. Her work has been published in Refinery 29, McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, Electric Literature, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. She serves as managing editor of Apogee Journal. Recommended Books: Tan Twan Eng, The House of Doors Lina Wolff, Carnality Aria Aber, Hard Damage Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Mina Seçkin's novel The Four Humors (Catapult, 2022) follows a young Turkish-American woman who, rather than grieving her father's untimely death, seeks treatment for a stubborn headache and grows obsessed with a centuries-old theory of medicine. Twenty-year-old Sibel thought she had concrete plans for the summer. She would care for her grandmother in Istanbul, visit her father's grave, and study for the MCAT. Instead, she finds herself watching Turkish soap operas and self-diagnosing her own possible chronic illness with the four humors theory of ancient medicine. Also on Sibel's mind: her blond American boyfriend who accompanies her to Turkey; her energetic but distraught younger sister; and her devoted grandmother, who, Sibel comes to learn, carries a harrowing secret. Delving into her family's history, the narrative weaves through periods of political unrest in Turkey, from military coups to the Gezi Park protests. Told with pathos and humor, Sibel's search for strange and unusual cures is disrupted as she begins to see how she might heal herself through the care of others, including her own family and its long-fractured relationships. Mina Seçkin completed her MFA at Columbia University, where she received the Felipe De Alba Fellowship and where she also received her bachelor degree. Her work has been published in Refinery 29, McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, Electric Literature, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. She serves as managing editor of Apogee Journal. Recommended Books: Tan Twan Eng, The House of Doors Lina Wolff, Carnality Aria Aber, Hard Damage Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

Jordan talks with Crystal Hana Kim (If You Leave Me) about the ultimate unknowability of another person's story, about motherhood as a writer, and about how a friend's validation and encouragement helped her get serious about her craft. MENTIONED: The Korean War Post-partum depression Reproductive justice Ceramics class Crystal Hana Kim is the author of If You Leave Me, which was a Booklist Editor's Choice title and named a best book of 2018 by over a dozen publications. Kim is the recipient of the 2022 National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 Award and is a 2017 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize winner. Currently, she is the Visiting Assistant Professor at Queens College and a contributing editor at Apogee Journal. Her second novel, The Stone Home, is forthcoming from William Morrow / HarperCollins. She lives in Brooklyn, New York with her family. For more Thresholds, visit us at www.thisisthresholds.com Be sure to rate/review/subscribe! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Deesha Philyaw reads from her book "The Secret Lives of Church Ladies", with sound design and music composition from GLASYS. This week on Storybound, we want to spotlight Deesha Philyaw, whose debut short story collection, "The Secret Lives of Church Ladies," will be adapted into a TV show on HBO Max. "The Secret Lives of Church Ladies" was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction, a finalist for The Story Prize (2020/2021), and longlisted for the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Her work has been listed as Notable in the Best American Essays series, and her writing on race, parenting, gender, and culture has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, McSweeney's, The Rumpus, Brevity, dead housekeeping, Apogee Journal, Catapult, Harvard Review, ESPN's The Undefeated, The Baltimore Review, TueNight, Ebony and Bitch magazines, and various anthologies. Deesha is a Kimbilio Fiction Fellow and a past Pushcart Prize nominee for essay writing in Full Grown People. GLASYS (Gil Assayas) is a pianist, synthesist, producer and vocalist who delivers intricate virtuosic keyboard parts, electronic soundscapes and impassioned vocals in one package that combines his many influences including Electronic music, Alternative Rock, Jazz and Classical music. Support Storybound by supporting our sponsors: Norton brings you Michael Lewis' The Premonition: A Pandemic Story, a nonfiction thriller that pits a band of medical visionaries against a wall of ignorance as the COVID-19 pandemic looms. Learn more about Chanel's No. 5 perfume at inside.chanel.com/ Scribd combines the latest technology with the best human minds to recommend content that you'll love. Go to try.scribd.com/storybound to get 60 days of Scribd for free. Acorn.tv is the largest commercial free British streaming service with hundreds of exclusive shows from around the world. Try acorn.tv for free for 30 days by going to acorn.tv and using promo code Storybound. Match with a licensed therapist when you go to talkspace.com and get $100 off your first month with the promo code STORYBOUND Visit betterhelp.com/Storybound and join the over 2,000,000 people who have taken charge of their mental health with the help of an experienced professional ButcherBox sources their meat from partners with the highest standards for quality. Go to ButcherBox.com/STORYBOUND to receive a FREE turkey in your first box.   Storybound is hosted by Jude Brewer and brought to you by The Podglomerate and Lit Hub Radio. Let us know what you think of the show on Instagram and Twitter @storyboundpod. *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy.  Since you're listening to Storybound, you might enjoy reading, writing, and storytelling. We'd like to suggest you also try the History of Literature or Book Dreams. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the Indie Writer Podcast where we talk about all things writing and indie publishing. Today Becca is joined by author Deesha Philyaw to talk WRITING ABOUT SEX!  Deesha Philyaw's debut short story collection, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction, The Story Prize (2020/2021), the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and a 2020 LA Times Book Prize: The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. The Secret Lives of Church Ladies focuses on Black women, sex, and the Black church. Deesha is also the co-author of Co-Parenting 101: Helping Your Kids Thrive in Two Households After Divorce, written in collaboration with her ex-husband. Her work has been listed as Notable in the Best American Essays series, and her writing on race, parenting, gender, and culture has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, McSweeney's, The Rumpus, Brevity, dead housekeeping, Apogee Journal, Catapult, Harvard Review, ESPN's The Undefeated, The Baltimore Review, TueNight, Ebony and Bitch magazines, and various anthologies. Deesha is a Kimbilio Fiction Fellow and a past Pushcart Prize nominee for essay writing in Full Grown People. Keep up with our guest!  Twitter - @DeeshaPhilyaw Facebook -  @DeeshaPhilyawWriter Instagram - @DeeshaPhilyaw Website - https://www.deeshaphilyaw.com/ _________________ Check out the following books by our Patrons!  Proliferation by Erik Otto Mission 51 by Fernando Crôtte Want to see your book listed? Become a Patron! 

Seema Yasmin gathers a powerful line-up of poets—George Abraham, Aracelis Girmay, José Olivarez, Janice Lobo Sapigao, and Yalini Thambynayagam—to celebrate Yasmin's poetry collection, If God Is A Virus. Based on original reporting from West Africa and the United States, and the poet's experiences as a doctor and journalist, If God Is A Virus charts the course of the largest and deadliest Ebola epidemic in history, telling the stories of Ebola survivors, outbreak responders, journalists and the virus itself. These documentary poems explore which human lives are valued, how editorial decisions are weighed, what role the aid industrial complex plays in crises, and how medical myths and rumor can travel faster than microbes. These poems also give voice to the virus. Eight percent of the human genome is inherited from viruses and the human placenta would not exist without a gene descended from a virus. If God Is A Virus reimagines viruses as givers of life and even authors of a viral-human self-help book. Featuring: Dr. Seema Yasmin is an Emmy Award-winning journalist, medical doctor, disease detective and author. She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in breaking news reporting in 2017 with her team from The Dallas Morning News for coverage of a mass shooting. Yasmin was a disease detective in the Epidemic Intelligence Service at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention where she chased outbreaks in maximum-security prisons, American Indian reservations, border towns and hospitals. Currently, Dr. Yasmin is a Stanford professor, medical analyst for CNN and science correspondent for Conde Nast Entertainment. Find her at seemayasmin.com, Twitter @DoctorYasmin and Instagram: @drseemayasmin. Aracelis Girmay is the author of three books of poems: the black maria (BOA, 2016); Teeth (Curbstone Press, 2007), winner of a GLCA New Writers Award; and Kingdom Animalia (BOA, 2011), the winner of the Isabella Gardner Award and finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. Girmay currently serves as the Margaret Bundy Scott Professor in the English Department. George Abraham is a Palestinian-American poet, educator, and engineer who grew up on unceded Timucuan lands. They are the author of their debut collection Birthright, winner of the Big Other Book Award, finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in Bisexual Poetry, and was named on Best of 2020 lists with The Asian American Writers' Workshop and The New Arab. Janice Lobo Sapigao (she/her) is a daughter of immigrants from the Philippines, and the author of two books of poetry: microchips for millions and like a solid to a shadow. She's been profiled in Content Magazine, Mercury News, SF Gate, and Metro Silicon Valley. Her work has appeared in literary magazines such as Apogee Journal, Entropy, The Offing, poets.org, Split This Rock's Poem-of-the-Week, and Waxwing Literary Journal. José Olivarez is the son of Mexican immigrants. His debut book of poems, Citizen Illegal, was a finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Award and a winner of the 2018 Chicago Review of Books Poetry Prize. It was named a top book of 2018 by The Adroit Journal, NPR, and the New York Public Library. Along with Felicia Chavez and Willie Perdomo, he co-edited the poetry anthology, The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext. https://joseolivarez.com/ YaliniDream is a touring performing artist, organizer, somatics practitioner, and consultant with over twenty years' experience using artistic tools for healing, organizing, and dignity with communities contending with violence and oppression. Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/QPIZZhVeTGY Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks

This special episode is dedicated to the librarians and media specialists who are holding it down in their schools! I had the honor of interviewing K.C. Boyd, Sandra Albini, and Forrest Evans, who took the time to share their personal journeys to librarianship, the significant role that librarians play in supporting students and teachers, the need for racial equity and diversity within the librarian media specialist field, and much more! To learn more about their work, you can check out their respective websites or follow them on their social media handles: K.C. BOYD: Website: kcboyd.com; Social Media: (IG & TWITTER - @boss_librarian) SANDRA ALBINI: Social Media: IG - @hoodlibrarian FORREST EVANS: Website: favoritelibrarian.com Social Media: (IG - @favoritelibrarian, TWITTER - @MsForrestnoGump) BIO: K.C. Boyd is currently a school librarian with the Washington D.C. School System. She has previously worked as the Lead Librarian for the East St. Louis District #189 in East St. Louis, IL., a Area Library Coordinator for Chicago Public Schools and a District Coordinator for the Mayor Daley Book Club for Middle School Students. She is a second generation educator and holds Master's degrees in Library Information Science, Media Communications, and Education Leadership. Boyd currently serves on the executive boards for the District of Columbia Library Association and the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. She is an active committee member for the American Library Association Chapter Council representing Washington, D.C., American Association of School Librarians Digital Tools, American Library Association's Center for the Future of Libraries Advisory Group, Every Library Institute and Advisory Board, and the Washington Teachers' Union Equity Collaborative. In addition, Boyd is a National Ambassador representing the Washington D.C. are for the Checkology Virtual Classroom and The News Literacy Project. Sandra (Maríne) Albini earned a BA in English from Cal Poly Pomona. As an undergrad, she worked as a Foster Child Caregiver in a group home for teenage girls in L.A. County. She earned an MA in English from Cal State University, Los Angeles. Sandra has worked as an English and AVID teacher for almost two decades. She has taught in Orange County, Los Angeles County, and Santa Clara County, all at Title I schools. She occasionally teaches night classes in adult education. Sandra has recently completed an MLIS degree and Teacher Librarian credential from San José State University. Sandra has worked as a Teacher Librarian for three years. She was also the 2020 recipient of the California State Library Association's Leadership for Diversity scholarship. Sandra is now an active member of the CSLA Leadership for Diversity committee. Forrest Evans is an Atlanta-based, licensed librarian working at the Auburn Avenue Research Library. Evans has worked in various libraries from Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the south to special collections and television. The avid DC Comic Book collector combating under education, and fighting for gender equality. Their love for reading fuels my passion to circulate Black and Queer Literature, and resources. The low country native, also known for her published poetry in Pen+Brush, Lavender Review: Lesbian Poetry and Art, TQ Review: A Journal of Trans and Queer Voices, and The Apogee Journal. When the poet is not in the library, they are with their Queer Tribe combating xenophobia or sharing joy. For more information about Evans, visit favoritelibrarian.com or their official social media. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/identitytalk4educators/support

Deesha Philyaw's debut short story collection, THE SECRET LIVES OF CHURCH LADIES, focuses on Black women, sex, and the Black church and is a finalist for the National Book Award. Deesha is also the co-author of Co-Parenting 101: Helping Your Kids Thrive in Two Households After Divorce, written in collaboration with her ex-husband. Her work has been listed as Notable in the Best American Essays series, and her writing on race, parenting, gender, and culture has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, McSweeney's, The Rumpus, Brevity, dead housekeeping, Apogee Journal, Catapult, Harvard Review, ESPN's The Undefeated, The Baltimore Review, TueNight, Ebony and Bitch magazines, and various anthologies. Deesha is a Kimbilio Fiction Fellow and a past Pushcart Prize nominee for essay writing in Full Grown People.

Author Bio:Deesha Philyaw is an author, columnist, essayist, and public speaker.The Secret Lives of Church Ladies won the Story Prize (2020/2021), was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction, the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and a 2021 LA Times Book Prize: The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. Her work has been listed as Notable in the Best American Essays series, and her writing on race, parenting, gender, and culture has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, McSweeney's, The Rumpus, Brevity,  Apogee Journal, and elsewhere. Philyaw is a Kimbilio Fiction Fellow. To Learn More:Visit us online at Freedom Reads and follow us on Twitter @million_book

The History of Literature presents a short story by Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, produced by Storybound. PLUS! In preparation for our Writers Block episode, we hear from three great writers - Virginia Woolf, Iris Murdoch, and Franz Kafka - who privately (and achingly) wrote about not writing. Enjoy! Deesha Philyaw’s debut short story collection, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction, a finalist for The Story Prize (2020/2021), and longlisted for the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Her work has been listed as Notable in the Best American Essays series, and her writing on race, parenting, gender, and culture has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, McSweeney’s, The Rumpus, Brevity, dead housekeeping, Apogee Journal, Catapult, Harvard Review, ESPN’s The Undefeated, The Baltimore Review, TueNight, Ebony and Bitch magazines, and various anthologies. Deesha is a Kimbilio Fiction Fellow and a past Pushcart Prize nominee for essay writing in Full Grown People. The music composition and sound design for this story is by Glasys. Glasys (Gil Assayas) is a pianist, synthesist, producer and vocalist who delivers intricate virtuosic keyboard parts, electronic soundscapes and impassioned vocals in one package that combines his many influences including Electronic music, Alternative Rock, Jazz and Classical music. Storybound is a radio theater program designed for the podcast age. Hosted by Jude Brewer and with original music composed for each episode, the podcast features the voices of today’s literary icons reading their essays, poems, and fiction. Help support the History of Literature Podcast at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop. (We appreciate it!) Find out more at historyofliterature.com, jackewilson.com, or by following Jacke and Mike on Twitter at @thejackewilson and @literatureSC. Or send an email to jackewilsonauthor@gmail.com. New!!! Looking for an easy to way to buy Jacke a coffee? Now you can at paypal.me/jackewilson. Your generosity is much appreciated! The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Deesha Philyaw reads from her book "The Secret Lives of Church Ladies", with sound design and music composition from GLASYS. Deesha Philyaw’s debut short story collection, "The Secret Lives of Church Ladies" was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction, a finalist for The Story Prize (2020/2021), and longlisted for the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Her work has been listed as Notable in the Best American Essays series, and her writing on race, parenting, gender, and culture has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, McSweeney’s, The Rumpus, Brevity, dead housekeeping, Apogee Journal, Catapult, Harvard Review, ESPN’s The Undefeated, The Baltimore Review, TueNight, Ebony and Bitch magazines, and various anthologies. Deesha is a Kimbilio Fiction Fellow and a past Pushcart Prize nominee for essay writing in Full Grown People. GLASYS (Gil Assayas) is a pianist, synthesist, producer and vocalist who delivers intricate virtuosic keyboard parts, electronic soundscapes and impassioned vocals in one package that combines his many influences including Electronic music, Alternative Rock, Jazz and Classical music. This episode is brought to you by: Literati Kids is a try-before-you-buy subscription book club. Each month, Literati delivers five vibrantly illustrated children's books bringing the immersive magic of reading right to your home. Head to literati.com/storybound to find 25% your first 2 orders. This episode is brought to you by: Great Courses Plus is the premier video-on-demand service for lifelong learners. Storybound listeners get a month of unlimited access for free by going to thegreatcoursesplus.com/storybound. Betterhelp is a platform that provides affordable, private online counseling anywhere, anytime. Storybound listeners get 10% off your first month by going to betterhelp.com/sb. Storybound is hosted by Jude Brewer and brought to you by The Podglomerate and Lit Hub Radio. Let us know what you think of the show on Instagram and Twitter @storyboundpod. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren't an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we'd bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter : The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN. In this episode you'll hear: about putting your personal story onto the page, choosing between fiction and memoir to find your story's true voice, getting an MFA, the importance of having a good mentor, navigating the stories of others that intersect yours, creating beauty out of trauma, grief, BLM, and a discussion of the book The Names of All the Flowers. Our guest is: Melissa Valentine, author of The Names of All the Flowers. She is a writer from Oakland, CA. She earned her BA from Sarah Lawrence College and her MFA in creative writing from Mills College. She has been a fellow at the San Francisco Writers' Grotto, and her work has appeared in Jezebel, Guernica, Apogee Journal, and others. Her writing has received honorable mention from Glimmer Train, and the Ardella Mills Non-fiction Award. She works as an editor, and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. Your host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality. Listeners to this episode might be interested in: The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin Between the World and Me by Ta Nehisi Coates Create Dangerously by Edwidge Danticat The Purpose of Power by Alicia Garza Dust Tracks On a Road by Zora Neale Hurston Soldier by June Jordan Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde The Source of Self-Regard by Toni Morrison Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward "How Racism Makes Us Sick" [TedTalk] "How Childhood Trauma Affects Health Across A Lifetime" [TedTalk] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Set in rapidly gentrifying 1990s Oakland, this memoir explores siblinghood, adolescence, and grief in a family shattered by loss. Melissa Valentine and her older brother Junior grow up running around the disparate neighborhoods of 1990s Oakland, two of six children to a white Quaker father and a black Southern mother. But as Junior approaches adolescence, a bullying incident and later a violent attack in school leave him searching for power and a sense of self in all the wrong places; he develops a hard front and falls into drug dealing. Right before Junior’s twentieth birthday, the family is torn apart when he is murdered as a result of gun violence. The Names of All the Flowers: A Memoir (The Feminist Press, 2020) connects one tragic death to a collective grief for all black people who die too young. A lyrical recounting of a life lost, Melissa Valentine’s debut memoir is an intimate portrait of a family fractured by the school-to-prison pipeline and an enduring love letter to an adored older brother. It is a call for justice amid endless cycles of violence, grief, and trauma, declaring: “We are all witness and therefore no one is spared from this loss.” Melissa Valentine is a writer from Oakland, CA. She earned her BA from Sarah Lawrence College and her MFA in creative writing from Mills College. She has been a fellow at the San Francisco Writers' Grotto, and her work has appeared in Jezebel, Guernica, Apogee Journal, and others. Her writing has received honorable mention from Glimmer Train and the Ardella Mills Non-fiction Award. She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. Dr. Christina Gessler’s background is in American women’s history, and literature. She specializes in the diaries written by rural women in the 19th century. In seeking the extraordinary in the ordinary, Gessler writes the histories of largely unknown women, and poems about small relatable moments.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Set in rapidly gentrifying 1990s Oakland, this memoir explores siblinghood, adolescence, and grief in a family shattered by loss. Melissa Valentine and her older brother Junior grow up running around the disparate neighborhoods of 1990s Oakland, two of six children to a white Quaker father and a black Southern mother. But as Junior approaches adolescence, a bullying incident and later a violent attack in school leave him searching for power and a sense of self in all the wrong places; he develops a hard front and falls into drug dealing. Right before Junior’s twentieth birthday, the family is torn apart when he is murdered as a result of gun violence. The Names of All the Flowers: A Memoir (The Feminist Press, 2020) connects one tragic death to a collective grief for all black people who die too young. A lyrical recounting of a life lost, Melissa Valentine’s debut memoir is an intimate portrait of a family fractured by the school-to-prison pipeline and an enduring love letter to an adored older brother. It is a call for justice amid endless cycles of violence, grief, and trauma, declaring: “We are all witness and therefore no one is spared from this loss.” Melissa Valentine is a writer from Oakland, CA. She earned her BA from Sarah Lawrence College and her MFA in creative writing from Mills College. She has been a fellow at the San Francisco Writers' Grotto, and her work has appeared in Jezebel, Guernica, Apogee Journal, and others. Her writing has received honorable mention from Glimmer Train and the Ardella Mills Non-fiction Award. She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. Dr. Christina Gessler’s background is in American women’s history, and literature. She specializes in the diaries written by rural women in the 19th century. In seeking the extraordinary in the ordinary, Gessler writes the histories of largely unknown women, and poems about small relatable moments.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Set in rapidly gentrifying 1990s Oakland, this memoir explores siblinghood, adolescence, and grief in a family shattered by loss. Melissa Valentine and her older brother Junior grow up running around the disparate neighborhoods of 1990s Oakland, two of six children to a white Quaker father and a black Southern mother. But as Junior approaches adolescence, a bullying incident and later a violent attack in school leave him searching for power and a sense of self in all the wrong places; he develops a hard front and falls into drug dealing. Right before Junior’s twentieth birthday, the family is torn apart when he is murdered as a result of gun violence. The Names of All the Flowers: A Memoir (The Feminist Press, 2020) connects one tragic death to a collective grief for all black people who die too young. A lyrical recounting of a life lost, Melissa Valentine’s debut memoir is an intimate portrait of a family fractured by the school-to-prison pipeline and an enduring love letter to an adored older brother. It is a call for justice amid endless cycles of violence, grief, and trauma, declaring: “We are all witness and therefore no one is spared from this loss.” Melissa Valentine is a writer from Oakland, CA. She earned her BA from Sarah Lawrence College and her MFA in creative writing from Mills College. She has been a fellow at the San Francisco Writers' Grotto, and her work has appeared in Jezebel, Guernica, Apogee Journal, and others. Her writing has received honorable mention from Glimmer Train and the Ardella Mills Non-fiction Award. She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. Dr. Christina Gessler’s background is in American women’s history, and literature. She specializes in the diaries written by rural women in the 19th century. In seeking the extraordinary in the ordinary, Gessler writes the histories of largely unknown women, and poems about small relatable moments.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Set in rapidly gentrifying 1990s Oakland, this memoir explores siblinghood, adolescence, and grief in a family shattered by loss. Melissa Valentine and her older brother Junior grow up running around the disparate neighborhoods of 1990s Oakland, two of six children to a white Quaker father and a black Southern mother. But as Junior approaches adolescence, a bullying incident and later a violent attack in school leave him searching for power and a sense of self in all the wrong places; he develops a hard front and falls into drug dealing. Right before Junior’s twentieth birthday, the family is torn apart when he is murdered as a result of gun violence. The Names of All the Flowers: A Memoir (The Feminist Press, 2020) connects one tragic death to a collective grief for all black people who die too young. A lyrical recounting of a life lost, Melissa Valentine’s debut memoir is an intimate portrait of a family fractured by the school-to-prison pipeline and an enduring love letter to an adored older brother. It is a call for justice amid endless cycles of violence, grief, and trauma, declaring: “We are all witness and therefore no one is spared from this loss.” Melissa Valentine is a writer from Oakland, CA. She earned her BA from Sarah Lawrence College and her MFA in creative writing from Mills College. She has been a fellow at the San Francisco Writers' Grotto, and her work has appeared in Jezebel, Guernica, Apogee Journal, and others. Her writing has received honorable mention from Glimmer Train and the Ardella Mills Non-fiction Award. She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. Dr. Christina Gessler’s background is in American women’s history, and literature. She specializes in the diaries written by rural women in the 19th century. In seeking the extraordinary in the ordinary, Gessler writes the histories of largely unknown women, and poems about small relatable moments.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“It’s a strengthening of the will. It’s letting them surrender into their purpose of service."Yin Q is a BDSM ritualist/educator, mother to two fierce children and two calm animals, and writer of Mercy Mistress, a web series based on Q’s memoirs of coming-into- kink and sex work (Exec Prod. Margaret Cho). Yin founded Kink Out to bring together intersectional peoples of the leather/kink communities for art, conversation, and activism. Their writing is in BUST, Afro-Asia, Queer Magic, Apogee Journal, and the upcoming #WeToo Anthology published by Feminist Press. They are currently working on a documentary on Red Canary Song, the sex worker organization that advocates for Asian Migrant Massage Parlor Workers.@YinQ13@Kink Out @Red Canary Song IonaPearl is Assistant Manager and Sex Specialist at the Pleasure Chest Upper East Side. They are a Queer, Black Femme, and energetic Libra. IonaPearl is an abortion, contraception, and miscarriage Doula, and aspiring social worker. In their free time, IonaPearl enjoys reading (Sister Outsider), eating (Sour Patch Children), and crystals (Tiger's Eye). @ionathepearl See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The panel discussion from our event on January 8, 2019, featuring Jen Doll (UNCLAIMED BAGGAGE and SAVE THE DATE), Jaclyn Gilbert (LATE AIR), and Crystal Hana Kim (IF YOU LEAVE ME). Find more details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/lic-reading-series/lic-reading-jen-doll-jaclyn-gilbert-crystal-hana-kim/989092187953921/ About our readers: JEN DOLL is a freelance journalist and the author of the young adult novel Unclaimed Baggage as well as the memoir Save the Date: The Occasional Mortifications of a Serial Wedding Guest. She's written for The Atlantic, Glamour, New York magazine, The New York Times, Topic, The Village Voice, The Week, and other publications. JACLYN GILBERT grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, running along its back roads in the Amish countryside. She ran Division I Cross Country and Track & Field at Yale, where she majored in English and French. After working in book publishing for several years, she earned her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. She currently holds a research fellowship from the New York Public Library, and her stories and essays have appeared or are forthcoming from Post Road Magazine, Tin House, Literary Hub, Longreads, and elsewhere. Late Air, her first novel, released from Little A in November. CRYSTAL HANA KIM’s debut novel If You Leave Me was named a best book of 2018 by The Washington Post, ALA Booklist, Literary Hub, Cosmopolitan, and more. It was longlisted for the Center for Fiction Novel Prize. Crystal was a 2017 PEN America Dau Short Story Prize winner and has received scholarships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Hedgebrook, Jentel, among others. Her work has been published in Elle magazine, The Paris Review, The Washington Post, and elsewhere. She is a contributing editor at Apogee Journal. This event is made possible in part by the Queens Council on the Arts with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. - - - This event was made possible in part by the Queens Council on the Arts, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Thank you to our local sponsors: LIC Bar, Astoria Bookshop, Sweetleaf Coffee, Gantry Bar LIC, and LIC Corner Cafe. Learn more at licreadingseries.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Readings from our event on January 8, 2019, featuring Jen Doll (UNCLAIMED BAGGAGE and SAVE THE DATE), Jaclyn Gilbert (LATE AIR), and Crystal Hana Kim (IF YOU LEAVE ME). Find more details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/lic-reading-series/lic-reading-jen-doll-jaclyn-gilbert-crystal-hana-kim/989092187953921/ About our readers: JEN DOLL is a freelance journalist and the author of the young adult novel Unclaimed Baggage as well as the memoir Save the Date: The Occasional Mortifications of a Serial Wedding Guest. She's written for The Atlantic, Glamour, New York magazine, The New York Times, Topic, The Village Voice, The Week, and other publications. JACLYN GILBERT grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, running along its back roads in the Amish countryside. She ran Division I Cross Country and Track & Field at Yale, where she majored in English and French. After working in book publishing for several years, she earned her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. She currently holds a research fellowship from the New York Public Library, and her stories and essays have appeared or are forthcoming from Post Road Magazine, Tin House, Literary Hub, Longreads, and elsewhere. Late Air, her first novel, released from Little A in November. CRYSTAL HANA KIM’s debut novel If You Leave Me was named a best book of 2018 by The Washington Post, ALA Booklist, Literary Hub, Cosmopolitan, and more. It was longlisted for the Center for Fiction Novel Prize. Crystal was a 2017 PEN America Dau Short Story Prize winner and has received scholarships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Hedgebrook, Jentel, among others. Her work has been published in Elle magazine, The Paris Review, The Washington Post, and elsewhere. She is a contributing editor at Apogee Journal. - - - This event was made possible in part by the Queens Council on the Arts, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Thank you to our local sponsors: LIC Bar, Astoria Bookshop, Sweetleaf Coffee, Gantry Bar LIC, and LIC Corner Cafe. Learn more at licreadingseries.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"When men feel like they're disempowered, it's easy for them to create power by bonding together and belittling women." - Crystal Hana Kim   Crystal Hana Kim’s debut novel If You Leave Me was named a best book of 2018 by The Washington Post, Booklist, Literary Hub, The New York Post, Cosmopolitan, Real Simple, Nylon, and others. It was also longlisted for the Center for Fiction Novel Prize. It is now available in paperback! Kim was a 2017 PEN America Dau Short Story Prize winner and has received scholarships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Hedgebrook, and Jentel, among others. Her work has been published in Elle Magazine, The Paris Review, The Washington Post, and elsewhere. She is a contributing editor at Apogee Journal.  Connect with Crystal on her website, Instagram or Twitter.  Crystal's book recommendations: Halsey Street by Naima Coster and Chemistry by Weike Wang   Also mentioned in this episode: Feminist Book Club ep. 24: Top 5 Feminist Books with Traci Thomas #HappyPeriod - hashtaghappyperiod.org and @wearehappyperiod   Get $5 off your Feminist Book Club Box with the code PODCAST at feministbookclub.com/shop. -- Website: http://www.feministbookclub.com Instagram: @feministbookclubbox Twitter: @fmnstbookclub Facebook: /feministbookclubbox Email newsletter: http://eepurl.com/dINNkn   -- Logo and web design by Shatterboxx  Editing support from Phalin Oliver Original music by @iam.onyxrose Transcript for this episode: bit.ly/FBCtranscript39   Get $5 off your Feminist Book Club Box with the code PODCAST at feministbookclub.com/shop.  

MT Vallarta is a poet and Ph.D. candidate in Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Riverside, where they study feminist theory, queer theory, and Filipinx poetics. Their work is published in Nat. Brut, Rabbit Catastrophe Press, Broadly, Apogee Journal, Weird Sister, TAYO Literary Magazine, and others. They were raised and live in Los Angeles, CA.

We chat with Crystal Hana Kim about her debut novel If You Leave Me, which is out now from William Morrow! We are having a special deal in our Etsy store! Use the code promo code NOBELWOMEN for 15% off a book blind date or a Reading Women tote! We're having a meet up at the AJC Decatur Book Festival! Sign up for updates about times and locations here and check out the official website for the festival here. (Note: our meet up is not an official festival event.) Books Mentioned If You Leave Me by Crystal Hana Kim Author Bio Crystal Hana Kim holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University and an MS in Education from Hunter College. She has received numerous awards, including PEN America’s Story Prize for Emerging Writers, along with fellowships and support from the Bread Loaf’s Writers Conference and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. She is currently a writing instructor for Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America and a contributing editor at Apogee Journal. Born and raised in New York, she currently lives in Brooklyn. This is her first novel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Watch the video here. A cofounder and former publisher of Apogee Journal and a contributing editor for Literary Hub, Zinzi Clemmons has had work published in a variety of literary magazines, including Zoetrope: All Story, The Paris Review Daily, and Transition. Raised in Philadelphia to a South African mother and an American father, Clemmons teaches in Los Angeles at The Coleburn Conservatory and Occidental College. Her debut novel, What We Lose, tells the story of Thandi, a young woman caught between cultures as she struggles with love, unexpected motherhood, and the loss of the person who shaped her the most.  (recorded 7/13/2017)

From an author of rare, haunting power, a stunning novel about a young African-American woman coming of age--a deeply felt meditation on race, sex, family, and country.  Raised in Pennsylvania, Thandi views the world of her mother's childhood in Johannesburg as both impossibly distant and ever present. She is an outsider wherever she goes, caught between being black and white, American and not. She tries to connect these dislocated pieces of her life, and as her mother succumbs to cancer, Thandi searches for an anchor--someone, or something, to love. In arresting and unsettling prose, we watch Thandi's life unfold, from losing her mother and learning to live without the person who has most profoundly shaped her existence, to her own encounters with romance and unexpected motherhood. Through exquisite and emotional vignettes, Clemmons creates a stunning portrayal of what it means to choose to live, after loss. An elegiac distillation, at once intellectual and visceral, of a young woman's understanding of absence and identity that spans continents and decades, What We Lose heralds the arrival of a virtuosic new voice in fiction. Praise for What We Lose "Penetratingly good and written in vivid still life, What We Lose reads like a guided tour through a melancholic Van Gogh exhibit--wonderfully chromatic, transfixing and bursting with emotion. Zinzi Clemmons's debut novel signals the emergence of a voice that refuses to be ignored." --Paul Beatty, author of The Sellout  "An intimate narrative that often makes another life as believable as your own." --John Edgar Wideman, author of Writing to Save a Life  "The narrator of What We Lose navigates the many registers of grief, love and injustice, moving between the death of her mother and the birth of her son, as well as an America of blacks and whites and a South Africa of Coloreds. What an intricate mapping of inner and outer geographies! Clemmons's prose is rhythmically exact and acutely moving. No experience is left unexamined or unimagined." --Margo Jefferson, author of Negroland  "Zinzi Clemmons' first book heralds the work of a new writer with a true and lasting voice--one that is just right for our complicated millennium. Bright and filled with shadows, humor, and trenchant insights into what it means to have a heart divided by different cultures, What We Lose is a win, just right for the ages." --Hilton Als, author of White Girls  "I love how Zinzi Clemmons complicates identity in What We Lose. Her main character is both South African and American, privileged and outsider, driven by desire and gutted by grief. This is a piercingly beautiful first novel." --Danzy Senna, author of New People  "It takes a rare, gifted writer to make her readers look at day-to-day aspects of the world around them anew. Zinzi Clemmons is one such writer.What We Lose immerses us in a world of complex ideas and issues with ease. Clemmons imbues each aspect of this novel with clear, nuanced thinking and emotional heft. Part meditation on loss, part examination of identity as it relates to ethnicity, nationality, gender and class, and part intimate look at one woman's coming of age, What We Lose announces a talented new voice in fiction." --Angela Flournoy, author of The Turner House  "Wise and tender and possessed of a fiercely insightful intimacy, What We Lose is a lyrical ode to the complexities of race, love, illness, parenthood, and the hairline fractures they leave behind. Zinzi Clemmons has gifted the reader a rare and thoughtful emotional topography, a map to the mirror regions of their own heart." --Alexandra Kleeman, author of You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine  Zinzi Clemmons was raised in Philadelphia by a South African mother and an American father. She is a cofounder and former publisher of Apogee Journal, a contributing editor to Literary Hub, and deputy editor for Phoneme Media. Her writing has appeared in Zoetrope, The Paris Review Daily, Transition, and the Common. She has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Bread Loaf, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and the Kimbilio Center for African American Fiction. Clemmons lives in Los Angeles with her husband. Event date:  Wednesday, July 12, 2017 - 7:30pm

Bani Amor is a queer travel writer, photographer and activist from Brooklyn by way of Ecuador who explores diasporic identities, the decolonization of travel culture, and the intersections of race, place and power in their work. They've been published in Bitch Magazine and Apogee Journal, among other outlets. On today's show we discuss how race and power impact travel narratives as well as dining and memorable dining experiences Bani has had while traveling. A Hungry Society is powered by Simplecast

Deesha is a writer and editor based in Pittsburgh, PA. She is intrinsic to The Bridge Series www.facebook.com/pghbridgeseries started by Kristofer Collins and Jason Baldinger in January 2017. Deesha is the co-author of Co-Parenting 101: Helping Your Kids Thrive in Two Households After Divorce, written in collaboration with her ex-husband. Her writing has appeared in numerous outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Bitch, Full Grown People, Apogee Journal, brevity, and Dead Housekeeping. Deesha’s work includes a Notable Essay in The Best American Essays 2016. At The Rumpus, Deesha inaugurated and curates a monthly interview column called VISIBLE: Women Writers of Color. She is a fellow of the Kimbilio Center for African American Fiction. She is currently working on a novel as a well as a short story collection called The Secret Lives of Church Ladies. Follow Deesha Philyaw at https://deeshaphilyaw.contently.com/ on social media & on www.littsburgh.com

Ryan Gattis is the author of Kung Fu and All Involved, which won the American Library Association’s Alex Award & the Lire Award for Noir of the Year in France. Gattis lives and writes in Los Angeles, where he is a member of the street art crew UGLARworks & a founding board member of 1888, a Southern California literary arts non-profit. Ryan’s latest novel is Safe. Zinzi Clemmons was raised in Philadelphia by a South African mother and an American father. Her writing has appeared in Zoetrope: All-Story, the Paris Review Daily, Transition and elsewhere. She is a cofounder and former publisher of Apogee Journal and a contributing editor to Literary Hub. Clemmons lives in Los Angeles and teaches at the Colburn Conservatory and Occidental College. Zinzi’s debut novel is What We Lose. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Named a “Writer Worth Knowing” in The New York Times Summer Book Preview Named a summer 2017 recommended read by The New York Times, Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, Elle, The Millions, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Nylon, Houston Chronicle, Redbook, and Time Zinzi Clemmons’ WHAT WE LOSE is a powerful and innovative debut novel that questions the nature of identity, grief, and love through the eyes of a young woman who loses her mother to cancer. Told in visceral vignettes that draw from autofiction, online media, and encyclopedia, WHAT WE LOSE is a thoughtful, poignant debut from a promising new voice. At the beginning of the novel we meet Thandi, a second generation South African American of mixed race growing up in the Philadelphia suburbs. Thandi is raised by her South African mother, yet in Thandi’s daily life she is immersed in the culture of “American Blacks . . . my precarious homeland.” “Because of my light skin and foreign roots,” Clemmons writes, “I was never fully accepted by any race.” This feeling, of being detached from a tribe, the loneliness of a perpetual outsider, follows her throughout her life. Her mother, a pillar of strength in their family, becomes ill while Thandi is at college, and eventually Thandi leaves school to care for her. After her mother’s death, Thandi struggles to anchor herself to a self-image and to relationships that seem increasingly tenuous to her. She falls in love and fashions an unexpected new family for herself, only to find herself uncomfortable in it—an interloper again—and still deeply disoriented by the loss of her mother. Clemmons intersperses the narrative with photography, text messages, excerpts from blogs and newspaper articles; the effect is by turns playful and haunting. The primary sources create intimate and sprawling connections between the reader, Thandi, and the novel’s larger questions: about the construct of race, injustice within social systems, the durability of love, and the ability to overcome grief. In this way WHAT WE LOSE confronts the horrors and the legacy of Apartheid, and the tyranny of race in the personal and political realms. The meditations in WHAT WE LOSE are deeply felt, not least because its themes are informed by the author’s personal experiences. www.zinziclemmons.com Twitter: @zinziclemmons ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Zinzi Clemmons was raised in Philadelphia by a South African mother and an American father. She is a graduate of Brown and Columbia universities, and her writing has appeared in Zoetrope: All Story, The Paris Review Daily, Transition, and elsewhere. She is a cofounder and former publisher of Apogee Journal, a contributing editor to Literary Hub. She has been in residence at the MacDowell Colony, Bread Loaf, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and the Dar al-Ma’mûn, Morocco. Clemmons lives in Los Angeles with her husband.

Lisa Ko is the author of The Leavers, a novel which won the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction and will be published by Algonquin Books in May 2017. Her writing has appeared in Best American Short Stories 2016, The New York Times, Apogee Journal, Narrative, O. Magazine, Copper Nickel, Storychord, One Teen Story, Brooklyn Review, and elsewhere. A co-founder of Hyphen and a fiction editor at Drunken Boat, Lisa has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the MacDowell Colony, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, Writers OMI at Ledig House, the Jerome Foundation, Blue Mountain Center, the Van Lier Foundation, Hawthornden Castle, the I-Park Foundation, the Anderson Center, the Constance Saltonstall Foundation, and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center. Born in Queens and raised in Jersey, she lives in Brooklyn.

Tyler Gillespie is the palest Floridian you’ll ever meet. His poems appear in Apogee Journal, Columbia Poetry Review, PANK, Juked, Exposition Review, Hobart, and Prelude, among other places. Find him at TylerMTG.com. On the Edge is a production of Cleaver Magazine and is produced by Ryan Evans. Visit cleavermagazine.com for more high quality art and literary work.

Friday Reading Series Joey De Jesus is originally from the Soundview neighborhood of the Bronx. He received his B.A. from Oberlin College and his M.F.A. in Poetry from Sarah Lawrence College. His work has appeared in The Cortland Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Devil's Lake, Guernica, Rhino, Versal and elsewhere. He is the poetry editor at Apogee Journal & lives in NYC. Jaime Shearn Coan lives in Brooklyn, New York. His poems have appeared in publications including Drunken Boat, The Portland Review, and Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry. His writings on dance can be found each month in the Brooklyn Rail. Jaime has received fellowships from Poets House, VCCA, Tin House, and the Saltonstall Foundation, and is the recipient of a 2014 Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant. A PhD student in English at The Graduate Center in his spare time, Jaime also teaches creative writing at The City College of New York. His poetry chapbook, Turn it Over, was recently published by Argos Books.

Friday Reading Series Amber Atiya is the author of the chapbook the fierce bums of doo-wop (Argos Books, 2014). Her poems have been published most recently in Nepantla: A Journal Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color, Boston Review, Black Renaissance Noire, Atlas Review, and Apogee Journal. A proud native Brooklynite, she is a member of a women's writing group that will be celebrating thirteen years next spring. Laryssa Husiak is theater artist living in Minneapolis with roots in New York City. In January 2014, her original play She Is King premiered at the Incubator Arts Project. The show, in which she stars as Billie Jean King, will tour to Portland, Oregon in Spring 2015. She has written numerous short plays and solo performances that have been performed at venues throughout NYC, including La MaMa ETC, HERE Arts Center and Dixon Place. Laryssa has been awarded grants from the Iowa Arts Council, Art Matters and the Yip Harburg Foundation; and fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and Yaddo. She was a finalist for the 2014 Leslie Scalapino Award for her play THE FORGETTABLE SAGA OF DONNA WANNA. Laryssa is a member of the Obie Award-winning theater company Two-Headed Calf and a founding member of their Dyke Division. She attended NYU's Experimental Theater Wing and holds of Master of Social Work from Columbia University.

Friday Reading Series Chialun Chang was born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan. She is a poet, translator, visual artist and an events coordinator at Belladonna* Collaborative. A recipient of two teaching fellowships, She has taught Chinese in Vietnam and Mississippi, and is a recipient of 2015 Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program from NYFA. Her most recent work has appeared or forthcoming in The Home School, The Brooklyn Rail, Bone Bouquet, iO poetry and Boog City. Two of her translation chapbooks, written by Zhang Er and Yu Wang have published by Belladonna* Collaborative. Cecca Ochoa's fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Art XX, Aorta Magazine, Terraform, and MAKE Literary Magazine. She serves as Managing Editor for Apogee Journal.

Today's episode features work from the new issue of Apogee Journal. (Today's episode also features the sound of several low-flying jets on their way to land at LaGuardia Airport.) Apogee publishes art and writing that engage with issues of identity politics, and today's readers, Morgan Parker (reading poems) and Stacy Parker Le Melle (with an essay), show just how gorgeous, compelling, funny, smart, thoughtful, and intriguing that work can be. For more info: CatapultReads.com and ApogeeJournal.org.