Podcasts about awp conference

The queens dish this year's AWP Conference!Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. Notes: The Association of Writers and Writing Programs can be found online at www.awpwriter.org Marcela Fuentes is the author of the award-winning novel Malas and you can find her online at https://www.marcelafuentes.comCheck out the exhibit Flesh World at Central Server Works, showcasing paintings by Monica Berger and Sofia Heftersmith.Julie Marie Wade's The Mary Yearsis a novella which won The 2023 Clay Reynolds Novella Prize, selected by Michael Martone.Purchase a copy of the Maureen Seaton tribute book When I Was StraightCheck out "From the Motel-By-the-Hour" (originally in The Iowa Review) from Nancy K. Pearson's book Two Minutes of Light from Perugia here.Claire J. Bateman's book is The Pillow Museum, available from the University of Alabama PressJen Jabaily-Blackburn's Girl in a Bear Suit won the Elixir Press Award. Buy it from her on her website: https://www.jenjabailyblackburn.comEmily Lee Luan won the Nightboat Poetry Prize for Return. Visit her website here.More information about the Civitella Ranieri Foundation can be found here.  James's Best American Poetry 2025 selection is called "Inheritance at Corresponding Periods of Life, at Corresponding Seasons of the Year, as Limited by Sex" originally published in Adroit Journal.

Today's poem is Flame by C.D. Wright. Last week, our team attended the 2025 AWP Conference in Los Angeles. AWP is the Association of Writers and Writing Programs — the conference is an annual moment to gather together colleagues across the writer world. This week's episodes include audio we recorded onsite, bringing together many voices, Slowdown style. Today's poem catalogs the chaos of disaster, forming a portrait of the speaker's experience, minute observation by minute observation. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

Today's poem is The Ways of Remembering Women by Lynne Thompson. Last week, our team attended the 2025 AWP Conference in Los Angeles. AWP is the Association of Writers and Writing Programs — the conference is an annual moment to gather together colleagues across the writer world. This week's episodes include audio we recorded onsite, bringing together many voices, Slowdown style. Today's poem, by Los Angeles' most recent poet laureate, begins with one of the city's most famous mysteries — and goes on to consider reclaiming the stories of women in this land of reinvention.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

Today's poem is [as freedom is a breakfastfood] by E.E. Cummings.Last week, our team attended the 2025 AWP Conference in Los Angeles. AWP is the Association of Writers and Writing Programs — the conference is an annual moment to gather together colleagues across the writer world. This week's episodes include audio we recorded onsite, bringing together many voices, Slowdown style. Today's poem explores our subjectivity, exposing the beauty and the ridiculousness in our impermanence. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

Enzo Silon Surin writes, composes, and publishes artifacts on the “witness continuum”—art that he says “pays homage to the culture in which it was formed” and the necessity of generational change. Surin's work spans librettos commissioned by the Boston Opera Collaborative, four poetry collections, and a musical-in-the-making. He also founded Central Square Press, an independent publisher of works that “reflect a commitment to social justice in regards to African-American, Caribbean, and Caribbean-American communities.”We had the pleasure of chatting with Surin about how he came to writing as means of documentation—from intuitively producing plays and operas about his childhood in Queens to developing his 10-minute play, “Last Train” (which has a forthcoming operatic adaptation). We discussed the juxtaposition of violence and tenderness in his collection, When My Body Was A Clinched Fist, winner of the 21st Annual Massachusetts Book Awards. Between witnessing the coup that forced Surin from Haiti and the “social violence” he saw in New York, he says he grew up in “state of violence.” It was by becoming a “clinched fist” that Surin says he protected his innate compassion and resilience. Finally, Surin celebrates how writing “saved [his] life” and speaks from the corner of publishing he's forged, where he's found that real-life audiences hungry for quality work “already exist." Honorable mentionsWhen My Body Was A Clinched Fist (recorded reading)American ScapegoatCentral Square PressCheesy love songs in the style of Barry White Bloomsday Literary in partnership with Official 2023 AWP Conference and Bookfair

Does Alyson Sinclair sleep? We had to keep asking ourselves as we chatted it up with Alyson from the floor of AWP (Association of Writing and Writing Program)'s Conference and Bookfair. She's done it all when it comes to the writing world—bouncing between the bureaucracy of big-four publishers—um, she sent faxes to Seamus Heaney?—to the hustle and bustle world (emphasis on the hustle) of independent presses. Currently, Alyson is the Owner/Publisher at The Rumpus and founder of Nectar Literary, a boutique publicity and communications firm for authors, independent presses, and literary organizations of all ilk. Making literary community might just be the crux of our conversation. After learning that hunker-down-and-drink-tea-all-day-with-page-turny-manuscripts editorial roles are not the default at an eye-opening internship, she turned to publicity. Connecting authors to the broader writing ecosystem thrilled her. Publicity and pitching media, in Alyson's eyes, is a fascinating form of problem solving. Her insight comes from a wide range of experiences in all corners of our ecosystem, spanning from soliciting advertising at a magazine, to setting off individually in the convoluted publishing universe, to coexisting with other literary collectives that share the same mission. Let's just say—both before and after soaking in this conversation—Bloomsday is a certified Alyson Sinclair fangirl. Honorable Mentions:Independent Press, Alice James BooksIndependent Press, City LightsLiterary Network, Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP)Literary Magazine, CrazyhorseNonprofit Publisher, Graywolf PressDirector of Coffee House Press, Mark HaberNonprofit Publisher, McSweeney'sSeamus HeaneyYusef Komunyakaa Audio by Bloomsday Literary in partnership with the official 2023 AWP Conference & Bookfair

Poetry “carr[ies] the most human of voices” for Deema Shehabi, a Palestinian-American writer whose work has appeared in publications including The Poetry of Arab Women: A Contemporary Anthology and Kenyon Review. Shehabi earned her undergraduate degree in History and International Relations from Tufts University and Master's in Journalism from Boston University, previously served as the vice president of the Radius of Arab American Writers, and has received four Pushcart prize nominations. She is the author of Thirteen Departures from the Moon and Diaspo/Renga, the latter of which she co-wrote with Marilyn Hacker. In this episode, Shehabi shares how Diaspo/Renga emerged out of four years of email correspondence with Hacker. Together, we celebrate the collection as a testament to the “private humanity” between its two poets. Shehabi also speaks to the homes she's found in Palestine, Kuwait, and California and the “perpetual expansion and contraction” that accompanies exile and return in her life. In negotiating this state of flux in her relationship with language, Shehabi talks about the burden of translation and always having to “teach people how to read” when she writes. Finally, Shehabi gifts us a striking reading of her poem, “Tracery of Dune and Chamomile,” which is modeled after Marie Howe and gazes upon the truth of humanity and intersections.Honorable MentionsRadius of Arab American Writers Diaspo/RengaEdward Said, “Reflections on Exile”Naomi Shihab Nye“Migrant Earth”, featured as Poem-a-Day on Poets.org Audio by Bloomsday Literary in partnership with the official 2023 AWP Conference & Bookfair Photo credit: Omar F. Khorsheed

Exploring the specificities of a diaspora while also calling upon ancestral experiences is just one of the many threads Maha Ahmed weaves through her poetry. Like many members of diasporic communities, Maha's experiences as an Egyptian American do not always resemble the grossly generalized “immigrant story.” We had the opportunity to chat with Maha about writing herself out of this pigeonhole, as well as how she experiences life as a student, scholar, and poet.She received her MFA at the University of Oregon, and is now a literature and creative writing PhD candidate at the University of Houston (Go Coogs!). She specializes in colonial Egypt, Arab-American diasporic literature, and Arabic to English translation. We talked with her about Rusted Radishes, a Beirut-based literary magazine, and the big-city-but-small-world way she was offered the position as its poetry editor. We dive deep into the US-centric and profoundly skewed notion that immigrants' stories only matter once they land on US soil. It is exactly for that reason, Maha insists, people of the diaspora can acknowledge ancestral ties to a place even when it may feel uncomfortable to do so with a hyphenated or dual identity. Honorable Mentions: Rusted RadishesArs Poetica, published in The Recluse, Issue 17Professor Tim Mazurek Audio by Bloomsday Literary in partnership with the official 2023 AWP Conference & Bookfair

Matt Bell is an author, English professor, and editor. He currently teaches creative writing at Arizona State University. In this episode live from the conference floor at AWP 2023, we're celebrating the one-year anniversary of his indispensable book on the craft of writing, Refuse to Be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts. We also discuss his dystopian novel, Appleseed, and and his admiration for climate writing that restores hope for humanity.Listen to the full episode to find out what Bell means when he advocates for ‘radical revising' and his mission to conceptualize revision as a process that can transform a draft into a novel, rather than an assignment needed to be completed for school. We also discuss his dreamy ten-plus-year relationship working with Soho Press (shout out to the indie stalwarts!), and some of the advice he gives to his students: 1) allow readers space to figure out things for themselves, 2) experiment with non-traditional writing structures, and 3) work through tangly writing problems together. Finally, Bell ends this episode with advice for gaining inspiration for your next work and the unfortunate discovery that you can learn what your agent truly thinks of you through their editorial notes (writer beware!). Honorable Mentions: A Tree or a Person or a Wall, Bell's short story collection His incredibly good Substack (a must-read for any writer), No Failure, Only Practice In the House Upon the Dirt between the Lake and the Woods, the “truly weird” novel (Matt's words) that was allowed to just be itself by the good editors at Soho PressLastly, while we're still down the rabbit hole, check out his non-fiction book-length essay on the video game, Baldur's Gate II. Photo credit Jessica Bell Audio by Bloomsday Literary in partnership with the official 2023 AWP Conference & Bookfair

V.V. Ganeshananthan is an author, poet, and journalist, whose works have been featured in Granta, The New York Times, and The Best American Nonrequired Reading. She currently teaches in the MFA program at the University of Minnesota as a McKnight Presidential Fellow and associate professor of English. Ganeshananthan also co-hosts the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast with Whitney Terrell, which explores writers and literature as mouthpieces for our cultural landscape. In this episode, we talk about Ganeshananthan's 18-year-long writing process for her latest novel. Ganeshananthan maps her journey with Brotherless Night, from “bluffing her way into” a novella class during her own time as an MFA student to her techniques for “fielding facial expressions” of doubt over the novel's completion. We revel in our common ground in the literary ecosystem, with Bloomsday poet Jabari Asim and Kate and Jessica's longtime mentor, Michael Knight, both appearing on the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast. While fondly recounting how MFA writers at the University of Minnesota experiment in “speed-dating” to “workshop the workshop,” Ganeshananthan reflects on the value of an MFA program that isn't genre-siloed and the living body of work that speaks to writers of color. Finally, while celebrating the release of Brotherless Night and asking what's next for Ganeshananthan's writing, we try to “remember how to start things.” Honorable MentionsBrotherless Night by V.V. GaneshananthanFiction/Non/FictionUniversity of Minnesota MFALetters to A Writer of Color edited by Deepa Anappara and Taymour SoomroCraft and Conscience: How to Write About Social Issues by Kavita Das photo credit Sophia Mayrhofer Audio by Bloomsday Literary in partnership with the official 2023 AWP Conference & Bookfair

In this episode of Transposition, we recap our wonderful Association of Writers and Publisher's panel discussion on the challenges and strategies for maintaining longevity in independent literary journals. Mellinda Hensley, moderator, reminisces on the event with panelist CD Eskilson. They also discuss the importance of community in building and sustaining a literary journal. Tune in to hear the insights and advice from this panel of experienced and passionate independent literary journal editors. At the end, we hear from other lit journal editors on maintaining longevity as a lit journal. Click through for more information about: The Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP), and the annual AWP Conference. Viva Padilla's literary ventures sin/cesar Literary Journal and re/arte centro literario  Door=Jar Magazine (Maxwell Bauman, EIC) Defunct Magazine and Porterhouse Review (Diamond Braxton, EIC & Copy Editor)  Calyx Press (Brenda Crotty, Senior Editor) Exposition Review and our latest issue LINES About Mellinda Hensley: Mellinda Hensley is the co-editor of Exposition Review and has worked with the journal since its inception in 2015. She is an Emmy-nominated and Writers Guild Award-winning writer who helped craft more than 130 episodes of The Young And The Restless (and got to tell people at her high school reunion that she switched babies for a living). Additionally a director and producer, her two comedy shorts Across The Room and Apeulogy have screened at more than 60 festivals worldwide. In case of emergency, she can be used as a flotation device. About CD Eskilson: CD Eskilson is a trans poet, editor, and translator living in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Their work appears in the Offing, Ninth Letter, Florida Review, Washington Square Review, and they have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. CD is assistant poetry editor at Split Lip Magazine and outreach coordinator for the Open Mouth Literary Center. They are an MFA candidate at the University of Arkansas where they received the Walton Family Fellowship in Poetry and Lily Peter Fellowship in Translation. Help us spread the word!  Please download, review, and subscribe to Transposition. Thank you to Mitchell Evenson for intro and outro music, and the generous donations from our supporters that allow us to pay our authors.  Exposition Review is a fiscally sponsored project of Fractured Atlas. Transposition is the official podcast of Exposition Review literary journal.  Associate Producer: Mitchell Evenson Intro Music by Mitchell Evenson Hosted by Laura Rensing --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/exposition-review/support

Ronna Wineberg: Artifacts and Other Stories. This is episode 556 of Teaching Learning Leading K12, an audio podcast. Ronna Wineberg is an award-winning author of four books, including her newest one, Artifacts and Other Stories, a collection of short stories which is our focus today. Her latest book was long-listed for the Shelf Unbound Best Indie Book Competition and was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Book Award. Over the past three decades, her writings have received recognition that includes being a finalist for Bread Loaf Writers Conference Fellowship, a finalist for Moment Magazine Short Fiction Contest, winner of New River Press Many Voices Project Literary Competition, finalist for the Willa Cather Prize in Fiction, and a prize-winner in the Denver Women's Press Club Story Contest. She is the founding fiction editor of Bellevue Literary Review, where she served 21 years as its senior fiction editor, and now is their contributing fiction editor. The publication is credited with publishing the early works of Celeste Ng, who went on to become a New York Times best-selling author. Wineberg has also served as the president of Tennessee Writers Alliance and was a member of the program committee for Southern Festival of Books. Wineberg was awarded a prestigious Fellowship in Fiction from the New York Foundation for the Arts, A Residency from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, a Residency from Ragdale Foundation, and a Scholarship in Fiction from the Bread Loaf Writers Conference. Her work has appeared in numerous literary magazines, including Michigan Quarterly Review, Berkeley Fiction Review, Writers Forum, The South Dakota Review, American Way, Colorado Review, Jewish Women's Literary Annual, and Eureka Literary Magazine. Wineberg is a dynamic guest-speaker and has presented at many conferences like the AWP Conference, Council of Literary Magazines and Presses, PEN and BRUSH Writing Conference, and many others.  She taught a total of five years, including creative writing at University School of Nashville Evening Classes for Adults, and as an Adjunct Professor in English at New York University. Wineberg was a legal aid lawyer, public defender, and a lawyer in private practice earlier in her career. She earned a JD from University of Denver College of Law and a BA with distinction from the University of Michigan. She has lived in Nashville and Denver, and resides in New York City. For more information, please consult: www.ronnawineberg.com.  Awesome read! Awesome talk! So much to learn! Before you go... Could you do me a favor? Please go to my website at https://www.stevenmiletto.com/reviews/ or open the podcast app that you are listening to me on, and would you rate and review the podcast? That would be Awesome. Thanks! If you are listening on Apple Podcasts on your phone, go to the logo - click so that you are on the main page with a listing of the episodes for my podcast and scroll to the bottom. There you will see a place to rate and review. Could you review me? That would be so cool. Thank you! Hey, I've got another favor...could you share the podcast with one of your friends, colleagues, and family members? Hmmm? What do you think? That would so awesome! Thanks for sharing! Thanks for listening! Connect & Learn More: www.ronnawineberg.com https://mobile.twitter.com/Ronnawineberg Length - 28:38

Jane Friedman joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about the most common craft issues she sees in memoir manuscripts, what writers often misunderstand about the industry, The Big Five, how to write memoir query letters, ways the publishing landscape has changed for memoirs, and so much more in this do-not-miss episode.   Also in this episode: -the lowdown on platform -protecting identities in memoir -Jane Friedman's why   Books mentioned in this episode: Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt Wild by Cheryl Strayed Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo Swing by Ashleigh Renard   Links to articles mentioned in this episode: How to Use Real People in Your Writing Without Ending Up in Court: https://helensedwick.com/how-to-use-real-people-in-your-writing/ Law & Authors: a conversation with Jacqui Lipton https://youtu.be/GDydK3Z4aOI How to and (Especially) How Not to Write About Family https://www.janefriedman.com/write-about-family-memoir/ A Big Shitty Party: Six Parables of Writing About Other People Millions of Followers? For Book Sales, ‘It's Unreliable.' https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/07/books/social-media-following-book-publishing.html   Jane Friedman (@JaneFriedman) has 20 years of experience in the publishing industry, with expertise in digital media strategy for authors and publishers. She is the publisher of The Hot Sheet, the essential newsletter on the publishing industry for authors, and was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World in 2019. In addition to being a columnist for Publishers Weekly, Jane is a professor with The Great Courses, which released her 24-lecture series, How to Publish Your Book. Her book for creative writers, The Business of Being a Writer (University of Chicago Press), received a starred review from Library Journal. Jane speaks regularly at conferences and industry events such as BookExpo America, Digital Book World, and the AWP Conference, and has served on panels with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Creative Work Fund. Find out more. www.janefriedman.com  https://www.instagram.com/janefriedman/   Ronit's essays and fiction have been featured in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, The Washington Post, Writer's Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in both the 2021 Best Book Awards and the 2021 Book of the Year Award and a 2021 Best True Crime Book by Book Riot. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts' 2020 Eludia Award and will be published in 2022. She is host and producer of the podcasts And Then Everything Changed and The Body Myth. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com More about WHEN SHE COMES BACK, a memoir: https://ronitplank.com/book/ Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://twitter.com/RonitPlank https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll's Finger

INTRODUCTION:Luanne loves unpacking tough subject matter that others may find hard to discuss. She's drawn to gritty realism and believes there are others out there who share her curiosity about taboo topics. Luanne has a witty sense of humor and loves finding ways to connect with other people.  Luanne is originally from Kentucky and spent her career as a creative writing and film professor at West Chester University outside Philadelphia. She has published literary fiction and poetry in journals, and she continues to write her own work as well as editing these three anthologies: Runaway, Taboos and Transgressions: Stories of Wrongdoings and the one we are currently working on, Muddy Backroads: Stories From Off the Beaten Path. Luanne likes gritty writing, and she champions women writers who are often criticized for tackling darker subjects in fiction. Her fiction has appeared in Puerto del Sol, The Texas Review, Oxford Magazine and other literary journals and anthologies. She has published poetry and nonfiction as well. Luanne has hosted well-received AWP Conference panels focused on women writers and the challenges women face writing gritty material and bad-ass female characters. She last presented a panel on the double-standard women writers encounter compared to men when writing sexual content. Luanne still has her Kentucky accent and her blue collar upbringing stays with her in spite of over 30 years as an academic. The lady has a good sense of humor, even if she prefers gritty writing, and she has way more tattoos than what her mother approved of. INCLUDED IN THIS EPISODE (But not limited to):·      An Argument in Favor of Tattoos·      The Importance of Living True to Yourself ·      Insight Into the Writing Process·      Coming Out Through Writing·      My Advice to Republicans·      The True Meaning of Freedom·      Is God a Stickler for Rules?·      Jerry Falwell Jr. Fuckery·      Challenging Religious Bullshit·      Why We Need to Get Over Pastors and Church LeadershipCONNECT WITH LUANNE: Website: https://luanne-smith.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/luanne.smith.562 CONNECT WITH DE'VANNON: Website: https://www.SexDrugsAndJesus.comYouTube: https://bit.ly/3daTqCMFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/SexDrugsAndJesus/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sexdrugsandjesuspodcast/Twitter: https://twitter.com/TabooTopixLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devannonEmail: DeVannon@SexDrugsAndJesus.com DE'VANNON'S RECOMMENDATIONS:·      Pray Away Documentary (NETFLIX)o  https://www.netflix.com/title/81040370o  TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk_CqGVfxEs ·      Upwork: https://www.upwork.com ·      FreeUp: https://freeup.net ·      Disabled American Veterans (DAV): https://www.dav.org ·      American Legion: https://www.legion.org  INTERESTED IN PODCASTING OR BEING A GUEST?:·      PodMatch is awesome! This application streamlines the process of finding guests for your show and also helps you find shows to be a guest on. The PodMatch Community is a part of this and that is where you can ask questions and get help from an entire network of people so that you save both money and time on your podcasting journey.https://podmatch.com/signup/devannon TRANSCRIPT:[00:00:00]You're listening to the sex drugs and Jesus podcast, where we discuss whatever the fuck we want to! And yes, we can put sex and drugs and Jesus all in the same bed and still be all right at the end of the day. My name is De'Vannon and I'll be interviewing guests from every corner of this world as we dig into topics that are too risqué for the morning show, as we strive to help you understand what's really going on in your life.There is nothing off the table and we've got a lot to talk about. So let's dive right into this episode.De'Vannon: Hey everyone. And welcome back to the sex drugs and Jesus podcast. I'm so thankful to have you with me again. One more week today, I'm talking with a lady by the name of Luanne Smith and she is an author and an editor and she's here to tell us all about her newest book, taboos and transgressions stories of wrongdoings, a title like that. It really speaks for itself. Does it not? Now this conversation is gritty. It is real. It is loving. It [00:01:00] is everything you needed to be in so much more. And this episode, we're going to get into an argument in favor of tattoos. We're gonna talk about the importance of living true to yourself, and then talk about whether or not God is really a stickler for the rules, like conservatives, try to make him seem. And then the most darling story is shared with us by Luanne about how her former students. Came out through writing and storytelling and it is just the cutest thing I've ever heard. And I cannot wait for you to hear it. I just know you're going to get a lot out of this episode. Well, hello, Luanne darling. Welcome to the sex jugs in Jesus pod. Luanne: Dan, how are ya? De'Vannon: I'm fucking fantastic. How about yourself? Luanne: Doing great. Doing great. De'Vannon: Yeah, like we were talking before we press that we're card button then I'm. I'm jealous of you bitch. Cause you were in fucking Florida or Donnie and knife and I'm in goddamn Baton Rouge, Louisiana at a high today [00:02:00] is like 43 fucking whole degrees.Luanne: I think I like we're getting up to 75 today, so I'm in the t-shirt and shorts, so, De'Vannon: If it weren't for this pandemic, I might be recording from Miami or at leastLuanne: that would be so nice. Wouldn't. De'Vannon: our Los Angeles. My favorite city is Los Angeles. Baton Rouge is not, is not going to do it for me. I cannot wait to move back to California, but here we are today. We're going to be talking about some of your writing. Now you've gifted the world with three books. One's called runaway. The other one is taboos and transgressions stories of wrongdoings.And I think there's one in the works called I think like muddy Backroads or something like, Luanne: yeah. Just finishing it up now. De'Vannon: so tell us tell us about your, your history and why you're drawn to [00:03:00] these taboo books.Luanne: I'm not sure. I grew up working class in Kentucky and, and I kinda like work that's down and dirty myself to read you know, and, and has a little grip to. And so when I started a work editing these books.I wanted the stories. I liked to read the ones that have a little grit to them. And, and the runaway story kind of had a funny or runaway book kind of had a funny beginning because I was telling a story about running away.When I was a kid, my grandfather told me that I would that five-year-olds will get arrested if they cross the street. And so I was afraid to cross the street when I ran away from home and I would just walk up and down, back and forth across the front of the yard. When I ran away and somebody was laughing about that and said, you should do a book on runaway stories. So it, it, it got more gritty than it did from that little. Funny story. You [00:04:00] know and so we I worked with Lee Zacharias and Michael gills, and we put that book together and then I was listening to a podcast or listening to a masterclass online and with Joyce, Carol Oates, and she was talking about writing taboos and I thought, what a great idea you know, and so it just kind of evolved all of them just kind of evolved, but they're the kind of stories I like to read and, and try to write myself so. De'Vannon: okay, so you, I'm sorry. You had to away from home. Tell me what was going on that makes you feel like you couldn't stay.Luanne: Oh, I actually, I had a pretty good childhood. It's not like that. It's but it's I was a stubborn little kid and I'm still a stubborn little adult now. You know, and I always wanted my way. And so I, I would run away from home every now and then just to, you know, because I get mad at mom. And, and so I'd take off [00:05:00] you know, so that story's not gritty unfortunately, or fortunately, I guess is the better word to say it, but you know you know, it's just me being a, a little brat more than anything else. De'Vannon: So, so when you would run away, how long would you stay gone? Where would you go?Luanne: I would go?to the edge of the yard as close as I could get to the street. I had a dog that would let me get very close to the street cause she'd had a puppy that got run over. So she would stay between me and the street and run away with me. And she'd push against me if I got too close to the street for her taste and, and push me back into the yard. And so I just walked back and forth with my little barbecue is filled with the you know, and, and it, it wasn't running away, running away. It was just me as a kid thinking I was running away more than anything else. De'Vannon: [00:06:00] Okay. So then the people who you find for these books that are this, all all true stories or is any of it fiction?Luanne: Mostly it's fiction?mostly it's fiction, we're taboos. We've got a couple of true stories in there about, for the most part they're fictional stories. And we just that's what I write and that's what I taught for a long time. And so that's what I leaned towards. You know, but we did have a couple of a true stories coming in for taboos and, and that in particular was a good addition to the piece.I think we had one or two true stories with runaway and we're, we definitely got a couple in Murray Backroads that are true stories as well. So. De'Vannon: Okay. So for the ones who were the truth stories Did you find that they, did they say that they got out of the stories as either they achieve any [00:07:00] sort of like emotional release from.Luanne: Oh, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. They got a emotional release or psychological release from.being able to write their stories and share it. They also wanted to reach out to people who had had similar stories you know, and, and let them know that you can get through it whatever it happens to be.And, and you can survive it. You know, even if it's something of your own making that is a taboo that you broke. But you know, you can, can. Manage it. And so they definitely wanted to exercise their own demons as same time that they wanted to reach out and make other people feel what they had been through to some extent De'Vannon: Hmm. So then I'm curious though, the two that we're going to be talking about later in particular, that stood out to me as one that's called from, from the taboos and transgressions book at one is called exit stage [00:08:00] by I think it was Chavis woods. And then the other one is the towel of good families by Sonata, Kamala, or either one of those are true story that you remember.Luanne: the one from Komal is a true story. Yeah. The what does it fall Tao of? De'Vannon: towel of good families.Luanne: Good families. Yeah. And yeah, that one is, is a non-fiction all the way through. So that was her story, her experience. De'Vannon: Yeah. Read it, read it very real. And I was very, very drawn to that. So I can't wait to, to dive into that one. So all of all the books that you've come across in written of the true stories that you've heard, what, what, which one was the darkest one or the one that stood out to you the most. Yes.Luanne: Well that one is that one's an empowering story. The one you mentioned before I think that the the darker ones are the ones where they're dealing with sexual abuse in some way you know, or, or Parental abandonment you know, that type of [00:09:00] thing. And a lot of those stories people write into memoir.They haven't necessarily sent into this particular, these particular anthologies. But you know, I think I don't know if a should awards PR piece on exit stage is true or not, but I know that she grew up in a small. Middle America town as a gay punk kid. And so she had it rough for a while, you know, with, with that sort of being judged situation. And so I think that the story exit stage hits close to home. So I don't know that it is true. I think it hits close to home in terms of what her life was, was like growing up in middle America outwardly gay and outwardly you know, with the shaved hair and you know, trying to deliver a life authentically as she wanted to. You know, but she would [00:10:00] go into St. Louis. To, to find people like her you know, herself, and then she would deal with the bullies when she got back home. And so it was a tough, tough existence, I think. And that's a very common thing, unfortunately. I think you know, and so I think that writing is something that's very important.She's got a couple of books out and I think they're very important in terms of the statement they make about the, trying to grow up a little bit different. So.De'Vannon: No worries. Do you find people to submit. There are true stories for these books. Is there a, like some sort of forum or a hub, or it's just like through word of mouth or.Luanne: A lot of social media, a lot of word of mouth there's a, a big conference of writers called AWP that happens every spring course with COVID, it's been virtual, but that's where you connect up with a lot of people and get the word [00:11:00] out that you're looking for stories. And then I also solicited some stories. I solicited the piece asked, Chavisa to send me a piece she would. And she sent in exit stage. And I, I have asked Louis Alberto urea is giving us one for Back roads that I'm working on. Now that's a true story and it's a funny story, but it's a true story about trying to find lake Walden and, and ended up with a cow pond and said you know, and so it's, it's combination combination of asking writers that I know writers that I'm interested in.And then also just getting word out through social media as much as possible that we're looking for manuscripts. And, and what are we S we do a little write-up to tell everybody what we're looking for. And then they decide whether or.not to submit based on that. [00:12:00]De'Vannon: Okay. Now when you, yeah, I heard you used the word gritty a couple of times. So Luanne: Yeah. De'Vannon: what, what, what is, what is gritty to you? Like what, what do you mean by that? Exactly.Luanne: Doesn't pull conscious, you know, it doesn't back off of the tough subjects. Doesn't back off of anything, you know, makes a point of going on through and telling the story, whether the story is hard to tell or hard to read or disturbing in some way, we certainly have a couple of stories in taboos that are disturbing stories.Certainly not feel good stories at all. You know, and, and that's the kind of stuff I like to read. It's as a Southern writer, myself, there's a air. Of Southern writing that's referred to as Brit lit and grit lit is, is the tougher side of a writing. And that's where you find Dorothy, Alison and [00:13:00] writers like that, that right. Sort of sometimes the poor experience growing up in the cell sometimes you know, the experience of, of just trying to survive in a rural environment without having much to live on. And you know, the, the grit lit is what I gravitate towards because in some ways I had a great childhood, I did grow up blue collar and I did grow up without a lot of things.And it's just something that speaks to me a little bit. I think. De'Vannon: That's thinking of when you were growing up. I read about when I was researching you, I read about you where you felt like you had more tattoos than your mother approved of Luanne: Yeah, De'Vannon: when did you start to start to get tattoos or what age?Luanne: I was, I was about 30, I think when I got my first one, but that would have been 1989. So I kind of hit it just as a trend was [00:14:00] starting, I think you know, though I was older than most of the people that were getting tattoos at that time. And I got my first one and now I've got to. 10 to 12, including a sleeve on one arm.And just got a new one on the wrist about two months ago. So I tend to keep going you know, with those tattoos now. Yeah, and that was a little bit of a different thing to do if you're a college professor. But you know, that's assists who I am and I, I appreciate anybody who lives authentically and is true to themselves.And I've tried to live my life that way as well. Sometimes you, you rub people the wrong way when you do that. You know, but that's tough. That's this is me. This is who I am. Kind of thing.De'Vannon: Yeah. So going with the tattoos, there was some sort of issue that you had in the early [00:15:00] nineties. As I understand that there was some problems with like the students and the staff at a university, like he just said, it's not really a thing. A college professor does. What sort of controversy happened over your tattoos at work?Luanne: They had a little bit of an issue with me being tattooed with having specifically having tattoos that show that didn't feel like it was a very professional thing. And, and it was mentioned to me a few times nobody ever came down on me in terms of I might lose my job or something like that, but it was kind of one of those sideways conversations that I had with people that were over me in terms of you know, who they are.And then you have most of the time the students were cool with it. They didn't. You know, but the, the staff that wanted me to look professional and, and you know, that type of thing, I wore jeans and t-shirts and sneakers and had tattoos. I never looked professional a day in my life, as far as I know. You know, cause [00:16:00] it's just me. But I think when you teach creative writing, need to be a little bit more informal because the students are critiquing each other's work. And, and it's gotta be a comfortable environment for them. So for me to be there living my life, the way I choose to live it, it brought out there.Possibilities for living their own lives. I saw that in somebody that was an authority figure and I think it helped a couple of students you know, but I might just be patting myself on the back. I don't know, but I think it did help with a couple of students who thought, well, she could be in this position and have the tattoos and dress the way she dresses and, and be true to herself.Then I can be true to myself too and, and make a living and, and be the person I want to be. So, you know, that was the message I was trying to send out. And and I think it did help with a couple of students. Even if my bosses didn't [00:17:00] approve too much. De'Vannon: How do you know they didn't approve? What, like, what did they, what did they say to you?Luanne: They would ask me if there was certain kind of meeting to cover up so that my tattoos didn't show, or they would ask me to they call me the wild child. You?know, and there are just couple of things that you know, they would say to me, that sort of let me know that they weren't approving of this. You know, they would say, oh, another tattoo Gran, huh. You know, and it was looking down their nose at me for doing that kind of thing. It's changing. Now, there are a lot of younger professors who come in with all kinds of tattoos. So this was just a sort of a nineties thing where they were reacting and didn't quite know what to do with a tattooed professor. Now. A lot more tattooed professors than what they ever expected. I think so. It's, it's acceptable. De'Vannon: Yeah. I [00:18:00] mean, it reminds me of how, when I it's, like, it's almost like a uniform violation that they kind of were treating you, you know? So you weren't meeting the code. Luanne: Exactly. Yeah. De'Vannon: Dress and appearance. Yeah. W every pretty much every job I've ever had, I had some sort of snafu in terms of dress and appearance.And this is like one of the main reasons. I'm glad I don't work around people anymore because I just don't have the tolerance for the bullshit though. When I was in the military, I had piercings. So that's when I started hanging out in tattoo shops and stuff like that. It's a family, it's like a family community vibe in those tattoo shops and stuff like that. Not to mention that they can get addictive. never got a tattoo. I was more of a piercer. I was into the Luanne: Yeah. De'Vannon: blood. I almost got kicked out of the military for wearing piercings in uniform and, you know, and stuff like that. I knew it was wrong, but I was like, fuck it [00:19:00] in. And maybe there is a common thread there. Commonality amongst people who like to get piercings and who tend to have kind of like a fuck it mentality.Luanne: Yeah, I hope so. I hope I have a fuck it mentality. De'Vannon: And then I also, I've always used the word button down shirts. Cause I had these like, you know, like jobs that, you know, was like more like white collar and stuff. And I used to like always, I do like the first three, four buttons, so I could have like a lot of my chest out. Cause I was a vein veiny on their veins.They're very vain young man. Hey, it was what it was. I always least that likes to have the testicles out there going a little side boob here and there. When I worked at. I worked at the call center it's center point energy and Houston, Texas. And the, the floor managers would come around and tell me, make me button my shirt up and shit all the time.And [00:20:00] I fuck you, bitch.You know, you're already tied down to the damn phone. You can't get up and go piss or like jerk off or nothing without the damn phone. And now you can't have your titties out if you want to. Oh, this is just repressed worsewithin my boss. And I worked for the Texas workforce commission was totally cool about it. You know, I was meeting my numbers. You can give a shit. If I had my tits out, she was like, I think they look great.And so never forget her. She was a good, good, good fucking boss. One of the few that I've ever had in my life Luanne: Yeah. De'Vannon: anyway that, that that's my little there. So so what, so, so you, so you've written [00:21:00] all these books, you have like blogs and stuff on your website. Is there things you want your readers to learn and gain from the body of work that you have.Luanne: Well, we've been talking about it that authenticity, that be true to yourself, you know, and, and that's I think the More what I try to say with my own work than anything else. And I think the one of my teachers a long time ago when I was a creative writing student said my characters are all sort of these alienated Indi individuals. You know, and I I think he was right about that because they're, they're trying to live a life that a lot of normal society or whatever you want to call, it doesn't necessarily accept. You know. and I think that that's going up against the, the grain, there is something that's common thread in my work and in what I like to read you know, and, and It's not intentional.It just, it's just what comes out. When [00:22:00] I sit down to write, it's just what I like to read. You know, and, and I don't do it as a political statement. I do it as, as someone who's just always been a little bit different and always will be a little bit different. I, you know, and, and just keep going with that. Those are the people I gravitate towards are ones that are who they are, you knowDe'Vannon: I want to know. So from your, have you ever had anyone who has read any of your books, reach out to you and give you a testimony of how their life changed?Luanne: I had students do that for sure. You know, and, and they've, they've either read some of my work or they've been in my class where they've heard my talk about. Pushing the story to be what it needs to be. You know, I've had students come out as gay in my class. I've had students tell me afterwards that they've changed their mind for what they want to do with their career.Cause it's never what they [00:23:00] wanted to do anyway. You know, and so I've had this students certainly follow their own lives a little bit more closely after van and class, I'm not trying to paint myself as any kind of a hero or anything like that. You know, it's just that, that I think if you're, if you're doing it right as a teacher, you do more than just teach what's in the books to learn.You teach something about life lessons as well. You know, and, and if you reach some students, that's great. That's great. This is one of the reasons I'd never be able to teach in high school, but those parents will be after me all the time with what I want to doDe'Vannon: So when you say they came out as gay, so that they like stand up in the middle of class and be like, Hey, I want everyone to know that I'm gay. How exactly did they come out?Luanne: and their work in the writing. They came out as gay in their writing and, and came up and told me and asked if it was okay. For them to share this work that, you [00:24:00] know, and would tell me this first time they're telling anybody about this. And I would say, okay, well, we'll be very gentle not critique too hard and, and make sure that this is a comfortable space for you. You know, and, and it was usually a very accepting space for them. And, and so they, they you know, I've definitely had, I would say probably over the years, four or five students that came out?in the class through their writing De'Vannon: So how many students were in the class average size. Luanne: size.of the class was about 20 students per class. De'Vannon: So they were reading what they had written out loud for everyone else.Luanne: They pass out copies of what they had written and everybody had copies and to take home and read and read and write their responses the stories. You know and then we'd come back the next week and talk about the stories and make suggestions if we felt like anything needed to be changed. [00:25:00]De'Vannon: Well, hot damn a literary coming out. Luanne: Yeah. De'Vannon: Hey, that takes a lot of brave braveness. I think braveness is the word. It takes a lot of braveness and boldness to come out in any kind of way. You know, if you feel like that, that's something that you want to do. Huh. And then perhaps you could write about it. Luanne: Yeah, absolutely. De'Vannon: let me think about this.I guess if there's someone out there who feels like they need, need to come out and they don't want to tell whoever, maybe they could write a nice story, you know, write it out just a little bit more. Thorough than like a text in a sitting at tech food B kind of like a personal letter to somebody.Luanne: yeah. Personal letter or even a fictional story is release of of everything you've been holding in. You know, and so I think that [00:26:00] it's voice, it's a matter of voice it's, it's being able to speak and speak a truth that you experienced. You know, and I think that that's, that's part of the reason I like the gray stuff.It speaks truth. That's not out there very much. You know, and I think that Part of my own writing. I think I'm just trying to speak a truth about the way I see the world, the way I see people, you know, and I, I certainly think coming out in your writing is, is a way to get your voice out there. De'Vannon: Okay. So if someone's listening to this and they're saying. Shit. That sound like a good idea, but I'm not a great writer. What advice would you give to people in order to encourage them to hone their writing skills in this, you know, or to this doesn't have to be like something that's going to be like all, you know, a great manifesto or anything like that, you know?Is there any [00:27:00] advice you would give to people who may feel insecure about their ability to write effectively?Luanne: Yeah. The more you read the, the people you read they're your teachers more than anybody's standing up in front of the classroom and they'll teach you how to put up my dogs barking in the background. Sorry about that. They're the ones who will teach you how to create the sentence that says it needs to say. You know, and so yeah read as much as possible. the genre of writing that speaks to you and read as much as possible within that genre. And, and that's, that's where you're going to learn to write. Even in my composition classes, could usually tell which students were readers and which ones weren't because of their skill levels. And so it was very much a important of, of writing as spear reader as well. De'Vannon: Did I would add to that, you know, just [00:28:00] start, you know, even if you don't think it's going to come. Luanne: Oh, absolutely. De'Vannon: As polished or as nice sounding, just fucking began. Luanne: Yeah, De'Vannon: Cause you never know where it could go. And you're going to have to go back and redo it. Anyway, when I write, I like to just get something out there and then go back and then rearrange it and everything like that, and then begins kind of to be like putting a puzzle together in a way.And it gets to be fun and very relaxing.Luanne: absolutely. Absolutely. I always told my students that it was like throwing the clay on the pot, on the that you don't have the clay on the wheel to start with, if, And until you have a first draft of something you know, and then you start shaping it, then you start making it into something. So yeah, you're absolutely right.Just start, just do it. De'Vannon: And the good outline helps even if it's a simple, basic outline and it starts with the basic skeleton of an outline. And then you come back and add to each bullet point. Luanne: Yeah, [00:29:00]De'Vannon: You know, later on. So, so yeah, so it's a good to break it down into small chunkable little parts rather than looking at the whole big monster at one time, because that could be overwhelming.Luanne: absolutely. And don't take don't think about people reading it first drafts, or just think about what you want to say and then worry about people reading it and, and that sort of thing. After you get that first draft out there, say what you need to say first. De'Vannon: Right? And then you can be like fish. I said, what I saidLuanne: Exactly. Exactly. De'Vannon: on my memoir, that's getting ready to come out. Praise God. I think next month is going Luanne: Oh, awesome. De'Vannon: it's going for formatting in a week. And so, but I think I've I'm on like the eighth edit of it. So I never would've thought, but it takes a lot of editing and a lot of reworking and reworking and relooking.But Luanne: The domes. De'Vannon: full memoir. If you're just trying to write a coming out story, [00:30:00] honey, you only need a good page or two, Luanne: Yeah. De'Vannon: a whole 300 page or manifesto. Like what my memoir is like, it's not, you're not needed. Don't need to do all that. I think coming out is a beautiful thing for those people who choose to do it.I never did it because I have a different personality about that. I don't like to explain myself to people, but people have different value systems and different sort of communities and social backgrounds that they're coming from. So I get that too. So if somebody is listening and they're kind of like me and they're like, my attitude was like this.If I'm family, can't look at all of this, that's going on over here and you can't figure out that I'm not straight, then I don't know what the fuck is wrong with you because this is abundantly clear over here. So I've never bothered with coming out. I just thought it showing up a guy's like, yeah, either you accept this or you don't, if you don't then fuck you Luanne: sure. De'Vannon: get the fuck.So, but I know that there's a very masculine man out there for [00:31:00] instance, who are not feminine at all. And can't nobody look at them and tell them they're not. Luanne: Yeah. Yeah. De'Vannon: So they don't really have the luxury of being like, well, they should just be able to know that I'm not straight because he's so like macho masculine, so machismo and everything.So,Luanne: Still a personal choice. so you know, I mean, like I said, I think that you live in true to yourself. You're living to what you want to do you know, and if you want to come out in whatever way, great. If you are not comfortable doing that or you want to keep yourself in waves and that's your that's living true to yourself too, you know?So it's, it's a definitely personal choice.De'Vannon: so as I just don't want to let got us swerve back to something I asked about earlier, where you had made that statement and whatever it is, I was reading about what your mother, you had had more tattoos and your mother would approve of. Was that just kind of like a general statement you were making or did she actually say something about your tattoos?Luanne: [00:32:00] She would say with a cringe on her face, it's pretty, every time I show her a new one you know, she would, she would no, that was not a thing that she approved of at all. And I think my dad was, had already passed away when I got my first one, because he would have been absolutely upset about it. No, it's, it's you know, she was okay. I got one on my ankle, first one and, and, you know, one or two here or there, she was like, well, they don't show that much. So if that's okay. But now that I have ones that are. Very blatantly out there. I think she would she would not approve that at all. You know, it's just, why do you want to mark yourself up like that of thing? De'Vannon: Yeah. You know, when I was growing up in cherish, they would tell us not to get in the Pentecostal church without our recommend to no one. You know, they would tell us, you know, everything's wrong, everything's the devil, you know, piercings tattoos and stuff like that. And then they would use scripture [00:33:00] about, well, you know, the Lord says your body as a temple.So therefore you should respect that and getting tattoos and piercings the way of disrespecting your body. Okay. So what one would consider to be disrespectful or not is subjective. And so people say like your mom, like the people at church and everything, look at people with tattoos and want to judge them and everything like that.I think it's bullshit. And I think that it's reflective of people being made uncomfortable by things that that's just not like them.Luanne: Absolutely. Yeah, I agree totally that they, you know, they disapproved for whatever their personal reasons are and, and a lot of it has to do with, well, you're not acting the way I act. We're not seeing the world the way I see it. You know, and so therefore you're wrong and you're bad and all these other things.And unfortunately, I think that that's very [00:34:00] much how our society is right now. You know, and, and that's why I think, you know, finding people who are true to themselves is a rarity in some ways. You know, and, and I appreciate that. So, De'Vannon: It's all I want to offer this. Nugget of Liberty to people out there, which I don't know how many conservative people would be listening to, my show anyway, but just in case somebody might be considering abandoning their conservative ways. You can look at something or someone, you know, you don't really have to have an opinion about it one way or the other, Luanne: Yeah. De'Vannon: know, you don't have to like it or dislike it.You don't have to approve it or disapprove it. It could just exist and just leave with a fucking bad, like you don't have to, you don't have to, do anything. You don't have to say anything. You don't have to react. So I would say to Republicans that I liked that are shade at Republicans as they're the epitome of hate, [00:35:00] hate hypocrisy, judge judgment, being judgmental and all of that.So if a woman wants to get an abortion, Not your fucking business bitch. If Luanne: exactly. De'Vannon: a men want to get married, not your fucking business, how if somebody wants to get pat to shut the fuck up about it and go, it doesn't matter.Luanne: Mind your business live your life. You know, I agree that couldn't I, you said It perfectly.De'Vannon: It is so, but I think a lot of people who judge people don't understand how wrapped up in bondage they are by projecting their, that sort of judgment onto people, but that you can't give away what you don't have. So in order for you to try to corral and control people force them to live, like you want them to live means that you are in bondage yourself.Luanne: Absolutely. De'Vannon: And so you're not really free, [00:36:00] confident, Luanne: Hmm. De'Vannon: free people are like, say our straight allies like, well, I don't care if they're gay or not. It doesn't affect me. I'm, you know, I got other shit to do, know, that person is free Luanne: Yeah. Yeah. De'Vannon: a chord in them. And they see people living their life over there across the street somewhere, they don't feel enraged.Like they've got to go and do something about it because they are at one within themselves. Republicans are not at one within themselves, know, conservative people who want to comment on people's tattoos who thinks someone's skirts too short, who thinks And you don't understand the concept of sex positivity, you know, you know, in different things like that because you know what they have held within themselves.They are not whole, therefore they cannot allow the people to just fucking be happy. Luanne: Right, De'Vannon: They are happy. That's where it starts. The people are miserable and Republicans are just fucking miserable life. They're just unhappy the lot of them[00:37:00]though,Luanne: They live by a lot of rules. Yeah. You know, and. De'Vannon: go ahead.Luanne: I was going to say, that's, that's a, you know, one of the things I learned putting that taboos and theology together was the, the, the number of rules we have out there about how you're supposed to live your life. You know, and, and just how ridiculous it is, as long as you're not hurting anybody else, you know, De'Vannon: Right. Luanne: you know? Yeah. De'Vannon: But, you know, what the Lord, as much as it's, you know, he's not really as for rules, as people try to make him seem. Luanne: Yeah. De'Vannon: these, those, when he was here and let me see, you know, was an instance that happened in the old Testament when David was becoming king and he was on the run, you know, he made his way to the temple and he ate of the holy food.[00:38:00]He wasn't a priest him or the priest that was against the rules. But he, it was allowed to happen anyway, in then when Jesus was here on the earth, you know, he referenced back to that story because the, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the religious people of the day, the conservative Christian leaders of his day were trying to tell him what you're doing is against the rule, sir.And he was like, what'd, you know, God didn't make people for rules, rules were made for people. Luanne: Yeah. De'Vannon: you adjust those rules and you do whatever it takes to keep people in community. You know, you don't be a stickler for the rules to the, to the, to, and then you exile people and discard people, but the rules stay intact, Luanne: Yeah. De'Vannon: you know, that's, that's not of God.And so when we get these fundamentalists people like a certain Supreme court justice, Amy called me Baird, you fucking con. And you know, and you know, different people like that, who. Forced, [00:39:00] you know, the world to stay in original rules, no matter what, we're not even a modicum of flexibility. You know, that that is not the way God works and that that's not the way he wants us to work with people.He wants us to take a second, look at things to readjust our views as time goes on not be rigid in unmovable.Luanne: Right, right. No. And you know, you absolutely got it right on, you know, I think that I mean I grew up in the south and I grew up in the Bible belt. You know, and so, and my dog is throwing a fit. I'm so sorry, you know, but That's all right, baby. But you know, it's, it's a. Yeah. know, you interpret the Bible the way you want to interpret a lot of people, I think. And know, and so it's, I want to these are the rules we live by, because that's how price said [00:40:00] to do it. Maybe look again at the Bible and what it actually said. Because it's, it's a little bit you know, interpreted wrong a lot of the time, I think.De'Vannon: I'm gonna just say this, and then we're going to move onto the towel of good families Huh. when it comes to and I don't mind the dog, you know what? People like a good organic compensation in this thing. And especially since the coronavirus came to town, everything's done over zoom from home. So people got all kinds of dogs, cats, kids, fucking jeopardy playing in the background, all kinds of things going on.It is what it is. So I was going to say, yeah, you know, You know, the crazy world we live in, you know, people who tout the name of God are also flinging AK AK for assault rifles and shit from the pulpit, you know, you're conservative Christian people. And then we have our Jerry Falwell's, Jerry Falwell juniors to be more specific.Actually, I don't know that much about his dad, but you know, I'm just going to put this out there. And Mr. Falwell [00:41:00] Jr. Decided to come out in his own, right. In an article disavowing, everything that he's basically done in terms of religion, he was like, I'm not spiritual. There was pressure on me to be spiritual.So yeah, that's why it's because the pool boy scandal caught up and then the picture with him, with his pants open with some woman who's not as wife and all of that. And so he finally. He was like, yeah, it was all a ruse. Anyway, it was bullshit. Fuck all this church shit. So y'all so y'all can go and look that up and then take a look and question yourself thoroughly as the, why you pay attention to conservative Christian people who call themselves Christians in the news the day, because they're full of shit.And so,Luanne: Yeah. De'Vannon: but keeping in line with religion, the towel, the towel that families by Sanai Kemal was, oh, I think that's a beautiful name. S O N I a H K M a L this story at the Stan and that happening in this story opens with her mother holding her [00:42:00] wooden prayer beads and shit like that, which was a beautiful, beautiful imagery in the sense that it's true.Luanne: Yeah. De'Vannon: So right there, you got like a, probably an overly religious woman, you know, already from the get-go. And this woman is telling her daughter not to talk the boys, you know, yada yada yada whoopee. Woo. Because in a lot of overseas religions, you know, men are put on a fucking pedestal and women are like underneath the dirt somewhere, you know, even lower than that.And honestly, in a lot of ways, that's how Christianity used to be. You know, I don't know. I don't, I wouldn't say it was to that extent, but say like in the Bible say women weren't counted. So when you see like tallies of numbers, of people that don't include females, they only counted the men. You know? So there's that, although the Bible is a middle Eastern texts, it's not American.So some people try to act like we wrote the book. We did not it's from the middle east. [00:43:00] So you have that influence going on. And so in this story here, this mother is telling her daughter all about what she can't do, because basically she is a female and she has these expectations that are being levied upon her and everything like that.But what I love about this story is this girl is clapping back at her parents, her mother and she's challenging them. So I'm going to read an excerpt from this. Luanne: Sure 'De'Vannon: cause she says, where in the Quran does it say girls can't smoke and voice can where in the Koran does it say boys can go topless, but girls can wear in the Koran.Does it say that my brother can have a telephone installed in his room, but I can't even get one, even though I'm nine years older than him.And she says she has yet to receive a proper answer or she gets their belief. Baleful gazes and admonitions to stop asking stupid questions. [00:44:00] They, what you want to say about that? Because I got a lot to say.Luanne: Yeah. I would say that to S to some extent, that's the heart of the story, you know, and, and the girl or, you know, she keeps it's not a fictional piece. It's a memoir and she keeps, keeps pushing and rebelling to the point where, I mean, she's almost, she's talking to boys almost immediately in the memoir, and then she has a boyfriend and, you know, she hears this rumor about the boyfriend's mother and, and.And, you know, if she were a good girl, she wouldn't have been in this situation at all, but she's you know, saying, why does it say.I have to act a certain way? Where, where does it say that I have to act like this? Like you said, and so I'm, I'm why I'm dying to hear what you have [00:45:00] to say. So have at it, baby. De'Vannon: Well, it reminds me of when I was growing up in church and they would tell us you're not supposed to drink in Dan's masturbate. I would be like we're in the Bible. Does it say that I can't drink for answers? I can see it arguing against access. That, I mean, excess, that makes sense because being drunk is not really all that fun.So I was just told to basically just be quiet and do what they say. And so there's a rise in people, and this is why people break away from religion is because when we see an accuracies things that don't add up and we question it, we're told to shut the fuck up when I was in seminary. Before I left the fucking teeth professor to straight up admitted.He was like, yeah, we intend to control the congregation. And I, and I was like, what? And they were like, yeah, that's what we do here that we want to control the congregation. I think he was coming from a Baptist background and I [00:46:00] was like, okay, this is why movies. Like the golden compass never got a second sequel because movies like that are all about like religious control.Luanne: Yeah. Yeah De'Vannon: It's like it, this is why like in my ministry my main encouragement to people is to break away from the need of like say pastors and preachers to interpret scripture and stuff like that. if you're going to follow the Koran, if you're going to follow the Hebrew Bible and people are coming up with laws and shit that they can't justify with scripture, the fuck are you doing.Luanne: yeah, yeah, exactly. De'Vannon: You know, now, at least though Kieron, the people who read it, read it in its original language Louann. the Bible that this Hebrew Bible here that, that, that Americans use and people use is not even written in its original language, Luanne: No. De'Vannon: three languages. The old Testament is Hebrew and Aramaic. And the new Testament is Greek.[00:47:00]And I don't know very many people who actually have read it and it's a native tongue. And so at best ed, best, most people who have these staunch beliefs and shit like that are getting them derived from somebody else's interpretation of someone else's book.Luanne: That's right. I mean, it's, that's exactly how it is. It's, it's an interpretation. You know, and, and how do I tell this story in another language, but you know, you got somebody else's opinions coming in when they translate and, and so it's, it's you don't know, you have no idea how much of their own opinion they put in there when they translated.And so, know, the original language is. How you should read it if possible.De'Vannon: You know, in this day and time you can just [00:48:00] Google single passages. Like, what does this bot, what does this part say in original than the original language? Or what's some commentary on this? You got to dig deeper. You never want a preacher because preachers cannot separate their upbringing and their personal. Belief systems from their message. They don't, it's all infused into it, but it's sold to you as a divine message from God. And it does not, it has a lot of what that preacher thinks, because if you listen to what preachers say, they'll often say things like, especially when they're challenged on something that they've said, they'll say, well, I wasn't raised that way.I wasn't brought up that way. When, whenever Joel Olsteen from, you know, from Lakewood church in Houston, Texas was first asked about his stance on homosexuality and maybe on the interview that him and Victoria, his wife did on Larry King. You know, I believe it was one of, one of his responses. Like he wasn't brought up that way, but see, the thing is, and I can talk about, you know, that church, cause that's the church that I was ministering at before I got kicked out for not being straight.So I'll talk all the shit about them that I want. Luanne: [00:49:00] Yeah. De'Vannon: You know, but the point is like, okay, were you supposed to be your preacher? We don't give a damn about who you were brought up. You know, your, your job is to get your fucking ass up there and tell us what thus sayeth the Lord, not what, not what thus say it, your upbringing, Luanne: Yeah. De'Vannon: you know, and by that logic, then everyone should just do what the fuck they were raised as, but he's not the first preacher I've heard say that.They said that all in Pentecostal church throughout my whole life, because they would say it in response to like their criticism, someone else there'll be like, well, those Catholics over there are those Baptist people over there are those gay people over there are those drug addicts over there. You know, they're living in sin.You know, I wasn't bought up that way. I just don't understand what they're doing. Well, bitch, you don't have to. And I've already discussed earlier wise, not necess a necessity for us to understand everybody else, but you know, this girl in this book is breaking away from the control that this religion is trying to have.Luanne: Right. De'Vannon: But so many [00:50:00] people, so many people don't and then what happens is we ended up living fake. We ended up curling, you know, regressing into ourselves. Okay. This translates into suicide depression, anxiety, a lot of the problems we have in this world today that are being treated with medicine really result from a lack of true self-love and self-acceptance and a lot of it starts with religion.Luanne: Yeah. I think you're very, very right about that. And, and a lot of it starts with being brought up a certain way. You know, and, and that not, not being who you are and, and kind of feeling the bondage you know, and not knowing how to break out of it. De'Vannon: Well, that's why I do my podcasts. That's why I've written my, my memoir, which is, as you would say, grit is full of a lot of grit and everything like that. And it. And in order to try to help people break free of this, because I see it so much, [00:51:00] I'm a licensed massage therapist. People would come to me for massages, but they would tell me all their personal problems.And it's the same thing. People are so unhappy, Luanne: Yeah, De'Vannon: know? And your book serves the same purpose. You're basically laying out a whole bunch of situations where people were not happy. Luanne: right, right. Yeah. That's it. Yeah. De'Vannon: it though? How did it change? Luanne: Yeah. De'Vannon: So going to happy. We can't stay that way.got to give, to read a little bit more from from Sinatra's story here because I absolutely love the way that this read. She can, he continues furthermore uh, do do not have a natural aversion to siren songs. There are such as Madonna, Cindy lopper and Samantha Fox. This worries my mother to know in, and she often remarks what'd you get family will accept the Madonna type as their daughter-in-law.My mother is [00:52:00] far from impressed. When I say that I might not accept such a prudish family. I tend to look up to the likes of Madonna. The fact that upsets my mother, most of all, since everyone, and anyone can see my supposedly loose morals in my neon leggings, my tie dye t-shirts under which I wear a black bra, my six and my six earrings in each ear, which I pierced myself, my bright red HANA, dyed hair.In fact, one of the reasons my mother gave permission to, to me to attend is, I don't know what L is to attend. Elle is because they have the, maybe there's a school there to attend. Elle is because they have a uniform of sorts, the only colors permitted or unembellished khaki, whites, and reds, and also no Western wear for girls.So. She's referring to like 1980s, 1990s, Madonna there with the tie dye with Luanne: Oh, yeah, De'Vannon: everything.[00:53:00]Oh, she gave so much a lie. I was like, come on Madonna, look like a Madonna has been getting a lot of shade from the gay community lately for this and that. But you know, Madonna could give two bucks less about it.Luanne: that's true. That's what makes her who she is. De'Vannon: She's like, I don't give a fuck. I'm Madonna bitch. Arthur song said, bitch, I'm Madonna.I know my God, this girl is just giving me so much a life. So she's bringing Madonna, Cindy lopper, a gay icon. Fag hag ruin is I don't think fag has, is a derogatory term. Some people in some parts of the world think fag has, is meant insultingly. I do not. If it, if you think fag hag is, is a bad word I'll say, I'm sorry for that, but, but it just, it's not meant in a negative way.And so but yeah, it was Madonna and Cindy law [00:54:00] or some of the world's greatest fag hags. She's trying to do this in the middle of a Quran or on society. Luanne: Yeah. De'Vannon: I don't know if she ever moved away from there. Do you know that she's still living?Luanne: in America now. I don't remember where exactly, but she's, she's teachers riding in America now. So she's and, and very successful writer. Yeah. This is another thing I found interesting about this book. I could tell it's a different writing styles across each of the stories and there's a good, like 20 stories I think in this. yeah, De'Vannon: It's different writing style. So it will appeal to very many different readers and different backgrounds of different lifestyles. So I'm glad that she left. I'm very, very glad that she left. And so I would, I would, I would preach that message to people, to people who are black, the black sheets out there, like I'm a total black sheep and I love it. It's like probably my favorite thing about myself. I love [00:55:00] being weird. I love being different.I don't want to do normal because it's boring and overrated and it's not even attractive, but instead of trying to an institution or a group of people to like you and my God sake for, you're not going to ever try to change herself so they can accept you because they never will because they don't like themselves.That's why they're trying to change you. Leave if you can, and it may take some planning, some preparation and prayer and all of that and Luanne: Yeah. De'Vannon: don't stay is like, let me say this, that I'm a hush. And then, so you can talk, but it's like gay people, non straight people are straight allies. If you're setting up in a church that is anti LGBTQ two S LGBTQ plus, they don't like the people.They don't think women should get abortions. They got this shit you don't like. And I, and I've done this. I've sat there too. Cause I felt like I needed to be a church because why? Because people told me I should go, go somewhere else, go to a gay affirming church, go to places that [00:56:00] are better, that you have people who are going to support you and celebrate you rather than to attack your lifestyle and stuff like that.You know? And then, you know, because you're hurting yourself. If you're not straight, why sat there and listened to a preacher, say that you're going to go to hell. Now we rationalize it and we go, okay, well I'll disagree with them on that, but I agree with everything else and we make concessions for it. Y you know, we shouldn't stay in abusive relationships.We shouldn't say it abusive churches, abusive companies, organizations. If, if, if, if the whole thing is in positive, when nothing's fully positive, let me not say that there's something that's a personal attack against you, or what you believe in and you should go. But what do you think? Cause that's what I'm seeing.You know, she left overseas and came to the place where she could thrive rather than trying to say. Yeah.Luanne: Oh, I, I completely agree with that. In a similar [00:57:00] vein, I guess when I was a kid, it was in the sixties and we were living in a small town in Kentucky and our church Southern Methodist church was a very small community, very small congregation but a black couple wanted to join. The church first black couple to ask to join the church and the elders did not want since the sixties, the elders did not want black couple in the church.And my parents who I would never say were activists in any way. My parents left the church at that time. And God bless them for that. You know, because they saw something where they said, this is not the right church for us, that doesn't accept people no matter what. And they left the church and it had been a big part of our lives that church had had been.And, you know, for them to walk away at that point I noticed, even though I was only like six years [00:58:00] old, I noticed, and I understood why and I think it it's had a big impact on who I became as time went on, you know, and, and know, exactly if it's, I liked what you said, if it's an abusive church or an abusive situation and abuse comes in many forms then walk away from it.And, and I think if, you know, that's, that's right on, if you can do it, if you can get away, get away. And, and my parents taught me that that's great, you know, De'Vannon: Right. My my boyfriend's mom did that for him and his brother. When when they were younger, I don't think they even had a chance to come out and say anything, but mothers know when they have gay children, they just do so when, when she had them in a church at first, it may be in, but when they started preaching against the [00:59:00] gayness, she was like, oh, hell no, I'm taking my children away from this.And they just never went back to any church at all, because, you know, why keep your kids in a situation like that, where they're going to get hurt. If something I wish, you know, my, my, you know, my mom did the best job. She knew how to do with her own set of circumstances. And I'm not mad at her and I don't hold anything against her.But knowing what I know now as an adult, you know, I don't, I wish that she would not have kept the meet in a church where they were preaching against homosexuality. Luanne: right. De'Vannon: No, or against really anything, you know, I don't want to go to church to hear how much you hate some person or some group of people. That's not what it's about.And and you know, I wish that my mom would have divorced my dad because he, as I understand that he had an affair when, when she was pregnant with me and he had definitely had one when I was in, when I was in grade school, you know, and of course he would be very [01:00:00] physically and verbally abusive to myself and my siblings and then verbally abusive to my mother as well.You know, this is a mean fucking man. And, you know, I looked at his affairs as a way out, you know, because according to Jesus, once you're married, if you get divorced for any reason, other than infidelity, that he considers you an adulterer, doesn't no matter what. Luanne: right, right. Yeah. De'Vannon: I get the straight conservative church world get divorced all the time.And that seems to be cool with them. And then, but then they didn't want to turn on the tap gay people. Then there's a whole other story there. But I feel like God was giving her a way out. I wish she had taken us out of that abusive home, Luanne: Yeah. Yeah, De'Vannon: trying to make it work. You know, the, the other option is to find a better atmosphere.You know, you got to Luanne: yeah, De'Vannon: the go, when to stay, when to go. And so oh my God. So. Hmm. So I'll just [01:01:00]recap that we'll always want to be sure that we challenged challenge anything. Anyone else's telling us, let's fact check it we don't want to put ourselves in a place where we're going to living a lie, whatever we want to live, be sure it's our own truth.Not someone else's Luanne: yeah. De'Vannon: let's put ourselves in places where we have freedom of expression so that we will Luanne: Yeah. Yeah, De'Vannon: that way. We have good mental health. We have joy to share with the world we're being the truth. We're living our truth. And we are, you know, we're not, we're not living a lie because that shit will show up later with bad health.It can manifest in your body, you know, in, in, in, in different ways like that, know, it's, it's, it's a very dangerous thing to live a lie.Luanne: yeah, yeah. I agree with you a hundred percent. And I think I think my parents did inadvertently teach me that though. They didn't realize that's the lesson I was getting from that. And I think but I think from, you know, from then on, I was like, [01:02:00] well stay away from the lies, you know, be who you are, be, who you are And try to live authentically.De'Vannon: And so then the last thing we'll talk quickly about was exit exit stage a lot of this reads really and it reads really real to me. You said you weren't sure if it, if it's, if it's fiction or nonfiction, it sounds very nonfictiony to me because I've lived through this life before and we're talking about snorting cocaine and this little snippet that I took, I thought it was kind of cool because of its accuracy.And so I would just read through it real quick. And so. It, it opens up with someone talking. It says never snort cocaine out of any bill smaller than a 20. The old man told her that's a lame, that's some loser shit right there. He took a drag of a cigarette and reached into his back pocket, retrieving a crisp $50 bill.And he held it between his fingers and snap it in her face so that it popped take girl, [01:03:00] use this. That's what you want to do your first line out of, oh, she reached out and took the bill, go easy on her. She don't know no better. Her mother told him, patting her daughter on the back. And so this is a cool story here of a mom.You know, you know, watching her daughter do a couple of lines of cocaine and then whoever, whoever this guy is being like, don't be a weak ass bitch. You know, you won't be lame. You don't do that shit out of like something greater than a 20, which is real as fuck, you know, Luanne: Oh, yeah. De'Vannon: You always want to roll up like a hundred dollar bill or something, you know, you want to just be like Tony Montana with his shit, you know, that's our face with itand we're going to do it at all. But, you know, she said she had a rough upbringing, you know, I, I read that with glee, but you know, it's not necessarily the best situation for, you know, a mother to be encouraging her daughter to do cocaine.I'm not [01:04:00] judging her for it, but,you know,Luanne: Well, it's, it's the same thing though. I mean, she's doing it because her mother wants her to, you know, and she wants to be a part of her mother's life. Does she really want to do it? Is that really who she is? We don't know, you know, and, and I think it's, it's a lot, I think that has ending of that story says a lot where she, she is obviously trying to please her mother and be close to her mother through her actions. You know, and so there's, there's a little bit of a problem there with that. You know, rather than being true to herself, she's being she thinks her mother wants her to be. You know, That's kind of, it, it's kind of the opposite of the other story that you liked in terms of what the daughter's doing. But it's the same, you know, same idea in some ways. Do I please mom, or do I please [01:05:00] myself? And then this one she tries to please, mom just sit mom is into cocaine rather than the Korean. De'Vannon: Well, religion's just as much of a drug.Luanne: Oh yeah, I think so too. Yeah. De'Vannon: You know, people try to throw so much shade at like drug addicts and stuff like that. And look, I've been that added with a needle, hanging out my arm and blood squirting everywhere. And I'm not even a fucking ashamed to say that, but you know, religion is a DELWP is fucking, I mean that negative leave, like a drug people get upset.And it dipped it to the process until the ritual, just like it's like a dope theme gets addicted to the process and the ritual of acquiring drugs, setting it all up, injecting it, people get high when they go to church every time, you know, and then they want to force that shit on other people. Luanne: Yeah. De'Vannon: no different now.It's cute. It's a cute addiction because you know, you're not covered in tattoos and a grimy place with [01:06:00] your arm and a belt wrapped around your bicycle to get the veins popped up and you don't have track marks all up and down your fucking body. Could you try to shoot up in all kinds of different places that you've blown out, all the veins in your arm, you know, you get to put on a pretty dress and go set up and cherish and judge other people.But bitch, you're strong out to.Luanne: Yeah. Yeah, no, I totally agree. It's, it's a, it's an escape. It's a way of looking for something outside of yourself. You know, and, and that's exactly what drugs do too, is sorta help you escape yourself. But certainly religious religion

Mike Sakasegawa, host of Keep the Channel Open, was scheduled to moderate a panel at this year’s annual AWP Conference called “The Craft of the Literary Podcast Interview,” featuring Rachel Zucker of Commonplace, Dujie Tahat of The Poet Salon, and David Naimon of Between the Covers. Due to the coronavirus, Mike and the panelists ended up having to cancel their appearance at the conference, which makes it all the sweeter to be able to bring you this podcast version of our panel. In this wide-ranging conversation, Rachel, Dujie, David, and Mike talk all about the “hows” and the “whys” of interviewing, including the importance of establishing rapport with our guests, questions about the ethics of interviewing, and what the role of the host ought to be. Podcasts by the Panelists Keep the Channel Open Between the Covers The Poet Salon

Last month, I was scheduled to moderate a panel at the annual AWP Conference called “The Craft of the Literary Podcast Interview,” featuring Rachel Zucker of Commonplace, Dujie Tahat of The Poet Salon, and David Naimon of Between the Covers, three of my favorite literary podcasts. Due to the coronavirus, we ended up having to cancel our appearance at the conference, which makes it all the sweeter to be able to bring you this podcast version of our panel. In this wide-ranging coversation, Rachel, Dujie, David, and I talked all about the “how”s and the “whys” of interviewing, including the importance of establishing rapport with our guests, questions about the ethics of interviewing, and what the role of the host ought to be. (Conversation recorded March 27, 2020.) Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RadioPublic | Stitcher | Spotify | TuneIn | RSS Support: Support our Patreon | Donate via PayPal Share: Tweet this episode | Share to Facebook Connect: Email | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube Show Notes: Rachel Zucker Commonplace: Conversations with Poets (and Other People) Dujie Tahat The Poet Salon Luther Hughes Gabrielle Bates Between the Covers Between the Covers - Solmaz Sharif : Look Commonplace - Episode 37: Sheila Heti and Sarah Manguso AWP 2019 - The Art of the Interview VS Podcast Open Books: A Poem Emporium Dujie Tahat - “salat to be read from right to left” CAConrad Keep the Channel Open - Episode 78: David Naimon Keep the Channel Open - Episode 94: Rachel Zucker Commonplace - Episode 82: Maggie Nelson Commonplace - Episode 81: Commonplace goes to Taiwan, Part 2 Commonplace - Episode 72: Ilya Kaminsky Commonplace - Episode 54: Gerald Stern Between the Covers - Junot Diaz : This Is How You Lose Her Between the Covers - Terese Marie Mailhot : Heart Berries Wesley Morris - “The Morality Wars” Nicole Chung - “E. B. White’s Lesson for Debut Writers: It’s Okay to Start Small” Commonplace - Episode 26: Alice Notley Commonplace - Episode 15: Bernadette Mayer Commonplace - Episode 23: Morgan Parker Tommy Pico Danez Smith Robin Coste Lewis Commonplace - Episode 60: Robin Coste Lewis Alexander Chee - “How to Unlearn Everything” Between the Covers - Claudia Rankine : Citizen The Racial Imaginary: Writers on Race in the Life of the Mind Zadie Smith - “Fascinated to Presume: In Defense of Fiction” Between the Covers - Zadie Smith : Grand Union Commonplace - Episode 83: Darcey Steinke The Poet Salon - Taneum Bambrick + End of Tour Toddy Transcript Episode Credits Editing/Mixing: Mike Sakasegawa Music: Podington Bear Transcription: Shea Aguinaldo

Intern Alex brings us back to March 2019, when NRP attended the AWP Conference and Bookfair in Portland, Oregon. NRP staff Nayt Rundquist and Kevin Carollo, along with NRP authors Elizabeth Mosier, Jehanne DuBrow, and Joel Peckham, read from their books and discuss trauma and memory. New Rivers Press is a teaching press operating in association with Minnesota State University Moorhead. The press gives student interns hands-on experience with editing, publishing, and the business of books. Since 2003, every New Rivers Press title has been edited and designed by MSUM students under the supervision of New Rivers Press staff. For more information about the press, our authors, and our upcoming events, follow us on social media @nrppodcast or check out our website: newriverspress.com. Thank you to Minnesota State Educational Innovations for making this podcast possible. The views expressed are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of New Rivers Press, Minnesota State University Moorhead, or any employees thereof. Music Copyright © 2018 by Sakora Studio. Music composed by Thomas Maresh. Podcast Image created by Mikaila Norman.

A night spent drinking and writing about his parents' divorce uncovered an urgent need in Stanford professor Jamil Zaki to author THE WAR FOR KINDNESS: BUILDING EMPATHY IN A FRACTURED WORLD. He and James talk about how empathy can literally grow parts of the brain, hating the term hard-wired, facing the problems of the world today, and (sigh) STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION. Plus Michael Nye returns to talk about reviving and relaunching STORY.  - Jamil Zaki: https://profiles.stanford.edu/jamil-zaki Buy THE WAR FOR KINDNESS: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780451499240  Jamil and James discuss:  STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION  Deanna Troi  The Good Samaritan  Princeton  Manchester United  Liverpool  Allen Iverson  Bill Nye Borderlinks  Life After Hate  WRECK-IT RALPH Contact Theory  Angela King THE NEW YORK TIMES  Defensive dehumanization  Amanda Cook  Gareth Cook  Bread Loaf Writer's Conference  Carl Sagan   - Michael Nye: http://mpnye.com/ Subscribe to STORY: https://www.storymagazine.org/ Michael and James discuss:  STORY  Lee K. Abbott Travis Kurowski  AWP Conference  Dave Housley  BARRELHOUSE MISSOURI REVIEW  RIVER STYX BOULEVARD  HUNGER MOUNTAIN ONE STORY PLOUGHSHARES   "Nude" By Claudia Hinz  "World's End" by Clare Beams  Valerie Cumming  Ohio State "Amputation of the Angels" by Kyle Minor LaTanya McQueen Shanie Latham THE PARIS REVIEW THE KENYON REVIEW BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES Anne Valente  Michael Croley  COLUMBUS ALIVE - http://tkpod.com / tkwithjs@gmail.com / Twitter: @JamesScottTK Instagram: tkwithjs / Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tkwithjs/

In this week's episode, I talk to the poet Deborah Landau about her wonderful new poetry collection, Soft Targets, [caption id="attachment_24396" align="alignnone" width="4288"]Deborah Landau reading at AWP 2019. Photo by John King.[/caption] plus I share Copper Canyon's poetry reading from the 2019 AWP Conference, which featured Javier Zamora, Ellen Bass, Deborah Landau, and Jericho Brown. TEXT DISCUSSED NOTES This episode is sponsored by Scribophile. TDO Listeners can get 20% of a premium subscription to Scribophile. After using the above link to register for a basic account, go herewhile still logged in to upgrade the account with the discount.

For Asian American poets, what is the relationship between bearing witness to history and giving voice to marginalized communities? At the 2019 AWP Conference and Bookfair held in Portland in March, AAWW hosted a panel titled Poets vs. Community vs. History, moderated by Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello with E.J. Koh, Yanyi, Emily Jungmin Yoon, & Monica Sok. These multidisciplinary writers talk about how their work as poets, editors, translators, and scholars allows them to uncover intimacies among seemingly disparate colonial histories, and contextualize narratives of intergenerational trauma. They draw on their varied practices to explore how the individual pursuits of poets can build empathy and community.   E.J. Koh is the author of A Lesser Love, awarded the Pleiades Editors Prize, and her memoir The Magical Language of Others. Koh has accepted fellowships from the American Literary Translators Association, MacDowell Colony, and elsewhere. Yanyi is a poet and critic. The recipient of fellowships from Poets House and Asian American Writers' Workshop, his debut collection The Year of Blue Water was recently released in March. He serves as associate editor at Foundry. Emily Jungmin Yoon is the author of A Cruelty Special to Our Species and Ordinary Misfortunes, winner of the Sunken Garden Chapbook Prize. A PhD student at the University of Chicago, she is the poetry editor for the Asian American Writers' Workshop. Monica Sok is the author of Year Zero. Her work has been recognized with a 2018 "Discovery"/Boston Review Poetry Prize. She has been awarded fellowships from Hedgebrook, Jerome Foundation, Kundiman, and NEA among others. She is a 2018–2020 Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello is the author of Hour of the Ox, winner of the Donald Hall Poetry Prize and a Florida Book Award Bronze Medal. She has received fellowships from Kundiman and the American Literary Translators Association, and serves as a program coordinator for Miami Book Fair.

We're back from a long hiatus. Gessy talks about what has kept her away for so long, Portland, AWP Conference, and answers the question everyone was asking her...What does 'Cultural Omnivore' mean? Opening and Closing Music Credit: Dusk Cathedral by Lee Rosevere RELEASED: April 2nd, 2019 GENRES: Electronic, Ambient, Hip-Hop Beats, Instrumental LENGTH: 00:17:44 LABEL: Happy Puppy Records http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Lee_Rosevere/Blue_Dot_RMX/Dusk_Cathedral

Matt and Alvin wrestle with a piece from the YMCA Oasis Daylight Center. They discuss hope, despair, rebellion, and protest. Matt shares updates about the anthology What No One Ever Tells You, the incredible On Being podcast on NPR, FilmVerse now underway in its second year, the support of Red Door Thrift Shop and Christ Episcopal Church, the Washington Arts Council, and the upcoming AWP Conference in Portland. Note: We are a creative writing program serving at-risk populations. We do not broadcast names or identifying details of the students we work with. Underground Writing: a literature-based creative writing program serving migrant, incarcerated, recovery, and other at-risk communities in Northern Washington through literary engagement and personal restoration.

Ken Lopez is a Mexican and Salvadoran poet from Kansas City. She hopes her work will, like Chinua Achebe said, tell the story of theContinue reading

I was at the Associated Writing Programs conference in Tampa in March, where students and professor of creative writing gather for a weekend. I hadContinue reading

In her second novel, BURY WHAT WE CANNOT TAKE, Kirstin Chen depicts a family in China under the tightening rule of Mao. She tells James about her choice to tell the story when and how she did, along with trying to make people happy, learning to craft endings from short stories, dealing with cultural tourism, and, of course, writing in a cave in a museum. Plus, Michael Nye on the AWP conference, selling your book, scheduling your day, and writing longhand.    - Kirstin Chen: http://kirstinchen.com/ Kirstin and James discuss:  NTU-NAC National Writer in Residence in Singapore Little A  Matthew Salesses  Emerson College  Columbia University  NYU  Chairman Mao  The Great Famine  The Great Leap Forward  Drum Wave Inlet  Michelle Brower  Jamie Quatro  Zadie Smith  Vanessa Hua  The San Francisco Chronicle  -  Michael Nye: http://mpnye.com/  Michael and James discuss:  BOULEVARD MAGAZINE  NATURAL BRIDGE: A JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE  University of Missouri in St. Louis  AWP Conference  Annette Bening  AMERICAN BEAUTY  Maggie Smith  Ohio State University  Ruth Awad  TINY LETTER  RIVER STYX MAGAZINE  Annie Hartnett DEEP WORK by Cal Newport   - http://tkpod.com / tkwithjs@gmail.com / Twitter: @JamesScottTK Instagram: tkwithjs / Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tkwithjs/

Ever since reading an early copy of Michael Nye's first novel, ALL THE CASTLES BURNED, James has wanted to talk to the author of such an engaging and thought-provoking book. They discuss knowing good books from page one, declaring a new read dead, and writing sports scenes. Thankfully, they save their Celtics talk for off the air. Plus, poet Lauren Moseley, author of BIG WINDOWS.  - Michael Nye: http://mpnye.com/ Michael and James discuss:  Bruce Willis  HOSTAGE dir. by Florent Siri  FEEL FREE by Zadie Smith  SOME HELL by Patrick Nathan  BACK TALK: STORIES by Danielle Lazarin  THE FIFTH ELEMENT dir. by Luc Besson  PACHINKO by Min Jin Lee  HOW TO WRITE AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOVEL: ESSAYS by Alexander Chee  THE MISSOURI REVIEW BOULEVARD  Jane Smiley  PREP by Curtis Sittenfeld  THE STARBOARD SEA by Amber Dermont  A SEPARATE PEACE by John Knowles  THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger  THE ART OF FIELDING by Chad Harbach  Mitch Albom  John Birch  Tom Ripley  OUR HEARTS WILL BURN US DOWN by Anne Valente  - Lauren Moseley: https://www.laurenjmoseley.com/ Lauren and James discuss: Virginia Center for the Creative Arts  Yaddo  Alice Eve Cohen  Joellen Craft NASHVILLE REVIEW  UNC- Greensboro  Carnegie Mellon University Press  Rebecca Morgan Frank  AWP Conference  THE GREENSBORO REVIEW DEAR APOCALYPSE by K.A. Hays  - http://tkpod.com / tkwithjs@gmail.com / Twitter: @JamesScottTK Instagram: tkwithjs / Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tkwithjs/

Robert Repino had a couple of false start novels before setting out on The War With No Name series, which was inspired by a dream (really) and now includes three books: MORT(E), CUL-DE-SAC, and D'ARC. He and James discuss their MFA memories, learning to write, 80s nostalgia, and fans getting MORT(E) tattoos. Plus, Urban Waite and James talk about MFAs and creating your own residency.    - Robert Repino: https://robertrepino.com/ Robert and James discuss:  Emerson College  St. Joseph's University Press  Arts Boston  TKTS  Pamela Painter  DeWitt Henry  David Emblidge  Aditi Rao  Jessica Treadway  Jennifer Weltz  Laura van den Berg  Urban Waite  Michael Mann  Kapo Amos Ng  Animal Farm  1984  GHOSTBUSTERS  BACK TO THE FUTURE  THE GODFATHER  LETHAL WEAPON  METROID  THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK STAR TREK MRS. FRISBY AND THE RATS OF NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien    -   Urban Waite: http://www.urbanwaite.com/   Urban and James Discuss:    Emerson College Western Washington University University of Washington Margot Livesey St. Botolph Club  Vermont Studio Center  Chip Cheek  WHAT IF? WRITING EXERCISES FOR FICTION WRITERS ed by Pamela Painter & Anne Bernays  Richard Hoffman  Frederick Reiken Lizzie Stark  Thomas Mallon  Bread Loaf Writers' Conference  Mineral School  AWP Conference  Sewanee Writers' Conference  Yaddo  The Millay Colony - http://tkpod.com / tkwithjs@gmail.com / Twitter: @JamesScottTK Instagram: tkwithjs / Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tkwithjs/

Episode date, February 23rd, 2017: I travel to Washington D.C. for the 2017 AWP Conference and Bookfair, where I interview writer, teacher, and model Chris Campanioni, who edits PANK magazine and is the author Death of Art, published by C&R Press. I also interview C&R and PANK owner John Gosslee. Chris Campanioni website: http://chriscampanioni.com/ John Gosslee website: https://johngosslee.com/ C&R Press website: https://www.crpress.org/ Death of Art: https://www.crpress.org/shop/deathofart/ Tall As You Are Tall Between Them: https://www.crpress.org/shop/tallasyouaretallbetweenthem/ Next, a recorded selection of readings from the PANK & Nomadic Invasions author showcase at Sixth Engine restaurant. The event was co-organized by Nomadic Press and PANK magazine during AWP 2017, and featured 14 authors, including: Cassandra Dallett, reading "The Day Prince Left" George Anderson, reading from "The Kaleidoscope Kid" Anderson's website: http://george-anderson.net/ Natasha Dennerstein, reading "Love Me, I'm Fake" & "Serial Eileen" Dennerstein's website: https://www.natashadennerstein.com/ Ariel Francisco, reading "The Young Men Along the Bar Are Too Tired Even to Die" Francisco's website: https://arielfranciscopoetry.wordpress.com/ Hollie Hardy, reading "The Animal Trail of Tears" Hardy's website: http://www.holliehardy.com/ Beth Ann Miller, reading "Your Bones" Your Bones PANK version: http://pankmagazine.com/piece/your-bones/ Roberto F. Santiago, reading "The Domestican" & "I Was Set up to Fail But Never Given The Chance To" Santiago's website: https://therfsantiago.com/ Annie Christain, reading "He Developed the Habit of Playing Airs, Most Correctly, Upon His Chin: March 3rd 1994, Rome" Elwin Michael Cotman, reading from his upcoming novella Next, Joy Deva Baglio, reading from "Ron" Matthew Siegel, reading a poem inspired by California's Bay Area Siegel's website: http://matthewsiegel.us/ Sidney Taiko, reading "Here be Monsters" Here Be Monsters PANK version: http://pankmagazine.com/piece/here-be-monsters/ Raina J León, reading "Poet Anxiety Disorder" León's website: http://www.rainaleon.com/ Will Cordeiro, reading "Dialogue With The Moon" PANK magazine website: http://pankmagazine.com/ Nomadic Press website: https://www.nomadicpress.org/ PANK & Nomadic Invasions: https://www.facebook.com/events/367706813596584/ Sixth Engine website: http://www.sixthengine.com/ #talkingpaper #interview #radiofreebrooklyn #poetry #writing #livereading #c&rpress #nomadicpress #pank #pankmagazine #awp #awp2017 #sixthengine

In today’s episode we share excerpts from the panel “Creating Space for Marginalized Voices” presented at the 2017 AWP Conference. The organizers of Canada's inaugural Festival of Literary Diversity in discussion with publishing professionals talk about how to promote and support a diverse lineup of authors, uncovering how targeted initiatives and intentional approaches can effectively address the diversity gaps in the publishing industry.

We were excited to team up with the editors of The Literary Review to present a special switched-up storytelling panel at the 50th AWP Conference & Bookfair in Washington D.C. Our first true-life tale was written by No, YOU Tell It!’s own Mike Dressel who experiences the opposite of “ghosting” when an overseas fling takes a dark […]

This episode features Cody Walker and Executive Editor Kevin Craft in conversation, recorded in Los Angeles during the 2016 AWP Conference.

In Episode 017, we spoke to Jim Hanas about the value and perhaps impracticality of today’s slush piles. This week, M. Rachel Branwen, editor of Slush Pile Magazine, was happy to talk about her thoughts on what the slush pile is really about, disagreeing with Hanas unapologetically.   Welcome, welcome, welcome to Episode TWENTY of Slush Pile! We thank all of our listeners, writers, and guest speakers for supporting this podcast and its mission. We first launched Slush Pile at the end of March at the 2016 AWP Conference. We were thrilled with the enthusiastic response, yet confused athow many times people asked if we were related to Slush Pile Magazine, also debuting at 2016 AWP! We had never heard of this publication, so we hunted down their booth and were blown away by the ladder and a very tall stack of papers.   Author Jonathan Weinert at Slush Pile Magazine's AWP booth We had the pleasure of meeting M. Rachel Branwen, Slush Pile Magazine’s founder and editor, and we invited her back to our booth for some boxed wine and great conversation! Then, we convinced her to come on air. M.Rachel Branwen is the editor of Slush Pile Magazine, the longtime senior reader of fiction at Harvard Review, and the former fiction editor of DigBoston. Her work has appeared in The Missouri Review, The Adirondack Review, The Millions, and elsewhere. She is fond of: bougainvillea, red wine, mashed potatoes, unexpected conversations with oversharing strangers, long road trips, learning new languages, walking up hills for exercise, the thesaurus, her dog (Nigel, a pug), and the movie "When Harry Met Sally." She dislikes:headaches, mosquitoes, and the sounds people make when they're chewing. Feel free to look her up on Facebook here, here, or on Twitter: @slushpilemag. In Episode 017, we spoke to Jim Hanas about the value and perhaps impracticality of today’s slush piles. This week, M. Rachel Branwen was happy to talk about her thoughts on what the slush pile is really about, disagreeing with Hanas unapologetically. Branwen tells us about the history of Slush Pile Magazine, “championing” and “curating” works that Branwen believes deserve the world’s attention. After explaining her magazine’s history, Branwen probed us for the history and executions of Painted Bride Quarterly. Kathy and Marion reminisce about their introduction to a group of people who work on magazines like Painted Bride Quarterly and Slush Pile Magazine simply for the love of literature. Then, we have veteran reader Tim Fitts and brand-new reader Sara Aykit discuss the democratic nature of PBQ’s voting that not only empowers young readers, but keeps the perspectives of older readers fresh. M. Rachel Branwen embodies the pleasure of reading poetry and short stories like they are the only thing that matters. We had a great time discussing her more optimistic views on slush piles and the “staggeringly interesting” Slush Pile Magazine. Check out the Issues Marion raves about here and here! We would love to know how you feel about slush piles: are you Team Hanas or Team Branwen? Let us know on our Facebook page or @PaintedBrideQ with #TeamHanas or #TeamBranwen! Thank you for listening and read on!   Present at the Editorial Table: Kathleen Volk Miller Marion Wrenn Tim Fitts Sara Aykit M. Rachel Branwen   Production Engineer: Joe Zang

Chris and James go through Chris's life from set maker and creator of latex fish to author of the brilliant GOLDEN DELICIOUS and HOW TO KEEP YOUR VOLKSWAGEN ALIVE. They talk about how writers want to hear from you, how random kindnesses led to their careers, and how Chris came upon his writing style. Then, Kim Liao discusses her essay "Why You Should Aim for 100 Rejections a Year", which was published on lithub.com.      CHRIS AND JAMES DISCUSS: Powell's Books Kevin Sampsell  Boris Vian  JESUS' SON by Denis Johnson  HOUSEKEEPING by Marilynne Robinson TROUT FISHING IN AMERICA by Richard Brautigan THE FAERIE QUEENE by Edmund Spenser Sam Shepard Harold Pinter Caryl Churchill Spalding Gray A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Charles Dixon BIG RIVER: THE ADVENTURE OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN by Roger Miller Geoffrey Wolff Tobias Wolff Jayne Anne Phillips Margot Livesey Junot Diaz George Saunders CIVILWARLAND IN BAD DECLINE by George Saunders DOGWALKER by Arthur Bradford Andre Dubus Andre Dubus III Arielle Greenberg Mary Caponegro Cheryl Strayed Salvador Plascencia 100 YEARS OF SOLITUDE by Gabriel Garcia Marquez  INFINITE JEST by David Foster Wallace    KIM AND JAMES DISCUSS: Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich Slice Literary Conference  AWP Conference  Kevin Larimer  POETS & WRITERS MAGAZINE Lithub Black Lawrence Press  Vermont Studio Center    http://tkpod.com  /  tkwithjs@gmail.com / Twitter: @JamesScottTK  Instagram: tkwithjs / Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tkwithjs/ 

Poetry Northwest‘s monthly podcast series, The Subvocal Zoo, features editors and friends of the magazine interviewing poets. Each episode features lively conversation between writers in a different location. Episode 9 features Danez Smith in conversation with William Camponovo during the 2015 AWP Conference in Minneapolis. Topics of discussion include the importance of community; The Dark Noise Collective; composing for the page vs. composing for performance; Ocean Vuong, Chinaka Hodge, Patricia Smith; Yusef Komunyakaa; The BreakBeat Poets and the April 2015 issue of Poetry magazine. iTunes | Stitcher | RSS Danez Smith is the author of [insert] boy (2014, YesYes Books), winner of the 2014 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry and “Black Movie,” winner of the 2014 Button Poetry Chapbook Prize. His second full-length collection will be published by Graywolf Press in 2017. His work has been published & featured widely including in Poetry Magazine, Beloit Poetry Journal, Buzzfeed, Blavity, and Ploughshares. He is a 2014 Ruth Lilly – Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellow, a Cave Canem and VONA alum, and a recipient of a McKnight Foundation Fellowship. He is a two time Individual World Poetry Slam finalist, placing second in 2014. He edits for The Offing and is a founding member …

Poet and editor, Sandy Kleven, discusses why this mega-writing conference is important, how Alaska writers can engage with AWP in the future, and shares stories about meeting of Theodore Roethke's students, some who inspired her play "I Teach out of Love", at AWP. Sandy Kleven is editor of Cirque, a Literary Journal and author of Defiance Street, Poems and other Writing.

   For this Spring Equinox episode of APEX Express, we honor our connections to land and our connections to our homelands! Including first-hand accounts from the Philippines and China, and powerful words from Vandana Shiva. Bay Area delegates on a Philippines political exposure trip last December. Photo credit: Vay Hoang.   Philippines and China Political Exposure Trips! In studio live will be representatives from delegations that went on two different political exposure trips, to two different homelands — Vivian Huang and Armael Malinis join us to speak on their trip to the Philippines and Lucia Lin and Calvin Miaw join us to speak on their trip to China.  We'll have them all cozy together in the KPFA studio to share stories, songs, and have a cross-pollinating conversation about what political exposure trips mean for activists living in the US. Vandana Shiva on capitalism, patriarchy, and the destruction of Mother Earth We have a special audio excerpt of Vandana Shiva's compelling interview on Democracy Now! last week.  She speaks on the violence on women and the violence on Mother Earth and on native seeds, and how they are intricately connected. photo credit: wordandviolin.com Writer Pireeni Sundaralingam at the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) Conference Tara Dorajbi caught Sri Lankan writer Pireeni Sundaralingam at the AWP Conference to talk about her poetry and how she connects the political context of her home country to her expression as an artist.  We'll play the first half of the interview — stay tuned here on apexexpress.org for the full interview to be posted after the show! With Host Ellen Choy. The post APEX Express – March 21, 2013 appeared first on KPFA.

In this episode we interview Tasha Haas and learn about her recent trip to the Association of Writing Programs Conference in NY, where networked with professionals in creative writing. We discuss applications for the composition classroom and what she learned.