Podcast appearances and mentions of Deborah Eisenberg

Our new book... STORY QUESTIONS: How To Unlock Your Story One Question At A Time https://payhip.com/b/ZTvq9 Watch the video version of this podcast here on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gugpMuxCT4 MORE FULL FILM COURAGE INTERVIEWS https://tinyurl.com/mr42eye2 BUY THE BOOK - THE USUAL UNCERTAINTIES: STORIES - https://amzn.to/3WO36cw BUY THE BOOK - LAST WORD - https://amzn.to/3Cflf9u MORE VIDEOS WITH JONATHAN BLUM https://buff.ly/43NxPc9 Jonathan Blum grew up in Miami and graduated from UCLA and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He is the author of two books of fiction: The Usual Uncertainties (Rescue Press, 2019), a story collection, and Last Word (Rescue Press, 2013), a novella. Both were named one of the best books of the year by Iowa Public Radio, and The Usual Uncertainties was named one of the 15 Best Short Story Collections of 2019 by Electric Literature. Blum has twice appeared on KCRW's Bookworm. His short stories have been published in Gulf Coast, Kenyon Review, Northwest Review, Playboy, and Shanxi Literature, among others. His short story, "The White Spot," which was published in Electric Literature with an introduction by Deborah Eisenberg, appears in the award-winning anthology The Best Peace Fiction (University of New Mexico Press, 2021). He has taught fiction writing at The University of Iowa, Drew University, and the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, and is the recipient of a Michener-Copernicus Society of America Award, a Hawthornden Fellowship in Scotland, and a grant from the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation. He has also been a guest writer at the Tianjin Binhai New Area International Writing Program in China. He lives in Los Angeles. WRITING CLASSES WITH JONATHAN BLUM https://jonathanblumwriter.com/classes CONNECT WITH JONATHAN BLUM https://jonathanblumwriter.com VIEWERS ALSO WATCHED 3 Ways To Open A Story - https://youtu.be/3no2un4Elik If You Can't Answer This Question Don't Write The Story - https://youtu.be/PGbNlKVU7Ok Don't Get It Right, Get It Written! - https://youtu.be/V6Yql0jrjow This Is Why It Doesn't Matter If Every Story Has Been Told - https://youtu.be/xaBsNggof68 Write Your Life And Become A Better Storyteller - https://youtu.be/xFK5Ih3CPFc CONNECT WITH FILM COURAGE http://www.FilmCourage.com http://twitter.com/#!/FilmCourage https://www.facebook.com/filmcourage https://www.instagram.com/filmcourage http://filmcourage.tumblr.com http://pinterest.com/filmcourage SUBSCRIBE TO THE FILM COURAGE YOUTUBE CHANNEL http://bit.ly/18DPN37 SUPPORT FILM COURAGE BY BECOMING A MEMBER https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs8o1mdWAfefJkdBg632_tg/join SUPPORT FILM COURAGE BY BECOMING A PATRON https://www.patreon.com/filmcourage LISTEN TO THE FILM COURAGE PODCAST https://soundcloud.com/filmcourage-com (Affiliates) SAVE $15 ON YOUTUBE TV - LIMITED TIME OFFER https://tv.youtube.com/referral/r0847ysqgrrqgp ►WE USE THIS CAMERA (B&H) – https://buff.ly/3rWqrra ►WE USE THIS SOUND RECORDER (AMAZON) – http://amzn.to/2tbFlM9 Stuff we use: LENS - Most people ask us what camera we use, no one ever asks about the lens which filmmakers always tell us is more important. This lens was a big investment for us and one we wish we could have made sooner. Started using this lens at the end of 2013 - http://amzn.to/2tbtmOq AUDIO Rode VideoMic Pro - The Rode mic helps us capture our backup audio. It also helps us sync up our audio in post https://amzn.to/425k5rG Audio Recorder - If we had to do it all over again, this is probably the first item we would have bought - https://amzn.to/3WEuz0k LIGHTS - Although we like to use as much natural light as we can, we often enhance the lighting with this small portable light. We have two of them and they have saved us a number of times - http://amzn.to/2u5UnHv *These are affiliate links, by using them you can help support this channel.

This week, to strike a celebratory note, an encore presentation of Writers & Company's 20th anniversary special with acclaimed writers Dionne Brand, Margaret Drabble, Deborah Eisenberg and Andrew O'Hagan. They joined host Eleanor Wachtel onstage at the Toronto International Festival of Authors in 2010. *This interview originally aired Oct. 31, 2010.

Hoy con 'Mester de batería', artefacto literario a medio camino entre el ensayo y la carta de amor a ese instrumento escrito por Ce Santiago, con el balance literario de este 2023 de Inés Martín Rodrigo y con 'La Casa de la Arquitectura', un nuevo museo que se ha presentado hoy en Madrid. LIBROS QUE HAN APARECIDO EN ESTE PROGRAMA:'Mester de batería. La triada en el texto' de Ce Santiago'Sinfonía corporal' de Fernando Aramburu'Escribe si vendrás' de Wislawa Szymborska y Kornel Filipowicz'Una estela salvaje' de Kathryn Schulz'La mala costumbre' de Alana S. Portero'Cuentos completos' de James Salter'Relatos' de Deborah Eisenberg'Aurelia, Aurelia' de Kathryn Davis'Sigo sin saber de ti' de Peter OrnerEscuchar audio

In the first episode of Season 1, co-hosts Annie Liontas and Lito Velázquez speak with LitFriends Angela Flournoy & Justin Torres about their enduring friendship, writing in a precarious world, and chosen family. Links https://sites.libsyn.com/494238 www.annieliontas.com www.litovelazquez.com https://linktr.ee/litfriendspodcast https://www.instagram.com/litfriendspodcast/ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553436475678 https://justin-torres.com/ https://www.angelaflournoy.com/ https://www.asalisolomon.com/ Transcript Annie & Lito (00:01) Welcome to LitFriends! Hey LitFriends! Annie: Welcome to the show. Lito: Today we're speaking with the great writers and LitFriends, Justin Torres and Angela Flournoy. Annie: About chosen family, the dreaded second novel, and failure and success. Lito: So grab your bestie and— 
 Both: Get ready to get lit! Lito: That's so cute. Annie: It's cute. It's cute. We're cute! Lito: Cute, cute… So you had a question? Annie (00:29) I do. I have a question for you, Lito. Are you a cat or an ox? Lito: I mean, I would hope that the answer is so obvious that it almost bears not asking the question. I'm a cat. Annie: Okay, so Asali Solomon at The Claw asked us all, are you an ox or a cat? Lito: That's a great question. Annie: And as a writer... You know, the oxen are the people who work every day in the field, clock in, clock out, pay themselves a quarter an hour. I'm literally talking about me. The cats are people who are playful, exploratory, when the mood strikes them… Lito: Why are you looking at me when you say that? Annie Lito (01:26) So are you an ox or a cat? Lito: I'm a cat. I think anyone who's ever met me would say I'm a cat. Annie: How does that show up in your writing? Lito: Well, I mean, play is so important to me—she'll be on the  podcast in a couple of episodes, but when I first...was studying with Lucy, that was one of the first things that she spoke about in our class, and it kind of blew up my whole world. I had been writing for a long time already, but I hadn't thought of it as play, or there was some permission I needed or something. So the idea of play is really central to what I do and love. You wouldn't necessarily know that from the novel that I'm writing, which is sort of a dark book. Um, but it did start out with a lot of play and, I'm also, as you could probably just hear, my cat is coming into the room. Annie: Your cat is like, yes, Lito is us. RiffRaff is like, "Lito is cat." Lito: My cat Riff Raff, yes. Smarty pants. Um, he needed to join in on this conversation. Anyways, I'm a cat. I, I'm fickle when it comes to my work. Um. I don't want to work on my novel all the time, which is great because life has found so many ways to prevent it from happening. So in the new year, in 2024, it will be 7 years since I've started writing this book, and it's still, it's going to take a few more months at least. And what about you? Annie:  (03:09) I'm four oxen pulling a cart carrying all of my ancestors. I am very much the immigrant who says, get up, go do the work, come back, go do the work. And believe it or not, for me, there is a lot of joy in that. It's a... It allows, you know, it's Csikszentmihalyi's Flow, actually. So it doesn't feel like drudgery, usually. It does feel like joy. And I'm actually curious for all you LitFriends out there, if you're an ox or a cat. Lito: Yes, that's such a great idea. Please email us at litfriendspodcast@gmail.com, and tell us if you're a cat or an oxen or share on all your socials. Annie: Yeah, maybe we should poll them. That would be fun. Lito: That's a good idea. #LitFriendsPodcast. Annie: The reason I'm asking is because, of course, both Justin and Angela, who we speak with today in this episode, talk about what it's like to go for 10 years between books. "A banger a decade," is what Angela says. Lito: It's so funny. Annie: And you, you know, part of that, they have this very rich conversation about how, when you put everything into the first book, it takes a lot to get to the second book. But I think also there's a lot of play, right? And there's a lot of understanding that writing appears in different forms. And it might be the second novel, but it might be something else. Lito: For sure. I really like how they talk about— that the practice of writing is actually a practice of reading. And I think that any serious writer spends most of their time reading. And not just reading books, but texts of all kinds, in the world, at museums, as Justin points out, art, television, even the trashiest TV show has so much to offer. Annie: (05:12) And there's such a generosity to the way they think of themselves as artists, and also generosity in how they show up for one another as friends, and acknowledging when they fail one another as we as we see in this episode. And I remember my introduction to Justin when I was a grad student at Syracuse. I read We the Animals and fell in love with it, asked him to come do a reading at Syracuse, which was wonderful. And my wife who, at that time was my Bey-ancé, she was turning 30. We had no money. I couldn't buy her anything. Not in grad school. So I asked Justin if he would autograph his story, "Reverting to a Wild State," which is about a breakup in reverse, for Sara. Lito: Oh, I love that story. Annie: And he did, and he thought it was so beautiful, and I was like, "let me send it to you." He's like, "no, I've got it." He just shipped it to me. He didn't know me. We didn't know each other. Lito: He knew you because of books. He knew you because he loved literature. Annie: Yeah. And I remember that in it. I held on to it at a time when that act really mattered. Lito: One of the things I love about our interview with Justin and Angela is how much all of us talk about generosity, and how Justin and Angela display it in their conversation with each other and with us. And I'm just curious, how do you see that coming through also in Angela's work? Annie: (07:00) You know, I remember her talking about how the idea for the book began with this image of people moving around a house at night. This is The Turner House. And she says this image opens up a lot of questions. And one of the things that really stays with me about that book is how masterful she is at shifting perspective, particularly between siblings, which I find to be such a challenge for writers, right? Like your siblings are the people who are closest to you and sometimes also the farthest away. And she gets that so intimately on the page. And of course, in our conversation with Angela and Justin, one of the things they talk about is being family, essentially being siblings. And that's one of the most powerful echoes of the conversation. They talk about being a chosen family and having to choose again and again and again. And that spirit of consciousness and connection, I feel that very much in Angela's work, and of course in Justin's too. Lito: Oh Annie, I choose you again and again, I choose you. Annie: Oh, I choo-choo-choose you! Lito: So stupid. Annie: (08:05) After the break, we'll be back with Justin and Angela. Annie: (08:24) And we're back. Lito: I just wanted to mention, too, that we spoke with Angela and Justin in October during the writer's strike in Hollywood, and just before Justin's new book, Blackouts, was released. And just last week, as you're hearing this podcast. Annie: Just last week. Lito: Just last week! He won the National Book Award for a book that took him 10 years to write. Annie: Absolutely. Annie: Justin Torres is the author of Blackouts, a novel about queer histories that are hidden, erased and re-imagined. Blackouts won the 2023 National Book Award for fiction. His debut novel, We the Animals, has been translated into 15 languages and was adapted into a feature film. He was named National Book Foundation's Five Under 35. His work appears in the New Yorker, Harper's, Granta, Tin House, Best American Essays, and elsewhere. He lives in Los Angeles and teaches at UCLA. Lito: Angela Flournoy is the author of The Turner House, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, won the VCU-Cabel First Novel Prize, and was also a finalist for both the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and an NAACP Image Award. Angela is a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine, and her nonfiction has appeared in The Nation, the Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, and elsewhere. Angela is a faculty member in the low residency MFA program at Warren Wilson College. Lito: (10:36) I'm so grateful that you guys found time to meet with us today, and I've thought about you two as friends since I think this is like the first time you've done something like what you did in 2017, the "Proper Missive"—do you remember that—you published in Spook? And it stuck with me. I was like a big, nerding out, and I bought it and I have it still. And I thought about that. And Justin, you know that you're very personal— there's a personal connection with me because I found your book on my way to my first master's program. No one had said anything about it to me where I was coming from, and it was really great. And Angela, I first found your book. I was so amazed and moved by the talk you don't remember at Syracuse. Angela: I don't remember the lunch. I remember being at Syracuse, and there being a talk, yes. Lito: You inscribed your book, "Here's to Language," which I think is hilarious and also really sweet. And I think we must have said something about language at some point. But anyways, thank you so much both for being here. Justin: Thank you for having us. Angela: Very happy to be here. Lito: So let's start. Why don't you tell us about your friend in a few sentences? So Angela, you can go first. Tell us about Justin. Angela: (11:23) Justin is the first person that I met in Iowa City when I was visiting and deciding if I was going to go there, but was I really deciding no? I'll let you go there. But that I could like, deciding whether I would be miserable while I was there. And so Justin was the first person I met. And feel like Justin is five years older than me. It has to be said.  Justin: Does it? Angela: When I think about people, and I think about like mentors, I have other like amazing mentors, but like, I think that there's really something special about somebody who some people might think is your peer, but like, in a lot of ways you've been like looking up to them and, um, that has been me with Justin. I think of him as like a person who is not only, he's a Capricorn, and he has big Capricorn energy. I am an Aquarius. I do not want to be perceived— Justin: I don't agree with any of this. But I don't know. I don't follow any of this. Angela: But Justin is in the business of perceiving me and also gathering me up and helping me do better. My life is just always getting better because of it. I'm grateful for it. Annie: That is beautiful, all of that is beautiful. Justin, tell us about Angela. Justin: I can't follow that, that is so...  Angela: Acurate! Justin: You're so prepared! You're so sweet! I'm so touched! Angela: Only a Capricorn would be touched by somebody saying that you perceive them and gather them up and make them feel better. Ha ha ha! Justin: I like that, I do like that. Let's see, yeah. I mean, I think that when we met, I had already been in Iowa for a year, and within two seconds, I was like, oh, we're gonna be friends, and you don't know it yet. But I knew it intensely. And yeah, I think that one of the, I agree that I think we keep each other honest, I think. I think that one of the things that I just so appreciate about Angela is that, you know, yeah, you see my bullshit. You put up with it for like a certain amount of time, and then you're like, all right, we need to talk about the bullshit that you're pulling right now. And I love it, I love it, love it, love it, because I don't know, I think you really keep me grounded. I think that, yeah, it's been really (14:09) wonderful to have you in my life. And like, our lives really, really kind of pivoted towards one another. You know, like we've, it was not just like, oh, we were in grad school and then, you know, whatever, we have similar career paths, so we stayed friends or whatever. It's like, we became family. And, you know, every, every kind of major event in either of our lives is a major event, a shared major event, right? And that's like, yeah, I don't know. I can't imagine my life without you. I honestly can't. Angela: Likewise. I gave birth in Justin's home. Annie: Oh! Sweet! Justin: In my bathroom, over there. Right over there. Lito: Whoa, congratulations, and also scary(?)! Angela: It's in a book I'm writing, so I won't say so much about it, but it was a COVID home birth success story. And yeah, like family. Lito: Was that the plan or did that just happen? Angela: Well, It wasn't the plan and then it was the plan. Justin: Yeah, exactly. COVID wasn't the plan. Angela: No. Justin: The plan was Angela was gonna sublet my place with her husband and she was pregnant. And then, COVID happened Angela: There were a lot of pivots. But we did, it was like enough of a plan where we got his blessing to give birth in his home. Justin: It wasn't a surprise. Angela: It was a surprise that it was in the bathroom, but that's a different story. Annie: You blessed that bathroom is all I can say. Angela: Yeah. Lito: We'll be right back. Back to the show. Annie: (16:22) Well, I want to come back to what Lido was saying about proper missives. I love the intimacy. I mean, I know you weren't writing those to one another for kind of public consumption, but the intimacy and the connection, it's so moving. And I was thinking about, you know, Justin, you, you talk about Angela as kind of pointing the way to beauty and helping you see the world anew or differently. And Angela, you talked about how Justin encourages you to take up space as a political act. I'm just wondering what else you all have taught one another. What has your LitFriend taught you? Justin: Yeah, I mean, we did write that for public consumption. Angela: Yes, it was the editor-in-chief of Spook, Jason Parham. Spook is relaunching soon, so look out for it. He just told me that, like, the other day. And he's moving to L.A. So many things are happening. But he reached out to us and was really interested in—he's a big archives guy and like how—he thought it was valuable the way that writers of past generations, they have these documents of their letters to each other, to their editors, to their friends, to their enemies, and how this generation, because we're just texting through it, we don't really have that. And so that was really just the extent of the assignment, was to write letters to each other, which, of course, we still ended up using email to do. But we really tried to keep it in the spirit of a letter and not just something you kind of dash off. Justin: And we were not living in the same place at that time. Angela: No. Justin: So it was, it did feel kind of— Angela: I was in Provincetown, I think. Justin: Yeah, I remember I was on a train when I was, when I was doing— I can't remember where I was going or, but I remember a lot of it was— or a few of those correspondences— because it went over days, weeks. Lito: Yeah, you were going to Paris. Angela: Oh. Glamorous train. You were on the Eurostar. Justin: Wow. Annie: You basically said the same thing then, Angela. Call him out. Justin: (18:32) Yeah, and I think that what I was saying was that one of the things I loved about that was it really forced us to dive deeper, right? To kind of— Sometimes we can stay very much on the surface because we talk every day. And so it was really nice to see, not just what was kind of on your mind in the background, but also how you were processing it, how you kind of made language and meaning out of it. I was just like... I don't know, it's like, I know you're so deep, but then we also love to be shallow. And so it's so nice to be like, to connect from that deep place. Annie: One of the things that I'm so drawn to about both of your work is how you write about family, the way it shapes us, the way it wounds us, what it means to watch family members suffer. You talk about it as the question of the donut hole in "Proper Missive. Angela, I remember you were writing about your father. When you were writing about him, you talk about, "the assumption that a flawed person should be subject to anyone's definition." And Justin, I'm thinking quite broadly in terms of, you know, chosen or logical family. One of my favorite pieces that I teach in my creative non-fiction class is "Leashed," and you write there, "my friends, those tough women and queers were all too sharp and creative for their jobs. If I'm nostalgic, it's not because I was happy in those precarious years, but because I was deeply moved by our resourcefulness." I'm just wondering how you think about, you know, (20:09) family, logical family, and how your lit friendship fits into this? Justin: Who's going first? Angela: You. Justin: Let's see, I think that it's such a great question. I actually like, I use that little short kind of tiny little piece that you referenced. I use that in my book, in Blackouts, that's coming out. I think that, which is a book about chosen family as well, and lineages, and what do you do when you feel there's some kind of disruption, right? That like if you're estranged from your biological family or you know or you just need these connections, these kind of queer connections to and other ways of thinking about family that are not related to (21:06) bloodlines. Like we said earlier, we are family, and we've known that for quite a while. It was something that, I don't know. You know, it's like something that I don't think you ever really need to say. It's just you know who your people are. And I think that, and I think that it's a choice that you make and remake again and again and again. And that is something that is, I don't know, it's so exceptional, right? Compared to bloodlines and biological family, which can be hugely important and bring a lot of meaning to people. But that you're choosing this again and again. Like almost like the kind of past tense chosen family is like, it's like a little bit inaccurate, right? It's like the family you choose, and keep choosing, and you're choosing right now, you know? So I love that. Yeah. Angela: Just that the continuity of it, not in the sense that it's always going to be there, but that like you are, you're like an active, uh, engager like in it. In it, I just think about, I think about that, like, uh, at this point we know each other for 14 years. And the way that there's just necessarily we're not the same people but you have to keep, and you have to keep engaging, and you have to keep figuring out how to navigate different things and I think particularly as like LitFriends there's the huge thing you have to navigate which is especially if you're friends before that you're just like some kids who got into this program that people think are fancy, but you're just like, anything can happen, right? From there to being the capital— going from just like lowercase w, "writer," to capital A, "Author." And like what that, I mean, I've seen many a friendship where that is the rupture. And so particularly figuring out, like, how are you going to navigate that, and how are you going to still be in each other's lives. (23:16.33) Um, one thing I think about, as a person who thinks about family a lot is, with your family, sometimes you can like harm one another, and you'll just take some time off, or you'll just be like, that's how they are. But with the family that you continue to choose, you have to, ideally, you gotta do something about it. You have to actually have the engagement, and you have to figure out how to come out on the other side of it. And that is something that is harder and really in so many ways, all the more precious because of it. And it requires a kind of resilience and also just like a trust. And again, because Justin, you know, likes to gather me up, there's been a few times when I was like, "Oh, no, like, we've got beef, what's gonna happen?" And Justin is like, "we're family, what's gonna happen is we're gonna have to talk about this beef, and then move on." Justin: Yeah. And I think that I think that also you have, you're really good at reminding me to be responsible, right? That just because I've made this commitment, in my mind, right, Like we're committed forever. Like we're family. Like we can't, we can't break up, right? Like it's just like, that's just the way it is. It doesn't get me off the hook of showing up in other ways and being responsible and like, you know, that I can be quite flaky. Angela: I mean, that's just, you've been in L.A. long enough. It's just, you're just becoming native. Justin:  I think I always don't, I don't wanna disappoint you. I don't want you ever to feel like you were looking around for support, and I wasn't there. Angela: Do people cry on this podcast? Annie: We time it. Right at the half hour. Justin: There's been a few moments when I feel it, when I've felt (25:21) maybe that wasn't there enough, you know? And, you know, and if, you know, and like, I don't know, that's when you know it's the real stuff because it like keeps me up at night. You know, I'm just like, wow, you know, what does she need? What can I give? How can I be there? And yeah. Angela: Wow.  There you are. Justin: Here we are. Annie: Lito and I are also family, and it sort of feels never too late. But what you're saying about kind of the like renewing your vows, renewing your commitment over and over, it feels very, very true. Lito: Very true. Yeah yeah yeah. Annie: And life-saving, you know, like life affirming. Lito: It feels real. Justin: Yeah. Look at us. I'm proud of us. I'm proud of you guys too. Lito: It's a love fest over here. Angela: Thanks for having it. Annie: We'll be right back. Annie: (26:26) Welcome back. Angela: Also, particularly again, thinking about a lot of the friends that you have, they're not necessarily also sometimes colleagues. And I think that one thing that Justin really modeled, because I didn't have anything to be transparent about, was just transparency about things. Not just how much he's getting paid for things, but just like what was worth it, what's not worth it, like what is just the way something is and you can like take it or leave it. And I think that in the beginning it was more of me kind of taking that information because I didn't have anybody offering me anything. But now I feel like it's really an exchange of information. And I think that there are people who I love, like, in this industry, if you will, who that's just not our relationship. That doesn't mean we don't have great friendships, but like that is something that like if I'm broke, he knows I'm broke. I never feel the need to pretend and hide or like, you know, and likewise, like if he don't got it, I know he don't got it. It's not, it's just, it just, and I feel like that is something also that is a, it's, um, I think it's important. Especially because you write a book, you know, it does well. And then there are some years in between before you write another. Some of us in this room, maybe take a decade. All of us in this room, maybe take a decade. But yeah, so just really being able to be, to feel like you can still show up at any point in whatever you're doing creatively. Justin: (28:16) Because this is about literary friendships, I think that it's, yeah, there's those two sides, right? There's the business side, which can cause a lot of friction, especially if, you know, things go differently for different books and people have different trajectories. I mean, you're like, you know:  you've surpassed.  Angela: I don't know if that's true.  Justin: But there's that like business side of it. And then there's the literary side as well. And I think that sometimes if it just slides too much into talking about—it's like we could both be selling sprockets, right? There's so much minutiae. It's like we could talk about contracts and whatever and like gigs and da-da-da ad nauseam. And we have to remember to talk about literary side, the literature, the work, the sentences, what we're reading in order to kind of sustain the literary quality of a literary friendship, right?  Angela: One thing I remember you told me, I don't know, ages ago that I thought at the time like oh he's gassing me he's practicing things that he says his students tell me—but now I realize that it is also one of the reasons why our friendship has sustained is you were like ,you know, we can talk about whether a book is successful in 800 ways, but we have to try to remember to just be fans, to be fans of books, of literature, of people writing. And I think that is something that I not only try to practice, but that's something that I think is really foundational to relationship. Everyone can be a hater, and it can be fun sometimes, but like… (30:08) We really do like want to put each other on to the books that we're like excited about. Like I remember when you read or reread Seasons of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih, and I hadn't read it before.  I mean, it's like a, it's a seminal or really a really famous African text, but I had never read it. Or like Maryse Condé, like I hadn't read it as like a real adult and being able to just like talk about that and know that there's a person who's, you know, you could be in polite conversation with somebody who you think is really smart and then you're like you know what I decided I wanted to reread—I don't know—something a person might wanna reread and they're like, Oh, what are you gonna do next? You gonna read a Moby Dick? And you're like, Oh damn, they just shamed me. You know, they just shamed me for being a nerd. But that's not gonna happen here. Yeah, beautiful. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.  Annie: I do wanna go back to something you were alluding to. Angela, you were talking quite openly about it, too, which is shifting from writer to capital A author and the pressure that comes with that.  For the two of you, you had incredible well-deserved success early in your career, but I imagine that doesn't come without a lot of sleepless nights, right? I'm thinking about an interview I heard with Ta-Nehisi Coates where he talks about his friends not reaching out thinking, like, He's good, like, You blew up, you're good. And talking about actually what a lonely position that can be. I'm just wondering, you know, how you've both managed to take care of one another through those highs and lows, or being on that track alongside one another.  And even, you know, competition between lit friends. Justin: (32:13) Yeah, I mean, I think that we're just kind of, like our dispositions: we're very lucky in that I think we, before we met, it wasn't something that we like decided on. It was just before we met, I think we're just boosters, right. We're like, The people we love, their success is our success, right? And I think that's one of the reasons to where we are such good friends, it's because we share that, right? So that I think makes it slightly easier as far as like the competition side of things goes. I think that if it really does feel like you're a family and you're community and like you understand that this is a kind of shared win. I don't know, it's hard to talk about though because we both got really lucky.  Angela: Yeah.  Justin: You know, I mean, who wants to hear from people who got really lucky with their first books talking about how hard it is? You know what I mean?  We just, we didn't have, we didn't have any kind of that disparity between— Angela: Yeah, I'm sure, but—I would say even so—if we had different dispositions, we might be trying to split hairs about who got what. But I think for me—and Justin and I grew up very differently in some ways, but I think we grew up from a class background similarly, and we're both like, We're not supposed to be here, like, what can we get? Like, what can we get? And like, who has the information to help us get it? And so I've never been like, why is he in that room when I'm not in that room? I'm like, give me the intel about the room. That might be the closest I ever get to being in there, but I need to know like what's going on in there. And that has, I think, been the way that I just view any success of anybody that I know. that I feel like I can ask those questions to is like, not necessarily like, oh, can you put me on? Like now that you have something, can I have some of it? But just like, just information, just like, what's it like? And that to me is really useful. But also I think that one thing, when you have people, not just Justin, but like other friends and mentors of mine, when you have people who are honest and upfront about whatever kind of success they've had, you… you just realize that there's a lot of different ways to feel successful, right? Because I have friends who, to me, I'm like, they made it, but they're not convinced they have. And I have other friends that, like, to the outside world, they'd be like, wow, they have a little book, nobody cares. But they feel like they did it, you know? And so I realized it's so much about disposition also. Lito:   Do you feel that a lot about being each other's boosters? I mean, obviously it's about your personalities and who you are as people. I'm also curious how much of that, like Angela, you said you were a gatecrasher. You feel like a gatecrasher a lot. I don't know. What are your thoughts on intersectionality? How does it inform your work and your friendship? How does it affect how you boost each other? I'm also curious if there's something particular about lit friendships that intersect with intersectionality and those categories, especially for people who form intimate relationships with men.  Justin:   Wait, say more.  Like how do blowjobs come in?   Angela:  (36:01.171). I was like one thing we have in common is— Lito: More like, less blow jobs, more like having to deal with men and the various ways they, you know, respond to patriarchy.  Justin: Yeah, I think you kind of said it, right? I think that there's something about hustling and figuring out, like, how am I gonna find some stability in this world.  And I mean we have nominated each other for every single thing that there is. If either one of us gets a chance.  Angela: Till the end of time.  Justin:   Till the end of time, right? And it's just, and I think that, and we've shared all information about everything. There's no, and I think that that's kind of like that quote that you read before, right, about this nostalgia and feeling nostalgic, not for the precarity, but for the way that it bonds people, right? The way that the precarity, like you pull, you share resources, you pull resources, you come together and you talk shit and you don't let people get too down in the dumps and depressed. And you're like, no, we're going to do this. We're going to get ourselves out of this hole and we're going to pull each other up. And, and that I think is like, that's, that's the secret, I think.  Angela: Are you answering the question about men?  Justin:   Oh, men!  Angela: And dealing with men.  Justin: I love that I was just like, oh, you're talking about blow jobs. But no, you were talking about patriarchy.  Lito: Same thing, really.  Annie: In the room I'm in, we do not think there's a difference.  Justin: It's fascinating, right? Because when we were at Iowa together, I remember some of the critiques I got from some of the men, some of the straight men, some of the white straight men, was about a kind of provincialism to my writing, right? That what I was writing about was small and minor and just about particularities of identity and that it wasn't broad and expansive and it wasn't universal. That was expected. That was the kind of critique that was expected. The world has changed so much and so quickly in the last 15 years. It's hard for me to kind of wrap my mind around because that kind of thing, I wasn't, I didn't feel indignant. Maybe I felt a little.  Angela: Yeah, you just, but you just like knew you were going to ignore them. Like, you know, like, but no, but you didn't feel like you were going to, like it was worth, except there were some instances we're not going to get into details, but like, it didn't feel like it was worth spending, like unpacking it or trying to call them out. You just were like, Oh, boop, you're over here. Like, you're not.  Justin: Yeah, yeah. Like, I've been hearing this shit my whole life. Like, it wasn't like, there's no space for this kind of thing in the workshop. I was like, this is the world. This is unexpected. But now I don't think that would fly, right?  Angela:   No. I think maybe in like 70% of workshop spaces that I have been in. Well, I guess I've been running them. But like, I just don't, but like also just the disposition of the students is that they assume that somebody is going to like say something or push back on that. But also I guess maybe more broadly the idea of when you say intersectionality, what do you mean exactly? Lito: I think I wanted to keep it open on purpose. But I think I mean the ways that all of these different identities that we take up and that are imposed upon us, how they intersect with one another, race, class, et cetera. Yeah. Angela: I think one of the reasons why Justin and I gravitated toward each other probably in the beginning and why we ended up in Spook is because I think that—which maybe is also not happening 15 years from then—there is a way that back then, there was a way that even your identity could be flattened, right? Like you're Puerto Rican, which means that you are like a lot of things, right? One of those things like, one of it's like we're both diasporic people, right? But that's one of the things that I think a lot of people would not necessarily think is like a kinship between us, but like I've seen pictures of Justin's cousins. I know I'm giving Primo over here. Like I know what I'm doing. And like that's one way that I think that our relationship feels like, like we just felt like kin when we first met because of that. I think that there's just a lot of ways that in a lot of spaces in this country, you're just not allowed to like have all of those parts of you in the room because people just don't understand it or they do, but they just don't want you to be that also.  Justin: It's not convenient.  Angela: Right. Which is why I was like, of course, Jason would ask you and I to be in Spook, which is a magazine that's a black literary magazine. Cause Jason gets it. Shout out to Jason again.  Justin: I can't believe he's moving to L.A., that's so exciting.  Angela: Supposedly like any day now, he's just gonna arrive. There's just ways that when you find your people, you don't have to always separate these parts of you and you don't always have to keep reminding them also, they sort of understand. But also parts of you change obviously and the way that you feel about your identity changes and your people will embrace that and keep, you know, keep making space for that too. Justin: Making space.  Annie: We'll be back in a moment with Angela and Justin. Lito: (42:22) Hey Lit Fam, we hope you're enjoying our conversation with Justin and Angela. We are quite awed by their thoughtful discussion and moved by their deep love for each other and their art. If you love what we're doing, please take a moment now to follow, subscribe, rate, and review the LitFriends Podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts. Just a few moments of your time will help us so much to continue bringing you great conversations like this week, after week. Thank you for listening. Annie: (42:59.178) Back to our interview with Justin Torres and Angela Flournoy.  Lito: Justin, you have your sophomore book. How do you feel about it? Are you going to write a sequel for We the Animals like you talked about at one point? Angela, same question. Are there sequels coming forth for you, Angela, to Turner House, or are you moving on to something else? Or you sort of briefly mentioned another book about, uh, I remember you mentioning at some point a book about friends, four female friends, if I remember correctly. Anyways, what's coming next?  Annie: Yeah, and I wanna know about the dreaded second novel because I feel like that's where I'm at. I feel like that's where a lot of writers get stuck. Jutin: Second novel's awful. I mean, you think the first one's bad. You think it takes everything that you have inside of you and then you're like, oh, I've gotta do it again. And yeah, I don't know. I really had a very hard time with it. And I mean, nobody knows better than Angela. I really, really didn't feel like I was up to the task. I knew that I wanted to do something different. I knew I wanted to kind of change the way I write and be a different kind of writer, but I just felt like I was falling on my face.  Even after it was done and out until like last week, I was just, I just felt anxiety about it, and I felt really neurotic and I was being really neurotic. And I remember the other night we were hanging out and drinking and maybe there was some mushroom chocolate involved. I was just, like I was just on my bullshit and Angela was just like stopped and she was just like, What is it gonna take to make you happy? Like what is it gonna take? Like look around. And it was like, it was a really good intervention. But then it also led to this conversation about happiness, right? And about like whether that is the goal, right? Like feeling kind of tortured and, and feeling like this gap between what you want for your book and your own capabilities. And that never goes away. You just live in this, in this torturous phase. And like, maybe it's about just coming to acceptance with that, rather than striving for happiness. I don't know. But it's still ringing in my ear. What is it gonna take?  Lito: It's a great question.  Angela:   Maybe some projection, I don't know, on my part.  I am still working on that novel. It's due at the end or at the beginning of next year. It's gonna come out in 2025. You know, God willing. And... similarly the second novel, I think it depends on your disposition, but I think both of us are very interested in and task ourselves with having real skin in the game with what we right. That means sometimes you got to figure out where you get that skin from.  Lito: There's only so much.  Angela: Like, if you played yourself for the first book, then it's gonna take a while. And when I think about, like, when I try to count for the years, I don't know I could have done it any quicker. Like, I just don't know. And I don't think that's gonna be the case for every book, but I do think between that first and that second, especially, were you 30? Where were you? I was 30, yeah. And then I was 30, too. I was 30 also when my book came out. You're just a baby.  You're just a baby.  Lito: Do you fall into the trap of comparing yourself to other people? Well, they wrote a book in two years and I— Justin:  (47:07) Yeah, sure. I mean, I also like compare myself to people who took longer like that feels good. That feels good.  Angela: Listen, I'm like Deborah Eisenberg. Just a banger every decade. That's it. That's all I owe the world. A banger a decade. Lito: A banger a decade. I like that. I like comparing myself to Amy Clampitt, who wrote her first collection of poetry, like in her 70s or something and had some success.  Justin: I generally wish people would slow down. I mean, I get that sometimes there's just like an economic imperative, right? But if you're lucky enough that, I don't know, you get a teaching job and you can slow down, why not slow down, right? Like, I don't know, sometimes I feel like there are a lot of books in this world. And the books that somebody spent a lot of time over, whether or not they are my tastes—I'm just so appreciative of the thoughtfulness that went in.  You can feel it, right? That somebody was really considering what they're building versus dashing it off. They should slow down, if they can.  Angela: But I also feel like we need both kinds. There are people who I appreciate their books, their kind of time capsules of just like, this is the two years, this is where I was. I think of Yiyun. We need an Yiyun Li and we need an Edward P. Jones. Edward P. Jones, you're gonna get those books when you get the books. And Yiyun Li, every couple years, you're gonna get something that, to me, I still, they still feel like really good books, but they're also just like, this is where she is right here, and I respect it and I appreciate it. Everybody can't be one or the other, you know?  Justin: You're right, you're right, you're right. It's much fairer.  Annie: She's someone who, I mean, you know, seems to have changed so much even within that time period. And we had her on a couple of episodes ago and yeah, she's just on fire. She's amazing.  Justin: (49:06) And people speed up as well, right? Because her first couple of books, there were big gaps. And then same thing with like Marilynne Robinson, right? She had massive gaps between books. And then suddenly it starts to speed up. And they're coming out every year, every two years. Yeah. Annie: It's the mortality.  Lito: Well, and life, well, I think lifestyle too, right? Like what you do, how busy you are and what you do out in the world. Like going out and meeting people and being gay in the world, that takes up time.  Annie: And your work has had other lives too. I mean, I'm thinking about how We the Animals was adapted to film in that beautiful, intimate portrait. And I know, you know, Angela, you've been working with HBO and some projects as well. I'm just, just wondering if you want to talk about your work in these other media, how it's been, and even thinking about the strikes, right? Like the WGA-SAG strikes and how that has been on the ground too.  Angela:  Very happy that the strike is over. Solidarity to our SAG-AFTRA brothers and sisters still out there. I passed them on the way here on Sunset. I did honk, wish I was out there today. But I think that for me, it's just like a bonus. Like I, especially now, there's a way that right now writers will say things that are a little snobby like, Oh, I could never be in a writer's room, the group project, man. But like when now that I know so many TV writers living here and I've met so many over the past 146 days on the line, I realized that it is, you just have to be so nimble and agile and you have to also be so not precious about story. But no less smart. A lot of things might end up on TV dumb, but I don't want to blame the writers for that. Now that I really have a real understanding of just how the sausage is made and just how big of like a game of telephone it is—and how much you have to relinquish control because at the end of the day it's like you're making this text, it's literary, but it's also like an instruction manual. It's a completely different way to think about writing. And I don't know how long I live in LA or how many like of those kind of projects I will do but I'm really grateful. And one reason I'm really grateful is because doing those projects and having those years where people thought I wasn't doing anything, but I was actually writing so much and like doing so many revisions.  It helped me realize that there is a way that I blame MFAs for making us like feel very siloed. And like, if you're supposed to be a fiction writer, that's the only thing that you do that's like an output that anyone cares about. But it's so new—like, how many screenplays did Joan Didion write? Like James Baldwin wrote screenplays. Before, it was just like, you're writing, you're writing. Like it's all, it all is the job. And I think every time a poet friend of mine like puts out a novel, sends it to me, read, sends it for me to read—first off, they usually are very good. But then also I'm just like, yes, fiction writers, I think, I don't know who did it. I blame graduate programs, but they have put themselves in this small box. Justin: But yeah, I mean, it's like the MFA, a lot of them feel like teacher training programs and that the next step is teaching. But if you don't want to teach the old models, definitely like you just write for TV. Angela: You write for film, you write for magazines, newspapers, you just do the thing. And that has felt very freeing to me, to just see meet more people who are doing that and also to allow myself to do that. Justin (52:49) Yeah, I mean, I really enjoyed the process of having my film—the book made into a film. I think I had an unusual experience with that. Like a lot of times the author is cut out or, you know, is not deferred to in any way, or nobody's inviting you in. I think because it was such a low budget film, and the director is just a really wonderful person who is incredibly collaborative.  He wanted me involved in every single part of it, and so I loved that. I think, I don't know, I think I might wanna adapt Blackouts for a play. I've been thinking about it lately. Angela: You should. I mean, in so many ways, it is kind of like a two-hander. Yeah. I could see it. Yeah.  Justin: A two-hander. Look at you ready to lingo. No, that's some biz lingo.  Lito: That's going to be the title of this podcast. It's a two-hander. How has art shaped your friendship? And I mean, art, like other genres, we've talked about getting out of the box of fiction, but what movies or art or music do you love to talk about or do you just talk about everything or anything that you're watching and how have other genres affected your work? Like, do you listen to music? Are you influenced by visual art?  Angela: You wanna talk about things you watch on television? You ready to come out in that manner?  Justin: No.  Lito: You watch lots of TV? No. Are you a Housewives person?  You're a Housewives watcher, aren't you?  Justin: Housewives is too highbrow for me. I have like a…I have a secret fetish that is mine. Angela: You have to keep some things for yourself. Justin: Yes. But it's just like, that's how I turn my brain off when my brain needs to be turned off.  Annie: I will wait another decade for that story. Justin: I also like culture and high art as well. You write about art a lot. You do profiles. Angela: I do. I wish I did it more. It's just everything, you know, takes time. I think for me, like when I think about—I just am learning different ways to make a life out of, you know, out of your mind and out of art. And one thing that I've learned when I talk to, like visual artists, particularly, is this idea—I think poets also have this—but fiction writers, a friend of mine actually, a poet, recently asked me, like, how does a fiction writer get a practice, like a practice of writing? Practicing their craft in a way that like a visual artist, you know, they go to the studio practice or poet might have a practice. And I don't believe necessarily that sitting down to write every, you know, three hours every day is the same thing. Because like if you don't know what you're writing, but I really do think that practice is more grounded in reading.  Justin: And reading, I think reading literature for sure, but also reading the world, right? And that's what you do when you go to an exhibit or you go to a museum or you go to a concert or whatever, right, you're like reading, you know, and you're reading the experience, you're reading for other things.  Lito: Is there anything you're both fans of that you both talk about a lot? Any artists or musicians or movies? Justin (56:26) You know, I think that we have some lowbrow sharing tastes. But I think that our highbrow, I don't know. We don't talk a lot about our pursuant— I think I'm into a lot of, like when I was looking at, when I was putting together Blackouts, I was looking at a lot of archival photos and like the photos of Carl Van Vechten, I just, I'm obsessed with…  I've been spending a lot of time with them, thinking about him and his practice. I think that, you know, I like all kinds of stuff. I'm like a whatever, what's that horrible term? Culture vulture?  Angela: I don't think that's what you wanna say. But I know what you mean, yeah.  Justin: Yeah, I am democratic in my tastes. I'm just like, I like everything. We don't have a lot of shared tastes, I don't think.  Angela: Um... No?  Justine: No.  Annie:  I sort of love that. I mean, it, um, the friendship, belies, that, you know, it's only a bonus in that way. I think Lito and I also have very different tastes. There's something kind of lovely about that. Lito: I remember Annie making fun of me for not being hardcore enough in my taste in hip-hop. Annie:    I guess we're putting our dirt out there too.  Lito:   We'll be right back with the Lightning Round. Annie:   Ooh, Lightning Round. Annie: (58:12) Thank you both for talking with us today. This was really wonderful. We really feel the honesty and warmth in your friendship and we're so appreciative that you're sharing that with us today and with all of our LitFriends. We're excited for both your books and we're so grateful you spent the last hour with us.  Angela: That was a pleasure.  Justin: Thank you. Lito: All right, we're gonna we— wrap up the podcast with a Lightning Round, just a few questions. We will ask the question and then I guess we'll do it this way. When I ask the question, Angela, you can answer. And when Annie asks the question, Justin, you answer first. Sorry, first answer first. You're both going to answer the question. What is your first memory?  Angela:  My sister roller skating through sprinklers and falling and hitting her head. Justin: I literally have no idea. I, yeah, I don't know. It's a blackout.  Angela: How many times have you said that?  Lito:  Very on brand.  Angela: You've had a long book tour. Justin: I'm practicing.  Annie: Who or what broke your heart first?  Angela: Is it too deep to say my daddy? I know.  Justin: I was going to say my daddy.  Angela: That's why we're friends.  Justin: I know. It's so sad.  Angela: (59:37) Daddy issues.  Lito: Who would you want to be lit friends with from any time in history?  Angela: Toni Morrison.   Justin: Yeah, maybe Manuel Puig. He seemed really cap and hilarious. And also a brilliant genius.  Angela: I need Toni Morrison to tell me how to raise my child. And to still write books. Someone help me. Annie: What would you like to see your lit friend make or create next, maybe something collaborative or something different or a story they haven't told yet?  Justin: I mean, I think I would love to see you actually write something kind of ekphrastic. Like I'd love to see you write about art. I love when you write about art. I love your thoughts about art and art makers. So maybe, like, a collection of essays about culture. I'd love that. Angela: Besides this two-handed, this play, which I would love for you to write. Maybe there's more, I mean, there's more voices in the book than two, though. So it doesn't have to be. Justin is a poet. I have said this since the beginning. I'm ready for this collection.  Justin: Never occurred to me in my life. Angela:   That is not true.  Justin:   Well, writing a collection. Angela:   Okay, well, I would love for you to write a collection of poetry.  Justin:   Maybe I will. Maybe you just gave me permission, as the children say.  Angela:   Mm-hmm. I know.  Lito: If you could give any gift to your LitFriend without limitations, what would you give them?  Angela: I would give him a house with a yard and a pool.  Justin: That's what I want.  Angela: In a city he wants to live in. That's the key.  Lito: That's the hard part. Justin:  (01:01:35) Um, I would give Angela time to be with her thoughts and her craft. I guess what does that involve?  Angela:   This is because I call myself a busy mom all the time.  Justin: You are a busy mom. Angela: (01:02:08) Thank you, that's a nice gift. Time is the best.  Justin: I mean, it's not as good as a house with a pool.  Angela: I know, because I can use my time as wisely as possible and yet—no pool. Lito: Well, that's our show. Annie & Lito: Happy Friendsgiving! Annie: Thanks for joining us, Lit Fam. Lito:   We'll be back next week with our guests, Lucy Corin and Deb Olin Unferth. Annie: Find us on all your socials @LitFriendsPodcast. Annie: I'm Annie Liontas.  Lito:   And I'm Lito Velázquez.  Annie:   Thank you to our production squad. Our show is edited by Justin Hamilton. Lito:   Our logo was designed by Sam Schlenker.  Annie:   Lizette Saldaña is our marketing director.  Lito:   Our theme song was written and produced by Robert Maresca.  Annie:   And special thanks to our show producer, Toula Nuñez. This was LitFriends, Episode One.

Join Deborah Eisenberg and David L. Ulin for a conversation on Eisenberg's work and the craft of writing. A short story writer who crafts distinctive portraits of contemporary American life with precision and moral depth, Deborah Eisenberg is the author of Transactions in a Foreign Currency, Under the 82nd Airborne, All around Atlantis, Twilight of the Superheroes, and Your Duck Is My Duck. Writer and editor David L. Ulin is Professor of the Practice of English at the University of Southern California and a former book critic for the Los Angeles Times. Speakers: Deborah Eisenberg is the author of five collections of short stories: Transactions in a Foreign Currency, Under the 82nd Airborne, All around Atlantis, Twilight of the Superheroes, and Your Duck Is My Duck. She is a MacArthur Fellow and the recipient of numerous honors, including the 2011 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, a Whiting Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Lannan Literary Fellowship. She is a professor emerita in the writing program at Columbia University's School of the Arts. David L. Ulin is the author or editor of more than a dozen books, including Sidewalking: Coming to Terms with Los Angeles, which was short-listed for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay, and Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology, which won a California Book Award. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, Lannan Foundation, and Black Mountain Institute at the University of Nevada–Las Vegas. A former book editor and book critic for the Los Angeles Times, he has written for Harper's, the Atlantic, the New York Times, the Paris Review, and the Virginia Quarterly Review. His essay “Bed” appeared in The Best American Essays 2020. He is a Professor of the Practice of English at the University of Southern California, where he edits the literary journal Air/Light. Most recently, he edited Joan Didion: The 1960s and 70s and Joan Didion: The 1980s and 90s for Library of America. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- This event is a partnership between Lannan Foundation and Haymarket Books. Lannan Foundation's Readings & Conversations series features inspired writers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, as well as cultural freedom advocates with a social, political, and environmental justice focus. We are excited to offer these programs online to a global audience. Video and audio recordings of all events are available at lannan.org. Haymarket Books is a radical, independent, nonprofit book publisher based in Chicago. Our mission is to publish books that contribute to struggles for social and economic justice. We strive to make our books a vibrant and organic part of social movements and the education and development of a critical, engaged, international left. Lannan Foundation is a family foundation dedicated to cultural freedom, diversity, and creativity through projects that support exceptional contemporary artists and writers, inspired Native activists in rural communities, and social justice advocates. Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/OVPRslmLgLk Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks

Czy język nas zawodzi? Czy można opowiedzieć historię cudzego życia? I dlaczego płoną eukaliptusy? Mistrzyni opowiadań Deborah Eisenberg udziela odpowiedzi w swojej gęstej prozie. Raz sielankowej, raz dystopijnej, melancholijnej i przerażającej, ale też szalenie inteligentnej i dowcipnej. "Twoja kaczka jest moją kaczką", tłum. Kaja Gucio i Krzysztof Majer. Wydawnictwo Cyranka

Glenn Horowitz is an agent in the sale and placement of culturally significant archives to research institutions throughout the United States.  Authors, artists, musicians, designers, and photographers represented include Bob Dylan, Norman Mailer, James Salter, Eve Babitz, Deborah Eisenberg, David Foster Wallace, Vladimir Nabokov, and many more.   We spoke recently via Zoom about his practice: what he does and how he does it. Topics covered include polyps; making bookseller websites accessible to the disabled; looking for and selling value; Sting and estates; the disappearance of printed bookseller catalogues; the human touch; Hemingway; unique copies; avoiding book fairs and bookseller associations; nostalgia; unorthodox archives; the Kitchen Sisters; unused video games; the fact that every bookseller is now an archives dealer;  Against The Tide Commentaries On A Collection Of African Americana 1711-1987; Johnny Cochran; and much more. 

Four weekly audio stories in February & March from The Writers' Block, Writers Room. Pencarrow Suit by Kate Wilson Kate Wilson writes short stories and flash fiction. Her favourite writers are 1) Kevin Barry 2) Lucia Berlin and 3) Deborah Eisenberg although this order changes regularly depending whose work she's reading. She also loves George Saunders. Kate completed an MA in Creative Writing at Exeter University in 2021. Read by Nina Hills, Olivia Lowry, Aidan Nightingale & Keith Sparrow. Directed by Connie Crosby Audio recording & production by Phil Innes. 

Alex and Lindsay talk with Brendan Mathews (The World of Tomorrow; This is Not a Love Song) about being a late bloomer, returning to the work after long stretches of life butting in, research, working with Deborah Eisenberg, what it's like to receive a blurb from John Irving, and more! 

Episode 89 Notes and Links to Luke Epplin's Work            On Episode 89 of The Chills at Will Podcast, Pete welcomes Luke Epplin, writer of Our Team: The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series That Changed Baseball. The two talk about, among other things, Luke's early relationship with language, his admiration for certain writers who have shaped his sensibility and philosophy of writing, and his purpose in writing nonfiction that has the best qualities of fiction. They also discuss his dazzling book about four intriguing members of The Cleveland Indians and their 1948 World Series victory and rollercoaster season.        Luke Epplin, whose writing has appeared in The Atlantic, the New Yorker Page-Turner, The Washington Post, GQ, Slate, Salon, The Daily Beast, among others, and he has appeared in such places as NPR's “Weekend Edition,“  The New York Times, the MLB Network, and ESPN. He is the author of Our Team: The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series That Changed Baseball about Bob Feller, Larry Doby, Bill Veeck, Satchel Paige, and the Cleveland Indians of the 1940s. Buy Our Team: The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series That Changed Baseball   “How Black Players Propelled Cleveland's Baseball Team To Win The 1948 World Series” from NPR, March 2021   Luke Epplin's MacMillan Page   “Virtual Author Series” with Bruce Markusen-Video from National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum-Luke talks about the book on the Anniversary of Larry Doby's MLB Debut At about 2:00, Luke talks about growing up in a small town outside of St. Louis, including how he was a voracious reader and was exposed to great baseball writing, including David Halberstram and his October 1964 book as an influence for Our Team, his own novel   At about 5:00, Luke talks about his fandom for the St. Louis Cardinals, and how the team's fortune has made the fanbase different than the fans of the hard-luck   At about 7:20, Luke cites David Halberstram's Summer of ‘49 as an inspiration for his book's narrative   At about 9:00, Luke talks about chill-inducing literature, including William Saroyan, Alice Munro, and Deborah Eisenberg, and William Trevor   At about 10:10, Luke describes being into “lyrical realism” and how he would read aloud short stories and/or copy short stories word for word to help him “locate a voice that [was] wholly [his] own”   At about 12:25, Luke talks about Gay Talese, David Halberstram, and others whose nonfiction read like fiction in the best possible ways and inspired Luke's own aesthetic    At about 13:30, Luke talks about his appreciation of John Cheever and spiritual ancestors and descendants   At about 15:30, Luke details great phrasing from Gay Talese's famous piece on Joe DiMaggio, and how he used “the rhythm” of the diction as inspiration fro his own book   At about 18:00-Luke references Mark Harris' Pictures at a Revolution as a big source of inspiration and thrill and Erik Larson as well   At about 20:05-Luke points out the lack of stats and numbers used in his Our Team book, and his rationale for this   At about 21:40, Pete and Luke join the Laura Hillenbrand Mutual Admiration Society   At about 24:00, Luke discusses the ways in which he balanced archive footage and interviews in “piecing together” his storyline for Our Team   At about 25:20, Luke talks about the challenges of telling Larry Doby's story, as he was a reticent person for the most part   At about 26:55, Pete asks Luke for his “ ‘Eureka' moments” and Luke shares an interesting anecdote about his grandfather, the St. Louis Browns, and Bill Veeck that were seeds for his book   At about 30:50, Pete references Luke as part of a group of writers in recent years like Bradford Pearson and Eric Nusbaum, among many others, who have written a certain type of “sports book” that is not wholly a sports book; Pete's joke about the epically long titles so popular these days leads to Luke   At about 33:15, Luke gives background on Bill Veeck, one of the four main characters of Luke's book   At about 36:10, Luke gives background on Larry Doby, one of the four main characters of Luke's book   At about 38:20, Pete and Luke discuss the unfair expectations for Larry Doby as a “pioneer,” and Eric juxtaposes Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby's experiences   At about 43:00, Luke talks about the book's Epilogue that details the blatant racism that Larry Doby experienced, including after his heroic 1948 World Series, and some of the ways in which white writers didn't fully take into account the hardships he faced    At about 46:00, Luke discusses the intriguing and singular Satchel Paige, one of the “Big Four” from the book   At about 49:50, Pete and Luke discuss Larry Doby and Satchel Paige's relationship, as well as the latter's persona and its connection to the ugly history of racism, minstrel shows, etc.   At about 52:10, Luke traces the modern frowning upon “showy baseball” in contemporary times   At about 53:30, Pete and Luke discuss the brainstorming tours undertaken by Bob Feller, Satchel Paige described in great detail in the book    At about 53:25, Pete proudly shares stories involving his grandfather, Joe Albanese, and how he got two hits off Satchel Paige in a barnstorming exhibition   At about 56:25, Luke details Satchel Paige in juxtaposition to Bob Feller and to Jackie Robinson, as well as how Paige's legendary confidence and independence-he is, Luke says, “fully himself”   At about 1:00:00, Luke talks of the absolute legend that Satchel Paige was and how his pitching was an absolute scene for spectators   At about 1:00:40, Pete asks Luke to dispel (hehe) rumors that Pope Francis recently cited Luke's book while talking to Joe Biden, and Luke continues in talking about Satchel's LONG and illustrious career   At about 1:03:10, Luke discusses the phenom Luke discusses the intriguing and singular Satchel Paige, one of the “Big Four” from the book, one of the “Big Four” from the book; Luke cites Feller's bona fides as someone who built himself up by himself, the “ ‘American Dream' writ large” post-Depression and Roaring 20s   At about 1:08:55, Pete and Luke discuss the book's ending-the glorious victory in the 1948 World Series-including the letdown experienced by various characters in the book; Luke cites “loneliness” as a central theme of the book   At about 1:11:00, Pete and Luke discuss Luke's meaningful focus on a certain pivotal August   At about 1:12:35, Luke talks about future projects, including an exciting and intriguing basketball story he will be telling, and possibly writing in Spanish (pues, tal vez…)   At about 1:14:17, Pete and Luke talk about the glorious “sic” and Luke's experience with the “colorful” sportswriting that he used to build his book   At about 1:15:20, Effa Manley is discussed and why she needs her story to be written   At about 1:15:55, Luke reads an excerpt from the book that deals with the legendarily energetic Bill Veeck   At about 1:21:00, Luke gives out his contact information and shouts out his local favorite, The Astoria Bookshop      You can now subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, and leave me a five-star review. You can also ask for the podcast by name using Alexa, and find the pod on Stitcher, Spotify, and on Amazon Music. Follow me on IG, where I'm @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where I'm @chillsatwillpo1. You can watch other episodes on YouTube-watch and subscribe to The Chills at Will Podcast Channel. Please subscribe to both my YouTube Channel and my podcast while you're checking out this episode.       This is a passion project of mine, a DIY operation, and I'd love for your help in promoting what I'm convinced is a unique and spirited look at an often-ignored art form.      The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com.      Please tune in for the next episode, a conversation with Bill Esparza. Esparza is a professional musician, writer, and blogger whose travels throughout Latin America have made him a leading expert on Latin American cuisines. He fell in love with Mexican cooking at his grandmother's table and on childhood trips to his family's hometown of Aguascalientes, Mexico, where he was introduced to street food. His original style of writing and passion for culture have made Esparza a go-to source for magazines, newspapers, and food travel shows. His knowledge has been acquired the old-fashioned way, from firsthand experience on the streets and at the stands and markets of Los Angeles, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America. The episode will air starting November 9.

The ruling regime doesn't like Howard. Jack thinks Howard is an arrogant snob. Featuring Wallace Shawn, Deborah Eisenberg, and Larry Pine. Written by Wallace Shawn, directed by André Gregory, sound design and music composed by Bruce Odland, and produced by Sean Williams. Gideon Media crafts gripping productions that explore human grace and darkness through popular genre forms. Learn more at www.gideon-media.com and follow us on Twitter @mediagideon, Instagram @gideonaudio, and Facebook @gideonaudio.

As political violence threatens Howard, Judy remains loyal to him, but Jack's hatred towards him increases. Featuring Wallace Shawn, Deborah Eisenberg, and Larry Pine. Written by Wallace Shawn, directed by André Gregory, sound design and music composed by Bruce Odland, and produced by Sean Williams. Gideon Media crafts gripping productions that explore human grace and darkness through popular genre forms. Learn more at www.gideon-media.com and follow us on Twitter @mediagideon, Instagram @gideonaudio, and Facebook @gideonaudio.

Howard is beaten up. Jack asks Judy to leave the house with him. She won't. Jack leaves by himself. Featuring Wallace Shawn, Deborah Eisenberg, and Larry Pine. Written by Wallace Shawn, directed by André Gregory, sound design and music composed by Bruce Odland, and produced by Sean Williams. Gideon Media crafts gripping productions that explore human grace and darkness through popular genre forms. Learn more at www.gideon-media.com and follow us on Twitter @mediagideon, Instagram @gideonaudio, and Facebook @gideonaudio.

Judy, Howard, and their friends are arrested. Jack becomes a columnist for a popular news outlet. Featuring Wallace Shawn, Deborah Eisenberg, and Larry Pine. Written by Wallace Shawn, directed by André Gregory, sound design and music composed by Bruce Odland, and produced by Sean Williams. Gideon Media crafts gripping productions that explore human grace and darkness through popular genre forms. Learn more at www.gideon-media.com and follow us on Twitter @mediagideon, Instagram @gideonaudio, and Facebook @gideonaudio.

As Judy and Howard head toward their predetermined destinies, Jack studies pornographic magazines and resolves his internal conflicts. Featuring Wallace Shawn, Deborah Eisenberg, and Larry Pine. Written by Wallace Shawn, directed by André Gregory, sound design and music composed by Bruce Odland, and produced by Sean Williams. Gideon Media crafts gripping productions that explore human grace and darkness through popular genre forms. Learn more at www.gideon-media.com and follow us on Twitter @mediagideon, Instagram @gideonaudio, and Facebook @gideonaudio.

Howard, a well-known writer, lives with his thoughtful adult daughter Judy and her amusing husband Jack. Jack resents Howard. Featuring Wallace Shawn, Deborah Eisenberg, and Larry Pine. Written by Wallace Shawn, directed by André Gregory, sound design and music composed by Bruce Odland, and produced by Sean Williams. Gideon Media crafts gripping productions that explore human grace and darkness through popular genre forms. Learn more at www.gideon-media.com and follow us on Twitter @mediagideon, Instagram @gideonaudio, and Facebook @gideonaudio.

Something's happening in the country where Jack lives. There's violence in the streets. Leaders are being replaced. Public life is transforming. The government is cracking down on anyone suspected of subversion. But Jack—consumed with his atrophying marriage to Judy, his corrosive envy of his famous poet–intellectual father-in-law Howard, and his disintegrating sense of self—barely notices. As the once-liberal society around him descends into authoritarianism, Jack plunges into his own parallel decline, a chilling abdication of everything he once valued. Featuring Wallace Shawn, Deborah Eisenberg, and Larry Pine. Written by Wallace Shawn, directed by André Gregory, sound design and music composed by Bruce Odland, and produced by Sean Williams. All episodes available June 25th, 2021. Gideon Media crafts gripping productions that explore human grace and darkness through popular genre forms. Learn more at www.gideon-media.com and follow us on Twitter @mediagideon, Instagram @gideonaudio, and Facebook @gideonaudio.

Longtime friends and Meryl Streep fans Zachary Scot Johnson ( http://www.youtube.com/user/thesongadayproject/about ) and Maryl McNally discuss Meryl Streep's 2020 2-fer "The Prom" and "Let Them All Talk"."The Prom" co-stars James Corden, Nicole Kidman, Kerry Washington, Keegan Michael-Key, Andrew Rannells, Ariana DeBose, Jo Ellen Pellman, Tracey Ullman & Mary Kay Place. It is directed by Ryan Murphy and has a screenplay/ musical book by Bob Martin & Chad Beguelin and a score by Matthew Sklar."Let Them All Talk" co-stars Candice Bergen, Dianne Wiest, Gemma Chan, Lucas Hedges, John Douglas Thompson & Daniel Algrant. It is directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Deborah Eisenberg.Email the hosts at MerylStreepPodcast@gmail.com and remember to rate, review and subscribe to the podcast if you enjoy!Zach's ranking of Meryl's performances1. sophie's choice2. silkwood3. postcards from the edge4. the post5. big little lies season 26. julie and julia7. the hours8. devil wears prada9. a cry in the dark10. adaptation11. kramer vs kramer12. manchurian candidate13. into the woods14. let them all talk15. the laundromat16. the river wild17. doubt18. music of the heart19. it's complicated20. ricki and the flash21. mamma mia 222. florence foster jenkins23. out of africa24. death becomes her25. the prom26. ironweed27. deer hunter28. mamma mia29. falling in love30. plenty31. little women32. defending your life33. heartburn34. first do no harm35. still of the night36. before and after37. she-devil38. mary poppins returns39. house of the spirits40. the homesman41. manhattan42. juliaZach's ranking of Meryl's films1. the post2. the hours3. silkwood4. little women5. kramer vs kramer6. adaptation7. sophie's choice8. out of africa9. the deer hunter10. doubt11. big little lies season 212. into the woods13. a cry in the dark14. let them all talk15. the laundromat16. postcards from the edge17. julie and julia18. the devil wears prada19. it's complicated20. mary poppins returns21. the prom22. the river wild23. manchurian candidate24. music of the heart25. death becomes her26. falling in love27. ironweed28. ricki and the flash29. florence foster jenkins30. defending your life31. plenty32. manhattan33. mamma mia34. heartburn35. still of the night36. mamma mia 237. first do no harm38. she-devil39. julia40. the homesman41. house of the spirits42. before and afterMaryl's ranking of Meryl's performances1. the post2. julie and julia3. devil wears prada4. postcards from the edge5. adaptation6. big little lies season 27. out of africa8. kramer vs kramer9. the hours10. manchurian candidate11. river wild12. mamma mia 213. florence foster jenkins14. mamma mia15. silkwood16. music of the heart17. into the woods18. it's complicated19. little women20. heartburn21. deer hunter22. death becomes her23. ricki & the flash24. doubt25. first do no harm26. she-devil27. the laundromat28. house of the spirits29. mary poppins returns30. defending your life31. manhattan32. before and after33. still of the night34. julia35. the homesmanMaryl's ranking of Meryl's films1. the hours2. little women3. postcards from the edge4. kramer vs kramer5. the post6. adaptation7. florence foster jenkins8. doubt9. silkwood10. out of africa11. the deer hunter12. big little lies season 213. devil wears prada14. mamma mia15. mary poppins returns16. into the woods17. julie & julia18. mamma mia 219. river wild20. manchurian candidate21. it's complicated22. death becomes her23 music of the heart24. defending your25. the laundromat26. house of the spirits27. heartburn28. first do no harm29. ricki & the flash30. julia31. she-devil32. still of the night33. before and after34. the homesman35. manhattan

40 Years a PrisonerThis doc, directed by Tommy Oliver and available now on HBO Max.It posts a celeb lineup of producers, including The Roots, Common, and John Legend.40 Years a prisoner tells the sorry of the 1978 police raid on a peaceful group of hippies, mostly young, mostly African American, living in a house in the Powellton Village neighborhood of Philadelphia. In 1978, Philadelphia's mayor and former police commissioner Frank Rizzo ran the city.He tried to starve the group out of its home, preventing food and water from getting into the house using barricades.  He sent in more than 600 cops armed with automatic rifles, armored vehicles, and bulldozers when that failed. Still, the MOVE members refused to "move." They hid in their basement. In response, Rizzo and the PPD pumped 250,000 gallons of water and teargas into the Move house's basement. Ultimately bullets started flying, resulting in the death of police officer James Ramp.Nine adult Move members were dragged out of the house– five men and four women. One, Delbert Africa was savagely beaten by a group of police, his jaw broken by the butt of a rifle. All nine were convicted and sentenced to 30 years to life.Rizzo quotes:“The police will be in there to drag them out by the backs of their necks. They are going to go either the easy or hard way, either standing up or lying down.” “Get the death penalty back, put them in the electric chair, and I'll pull the switch.”But this doc isn't so much about Rizzo or the cops or what happened in 1978 (and the rest of the MOVE story.) This is the story of Mike Africa Jr and his parents Debbie and Mike Sr who were members of The Move Nine who were arrested during that raid on trumped-up charges and convicted before he was born.Mike Jr was born in a jail cell and ow in his early 40's has never spent a moment with his parents outside of prison walls. Also, on HBOMax, Let Them All Talk was not what we were expecting!  We feared it was going to be yet another movie about people of a "certain age," starring some of the greatest actors of their generation reduced to cute or quirky old folks on one last adventure. We were pleasantly surprised by this story by directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Deborah Eisenberg. It boasts a top-notch cast led by Meryl Streep, Dianne Wiest, and Candice Bergen with a stand out performance by Lucas Hedges. The film also features one of our fav actors from Humans, Gemma Chan.Listen to the show to hear more about this unique, quirky movie and how it was made. 

Deborah Eisenberg, President of the Glastonbury Rotary, as a group they donated $17,000.00 in baby items this year to the Holiday Store.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

ESSAY - Dirk van Weelden draagt voor: 'Ik verdom het'. In dit essay voor De Gids 2020/5 over self design zaait hij aan de hand van Deborah Eisenberg twijfel over de constructie van het zelf. Dirk van Weelden is schrijver en redacteur van De Gids. Hij schreef verschillende romans, novellen en bundels met essays en verhalen en werkt momenteel aan een nieuwe roman. Lees ‘Ik verdom het’.Word abonnee van De Gids.

2020 marks the 30th anniversary of Writers & Company. Since we can't celebrate in person, Eleanor revisits the 20th anniversary special with four writers in conversation in Toronto in 2010.

Comentamos Literatura de izquierda de Tabarovsky, Matate, amor de Ariana Harwicz y Taj Mahal de Deborah Eisenberg.

Columna de Florencia Villegas, en Mejor País del Mundo

Deborah Eisenberg and Lionel Shriver with Anne Blessing Short stories are often overlooked as exciting, contemporary fiction…at least by those of us who have long since graduated high school or completed our English Literature degrees. Yet the readings and conversations by two masters of the craft, Deborah Eisenberg and Lionel Shriver, will make you take a second (or third, or fourth) look at short fiction in this laugh out loud conversation.

In this episode, we did something a little different: revisiting a BOMB interview from 1993 between Deborah Eisenberg and Francine Prose.Deborah Eisenberg has published five collections of stories: Transactions in a Foreign Currency, Under the 82nd Airborne, All Around Atlantis, Twilight of the Superheroes and Your Duck Is My Duck.Francine Prose is the author of twenty-one works of fiction, including Mister Monkey; Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932; A Changed Man, and Blue Angel, a finalist for the National Book Award. Her works of nonfiction include Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife, and the New York Times bestseller, Reading Like a Writer.

The Auckland Writers Festival Winter Series will be streaming live and free-to-view on the Festival’s YouTube and Facebook channels, and then available as a video or podcast via our soundcloud, iTunes or our website. Episode Four features: DEBORAH EISENBERG (United States) A master of the short story – with the requisite skills of observation, pacing, and economy – Deborah Eisenberg is dubbed a “chronicler of American insanity” by The New York Times. Her five collections include the recent Your Duck is My Duck. She teaches writing at New York’s Columbia University. WALLACE SHAWN (United States) Writer and actor Wallace Shawn’s plays have been performed at New York’s Public Theater and the National Theatre in London with The Designated Mourner, The Fever and Marie and Bruce also made into films. Shawn’s many acting credits include Toy Story, The Princess Bride, Manhattan and My Dinner with Andre. CAROLINE BARRON (Aotearoa New Zealand) Caroline Barron is a writer, manuscript assessor, book reviewer, and trustee of the Michael King Writers Centre. She has a master’s in creative writing from The University of Auckland, and won a NZ Society of Authors Complete MS award for her memoir Ripiro Beach: A Memoir of Life After Near Death. HOST: PAULA MORRIS (Aotearoa New Zealand)Paula Morris (Ngāti Wai, Ngāti Whātua) is an award-winning fiction writer and essayist. The 2019 Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellow, she teaches creative writing at The University of Auckland, sits on the Māori Literature Trust and is the founder of the Academy of NZ Literature. This series provides an opportunity to champion New Zealand and international books that were to feature at our cancelled May Festival, we encourage you to support writers and NZ publishers and booksellers by purchasing featured books. Order via our Festival bookseller. #awfwinterseries

Again Deborah Eisenberg demonstrates herself as a masterful and electric writer, in her new collection of seven stories, Your Duck Is My Duck.

Episode Ninety Show Notes CW = Chris WolakEF = Emily FinePurchase Book Cougars Swag on Zazzle!We are an affiliate of Bank Square Books and Savoy Bookstore & Café. Please purchase books from them and support us at the same time. Click HERE to start shopping.If you’d like to help financially support the Book Cougars, please consider becoming a Patreon member. You can DONATE HERE. If you would prefer to donate directly to us, please email bookcougars@gmail.com for instructions.Join our Goodreads Group!We have a BookTube Channel – please check it out here, and be sure to subscribe!Please subscribe to our email newsletter here.– 90th Episode Giveaway – enter to win by December 1, 2019Through the Bookstore Window – Bill PetrocelliIn Pieces – Sally FieldKingdom of the Blind – Louise Penny– Currently Reading –Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder – Caroline Fraser (CW) Farmer Boy – Laura Ingalls Wilder (CW)The Great Santini – Pat Conroy (EF)– Just Read –Little House in the Big Woods – Laura Ingalls Wilder illustrated by Garth Williams( CW)This Tender Land – William Kent Kreuger (EF)Ninth House – Leigh Bardugo (CW)Friday Black – Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (EF)Women Who Think Too Much: How to Break Free of Overthinking and Reclaim Your Life – Susan Nolen-Hoeksema (CW)The Last Book Party – Karen Dukess (EF)Smedley – Jeff McComsey (CW)Red at the Bone – Jaqueline Woodson (EF) (audio)– Biblio Adventures –Chris and Emily went on a joint jaunt to Happier Hour an Evening with Gretchen Rubin and Elizabeth Craft hosts of the Happier Podcast in Providence, RI. You can look for their upcoming events HERE.Chris went to see Richard J. King at Bank Square Books to hear him discuss his new book Ahab’s Rolling Sea: A Natural History of “Moby-Dick” .Emily went to the Charleston to Charleston Literary Festival highlights included:The Price of Everything movie – director Nathaniel KahnAuthors: Lionel Shriver, Deborah Eisenberg, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, David W. Blight, Judge Richard Gergel, Joyce Carol Oates, Rebecca Makkai, Bill Goldstein. She also visited Buxton Books and Blue Bicycle Books in Charleston.Emily went to Breakwater Books to hear Juliet Grames discuss her book The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna.– Holiday Gift Ideas –1. Custom Embossed Leather Notebook2. Panasonic Earbuds with microphone model RP-TCM125-K3. Literary Card Decks4. Believer Magazine5. Rolling Library Cart (check out these suppliers: Demco, Brodart, The Library Store)6. DIY project: watercolor paper and put quotes on them. Cut them into small pieces and place magnets behind or make into bookmarks. 7. Take a friend on a bookish jaunt– Also Mentioned –Gibson’s BookstoreSouth of Broad – Pat ConroyBear Pond BooksStuart Little – EB WhiteOrdinary Grace – William Kent KreugerInk and Paper Blog BooktubeFubar, Volume 2: Empire of the Rising Dead – Jeff McComseyWar is a Racket – General Smedley D. ButlerThe Devil’s Cormorant: A Natural History – Richard King

Geoff Dyer joins co-hosts Eric Newman, Medaya Ocher, and Kate Wolf to discuss his new book Broadsword Calling Danny Boy about the 1968 Richard Burton/Clint Eastwood war movie, Where Eagles Dare. In talking about a film that has held his attention since childhood, Dyer expounds on the continuities and discontinuities between the movie-going child and the adult critic as a resource for good film writing. It's not the plots that fascinate Dyer so much as a writer as the moments caught on camera that grab our critical attention: the signature expressions, the technicolorization of reality, the cacophony of sounds that transport us from our seats into the somewhere else of the film. Also, Deborah Eisenberg, author of Your Duck is My Duck, returns to recommend a classic of Chinese Literature from the 18th Century: Cao Xueqin's five volume The Story of the Stone.

Geoff Dyer joins co-hosts Eric Newman, Medaya Ocher, and Kate Wolf to discuss his new book Broadsword Calling Danny Boy about the 1968 Richard Burton/Clint Eastwood war movie, Where Eagles Dare. In talking about a film that has held his attention since childhood, Dyer expounds on the continuities and discontinuities between the movie-going child and the adult critic as a resource for good film writing. It's not the plots that fascinate Dyer so much as a writer as the moments caught on camera that grab our critical attention: the signature expressions, the technicolorization of reality, the cacophony of sounds that transport us from our seats into the somewhere else of the film. Also, Deborah Eisenberg, author of Your Duck is My Duck, returns to recommend a classic of Chinese Literature from the 18th Century: Cao Xueqin's five volume The Story of the Stone.

Co-hosts Medaya Ocher and Kate Wolf talk with acclaimed author and master of the short story Deborah Eisenberg about Your Duck is My Duck, her new collection and her first since 2006. The free-wheeling discussion opens with the mystery of the silly, and selfish, sounding title; winds through a set of surprising reflections on inspiration, process, and myths of creativity; and how Deborah's relation to her craft has evolved throughout her life. Also, Chloe Ardijis, author of Sea Monsters, returns to recommend Charles Baudelaire's Prose Poems.

Co-hosts Medaya Ocher and Kate Wolf talk with acclaimed author and master of the short story Deborah Eisenberg about Your Duck is My Duck, her new collection and her first since 2006. The free-wheeling discussion opens with the mystery of the silly, and selfish, sounding title; winds through a set of surprising reflections on inspiration, process, and myths of creativity; and how Deborah's relation to her craft has evolved throughout her life. Also, Chloe Ardijis, author of Sea Monsters, returns to recommend Charles Baudelaire's Prose Poems.

Four narrators, including the author, bring Deborah Eisenberg’s much-anticipated story collection to life, and listeners will be delighted with the variety of topics. Six tales take the listener through a range of emotions. Published by Harper Audio. Read the full review of YOUR DUCK IS MY DUCK at audiofilemagazine.com. For more free audiobook recommendations, sign up for AudioFile Magazine’s newsletter. On today’s episode are host Jo Reed and Michele Cobb, Publisher of AudioFile Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Again Deborah Eisenberg demonstrates herself as a masterful and electric writer, in her new collection of seven stories, Your Duck Is My Duck.

Journalist Chris Hedges has spent the past 15 years trying to ring the alarm about the dangers of the U.S. political system and the impact of a corporate and financial coup d’etat that happened long ago. He talks about the growing power of “Christian fascists,” predicts a major financial crash and offers ideas on how to fight back. In 1923, a year after Mussolini took power in Italy, one radical and visionary woman saw his rise for what it was and warned of the grave dangers the world would face if fascism spread. Her name was Clara Zetkin. Acclaimed writer and actor Deborah Eisenberg performs a selection of Zetkin's writing, which was recently published as a book, “Fighting Fascism: How to Struggle and How to Win.” Also, new music from the incredible visual artist and musician Lonnie Holley who is out with a new album called "MITH." Join Michael Moore, Jeremy Scahill, and Marshall Curry for a special post-election screening and discussion about the rise of hate crimes and right-wing political violence in the age of Trump on November 9th, in New York City. Tickets are available here.

Parul Sehgal of the New York Times Book Review called Deborah Eisenberg “a writer of legendary exactitude, and slowness." Her new collection of six stories, “Your Duck Is My Duck,” is the first book of new writing she has released since 2006. “She is always worth the wait," Sehgal continued. “The new book is cannily constructed, and so instantly absorbing that it feels like an abduction. The stories themselves are simple and calmly recounted — a writer is taken up by wealthy patrons and bears witness to their disastrous marriage, a man attends his uncle’s funeral, another takes up a dog-walking gig. But the sentences are wild, full of breakneck swerves; leaps in time, space and point of view; all kinds of syntactic fireworks.” In Monday’s installment of “Leonard Lopate at Large” on WBAI, Deborah Eisenberg discusses “Your Duck Is My Duck” and the rest of her formidable career.

It's the LARB Radio Reunion Show, as the original triumvirate of hosts - Seth Greenland, Laurie Winer, and Tom Lutz - reconvene on the occasion of the publication of Seth's new novel, The Hazards of Good Fortune. The witty repartee flows forth as if they never skipped a beat. Seth speaks of the motivations and inspirations behind his sweeping story of contemporary American society that echoes classics from the previous gilded age. Tom and Laurie praise while they ponder the pressures of producing a narrative that captures the spirit of the times. The result is a thoroughly entertaining extended reflection on how we write today. Also, Fran Lebowitz returns to recommend Deborah Eisenberg's masterful new collection of short stories, Your Duck is My Duck.

It's the LARB Radio Reunion Show, as the original triumvirate of hosts - Seth Greenland, Laurie Winer, and Tom Lutz - reconvene on the occasion of the publication of Seth's new novel, The Hazards of Good Fortune. The witty repartee flows forth as if they never skipped a beat. Seth speaks of the motivations and inspirations behind his sweeping story of contemporary American society that echoes classics from the previous gilded age. Tom and Laurie praise while they ponder the pressures of producing a narrative that captures the spirit of the times. The result is a thoroughly entertaining extended reflection on how we write today. Also, Fran Lebowitz returns to recommend Deborah Eisenberg's masterful new collection of short stories, Your Duck is My Duck.

In this episode of A Phone Call From Paul, Paul Holdengraber speaks with Deborah Eisenberg on "Bartleby the Scrivener," the dire political state we live in, the virtue (and adventure) that lies in difficulty, the commodification of art, and why she enjoys writing in front of a brick wall. For more, visit LitHub.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Glenn Horowitz is an agent in the sale and placement of culturally significant archives to research institutions nationwide. Among the many authors, artists, musicians, designers, and photographers he have represented are Norman Mailer, James Salter, Deborah Eisenberg, David Foster Wallace, Vladimir Nabokov, Philip Grushkin, the Magnum Group, Nadine Gordimer, and Danny Fields, to name but a few. I met Glenn in his Manhattan offices. We talked about, among other things, the imaginative "packaging of authors' archives, the maturing of research institutions, kaboosing like collections, natural sympathies, technology coming on line, letterpress printing as a nostalgic gasp, the shift to digital, Bob Dylan's archive, the Woodie Guthrie Center, the transformation of Tulsa, the Kaiser Foundation, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, Watergate and the University of Texas, the importance of the creative process, New Criticism, identity politics, the melting of textual studies, the growing importance of ancillary material; Bernard Malamud, Bob Giroux, Strand Bookstore, envy, small versus major research institutes, Michael Ondaatje, Canada's lack of interest in its writers' papers, Margaret Atwood, Robertson Davies, Conrad Black, FDR, and archives as a non-traditional market. 

"A Quarreling Pair," a play by Jane Bowles, staged by Nick Mauss, and starring Deborah Eisenberg and Lynne Tillman Dear Jane Puppet Play & Readings Documentation Wednesday, January 18, 2017 Artists Space Books & Talks 55 Walker Street http://artistsspace.org/materials/dear-jane

“When Glenn Greenwald castigates the dead Charlie Hebdo cartoonists for racism,” the writer Sam Harris observed recently, “he’s not only proving that he’s a moral imbecile; he’s participating in a global war of ideas over free speech – and he’s on the wrong side of it.” Back in April, the short story writer Deborah Eisenberg took a rather different view. In her letter to PEN’s executive director Suzanne Nossel, Eisenberg included Greenwald on a shortlist of people she considered worthier of PEN’s annual Freedom of Expression Award for Courage than the dead and surviving Charlie Hebdo staff. Unlike the slain cartoonists, she wrote of her recommendations, “their courage has been fastidiously exercised for the good of humanity.” All things considered, this was an extravagant claim to make on behalf of Greenwald’s valour and integrity, particularly at Charlie Hebdo’s expense. Greenwald – formerly of Salon and the Guardian and now co-founding editor at Pierre Omidyar’s campaigning blog, the Intercept – is most famous as the journalist to whom rogue NSA employee Edward Snowden leaked a vast cache … The post Glenn Greenwald: Fascism’s Fellow Traveller appeared first on Quillette.

While diplomats and academics met at the General Assembly of the United Nations on the East Side of Midtown Manhattan, the Asia Society hosted "Voices from Burma," an event honoring the stories of Burmese refugees and political prisoners. Actor and playwright Wallace Shawn, actor Kathryn Grody, writers Amitav Ghosh and Deborah Eisenberg, and former political prisoner Law Eh Soe read from Nowhere to Be Home: Narratives from Survivors of Burma's Military Regime. Veteran journalist, educator, and current Director of the Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations Orville Schell opened and closed the event.   The stories in Nowhere to Be Home are first-hand accounts of refugees who have survived displacement within and across Burma's borders, who have witnessed the destruction of thousands of ethnic minority villages, and who witnessed their home become a country with one of the largest fleets of child soldiers in the world. The book is the seventh title in the McSweeney's non-profit Voice of Witness publication series, and executive director Mimi Lok helped curate the event. “It’s impossible not to be engaged and moved by these stories,” Lok said. “Hopefully people will be compelled to encourage the United Nations to make sure the work is being done to investigate these abuses.” The event concluded with a prayer by U Agga, a Theravada Buddhist monk and Burmese refugee. Facing the packed auditorium and joined by monks U Gawsita and U Pinyar Zawta, U Agga repeated three times: “May there be no deception of one another. May love and kindness envelope the world and may there be peace on earth.” The issue of human rights in Burma has been a long-standing debate at the U.N. Sixteen member states currently support a U.N.-led Commission of Inquiry to investigate crimes against humanity in Burma, including the United States, Australia, Canada, France and the United Kingdom. Others argue open political and economic engagement with Burma is a better strategy. Below listen to Amitov Ghosh and Deborah Eisenberg read the oral histories of Aye Maung and Fatima. Closing remarks by Orville Schell. Burmese refugee U Agga ends with his oral history narrative and Theravada Buddist prayer. Bon Mots: The words of survivor Khin Lwe on the complex beauty of Burma, read by actor Kathryn Grody: "One day when I was a child, I was playing with some fruit. My mom had never let me eat this fruit before, because she was worried I would choke on the seeds. But I accidentally broke the fruit open and I saw it was ripe, so I tasted it. It tasted so sweet. The situation in Burma is like that. The people don’t even know what the fruit is, but when they start to learn and become concerned about the issues in Burma, then they will start to understand how sweet the fruit can be." Survivor Hla Min remembers life before abandoning his post in the Burmese military. His words as read by Wallace Shawn: "While we were on the front line, our officers ordered us to completely destroy the local people. They told us that even the children had to be killed if we saw them. I saw soldiers abducting young girls, dragging them from their houses and raping them. At the time, I felt that those girls were like my sisters." Executive director of Voice of Witness Mimi Lok on publishing first-person narratives: "We approach the architecture of an oral history narrative in the same way we might approach a short story—but underpinned by our responsibility to journalistic integrity. So we make sure everything is fact checked and accurate." The Asia Society event was sponsored by the Pen American Center, the Open Society Foundations, Voice of Witness and the Magnum Foundation. Video work by Magnum photographers Chien Chi Chang and Lu Nan with James Mackay were presented throughout the evening. To watch a video from the event by Chien-Chi Chang, click here, or a video by Takaaki Okada, click here.

A tribute to the great (and virtually unknown) Swiss writer Robert Walser, who influenced Kafka and inspired Hermann Hesse. Writers Susan Bernofsky, Deborah Eisenberg and Wayne Koestenbaum read, discuss and worship Walser, a writer who is like a mouse that roared—small and fragile but out-of-this-world outrageous

Author Deborah Eisenberg reads from her short story Revenge of the Dinosaurs, and during a question and answer session with moderator Aoibheann Sweeney (a former Eisenberg student) and the audience Eisenberg discusses her writing and revision process, teaching writing at a college level, and the impact of moving to New York from the Midwest. Introduction by Harold Augenbraum, executive director of the National Book Foundation, presenter of the National Book Awards. Recorded in the BAM Lepercq Space as part of the Eat, Drink and Be Literary reading series. Presented in partnership with BAM. www.nationalbook.org

All Around Atlantis (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) This unusual writer, who takes a full year to complete each story, has completed seven -- enough to fill her third book.