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In a very strange and wild episode of Textual Healing, I got a chance to interview Leza Cantoral who is one of my favorite people in the lit world today! It gets weird, it gets dark, and it actually gets pretty damn hysterical. It's lit. Leza is a Xicana writer & Editor-in-Chief at CLASH Books. She is also the host of Get Lit With Leza. As a result of her being a megafan of Lana Del Rey & Sylvia Plath, she curated and edited an anthology of stories called Tragedy Queens: Stories Inspired by Lana Del Rey & Sylvia Plath which is available on CLASH Books. She’s the author of the surreal horror story collection Cartoons in the Suicide Forest & alt lit poetry & social media commentary about modern alienation, Trash Panda. If the sound is a bit off at times in this episode it's because we were both a bit "lit" during the recording of it, which of course set the perfect mood for us to go off on wild tangents about cults, The Bling Ring, drugs, and how we both originally wanted to be filmmakers. The main focus though is Leza's truly excellent and diverse taste in music. We go on about Courtney Love, Lana Del Rey, The Weeknd, Marilyn Manson, and Madonna. When we aren't talking about that, we're railing against the patriarchy, what got us both into literature, and annoying guys on the internet. The best parts are when Leza actually reads a bit of her writing and describes some of the films she made. They aren't at the end of the episode like typical Textual Healing episodes but scattered throughout, so listen to the whole show to catch them! Support Textual Healing with Mallory Smart by donating to their Tip Jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/textual-healing
Joe is joined by Leza Cantoral. They talk about sex in lit, fairy tales, bizarro fiction, and more!Leza Cantoral is the Editor in Chief of CLASH Books. She hosts Get Lit With Leza, a podcast where she talks to cool ass writers. She is the author of Cartoons in the Suicide Forest & Trash Panda & the editor of Tragedy Queens: Stories Inspired by Lana Del Rey & Sylvia Plath. You can find her spending way too much time on FB, Twitter & IG @lezacantoralYou can contact the show at noisemakerjoe@gmail.com - Just put WTR in the subject line.Contact for Joe bielecki Twitter and Instagram: @noisemakerjoe Website Patreon Art photo by Arielle TipaMARILYN IN WONDERLANDDon’t look in the mirror,Don’t look because you will see,Marilyn,Through the Looking Glass.Her twin brainsGlitter and digest the celluloid dream.The forest is thickFor those who wander—Lost and found,Crumbling Underground.Where does the rabbit hole end?I wander through the streetsOf New York City.I see my reflectionIn the shop windows,Half expecting to seeMarilyn looking back at me.Her body might be in the Westwood Cemetery,But her heart is in NYC.In NYCShe could finally disappear.In NYCShe sought refuge from the swarm—The camera eyes thatStripped her bare.You cannot X-rayA soul.Skeleton face,Calavera of love—I look for MarilynIn the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.She’s not thereBut I find the Urn of Peter Lorre,And I wonder whyHe couldn’t afford a nicer gravestone.Marilyn, tangled in Egyptian cotton sheets,Wound up in her telephone cord—A Hollywood mummy,Preserved for all eternity.Still she haunts me,Phantomwise,Marilyn moving under the skies,Never seen by waking eyes.She’s not in the dirty NY snowCaked to the curb.She’s not in the radiator that groans like a mechanical beast,From the bowels of Mordor.She found her voiceIn the Actor’s Studio,A bookwork—Devouring Ulysses.In madness, she walks,Through mirrors far and wide.She died in beauty,Like the night.A psychic in Greenwich VillageTells me that my aura is white,But I don’t believe her,Because my shadows eat up all the light.Dark twinDevouring me—Dark pairingsOf souls lost at sea.I hear her laughterBubbling off the shore.I find Marilyn in Key West,In front of the Tropicana—Her smile frozen in plaster,Blowing her skirts to Cuba.
Mark Pryor 01:50 Mark Pryor, novelist Amber Elby, YA novelist Dylan Powell, mystery writer George Vance McGee, author Daniel Peña, novelist Leza Cantoral, author and panda Cat with book Phuc with dog Mark Pryor is the author of ten novels, including The Hollow Man, which introduced everyone’s favorite misanthrope*, Dominic. His latest, The Book Artist, a Hugo Marston novel, launches February 2019. He has also published the true-crime book As She Lay Sleeping. A native of Hertfordshire, England, he is an assistant district attorney in Austin, Texas, where he lives with his wife and three children.Laura Elvebak 12:03Born in North Dakota, but raised in Los Angeles and San Francisco, Laura draws from her nomad kind of existence in various cities to craft her mysteries with a touch of noir. Laura’s writing career follows a winding career path through oil and gas companies, law firms, a stint as a go-go dancer in the sixties. Amber Elby 18:45Amber Elby was born in Grand Ledge, Michigan but spent much of her childhood in the United Kingdom. She began writing when she was three years old and created miniature books by asking her family how to spell every, single, word. She studied creative writing at Michigan State University’s Honors College before earning her Master of Fine Arts degree in Screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin. She currently resides in Texas with her husband and two daughters and spends her time teaching, traveling, and getting lost in imaginary worlds. Dylan Powell 25:22Dylan Powell is an award-winning author who writes crime stories, mystery fiction and books about Texas. Powell's work has been featured in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, the Best American Mysteries 2018 and a host of fine truck stop bathroom walls across the Texas badlands. Kathryn Lane 33:07Kathryn Lane is the award-winning author of Coyote Zone, the second book in the Nikki Garcia thriller series. A transplant to Houston, Lane draws inspiration for her work from her love of world travel. She is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, the Writers League of Texas, and she lives in the Woodlands, Texas with her husband, Bob.George Vance McGee 40:56Born in Austin, George Vance McGee is a liberal arts graduate from the University of Texas. He is the author of Attractive Tales from Grand Cities: A Social Memoir. He spent five years living and working in NYC before returning to his hometown of Austin, where he writes and works as a realtor. Daniel García Ordaz 49:53Daniel García Ordaz is the founder of the Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival and the author of You Know What Iâ’m Sayin’? (El Zarape Press, 2006) and Cenzontle/Mockingbird: Songs of Empowerment (FlowerSong Books, 2018). His writing centers on the creative power of language. García has been a featured reader and guest at numerous literary events, including the Dallas International Book Fair, McAllen Book Festival, Texas Library Association, and Border Book Bash.Daniel Peña 57:45 Daniel Peña is a Pushcart Prize-winning writer and Assistant Professor in the Department of English at the University of Houston-Downtown. He was formerly based out of the UNAM in Mexico City where he worked as a Fulbright-Garcia Robles Scholar. A graduate of Cornell University and a former Picador Guest Professor in Leipzig, Germany, his writing has appeared in Ploughshares, The Rumpus, the Kenyon Review, NBC News, and Arcturus among other venues. He’s currently a regular contributor to the Guardian and the Ploughshares blog. His novel, Bang, is out now from Arte Público Press. He lives in beautiful Houston, Texas. David Bowles 01:07:49A Mexican-American author from deep South Texas, David Bowles is an assistant professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Recipient of awards from the American Library Association, Texas Institute of Letters and Texas Associated Press, he has written a dozen or so books, including Flower, Song, Dance: Aztec and Mayan Poetry, the critically acclaimed Feathered Serpent, Dark Heart of Sky: Mexican Myths, and They Call Me Güero: A Border Kid’s Poems, which is a recent recipient of the Claudia Lewis Award. In 2019, Penguin will publish The Chupacabras of the Rio Grande, co-written with Adam Gidwitz, and Tu Books will release his steampunk graphic novel Clockwork Curandera. In April 2017, David was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters for his literary work.Leza Cantoral 01:18:39Leza Cantoral is a Xicana writer & editor who lives on the internet. She is the Editor in Chief of CLASH Books & host of the Get Lit With Leza podcast where she talks to cool-ass writers. Tragedy Queens: Stories Inspired by Lana Del Rey & Sylvia Plath is a CLASH Books anthology of stories that she edited as a result of being a Lana Del Rey & Sylvia Plath megafan. You can find her on YouTube at Get Lit With Leza. She blogs at lezacantoral.com.A Texas-sized thank you to all of the authors who were generous enough to share their time at the festival with us. Please do click through to each of the authors’ sites and support these women and men of the word by buying more books & by reading more widely today.**misanthropy is a really fun word. I mean, so fun.
Join Producer Alfred Crane as he leads the discussion the films of Stanley Kubrick between co hosts Jonathan Moody and Donnie Sturges with special guest Leza Cantoral (Podcast host of Get Lit With Leza)
What does Mathematics, Surrealism, Architecture & Bizarro Fiction have in common? Pedro Proença & Brian Auspice! Two weird writers for the price of one, on this episode of Get Lit With Leza.