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Hilary Plum discusses her new novel, State Champ, which surrounds an abortion clinic employee who goes on a hunger strike to protest her boss's imprisonment. In this far-reaching conversation, Plum sheds light on the spontaneity of art and protest; the history of the hunger strike; the dark joys of writing a complicated, acerbic protagonist; elite athletes; eating disorders; crafting a novel's plot (or not); small press publishing vs. the Big 5 and larger independent publishing houses; the value of MFA programs; and a lot more. Hilary Plum is the author of six books, including, most recently, State Champ (Bloomsbury, May 2025), an Indie Next List pick. With Zach Savich, Plum edits the Open Prose Series at Rescue Press. With Zach Peckham, she co-hosts the podcast Index for Continuance. She teaches at Cleveland State University and serves as associate director of the CSU Poetry Center. Page Count is produced by Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library. For full show notes and an edited transcript of this episode, visit the episode page. To get in touch, email ohiocenterforthebook@cpl.org (put “podcast” in the subject line) or follow us on Instagram or Facebook.
We're excited to share this excellent interview about the art of running a reading series from Index for Continuance, which is produced by the CSU Poetry Center and hosted by Hilary Plum and Zach Peckham. In this conversation, Hilary Plum speaks with novelist Sarah Rose Etter about reading series and their place in the literary landscape. From practical tips surrounding running a series—gleaned from Etter's time hosting TireFire in Philadelphia—to advice for writers stepping up to the microphone to give readings of their own, this episode offers a crash course in literary community, performance, and citizenship. Index for Continuance is a podcast focusing on small press publishing, politics, and practice by engaging editors, writers, publishers, critics, booksellers, and organizers involved in independent, small press, DIY, and community literary work in conversation. Index for Continuance aims to build an archive of grassroots knowledge that can serve the future of publishing. Learn more about the CSU Poetry Center, which produces Index for Continuance. Sarah Rose Etter the author of the novels Ripe (Scribner, 2023), a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice and a Time Must-Read Book of 2023, and The Book of X (Two Dollar Radio, 2019), winner of the 2019 Shirley Jackson Award. Her short fiction collection, Tongue Party, was selected by Deb Olin Unferth as the winner of the 2011 Caketrain Award. On a related note, listen to Unicorn-Level Books with Two Dollar Radio, Page Count's interview with Two Dollar Radio editors Eric Obenauf and Eliza Wood-Obenauf. Page Count returns with a new episode on January 2: the recording of an in-person conversation with Ross Gay and Alison Stine at the Youngstown Fall Literary Festival.
Michael talks with Hilary Plum about small presses, the recent news around Catapult and Elizabeth Koch, her first three books, her essay collection HOLE STUDIES, editing, writing about illness, pop culture as entrance into larger ideas, form as content, form as container, returning to poetry after four prose books, and more.Hilary Plum (she/her) is the author of several books, including the forthcoming poetry collection Excisions (Black Lawrence Press, 2023), the essay collection Hole Studies (Fonograf Editions, 2022), and the novel Strawberry Fields (Fence, 2018), winner of the Fence Modern Prize in Prose. She teaches at Cleveland State University and in the NEOMFA program, and she serves as associate director of the CSU Poetry Center. With Zach Savich she edits the Open Prose Series at Rescue Press. Recent work has appeared in Astra, The Rupture, Granta, American Poetry Review, Cleveland Review of Books, College Literature, and elsewhere. Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.Get Hole Studies (Fonograf Editions, 2022) here.Check out the catalog at Autofocus Books here.
Today I’m talking about the various forms of nonfiction that poet, essayist and novelist Hilary Plum has found herself interacting with in her newest book Hole Studies. From listening to music, to obsessively reading journalism, podcasts, or editing and examining the conventional forms of academic publishing–Plum’s inquisitive mind investigates the structures and mechanisms of forms […]
Featuring the work of FENCE 37/38 contributors. Season 3, Episode 3. In this episode, we open with Erik Kennedy's prose piece entitled "The Please Stop Killing Us And Destroying Everything that Sustains Us Society." After, Randy Prunty reads poems "Earth Elegy: Low Tide" and "Earth Elegy, Amateurs." Next up is Hillary Plum, reading poems “Canal” and “Planned Parenthood.” Samantha Burns reads their prose poem “Shearling” – then Katie Marya reads their poem "The Crisis Is Not Knowing." Jeff Sirkin will read his poem "Deterritorial" and Andrew Seguin will read his poem "Trees." Our penultimate poet of this episode is Benjamin Niespodziany, reading poems "The Shopping Plaza" and "The Standup Comic," followed by Kathryn Mockler, who closes out the poems with "Tumble in the Hay," "Dark Thoughts," and "I Should Have Invited Him In." Before moving into this episode's short fiction, you'll hear an original song, “Male Manipulator” by KIKA, who is also featured in this season's first episode. More Music by Kika is available on Soundcloud, Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, Pandora, and Tidal. Next, Jackelyn Hoy's story “Breaking.” We close with Kika's song Crossed Animals. Hosted by Jason Zuzga, author of the poetry collection Heat Wake and one of the Nonfiction and Other editors of FENCE. A HISTORY OF FENCE: Including Essays by FENCE Editors and Selected Articles and InterviewsFence Steaming, found at Fenceportal.org, with such offerings as a print and audio collaboration POEMS FROM WHERE HERE WERE WE by Charles Bernstein and Norman Fischer, an essay by Adoley Ammah-Tagoe, METROPOLIS: SCRAPS FROM ACCRA, GHANA, and an essay by Whitney DeVos, "CAN ESTADOUNIDENSES WATCH A 'FOREIGN FILM?' ON CUARÓN'S ROMA."Online we also have Constant Critic with a library of our reviews of poetry books and Elecment with experiments in media and poetry. All and more which you can find at fencedigital.com. Support the show (https://www.fenceportal.org/subscribe/)
Today, I speak with Hilary Plum. She’s the author of Watchfires (Rescue Press, 2016), which isn’t so much a book as an exploratory biopsy of our body politic and our collective psyche. Plum examines our moment at the cellular level—whether that’s a cancerous cell or a terrorist cell—with the aim of understanding what’s happened to us in the Iraq War, in the attacks on 9/11, at the Boston Marathon bombings, or in the time-out-of-time we experience when we suffer from chronic illness. How do we make sense of a global world where drones, autoimmune disease, migrants, suicide, and mass violence all feel interconnected? That’s exactly what Plum sets out to do. In prose as keen and incisive as a scalpel, she locates and exposes the malignancies of our time. She doesn’t offer us a cure—who could?—but she gives us a brilliant diagnoses of how deeply the disease and diseases from which we suffer run. Eric LeMay is on the creative writing faculty at Ohio University. His work ranges from food writing to electronic literature. He is the author of three books, most recently In Praise of Nothing: Essay, Memoir, and Experiments (Emergency Press, 2014). He can be reached at eric@ericlemay.org. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today, I speak with Hilary Plum. She’s the author of Watchfires (Rescue Press, 2016), which isn’t so much a book as an exploratory biopsy of our body politic and our collective psyche. Plum examines our moment at the cellular level—whether that’s a cancerous cell or a terrorist cell—with the aim of understanding what’s happened to us in the Iraq War, in the attacks on 9/11, at the Boston Marathon bombings, or in the time-out-of-time we experience when we suffer from chronic illness. How do we make sense of a global world where drones, autoimmune disease, migrants, suicide, and mass violence all feel interconnected? That’s exactly what Plum sets out to do. In prose as keen and incisive as a scalpel, she locates and exposes the malignancies of our time. She doesn’t offer us a cure—who could?—but she gives us a brilliant diagnoses of how deeply the disease and diseases from which we suffer run. Eric LeMay is on the creative writing faculty at Ohio University. His work ranges from food writing to electronic literature. He is the author of three books, most recently In Praise of Nothing: Essay, Memoir, and Experiments (Emergency Press, 2014). He can be reached at eric@ericlemay.org. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today, I speak with Hilary Plum. She’s the author of Watchfires (Rescue Press, 2016), which isn’t so much a book as an exploratory biopsy of our body politic and our collective psyche. Plum examines our moment at the cellular level—whether that’s a cancerous cell or a terrorist cell—with the aim of understanding what’s happened to us in the Iraq War, in the attacks on 9/11, at the Boston Marathon bombings, or in the time-out-of-time we experience when we suffer from chronic illness. How do we make sense of a global world where drones, autoimmune disease, migrants, suicide, and mass violence all feel interconnected? That’s exactly what Plum sets out to do. In prose as keen and incisive as a scalpel, she locates and exposes the malignancies of our time. She doesn’t offer us a cure—who could?—but she gives us a brilliant diagnoses of how deeply the disease and diseases from which we suffer run. Eric LeMay is on the creative writing faculty at Ohio University. His work ranges from food writing to electronic literature. He is the author of three books, most recently In Praise of Nothing: Essay, Memoir, and Experiments (Emergency Press, 2014). He can be reached at eric@ericlemay.org. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Hilary Plum is the author of the novel Strawberry Fields, winner of the Fence Modern Prize in Prose (2018); the work of nonfiction Watchfires(2016), winner of the 2018 GLCA New Writers Award; and the novel They Dragged Them Through the Streets (2013). She has worked for a number of years as an editor of international literature, history, and politics. She teaches at Cleveland State University and in the NEOMFA program and is associate director of the CSU Poetry Center. With Zach Savich she edits the Open Prose Series at Rescue Press. Recent work has appeared in the Brooklyn Rail, Oversound, the Fairy Tale Review, Poetry Northwest, and elsewhere.
Dave returns triumphantly to America, Mike is behind a dumpster on an island near Seattle, and most importantly, we're joined by Hilary Plum, who drops TEN TONS OF KNOWLEDGE BOMBS. We cover literally every issue that matters: the physical difficulties of wiffle ball, the approximate length of a soccer match, the ethics of competing against your friend's mom, whether or not sports riots are fun, Kelsey Plum, Steph Curry's golf game, Kevin Durant's wardrobe, and Michael Jackson. We also GET SERIOUS about playground bullies, flops of many varieties, Ted Bundy, faking your own death, cartwheeling goalies, and the awfulness of the NFL's treatment of Colin Kaepernick. Somewhere in there Mikal debuts a new segment called NEW SPORTS WORD. Help us help you: Twitter @makeroom4sports makeroomforsports@gmail.com LINKS TO THIS WEEK'S TOP PLAYS: Kevin Durant wears Morrissey T-shirt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VlHj2P7eJY Stephen Curry plays golf: http://www.golf.com/tour-news/2017/08/06/tour-confidential-was-steph-curry-experiment-success Candace Parker's triple double: http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sparks-stars-20170728-story.html Amazing softball catch: http://www.flosoftball.com/video/1236460-icymi-sam-torres-makes-the-superwoman-grab#.WYjsgaYbQTl
This lecture will explore recent moments and new possibilities in the age-old relationship between nonfiction and fiction. We’ll discuss contemporary works of fiction built around documentary material: photographs, testimony, reportage. Through an examination of how fiction frames, interacts with, and creates and resolves tension with its documentary sources, we’ll glimpse just what’s happening today at the border where fiction and nonfiction meet.