Podcasts about macdowell fellow

Matthew Specktor is the author of the novels American Dream Machine and That Summertime Sound, and the nonfiction books The Sting and Always Crashing in the Same Car. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Paris Review, The Believer, Tin House, Vogue, GQ, Black Clock, and Open City. He has been a MacDowell Fellow and is a founding editor of the Los Angeles Review of Books. He resides in Los Angeles. On this episode of Little Atoms he talks to Neil Denny about his latest book The Golden Hour: A Story of Family and Power in Hollywood. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sadie and Jeanne dive into the world of Tommy Wallach to discuss writing musicals, plays, screenplays, novels, the value of being a pianist, why bread is not happening, and so much more. This one is a must-listen for all artists who want to dive into multiple mediums and find a path of sanity while juggling 12 balls in the air. Just read his bio below ... yeah, he pivots like none other. *****Tommy Wallach is the author of the Anchor & Sophia trilogy, Thanks for the Trouble, and the New York Times bestselling We All Looked Up, which has been translated into over a dozen languages. His writing has appeared in McSweeney's, Tin House, Wired, and other magazines, and he is a MacDowell Fellow. He was signed to Decca Records as a singer-songwriter, and has independently released two full-length albums, including We All Looked Up: The Album, a companion record to his first novel. He currently lives in Los Angeles, where he recently opened up his first escape room, and is working on bringing his novels to various sorts of screens. Grok more at TommyWallach.com.Resources from this episode: Tommy Wallach's websiteTommy on IG: @tommywallachPipeline Podcasts:All OG Pipeline Artists podcasts can be found on pipelineartists.com/listen.YouTube:Watch full (read that as "most ... maybe not any" because Jeanne is tired) episodes on YouTube.Follow us on X:@recklesscr8tive@SadieKDean@jeannevb@pipelineartistsFollow us on IG:@recklesscr8tive@_thesadiedean@jeannevb_@pipelineartistsEnter Pipeline's Contests:Script Pipeline (Screenwriting, TV, First Look, Pitch Contest)Film Pipeline (Short Scripts and Short Films)Book Pipeline (Unpublished and Adaptation)

For the 34th episode of "Reading the Art World," host Megan Fox Kelly speaks with Sebastian Smee, Pulitzer Prize-winning art critic for The Washington Post and author of "Paris in Ruins: Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism,” published by W. W. Norton.This fascinating conversation explores the violent political upheavals of 1870-71 Paris — the Siege of Paris and the Paris Commune — and how they influenced the Impressionist movement. Smee shares insights into the lives of the artists who survived these dramatic days, including Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet and Berthe Morisot, who were trapped in Paris; Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Frédéric Bazille, who joined regiments outside of the capital; and Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro, who fled the country just in time.Through rigorous research into personal letters and historical documents, Smee illuminates the human context behind familiar masterpieces of light created during this dark period. He offers a fresh perspective on why the Impressionists, with their newfound sense of the fragility of life, turned toward transient subjects of modern life, leisure, fleeting moments and the impermanence of all things in the aftermath of such devastating events.ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sebastian Smee is an art critic for The Washington Post and winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. His previous works include "The Art of Rivalry" and books on Mark Bradford and Lucian Freud. He was awarded the Rabkin Prize for art journalism in 2018 and was a MacDowell Fellow in 2021.PURCHASE THE BOOK https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324006954SUBSCRIBE, FOLLOW AND HEAR INTERVIEWS:For more information, visit meganfoxkelly.com, hear our past interviews, and subscribe at the bottom of our Of Interest page for new posts.Follow us on Instagram: @meganfoxkelly"Reading the Art World" is a live interview and podcast series with leading art world authors hosted by art advisor Megan Fox Kelly. The conversations explore timely subjects in the world of art, design, architecture, artists and the art market, and are an opportunity to engage further with the minds behind these insightful new publications. Megan Fox Kelly is an art advisor and past President of the Association of Professional Art Advisors who works with collectors, estates and foundations.Music composed by Bob Golden

“Among the growing effects of the climate crisis, the evolution of hurricanes is one of the more immediate and destructive.” Our oceans are warming. Superstorms are intensifying. In Porter Fox's new book, the accelerating danger resulting from these two realities of the climate crisis is on full display. And Fox is no stranger to the ocean - as a longtime sailor and decades-long climate writer, he literally confronts deadly storms in his reporting. Now, with latest book, Category Five, Superstorms and the Warming Oceans that Feed Them, he's unpacking what he's heard from scientists and explorers alike to mark the changes we've already seen with oceans and superstorms and what's in store as warming accelerates. He joins this week to talk about the damage we're seeing from natural disasters, the disparity in disaster responses, and why he wanted to combine memoir and climate science for this book.  Porter Fox is a writer and author of books like The Last Winter and Northland. He writes and edits the award-winning literary travel writing journal Nowhere, teaches at Columbia University School of the Arts and is a MacDowell Fellow.  Read Category Five, Superstorms and the Warming Oceans that Feed Them As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.

Sebastian Smee is an art critic for the Washington Post and the author of "Paris in Ruins: Love, War and the Birth of Impressionism" (Norton) and “The Art of Rivalry: Four Friendships, Betrayals, and Breakthroughs in Modern Art” (Random House), which was translated into a dozen languages. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism while at the Boston Globe in 2011, after being runner up in 2008. Living in the UK between 2000 and 2004, he worked for the Daily Telegraph, The Art Newspaper, The Guardian, The Independent, The Times, The Financial Times, Prospect, and The Spectator. In Australia, he worked as the art critic for the Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian. He was awarded the Rabkin Prize for art journalism in 2018 and was a MacDowell Fellow in 2021. He taught the Garis Seminar for Creative Non-fiction at Wellesley College between 2010 and 2022.  He has authored books on Mark Bradford and Lucian Freud and contributed essays to books on an array of other artists. He has been invited to speak at, among other places, Harvard University, Boston College, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, and the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences. 

Notes and Links to Christina Cooke's Work      For Episode 247, Pete welcomes Christina Cooke, and the two discuss, among other topics, her childhood love of books, formative and transformative books and writers, contemporaries and fellow debut writers with whom her books are in conversation, the outsized influence of Mamá Lou, and salient themes and issues in her book like diaspora, notions of “home,” queerness and divinity, brotherly and sisterly relationships, and religiosity vs. spirituality.      Christina Cooke's writing has appeared in or is forthcoming from The Caribbean Writer, PRISM International, Prairie Schooner, Apogee, Epiphany, Michigan Quarterly Review, Lambda Literary Review, and others. A MacDowell Fellow and Journey Prize winner, she holds a Master of Arts from the University of New Brunswick and a Master of Fine Arts from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Christina was born in Jamaica and is now a Canadian citizen who lives and writes in New York City. BROUGHTUPSY is her debut novel.   Buy Broughtupsy   Christina Cooke's Website   Article in Vogue about Broughtupsy At about 1:40, Pete and Christina talk about a top-notch fruit mentioned in her book At about 4:00, Pete highlights an amazing version of the book that he received  At about 5:15, Christina talks about her rich childhood reading life At about 8:20, Christina shouts out Mrs. Dooley, an inspiring teacher At about 11:30, Christina cites books that made a huge impact on how she writes, including Handmaid's Tale At about 13:20, Pete wonders which books and writers “are in conversation” with Christina and her work, and she mentions Ruben Reyes, Jr., Santiago José Sánchez, Melissa Mogollon, Emma Copley, Lisa Ko, Annie Liontas, Miss Lou, Zadie Smith, and Erna Brodber At about 17:00, Christina talks about why she calls Jamaican patois a language, and its distinctive nature, and she tells about a fun difference between #3/#6 mango At about 18:45, Christina dissects the meanings of the book's title At about 19:45, The two discuss a Jamaican original word At about 20:40, Christina discusses seeds for the book and its iterations  At about 23:50, The two discuss the book's epigraph and Christina describes its provenance/significance  At about 28:00, Pete lays out the book's exposition and Christina gives background on sickle cell anemia, which is deadly to Bryson At about 30:30, Christina discusses Bryson's memories and wise maturity in his last days At about 33:25, Christina remarks on the “fable” told to reassure Bryson that his sister Tamika would be visiting-she cites “the complicated ways that we love” At about 35:10, Christina talks about a possibly-doomed relationship At about 37:20, Christina details how the book complicates religiosity and queerness' connections At about 40:35, Christina describes Akua “spiraling” in making a trip back home to Jamaica  At about 42:30, Akua and her “Americanness” in Jamaica is discussed, and Christina talks about parallels in her own life At about 45:40, An uncomfortable visit and questions between the sisters is discussed At about 46:30, Cod liver oil and a scene involving its destruction is recounted by Christina as she discusses its connection to Jamaican parenting in a certain time period At about 49:10, Christina responds to Pete's question about why Akua carries her brother's urn At about 51:40, Christina talks about Jamaicans being “culturally Anglican” and its complexities At about 53:20-Lady Saw and her legendaries and an early encounter with Akua and a woman in Kingston is recounted At about 57:20, Christina talks about “lyme” and its usage in the book and in Jamaica  At about 1:00:10, Christina charts the importance of The Miss Lou “Happy Birthday Song” in the book and in Jamaica and the Jamaican diaspora At about 1:01:45, Christina responds to Pete's questions about the ways in which Akua's father treats her and her homosexuality-Christina speaks to the idea of “infantilizing”  At about 1:06:00, Café con Libros, Word Up, and Bookshop.org are shouted out as good places to buy her book and she gives contact information/social media information At about 1:06:55, Christina shares wonderful feedback from readers      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 this and 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.    I am very excited about having one or two podcast episodes per month featured on the website of Chicago Review of Books. The audio will be posted, along with a written interview culled from the audio. A big thanks to Rachel León and Michael Welch at Chicago Review.    Sign up now for The Chills at Will Podcast Patreon: it can be found at patreon.com/chillsatwillpodcastpeterriehl     Check out the page that describes the benefits of a Patreon membership, including cool swag and bonus episodes. Thanks in advance for supporting my one-man show, my DIY podcast and my extensive reading, research, editing, and promoting to keep this independent podcast pumping out high-quality content!       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 Episode 248 with Katya Apekina, a novelist, screenwriter and translator; her novel, The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish, was named a Best Book of 2018 by Buzzfeed, LitHub, and more and finalist for the LA Times Book Prize; Mother Doll, was named a Best Book So Far of 2024 by Vogue    The episode will go live on August 16.    Lastly, please go to https://ceasefiretoday.com/, which features 10+ actions to help bring about Ceasefire in Gaza.  

Notes and Links to Ruben Reyes' Work      For Episode 246, Pete welcomes Ruben Reyes, and the two discuss, among other topics, his childhood love of sci fi and fantasy, his family's diverse language history, formative and transformative books and writers, lessons learned from early writing, and salient themes and issues in his collection like agency, power dynamics, notions of “home,” grief, and various forms of violence, as well as larger narratives about the immigration system, family units, and traumas and silences.      Ruben Reyes Jr. is the son of two Salvadoran immigrants. He completed his MFA in fiction at the Iowa Writers' Workshop.    He is a graduate of Harvard College where he studied History and Literature and Latinx Studies. His writing has appeared in Audible Originals, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, The Florida Review Online, Business Insider, The Acentos Review, Strange Horizons, Poynter, and other publications.    His debut story collection, There is a Rio Grande in Heaven, is forthcoming from Mariner Books. Originally from Southern California, he lives in Brooklyn.   Buy There is a Rio Grande in Heaven   Ruben Reyes' Website   At about 1:45, Harvard and secret clubs and “annoying social clubs” are discussed   At about 3:00, Ruben details the “chaotic” and exciting leadup to the August 6 publication date of his collection At about 3:45, Ruben shares “generous feedback” from blurbists and other early readers At about 5:50, Ruben shouts out upcoming book events-Brooklyn with Greenlight and Bryant Park, and Libro Mobile in Santa Ana At about 6:50, Ruben talks about growing up in Diamond Bar and how it's emblematic or not of LA and California At about 8:00, Ruben expands upon his language history and that of his family, and he also talks about growing up on fantasy books and Michael Crichton and other “conceptual sci-fi” works At about 10:35, Pete and Ruben strategize on how to get JK Rowling off Twitter and her “misguided” diatribes At about 12:30, Ruben talks about formative writers and writing from his high school and college days At about 14:15, Ruben discusses early writing and lessons learned from the work At about 16:30, Mad appreciation for Borges and how his work was against the “conventional craft” At about 18:30-Ruben highlights the influence of magical realism and its limits and strengths At about 20:00, The two discuss the evocative epigraphs for the story collection, from Roque Dalton and Ray Bradbury At about 23:35, The two discuss the opening short from the collection and the multiple stories that feature “Alternate Histories”; Ruben highlights Jamel Brinkley's guidance  At about 26:45, Ruben explains why he thinks the story has two starting points, and the two discuss the second story, “He Eats His Own” with its mangoes, ritual, and power dynamics and immigrant sagas At about 29:10, Ruben responds to Pete's questions between the balance and relationships between allegory and plot At about 31:00, Pete wonders if Ruben “stands in judgment of [his] characters” At about 33:50, Pete asks Ruben about the ramifications of the relationship between Steven and Tomás, a Salvadoran immigrant who has experienced a lot of grief; Ruben expands on his interest in “escape valves” for characters At about 36:35, The two discuss “Self-Made Man” and its connection to the complexities of immigration  At about 38:40, Ruben discusses “baselines” and the ways in which he resolved to write “three-dimensional characters” and focused on systems and reasons for traumas  At about 40:30, Agency as a theme in the story is discussed through “Quiero Perrear…” and its dynamic characters At about 42:00, Pete and Ruben delight in the opening line of “Quiero Perrear…” and its connections to Kafka's Metamorphosis At about 44:20, Pete is highly complimentary of “My Abuela, the Puppet,” and Ruben explains the story's genesis and connections to real-life At about 47:20, “Salvadoran Slice of Mars” as a way of showing inadequacies of the immigration system is discussed At about 48:55, The themes of “do-overs” and mourning and grief and the ways in which we view those who have passed are discussed in connection with a particularly meaningful story At about 52:20, Ruben discusses the historical fiction involving El Salvador's 1932 Matanza of a story in the collection that is one of the “alternate histories” At about 53:45, the two discuss the incredible work of Roberto Lovato and ideas of “unforgetting” and silences and trauma At about 55:50, Ruben responds to Pete's question about a story that lays out an alternate history of Selena as Ruben brings up systems and fame and the ways that celebrities are treated after their deaths At about 58:40, Ruben details how immigrants often think of “What if” so often  At about 59:40, “Variations on Your Migrant's Life” is explored, and Ruben talks about its inspirations  At about 1:04:15, Valeria and Oscar Ramirez Martinez (graphic picture discussed is not featured in article) and their story, fictionalized in a gutting final story, is discussed  At about 1:07:15, Ruben shouts out places to buy his book and gives his contact info/social media info      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 this and 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.    I am very excited about having one or two podcast episodes per month featured on the website of Chicago Review of Books. The audio will be posted, along with a written interview culled from the audio. A big thanks to Rachel León and Michael Welch at Chicago Review.    Sign up now for The Chills at Will Podcast Patreon: it can be found at patreon.com/chillsatwillpodcastpeterriehl     Check out the page that describes the benefits of a Patreon membership, including cool swag and bonus episodes. Thanks in advance for supporting my one-man show, my DIY podcast and my extensive reading, research, editing, and promoting to keep this independent podcast pumping out high-quality content!       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 Episode 245 with Shannon Sanders, who is a Black writer, attorney, and author of the linked story collection Company, which was winner of the 2023 LA Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. Additionally, her short fiction was the recipient of a 2020 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers.  Please tune in for Episode 247 with Christina Cooke. Her writing has appeared in/is forthcoming from The Caribbean Writer, PRISM International, Prairie Schooner, and Lambda Literary Review, among others. A MacDowell Fellow and Journey Prize winner, her critically-acclaimed Broughtupsy, her debut novel, is out as of January 2024. The episode will go live on August 13. Lastly, please go to https://ceasefiretoday.com/, which features 10+ actions to help bring about Ceasefire in Gaza.  

Yesterday, we were in rural Virginia interviewing the pioneering regenerative farmer, Joel Salatin. Today, we are on an equally innovative farm in Houston, Texas, in conversation with Kimberley Meyer, author of Accidental Sisters. It's called Shamba Ya Amani (Farm of Peace) and, as Meyer explains in her new book, it's a place where five immigrant women are attempting to build their own American dream. As Meyer notes, American invention comes in all shapes and forms and what these five immigrant women are doing at the urban farm of Shamba Ya Amani is just as innovative as anything one might find in Silicon Valley.Kimberly Meyer is the author of Accidental Sisters: Refugee Women Struggling Together for a New American Dream (University of California Press, 2024) and The Book of Wanderings: A Mother-Daughter Pilgrimage (Little, Brown, 2015). Her work explores displacement, political and spiritual, and the ways that the relationships among women and between mothers and children can become a hopeful act of resistance against human suffering. She is a 2019 MacDowell Fellow and has received grants from the Houston Arts Alliance and writing residencies at the Vermont Studio Center and Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. In addition to her work as a writer, she helped found and helps manage Shamba Ya Amani, the Farm of Peace, alongside a collective of refugee and immigrant women and other local Houstonians.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

"If words are empty, they are useless." Today's episode covers family trauma, abuse, torture, isolation, and starting over and succeeding. I've been blessed to chat with Itto and Mekiya, a married couple, sharing their personal journey, how they came to meet, and the amazing things they are accomplishing together. Itto Outini  Founding Editor Itto Outini is a journalist, Fulbright Scholar, Steinbeck Fellow, MacDowell Fellow, public speaker, and author of the forthcoming memoir Blindness is the Light of My Life. She holds an MA in journalism and strategic media from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and a BA in applied linguistics from Mohamed V University in Rabat, Morocco. Itto has published with US-based and international outlets, including The Relatable Voice Magazine, The Fulbright Chronicle, and The Chicago Tribune. Organizations for which she has spoken include The United Nations, Cal Tech University, Verizon Wireless, and The International Trade Centre. In addition to writing and speaking, she offers diverse services tailored to writers, young professionals, and entrepreneurs. Mekiya Outini: Founding Editor Mekiya Outini is an award-winning author, freelance editor, MacDowell Fellow, and co-author of Itto's forthcoming memoir Blindness is the Light of My Life. His work has appeared in Chautauqua, The Coachella Review, Willow Springs, and elsewhere. Two chapters from his novel Ashes, Ashes can be read at the West Trade Review.  Mekiya holds an MFA in fiction from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and a BFA in creative writing from UNC Wilmington. He brings to the table 10+ years of experience writing, editing, teaching, tutoring, reading, and revising. His clients hail from all backgrounds and all walks of life, and he especially enjoys supporting people who write in English as a foreign language to craft clear and elegant prose.  Website: https://www.thedatekeepers.com Itto's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ittooutini/ Mekiya's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mekiya-o-1157b9184/ The DateKeepers LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-datekeepers-–-an-international-media-platform-372831275/ Learn more about your host, Kim Lengling: www.kimlenglingauthor.com

Itto Outini's Bio:Itto Outini is a journalist, Fulbright Scholar, Steinbeck Fellow, MacDowell Fellow, Founding Editor at The DateKeepers, and author of the forthcoming memoir Blindness is the Light of My Life. She holds an MA in journalism and strategic media from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville and a BA in applied linguistics from Mohamed V University in Rabat, Morocco. Itto has published with US-based and international outlets including The Relatable Voice Magazine, The Fulbright Chronicle, and The Chicago Tribune. Organizations for which she has spoken include The United Nations, Cal Tech University, Verizon Wireless, and The International Trade Centre. In addition to writing and speaking speaking, she offers a diverse suits of services tailored to writers, young professionals, and entrepreneurs. Mekiya Outini's Bio:Mekiya Outini is an award-winning author, freelance editor, MacDowell Fellow, Founding Editor at The DateKeepers, and co-author of Itto's forthcoming memoir Blindness is the Light of My Life. His work has appeared in Chautauqua, The Coachella Review, Willow Springs, and elsewhere. Two chapters from his novel Ashes, Ashes can be read at the West Trade Review.  Mekiya holds an MFA in fiction from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville and a BFA in creative writing from the UNC Wilmington. He brings to the table 10+ years of experience writing, editing, teaching, tutoring, reading, and revising. His clients hail from all backgrounds and all walks of life, and he especially enjoys supporting people who write in English as a foreign language to craft clear and elegant prose.Links: Website: https://www.thedatekeepers.comItto's LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/ittooutini/Mekiya's LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/mekiya-o-1157b9184/The DateKeepers LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-datekeepers-–-an-international-media-platform-372831275/Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/i-am-refocused-radio--2671113/support.

In today's episode, Itto and Mekiya Outini open up about the power of storytelling, overcoming personal challenges, and the unique paths that have led them to become advocates for writers worldwide.We begin with Itto and Mekiya telling the unlikely story of how they met, and how their union not only created great happiness for the two of them, but also their business Datekeepers, a platform where emerging writers find their voice and the courage to share their stories.  Itto shares how her early life living on the streets of Morocco due to a heart-breaking family betrayal eventually led her rise as a globally-recognized scholar. Mekiya shares how his life story is one of defying societal norms, and embracing a life that is true to himself. Their shared experiences, filled with resilience and self-love, serve as a beacon for anyone navigating the complexities of finding their own voice.At the heart of our conversation lies a universal reminder: the impact of a supportive community and influential mentors in our own life's stories. We explore the balance between receiving guidance and forging an independent path, and the transformative effect of educators who embolden, rather than diminish our personal power.  MEET ITTO AND MEKIYAItto and Mekiya Outini are the founding editors of The DateKeepers, an international media platform that publishes short-form creative and journalistic nonfiction, spotlights individuals who've overcome extreme adversity to make meaningful contributions to their fields, and creates opportunities for emerging writers. Itto Outini is a Fulbright Scholar, Steinbeck Fellow, and MacDowell Fellow. Her work has appeared in The Chicago Tribune, The Fulbright Chronicle, ABILITY Magazine, and elsewhere, and her life story has been on BBC. She's spoken for Cal Tech University, The United Nations, Verizon Wireless, and The International Trade Centre and holds an MA in journalism and strategic media from the University of Arkansas.Mekiya Outini is a writer, freelance editor, and MacDowell Fellow with an MFA in fiction from the University of Arkansas. His short story “Baptism by Earth” won of the 55th New Millennium Award in Fiction, and his work has appeared in Chautauqua, The Coachella Review, Willow Springs, and elsewhere. The first two chapters of his novel, Ashes, Ashes, have been featured in the West Trade Review.The DateKeepers Website The DateKeepers LinkedIn Support the showJoin Brilliant Breathwork, the monthly membership offering multiple weekly live breathwork sessions with Jen and other trauma-informed facilitators, an extensive vault of replays, and a supportive community for authentic, creative, and radiant growth. Other ways you can support: Share an episode and tag Jen on Instagram @untetheredjen Follow/subscribe to get updates of new episodes Leave a review! Connect with Jen JenLiss.com @untetheredjen Music created and produced by Matt Bollenbach

Memoirist and director of the Institute of American Indian Arts MFA program Deborah Jackson Taffa talks to Jared about her new book, Whiskey Tender. Deborah shares how memoir writing is a form of familial and historical preservation, and offers advice on having difficult conversations with the real people who appear in our creative nonfiction. Plus, she discusses the value of the low-res IAIA program for both indigenous and non-indigenous writers, offers strategies for sustaining creative energy, and describes methods to avoid falling into a common misstep for MFA students: social comparison. A citizen of the Quechan (Yuma) Nation and Laguna Pueblo, Deborah Jackson Taffa is the director of the MFA in Creative Writing program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. She is the author of the memoir WHISKEY TENDER and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Iowa. Her writing can be found at PBS, Salon, LARB, Brevity, A Public Space, The Boston Review, The Rumpus, and the Best American Nonrequired Reading. In late 2021, she was named a MacDowell Fellow, Kranzberg Arts Fellow, and Tin House Scholar. In 2022, she won a PEN American Grant for Oral History and was named a Hedgebrook Fellow. Find her at deborahtaffa.com and on social media @deborahtaffa. MFA Writers is hosted by Jared McCormack and produced by Jared McCormack and Hanamori Skoblow. New episodes are released every two weeks. You can find more MFA Writers at MFAwriters.com. BE PART OF THE SHOW — Donate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee. — Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. — Submit an episode request. If there's a program you'd like to learn more about, contact us and we'll do our very best to find a guest who can speak to their experience. — Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application. STAY CONNECTED Twitter: @MFAwriterspod Instagram: @MFAwriterspodcast Facebook: MFA Writers Email: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com

In today's episode, Itto and Mekiya Outini open up about the power of storytelling, overcoming personal challenges, and the unique paths that have led them to become advocates for writers worldwide.We begin with Itto and Mekiya telling the unlikely story of how they met, and how their union not only created great happiness for the two of them, but also their business Datekeepers, a platform where emerging writers find their voice and the courage to share their stories.  Itto shares how her early life living on the streets of Morocco due to a heart-breaking family betrayal eventually led her rise as a globally-recognized scholar. Mekiya shares how his life story is one of defying societal norms, and embracing a life that is true to himself. Their shared experiences, filled with resilience and self-love, serve as a beacon for anyone navigating the complexities of finding their own voice.At the heart of our conversation lies a universal reminder: the impact of a supportive community and influential mentors in our own life's stories. We explore the balance between receiving guidance and forging an independent path, and the transformative effect of educators who embolden, rather than diminish our personal power.  MEET ITTO AND MEKIYAItto and Mekiya Outini are the founding editors of The DateKeepers, an international media platform that publishes short-form creative and journalistic nonfiction, spotlights individuals who've overcome extreme adversity to make meaningful contributions to their fields, and creates opportunities for emerging writers. Itto Outini is a Fulbright Scholar, Steinbeck Fellow, and MacDowell Fellow. Her work has appeared in The Chicago Tribune, The Fulbright Chronicle, ABILITY Magazine, and elsewhere, and her life story has been on BBC. She's spoken for Cal Tech University, The United Nations, Verizon Wireless, and The International Trade Centre and holds an MA in journalism and strategic media from the University of Arkansas.Mekiya Outini is a writer, freelance editor, and MacDowell Fellow with an MFA in fiction from the University of Arkansas. His short story “Baptism by Earth” won of the 55th New Millennium Award in Fiction, and his work has appeared in Chautauqua, The Coachella Review, Willow Springs, and elsewhere. The first two chapters of his novel, Ashes, Ashes, have been featured in the West Trade Review.The DateKeepers Website The DateKeepers LinkedSupport the showWant to work with me live, in person? I'll be on the island of St. Maarten for the Island Girl Awakening Retreat where I'll be joining The Traveling Island Girl, Riselle Celestina, for a week of transformative fun, adventure, LUXURY, and healing. If you're ready to say a huge heck yes to living your best life, this will be the experience for you. Apply to be one of the beautiful women to join us at jenliss.com/retreat. ---See the other ways you can work with me at jenliss.com Other ways you can support: Share an episode and tag Jen on Instagram @untetheredjen Follow/subscribe to get updates of new episodes Leave a review! Connect with Jen JenLiss.com @untetheredjen Music created and produced by Matt Bollenbach

Christina Cooke is the author of the debut novel Broughtupsy, available from Catapult. Cooke's writing has previously appeared in The Caribbean Writer, Prairie Schooner, PRISM international, Epiphany: A Literary Journal, and elsewhere. A MacDowell Fellow, Journey Prize winner, and Glenna Luschei Prairie Schooner Award winner, she holds a Master of Arts degree from the University of New Brunswick and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Born in Jamaica, Christina is now a Canadian citizen who lives and writes in New York City. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly literary podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Subscribe to Brad Listi's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Twitter Instagram  TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the first installation of their debut novelists series UPCOMING / UP & COMING, Jason and Brett talk to three new writers about their soon-to-be released books. Christina Cooke (Broughtupsy, Jan 23) talks about how it took 13 years to write and publish her book; Daniel Lefferts (Ways & Means, Feb 6) shares how his novel emerged from a short story he wrote in college; and Rebecca K Reilly (Greta & Valdin, Feb 6) explains the unique publishing process in New Zealand, where her book has been a bestseller for over 3 years. Christina Cooke's writing has appeared in The Caribbean Writer, PRISM International, Prairie Schooner, Epiphany: A Literary Journal, and elsewhere. A MacDowell Fellow, Journey Prize winner, and a Glenna Luschei Prairie Schooner Award winner, she holds a Master of Arts from the University of New Brunswick and a Master of Fine Arts from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Christina was born in Jamaica and is now a Canadian citizen who lives and writes in New York City. Broughtupsy is her debut novel.Daniel Lefferts was born in upstate New York and now lives in Hudson, New York. He holds an MFA from Columbia University and has taught writing at Columbia and Rutgers. Ways and Means is his first novel.Rebecca K Reilly (Ngaati Hine, Ngaati Rehua Ngaatiwai ki Aotea), born 1991, is a Maaori novelist from Waitaakere, New Zealand. She has a BA (hons) in German and European studies from the University of Auckland and an MA from the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington, where she won the Adam Foundation Prize in Creative Writing for 2019. Greta & Valdin is her first novel.**BOOKS!** Check out the list of books discussed on each episode on our Bookshop page:https://bookshop.org/shop/gaysreading | By purchasing books through this Bookshop link, you can support both Gays Reading and an independent bookstore of your choice!Join our Patreon for exclusive bonus content! Purchase your Gays Reading podcast Merch! Follow us on Instagram @gaysreading | @bretts.book.stack | @jasonblitmanWhat are you reading? Send us an email or a voice memo at gaysreading@gmail.com

Eccentric billionaire Rudolph Deutsch wants someone to figure out what (or who's) been haunting the old Belasco mansion, the “Mt Everest of haunted houses.” Apparently the house has something to do with the secret to life after death, so Deutsch enlists a team of potential rivals to get to the bottom of it:  physicist and sometime paranormal investigator Barrett and his wife Ann; mental medium Florence Tanner; and physical medium Ben Fischer, the sole survivor of the last attempt to exorcise the old home. Almost from the jump, something's off – no one trusts each other, science butts heads with pseudoscience, and when the actual haunting comes, no one really wants to discuss it.  No one, that is, except for Florence and Ben, who've seen enough in their time to recognize the dangers that lie within Belasco House.  And by the time the possessions begin, furniture starts shaking, and chandeliers start tumbling, it's too late to turn back.  The team must see this through, and get to the bottom of what's been driving Hell House's off-the-charts psychic energy. Intro, Math Club, Debate Society, Hot for Teacher (spoiler-free): 00:00-30:32Honor Roll and Detention (spoiler-heavy): 30:33-1:04:30Superlatives (spoiler-heavier): 1:04:31-1:20:20 Director John HoughScreenplay Richard Matheson, based on his novel Hell HouseFeaturing Peter Bowles, Roland Culver, Pamela Franklin, Michael Gough, Gayle Hunnicutt, Roddy McDowall, Clive Revill Christopher Shinn is a playwright and screenwriter who lives in New York. Several of his plays have premiered at the Royal Court Theatre: Four, Other People, Where Do We Live (Obie Award), Dying City (Pulitzer Prize finalist) and Now or Later, which was shortlisted for the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Play. His other plays include The Narcissist (Chichester Festival Theatre), Teddy Ferrara (Goodman Theatre and Donmar Warehouse), An Opening in Time (Hartford Stage), Picked (Vineyard Theatre), What Didn't Happen (Playwrights Horizons), On the Mountain (South Coast Rep), The Coming World (Soho Theatre), and Against (Almeida Theatre). His adaptation of Hedda Gabler premiered on Broadway in 2009 and his adaptation of Judgment Day premiered at Park Avenue Armory in 2019 and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Adaptation. His awards and grants include a Guggenheim Fellowship in Playwriting, a grant from the NEA/TCG Residency Program, and the Robert Chesley Award. He was a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard in 2019-2020, a Cullman Fellow at New York Public Library in 2020-2021, and a MacDowell Fellow in 2023. Our theme music is by Sir Cubworth, with embellishments by Edward Elgar.  For more information on this film (including why the Professor chose it, on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Our Blog⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠), the pod, essays from your hosts, and other assorted bric-a-brac, visit our website, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠scareupod.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Please subscribe to this podcast via Apple or Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you like what you hear, please leave us a 5-star rating. Join our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ group. Follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Edgar Kunz is the author of two poetry collections: Fixer, published by Ecco in 2023 and named a New York Times Editors' Choice book, and Tap Out, published by Ecco in 2019. He has been a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, a MacDowell Fellow, and a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. Recent poems appear in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Poetry, APR, and Oxford American. He lives in Baltimore and teaches at Goucher College.

Edgar Kunz is the author of two poetry collections: Fixer, named a New York Times Editors' Choice book, and Tap Out. He has been a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, a MacDowell Fellow, and a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. Recent poems appear in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Poetry, APR, and Oxford American. He lives in Baltimore and teaches at Goucher College. We talked about vulnerability, how Edgar knows when a poem is finished, the influence of Luise Glück, death, divorce, agency, and Ellen Bryant Voigt's poem about smoking. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rooja Mohassessy buzzes into the Hive to talk about her new book, When Your Sky Runs Into Mine. She also reads a Sylvia Plath poem "Black Rook in Rainy Weather." ⁠ Rooja Mohassessy is an Iranian-born poet and educator. She is a MacDowell Fellow and an MFA graduate of Pacific University, Oregon. Her debut collection When Your Sky Runs Into Mine (Feb 2023) was the winner of the 22nd Annual Elixir Poetry Award. Her poems and reviews have appeared in Narrative Magazine, Poet Lore, RHINO Poetry, Southern Humanities Review, CALYX Journal, Ninth Letter, Cream City Review, The Adroit Journal, New Letters, The Florida Review, Poetry Northwest, The Pinch, The Rumpus, The Journal, and elsewhere.

Grace McLean called “electrifying” by The Huffington Post and “phenomenal” by The New York Times, Grace McLean is a multi-hyphenate actor-singer-writer. In addition to performing in the New York theater scene on Broadway and off, Grace also makes time for her acclaimed original music. Stephen Holden of the New York Times says “Ms. McLean's voice is a flexible instrument with unexpected reserves of power...Behind her playful adventurousness lies a well of passion.” Grace is a Writer In Residence at Lincoln Center Theater where her first original musical IN THE GREEN was commissioned and produced, received a 2020 Richard Rodgers Award, and a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Musical. She has had two artistic ambassadorships with the US State Department touring Pakistan (2015) and Russia (2018), and her band performed in both the 2015 and 2016 Lincoln Center American Songbook series. Grace is a Broadway Women's Fund's Woman to Watch (2021), Jonathan Larson Grant recipient (2021), a member of The Civilians R&D Group (2019-2020), MacDowell Fellow (2018) and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts' Emerging Artist (2017). Grace McLean & Them Apples have released 2 EPs, “Make Me Breakfast” and “Natrural Disaster,” and are looking forward to releasing a full length album in early 2024. The IN THE GREEN original cast album is available from Ghostlight Records.   Learn more: www.gracemclean.com https://twitter.com/thatgracemclean https://www.instagram.com/thatgracemclean/ Connect more:  https://www.chonacas.com/podcast/ https://www.instagram.com/shesallovertheplacepodcast/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiechonacas/   Thank you, I hope you enjoyed the episode, please share with one person! Please leave a 5 star & review on Apple Podcasts as it really supports me as an Independent Podcaster :)

Justin Elizabeth Sayre is currently in residency at Joe's Pub at the Public with their new variety show, Assorted Fruit. Sayre also appeared on HBO's The Comeback with Lisa Kudrow. They are NYCLU artist ambassador and a 2023 MacDowell Fellow. Follow on Instagram: justinelizabethsayre C'mon Get Happy: The Making of Summer Stock is now on presale and will be published by the University Press of Mississippi in mid-October. It also contains her iconic number “Get Happy” number and Gene Kelly's all-time personal favorite solo dance number. The Foreword was written by Tony Award-winning dancer and choreographer Savion Glover and authors David Fantle and Tom Johnson have received book jacket endorsements from Lorna Luft, Tommy Tune, Michael Feinstein, Rob Marshall, Susan Stroman, David Shire and Richard Maltby Jr. Preorder on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Cmon-Get-Happy-Making-Summer/dp/1496838394 Debbie Wileman has also become a social media singing sensation during the global pandemic, capturing worldwide attention as a modern-day Judy Garland phenomenon.  Debbie received standing ovations before sold-out audiences in Fort Lauderdale, FL, Orlando, FL, New York City's iconic Carnegie Hall, Provincetown, MA, and Los Angeles, CA. Debbie was born and raised as a working-class Londoner. As the only child of a professional rock musician father and her school teacher mother, she excelled musically and artistically as a young girl.  At 12, she started performing Judy for her nana and an ever-growing world. Following her secondary education, Debbie attended The University of Salford in Salford, Greater Manchester, England, where she completed her performing arts degree. Follow Debbie on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/debbie.saloman

Edgar Kunz is the author of the poetry collections Fixer (Ecco/HarperCollins, 2023) and Tap Out (Ecco/HarperCollins, 2019), a New York Times New & Noteworthy pick. He has been a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, a MacDowell Fellow, a Teaching Fellow at Vanderbilt University, and a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. New poems appear in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, POETRY, American Poetry Review, and Oxford American. He lives in Baltimore and teaches at Goucher College. www.edgarkunz.com Gregory Ariail grew up in Buford, Georgia. In 2019, I thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail. I've earned degrees from Oxford University and the University of Michigan and recently completed my MFA at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. You might love cats as much as me, but you don't love them more. https://www.gregoryariail.com All Music Provided by Alicia Blue: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4suxU7SfC7vp6wMComAlQG?si=HC1MmtMjRdmTSyRuJXNmog Special Thanks goes to: Mercer University Press: www.mupress.org Woodbridge Inn: www.woodbridgeinnjasper.com Autism Speaks: www.autismspeaks.org Mostly Mutts: www.mostlymutts.org The Red Phone Booth: www.redphonebooth.com Liberty Trust Hotel: www.libertytrusthotel.com The host, Clifford Brooks', The Draw of Broken Eyes & Whirling Metaphysics and Athena Departs are available everywhere books are sold. His chapbook, Exiles of Eden, is only available through my website. To find them all, please reach out to him at: cliffordbrooks@southerncollectiveexperience.com Check out his Teachable courses on thriving with autism and creative writing as a profession here: www.brooks-sessions.teachable.com

Tommy Orange is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel There There, a multi-generational, relentlessly paced story about a side of America few of us have ever seen: the lives of urban Native Americans. There There was one of The New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of the Year, and won the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize and the Pen/Hemingway Award. There There was also longlisted for the National Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Orange graduated from the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts, and was a 2014 MacDowell Fellow and a 2016 Writing by Writers Fellow. He is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. He was born and raised in Oakland, California. Interviewer Prof. Nicole Nesberg, Migizi Miigwan (Eagle Feather), is a Designated Faculty member at Santa Fe College in Gainesville, Florida. She has worked as a history professor for the past 20 years with an emphasis on race and gender on Turtle Island. Her dissertation research focused on women and urbanization to Chicago in the 1950s and 60s. Born in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, she is a member of the Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians and descended from the Crooked Tree Odawa. She migrated to Florida in 2005 where she is happily married and raising two boys. Read the Book Check out Tommy's book, There There, in a variety of formats (including a Spanish translation)! --- Sign Up for Library U to hear about the latest Lit Chats and catch them live! — https://jaxpubliclibrary.org/library-u-enrollment Jacksonville Public LibraryWebsite: https://jaxpubliclibrary.org/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jaxlibrary Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JaxLibrary/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaxlibrary/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/jaxpubliclibraryfl Contact Us: jplpromotions@coj.net 

God is dead, as Nietzsche's madman memorably reminded us. So what are we going to do about it? If there is no powerful force out there to guide us and give meaning to our lives, how are we supposed to live? Do we have to come up with meaning and purpose ourselves? Apparently so, and how to pull it off was a major question addressed by the existentialist movement. Skye Cleary turns to Simone de Beauvoir, in particular, for thoughts on how to construct an authentic life. Her recent book is How to Be Authentic: Simone de Beauvoir and the Quest for Fulfillment.Support Mindscape on Patreon.Skye Cleary received a Ph.D. and an MBA from Macquarie University. She is an author and philosopher and also teaches at Columbia University and the City College of New York. Her writing has appeared in The Paris Review, Aeon, The Times Literary Supplement, TED-Ed, and The Los Angeles Review of Books, among other outlets. She won the 2017 New Philosopher Writers' Award and was a 2021 MacDowell Fellow. Web sitePhilPeople profileAmazon author pageTwitterSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Caleb Wheeler Curtis designs playgrounds for his band members when he composes, creating opportunities for improvisation within a structured framework. It's all about space to freely express oneself. This Ann Arbor, Michigan native who now lives in Brooklyn, New York City, has recently released to critical acclaim his fifth album, Heatmap. Caleb and I spent some time talking about this recording and his growth as a musician.  Caleb is the consummate collaborator with a discography that details a journey full of an adventure in music.  Beginning with Walking Distance: Neighborhood in 2015, Caleb's relationships weaved a path rich with partnerships and mentors who provided a foundation for him, that guided him in his writings and arrangements. He is the first one to tell you that getting to the place where he considered himself to be a professional musician was not easy. Caleb firmly believes it requires commitment to your art.  Caleb is fortunate to have Imani Records producer and owner and Grammy nominee Orrin Evans as a mentor, giving him opportunities to stretch as a musician and guidance as a composer and bandleader. Heatmap, produced by Orrin Evans, is a product of such collaborations and mentorships. Caleb played in Evans' band, Captain Black Big Band, performing on his two Grammy nominated recordings. He and Orrin Evans developed a bond that Caleb identifies as critical to his growth as a musician and composer.  Caleb's compositions reflect an approach that provides space for each musician to expand and bring to the experience their own artistry and talent thus giving his compositions a fresh breath for improvising. His approach is strong without being forced; one critic acknowledges. And while his musical spirit has an open willingness for exploration, his musical upbringing with strong mentorship gives it an inherent wisdom.  Caleb Wheeler Curtis was a MacDowell Fellow, an artist's residency program in rural Peterborough, New Hampshire. There, Caleb was given his own space and time to compose, play the piano uninterrupted by the daily forces of urban life. The end-product, 10 originals on which Caleb plays on alto saxophone except for one track on soprano. Heatmap features, of course Curtis on saxophone, Orrin Evans on piano, Eric Revis on bass and Gerald Cleaver on the drums. Caleb and his band can be heard on two tracks played in their entirety on Strictly Jazz Sounds. I asked him to explain his composition style.  His credits as a collaborator, composer and saxophonist (mostly alto) led to recordings from Freebird featuring Jason Moran in 2018. Curtis also teamed up to record Curtis+Garabedian+Sperrazza: New York in 2018 with Vinnie Sperrazza and Noah Garabedian; and Curtis/Carter/Ferber: Doing Nothing Is Hard Business, a project that included Rahsaan Carter and Mark Ferber in 2020. Curtis's discography also includes playing on two Grammy-nominated recordings with the Orrin Evans-led group the Captain Black Big Band: Presence, released in 2018 and The Intangible Between, dropped in 2020. Curtis released two albums for the Orrin Evans-owned record label Imani, Brothers in 2018 and Ain't No Storm in 2021. It doesn't stop there. In 2021 Curtis collaborated to release two recordings, No One Is Anyone, with Noah Garabedian, Vinnie Sperrazza and Orrin Evans and Substrate with Swiss pianist Laurent Nicoud. Caleb earned a music degree from Michigan State University, and later a masters in music from William Paterson University. Since then, he has focused on the New York jazz scene from Brooklyn. 

Donna Spruijt-Metz is a poet, a psychology professor, and a recent MacDowell Fellow. Her first career was as a classical flutist. She lived in the Netherlands for 22 years and translates Dutch poetry to English. Her poetry and translations appear in Copper Nickel, RHINO, Poetry Northwest, the Tahoma Literary Review, the Inflectionist Review, and elsewhere. Her chapbooks are ‘Slippery Surfaces' (Finishing Line Press) and ‘And Haunt the World' (a collaboration with Flower Conroy, Ghost City Press). Her full length ‘General Release from the Beginning of the World' is forthcoming (January 2023, Free Verse Editions). [Author photo credit Alexis Rhone Fancher] Amazon.com: General Release from the Beginning of the World: 9781643173511: Spruijt-Metz, Donna: Books https://www.donnasmetz.com/ https://www.instagram.com/donnasmetz/ https://twitter.com/DSMPoet https://www.facebook.com/Donnasmetz/

Today, Christina Cooke (BROUGHTUPSY, Jan. 2024) talks to us about spending 11 years writing her debut novel, working on it at the Iowa Writers Workshop and MacDowell, the stamina of being a writer, all the “life stuff,” the ego death of going on submission, and more!  Christina Cooke's writing has previously appeared in PRISM international, The Caribbean Writer, Prairie Schooner, Epiphany: A Literary Journal, and elsewhere. A MacDowell Fellow and 2022 Journey Prize winner, she holds a Master of Arts degree from the University of New Brunswick and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Born in Jamaica, Christina is now a Canadian citizen who lives and writes in New York City.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on the podcast, we chat with the collaborators of the World Premiere production, The Tattooed lady, A New Musical on stage at Philadelphia Theatre Company. Here is my interview with Max Vernon and Erin Courtney for The Tattooed Lady, A New Musical.The story of The Tattooed Lady highlights one of sideshow's biggest stars, Ida Gibson, in a moving, fantastical tale that reveals the generational chasms and connections between Ida and her granddaughter Joy. A parade of beguiling characters appear, on a mission to liberate Ida from her self-imposed exile and help Joy find freedom through forgiveness. The musical celebrates the resilience of women whose choices have the power to liberate them.ABOUT THE CREATORSErin Courtney (Book) is a New York based playwright. Her play, A Map of Virtue, was awarded an Obie and was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding New York Theater. Her play I Will Be Gone, premiered at the Humana Festival, Actors Theater of Louisville. She has written two operas with Elizabeth Swados: The Nomad and Kaspar Hauser, both commissioned and produced by The Flea Theater. Her other plays, produced by Clubbed Thumb, include Alice the Magnet, directed by Pam MacKinnon, and Demon Baby, directed by Ken Rus Schmoll. She is an affiliated artist with Clubbed Thumb, a member of the Obie Award winning playwrights collective, 13P, as well as the co-founder of the Brooklyn Writers Space.Max Vernon (Book, Music, Lyrics & Orchestrations) is a musical theatre writer, whose works include The View UpStairs, KPOP (opening on Broadway this November!), The Tattooed Lady, and Show & Tell. They are a three-time Drama Desk nominee, Out100 Honoree, two-time MacDowell Fellow, Dramatist Guild Fellow, and recipient of the Lucille Lortel Award, Richard Rodgers Award, Jonathan Larson Grant, Pew Arts and Culture Grant, and New York Foundation of the Arts Fellowship, among others. They have also written work for Audible, Disney, Virgin Group, and Tyra Banks. Notable concerts include Joe's Pub, the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. They earned an MFA from NYU's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. www.maxvernon.com IG: @frauleinsallybowelsFOR TICKETS AND INFORMATION: https://philadelphiatheatrecompany.org

The Art of Living: Mark Matousek Being alive is a risky business. No matter who you are, where you live, or how much privilege you enjoy, insecurity is the price tag on human existence, with danger, loss, and suffering close at hand even in the best of times. Science is finally catching up to what sages have been saying forever. Thanks to recent breakthroughs in MRI technology, neurologists are now able—for the first time in history—to observe the human brain in the act of feeling. This has revealed a phenomenon known as neuro- plasticity, which in turn has revolutionized how we think about personal change. Mark Matousek is an award-winning author of two memoirs, Sex Death Enlightenment: A True Story (an international bestseller) and The Boy He Left Behind: A Man's Search For His Lost Father, as well as When You're Falling, Dive: Lessons in the Art of Living, Ethical Wisdom: The Search for a Moral Life, and Mother of the Unseen World. A MacDowell Fellow and former editor at Interview Magazine, he has contributed to numerous anthologies and publications, including The New Yorker, O: The Oprah Magazine (contributing editor), Harper's Bazaar, Yoga Journal, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, and The Saturday Evening Post, and is a columnist for Psychology Today. A popular speaker and teacher, he offers courses in creativity and spiritual growth in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Europe, based on his book, Writing To Awaken: A Journey of Truth, Transformation, and Self-Discovery. Matousek is a founding member of V-Men (with Eve Ensler), an organization devoted to ending violence against women and girls, and lives in Springs, New York. www.markmatousek.com Learn more about Simran here: www.iamsimran.com www.1111mag.com/

Rob and Massimo chat with Skye Cleary, author of How to Be Authentic: Simone de Beauvoir and the Quest for Fulfillment. We talk about existentialism, authenticity, bad faith, and all sorts of other ideas relevant for an existential way of life. How to Be Authentic is a lively introduction to Simone de Beauvoir's philosophy of existentialism, as well as an exploration of the successes and failures that Beauvoir and other women have experienced in striving towards authenticity. Skye C. Cleary takes us through some of life's major relationships and milestones: friendship; romantic love; marriage; children; and death, and examines how each offers an opportunity for us to stretch toward authenticity. While many people don't get to choose their path in life―whether because of systemic oppression or the actions of other individuals―Cleary makes a compelling case that Beauvoir's ideas can help us become more conscious of living purposefully, thoughtfully, and with vitality, and she shows us how to do so in responsible ways that invigorate every person's right to become poets of their own lives. Skye C. Cleary, PhD is a philosopher and writer. She teaches at Columbia University, Barnard College, and the City University of New York, and is the author of Existentialism and Romantic Love and co-editor of How to Live a Good Life. Cleary's writing has appeared in The Paris Review, Aeon, The Times Literary Supplement, TED-Ed, and Los Angeles Review of Books, among other outlets. She won the 2017 New Philosopher Writers' Award and was a 2021 MacDowell Fellow. She lives in New York City with her partner and son.

Today we welcome philosopher Skye Cleary. She is a lecturer at Columbia University and the City College of New York. Skye is the author of Existentialism and Romantic Love and co-editor of How to Live a Good Life. Her writing has appeared in The Paris Review, Aeon, Business Insider, TED-Ed, and The Los Angeles Review of Books, among other outlets.In 2021, she was a MacDowell Fellow and In 2017, she won the New Philosopher Writers' Award. Her latest book is called How to Be Authentic. In this episode, I talk to Skye Cleary about Simone de Beauvoir's life and how it has informed her existentialist philosophy. As a feminist during the forties, Simone was passionate about freedom of choice. It's not a surprise then that her definition of authenticity also revolves around self-determination. Authenticity is not about finding a true self, but rather a process of creating who we want to be. We also touch on the topics of gender, power, social justice, narcissism, and fulfillment.Website: skyecleary.comTwitter: @Skye_Cleary Topics01:54 French existentialist philosophy04:05 “One is not born, but rather becomes, woman”09:58 Creating our essence12:46 Transcendancing our impulses18:01 Creative rebellion22:19 Skye's Critique of Simone de Beauvoir24:03 Authenticity is responsible freedom27:33 Power and freedom32:00 Skye's background in philosophy33:15 Intersubjectivity: the foundation of ethical relations34:48 Inauthenticity, social media, narcissism38:37 Windows of freedom, genetics, motherhood41:38 Fulfillment is embracing life 

We're back with another one of our segments, Write State of Mind, where we interview authors about mindset, their processes, and their journey. This week we have Author, Lauren Francis-Sharma! In this episode we discussed: Changing paths Getting back up after rejection Self-rejecting Lone Writing Taking chances and finding success Navigating publishing as a Black writer Writing the second book Trusting the timing for each writing project Writing during a global pandemic Therapy as an essential tool for writers Stealing time to write About Lauren Francis-Sharma: Lauren, a child of Trinidadian immigrants, has written about the Caribbean in both her best-selling novels, 'Til the Well Runs Dry and Book of the Little Axe. Lauren's most recent writings can be found in The Lily, Electric Literature, Barrelhouse, Salon, as well as Marita Golden's anthology, Us Against Alzheimer's: Stories of Family Love and Faith. Lauren holds a degree in English Literature with a minor in African-American Studies from the University of Pennsylvania and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School. Lauren, the Assistant Director of Bread Loaf Writers' Conference at Middlebury College, is a book reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle, a MacDowell Fellow, and the former owner of D.C. Writers Room. Lauren lives in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. with her husband and two children and she is always working on another book. Lauren hangs out on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and her website. Find Lauren's novels in our affiliate Bookshop or via her website. Mentioned in this episode: From our affiliate account with Bookshop.org: ‘Til the Well Runs Dry by Lauren Francis-Sharma Book of the Little Axe by Lauren Francis-Sharma Find out more about Writer's Atelier: www.writersatelier.com The Write Gym, our accountability and group coaching program for writers. Find Writer's Atelier on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Find out more about Racquel Henry and her books: www.racquelhenry.com Audio edited by Ali Nesbit. Music: Wooden Smile by Ziv Moran

On episode 141, we welcome philosopher Skye Cleary to discuss existential authenticity and the philosophy of Simone de Beauvoir, the importance of cultivating inter-subjectivity for healthy relationships, why nihilism is a lazy response to the world, how the argument of human nature is a bad-faith resistance to the obligation of fighting for structural changes, the erroneous belief that our impulsive sides encompass our authentic selves, marriage as a misogynistic construct and thinking about progressive alternatives/ways to improve it, and why Simone de Beauvoir continues to be relevant for social justice and activism. Skye C. Cleary, PhD is a philosopher and writer. She teaches at Columbia University, Barnard College, and the City University of New York, and is the author of Existentialism and Romantic Love and co-editor of How to Live a Good Life. Cleary's writing has appeared in The Paris Review, Aeon, The Times Literary Supplement, TED-Ed, and The Los Angeles Review of Books, among other outlets. She won the 2017 New Philosopher Writers' Award and was a 2021 MacDowell Fellow. Her newest book, available everywhere on August 16, 2022 is called How to Be Authentic: Simone de Beauvoir and the Quest for Fulfillment. Skye Cleary | ► Website | https://skyecleary.com/ ► Twitter |  https://twitter.com/Skye_Cleary ► Instagram |  https://www.instagram.com/skye_cleary ► How to Be Authentic Book Link | https://bit.ly/3QoUXqW Where you can find us: | Seize The Moment Podcast | ► Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/SeizeTheMoment ► Twitter | https://twitter.com/seize_podcast  ► Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/seizethemoment ► TikTok | https://www.tiktok.com/@seizethemomentpodcast ► Patreon | https://www.patreon.com/user?u=32208666

Hybrides Arbeiten ist das Schlagwort der Coronapandemie geworden, nicht nur in Hinblick auf das digitale Homeoffice, sondern auch in Hinblick auf die grundlegende Arbeitsstruktur der Künstler*innen. Die Festen Freien - die freien Tänzer*innen, Schauspieler*innen oder Sänger*innen, welche innerhalb ihrer Gastengagements fest angestellt sind. Doch was bedeutet es als Künstler*in sowohl als freie*r Denker*in und Innovator*in tätig zu werden, uns sich gleichzeitig in den über Jahrhunderte gewachsenen Strukturen der Institutionen zu bewegen? Was macht dies mit dem eigenen künstlerischen Selbstverständnis? Verändert es den Blick oder ist man gar in der Lage mit dem Blick „von außen“ Erneuerung in diese Strukturen zu bringen? Unser heutiger Gast Richard Siegal, Choreograph, Tänzer und Künstlerischer Direktor des „Ballett of Difference“ ist mit dieser freien Kompanie 2016 angetreten, um Alternativen zum institutionalisierten Ballett der Gegenwart zu entwerfen und somit die Institutionen hinter sich zu lassen. Seit der Spielzeit 2019/2020 ist das Schauspiel Köln die künstlerische Heimat des „Ballett of Difference“ und formuliert die künstlerischen Möglichkeiten des Tanzes neu, während es wesentlich das öffentliche Bild des Schauspiels Köln prägt. Über die Herausforderungen und Schwierigkeiten des Hybriden Arbeiten sprechen wir heute mit unserem Gast, Richard Siegal. Der amerikanische Tänzer und Choreograf Richard Siegal sucht, in Zusammenarbeit mit Künstler*innen unterschiedlichster Disziplinen, dem zeitgenössischen Tanz ein neues Gesicht zu geben. Richard Siegal stellte seine innovativen Projekte auf Festivals in der ganzen Welt vor und wurde hierfür mehrfach ausgezeichnet. Siegal ist ein MacDowell Fellow und Ehrenmitglied des Bolschoi Balletts Benoit de la Danse. Er kreierte für das Ballett Frankfurt, das Ballet National de Marseille, die Göteborg Danskompani, das Bayerische Staatsballett, das Hessische Staatsballett, für das Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, für Bodytraffic in Los Angeles und für die São Paulo Dance Company. Seine Choreografien werden getanzt vom Bayerischen Staatsballett II / Junior Company, Ballett Dortmund, Ballett des Theater Bielefeld und von Bodytraffic. 2016 gründet Richard Siegal eine neue Kompanie, die sich als Alternative zum institutionalisierten Ballett der Gegenwart begreift: Richard Siegal / Ballet of Difference. Die Kompanie ist als freie Gruppe organisiert und vereint eine Reihe herausragender Tänzer*innen, die auf völlig unterschiedliche Art und Weise geprägt worden sind und die unterschiedliche Arten von Wissen und unterschiedliche Fähigkeiten erlangt haben. Die Verschiedenheit ist hier Programm: Richard Siegal / Ballet of Difference lotet die Grenzen von dem aus, was in unserer Gesellschaft als normal gilt. Seit der Spielzeit 2019/20 ist das Schauspiel Köln die neue Heimat von Richard Siegal und dem Ballet of Difference und es folgen gleich drei gemeinsame Premieren. WIR: Richard Siegal: http://balletofdifference.com, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Siegal Frauke Meyer: https://www.fraukemeyer.art/ Susanne Petridis: https://www.die-marktfrau.com/ Die jeweiligen Podcastfolgen werden alle zwei Wochen am Freitag ab 15 Uhr hörbar sein. D.h. die nächste und letzte Folge könnt Ihr am dem 15.07.22 hören.

In this episode, writer and editor Matt Ortile talks with Resort founder Catherine LaSota about cooking, video games, and the pressure to monetize anything you are good at. They also talk about how Matt's knowledge of the publishing process via his work as an editor is both a privilege and a challenge in his own writing process. Matt Ortile is the author of the essay collection The Groom Will Keep His Name. He is also the executive editor of Catapult magazine, and writes regularly for Condé Nast Traveler. Previously, he was the founding editor of BuzzFeed Philippines. He is a MacDowell Fellow and has written for Vogue, Self, Out, Into, and BuzzFeed News, among others. He is a graduate of Vassar College, which means he now lives in Brooklyn. Find out more about Matt here: https://www.mattortile.com Purchase The Groom Will Keep His Name here: https://bookshop.org/books/the-groom-will-keep-his-name-and-other-vows-i-ve-made-about-race-resistance-and-romance/9781541762794 Join the Cabana Club and check out our live, Club-exclusive AMA with Matt Ortile on May 5, 2022 (or watch the recording later, as a Cabana Club member!): bit.ly/3fsCVDg Join our free Resort community, full of resources and support for writers, here: https://community.theresortlic.com/ More information about The Resort can be found here: https://www.theresortlic.com/ Cabana Chats is hosted by Resort founder Catherine LaSota. Our podcast editor is Jade Iseri-Ramos, and our music is by Pat Irwin. Special thanks to Resort assistant Nadine Santoro. FULL TRANSCRIPTS for Cabana Chats podcast episodes are available in the free Resort network: https://community.theresortlic.com/ Follow us on social media! @TheResortLIC

This week's guest, Flower Conroy, is an LGBTQ+ writer, NEA and MacDowell Fellow, and former Key West Poet Laureate. Her most recent full-length collection, A Sentimental Hairpin, is available from Tulson Books. Her next collection, Greenest Grass (or You Can't Keep Killing Yourself & Not Expect to Die) just won the 2021 Blue Lynx Prize for Poetry. Her work has appeared in American Poetry Review, New England Review, Prairie Schooner, Michigan Quarterly Review, and elsewhere.In this episode, we discuss Flower's first poems; her love of play in language; her sense of home, family, and place; and her creative collaborations. Flower shares with us how she finds energy, joy, and surprise in her work.

MacDowell Fellow, Chavisa Woods, is the author of four books, including Things To Do When You're Goth in the Country, and 100 Times, (A Memoir of Sexism). Chavisa was the recipient of the Shirley Jackson Award, the Kathy Acker Award in Writing, and Cobalt ‘s Zora Neale Hurston Prize for Fiction. Her work has received praise from the New York Times, The LA Times, Publisher's Weekly, The Stranger,  and many other media outlets. She currently serves as the Executive Director of a nonprofit art and literary organization, A Gathering of the Tribes. Her literary work primarily focuses on the lives of those living in conservative, rural America. She has appeared on The Young Turks, NPR's 1A in and her work had appeared in Tin House, LitHub, Electric Lit, Full Stop, The Brooklyn Rail, The Evergreen Review, New York Quarterly, and many other publications. 

Good day, bilches! We're winding down this stab at a third season with our last, luminous guest, Amaud Jamaul Johnson, with whom we discuss advisorship, allusion, and arrangement. Born and raised in Compton, California, educated at Howard University and Cornell University, AMAUD JAMAUL JOHNSON is the author of three poetry collections, Red Summer, Darktown Follies, and Imperial Liquor (Pitt Poetry Series, 2020). A former Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford, MacDowell Fellow, and Cave Canem Fellow, his honors include the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, the Dorset Prize, and a Pushcart Prize. His work has appeared in Best American Poetry, American Poetry Review, The New York Times Magazine, Kenyon Review, Callaloo, Narrative Magazine, Crazyhorse, Indiana Review, The Southern Review, Harvard Review and elsewhere. His most recent collection was a finalist for the 2021 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2021 UNT Rilke Prize. NEAT GLASS OF THE MACALLAN FINE WHISKY: The Macallan Fine & Vintage Single Malt Scotch Whisky, nothing else.

Friends, lovers, bilches—this episode wraps up our pandemic season of The Poet Salon, and what an episode it is! After chopping it up with Amaud Jamaul Johnson on smoke, speakers, and silences, he brought us Linda Gregg's "The Poet Goes About Her Business." If this is your first encounter with the poem, we're excited for you but also very jealous. Born and raised in Compton, California, educated at Howard University and Cornell University, AMAUD JAMAUL JOHNSON is the author of three poetry collections, Red Summer, Darktown Follies, and Imperial Liquor (Pitt Poetry Series, 2020). A former Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford, MacDowell Fellow, and Cave Canem Fellow, his honors include the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, the Dorset Prize, and a Pushcart Prize. His work has appeared in Best American Poetry, American Poetry Review, The New York Times Magazine, Kenyon Review, Callaloo, Narrative Magazine, Crazyhorse, Indiana Review, The Southern Review, Harvard Review and elsewhere. His most recent collection was a finalist for the 2021 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2021 UNT Rilke Prize. LINDA GREGG was born in New York and raised in Marin County, California. She earned both a BA and an MA from San Francisco State University. Gregg published many several collections of poetry, including All of It Singing: New and Selected Poems (2008), a Los Angeles Times Favorite Book of 2008 and winner of the Poetry Society of America's William Carlos Williams Award; In the Middle Distance (2006); Things and Flesh (1999), finalist for the Kingsley Tufts Award for Poetry; Chosen by the Lion (1995); Sacraments of Desire (1992); Alma (1985); and Too Bright to See (1981). Gregg's lyrical poetry is often admired for its ability to discuss grief, desire, and longing with electrifying craftsmanship and poise.   

Serena Chopra (she/her) is a teacher, writer, dancer, filmmaker, and a visual and performance artist. She has a Ph.D. in Creative Writing from the University of Denver and is a MacDowell Fellow, a Kundiman Fellow, and a Fulbright Scholar. She has two books, This Human (Coconut Books 2013) and Ic (Horse Less Press 2017), as well as two films, Dogana//Chapti (Official Selection at Frameline43, Oregon Documentary Film Festival, and Seattle Queer Film Festival), and Mother Ghosting (2018). She was a featured artist in Harper's Bazaar (India) as well as in the Denver Westword’s “100 Colorado Creatives.” She has recent publications in Sink, Foglifter, Matters of Feminist Practice, and the anthology Alone Together: Love, Grief and Comfort in the Time of COVID-19 (Central Avenue Publishing). In October 2020, Serena co-directed No Place to Go, an artist-made queer haunted house with Kate Speer and Frankie Toan. Serena is Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Seattle University. In this episode, Serena and Brandi talk about the intersections of Queer Memoir + Rhizomes, including: The way Serena isn’t just holding contradictions now but sees contradictions as “the situation of life.” How queer narratives don’t have to be “legible” or easily consumable. In what ways we’ve repressed our visionary intuitions in order to fit inside of institutions. The difference between an “arborescent” version of intelligence, and a “rhizomatic” version of intelligence. Tarot reading as a blueprint of our subconscious and engaging in reading and writing as a form of “bibliomancy.” The refusal to be contained by the capitalist and colonialist economies that create binaries and margins that oppress and harm us. The way you’re “supposed to be an academic” filters into one’s psyche. Growing up in ballet and the struggle to let go,

DAVID HESKA WANBLI WEIDEN chats with Craig Sisterson about WINTER COUNTS, his character Virgil Wounded Horse, the Rosebud Native American Reservation, and why he receives the grand total of $1.29/quarter in rent for his land from cattle farmers.Winter Counts: If you have a problem, if no one else can help, there's one person you can turn to.  Virgil Wounded Horse is the local enforcer on the Rosebud Native American Reservation in South Dakota. When justice is denied by the American legal system or the tribal council, Virgil is hired to deliver his own punishment, the kind that's hard to forget. But when heroin makes its way onto the reservation and finds Virgil's nephew, his vigilantism becomes personal. Enlisting the help of his ex-girlfriend, he sets out to learn where the drugs are coming from, and how to make them stop.Following a lead to Denver, they find that drug cartels are rapidly expanding and forming new and terrifying alliances. And back on the reservation, a new tribal council initiative raises uncomfortable questions about money and power. As Virgil starts to link the pieces together, he must face his own demons and reclaim his Native identity - but being a Native American in the twenty-first century comes at an incredible cost.David Heska Wanbli Weiden, an enrolled citizen of the Sicangu Lakota nation, is the author of the novel Winter Counts, winner of the Anthony, Thriller, Barry, Lefty, Macavity, Spur, and Tillie Olsen Awards. The novel was also nominated for the Edgar Award for Best First Novel, the Shamus and Dashiell Hammett Prize. Weiden was a MacDowell Fellow, a Tin House Scholar, and was awarded the PEN/America Writing for Justice Fellowship. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from the Institute of American Indian Arts, and teaches writing for the MFA program at Regis University. He's Professor of Native American Studies at Metropolitan State University of Denver, and lives in Colorado with his family. Learn more at DavidWeiden.com.Recommends:Martin Cruz SmithStephen Graham JonesLouis Owens Marcie RendonTony HillermanProduced by Junkyard DogMusic courtesy of Southgate and LeighCrime Time Craig Sisterson is the author of SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME: The Pocket Essential Guide to the Crime Fiction, Film & TV of Australia and New Zealand. He founded the Ngaio Marsh Awards in his native New Zealand and is a contributor to several publications and magazines.  

Episode Notes and Links for Episode 79 with Matt Ortile    In this episode, Pete speaks with Matt Ortile about, among other things, his upbringing in Manila and the United States, his relationship with language and identity, his writing and reading journeys, and themes around queer identity, colonization and the colonized, and writing as “catharsis,” as illustrated in his stellar essay collection.    Matt Ortile is the author of the essay collection The Groom Will Keep His Name. The Groom Will Keep His Name is an essay collection about sex, power, and the myths of American society. BuzzFeed called the book “witty and insightful.” Oprah said it's one of many queer books that are “changing the literary landscape in 2020.” Matt is also the managing editor of Catapult magazine, and a contributing writer at Condé Nast Traveler. Previously, he was the founding editor of BuzzFeed Philippines. He is a MacDowell Fellow and has written for Vogue, Self, Out, Into, and BuzzFeed News, among others. He is a graduate of Vassar College, which means he now lives in Brooklyn.   Buy The Groom Will Keep His Name: And Other Vows I've Made About Race, Resistance, and Romance   Matt Ortile's Personal Website   “Why I Ended a Perfectly Fine Relationship” from Buzzfeed, 2014 At about 1:50, Matt answers Pete's questions regarding the Vassar/Simpsons' connections    At about 3:00, Matt talks about growing up with both English and Tagalog (and a little  in his Manila hometown and its connections to Filipino history and the effects of colonialism   At about 5:40, Matt talks about his childhood reading fare, including the importance of the Harry Potter series in both his time in the Philippines and the US, and the shift to reading nonfiction/memoir with David Sedaris and Augusten Burroughs   At about 8:15, Matt talks about the draw of David Sedaris and his work   At about 10:55, Pete asks Matt about “representation” in what he read growing up   At about 13:00, Pete asks Matt about fiction that has thrilled him   At about 14:30, Matt shouts out Mia Alvar and the work she does that resonates with him    At about 16:00, Matt talks about the expectations that come with art that is touted as representing a certain group   At about 19:00, Pete asks Matt if Tagalog specifically has informed his writing in English    At about 22:45, Matt discusses “ ‘Eureka' moments,” especially when his work was recognized through a lot of traffic for a Buzzfeed article connecting his own relationship with a Barthes piece    At about 27:20, Pete wonders what it's like for Matt to “put himself out there” in writing honestly about his life and the people in it, and this leads Matt to talk craft and about writers succeeding when they stop keeping readers at “arms length”    At about 31:30, Matt talks about his mother's beautiful legacy and how he found the balance between their shared lives by asking her to read any page in the book where she was mentioned, pre-publication   At about 34:25, Matt responds to Pete asking about the experience being “cathartic” or emotionally cleansing    At about 40:00, Matt talks about the idea of memory and how his book is a part of him and his mom and others, at a certain time, memorialized    At about 41:15, Matt and Pete discuss the bookend stories of Matt's collection    At about 41:45, Matt explains his personal usage and larger communities' usage of “queer” and its connection to the fluidity of identity    At about 44:15, Matt talks about the “Americana” and decolonization and colonial attitudes of the Philippines   At about 45:15, Matt expands upon his reference to the Romans “weapon[izing] oblivion” and its implications, including “erasure” with regards to American colonization and Filipino history   At about 48:00, Matt talks about questions of identity for him and others who are Filipino or Filipino-American   At about 51:30, Pete references an ignorant comment from one of Matt's teacher regarding his English proficiency, as described in his book   At about 52:00, Matt talks about the concept of kapwa, in the context of community and safety and family   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. 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. I'm excited to share my next episode with Dave Zirin, The Nation's sports editor, is the author of ten books on the politics of sports, most recently, The Kaepernick Effect: Taking a Knee, Changing the World. Named one of UTNE Reader's “50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Our World,” Zirin is a frequent guest on ESPN, MSNBC, and Democracy Now! He also hosts The Nation's Edge of Sports podcast. The episode will be published on September 21. I hope you can tune in.  

Emma Sloley speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about her story “The Cassandras,” which appears in The Common's spring issue. In this conversation, Sloley talks about writing a story based on the fear of men women are taught to have from a young age. She also discusses her decision to include a sort of Greek chorus in the story, apocalyptic isolation in her novel Disaster's Children, and how travel writing has changed in the age of Instagram. Emma Slowley's work has appeared in Catapult, Literary Hub, Yemassee, Joyland, Structo, and The Masters Review Anthology, among many other publications. She is a MacDowell Fellow and Bread Loaf scholar. Her debut novel, Disaster's Children, was published in 2019. Born in Australia, Emma now divides her time between the United States and the city of Mérida, Mexico. Read “The Cassandras” at thecommononline.org/the-cassandras. Read the LitHub essay mentioned in the podcast here. Read more about Emma and her work at emmasloley.net. The Common is a print and online literary magazine publishing stories, essays, and poems that deepen our collective sense of place. On our podcast and in our pages, The Common features established and emerging writers from around the world. Read more and subscribe to the magazine at thecommononline.org, and follow us on Twitter @CommonMag. Emily Everett is managing editor of the magazine and host of the podcast. Her stories appear in the Kenyon Review, Electric Literature, Tin House Online, and Mississippi Review. She holds an MA in literature from Queen Mary University of London, and a BA from Smith College. Say hello on Twitter @Public_Emily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emma Sloley speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about her story “The Cassandras,” which appears in The Common's spring issue. In this conversation, Sloley talks about writing a story based on the fear of men women are taught to have from a young age. She also discusses her decision to include a sort of Greek chorus in the story, apocalyptic isolation in her novel Disaster's Children, and how travel writing has changed in the age of Instagram. Emma Slowley's work has appeared in Catapult, Literary Hub, Yemassee, Joyland, Structo, and The Masters Review Anthology, among many other publications. She is a MacDowell Fellow and Bread Loaf scholar. Her debut novel, Disaster's Children, was published in 2019. Born in Australia, Emma now divides her time between the United States and the city of Mérida, Mexico. Read “The Cassandras” at thecommononline.org/the-cassandras. Read the LitHub essay mentioned in the podcast here. Read more about Emma and her work at emmasloley.net. The Common is a print and online literary magazine publishing stories, essays, and poems that deepen our collective sense of place. On our podcast and in our pages, The Common features established and emerging writers from around the world. Read more and subscribe to the magazine at thecommononline.org, and follow us on Twitter @CommonMag. Emily Everett is managing editor of the magazine and host of the podcast. Her stories appear in the Kenyon Review, Electric Literature, Tin House Online, and Mississippi Review. She holds an MA in literature from Queen Mary University of London, and a BA from Smith College. Say hello on Twitter @Public_Emily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Emma Sloley speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about her story “The Cassandras,” which appears in The Common's spring issue. In this conversation, Sloley talks about writing a story based on the fear of men women are taught to have from a young age. She also discusses her decision to include a sort of Greek chorus in the story, apocalyptic isolation in her novel Disaster's Children, and how travel writing has changed in the age of Instagram. Emma Slowley's work has appeared in Catapult, Literary Hub, Yemassee, Joyland, Structo, and The Masters Review Anthology, among many other publications. She is a MacDowell Fellow and Bread Loaf scholar. Her debut novel, Disaster's Children, was published in 2019. Born in Australia, Emma now divides her time between the United States and the city of Mérida, Mexico. Read “The Cassandras” at thecommononline.org/the-cassandras. Read the LitHub essay mentioned in the podcast here. Read more about Emma and her work at emmasloley.net. The Common is a print and online literary magazine publishing stories, essays, and poems that deepen our collective sense of place. On our podcast and in our pages, The Common features established and emerging writers from around the world. Read more and subscribe to the magazine at thecommononline.org, and follow us on Twitter @CommonMag. Emily Everett is managing editor of the magazine and host of the podcast. Her stories appear in the Kenyon Review, Electric Literature, Tin House Online, and Mississippi Review. She holds an MA in literature from Queen Mary University of London, and a BA from Smith College. Say hello on Twitter @Public_Emily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

Sex Death Enlightenment: Mark Matousek It's hard to know when you're having a breakdown in New York City. The symptoms of living here, succeeding here, and losing your mind here are almost identical." So begins Matousek's 1996 breakout memoir about leaving a fast-track publishing life (working for pop artist Andy Warhol at Interview Magazine) and hitting the dharma trail in search of a meaningful life and spiritual wisdom. Hailed by Publisher's Weekly as "brave, beautiful, and brilliantly observed," Sex Death Enlightenment became an international best seller (published in 10 countries). Like Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat Pray Love and Paul Monette in Borrowed Time, Matousek takes the reader on an insightful, rollicking search for answers to life's deepest questions in this landmark memoir. “An extraordinarily articulate chronicle of how the sickness of our time can spawn spiritual awakening and compassion.” Ram Dass, author of Be Here Now and Grist For the Mill “Brave, beautiful and brilliantly observed.” Publishers Weekly Mark Matousek is an award-winning author of two memoirs, Sex Death Enlightenment: A True Story (an international bestseller) and The Boy He Left Behind: A Man's Search For His Lost Father, as well as When You're Falling, Dive: Lessons in the Art of Living, Ethical Wisdom: The Search for a Moral Life, and Mother of the Unseen World. A MacDowell Fellow and former editor at Interview Magazine, he has contributed to numerous anthologies and publications, including The New Yorker, O: The Oprah Magazine (contributing editor), Harper's Bazaar, Yoga Journal, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, and The Saturday Evening Post, and is a columnist for Psychology Today. A popular speaker and teacher, he offers courses in creativity and spiritual growth in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Europe, based on his book, Writing To Awaken: A Journey of Truth, Transformation, and Self-Discovery. Matousek is a founding member of V-Men (with Eve Ensler), an organization devoted to ending violence against women and girls, and lives in Springs, New York. www.markmatousek.com Learn more about Simran here: www.iamsimran.com www.1111mag.com/

Derrick Velasquez is an artist and exhibition organizer who lives and works in Denver, Colorado. His most recent exhibitions include solo shows at The Herron School of Art and Design, The Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Robischon Gallery, Pentimenti, and The Black Cube Nomadic Museum. He has had recent group exhibitions at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Carvalho Park and Transmitter in New York, and was a 2017 recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant for Painters and Sculptors and a 2019 MacDowell Fellow. Derrick also runs Yes Ma'am Projects, an artist-run gallery in the basement of his Athmar Park home and Friend of a Friend, a project space in the Evans School in the Golden Triangle.

Tania Isaac is a former Pew Fellow and McDowell fellow; a choreographer, dancer, writer who has led international performances while creating models for thoughtful, audience-centered engagement. During that time, she also presented papers, publications and projects on creative process in the arts and its potential applications across multiple fields. A self-described kinesiophile and lover of information—both physical and verbal—she is a dancer because she loves language; a choreographer because she love conversations and an artist because she never run out of questions. She is unrelentingly curious, and her published writing explores the spectrum of contemporary dance ranging from essays/commentary to comparative literary esthetics in performance. In addition to numerous independent projects, Tania has been a member of David Dorfman Dance, Rennie Harris Puremovement, Urban Bushwomen and a collaborator with Emily Johnson/Catalyst. Her company, TaniaIsaacDance has been supported by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, The National Performance Network, and The Independence Foundation & Bates Dance Festival, among others. In addition, her “Living Notebook” – a way of turning a room into a laboratory of investigation and participation in multiple forms- initially developed during a 2006 residency at the Maggie Allesse national Center for Choreography and continues to be an essential element of her creative work. She is a former MANCC Fellow, Pew Fellow and MacDowell Fellow. Tania holds a Bachelor of Science -Dance from UW-Madison, an MFA from Temple University and is currently completing an MPA from University of Pennsylvania's Fels Institute for Government. www.batesdancefestival.org

"I'm curious about how we work. Why we're here. What we're doing to each other, with each other. And I know on a fundamental level that I am so much more capable than I can imagine." Actress & Disability Advocate Marilee Talkington sat down with Helga Davis to talk about her journey towards a life in theater, how she continues to innovate in that space as a low vision actress, and how important it is to be a resource and voice for her community.  Marilee Talkington is a professional actor, writer, director, and filmmaker.  She is also an activist and thought leader in the Disability Justice and Arts movement and is the Founder and Executive Director of Access Acting Academy, which is a 1st-of-its-kind professional actor training studio for blind and low vision actors. She is one of the 1st legally blind women in the United States to earn an M.F.A. in Acting (American Conservatory Theater) and has originated over 80 characters on stage and screen with leading roles at Tony Award winning theaters under the direction of Broadway directors.  She has also recurred and guest starred on multiple television shows on NBC, CBS, CW, and Apple TV+.   Marilee is a MacDowell Fellow, California Center for Cultural Innovation Grantee, Winner of the A.C.T. Carol Channing Trouper Award for dedication and excellence,  a recipient of the 2020 Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award, one of Park Armory's Artist/Activist 100 years / 100 women, and most recently the voice at the Guggenheim museum that describes the approach to the architectural masterpiece.  www.marileetalkington.com | www.accessacting.com | imdb.me/marileetalkington | @anartistwarrior Marilee Talkington is a commissioned artist of Park Avenue Armory's collaborative project 100 Years |100 Women.

It can be easy to forget amongst the glistening skyscrapers, bustling streets and neon lights, but the Pearl River Delta used to be a haven for banditry and piracy. As the authority of Imperial China waned, pirate fleets based out of Guangdong Province roamed the waves, raiding traders and taking captives. One of these captives, and later pirates was Cheng Yat Sou—the “wife of Cheng Yat”—who rose from humble beginnings to eventually bring together the competing pirate fleets into a confederation. She is also the star of Larry Feign's first novel The Flower Boat Girl (Top Floor Books, 2021). Larry starts the story of the pirate queen from her abduction by Cheng Yat, and writes of how she gains a foothold among the pirate fleets. More information—and a sample chapter—can be found on the book's website. Larry and I talk about Cheng Yat Sou, early-nineteenth century China, and pirate fleets. We also talk about how Larry wrote the book, and what he learned from being one of Hong Kong's most prominent cartoonists. Larry Feign is an award-winning artist and writer based in Hong Kong. He is well known for his long-running daily political comic strip “Lily Wong”, which satirized life in Hong Kong before and after the handover to China until he retired the cartoon in 2007. Feign's work has appeared in Time, The Economist, the New York Times, The Atlantic, and other publications around the world. He also directed animated cartoons for Walt Disney Television and Cartoon Network. He is a MacDowell Fellow and three-time recipient of Amnesty International Human Rights Press Awards. You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books, including its review of The Flower Boat Girl. Follow on Facebook or on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia. Nicholas Gordon is an associate editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at @nickrigordon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-review

It can be easy to forget amongst the glistening skyscrapers, bustling streets and neon lights, but the Pearl River Delta used to be a haven for banditry and piracy. As the authority of Imperial China waned, pirate fleets based out of Guangdong Province roamed the waves, raiding traders and taking captives. One of these captives, and later pirates was Cheng Yat Sou—the “wife of Cheng Yat”—who rose from humble beginnings to eventually bring together the competing pirate fleets into a confederation. She is also the star of Larry Feign's first novel The Flower Boat Girl (Top Floor Books, 2021). Larry starts the story of the pirate queen from her abduction by Cheng Yat, and writes of how she gains a foothold among the pirate fleets. More information—and a sample chapter—can be found on the book's website. Larry and I talk about Cheng Yat Sou, early-nineteenth century China, and pirate fleets. We also talk about how Larry wrote the book, and what he learned from being one of Hong Kong's most prominent cartoonists. Larry Feign is an award-winning artist and writer based in Hong Kong. He is well known for his long-running daily political comic strip “Lily Wong”, which satirized life in Hong Kong before and after the handover to China until he retired the cartoon in 2007. Feign's work has appeared in Time, The Economist, the New York Times, The Atlantic, and other publications around the world. He also directed animated cartoons for Walt Disney Television and Cartoon Network. He is a MacDowell Fellow and three-time recipient of Amnesty International Human Rights Press Awards. You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books, including its review of The Flower Boat Girl. Follow on Facebook or on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia. Nicholas Gordon is an associate editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at @nickrigordon. Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/chinese-studies

It can be easy to forget amongst the glistening skyscrapers, bustling streets and neon lights, but the Pearl River Delta used to be a haven for banditry and piracy. As the authority of Imperial China waned, pirate fleets based out of Guangdong Province roamed the waves, raiding traders and taking captives. One of these captives, and later pirates was Cheng Yat Sou—the “wife of Cheng Yat”—who rose from humble beginnings to eventually bring together the competing pirate fleets into a confederation. She is also the star of Larry Feign's first novel The Flower Boat Girl (Top Floor Books, 2021). Larry starts the story of the pirate queen from her abduction by Cheng Yat, and writes of how she gains a foothold among the pirate fleets. More information—and a sample chapter—can be found on the book's website. Larry and I talk about Cheng Yat Sou, early-nineteenth century China, and pirate fleets. We also talk about how Larry wrote the book, and what he learned from being one of Hong Kong's most prominent cartoonists. Larry Feign is an award-winning artist and writer based in Hong Kong. He is well known for his long-running daily political comic strip “Lily Wong”, which satirized life in Hong Kong before and after the handover to China until he retired the cartoon in 2007. Feign's work has appeared in Time, The Economist, the New York Times, The Atlantic, and other publications around the world. He also directed animated cartoons for Walt Disney Television and Cartoon Network. He is a MacDowell Fellow and three-time recipient of Amnesty International Human Rights Press Awards. You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books, including its review of The Flower Boat Girl. Follow on Facebook or on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia. Nicholas Gordon is an associate editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at @nickrigordon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

It can be easy to forget amongst the glistening skyscrapers, bustling streets and neon lights, but the Pearl River Delta used to be a haven for banditry and piracy. As the authority of Imperial China waned, pirate fleets based out of Guangdong Province roamed the waves, raiding traders and taking captives. One of these captives, and later pirates was Cheng Yat Sou—the “wife of Cheng Yat”—who rose from humble beginnings to eventually bring together the competing pirate fleets into a confederation. She is also the star of Larry Feign's first novel The Flower Boat Girl (Top Floor Books, 2021). Larry starts the story of the pirate queen from her abduction by Cheng Yat, and writes of how she gains a foothold among the pirate fleets. More information—and a sample chapter—can be found on the book's website. Larry and I talk about Cheng Yat Sou, early-nineteenth century China, and pirate fleets. We also talk about how Larry wrote the book, and what he learned from being one of Hong Kong's most prominent cartoonists. Larry Feign is an award-winning artist and writer based in Hong Kong. He is well known for his long-running daily political comic strip “Lily Wong”, which satirized life in Hong Kong before and after the handover to China until he retired the cartoon in 2007. Feign's work has appeared in Time, The Economist, the New York Times, The Atlantic, and other publications around the world. He also directed animated cartoons for Walt Disney Television and Cartoon Network. He is a MacDowell Fellow and three-time recipient of Amnesty International Human Rights Press Awards. You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books, including its review of The Flower Boat Girl. Follow on Facebook or on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia. Nicholas Gordon is an associate editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at @nickrigordon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

It can be easy to forget amongst the glistening skyscrapers, bustling streets and neon lights, but the Pearl River Delta used to be a haven for banditry and piracy. As the authority of Imperial China waned, pirate fleets based out of Guangdong Province roamed the waves, raiding traders and taking captives. One of these captives, and later pirates was Cheng Yat Sou—the “wife of Cheng Yat”—who rose from humble beginnings to eventually bring together the competing pirate fleets into a confederation. She is also the star of Larry Feign's first novel The Flower Boat Girl (Top Floor Books, 2021). Larry starts the story of the pirate queen from her abduction by Cheng Yat, and writes of how she gains a foothold among the pirate fleets. More information—and a sample chapter—can be found on the book's website. Larry and I talk about Cheng Yat Sou, early-nineteenth century China, and pirate fleets. We also talk about how Larry wrote the book, and what he learned from being one of Hong Kong's most prominent cartoonists. Larry Feign is an award-winning artist and writer based in Hong Kong. He is well known for his long-running daily political comic strip “Lily Wong”, which satirized life in Hong Kong before and after the handover to China until he retired the cartoon in 2007. Feign's work has appeared in Time, The Economist, the New York Times, The Atlantic, and other publications around the world. He also directed animated cartoons for Walt Disney Television and Cartoon Network. He is a MacDowell Fellow and three-time recipient of Amnesty International Human Rights Press Awards. You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books, including its review of The Flower Boat Girl. Follow on Facebook or on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia. Nicholas Gordon is an associate editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at @nickrigordon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/historical-fiction

On episode 172 of The Quarantine Tapes, Paul Holdengräber is joined by Danielle Spencer. Danielle’s most recent book is Metagnosis: Revelatory Narratives of Health and Identity. Danielle and Paul talk about how her book examines the phenomenon of learning as an adult about a longstanding medical condition.Danielle tells Paul about the inspiration that led her to write this book and explains how the book fits into her field of narrative medicine. They discuss the relationship between medicine and storytelling and how examining that relationship can help to address some of the ongoing issues with the healthcare system. Danielle Spencer is a scholar and writer, author of Metagnosis: Revelatory Narratives of Health and Identity, just released by Oxford University Press. Metagnosis names and explores the experience of learning in adulthood of a longstanding undetected condition, such as mid-life ADHD diagnoses. Sparked by her experience working with David Byrne (who self-diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome; Spencer was Byrne’s Art Director for a decade) and then animated by her own metagnostic experience, the book explores the ways metagnosis subverts customary terms and categories such as disease, disability, etc., and often prompts its own distinctive narrative arc. Drawing upon a wide range of sources—from Aristotle to Blade Runner—the book also situates metagnosis in relation to genetic revelations and the broader discourses concerning identity. Spencer proposes that better understanding metagnosis will not simply aid those directly affected, but will serve as a bellwether for how we will all navigate advancing biomedical and genomic knowledge, and how we may fruitfully interrogate the very notion of identity.  Spencer is the Academic Director of the Columbia University Master of Science in Narrative Medicine Program. Narrative Medicine is a method of fortifying clinical practice with attentiveness to narrative as well as an evolving transdisciplinary field which investigates illness, health, healthcare, and social justice. Her scholarly and creative work appears in diverse outlets, from The Lancet to Ploughshares, and she is a co-author of Perkins-Prize-winning The Principles and Practice of Narrative Medicine (OUP, 2017). Formerly artist/musician David Byrne’s Art Director, Spencer holds a B.A. from Yale University, an M.S. in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. She is a 2019 MacDowell Fellow and 2021 Yaddo Fellow. Spencer lives in New York city.

TW: Violence, Rape, DrugsDavid Heska Wanbli Weiden: a name as poetic as his prose and as his book is necessary for us right now. Listen in as we discuss his earth-shattering debut novel, WINTER COUNTS. We talk about Indigenous rights, decolonization, characterization, and how fiction writing has the potential to change policy.+++David Heska Wanbli Weiden, an enrolled member of the Sicangu Lakota nation, is author of the novel WINTER COUNTS (Ecco/HarperCollins, 2020).  WINTER COUNTS is a New York Times Editors' Choice, and has been selected as an Amazon Best Book of August, Best of the Month by Apple Books, a main selection of the Book of the Month Club, and was an Indie Next Great Reads pick.Weiden is also the author of the children's book SPOTTED TAIL (Reycraft, 2019), a biography of the great Lakota leader and winner of the 2020 Spur Award from the Western Writers of America.  He's published in the New York Times, Shenandoah, Yellow Medicine Review, Transmotion, Criminal Class Review, Tribal College Journal, and other magazines.  He's the fiction editor for Anomaly, journal of international literature and arts, and he teaches creative writing at the Lighthouse Writers Workshop in Denver, the MFA program in Writing and Publishing at Vermont College of Fine Arts, and the low-residency MFA program at Western Colorado University.He received his MFA in Creative Writing from the Institute of American Indian Arts, his law degree from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, and his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. He's an alumnus of VONA, a Tin House Scholar, a MacDowell Fellow, a Ragdale Foundation resident, and received the PEN/America Writing for Justice Fellowship.  He's an active member of the Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, Western Writers of America, and the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers.  He's Professor of Native American Studies and Political Science at Metropolitan State University of Denver, and lives in Colorado with his two sons.His last name, Weiden, is pronounced “Why-den.” Heska Wanbli is pronounced “Heh-ska Wahn-blee.”  His nation, the Sicangu Lakota, is pronounced “See-chon-goo Lah-coat-ah.WebsiteTwitterFacebookInstagramWINTER COUNTS Playlist--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/appSupport this podcast: https://anchor.fm/situationandstory/support Get full access to situation / story at situationstory.substack.com/subscribe

“When I encounter women who are antifeminist, it’s always disorienting to me. I don’t understand how you can be a successful, happy woman right now unless you are a feminist.” - Kara Lee Corthron Kara Lee Corthron is an author, playwright, and TV-writer based in Los Angeles. Her latest book is DAUGHTERS OF JUBILATION. She’s also the author of THE TRUTH OF RIGHT NOW, winner of the Parents’ Choice Gold Award. Her plays including WHAT ARE YOU WORTH?, WELCOME TO FEAR CITY, ALICEGRACEANON, and HOLLY DOWN IN HEAVEN, have been performed across the U.S. She writes for the TV drama-thrillers YOU (Netflix), THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT (HBO-Max), and M. Night Shyamalan's SERVANT (Apple TV+). She’s a multiyear MacDowell Fellow and a resident playwright at New Dramatists. Connect with Kara on her website, Instagram,  or Twitter.   Kara's book recommendation: Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds Also mentioned: Wandering in Strange Lands by Morgan Jerkins The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom Shop all our authors' books and book recommendations on our Bookshop.org page! -- Join the #FBCReadathon October 9-11! Sign up to be eligible for prizes. Check out our Read. Resist. Vote. series featuring progressive woman candidates. We donate 5% of all our sales to a different feminist organization each month. Our October charity is March of Dimes. Get $5 off your Feminist Book Club Box with the code PODCAST at feministbookclub.com/shop. Our October book of the month is THE YEAR OF THE WITCHING by Alexis Henderson, who will be joining us for our discussion!   --   Website: http://www.feministbookclub.com Instagram: @feministbookclubbox Twitter: @fmnstbookclub Facebook: /feministbookclubbox Pinterest: feministbookclub Goodreads: Renee // Feminist Book Club Box and Podcast Email newsletter: http://bit.ly/FBCemailupdates Bookshop.org shop: Feminist Book Club Bookshop -- This podcast is produced on the native land of the Dakota and Ojibwe peoples.   Logo and web design by Shatterboxx  Editing support from Phalin Oliver Original music by @iam.onyxrose

On episode 47 of the podcast I sit down with Lauren Francis-Sharma, the author of the My American Meltingpot Summer Book Club selection, Book of the Little Axe.  Book of the Little Axe takes place at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century and tells the story of Rosa Rendon, a Black Trinidadian woman who flees her island home and finds herself living among the Crow Nation in what is now Bighorn, Montana. She becomes the wife of a Crow chief and raises three mixed-race children with the nation. In addition to Book of the Little Axe, Lauren is the author of the novel, Til the Well Runs Dry, which was awarded the Honor Fiction Prize by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. Lauren is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan Law School. She is also a MacDowell Fellow and the Assistant Director of Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference at Middlebury College. During our conversation, we talk about how Lauren came up with this epic story idea; the real life characters that populate the pages of Book of the Little Axe; why it's important to tell the stories of people of color in a historical context; and how Stephen King inspired Lauren to leave her corporate career and pursue writing! I promise it is an inspiring conversation all around. For full show notes, please visit, My American Meltingpot.com. 

ABOUT SANDRA SANDRA TSING LOH is the author of six books, including THE MADWOMAN IN THE VOLVO: MY YEAR OF RAGING HORMONES (2014, W.W. Norton), which was selected as one of the New York Times’ 100 Most Notable Books. It is based on her Best American Essay 2012 on menopause, originally published in The Atlantic Monthly. The Madwoman in the Volvo has inspired Sandra's new stand-up show, The B**** Is Back: An All-Too Intimate Conversation, running at The Broad Stage in July, 2015, as well as a multi-character play, which will premiere at South Coast Repertory Theatre in January, 2016. SANDRA TSING LOH is the author of the THE MADWOMAN IN THE VOLVO: MY YEAR OF RAGING HORMONES (2014, W.W. Norton), which was selected as one of the New York Times' 100 Most Notable Books. It is based on her Best American Essay 2012 on menopause, originally published in The Atlantic Monthly. Her previous book, MOTHER ON FIRE, was inspired by her hit solo show about Los Angeles public education. During that time, she was named one of the 50 most influential comedians by Variety. Her other solo shows include "Aliens in America" and "Bad Sex With Bud Kemp" (both off-Broadway at Second Stage Theatre), "Sugar Plum Fairy" (Geffen Playhouse, Seattle Rep), and "I Worry" (Kennedy Center, Actor's Theatre of Louisville). Her short story, "My Father's Chinese Wives," won a Pushcart Prize in 1996, and is also featured in the Norton Anthology of Modern Literature. Loh's previous books include A Year in Van Nuys, Aliens in America, Depth Takes a Holiday, and a novel, If You Lived Here, You'd Be Home By Now, which was named by the Los Angeles Times as one of the 100 best fiction books of 1998. She has been a regular commentator on NPR's "Morning Edition," and on PRI's "This American Life" and "Marketplace"; currently, her weekly segment "The Loh Life"" is heard on KPCC. Loh's education includes a BS in physics from the California Institute of Technology, an institution which granted her a Distinguished Alumna Award, its highest honor, and for whom she was the first alumna to give a now-famous commencement speech. Loh's combining of her communication and science skills continue with her syndicated daily minute "The Loh Down on Science," which is heard weekly by 4 million people. Excerpts from her solo piano CD Pianovision has been heard on several NPR shows, and she also scored the music for the 1998 Oscar-winning documentary Breathing Lessons. A Pushcart Prize winner, MacDowell Fellow and three-time National Magazine Award nominee, she is a contributing editor for The Atlantic Monthly and adjunct professor of visual art and science communication at the University of California, Irvine. Sandra's stand-up show, The B**** Is Back: An All-Too Intimate Conversation, ran at The Broad Stage in July, 2015. Her multi-character play based on The Madwoman in the Volvo premiered at South Coast Repertory Theatre (SCR) in January, 2016, and enjoyed subsequent runs at The Pasadena Playhouse and Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Loh workshopped a new piece, "Blue State," at the Ojai Playwrights Conference in August, 2017. A new three-actor version of "Sugar Plum Fairy" will be produced by SCR in December, 2017. Loh is an adjunct associate professor of Drama at UC Irvine, where she also teaches Science Communication.

Thank you for taking the time to listen to our chat with Max. We appreciate you spending your time with us! If you are listening to this on Apple Podcast, we'd love it if you could share your love in a review! Max Vernon (Book, Music & Lyrics) is a 3 time Drama Desk nominee, Out100 Honoree, and recipient of the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical, Richard Rodgers Award, Jonathan Larson Grant, New York Stage and Film's Founders Award, New York Foundation of the Arts Fellowship, and the JFund Award from the Jerome Foundation. They have been a Dramatist Guild Theatre Fellow, MacDowell Fellow, and an artist in residence at Berkeley Rep, Ars Nova, Kimmel Center (viaThe Public Theater), Disney Creative Entertainment, and Rhinebeck Writer’s Retreat, among others. Their musical, The View UpStairs, ran 105 performances Off-Broadway and will have sixteen new productions around the world in 2017-2019; original cast recording on Broadway Records. Their other musical, KPOP, enjoyed a sold-out, extended run at Ars Nova this past October and was the most nominated Off-Broadway show of the 2017-2018 season. Max is also an acclaimed cabaret artist. Notable concert performances include a sold out 6 month residency at Joe’s Pub of the Public Theater (“Existential Life Crisis Lullaby”), Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. www.maxvernon.com Instagram: @frauleinsallybowels Twitter: @maxvernon Want more of Page To Stage?! Follow us on Social! @PageToStage on Instagram and Facebook MARY DINA: Instagram or Twitter BRIAN SEDITA: Instagram or Website BROADWAY PODCAST NETWORK: Website or Instagram #PageToStagePodcast

Gene is newly widowed and haunted by his memories. As he bumbles through long days, he questions his wife Maida’s sudden death, his daughter’s motives, and the enduring and meaningful friendship of best friends Ed and Gayle Donnelly. He tries to resurrect the good memories of the two couples raising children in a New Hampshire town and vacationing together every summer at a lake house owned by the Donnellys. He tried to come to terms about his relationship with his only daughter, Dary, who has chosen to raise a fatherless child, has made her home on the other side of the country, and who challenges Gene’s happy memories of everything that happened in their lives. She even challenges his view of her mother. Moving between Gene’s fraught current life and memories of his childhood, coming of age, courtship, marriage, and career, The Dependents (Back Bay Books, 2019) is a sensitive novel about love, parenthood, friendship, and finding contentment. Katharine Dion is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was awarded the Iowa Arts Fellowship. She is also a MacDowell Fellow and the recipient of a grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation. In her early twenties, Dion founded a nonprofit organization called Peer Health Exchange that (still) trains college students to teach a comprehensive health curriculum in public high schools. And she has spent two summers living in a Zen monastery working as a cook. Dion’s introduction to Buddhism came from living several summers at Tassajara, a monastery in the Ventana Wilderness; she is lay ordained in the Soto Zen lineage and helps people meet the grief of ecological destruction as a Buddhist Ecochaplain. She was born in Oakland and lives in Emeryville, California. If you enjoyed today’s podcast and would like to discuss it further with me and other New Books network listeners, please join us on Shuffle. Shuffle is an ad-free, invite-only network focused on the creativity community. As NBN listeners, you can get special access to conversations with a dynamic community of writers and literary enthusiasts. Sign up by going to www.shuffle.do/NBN/join G.P. Gottlieb is the author of the Whipped and Sipped Mystery Series and a prolific baker of healthful breads and pastries. Please contact her through her website (GPGottlieb.com) if you wish to recommend an author (of a beautifully-written new novel) to interview, to listen to her previous podcast interviews, to read her mystery book reviews, or to check out some of her awesome recipes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gene is newly widowed and haunted by his memories. As he bumbles through long days, he questions his wife Maida’s sudden death, his daughter’s motives, and the enduring and meaningful friendship of best friends Ed and Gayle Donnelly. He tries to resurrect the good memories of the two couples raising children in a New Hampshire town and vacationing together every summer at a lake house owned by the Donnellys. He tried to come to terms about his relationship with his only daughter, Dary, who has chosen to raise a fatherless child, has made her home on the other side of the country, and who challenges Gene’s happy memories of everything that happened in their lives. She even challenges his view of her mother. Moving between Gene’s fraught current life and memories of his childhood, coming of age, courtship, marriage, and career, The Dependents (Back Bay Books, 2019) is a sensitive novel about love, parenthood, friendship, and finding contentment. Katharine Dion is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was awarded the Iowa Arts Fellowship. She is also a MacDowell Fellow and the recipient of a grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation. In her early twenties, Dion founded a nonprofit organization called Peer Health Exchange that (still) trains college students to teach a comprehensive health curriculum in public high schools. And she has spent two summers living in a Zen monastery working as a cook. Dion’s introduction to Buddhism came from living several summers at Tassajara, a monastery in the Ventana Wilderness; she is lay ordained in the Soto Zen lineage and helps people meet the grief of ecological destruction as a Buddhist Ecochaplain. She was born in Oakland and lives in Emeryville, California. If you enjoyed today’s podcast and would like to discuss it further with me and other New Books network listeners, please join us on Shuffle. Shuffle is an ad-free, invite-only network focused on the creativity community. As NBN listeners, you can get special access to conversations with a dynamic community of writers and literary enthusiasts. Sign up by going to www.shuffle.do/NBN/join G.P. Gottlieb is the author of the Whipped and Sipped Mystery Series and a prolific baker of healthful breads and pastries. Please contact her through her website (GPGottlieb.com) if you wish to recommend an author (of a beautifully-written new novel) to interview, to listen to her previous podcast interviews, to read her mystery book reviews, or to check out some of her awesome recipes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Erica Faye Watson: Born and raised in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood, with a BA and MA from Columbia College Chicago, Erica Watson is an actor, stand-up comedian at clubs around the country, and film/television/theater director.  She currently hosts a dating podcast called "Get in The Game" and stars in the short film “BlacKorea”. She has appeared in the Oscar nominated film “Precious,” as well as “ChiRaq,” “Top Five,” and “Side Effects" and “Dirty Laundry.”  Erica's had guest-star roles on Showtime's "The Chi" and Fox's "Empire". She has also been featured on TLC’s,The Dr. Phil Show, The Oxygen Network, The WE Channel, (BET), MSG-TV, The TV Guide Network and is a recurring correspondent for ABC7's “Windy City Live,” and WCIU's “The Jam.” Tina Fakhrid-Deen is a playwright, author, LGBTQ family activist, and professor whose writing and research interests include critical race and feminist theory, hip-hop culture, and urban education. Tina is the author of Let’s Get This Straight: The Ultimate Handbook for Youth with LGBTQ Parents. Her play, Powerless Gods, was produced at Oakton Community College in spring 2018. Powerless Gods was a semi-finalist for the Bay Area Playwriting Festival (2019) and O’Neill Playwriting Conference (2016/2018). Tina’s second play, Dandelions, is being commissioned for Theater on the Lake: In the Works Program. Her third play, Pulled Punches, was developed through the Women’s Theatre Alliance of Chicago in 2019 and the world premiere of Pulled Punches is slated for April 2020 with MPAACT at the Greenhouse Theater. Tina is a VONA, Kimbilio and MacDowell Fellow. Always hosted by Marina Franklin - One Hour Comedy Special: Single Black Female, Trainwreck, Louie Season V, The Jim Gaffigan Show, Conan O'Brien, Stephen Colbert, HBO's Crashing, and The Breaks with Michelle Wolf.  

This week we talk with Vanessa Veselka about the 'quest narrative' and gendered experiences of freedom. "Jack Kerouac never went anywhere. He had cash and he crossed the country—like, he wants a prize??" We talk to her about her popular GQ essay, her novel, and her ideas on class warfare in America. Venessa Veselka has been at various times a teenage runaway, a sex worker, a union organizer, and a student of paleontology. Her work appears in Salon, GQ, Bitch Magazine, The Atlantic, Tin House, Zyzzyva, and Best American Essays. Her novel Zazen won the 2012 PEN/Bingham Prize for fiction, and in 2013 she was chosen as a MacDowell Fellow. BITCHCONOCLAST is a mother-daughter podcast about sex, feminism, & power. In season one, we interview Pacific-Northwest authors Nicole Hardy, Claire Dederer, Elissa Washuta, Vanessa Veselka, Karen Karbo, and Suzanne Morrison about their work and the state of the patriarchy. Producers: Sonya Lea & Dylan Bandy Content editor: Dylan Bandy Sound editor: Nora Knight Illustration & Logo: Amy Mizrahi Graphics: Nicole Geslani & Bex Karnofski Music: Dylan Bandy, Adam Cohen-Leadholm, & Frankie Mars Gunner

Tommy Orange is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma and is a recent graduate from the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. He is a 2014 MacDowell Fellow and 2016 Writing by Writers Fellow. His first novel "There There" is being hailed by The New York Times as “an energetic revelation of a corner of American life.” Orange was born and raised in Oakland, California, and currently lives in Angels Camp, California.

Erin M. Riley is a visual artist who lives and works in Brooklyn and received a MFA from Tyler School of Art and BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Erin’s work has been exhibited at Vancouver Art Gallery, Hashimoto Contemporary, Dovecot Gallery, Freize London and many others. Erin is represented by P.P.O.W. Gallery, and Erin’s first solo exhibition with the gallery, Used Tape, runs through June 30. Erin is also a two time MacDowell Fellow, a past resident at Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, the Vermont Studio Center, the McColl Center for Visual Art, VCCA and others. Erin’s work has been published in magazines such as Cultured magazine, American Craft, Wall Street Journal, and New American Painting. Brian met Erin at the studio where they talked about punks, straight edge, Wawa, and looms. And much more. Sound & Vision is brought to you by Charter Coffeehouse located on Graham Avenue in East Williamsburg. Find out more at www.chartercoffee.com or follow them on Instagram at @charter_bk and check out their soon to be released collaborative coffee blend with Middle State Coffee roasters, coming soon. Sound & Vision is also sponsored by Kensington Stretchers & Panels. Check them out at kensingtonpanels.com or email them at info@kensingtonpanels.com. You can also see some of their work on Instagram @kensingtonpanels

On today's episode I talk to Cecil Castellucci. Based in Los Angeles, Cecil is the author of books and graphic novels for young adults including Boy Proof, The Plain Janes, Soupy Leaves Home, The Year of the Beasts, Tin Star, and the Eisner nominated Odd Duck. In 2015, she co-authored Moving Target: A Princess Leia Adventure, and currently is writing Shade, The Changing Woman (formerly Shade, The Changing Girl), an ongoing comic on Gerard Way’s Young Animal imprint at DC Comics. Cecil's short stories and short comics have been published in Strange Horizons, Tor.com, Womanthology, Star Trek: Waypoint, among others, and she is the Children’s Correspondence Coordinator for The Rumpus, a two-time MacDowell Fellow and the founding YA Editor at the LA Review of Books. Her latest book, Don’t Cosplay With My Heart, is out now! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

Joy KMT is founder of the Tabernacle of Immaculate Perception, a performing and healing arts group for women of color. She is also co-founder of Ujamaa Collective, an organization dedicated to economic justice for women of African descent. Joy is a healer, artist, activist, lover and mother, and is a Macdowell Fellow and recipient of the Heinz Fellowship. She spoke with us about the ongoing challenges of healing race relations in Pittsburgh and across the country. Find her writing at www.joykmt.com. After the show remember to follow the discussion on Twitter (@BroadCastPGH) Facebook (@The Broadcast_PGH) Also, check out the Broadcast Podcast website and sorgatronmedia.com!

Soupy Leaves Home (Dark Horse Books) Two misfits with no place to call home take a train-hopping journey from the cold heartbreak of their Eastern homes to the sunny promise of California in this Depression-era coming-of- age tale. When Pearl runs away from her abusive father, she has nowhere to go—until she stumbles upon a disguise that gives her the key to a new identity. Reborn as a boy named Soupy, she hitches her star to Ramshackle, a hobo who takes her under his wing.  Ramshackle’s kindness and protection go a long way toward helping Soupy heal from her difficult past. But he has his own demons to wrestle with, and he’ll need Soupy just as much as she needs him. Praise for Soupy Leaves Home: “Soupy Leaves Home tells the story of a time no longer familiar to us—a time of living the rails and simmering Mulligan Soup, a time of chosen names and secret languages—yet a tale that anyone with a longing heart and a restless spirit can relate to. It transports you magically to a place long gone, but its tale of poverty and survival are still as relevant as they ever were—the characters may be penniless, but they are so emotionally wealthy that this book leaves you filled with warmth, hope, and love.”—Gerard Way “Castellucci’s heartfelt odyssey is a reckoning with death and identity on the tracks, brought to life by Pimienta’s patient, ever-evolving use of color. Soupy Leaves  Home is for all restless souls hungry to start again.”—Nate Powell (March, Swallow Me Whole) “A charming and optimistic slice of Americana.”—Hope Larson (Wrinkle in Time, Batgirl) "I love Cecil Castellucci, she is crazy and cool and full of energy and heart, and so is all of her work. And Soupy Leaves Home may be one of her finest and most effecting works yet!”—Jeff Lemire “Soupy's journey comes alive through richly color-saturated, usually monochromatic panels that orient readers to a bygone era. Castellucci has created a strong heroine who both defies conventionality and embodies empowerment; as her transformative journey nears its denouement, she makes a resolute decision: 'I have to go and face my things or else I'll never be free' a message still highly relevant to today's world. A compelling graphic offering that explores relevant gender roles and self-identity through a historical lens.”—Kirkus Reviews “A well-researched and richly illustrated runaway tale that will appeal to fans of escapist fiction and thoughtful readers.”—Anna Murphy, Berkeley Carroll School, Brooklyn (School Library Journal Reviews) Cecil Castellucci is the author of books and graphic novels for young adults including Boy Proof, The Plain Janes, First Day on Earth, The Year of the Beasts, Tin Star, Stone in the Sky, and the Eisner-nominated Odd Duck. In 2015 she coauthored Moving Target: A Princess Leia Adventure, and in 2016 she worked on Shade, the Changing Girl, an ongoing comic for Gerard Way’s Young Animal imprint at DC Comics. Her picture book Grandma’s Gloves won the California Book Awards Gold Medal. Her short stories have been published in Strange Horizons, YARN, Tor.com, and various anthologies, including Teeth, After, and Interfictions 2. She is the children’s correspondence coordinator for The Rumpus, a two-time MacDowell Fellow, and the founding YA editor at the Los Angeles Review of Books. She lives in Los Angeles. Jose Pimienta grew up in Mexicali, Mexico, watching a lot of cartoons and listening to as much music as possible. After finishing high school, he studied visual storytelling in Georgia, where he made friends and drank a lot of coffee. Eventually, he headed back to Southern California, where he currently resides. He draws on a regular basis and still listens to as much music as he can. He also enjoys recreational walks and whistling. Sometimes he goes by “Joe.”

Is God Is, Brief Chronicle (Books 6-8) (3 Hole Press) 3 Hole Press is a small press bringing new audiences to new plays in printed formats. To celebrate the publications of its two newest books, 3 Hole Press presents short readings from each play, followed by a conversation with the authors. Winner of the 2016 Relentless Award from the American Playwriting Foundation, Aleshea Harris’ Is God Is is a classic revenge tale about two sisters that blends tragedy, typography, the Spaghetti Western, hip-hop and Afropunk. In this necessary new work, emotions are laid bare through gaps in language and characters are a window into the canon as well as our own broken times.  In Brief Chronicle (Books 6–8), Alexander Borinsky delivers a quietly heartbreaking new play that grounds epic themes—unabated longing, violence and imperialism, and the bond between mother and son—in the small ways we hurt and love one another and decide where to go on vacation. Praise for IS GOD IS A rigorous new work that unearths our deepest fears about humanity and who we think we are in relation to ourselves and the divine.—Dawn Lundy Martin Family, as the old tragedians knew, is our first country. Therefore, it’s the earth from which we forge our first weapons, the fields of our first wars, the very turf over which we fight. With Is God Is, Aleshea Harris audaciously scours tragedy down with the rough edge of a rock. To read this merciless play is to get blood in your eye — and in Harris’ sure grip, you’ll recall that blood washes and stains, can run hot or cold, means both violence and family. —Douglas Kearney Praise for BRIEF CHRONICLE, BOOKS 6-8 Brief Chronicle, Books 6-8 is a remarkable creature of our shattered and shuttered time. Borinsky’s theater examines everything that it encounters—including the various artifices of theater itself, i.e. character, costumes, boxes, supposed emotions (real or imagined), action as it would have its way, place/s, and all the supposed ends and means of the theater making apparatus—with a scrupulous but loving attentiveness. There is no one quite like him writing and making theater today.—Mac Wellman In this big, small play, people learn who they are as they say things, punctuation makes gaps where lonely spirits and dances live, and stuff gets sticky between tender, selfish hearts. This is a battle cry for doing the daily work of becoming better in America.—Jennie Liu If the world feels a little unknowable after reading this play, if you feel unknowable to yourself, how do you talk about that, how do you narrate what it was like? Still, I will tell you what I thought about when I finished Alexander Borinsky’s Brief Chronicle, Books 6-8, though it changed when I read it again, and it may be different for you too. Intimacy. The many ways (sometimes strange or uncomfortable) in which it’s possible to know another person. What it means to appear. What it means to live.—Amina Cain Alexander Borinsky is a playwright, born in Baltimore in 1986. Aleshea Harris is a playwright, poet and educator who received an MFA from California Institute of the Arts. Her work has been presented at the Costume Shop at American Conservatory Theater, Playfest at Orlando Shakespeare Theater, freeFall Theatre Company, VOXfest at Dartmouth, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice, La Comédie de Saint-Étienne- National Drama Center in France, the Skirball Center, The Theatre @ Boston Court, REDCAT and in the 2015 anthology, The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop. Harris is a MacDowell Fellow and winner of the 2016 Relentless Award from the American Playwriting Foundation for Is God Is.

Olivia Laing is a widely acclaimed writer and critic. Her work appears in numerous publications, including the Guardian, Observer, New Statesman, Frieze and New York Times. She's a Yaddo and MacDowell Fellow and was 2014 Eccles Writer in Residence at the British Library. Her first book, To the River, was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize and the Dolman Travel Book of the Year. The Trip to Echo Spring was shortlisted for the 2013 Costa Biography Award and the 2014 Gordon Burn Prize. Her latest book The Lonely City has been shortlisted for the 2016 Gordon Burn Prize. Joshua Jelly-Schapiro is a geographer and writer whose work has appeared in the New York Review of Books, New York, Harper's, the Believer, Artforum, and the Nation, among many other publications. Educated at Yale and Berkeley, he is the co-editor, with Rebecca Solnit, of Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas, and a visiting scholar at New York University's Institute for Public Knowledge. He is the author of... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Olivia Laing‘s first book, To the River, was a book of the year in the Evening Standard, Independent and Financial Times and was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize and the Dolman Travel Book of the Year. Olivia is the former Deputy Books Editor of the Observer and writes for a variety of publications, including the Observer, New Statesman, Guardian and Times Literary Supplement. She’s a 2011 MacDowell Fellow, and has received awards from the Arts Council and the Authors’ Foundation. Olivia ‘s latest book is The Trip to Echo Spring: On Writers and Drinking. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens Moving Target: A Princess Leia Adventure (Disney Lucasfilm Press) Join us today for a special Star Wars celebration! Show off your best Wookie roar! Compete in Star Wars trivia! And much much more! Costumes are encouraged! Princess Leia returns for an all-new adventure in this thrilling upper middle grade novel. Set between Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi, the story follows the warrior princess as she leads a ragtag group of rebels on a dangerous mission against the evil Galactic Empire. Hidden in the story are also hints and clues about the upcoming film Star Wars: The Force Awakens, making this a must-listen for fans old and new!Cecil Castellucci is the author of books and graphic novels for young adults including Boy Proof, The Plain Janes, First Day on Earth, The Year of the Beasts, Tin Star, Stone in the Sky and the Eisner nominated Odd Duck. Her picture book,Grandma’s Gloves, won the California Book Award Gold Medal. Her short stories have been published in Strange Horizons, YARN, Tor.com, and various anthologies including, Teeth, After and Interfictions 2.  She is the Children’s Correspondence Coordinator for The Rumpus, a two time Macdowell Fellow and the founding YA Editor at the LA Review of Books. She lives in Los Angeles.

ODD DUCK (First Second) Prolific young adult author and longtime friend of Skylight Books Cecil Castellucci is BACK with a brand new graphic novel picture book for children and the young at heart.  Illustrated by the wonderful Sara Varon! (Robot Dreams) Theodora is a perfectly normal duck. She may swim with a teacup balanced on her head and stay north when the rest of the ducks fly south for the winter, but there's nothing so odd about that. Chad, on the other hand, is one strange bird. Theodora quite likes him, but she can't overlook his odd habits. It's a good thing Chad has a normal friend like Theodora to set a good example for him. But who exactly is the odd duck here? Theodora may not like the answer. Sara Varon ("Robot Dreams") teams up with Cecil Castellucci ("Grandma's Gloves") for a gorgeous, funny, and heartwarming examination of the perils and pleasures of friendship. Advanced praise for ODD DUCK: "Fresh and funny."--New York Times "Varon's gentle art and Castellucci's nuanced writing combine in a sweet, quiet tale that celebrates the joys of being unique." -- Booklist "This clever celebration of individuality delights." -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review "A lively friendship story that shows it's more fun to be different than "normal," and most fun of all to be different with a buddy." -- The Horn Book Cecil Castellucci is the author of books and graphic novels for young adults including Boy Proof, The Plain Janes, First Day on Earth, The Year of the Beasts and Odd Duck. Her picture book, Grandma's Gloves, won the California Book Award Gold Medal. Her short stories have been published in Strange Horizons, YARN, Tor.com, and various anthologies including, Teeth, After and Interfictions 2. She is the YA editor of the Los Angeles Review of Books, Children's Correspondence Coordinator for The Rumpus and a two time Macdowell Fellow. She lives in Los Angeles. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS MAY 25, 2013. COPIES OF THE BOOK FROM THIS EVENT CAN BE PURCHASED HERE: http://www.skylightbooks.com/book/9781596435575