Podcasts about michigan quarterly review

Poets are known for considering form in their writing, but form is also critical in prose. In fact, for Tyler R. Moore, form tells us the most about the story. “It's the structure, scaffolding, bones, and architecture.” In this episode, Tyler tells Jared about approaching each story with a different structure, including his recent piece told exclusively through voicemails. Plus, Tyler discusses how being a queer writer from a pseudo-rural Midwestern town shapes his work, finding community across genres and faculty in his MFA program, and what he has learned from his editorial experience at Ninth Letter, like the do's and don'ts (mostly don'ts) of a cover letter.Tyler R. Moore is a fiction writer from Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin and is currently in his second year in the MFA program at the University of Illinois. He is the winner of the Hobart L. and Mary K. Peer Fiction Prize. He also holds the titles of current Associate Managing Editor and Associate Creative Non-fiction Editor for Ninth Letter. His work is published or forthcoming in Michigan Quarterly Review and elsewhere. Find him on Instagram @tyler_rmoore and at his website, tylerrmoore.com.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 SHOWDonate 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 CONNECTEDTwitter: @MFAwriterspodInstagram: @MFAwriterspodcastFacebook: MFA WritersEmail: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com

In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host Andrew Thomas speaks with AJ Romriell on his debut memoir Wolf Act (University of Wisconsin Press, 2025).Wolf Act is a “memoir in essays,” and these essays take on a variety of forms. The work is divided into three different Acts, and each act is made up of chapters that are both interlinked but can also stand on their own as well. While the majority of the prose is narrative nonfiction, there are a number of chapters that include lengthy lists, definition entries like you would find in a dictionary, as well as passages that mirror a kind of Mormon liturgy and educational upbringing.As the title suggests, wolves are a central metaphor throughout the work, and Romriell seamlessly weaves in references to wolves from mythology, fables, fairy tales, and religious beliefs as a way of processing his exit from the Mormon faith and his intentional turn towards self-love and joy.AJ Romriell is a storyteller, photographer, and educator. His memoir Wolf Act is about his experience growing up queer and neurodivergent in the Mormon religion; it earned first prize in the Utah Original Writing Competition and was a finalist for the Writers' League of Texas Manuscript Contest. He is a 2025 Pushcart nominee, and his essays, stories, and poems have been featured in Electric Literature, The Missouri Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Black Warrior Review, Brevity, New Delta Review, and elsewhere. He has been the recipient of the Vandewater Prize in Poetry, the Kenneth W. Brewer Creative Writing Award, and the Ralph Jennings Smith Creative Writing Endowment, and his work has been shortlisted for Ploughshares' Emerging Writer's Contest, CRAFT's Hybrid Writing Contest, and the Black Warrior Review and New Ohio Review contests for creative nonfiction.

Gloria L. Huang is a freelance writer whose fiction has appeared in literary journals including Michigan Quarterly Review, The Threepenny Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, Witness Magazine, Massachusetts Review, Pleiades, Southern Humanities Review, Fiction Magazine, North American Review, Arts & Letters, Washington Square Review, The Chattahoochee Review, Gargoyle Magazine, Sycamore Review, and The Antigonish Review. Her debut novel, KAYA OF THE OCEAN has been selected as a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection, American Booksellers Association Indies Introduce selection, and Indie Next selection. It is just out from Penguin Random House. Listen in to this episode of The Qwerty Podcast, as she and host Marion Roach Smith discuss the art and work of being a contemporary freelance writer. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know. To learn more, join The Memoir Project free newsletter list and keep up to date on all our free webinars and instructive posts and online classes in how to write memoir, as well as our talented, available memoir editors and memoir coaches, podcast guests and more.

A note about the work “The Florist” from Laurie Blauner for the Michigan Quarterly Review's Winter 2025 Issue: This is a longer poem than I had previously written. It's part of a new poetry manuscript and ends the section titled “An Occupation” which includes many different jobs. I had noticed several florist shops in Seattle and imagined working in one. When I wrote the poem it just kept continuing, encompassing more and more. 

A note about the work “Ditch and Drain, Fill and Build” from Amy Benson for the Michigan Quarterly Review's Winter 2025 Issue: I've been working on a manuscript about rising seas and the myths about floods that have been told in the past, are being told now, and might be told in the future. I got interested in the relationship between land and water and realized that I knew very little about the “ground” I was standing on in Manhattan, my home for fifteen years. I started researching the history of the land and how it has hardened and expanded over the centuries, and how the fresh water has been drained off, poisoned, and exiled to sewage pipes below ground. Following the water reveals the colonial and capitalist transformation of the island: what starts with foot long oysters in the pre-contact waters around Mannahatta ends with minuscule oysters trying to attach to new human-made reefs in New York Harbor made of waste metal and oyster shells salvaged from restaurants. 

Notes and Links to Annell Lopez's Work          Annell López is the winner of the Louise Meriwether First Book Prize and the author of the short story collection I'LL GIVE YOU A REASON from the Feminist Press. A Peter Taylor Fellow at the Kenyon Review Writers Workshops, her work has also received support from Tin House and has appeared in Guernica, American Short Fiction, Michigan Quarterly Review, Brooklyn Rail, The Common, Refinery29 and elsewhere. López received her MFA from the University of New Orleans. She is working on a novel. Buy I'll Give You a Reason   Annell Lopez's Instagram   For The Rumpus: “There's Always a Little Light, a Glimmer of Hope: A Conversation with Annell López” At about 2:05, Annell talks about her early relationship with bilingualism,  At about 4:50, Annell shouts ut the “great place” that is Newark, NJ, and recounts early memories after her immigration  At about 6:25, Annell talks about how learning English helped her develop her already burgeoning writing ability  At about 8:25, Annell highlights Garcia Marquez's work in Spanish  At about 9:35, Annell lists books and writers that were formative and transformative for her At about 13:25, Deesha Philyaw, Carlos Maurice Ruffin, Danielle Evans, and Chris Stuck, are referenced as inspiring contemporary writers At about 14:40, Annell talks about seeds for her short story collection and its makeup At about 16:10, the two discuss the collection's first story and the title character's anxiety around possible deportation   At about 19:05, Annell reflects on the dynamics of older sibling and young sibling and mother-daughter relationships, as evidenced in the “Dark Vader” At about 20:30, Annell responds to Pete's questions about colorism as shown in some of her stories  At about 22:35, from “Dark Vader,” a “problematic” Mateo is discussed, along with power dynamics, and Vanessa's reluctance to pass her GED  At about 27:00, Annell talks about a character's unnamed bipolar condition, and his son's motivations in being angry towards his father  At about 30:30, Pete asks about online news madness as referenced in the story collection   At about 32:35, Pete links two stories and the two talk about gentrification and its treatment in the collection, and Pete is complimentary of Annell's plot structure and what is “left unsaid” At about 34:35, “Love gone stale” as a theme of the book is lauded and discussed At about 37:00, Grief and depression and the bird and beautiful “Bear Hunting Season” are discussed At about 41:30, Annell talks about how her teaching did and did not inform the treatment of teachers in her collection  At about 44:30, Trauma in its many forms in the collection is discussed  At about 45:45, The two explore the title story and its focus on emotional response At about 47:50, Pete highlights a story that focuses on objectification and racism and Annell's apt second-person usage and diction; she focuses on the story's universality and realism  At about 50:05, “The Other Carmen” is explored, including ideas of body shaming, body positivity  At about 52:40, Annell explains some “Easter eggs” and “crossover characters” and Pete is complimentary of story endings At about 53:40, Pete asks Annell about the importance of staged photoshoots in a story in the collection At about 55:55, Annell talks about the importance of titles after Pete cites her prowess with same At about 57:45, Pete fanboys about the collection's last story At about 59:30, Annell responds to Pete's question about significance of the collection  At about 1:00:45, Annell gives social media and other contact 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 Pete on IG, where he is @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where he is @chillsatwillpo1. You can watch other episodes on YouTube-watch and subscribe to The Chills at Will Podcast Channel. Please subscribe to both the YouTube Channel and the podcast while you're checking out this episode.       Pete is very excited to have 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. His latest conversation, with Episode 265 guest Carvell Wallace, is up on the website. 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 Pete's one-man show, his DIY podcast and his extensive reading, research, editing, and promoting to keep this independent podcast pumping out high-quality content! This month's Patreon bonus episode will feature an exploration of the wonderful poetry of Khalil Gibran. I have added a $1 a month tier for “Well-Wishers” and Cheerleaders of the Show.    This is a passion project of Pete's, a DIY operation, and he'd love for your help in promoting what he's 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 275 with Deborah Jackson-Taffa, whose 2024 memoir Whiskey Tender was a finalist for the 2024 National Book Award for Nonfiction; earned a MFA in nonfiction writing from the Univ of IA; director of the MFA creative writing program at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM     The episode airs on March 11.

A note about the work “The Ant and the Grasshopper” from Hema Padhu for the Michigan Quarterly Review's Winter 2025 Issue: One of my favorite short stories is Trevor William's A Choice of Butchers, and to some extent, his story inspired me to write this one. I'm drawn to children's perspectives. I think adults don't give them enough credit for what they see and understand. A child's perspective, however, is limited, so I wanted to take this story into Divya's adulthood to give the narrator some retrospective understanding of her mother's decision. I love short stories that work with time. It can give a story an expansive, novelistic feel. I wanted to play with time here to trace the life trajectory of these two very different women. The struggles of one generation inevitably echo in the choices made by the next. In both Divya and Selvi's lives, some choices were made consciously, some they had no control over, but throughout the story, both stay true to their nature. I did not want a big epiphany ending. Life rarely works that way.

Notes and Links to Raúl Perez's Work   Raul Pérez is an Associate Professor of Sociology at University of La Verne. He is also the author of The Souls of White Jokes: How Racist Humor Fuels White Supremacy (Stanford University Press, 2022).    Buy The Souls of White Jokes   Raul Perez's University of LaVerne Website   Book Review from Oxford Review: The Souls of White Jokes     At about 1:50, Raúl talks about his early language and reading journeys At about 5:15, Raúl notes the greatness and importance and multi-generational pull of LAUSD's coffee cake for the Perez family At about 6:40, Raúl details his high school academic journey and some early inspiring reads-shout out, Mr. Taylor!  At about 9:05, Raúl talks about how college social scene readings and class discussions and formative and transformative professors changed his mindset  At about 12:45, Raúl shouts out Netflix's Mo as a really “engaging…springboard for discussion” At about 16:45, Raúl responds to Pete's questions about how humor and its study made its way into his reading and scholarship At about 23:00, Raúl talks about seeds for his writing about humor and race and graduate school goals At about 24:45, Raúl responds to Pete's question about being able to watch comedy without analyzing it At about 25:50, Raúl recounts stories of his experience taking an ethnography class of humor/standup comedy, including the ways in which race and racism affects standup comedy   At about 27:50, Pete asks Raúl what he might do if he had a few minutes to do standup, and Raúl talks about racialized humor foisted upon him and others in a previous standup class At about 32:00, Raúl reflects on comedians who successfully put in the work and “exercis[e] the funny bone” and “find the funny in everything” At about 33:50, The two reflect on Dave Chappelle's work and he and Bill Burr and others and how they deal with difficult/traumatic “material” At about 38:00, Raúl and Pete talk about terminology n hs book and Raúl expands on his choice to avoid using the infamous hateful epithet  At about 40:50, Raúl talks about racism “behind-the-scenes” among police officers, sometimes with officers of color targeting Black officers At about 42:15, Raúl talks about Latinos and Mexicans and conversations about anti-Blackness and Afro-Latinos role in these discussions  At about 44:35, Raúl talks about “cancelled” humor and skits on Saturday Night Live, including a legendary skit with Richard Pryor and Chevy Chase, and a pendulum effect with racial and racist humor At about 49:00, Raúl segues into talking about Tom Metzger and WAR's racist cartoons and Raúl's book censoring racist language  At about 50:40, Pete outlines the book's chapter titles and asks Raúl about licensing of racist cartoons used in his book; Raúl expands on Metzger's and others usage  At about 54:40, Raúl details a controversial NY Post cartoon that depicted President Barack Obama At about 56:15, Raúl responds to Pete's question about connections between the racist humor towards President Obama and “whitelash” from recent years to the early years of the United States as a country, with President Trump a natural consequence  At about 1:04:25, Pete notes Raúl's coined term of “amused contempt” and states his thesis of racist humor and its “social power” At about 1:05:30, Raúl discusses the significance of the book's title and connections to W.E. DuBois' famous The Souls of White Folk At about 1:10:10, Raúl reflects on the significance of minstrel and its racist legacy and ideas of shared humor at the “expensive of the racialized group” At about 1:12:20, Pete recounts the book's opening with the story of Cleon Brown and compliments Raúl's tracing such a long history with the book At about 1:15:00, Raúl talks about how sees Trump's upcoming presidency and its connections to racist “humor” and how he is an avatar for those who have tired of “wokeism” At about 1:17:00, Raúl expands on Trump 2.0 and those like Elon Musk who use meme culture and racist/”anti-PC” culture to ”weaponize humor” At about 1:21:10, Raúl gives background on the study of “disparagement humor” and its effects, as studied by Thomas E. Ford  At about 1:24:00, Raúl talks about future writing subjects, including the “weaponization of humor in warfare,” like with the IDF in Gaza    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 Pete on IG, where he is @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where he is @chillsatwillpo1. You can watch other episodes on YouTube-watch and subscribe to The Chills at Will Podcast Channel. Please subscribe to both the YouTube Channel and the podcast while you're checking out this episode.       Pete is very excited to have 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. This week, his conversation with Episode 265 guest Carvell Wallace is up on the website. 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 Pete's one-man show, his DIY podcast and his extensive reading, research, editing, and promoting to keep this independent podcast pumping out high-quality content! This month's Patreon bonus episode will feature an exploration of the wonderful poetry of Khalil Gibran. Pete has added a $1 a month tier for “Well-Wishers” and Cheerleaders of the Show.    This is a passion project of Pete's, a DIY operation, and he'd love for your help in promoting what he's 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 274 with Annell López, winner of Louise Meriwether First Book Prize and the author of the short story collection I'LL GIVE YOU A REASON. She is a Peter Taylor Fellow at Kenyon Review Writers Workshops, and her work has appeared in American Short Fiction, Michigan Quarterly Review, and Refinery29, among others. The episode airs on March 4.

A note about the work “on hunger” from Diya Abbas for the Michigan Quarterly Review's Winter 2025 Issue: Chiasmus is the grammatical technique of inversion. This poem uses chiasmus, or concatenation, to create entrapment for the speaker, the subject, and the reader. I wrote this poem because I was frustrated with time. I hoped this technique would build a contamination of belief where sound, the repetition of words and their meanings, could weave the unknown and known. Truth or what Louise Glück calls “embodied vision” is most often found first in the excavation of sound: In the aural knots of the image. Each ligature of the line breaks builds an unbreakable machine of the poem. I want my poems to be concerned with the illumination of vision that makes alternative forms of time possible including the very form of our lives. What poetry offers us is the chance to practice embodied inquiry with intensity and intention. I hope that this poem, through presence, can dance with dignity through form to confront the dilemma of time.

WVBR News Director Jack Donnellan sat down for a second time with author, editor, and publisher Mark Wish. Mark and his wife founded an annual short story anthology, Coolest American Stories, which pushes its contributors to make their fiction as compelling as possible, reminding them that readers crave “unputdownable” storytelling. Mark also served as the Fiction Editor of California Quarterly, was the founding Fiction Editor of New York Stories and a Contributing Editor for Pushcart, and has long been known as the freelance editor who has revised the fiction of once-struggling writers, leading it to land numerous book deals as well as publication in dozens of venues including The Atlantic Monthly, The Kenyon Review, Tin House, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Hudson Review, and Best American Short Stories.  His first novel, Confessions of a Polish Used Car Salesman, compared favorably with Huckleberry Finn by the Los Angeles Times back in 1997, went to a second printing one month after publication. Watch Me Go, his third novel, was published by Putnam and praised by Rebecca Makkai, Daniel Woodrell, Ben Fountain, and Salman Rushdie. More than 125 of Mark's short stories have appeared in print venues such as Best American Short Stories, The Georgia Review, TriQuarterly, American Short Fiction, The Antioch Review, Crazyhorse, The Gettysburg Review, Fiction, The Southern Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, New England Review, Barrelhouse, The Yale Review, The Sun, Paris Transcontinental, and Fiction International, and have won distinctions such as the Tobias Wolff Award, the Kay Cattarulla Award, an Isherwood Fellowship, and a Pushcart Prize.  The interview aired live on Talk of the Town on WVBR 93.5 FM on Saturday, January 25, 2025 at 3:00 PM. Catch the full Talk of the Town radio show on Saturdays at 3p on WVBR 93.5 FM or at wvbr.com. Follow us on social media! @WVBRFMNews on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. wvbr.com/afterhours

A note about the work “My Left Hand, Unholy” from Sanjana Thakur for the Michigan Quarterly Review's Winter 2025 Issue: I took a poetry seminar on descriptive writing in the first year of my MFA. One of our assignments was to choose an object in our home and write a half-page of visual description about it. I chose a red onion. A year and a half later, I wrote "My Left Hand, Unholy" for a fiction workshop, constructing the story around that red onion and one line: "Death is a woman's duty." I tend to be a somewhat frantic, deadline-motivated writer, so this whole story was written by pulling two all-nighters two days before it was due, and while I did revise it after receiving feedback from my professors and peers, it didn't substantially change form. The hardest thing to pin down in this story was the name! It started out as "Antyesti" which means "Last Sacrifice" (referring to Hindu funeral rites), then became "Life Cycles", then "Bodily Fluids", then "Water of the Womb", and finally, thanks to a classmate's suggestion, "My Left Hand, Unholy". I hope you enjoy it. 

A note about the work "Blue Skies, Birdsong" from Leyla Loued-Khenissi for the Michigan Quarterly Review's Winter 2025 Issue: Blue Skies, Birdsong recounts a harrowing ordeal Leyla Loued-Khenissi and her family experienced during the 1997 Sierra Leone military coup. Over 24 hours, their home was attacked 16 times by armed rebels and civilians before they escaped to safety. This first-person narrative sheds light on a little-known event in Africa that predates social media. Loued-Khenissi wrote it all down to confront her memories and  ensure the story is remembered. By sharing the story, she can mirror it to others, claiming a sense of reality between her today and her memory to achieve some catharsis and understanding while preserving a page of history that might otherwise fade into obscurity

A note about the work “Insult” from Martín Espada for the Michigan Quarterly Review's Winter 2025 Issue: “Insult” is about poet William Carlos Williams, and the drive to survive, even transcend the “insults” of our lives to carry out our work and make our voices heard. Williams was one of the twentieth century's most important poets, receiving the first National Book Award in Poetry in 1950 and the Pulitzer Prize in 1963. He was also a practicing physician in Rutherford and Paterson, New Jersey for four decades. In August 1952, Williams suffered a massive stroke that left his upper right side paralyzed. (The medical term is an “insult to the brain.”) He retired from medicine and spent two months hospitalized for depression from February to April 1953. His appointment as Consultant to the Library of Congress—today's Poet Laureate—was revoked after an FBI investigation into false charges that he was a communist. The organizations, affiliations, and publications listed in the poem come from the poet's declassified FBI file. I also quote a May 1953 postcard sent by Williams to Swarthmore College in search of a reading, typed with one good eye and the “wrong” hand. Williams would go on to produce some of his major work in the 1950s, including, “Asphodel, That Greeny Flower,” where he wrote: “It is difficult / to get the news from poems / yet men die miserably every day / for lack / of what is found there.” The postcard generated my poem, but so, too, did conversations and emails with friend and Williams biographer Paul Mariani.

From Dr. Chisaraokwu's website: "My art is a practice of retrieval, reanimation, and re-presentation of the parts of ourselves lost in the wake of trauma. Poetry is the sound, the feel, of those missing | mis-seen parts— raw, unapologetic, found, free. .CHISARAOKWU. is an Igbo American transdisciplinary poet artist, scholar, writer, performer, health futurist, and a 2023 California Arts Council Fellow. Inspired by her love of history, dreamscapes, the environment, quantum physics, and all things Africa(n)|(in)diaspora, she weaves images, textures, and text to create poems. Her work has been honored with awards and fellowships from MacDowell, Cave Canem, Vermont Studio Center, Anaphora Arts, Ucross and Headlands Center for the Arts, among other honors. She is an alum of the Brooklyn Poets Mentorship Program and the 2022 Tin House Winter Workshop. Nominated for Best of Net (Poetry; 2019, 2020, 2021), Best New Poets (2022), and Best New Small Fiction (2022), her words have appeared in academic and literary journals including Transition, Obsidian, midnight&indigo, The Lancet, and The New England Journal of Medicine. Her debut visual art work is featured in Michigan Quarterly Review's Spring 2024 issue, African Cartographies edited by Chris Abani. She earned her BA in History from Stanford University, MD from Duke University School of Medicine, MSPH from UNC Gilling School of Global Public Health, and certification in Global Mental Health & Trauma from Harvard School of Public Health's Refugee Trauma Program. She is a retired pediatrician and an alum of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program at Yale University where her research focused on adverse childhood experiences, mental health and spirituality, and community-based participatory research projects. She is currently working on two poetry collections and a novel. She is the recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship for 2025!! https://www.arts.gov/.../creative.../chisaraokwu-asomugha

A note about the poem “on hunger” from Diya Abbas for the Michigan Quarterly Review's Winter 2025 Issue: Chiasmus is the grammatical technique of inversion. This poem uses chiasmus, or concatenation, to create entrapment for the speaker, the subject, and the reader. I wrote this poem because I was frustrated with time. I hoped this technique would build a contamination of belief where sound, the repetition of words and their meanings, could weave the unknown and known. Truth or what Louise Glück calls “embodied vision” is most often found first in the excavation of sound: In the aural knots of the image. Each ligature of the line breaks builds an unbreakable machine of the poem. I want my poems to be concerned with the illumination of vision that makes alternative forms of time possible including the very form of our lives. What poetry offers us is the chance to practice embodied inquiry with intensity and intention. I hope that this poem, through presence, can dance with dignity through form to confront the dilemma of time.

On Sunday, December 15th, a crowd of 50 people gathered at Zibby's Bookshop to listen to an intimate conversation between Elisa Albert and Zibby Owens. They discussed Elisa's book HUMAN BLUES, her writing process, Zibby's anthology ON BEING JEWISH NOW, and the controversy at the Albany Book Festival about which Elisa wrote a powerful essay entitled, "An Invitation to the Anti-Zionists: You refused to sit on a literary panel with me. I invite you to my Shabbes table instead, so we can actually talk to each other and face her fears." Spoiler: no one accepted her invitation. Bio:Elisa Albert is the author of the novels Human Blues, After Birth, The Book of Dahlia, the story collection How This Night is Different, and the essay collection The Snarling Girl. Her work has been published in n+1, Tin House, Bennington Review, The New York Times, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Literary Review, Philip Roth Studies, Paris Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, Longreads, The Cut, Time Magazine, Post Road, Gulf Coast, Commentary, Salon, Tablet, Washington Square, The Rumpus, The Believer and in many anthologies. She has taught creative writing at Columbia University's School of the Arts, The College of Saint Rose, Bennington College, Texas State University, University of Maine, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. A Pushcart Prize nominee, finalist for the Sami Rohr Prize and Paterson Fiction Prize, winner of the Moment Magazine debut fiction prize, and Literary Death Match champion, Albert has served as Writer-in-Residence at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in Holland and at the Hanse-Wissenschaftkolleg in Germany. Now there's more! Subscribe to Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books on Acast+ and get ad-free episodes. https://plus.acast.com/s/moms-dont-have-time-to-read-books. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A note about the work “Excerpts from Skyside” from Stéphanie Ferrat translated by Marissa Davis for the Michigan Quarterly Review's Fall 2024 Translation Issue: I stumbled upon Skyside at a poetry fair in Paris several years ago, and it captivated me from the first page. As a painter as well as a poet, Ferrat imbues her work with meditations on the creative process, touching on both the miracles and the banalities (and the miracles within the banalities) of artmaking. Her language is often tinged with the surrealist, leaping from subject to subject in a kind of textual collage--a challenge, but also a thrill, for me as a translator. Skyside's fearless experimentation, philosophical contemplation, and camaraderie with the natural world sing to me with every read. 

A note about the work "The Easy Part" from Jacob Rogers for the Michigan Quarterly Review's Fall 2024 Translation Issue: “Who would want to marry a secondary character?” I found myself wondering one day, as I walked along the river near my parent's house. The truth is, there were other questions lurking beneath that one. In the era of social media, are we able to generate endless expectations beyond failure? In times of economic precarity, what is a home? Is sharing an apartment really a remedy against solitude? Is it possible to have your own name and personality when your life doesn't square with the story you've created for yourself? Can you write a novel with a squashed identity? Do you have to write to be a writer? "Marcos, the protagonist of 'The Easy Part,' is simultaneously odious and tender. He embodies the sort of secondary character no one would want to be. Far from moving along the main storyline, of being solid and attractive (but not in excess), Marcos is a constant reminder that the possibility that nothing will go the way we want is the substance our days are made of. The true heartbeat of his unwritten novel is the disenchantment of the working class in a historical moment when the internet provides daily reminds of what we could be and aren't. This story is that rock in the shoe." -Ismael Ramos

A note about the work “Mother of Stone” from Terry Ann Thaxton for the Michigan Quarterly Review's Summer 2024 issue:  I have a photograph of my parents standing next to each other, leaning against our station wagon on one of our numerous and regular camping trips. My father is shirtless, smiling and wearing his bucket hat. My mother is not smiling. I sensed that my parents did not like each other. They did not touch each other. I did not know until years after their deaths many of the reasons their distrust, but my childhood sense was correct. My parents loved their children, but the pretense of their happiness loomed over our lives and haunted me. It seemed to be my father's mission to take us to every fort in Florida, including Fort Pickens and Castillo de San Marcos. My father stole a brick from Geronimo's cell at Fort Pickens by putting it on his head under his hat, which he later used when he built the fireplace in our home. Coquina shells were used in the construction of Castillo de San Marcos. Florida sits on limestone. My mother would occasionally smile but only when my father was not present, and her smile seemed, to me, to be behind a wall of stone.

Miles Harvey is the author of The Registry of Forgotten Objects: Stories, which won The Journal Non/Fiction Prize and was published by Mad Creek Books, the trade imprint of The Ohio State University Press. His fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, Conjunctions, AGNI, North American Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, The Michigan Quarterly Review, Nimrod, Fiction Magazine, and others, and has received a Distinguished Story in The Best American Short Stories, 2004, a Special Mention in Pushcart Prize XXXVII: Best of the Small Presses, 2013, and the Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award from Mid-American Review, 2015. His most recent work of nonfiction, The King of Confidence (Little, Brown & Co., 2020), was longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction and was named as a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice selection. He also wrote The Island of Lost Maps (a national and international bestseller for Random House, 2000) and Painter in a Savage Land (Random House, 2008). His play, How Long Will I Cry, premiered in 2013 at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. Harvey teaches creative writing at DePaul University in Chicago, where he chairs the Department of English and is a founding editor of Big Shoulders Books, a nonprofit, social-justice publisher. 

A note about the work “Archival” from Patrycja Humienik for the Michigan Quarterly Review's Summer 2024 issue: I wrote this poem (part of my forthcoming book, We Contain Landscapes), in response to Diana Al-Hadid's exhibit “Archive of Longings” at the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle, WA in 2021. I was invited to create a workshop in conversation with the work, for which I led participants in movement and writing experiments engaging page and body as archive. Al-Hadid wrote, in the label for one of her sculptures, “I wondered how much of myself I could lose and still be there.” I remain riveted by the question. 

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.  

A note about the work “So Like a Waking” from Peter E. Murphy for the Michigan Quarterly Review's Summer 2024 issue: 1. Eight years and almost fifty drafts, writing "So Like a Waking" was a pain in the ass. 2. I couldn't . . . wouldn't accept that I was an alcoholic. Bums shitting themselves on a park bench or in the gutter, they were alcoholics, not me. Sure, I woke up on a park bench . . . I woke up in a gutter, but I only peed myself. 3. Drinking was the only thing that made sense to me. Make that poetry and drinking. I loved them both equally. However, drinking was trying to kill me. Poetry was trying to keep me alive. 4. At a writing retreat I led in Spain several years ago, a woman who had just lost her mother said, “I'm sorry. She's all I can write about.” “Don't apologize,” I said. “My mother died sixty years ago, and she's all I can write about.” 5. I think of my high school years as Early-Derelict Period. I trudged from bookstore to bookstore in Greenwich Village, brown-bagging a quart of Ballantine Ale, searching for Ginsberg's Howl one week, Ferlinghetti's A Coney Island of the Mind the next. Then I graduated to Mid-Derelict Period. Then Late-Derelict Period when I hit the proverbial rock bottom in a flophouse in Wales. 6. “Hi! My name is Peter, and I'm . . . um . . . well . . . you know . . . .”

A note about the work “Ideal Customers” from Charlie Sorrenson for the Michigan Quarterly Review's Summer 2024 issue: Never was fashion more fraught for me than in the early days of transition. Clothing stores became a site of both potential power (here was the quickest and most effective means of signaling to the world how I wanted to be perceived) and acute discomfort. I wanted to explore this tension via the setting of a clothing store catering to transmascs, in the days before online shopping allowed us to experiment and make mistakes from the safety of our bedrooms. And I wanted to place into this environment someone wrestling with how they can and ought to express their own gender. What rules—of gender, of consumption, of service—govern our behavior? When we break them, what else is threatened?

A note about the work “In Defense of Aunt Léonie” from Jodie Noel Vinson for the Michigan Quarterly Review's Summer 2024 YEAR issue: If you knew me in my early twenties, we probably had a conversation about Proust. I spent nine months consumed by his novel In Search of Lost Time, which can sound snobbish or academic but for me was an immersive, intimate relationship, a beautiful secret I shared with others passionate about his prose, or who also harbored an obsession with the past. When I turned forty, I returned to Proust. I was at that time also returning to myself after living with chronic illness for three years. His book still had its hold on me, but I was noticing new things. This time around, my way into the novel was through the character of Léonie Octave. Like others, I had, on a first read, taken the aunt to be a comical hypochondriac, obsessed with her own suffering. Now, prone and pitiful on her sickbed, she appealed to my sympathy. What would happen, I wondered, if we were to take her complaints seriously: to start from a place of belief, rather than doubt? Where did that immediate impulse to disbelieve another person's pain come from? These questions led me to read her character through a lens of compassion, humanity, and empathy, and, eventually, to write “In Defense of Aunt Léonie.”

In Ruchama Feuerman's novel In the Courtyard of the Kabbalist (Open Road Media 2024), Isaac, a lonely, heartbroken New York haberdasher, moves to Jerusalem after he's jilted by his bride-to-be and his mother dies. He stumbles into a job as the assistant to a famous kabbalist and spends his days helping the elderly man and his wife dispense wisdom and soup to the troubled souls who come into their courtyard. Isaac crosses paths with Tamar, a newly religious young American woman desperate to find a spiritually connected husband, and Mustafa, a physically deformed Arab janitor who works on the Temple Mount. Isaac doesn't realize that simply being kind to the janitor will change both their lives. Because of that kindness, Mustafa gifts Isaac with an ancient, discarded piece of pottery that he found in the garbage pile on the Temple Mount. His gift lands Isaac in jail and puts Mustafa in danger. Tamar is the only person Isaac knows who can help avert a disaster. First published in 2014, In the Courtyard of the Kabbalist has just been reissued with an intriguing afterward. Ruchama Feuerman is the author of Seven Blessings (St. Martin's Press), and several books for children and young adults. She is grateful to the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Christopher Isherwood Fellowship which allowed her the time and means to devote herself entirely to her writing. Her prize-winning stories have appeared in Narrative Magazine, the Michigan Quarterly Review, Lilith, Tablet, and other publications. She has written and ghostwritten books for children, young adults, and adults, and helps people create their own novels, memoirs, stories and books of non-fiction. Her dream is to return to Israel, the setting for both her novels, where she lived and taught Torah for ten years. It's a place, she finds, where extraordinary stories are handed to you daily. Researching her latest novel led Ruchama to kabbalists, Israeli ex-convicts, Arab laborers, archeologists, Temple Mount police men, connoisseurs of Israeli prison slang, and soup kitchens, among other places. One of the most transformative experiences was her time spent at a Jewish funeral home in New Jersey where she observed a ritual purification for a scene she was writing. Afterward, she volunteered at the Hevra Kadisha burial society for three years and wrote about the experience for the New York Times. 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

In Ruchama Feuerman's novel In the Courtyard of the Kabbalist (Open Road Media 2024), Isaac, a lonely, heartbroken New York haberdasher, moves to Jerusalem after he's jilted by his bride-to-be and his mother dies. He stumbles into a job as the assistant to a famous kabbalist and spends his days helping the elderly man and his wife dispense wisdom and soup to the troubled souls who come into their courtyard. Isaac crosses paths with Tamar, a newly religious young American woman desperate to find a spiritually connected husband, and Mustafa, a physically deformed Arab janitor who works on the Temple Mount. Isaac doesn't realize that simply being kind to the janitor will change both their lives. Because of that kindness, Mustafa gifts Isaac with an ancient, discarded piece of pottery that he found in the garbage pile on the Temple Mount. His gift lands Isaac in jail and puts Mustafa in danger. Tamar is the only person Isaac knows who can help avert a disaster. First published in 2014, In the Courtyard of the Kabbalist has just been reissued with an intriguing afterward. Ruchama Feuerman is the author of Seven Blessings (St. Martin's Press), and several books for children and young adults. She is grateful to the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Christopher Isherwood Fellowship which allowed her the time and means to devote herself entirely to her writing. Her prize-winning stories have appeared in Narrative Magazine, the Michigan Quarterly Review, Lilith, Tablet, and other publications. She has written and ghostwritten books for children, young adults, and adults, and helps people create their own novels, memoirs, stories and books of non-fiction. Her dream is to return to Israel, the setting for both her novels, where she lived and taught Torah for ten years. It's a place, she finds, where extraordinary stories are handed to you daily. Researching her latest novel led Ruchama to kabbalists, Israeli ex-convicts, Arab laborers, archeologists, Temple Mount police men, connoisseurs of Israeli prison slang, and soup kitchens, among other places. One of the most transformative experiences was her time spent at a Jewish funeral home in New Jersey where she observed a ritual purification for a scene she was writing. Afterward, she volunteered at the Hevra Kadisha burial society for three years and wrote about the experience for the New York Times. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

A note about the work “Once I Was Beautiful Now I Am Myself” from Leila Chatti for the Michigan Quarterly Review's Summer 2024 issue: First, the poem's title is a line borrowed from an Anne Sexton poem. I wrote this poem in a period when I thought I wasn't writing; rather, I felt I was reacting, or perhaps channeling. I was at a point in my life where I felt both very sad and very powerless. Because I felt I had little control over my life, I became accustomed to letting myself be carried along, and then I began to write that way—carried on a current of the subconscious. This felt strangely freeing. I was turning into someone I didn't recognize, in those years, or maybe, more truthfully, into someone I didn't want to recognize. The self I'd been avoiding, the uglier parts in all this disruption dislodged and brought to the surface. This poem arose from the mix of wonder and horror I experienced trying to really look at myself, without looking away.

A note about "It's Important I Remember that the Enemy Is Always Within” from Cortney Lamar Charleston for the Michigan Quarterly Review's Summer 2025 issue: In ways established by historical precedent, the United States of America is an empire, but I speculate most Americans disagree. Empire has an appropriately negative connotation—a system of domination and exploitation spearheaded by tyrants—and thus feels an unfair description of the America in its citizenry's imagination: the nation that toppled fascism and saved the free world, the longest-standing democracy on Earth. Yet that very America maintains military outposts around the globe; holds foreign countries as “territories”; has built itself into a military and economic superpower while squatting on the ancestral lands of Indigenous nations. My poem, “It's Important I Remember That the Enemy Is Always Within—,” buckles under these truths, even as it orbits the death of a brutal, criminal man behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks: Osama bin Laden. Undoubtedly, America (meaning the state) and bin Laden were enemies to one another, but what was bin Laden to an ordinary American citizen? An enemy, certainly, though more a conceptual entity than an actual person, a grainy face and voice to slot into our psyche and induce acceptance of violence and dispossession. Enemies are easily made—thus easily replaced—because of our empathic deficiencies. U.S. forces killed bin Laden in 2011, celebrated across the country as justice served, yet our occupation continued another decade. Our soldiers have finally returned and await their next deployment somewhere far away or, perhaps, closer to home: wherever a new enemy is invented that Empire points to as justification for its actions.

A note about the poem “For Girls Who Talk Too Much at Lunch” from Steffi Sin for the Michigan Quarterly Review's Summer 2024 issue: My poetry collection For the Ones Who Grew Up In Hong Kong Style Cafés is comprised of twenty-six sonnets, all set in San Francisco Chinatown's now-closed ABC Café & Restaurant. Each poem is a vignette of a meal the narrator experiences, and the use of Anglicized Cantonese represents the fluidity of language for bilingual speakers, playing with Cantonese-English rhymes and homophones. “For Girls Who Talk Too Much at Lunch” is about the disconnect between the narrator, who is trying to comprehend the violent history of Chinese in America she's learned in school, and her immigrant father, who doesn't have the mental capacity to discuss these issues because he's preoccupied with the family's financial struggles. The poem is titled as a commentary about the double-standard for daughters. Oftentimes, when women speak up, the people around them don't listen, and their words are dismissed as drivel, as foolish, and they're told they're disconnected from reality. Education is perceived as a road to success, towards the illusion of the American Dream, but when women use their education to question the norm, education then becomes an instrument spoiling their minds. The lines that break from the established rhyme scheme then represents the narrator's persistence in challenging these constraints.

A note about the short story “Diaspora Café” from Vince Omni for the Michigan Quarterly Review's Summer 2024 issue: I spend a lot of time in coffee shops, or at least in the genre of coffee shops that has come to characterize American culture: big, busy, expensive. They are great places for working and for people watching. They are also, by and large, very homogeneous. “The Diaspora Café” is my humble attempt to remake that genre from a Black perspective in my hometown of Denver, CO, where rampant gentrification has displaced black and brown people.

A note about the poem “13 Ways of Nepantla” from Fernando Trujillo for the Michigan Quarterly Review's Summer 2024 issue: I had been reading Wallace Stevens's Collected Poems, and I kept finding myself back at “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,” which was in his first collection. I was struck by the austerity of the poem, in contrast to other works by Stevens. And I kept returning to the second canto, “I was of three minds, / Like a tree / In which there are three blackbirds.” I thought of myself and my community, how so many of us are of two, or even three minds, within the same tree, so to speak. We have our indigenous mind, our Caucasian mind, and our mestizo mind, cutting across both México and the US for me and many in my community. This also, linguistically, applies to my poetic lineage; Neruda en español inspired me as much as Whitman in English as a teenager, Dickinson as much as Lorca. This all contributed to my mindset when I started writing “13 Ways.” Of course my poem is not as tightly structured or imagistic as Stevens'. I'm writing more from sound than image. I'm also attempting to place myself, my experiences, and my family at the center of a poetic lineage, hence all the grabbing from other poets. All-in-all, what I'm trying to do is imagine myself in the song of “América America,” and more than just imagining, writing a place for myself in it.

As of April 2024, according to UN experts, over 80% of schools have been damaged or destroyed by the Israeli assault on Gaza, with 5479 students, 261 teachers and 95 university professors killed and many thousands injured. Every university in Gaza is partially or wholly destroyed, whether by bombing or demolition. Amidst the systematic destruction of lives, communities and environments what possibility, if any, is left for education? What does learning mean under conditions of 'scholasticide'? Meet the speakers Ahmed Abu Shaban is the Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine at Al-Azhar University — Gaza and an Associate Professor of Agricultural Economics. Abu Shaban spent two years as a Visiting Professor in the Department of Environmental Sociology at the University of Wisconsin. In addition to his academic experience, Abu Shaban has conducted several consultancy studies on the socioeconomic assessment of national water and environmental infrastructure programs. He has extensive research and consultancy experience in analysing economic development in the Gaza Strip and designing intervention strategies for humanitarian, early recovery, and development programs. Esmat Elhalaby is an Assistant Professor of Transnational History at the University of Toronto. He works principally on the intellectual history of West and South Asia, particularly colonial and anti-colonial thought. His writing has appeared in Modern Intellectual History, American Quarterly, Michigan Quarterly Review, Boston Review, The Baffler and elsewhere.

Jordan Elgrably in conversation with Sarah AlKahly-Mills, with readings from both authors. City Lights celebrates the publication of "Stories from the Center of the World: New Middle East Fiction," edited by Jordan Elgrably, published by City Lights Books. You can purchase copies directly from City Lights here: https://citylights.com/stories-from-the-center-of-the-world/ "Stories from the Center of the World" gathers new writing from 25 emerging and established writers of Middle Eastern and North African origins, offering a unique collection of voices and viewpoints that illuminate life in the global Arab/Muslim world. The authors included in the book come from a wide range of cultures and countries, including Palestine, Syria, Pakistan, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt, and Morocco. In “Asha and Haaji,” Hanif Kureishi takes up the cause of outsiders who become uprooted when war or disaster strikes and they flee for safe haven. In Nektaria Anastasiadou‘s “The Location of the Soul According to Benyamin Alhadeff,” two students in Istanbul from different classes — and religions that have often been at odds with one another — believe they can overcome all obstacles. MK Harb‘s story, “Counter Strike,” is about queer love among Beiruti adolescents; and Salar Abdoh‘s “The Long Walk of the Martyrs” invites us into the world of former militants, fighters who fought ISIS or Daesh in Iraq and Syria, who are having a hard time readjusting to civilian life. In “Eleazar,” Karim Kattan tells an unexpected Palestinian story in which the usual antagonists — Israeli occupation forces — are mostly absent, while another malevolent force seems to overtake an unsuspecting family. Omar El Akkad‘s “The Icarist” is a coming-of-age story about the underworld in which illegal immigrants are forced to live, and what happens when one dares to break away. Contributors include: Salar Abdoh, Leila Aboulela, Farah Ahamed, Omar El Akkad, Sarah AlKahly-Mills, Nektaria Anastasiadou, Amany Kamal Eldin, Jordan Elgrably, Omar Foda, May Haddad, Danial Haghighi, Malu Halasa, MK Harb, Alireza Iranmehr, Karim Kattan, Hanif Kureishi, Ahmed Salah Al-Mahdi, Diary Marif, Tariq Mehmood, Sahar Mustafah, Mohammed Al-Naas, Ahmed Naji, Mai Al-Nakib, Abdellah Taia, and Natasha Tynes. Jordan Elgrably is a Franco-American and Moroccan writer and translator, whose stories and creative nonfiction have appeared in numerous anthologies and reviews, including Apulée, Salmagundi, and The Paris Review. Editor-in-chief and founder of The Markaz Review, he is the cofounder and former director of the Levantine Cultural Center/The Markaz in Los Angeles (2001-2020), and producer of the stand-up comedy show “The Sultans of Satire” (2005-2017) and hundreds of other public programs. He is based in Montpellier, France and California. Sarah AlKahly-Mills is a Lebanese-American writer. Her story “The Salamander” is included in the new book "Stories from the Center of the World: New Middle East Fiction," edited by Jordan Elgrably, and just published by City Lights. Her fiction, poetry, book reviews, and essays have appeared in publications including Litro Magazine, Ink and Oil, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Michigan Quarterly Review, PopMatters, Al-Fanar Media, Middle East Eye, and various university journals. Born in Burbank, CA, she now lives in Rome, Italy. Originally hosted live in City Lights' Poetry Room on Thursday, May 9, 2024. Hosted by Peter Maravelis. Made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation cosponsored with Golden Thread Productions. citylights.com/foundation

Jerry Dennis is one of the country's most prolific outdoor writers. With by-lines in The New York Times, Smithsonian, Orion, American Way, Michigan Quarterly Review, and Gray's Sporting Journal as well as 13 books--and most recently a new edition of “The Living Great Lakes: Searching the Heart of the Island Seas”--to his credit, he is forever finding stories to tell about the Midwest's waters. In this episode of the Lake Superior Podcast, Walt Lindala and Frida Waara talk with this seasoned writer about his experiences on Lake Superior, and his deep connection to the water and the natural world that has fueled his writing for four decades. Key Takeaways: Jerry Dennis has always been passionate about writing and the outdoors, and he realized he could combine these interests by writing about his outdoor experiences. "The Living Great Lakes: Searching for the Heart of the Inland Seas" is a book that explores the history, ecology, and personal experiences of the Great Lakes, with a focus on Lake Superior. Dennis believes in connecting with readers on an emotional level and inspiring them to protect and appreciate the natural world. He emphasizes the importance of experiencing the Great Lakes firsthand and taking the time to observe and appreciate their beauty and significance. Dennis is currently working on a collection of poems and a new and selected book of essays, which will include his favorite essays from his previous works.Quotes: "I wanted to write about the things that I care about. That was my goal right from the beginning." - Jerry Dennis "Everything is wondrous. And if we can reconnect with those perceptions of childhood, then it becomes clear to you how wonderful it is." - Jerry Dennis "When people feel a connection with a place, then they want to protect it." - Jerry DennisResource: Jerry Dennis' Website - https://jerrydennis.net/ To listen to the full episode and explore more enlightening content from the Lake Superior podcast, visit our website or your preferred podcast platform. Stay tuned for future episodes featuring fascinating guests and stories about the Great Lakes and Lake Superior.

Dalia Elhassan reads “everything, everywhere, all at once” for the Michigan Quarterly Review's Spring 2024 issue “African Writing: A Partial Cartography of Provocations”. Read the text for this piece on the MQR website.

Afua Ansong reads “Armor of Light” for the Michigan Quarterly Review's Spring 2024 issue “African Writing: A Partial Cartography of Provocations”. Read the text for this piece on the MQR website.

A note about the poem “Exile” from Shahilla Shariff for the Michigan Quarterly Review's Spring 2024 issue “African Writing: A Partial Cartography of Provocations”: An object from ordinary life—an unusual chocolate wrapper—was the aperture which transported me to my African childhood and to writing “Exile.” Rooted in memory, a series of seemingly disparate fragments were animated by unexpected encounters with songs, photographs, words and vistas. After countless iterations and experimentations, the images and ideas blurred and somehow assembled into a poem.

A note about the poem “Mmiri III” by .CHISARAOKWU. for the Michigan Quarterly Review's Spring 2024 issue “African Writing: A Partial Cartography of Provocations”: I am working on a poetry collection that explores African women's practice of meaning-making in the wake of sexual harm. Mmiri III is the first part of a much longer poem that captures dialogue between two women with this shared history—though in different times and different geographical spaces—as they determine what it means to have this history and be free. Water enters my work because of its dynamic nature—it holds within itself multiple states of being, yet is always free, exists everywhere. It's essence can not be created nor destroyed. Water, thus, invites exploration of the indestructible self. Those whose bloods have traversed the waters understand this. The voice in this excerpt is from the young woman who descended from the Igbo people of present-day Eastern Nigeria. She resides in a threshold (liminal) space created in harm's wake.

Annell López is the author of the debut story collection I'll Give You a Reason, available from The Feminist Press. Winner of the Louise Meriwether First Book Prize. López is a Dominican immigrant. A 2022 Peter Taylor fellow, her work has received support from Tin House and the Kenyon Review Workshops and has appeared in American Short Fiction, Michigan Quarterly Review, Brooklyn Rail, and elsewhere. López is an Assistant Fiction Editor for New Orleans Review and just finished her MFA at the University of New Orleans. She is working on a novel. *** 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

A note about the short story “Let Them Eat Kandolo: Grain Mongers June 2023, Chongwe, Zambia” from Mwanabibi Sikamo for the Michigan Quarterly Review's Spring 2024 issue “African Writing: A Partial Cartography of Provocations”: I love a good market. Not a pristine library of products boxed away from touch and smell, trolleys rolling over hospital-white floors market. Not even a friendly-farmers, loose and bottled vegetables piled onto bunting lined folding tables market. No, I like a full bodied, bursting at the seams, assault on all the senses, never know who or what you might encounter market. A cacophonous African market. In Lusaka my favorite hunting ground is City Market, which sprung out of necessity. One seller nails together wooden offcuts from her local carpenter. She piles her merchandise on the makeshift stand; a few tomatoes, maybe some greasy, freshly made fritters. The next day she is joined by someone selling roasted cassava and groundnuts, and so it goes until you have a government-sanctioned market. As I enter City Market my heart races. I must be on high alert to avoid bumping into other buyers or sellers. I do not want to get run over by the rushing wheelbarrow boys who hiss to warn me of their presence. I walk through the hall heaving with Salaula, breathe past the earthy dried fish and tobacco, and then I am among the sacks full of grains, roots, mushroom, and other things that were not on my list. It was on one of these jaunts, basking in the abundance that was reminiscent of childhood trips to the village that the seed for this food memoir sprouted. How could we have so much and yet still not have enough?

A note about the short story “Let Them Eat Kandolo: Amainsa 1992, Kabalenge, Zambia” from Mwanabibi Sikamo for the Michigan Quarterly Review's Spring 2024 issue “African Writing: A Partial Cartography of Provocations”: I love a good market. Not a pristine library of products boxed away from touch and smell, trolleys rolling over hospital-white floors market. Not even a friendly-farmers, loose and bottled vegetables piled onto bunting lined folding tables market. No, I like a full bodied, bursting at the seams, assault on all the senses, never know who or what you might encounter market. A cacophonous African market. In Lusaka my favorite hunting ground is City Market, which sprung out of necessity. One seller nails together wooden offcuts from her local carpenter. She piles her merchandise on the makeshift stand; a few tomatoes, maybe some greasy, freshly made fritters. The next day she is joined by someone selling roasted cassava and groundnuts, and so it goes until you have a government-sanctioned market. As I enter City Market my heart races. I must be on high alert to avoid bumping into other buyers or sellers. I do not want to get run over by the rushing wheelbarrow boys who hiss to warn me of their presence. I walk through the hall heaving with Salaula, breathe past the earthy dried fish and tobacco, and then I am among the sacks full of grains, roots, mushroom, and other things that were not on my list. It was on one of these jaunts, basking in the abundance that was reminiscent of childhood trips to the village that the seed for this food memoir sprouted. How could we have so much and yet still not have enough?

A note about the short story “The People of Gehenna” by Tom Olali from translator Richard Prins for the Michigan Quarterly Review's Spring 2024 issue “African Writing: A Partial Cartography of Provocations”: As a translator of Swahili literature, the texts I find most compelling are the ones that might show something new to the English language. When I first read Tom Olali's novel Watu wa Gehenna, I had the thrilling experience of never knowing what set of rules the author was going to defenestrate next. This particular excerpt often reads like a Socratic dialogue, but the interlocutors form a mind-bending trinity of God, Satan, and Self. Elsewhere, reality turns out to be dream and dream turns out to be reality, the dead are resurrected and the resurrected are put to death, and characters shapeshift like they're the author's imaginary playthings – which, of course, they are! By reveling in the artifice of narrative, I feel Olali reveals a great deal about the artifice of human society and consciousness.

Dalia Elhassan reads “homegoing” for the Michigan Quarterly Review's Spring 2024 issue “African Writing: A Partial Cartography of Provocations”. Read the text for this piece on the MQR website.

Heather Frese is the author of the novel The Baddest Girl on the Planet, winner of the Lee Smith Novel Prize. She has published numerous short stories, essays, and the occasional poem. Her work has appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, the Los Angeles Review, Front Porch, the Barely South Review, Switchback, and elsewhere, earning notable mention in the Pushcart Prize Anthology and Best American Essays. Heather received her M.F.A. from West Virginia University and has a master's degree from Ohio University. Coastal North Carolina is her longtime love and source of inspiration, her writing deeply influenced by the wild magic and history of the Outer Banks. A native Ohioan, she currently writes, edits, and wrangles three small children in Raleigh, North Carolina. Learn more at: Heatherfrese.com Intro reel, Writing Table Podcast 2024 Outro Recording

Garnett Kilberg Cohen's fourth short story collection, Cravings (University of Wisconsin Press, 2024), contains twelve beautifully-written tales. They each start simply before delving into universal human struggles of love, aging, repercussions, and community. Characters mull over or confront decisions and recognize or bemoan past mistakes. A little girl's life changes while she's sneaking olives from the pantry, a woman is plunged back in time while attending the book release of her ex, parents of a disabled child struggle as their marriage frays, the daughter of an ex appears on television, and a woman destroys the reputation of her only friend. The collection is about cravings of one kind or another, but also covers a range of complex emotions that arise over the course of a lifetime. Garnett Kilberg Cohen was born and raised in Ohio and feels a strong connection to the Midwest, a place in her memory that is replete with farms, small towns, car factories and fields of corn and purple clover. As a child, she was paid one cent for every five dandelions she ripped by the roots from her family's yard. Her favorite drink was a cherry phosphate sipped while twirling on a stool at the marble counter of the village drug store. Yet, she was aware of the secrets and trauma often just below the surface. Cravings is Cohen's fourth collection of short stories. She has also published a poetry chapbook, Passion Tour and multiple essays in such places as Rumpus, Antioch Review, The New Yorker online and Michigan Quarterly Review. Her honors include The Crazyhorse Fiction Prize, four awards from the Illinois Arts Council, and two Notable Essay citations from Best American Essays. In addition to writing and reading, she enjoys drawing, taking long walks, theater, museums and travel. In recent years, she has been fortunate to travel to far-flung places such as Taiwan, Australia, Laos, Tanzania, Iceland and Mexico. She believes that observation is often the key to understanding and inspiration for writing—even if the travel is just to a new neighborhood in the city where she now lives, Chicago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

The National Writers Series was honored to host Jack Driscoll at the Alluvion on August 27, 2023 with guest host Brittany Cavallaro. Jack Driscoll is a two-time NEA Creative Writing Fellowship recipient, a PEN/Nelson Algren Award winner, and the author of twelve books, including the story collections, Wanting Only to Be Heard (University of MA Press, 1992), winner of the AWP Grace Paley Short Fiction Prize and The World of a Few Minutes Ago (WSU Press, 2012), winner of the Society of Midland Authors Award and Michigan Notable Book Award. His most recent story collection, The Goat Fish and the Lover's Knot(WSU Press, 2017) received a Michigan Notable Book Award and was a finalist for the John D. Gardner Short Fiction Prize. His stories have appeared in The Georgia Review, The Southern Review, Ploughshares, Missouri Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, the Pushcart Prize Anthology, and New Stories from the Midwest. Driscoll was the founding father of the Interlochen Center for the Arts creative writing department, and now teaches in Pacific University's low-residency MFA program. He resides in Mystic, CT. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nationalwritersseries/message

EPISODE 270 - Garnett Kilberg Cohen Author of - Cravings - an expansive vision of humanity that lingersGarnett Kilberg Cohen is the author of four story collections: Cravings (due for release in October 2023); Lost Women, Banished Souls; How We Move the Air; and Swarm to Glory. Her chapbook, Passion Tour, was published by Finishing Line Press. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker online, Rumpus, The Gettysburg Review, Witness, The Literary Review, StoryQuarterly, The Antioch Review and elsewhere, and she has been the recipient of many awards including a 2022 Curt Johnson award from december magazine, the Crazyhorse National Fiction Prize, The Lawrence Foundation Prize from Michigan Quarterly Review, and four Illinois Arts Council Awards, as well as two Notable Essay citations from Best American Essays. A former fiction editor at The Pennsylvania Review and Hotel Amerika, Garnett has also been an editor at Another Chicago Magazine, The South Loop Review, Punctuate, A Nonfiction Journal, and a guest editor at Fifth Wednesday.She taught writing at Columbia College Chicago for more than thirty years. She also teaches creative writing workshops at various conferences and organizations, and works as a consultant with individual writers of fiction and nonfiction. https://garnettcohenauthor.com/___https://livingthenextchapter.com/ National Podcast Post Month is celebrating 16 years! Join the 30 days of podcasting fun starting on November 1st! #NaPodPoMoSupport the showAre you looking to hire a podcast editor to do the behind the scenes work for you? Do you want to be a better Podcast Guest?Searching for How To Start a Podcast?Looking for Podcast Tips?Visit HowToPodcast.ca for practical advice, featured guest co-hosts from around the world and a community of podcasters dedicated to your success - join Dave and the entire podcast family at https://howtopodcast.ca/

Jacke talks to novelist Shilpi Suneja about her childhood in India, her discovery of Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, and her new novel House of Caravans, which offers its own fresh look at Indian Independence and its aftermath. Shilpi Suneja is the author of House of Caravans. Born in India, her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and published in Guernica, McSweeney's, Cognoscenti, and the Michigan Quarterly Review. Her writing has been supported by a National Endowment for the Arts literature fellowship, a Massachusetts Cultural Council fellowship, a Grub Street Novel Incubator Scholarship, and she was the Desai fellow at the Jack Jones Literary Arts Retreat. She holds an MA in English from New York University and an MFA in creative writing from Boston University, where she was awarded the Saul Bellow Prize. She lives in Cambridge, MA. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/donate. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shilpi Suneja shares the first pages of her debut novel, House of Caravans, how she discovered the core of her story (and therefore where to begin) after several rounds of revising, her use of the omniscient first person and how she transitions between characters' internal states without losing her reader, and the weight of history both on her book and her psyche as a writer.Suneja's first pages can be found here.Help local bookstores and our authors by buying this book on Bookshop.Click here for the audio/video version of this interview.The above link will be available for 48 hours. Missed it? The podcast version is always available, both here and on your favorite podcast platform.Shilpi Suneja was born in Kanpur, India. At the age of fifteen, she moved with her parents to a tiny village in North Carolina. She later earned  an MA in English from NYU, an MFA from BU, and another MFA from UMass Boston. She's won fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Her short fiction and essays, nominated for a Pushcart Prize, appear in Arrowsmith, Asia Literary Review, Bat City Review, Cognoscenti, Consequence, Guernica, Hyphen, Kartika Review, Kafila, Little Fiction, McSweeney's,  Michigan Quarterly Review, Solstice, Stirring Lit, and TwoCircles.Net among other places. In 2019 Shilpi attended the Jack Jones Literary Retreat as a Desai Fellow. Her essay won the 2022 Bechtel Prize from Teachers & Writers Magazine. Her first novel about the long shadow of the Indian Partition of 1947, her grandfather's story of migration from Lahore to Kanpur, is slated for publication in September 2023 from Milkweed Editions. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com