Podcast appearances and mentions of molly antopol

Singer-songwriter turned novelist Matthew Dougherty of West Virginia University joins Jared to talk about writing songs versus writing prose, fictionalizing family lore, and winning three literary contests. Matthew Dougherty grew up in Ohio, taught elementary school in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas and is now completing his third and final year in the MFA fiction program at West Virginia University. His short stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Sonora Review, Salamander, and Crab Orchard Review—all as contest winners—and have been praised by writers such as Molly Antopol and Lucy Corin. Matthew is a Teach For America alumnus, and he also enjoys writing and performing original songs under the artist name Matt Skerk. He can be found on Twitter @matt_skerk. 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 on social media. t: @MFAwriterspod ig: @MFAwriterspodcast fb: MFA Writers e: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com

Writer and author Brendan Jones reads and discusses his novel Alaskan Laundry where “a fierce, lost young woman finds herself through the hard work of fishing and the stubborn love of real friendship”. Brendan Jones works in commercial fishing and lives in Sitka, Alaska. A Stegner fellow at Stanford University, he also studied and boxed at Oxford University. His literary work has appeared in the New York Times, Ploughshares, and on NPR. His novel Alaskan has been described as a “gorgeous and powerful novel that succeeds both as a page-turning adventure story and an evocative exploration of the meaning of home." (Molly Antopol)

The Alaskan Laundry (Mariner Books) A fresh debut novel about a lost, fierce young woman who finds her way to Alaska and finds herself through the hard work of fishing, as far as the icy Bering Sea  Tara Marconi has made her way to The Rock, a remote island in Alaska governed by the seasons and the demands of the world of commercial fishing. She hasn't felt at home in a long while. Her mother's death left her unmoored and created a seemingly insurmountable rift between her and her father. But in the majestic, mysterious, and tough boundary-lands of Alaska she begins to work her way up the fishing ladder from hatchery assistant all the way to King crabber. She learned discipline from years as a young boxer in Philly, but here she learns anew what it means to work, to connect, and in buying and fixing up an old tugboat how to make a home she knows is her own. A beautiful evocation of a place that can't help but change us and a testament to the unshakable lure of home, The Alaskan Laundry also offers an unforgettable story of one woman's journey from isolation back to the possibility of love. Praise for The Alaskan Laundry "This novel is a rarity -- a gripping, straight-forward, old-fashioned novel about coming of age (a woman, no less) in Alaska. It is reminiscent of the best of Wallace Stegner."--Richard Ford  "This is a truly towering debut novel. Brendan Jones charts new novelistic territory and sends back moving dispatches from the frontiers of the human heart."--Adam Johnson, author of The Orphan Master's Son "The Alaskan Laundry is a gorgeous and powerful novel that succeeds both as a page-turning adventure story and an evocative exploration of the meaning ofhome. With acute psychological precision and a naturalist's attention to detail, Brendan Jones has created a hauntingly beautiful novel that will stay with me for a long time."--Molly Antopol, author of The Unamericans  "A taut, page-turning narrative, an indomitable heroine, and a rich cast of characters all steeped ina world where you can smell the tang of kelp at low tide, the creak of seiners at their moorings, hear the rustling of the Southeast Alaska rain forest. The Alaskan Laundry plunges the reader into the heart and soul of a unique commercial fishing culture and the story of Tara Marconi, as she struggles for respect, love, inner peace, and a place to call her own. A cinematic tour de force, it offers up an empowering message of hope and resilience."-- Nick Jans, author of A Wolf Called Romeo  "There are the easy journeys, the ones that take us where we mean to travel, and there are those we shy from, the dark and uncertain treks of the soul. Without flinching, nineteen-year-old Tara ventures from South Philly to the male-dominated Rock, an island off the coast of Alaska. True to her boxer instincts, Tara comes out swinging, unsure what the island will make of her. As layers of her former life wash away, she proves as raw and tender as the landscape, as striking and unforgettable. A promising debut, true to the core a novel of grit and redemption."--Deb Vanasse, author of Cold Spell andOut of the Wilderness  "The Alaskan Laundry is a novel of bracing air that gets deep into your lungs. As Tara Marconi reinvents herself in Alaska, we see all facets of the American dream of self-reliance and boundless possibility play out on the stage of the Last Frontier. A strong, singular person grows in these pages. Like a protagonist in a Daniel Woodrell novel, she is stubborn, heroic, and capable of anything."--Will Chancellor, author of A Brave Man Seven Storeys Tall "A fresh voice in contemporary realism arrives on the scene in this coming-of-age novel. Fierce and flawed, protagonist Tara Marconi leaves the Lower 48 behind to cut her teeth on the Alaskan wilderness, searching for salvation in the notion that 'people come to Alaska to wash themselves clean.' Jones's dynamic love of America's last frontier comes through in spare, gripping prose."--Suzanne Rindell, author of The Other Typist After receiving a B.A. and M.A. from Oxford University, where he boxed for the Blues team, Brendan Jones made his living in Alaska in carpentry and commercial fishing. He has published work in the New York Times, Ploughshares, Narrative Magazine, Popular Woodworking, The Huffington Post, and recorded commentaries for NPR. A recipient of grants from the Elizabeth George Foundation and the MacDowell Colony, he is currently a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University

Molly Antopol's debut story collection, The UnAmericans, won the New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction Award and a "5 Under 35" Award from the National Book Foundation. It was longlisted for the National Book Award and was a finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, the Barnes & Noble Discover Award, the National Jewish Book Award, and others. She's a Jones Lecturer in Stanford's Creative Writing Program. http://storytelling.stanford.edu/index.php/off-the-page.html

Functionally Literate Radio Episode 066, "Molly Antopol." Recorded on 12/10/15 at WPRK, 91.5 FM in Winter Park, Florida. Featuring a conversation between Molly Antopol and David James Poissant. Hosted by Ryan Rivas and Jared Silvia. You can find out more about The UnAmericans here: http://books.wwnorton.com/books/the-unamericans Interlude music by Swamburger. Intro music by Frenic & Anitek. Edited under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US. creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/

Molly Antopol's debut story collection, The UnAmericans  was longlisted for the 2014 National Book Award, named a finalist for the Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, the National Jewish Book Award and the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, and was a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree. It was chosen as a “Best Book of 2014” by over a dozen venues and will be published in seven countries. She teaches at Stanford University, where she was a Wallace Stegner Fellow, and lives in San Francisco. She's at work on a novel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Molly Antopol’s debut story collection, The UnAmericans (W.W. Norton), was longlisted for the 2014 National Book Award, named a finalist for the Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, the National Jewish Book Award and the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, and was a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree. It was chosen as a “Best Book of 2014” by over a dozen venues and will be published in seven countries. She teaches at Stanford University, where she was a Wallace Stegner Fellow, and lives in San Francisco. She’s at work on a novel. More about First Draft at aspenpublicradio.org/programs/first-draft

Molly Antopol’s debut story collection, The UnAmericans (W.W. Norton), was longlisted for the 2014 National Book Award, named a finalist for the Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, the National Jewish Book Award and the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, and was a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree. It was chosen as a “Best Book of 2014” by over a dozen venues and will be published in seven countries. She teaches at Stanford University, where she was a Wallace Stegner Fellow, and lives in San Francisco. She’s at work on a novel. More about First Draft at aspenpublicradio.org/programs/first-draft

We meet One Story Magazine's 2014 Literary Debutantes, a collection of fiction writers who have published their first full-length books in the past year: James Scott (The Kept), Rachel Cantor (A Highly Unlikely Scenario), Ben Stroud (Byzantium), Celeste Ng (Everything I Never Told You), Molly Antopol (The UnAmericans), David James Poissant (The Heaven of Animals), and Amelia Kahaney (The Brokenhearted). Also – reviews of The Book of Unknown Americans, by Christina Henríquez, and The Log of the SS Mrs. Unguentine, by Stanley Crawford; and new releases for July 15th – July 31st, 2014. Find all the titles discussed in this episode at greenlightbookstore.com/radio2 . 

Did you miss Litquake's April Epicenter? We were thrilled to feature Molly Antopol in conversation with Anthony Marra in celebration of Antopol’s debut story collection, The UnAmericans, published by W.W. Norton. A recipient of the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 award, Antopol holds an MFA from Columbia University and teaches at Stanford. Anthony Marra is author of the novel A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, as well as the winner of a Whiting Award, a Pushcart Prize, and the Narrative Prize. Recorded live at The Emerald Tablet in San Francisco on April 1, 2014.

Co-produced by the Humanities at Stanford University Recent Stanford Stegner fellows, Scott Hutchins and Molly Antopol, discuss the pleasures and pains of writing fiction in a panel moderated by Stanford literary scholar Hilton Obenzinger, creator of the long-running “How I Write” lecture series. This reading was part of Off the Richter Scale, a two-day whirlwind of readings and bookish discussions during the first two days of Litquake 2013.  Recorded live at Hotel Rex on October 12th 2013.