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Notes and Links to Annie Liontas' Work For Episode 244, Pete welcomes Annie Liontas, and the two discuss, among other topics, their childhood love of books after early years of learning English as a second language, their teaching life, formative and transformative books and writers, the hot literary scene in Philly, and salient themes and issues in her memoir like writing emotionally-charged material, “invisible disability,” traumatic brain injuries and their personal history, as well as larger narratives about TBI in the carceral system, NFL, and beyond. Annie Liontas is the genderqueer author of the memoir Sex with a Brain Injury: On Concussion and Recovery, which was featured on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross and selected as SELF Magazine's Book of the Month. Their debut novel, Let Me Explain You, was selected as New York Times Editors Choice. They co-edited the anthology A Manner of Being: Writers on their Mentors, and their work has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Gay Magazine, NPR, Electric Literature, BOMB, Lithub, The Believer, Guernica, McSweeney's, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. A graduate of Syracuse University's MFA program, they are a professor of writing at George Washington University. Annie has served as a mentor for Pen City's incarcerated writers and helped secure a Mellon Foundation grant on Disability Justice to bring storytelling to communities in the criminal justice system. They co-host the literary podcast LitFriends and live in Philadelphia. Buy Sex with a Brain Injury Annie's George Washington University Bio NPR's Fresh Air Interview with Annie Emma Copley Eisenberg Writes about Sex with a Brain Injury for Electric Lit LitFriends Podcast with Annie and Lito Velazquez At about 1:40, Annie talks about their experience with the legendary Terri Gross At about 3:45, Annie talks about their upbringing and Greek family lineage At about 5:20, Annie homes in on their early days in frustration in transmitting ideas in English At about 6:20, Annie responds to Pete's questions about how Greek affects their English writing and reading At about 8:30, Annie discusses their early love of reading At about 11:30, Annie and Pete discuss pleasurable reading and the idea of “favorite books” At about 12:15, Annie and Pete nerd out over Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Pete recommends “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” At about 13:40, Annie speaks to ideas of representation in what they have read At about 15:20, Annie talks about “wonderful” professors in their time at Syracuse At about 16:20, Annie highlights Justin Torres, Yiyun Li, and other writers whose work is favorited by their students At about 17:50, Annie highlights Philadelphia's huge amount of talent-writers like Marie Helene Bertino, Emma Eisenberg, and Liz Moore At about 20:15, Pete and Annie talks about Annie's memoir's exposition and opening lines; Annie expounds upon seeds for the book At about 23:00, Pete shouts out Ingrid Rojas Contreras' The Man Who Could Move Clouds At about 23:50, The two discuss the ways in which Annie uses second person and tropes about concussions in the memoir At about 26:40, Pete wonders about Annie's decisions in summarizing three main injuries and compliments the draw of the structure; Annie talks about suspense and withholding and shares a resonant quote from George Saunders At about 29:30, Annie discusses “the longitudinal experience” that goes into “I will have my life” that ends the second chapter At about 31:05, Annie responds to Pete's questions about writing emotionally-charged material about beloved people At about 33:05, Annie talks about people doubting the severity of their injuries and a “five-year plan” At about 36:10, Annie shares interesting history about the rail industry and its “bonkers” track record-pun intended-in connection to injuries and “faking” At about 38:30, Pete asks Annie about effects of the brain injury At about 41:05, Pete's got jokes! and Annie talks about the physical effects of their brain injuries At about 42:25, Henry VIII's possible brain traumas are discussed, as are Harriet Tubman's At about 45:15, “Lying as a social act” is discussed in context of Annie's injury and subsequent ill effects At about 48:20, Annie discusses their mother's life and connections between addiction and brain trauma, including Marchell Taylor's moving fight for better care for TBI victims in the carceral system At about 54:00, Pete highlights a resonant excerpt from the book, Page 67, revolving around queerness At about 57:15, Pete and Annie cite examples from the sporting world and the ways in which women's health concerns are not treated equally At about 58:30, the NFL and concussions are discussed At about 1:01:55, Pete and Annie discuss Q&A's with Annie's wife, and Pete wonders about the choice to use redacted parts At about 1:04:30, Annie juxtaposes the different ways in which Tig Notaro and Ernest Shackleton dealt with trauma At about 1:08:50, Annie highlights the greatness of and beautiful relationship with Ursula von Ridingsvard At about 1:12:00, Annie shouts out their publisher and places to buy the book, as well as how to contact them and find them online; they give background information on her podcast 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-I'm looking forward to the partnership! Sign up now for The Chills at Will Podcast Patreon: it can be found at patreon.com/chillsatwillpodcastpeterriehl Check out the page that describes the benefits of a Patreon membership, including cool swag and bonus episodes. Thanks in advance for supporting my one-man show, my DIY podcast and my extensive reading, research, editing, and promoting to keep this independent podcast pumping out high-quality content! This is a passion project of mine, a DIY operation, and I'd love for your help in promoting what I'm convinced is a unique and spirited look at an often-ignored art form. The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com. Please tune in for Episode 245 with Shannon Sanders, who is a Black writer, attorney, and author of the linked story collection Company, which was winner of the 2023 LA Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. Additionally, her short fiction was the recipient of a 2020 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. The episode will go live on July 31. Lastly, please go to https://ceasefiretoday.com/, which features 10+ actions to help bring about Ceasefire in Gaza.
"Dark Archives" with author Megan Rosenbloom Join the Morbidly Curious Book Club Today: themorbidlycuriousbookclub.com “Anthropodermic books demand that we wrestle with mortality and what happens when immortality is thrust upon us, and they have clarified my own moral vision as a librarian and caretaker of what remains of the past. All of these realizations came to me over time. I started off with simply a healthy dose of morbid curiosity.” Welcome to the Morbidly Curious Book Club's Podcast! In this episode, we are discussing our January 2024 book pick, “DARK ARCHIVES: A Librarian's Investigation Into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin.” About: On bookshelves around the world, surrounded by ordinary books bound in paper and leather, rest other volumes of a distinctly strange and grisly sort: those bound in human skin. Would you know one if you held it in your hand? In Dark Archives, Megan Rosenbloom seeks out the historical and scientific truths behind anthropodermic bibliopegy--the practice of binding books in this most intimate covering. Dozens of such books live on in the world's most famous libraries and museums. Dark Archives exhumes their origins and brings to life the doctors, murderers, and indigents whose lives are sewn together in this disquieting collection. Along the way, Rosenbloom tells the story of how her team of scientists, curators, and librarians test rumored anthropodermic books, untangling the myths around their creation and reckoning with the ethics of their custodianship. Megan Rosenbloom was the co-founder and director of Death Salon, the event arm of The Order of the Good Death, and a proponent of the Death Positive movement. She leads a research team called The Anthropodermic Book Project that aims to find the historical and scientific truths behind the world's alleged books bound in human skin, or anthropodermic bibliopegy, and her bestselling debut book about this practice, titled Dark Archives: A Librarian's Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin, was a New York Times Editors Choice and won the 2021 LAMPHHS Best Monograph Award. In a former life, she was a journalist in Philadelphia and continues to write for both academic and non-academic publications. Megan's publications mentioned: [https://meganrosenbloom.com/publications/ Harvard article: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-27721571 Purchase Dark Archives here, if unavailable see if there's a used copy on PangoBooks!: https://bookshop.org/p/books/dark-archives-a-librarian-s-investigation-into-the-science-and-history-of-books-bound-in-human-skin-megan-rosenbloom/14220868?ean=9781250800169 Join the Patreon page here to donate: https://patreon.com/TheMorbidlyCuriousBookClub?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=join_link Inquiries: themorbidlycuriousbookclub@gmail.com
What happens when mental illness intersects with substance abuse in a culture of silence? While You Were Out, a New York Times Editors Choice book by award-winning journalist Meg Kissinger, is a searing memoir of a family besieged by mental illness, as well as an incisive exploration of the systems that failed them and a testament to the love that sustained them. Meg is a Pulitzer Prize finalist and has won dozens of accolades, including two George Polk Awards, the Robert F. Kennedy Award, Investigative Reporters and Editors, and two National Journalism Awards. Ms. Kissinger teaches investigative reporting at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and was a visiting professor at DePauw University, her alma mater. Meg's work and contact information can be accessed at https://www.megkissinger.com We're always interested in hearing from individuals or organizations who are working in substance use disorder treatment or prevention, mental health care and other spaces that lift up communities. This includes people living those experiences. If you or someone you know has a story to share or an interesting approach to care, contact us today! Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Subscribe to Our Email List to get new episodes in your inbox every week!
Elizabeth Nunez emigrated from Trinidad to the US at age 19. Winner of an American Book Award, an Independent Publishers Award, a PEN Josephine Miles Award, and a Hurston Wright Legacy Award, she is the author of a memoir and ten novels, four of which were selected as New York Times Editors Choice. She is the co-founder with John Oliver Killens of the National Black Writers Conference and executive producer of the series Black Writers in America. She has served on the jury for national and international literary prizes/awards, and is a Distinguished Professor at Hunter College, CUNY. She has one son, age 46, and two granddaughters ages 15 and 22, and describes writer-motherhood in 3 words as: "life-affirming essential."A few notes! The official Writer Mother Monster shop has everything from t-shirts and tea towels to onesies and undies so you can support the show in style! And this Mother's Day, May 14, treat yourself to a writing class with me, your host and the author of the story collection Animal Wife. We'll talk about writer-motherhood, share strategies for prioritizing our craft, and write. You'll leave the workshop armed with a plan for recommitting to your creative work. Finally, a special thanks to our sponsors and patrons listed on the Writer Mother Monster website. Your support helps make this show possible. If you enjoy this episode, please become a patron/ess to help keep this podcast going. For details on the store, class, and sponsorship, visit writermothermonster.comSupport the showIf you appreciate what you hear, consider becoming a patron/ess of Writer Mother Monster. Depending upon your level of support, you can tell me who you want to hear and topics you'd like to hear about, send me questions for guests in advance of interviews, receive a letter of thanks, a signed book–and more! Thank you for contributing to WMM's sustainability. www.writermothermonster.com/donate/
Charmaine Wilkerson joins Zibby to discuss her debut novel, Black Cake, which was already a Read with Jenna book club pick and a New York Times Editors Choice. The two talk about the moment Charmaine knew the story she was going to write, which experiences and feelings from her own life are infused in her writing, and the roundabout way she ultimately became a novelist. Charmaine also shares her extensive and diverse reading list and what she is working on next.Purchase on Amazon or Bookshop.Amazon: https://amzn.to/39jFrfyBookshop: https://bit.ly/3tt7S1uSubscribe to Zibby's weekly newsletter here.Purchase Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books merch here. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
When you face a difficult situation, how often have you heard someone say, ‘just use your head'? This week on the Evolving Leader podcast, Jean and Scott talk to acclaimed science writer Annie Murphy Paul who turns that around and says that in fact we ‘think outside the brain', suggesting that the people, things and space around us have a profound effect on how we think, feel and develop. Published in 2021, her book ‘The Extended Mind, The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain' has been awarded the New York Times Editors Choice and Washington Post Best Nonfiction Book of 2021. 0.00 Introduction2.26 Can we start with your background, and how you became interested in the biological and social sciences.4.46 Can we look at what the components are of the extended mind and could you give us some examples of the research that you have uncovered when talking to neuroscientists and psychologists that bring this to life.10.17 Can you tell us a little about how ‘the body knows before the mind'.13.35 What other thoughts and ideas could you share about how we could build greater awareness of our interoceptive processes?15.49 Could you talk to us about emotional reappraisal?19.30 What happens to our thinking when we are moving and what is the ideal amount of movement?24.02 How do gestures impact our thinking?27.14 Can we move to thinking about how extending the intelligence out of the mind to our surroundings29.47 What has been most surprising in all of this for you? 31.47 How has it changed you?33.36 Thinking about the challenges that are facing leaders, particularly around Covid and the decision to bring people back, when to work at home and when to work in a collaborative physical space. What are your insights there?35.50 What's next for you?37.34 Is there anything else that you would leave us with today? Social:Instagram @evolvingleaderLinkedIn The Evolving Leader PodcastTwitter @Evolving_Leader The Evolving Leader is researched, written and presented by Jean Gomes and Scott Allender with production by Phil Kerby. It is an Outside production.
Rachel Beanland writes essays and fiction and is the author of the debut novel, Florence Adler Swims Forever, which was released by Simon & Schuster (July 2020). The book was selected as the Barnes & Noble Book Club pick for July, and was named a Featured Debut by Amazon and an Indie Next pick by the American Booksellers Association. It was also named a New York Times Editors’ Choice and one of the best books of 2020 by USA Today. Rachel’s essays have appeared in Lit Hub, Business Insider, Creative Nonfiction, and Broad Street, among other places. She is a graduate of the University of South Carolina and earned her MFA in creative writing from Virginia Commonwealth University. Rachel lives in Richmond, Virginia with her family. In this episode, we chat about the story behind Florence Adler Swims Forever. Rachel decided to write the story as it was based on real life evens that happened in her family. We also talk about Atlantic City in the 1930's and the extraordinary achievements of Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to swim the English Channel. You can purchase Florence Adler Swims Forever here. You can follow Rachel here. Learn more about Martin Couney and his boardwalk incubators. Rachel's current favorite reads are: Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks Half A Life by Darin Strauss
Brian Christian is the author of The Most Human Human, which was named a Wall Street Journal bestseller, a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and a New Yorker favorite book of the year. He is the author, with Tom Griffiths, of Algorithms to Live By, a #1 Audible bestseller, Amazon best science book of the year and MIT Technology Review best book of the year. And his newest book is The Alignment Problem: Machine Learning and Human Values. AI has been a very hot topic of discussion among business leaders over the past few decades, and there are varying degrees of worry. Today Brian is sharing his view on AI and machine learning and whether we should be worried or not. He also explains why everyone should get to know more about AI, even if you aren’t in a technical role. In this episode of the podcast we explore: The history of AI and machine learning How questions from Elon Musk pushed Brian to write his book, The Alignment Problem What is supervised learning vs. reinforcement learning in regards to AI Potential problems we should look out for when it comes to AI What is an algorithm and what goes into creating one Advice for people who want to be more aware of this realm
Rowan Hisayo Buchanan is the author of Harmless Like You and Starling Days. She has won The Authors’ Club First Novel Award and a Betty Trask Award and been shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award. Her work has been a New York Times Editors’ Choice, an NPR Great Read. Rowan's first novel Harmless Like You.
Marie-Helene Bertino is the author of the novels PARAKEET (New York Times Editors’ Choice) and 2 A.M. AT THE CAT’S PAJAMAS (NPR Best Books 2014), and the story collection SAFE AS HOUSES (Iowa Short Fiction Award). Her fourth book, the novel BEAUTYLAND, is forthcoming from FSG. Her work has been translated into eight languages, and has received The Frank O’Connor International Short Story Fellowship in Cork, Ireland, The O. Henry Prize, The Pushcart Prize and two special mentions, fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, Hedgebrook Writers Colony, The Center For Fiction NYC, and Sewanee Writers Conference, where she was the Walter E. Dakin fellow. Her work has twice been featured on NPR’s “Selected Shorts” program. A former editor for One Story and Catapult, she teaches fiction in the MFA programs of NYU and The New School. In Spring 2020 she was the Distinguished Kittredge Visiting Writer in University of Montana’s MFA. She has worked as a biographer for people living with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). For more Thresholds, visit www.thisisthresholds.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Maya Dusenbery was our guest on the KAXE/KBXE Morning Show for our Strong Women Series made possible by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. We talked about gender bias in medicine. You can watch a facebook live event through the Brainerd Public Library's Friends of the Library Brown Bag Lunch series on Monday February 1st at noon. Free and open to the public. Maya Dusenbery is a journalist, editor, and author of the book Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick , which the New York Times Book Review called "well researched [and] wonderfully truculent." A New York Times Editors’ Choice pick, Doing Harm was named one of the best books of 2018 by NPR and Library Journal . It was the winner of the 2019 Minnesota Book Award for general nonfiction. Maya has been interviewed about gender bias in medicine on NPR’s Fresh Air , Good Morning America , and countless radio shows and podcasts. She regularly gives talks on the
Poet and essayist Elisa Gabbert is the guest. She is the author of The Unreality of Memory: And Other Essays. We get into: soul ravaging poetry, Sassy Magazine, the atmospheric charge of 2016, the unreality of our moment, morbid glee, and more! The Unreality of Memory collects provocative, searching essays on disaster culture, climate anxiety, and our mounting collective sense of doom. In this new collection, acclaimed poet and essayist Elisa Gabbert explores our obsessions with disasters past and future, from the sinking of the Titanic to Chernobyl, from witch hunts to the plague. These deeply researched, prophetic meditations question how the world will end―if indeed it will―and why we can’t stop fantasizing about it. Elisa Gabbert is the author of five collections of poetry, essays, and criticism: The Unreality of Memory & Other Essays, out now from FSG Originals and Atlantic UK; The Word Pretty (Black Ocean, 2018); L’Heure Bleue, or the Judy Poems (Black Ocean, 2016); The Self Unstable (Black Ocean, 2013); and The French Exit (Birds LLC, 2010). The Unreality of Memory and The Word Pretty were both named a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and The Self Unstable was chosen by the New Yorker as one of the best books of 2013. She writes a regular poetry column for the New York Times, and her work has appeared in Harper’s, The New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine and Book Review, the New York Review of Books, the Guardian Long Read, the London Review of Books, A Public Space, the Paris Review Daily, American Poetry Review, and many other venues. Theme music by Joseph E. Martinez of Junius Follow us on social at: Twitter: @WakeIslandPod Instagram: @wakeislandpod --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/wake-island/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/wake-island/support
We often hear that volunteering can lead you to places that will change your life. For Jessica Goudeau, volunteering led to starting a nonprofit that provided supplemental income for Burmese refugee artisans for seven years and then to writing After the Last Border: Two Families and the Story of Refuge in America, which was named a New York Times Editors’ Choice book. Jessica has a PHD n literature from the University of Texas and has spent over 10 years working with refugees in Austin. In our conversation, we discuss how Jessica’s friendships with “Mu Naw” and “Hasna” , inspired her to devote two years to writing her first book, and the ways her experiences helping refugees has transformed her life. We also discuss how the sentiment towards towards refugee resettlement in the USA has changed, and a few ways the refugee resettlement program is evolving. Jessica’s book recommendations: Kao Kalia Yang, Somewhere in the Unknown World Dina Nayeri, The Ungrateful Refugee Ahmed Badr, While the Earth Sleeps We Travel Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Displaced Follow the podcast or reach out @iwhjpodcast
On todays episode, Andrew Keen talks with Brian Christian about his new book, The Alignment Problem, and the question at the intersection of computer science, ethics, and the law that determines whether a statistical tool can be fair. Brian Christian is the author of The Most Human Human, which was named a Wall Street Journal bestseller, a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and a New Yorker favorite book of the year. He is the author, with Tom Griffiths, of Algorithms to Live By, a #1 Audible bestseller, Amazon best science book of the year and MIT Technology Review best book of the year. His third book, The Alignment Problem, has just been published in the US and is forthcoming in the UK and in translation in 2021. Christian’s writing has been translated into nineteen languages, and has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Wired, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Paris Review, and in scientific journals such as Cognitive Science. Christian has been featured on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Radiolab, and The Charlie Rose Show, and has lectured at Google, Facebook, Microsoft, the Santa Fe Institute, and the London School of Economics. His work has won several awards, including fellowships at Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony, publication in Best American Science & Nature Writing, and an award from the Academy of American Poets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Book (Wine) Club: Reading Between the Wines with Lauren Popish
Hello and welcome to Book Wine Club Season 2, a podcast where I, Lauren Popish, pair my latest read with a new wine, and then talk it out with my opinionated and inebriated co hosts, Ryan Consbruck and Julia Popish. On today’s episode Ryan, Julia, and I will discuss a story that asks if it’s ever really possible to overcome our private wounds, and at what cost. in Real Life by Brandon Taylor. This one’s got science, nachos, and an unexpected romance. In this episode, we will discuss the entire book, including our ratings. Today we’ll be pairing our read with a glass or three of Margins - Chenin Blanc Skin Fermented 2019. Pour yourself a glass and stay tuned.Link to book: https://amzn.to/2X0n9aOLink to wine: https://www.kingstonwine.com/wines/Margins-Chenin-Blanc-Skin-Fermented-2019-w7217480y8Real Life by Brandon TaylorAlmost everything about Wallace is at odds with the Midwestern university town where he is working uneasily toward a biochem degree. An introverted young man from Alabama, black and queer, he has left behind his family without escaping the long shadows of his childhood. For reasons of self-preservation, Wallace has enforced a wary distance even within his own circle of friends—some dating each other, some dating women, some feigning straightness. But over the course of a late-summer weekend, a series of confrontations with colleagues, and an unexpected encounter with an ostensibly straight, white classmate, conspire to fracture his defenses while exposing long-hidden currents of hostility and desire within their community. Real Life is a novel of profound and lacerating power, a story that asks if it’s ever really possible to overcome our private wounds, and at what cost.About the author:Brandon Taylor is the author of the novel Real Life, which was a New York Times Editors’ Choice. His work has appeared in Guernica, American Short Fiction, Gulf Coast, Buzzfeed Reader, O: The Oprah Magazine, Gay Mag, The New Yorker online, The Literary Review, and elsewhere. He is the senior editor of Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading and a staff writer at Lit Hub. He holds graduate degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where he was an Iowa Arts Fellow. About the wine:30 days of skin contact on organically farmed Chenin Blanc Clarksburg. Chenin is one of our favorite grapes, and the skin contact really makes an intense and lovely twist on the noble variety. Grapes are hand harvested, all ambient yeasts for the ferment, no filtering or fining, and all neutral oak vessels. A small sulfite dose for stability is the only thing added.
What is the world without literature? It’s hard to imagine. We’d lose novels, sure. But we’d also lose the philosophies, politics, and religions of today because these all grew out of literature. There would be no sacred texts, no newspapers, not even TV shows. This is how Martin Puchner’s 2018 book The Written World begins. Martin Puchner is a professor of English and Comparative Literature at Harvard and the author of the book The Written World which is a Wall Street Journal Bestseller and a New York Times Editors’ Choice. See more information on our website, WritLarge.fm. Follow us on Twitter @WritLargePod. Join the conversation on the Lyceum app.
Peter Kimani is an award-winning Kenyan author and journalist. He works across a broad spectrum of genres, from fiction to non-fiction, poetry, and plays. His latest novel, Dance of the Jakaranda, was published in New York in February 2017, to great critical acclaim. It’s a New York Times Editors’ Choice, among other accolades. On this podcast, we chat with the Kenyan about his newest book and how it came to be, why he needed to go abroad before he finally got a local publisher, and the new anthology "Nairobi Noir" published by Akashic Books earlier in the year.
Elisa Gabbert is obsessed with disasters and how we perceive them. In The Unreality of Memory, which was released last year in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Gabbert tackles pandemics, environmental disasters, the nature of pain and its perception, nostalgia and more. We talk about Gabbert's interest in these topics, the relationship between her poetry and her essays, and getting burned out on empathy. -- Elisa Gabbert is the author of five collections of poetry, essays, and criticism: The Unreality of Memory & Other Essays, out now from FSG Originals and Atlantic UK; The Word Pretty (Black Ocean, 2018); L’Heure Bleue, or the Judy Poems (Black Ocean, 2016); The Self Unstable (Black Ocean, 2013); and The French Exit (Birds LLC, 2010). The Unreality of Memory and The Word Pretty were both named a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and The Self Unstable was chosen by New Yorker magazine as one of the best books of 2013. Gabbert writes a regular poetry column for the New York Times, and her work has appeared in Harper’s, The New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine and Book Review, the New York Review of Books, the Guardian Long Read, the London Review of Books, A Public Space, the Paris Review Daily, American Poetry Review, and many other venues.
Over the last four years, Americans have heard a lot about Russian interference in our elections. David Shimer says we haven’t heard the whole story about the Cold War, 2016, or 2020. Shimer is an expert on election security, U.S.-Russian relations, and covert action. He is the author of “Rigged: America, Russia, and One Hundred Years of Covert Electoral Interference,” a New York Times Editors’ Choice book. His reporting and analysis have been published in the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Washington Post, and Foreign Affairs. He has appeared on CNN and MSNBC to discuss the threat of foreign election interference, and he has been interviewed by the New York Times, NPR, and Politico about American and Russian foreign policy. Shimer is an Associate Fellow of Yale University, where he received his undergraduate and master’s degrees in history, and is pursuing a doctorate in international relations at the University of Oxford as a Marshall Scholar. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
T Kira Madden is a writer, photographer, amateur magician, and a powerful voice and editor, earning fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, Hedgebrook, Tin House, the MacDowell Colony, and Yaddo. She is the founding Editor-in-chief of No Tokens, a journal celebrating work that is "felt in the spine, run entirely by women and non-binary individuals, dedicated to featuring the words and artwork of all voices of the past, present, and future, here to keep stories alive and to make a physical object to hold in your hands." Madden's 2019 memoir, Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls, was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, dropping you into a wildly colorful and character-filled childhood. She also teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and we explore all of this in today’s conversation.You can find T Kira Madden at: Website: http://www.tkiramadden.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tkiramadden/Check out our offerings & partners: NetSuite: Get NetSuite’s guide “Crushing the Five Barriers to Growth” when you go to netsuite.com/good now. You’ll learn how to attract new customers, increase profits, and finally get real visibility into your cash flow.Babbel: Right now, Babbel is offering our listeners three months free with a purchase of a three-month subscription with promo code GOODLIFE. Go to Babbel.com, and use promo code GOODLIFE on your three-month subscription.
Mina completed a doctorate in Classics but can’t find a tenure track position. She earns money by teaching adjunct classes and tutoring in Latin. Mina’s husband, Oscar, who works for his distant father importing Japanese beer, hopes that leaving New York City for a few months will help with Mina’s depression. While they’re in London, she plans to work on a paper studying mythological women, only a few of whom survived. Mina wonders if she is one of the ones who is going to win the battle. Today I talked to Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, author of Staring Days (The Overlook Press, 2020). She received her BA from Columbia University and her MFA from University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her first novel, Harmless Like You, was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and NPR Great Read. She is the editor of the GO HOME! Anthology, and her work has appeared in Granta, Guernica, the Guardian, and the Paris Review. When not writing or teaching, she spends her time painting, snacking on nut-butter or dried seaweed, and walking her dog. If you enjoyed today’s podcast and would like to discuss it further with me and other New Books network listeners, please join us on Shuffle. Shuffle is an ad-free, invite-only network focused on the creativity community. As NBN listeners, you can get special access to conversations with a dynamic community of writers and literary enthusiasts. Sign up by going to www.shuffle.do/NBN/join G.P. Gottlieb is the author of the Whipped and Sipped Mystery Series and a prolific baker of healthful breads and pastries. Please contact her through her website (GPGottlieb.com) if you wish to recommend an author (of a beautifully-written new novel) to interview, to listen to her previous podcast interviews, to read her mystery book reviews, or to check out some of her awesome recipes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mina completed a doctorate in Classics but can’t find a tenure track position. She earns money by teaching adjunct classes and tutoring in Latin. Mina’s husband, Oscar, who works for his distant father importing Japanese beer, hopes that leaving New York City for a few months will help with Mina’s depression. While they’re in London, she plans to work on a paper studying mythological women, only a few of whom survived. Mina wonders if she is one of the ones who is going to win the battle. Today I talked to Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, author of Staring Days (The Overlook Press, 2020). She received her BA from Columbia University and her MFA from University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her first novel, Harmless Like You, was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and NPR Great Read. She is the editor of the GO HOME! Anthology, and her work has appeared in Granta, Guernica, the Guardian, and the Paris Review. When not writing or teaching, she spends her time painting, snacking on nut-butter or dried seaweed, and walking her dog. If you enjoyed today’s podcast and would like to discuss it further with me and other New Books network listeners, please join us on Shuffle. Shuffle is an ad-free, invite-only network focused on the creativity community. As NBN listeners, you can get special access to conversations with a dynamic community of writers and literary enthusiasts. Sign up by going to www.shuffle.do/NBN/join G.P. Gottlieb is the author of the Whipped and Sipped Mystery Series and a prolific baker of healthful breads and pastries. Please contact her through her website (GPGottlieb.com) if you wish to recommend an author (of a beautifully-written new novel) to interview, to listen to her previous podcast interviews, to read her mystery book reviews, or to check out some of her awesome recipes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Look how people handle this very complicated tangled issue of morality and look at the extent they are willing to go to justify their actions. What I was trying to get to was that we’re all flawed." - Rajia Hassib Rajia Hassib was born and raised in Egypt and moved to the United States when she was twenty-three. Her first novel, In the Language of Miracles, was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and received an honorable mention from the Arab American Book Award. Her second novel, A Pure Heart, was published by Viking (Penguin) in August of 2019. She holds an MA in creative writing from Marshall University, and she has written for The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker online, and Literary Hub. She lives in Charleston, West Virginia with her husband and two children. CLICK HERE TO ENTER TO WIN A COPY OF A PURE HEART Connect with Rajia on Twitter, Instagram, on her website. Rajia's book recommendations: Salt Houses by Hala Alyan My Past is a Foreign Country: A Muslim Feminist Finds Herself by Zeba Talkhani The Beauty of Your Face by Sahar Mustafah A Curious Land by Susan Muaddi Darraj (listen to Susan's episode here!) Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo -- We donate 5% of all our sales to a different feminist organization each month. Our February charity is the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice. Get $5 off your Feminist Book Club Box with the code PODCAST at feministbookclub.com/shop. --- FBC ON TOUR! March 1: The Price of Salt discussion at The Irreverent Bookworm (Minneapolis, MN) March 7: FeMNist Night Market at the Palace Theatre (St. Paul, MN) March 28-29: Twin Cities Women's Expo at Rosedale Center (Roseville, MN) May 9: Wordplay 2020 at The Loft (Minneapolis, MN) May 30-31: BookCon at Javits Center (NYC) -- Website: http://www.feministbookclub.com Instagram: @feministbookclubbox Twitter: @fmnstbookclub Facebook: /feministbookclubbox Goodreads: Renee // Feminist Book Club Box and Podcast Email newsletter: http://bit.ly/FBCemailupdates -- This podcast is produced on the native land of the Dakota, Sioux, and Anishinabewaki peoples. Logo and web design by Shatterboxx Editing support from Phalin Oliver Original music by @iam.onyxrose Transcript for this episode: bit.ly/FBCtranscript64
A mother never wants to hear an explosion inside the house. Debra Marquart is a Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University and Iowa’s Poet Laureate. Marquart is the author of six books including an environmental memoir of place, The Horizontal World: Growing Up Wild in the Middle of Nowhere a collection of poems, Small Buried Things: Poem, and a short story collection, The Hunger Bone: Rock & Roll Stories. Marquart’s work has been featured on NPR and the BBC and has received over 50 grants and awards including an NEA Fellowship, a PEN USA Award, and a New York Times Editors’ Choice commendation. She is Senior Editor of Flyway: Journal of Writing & Environment, and teaches in ISU’s MFA Program in Creative Writing and Environment and in the Stonecoast Low-Residency MFA Program. Her next book, Gratitude with Dogs Under Stars: New & Collected Poems, is forthcoming from New Rivers Press in 2021. “Kablooey is the Sound You’ll Hear,” can be found in the anthology, Bullets into Bells: Poets & Citizens Respond to Gun Violence. Eds. Brian Clements, Alexandra Teague, and Dean Rader. Beacon Press, 2017: 112-113.
A speeding car can bring a greater death any day. Debra Marquart is a Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University and Iowa’s Poet Laureate. A memoirist, poet, and performing musician, Marquart is the author of six books including an environmental memoir of place, The Horizontal World: Growing Up Wild in the Middle of Nowhere and a collection of poems, Small Buried Things: Poems. Marquart’s short story collection, The Hunger Bone: Rock & Roll Stories drew on her experiences as a former road musician. A singer/songwriter, she continues to perform solo and with her jazz-poetry performance project, The Bone People, with whom she has recorded two CDs. Marquart’s work has been featured on NPR and the BBC and has received over 50 grants and awards including an NEA Fellowship, a PEN USA Award, a New York Times Editors’ Choice commendation, and Elle Magazine’s Elle Lettres Award. The Senior Editor of Flyway: Journal of Writing & Environment, Marquart teaches in ISU’s interdisciplinary MFA Program in Creative Writing and Environment and in the Stonecoast Low-Residency MFA Program at the University of Southern Maine. Her next book, Gratitude with Dogs Under Stars: New & Collected Poems, is forthcoming from New Rivers Press in 2021.
Josephine Rowe’s, Here Until August, is a selection of superbly crafted stories follow the fates of characters who, by choice or by force, are travelling beyond the boundaries of their known worlds. Josephine joins Mel to discuss this new work. Josephine’s novel, A Loving, Faithful Animal, was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award, selected as a New York Times Editors’ Choice and led to her being named a 2017 Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist.Lisa Dempster is the Executive Manager Public Participation at Yarra Plenty Regional Library. She was formerly the Artistic Director/CEO of Melbourne Writers Festival and she joins Mel to talk about the Yarra Plenty Regional Library 11th Annual Booklovers Festival. Chock a block with great activities across nine libraries, it truly is three weeks of book loving goodness for anyone living in the Yarra Plenty area (and anyone who isn’t!).
Bill welcomes award-winning suspense novelist Lori Roy to the show. Lori Roy's debut novel, BENT ROAD, was awarded the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best First Novel by an American Author. Her work has been twice named a New York Times Notable Crime Book and included on various best of lists and summer reading lists. UNTIL SHE COMES HOME was a New York Times Editors' Choice and a Finalist for the Edgar Allen Poe award for Best Novel. LET ME DIE IN HIS FOOTSTEPS also received the 2016 Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best Novel, making Lori the first woman to receive an Edgar Award for both Best First Novel and Best Novel, and she is only the third person to have ever done so. Her latest, GONE TOO LONG, just hit shelves this June.
Saadia interviews Jade Chang. Jade is the author of The Wangs vs. the World. The book has been named a New York Times Editors Choice as well as best Book of the Year by Amazon, Buzzfeed, NPR, and others. Jade has appeared on national programs and she has spoken to audiences at universities and book festivals. According to NPR "Her book is unrelentingly fun, but it is also raw and profane—a story of fierce pride, fierce anger, and even fiercer love." She is also the contributing writer to The Good Immigrant USA. Her essay titled "How to Center Your Story" is the perfect ending to the book. They talk about her writing, the notion of the American Dream and how Jade felt "othered" after the 2016 elections. Become a supporter of this podcast:
Author TaraShea Nesbit will discuss her essay, “See What You Do to Me,” from the Summer 2018 issue of Granta. We’ll dive into her journey as a writer and discuss the choices she made in writing about girlhood, vulnerability, sexual trauma, and class. TaraShea Nesbit is the author of The Wives of Los Alamos, which was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, a finalist for the PEN/Bingham Prize, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection, an Indies Next Pick, a Library Journal Best Debut, and the recipient of two New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards. Her prose has been featured in Granta, The Guardian, Fourth Genre, The Collagist, Quarterly West, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Iowa Review and elsewhere. Her second novel, BEHELD, about the Mayflower pilgrims, will be published in March 2020. She is an Assistant Professor in Fiction and Nonfiction at Miami University. More of her work can be located at www.tarasheanesbit.com. To purchase her book, you can order it on Amazon, Barnes and Nobel, Powell's, and other major retailers.
Porochista Khakpour's debut novel Sons and Other Flammable Objects was a New York Times Editor's Choice, one of the Chicago Tribune's Fall's Best, and the 2007 California Book Award winner in the 'First Fiction' category. Her second novel The Last Illusion was a 2014 "Best Book of the Year" according to NPR, Kirkus, Buzzfeed, Popmatters, Electric Literature, and many more. Among her many fellowships is a National Endowment for the Arts award. Her nonfiction has appeared in many sections of The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Elle, Slate, Salon, and Bookforum, among many others. Sick is Khakpour's grueling, emotional journey - as a woman, an Iranian-American, a writer, and a lifelong sufferer of undiagnosed health problems - in which she examines her subsequent struggles with mental illness and her addiction to doctor prescribed benzodiazepines, that both aided and eroded her ever-deteriorating physical health. A story of survival, pain, and transformation, Sick candidly examines the colossal impact of illness on one woman's life by not just highlighting the failures of a broken medical system but by also boldly challenging our concept of illness narratives.Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore is the author of a memoir and three novels, and the editor of five nonfiction anthologies. Her memoir, The End of San Francisco, won a Lambda Literary Award, and her most recent anthology, Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?: Flaming Challenges to Masculinity, Objectification, and the Desire to Conform, was an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book. Mattilda's new novel, Sketchtasy, is out in October. Sketchtasy brings 1990s gay culture startlingly back to life, as Alexa, an incisive twenty-one-year-old queen, and her friends grapple with the impact of growing up at a time when desire and death are intertwined. With an intoxicating voice and unruly cadence, this is a shattering, incandescent novel that conjures the pain and pageantry of struggling to imagine a future. Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.
Andre Dubus III, whose latest novel is “Gone So Long,” in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky. Gone So Long focuses on an ex-con in Boston, sent to prison for killing his wife, who drives to Florida to visit the daughter he never knew, and on the daughter herself and how that violence affected her life and the lives of those around her. Andre Dubus III is the author of seven books: The Cage Keeper and Other Stories, Bluesman, and the New York Times bestsellers, House of Sand and Fog, The Garden of Last Days, Gone So Long and his memoir, Townie, a #4 New York Times bestseller and a New York Times “Editors Choice”. His work has been included in The Best American Essays of 1994 and The Best Spiritual Writing of 1999, and his novel, House of Sand and Fog was a finalist for the National Book Award, a #1 New York Times Bestseller, and was made into an Academy Award-nominated film starring Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connelly. Dirty Love was published in the fall of 2013 and was listed as a New York Times “Notable Book”, a New York Times Editors'Choice”, a 2013 “Notable Fiction” choice from The Washington Post, and a Kirkus “Starred Best Book of 2013”. As a narrator of his audio books, he has won an Audiofile “Best Voices of the Year” award for his 2011 memoir, Townie, (Blackstone Audiobooks), a 2013 “Earphones” award for Dirty Love, (Audible), and is a 2014 Finalist for an “Audie Award” for his short story collection, The Cage Keeper and Other Stories, (Blackstone Audiobooks). Andre Dubus website The post Andre Dubus III appeared first on KPFA.
Patrick deWitt is the author of The Sisters Brothers, which won the Governor General's Award and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Walter Scott Prize. He also is the author of Ablutions, which was a New York Times Editor's Choice, and Undermajordomo Minor. The Sisters Brothers is being adapted for film by Jacques Audiard (Rust and Bone, A Prophet), to star Jake Gyllenhaal, Joaquin Phoenix, Riz Ahmed and John C. Reilly, for release in 2018. His latest novel is French Exit. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Bill welcomes celebrated novelist Andre Dubus III to the show. Andre is the author of six books, including the New York Times’ bestsellers House of Sand and Fog, The Garden of Last Days, and his memoir, Townie.Dirty Love, was a New York Times “Notable Book” selection, a New York Times “Editors’ Choice”, a 2013 “Notable Fiction” choice from The Washington Post, and a Kirkus “Starred Best Book of 2013”. Andre has been a finalist for the National Book Award, and has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, The National Magazine Award for Fiction, two Pushcart Prizes, and is a 2012 recipient of an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature. We will be discussing his latest book, Gone So Long. Don't miss it!
This week we're sharing stories about love that stands the test of time, transcending illness, differences, and even death. In other words -- break out that box of tissues, y'all. Part 1: Writer Alison Smith reconnects with her estranged father after he develops Alzheimer's disease. Part 2: Science journalist Peter Brannen mourns the loss of his mother while studying the earth’s biggest mass extinction. Alison Smith is a writer and performer. Her writing has appeared in Granta, McSweeney’s, The London Telegraph, The New York Times, The Believer, Real Simple, Glamour and other publications. Her memoir Name All the Animals was named one of the top ten books of the year by People and was shorted-listed for the Book-Sense Book-of-the-Year Award. Smith has been awarded Barnes & Noble Discover Award, the Judy Grahn Prize and a Lambda Literary Award. The grand-prize winner of 2017’s Ko Festival Story Slam, Smith portrays Jane Jacobs in the Amazon series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. She lives in Brooklyn, NY. Peter Brannen is an award-winning science journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Wired, The Boston Globe, Aeon, Slate and The Guardian among other publications. His book, "The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans and Our Quest to Understand Earth's Past Mass Extinctions," is soon to be released in paperback. Published by Ecco in 2017, it was a New York Times Editor's Choice and was named one of the "10 Best Environment, Climate Science and Conservation Books of 2017" by Forbes. Note: This June, The Story Collider will be celebrating Pride Month by highlighting stories about the intersection of science and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer issues. Each of our five episodes this month will include one of these stories, and you can follow us on Twitter and Instagram this month as we also share highlights from our back catalog as well. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Bill welcomes author Debra Dean to the show. Debra Dean is the bestselling author of four critically acclaimed books that have been published in twenty-one languages. Her debut novel, The Madonnas of Leningrad, was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, a #1 Booksense Pick, a Booklist Top Ten Novel, and an American Library Association Notable Book of the Year. We will be discussing her newest book, Hidden Tapestry: Jan Yoors, His Two Wives, and the War That Made Them One. Don't miss it!
John Kaag is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and is the author of American Philosophy: A Love Story, published in October by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, that was recently named an New York Times Editors’ Choice and one of the Best Books of 2016 by National Public Radio. His writing has been featured in the NYT, WSJ, Harper’s, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. In this episode, Jon interviews John about his book American Philosophy, A Love Story. Social media for John Kaag: Twitter GoodReads The post American Philosophy, A Love Story – Ep 8 with John Kaag appeared first on Read Learn Live Podcast.
Why do Indigenous people kill themselves in such numbers? What do we know about suicide that can help us understand this? Can we overcome the tragedy of young people dying in a suicide epidemic? Jesse Bering is an award-winning science writer. His "Bering in Mind" column at Scientific American was a 2010 Webby Award Honoree. Bering's first book, The Belief Instinct (2011), was included on the American Library Association's Top 25 Books of the Year. This was followed by a collection of essays--the critically acclaimed Why Is the Penis Shaped Like That? (2012), and Perv (2013), a New York Times Editor's Choice. All three books have been translated into many different languages. An expert in psychology and religion, he began his career at the University of Arkansas, as an Assistant Professor of Psychology from 2002-2006. He then served as the Director of the Institute of Cognition and Culture at the Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, where he was a Reader in the School of History and Anthropology until 2011. Presently, he is Associate Professor of Science Communication at the University of Otago, New Zealand. His next book, on the science of suicidology, will be released in 2017. Vanessa Lee, from the Wik and Meriam Nations, resides on the land of the Gadigal people. She is a social epidemiologist, educator, writer and public health/ health sciences researcher in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Sydney. Her area of expertise is Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health service delivery. Vanessa was the first National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Vice President of the Public Health Association of Australia for a period of four years where she contributed to significant changes in policies for Indigenous people. She is a director on the board for Suicide Prevention Australia. Dr Lee chairs the Public Health Indigenous Leaders in Education Network and is on the executive board of the Australian Health Care Reform Alliance. She holds expert advisory positions with Close the Gap Steering Committee, the International Group of Indigenous Health Measurement and the Sydney Centre of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Statistics. All of the research, engagement and curriculum development that Vanessa is involved in are directed towards the overarching goal of improving the determinants of health, efficacy and linkages of services for better health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Sheila Watt-Cloutier currently resides in Iqaluit, Nunavut. She was born in Kuujjuaq, Nunavik (northern Quebec), and was raised traditionally in her early years before attending school in southern Canada and in Manitoba. Ms. Watt-Cloutier was an elected political spokesperson for Inuit for over a decade. She is the past Chair of Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC), the organization that represents internationally the 155,000 Inuit of Canada, Greenland, Alaska, and Chukotka in the Far East of the Federation of Russia and was previously the President of ICC Canada. During the past several years, Ms. Watt-Cloutier has worked through the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to defend Inuit human rights against the impacts of climate change. She has received many awards in recognition of her work. In November, 2015 she was one of 4 Laureates to receive “The Right Livelihood Award” considered the Nobel Alternative, awarded in the Parliament of Sweden. Her recently published book The Right To Be Cold has been shortlisted for the B.C. National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for political writing and the Cobo emerging writer prize.
Suddenly it’s not queer to hear people talking about 'gender fluidity’, ‘gender transition’ or a spectrum of gender identity – did the world conversation decide gender no longer matters? And if the biological constraints of gender have been loosened, how do we deal with enduring gender-based social inequality and injustice? Jesse Bering is an award-winning science writer. His "Bering in Mind" column at Scientific American was a 2010 Webby Award Honoree. Bering's first book, The Belief Instinct (2011), was included on the American Library Association's Top 25 Books of the Year. This was followed by a collection of essays - the critically acclaimed Why Is the Penis Shaped Like That? (2012), and Perv (2013), a New York Times Editor's Choice. All three books have been translated into many different languages. An expert in psychology and religion, he began his career at the University of Arkansas, as an Assistant Professor of Psychology from 2002-2006. He then served as the Director of the Institute of Cognition and Culture at the Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, where he was a Reader in the School of History and Anthropology until 2011. Presently, he is Associate Professor of Science Communication at the University of Otago, New Zealand. His next book, on the science of suicidology, will be released in 2017. Raewyn Connell is one of Australia's leading social scientists. She is best known internationally as a sociologist of gender and a pioneer of research on masculinities and best known in Australia for work on class inequality and social justice in education. She’s author or co-author of 23 books including Gender In World Perspective,Southern Theory, Masculinities, Schools & Social Justice, Gender & Power, Making the Difference, and Ruling Class Ruling Culture. Her work has been translated into 18 languages. She is a long-term participant in the labour movement and peace movement, and is now Professor Emerita at the University of Sydney, and a Life Member of the NTEU. Cordelia Fine is an Associate Professor at Melbourne Business School, University of Melbourne. Her second popular science book, Delusions of Gender: The Real Science of Sex Differences was described as “a welcome corrective” (Nature), ”carefully researched and reasoned" (Science) and “required reading for every neurobiology student, if not every human being.” (PLoS Biology). It was short-listed for the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Non-Fiction, the Best Book of Ideas Prize (UK), the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for Literature (UK) and the international cross-genre Warwick Prize (2013), and the New York Times advised readers to "read this book". Cordelia also writes regularly for the popular press, including pieces in The Monthly, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Guardian and Financial Times, and her latest book, Testosterone Rex, will be published in early 2017. Elizabeth Anne Riley, PhD is a Sydney-based counsellor, academic & clinical supervisor specialising in gender diversity. Elizabeth has extensive experience working with gender diverse clients and has a PhD titled ‘The needs of gender variant children and their parents’ Elizabeth also has a Masters in Counselling and provides gender specific support and counselling for children, youth & their families. Elizabeth delivers professional development in gender diversity for schools, clinicians and other service providers and has 10 publications in the area of gender identity. As an advocate for the trans community Elizabeth appears for Mardis Gras interviewing transgender trailblazers, including Chaz Bono and Catherine MacGregor. Elizabeth’s media presence includes Insight, 60 Minutes, A Current Affair, The Project, ABC’s 7.30, Radio National & JJJ.
In this episode, Arthur A. Levine, Vice President and Publisher of Arthur A. Levine Books, joins us to talk about the authors, topics, and books that he has championed throughout his career. Authors Francisco Stork (Marcelo in the Real World, The Memory of Light) and Mike Jung (Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities, Unidentified Suburban Object) will also join us to talk about their new work. Guests: Arthur A. Levine is Vice President and Publisher of Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc. Throughout his career, Levine has edited and championed an exceptional and diverse group of writers and artists, including Emma Donoghue, J.K. Rowling, Lisa Yee, Jaclyn Moriarty, Shaun Tan, Sundee Frazier, and Dan Santat. The imprint publishes Varian Johnson, Francisco Stork, Eric Gansworth, Sarwat Chadda, and many others. Arthur is also a leading publisher of books-in-translation, introducing American children to such writers as Daniella Carmi (Israel), Josef Holub and Wolfgang Herrndorf (Germany), Luis Sepulveda (Chile), Laura Gallego Garcia (Spain), Silvana Gandolfi (Italy), Nahoko Uehashi and Komako Sakai (Japan), Sylvie Weil (France), Guus Kuijer, Karlijn Stoffels, and Marcel Prins (The Netherlands), and Anne Provoost (Belgium). Arthur A. Levine Books is also recognized for having brought out the first contemporary YA novel translated from the Russian, Playing a Part, an LGBT coming-of age-story by Daria Wilke. Follow @AALBooks on Twitter. Francisco X. Stork is the author of the acclaimed Marcelo in the Real World which received five starred reviews and won the Schneider Family Book Award for Teens; The Last Summer of the Death Warriors, which was named a New York Times Editors’ Choice selection; and Irises. His most recent young adult novel, The Memory of Light, was recently published and has already received four starred reviews. Francisco was born in Monterrey, Mexico, spent his teenage years in El Paso, Texas, and now lives outside Boston, Massachusetts, with his family. Mike Jung is the author of Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities and Unidentified Suburban Object. He has contributed to the anthologies Dear Teen Me, Break These Rules, and 59 Reasons to Write. Mike is a library professional by day, a writer by night, and a semi-competent ukulele player during all the times in between. He is proud to be a founding member of the #WeNeedDiverseBooks team. Mike lives in Oakland, California, with his wife and two young children. Find Mike at www.mikejung.com. Additional resources: Learn more about Arthur A. Levine Books here. Learn more about We Need Diverse Books here. Read an excerpt of The Memory of Light. Special thanks: Music composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl Sound mix and editing by Daniel Jordan Produced by Megan Kaesshaefer
Peter Nathaniel Malae is the author of the novels, Our Frail Blood (2013), an epic about the dissolution of an American family in three generations; What We Are (2010), a New York Times Editor's Choice, winner of the San Francisco Foundation's Joseph Henry Jackson Award and a finalist for the Pacific Northwest Book Award; and the story collection, Teach the Free Man (2007), a finalist for the New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction Award, the Glasgow Prize and a notable book selection by the Story Prize. His play, The Question (2015), won the Oregon Literary Arts Fellowship for Drama. He is a former John Steinbeck, Arts Council Silicon Valley and MacDowell Colony Fellow.
Show #110, Hour 1 | Guest: Lillian Faderman is an internationally known scholar of lesbian history and literature, as well as ethnic history and literature. Her new book, The Gay Revolution, is a New York Times Editors’ Choice. Among her many honors are six Lambda Literary Awards, two American Library Association Awards, and several lifetime achievement awards for scholarship, including Yale University's James Brudner Award, the Monette/Horwitz Award, the Publishing Triangle Award, the ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives Culture Hero Award, and the American Association of University Women's Distinguished Senior Scholar Award. | Show Summary: Author Lillian Faderman documents the history of LGBT Community efforts to build positive public opinion in The Gay Revolution: They Story of the Struggle.
This summer, the Modern Hotel and Radio Boise began hosting Campfire Stories, a series of readings produced by Christian Winn and showcasing the work of Idaho’s rich literary community. Featuring original fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, screenplay, and other forms of writing, the series can be heard every second Monday throughout the summer and will continue into the fall. Campfire Stories, No. 6 features Alan Heathcock and David Abrams ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Alan Heathcock’s VOLT was a “Best Book” selection from numerous newspapers and magazines, including GQ, Publishers Weekly, Salon, the Chicago Tribune, and Cleveland Plain Dealer, was named as a New York Times Editors’ Choice, selected as a Barnes and Noble Best Book of the Month, as well as a finalist for the Barnes and Noble Discover Prize. Heathcock has won a Whiting Award, the GLCA New Writers Award, a National Magazine Award, has been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Lannan Foundation, and the Idaho Commission on the Arts. A native of Chicago, he lives and works in Boise, Idaho. David Abrams is the author of Fobbit (Grove/Atlantic, 2012), a comedy about the Iraq War which Publishers Weekly called “an instant classic” and named a Top 10 Pick for Literary Fiction in Fall 2012. It was also a New York Times Notable Book of 2012, an Indie Next pick, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, a Montana Honor Book, and a finalist for the L.A. Times’ Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. His short stories have appeared in Fire and Forget (Da Capo Press, 2013) and Home of the Brave: Somewhere in the Sand (Press 53), anthologies of short fiction about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Other stories, essays and reviews have been published in Esquire, Narrative, Salon, Salamander, Connecticut Review, The Greensboro Review, Consequence, and many other publications. He earned a BA in English from the University of Oregon and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. He retired from active-duty after serving in the U.S. Army for 20 years, a career which took him to Alaska, Texas, Georgia, the Pentagon, and Iraq. He now lives in Butte, Montana with his wife. His blog, The Quivering Pen, can be found at: www.davidabramsbooks.blogspot.com Visit his website at: www.davidabramsbooks.com
The Great Glass Sea (Grove Press) In The Course of Human Events (Soft Skull Press) Join us for a captivating reading from two dynamic writers of fiction. Josh Weil's critically acclaimed 2009 novella collection The New Valley was the winner of the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction, a National Book Foundation “5 Under 35” selection, and a New York Times Editor's Choice. He follows this success with his debut novel, The Great Glass Sea, an epic, dystopian tale inspired by the true story of Agrikombinat Moskovsky, an area on the outskirts of Moscow that was transformed into a 24 hour greenhouse. Set in an alternate present, Weil spins a tale of brotherly love steeped in Russian folklore that will appeal to fans of Cormac McCarthy's The Road and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, beautifully illustrated throughout with Weil's own line drawings. In this thrilling debut novel - equal parts satire and morality play - Mike Harvkey shines a sharp light on the dark and radical underbelly of the floundering American Midwest. As he leads us down the violent spiral of a desperate youth, he explores with unflinching acuity the ugly nature of hate, the untempered force of personality, and the sometimes horrific power of having someone believe in you. Praise for Josh Weil "Weil meticulously imagines people and their histories, and presents them as a product of their places. This is perhaps the hardest thing for a fiction writer of any age, working in any form, to accomplish.."--Anthony Doerr, New York Times Book Review "[Weil] gives voice to those without, to those entombed on forgotten hillsides, to those orphaned and tending calves and tractors, reminding us that no matter how isolated, how lonely, tender hearts burn everywhere, they burn bright, and they burn on."--Don Waters, The Believer Praise for Mike Harvkey "With this stunning debut, a major new talent bursts upon the world of American Letters. In the Course of Human Events is as brave as it is brilliant, as unsettling as it is important, and unlike anything else I've read. Mike Harvkey writes scenes of uncommon imagination, characters that leap to life at a single stroke. They will grab you in a bear hug, or by the throat (and sometimes both), and carry you along through a story every bit as gripping. A fearless exploration of an uncomfortable corner of the human heart--and an America little examined and even less understood--this is an important novel. Add to that the fact that it's also so damn funny and here comes one hell of a book." - Josh Weil, author of "The New Valley" "In the Course of Human Events is a dark, and yet compassionate gaze into the frustrated, violent, and broken heart of America. Mike Harvkey has written a gripping, bold and daring novel unlike any I've had the pleasure of reading before."--Dinaw Mengestu, MacArthur Genius Fellow and author of "How to Read the Air" and "The Wonderful Things that Heaven Bears" Josh Weil is the author of the The Great Glass Sea (Grove, 2014) and The New Valley (Grove, 2009), a New York Times Editors Choice that won the Sue Kaufman Prize from The American Academy of Arts and Letters, the New Writers Award from the GLCA, and a “5 Under 35” Award from the National Book Foundation. Weil's other writing has appeared in Granta, Esquire, One Story, The Sun, and The New York Times. A recipient of fellowships from the Fulbright Foundation, MacDowell, Bread Loaf and Sewanee Writers' Conferences, he has been Distinguished Visiting Writer at Bowling Green State University and Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi. He lives in the northern the Sierra Nevada mountains. Mike Harvkey grew up in rural northwest Missouri, near the city of Independence, a crystal meth stronghold long before Breaking Bad. When he moved to New York in 2001 to attend Columbia's Creative Writing MFA Program as a Bingham Fellow, he began training Kyokushin, a brutal form of martial art known for bare-knuckle fighting, and was promoted to black belt in 2006. One of his short stories won Zoetrope All-Story Magazine's short fiction contest; others have been published in Mississippi Review and Alaska Quarterly Review.
Josh Weil's The New Valley, published last year, was honored with a "5 Under 35" National Book Award and was a New York Times Editors Choice selection. It recently was honored with the 2010 New Writers Award in Fiction from the Great Lakes Colleges Association.Set in the hardscrabble hill country between West Virginia and Virginia, the three linked novellas open up the private worlds of three very different men as they confront love, loss, and their own personal demons.Weil's fiction has been published in Granta, American Short Fiction, Narrative, and Glimmer Train. He has written nonfiction for The New York Times, Granta Online, and Poets and Writers. Since earing his MFA from Columbia University, he has received a Fulbright grant, a Writer's Center Emerging Writer Fellowship, the Dana Award in Portfolio, and fellowships from the Bread Loaf and Sewanee Writers' conferences. As the 2009 Tickner Fellow, Josh Weil is the writer-in-residence at Gilman School in Baltimore.Recorded On: Wednesday, January 27, 2010