Episode Forty-four

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photo of Yanyi

Photo of Yanyi, taken by him

In this episode I spoke with Yanyi about his new book, Dream of the Divided Field, and his newsletter, The Reading.

Yanyi is the author of Dream of the Divided Field (One World Random House, 1 March 2022) and The Year of Blue Water (Yale University Press 2019), winner of the 2018 Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize. His work has been featured in or at NPR’s All Things Considered, New York Public Library, Granta, and New England Review, and he is the recipient of fellowships from Asian American Writers’ Workshop and Poets House. He holds an MFA in Poetry from New York University and was most recently poetry editor at Foundry. Currently, he teaches creative writing at large and gives writing advice at The Reading.

Yanyi's website
You can purchase Dream of the Divided Field here
Yanyi's Twitter
Yanyi's Instagram

Various books, movies, podcasts, etc. mentioned in this episode:

Editor and Social Media Manager: Mitchel Davidovitz

Host and Producer: Avren Keating

Sound of Waves Breaking: Sounds from this video of Merlin, my sweet 5-year-old Frenchie that died of a brain tumor in-between recording and editing this episode. I love you, little bubs.

Episode Forty

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larkin author photo.jpg

In this episode, I spoke with Larkin Christie about their book gather all your supple creatures. 

Larkin Christie is a queer poet living on unceded Pocumtuc land in what is currently known as Western Massachusetts. Their second collection, gather all your supple creatures, is out now. Their creative work draws on experiences as an educator, organizer, and dancer. 

Larkin's website

Larkin's Instagram

Go buy gather all your supple creatures!

 

Quotes, workshop, and media mentioned in this episode:

In Surreal Life, workshop

Honeyfitz, band

From Larkin: "I just did some research and the quote is actually by Shelly Smith, published in June Jordan’s Poetry for the People: A Revolutionary Blueprint. It is 'Deciding whom to publish, whose words are important or good or right, whose message is valuable, is about politics. Self-publishing is about power, about taking the responsibility to disseminate your words yourself.'

Editor and Social Media Manager: Mitchel Davidovitz

Sound of Waves Breaking: "Larks in Limburg, Netherlands.mp3" by @robkuster

Episode Thirty-eight

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rainie.jpg

In this episode I spoke with Rainie Oet about their recent publication Glorious Veils of Diane. 

Content warning: We talk a lot about blood and some about self-harming.

Rainie Oet is a nonbinary writer and game designer, former Editor-in-Chief of Salt Hill Journal, and the author of Glorious Veils of Diane (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2021), as well as two other books: Porcupine in Freefall and Inside Ball Lightning. They have an MFA in Poetry from Syracuse University, where they were awarded the Shirley Jackson Prize in Fiction. 

Artists, books, films, games etc. mentioned in this episode:

The Sound of Waves Breaking: "Sanchon Drum - Seoul Korea" by RTB45

Editor and Social Media Manager: Mitchel Davidovitz

Episode Thirty-four

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Photo by Laurence Philomène

Photo by Laurence Philomène

This month I got to speak with Kama La Mackerel about their just-released book, ZOM-FAM, published by Metonymy Press. We go in-depth in discussion about their decolonial artistic practices and inspiration for the book.

Kama La Mackerel is a Montreal-based Mauritian-Canadian multi-disciplinary artist, educator, writer, community-arts facilitator and literary translator who works within and across performance, photography, installations, textiles, digital art and literature. Kama’s work is grounded in the exploration of justice, love, healing, decoloniality, hybridity, cosmopolitanism and self- and collective-empowerment. They believe that aesthetic practices have the power to build resilience and act as resistance to the status quo, thereby enacting an anticolonial practice through cultural production.

Kama has exhibited and performed their work internationally and their writing in English, French and Kreol has appeared in publications both online and in print. They have lived in far-flung places such as Pune, India and Peterborough, Ontario. ZOM-FAM, their debut poetry collection is published by Metonymy Press.

GO BUY ZOM-FAM!

Kama's website

Media, artists, books, etc mentioned in this episode:

The Sound of Waves Breaking: "Ay Ay Lolo" by Menwar

Editor and Social Media Manager: Mitchel Davidovitz

Episode Thirty-three

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kiki nicole

In this episode, I spoke with poet kiki nicole about their manuscript, Autobiography of the boi Venus which not published (yet!), their embroidery work, film work, and current interests.

kiki nicole is a Black, Queer, and Non-binary multimedia artist and poet based in Charlotte, North Carolina.. They’ve received invitations to fellowships such as Pink Door Writing Retreat, The Watering Hole, and Winter Tangerine. kiki nicole is currently a reader for Muzzle Magazine. They work to explore a Black, queer, femme & genderless universe that un/bodies, un/genders, & re/news, kiki hopes to lend a voice for the void in which Black femmes not only exist in plain view, but thrive.

from kiki’s Autobiography of the boi Venus, also using a still from ariella tai’s "she's not going to get more dead"

from kiki’s Autobiography of the boi Venus, also using a still from ariella tai’s "she's not going to get more dead"

kiki’s site

kiki’s instagram

Donation link to support kiki

Media, artists, books, etc mentioned in this episode:

The sound of waves breaking is Sylvester's “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real).”

This episode was edited and social media managed by Mitchel Davidovitz.

Stay safe, everyone!!

Episode Thirty-two

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Photo credit: Ananda Lima

Photo credit: Ananda Lima

Như and I discussed her recent chapbook A System of Satellites and her writing practice, finding dignity as a trans poet, and writing past ingrained fear and doubt.

She also asked me questions. Hear me stumble trying to answer questions about my writing practice and how I approach writing with personal experiences.

Như Xuân Nguyễn is a queer and trans Vietnamese American poet and writer. A Kundiman Fellow and a graduate of the MFA program in Creative Writing at Rutgers-Newark, she won the 2018 Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship with her debut chapbook A System of Satellites. Her work has appeared in The Offing, DELUGE (Radioactive Moat), The Journal, The Shade Journal, and Juked. She is currently based in New York City, where she lives with her two cats, Arya and Azula. 

Như's website
Buy Như's chapbook

Note: I refer to a NOLA poetry fest panel that is no longer happening due to COVID-19. Wash your hands and stay at home, everyone.

People and Books Mentioned:

Editor and Social Media Manager: Mitchel Davidovitz

The Sound of Waves Breaking: Lunar Wind, @Walter_Odington

Episode Twenty-five

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BLADERUNNERAUTHORPHOTO.jpg

I'm back! Hello! I got to talk with Andrea Abi-Karam this time, and I had a blast catching up with them about their latest book "EXTRATRANSMISSION."

Andrea Abi-Karam is an arab-american genderqueer punk poet-performer cyborg, writing on the art of killing bros, the intricacies of cyborg bodies, trauma & delayed healing. Their chapbook, THE AFTERMATH (Commune Editions, 2016), attempts to queer Fanon’s vision of how poetry fails to inspire revolution. Simone White selected their second assemblage, Villainy for forthcoming publication with Les Figues. They toured with Sister Spit March 2018 & are hype to live in New York. EXTRATRANSMISSION [Kelsey Street Press, 2019] is their first book.

This episode’s editor and social media manager is Mitchel Davidovitz.

The Sound of Waves Breaking was “SOLOSLUT” by Spray Tan.

Episode Twenty-four

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june gehringer

This month I got to talk to June Gehringer about her latest book! June Gehringer is the author of I Love You It Looks Like Rain (Be About It, 2017), and I Don't Write About Race (Civil Coping Mechanisms, 2018), the latter of which was the winner of Civil Coping Mechanisms's 2017 Mainline contest. She lives in Philadelphia and has more crushes than she can count. She tweets about it @june_gehringer, and if you're a press interested in her next book you can reach her at gehringercat@gmail.com .

She's also an editor over at tenderness lit. 

I Don't Write About Race can be purchased here. 

 

Writers, presses, musicians mentioned in the show:

Editor and Social Media Manager: Mitchel Davidovitz

The Sound of Waves Breaking

Episode Twelve

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While I was on the East Coast to attend/table AWP, Tyler Vile and I got the chance to meet up with each other in D.C.'s Green Lantern bar to talk poetry and punk. The photo for this month's episode was taken just after our interview.  

Tyler Vile is a writer, performer, and activist from Baltimore, MD whose novel-in-verse, Never Coming Home, is available on Topside Press. She is a member of the Baltimore Transgender Alliance leadership team and the vocalist in a punk band called Anti-Androgen. Her interactive poetry zine, Hassidic Witch Murderer is available on her website. She aspires to one day become the world’s greatest transsexual yenta.

Artists/Bands Mentioned in the show:

Lucky Episode Seven

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In this episode I talk with Cameron Awkward-Rich about his approaches to poetry and theory, and the poetry in his new book Sympathetic Little Monster.

Cameron has published poems in The Journal, cream city review, Muzzle Magazine, Hobart, The Seattle Review, The Offing and elsewhere. He is a Cave Canem Fellow, a poetry editor at Muzzle Magazine, and currently a doctoral candidate in Modern Thought & Literature at Stanford University. Cam is the author of the chapbook Transit (Button Poetry, 2015) and his debut collection, Sympathetic Little Monster, was published by Ricochet Editions in 2016.

Go check out Sympathetic Little Monster, its a wonderful collection. 

Writers who were mentioned in the shout outs: 

The Sound of Waves Breaking this week is the sound of opening an attic, as found on freesound.org

Transcripts are by Amir Rabiyah: https://www.scribd.com/document/378843639/Interview-with-Cameron-Awkward-Rich

Theme Music by Bahati Kiro and the transition music is by Chris Zorn. 

The podcast is produced by banging my head into a desk until something cohesive comes together.