NAPLES — Giancarlo DiTrapano is the founder, editor, and publisher of New York Tyrant. The magazine initially, starting in 2005. And then of Tyrant Books, starting in 2010. I spoke with him in his apartment in Naples two days ago, before flying back to the states yesterday. After flying out there 11 days ago. He wrote for Vice for a minute during the early tens and has ran the workshop Mors Tua Vita Mea, with the writer Chelsea Hodson, in Sezze, Italy since 2015. He grew up in Charleston, West Virginia and spent many years in New York City before moving out to Italy five years ago. We talk about how he came into the game with the magazine and the imprint, what he’s psyched about writing-wise now, a whole bunch of stuff. Thoroughly enjoyed ripping this convo and running it back.

NY Tyrant: https://nytyrant.com

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POD CONTENTS

6 min - pod start: G dissing and me tryna defend Ferrante lmaoo

8 min - Of Love and Other Demons by Garcia Marquez

9 min - Autoportrait by Edouard Leve / story versus bars/syntax

11 min - translated versus untranslated

11.5 min - G: “We should be recording this.” Me: “Bro it’s recording.”

12 min - coffee ready

13 min - move from kitchen to living room

13 min - McClanahan , bars v. Voice

14 min - on Liveblog (2018) by Megan Boyle

19 min - ‘prep’ = Preparation for the Next Life (2014) by Atticus Lish and ‘shapiro’ = Supremacist (2016) by Dave Shapiro

22 min - story on linking w Atticus Lish

26 min - How to Live is bigger than How to Write

27 min - Louise Gluck

32 min - Babak Lakghomi

38 min - "everything important in literature is about Death"

41 min - on mimicry / imitation

46 min - on exclamation points / nietzsche ecce homo

48 min - Lutz

49 min - Tyrant Vol 3 No 2 / young Diane Lane "the Outsiders"

55 min - story of G pulling up to nyc / FSG

59 min - putting out the first Tyrant mag / Sheila Heti

1 hr 2 min - DFW

1 hr 3 min - “all these lit mags started bc the Internet”

1 hr 6 min - Supremacist by David Shapiro

1 hr 12 min - drugs according to music era

1 hr 18 min - first linking w Castro

1 hr 21 min - what/who G hype on rn / Honor Levy

1 hr 22 min - Christopher Kennedy

1 hr 29 min - mors tua vita mea

1 hr 37 min - on how relevant or not relevant being out here for writing

1 hr 40 min - How the infrastructure of Literature upheld

Intro song: https://open.spotify.com/track/1YnDZXJ7Dj0Uk9Pqu4tdAX?si=evQ3qjohRo2VxpXVIQwtig

Sean Thor Conroe https://mobile.twitter.com/stconroe lives in Harlem.