Contribute Your Verse

In this episode, Derek shares 5 practical tips about being a writer.

To learn more, find us on Instagram

Instagram.com/contributeyourverse

To support us financially, visit us on Patreon.

Patreon.com/contributeyourverse

Our guest Alex Biscoll breaks down why it's important to tell queer stories of joy. The importance of queer fluff, how to talk about queer issues with kids, and how seeing healthy queer relationships is important to developing a full understanding of queer lives.

Alex Biscoll is a queer nonbinary Youth Services library worker at Richland Library. They studied English and Gender and Sexuality at the University of North Florida. They're currently pursuing their Master's in Library and Information Science at the University of South Carolina. They are an avid reader of comic books written by women, queer science fiction, and middle-grade graphic novels. In their free time, they knit, garden, and play board games.

In this episode, Alex discusses a few wonderful books, which you can learn about here.

When Aidan Became a Big Brother by Kyle Lukoff & illustrated by Kaylani Juanita

https://bookshop.org/books/when-aidan-became-a-brother/9781620148372

It Feels Good to be Yourself: A Book About Gender Identity by Theresa Thorn

https://bookshop.org/books/it-feels-good-to-be-yourself-a-book-about-gender-identity/9781250302953

The Witch Boy by Molly Ostertag

https://bookshop.org/books/the-witch-boy/9781338089516

Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Rey Terciero & illustrated by Bre Indigo

https://bookshop.org/books/meg-jo-beth-and-amy-a-modern-graphic-retelling-of-little-women/9780316522885

Space Battle Lunchtime by Natalie Riess

https://onipress.com/products/space-battle-lunchtime-volume-1-lights-camera-snacktion

My Lady’s Choosing: An Interactive Romance Novel by Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris

https://bookshop.org/books/my-lady-s-choosing-an-interactive-romance-novel/9781683690139

How to be You by Jeffrey Mars

http://www.jeffreymarsh.com/howtobeyou

Jeffrey Marsh Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/thejeffreymarsh/

Check, Please! By Ngozi Ukazu

https://bookshop.org/books/check-please-book-1-hockey/9781250177964

Heavy Vinyl by Carly Usdin

https://bookshop.org/books/heavy-vinyl-riot-on-the-radio/9781684151417

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang

https://bookshop.org/books?keywords=the+prince+and+the+dressmaker

To read more book recommendations from Alex Biscoll, visit:

https://www.richlandlibrary.com/our-team/alex-b

To learn more about the podcast, visit:

Instagram.com/contributeyourverse

To lavish the podcast with $$$:

Patreon.com/ContributeYourVerse

Serge Neptune, from London, UK, and author of "These Queer Merboys," is today's guest!

In this episode, we discuss queer spectacle, pop culture, queer resistance against conservativism, the London poetry, and the mythos of mermen-- the danger and desire.

Serge ♆ Neptune has been called ‘the little merman of British poetry’. His work has appeared in Fourteen Poems, Impossible Archetype, Magma, Queerlings, Finished Creatures, perverse, whynow, Harana Poetry, Lighthouse, Banshee, Spontaneous Poetics, Brittle Star, Ink Sweat & Tears and Strange Poetry. His first pamphlet These Queer Merboys is published with Broken Sleep.

Find Serge Neptune's book here: https://www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page/serge-neptune-these-queer-merboys

Find Contribute Your Verse here: instagram.com/contributeyourverse

Give us money: Patreon.com/ContributeYourVerse

Derek talks with queer poet Aidan Forster, author of the chapbooks Exit Pastoral (YesYes Books, 2019) and Wrong June (Honeysuckle Press, 2021).

They discuss growing up in South Carolina, the possibilities of queer poetry, multidisciplinary studies, the history of ecopoetics in queer writing, scifi fiction, the future of queerness, ruralness, and so much more!

Find Aidan's books here!

Exit Pastoral:

https://www.yesyesbooks.com/product-page/exit-pastoral-by-aidan-forster

Wrong June:

https://www.honeysuckle.press/2018shortlist-forster

Host Derek Berry:

derekberrywriter.com

Support Contribute Your Verse on Patreon:

Patreon.com/contributeyourverse

In this episode, Derek talks about the history of Pride celebrations, the controversy around the poem "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg, and how queer stories shaped their life.

Find High Vibr, whose music is featured in this episode, here:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/71JQdUHB8xcUzh6u6xA3Vi

To learn more about Derek Berry, follow them on social media:

http://instagram.com/derekberrywriter

https://twitter.com/DerekBerryWrite

Links to works discussed in this episode:

"Howl" by Allen Ginsberg

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49303/howl

"Fun Home" by Alison Bechdel

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/alison-bechdel/fun-home/

Censorship of "Fun Home":

http://cbldf.org/banned-challenged-comics/case-study-fun-home/

Georgia Hertz is a queer writer, musician, and artist from North Carolina. She has a B.A. in History from the College of Charleston, and is an MFA candidate in Creative Nonfiction from Carlow University. Her poems have previously appeared in Homology Lit and several are forthcoming in The Swamp and peculiar. When she's not following her creative pursuits she can be found teaching her dog how to swim.

Follow her on all social media @thegeorgiamoon

In this episode, Derek and Georgia discuss Georgia's music career, her recent self-titled EP, how to make a song from a poem, writing historical fiction, writing non-fiction about your family, and so much more.

To buy and listen to Georgia's music, visit https://georgiamoon.bandcamp.com/

To find Georgia online, follow her at https://www.instagram.com/thegeorgiamoon/ or https://www.facebook.com/thegeorgiamoon

Conversation with Dena Rod, author of the forthcoming poetry collection "Scattered Arils." In this conversation, we talk about writing from the archive, queer Iranian experiences, connecting with inheritance, writing hard poems, writing communities, Bay Area gentrification, publishing, and much more!

Find Dena's book "Scattered Arils" here: https://milkandcakepress.com/product/coming-may-2021-scattered-arils-by-dena-rod/

Find Dena's website here:

https://www.denarod.com/

Dena Rod is a writer, editor, and poet based in the Bay Area. A graduate of San Francisco State University, they have a M.A. in English Literature. They run the RADAR Productions weblog and are the Creative Nonfiction Editor at homology lit, and the former Managing Editor of Argot Magazine, a Webby-nominated queer non-profit. In 2020, they were selected to tour with Sister Spit, debuted the chapbook swallow a beginning, and joined The Rumpus’ Features Team. They’re a fellow of RADAR Productions’ Show Us Your Spines Residency, Kearny Street Workshop’s Interdisciplinary Writer’s Lab, and Winter Tangerine’s Summer Writer’s Workshop. Through creative nonfiction essays and poetry, Dena works to illuminate their diasporic experiences of Iranian heritage and queer identity, combating negative stereotypes of their intersecting identities in the mainstream media.

Find host Derek Berry here: derekberrywriter.com

Support the show here: patreon.com/contributeyourverse

Eric Tran is queer Vietnamese writer and a resident physician in psychiatry in Asheville, NC, where he is also an associate editor at Orison Books. His debut book of poems, The Gutter Spread Guide to Prayer, won the Autumn House Press Emerging Writer's contest. He is also the author of the chapbooks Revisions and Affairs with Men in Suits. His work has been featured in Poetry Daily and Best of the Net and appears in Missouri Review Poem of the Week, Iowa Review, 32 Poems, and elsewhere. He can be reached at VeryEricTran.com.

In this episode, Derek and Eric discuss the reading of comic books as sacred text, building your own canon, writing about grief, creating poetic forms, & how one builds literary community.

Website: VeryEricTran.com

Buy the Book: https://www.autumnhouse.org/books/the-gutter-spread-guide-to-prayer/

Support the podcast: Patreon.com/ContributeYourVerse

Find the Host: derekberrywriter.com

Derek shares an unpopular opinion about Inspiration.

They think you should give The Muse the pink slip. Here's why...

Links:

Matt Hampton's Confessions of a Working Writer: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/confessions-of-a-working-writer/id1465174533

Derek Berry:

Derekberrywriter.com

Patreon:

Patreon.com/contributeyourverse

We all write shitty sentences, shitty poems, and shitty novels sometimes... instead of giving up on these projects, how might be recycle them to create something new?

Derek discusses...

To find Contribute Your Verse on Instagram: instagram.com/contributeyourverse

To find Carolina Muse on Instagram:

instagram.com/carolina.muse

To find Derek Berry:

instagram.com/derekberrwriter