Joshua Burton is a poet and educator based in Houston, TX. The poems in Joshua’s debut collection, Grace Engine, ask what grace means in a hostile world of lynchings, mental illness, self-hate, and suicide. These poems offer no solace, yet nevertheless reach toward beauty and peace. In our conversation, Joshua and I talked about what a grace engine is, processing shame through poetry, and what can be unlocked by returning to the same subject in multiple poems. Then for the second segment, we talked about creating mythology as a way of honoring those whom history may have overlooked.

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Show Notes:

• Joshua Burton
• Purchase Grace Engine: Brazos Bookstore (Houston, TX) | The Book Catapult (San Diego, CA) | Bookshop.org
• Mike’s video review of Grace Engine
• Jeff Buckley - Grace
• Mono no aware
• Lynching of Jim McIlherron
• Lynching of Mary Turner
• Lynching of Laura and L. D. Nelson (note: link contains graphic images)
• Royal Robertson
• William O’Neal
• Keep the Channel Open - Episode 108: The Craft of the Literary Podcast Interview
• Joshua Burton - Fracture Anthology
• Roland Barthes - Camera Lucida
• Toni Morrison - Song of Solomon
• Lupe Fiasco - DROGAS Wave

Transcript Episode Credits

• Editing/Mixing: Mike Sakasegawa
• Music: Podington Bear
• Transcription: Shea Aguinaldo