Today we talk (and laugh a lot) with poet Ayokunle Falomo, known to his Slam poetry friends and fans as Ayo. We chat about the inspiration for his urgent and iconic poem “Blk Boy Joy.” Ayo schools us on the question of how we as writers should appeal to young readers.

*Answer: start by listening to them.

And all your questions about cultural appropriation and shitty poetry will be answered, well, asked.

"“My smile, like my mother’s laughter, is an act of defiance.” -- Ayonkunle Falomo, from his poem Blk Boy Joy

Suggested readings & also mentioneds:

• Ayokunle Falomo’s 2013 TedX talk

• Reading his poem “on power“ on Houston Public Media’s “Houston Matters”

• Performing his poem “And what is a black body”

• The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander & Benjamin Zander

• The Invitation, The Call, & The Dance by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

• Controversy surrounding Anders Carlson-Wee’s “How To” (and The Nation’s editorial apology for publishing it) vs. Ai Ogawa persona poetry

• Donte Collins’ “The Autopsy”

• THIS IS THE THING AYO TELLS US WE NEED: Brave New Voices competition featuring Team Meta-Four and Sacramento #wordsnotwalls

  
  
  

Follow Ayokunle on twitter @AFalomo and Instagram @MrAFalomo

Buy his books Kin.dread and Thread This Wordweaver Must here and here.

Actor and playwright, Jason E. Carmichael, comes on the podcast to chat about August Wilson and his Pittsburgh cycle of plays. We get into the burning forest that is scene-writing and he answers the age-old question that has plagued racist Hollywood producers for centuries: exactly which tattoos are gang-enough? More pressingly, we discuss balancing our art against the pressures of commerce, and he reveals the best acting advice he ever got: Pro-tip: it works for writing effective scenes in any genre.

The interview was so chock-full with delicious insider tidbits, stay for the whole podcast to hear some bonus material about James Earl Jones & Arsenio Hall — remember that guy?

Please check out Jason Carmichael on stage in Twelfth Night at the Alley Theater. Performances ongoing through Oct 28, 2018. Weeknight and weekend tickets available here.

A nice review of the show by Houstonia is here.

photo credit: Bruce Bell

photo credit Paula N. Luu

Suggested readings & also mentioneds:

• stellar Paris Review interview with August Wilson, “August Wilson, The Art of Theater”

• James Earl Jones video interview with PBS Masters on the work of August Wilson

• A Soldier’s Story trailer

• Beloved trailer

  
  

See what Jason’s up to next. Follow him on Facebook @ Jason E. Carmichael.

On today’s show, Cameron Dezen Hammon tells us how to trick yourself into writing a good book. (Spoiler alert: it helps if you’re already really talented. Tin House workshops don’t hurt.)  We get down to the reals about spiritual writing in the age of Trump, why we can still afford to be hopeful, and why Cameron advocates for writing book proposals for books you haven’t yet written.
Also, Jessica and Cameron bond over Russian Jewishness and ugly crying at The Seagull.

Dezen Hammon’s work can be found here:

• CameronDezenHammon.com

• “Fruit” in The Kiss: An Intimacies for Writers

• Words Don’t Bleed, her covers album

• Dezen Hammon’s The Ish podcast episode with her brother, singer songwriter Alex Dezen, “Famous-Ish,” but read her essay “Brothers and Sisters” first

Recommendations and Also Mentioneds:

• Steve Almond’s collection of essays, (Not that You Asked): Rants, Exploits, and Obsessions

• “How to Write Sex Scenes: The 12 Step Program” by Steve Almond

• Bluets by Maggie Nelson

• Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose

• Situation and the Story: The Art of Personal Narrative by Vivian Gornick

• Lit by Mary Karr

• Kristin Dombek’s “Letter from Williamsburg”
  

Photo credit: Anna Sneed

Follow Cameron on twitter @camerondhammon and instagram @cameron_dezen_hammon. Check out her website for updates on her forthcoming memoir This is My Body from Lookout Books, 2019.

In this episode, we talk to novelist Daniel Peña about how to be a cheery human despite being in the business of immersing one’s self in the violent reality of the drug war at the border. Peña talks about advice he got from Rodrigo Hasbún, how once you let go of selling thousands of copies, you’re free to junk what you learned in the MFA program, & why you should trust your indie bookseller with your spleen health diagnosis. Plus, Jessica learns about the wonder that is Texas’ best grocery store chain, HEB.

Check out Peña’s work:

• Bang: A Novel (Arte Público Press)

• “T-shirts, Deportations, and the Epiphanies of Clemens Meyer in Mexico City” and his regular essays at The Ploughshares Blog

Recommendations and Also Mentioneds:

• Affections by Rodrigo Hasbún

• Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin

• Sour Grapes by Jenny Zhang

• Paco’s Story by Larry Heinemann

• On Writing Short Stories by Tom Bailey

• Christina Rivera Garza’s article “On Alert: Writing in Spanish in the United States Today”

Follow Daniel on twitter @danielpena. You won’t be sorry.

Photo credit: Thomas Shea

In this episode, we talk to novelist Daniel Peña about how to be a cheery human despite being in the business of immersing one’s self in the violent reality of the drug war at the border. Peña talks about advice he got from Rodrigo Hasbún, how once you let go of selling thousands of copies, you’re free to junk what you learned in the MFA program, & why you should trust your indie bookseller with your spleen health diagnosis. Plus, Jessica learns about the wonder that is Texas’ best grocery store chain, HEB.

Check out Peña’s work:

• Bang: A Novel (Arte Público Press)

• “T-shirts, Deportations, and the Epiphanies of Clemens Meyer in Mexico City” and his regular essays at The Ploughshares Blog

Recommendations and Also Mentioneds:

• Affections by Rodrigo Hasbún

• Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin

• Sour Grapes by Jenny Zhang

• Paco’s Story by Larry Heinemann

• On Writing Short Stories by Tom Bailey

• Christina Rivera Garza’s article “On Alert: Writing in Spanish in the United States Today”

Follow Daniel on twitter @danielpena. You won’t be sorry.

Photo credit: Thomas Shea

In this episode, Nick Flynn dishes about donuts, the Thesaurussaurus Rex, and how making your students perform your poetry for you as you write it is the only way to pen award-winning/money-making poetry. No one says anything about Hamlet, Nick does not say the podcast is a shit show, & there is absolutely no cussing in this episode.

Also, Jess goes on a bee bender. 

photo credit: Jessica Crute

Check out Flynn's work:

• His latest poem in The New Yorker, "The King of Fire"

• I Will Destroy You: Poems (Graywolf 2019)

• My Feelings: Poems

• Some Ether: Poems

• Another Bullshit Night in Suck City

• The Ticking is the Bomb: A Memoir

• The Reenactments: A Memoir

• A Note Slipped Under the Door: Teaching from Poems We Love by Nick Flynn and Shirley McPhillips

Check out the film adaptation of his first memoir, Being Flynn.

• Trailer at https://youtu.be/K-CANF3z4LY

Recommendations and Also Mentioneds:

• Billy Collins' ability to take crappy student poetry and make it beautiful: see “Litany”

• Wayne Gilbert's artwork with cremains

Follow Nick on twitter @_nick_flynn_, Facebook at nick.flynn1, and Instagram at nick_legit_flynn.

We talk with Melissa Goldman and Daphne Strassmann, two members of a four-person team responsible for the amazing co-working community that is The Village Works. (It is an actual physical space, but so much more.) We chat about locating the mythical work-life balance, Marie-kondo-ing your life, the Process of Reprioritization, and avoiding the rabbit/wormholes of writing while there is an Internet. We also explore what is it like to reclaim the professional part of your identity as a writer, as well as what it's like to explore that identity while in community.

Suggested readings:

• Beyond four walls: Treating a neighborhood as work infrastructure by Melissa Tapper Goldman

• George Orwell's “Politics and the English Language”

• Lindy West's opinion piece in the NYT “Brave Enough to Be Angry”

• & check out the gold mines for working writers that are Nathan Bransford's blog here and Grub Street

Photo credit: Paula Luu, Houston Creative Space

Woman-of-all-trades, Karen Walrond, lit up the F***ing Shakespeare studio. She's a master storyteller, envy-inducing photographer and writer, and self-avowed twinkle-light-hangin', candle-lighting, biscuit-eating junkie. And we all fell in love with her. You will too. Plus, she knows a thing or two about handling a microphone. Did we mention she hosts her own podcast? 

Photo credit: Karen Walrond

Suggested readings:

• "The New Midlife Crisis for Women: Why (and How) It's Hitting Get X Women" 
• Braving the Wilderness by Brené Brown
• Bill Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors

Follow Karen on twitter @Chookooloonks, on the instagram and here on her blog, Chookooloonks.

You know how Adam Rippon named himself America's Figure Skating Sweetheart at the Olympics? Well, I'm dubbing Katherine Center America's Author Sweetheart. Because I can. On the show, she talks spotting the Neighborhood Novelist and Why You Should Approach with Reckless Abandon, and why you should, yes, Write What you Know, but also write in the service of others. Seriously. She's awesome.

Also on the podcast: Rejection letters on one-eighth a sheet of paper.

photo credit: Karen Walrond

Suggested Readings and Musings from and inspired by Katherine:

• Dwight V. Swain's Techniques" target="_blank">Techniques of the Selling Writer

• Hygge">The Danish Art of Hygge

• anything by Laurie Colwin (Jess loves Goodbye" target="_blank">Goodbye without Leaving)

If you love this infectious Katherine Center episode, you will, we promise, love any and all of her books. Check them out: Bright Side" target="_blank">Bright Side of Disaster (2008), Everyone is Beautiful" target="_blank">Everyone is Beautiful (2009), Get Lucky">Get Lucky (2010), The lost husband" target="_blank">The Lost Husband (2013), and Happiness" target="_blank">Happiness for Beginners (2015).

YA novelist Jennifer Mathieu and co-host Jessica Cole work out once and for all what happened with the election. Turns out “We’re fine!” Plus, she reveals the three rules of writing. Your writing life will never be the same.

Suggested readings:

Photo credit: Pablo Gamez

• Houston: It's Worth It (the coffee table book & the attendant website)

• The First Rule of Punk by Celia Perez

• Joan Didion's Essay Collection Slouching Towards Bethlehem

• The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

In addition to The Truth About Alice and Moxie, you should check out Jennifer Mathieu's other novels; you won't be disappointed: Devoted" target="_blank">Devoted (2015) and Afterward" target="_blank">Afterward (2016).

Follow Jennifer on twitter @jenmathieu, tumblr http://moxiegirlsfightback.com, and her website www.jennifermathieu.com.