Young Adult novelist Kristin Rae explains the similarities between zombies and toddlers and their completely backed-up-by-neuroscientists impact on the mind of a writer. The agent of an author friend of hers once told her, “Life is hard enough, reading should be a joy.” And that’s why our guest, young adult novelist Kristin Rae writes. For the heart flutters and the tingles.

Photo credit: Kristin Rae (yup. we told you she was talented)

Suggested readings: 

• Zadie Smith’s “Dance Lessons for Writers"

• See Jane Write: A Girl's Guide to Writing Chick Lit by Sarah Mlynowski and Farrin Jacobs

• Sean Griswold’s Head by Lindsey Leavitt

• Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

Follow Kristin on twitter @kristinrae and her design blog. 

Poet D.F. Brown tells us how nursery rhymes in the 1950s Ozarks are just like Disney movies and not scary at all. And Jessica goes for a walk in the wide, wide world and shares a very special PSA about poetry.

Recommended reading & suggested links from David Brown:

• Williams Blake's "Auguries of Innocence"
• The Most of It by Robert Frost
• The Waking by Theodore Roethke
• Diving into the Wreck by Adrienne Rich
• Lyn Hejinian’s beautiful letterpress chapbooks
• Jayne Anne Phillips Fast Lanes
• C.D. Wright
• Denis Johnson's Tree of Smoke
• George Oppen's Of Being Numerous

We talk to Mark Dostert about his memoir recounting his time as a juvenile attendant in Up in Here: Jailing Kids on Chicago’s Other Side, choosing the right color white for your juvenile detention center, and the merits of jailing kids with outmoded and punitive drug laws.

Photo credit: Chris Wineinger

Suggested readings from Mark:

• Dostert’s opinion piece in the Dallas Morning News

• Mark's short story "Rocks, July 1994" in Green Hills Literary Lantern, also a finalist for the 2017 Lamar York Prize

Stories by Mark

"The Saint of 3F" in Hayden's Ferry Review: The Dock

"Getting Rid of the Get" in Punctuate

Novelist and Brazos bookstore manager Mark Haber gets real worked up about LCD Soundsystem and why nothing else will do for writing inspiration. And then gets real meta about the truth and Mario Belletin. Dear listeners, we’ll let you decide.

Photo credit: Houston Creative Space

Photo credit: Argonáutica

Be on the lookout for Mark's forthcoming novel REINHARDT’S GARDEN with Coffee House Press @Coffee_House_ ! And follow Mark @infinitetexts and Brazos Bookstore @BrazosBookstore

Suggested readings from Mark:

• Interview with Argonáutica editor and translator, Efrén Ordóñez
• The Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Nazi Literature in the Americas by Roberto Bolaño
• The Large Glass (or anything) by Mario Bellatin