Christina Riley is a photographer and musician currently based in Seaside, California. When I first saw Christina's 2014 book Back to Me, I was immediately blown away by the emotional power and authenticity of the photographs. We talked about Christina's experience with bipolar disorder, her photographic process, and what it's like to move from Ontario, Canada to a small coastal community in Northern California. For the second segment, Christina chose change as her topic.

(Episode originally released on January 18, 2017. Conversation recorded November 21, 2016.)

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• Christina Riley
• Purchase a copy of Born
• Christina Riley - Back to Me
• Christina Riley - Instagram
• Tony Fouhse
• Straylight Press
• Tony Fouhse - drool
• Burnt Palms
• Burnt Palms - Instagram
• Burnt Palms - Facebook
• And Gone
• Kurt Vile
• Carrie Brownstein - Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl

Nicole Chung is a writer and editor. Nicole’s debut memoir All You Can Ever Know was released this month. In it, she tells the story of her life growing up as a transracial adoptee, of eventually finding and connecting with her birth family, and of becoming a parent, herself. In our conversation, Nicole and I talked about her wonderful book, our common experiences as Asian Americans, and about how to write a story that is still ongoing. Then in the second segment, Nicole and I talked about how we discuss race and identity with our kids.

(Conversation recorded September 6, 2018.)

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• Nicole Chung
• Nicole Chung - All You Can Ever Know: Catapult | IndieBound | B&N
• Nicole Chung - Events
• #ChannelOpenPod
• Nicole Chung - “Magic Can Be Normal”
• Nicole Chung - “What I Learned From Kristi Yamaguchi”
• Catapult
• The Toast
• Hyphen
• Celeste Ng - Little Fires Everywhere
• All You Can Ever Know Giveaway

Tami Bahat is a fine art photographer based in Los Angeles, CA. Tami’s Dramatis Personae photographs are a series of Renaissance-inspired portraits, depicting people interacting with a few carefully-chosen props or set pieces, and sometimes a live animal co-star. In our conversation we talked about Tami’s recent solo exhibition of Dramatis Personae at Building Bridges Art Exchange, about how experimentation is crucial to her process, and about the collaborative process of her portraiture. Then in the second segment, we talked about fear, and why it’s so important to get out of your comfort zone.

(Conversation recorded September 11, 2018.)

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• Tami Bahat
• Tami Bahat - Dramatis Personae
• Building Bridges Art Exchange - Tami Bahat: Secrets and Lives
• Tami Bahat - Revisiting Humanity: Secrets and Lives (video)
• Pulse Art Fair
• Critical Mass Top 50
• #ChannelOpenPhoto
• Tami Bahat - “The Twins”
• Diane Arbus - “Identical Twins, Roselle, N.J.”
• Yosl Bergner
• Amedeo Modigliani
• LACMA - Chagall: Fantasies for the Stage
• Aline Smithson
• Los Angeles Center of Photography
• Sally Mann - Hold Still
• Daughters of Destiny

Franny Choi’s chapbook Death By Sex Machine uses the framing of artificial intelligence to look at things like voicelessness, dehumanization, Asian fetishism, and more. In our conversation, Franny and I talked about her book, about the ethics of making art that uses other people’s voices, about writing lines that surprise yourself, and about Asian American solidarity. Then in the second segment, Franny talked about a recent trip she took to Korea.

(Conversation recorded July 24, 2018.)

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• Franny Choi
• Franny Choi - Death by Sex Machine: Sibling Rivalry Press | IndieBound | B&N | Goodreads
• Franny Choi - Floating, Brilliant, Gone: Write Bloody Publishing | IndieBound | B&N | Goodreads
• Franny Choi - Soft Science: Alice James Books | IndieBound | B&N | Goodreads
• VS Podcast
• Franny Choi - “For Peter Liang”
• Ex Machina
• Chobits
• Airea D. Matthews
• Oh Jung-hee - River of Fire and Other Stories
• Han Kang - The Vegetarian

Ada Limón's latest book of poems, The Carrying, was just released this month by Milkweed Editions, and it's just beautiful. In this episode, Ada and I discuss the book, the power of naming, connection with the Earth, and her collaboration with poet Natalie Diaz. Then in the second segment, we talked about travel and artistic pilgrimages.

(Conversation recorded August 17, 2018.)

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• Ada Limón
• Ada Limón - The Carrying: Milkweed Editions | IndieBound | B&N | Goodreads
• Ada Limón - Bright Dead Things: Milkweed Editions | IndieBound | B&N | Goodreads
• Ada Limón - Calendar
• Magnificent frigatebird
• Robin Wall Kimmerer - Braiding Sweetgrass
• Ada Limón - “The Burying Beetle”
• Sorry to Bother You
• Ada Limón and Natalie Diaz - “Envelopes of Air”
• Natalie Diaz
• Ada Limón - “Full Gallop”
• John Ashbery
• Elizabeth Bishop
• Elizabeth Bishop - Geography III
• Pablo Neruda
• Isla Negra Museum House
• La Sebastian Museum House
• La Chascona Museum House
• Pablo Neruda - Ode to Common Things
• Jeffery Saddoris
• On Taking Pictures
• Gisele Firmino
• Frida Kahlo and the Ex-Voto Style Painting
• Giveaway - The Carrying

Natalie Eilbert's newest collection of poems, Indictus, was published in January of this year, and reading it is a profound and intense experience. In our conversation, Natalie and I talked about Indictus, making amends, and what audiences ask of artists who make work about trauma. In the second segment, Natalie chose social media as her topic.

(Conversation recorded July 17, 2018.)

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• Natalie Eilbert
• Natalie Eilbert - Indictus: Noemi Press | IndieBound | B&N | GoodReads
• Patreon - Natalie Eilbert
• Wisconsin Book Festival
• A Room of One’s Own
• #ChannelOpenPoetry
• Couplet: A Poetry Series + Social
• Keep the Channel Open - Episode 69: Leah Umansky
• Cate Marvin
• Deborah Landau
• Leslie Jamison - The Recovering
• Robert Frost - “Mending Wall”
• Natalie Eilbert - “The Limits of What We Can Do”
• Brandon Taylor
• Brooklyn Museum - David Bowie is

Transcript

R. O. Kwon's debut novel, The Incendiaries, was just released last week, and it's one of the best books I've read this year. In our conversation, we talked about her new book, who the first readers she has in mind are, the inherent unreliability of narrators, and how the characters invent themselves for each other. Then in the second segment, R. O. talked about her other passion: rock climbing.

(Conversation recorded July 10, 2018.)

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• R. O. Kwon
• #ChannelOpenFiction
• R. O. Kwon - The Incendiaries: IndieBound | B&N | Goodreads
• R. O. Kwon - "I’m Korean American, And I Can’t Watch The Pyeonchang Olympics"
• R. O. Kwon - "Why I Don’t Leave the House Without Putting on Black Eye Shadow"
• R. O. Kwon - Events
• Christine No - "A Façade of a Woman: R. O. Kwon’s The Incendiaries"
• Clarice Lispector
• T. S. Eliot - "Ash Wednesday"
• Leonard Cohen - "Hallelujah"
• Umberto Eco - The Name of the Rose
• Colin Winnette
• Ancco - Bad Friends

Blue Mitchell is an independent publisher, curator, educator, and photographer based in Portland, OR. Blue's work, both as the publisher of Diffusion and as an artist in his own right, focuses on what he calls "artfully crafted" photography—that is, photographic art where you can see the artist's hand. In our conversation we talked about Blue's photographs and his use of a wide variety of techniques to create images that elicit a strong emotional response in the viewer. We also talked about his publishing company, One Twelve, and how Diffusion came about. Then in the second segment, we talked about portfolio review events, and how they can be a great way to connect with the photographic community.

(Conversation recorded June 26, 2018.)

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• Blue Mitchell
• #ChannelOpenPhoto
• One Twelve Publishing
• One Twelve - Shop
• Blue Sky Gallery - 2018 Pacific Northwest Photography Viewing Drawers
• Click! Photography Festival
• Blue Mitchell - Evanescent Energy
• Blue Mitchell - Mythos
• Blue Mitchell - Chasing the Afterglow
• Blue Mitchell - Luminous Flux
• Blue Mitchell - Of Salt and Earth
• Lenscratch - Blue Mitchell
• Zone System
• Diffusion
• AlternativePhotography.com
• Medium Festival of Photography
• Claire A. Warden
• Drew Nikonowicz
• PhotoNola
• Photolucida
• Aline Smithson
• Heidi Kirkpatrick
• Review Santa Fe
• Ken Rosenthal
• Kahn & Selesnick - 100 Views of the Drowning World
• Candela Books
• Gordon Stettinius

Leah Umansky is a poet, collage artist, and self-described Game of Thrones and Mad Men super fan. I recently read Leah's latest book, the full-length poetry collection The Barbarous Century, and was struck by the exuberant use of language—it brought me a lot of joy. In our conversation, Leah and I talked about her book, her fascination with pop culture, and the power of story. Then in the second segment, we had a very spoilery discussion about the HBO series Westworld.

(Conversation recorded June 21, 2018.)

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• Leah Umansky
• Vote.org
• Leah Umansky - The Barbarous Century
• Leah Umansky - Events
• Leah Umansky - “Stranger Is”
• Leah Umansky - Domestic Uncertainties
• This Is Just to Say - Kaveh Akbar
• Tori Amos
• Game of Thrones
• Mad Men
• Eyewear Publishing
• Jeanette Winterson
• T. H. White - The Once and Future King
• Vice - "Dolores from ‘Westworld’ Is the New Khaleesi"
• Halfway There
• Westworld
• Melissa Broder - The Pisces

Richard Georges is a writer, editor, and lecturer in the British Virgin Islands. In his new collection of poems, Giant, Richard gives us a portrait of the BVI through landscape, through its history and its present. In our conversation, Richard and I talked about his book, the aftermath of empire in the BVI, and the relationship between poetry and myth. For the second segment, Richard talked about the particular moment that the BVI faces today in the wake of Hurricane Irma.

(Conversation recorded June 12, 2018.)

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• Richard Georges
• Medium Festival of Photography - Portfolio Reviews
• Richard Georges - Giant
• Moko
• Percy Bysshe Shelley - “Ozymandias”
• Ramayana
• Saint Ursula
• Soucouyant
• Douen
• Derek Walcott
• Kamau Brathwaite
• Boris Johnson
• Craig Santos Perez
• Craig Santos Perez - From Unincorporated Territory
• Shansi Miller
• Moko Magazine - Paintings by Shansi Miller
• Kei Miller - Augustown
• Shivanee Ramlochan
• Shivanee Ramlochan - Everyone Knows I Am a Haunting
• Forward Prizes for Poetry 2018