Keep the Channel Open

Min Jin Lee is a writer based in New York. Earlier this year I read Min's latest novel, Pachinko, and it just blew me away. In our conversation, we talked about the book and it's journey to publication, and the importance of making art out of what's true. Then for the second segment we talked about persistence as a writer, dealing with rejection, and learning to be OK with looking foolish in the beginning.

(Conversation recorded May 22, 2018.)

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• Min Jin Lee
• Min Jin Lee - Pachinko
• 442nd Infantry Regiment
• Tom Wolfe - "Stalking the Billion-Footed Beast"
• John Steinbeck - East of Eden
• Richard Brautigan
• John Steinbeck - The Grapes of Wrath
• Min Jin Lee - Free Food for Millionaires
• John Dos Passos
• Ira Glass on Storytelling
• Han King - Human Acts

Hannah Cohen is a poet and editor based in Virginia. I recently picked up a copy of Hannah's new chapbook Bad Anatomy and the way that the poems encompass both vulnerability and strength really struck me, as did the self-deprecating perspective. In our conversation, Hannah and I talked about Bad Anatomy, about emotional truth in poetry, as well as her work as co-editor of the online poetry magazine Cotton Xenomorph. Then in the second segment we discussed the challenges of working as an artist with a day job, especially a day job that isn't in academia.

(Conversation recorded May 15, 2018.)

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• Christina Riley - Born Kickstarter
• Hannah Cohen
• Hannah Cohen - Bad Anatomy
• Catapult - TinyLetter of the Month: Alvin Park, aspirin and honey
• Hannah Cohen - Di sotto in sù
• Hannah Cohen - The Only Living Girl in a Rock Opera
• Cotton Xenomorph
• Don't Take Pictures - Rule Breakers
• Berl's Brooklyn Poetry Shop
• AWP Conference
• Melissa Broder - The Pisces
• so sad today
• Erika L. Sánchez - Lessons on Expulsion

Alanna Airitam is a portrait photographer based in San Diego, CA. In her series "The Golden Age," Alanna makes portraits of African Americans in the style of the Dutch Realism Golden Age of painting, images full of grace and beauty representing black people in a fine art context, a context from which they are all too often excluded. In our conversation we talked about that series, as well as her "Being Heard" project, which began as a response to seeing how different marginalized women were being excluded from the mainstream activist narrative. Then for the second segment, Alanna and I had a wide-ranging conversation about the roots of social injustice in our society.

(Conversation recorded April 10, 2018.)

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• Alanna Airitam
• The Artist Odyssey - Alanna Airitam: From Haarlem to Harlem
• Alanna Airitam - The Golden Age
• Alanna Airitam - Being Heard
• San Diego Art Institute - ABOUT-FACE
• Hamilton
• @medievalpoc on Twitter
• Bioneers
• Kirsten Imani Kasai
• Skyler McCurine

Andy Burgess is a multidisciplinary artist based in Tucson, AZ. Known for his paintings of mid-century and modernist paintings, Andy's wide-ranging practice also encompasses collage, printmaking, and photography, and more recently he has become a publisher, having started his own photobook publishing company, Dark Spring Press. In our conversation Andy and I talked about his approach to painting as a form of visual problem-solving, about finding an authentic path in the art world, and about learning to make beautiful photobooks. Then for the second segment, Andy chose nostalgia as his topic.

(Conversation recorded March 30, 2018.)

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• Andy Burgess
• Talk Easy - Kogonada
• Kogonada
• Columbus
• Dark Spring Press
• Purchase Modernist House Paintings book
• Andy Burgess - Modernist House Paintings
• Tucson Museum of Art - "Mid-Century Perspectives: Paintings by Andy Burgess and Objects of Modern Design"
• Jiro Dreams of Sushi
• Robert Ryman
• Henri Matisse
• Robert Stivers - Staging Pictures: Early Polaroids by Robert Stivers
• Don't Take Pictures - Bookmarks: Dark Spring Press
• Iris van Herpen
• Phoenix Art Museum - Iris van Herpen: Transforming Fashion

Morgan DeLuna is a photographic artist based in Southern California. In her Phenotype series, Morgan uses self-portraiture to explore her diverse genetic heritage. In our conversation we talked about that series, and the question that both of us have heard so many times: "What are you?" We also discussed her Extrospection photographs, a series of abstract bodyscapes documenting the topography of her physical existence over time. For the second segment, we talked about social media and its effects on human interaction and on the medium of photography.

(Conversation recorded March 13, 2018)

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• Morgan DeLuna
• Morgan DeLuna - Phenotype
• Morgan DeLuna - Extrospection
• Women Seen By Women Awards Gallery
• Galeria Valid Foto
• San Diego Art Institute - ABOUT-FACE
• Size Matters 2017
• Subtext Gallery
• Cindy Sherman
• Edward Weston
• Harry Callahan
• Xennials
• Susan Sontag - On Photography
• Morgan DeLuna - #instagrids
• Matthew Brandt
• San Diego Museum of Art - On Beauty and Ugliness in Art
• Frida Kahlo

Devin Kelly is a poet and teacher based in New York, NY. Devin's latest book of poems, In This Quiet Church of Night, I Say Amen was a recent favorite of mine, an elegiac, contemplative book about family, love, and the ways in which life is more about the search than the finding. In our conversation, we talked about Devin's book as well as several of his essays, and Devin also read his poem "Elegy For the Long Drive." Then in the second segment, Devin chose whales as his topic.

(Conversation recorded February 8, 2018.)

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• Devin Kelly
• Purchase In This Quiet Church of Night, I Say Amen: IndieBound | B&N
• C. S. Lewis
• Robert Hayden - "Those Winter Sundays"
• Maggie Nelson - Bluets
• Devin Kelly - "Anthony Edwards as Nick 'Goose' Bradshaw in Top Gun (1986)"
• Devin Kelly - "Running Towards My Father"
• Devin Kelly - "Caulking the Wagon"
• Philip Hoare - The Whale
• Between the Covers - Ursula K. Le Guin: Late in the Day
• Anelise Chen - So Many Olympic Exertions

Ty Franck is a writer based in Albuquerque, NM. Along with Daniel Abraham, Ty is the author of the bestselling science fiction series The Expanse. In our conversation, Ty and I talked about The Expanse, how it got started, and the process by which he and Daniel write the series. Then in the second segment, Ty asked the question: "Who owns the stuff in space?"

(Conversation recorded February 6, 2018.)

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• James S. A. Corey
• Purchase Persepolis Rising: IndieBound | B&N
• SyFy - The Expanse
• Veronica Mars
• World Government Summit
• Moon Treaty
• Outer Space Treaty
• Moon (movie)
• Helium-3
• Regolith
• Jules Verne - From the Earth to the Moon
• Robert Heinlein - Starship Troopers
• The Shape of Water
• Ursula K. Le Guin - Earthsea

Brenda Biondo is a fine art photographer based in Colorado. Brenda's work focuses on three distinct areas: constructed abstractions centered on atmospheric color and light; conservation and land-based issues; and the way cultural artifacts move from the past into the present. In this conversation we talked about her documentation of American playgrounds, her background in journalism, her interest in land use and conservation, and her love of abstraction and modernist paintings. In the second segment, we talked about portfolio review events and how invaluable an opportunity they are for photographers.

(Conversation recorded January 4, 2018.)

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• Brenda Biondo
• Purchase Once Upon a Playground: University Press of New England | IndieBound | B&N
• Brenda Biondo - Once Upon a Playground
• Brenda Biondo - Remnants and Revival
• Brenda Biondo - Paper Skies
• Brenda Biondo - Modalities
• Open Show San Diego October 2014
• Medium Festival of Photography
• San Diego Museum of Art - Brenda Biondo: Play
• Frank Stella
• Mark Rothko
• Morris Louis
• Barnett Newman
• Georgia O'Keeffe
• Colorado Photographic Arts Center
• Fotofest
• Photolucida
• PhotoNOLA
• Palm Springs Photo Festival
• Lenscratch
• Denver Art Museum
• Alison Rossiter

Justyna Badach is a photographic artist based in Philadelphia, PA. Justyna's work examines the iconography of the masculine history of art in relation to her work as a female artist. In this episode we discussed several of her photographic series, including her Untitled Film Stills, Bachelor Portraits, and Land of Epic Battles series, how she uses her work to insert herself into spaces from which women have historically been excluded, and how she interrogates and challenges conventional notions of masculinity. The for the second segment we had a wide-ranging conversation, starting with the connection between writing and images, then moving to the importance of empathy, the roots of American anxiety, and how the current insistence on art having a social practice resembles propaganda mechanisms in totalitarian regimes.

(Conversation recorded December 21, 2017.)

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• Justyna Badach
• Light Work - Justyna Badach: Land of Epic Battles
• Light Work - Contact Sheet 195: Justyna Badach
• Haverford College - A Survey of Color Photography from its Prehistory to the Present Day
• Justyna Badach - Bachelor Portraits
• Salvation Mountain
• Justyna Badach - Land of Epic Battles
• Henri Le Secq
• Gustave Le Gray
• Richard Lourie - The Autobiography of Joseph Stalin
• Ellsworth Kelly

Linda Alterwitz is a photographic artist based in Las Vegas, NV. Linda's work brings science and technology together with art to make some visually striking and very human images. In this episode we talked about her creative process, including how she first became interested in using medical imagery to make art. Then for the second segment, Linda chose balance as her topic.

(Conversation recorded December 5, 2017.)

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• Linda Alterwitz
• Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art - "Plural"
• Mary Virginia Swanson
• Linda Alterwitz - While I Am Still
• Linda Alterwitz - Just Breathe
• Linda Alterwitz - Once Ocean
• Linda Alterwitz - Signatures of Heat
• Linda Alterwitz - Super Powers
• Richard Mosse