Keep the Channel Open

José Iriarte and I go way back, and it's been with great pleasure that I've watched his writing career start to take off over the past few years. He's had short stories appear in a number of publications, including Motherboard, Strange Horizons, and Fantastic Stories of the Imagination, and what I particularly love about his stories is that how he uses genre and genre elements to put a new perspective on or provide a means of entry into more familiar emotions and experiences. José and I talked about a few of his recent stories for the show, and then for the second segment we talked about online communities and the function of public "shaming."

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• José Iriarte
• José Iriarte - Of Unions, Intersections, and Empty Sets
• José Iriarte - Spirit of Home
• José Iriarte - Life in Stone, Glass, and Plastic
• José Iriarte - The Vampire's Stepdaughter
• "You've got to sell your heart" (Letters of Note)

José Iriarte and I go way back, and it's been with great pleasure that I've watched his writing career start to take off over the past few years. He's had short stories appear in a number of publications, including Motherboard, Strange Horizons, and Fantastic Stories of the Imagination, and what I particularly love about his stories is that how he uses genre and genre elements to put a new perspective on or provide a means of entry into more familiar emotions and experiences. José and I talked about a few of his recent stories for the show, and then for the second segment we talked about online communities and the function of public "shaming."

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• José Iriarte
• José Iriarte - Of Unions, Intersections, and Empty Sets
• José Iriarte - Spirit of Home
• José Iriarte - Life in Stone, Glass, and Plastic
• José Iriarte - The Vampire’s Stepdaughter
• “You’ve got to sell your heart” (Letters of Note)

Esmé Weijun Wang's debut novel The Border of Paradise is one of my favorite books so far this year. A multigenerational epic centered on an interracial family, the Nowaks, this book touches on so many profound topics, from mental illness to intergenerational trauma to culture clash to the very question of what it means to be a family, all done in stunningly beautiful prose. Esmé and I had a great conversation about her book in the first segment, and in the second segment we chatted about our favorite social media platform: Twitter.

(Conversation recorded July 19, 2016.)

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• Esmé Weijun Wang
• Esmé Weijun Wang - The Border of Paradise
• Esmé Weijun Wang - With Love and Squalor (e-letter)
• Heather Havrilesky - Ask Polly
• Get Bullish Conference
• Esmé Weijun Wang - "You Are Not Lazy"
• Esmé Weijun Wang - "I'm Chronically Ill and Afraid of Being Lazy" (elle.com)
• Esmé Weijun Wang - "Why My Novel Uses Untranslated Chinese" (lithub.com)
• Junot Díaz - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Esmé Weijun Wang's debut novel The Border of Paradise is one of my favorite books so far this year. A multigenerational epic centered on an interracial family, the Nowaks, this book touches on so many profound topics, from mental illness to intergenerational trauma to culture clash to the very question of what it means to be a family, all done in stunningly beautiful prose. Esmé and I had a great conversation about her book in the first segment, and in the second segment we chatted about our favorite social media platform: Twitter.

(Conversation recorded July 19, 2016.)

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• Esmé Weijun Wang
• Esmé Weijun Wang - The Border of Paradise
• Esmé Weijun Wang - With Love and Squalor (e-letter)
• Heather Havrilesky - Ask Polly
• Get Bullish Conference
• Esmé Weijun Wang - “You Are Not Lazy”
• Esmé Weijun Wang - “I’m Chronically Ill and Afraid of Being Lazy” (elle.com)
• Esmé Weijun Wang - “Why My Novel Uses Untranslated Chinese” (lithub.com)
• Junot Díaz - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

In his lecture at the 2014 Medium Festival of Photography, photographer Kurt Simonson said that the common thread running through his work is the idea of longing; whether through family or friendship or community, the desire for connection is something we all feel, and that feeling is something he examines in his work. For this episode Kurt and I talked about his 2015 book The Northwoods Journals, an intimate, powerful, and sometimes funny look at the family and place that shaped him. For the second segment Kurt chose community as his topic, particularly the photographic community that he and I are a part of.

(Recorded July 15, 2016)

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• Kurt Simonson
• Kurt Simonson - The Northwoods Journals
• Kurt Simonson - I Love You, Man
• Kurt Simonson - A Thin Silence
• Flash Powder Projects

In his lecture at the 2014 Medium Festival of Photography, photographer Kurt Simonson said that the common thread running through his work is the idea of longing; whether through family or friendship or community, the desire for connection is something we all feel, and that feeling is something he examines in his work. For this episode Kurt and I talked about his 2015 book The Northwoods Journals, an intimate, powerful, and sometimes funny look at the family and place that shaped him. For the second segment Kurt chose community as his topic, particularly the photographic community that he and I are a part of.

(Recorded July 15, 2016)

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• Kurt Simonson
• Kurt Simonson - The Northwoods Journals
• Kurt Simonson - I Love You, Man
• Kurt Simonson - A Thin Silence
• Flash Powder Projects

This week, our very first poetry episode with Ohio poet Hannah Stephenson! I first started reading Hannah's blog, The Storialist, a year or so ago, and although most of the poems she posts there are short, they really invite you to spend some time with them. For this week's show, Hannah and I had a great talk about her 2013 book In the Kettle, the Shriek, and the thought process behind her poems.

(Recorded June 28, 2016)

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• Hannah Stephenson
• Hannah Stephenson - In the Kettle, the Shriek
• Paging Columbus! (YouTube)
• Gold Wake Press
• Robert Bly - A Little Book on the Human Shadow
• New American Press - New Poetry from the Midwest
• @thestorialist (Twitter)

This week, our very first poetry episode with Ohio poet Hannah Stephenson! I first started reading Hannah's blog, The Storialist, a year or so ago, and although most of the poems she posts there are short, they really invite you to spend some time with them. For this week's show, Hannah and I had a great talk about her 2013 book In the Kettle, the Shriek, and the thought process behind her poems.

(Recorded June 28, 2016)

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• Hannah Stephenson
• Hannah Stephenson - In the Kettle, the Shriek
• Paging Columbus! (YouTube)
• Gold Wake Press
• Robert Bly - A Little Book on the Human Shadow
• New American Press - New Poetry from the Midwest
• @thestorialist (Twitter)

Tucson-based photographer Ken Rosenthal's work has always stuck in my mind for both its striking visual style and the way that he uses images to represent and explore his internal emotional and psychological state. Whether he's looking at landscapes or family members or familiar objects, his photographs resonate because they represent the personal. We talked about several bodies of work, including his recent series The Forest and a work in progress called Days On the Mountain. For the second segment, Ken and I talked about change, and how when it comes in our personal lives it can spur us to new heights in our work.

(Recorded June 22, 2016)

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• Ken Rosenthal
• Ken Rosenthal - Photographs 2001-2009
• Ken Rosenthal - The Forest
• Medium Festival of Photography
• Mary Virginia Swanson
• Diane Arbus
• Sally Mann - Hold Still
• Ken's Instagram
• Ken's Twitter

Tucson-based photographer Ken Rosenthal's work has always stuck in my mind for both its striking visual style and the way that he uses images to represent and explore his internal emotional and psychological state. Whether he's looking at landscapes or family members or familiar objects, his photographs resonate because they represent the personal. We talked about several bodies of work, including his recent series The Forest and a work in progress called Days On the Mountain. For the second segment, Ken and I talked about change, and how when it comes in our personal lives it can spur us to new heights in our work.

(Recorded June 22, 2016)

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Support our Patreon | Leave a review

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• Ken Rosenthal
• Ken Rosenthal - Photographs 2001-2009
• Ken Rosenthal - The Forest
• Medium Festival of Photography
• Mary Virginia Swanson
• Diane Arbus
• Sally Mann - Hold Still
• Ken's Instagram
• Ken's Twitter