Let's Have a Renaissance: The DateKeepers Podcast with Itto and Mekiya Outini

In this episode, we speak with novelist Adam Gnuse about his debut, Girl in the Walls (4th Estate and Ecco Editions, 2021), and related matters: squatters, lurkers, secret rooms, how to know whether it’s a mouse or a ghost, things that go bump in the night, and home invasions. Also, how to sell your debut novel to the Big Four, why authors need to learn to stop worrying and love marketing, and what they won’t teach you in the MFA. Adam’s work has appeared in The Guardian, Gulf Coast, Literary Hub, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Passages North, and elsewhere. He holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. 

In this episode, we speak with composer Peter Gilbert about the energetics of narrative, the role of discomfort in a creative practice, musical-literary cross-pollinations, and the peculiar joys of collaborating with a spouse. Peter Gilbert’s music has been featured in festivals and conferences around the world, supported by artist residencies and other foundations in the US and Europe, performed by soloists of international renown, and produced in collaboration with dozens of outstanding ensembles. He’s also taught at numerous colleges and universities, including Dartmouth and Harvard, from which he holds his PhD. Currently, he teaches composition and music technology at the University of New Mexico, where he’s been awarded UNM’s Research and Creative Works Leadership Award. 

In this episode, we speak with poet Kathleen Peirce about how she published six collections of poetry with traditional presses, what prevents certain good books from getting published, and how she found—and lost—the love of her life in her sixties. Over her long career, Kathleen has racked up many honors, including the Iowa Prize, the William Carlos Williams Award, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, the Whiting Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship, among others. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writer’s Workshop and recently retired from teaching at Texas State University. 

In this episode, we speak with textile artist Mark Newport about superheroes who knit their own suits and men who are called to heal and mend. Mark’s work has been featured in the prestigious Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art 2019, China and in the 2019 Rijswijk Textile Biennial in The Netherlands, is included in the collections of museums around the US, and can be viewed at the offices of Progressive Insurance and Microsoft. He earned his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1991. 

In this episode, we speak with composer Eric Lyon about creativity, labor, and meaning, how we can adapt our professional practices in an increasingly AI-driven world, whether humans who make music are on the verge of their Gary Kasparov moment, and why the twentieth century was so weird. In addition to being a composer, Eric is an expert in the hardware and software of digital music production. In 2016, he served as a guest editor of the Computer Music Journal, editing two issues and curating their first binaural Sound Anthology. He’s also been honored with a Giga-Hertz Prize from ZMK, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and others. He holds an MM from Eastman School of Music and a PhD from UC San Diego and currently teaches at the Virginia Tech School of Performing Arts. 

In this episode, we speak with author and poet Dan Beachy-Quick about how to teach oneself an ancient language and where exactly to draw the line between poetry and translation. Dan is the author of several books of poetry, a collection of linked essays responding to Melville’s Moby Dick, and a novel. He’s received a Lannan Foundation fellowship, a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship, and the Colorado Book Award, among others, holds an MFA in poetry from the University of Iowa, and teaches creative writing at Colorado State University. 

In this episode, we read and discuss three of our stories, all of which involve immigration and examine locals’ relations with immigrants, expats, foreigners, and other displaced persons. 

“Leila Enabled” (1.16) was originally published in Volume 12 of the Harpy Hybrid Review(http://www.harpyhybridreview.org/hybrid_works/leila-enabled/).

“Richard and Richard” (10.56) first appeared in Across the Margin. (https://acrossthemargin.com/richard-and-richard/).

“The Reanimation of Hippocrates” (21.06) can be read in Issue 7 of The Lincoln Review, pages 69 – 73. (https://www.lincolnreview.org/issue7).

In this episode, we speak with multidisciplinary creative Mildred Inez Lewis about the joys of interdisciplinary work, the logistics of writing for stage and screen, ongoing irregularities in film financing and their impact on casts and crews, and what “experimental” theater actually means. Mildred’s work has earned her the AGE Legacy Award, the Grand Jury Award from Fusion Theatre, the Samuel Goldwyn Screenwriting Award, and the Humanitas PLAY LA Award, among others. She holds an MA and an MFA from UCLA and currently teaches writing, film theory, West African, and Caribbean literature at Chapman University. 

In this episode, we speak with composer Robert Paterson about what it takes to build an arts organization in collaboration with one’s spouse, the frustrating transience of modern life, and why music festivals need to be reformed. Robert and his wife, Victoria Paterson, co-founded both Mostly Modern Projects, where he currently serves as artistic director, and Mostly Modern Ensemble. His work as a composer has received support from MacDowell, Copeland House, the Utah Arts Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, the American Composers Forum, the League of American Orchestras, New Music USA, and others. He’s also given master classes at several colleges and universities, including the Curtis Institute of Music, Aspen Music School & Festival, New York University, Cleaveland Institute of Music, and the University of Denver. He holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Indiana University, and Cornell. 

In this episode, we speak with novelist Ron Nyren about finding the optimal balance of fact and myth in historical fiction, the importance of patience for the not-yet-published author, and why small presses are awesome. Ron is the author of The Book of Lost Light, a novel set during the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco, published by Black Lawrence Press in 2020, and a co-author, along with his wife, Sarah Stone, of Deepening Fiction: A Practical Guide for Intermediate and Advanced Writers. His stories have appeared in The North American Review, The Paris Review, The Mississippi Review, The Missouri Review, and elsewhere, and he’s received a Major Hopwood Award, the Farrar Prize in Playwriting, the Roy W. Cowden Memorial Fellowship, and others. He holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan and teaches for Stanford Continuing Studies.