Licensed Poetics

This week, Licensed Poetics is joined by Malena, a wonderful Argentinian reader, writer, and songwriter. They talk about a famous Australian book about parent-children relationship, before BFL discusses misogyny in science fiction. Malena shares the book that she carries in her bag everywhere, and talks about being an artist as a way of life.

Find Malena on Instagram @malenafiorito and @nopiensoperoexisto

Follow Licensed Poetics on Instagram @licensedpoetics

Books mentioned

Cold Enough For Snow by Jessica Au

The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu

Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés (Mujeres que corren con los lobos)

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

Chapters

00:00 Music

00:25 Malena intro

01:38 How Achim met Malena

02:30 Achim reading update

09:52 BFL reading update

21:43 Malena’s reading

35:37 Writing every morning

37:04 Take yourself on a date

45:41 Malena’s commercial experience

48:40 Malena’s songwriting

52:05 Synesthesia

Incredibly Accomplished Filmmaker Vonne Patiag sits down with Licensed Poetics to talk about the film industry, writing on commission, and having a strong business background as a creative. Achim received Stephanie Niu’s chapbook all the way from America, and BFL finally read The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu!

Find Vonne on Instagram @vonnepat

www.vonnepatiag.com

Follow Licensed Poetics on Instagram @licensedpoetics

Works and artists mentioned

Survived By by Stephanie Niu

The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu

Tales from the Café by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Louise Bourgeois

Tomgirl by Vonne Patiag

Halal Gurls by Vonne Patiag

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

Here Out West (film)

Barbie (film)

King Richard (film)

Charles Bukowski

Chapters

00:00 Music

00:27 Vonne Intro

01:53 Achim reading update

06:52 BFL reading update

15:10 Vonne reading update

18:40 Transmutation

25:50 Vonne’s short film Tomgirl

34:41 Vonne’s series Halal Gurls

45:13 Heal before you write

58:36 Music influence

Achim triumphantly returns from holiday and brings with him a 17yo LinkedIn celebrity and entrepreneur prodigy who loves reading, Yurui Zi. He then drops his take on The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K, while BFL disagrees (yet again) with Goodreads reviewers on Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. Yurui bravely states his preference for non-fiction over fiction in the same room as Achim and BFL who are both avid fiction readers. Before the conversation turns into a fistfight, they find some common ground talking about Dune, stoicism, and high school English classes.

Follow us on Instagram @licensedpoetics

Books mentioned

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

The Almanack Of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness by Eric Jorgenson

On Women by Susan Sontag

More To That by Lawrence Yeo (blog)

Dune by Frank Herbert

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

The Sandman by Neil Gaiman

Chapters

00:00 Intro

01:00 Yurui intro

02:05 Achim reading update

10:25 BFL reading update

19:05 Yurui prefers non-fiction

29:47 Dune

37:05 Marcus Aurelius and stoicism

39:30 How Yurui got into business

44:20 High school English

51:05 Bloopers

yuruizi.com

BFL chats with Licensed Poetics Dear Friend Derek Dao about reading, writing, screenwriting, and if BFL needs therapy. How are TV scenes created? Why does movie-style writing NOT work for novels? When will Derek sell his million dollar story idea about being stuck in an endless tunnel? Listen and find out.

Find Derek

https://judeandpeter.substack.com/

Follow us on Instagram @licensedpoetics

Chapters

00:00 Music

00:46 Derek intro

03:06 BFL reading update

13:15 Derek reading update

24:41 What Derek and BFL write

32:28 Sad writers

34:08 Derek story pitch

43:29 Favourite screen tropes

47:25 What TV or movie would you make

Works mentioned

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

Derry Girls by Lisa McGee (TV)

Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff Van der Meer

HP Lovecraft

Annihilation by Alex Garland (Film)

True Detective (TV)

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Galveston by Nic Pizzolatto

The Dark Knight by Christopher Nolan (Film)

BoJack Horseman (TV)

Community by Dan Harmon (TV)

Rick and Morty (TV)

Solar Opposites (TV)

Black Mirror (TV)

Ghost-Birds by Nicolas Pizzolatto

Sex Education (TV)

Twin Peak (TV)

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

In this book-ish and film-ish episode, BFL chats with Emily and Anya, both wonderful writers and filmmakers, about Poor Things starring Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo, boring Hemingway, alienated poetry, and incredibly explicit audiobook adventures. The guests then share how they got started with filmmaking, before discussing the statement - the book is always better.

Chapters

00:00 Intro

00:36 How BFL met the guests

01:58 BFL reading update

04:07 Emily reading update

13:49 Anya reading update

27:03 Guest bios

28:25 Anya’s recent project

34:11 Emily’s recent project

39:39 How did you get started in filmmaking?

50:00 Film adaptations of books

Works mentioned

Poetry by Czeslaw Milosz

Poor Things by Alasdair Gray

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Starve Acre by Andrew Michael Hurley 

Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller

Death in the Afternoon By Ernest Hemingway

A Farewell to Arms By Ernest Hemingway

The Old Man and the Sea By Ernest Hemingway

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Help by Kathryn Stockett 

Arrival by Denis Villeneuve

The Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang

Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King

The Shawshank Redemption by Frank Darabont

Blade Runner by Ridley Scott

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Harry Potter movies

Fantastic Mr. Fox by Wes Anderson

Black Swan by Darren Aronofsky

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

Follow @licensedpoetics on Instagram!

@chatty_emily

https://emilyjames966116931.wordpress.com/

Find Anya

Instagram @lasagnevallentin

Find BFL

Instagram @bflwriter

https://bflwriter.blogspot.com/

As Achim and BFL set off on the perilous journey of comparing themselves to prodigy writers, the wonderful guest Rachael fangirls over her favourite slam poet. Then, Rach drops her iconic performance of her slam poetry piece, ‘Poem for the boys’. To no one’s surprise, Achim got emotional. Things got messy.

Chapters

00:00 Music

00:25 Introducing Rachael

01:28 Achim update

13:20 BFL update

23:17 Rachael update

27:50 Section II start

33:15 Content warning

33:30 ‘Poem for the boys’ performance

Books Mentioned

The Membranes by Chi Ta-wei

Penn & Teller: Fool Us (TV show)

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Less Than Zero by Brett Easton Ellis

Life of the Party by Olivia Gatwood

New American Best Friend by Olivia Gatwood

Insta - @2000slovepoetry

'Any type of conversation is a great vehicle for change.'

In this episode, we are joined by writer Marlene Baquiran. Following some devastating and hilarious book reviews, we explore how a well-crafted opening hook prevents the reader from putting down a piece of writing. Marlene, Achim, and BFL each draw from their own writing and editing experience. Finally, how do we effect change and become more empathetic as a writer? Marlene also shows her stand.

---Chapters---

00:00 Intro

00:59 Reading updates   

02:15 Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

03:59 The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexievich

11:00 Mythos by Stephen Fry

26:14 Introducing Marlene

26:44 Literary hooks

39:58 Midnight Children by Salman Rushdie

44:00 How does writing instigate change

49:31 How to channel empathy in writing

51:03 How to reconcile conflicting identities

---Find Marlene---

Instagram: @climatewriters

Substack: https://marlenejo.substack.com

Revealing our most adored, hated, and traumatising books of the year! We went through a thorough list of fantastical, socialist and ArCadyan books with unsolicited but highly personal and emotional verdicts! What’s your favourite read in 2023? Do you have any objections to our reviews?? Let us know in the comments! 

---Timestamps---

00:00 Introducing Cady

02:17 How many books did you read/DNF this year

10:27 How many Chinese books did you read

13:52 Which country did you read from the most (Author’s country of origin)

19:22 What is your most/ least read Genre!

23:23 What is the longest/ shortest book you read

28:15 What is your most read decade (ranked by date first published)

32:06 Personal questions:

36:36 Favourite Book of the Year

54:51 Least Favourite Book of the Year

1:04:34 Reading goals for 2024

---Books Mentioned---

Achim:

The Prophet

Tender is the Flesh

Labrinths

The Lady of the Lake (The Witcher Book 7)

Murder of the Alphabets

Live by Night

Cady: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/162932073

BFL:

China in Ten Words by Yu Hua

Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky

Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

Simple Passion by Annie Erneaux

White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Yellowface by RF Kuang

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

On The Road by Jack Kerouac

'I want to write a poem for her because I feel like she deserves it.'

In this episode, we are joined by our guest features Annabella & Antoinette Luu, resonating with their intimate and captivating perspectives of being a storyteller and their empathy for people they hold close. We transform the recording studio into a contemplative chamber on what it means to be a writer and what makes it beautiful. 

---Chapters---

00:00 Intro

00:50 Recent reads

28:00 Conversation with Annabella& Antoinette

32:05 On Narratives of writing

39:00 On Fantasy and Mythology

41:02 On being a Writer as a way of living 

---Books mentioned---

A Thousand Years of Good Prayers by Yiyun Li

Past lives (Film)

Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

Time Is a Mother by Ocean Vuong

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot

---Guests---

Find Bella: bellaluu_art

Find Annette: annette_luu_art

'I wonder how my body knows what it feels like to fly - I think it’s because of swimming.'

In the very first episode of Licensed Poetics, hosts Fung-Ling and Achim dive into a sea of captivating quotes and engaging conversations, joined by our guest feature Stephanie Niu. We even discover a mystifying connection between Steph and Achim?! Steph then expands her dreamscape by reading one of her latest pieces that hasn’t been shared before.

---Sections---

00:00 Intro

00:40 Reading Updates

17:59 Conversation with Stephanie Niu

31:23 Stephanie Niu reads poem 'Dalian'

Books Mentioned

Big Swiss by Jen Beagin

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney 

Outline by Rachel Cusk

Poetry Unbound by Padraig O Tuama

Lost Lake By Bella Li

'Oracle for the End of World' by Stephanie Niu

'Furrows at Fallow Field' by Stephanie Niu

'From Blossoms' by Li-Young Lee 

'Golden State': Gold shovel after Li-Young Lee by Stephanie Niu

Bluest Nude by Ama Codjoe

The Black Mariah by Aracelis Girmay

Blueprint by Ama Codjoe

Find Steph

Stephanie Niu

Instagram