Lit & Bruised

This is it, the end of season 3 (we’ll be back early next year), but what better way to end this great season than with the live recording of our live show at The Letters Festival after party. Sabrina Orah Mark, Merredith Blankenship, and Jared Yates Sexton all took to the stage, read their work, and then joined us on the yellow painted couch for a conversation.

Sabrina Orah Mark's first collection of stories, Wild Milk, was recently published by Dorothy. She is also the author of the poetry collections The Babies and Tsim Tsum. Mark’s awards include a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Sustainable Arts Foundation Award, and a fellowship from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts. She has taught at Agnes Scott College, University of Georgia, Rutgers University, University of Iowa, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Goldwater Hospital and throughout the New York City and Iowa Public School Systems. She lives in Athens, Georgia, with her husband, Reginald McKnight, and their two sons.

Meredith Blankinship lives in Atlanta, GA. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and author of the chapbook Sexual Civilian (Epigraph Magazine). Her poems have appeared in NOÖ, Beecher's, Heavy Feather Review, GlitterMob, Sink Review, and Finery, among others. She collaborates with the artist Dana Haugaard on Heat Rituals, a multi-medium project.

Jared Yates Sexton is a writer, academic, and political correspondent whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Republic, and Salon. He is the author of The People Are Going To Rise Like The Waters Upon Your Shore, An End To All Things, The Hook and The Haymaker, and I am The Oil of The Engine of The World. Currently, he serves as an Associate Professor of Creative Writing in the Department of Writing & Linguistics at Georgia Southern University.

We hope you enjoyed the season.

Adán Bean always brings the fire. Whether is spoken word poetry or as an emcee. Don’t miss the opportunity to see him perform. We had a really great time when he stopped by the show and he performed a great new piece that has lots and lots of layers to it.

Adán reads at 1:17

Adán Bean - Adán Bean is an accomplished spoken word poet, emcee, and voice-over talent hailing from the small town of Massillon, OH, but has called Atlanta home for over 10 years. As a graduate of Morehouse College, he has represented Atlanta on the 2015 and 2017 Java Monkey Slam teams for the National Poetry Slam Competition. In August 2017, he was the winner of the National Poetry Slam song contest. As one half of the retro-progressive hip hop group, The Remnant, Adán has released three projects with the band as well as toured the country extensively bringing the music to the masses. His work has been featured with Def Jam, Cash Money Records, The Bert Show, Delta, and more. He is currently finishing up on his first solo project (Untitled) on Skylane Creative Records. In addition to writing, recording and performing music, he co-owns the website Forth District which focuses on art, music, film, sports, politics, faith and conscious culture. He hosts The SetList podcast which interviews artists and musicians through the prism of their musical influences. The 2nd season kicks off October 2018 and is available everywhere. Finally, as a part-time SEM copywriter, Adán Bean can be found on stages across the country sharing his prose and poetry.

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We hope you enjoy the episode.

We got so much great feed back last season for our Non-Fiction episode we decided to make it a tradition.

Our non-fiction themed episode last season was really fun so we decided to make it a tradition. This season Amanda Avutu and Osa Gaius came by to share their own writing and stories.

Amanda Avutu reads at 28:37

Osa Gaius reads at 56.02

Amanda Avutu is a nonfiction writer whose essays have appeared in the New York Times, O: The Oprah Magazine, the Washington Post, Atlanta Magazine, Bitter Southerner, Tin House, and Brevity. Her fiction has appeared in Green Mountains Review, Fifth Wednesday, Story, and her dresser drawer. Amanda lives in Atlanta, where she’s currently working on a memoir.

Osa Gaius is an engineer at Mailchimp. He spent his childhood in Benin City, Nigeria, before eventually moving to Miami, Florida at 10 years old. He studied creative writing and computer science at the University of West Georgia. In his spare time he is learning to Salsa.

We hope you enjoy the episode.

Happy Halloween!

We really love scary stories here at Lit & Bruised and to celebrate our favorite holiday we welcomed some of Atlanta’s best writers to share in the fun and read some truly eerie tales. Just like our inaugural Halloween reading all music in this episode was provided by Crispin Wah. All stems used to create the loops are from the sessions that made up Crispin Wah’s newest album Lemon Pepper. Make sure to check it out. They are psychedelic magicians.

Reading Times:

Stephanie Roman: 17:21

Winston Blake Wheeler Ward: 40:41

Christeene Alcosiba: 1:01

Myke Johns: 1:30

Stephanie Roman is a flash fiction writer from New Orleans. Her ongoing creative writing project, Flash Noir, explores the darker side of flash fiction, and her short stories have been featured in Loose Change Magazine, The Five Hundred, Transgression: Mass Hysteria, The Molotov Cocktail (Portland), and Flash Flood (UK). Whether she’s writing mysteries, crime fiction, psychological thrillers, sci-fi, or a combination of these, Stephanie enjoys putting her own signature twist on conventional genre fiction.

A fiction and essay writer living in Atlanta, Georgia, Winston Blake Wheeler Ward is the author of over 100 short stories. He is the founder and curator of The Five Hundred, an online, monthly writing challenge started in February of 2011. He is the host of the monthly reading and discussion series Case Studies. His book of short stories There Appeared a Sadness was published by DeerBearWolf Press in 2014. He is also the founder and editor of Infinite Worlds a science fiction zine, the first issue of which will be available in spring of 2019.

Christeene Alcosiba is a poet, technologist, and writer for ArtsATL. Her poems and articles have been published or forthcoming in Rattle, New York Quarterly, Forklift, OH, and English Journal, among others. Her first chapbook, Little Earthquakes, was the winner of the 2010 New York Book Festival Poetry Prize.

Myke Johns is a public radio producer in Atlanta, where he covers arts and culture. He is co-founder of the WRITE CLUB Atlanta live lit series and the sole proprietor of the band Meaning of Everything. His Venmo handle is @Myke-Johns.

We hope you enjoy the episode, but also don’t forget to check out the After Party Lit & Bruised is hosting at The Letters Fest on November 9th @10pm at The Highland Ballroom with Sabrina Orah Mark, Meredith Blankinship, and Jared Yates Sexton.

New South Journal is produced entirely by graduate students in the New South Writing Workshop at Georgia State University. Previously known as The GSU Review, they’ve been publishing new fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and art since 1975.

Anna Sandy Elrod is an MFA candidate at Georgia State University, where she also teaches English Composition and Introduction to Poetry. She is the current editor-in-chief of New South and the managing editor of Muse/A. Her work can be found in the Santa Ana River Review, Indianapolis Review, Nightjar Review, Bone Bouquet, Bad Pony, Bluestem,and others. She lives in Atlanta with her husband and three cats.

Caroline Crew is a writer and editor. She edited the online poetry journal, ILK. She has written several chapbooks, and her full length poetry collection, PINK MUSEUM is out from Big Lucks. Currently she serves as the Poetry Editor of New South Journal.

Nicholas Goodly is a recipient of the 2017 Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship. A Cave Canem Fellow, Nicholas received a Teaching Fellowship from Columbia University and was a finalist in the 2017 Tennessee Williams Poetry Contest and a finalist in the 2016 Academy of American Poets Prize. Nicholas is the writing editor of WUSSY Magazine and currently lives in Atlanta, GA.

Collin Kelley is the author of the forthcoming poetry collection Midnight in a Perfect World, which will be published by Sibling Rivalry Press in November 2018. He is also the author of The Venus Trilogy of novels – Conquering Venus, Remain In Light and Leaving Paris – also published by Sibling Rivalry Press. Remain In Light was the runner-up for the 2013 Georgia Author of the Year Award in Fiction and a 2012 finalist for the Townsend Prize for Fiction. Kelley is also a recipient of the Georgia Author of the Year Award, Deep South Festival of Writers Award and Goodreads Poetry Award, Kelley’s poetry, reviews, essays and interviews have appeared in magazines, journals and anthologies around the world.

collinkelley.blogspot.com

Muse/A Journal (myoo-zay) is a literary journal that developed from the creative efforts of Gregg Murray to share poetic writing of all themes with a wide network of enthusiasts. They have six issues out so far that can be read or bought at their website.

The art and the words of each issue of Muse/A come together at their live events (they’re house parties) adding performance artists to create an immersive environment.

John and Matt were joined in this episode by Muse/A founder and Editor-in-Chief Gregg Murray and Lyric Essays Editor Anya Vostrova.

Gregory Emilio and Jess Bernhart, who both have work published in Muse/A Journal, read and joined in on the conversation.

Conversation topics included:

Making a journal that is like a museum but you can touch the paintings

Trying to define a lyrical essay

How Muse A/ sets up their house parties for each print release

Walk out music for poets

Gregory Emilio is a Southern California native whose poetry and essays have appeared in Midwestern Gothic, MUSE/A, Permafrost, Pleiades, Spoon River Poetry Review, The Poet’s Billow, and World Literature Today. Currently, he’s the Nonfiction Editor at New South, and a PhD candidate in English at Georgia State University in Atlanta. He also works as a bartender.

Jess Bernhart serves as editor of Withal and co-curator of fLoromancy, an online arts mag. She's contributed fic / non-fic / and poetry to Creative Loafing, ArtsATL, Burnaway, Eyedrum Periodically, Muse/A, and others, and has created poetry installations for ArtFields 2017, Sibyl, Performance KUNST, ART Decatur Book Festival, and The Imaginary Million. She serves on the board of Idea Capital, teaches at the High Museum, and lives in southwest Atlanta with her dog, Hattie.

http://www.museajournal.com

We hope you enjoy the episode.

Nicki Salcedo is the author of Intersections, Echoes of the Same, All Beautiful Things and In My Father's Shoes . She has a degree in English and Creative Writing from Stanford University.  Her newest book, In My father’s Shoes is out now. She has major stage fright and yet she has appeared in live literary events such as Listen To Your Mother, Write Club Atlanta, Bleux Stocking Society, Debate! and Scene and Song Missing. She loves connecting with writers and readers.

Hard to believe that not even a year ago we were just starting to have the idea for this podcast, and now the second season is done. Thank you for listening to us talk and talk, but also get to have some great conversations with some amazing writers. We’ll be back in the fall with another live reading and some really great episodes that we are already planning.

We close out this season recapping the last 15 episodes and play highlights from our first live event Resolve, including readings from Mike Jordan and Theresa Davis.

Kate Whitman is VP of Public Programs for the Atlanta History Center and its Midtown campus, the Margaret Mitchell House and oversees all programming for both sites. Her current duties include overseeing a program staff of 18 employees, strategic planning and grant writing for the programs division, developing immersive and engaging experiences for visitors of all ages, and supporting staff development through integrating dialogic engagement strategies. Whitman also curates the popular Author Program series, which welcomes over 50 bestselling authors to Atlanta each year.