SoundPages Podcast

2016 Jack Straw Writer Corinne Manning talks with program curator Karen Finneyfrock about the development of her novel Potential Monsters and the feedback she received that led her to reevaluate her relationship to the narrow confines of contemporary literature. “That . . . fueled me  to explore how I can tell my stories authentically without being concerned with what is considered mainstream literature.”

Music by Seattle Jazz Composers Ensemble, produced as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.

The post Monsters – Corinne Manning appeared first on Jack Straw Cultural Center.

Multidisciplinary writer and artist Shin Yu Pai, known primarily for her poetry, worked on a collection of personal essays about her relationship to Taiwanese identity during her time as a 2016 Jack Straw Writer. She talks with curator Karen Finneyfrock about her writing and research practices, and why she chose to explore these particular themes in the form of essays. “This particular project is one for me that explores cultural roles, gender roles, and my relationship to family in terms of my relationship with my father . . . as well as my relationship to my son.”

Music by Seattle Jazz Composers Ensemble, produced as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.

The post Firstborn – Shin Yu Pai appeared first on Jack Straw Cultural Center.

2016 Jack Straw Writer Robert Lashley talks with program curator Karen Finneyfrock about Up South, the forthcoming collection of poetry he was working on during his Jack Straw residency. Robert also shares his thoughts on his favorite forms of poetry and some of the writers who’ve inspired him, including his uncle, Moses Williams. “He considered himself like an old school singing-school-style poet . . . that was very interested in making a poem read orally and also read on the page.”

Music by Seattle Jazz Composers Ensemble, produced as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.

The post Up South – Robert Lashley appeared first on Jack Straw Cultural Center.

2016 Jack Straw Writer Ruby Hansen Murray‘s novel The Heart Stays People tells the story of Maria, a 16-year-old Osage girl raised by Cherokee who longs for her own people and doesn’t know what to do next. She talks with Curator Karen Finneyfrock about the challenges of creating an original story that reflects history accurately. “I feel compelled to . . . do the best I can to understand how people saw the world at that time and to convey what their decisions might have been. I also feel compelled to write a strong narrative which frees itself from real people and what might have happened or what did happen.”

Music by Seattle Jazz Composers Ensemble, produced as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.

The post Maria – Ruby Hansen Murray appeared first on Jack Straw Cultural Center.

2016 Jack Straw Writer Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum talks with Curator Karen Finneyfrock about her in-progress collection of short stories addressing many forms of disaster, from the personal to the geological. She also shares some of her process as a writer and her thoughts on the perfection of the short story: “There’s a sense of complete delight in the beauty of control that the story offers.”

Music by Seattle Jazz Composers Ensemble, produced as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.

The post Disaster – Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum appeared first on Jack Straw Cultural Center.

Linda Andrews‘ work – whether poetry, prose, or a hybrid of the two – is always written with an ear for the spoken word. She talks with 2015 Jack Straw Writers Program Curator Kevin Craft about writing for the ear, her experience as a teacher, and doing rewrites while driving through the Palouse. ” I think it’s so important to hear what we write through our voice. It’s the best way, I think, that we know what we’re writing about.”

Music by St. Helens String Quartet, produced as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.

The post Incidentals – Linda Andrews appeared first on Jack Straw Cultural Center.

For her Jack Straw Writers Program project, L. J. Morin (Lisa Carcia) wrote a series of poems inspired by the tale of a parrot in Venezuela who was the last known speaker of a dead language. She speaks with 2015 Writers Program Curator Kevin Craft about Alexander Von Humboldt, the tirelessly curious discoverer of this parrot, as well as the many challenges involved in turning history into poetry.

Music by St. Helens String Quartet, produced as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.

The post Humboldt – L. J. Morin appeared first on Jack Straw Cultural Center.

Anca Szilágyi‘s novel Paralegal looks at the runup to the 2008 financial crash through the eyes of Binnie Greenson, a diorama artist working a summer job in a corporate law firm and struggling with her identity as an artist. She talks with 2015 Jack Straw Writers Program curator Kevin Craft about Joseph Cornell, the gradually developing executive function of twenty-somethings, and how to let your characters speak for themselves.

Music by St. Helens String Quartet, produced as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.

The post Paralegal – Anca Szilágyi appeared first on Jack Straw Cultural Center.

Matthew Schnirman‘s poems combine humor, nostalgia, intimacy, and sex into a voice that’s by turns sardonic and sincere, ironic and heartfelt. He talks to 2015 Jack Straw Writers Program Curator Kevin Craft about his “Zac Poems,” whose titular character floats through the films of Zac Efron as viewed through Matthew’s poetic lens.

THIS PODCAST CONTAINS ADULT LANGUAGE

Music by St. Helens String Quartet, produced as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.

The post Zac – Matthew Schnirman appeared first on Jack Straw Cultural Center.

Clare Johnson‘s writing delves both into the past – resurrecting voices and stories from generations past – and into her own personal experiences. She talks with 2015 Writers Program curator about the influence of travel and homesickness on her work and her process for creating these patchwork pieces, which Craft refers to as “core samples of time.”

Music by St. Helens String Quartet, produced as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.

The post Histories – Clare Johnson appeared first on Jack Straw Cultural Center.