The Drunken Odyssey with John King: A Podcast About the Writing Life

In this week's episode, Rachael Tillman and I break some standards of academia as we discuss the poetry insights of Paul Chowder, the narrator of Nicholson Baker's 2009 comic novel, The Anthologist.

On this replay episode, I talk to the late Charles Simic about James Tate, Kansas surrealism, humor in poetry, and embracing the unconscious, plus I talk to Richard Blanco about the accidents that turn us into artists, the grind of editing, and the joys of finding new forms and challenges.

On this week’s show John talks to Blake Sanz, author of The Boundaries of Their Dwelling, about the intertwining short stories within the book and the journeys of emotional vulnerability, writing as a grad student, and wooden planks reminiscent of Theseus.

On this week's show, Samantha Nickerson talks to Juli Min about reverse-chronology narratives and the captivation of surprises in following characters over decades.

On this week’s show Chrissy Kolaya talks to Li-Young Lee about his latest collection of poems, The Invention of the Darling. Together they explore the rooms of poetry, the systems of the human imagination, and the voice of angels.

On this week’s show, John King talks to the novelist Kent Wascom about the continuation of the Woolsack legacy in his new novel, The Great State of West Florida. We discuss the vibrantly chaos of Florida, the postmodern pulp possibilities of the western genre, and the importance of a great book cover.

On this week’s show, Johnj talk to the poet David McLoghlin about his newest collection of poems, Crash Centre, and history, religion, rugby, boarding school, trauma, and exiting the comforts of metaphor.

Chelsea Alice interviewed Ian Patterson back on episode 589, but they had much more to talk about, so here is another round of frank, literary conversation, this time about translating Charles Fourier and Patterson's original poetry as well.

In this week’s show, John talks with Daniel Handler about the absurd fun of stress-testing reality, the joys of listening to Sun Ra & Prince, the efficacy of writing on ordinary writing pads, and the importance of waiting for the good stuff to come to us as writers.

After discussing World War I with Michael Korda on episode 622, this week I speak with Ann Hood about her newest novel, The Stolen Child, which features a storyline about artists during World War I. During this interview, I may have defended IHOP perhaps too strenuously. Talking with Ann was, as always, charming.