Claire Hopple stopped by to read from her book TIRED PEOPLE SEEING AMERICA. She lives in Asheville, NC, though she is quick to claim her Western Pennsylvania roots. She is also the author of TELL ME HOW YOU REALLY FEEL (forthcoming from Maudlin House, 2020). She's cool! https://dostoyevskywannabe.com/originals/tired_people_seeing_america

Thanks so much to Keegan Grandbois, Holler Boys and Alec Sturgis for the amazing music, as always.

A reading by Joseph Grantham, from his new collection Raking Leaves. Raking Leaves is the second book of poetry by the American writer Joseph Grantham. Get it for that special someone today: https://www.amazon.com/Raking-Leaves-Joseph-Grantham/dp/0983258910

Laura Theobald grew up in the Florida Keys and lives in the South. Her first book of poetry is What My Hair Says About You. She has an MFA in poetry from LSU and makes books for OOMPH! And BOAAT. Her website is lauratheobald.tumblr.com

The Beach Boys sang, “Off the Florida Keys there’s a place called Kokomo. That’s where you wanna go to get away from it all.” But KOKOMO is also the name of Laura Theobald’s newest collection of poems. It’s a book where we wanna go to get away from it all. https://disorderpress.com/store/kokomo

Brad Phillips visited us in our dreams last night and gave us a reading from his new book The True Story of John Lang and The Hollywood ESP Cult. Thanks, Brad. And thanks to Holler Boys and Alec Sturgis for the awesome music. You can get Brad Phillips' recent book ESSAYS & FICTIONS from Tyrant Books right here: https://store.nytyrant.com/products/essays-and-fictions-by-brad-phillips

A couple of months ago, we produced the audiobook for Eleanor Or The Rejection of the Progress of Love by Anna Moschavokis. Anna Wrote an essay addressing the writing and publishing of the novel. It was originally published on The Paris Review, but now it’s been recorded for The Talking Book Podcast. It’s called The Capacity to Be Alone. It's awesome. Enjoy.

The Audiobook: http://thetalkingbook.org/eleanor

Here is the original: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/08/16/the-capacity-to-be-alone/

A reading from Juliet The Maniac by Juliet Escoria. Ambitious, talented fourteen-year-old honors student Juliet is poised for success at her Southern California high school. However, she soon finds herself on an increasingly frightening spiral of drug use, self-harm, and mental illness that lands her in a remote therapeutic boarding school, where she must ultimately find the inner strength to survive. https://www.mhpbooks.com/books/juliet-the-maniac/

Joseph Rathgeber reads an excerpt from his new book Mixedbloods. Get it now from Fomite Press. The Ramapough Lenape, a destabilized people—origins uncertain, debated and mythologized—are struggling to survive in the face of an ecological devastation visited upon them by the neighboring Ford plant, which has dumped paint sludge in abandoned mines for decades. Mixedbloods is a story of identity, of a cultural history under attack, and of destructive—often violent—behavior. https://www.amazon.com/Mixedbloods-Joseph-Rathgeber/dp/1944388869/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Mixedbloods+joseph+rathgeber&qid=1560023758&s=books&sr=1-1

Drug-addled yard workers. Black-marketeering militiamen. Aimless celebrity impersonators. Narcotized puffer fish. And at the center of it all, a pair of glue-huffing cousins who attempt to cope with the relentless disasters of their lives by building giant trash monuments that attract their own strange fanatics. Welcome to The Great American Suction, a frenzied portrait of struggle and collapse - and occasional resuscitation - in the ruts and nooks of a beleaguered heartland. Get the book here: https://store.nytyrant.com/products/the-great-american-suction-by-david-nutt

Sebastian Mathews stopped by The Talking Book house and read from his new work The Life and Times Of American Crow. You can get the book here. https://sebastianmatthews.com/american-crow-graphic-novel/

“Yes, God heard, I know He heard.” is a word and sound project by Ashleigh Bryant Phillips and Sam Leidig. It was inspired by the life and work of North Carolinian visionary artist, Annie Hooper. At the time of her death, Annie had created over 5,000 sculptures depicting Bible stories throughout her home. She made them out of mud, sticks, and seashells. She lived in Buxton, North Carolina.