The show is back. Found in close up in  Carmen Brady's poetry are the details we notice when we are disconnected from others. That's not to say her poems are always about disconnectedness, but that void of understanding appears as a character itself at times. The shape created by what we don't understand about one another, when we try and fail to communicate truthfully. 

Carmen's poetry has appeared in Metatron, Potluck Mag, Little River Lit mag, Electric Cereal and elsewhere. Her chapbook Eating Alone at Chipotle was published by Bottlecap Press in 2015.

You can follow her on Twitter at @therealcbrad

Music by

Zhalih

MUSH

If you would like to submit fiction, non-fiction, or poetry between 1,000 and 4,000 words, send it to:

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We have three stories today from writer/filmmaker, Annabel Graham. Her writing, when fictional and non-fictional, has a way of finding ghosts, a way of tracing their influence on our lives. These can be the spirits of lost loved ones, or the ominous presence of a landscape itself, both having the power to present the world to us in their liking. Her stories on today's show all share the ability, almost paradoxically, to be both mysterious and intimate, leaving the reader affected, but still slightly unsure just how it happened. 

Her writing has appeared in Cosmonauts Avenue, Atticus Review, Cutbank Magazine, The Gallatin Review, Corium Magazine, and elsewhere.

Follow Annabel on twitter: @annabeleverest and check out her website. 

Conversation Topics: Cannes Film Festival, short film, film making, writing, NYU, screenwriting, non-fiction, family, illness, LA, grief, mourning, personal writing. 

Music

Zhalih

MUSH

If you would like to submit fiction, non-fiction, or poetry, between 1,000 and 4,000 words, send it to: [email protected]

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Nkem Obi-Melekwe creates music under the name Mon Nobi. His songs are dreamy and surreal, sometimes psychedelic; they grow out of the calamity of everyday sounds. Nkem also has his roots in hip hop, and many of his songs oscillate in and out of that region of music. They can sometimes move from trip hop to fully ambient electronic and then into straight, old school beats. He's a young guy, but he's already carved out his own peculiar and ever developing style. 

Conversation Topics: music, the South, Asheville, North Carolina, producing, sampling, collaborating, soundcloud, genres, playfulness, screamo, recording, cartoons, Adult Swim, Flying Lotus, Htrk, Phantogram, drawing. 

Find his music at:

soundcloud.com/monnobi

monnobi.bandcamp.com

Follow him on Twitter:

@nkemobm

Songs in order played:

1) What But A Blip on a Bell Curve

2) Lykmnd'd

3) Bread & Circuses

4) Houzcat

5) Iris

6) Dwyndwn

7) Why Am I Still Awake?

8) REM Rebound

9) MonoNoAware

10) The Koolaid

If you would like to submit fiction, non-fiction, or poetry between 1,000 and 4,000 words to the show, send it to:

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This is the first episode where we are catching up with a writer who has already been on the show and seeing where their projects have taken them, what new things they've finished, and where they're going now. We catch up today with Jeff Musillo, guest of episode #25. We talk about everything from the film in pre-production he is working on to his unfinished novel about the modern reincarnation of Jesus and his problematic life. 

The next full episode, #30 with music artist Mon Nobi, will be here tomorrow.

You can purchase Jeff's new novel, The Eternal Echo, on Amazon in both paperback and e-book formats. 

See all of Jeff's paintings on his Instagram, @jmusillo

Conversation Topics: writing, screenwriting, film, movies, inspiration, literature, Kurt Vonnegut, Darren Aronofsky, music, film scores, tone. 

Music by

Mon Nobi

MUSH

If you'd like to submit fiction, non-fiction, or poetry to the show, between 1,000 and 4,000 words, send it to: [email protected]

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It is one grand confession, one grand act of admitting love that the main character of today's story, Marlese, hopes will shift her life back toward the intimacy she once knew. But this confession is for a total stranger. On top of that, her friends are too busy making grilled cheese sandwiches by the dozens for some mysterious purpose to give much advice on love. J.P. Kemmick's story is one that has a premise of soap opera like obsession, but instead, his story takes a much more endearing, and funny turn. 

This story first appeared in J.P.'s collection of stories, Space City, USA. You can order a copy by emailing him at: [email protected]

His writing has appeared in Beechers, A Capella Zoo, Toad, Barrelhouse and elsewhere. 

Conversation Topics: writing, moving, literature, reading, surrealism, fabulism, Portland, Karen Russell, female characters

All music by MUSH

If you would like to submit writing between 1,000 and 4,000 words, fiction, non-fiction or poetry, send it to: [email protected]

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The flash fictions of Kendra Fortmeyer all share a magical realist quality and a melancholy, yet sometimes sweet, sense of humor. Hear three of her stories on today's episode, spread throughout our conversation that ranged from writing, the (imagined) Carolinas rivalry, Amy Bender, and stories from Kendra's dreams. 

Her work has appeared in PANK, Monkeybicycle, The Toast, Five Quarterly and elsewhere. She edits fiction for Broad! Magazine. 

Today's stories can be found at Wyvern Lit, People Holding, and Cheap Pop. 

Topics: writing, literature, publishing, David Bowie, magical realism, surrealism, teaching, dreams, mermaids, apocalypse, flash fiction, storytelling, influence. 

All music by MUSH

If you would like to submit writing, (fiction, non-fiction, or poetry) between 1,000 and 4,000 words, send it to: [email protected]

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In Mensah Demary's short story, a middle aged man who's left his marriage crumbling encounters a brazen, single young mother, and he begins to question even further what he actually wants. 

"Butcher's Block" was first published in PANK magazine. 

His fiction has also appeared in Metazen, Monkeybicycle,  and the Safety Pin Review among others. His non-fiction can be found in Salon, Thought Catalog, The Lit Pub and elsewhere. 

Mensah is an associate editor with Catapult and the founding editor of Specter Magazine. 

Follow him on Twitter @mensah4000

Conversation Topics: writing, literature, memoir, New York, Brooklyn, New Jersey, publishing, middle age, Roxane Gay, mentorship, Maggie Nelson, The Argonauts, non-fiction, essay.  

Music by

Mon Nobi

MUSH

To submit fiction, non-fiction, and poetry between 1,000 and 4,000 words, send it to: [email protected]

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Today's short story by playwright, Kenneth Hanes, deals with the relatively universal pain of seeing aging loved ones losing their memories and their recognition. However, for the main character of this story, who is a transwoman, this loss is magnified, for not only does her embittered father no longer recognize her, he has lost any understanding at all of who and how she is. 

Today's story first appeared in The Massachusetts Review. 

Music by

Ludwig Danson

MUSH

If you would like to submit fiction, non-fiction, or poetry between 1,000 and 4,000 words, send it to the show:

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Today we have two short stories from Jeff Musillo. They're each conversational, things you are overhearing or being directly told, or even confessed to. While each story centers on damaged men, one of them absurdly, hyperbolically so, they are each darkly funny.

Jeff is the author of The Ease of Access, Can You See That Sound, and Snapshot Americana. His new novella, The States is published by Civil Coping Mechanisms and is available this Friday (11/13/2015).  

Conversation topics: writing, Nickelodeon, TV, screenwriting, film, publishing, process, Brooklyn, Charles Bukowski, inspiration, learning, failure. 

Music by

Mon Nobi

MUSH

If you would like to submit fiction, narrative non-fiction, or poetry, between 1,000 and 4,000 words, send it to:

[email protected]

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In today's short story, "Breakfast Inside the Beltway," a young woman meets an eccentric old southern man whose eccentricities hide a life of real tragedy. Yet, that is exactly what they have in common, for at least one small era in each of their lives. 

Christine is a prolific fiction and non-fiction writer. Her writing has appeared in Cosmopolitan, The Feminist Wire, Bustle, The Southeast Review, and elsewhere. She is the editor of Quail Bell Magazine. 

Her writing as well as her film and visual artwork can be found at: wordsmithchristine.com

Conversation Topics: writing, literature, film, filmmaking, Stacey Steers, journalism, non-fiction, hustling, marriage, childhood, art. 

Music by

HXXS - ghettohexes.com

MUSH

If you would like to submit fiction, non-fiction, or poetry to the show, between 1,000 and 4,000 words, send it to:
[email protected]


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