To honor possibly our dearest friend of the show, and literary dad, D. Stevenson, the Wordsworthing crew dug into Strangler Bob by Denis Johnson as published in our favorite magazine (to shred), The New Yorker.  There was talk about fate vs choice, rolling for luck, hella-craft, and the inevitability that sometimes a story will goes sideways.  Ben, Dan, and Nick all took notes for your pleasure. 

Also, a lot of our side jokes were left in this time which we think you'll enjoy.  But what do we know about what anyone would enjoy.  Other than alcohol.  And us.  We feel that we would enjoy some alcohol right about now.

Castmate Ben then regaled us with a Saunders-esque, techno satire, snap edit fiction which Dan and Nick enjoyed.  NPCs were mentioned.

As the booze wound on, the crew found themselves debating what living was and is, through sensory stimulation (specifically via mega cold water submerging followed by extreme hot water submerging).  Then we wound the show up, thereafter continuing deep into the substances and the night, such that at one point Castmate Nick was asleep on his bed, headphones still on, only to wake to his fellow Castmates shouting "Nick!  Wake up!"  This, of course, was unrecorded.  After Castmate Nick awakened, they still kept on into the night, reaching for something they knew was unattainable:  peace.

Castmate Nick

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Oh, it’s Episode 8, the one where we don’t eviscerate Amy Hempel’s “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried” (READ IT PEOPLE), and it’s tight. I mean mammy-TIGHT.

LO-FI as fuck, but tight.

Here at WW, we don’t stand on pretenses or technological skill. We flounder about the internets.com with the mic’s and the mic stands and the pop filters and the, uh, gain knob and such bobs and bits, and we make a thing. This time, we made a thing in front of an audience of willing listeners, corralled into Admin 148 on the verdant campus of the Universidad de Alaska a Anchorage. Jo Ann Beard was there! Ulysses was there! Nick was in the other room. And peripatetic caster Hunter joined, in the flesh, to drop Cackylacky wisdoms on your ass.

The point is, content quality: high; production value; low. Close your eyes. Pretend you’re there. Hear the people shuffling papers, clearing throats, talking to babies. Hear the whispered awe, and hear Brett’s phone ring, right there, in the middle of the cast, like phones can’t be silenced. And, sincerely, shut the fuck up about the audio, already.

Spoiler alert: We LIKED Hempel’s piece. NO SHOTGUNS! Read it. Nick, Ben, Hunter and Dan make some admiring notes here.

Hunter reads a delightful piece involving upside-down chickens (and Ben, Dan, and Nick react here). Nick tilts against The New Yorker. We decidedly do NOT surreptitiously consume adult beverages right there in the goddamn classroom. David Stevenson (read the man here; do it, DO IT) winds us along a Wordsworthing that kicked me in the emotional balls, time after time, as I sat there and listened in person and as I edited and listened and listened and listened. I mean, it’s David.

Finally, a lively discussion is had re: Hempel and noted editor Gordon “The Lisher” Lish and the role of editors in general and this one in particular, who may or may not have had intimate knowledge of this particular story. But I cut that part out.

- Castmate Dan

PS – Be sure to click here to read the story for the soon-to-be recorded episode 9, “Strangler Bob” by Denis Johnson. That’s right, Denis fucking Johnson. Bring it, DJ.

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Here we are again.  In this episode we drop some news about the lit mag, discuss why we are doing it, drink (except Dan who was killing it at sobriety; props dude), we talk some serious wisdoms (sic), and then cavort in the literary effort as we are known to do.

Adam O'Fallon Price.  A Natural Man.  The Paris Review.  You should click the link and stuff that material through your irises before you have a listen.  That way when we fly off the fucking handle about shotguns, you'll know what's going on.  Seriously.  Shotguns.  

In fact, a little PSA here, whether you are gun fan or not, if you are going to write a story about them SHOOT THE MOTHERFUCKERS A FEW TIMES.

Okay, back to the regularly scheduled programming.  We eviscerate this piece in a tidy fashion (Ben, Dan, and Nick notes) and then proceed to discuss college scouting, rawdog, and poor choices.

Dan reads a story.  Ben and Nick respond.

The show is just as you'd expect:  Raucous and boozy.  And, dare we say, informed.

But seriously, the shotgun.  

Castmate Nick

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TOP SECRET NO FORN

EPISODE SIX: If you are reading this, know: You are the Resistance and I am Castmate Ben, leading you from the heart of the fight, direct from the SkyNet Palmer front, deep in combat with the machines - digitally, spiritually, humanly…  leaning forward, as you do.

The focus of our best HUMINT (supplied by Castmate Ben himself) is a piece entitled “The Tenant” by a Victor Lodato that appeared in a publication, Granta, of some note. The team dispatched to recon this unit, newly identified, as a possible high value target, and we set up OPs around the archive, downloading as arrantly as we dared. The intel in hand, we repaired to our hides to suss out the essential elements of information.

On or about 22APR2017, the team casted, remotely, from our encrypted locales about said target. Owing to the handicap of Powerpoint being down, the team can provide the Resistance with a bulleted list of notes/beacons, for which to listen in this latest broadcast:

-Rebecca Solnit, friend of the show

-The Trip to Echo Spring

-Jason Preator

-“I like to stay dumb as a writer.”

-Cambridge University

-Franzen

-Ron Carlson

-Lodato equals ‘dumb’ writing equals high journaling

-22 pages to anything

-Jo-Ann Mapson teaching

-Ignorance of Anna Karenina

-”Blah, pedestrian.”

-Freezyville

-Authorial Intent

-”Lemme jump in there”

-Rigid German Airships

-Wurlitzer pianos, A440 tuning forks

-The Absence

-T-Pain

-“A Natural Man”

I will broadcast on this frequency, as able, to disseminate further updates. If you’re out there, know that you are important. Stay reading the lit, forming your own circles of Art, cutting away at the airport fic and trash poetry and awful symbolism. Remember, if you’re reading this, you are the Resistance, you are important, and the future is yours to earn.

REFERENCE DOCUMENTATION:  P-1278; TO-65-1113; NAVSECOPSLOG 12, 13, & 85; 45-98GHQ

TOP SECRET NO FORN

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Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!

We really should dedicate this episode of Wordsworthing to Christian Andreas Doppler. 

I’m sure you’ve all at least flipped through Chris’ seminal work, Über das farbige Licht der Doppelsterne und einiger anderer Gestirne des Himmels, a charming little tome the Salzburger scratched out on the observed frequency of waves and the impact of relative speed. He did this in 1842. Smart guy, Chris.

So anyway, you’re receiving this communique from someplace that without Chris would have still just been the murky insides of a person. I’m referring, of course, to the womb, wondrous flesh cave of dark thought and muffled sound, and the magic of the fetal Doppler device which allows me, your MC for Episode 5, to speak these words of introduction. Naturally other technology infiltrates here and there in the transmission, notably that from the inventors and architects of speech-to-text and the internet, but for just straight old gib gab from the deepest darkest folds of the reproductive realm, Herr Chris is our hero.

Herein (the episode, not the womb) you’ll find the delights of your regular podcast hosts testing out the Emergency Broadcast System for some personal validation, naming bands after the weather, and working with our old pal (and Friend of the Show) T.C. Boyle on making America Great Again. This should be fun.

Then we’ll swim in the warm placental waters of our featured story, “North” by Aria Beth Sloss, a writer of such nice mouth feel as to elicit salivation. This story, gravid with visual lusciousness, transports us to a cold land from which both America and certain characters may never return. I don’t want to rupture the sack of spoilers, but let us agree that there is a reason these words are spoken in utero.  (Ben's, Nick's, and Dan's marginalia can be found here.)

Changing directions, the Gutter Monkeys of the cast will force you through a canal of adventure, visiting skeezy beach bars, applauding Lord Byron as he throws shade, and then with full hearted tumescence Ben will deliver us a short piece about a Greek hero who literally takes in hand his own destiny. Seed is scattered like children across this formerly great land, and the cast closes with the pop-free tinkle of a baby’s laugh.  (Dan & Nick's spot check of Ben's tumescence can be found here).

Thank you, Chris, thank you for providing me the means to invite the listener to slip through the dilating portal and join me in the swaddled comfort of another episode of Wordsworthing.

– MC Yet To Be Named

PS – Be sure to click here to read the story for the already recorded episode 6, “The Tenant” by Victor Lodato.

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Dear Mr. Chappalwala,

I am writing to confirm delivery of the latest package.  I quite enjoyed the contents, of which immediately began playing upon opening the envelope.  I was very excited to hear that the package contained a new Wordsworthing episode (number 4; though, Mr. Chappalwala, I do wish you'd goad these men into a production rate more closely attenuated to my addiction to such fine content).  The story, "The Mongerji Letters" by Geetha Iyer, was such fun fantasy.  It was of the highest levels of joy to which I listened to the sensible and eloquent disagreement between the castmates and I was most pleased to hear that for the first time a special guest, Hunter Whitworth, joined the fray.  I listened intently while I reviewed the marginalia by Ben, Dan, Nick, and Hunter, often snickering at their seemingly inebriated scrawling.

It is also very good to hear that Wordsworthing has acquired a few non-sanctioned, wholly unaffiliated sponsors like The Department of Labor and Stitches, the latter being of particularly special stock.

Then I was regaled by Ben with a wondrous tale of dinosaurs with feathers and quantum choices.  A choice morsel, indeed.

Finally, and to my delight, Hunter read a piece of his own creation, "The Invention of Dreaming", which was of mighty caliber.  Nick, Ben, and Dan all relayed a hearty congratulations while attempting (and failing, like they usually do in the most comedic fashion) to help young Hunter hone his craft.  I have included two of Hunter's stories in this letter, "Improbable Depth" and "The Pillar of Fire."  I do hope you enjoy.

All-round, it was enlightening entertainment that I'll sorely be craving whilst I await another delivery.  Indeed, I'll pass some time reading the story for the next episode, "North".

Warmly yours,

Your mom

- Nicholas Dighiera

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Photo by Jordan Schevene

Episode Three coming to you hot and ready - smothered, covered, chunked, and topped - from the Waffle Houses of our minds.

Here's the rub:  We review a story by Deb Olin Unferth entitled "The First Full Thought of Her Life".  This story first appeared in Tin House, which is a journal that Nick frequents.  I've submitted there, but they're not feeling my flow (FULL DISCLOSURE:  The story was about Socrates coping as a minimum wage lackey at McDonalds).  Whatevs.  They publish good things most times, and I won't second say their editorial proclivities here.  Go read the piece and decide for yourself before delving into the third iteration of three men stumbling through literature.

In this episode, the crew discusses, among other things:  The current election, story inventiveness, exposition and its use(less)fullness, "did we like it", and the shittiness of Andrew Jackson.  Dan, Nick, and I took notes on Ms. Unferth's piece, as you do.  Nick then took the crew on a marvelous WW journey where he went to Colorado and shoved a sled piloted by his two sons down an insane sand dune.  They survived, and Nick brought it all back to make a salient point, which I felt intensely at the time, but owing to a career of substance abuse, I've forgotten currently.  Then we went on a tear about Curtis White, the Western Canon, and Prop 64.  After, there is Dan's reading of a snap edit piece entitled "The Family Finnegan" where Nick and I also took notes and offered feedback of the most erudite and lucid nature (JUBILATED!)  A good time was had by all.

If you haven't already, sign up for our newsletter (bottom of the page) and comment in the space below.  You can discuss anything.  ANYTHING.  Here's a topic of discussion:  How many cans of Old Chub can you ingest and still have the mental wherewithal to talk about a subject?  For me, I think the limit is 7.  Thoughts?  Ideas?  Scathing opprobrium about any of the cast members' bedroom prowess?  POST AWAY.

Also, get a jump start on Episode 4 by going here to read the next story.

-Ben Toche

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Our second episode, currently known best as One of the Top Two Episodes of Wordsworthing, has us examining “You’ll Apologize If You Have To” by Ben Fowlkes, a story first published in Crazyhorse, a literary journal out of the College of Charleston. Ben, who likes mixed martial arts and birds, was probably really surprised about where his story was published next. We were too. And we don’t want to spoil the surprise, so you’ll just have to listen. Also, there is a heron. How many podcasts have a heron? 

Unlike the heron, this podcast does not have a lengthy and vibrant discussion we had about the comments and the people typing same at the bottom of online news stories, and how that could possibly relate to the overall degradation of man’s ability to recognize Art. Curtis White was mentioned. But we cut this part because, well, Curtis White was mentioned.  Dan went into Freezyville, likely looking for Ben. Dan cut that part.  Ben's, Dan's, and Nick's feeble scrawling, respectively.

Nick reads his flash fiction piece “The Extinction of Dinosaurs” which will surprise you in how few dinosaurs it has. Ben and Dan say nice things and we chit chat a bit about scenes and stories and what makes what. This interests writers.

Shows come and go but this podcast lives on a website that has a place for your comments which will inspire and chide us as appropriate. Please do go to this place, which you will know by the box labeled “comments.” There’s also cool things on the website like documents you can download that contain our very own scrawled hurlings over top the actually published words of known authors. We opine to our wit’s end, a journey you may take prior to your beer getting warm.

We thank you and are humbled by your listening.

-  Dan Mickelsen

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Photo by Herb Eaversmells

In this episode we review Paul Theroux's short story "Upside-Down Cake" published by The New Yorker on June 27, 2016.  Paul is novelist and a travel writer; more information can be found on his website.  We focus on characters, setting, and pretty much everything else...because that's what needs help.  (Dan's and Nick's marginalia, respectively; if you are interested in Ben's, it's in the shredded recycle at his house)

In addition, we also talked about Brexit.  But that got cut because, well, we don't know a goddamn thing about it.  And the beer was heavy by that time.

Ben read an excerpt from his piece "Misery Makes the Grass Grow: Ooh-Rah Marine Corps (Clap, Clap) Kill!" and Nick and Dan gave him tips on how to write better so as not to drive his sweet minivan off a cliff (Dan's notes have vanished into the ether; prize of non-value to anyone who can find them).  

Overall, we feel this was a fine show fit for the dregs and the elitist alike.  If you disagree, please tell us so by going to the contact page and mustering the highest degree of verbal vomit you can.  We are pumped.  

-  Nicholas Dighiera