Keep the Channel Open

For this KTCO Book Club conversation, poet and podcaster Rachel Zucker returns to the show to discuss Eugenia Leigh’s poetry collection Bianca. In our conversation, we talked about our approaches to talking about books with their authors, how form shapes how we take in intense subject matter in a poem, and how a book can be a means of connection. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Goodpods | TuneIn | RSS Support: Support our Patreon | Review on Apple Podcasts | Review on Podchaser Connect: Newsletter | Email | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube Show Notes: Rachel ZuckerBiancaPrint (Portland, ME)The Book Catapult (San Diego, CA)Bookshop.orgEugenia LeighJames Schuyler - “This Dark Apartment”Jack Kornfield - “Transform Your Life Through Jack Kornfield’s Most Powerful Stories: A 10 Hour Journey” Transcript Episode Credits Podington Bear

Gerardo Sámano Córdova is a writer and artist from Mexico City. In his debut novel, Monstrilio, Gerardo draws from both horror and literary fiction traditions to tell a story about grief, family, and self-acceptance. In our conversation, Gerardo and I talked about genre expectations, genre fiction as a site of art, and what it means to be monstrous. For the second segment, we talked about the tension between fulfilling your own artistic vision and creating work that will sell. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Goodpods | TuneIn | RSS Support: Support our Patreon | Review on Apple Podcasts | Review on Podchaser Share: Tweet this episode | Share to Facebook Connect: Newsletter | Email | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube Show Notes: Gerardo Sámano CórdovaMonstrilioBooks Are Magic (Brooklyn, NY)Mysterious Galaxy (San Diego, CA)Bookshop.orgPaul Semel - “Exclusive Interview: ‘Monstrilio’ Author Gerardo Sámano Córdova”At Home with Literati: Gerardo Sámano Córdova & Kelly LinkCrimeReads - “Horror Does a Body Good, or, the Story of My Teeth”Chuck TinglePetite MamanPetite Maman - Official Trailer Transcript Episode Credits Podington Bear

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah is a writer based in the Bronx, NY. In his debut novel, Chain-Gang All-Stars, Nana presents us with a dystopian future America where convicted prisoners fight each other to the death in a televised bloodsport. The book is both a blistering critique of the US carceral system and an insistence on the inalienable humanity of every person. In our conversation, Nana and I talked about what satire and dystopia open up for him as a writer, why it’s important to him to implicate both the reader and himself in his work, and how he thinks about prison abolition. Then in the second segment, we talked about the seductive nature of success as an artist in a capitalist society. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Goodpods | TuneIn | RSS Support: Support our Patreon | Review on Apple Podcasts | Review on Podchaser Share: Tweet this episode | Share to Facebook Connect: Newsletter | Email | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube Show Notes: Nana Kwame Adjei-BrenyahChain-Gang All-StarsThe Lit Bar (Bronx, NY)Mysterious Galaxy (San Diego, CA)Bookshop.orgKendrick Lamar - “The Art of Peer Pressure”Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah - Friday BlackMetroidvania (game genre)@america_is_the_bad_placeKeep the Channel Open - Episode 128: Anahid NersessianJohn Keats - “To Autumn”Starship Troopers (1997 film)John Gardner - The Art of FictionTa-Nehisi Coates - “Killing Dylan Roof”Kadhja Bonet - The Visitor Transcript Episode Credits Podington Bear

Rachel Zucker is a writer, podcast, and teacher based in New York and Maine. Her latest book, The Poetics of Wrongness, is a collection of essays (originally written and performed for the Bagley Wright Lecture Series) delving into her own poetics, motherhood, the history of confessional poetry, and the ethics of “say everything” poetry. In our conversation, Rachel and I talked about wrongness as a stance against moral purity, about addiction to doubt, and about poetry as an opportunity to create outside of capitalism. Then in the second segment, we talked about her new project, the Commonplace School for Embodied Poetics. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Goodpods | TuneIn | RSS Support: Support our Patreon | Review on Apple Podcasts | Review on Podchaser Share: Tweet this episode | Share to Facebook Connect: Newsletter | Email | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube Show Notes: Rachel ZuckerThe Poetics of WrongnessPrint (Portland, ME)The Book Catapult (San Diego, CA)Bookshop.orgCommonplaceCommonplace - Episode 110: The Poetics of WrongnessAdrienne Rich - Of Woman BornJoyelle McSweeney - “Wrong Poets Society”Alice Notley - DisobedienceAlice Notley - “The Poetics of Disobedience”Liz Lerman’s Critical Response ProcessJulia Cameron - The Artist’s WayHenrik Ibsen - A Doll’s HouseA Doll’s House (2023 Broadway production) Transcript Episode Credits Podington Bear

For our latest KTCO Book Club episode, writer Sarah Gailey joins us for a discussion of H. A. Clarke’s YA novels The Scapegracers and The Scratch Daughters. In our conversation, Sarah and I talked about the ways Clarke’s novels subvert genre expectations, about the quality of teen girls’ rage, and about why these books are “capital-I Important.” Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Goodpods | TuneIn | RSS Support: Support our Patreon | Review on Apple Podcasts | Review on Podchaser Share: Tweet this episode | Share to Facebook Connect: Newsletter | Email | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube Show Notes: Sarah GaileyThe ScapegracersLoyalty (Washington, DC)Mysterious Galaxy (San Diego, CA)Bookshop.orgThe Scratch DaughtersLoyalty (Washington, DC)Mysterious Galaxy (San Diego, CA)Bookshop.orgJust Like HomeLoyalty (Washington, DC)Mysterious Galaxy (San Diego, CA)Bookshop.orgSubscribe to The Personal Canons CookbookThe CraftSarah Gailey - When We Were MagicMaggie Tokuda-Hall - SquadEuphoriaHow different generations react to a gay character being introducedHolly Black - The Cruel PrinceMark Russel & Mike Feehan - Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles Transcript Episode Credits Podington Bear

Dayna Patterson is a poet, photographer, and textile artist based in the Pacific Northwest. The poems in her latest collection, O Lady, Speak Again, use the voices of the women characters from Shakespeare’s plays to talk about patriarchy, motherhood, sexuality, religion, heritage. In our conversation, Dayna and I discussed her creative process and how she finds her way into a poem, her use of persona in O Lady, Speak Again, and how and why she interrogates that same device within the collection. The in the second segment, we talked about play, and how it interacts with the creative process. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Goodpods | TuneIn | RSS Support: Support our Patreon | Review on Apple Podcasts | Review on Podchaser Share: Tweet this episode | Share to Facebook Connect: Newsletter | Email | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube Show Notes: Dayna PattersonO Lady, Speak AgainVillage Books (Bellingham, WA)The Book Catapult (San Diego, CA)Bookshop.org Keep the Channel Open - Episode 120: Kazim AliKeep the Channel Open - Episode 137: Gabrielle BatesNaPoWriMoOthello, Act V, Scene iiJorie GrahamThe Winter’s TaleEmily Dickinson - “Tell all the truth but tell it slant”Rachel Zucker - The Poetics of WrongnessKristiana KahakauwilaJehanne DubrowMike Sakasegawa - Sheets: A Love LetterBruce Beasley - Prayershreds Transcript Episode Credits Podington Bear

Joshua Burton is a poet and educator based in Houston, TX. The poems in Joshua’s debut collection, Grace Engine, ask what grace means in a hostile world of lynchings, mental illness, self-hate, and suicide. These poems offer no solace, yet nevertheless reach toward beauty and peace. In our conversation, Joshua and I talked about what a grace engine is, processing shame through poetry, and what can be unlocked by returning to the same subject in multiple poems. Then for the second segment, we talked about creating mythology as a way of honoring those whom history may have overlooked. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Goodpods | TuneIn | RSS Support: Support our Patreon | Review on Apple Podcasts | Review on Podchaser Share: Tweet this episode | Share to Facebook Connect: Newsletter | Email | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube Show Notes: Joshua BurtonGrace EngineBrazos Bookstore (Houston, TX)The Book Catapult (San Diego, CA)Bookshop.orgGrace EngineJeff Buckley - GraceMono no awareLynching of Jim McIlherronLynching of Mary TurnerLynching of Laura and L. D. NelsonRoyal RobertsonWilliam O’NealKeep the Channel Open - Episode 108: The Craft of the Literary Podcast InterviewJoshua Burton - Fracture AnthologyRoland Barthes - Camera LucidaToni Morrison - Song of SolomonLupe Fiasco - DROGAS Wave Transcript Episode Credits Podington Bear

For our latest KTCO Book Club episode, media critic Mel Thomas joins us for a conversation about Holly Black’s YA fantasy novel The Cruel Prince. In our conversation, we discuss the ways that craft in YA fiction is often dismissed or overlooked by both critics and readers, the dynamics of abuse and trauma in the novel, and being able to enjoy art on multiple levels. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Goodpods | TuneIn | RSS Support: Support our Patreon | Review on Apple Podcasts | Review on Podchaser Share: Tweet this episode | Share to Facebook Connect: Newsletter | Email | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube Show Notes: Mel ThomasThe Cruel PrinceCarmichael’s Bookstore (Louisville, KY)Mysterious Galaxy (San Diego, CA)Bookshop.orgDavid Eddings - The BelgariadUrsula K. Le Guin - A Wizard of EarthseaNicole Kornher-Stace - Archivist WaspKameron HurleyStephen R. Donaldson - The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant Sarah J. Maas - A Court of Thorns and Rosesboygenius - the record Transcript Episode Credits Podington Bear

Gabrielle Bates is a poet based in Seattle, WA. Throughout Gabrielle’s debut collection, Judas Goat, there is a feeling of quiet, that the poems are almost being whispered to you. And yet it is not a soft or comforting quiet that these poems bring, but rather one that often contains a sense of menace. In our conversation, Gabrielle and I talked about that disquieting feeling, the slipperiness of memory, the poetics of attention, and how important narrative to her poetics. Then for the second segment, we discussed what literature and poetry can do. [Recorded Jan 2, 2023] Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Goodpods | TuneIn | RSS Support: Support our Patreon | Review on Apple Podcasts | Review on Podchaser Share: Tweet this episode | Share to Facebook Connect: Newsletter | Email | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube Show Notes: Gabrielle BatesJudas GoatOpen Books (Seattle, WA)The Book Catapult (San Diego, CA)Bookshop.orgKeep the Channel Open - Episode 123: KTCO Book Club - Song (with Gabrielle Bates)Between the Covers - Claire Schwartz : Civil ServiceKeep the Channel Open - Episode 134: Luther HughesKeep the Channel Open - Episode 120: Kazim AliGabrielle Bates - Poetry ComicsKazim Ali - “Know No Name”Abi PollokoffErin L. McCoyKeep the Channel Open - Episode 112: Ross SutherlandBenjamin Labatut - When We Cease to Understand the World Transcript Episode Credits Podington Bear

Abby Minor is a writer based in central Pennsylvania. In her debut book of poems, As I Said: A Dissent, Abby combines the historical narrative of Ann Lohman—a 19th-century abortion provider in New York City—with personal and family history, creating a collection of poems that challenge the typical notion of an abortion story. In our conversation, Abby and I talked about her approach to documentary poetry, why it was important to her to push back against conventional abortion discourse, and how art and activism intersect. Then in the second segment, we talked about American work culture and the necessity of rest. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Goodpods | TuneIn | RSS Support: Support our Patreon | Review on Apple Podcasts | Review on Podchaser Share: Tweet this episode | Share to Facebook Connect: Newsletter | Email | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube Show Notes: Abby MinorAs I Said: A DissentWebster’s Bookstore (State College, PA)The Book Catapult (San Diego, CA)Bookshop.orgNPR Arts & Letters - “The Wickedest Woman in New York”Erin Marie Lynch - “Using the Lens of Abortion to Look at Other Things”Abby Minor - “Out On This Red Edge”Abby Minor - “Rooms”Contrary Magazine - Interview with Best of the Net 2018 Winner Abby MinorAbby Minor - “Beyond Choice”Abby Minor - Reframing Abortion to Breathe Life into a “Culture of Death”Steven Stoll - Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of AppalachiaRobin Wall Kimmerer - Braiding SweetgrassVaughn Stills - Places for the Spirit: Traditional African American Gardens Transcript Episode Credits Podington Bear

Molly Spencer is a poet based in Michigan. The poems in her collections In the House and Hinge engage with chronic illness, divorce, domesticity, motherhood, and the ways that our lives don’t always work out the way we expected them to. In our conversation, we talked about dissolution, the uses of poetry, ways of knowing, and speaking unlovely truths. Then for the second section, we talked about attention—both the kind of attention we’d like to cultivate in our own lives, and what kind of attention we ask of our readers. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Goodpods | TuneIn | RSS Support: Support our Patreon | Review on Apple Podcasts | Review on Podchaser Share: Tweet this episode | Share to Facebook Connect: Newsletter | Email | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube Show Notes: Molly SpencerIf the HouseLiterati (Ann Arbor, MI)The Book Catapult (San Diego, CA)BookshopHingeLiterati (Ann Arbor, MI)The Book Catapult (San Diego, CA)BookshopEmily Dickinson - “Make me a picture of the sun”Etel Adnan - Sea and FogWallace Stevens - “The Snow Man”Susan Glaspell - “A Jury of Her Peers”Molly Spencer - “On ‘Most Accidents Occur At Home’”Mary Oliver - “Yes! No!”Solmaz Sharif - CustomsDionne Brand - Nomenclature Transcript Episode Credits Podington Bear

Luther Hughes is a poet based in Seattle, WA. The poems in Luther’s debut collection, A Shiver in the Leaves, are tender, erotic, vulnerable, erudite, at times dark, and at times ecstatic. In our conversation, we talked about power dynamics in sexual encounters, different forms of love, and writing as a way of understanding oneself. Then in the second section, we talked about why so many sex scenes in popular media are so strange. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Goodpods | TuneIn | RSS Support: Support our Patreon | Review on Apple Podcasts | Review on Podchaser Share: Tweet this episode | Share to Facebook Connect: Newsletter | Email | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube Show Notes: Luther HughesOpen Books (Seattle, WA)The Book Catapult (San Diego, CA)Bookshop.orgBrooklyn Poets Reading Series - Luther Hughes, Lynn Melnick, Carl PhillipsThe Poet SalonLue’s Poetry HourLuther Hughes - “On Power”Seattle Times - “Seattle poet Luther Hughes on ‘A Shiver in the Leaves,’ his debut collection”Brandon Taylor - Real Life Transcript Episode Credits Podington Bear

André Ramos-Woodard is a photographic artist originally from Texas and Tennessee. In their series BLACK SNAFU, André combines photographs celebrating Blackness with appropriated illustrations from racist cartoons as a way of confronting the history and present reality of American racism. In our conversation we discussed appropriation, questions of audience and community, and mental health. Then in the second segment, we talked about what inspires us outside of the visual arts. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Goodpods | TuneIn | RSS Support: Support our Patreon | Review on Apple Podcasts | Review on Podchaser Share: Tweet this episode | Share to Facebook Connect: Newsletter | Email | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube Show Notes: André Ramos-WoodardAndré Ramos-Woodard - BLACK SNAFUHannah Jane Parkinson - “Instagram, an artist and the $100,000 selfies—appropriation in the digital age” (Article about Richard Prince Instagram images)William CamargoWilliam Camargo’s IG post riffing on John Diva’s workKansas City Artists Coalition - André Ramos-Woodard Artist TalkAndré Ramos-Woodard - African AmericaRoger Ebert - “Video games can never be art”Beyonce - Renaissance Transcript Episode Credits Podington Bear

Amanda Marchand is a Canadian, New York-based photographer. Amanda’s Lumen Notebook series is a body of elegant and strikingly beautiful images that nevertheless layer deep meaning within their seemingly simple compositions. In our conversation, Amanda and I talked about her process in creating these photograms and how working within strict constraints allows her to explore the technique more fully. We also discussed how she uses photography to facilitate connection and presence, and the duality of delight and mortality in her work. Then for the second segment we had a meandering conversation about autism, communication, attention, and using art to process and understand our emotional experiences. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Goodpods | TuneIn | RSS Support: Support our Patreon | Review on Apple Podcasts | Review on Podchaser Share: Tweet this episode | Share to Facebook Connect: Newsletter | Email | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube Show Notes: Amanda MarchandAmanda Marchand - The World is Astonishing With You in ItMedium Photo - Second Sight lecture with Amanda MarchandBarbara Bosworth - The MeadowStanley Fish - Is There a Text in This Class?Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal - Louise BourgeoisLinda ConnorKathy AckerAmanda Marchand - Nothing Will Ever Be the Same AgainAmanda Marchand - Lumen CirclesKeep the Channel Open - Episode 124: Farrah KarapetianLeah SobseyMary Oliver - Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary OliverMary Oliver - “The Summer Day”Tara BrachJenny Odell - How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy Transcript Episode Credits Podington Bear

Fatemeh Baigmoradi is a photographic artist originally from Iran. In her series It’s Hard to Kill, Fatemeh works with archival family photos from Iran, using fire to obscure or destroy portions of the image—connecting to the way that her own family and many others burned their photos after the Iranian Revolution to protect themselves or others in the photos. In our conversation we talked about the relationship between photography and memory, censorship, and how violence, healing, and cleansing are all intertwined in Fatemeh’s work. Then in the second segment, Fatemeh and I talked about immigration. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Goodpods | TuneIn | RSS Support: Support our Patreon | Review on Apple Podcasts | Review on Podchaser Share: Tweet this episode | Share to Facebook Connect: Newsletter | Email | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube Show Notes: Fatemeh BaigmoradiFatemeh Baigmoradi - It’s Hard to KillFatemeh Baigmoradi - Subjectivity and ObjectivityMedium Festival of Photography - Fatemeh Baigmoradi lectureKeep the Channel Open - Episode 22: Esmé Weijun WangKeep the Channel Open - Episode 46: Rizzhel JavierBrandon ShimodaPatrick NagataniIgnant - “Fatemeh Baigmoradi On Censorship and the Fires of Revolution”Mitra TabrizianMarcel Proust - Swann’s Way: In Search of Lost Time, Volume 1 Transcript Episode Credits Podington Bear

Sarah Hollowell is a writer based in Indiana. Sarah’s debut novel, A Dark and Starless Forest, is a YA contemporary fantasy story centered on a family of foster sisters learning about their magic, until suddenly they start disappearing. In our conversation we talked about the difference in process between short stories and novels, how her novel portrays abuse dynamics, and the importance of fan fiction. Then in the second segment, Sarah and I talked about the Alpha Workshop. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Goodpods | TuneIn | RSS Support: Support our Patreon | Review on Apple Podcasts | Review on Podchaser Share: Tweet this episode | Share to Facebook Connect: Newsletter | Email | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube Show Notes: Sarah HollowellFollow @sarahhollowell on TwitterA Dark and Starless ForestViewpoint Books (Columbus, IN)Mysterious Galaxy (San Diego, CA)Bookshop.orgAlpha Young Writers WorkshopAshley Schumacher - The Renaissance of Gwen HathawayRude Tales of Magic Transcript Episode Credits Podington Bear

Ayesha Raees is a poet and hybrid artist based in New York, Miami, and Lahore. In her debut book of poetry, Coining a Wishing Tower, she explores death, grief, culture, religion, separation, and return in a hybrid form that is part poetry, part narrative, part fable, and entirely remarkable. In our conversation, we talked about her book, her writing process, and sustaining a relationship with her work over time. Then in the second segment, we discussed community. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Goodpods | TuneIn | RSS Support: Support our Patreon | Review on Apple Podcasts | Review on Podchaser Share: Tweet this episode | Share to Facebook Connect: Newsletter | Email | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube Show Notes: Ayesha RaeesCoining a Wishing TowerPlatypus PressBookshop.orgRainier Maria Rilke - Letters to a Young Poetbell hooks - The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love Transcript Episode Credits Podington Bear

Anahid Nersessian is a professor and critic based in Los Angeles, CA. In her latest book, Keats’s Odes: A Lover’s Discourse, Anahid takes the reader through close readings of John Keats’s six Great Odes, providing cultural context and explicating their themes of sexual violence, melancholy, and the seductiveness of beauty. More than that, though, the book is, itself, a love story. In our conversation, Anahid and I talked about how and why Keats’s Odes still resonate with readers today, how personal narrative entered these essays, and how it functions in them. Then in the second segment, we talked about experimental critical writing. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RadioPublic | Stitcher | Goodpods | TuneIn | RSS Support: Support our Patreon | Review on Apple Podcasts | Review on Podchaser Share: Tweet this episode | Share to Facebook Connect: Newsletter | Email | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube Show Notes: Anahid NersessianKeats’s Odes: A Lover’s DiscourseSkylight Books (Los Angeles, CA)The Book Catapult (San Diego, CA)Bookshop.orgAnahid Nersessian - Utopia Limited: Romanticism and AdjustmentAnahid Nersessian - The Calamity Form: On Poetry and Social LifeAnahid Nersessian - “Catastrophic Desires”William Shakespeare - “Sonnet 73”Dorothy Van Ghent - Keats: The Myth of the HeroDanez SmithAlexander Pope - “The Rape of the Lock”Walter Jackson Bate - John KeatsWilliam Wordsworth - “Preface to Lyrical Ballads”Ingrid Sischy - “Good Intentions”Peterloo MassacreLos Angeles Review of Books - “Of Poets and Critics: A Conversation Between Anahid Nersessian and Michael Robbins”Alexander CheeAnahid Nersessian in conversation with Zoe KazanHelen Vendler - The Odes of John KeatsWendy’s SubwayRenee GladmanJohn Coltrane - “Olé”Rachel PollackPenny Arcade - “Parabolic”Heather K. LoveEve Kosofsky SedgwickRosie Stockton - PumpjackRosie Stockton - Permanent Volta Transcript Episode Credits Podington Bear

For this installment of the KTCO Book Club, writer and podcaster Maggie Tokuda-Hall joins us to discuss Susanna Clark’s 2020 novel Piranesi. A relatively slim volume, Piranesi is surprisingly difficult to summarize but, like its labyrinthine setting, with patience and attention the book will reveal its profound beauty and kindness. (Conversation recorded February 24, 2022.) Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RadioPublic | Stitcher | Goodpods | TuneIn | RSS Support: Support our Patreon | Review on Apple Podcasts | Review on Podchaser Share: Tweet this episode | Share to Facebook Connect: Newsletter | Email | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube Show Notes: Maggie Tokuda-HallFailure to AdaptPiranesiMrs. Dalloway’s (Berkeley, CA)Mysterious Galaxy (San Diego, CA)Bookshop.orgAlso an OctopusMrs. Dalloway’s (Berkeley, CA)Mysterious Galaxy (San Diego, CA)Bookshop.orgThe Mermaid, the Witch, and the SeaMrs. Dalloway’s (Berkeley, CA)Mysterious Galaxy (San Diego, CA)Bookshop.orgSquadMrs. Dalloway’s (Berkeley, CA)Mysterious Galaxy (San Diego, CA)Bookshop.orgLove in the LibraryMrs. Dalloway’s (Berkeley, CA)Mysterious Galaxy (San Diego, CA)Bookshop.orgSusanna Clarke - Jonathan Strange & Mr. NorrellJon KlassenMac BarnettCarson EllisMac Barnett & Carson Ellis - What Is Love?M. T. Anderson - The Astonishing Life of Octavian NothingKazuo Ishiguro - Klara and the SunNormal GossipNana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah - Friday Black Transcript Episode Credits Podington Bear

There’s a way in which the end of a serious relationship can shake your entire concept of yourself, and through your grief you have to find yourself again. Yanyi’s latest book of poems, Dream of the Divided Field, braids poems about heartbreak and implied emotional violence with poems about transition and immigration. Each has a similar but distinct sense of a loss of self, a search for self, a yearning for connection and belonging, a sometimes violent disconnection—to a partner, to a place or culture, to oneself and one’s own body. In our conversation, Yanyi and I discussed his book, deconstruction and reconstruction, attachment to nuance, and the relationship between beauty and violence. Then for the second segment, we talked about grief. (Conversation recorded February 28, 2022.) Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RadioPublic | Stitcher | Goodpods | TuneIn | RSS Support: Support our Patreon | Review on Apple Podcasts | Review on Podchaser Share: Tweet this episode | Share to Facebook Connect: Newsletter | Email | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube Show Notes: YanyiYanyi - Dream of the Divided FieldYanyi - The Year of Blue WaterYanyi - The ReadingSamuel AceTC TolbertParul Sehgal - “The Case Against the Trauma Plot”Carmen Maria Machado - In the Dream HouseKeep the Channel Open - Episode 33: José OlivarezJane Hirshfield - Nine Gates Transcript Episode Credits Podington Bear