What’s the most granular level a story can be reduced to? Félix Fénéon’s superb Novels in Three Lines offers one memorable example, and the “Six-Word Memoirs” concept that debuted in Smith Magazine in 2006 displays another path. And then there are the adventures contained in Johan Harstad’s The Red Handler, translated by David M. Smith. Here, too, are the adventures of a detective with a talent for catching people in the act of committing crimes.
The last few years have been a busy time for Brad Listi. You probably know him as the host of the podcast Otherppl With Brad Listior as the author of the novel Be Brief and Tell Them Everything, which was praised by the likes of Chelsea Hodson and Sam Lipsyte. Next up for Listi? DeepDive, an app dedicated to online writing courses; the class “How to Write a Novel” includes instruction from authors like Emily St. John Mandel, Stephen Graham Jones, and Melissa Broder. (It’s currently available for both iPhone and Android.) I caught up with Listi to ask him more about how this new venture came about, who else is involved, and what’s next for Otherppl.
I’ve been a longtime reader of Emily St. James‘s work, beginning with her nonfiction and television criticism and extending to her debut novel, the excellent Woodworking. St. James’s dramatic work, in collaboration with Libby Hill, on both the podcast Arden and (as of season three) television’s Yellowjackets. This summer, we met a coffee shop in Long Island City and talked about everything from South Dakota to the literary influence of Tamsyn Muir.
I’ve been reading Jeff Lemire‘s comics for over twenty years now, ranging from the psychological complexity of Royal City to the unnerving road narrative of Phantom Road. I’d spoken with Lemire once before, and had the opportunity to chat with him again about the release of his new memoir, 10,000 Ink Stains, a candid and insightful look at his career in comics thus far.
Deborah Derrickson Kossmann and I met as resident fellows at The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts several years ago. Kossman, poet and essayist of note, was working on the manuscript which would later become an award-winning memoir about her mother’s mental illness and extreme, secret hoarding: Lost Found Kept. My then novel-in-progress was inspired by renowned psychiatrist Frieda Fromm Reichmann (Frieda’s Song, Apprentice House Press, Loyola University Baltimore). Both on retreat from day jobs as therapists, we chatted a bit about our dual identities as writers and mental health professionals.
In the last ten years, The Folio Society has increased the number of science fiction, fantasy, and horror books it’s published. A limited-edition hardcover edition of Stephen King’s It, featuring illustrations by Jim Burns, recently sold out in less than seven minutes. I spoke with Folio Society Head of Editorial James Rose to learn more about the project — and the logistical challenges that come with publishing a novel as massive as this one.
Alive with word play and humor, suspense, romance, and the honest emotions of a young woman coming of age in 80s New York, Cynthia Weiner’s A Gorgeous Excitement will bring to mind the misspent youths of many Gen Xers: Coke, booze, pot, sex, friends, frenemies, staying out all night, feeling immortal in a way; yet what looms in Weiner’s narrative is darkness, a fictionalized version of the crimes of the Central Park Strangler (aka the Preppy Killer), a boy Weiner knew and socialized with in her youth.
I’ve been hearing about Bob Sykora, his work, and the things he gets up to for years. He was in the cohort that left the spring before I started an MFA at UMass Boston, and everyone spoke so fondly of him and that crew, of the great parties and readings they put on, of their excellent qualities as writers and as people. I admit: I felt like I had somehow missed out. But fast forward a (good) number of years and Bob pops up again, this time as a podcaster, co-hosting “The Line Break,” a poetry (and basketball?) podcast, interviewing another poet I’d been reading at the time. (It’s a marvelously small world.) Nowadays, Bob also teaches at community college, edits with Garden Party Collective, and curates the KC Poetry Calendar (which I’ve pinned for the next time I go visit my Kansas City family). He’s the author of the chapbook I Was Talking About Love –You Are Talking About Geography (Nostrovia! 2016), and, more recently, a damn good book of poetry called Utopians in Love, his first full-length. Being nosy – wanting to finally meet this elusive character I’ve heard mentioned over and over for years – I managed to get in touch under the pretext of talking about the book. Bob is just as smart and sweet and wonderful as advertised, and we had a great conversation about road trips, love, discovery, poetic form, and, of course, “utopia.” What follows is that conversation, edited for clarity and length.