On this episode, I speak with the poet David van den Berg on the glories of tromping through swamps as a child, the knifeblade dialectic of cynicism and wonder, and discovering a sense of authentic voice.

Back in November 2022, Chelsea Alice conducted three on-site interviews at Miami Book Fair. She discussed Self-Portrait with Ghost with Meng Jin, Pathetic Literature by Eileen Myles, and All the Flowers Kneeling with Paul Tran. At long last, the interviews are now here.

On this episode, I speak with the scholar and poet Mark Scroggins about poetry that simultaneously compels and eludes the reader with its strange music, those depths of unknowing, the literary analogues to punk, reverse engineering a sense of cultural history, the problematic nature of the poetic voice, and whatnot.

Lydia Millet and David James Poissant discuss geography, birds, earnestness, the characterization of children, the structure of plot and novels, and other matters of interest.

Chelsea Alice gave me homework, to read "The Guest" by Albert Camus, the result of which is this existentialist episode, or something like that.

This week, Brook Ziporyn and I discuss the complexities of interpreting the Daodejing, the humor of the book, and its applications to life philosophies, politics, literature, and many other things along the way.

This week, I speak with Ciera Horton McElroy about following through with long form fiction and her extraordinary debut, Atomic Family.

This week, Rachael Tillman and I discuss William Gibson's not especially science fictiony, but post-modern systems thriller, Pattern Recognition