On this week's show, I talk to the poet Philip Raisor,

Plus Melissa Crandall brings us some Xmas in July!

TEXTS DISCUSSED

On this week’s show, I share a Functionally Literate event I participated in back in May with Monica Wendel and Philip Deaver.

This was an accidental DO reunion, since Monica was a guest on episodes 5  and 49,  and Philip was a guest on episode 35. Alas, Enid Schumer could not attend.

On this week’s show, I talk to the essayist and novelist Chuck Klosterman,

Plus John McCaffrey discusses Leo Durocher's Nice Guys Finish Last.

BOOKS DISCUSSED

NOTES

On July 9th, Mattew Peters will read prose at There Will be Words in Downtown Orlando.

See our kickstarter campaign to travel to Weeki Wachee Springs to interview Lu Vickers about Florida literature and the world famous Weeki Wachee mermaids. We reached our goal on day 1, but we welcome your continued contributions to keep the show going strong!

The Drunken Odyssey Deeply Recommends

When I complained that Britney Spears was in Esquire back in the early paleolithic days of 2004, I confess I didn't dwell sufficiently on what Chuck Klosteman's article said about her cognitive dissonance, although his words were competing with Britney Spears's anatomy at the time.

On May 14th, 1988, Atlantic Records held a 40th Anniversary Concert during which, in my infallible opinion, and it pained me to say this, Debbie Gibson outplayed Led Zeppelin. Want to disagree? Watch the footage:

Debbie Gibson

Led Zeppelin

For the record, Jason Bonham was drumming, although I don't this Hindenburg of a performance can be blamed on him.

According to a Times profile, Alice Munro is retiring.

According to The Guardian, Neil Gaiman is writing a new Sandman series.

On this week’s show, I talk to the philosopher Bruce Janz,

Plus Robert Jacobs shares his Facebook posts.

TEXTS DISCUSSED

Check out Keith B. Harder's Children of Icarus series here.

NOTES

See our kickstarter campaign to travel to Weeki Wachee Springs to interview Lu Vickers about Florida literature and the world famous Weeki Wachee mermaids. We reached our goal on day 1, but anything over that will go into the show.

On July 9th, Matt Peters will read prose at There Will be Words in Downtown Orlando.

On this week’s show, I share the live Bloomsday event!

NOTES

See our kickstarter campaign to travel to Weeki Wachee Springs to interview Lu Vickers about Florida literature and the world famous Weeki Wachee mermaids.

Richard Peabody, our guest on episode 45, has a new audio book of poems available through Eat Poems.  Sample the poems, then pay what you wish for the download!

On Saturday, June 22, from 5 to 8, The Drunken Odyssey will sink anchor here:

Episode 53 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

On this week’s show, I talk to Cheryl Strayed,

Plus I share the piece that first made me read Cheryl Strayed’s work, Deborah Weaver’s essay about Wild.

TEXTS DISCUSSED

NOTES

On June 22, The Drunken Odyssey will be here:

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Recent reports about the National Security Agency’s PRISM data collection program have apparently lead to a spike in sales of George Orwell’s 1984 (although PRISM is really only  a minor example of the erosion not only of our privacy, but our reality, according to the philosopher Peter Ludlow).

On this week’s show, I talk once again to Nathan Holic, who first appeared on this show all the way back on episode 1,

Plus Drew Perlmutter discusses the Cannes Film Festival,

Plus Nicholas Brown discusses Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove.

Texts Discussed

NOTES

On this week’s show, I answer some mail with my friend, David James Poissant,

Plus Cathy Day Addresses The Man Who Called Her On the Phone Asking for Advice About How to Get Published.

Notes

Cathy Day's essay first appeared on her blog, right here.

If you are in Central Florida on June 16th, come celebrate Bloomsday with us!

Book Fight's Exceedingly Accurate Blurb:

“The Drunken Odyssey with John King: A Podcast About the Writing Life is a supernova, an interstellar jamboree of colors and lights, like the twirling dresses of a troupe of champion folk dancers, like being imprisoned in Ace Freeley’s amp, throbbing like the veins in Jehovah’s hard-on.  You can look, but you can’t touch, and also, you can’t look, because if you do, you will turn to stone, and your guts will turn to marble.”

According to The Times, there was controversy over the spelling of the word that won the national spelling bee championship.  Is this anti-semitic orthography?

On this week’s show, I talk to the memoir writer David Sedaris,

plus Pamela Skjolsvik discusses David Sedaris’s Me Talk Pretty One Day,

Texts Discussed

Notes

On this week’s show, I interview my friend, the poet Monica Wendel, who is in residency at The Kerouac House,

Photo by Ashley Inguanta

plus Chelsey Clammer writes about Marya Hornbacher’s Madness.

Texts Discussed

Notes

Two great Orlando events are coming up this week:

1. On Wednesday, May 22, 7 PM, the fiction writer Colin Winnette will be reading in the sOFT eXPOSURE reading series.  Get details here.

2. On Saturday, May 25th, please come to Monica’s farewell reading at The Kerouac House.  Get details here.

See the Glossary’s Film of David Foster Wallace’s This is Water.