The Drunken Odyssey with John King: A Podcast About the Writing Life

Ben Blum with John King.png

In this week’s episode, I catch up with Ben Blum, who was my colleague in a Jonathan Lethem workshop circa 2009, and talk about finding room for earnestness in a postmodern outlook, finding room for pleasure in a world sick with stimulation, and writing a challenging project that changes who you are as a writer.

TEXT DISCUSSED

Ranger Games

NOTES

The music used in this episode was "Sweet Spot," "Chase," "Chaotica," and "As the Dark Wave Swells" by The Bambi Molesters.

All hail Mistie Watkins, content editor of The Drunken Odyssey.

Mistie Watkins 10

Have you reviewed us on iTunes yet?

 

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_294.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 12:23am EDT

Episode 293

In this week’s episode, Tod Caviness, Julian Chambliss, Dianne Turgeon Richardson, and Jared Silvia join me in a roundtable discussion of the Star Wars Christmas Special of 1978 and maybe got a few other topics in there as well.

Star Wars roundtable

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_293.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

In this week’s episode, we return to September 5th, 2017, the 60th anniversary of the publication of Jack Kerouac's On the Road. This celebration included Tod Caviness, Janna Benge, Bob Kealing, Erik Deckers, Suleika Jaouad, Karen Price, Holly Kapherr, Jared Silvia, Chris Cortez and Mark Piszczek.

On the Road Party Music by Peter LanzaroneOn the Road Party John by Vincent

NOTES

Check out The Blue Bamboo Center for the Arts!

Learn more about The Kerouac Project residency program.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_292.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 11:48pm EDT

In this week’s episode, I talk with Vanessa Blakeslee about the new fiction anthology, A Very French Christmas, from New Vessel Press.

VeryFrenchChristmas-FrontCover

NOTES

Some context for the dubious Dutch tradition of Black Pete.

David Sedaris discusses this in his essay, "6 to 8 Black Men."

Be sure to check out the music of David Rego, whose song "Harp" appears on this episode.

Dave Rego

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_291.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 12:37am EDT

 

Jacob

This week I talk to Jacob Shores-Agüello, the resident of the Kerouac House in summer of 2017. We talk about the roles that genres play in the process of mourning, the improvistory games that can create a sense of shared culture, the glory of compression, and how to avoid the musical information car crashes that happen with prose.

TEXTS DISCUSSED

Paraíso

NOTES

Check out the offerings at the Annie Russel Theatre.

Check out Burrow Press's latest tome.

We Cant Help It If Were from Florida

 

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_290.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 2:19am EDT

This week I talk to the fiction writer Laurie Stone, and we talk about the need for more craft in experimental work, what New York means for writers, the tricks of memory and aging, and our beloved avant garde forebears.

Laurie Stone
TEXTS DISCUSSED
My Life as an Animal

 

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_289.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 11:17pm EDT

This is a special episode, for Will Dowd, checks in to talk about how he turned his Drunken Odyssey blog, Areas of Fog, into a book! We try to get to the bottom of our editorial relationship, the trick of bypassing or appeasing the gatekeepers among the editors of the literary world, and how the weather affects every aspect of life in New England.

Will Dowd - BPL

TEXTS DISCUSSED

FOG COVER

NOTES

If you are at Miami Book Fair this weekend, stop by the Burrow Press booth!

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_288.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 10:30pm EDT

In this week’s episode, I talk with Vanessa Blakeslee about Ann Hood's MorningStar: Growing Up With Books.

Morningstar Vanessa & John

NOTES

Check out my interview with Ann Hood back on episode 242.

 

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_287.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 12:09am EDT

Episode 286 is a bonus episode, on the 1 year-anniversary of our national tragedy, the election day of 2016. I talk to the philosopher Bruce Janz about how to stay sane and process the current state of American democracy, and how our reading habits can console us.

[caption id="attachment_22372" align="alignnone" width="2016"]Bruce Janz & John King 3 Photo by Lisa Roney.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_286.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

On this week’s show, Sara Nicolas,Christina Farley, and Ella Martin, discuss the world of young adult fiction at Litlando, from February 25th, 2017.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_285.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 7:06pm EDT