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

Plus Clint Peters writes about how reading Montaigne changed his life.

NOTES

Check out David James Poissant's wonderful story collection, The Heaven of Animals.

According to NPR, Robert Hass has won the Wallace Stevens prize.

According to The Guardian, Doris Lessing willed 3,000 books to a library in Harare, Zimbabwe. Meanwhile, Florida Polytechnic is opening with a library that has zero print books (Guardian).

Also according to The Guardian, Martin Amis's controversial new book, Zone of Interest, is having some publishing difficulties.

I incorrectly called Bullets and Burgers a shooting range, when according to The Times, Burgers and Bullets is the name of the tour guide service that brings people to a shooting range about 25 miles outside of Vegas, in Arizona, where a nine year-old girl accidentally shot her shooting instructor with an Uzi after he set the gun to repeater action.

On this week’s show, I talk to fiction writer and ghost writer extraordinaire, Maya Sloan.

TEXTS DISCUSSED

 NOTES

Learn more about the Kerouac House here.

On this week’s show, I talk to the poet Sarah Grieve,

plus Rose Tran writes about what Sherman Alexie taught her about humor.

TEXTS DISCUSSED

On this week’s show, I talk to Vanessa Blakeslee about what Aristotle's Poetics can teach us about fiction writing today,

Plus Kevin Bray writes about reading John Gardner's On Becoming a Novelist.

TEXTS DISCUSSED

NOTES

This new project--discussing relevant books about the craft of storytelling--is a continuation of a long defunct feature of the show. Two years ago, Jaroslav Kalfař and I discussed Stephen King's On Writing on episode 6 and John Gardner's The Art of Fiction on episode 2.

Quoting George Orwell in an shockingly Orwellian way, Amazon has undertaken a weird counter-compaign to the Authors United movement, according to David Streitfield in The Times. Check out the statement from Authors United that led to this counter-campaign.

On this week’s show, I talk to the Trio Award-winner Iris Jamahl Dunkle,

plus Jeffrey Ethan Lee reads his essay, "The Poet's Mother's Deathbed Conversion" at Fergie's Pub in Philadelphia.

Books Discussed

 NOTES

If in Philly, check out the Moonstone Poetry Series, at Fergie's Pub.

My friends Jared Silvia and Ryan Rivas are new hosting a new show, Functionally Literate Radio, on WPRK.