On this week’s program, I talk to the novelist Cheryl Della Pietra, an editorial assistant to Hunter S. Thompson in 1992, about the dynamics of working with him, the reality of the actual writer's life, the dangers of a legendary persona, Hunter's gift for meta-journalism, the challenges of fiction writing and negotiating a gonzo vision in the service of a non-gonzo narrative, and when to put your work in the drawer and move on.

In this week’s episode, I share a recording of Loose Lips, the monthly current events literary thing hosted by the inestimable Tod Caviness,

Patrick Scott Barnes and Tod Caviness by Katherine J. Parker.

Teege Braune,

Teege Braune by Patrick Scott Barnes.

Michael Cuglietta,

Michael Cuglietta by Patrick Scott Barnes.

Leigh Fields,

Leigh Fields by Patrick Scott Barnes.

Dianne Turgeon Richardson,

Dianne Turgeon Richardson by Patrick Scott Barnes

and moi,

[caption id="attachment_22847" align="alignnone" width="720"] Moi by Patrick Scott Barnes. L'il Indies by Katherine J. Parker.

In this week’s episode, I talk with Vanessa Blakeslee about David Mamet's Three Uses of the Knife: On the Nature and Purpose of Drama. We manage not to kill one another.

On this week’s program, I talk to the novelist Laleh Khadivi about empathy, anticipating the future, the snarl of time management, challenging oneself as a writer as a form of motivation, the absolute transformation of characters, patriarchal similarities between Middle East and West, the mystical nature of surfing, the fraught possibilities of adolescence, religious fervor, the problematic role of country to identity, and modernity and the immigrant experience.

NOTES

Check out the second installment of The Drunken Odyssey's Unauthorized Film Commentary Series:

https://youtu.be/VYfZUZjSgjo

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