Chelsea Alice and Rebecca Makkai talk about diversity in novels, breaking genre conventions, student-teacher relationships, and how motherhood is represented in literature.

On this week's show, I talk to novelist Jack Houghteling about Modernism, football, and the literary value of gangster movies, among other important topics.

On #593, I speak with the poet Ryler Dustin about creating new forms of sanctification and representing rural landscapes with familiarity without fetishizing or satirizing the setting. We probably digressed into a discussion of David Lynch's Twin Peaks.

On today’s show, I speak with Dan Lauer about memoirs, Spalding Gray, depression, the glorious bygone culture of video stores, the less glorious culture of Hollywood, and other matters of dark interest.

On today’s show, I speak with comedian Greg Proops about his new comedy album, French Drug Deal, the way time passes when sober and writing scripts and novels, the perfection of Charlotte Rampling, and other keen matters of interest to think-o-philes.

On today’s show, I speak with creative non-fiction writer Melanie Farmer about memoir, Brazilian jiu jitsu, the relationship between one's family and one's public, the Hurtson-Wright prize, and other matters to interest.

On today’s show, Chelsea Alice interviews Ian Patterson, who translated Finding Lost Time, the final volume of Penguin’s new edition of Proust’s novel cycle, In Search of Lost Time.

This week, I speak with Samantha Nickerson and I discuss the themes of friendship, relationships, depression, and death, and the craft of Kathleen Alcott in creating stories that are difficult to put down in the new short story collection, Emergency.

This week, I speak with game designer Michael Merriam about the mysterious, recent addition to the world of Doomology that is the Myhouse.wad, a retro-fitted narrative freak out to one of the earliest first person shooters in video game history.

This week, I speak with Sarah Viren about memoir, the social structures of academic work, philosophy, and asking serious questions.

On this week’s episode, I speak with Brian Salmons about Leonard Nathan's 1976 book of poems, The Teachings of Grandfather Fox.

This week, New York Times bestselling author David Lipsky discusses journalism, history, inventors, science, and the importance of storytelling to combine all of those ingredients.

On this week's episode, I speak with novelist Blair Hurley about her thrilling new literary novel, Minor Prophets.

David James Poissant interviews fiction writer Andrew Porter about peripheral characters, quiet stories, writerly influences, the theme of disappearance, the importance of music, the teaching of writing, Barry Hannah, and many other matters.

Speculative fiction writer Joy Baglio talks with me about labels, the surprises needed for compelling stories, outgrowing being an MFA student despite the fabulousness of being an MFA student, being a Kerouac Project resident, and other important matters.

Rachael and I discuss horror screenplays and horror story podcasts on an episode in which the podcast turns 11 years old.

 

This week journalist and cultural historian Bob Kealing returns to The Drunken Odyssey to discuss the Beatles's two momentous visits to Florida in 1964.

This week Samantha Nickerson returns to guest-hosting duties with a fabulous conversation with novelist writer Sarai Walker.

Rachael and I return to the subject of William Gibson in a non-fiction collection that proved charming fun.

Jeff Shuster and John King celebrate May the 4th by discussing three films trying to capitalize on the science fiction success of Star Wars.

On this episode, I speak with the Nick Georgoudiou about owning a used bookstore, maintaining a murder of typewriters, literary citizenship, and many other matters of interest and whatnot.

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

This week, Chelsea Alice talks to Stephanie McCarter about Ovid’s self-reflection, making Ovid's humor visible to a contemporary audience, and feminism as it relates to translation.

This week, I speak with fiction writer Mike Nagel about comic existentialism, alcoholic literature, and the class complexities of real estate.

This week, Samantha Nickerson talks to Felicia Berliner about her new novel, Shmutz, and the challenges of existing within multiple identities,

plus Samantha Nickerson talks to Deb Rogers about her new novel, Florida Woman, group-think, cults, and lots of monkeys.

Today's Guest Host

TEXTS DISCUSSED

NOTES

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On #560, Rachael Tillman and I discuss the art of persona writing through the lens of Philip Schultz's recent book, Comforts of the Abyss.

This week I have a long overdue convo with the extraordinary poet Laurie Rachkus Uttich.

This week I speak with the prose writer Jennifer Worley, the fall 2022 resident of The Kerouac Project of Orlando.

John speaks with his friend Jason about the creative joys of grieving and the power of earnestness and other matters of interest.

The poet and memoirist Lynn Melnick talks with me about the cleverness and heart of Dolly Parton, who can serve as more than a cultural icon as we try to discover how to make our unique ways in the world.

Rochelle Hurt interviews Julia Koets about romantic desire and loss, the villanelle form, the layouts of poetry volumes, growing up with the policing of restrictive gender norms, how research contributes to creativity, the linguistic surprises lurking in the mundane world.

On this week’s program, I talk to the poet and novelist Chrissy Kolaya about the creative process, psychology, and the multitudinous tensions of being an American.

Robert Pinsky discusses his memoir Jersey Breaks, and John and Mr. Pinksy compare some psychogeographic notes, as well as bragging rights.

On this week’s program, I talk to Chelsea Alice about Salman Rushdie’s playful parable from 2020, “The Old Man in the Piazza,” published in The New Yorker, plus I share Salman Rushdie’s 2017 event from Miami Book Fair, in which he reads from his novel, The Golden House.

On this week's show, I talk to the fiction writer and former memoirist Jonathan Ames.

On today's show, Jeff Shuster and I discuss a wild, strange, deadpan, homicidal roadtrip story that is The Doom Generation.

Jeff Shuster & John King discuss the 1993 anthology horror film, Body Bags, starring an excitable John Carpenter.

On this week’s show, Jeff Shuster and I discuss the 1992 Peter Jackson masterpiece of a family drama, Dead Alive.

On #546, Jeff Shuster and I discuss the strange 1991 masterpiece from France that is Delicatessen.

On this week’s show, Jeff Shuster and I discuss the belated masterpiece that is the director's cut of Clive Barker's Nightbreed.

This week, I speak with my friend and colleague Ryan Rivas about his exciting, new, experimental memoir, Nextdoor in Colonialtown.

This week, my colleagues Christopher Odom, Bethany Duvall, Jared Silvia, and I sling writing advice from Full Sail University's Fifth Annual Creative Writing Conference.

This week, Samantha Nickerson speaks with novelist Marie Myung-Ok Lee about the musicality of novel-writing, and discovering the shape a novel requires despite one's intentions.

This week, I talk with historian and biographer Mark Braude about artist, model, and cabaret singer Kiki Man Ray and the art life in Paris in the 1920s.

This week, I catch up with longtime friend of the show, the brilliant creative nonfiction writer, Chelsey Clammer.

This week, the brilliant Chelsea Alice & I discuss John Bois's postmodern masterpiece, "17776," which is partially about what football will look like in the time of the singularity. Probably no other fiction has made such utility out of the resources and mechanics of the internet for a reading experience.

On #537, I speak with the writer, publisher, and podcaster Michael Wheaton

This week, I speak with nonfiction writer Nona Willis Aronowitz about sex and feminism and other matters.

This week, Rachael Tillman and I discuss Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran, a long overdue read for both of us.

This week, I speak with Rachel Kolman about her immersion in creative non-fiction and her writing life after her UCF MFA.

This week, I speak with my occasional co-host, Rachel Tillman about Don Marquis's Archy & Mehitabel, a series of narrative poems written by a cockroach.

This week, I speak with literary biographer Miranda Seymour about the extraordinary career of Jean Rhys.

This week, I am happy to present a bootleg edition of the Loose Lips reading series, hosted by Dianne Turgeon Richardson and Tod Caviness, with readings by Rachel Kolman, Samantha Nickerson, moi, Holly Tavel, and Brian Crimmins.

On this episode, I speak with Disney historian Jamie Hecker about the relationship Walt Disney and the Disney Company have had with Washington D.C.

On #529, I speak with fiction writer Kathryn Harlan about her debut collection, Fruiting Bodies.

On #528, Rachel Tillman and I discuss Conversations with Friends, Sally Rooney's debut novel.

TEXT DISCUSSED

On #526 I talk to poet Rochelle Hurt about her latest book, The J Girls: A Reality Show.

On #525, I talk to Brynne Rebele-Henry about divinity, sexuality, and historical imagination in her extraordinary latest collection of verse, Prelude.

On #524, I talk to Yeoh Jo-Ann, the spring 2022 resident of the Kerouac Project of Orlando, about her novel, Impractical Uses of Cake, proper otter behavior, the role of agency in happiness, cat envy, teaching Shakespeare to teenagers, and the small ways teachers entertain themselves every day.

In this week’s episode, I talk to Aaron Angello about his new book, The Fact of Memory: 114 Ruminations and Fabrications, the creative benefits of daily ritual, writing (cough) early in the morning, David Lynch, the mysteries of the word and, and ditching academic rules for the Muses.

In this week’s episode, I talk to Ann Hood about the challenges of writing nonfiction, the intertwining of feminism and women’s rights and the history of aviation before and after deregulation, the value of non-writing jobs for young writers, and so much more.

In this week’s show, I speak with the creative nonfiction writer Nita Noveno about the Peace Corps, having a writing community, the Kerouac House, gators, gators, and more gators, and bears, and all of Florida’s wild charms, including the people.

In this week’s show, I speak with Rachael Tillman about the poetry and practice of Anne Sexton.

In this week’s show, I speak with the poet Marisa Siegel about the value of combining poetry with graphic art, language poetry, discovering poetry early in life, and the Mills College MFA Program in Oakland.

In this week’s show, I speak with the poet Vidhu Aggarwal about humor in poetry, the physicality of laughter, symbology, physics and spirituality, The Mahabharata, Samuel Beckett, and Shakespeare.

In this week’s show, I speak with the poet Kimberly Ann Priest about purposeful ambiguity in poetry and the minor disturbing oddities in Hieronymus Bosch.

 

On #516 Rachel Tillman and I discuss the novels of Sally Rooney.

On #515, I talk to Sara Manning Peskin about the history of the mysteries and discoveries of medical science.

In this week’s show, I talk to Laura Costas about the pleasures of disorientation, the surprises of actual history, the complexity of myth, and postmodernism.

In #513, I talk to Jane-Rebecca Cannarella about genre bending & blending, illustrating literature, and the dialectics of Disney's The Little Mermaid.

In this week’s show, I talk to Lan Samantha Chan about writing a novel over a long period of time, learning and teaching at the Iowa Writers Workshop, the value of writing communities, and balancing teaching, administrative work, and writing.

On today’s show, I talk to TDO's comic book blogger Drew Barth to discuss Walt Simonson's astounding mythical, iconoclastic run on Thorback in the 1980s.

Sandra Lim talks about optimism, editing through the pile of a poem, letting oneself go in the current of the stream, and finding a grounding in the abstractions of mind and word.

On today’s show, co-novelists Laura Blackett and Eve Gleichman talk about corporate cults, collaborative writing, and satire.

Memoirist Sonya Huber discusses how to write the way that we think, including the semiotic leapfrogs of memory, and trying to depict the precarious balance of reality.

On #506, Shruti Swarmy talks about calling the reader into a complete, already alive imaginary world, and writing about dance in ways that transcend rational, orderly prose.

On today’s show, I speak with the memoirist Brian Broome, winner of the 2021 Kirkus Prize for nonfiction.

Photo by Annie O'Neill

TEXT DISCUSSED

On today’s show, I speak with fiction writer Zaina Arafat about love, identity, sarcasm, and their complications for storytelling.

Raymond Antrobus, Carlie Hoffman, and Tiana Nobile read & discuss their poetry in this 2021 Miami Book Fair event.

On today’s show, legendary scholars Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar discuss the history of feminism and women's studies, and the turns of current events that make activism more necessary than ever.

On today’s show, I discuss the power of Stephen Crane with novelist Paul Auster.

Photo by by Spencer Ostrander.[/caption]

Back from the dead, I discuss Beckett, Kafka, wry sardonic world-weariness, & other matters of interest with fiction writer & memoirist Saïd Sayrafiezadeh.

On today’s show, I discuss Florida journalism, the tragic side of Florida Man, iguana hunters, bespoke mermaid tales, and other topics of great interest with Craig Pittman.

TEXTS DISCUSSED

 

On #497, I discuss poetry, literary magazines, and The Miami Book Fair with editors Lenny Dellarocca and Michael Mackin O'Mara, of The South Florida Poetry Journal.