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.

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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

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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.

On this week’s show, Jeff Shuster and I discuss the sensitive contribution to cinema that is Tokyo Gore Police.

TEXTS DISCUSSED

NOTES

TDO listeners can get 20% of a premium subscription to Scribophile. After using the above link to register for a basic account, go herewhile still logged in to upgrade the account with the discount.

Check out my literary adventure novel, Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame.

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Episode 496 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing).

On this week’s show, Jeff Shuster and I discuss Repo! The Genetic Opera!

On today's show, I talk to science fiction novelist Lindsay Ellis!

On this week’s show, Jeff Shuster and I discuss an underrated adaptation of a Clive Barker short story, the delicately-titled The Midnight Meat Train.

On this week’s show, Jeff Shuster and I discuss an quietly beautiful independent movie from 2005 called The Devil's Rejects. Jeff & I get off track a lot.

On this week’s show, Jeff Shuster and I discuss 2002's classic horror film, Ju-on: The Grudge.

On this week's show, Patrick Jehle and I talk our way through all of Casino. This episode's a long one. Enjoy!

Photo by Mark Miller.

In this week’s show, I talk to fiction writer Aimee Bender about the subterranean connections that literary fiction makes between one and oneself, and between one and others; the difficult epistemology of sanity; the possibility of fiction not driven by interpersonal conflict; and other subjects of interest.

Enjoy.

In this week’s show, I talk to Disney historian Todd James Pierce about how Covid-19 and the home streaming of entertainment might affect the future of visual storytelling, plus we discuss his current historical work on Disney Legend John Hench.

In this week’s show, I talk to the novelist Jan Elizabeth Watson about a great many things.

 

In this week’s show, I talk to Drew Barth about comic book obsessions.

In this week’s show, I interview fiction writer and memoirist, James Tate Hill.

In this week’s show, I interview a writer I'm obsessed with, the prose writer Tim Parks.

We talk about walking and its relationship to composition, plus the historical vision of Garibaldi, and the provoking contradictions of historical record.

In this week’s show, Leslie Salas and I discuss Ziauddan Sardar and Borin Van Loon's Introducing Cultural Studies.

On this episode, I talk to biologist Catherine Raven about her wonderful new memoir, Fox & I: An Uncommon Friendship.

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On this episode, I talk to the poet Tanya Grae about finding surprises in poetry, losing one's hearing at the Hollywood Sportatorium, the solitude of earning a PhD in English, and the sexual politics of American life.

TEXT DISCUSSED

NOTES

TDO Listeners can get 20% of a premium subscription to Scribophile. After using the above link to register for a basic account, go herewhile still logged in to upgrade the account with the discount.

Check out my literary adventure novel, Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame.

On this episode, I talk to writer Will Dowd about Martin Scorcese's 2006 film, The Departed.

n this week’s show, journalist & poet Tyler Gillespie & I discuss long-form journalism and the epic wildness and weirdness of Florida.

Photo by Elizabeth Lynch.[/caption]

TEXTS DISCUSSED

Read Brandon Wolfe's essayabout Pulse.

Read John King's essayabout Walt Disney World's tragic alligator incident.

Learn about how Florida's governor will protect freedom at Florida universitiesby policing thought and banning race from all educational discussion.

NOTES

• TDO Listeners can get 20% of a premium subscription to Scribophile. After using the above link to register for a basic account, go herewhile still logged in to upgrade the account with the discount.
• Check out my literary adventure novel, Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame.

In this week’s show, Jeff Shuster (our glorious Curator of Schlock) kick off summer by discussing two vintage summer camp films released in a two year span, Ivan Reitman's Meatballs (1979) and Tony Maylam's The Burning (1981).

In this week’s show, literary scholar Anahid Nersessian & I discuss John Keats, the potential for personal observations in academic work, the sexual politics of art, theme parks, and academic institutions, the dialectic of the indeterminacy & the permanence of art, & the scope of Keats’s personae.

In this week’s show, I talk to the novelist Kathleen Rooney about finding the spark to begin stories, the shape for long-form narratives, and the whimsy to make discoveries along the way.

In this week’s show, I talk to Nat Segaloff and Thomas Warming about writing for and about Hollywood.

In this week’s show, I bring music blogger Stephen McClurg aboard as we talk about one of the most transformative, dramatic, atmospheric, strange, American pastoral phantasmagorical musical albums of all time, Tom Waits's Swordfishtrombones (1983).

In this week’s show, I talk to the spring 2021 resident of The Kerouac Project of Orlando, playwright Spencer Huffman.

 

In this week’s show, Leslie Salas and I discuss Kurt Vonnegut' and Suzanne McConnell's compendious Pity the Reader: On Writing with Style.

NOTES

This episode is sponsored by the excellent people at Scribophile.

TDO Listeners can get 20% of a premium subscription to Scribophile. After using the above link to register for a basic account, go herewhile still logged in to upgrade the account with the discount.

Check out my literary adventure novel, Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame.

In this week’s show, I speak with the actor Geoffrey Kent about Shakespeare in performance, how actors make the texts come alive, the modern English translation of Shakespeare plays, the agony of having to cut Shakespeare’s texts down, the scenes that are rehearsal-eaters, -linging steel, how action sequences by themselves tell stories, and other important matters.

In this week’s show, I speak with the poet and translator Alfred Corn about Rainer Maria Rilke's sublime Duino Elegies.

In this week’s show, I speak with Ciara Shuttleworth about poetry, telling factions, limerence, running with the Muses, being open to delight, and the importance of daydreaming.

In this week’s show, I speak with Maxim Loskutoff about Montana and the messy importance of setting, the fecund symbolism of reality, and attending NYU's creative writing program.

In this week’s show, I speak with Samantha Hart about her wonderful debut memoir, Blind Pony,
Plus I speak with Scott Cunningham about the monthlong poetry festival, O, Miami.

Photo by Alexander Ruiz.[/caption]

In this week’s show, Leslie Salas and I discuss Allie Brosh's Hyperbole and a Halfand Solutions and Other Problems.

In this week’s episode, theater scholar Raphael Cormack and I discuss the allure of Arabian music, the revolutionary times in Egypt between the world wars, and the women who dominated Cairo’s entertainment scene in the 1920s and 30s.

In this week’s episode, I speak with Isaac Fitzgerald and Brigette Barrager and Leigh Hobbs about children's books.

In this week’s episode, fiction writer Gwen Mullins and I discuss many, many things from the front of the Kerouac Project of Orlando's porch.

Nicklaus Rupert and I discuss the PhD in Creative Writing, the creative and professional benefits of working for a literary magazine, how working in a cinema house can turn one into a storytelling curmudgeon, and the responsibilities of using the trope of Floridian tackiness.

 

In this week’s show, Leslie Salas and I discuss Lynda Barry's composition book-inspired musings on art, Syllabus, and how not just craft, but creativity itself is a skill.

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