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

In this week’s episode, I talk to chronicler of the rambling life, Michele Roldán Shaw, Photo by Pressly Hall Giltner Photography. plus Nancy Caronia reads her essay, "Deserving Angels." NOTES Check out the sweet swag in The Drunken Odyssey's fundraiser here. Check out these Burrow Press events. Literary Death Match will be judged by Billy Collins. Saturday October 3rd | Functionally Literate Presents: PADGETT POWELL | REBECCA EVANHOE | BETH McKEE Lowndes Shakespeare Center | 812 E. Rollins Street 7pm | FREE | No ticket necessary. Wednesday October 7th | Literary Death Match Presents: ERICA DAWSON | DAVID JAMES POISSANT KRISTIN HARMEL | KRISTEN ARNETT Mad Cow Theatre | 54 W. Church Street, 2nd Floor Doors at 7pm | Show at 8pm $12 pre-sale | $15 at the door.

In this week’s episode, I talk about Jorge Luis Borges's This Craft of Verse with Vanessa Blakeslee, Photo by Ashley Inguanta. plus Jared Silvia performs Peter Seger's "Hobo's Lullaby." TEXTS DISCUSSED This Craft of Verse (Charles Eliot Norton Lectures)" target="_blank"> Seven Notebooks: Poems" target="_blank"> NOTES Check out the great perks for The Drunken Odyssey’s fundraiser here. Gator finger puppets not included.

In this week’s episode, I talk to prose writer and educator, Danita Berg, plus Catherine Carson reads her poem, "Reverse Evolution, or Sex in the Environment." TEXTS DISCUSSED New Writing Viewpoints #12: Creative Composition: Inspiration and Techniques for Writing Instruction" target="_blank"> NOTES If you live in Orlando, check out Meg Sefton’s upcoming workshop on the fundamentals of flash fiction here. It will take place on September 27, 2015. Check out the great perks (such as TDO T-shirts) for The Drunken Odyssey’s fundraiser here. You are allowed to wear the shirt without taping your eyes shut ... technically. To read about the feminism panel at the Decatur Book Festival, read the Guardian article here, or the Electric Literature account here. To read about the Michael Derrick Hudson/Best American Poetry 2015 controversy, read Sherman Alexie's explanation here, Rich Smith's smart take over at The Stranger, or The Washington Post's reportage here. In NYC, to attend the book launch event for Best American Poetry 2015, go here.

In this week’s episode, I talk to fiction writer J. R. Miller, plus C.T. McMillan writes about the unsettling moral complexities of Untold Tales of the Punisher Max. TEXTS DISCUSSED Nobody's Looking" target="_blank"> NOTES Check out the great perks for The Drunken Odyssey’s fundraiser here. If you live in Orlando, check out Meg Sefton’s upcoming workshop on the fundamentals of flash fiction here. It will take place on September 27, 2015. The Dinty Moore piece referenced in our interview was his essay, Son of Mr. Green Jeans: An Essay on Fatherhood, Alphabetically Arranged. I finally saw this, and it was good. Great, actually.

Check out the great perks for The Drunken Odyssey’s fundraiser here. In this week’s episode, I talk to the poet and novelist Eleanor Lerman, plus Nancy Caronia reads her essay, "Quiet." TEXTS DISCUSSED Radiomen" target="_blank">NOTES Check out the great perks for The Drunken Odyssey’s fundraiser here. Check out Meg Sefton’s upcoming workshop on the fundamentals of flash fiction here. To read about Kate Gale’s controversial piece about AWP’s diversity issues, check out this LA Times story. To read her apology, go to her personal blog.

In this week’s episode, I share a recording of a fan fiction installment of Jesse Bradley’s prose reading series, There Will Be Words. The There Will Be Fan Fiction featured Teege Braune Jared Silvia Stephanie Rizzo Genevieve Anna Tyrrell and moi. NOTES Check out the great perks for The Drunken Odyssey’s fundraiser here. Check out There Will Be Words.

In this week’s episode, I talk about Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own with Vanessa Blakeslee, Photo by Ashley Inguanta. plus Christopher Booth reads "The Disappointment," by Aphra Behn. TEXTS DISCUSSED A Room of One's Own" target="_blank"> Virginia Woolf: Feminism and the Reader" target="_blank"> NOTES Check out The Drunken Odyssey’s fundraiser and related perks here.

Check out the great perks for The Drunken Odyssey's fundraiser here. In this week’s episode, I talk to the journalist Brian Spears, plus Eugenio Negro writes about the adventure of reading Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses. BOOKS DISCUSSED The Satanic Verses" target="_blank"> NOTES On Tuesday, August 11, at 7:00 P.M. at The Gallery at Avalon Island in downtown Orlando, Jared Silvia, Stephanie Rizzo, Teege Braune, Genevieve Anna Tyrell, and I will read original fan fiction for that month’s installment of J. Bradley’s prose reading series, There Will be Words. Check out Meg Sefton's upcoming workshop on the fundamentals of flash fiction here. An Albuquerque school adds 13,000 books to library and will not be using the Dewey Decimal system. Check out the great perks for The Drunken Odyssey's fundraiser here.

This week features a live Event on the theme of childhood, with Wilson Santos, Ashley Inguanta, Vincent Crampton, Amy Watkins, and moi, as your humble emcee. This reading was in honor of Wilson Santos's spoken word film, My Verse, which I talked to him about back on episode 138. NOTES Check out more about Wilson Santos’ Dominican Republic project, including how to donate, here.

In this week’s episode, I talk to the journalist David Z. Morris, plus Shin Yu Pai writes about how Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake changed her life. Photo by Kelly O. BOOKS DISCUSSED The Namesake: A Novel" target="_blank">NOTES Rest in Peace, E.L. Doctorow. Check out David Z. Morris's site, here. Check out his Art Basel essay here. Check out his Iowa City music essay, "Only What is Dead Can Live Forever," here. Check out Shin Yu Pai's poetry and other work here. On Tuesday, August 11, at 7:00 P.M. at The Gallery at Avalon Island, Jared Silvia, Stephanie Rizzo, Teege Braune, Genevieve Anna Tyrell, and I will read original fan fiction for that month’s installment of J. Bradley’s prose reading series, There Will be Words.

Episode 162 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download. In this week’s episode, I talk to the novelist Charles Blackstone, Photo by by Erika Dufour. plus Don Campell about how finding a copy of John Krakauer’s Into the Wild on the Appalachian Trail changed his life. TEXTS DISCUSSED The Week You Weren't There NOTEs On Tuesday, August 11, at 7:00 P.M. at The Gallery at Avalon Island, Jared Silvia, Stephanie Rizzo, Teege Braune, Genevieve Anna Tyrell, and I will read original fan fiction for that month's installment of J. Bradley's prose reading series, There Will be Words.

On this week’s show, I answer some mail with my friend, David James Poissant, Plus Amy Watkins reads her poem "Playa Linda." TEXTS DISCUSSEDThe Heaven of Animals" target="_blank"> The Shadow of the Wind" target="_blank"> The Catcher in the Rye" target="_blank"> For the Relief of Unbearable Urges: Stories" target="_blank"> Selected Poems (Wesleyan Poetry Series)" target="_blank"> NOTES James Tate, rest in very weird peace.

In this week’s episode, I talk to the poet Ciara Shuttleworth, Photo by Drew Perlmutter. plus Don Royster writes about how Isaac Asimov helped him to appreciate Shakespeare. TEXTS DISCUSSED Notebooks 1935-1942" target="_blank">The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time" target="_blank">Asimov's Guide To Shakespeare (70 Edition)" target="_blank">NOTES To read about Ciara's post-residency road-tripping with Flat Jack, here is part 1 and part 2. To read Thomas Jefferson's original draft of The Declaration of Independence, go here.

In this week’s episode, I talk to myself and share some music. Musicality affects my writing a lot. Perhaps I cherish sound since I nearly went deaf as a child. It took awhile for Sinatra to enter my imagination, but since taking up residency there, Frank hasn't left. So this mixtape is devoted to this man and his music, and a few other people along the way.

In this week’s episode, I talk to the historian Julian Chambliss, Dmetri Kakmi writes about how reading Paul Bowles’s The Sheltering Sky taught him how to write about psycho-geographic dis-associations. TEXTS DISCUSSED Ages of Heroes, Eras of Men: Superheroes and the American Experience" target="_blank">The Sheltering Sky" target="_blank"> NOTES Check out Julian Chambliss's site here. Check out John Sims' site devoted to the Confederate flag project. Check out the news coverage of the Flag Funerals Project by (in order of decreasing journalistic competence) WESH, WKMG Local 6, and WFTV. Read The Association for the Study of African American Life and History's statement about the Massacre at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church here.

In this week’s episode, I talk to fiction writer Shane Hinton, plus Sayantani Dasgupta writes about how Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea changed her life. TEXTS DISCUSSED NOTES Tuesday, June 16th, is Bloomsday. Celebrate wherever you are by listening again to a bang-up, in-studio, Bloomsdaying production on episode 104, or if in NYC celebrate the day on which Ulysses is set in person with Colum McCann, Aedin Moloney, and quite probably Chris Booth at Ulysses Folk House.

In this week’s episode, I talk to fiction writer and poet Stacy Barton, plus Shawn Whittington writes about how The Hobbit changed his life.

In this week’s episode, I talk about Longinus's "On the Sublime," with Vanessa Blakeslee, Plus LindaAnn Loschiavo writes about how Louisa May Alcott's Little Women changed her life. TEXTS DISCUSSED The Adventures of Augie March (Penguin Classics)" target="_blank">The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time" target="_blank">Jazz" target="_blank">The Four Fingers of Death" target="_blank">Train Shots" target="_blank">Little Women (Penguin Classics)" target="_blank"> NOTES New York Classical Theatre's production of The Taming of the Shrew, which is free, will wander its way across Central Park (Thurs through Sun, May 26 - June 28), Prospect Park (Tues. & Wed., June 23, 24, 30 & July 1), and Teardrop/Battery Park City (Wed, July 8, Fri through Sun, July 10, 11 & 12). On June 14, come celebrate The Drunken Odyssey’s 3rd birthday on a monorail line pub crawl.

In this week’s episode, I interview the poet Cailtin Doyle, plus Jeremy Da Cruz writes about reading James Joyce's "Eveline" on Amtrak. TEXTS DISCUSSED Dubliners (Penguin Classics Deluxe Editio)" target="_blank"> NOTES In Orlando, check out Wordier Than Thou, the open mic night that is roving across Florida. On Wednesday, May 27, it's at Stardust Coffee and Video. On June 14, come celebrate The Drunken Odyssey's 3rd birthday on a monorail line pub crawl. A teacher in South Windsor, Connecticut was forced to resign after allowing his class to listen to Allen Ginsburg's "Please Master."

Episode 153 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download. In this week’s episode, I interview the iconoclastic Disney author Leonard Kinsey, plus Terry Barr writes about leaning not to teach The Catcher in the Rye. TEXTS DISCUSSED The Dark Side of Disney" target="_blank">Our Kingdom of Dust" target="_blank">Habst and the Disney Saboteurs" target="_blank">It's Kind of a Cute Story" target="_blank">The Catcher in the Rye" target="_blank">

In this week’s episode, we have a roundtable discussion of Kattenstoet, the Belgian cat holiday that may or may not be a retroactive apology for medieval atrocities against felines. Present for this discussion were Teege Braune, Lisa Roney, and Jared Silvia. John's cat Zoë Reads Hemingway. Jared's cat, Miroslav. [embed]https://vimeo.com/40029049[/embed] TEXTS DISCUSSED Archy and Mehitabel" target="_blank"> H.P. Lovecraft's the Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (Lovecraft)" target="_blank">Alice Through the Looking Glass & What Alice Found There" target="_blank">1Q84 (Vintage International)" target="_blank"> Alicia Ostriker's "The Orange Cat."

In this week’s episode, I talk to comedian, podcaster, and now, author, Greg Proops, Photo by Idil Sukan/Draw HQ plus Rochelle Spencer writes about the liberating politics of Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. TEXTS DISCUSSED NOTES Read Teege Braun's review of Greg Proops's comedy special, Live at Musso and Frank, here.

In this week’s episode, I talk to the fantasy, science fiction, and nonfiction writer Melissa Crandall, Plus Síofra Shaman Skye shares a letter she wrote to J.D. Salinger. TEXTS DISCUSSED [embed]https://youtu.be/hJFtCfHDFfw[/embed] Check out Melissa Crandall's blog, The Caretaker's Wild Ride, here. Franny and Zooey">NOTES Check out more about Wilson Santos’ Dominican Republic project, including how to donate, here.

In this week’s episode, I talk to the memoirist, Chelsey Clammer, plus Susan Brennan shares her poetry sequence, Chromoluminarism, based on the last days of the pointillist, George Seraut. TEXTS DISCUSSED "The Circus" by George Seraut, 1891. NOTES If you live in the city beautiful (Orlando, in case you don't know), come out to see a great show and support a great cause on May 1st. Check out Jennifer Hoppe-House’s Bad Dog, playing at Orlando Shakespeare Theater through May 3rd. Ginger Lee McDermott as Molly in Jennifer Hoppe-House’s Bad Dog (Photo by Tony Firriolo). On May 8th, experience Poetry-O-Rama on the historic Wonder Wheel in Coney Island. Be sure to buy tickets in advance.

In this week’s episode, I talk to the playwright Jennifer Hoppe-House, whose extraordinary debut play is experiencing its world premiere at Orlando Shakespeare Theater, plus Lori D'Angelo writes about discovering The Scarlet Letter as a teenager, and reading it in a way probably not endorsed by her high school curriculum. TEXTS DISCUSSED The Scarlet Letter (Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions)"> Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone" target="_blank"> The Tin Drum" target="_blank"> NOTES Ginger Lee McDermott as Molly in Jennifer Hoppe-House’s Bad Dog (Photo by Tony Firriolo). Check out Jennifer Hoppe-House’s Bad Dog, playing at Orlando Shakespeare Theater through May 5th.

In this week’s episode, I talk to the poet Scott Bailey, Scott Bailey and Raquel Obando. plus Chad W. Lutz writes about Stephen King's novella "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption." TEXTS DISCUSSED Thus Spake Gigolo" target="_blank"> Life Studies and For the Union Dead" target="_blank">NOTES The music accompanying Chad W. Lutz's essay was "Crater" by The Spanish Donkey. Ginger Lee McDermott as Molly in Jennifer Hoppe-House's Bad Dog (Photo by Tony Firriolo). Check out Jennifer Hoppe-House's Bad Dog, playing at Orlando Shakespeare Theater through May 5th.

In this week’s episode, I host a roundtable discussion with Vanessa Blakeslee, David James Poissant, and Boris Fishman, in which we critique the essay collection, MFA vs. NYC, Plus J. Bradley reads a selection from his new prose poem book, A Wild Swing of the Knife. TEXTS DISCUSSED Bury Me in My Jersey: A Memoir of My Father, Football, and Philly" target="_blank">My Salinger Year" target="_blank"> NOTES Buy It is a Wild Swing of the Knife here. Patrick Hawkins (Episode 145) and his fellow Geeks of Comedy will be performing at Megacon on April 10th and 11th in Orlando. Check out here for more info.

In this week’s episode, I engage in an epic, manic conversation about the creative appeal and history of comic books and superhero storytelling with Patrick Hawkins. TEXTS DISCUSSED Batman: The Dark Knight Returns" target="_blank">Saga of the Swamp Thing Book One (Saga of the Swamp Thing)">Thor by Walter Simonson - Volume 1 (Thor (Graphic Novels))" target="_blank">Appleseed: Volume 1" target="_blank">Complete Jon Sable Freelance Volume 1" target="_blank"> Four important panels that John came across early in his reading life: from The Incredible Hulk #182. NOTES Patty Hawkins is a geek theorist & humorist which is politer and more marketable than calling himself a fatuous gasbag who has seen & read far too much media involving capes, swords & ray guns. He makes no claims other then speaking the truth as he sees it about geek culture without sucking up or snarking down. Sometimes he succeeds. He is the producer & host of Come Get ∑ [pronounced 'come get sum'] a new TV/webcast set to debut in 2015 focusing on geekdom as a social culture instead of an exploited clichéd demographic of basement dwellers & cosplayers. He is one of the founding members & manager of The Geeks Of Comedy, a touring confederation of geek comedians who hack into all facets of fandom & fanDUMB with blistering honesty & self-effacement instead of lame ass Aquaman jokes. He is also Patrick The Uneducated Critic and reviews films at his own caprice when they roll over on his Netflix queue (YES I'm one of the weirdoes that still pays to get the damn discs mailed to me). He is a contributing panelist on the MarkWho42WHOniverse, a Dr. Who discussion podcast that bridges the generational gaps between Whovians which is not as easy as it sounds... In his day jobs his is co-owner of TyFy Studios, an audio production facility, an Ideator at Ideas To Go, & is an Equity actor for Walt Disney World. Go back and listen to Patrick perform some geek comedy as part of The Drunken Odyssey's Nerd Love live show back on episode 47.

In this week’s episode, I talk flash fiction, mythology, Cosmopolitan, the meeting of graphic and written art, and experimental writing with the fabulous Katie Farris, plus Jesse Back writes about his spiritual, romantic, and personal evolution through Will Durant's The History of Philosophy. Photo by Daniel Parsons. TEXTS DISCUSSED Boysgirls (11 Edition)"> Story of Philosophy (Touchstone Books)">Invisible Cities"> BodyHome" target="_blank"> NOTES The music used with "Forgetting Christianity" is “Bleached Beach” by Noveller, a one person band, that band being the amazing Sarah Lipstate. The music at the start and finish of this episode was "Rising East" and "Chaotica" by The Bambi Molesters, an amazing surf rock band out of Croatia. "Rising East" is from their 2010 album, As the Dark Wave Swells, and "Chaotica" is from their 2004 album, Sonic Bullets: 13 From the Hip. As The Dark Wave Swells">Sonic Bullets: 13 From the Hip">

In this week’s episode, I share a recording of a live event featuring Boris Fishman reading from his novel, A Replacement Life Photo by Rob Liguori and your humble host reading poetry. Texts Discussed A Replacement Life (P.S.)" target="_blank"> Read the New Yorker profile of Merle Haggard here. Oyster Perpetual: Poems" target="_blank">What Narcissism Means to Me" target="_blank">The Trouble with Poetry: And Other Poems" target="_blank"> The Fixer" target="_blank">

In this week’s episode, I catch up with Lisa Roney, who has just released her creative writing textbook, Serious Daring, and a poetry chapbook, The Best Possible Bad Luck, plus, Liz Haberkorn writes about Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, starvation, and eating disorders. TEXTS DISCUSSED Serious Daring: Creative Writing in Four Genres" target="_blank">Serious Daring: Creative Writing in Four Genres" target="_blank"> The Heaven of Animals" target="_blank">NOTES Rest in peace, Michael Brachfeld. John King, Taco Reus, Maria Fadiman, Michael Brachfeld, Jennifer Brachfeld.

This week, it's this writing podcast's third mixtape.

In this week’s episode, I talk to the memoirist, novelist, and journalist Marya Honrbacher, Photo © Mark Trockman (trockstock.com) plus J.J. Anselmi reads his personal essay, "Atrophy," and I offer a tribute to the late Philip Levine. TEXTS DISCUSSED Madness: A Bipolar Life" target="_blank"> Waiting: A Nonbeliever's Higher Power" target="_blank">Read Marya Hornbacher's wonderful Smithsonian profile of Oscar Peterson here. Coming Close: Forty Essays on Philip Levine" target="_blank">NOTES J.J. Anselmi's "Atrophy" first appeared online in Cleaver Magazine. Rest in peace, Philip Levine. Abe Chang with Phil Levine. Read Aaron Belz's discussion of his correspondence with Philip Levine here. Check out Orlando Shakes’ wonderfully colorful production of Merry Wives, which runs from February 4 to March 7, 2015. Photo by Tony Firriolo.

This week features our third annual Erotic Poetry Night, with moi and The Drunken Odyssey All-Stars: Danielle Kessinger Teege Braune Genevieve Anna Tyrrell Anna King Erica Dawson. Many thanks to our most excellent venue,

In this week’s episode, I talk to the novelist Darcey Steinke, plus I share a spoken word poem by Wilson Santos, and a brief interview about his crowdfunding project for literacy in the Dominican Republic. TEXTS DISCUSSED Suicide Blonde" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkrDE5oYjRs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPhp5M3n0O0 NOTES Check out more about Wilson Santos' Domican Republic project, including how to donate, here. Check out Orlando Shakes' wonderfully colorful production of Merry Wives, with runs from February 4 to March 7, 2015. Photo by Tony Firriolo. Michael Chabon is a lyricist for Mark Ronson's new album, Uptown Special, as covered by The Guardian. Harper Lee's lost novel, Go Set a Watchman, will be published later this year. The Atlantic reports on the story of its discovery. In an attempt to allay fears of Lee's competence, she has apparently released a statement through her lawyer, saying, "“I’m alive and kicking and happy as hell with the reactions to ‘Watchman,’ ” according to The New York Times.

Episode 137 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download. In this week’s episode, I talk to Annemarie Ní Churreáin about Irish literature, poetry, and the call of nature, plus Will Garland reads his essay, The Art of Telling a Story About Southern Family Living in a Small Southern Town. NOTES The music used with The Art of Telling a Story About Southern Family Living in a Small Southern Town is “Color Cave” by Noveller, a one person band, that band being Sarah Lipstate. Check out the link for more info on her upcoming show at The Tinnitus Music Series in Brooklyn. Orlando Shakespeare Theaters production of The Merry Wives of Windsor begins this week.

Episode 136 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download. In this week’s episode, I talk to Walter Mosley about crime fiction, characterization, the subconscious work of the writer, and the radical aesthetics of Amiri Baraka, Photo by David-Burnett. and I also talk to Petra Mason about Bettie Page, Bunny Yeager, and the legacy of pin up culture. Photo by Janette Valentine at Terribly Girly. Plus, Rose Tran reads her personal essay, "Intermission." Photo by Jon Findell. TEXTS DISCUSSED Rose Gold (Easy Rawlins Mysteries)" target="_blank">Bettie Page: Queen of Curves" target="_blank"> NOTES For more information about the Terribly Girly studio, check out their website. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtSNufs8BWw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6LPeq7pbxs _______ Episode 136 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

In this week’s episode, I talk about James Wood's How Fiction Works with Vanessa Blakeslee, Plus Amy Penne writes about how David Foster Wallace's Consider the Lobster and Other Essays changed her life. TEXTS DISCUSSED How Fiction Works">Consider the Lobster: And Other Essays"> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsbKT50ud04 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Muriel Spark" target="_blank"> NOTES On Tuesday, January 20th, 7 P.M., Leslie Salas will lead a workshop on imagery at the Orlando Public Library, Herndon Branch. On Saturday, January 24th, 11 A.M., J. Bradley will host a love poem workshop at the Orlando Public Library.

In this week’s episode, I share another Miami BookFair International interview, this one with fiction writer and poet Stuart Dybek, and I also talk to the poet Denise Duhamel, plus Jim Ross writes about how Moss Hart's Act One changed his life. TEXTS DISCUSSED Ecstatic Cahoots: Fifty Short Stories" target="_blank">Paper Lantern: Love Stories" target="_blank">Blowout (Pitt Poetry)" target="_blank"> NOTES In Orlando, come hear me, Kimberly Lojewski, Robert Metcalf, and Tiffany Razzano read prose at There Will Be Words on January 13th. On Tuesday, January 20th, 7 P.M., Leslie Salas will lead a workshop on imagery at the Orlando Public Library, Herndon Branch On Saturday, January 24th, 11 A.M., J. Bradley will host a love poem workshop at the Orlando Public Library. On Saturday, January 24th, 7 P.M., come hear Boris Fishman read from his novel, A Replacement Life, and me read poetry at the Gallery at Avalon Island.

In this week’s episode, I share another Miami BookFair International interview, this one with writer and filmmaker John Waters. TEXTS DISCUSSED Carsick" target="_blank">Role Models" target="_blank">Crackpot: The Obsessions of John Waters" target="_blank">Shock Value" target="_blank">John Waters:this Filthy World" target="_blank"> NOTES In Orlando, come hear me, Kimberly Lojewski, Robert Metcalf, and Tiffany Razzano read prose at There Will Be Words on January 13th. On Tuesday, January 20th, 7 P.M., Leslie Salas will lead a workshop on imagery at the Orlando Public Library, Herndon Branch On Saturday, January 24th, 11 A.M., J. Bradley will host a love poem workshop at the Orlando Public Library. On Saturday, January 24th, 7 P.M., come hear Boris Fishman read from his novel, A Replacement Life, and me read poetry at the Gallery at Avalon Island.

In this week’s episode, I interview novelist and memoirsit Joanna Rakoff, Photo by David Ignaszewski and then talk once again with the poet Tony Hoagland, Photo by Ann Staveley plus Brittany McIntyre writes bravely about how a book I never expected to learn more about changed her life. TEXTS DISCUSSED NOTES Carlton Melton's "Country Ways" accompanied Brittany McIntyre's essay. In Orlando, come hear me, Kimberly Lojewski, Robert Metcalf, and Tiffany Razzano read at There Will Be Words on January 13th. Learn more about J. Bradley's love poem workshop at the Orlando Public Library here. Check out the dreamy surf rock of The Bambi Molesters.

This week’s episode got a bit out of hand. Jared Silvia tells me that, for legal reasons, this needs to be called a radio play. Anyway, I talk to Santa, have an interview you have to hear to believe--maybe you still won't believe it--plus I replay Melissa Crandall's personal essay about A Christmas Carol. NOTES Pre-order Nathan Holic’s new novel, The Things I Don’t See, here for only $6.

In this week’s episode, I interview author and editor Jaquira Díaz. TEXTS DISCUSSED Read Jaquira Díaz's "Cami" at Story South. Read Jocelyn Bartkevicius's "Out of the Garden" at The Missouri Review. Things Fall Apart" target="_blank">Drown">NOTES Pre-order Nathan Holic's new novel, The Things I Don't See, here for only $6.

In this week’s episode, I present a rambunctious reading honoring Repeal Day, which I think might be one of the twelve days of Christmas. The Drunken Odyssey All Stars on this occasion included Dianne Turgeon Richardson, Tod Caviness, Anna King, Jared Silvia, Sam Slaughter, Danita Berg, Matt Peters, Teege Braune, and Vanessa Blakeslee.

Episode 128 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download. In this week’s episode, I interview the musician, Michael Hearst. Plus Danita Berg reads her essay, "A Note on my Skin." TEXTS DISCUSSED NOTES Watch Whoopie Golberg's one-woman Broadway show. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CDSak1Pcbs The music accompanying Danita Berg's essay is Carlton Melton's "Smoke Drip," from their album Photos of Photos. Read Madison Bernath's review of Miami Bookfair International here. Daniel Handler (who sometimes when he writes is known as Lemony Snickett) made a remarkably dense joke about self-consciousness about racial stereotypes after Jacqueline Woodson won the National Book Award Young People's Literature Prize for her book, Brown Girl Dreaming. Handler was not nearly self-conscious enough to know that Woodson's allergy to watermelon was precisely psychological in nature as a reaction to racism. Read Jacqueline Woodson about this event here at The New York Times. To read about Handler's appropriate apology, read this story in The Washington Post. Here is Jacqueline Woodson's acceptance speech for this award: [embed]https://vimeo.com/112642169[/embed] Here is a link to the Indiegogo campaign for We Need Diverse Books. _______ Episode 128 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

Episode 126 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download. In this week’s episode, I talk about Horace's Ars Poetica with Vanessa Blakeslee, plus Sam Slaughter talks about the ignominious beginning of Two Drunken Writers Brewery. Photo by Oxley Photography 2014 NOTES At 3 P.M., on Tuesday, November 18, the memoirist and novelist Marya Hornbacher will read at the University of Central Florida. Get info here. Congrats to Tiffany Razzano, on the successful launch of Florida Bookstore day!

Episode 125 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download. In this week’s episode, I interview the novelist Kent Wascom, Plus Ian Rogers writes about reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. TEXTS DISCUSSED The Blood of Heaven">Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: 25th Anniversary Edition">NOTES The music accompanying Ian Rogers's Essay is The Lovely Moon's "And We Danced Into the Night." The music in the introduction ("Central Coast Swing")and conclusion ("Baia") of this episode was by the immortal Croatian surf rock band, The Bambi Molesters.

This week is a live show for Horror Movie Poetry Night, starring The Drunken Odyssey All Stars. Drew Johnson, Photo by Leslie Silvia. (That's a blurry John King in golden mouse ears, far left.) On this occasion, The Drunken Odyssey All-Stars included: Amy Watkins (The Walking Dead) Vincent Crampton Dr. Josef Heiter (The Human Centipede) Anna King (The Silence of the Lambs) Drew Johnson (The Shining) Jeff Shuster (The Blair Witch Project) Melanie Neale (Jaws) Teege Braune (Werewolves) Karen Price (Rosemary's Baby) Stephanie Rizzo (Gremlins)

On this week's show, I present a discussion of and readings from work that resulted in the companionship of Lord Byron, his physician John Polidori, and the Shelley's during the Year without a Summer, in which a ghost story challenge was undertaken. Mary Shelley Mary Shelley, by Richard Rothwell. John William Polidori John William Polidori as painted by F.G. Gainsford. Lord Byron Lord Byron, engraving by person unknown, colored by person unknown, as of press time. Notes Please give thanks to the amazing talents and efforts of this episode's two readers: Chris Booth August Evans