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

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.

I talk to Kathleen Rooney about finding the fun despite the end of The Great Enlightenment, the joys of mixing wit and earnestness in verse, the fun of exploring the landscapes of AWP locations despite mentally frying beneath fluorescent lights, the tactile pleasures of typewriters, and other important matters.

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 TDO listeners can get 20% of a premium subscription to Scribophile. After using the above link to register for a basic account, go here while still logged in to upgrade the account with the discount. If you are an amazon customer, one way to support this show is to begin shopping with this affiliate link, so that the podcast is granted a small commission on anything you purchase at no additional cost to yourself.

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.