Month: February 2017

In her harrowing novel, OUR HEARTS WILL BURN US DOWN, Anne Valente creates a portrait of trauma and the grief that follows. She and James discuss depicting violence, point of view, why drawer novels should never be published, the moments when they wondered if they should pursue something other than writing, and how music tastes may reveal more about characters than anything else. Plus, Emily Nemens talks about her work as co-editor and prose editor at THE SOUTHERN REVIEW.

Anne Valente

Anne and James Discuss:

Aimee Bender

Haruki Murakami

The Dzanc Books Prize for Fiction

Dan Wickett

DARK SHADOWS dir by Tim Burton

Jamie Quatro

AND THEN WE CAME TO THE END by Joshua Ferris

Steve Bartman

Nine Inch Nails

The Pixies

The Cure

KILL BILL, VOL. 1

The Dave Matthews Band

Blues Traveler

The Clash

Widespread Panic

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The Southern Review 

Emily and James discuss:

Bret Lott

Jeanne Leiby

The Center For Architecture

Cara Blue Adams

Jill McCorkle

James Lee Burke

“Solee” by Crystal Hana Kim

PEN AMERICA BEST DEBUT SHORT STORIES 2017

In part 2 of their conversation, James and Mike Scalise, author of the memoir THE BRAND NEW CATASTROPHE, discuss an old wound, social media, and how winning the Center for Fiction’s Christopher Doheny Award let to the incredible sequence of events surrounding the sale of Mike’s book. Then, Sarabande Director of Marketing and Publicity/ Mike’s editor/ excellent writer Ariel Lewiton joins James to discuss her many roles and how she got to where she is.

Mike Scalise: http://mikescalise.tumblr.com/bnc

Mike and James Discuss:

THREE FEET HIGH AND RISING by De La Soul

Laura van den Berg

Urban Waite

The Dzanc Prize

“The Root” by Kim Deal

Grub Street

Christopher Castellani

Janet Silver

Zachary Shuster Harmsworth

WILD by Cheryl Strayed

Emerson College

Book Court

Paul Dano

Rachel Cantor

Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan

Center for Fiction Christopher Doheny Award

Franz Kafka

Housing Works Brooklyn

David Tomas Martinez

Sarabande Books

Ariel Lewiton

Paul Yoon

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Ariel Lewiton: http://www.ariellewiton.com/new-page/ 

Ariel and James discuss:

Sarah Gorham

ON IMAGINATION by Mary Ruefle

Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction

Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry

The Linda Bruckheimer Series in Kentucky Literature

Kristen Radtke

McGraw-Hill Education

CHINA DAILY

The University of Iowa

GUERNICA

HIM, ME, MUHAMMAD ALI by Randa Jarrar

BUZZFEED

BLUETS by Maggie Nelson

THE ARGONAUTS by Maggie Nelson

AUDIBLE

IN FULL VELVET by Jenny Johnson

ANIMALS STRIKE CURIOUS POSES by Elena Passarello

In part one of the TK One Year Anniversary Jubilee, Mike Scalise discusses his phenomenal memoir, BRAND NEW CATASTROPHE. He talks with James about being diagnosed with the hormonal disorder acromegaly, the difficulties he encountered writing about it, the blind spots of memoir, what it’s like to be a public representative of a rare condition, and the complexities of ordering middle grade Bobby “The Brain” Heenan bios through university inter-library loan. Will they discuss Mike’s beloved Steelers? (Spoiler: No)

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Mike and James Discuss: 

Sarabande Books

THE TWO KINDS OF DECAY by Sarah Manguso

Eddie Carmel

Rondo Hatton

Andre the Giant

Tony Robbins

Agni

Yaddo

Ninth Letter

George Mason University

Bucknell University

Susan Orlean

Michael Paterniti

SEEK: REPORTS FROM THE EDGES OF AMERICA & BEYOND by Denis Johnson

American Short Fiction

One Story

BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS

ANDRE THE GIANT: LIFE AND LEGEND by Box Brown

AS YOU WISH: INCONCEIVABLE TALES FROM THE MAKING OF THE PRINCESS BRIDE by Cary Elwes

Philip Roth

Bobby “The Brain” Heenan

Rick Flair

The Fabulous Moolah

Porochista Khakpour

G.C. Waldrep

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A FACE by Lucy Grealy

HAPPY: A MEMOIR by Alex Lemon

PATRIMONY: A TRUE STORY by Philip Roth

STOP-TIME: A MEMOIR by Frank Conroy

SPEAK, MEMORY: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY REVISITED by Vladimir Nabokov

Laura van den Berg

Jim Shepard

HALF A LIFE: A MEMOIR by Darin Strauss