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