READ TO ME with Becky Karush

Today, we read and love "River House" by Diana Whitney. This poem is from Diana's forthcoming October 2023 collection, DARK BEDS (June Road Press).  Pre-order DARK BEDS here and anywhere you buy books: https://www.juneroadpress.com/bookstore Leam more about the Read to Me podcast and your host, Becky Karush: www.readtomeliteraryarts.com DARK BEDS, Diana's second collection, juxtaposes the conflict...

On Read to Me, we practice the essential, joyous skill inside great writing — listening . We listen for what we love in the work, and then put words to why it's so, so good Today, we read from Unfollow Your Passion: How to Create A Life That Matters to You by Terri Trespicio. We trace a smart, beaming circle from the beginning of a wedding video, back to the beginning of a wedding video. Along the...

On Read to Me, we practice the essential, joyous skill inside great writing — listening . We listen for what we love in the work, and then put words to why it's so, so good Today, we revisit a 2019 episode on the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address: Greetings to the Natural World, also called, in Mohawk, Ohénten Kariwatékwen: Words Before All Else . This Address's legacy is much bigger than the Uni...

On Read to Me, we practice the essential, sensuous skill inside great writing — listening. We listen for what we love in the work, and then put words to why it's so, so good. Today, we read "Transgender Heroic: All This Ridiculous Flesh" by Kayleb Rae Candrilli, from their 2021 poetry collection, WATER I WON'T TOUCH. We get to let this long poem sequence carry us on its currents. We get to feel it...

On Read to Me, we practice the essential, joyous skill inside great writing: listening . We listen for what we love in the work, and then put words to why it's so, so good.  Today, we read from The Days of Afrekete by Asali Solomon.  (And hear my son build with legos in the deep background.) We get to see how the author isolates two college-student characters (a senior from herself, a freshman fro...

On Read to Me, we practice the essential, joyous skill inside great writing — listening. We listen for what we love in the work, and then put words to why it's so, so good. Today, we read from Beneficence by Meredith Hall. We love its stunning hat trick: conveying devastating grief and deep family love, doing so through the embodied action of its characters, and carrying everything in sentences th...

On Read to Me, we practice the essential, joyous skill inside great writing — listening. We listen for what we love in the work, and then put words to why it's so, so good. Today, we read from The Book of Form and Emptiness, a stunning new novel from Ruth Ozeki. We love its radical premise, its clear-water sentences sparkling with gem-like words, and the voices of three distinct characters (not al...

On Read to Me, we practice the most fundamental skill of writing — how to listen for what we love in the work, and then put words to why it's so, so good! Today, we read from Megan Baxter's Farm Girl. Here, a body at work, precisely described in strong sentences, becomes the site of shimmering ideas about faith and hope. We get to see Megan's specific artistry with the luscious language of vegetab...

On READ TO ME, we practice the most fundamental skill of writing — how to listen for what works on the page. And then understand why! In this live episode, recorded in front of a Texas audience, I read from "The Wit and Wisdom of Ann Richards" by the incomparable Molly Ivins. It's an amazing piece about regionalism and racism and sexism and the power of the woman to prevail above what's expected o...

On READ TO ME, we practice the most fundamental skill for excellent writing — how to listen for what works on the page. (And then understand why.) Today, we get to listen to the talented, generous, and so so so so smart poet MAURICIO NOVOA. His debut collection MEMORIAS FROM THE BELTWAY explores "themes of working-class survivalism and ingenuity, spiritual tenacity, hip hop articulations, and el e...

On READ TO ME, we practice the most fundamental skill of writing — how to listen for what works on the page. (And then understand why.) Today, I read the poem "Abuela Sestina" from Memorias from the Beltway by Mauricio Novoa. Then we get to love how perfectly the poetic form of the sestina serves this complex, country-hopping, bi-lingual, danger-filled, love-filled, bird-filled story.  READ TO ME...

We read a selection from one of Mary Ruefle's beguiling essays, "TK NAME." Then we love the craft of it using the principles of Gateless Writing. If I offered you a space where you could write and read your writing within a safe community, a space where you could grow as a writer, a space where you could break through your creative blocks, would you join me? If you're tired of working in a bubble,...

Your host Becky Karush got to be in a writing salon with author Jodi Paloni the other day, and man, was it dizzyingly hot-damn amazing to hear her work. In this episode, we read from Jodi's short story collection, THEY COULD LIVE WITH THEMSELVES.  We see how secondary characters mirror each other to show the inner life of the main character. We learn how the short story is like both a bar band at...

In this episode, we read the lyrics of Wedding Song, from the Tony- and Grammy-winning musical HADESTOWN by Anais Mitchell. We get to love up the song's questions, the dares, the seduction, the reckless hope, the promises, the love. The episode was an experiment, too — the fifth-ever episode, the first with a live studio audience, the first reading lyrics. We didn't not know what we'd find on the...

Today we get to talk to my friend Emily Bass, the debut author of the extraordinary book TO END A PLAGUE: America's Fight to Defeat AIDS in Africa . This book is… An essential history of a U.S. government program. A history of the evolution of AIDS activism, and human dignity activism, in the US and in several African nations, Uganda in particular. A history of some of people in whose bodies both...

I met author Emily Bass in 1996, right around the time she was meeting AIDS activists in New York City. I met Em when we were summer camp counselors together. Neither of us knew that we'd become longtime friends. Neither of us knew that she was right at the inception of a 20-plus year journey to research, report, and write her book, her first book, her book that's out this week, the book called TO...

Today we get to talk to the numinous and luminous Barbara Newman , author of the brand-new, to-be-published-on-July-27 young adult fantasy novel, THE DREAMCATCHER CODES . In this book, four girls, powered by the elements of earth, air, fire, and water, and secret messages from mystical dreamcatchers, join forces on a quest to recover a stolen piece of the coveted Crystal Horseshoe. We had a rollic...

This week, we enter the realm of the mystical, the brave, and the female — and learn how to write a story as epic, as timeless, as magisterial and intimate from its very first words. And not just that. In the young adult fantasy novel THE DREAMCATCHER CODES by Barbara Newman , we get to hear a story written with LIFE as its enduring value, and magic as its flair. Plus, we get a semi-spiritual reck...

Meet Sari Rosenblatt, extraordinary writer, teacher, observer, candy connoisseur, conversationalist, interviewee. Author of the acclaimed short story collection FATHER GUARDS THE SHEEP, Sari here talks about the family history inside the book, the life of work that came before book publication, and the many many many revisions that go into a single story. (80! Or more!) Sari, I adore you to the mo...

Sari Rosenblatt is a consummate short story writer. Just look at Daughter of Retail, the lead story in her new collection, FATHER GUARDS THE SHEEP. Place — she's got it. Pacing — she's got it. High and low stakes twisting around each other — she's got it. Character voice — she's got it. Pee-your-pants-funny — she's got it. That strange floating feeling like your scalp has detached from your skull ...

Today we get to chat with my friend, Ann Braden — activist, founder of several grassroots organizations, podcaster, teacher, and author! I read (and cried over) an excerpt from her new book, Flight Of A Puffin , last week. Today we talk to Author Ann about bringing characters to life, loving them, and giving them hope. About raising a book up with a village to support you. About reading with kids...

Ann Braden made a book out of heartstrings and glitter. FLIGHT OF THE PUFFIN, for middle-grade readers, is both tough and whimsical, following four young people who are hurt and alone — until one tiny, delightfully illustrated act of kindness connects them. Changes them. Changes their communities. Lifts them up. Do you know how rare that is, to make a book about moral courage and love that feels l...

Today on READ TO ME, we love WHY SOLANGE MATTERS by Stephanie Phillips . We love the mix of history, memoir, music writing, future-dreaming, feminism, and punk. We love the love for Solange Knowles and her music. We love the celebration of Black feminism and Black feminist punk music. We love sentences that are clear runways for passionate ideas.

Today we get to hang out with musician, fiber artist, medium, radio host, and all-around star Jocelyn Mackenzie — a creative and intuitive mind living in the body of a control freak with a love of spreadsheets! ⠀ ⠀ And if you think those two things cannot possibly exist in the same person, think again. Because she is here. She is real. And she is wonderful. Listen in and then get Jocelyn's new alb...

Today on READ TO ME, we love a song about dental hygiene, the constrictions of modern adult life, the misappropriation of the human stress response, and the extravagant goddess-like holiness that is our true nature. And mango leather. Naturally. Come love MANGO LEATHER by Jocelyn Mackenzie , an explosively talented, generous, and blooming beautiful artist who will blow up your preconditioned mind...