Doggerel Diaries: Ben & Matthew's Literature Program

In this episode, Ben and Matthew each list five small literary magazines that they're reading right now. 

What makes a good collection of short stories? If it's a connection, what is that connection and how does it bind the individual pieces? Should they even be connected at all though? Ben and Matthew take apart the great short story collection in this Halloween episode, ending, or maybe arriving, at an experimental jumping-off point. This one may need a second round ...

Last fall, Martha Anne Toll published the novel Three Muses , which won the Petrichor Prize and was a finalist in the Gotham Book Prize; you can also read her reviews on NPR, The Washington Post and many other outlets. This fall, we the opportunity to speak to her about her novels, her short stories, how she wrote them, how some writers lean toward novels, others toward short stories, and a lot mo...

Whether you think they're fun, supportive retreats perfect for honing your craft or just naked careerism, awkwardness and the commoditization of art , writing conferences are a fundament of modern writing. We discuss how to get in, why they help and also why they hurt and go into a few personal experiences. Plus, writing gripes, what we're listening to and Ben's mad at his home stat...

Ben and Matthew select 10 characters from stories covered on the podcast, then take turns picking them in a character draft. Whose team has more literary clout? Which one would win on a basketball court? Below are the characters, although not in the order they were drafted. Enid from Alice Munro’s “Love of a Good Woman” Billie in Dantiel Moniz’s “Necessary Bodies” Narrator in Roberto Bolano’s “Sen...

Writing's always about that next big project. This time Ben and Matthew ask each other about what they're working on next. In the process, they discuss what ties literary worlds together, encounter Trojan horses and ask if narrators are always wiser than their portrayals of their younger selves?

In this episode, Matthew comes with a surprise topic: favorite travel books. He and Ben then discuss their favorite travel books, what it's like coming home when living abroad and how valuable Orwell's rules of writing are.

Matthew's back home in Albuquerque, so we talked about "Nemecia" by fellow New Mexican Kirstin Valdez Quade, and took a dive into the 505 (Albuquerque): what is it like returning home and does that affect what you write about?

Our first interview, woo! We got to sit down with the fantastic writer Pritha Bhattacharyya . Pritha's been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and you can find her work in, among other places, The Southern Review and Ecotone . We speak about her writing process,  almost make it through Matthew's bible of questions, and talk in particular about her story "Surrogates" -- so read that...

They back! After brief hibernation, Ben and Matthew emerge with some differing interpretations of Dantiel Moniz's "Necessary Bodies"; plus, they'll address some critiques of the show, tell you what they're reading, not understand why Pedro Pascal's hot like lava right now (they don't watch TV) and tell you about their new adventures on a platform called Twitter.

If you're a writer, musician or creator of any kind, you most likely have another job. Even accomplished artists usually need a day job to pay the bills. In this first installment of the topic, Ben and Matthew tell you about some of their own experiences finding balance between writing and work. When we revisit the topic next time, we'll have some special guests.

In this episode, Ben and Matthew take turns listing 10 literary works -- fiction, non-fiction, short stories, poems, even a manifesto --  that influenced them the most. 

In this episode, Ben and Matthew look at Roberto Bolaño's use of time and setting in "Sensini,"  and wind up finding clues to why we even write in the first place.  And some good news: Ben got a piece in  Fruit of the Spirit , the freshest underground blog going.

Short story or novella? Too wordy or perfect? Does he kill her or not? Ben and Matthew take up all these questions in Alice Munro's "Love of a Good Woman," and explore themes of sacrifice, saintliness and stymied sexuality in a complex story with multiple points of view. 

In Part 2 of our Jamel Brinkley doppelpack, we rank each story in his collection entitled  A Lucky Man , then narrow down a list of writers we'd like to party with. And some we wouldn't ... 

We've been really digging Jamel Brinkley lately, so we decided to do a double feature delving into his often dense but very accessible work. This time we analyze "Witness" and revisit the question of which sex scenes in literature turn us on.

This week we're changing the format to talk about writing conferences, and in particular the Napa Valley College Writer's Conference, which Matthew recently attended. We've got a full plate, from what the food was like, to how it was to -- gasp! -- read in front of other writers, to how you can choose the right conference to attend. Plus, what is the Munro of Alice? ... and Ben blus...

This week we discuss belonging, machismo and brotherly love in Junot Diaz's "Ysrael," then wade into nonfiction for the first time with a small peek into Jesse Jarnow's big history of American psychedelia in Heads  and finally, Ben asks Matthew the Question of the Fortnight. 

This week we are diving into ZZ Packer's "The Ant of the Self". Another doozy, and you can't beat that title. We look at the Million Man March, burning jabs of racism, fathers and sons, and sons and fathers. Ben also admits to a book he really should like, is almost embarrassed about not liking, but can't stand.

Cracking through the static around you, faith in your writing, the publishing world and all its possible pitfalls -- this week we get down to the nitty gritty of literary publishing.

Ben and Matthew picked Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's "On Monday of last week" to talk about this time,  looking into her treatment of its three main characters and their many shortcomings and how she avoids falling into the trap of imitation. Additional highlights include Ben waxing poetic on psychedelic music. 

In this episode, Ben and Matthew take a look at a few of the stories from the  2021 O'Henry winners collection of short stories.

In this episode, Ben and Matthew can't help but praise the subtle craft of Edward P Jones's short story about one protagonist's transformation(s), leading to a discussion about how they feel about that protagonist. They also look at dialect, how the Great Migration set the table for this story and discuss a few future show ideas, including an ode to the McRib.

Ben and Matthew plunge into Louise Erdrich's short story "A plague of doves," and then discuss what we expect when we read and write short stories as opposed to books.

The second episode of the Doggerel Diaries: Ben and Matthew's Literature Program is all about Chris Offutt, a guy who comes from the same small corner of the world as Ben. Matthew and Ben talk about the choice of using dialect in literature, words that only exist in certain places and Offutt's "Old of the moon."