Keep the Channel Open

Lyz Lenz is a writer based in Iowa. Part journalism and part memoir, Lyz's book God Land is a nuanced, insightful, and moving look at the role of faith in the culture of Middle America. In our conversation, Lyz and I talked about her book, belonging, false nostalgia, and the ways marginalized people are expected to share their pain. Then for the second segment, we talked about country music. (Conv...

  Binh Danh is a photographer based in San Jose, CA. Using both historical photographic processes and his unique chlorophyll prints—using photosynthesis to embed images into leaves—Binh makes haunting and resonant images about war, aftermath, landscape, and memory. In our conversation, Binh and I talked about his creative process, his interest in history, and the deep connections between all thing...

Helen Zaltzman is the host of the podcasts Answer Me This! , The Allusionist , and Veronica Mars Investigations . The Allusionist is one of my favorite podcasts, one that I never miss an episode of, an informative and entertaining and often deeply empathetic look at how we use language. In our conversation, Helen and I talked about her interest in language, her process in creating her shows, and t...

Robert Calafiore is a photographer based in West Hartford, CT. Robert's photographic practice involves building elaborate sets around male nudes or mid-century modern glassware, then photographing them using a hand-built pinhole camera. The resulting images are stunningly colorful and each print is one-of-a-kind. In our conversation, Robert and I talked about his creative process, the depiction of...

Rachel Zucker is a writer based in New York City. Rachel's podcast Commonplace: Conversations with Poets (and Other People) is one of my favorite literary shows, a show that has deeply influenced my approach to podcasting. In our conversation, Rachel and I talked about Commonplace and her 2014 book The Pedestrians , how each of us approach hosting a conversational podcast, and writing as a form of...

Yanyi is a writer and critic. Yanyi's debut book The Year of Blue Water is part poetry, part essay, part journal, and entirely itself, a document of self-discovery and human connection. In our conversation, we talked about his book, about its form and his process in creating it, and about creating community. Then in the second segment, we discussed Hannah Arendt's seminal book The Origins of Total...

Ashly Stohl is a photographer based in Los Angeles and New York. In the artist statement for her latest series, The Days & Years , Ashly writes, "In photography, they say that all portraits are really self portraits. So what are portraits of your kids? They are portraits of a parent." In our conversation, we talked about artistic collaboration, personal photography, and the perception of motherhoo...

Sarah Gailey's two recent novellas, River of Teeth and Taste of Marrow , were a huge amount of fun for me as a fan of both Westerns and speculative fiction. Our conversation covered both of those books, their serialized novelette The Fisher of Bones , as well as their Hugo-nominated column at Tor.com about the women of Harry Potter. In the second segment, Sarah talked to me about Lucius Beebe and...

Michelle Brittan Rosado is a poet based in Long Beach, CA. In her book Why Can't It Be Tenderness , Michelle writes about California, Malaysia, and the space between, about divorce, and life transition, and new love. In our conversation we talked about her book, about her creative process and how she thinks about poetic form, and about mixed-race identity. Then in the second section we talked abou...

Chaya Bhuvaneswar is a physician and writer. I read Chaya's short story collection White Dancing Elephants this spring and really enjoyed it, both because of the way it centered South Asian and women's stories, and for the complex, complicated relationships at the heart of each story. In our conversation, Chaya and I talked about White Dancing Elephants ; about Seamus Heaney, punishment, and compl...

Julia Dixon Evans is a writer based in San Diego, CA. I read Julia's novel How to Set Yourself on Fire recently and was quite taken with her use of voice and the strong characterization of the story's narrator, Sheila. In our conversation, Julia and I talked about her book, about experimenting with form as a writer, and about the question of likability. Then for the second segment we talked about...

Jennifer Greenburg is a photographer based in Chicago, IL. In her series Revising History , Jennifer alters vintage found photographs by inserting herself into the image, creating something new that comments on the ways that the style and glamor of the post-war era glosses over the very real discrimination and gender inequality of the time. We talked about Revising History , the ways that photogra...

David Bowles is a writer based in south Texas. David's latest book of poems, They Call Me Güero , is a middle-grade novel-in-verse about a light-skinned Mexican-American boy who is just entering the seventh grade. In the book, David portrays the life of a border kid with all its joys and challenges. In our conversation we talked about that book, as well as about David's collection of the myths and...

Lydia Kiesling is a writer based in San Francisco, CA. Lydia's debut novel, The Golden State , is a lot of things: a road trip story, an intimate portrayal of young parenthood, a portrait of a far-Northern California community, and more. In our conversation, Lydia and I talked about The Golden State , her nonfiction writing, and the relationship between the two forms. We also discussed the ephemer...

Mariela Sancari is an Argentinian-born photographer based in Mexico City. Mariela's series Moisés —a typology of portraits of men the age her late father would have been if he were still alive—is, in a way, a searching as well as an exploration of grief. In our conversation, Mariela and I talked about the how collaboration shapes her projects, how she uses iteration to create something new from ex...

Matika Wilbur, of the Swinomish and Tulalip tribes, is a photographer based in the Pacific Northwest. For her current endeavor, Project 562 , Matika has visited hundreds of tribes across the United States, making portraits and sharing contemporary Native stories to counteract the stereotypes and misinformation so prevalent in mainstream media and history textbooks. In our conversation, Matika and...

Shivanee Ramlochan is a Trinidadian poet, arts reporter, and book blogger. I had the opportunity to read Shivanee's book of poems Everyone Knows I Am a Haunting a few months ago and I found it a powerful experience. In our conversation, Shivanee and I talked about her book, making art out of our traumas, and navigating audience responses to our work. Then in the second segment, we talked about how...

Victoria Mara Heilweil is a photographic artist, curator, and educator based in San Francisco, CA. I met Victoria at an opening here in San Diego a couple of years ago and immediately hit it off with her, as our work is very much on the same wavelength. In our conversation we talked about the importance of imperfection and the everyday in her work, placing her work in a feminist context, and her e...

To celebrate the third anniversary of Keep the Channel Open , photographer Daniel Gonçalves turned the tables on me and took on the role of podcast host in order to spend some time talking about my own work. In our conversation, Daniel and I discussed my photographs and creative process, making an emotional connection through art, and why quiet masculinity is important to me. (Conversation recorde...

Jerry Takigawa is a photographer, designer, and writer based in Carmel Valley, CA. In his photo series Balancing Cultures , Jerry explores his family's history during the Japanese American Internment, creating striking and beautiful compositions that tell the story of a dark chapter in our nation's past. In our conversation, I talked with Jerry about this body of work, about our shared identity as...

Rachel Lyon is a writer based in Brooklyn, NY. Rachel's debut novel Self-Portrait With Boy caught my attention for its complex depiction of a young artist in 1990's Brooklyn, and the story has stuck with me in the months since I first read it. In our conversation, Rachel and I talked about the similarities between her novel and one of her earlier short stories, about the necessity of art in the co...

David Naimon is a writer and the host of the literature podcast Between the Covers , one of my absolute favorite podcasts. On his show, David brings a deep curiosity and impressive intellect to every conversation, making for some of the most engaging and in-depth interviews I've ever heard. In our conversation, David and I talked about the similarities and differences between our two shows, about...

Brandon Thibodeaux is a photographer based in Dallas, TX. At the Medium Festival of Photography this year, Brandon presented his series In That Land of Perfect Day , in which he looks at faith, identity, and perseverance in a group of five African-American communities in the Mississippi Delta. In our conversation we talked about the project, the importance of empathy, and the responsibility of doc...

The images from Claire A. Warden's series Mimesis are visually striking and delightfully inscrutable. Like most viewers, I was immediately grabbed by them when I first saw them, but it wasn't until I talked with Claire and read her artist's statement that I really understood what she was trying to say with these pictures. Having that experience, though, really deepened my appreciation for the work...

Brandon Taylor is a writer and graduate student at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. One of my favorite contemporary writers, Brandon's short stories are marvelously crafted, understated and emotionally charged, while his personal essays and cultural critique are insightful and often lyrical—all of it is just a joy to read. In today's conversation, Brandon and I talked about his work and his process, ho...