Literary Nomads

What I Get Wrong 23.05.2025 45:55 ↓

We finish a carpe diem journey and I reflect back on what I've learned, what I believe, and where we are going next.

Writing Back 2: Getting Over Our Essay Anxiety 16.05.2025 36:35 ↓

It's time for the end of our carpe diem journey, and we celebrate with a congratulatory essay! Hey, why so glum?

Bellow Seizes Our Day 09.05.2025 53:13 ↓

Sure we can philosophize, but what happens when we put carpe diem to the test in the modern world of capital?

Rilke and Carpe Don’t Rhyme 02.05.2025 37:23 ↓

What is required of us to find the power and meaning in art? in poetry? Is it related to carpe diem? And does it give us any guidance in how to approach meaningful lives?

Carpe All Over the Place 25.04.2025 32:47 ↓

How far away are we from the original meaning of carpe diem? And does it matter?

Star Trek: “World Enough and Time” 18.04.2025 35:42 ↓

Can some fan-fiction teach us more about carpe diem than a classic Roman poet? 

Not Horacing Around: Ode 1.11 11.04.2025 31:44 ↓

Can an ancient Roman poet illuminate the concept of carpe diem? Perhaps, but then again . . .

Writing Back: Answering Marvell 04.04.2025 29:32 ↓

Writing back to authors and their works is essential to the literary culture; it also helps us answer our essential questions. Let's do some of that, then!

Kipling’s “If” and Irony-Hunting 28.03.2025 46:51 ↓

Where do we find irony, anyway? And how? An answer in an offer of cheese.

Dorian Gray and Difficult Conversations 21.03.2025 49:54 ↓

Where do we find people to talk to about our reading? And what do we say when we find them?

Reading and Living in Uncertainty 14.03.2025 39:51 ↓

What do we mean by uncertainty in reading? And why do we have to look for it?

What I Carry With Me 07.03.2025 29:10 ↓

What questions do we carry with us as we leave Marvell's famous poem?

Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” – Part 4 28.02.2025 54:15 ↓

Who is the speaker in this poem? Who the audience? Who the Marvell?

Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” – Part 3 21.02.2025 42:46 ↓

We trace Marvell's poetry back to its perhaps distressing roots.

Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” – Part 2 14.02.2025 35:22 ↓

What did Marvell know and how did he use it? We look at the sexism in the poem and discover how this provocation is hardly unique in the carpe diem tradition.

Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” – Part 1 07.02.2025 ↓

What do we do with--how do we read--can we make us of--a classic and famous metaphysical poem which is also misogynistic?

Not My Text! Irony and Ducking Accountability 31.01.2025 31:56 ↓

We consider who is accountable for the text: author, character, or reader, and how writers build a narrative distance in texts to allow irony and meaning to operate (and shirking a bit of accountability). 

An Introduction and Irony 24.01.2025 26:46 ↓

What is Literary Nomads, anyway? And what does that have to do with Radiohead, Godzilla, professorial assault, and irony?

Unwoven Interview #3: Poet Kelly Porter 17.01.2025 52:24 ↓

The final of three full interviews from the book launch of my poetry book Unwoven. Here, poet Kelly Porter and I discuss how consciously writers might think about structure.

Unwoven Interview #2: Teacher Sarah Rusinowski 10.01.2025 29:13 ↓

The second of three full interviews from the book launch of my poetry book Unwoven. Here, teacher Sarah Rusinowski considers classroom applications for the book.

Unwoven Interview #1: Dr. Jessica Manuel 04.01.2025 55:40 ↓

The first of three full interviews from the book launch of my poetry book Unwoven. Here, Dr. Jessica Manuel digs at some of the themes and motivations for the book.

Trailer: Literary Nomads 28.12.2024 1:33 ↓

The Waywords Podcast is reborn as Literary Nomads: Wider explorations, broader embraces of reading, and (im)practical thinking!

Waypoint – The Shadow 20.12.2024 30:16 ↓

A Winter Solstice story of 1907, when four women begin to tell stories around the fire. . . .

Waypoint – The Ghost and the Bone-Setter 21.12.2023 21:21 ↓

A Winter Solstice tale by an old Irish storyteller, maybe even believable . . .

Waypoint – “The Doll” by Daphne du Maurier 21.12.2022 38:06 ↓

A Winter Solstice tale of a peculiar kind of terror, this story was recently discovered (2011) among a collection of du Maurier's works completed around the age of 21. This story has mature themes.