Otherppl with Brad Listi

Catherine Raven is the author of the memoir Fox & I: An Uncommon Friendship, available from Spiegel and Grau. Raven received her Ph. D. in biology from Montana State University and is a former National Park Ranger at Glacier, Mount Rainier, North Cascades, Voyageurs, and Yellowstone National Parks. Her natural history essays have appeared in American Scientist, Journal of American Mensa, and Monta...

Alexandra Kleeman is the author of the novel Something New Under the Sun, available from Hogarth Press. Kleeman's other books include Intimations, a short story collection, and the novel You Too Can Have A Body Like Mine, which was awarded the 2016 Bard Fiction Prize and was a New York Times Editor’s Choice. In 2020, she was awarded the Rome Prize and the Berlin Prize. Her fiction has been publish...

Julie Poole is the author of the poetry collection Bright Specimen, available now from Deep Vellum. Poole was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. She received a BA from Columbia University and an MFA in poetry from The New Writers Project at The University of Texas at Austin. She has received fellowship support from the James A. Michener Center, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, The Corsicana...

José Vadi is the author of the debut essay collection Inter State: Essays from California (Soft Skull).  He received the San Francisco Foundation’s Shenson Performing Arts Award for his debut play “a eulogy for three” produced by Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s Living Word Project. He is the author of SoMa Lurk, a collection of photos and poems published by Project Kalahati / Pro Arts Oakland. His work has...

Louise Nealon is the author of the debut novel Snowflake (Harper Books), a #1 International Bestseller. It is the official September pick of The Nervous Breakdown Book Club. Nealon is a writer from County Kildare, Ireland. In 2017, she won the Seán Ó Faoláin International Short Story Competition and was the recipient of the Francis Ledwidge Creative Writing Award. She has been published in the Iri...

Rachel Long is the author of the poetry collection My Darling from the Lions, available from Tin House. First published by Picador in the UK, it was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize, the Costa Poetry Award, and was named a Best Poetry Book of 2020 by The Guardian. Long is the founder of Octavia Poetry Collective for Women of Colour, which is housed at Southbank Centre in London. My Darlin...

Lucie Elven is the author of the debut novel The Weak Spot, available from Soft Skull Press. Elven has written for publications including The London Review of Books, Granta, and NOON. She is the former deputy editor of The Believer magazine, and The Weak Spot is her first book. She lives in London. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly literary podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's...

Today on the podcast, an episode devoted to the life and legacy of the late author, activist, diarist, and digital native Mark Baumer. A new book, The One on Earth: Selected Works of Mark Baumer, is available now from Fence Books. It was edited by Blake Butler and Shane Jones, with a foreword by Claire Donato. Butler, Jones, and Donato are the guests. Born and raised in Durham, Maine, Baumer was a...

Anna Qu is the author of Made in China: A Memoir of Love and Labor, available from Catapult. Qu is a Chinese American writer. She writes personal essays on identity and growing up in New York as an immigrant. Her work has appeared in Poets & Writers, Lithub, Threepenny Review, Lumina, Kartika, Kweli, Vol.1 Brooklyn, and Jezebel, among others. She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Sarah Lawr...

Leigh Stein is the guest. Her new poetry collection, What to Miss When, is available from Soft Skull. Stein is the author of five books including the novel Self Care and the poetry collection Dispatch from the Future. She has also written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Allure, ELLE, The Cut, Salon, and Slate. She is a recipient of an Amy Award from Poets & Writers and The Cut named h...

Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi is the author of the novel Savage Tongues, available from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Her previous novel, Call Me Zebra, won the Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the John Gardner Award. She was a National Book Foundation "5 Under 35" honoree for her debut novel, Fra Keeler, and her work has appeared in a variety of publications, including the Paris Review, Guernica, G...

Katie Crouch is the author of the novel Embassy Wife, available from Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. It is the official August pick of the TNB Book Club. Crouch is the New York Times bestselling author of Girls in Trucks, Men and Dogs, and Abroad. She has also written essays for The New York Times, Glamour, The Guardian, Slate, Salon, and Tin House. A former resident of Namibia and San Francisco, Crou...

Sam Cohen is the author of the debut story collection Sarahland, available from Grand Central Publishing. Cohen is a queer, Jewish femme born and raised in suburban Detroit. Her fiction is published in Fence, Bomb, Diagram, and Gulf Coast, among others. The recipient of a MacDowell fellowship and a PhD fellow at the University of Southern California, she lives in Los Angeles. Learn more about your...

Kendra Allen is the author of the poetry collection The Collection Plate (Ecco). Allen was born and raised in Dallas, Texas. She is the recipient of the 2018 Iowa Prize for Literary Nonfiction for her essay collection When You Learn the Alphabet, awarded by Kiese Laymon. She has been featured on C-SPAN, interviewed in The Rumpus and Poets & Writers, and her work has been taught by New York Times b...

Tao Lin is the author of the novel Leave Society (Vintage). This is his fourth time on the program. Lin's other books include Trip: Psychedelics, Alienation, and Change, the novels Taipei, Richard Yates and Eeeee Eee Eeee, the novella Shoplifting from American Apparel, the story collection Bed, and the poetry collections cognitive-behavioral therapy and you are a little bit happier than i am. He w...

Matthew Specktor is the author of Always Crashing in the Same Car: On Art, Crisis, and Los Angeles, California, available from Tin House. Specktor’s other books include the novels That Summertime Sound and American Dream Machine, which was long-listed for the Folio Prize. Born in Los Angeles, he received his BA from Hampshire College in 1988, and his MFA in Creative Writing from Warren Wilson Coll...

Reginald Dwayne Betts is the author of the poetry collection Felon, available from W.W. Norton & Co. Betts is a poet, essayist, and national spokesperson for the Campaign for Youth Justice. He writes and lectures about the impact of mass incarceration on American society. His previous books include the poetry collections Bastards of the Reagan Era and Shahid Reads His Own Palm, and a memoir entitl...

Matt Bell is the author of the novel Appleseed, available from Custom House Books. It is the official July pick of The Nervous Breakdown Book Club. Bell is also the author of the novels Scrapper and In the House upon the Dirt between the Lake and the Woods, as well as the short story collection A Tree or a Person or a Wall, a non-fiction book about the classic video game Baldur's Gate II, and seve...

Greg Gerke is the author of the essay collection See What I See (Zerogram Press). Gerke’s work has appeared in Tin House, Film Quarterly, The Kenyon Review, and other publications. He is also the author of a story collection entitled Especially the Bad Things, which was published by Splice in 2019. He lives in New York. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly literary podcast featuring in-depth i...

Mark Leidner is the author of the poetry collection Returning the Sword to the Stone (Fonograf Editions). Leidner is also the author of two feature films: the sci-fi noir Empathy, Inc. (2019) and the relationship comedy Jammed (2014), as well as the story collection Under the Sea (Tyrant Books, 2018), the poetry collection Beauty Was the Case that They Gave Me (Factory Hollow, 2011), and the book...

Pedro Mairal is the author of the novel The Woman from Uruguay (Bloomsbury), translated by Jennifer Croft. Mairal was born in Buenos Aires in 1970. He studied a degree in ‘Letras’ (‘Humanities’) at USAL (‘University of el Salvador’) where he was an assistant lecturer of English Literature. He has published three novels, a volume of short stories and two poetry books. His first novel, Una noche con...

Forrest Gander is the author of the poetry collection Twice Alive, available now from New Directions. In 2019, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his collection Be With. Gander's other books include Core Samples from the World, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. He has collaborated frequently with other artists including photograph...

Lana Bastasic is the author of the debut novel Catch the Rabbit, winner of the 2020 European Union Prize for Literature. Available now in translation from Restless Books. The official June pick of The Nervous Breakdown Book Club. Bastasic is a Yugoslav-born writer. She majored in English and holds a master’s degree in cultural studies. She has published three collections of short stories, one book...

Barrett Swanson is the author of the essay collection Lost in Summerland (Counterpoint Press). Swanson is a contributing editor at Harper’s Magazine. He was the recipient of a 2015 Pushcart Prize, and his short fiction and essays have been distinguished as notable in Best American Short Stories (2019), Best American Nonrequired Reading (2014), Best American Essays (2014, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020)...

Melissa Febos is the author of the essay collection Girlhood (Bloomsbury). It is a national bestseller.  Her other books include the critically acclaimed memoir, Whip Smart (St. Martin’s Press 2010), and the essay collection, Abandon Me (Bloomsbury 2017), which was a LAMBDA Literary Award finalist, a Publishing Triangle Award finalist, an Indie Next Pick, and was widely named a Best Book of 2017....