The Lives of Writers

Guest host Mike Nagel talks with D.T. Robbins about boredom, imagination, death, the new story collection BIRDS AREN'T REAL (Maudlin House), endings, beginnings, process, knowing and not knowing what you're doing, and more. D.T. Robbins is the author of Birds Aren't Real, out now from Maudlin House, and This Is What Happens When You Leave Me Alone, from Rejection Letters Press, which he founded. H...

Michael talks with John Cotter about a pending move, the influence of monologues and Spalding Gray, theater and recitation, early adventures in poetry, life and writing through his first novel, the gravity of Ménière's disease on his life thereafter, his new memoir LOSING MUSIC, honestly approaching the question of suicide, multi-faceted memoirs, memory/scene work, and life now. John Cotter is the...

Michael talks with Jeff Alessandrelli about the nonprofit book press/record label Fonograf Editions, feeling like more of a reader than a writer, supporting the work of other writers, his poetry collection FUR NOT LIGHT, the non-autobiographical "I," his novel or fictional essay or literary collage AND YET, writing about sex, desire, and the fluid self, the process of collaging in the work of othe...

Michael talks with Hilary Plum about small presses, the recent news around Catapult and Elizabeth Koch, her first three books, her essay collection HOLE STUDIES, editing, writing about illness, pop culture as entrance into larger ideas, form as content, form as container, returning to poetry after four prose books, and more. Hilary Plum (she/her) is the author of several books, including the forth...

Michael talks with Chelsea Hodson about moving to Sedona, the Morning Writing Club, her new imprint Rose Books, the influence of Giancarlo DiTrapano and Tyrant Books, creative risk, life and writing in New York while working on her first essay collection TONIGHT I'M SOMEONE ELSE, the story of her chapbook PITY THE ANIMAL, the pull toward writing intimate work artfully, ambiguity, a novel in progre...

Michael talks with Matthew E. Henry about teaching high school, becoming drawn to the immediacy of poetry, advanced degrees in poetry and theology and education, a chapbook leading to his first full-length poetry collection, teaching and learning in mostly white educational spaces, a book as a prompt for recurring forms to access content, writing in conversation with the work of Langston Hughes, n...

Michael talks with Danny Caine about living in two places at once, the story of the Raven Book Store, making a life as a bookseller, his book HOW TO RESIST AMAZON AND WHY, becoming a poet by accident, writing about corporate and commercial landscapes, his trilogy of previous poetry collections, his new collection PICTURE WINDOW (Autofocus Books), getting more personal about domestic life, the note...

Michael talks with Kevin Maloney about getting married to the same person a few times, working as a web developer for about fifteen years, looking to dead writers for a way to live, interest in Eastern philosophy and the doomed quest to jump to wisdom, writing with a true voice and sense of humor, THE RED-HEADED PILGRIM (Two Dollar Radio), learning from plotless work to write a book with a plot, t...

Michael talks with Amy Fusselman about releasing a book, harboring a secret in childhood that created a belief in writing, becoming comfortable sharing personal work, the story of Ohio Edit and other publishing projects, accidental humor in her first four books on challenging topics, writing humor on purpose and trying stand-up, her first novel THE MEANS, the personal seeds of fictional invention,...

Michael talks with Chelsea Martin about putting together books as a kid, going to art school, becoming a writer in the small press community, essay as therapy, her essay collection CACA DOLCE, her novel TELL ME I’M AN ARTIST, the line between personal and familial responsibility, the guilt of doing what you want, trying to see yourself in others, defining yourself against others, raising kids in a...

Michael talks with Nuar Alsadir about remote psychoanalysis, finding a path as a thinker and writer, her two collections of poetry, her book-length essay Animal Joy (Graywolf Press), spontaneous outbursts of laughter, losing an early version of the book, free association as form and process, balancing the personal and intellectual, the research and writing processes, laughter as manipulation, the...

Michael talks with Erin Langner about working in museums, getting into art and writing and museology, her essay collection Souvenirs from Paradise (Zone 3 Press), the space between reality and fantasy, tourist cities, historical cities as myth, Vegas as a mirror for the self,  internal experience of artifice and spectacle, attempting to touch the real, memorializing tragedy, mapping the structure...

Michael talks with Adrienne Marie Barrios about working from home, becoming a writer and editor, starting Reservoir Road Literary Magazine and CLOVES Literary, getting diagnosed with autism later in life, Leigh Chadwick, the making of TOO MUCH TONGUE (Autofocus Books, 2022), collaborating in a digital space, existential anxiety with levity, her forthcoming WE DON'T KNOW THAT THIS IS TEMPORARY (Red...

Michael talks with Sarah Fawn Montgomery about blue collar roots, a teacher who fostered a passion for literature, writing poetry while procrastinating, previous books including QUITE MAD: An American Pharma Memoir, her new essay collection HALFWAY FROM HOME, losing her father while finishing the book, connecting the personal to the conceptual, collection organization as Tetris, writing effective...

Michael talks with Andrew Bomback about writing on the morning train, life as an academic doctor, his path to reading and writing literature, specializing in kidneys, the influence of David Shields and Amy Fusselman, his Object Lessons book Doctor , the artifice of medicine, his new book Long Days, Short Years , struggles with three-year-olds and anger, the role of rehearsal in parenting, communic...

Guest host Sara Rauch talks with Kristine Langley Mahler about space-out time, her work with Split/Lip Press, discovering creative non-fiction, finding a writing community online, submitting to lit mags, her essay collection CURING SEASON, formal experimentation and structure as processing elements, immersion and vulnerability, adolescence, and more. Kristine Langley Mahler is the author of the de...

Michael talks with Ryan Rivas about the story of Burrow Press, finding his way as a writer, the Orlando literary community, the making of the mixed media book NEXTDOOR IN COLONIALTOWN (Autofocus Books, 2022), neighborhood photography, Colonialtown, the suburban gothic, selecting and arranging found text from nextdoor[dot]com, whiteness, the book as art object, and more. Ryan Rivas is the author of...

Michael talks with Ashley Farmer about getting into the arts and writing, previous books in fiction and poetry, her essay collection DEAR DAMAGE, a life changing act in the family involving a gun after a severe accident, the inclusion of found forms and conversational transcripts in the collection, compassion, restrained vs. lyrical prose, feedback from family on writing that's about them, factual...

Michael talks with Jody Keisner about coming to creative non-fiction from academic writing, her collection UNDER MY BED AND OTHER ESSAYS, writing and researching about personal fears and anxieties, adoption, writing as a false sense of control, writing about family and loved ones, chronic illness, and much more. Jody Keisner is the author of Under My Bed and Other Essays , which is out now from Un...

Michael talks with Elisa Gabbert about writing time, her poetry column for NYT, reading and writing about classics, an ongoing interest in language and thinking, life before her first book, tricking yourself into finding a voice or style or mode, her previous books, her new poetry collection NORMAL DISTANCE, mixing the abstract and the concrete, creating poems from previous notes and tweets, writi...

Michael talks with Ander Monson about his many literary projects, a love of machines, integrating the web into early books, image/text, his path to nonfiction, the process of writing PREDATOR: A MEMOIR (Graywolf Press), the cultural importance of the movie, implicating himself in his exploration of contemporary masculinity, returning to the things you love at 14, controlled writing that captures s...

Michael talks with Jackson Bliss about language as consolation, time in the Peace Corps, writing three books in different genres about mixed-race identity, the choose-your-own-adventure memoir DREAM POP ORIGAMI, crafting his blended style of writing, writing the choices after each piece in the book, the influence of video games and music, the self as text, numbering, and more. Jackson Bliss is a m...

Michael talks with Janelle Cordero about painting, the library, poetry with a sense of return, her newest collection IMPOSSIBLE YEARS, a poem working or not, poetry as portraiture, fear of death, the natural world, clarity and conversation, genre confusion, and more.  Janelle Cordero is the author of four books of poetry: Two Cups of Tomatoes (2015), Woke to Birds (2019), Many Types of Wildflowers...

Michael talks with Holly Pelesky about reading aloud, becoming honest, co-founding Vast Chasm, editing other writers, writing direct address, the making of CLEAVE, slim volumes, revision as self examination, taking the personal risk of being honest in your art, her fundamental upbringing, the anxiety of promoting a book about yourself, and more. Holly Pelesky is the author of the fourth Autofocus...

Michael talks with Meg Tuite about growing up in a family of readers, A Confederacy of Dunces, the beginnings of writing and publishing, early books, risk, sentences as worlds unto themselves, her newest book WHITE VAN, focusing on dark or uncomfortable material, the effect of suicide on her family, language that works on multiple levels, new work, and more. Meg Tuite is author of many books of va...