This interview series features original conversations with folks around the world who are in the thick of literary culture -- the passionate writers, editors, critics, readers, translators, publishers, bloggers, designers, booksellers, poets, performers, journalists, and instructors who are bringing vibrancy and joy to the world of words. More than a rehash of things you have heard familiar names natter on about before, this series will turn its attention beyond the bounds of the usual suspects and the usual issues. This series is committed to a dynamic exploration of ideas, craft, language, literature, and culture with the people who are committing their lives to it.
#16: Nora Mandray
How her initial plans for making a Detroit film went haywire; the unexpcted way locals reacted to being filmed; the controversy of the "urban utopia"; what France has to learn from Detroit; her favorite story in the city; and why communication is a human right.
#15: David Lester
On spin-doctoring, the intersection of art and politics, how graphic novels are evolving, technology, how to re-interpret a book into live performance, and the body of an artistic life.
#14: Bryan Ibeas
Bryan and I discuss searching for stories, how the length of what we read messes with our perception of its worth, "the album effect," building personal libraries, imagining a world where there are no "filler" stories, adventurous readers, and how to create an identity outside of niche and genre marketing.
#13: Weslie Onsando
In our conversation, Weslie and I discuss how she sees herself as part of literary culture, why Kenya has not developed a culture of reading for pleasure, how she's working to cultivate bookish love in Nairobi, why writers have a bigger responsibility than they realize, what's happening with the huge (huge!) live-action read-aloud event she's organizing, and, of course, what she likes to read.#12: Elizabeth Senja Spackman & Emily Mendelsohn
In our three-way conversation, Elizabeth, Emily, and I discuss the theater scene in Rwanda, ethical collaborations, political art, fundraising, narratives of the 'West' and of 'Africa,' and how performance in a post-genocide nation balances space for both joy and sorrow#11: Justin Hamm
In our conversation, Justin discusses apologies, what he's learned about landscape from poetry and stories, a particularly under-rated poet, and the difficulty of comprehending multi-genre writers, and obsessions. Deliverance also comes up.#10: Grace Dane Mazur
Mazur and I discuss nothing less than the hinges of hell -- as well as Albrecht Dürer woodcuts, the Aenid, how visual art and literature compare in their renditions of the underworld, Herman Melville, how nonfiction explorations influence the author's fiction, and, of course, Black Fire.#9: Carol Ann Fitzgerald
On what the heck "Southern writing" means anyway, her own not-so-Southern background, how The Oxford American's multimedia platforms work together, and what, in her time with the magazine, she has learned about writing and reading.#8: KL Pereira
On how reading plays into Pereira's writing classes, reading comprehension as an art form, The Bell Jar, the uneasy notion that critical reading "ruins" good books, and the fiction anthology that is making Pereira swoon.#7: Daniel Simon
On literary hybridity, an upheaval in book reviewing, national identity, international mongrels, the unique vantage of magazines with a long view, and how the mania for classification intersects with the emergence of the global writer. Also, Marcus Aurelius makes a cameo.#6: Asale Angel-Ajani
On emotionally-rooted anthropology, the honesty of the nonfiction narrator, swagger, Zora Neale Hurston, and the stories that we think we already know.#5: Shannon Cain
In our conversation, Shannon discusses the intersection of activism and art, creativity and radicalism, the multiple lives of a writer, and what she says when people ask her what she "does." Also mentioned: a certain sophomore that is learning how to drive, nonprofits, the danger of middle ground, and political fiction.#4: Elizabeth Eslami
On her childhood habit of hiding stories, how Iranian politics influences fiction, the gender gap of readers, airports, the best lesson she learned from the publication process, and the state of the modern arranged marriage.#3: Susanna Daniel
On haunting landscapes, narrative drive, Carl Hiassen, the Midwest, shipwrecks, older men and women, biography, Miami, and dueling realities.#2: Anne Trubek
On what people want out of literature (and out of the people who make literature). Also discussed: the twisted, deflated legacy of the fierce Louisa Alcott; viewing literature with a "shackled imagination"; Dayton, Ohio; Mark Twain as asshole; weird gendered reading habits; money; pot smoking; and literary journalism. Also, there is the inklings of a rant of my own.#1: Daniel E. Pritchard
On popular perceptions of arts criticism, the man who is Pritchard's favorite critic, The Critical Flame's future, and how humility fits into the critical life. The phrases "totemic awe" and "a nefarious messianic strain in academia" come up, and good ol' Samuel Johnson makes a cameo.
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