The Lit Show

On this Lit Show, Dylan Nice discusses his first collection, Other Kinds. Set in the spaces between a melancholic Pennsylvania mining town and Midwestern college, the stories in Other Kinds follow a bright but disillusioned young man as he navigates the social codes of his class, fails repeatedly at love, and struggles to communicate with his stoic father and unmotivated brother. By turns nostalgic and solipsistic, each connected story reveals some small truth couched in dirty rust-belt realism.

On this Lit Show, Bret Anthony Johnston discusses short fiction, his recent anthology of creative writing exercises, and teaching craft to undergraduates at Harvard University. Johnston is the author of Corpus Christi, a collection of short stories set in Texan hurricane country. Acts of violence and kindness, illness and forgiveness inform the world of these deeply felt works of fiction. Corpus Christi was named a Best Book of the Year by The Independent of London and The Irish Times, and has received The Southern Review’s Annual Short Fiction Award, the Texas Institute of Letters’ Debut Fiction Award, the Christopher Isherwood Prize, and the James Michener Fellowship.

On this Lit Show, Joe Fassler speaks with Lorin Stein and Sadie Stein–the Editor and Deputy Editor of the Paris Review–about their new fiction anthology. In order to create Object Lessons: The Paris Review Presents the Art of the Short Story, the editors turned to 20 distinguished masters of the form. They asked each author to consult the the venerable magazine’s 60-year archive, choose a favorite fiction, and introduce it for the book. The result? A collection that’s diverse and freewheeling, ungoverned by any dominant aesthetic or approach. Lorin Stein and Sadie Stein discussed the process of assembling Object Lessons; the book’s many takeaways for writers, young and old; and the short story’s ongoing importance in the literary arts. Joe Fassler conducted this interview from the Paris Review offices in New York.

Kenneth Goldsmith is an American artist, conceptual poet, editor, and radio personality. He is the 2012 keynote speaker for the Works-in-Progress Festival in Iowa City. Currently at work on the rewriting of Walter Benjamin’s The Arcades Project, he is also the author of numerous books of poetry, a book of essays, and an anthology of conceptual writing. He teaches at the University of Pennsylvania, where he edits UbuWeb and PennSound.

On this Lit Show, writers from the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program read fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. Since 1967, over a thousand writers from more than 120 countries have attended the IWP at the University of Iowa. Every fall semester, several dozen established and emerging creative writers—poets, fiction writers, dramatists, and non-fiction writers— come to the University to make time for their writing, take part in Iowa City’s literary culture, and experience daily life in America. For many IWP writers, the residency provides their first direct experience of the United States. We’re pleased to feature six writers whose work is as varied as their backgrounds: Genevieve L. Asenjo, Alisa Ganieva, Christopher Mlalazi, Stephanie Ye, Pandora, and Jeffrey Paparoa Holman.

On this episode of The Lit Show, Jeremy Jackson discusses his memoir I Will Not Leave You Comfortless, a story of the eleventh year of his life, which brought Jackson his first love, the loss of his grandmother, and his sister’s departure for college—seemingly ordinary events that erode his innocence in a way that will never be fully repaired. Jeremy Jackson is the author of two novels, Life at These Speeds and In Summer. A graduate of Vassar College and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Jackson lives in Iowa City with his wife and two daughters.

On this Lit Show, Antoine Wilson discusses his second novel, Panorama City (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), which Publisher’s Weekly called “fresh and flawlessly crafted as well as charmingly genuine” in a recent starred review. Oppen Porter, bicycle enthusiast, lover of binoculars, is convinced he’s dying. On the night he thinks will be his last, the self-declared “slow absorber” records the story of his 40 days and nights in Panorama City, and his struggle to become a man of the world, for the edification of his unborn son. “The world operates according to a mysterious logic, Juan-Gorge,” Oppen says, “I want to illustrate some of its intricacies. Interview by Gemma de Choisy.

On this episode of The Lit Show, Geoff Dyer discusses his latest book, Zona — a critical and personal exploration of Andrei Tarkovsky’s classic 1979 film Stalker – and places it in the context of his large and wide-ranging body of work. Interview by Ben Mauk.

On This Lit Show, Zachary Schomburg and Jenny Zhang discuss their poetry. Interview by Daniel Poppick.

On this episode of The Lit Show Hisham Matar discusses his new novel, Anatomy of a Disappearance. Born in New York City and raised in Libya, Egypt, and London, Matar is the author of In the Country of Men, his debut novel, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Interview by Ben Mauk.

On this episode of The Lit Show,Cole Swensen talks about her newest book of poetry. Gravesend (University of California Press) is a meditation on ghosts as they have appeared throughout history and across societies as emblems of grief, objects of terror, and as a means to contemplate what might lie beyond the grave. The book lends particular emphasis to the English town of Gravesend at the mouth of the Thames, which was its own kind of threshold between one life and the next when emigrants used its port to begin their journeys to the New World. Interview by Mason Scisco.

On This Lit Show, Karen Thompson Walker discusses her debut novel, The Age of Miracles. Interview by Elizabeth Weiss.

Featuring Jerimee Bloemeke, Brian Booker, Gemma de Choisy, Carmen Machado, Rachel Milligan, Deborah Taffa, and Candice Wuehle. This episode hosted by Elizabeth Weiss.

On this Lit Show, Pauls Toutonghi discusses his new novel, Evel Knievel Days, with R. Clifton Spargo. Toutonghi, born in Seattle to immigrant parents, a mother who emigrated from Latvia and a father who emigrated from Egypt, is the Puschart Prize-winning author of the novel Red Weather (2006). He is an assistant professor of English at Lewis & Clark College where he teaches fiction writing and American literature. His work has appeared in Granta, Virginia Quarterly Review, Glimmer Train, Zoetrope, The Boston Review, and One Story.

Featuring Katy Chrisler, Shabnam Nadiya, Margaret Ross, Montreux Rotholtz, Mason Scisco, Grant Souders, Zachary Tyler Vickers, and Elizabeth Weiss.