Juan Carlos Reyes [Host: Jason McCall]

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers, Jason McCall interviews Juan Carlos Reyes.

Juan Carlos Reyes is the author of the story collection, Three Alarm Fire, which is out on October 22, and the novella  A Summer's Lynching. His stories, poems and essays have appeared in Florida Review, Waccamaw Journal, and Hawai’i Review, and more. He has been the recipient of the Gar LaSalle Artist Trust Storyteller Award, a PEN USA Emerging Voices Fellowship, and a Jack Straw Writers Fellowship, among others. 

Jason McCall is the author of the essay collection Razed by TV Sets (Autofocus, 2024) and the poetry collections What Shot Did You Ever Take (co-written with Brian Oliu); A Man Ain’t Nothin’; Two-Face God; Mother, Less Child ; Dear Hero; I Can Explain; and Silver. He and P.J. Williams are the editors of It Was Written: Poetry Inspired by Hip-Hop. He holds an MFA from the University of Miami. He is a native of Montgomery, Alabama, and he currently teaches at the University of North Alabama.

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Conversation topics include:

-- pre-pub ramp-up

-- reading as gateway to writing

-- the influence of children on reading habits

-- being born in Ecuador in the 1980's

-- moving to New Jersey as a kid

-- wanting to become a writer

-- owning it and changes majors

-- vicarious creativity

-- trying to get writing work

-- entering the world of writers

-- working temp jobs

-- from getting an MFA to tenure-track teaching

-- doing stuff in Seattle

-- working with Hinton Publishing

-- the new story collection Three Alarm Fire

-- overlapping voice

-- triptychs

-- (re)organizing the collection

-- fun in the nuances of craft

-- narrators as people

-- finishing a new draft

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Podcast theme music  by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's his music project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.