The Drunken Odyssey with John King: A Podcast About the Writing Life

Episode 229 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download. In this week's episode, I return to Jesse Bradley's Halloween installment of his prose reading series, There Will Be Words. Jesse Bradley, Karen Best, Shawn McKee, Teege Braune, John King, & Jared Silvia. Erik Deckers Plus a final performance from The Terrible Mr. Sundrop. Save

On this week's show, I present a quartet of readings from HP Lovecraft: "The Beast in the Cave," "The Tree," "Beyond the Wall of Sleep," and "From Beyond." Our readers are Chris Booth, Elise McKenna, and Tom Lucas. THE TEXT NOTES This episode is a companion to Episode 227, a roundtable discussion of Lovecraft. If you like this show's readings, check out the previous literary reading episode, 123, on the year without a summer that spawned the ghost story contest between Lord Byron, the Shelleys, and Dr. Polidori. If you are near Orlando on October 19th, come to Horror Movie Poetry Night 3.

In this week's episode, I and my inestimable guests have a fine conversation about Lovecraft and his bizarre tales and his rather strange life and his exceptionally unfortunate opinions The participants included Elise McKenna, Tom Lucas, Julian Chambliss, and Dianne Turgeon Richardson. TEXTS DISCUSSED An author photo can look unintentionally scarier than the horror book cover sometimes. Save

In this week's episode, I talk to poet Vidhu Aggarwal, plus Adelia Johnson writes about Ned Vizzini's It's Kind of a Funny Story changed her life. TEXTS DISCUSSED NOTES Check out my essay, "There, But," in the latest issue of Animal: A Beast of a Literary Magazine.

In this week's episode, I talk to the journalist and historian, Bob Kealing, plus Heather Whited reads her essay, "Onigiri, Shirasagi, and Me." TEXTS DISCUSSED NOTES The Daytona News-JournalThe Daytona News-Journal documented Edward Albee's involvement with the Atlantic Center for the Arts. On September 30th, Richard Blanco is coming to Valencia College for the Winter Park Writers' Festival. Richard Blanco's reading is FREE, but you MUST reserve a seat via the Festival's Eventbrite page. EVENT DETAILS Location: Winter Park Campus, Valencia College, 850 W Morse Blvd, Winter Park, FL 32789, Rooms 237/2424 4 PM: Community Writing Class with Richard Blanco 5:30 PM: Open Mic Reading (Emceed by John King) 7:00 PM: Richard Blanco Reading You can find my interview with Richard Blanco back on episode 76. The deadline for submissions for Condoms and Hot Tubs Don't Mix is fast approaching. Save

In this week's episode, I talk with Vanessa Blakeslee about Virginia Woolf's "Modern Fiction" and "Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown," plus Mingzhao Xu writes about Diana Gabaldon's Outlanders series changed her life. TEXTS DISCUSSED NOTES Suki Kim's nuanced take on what happened in Brisbane can be read at The New Republic. Lionel Shriver's "Identity Politics and Fiction" can be read at The Guardian. On September 30th, Richard Blanco is coming to Valencia College for the Winter Park Writers' Festival. Richard Blanco's reading is FREE, but you MUST reserve a seat via the Festival's Eventbrite page. EVENT DETAILS Location: Winter Park Campus, Valencia College, 850 W Morse Blvd, Winter Park, FL 32789, Rooms 237/2424 4 PM: Community Writing Class with Richard Blanco 5:30 PM: Open Mic Reading (Emceed by John King) 7:00 PM: Richard Blanco Reading Save

In this week's episode, I talk to the novelist Vu Tran about the appeal of detective fiction, the importance of literary substance over style, the problem with femme fatale characters, the Iowa MFA experience, and many, many other things, plus Jared Silvia sings another Woody Guthrie number in honor of Labor Day, as part of his annual Labor Day musical project. TEXT DISCUSSED NOTES On September 30th, Richard Blanco is coming to Valencia College for the Winter Park Writers' Festival. Richard Blanco's reading is FREE, but you MUST reserve a seat via the Festival's Eventbrite page. EVENT DETAILS Location: Winter Park Campus, Valencia College, Rooms 237/2424 4 PM: Community Writing Class with Richard Blanco 5:30 PM: Open Mic Reading (Emceed by John King) 7:00 PM: Richard Blanco Reading

In this week's episode, I talk to the poet and novelist Ryler Dustin near the end of his residency at the Kerouac House in Orlando, after a weeklong tour of weddings. We speak about the horrors of what happens to poetry in educational environments, the dawning sense of contemporary poetry as a form of play and life, as opposed to some kind of stillborn puzzle. Ryler also talks about the poetic impulse overtaking him before he even knew what poetry was, and walks me through his experience in slam poetry and MFA life, and the creative writing PhD, and the drive to move beyond genres. For some reason, I bring up my favorite bit of dialogue from the movie Major League despite Bull Durham being a much better movie. The role of honesty and novelty in writing also brilliantly come up. (We were both sober.) NOTES On September 30th, Richard Blanco is headed to Valencia College for its 2016 Winter Park Writers Festival. Rest in peace, Mr. Sundrop (Episode 213), or else let your caterwauls join the heavenly chorus. Episode 222 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

In this week's episode, I share There Will Be Fan Fiction 2, a special edition of Jesse Bradley's prose reading series, There Will Be Words. [gallery ids="16266,16265,16263,4775" type="rectangular"] This installment features the fan fiction of Shauna Basques (Jason Todd-era Batman), J. Bradley himself (The Mighty Ducks/Fatal Attraction crossover, obviously), Brontë Bettencourt (Frozen), A. C. Warner (Star Trek: The Next Generation, as read by me), and me (Flash Gordon). NOTES Check out the first installment of There Will Be Fan Fiction, which featured Teege Braun writing Small Wonder, Jared Silvia writing King of the Hill, Stephanie Rizzo writing about a post-apocalyptic Lewis and Clarke, Genevieve Anna Tyrrell writing Dexter, and me, that is John King, writing a Benny Hill Show/Ace Frehley crossover that includes David Foster Wallace, Yoda, My Little Pony, and a hint of Cthulu. Also check out J. Bradley's latest book, Jesus Christ, Boy Detective, and here us talk about it back on episode 216. Check out Brontë Bettencourt's blog, 21st Century Brontë.

In this week's episode, I talk to my friend, fiction writer Sam Slaughter, who I met back in 2014, when he wrote a little something about Denis Johnson's Jesus' Son for the show. We talk about his short story collection, God in Neon, his chapbook, When You Cross That Line (inspired by Florida Man stories), alcoholism, how we evolve as writers, and the Orlando writing scene. Photo by Oxley Photography 2014 plus Tom McAllister of Book Fight fame reads his personal essay, "A Brief History of World Travel (Part 8): Notes on Baltimore, MD." TEXTS DISCUSSED NOTES Check out Sam Slaughter's website. Hear Sam read his essay about Denis Johnson's Jesus's Son back on episode 119. Or hear Sam read his essay about his misadventures in brewing beer back on episode 126. Or hear Sam reads his essay about helping himself to some sacramental wine as part of our Repeal Day 2014 show back on episode 129. Read the text of A Brief History of World Travel (part 8) - Notes on Baltimore, MD, or check out Tom McAllister's other essays in this series, and his other work, on his website. Consider pre-ordering Tom McAllister's forthcoming novel, The Young Widower's Handbook. Listen to the music of The Bambi Molesters. Episode 220 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download. Save