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

On this week’s show, I share the latest installment of Functionally Literate, the reading series hosted by Jared Silvia, and this time featuring Nathan Holic and Lindsay Hunter!

Episode 68 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download. On this week’s show, I talk to the fiction writer Kristiana Kahahauwila, Plus Graham Hillard reads his memoir essay, "Physical Education." TEXTS DISCUSSED NOTES Graham Hillard's "Physical Education" first appeared in the journal Sports Literate. The Heaven of Animals, the forthcoming collection from friend-of-the-show David James Poissant, is available for pre-order. Please support the launch of his first book!

On this week’s show, I talk to the fiction writer Lindsay Hunter, Plus David Dadurka writes about Lewis Carroll. TEXTS DISCUSSED NOTES A North Carolina school board has voted to ban Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. The Heaven of Animals, the forthcoming collection from friend-of-the-show David James Poissant, is available for pre-order. Please support the launch of his first book! Episode 67 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

On this week’s show, I talk to the novelist Kalliope Lee, plus Scott Hoffman talks about John Demos's The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America. TEXTS DISCUSSED NOTES Until Tuesday, September 17th, 8 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, you can get a free ebook of Sunday Girl by going to smashwords, searching for Sunday Girl, and entering the code CV74V. The Taming of the Shrew runs September 11th through October 6th at Orlando Shakespeare Theater. Get tickets here. An author's first duty is to let down his country. --Brandon Behan. See my Pinupalooza photos here.

On this week’s show, I talk to three of the stars of Orlando Shakespeare Theatre's production of The Taming of the Shrew. Geoffrey Kent (Petruchio) And Deanna Gibson (Kate) John Ahlin (Baptista) And J. Bradley talks about being haunted by The Cure. TEXTS DISCUSSED NOTES OST's The Taming of the Shrew runs September 11th through October 6th. Get tickets here.

On this week’s show, I talk to the novelist Francesca Lia Block, Photo by Nicolas Sage Plus I share Alise Hamilton's essay about Francesca (originally from Ep. 7) TEXTS DISCUSSED Empathy, Love and the LGBT Characters in my Books by Francesca Lia Block NOTES Posthumous novels by J. D. Salinger are forthcoming, possibly, maybe. Seamus Heaney has died. Special thanks to Doug Nevel!

On this week’s show, I talk to the poet Tim J. Myers, Plus Dan Lauer explains the impact Spalding Gray's Swimming to Cambodia had on him. TEXTS DISCUSSED Dear Beast Loveliness" style="color: #2b6fb6; text-decoration: none;"> Floyd: Susannah" style="color: #2b6fb6; text-decoration: none;"> Swimming To Cambodia" style="color: #2b6fb6; text-decoration: none;"> The Heaven of Animals: Stories" style="color: #2b6fb6; text-decoration: none;"> NOTES Walter Pater: "All art constantly aspires towards the condition of music" (From The School of Giogione). Think about helping Beating Windward Press fund new art for its Doc Voodoo pulp fiction series. The swag is considerable, like this t-shirt.

Episode 62 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is here. On this week’s show, I answer some mail with my friend, David James Poissant, Plus Jared Silvia reads his amazing new essay, "City of Ghosts." TEXTS DISCUSSED NOTES • Think about helping Beating Windward Press fund new art for its Doc Voodoo pulp fiction series. The swag is considerable, like this t-shirt. • Members of Pussy Riot! are serving time in a Russian jail for the charge of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred." What they did was perform "Mother of God, Drive Putin Away" in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. While these women are rightly venerated as warriors of free speech, and the phrase "Free Pussy Riot!" is now famous as a movement. What I learned this week, though, is that besides all of that, their music also happens to be fucking wild and should be respected by anyone who has an ear for punk. Listen to their EP, Kill the Sexist. [youtube=http://youtu.be/Oxe3N43La7Q]

This week, I interview my friend, the fiction writer Chad Benson, who also happens to be a rock musician called Quinn W. Shagbark, plus Jesse Duthrie talks about John Barth's The Floating Opera. TEXTS DISCUSSED [vimeo http://vimeo.com/61609421] NOTES If you are writing in Denver, check out the Lighthouse Writer's Workshop. Read about Quinn W. Shagbark in Slate. On Tuesday, August 13th, at Urban ReThink in downtown Orlando, I will read with JOSEFINE KLOUGART, DAN LAUER, & DREW JOHNSON in Jesse Bradley’s series, There Will Be Words, which was just named the best reading series in Orlando by Orlando Weekly. Two days later, I will be reading an art-inspired piece in this event:

On Episode 60 of The Drunken Odyssey, I interview the Pulitzer Prize-winning non-fiction writer Gilbert King, Plus Monty Joynes discusses coming across Talks and Dialogues by J. Krishnamurti TEXTS DISCUSSED