1storypod

PHILLY — New Bolaño novel dropped 11 days ago, written when he was 31. New story I mention: https://softcartel.com/2019/02/18/a-seat-in-the-circle-by-sean-thor-conroe/

PHILLY — Really hit close to home, this one, especially with how dang nippy out it's getting; feeling of late like hibernation is just about all I'm up for. Otessa Moshfegh's My Year of Rest and Relaxation (2018), her fourth book and second novel, is about a mid-twenties Manhattanite intent on blocking out the world by ingesting an increasingly harrowing cocktail of sedatives. Read it last week, mostly lying on my side, on my couch, on Benadryl, but also walking places, in the daytime, in the cold. In this episode, which I recorded at 7 a.m. while walking to the dentist, I get into why this character wants to block out the world and whether she's able to find her way back into the world. Also: my shifting affinities towards character-driven rather than auto-fictional writing. And: how being an alt bro doesn't change the fact that you're still, physiologically and temperamentally, a bro. Sean Thor Conroe has written stories for X-R-A-Y (http://x-r-a-y.com/author/sean-thor-conroe/) and has another coming soon from Soft Cartel. He lives on twitter at http://twitter.com/stconroe and in Philadelphia, where he works on his health.

LOS ANGELES — Sergio González Rodríguez (1950–2017) was a Mexican journalist and writer. A friend and colleague of Roberto Bolaño's, he was the primary source of information on the femicides—the countless unsolved rape-murders of women, primarily factory workers—in Ciudad Juárez, for the late Chilean novelist's novel, 2666. Sean Thor Conroe's work has appeared in X-R-A-Y and is forthcoming from Soft Cartel. He tweets @stconroe and archives other art at http://1storyhaus.com

LOS ANGELES — Been a trip and a half reading Motherhood while posted with the mother this past month of holiday fam time / convalescence out here in LA. Has really propelled me into the nitty-grit of thangs. In this ep, I go in with more gripes about Sheila's stance on procreation than I come out with. I consider her view on the importance or lack thereof of Art. I hash out her ideas on family extending beyond the nuclear. And I give her props on the deepest idea of all: that Failure can never be communicated, must always be private, and yet is the only way to Freedom. Sean Thor Conroe's work has appeared in X-R-A-Y, on sidewalks and in fields. He tweets @stconroe and archives other art at http://1storyhaus.com

LOS ANGELES — I started reading The Elementary Particles (2000) this past summer. I railed through the first couple hundred pages fairly quickly, before stalling out on the last sixty-or-so. I finished it this past Thanksgiving. In this episode, I explore Houellebecq's takes on the death of the nuclear family, extreme individualism in the West, and the value of declaratives. Michel Houellebecq was born Michel Thomas in Réunion, France in 1956. Houellebecq is his paternal grandmother's maiden name. The Elementary Particles (2000), Houellebecq's second novel (orig. published Les Particules Élémentaires in 1998), was simultaneously hailed as a "nihilist classic" and criticized for its brutality. Michiko Kakutani, for example, called it "a deeply repugnant read." Sean Thor Conroe was born Kamura Sho in Tokyo in 1991. He lives in the United States, @stconroe (http://twitter.com/stconroe) on twitter, and at http://1storyhaus.com.

PHILADELPHIA — Gina Myers is poet living in Philadelphia. She is the author of the poetry books HOLD IT DOWN (2013), A MODEL YEAR (2009), and six chapbooks including PHILADELPHIA (2017), from Barrelhouse, which she wrote, mostly on her phone, during the first few months of moving to Philadelphia (August–October 2014). I encountered her work after hearing her read from PHILADELPHIA in early 2017, months after moving back to Philadelphia. Gina Myers co-edits the biannual online poetry journal, the tiny: https://www.thetinymag.com/ Some poems from PHILADELPHIA (2017): https://brooklynrail.org/2015/06/poetry/from-philadelphia-freedom-song HOLD IT DOWN (2013): Read: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/58134/hold-it-down Buy: https://www.spdbooks.org/Products/9781938055072/hold-it-down.aspx Gina Myers on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ginamyers?lang=en 1storypod website: http://1storyhaus.com

WEST PHILLY — Nicholas lives, and has for “about six years,” in West Philly. He is originally from Seattle. He read Don Quixote (1615) recently, finishing it within the past fortnight. I read the first half in the summer of 2016 and the second half in the fall of 2017. We both read the edition translated by Edith Grossman and published by Ecco Books in 2003. Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) published the "First Part of the Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha" in 1605, and the second in 1615, which he dedicated to his patron, Don Pedro Fernández Ruiz de Castro (1576–1622), the count of Lemos and viceroy of Naples from 1610–1616.

MANHATTAN — Daoud, 26, is an Oakland-based producer. His work lives on the Internet @daoudmakesmusic (Soundcloud). He began working on Saba's second album Care For Me (2018) with @sabapivot and co-producer @daedaepivot last fall. I listened to Care For Me about once daily since its April 5 release. This conversation was recorded before and after Saba's April 13 tour stop at Highline Ballroom in New York City.

SAN JUAN, P.R. — Whether extolling the virtues of a legume-centric diet or exuding disarming gratitude in matters fraternal to cosmic, a quick TSA search finds YaMZ effortlessly emotive, lucid, and playful. Recorded entirely in transit, TSA Approved YaMZ, at just under eight minutes, could well be his most cohesive work yet. Full EP: https://goo.gl/QKQwWD. Blog: http://bumsum.net – @itscanals

BED-STUY — Eric, 31, is a poet, modern dancer, and carpenter living in Brooklyn. His chapbook, TOP BLOCKER, is now available from GAUSS PDF. I've read TOP BLOCKER a number of times over the past months, since its release. Order/read TOP BLOCKER here: https://goo.gl/VMpi1x. Eric tweets @ejconroe. - @sho_thor, http://1storyhaus.com