Otherppl with Brad Listi

Michael Kimball is the guest.  He is the author of four books, the latest of which is a novel called Big Ray, now available in hardcover from Bloomsbury.  The Wall Street Journal calls it "[An] astonishingly moving novel... We're left gasping for air... Danny's emotions unfold as slowly as the carefully dispensed facts of the story, and to mesmerizing effect... Big Ray is an appalling tale told with anger, dark humor and surprising tenderness." And Sam Lipsyte raves "Michael Kimball has been writing innovative, compelling and beautifully felt books for years, but Big Ray seems a break-through and culmination all at once. It's funny and terrifying and it's his masterpiece, at least so far.” Monologue topics:  existential questioning, polar bears, the ocean, eating a burrito on the air, Board, fear of finishing.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Julie Klam is the guest. She is the author of several books, the most recent of which is called Friendkeeping: A Field Guide to the People You Love, Hate, and Can't Live Without, now available from Riverhead. Kirkus raves "Klam's voice is often flat-out hilarious… [she] never fails to come up with terrific comic vignettes and sharp one-liners… highly entertaining." And the late-great David Rakoff says "Julie Klam is one funny writer.” Monologue topics: salvaging the novel, creative breakthroughs, self-immolation, public freakouts involving nudity, unnecessary trips to Israel, bleak episodes of crushing creative stasis, Board. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

J. Robert Lennon is today's guest.  He is the author of several books, and his latest novel, Familiar, is now available from Graywolf Press. The New York Times Book Review raves “Over the last decade, J. Robert Lennon’s literary imagination has grown increasingly morbid, convoluted and peculiar—just as his books have grown commensurately more surprising, rigorous and fun.” And The Los Angeles Times says "[Lennon} keeps Familiar balanced at a perfect pitch...a literary puzzle, a marvelous trick of the mind." Monologue topics:  Hurricane Sandy, disaster guilt, socializing, exhaustion, weeping Buddha, TNB Book Club. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Susan Straight is the guest.  She is the author of several books and has been a finalist for the National Book Award.  Her new novel, Between Heaven and Here, is now available from McSweeney's.  Ayelet Waldman raves "It is only the rarest of novels that cry for a sequel, the most unusual of stories that at once satisfies and leaves the reader aching for more. Susan Straight's remarkable Take One Candle Light A Room is such a novel. And she has satisfied our desires in Between Heaven and Here, a magnificent novel, that manages to be at once unflinchingly real and transcendently beautiful. Susan Straight is one of the very best American writers. If you haven't read her, you're in for a delight and an awakening. If you have, then you're probably as thrilled as I am that she has taken us back to Rio Seco." Kirkus, in a starred review, says "Straight employs glorious language and a riveting eye for detail to create a fully realized, totally believable world." Monologue topics:  letters, mall tag, Indiana, crisis, novel implosion, melodrama, complete creative collapse.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Antoine Wilson is today's guest.  He's the author of two novels, the most recent of which is called Panorama City, now available from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.  Publishers Weekly, in a starred review, says "Wilson’s second novel (after Interloper) is fresh and flawlessly crafted as well as charmingly genuine. Oppen Porter is almost 30, a guileless man who lives in a small central California town with his reclusive father in a house overtaken by nature….Oppen experiments with various roles—dedicated worker, student of religion, thinker—eventually finding his place in the world, framing a classic coming-of-age story in an unexpected way." Monologue topics:  Board, literary collage, experimentation, exhaustive cataloging, good news, publication. This podcast now has its own app, available (free!) for the iPhone, iPod, or iPad, and is also availalble (free!) for Android devices. To learn more about the app and how to get access to premium content, please visit http://otherpeoplepod.com/premium-access. Also: You can subscribe to the show over at iTunes, or at Stitcher, free of charge. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jami Attenberg is the guest. Her new novel, The Middlesteins, is now available from Grand Central Publishing.  Jonathan Franzen raves "The Middlesteins had me from its very first pages, but it wasn't until its final pages that I fully appreciated the range of Attenberg's sympathy and the artistry of her storytelling." Kate Christensen says "The Middlesteins is a truly original American novel, at once topical and universally timeless. Jami Attenberg has created a Midwestern Jewish family who are quintessentially familiar but fiercely, mordantly idiosyncratic. This novel will make you laugh, cry, cringe in recognition, and crave lamb-cumin noodles. This is a stunningly wonderful book." And Kirkus, in a starred review, calls it "Deeply satisfying. . . . A sharp-tongued, sweet-natured masterpiece of Jewish family life." Monologue topics:  social anxiety, silent judging, dinners, paranoia, Indiana, tag, shopping malls, faux pas. This podcast now has its own app, available (free!) for the iPhone, iPod, or iPad, and is also availalble (free!) for Android devices. To learn more about the app and how to get access to premium content, please click right here. Also: You can subscribe to the show over at iTunes, or at Stitcher. It's free.  Like the podcast? Please take a moment to rate and review it on iTunes. Thank you! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sean Beaudoin is today's guest.  He's the author of several books, the most recent of which is a novel called The Infects, now available from Candlewick Press.  Publishers Weekly raves "Horror goes hand in hand with dark comedy in this wickedly unpredictable adventure, as Beaudoin simultaneously skewers the fast food industry and familiar zombie tropes." Monologue topics:  ayahuasca, psycho-spiritual breakthroughs, frustration, the Mayan Apocalypse, confronting a mountain lion on a sand dune. This podcast now has its own app, available (free!) for the iPhone, iPod, or iPad, and is also availalble (free!) for Android devices. To learn more about the app and how to get access to premium content, please click right here. Also:  You can subscribe to the show over at iTunes, or at Stitcher. It's free. Or just push PLAY below. Like the podcast? Please take a moment to rate and review it on iTunes. Thank you! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Paula Bomer is today's guest. She's the author of two books, the most recent of which is a novel called Nine Months, which is available now from Soho Press. Library Journal calls it A raw, darkly funny, at times appalling page-turner.... Mommy lit lovers will be horrified, but Bomer’s debut novel will resonate with fans of quirky, character-driven fiction in the vein of Richard Russo, John Updike, and Tiffany Baker. And Marcy Dermansky calls it Deliciously, dangerously rogue. Monologue topics:  the Other People app, the app, my feelings on the app, how the app works, what you need to know about the app.  Speaking of which:  This podcast now has its own app, available (free!) for the iPhone, iPod, or iPad, and also availalble (free!) for Android devices.  To learn more about the app and how to get access to premium content, please click right here.  Don't forget to subscribe to the show over at iTunes, or at Stitcher. It's free. Or just push PLAY below. Like the podcast? Please take a moment to rate and review it on iTunes. Thank you! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lorin Stein is the guest.  He is the editor of The Paris Review and the co-editor (with Sadie Stein) of a new anthology called Object Lessons: The Paris Review Presents the Art of the Short Story, now available from Picador Paperback Originals.  From the Editors' Note: Some chose classics. Some chose stories that were new even to us. Our hope is that this collection will be useful to young writers, and to others interested in literary technique. Most of all, it is intended for readers who are not (or are no longer) in the habit of reading short stories. We hope these object lessons will remind them how varied the form can be, how vital it remains, and how much pleasure it can give. And Publishers Weekly says: A selection of fiction culled from the influential journal’s archive with a twist: writers often featured in the journal’s pages—Lorrie Moore, David Means, Ann Beattie, Wells Tower, Ali Smith, among others— offer brief critical analyses of their selections, elevating this book from a greatest hits anthology to a kind of mini-M.F.A. Sam Lipsyte’s take on Mary Robison’s “Likely Lake” is as much a demonstration of the economy of powerful writing as the story itself and Ben Marcus’s tribute to Donald Barthelme’s “magician... language” in “Several Garlic Tales” illustrates how learning can occur when one writer inhabits another writer’s mind to geek out over what they both love. Monologue topics:  certainty, uncertainty, strong thinkers, certainty about uncertainty, uncertainty about certainty, the articulation of confusion, a posture of cosmic ambivalence. Please remember to subscribe to the show over at iTunes, or at Stitcher. It's free. Or just push PLAY below. Like the podcast? Please take a moment to rate and review it on iTunes. Thank you! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kathleen Alcott is today's guest.  Her debut novel, The Dangers of Proximal Alphabets, is now available from Other Press. Bookslut raves Heartbreaking, honest, and wholly engrossing, The Dangers of Proximal Alphabets dredges the depth of love that divides us, unites us, and ... Continue reading → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices