Apostrophe Cast

J. A. Tyler

john@apostrophecast.com (The Apostrophe Cast Editors) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 02:09:43 PST

This episode we bring you excerpts from J. A. Tyler's novella, A Man of Glass & All the Ways We Have Failed, forthcoming from fugue state press in 2011. In these passages Tyler moves from meditations on comforting a lover fretting over lost luggage into the cosmically signifcant love and longing of a He for a She until the lovers' striving blasts all measures of time and space. Tyler explores the truths of relationships we understand but cannot explain as the smallest features of life become the occasion for poetry. Please enjoy J.A Tyler.

Davis Schneiderman

john@apostrophecast.com (The Apostrophe Cast Editors) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 23:39:10 PDT

Welcome to Apostrophe Cast. This episode we hear Davis Schneiderman recording in collaboration with Don Meyer, reading from his forthcoming novel, Drain. In Drain, we are taken down into the wasted basin once home to Lake Michigan, now the subject of a turf war between worm-worshiping outlaw nomads and the bovine inhabitants of corporate sprawl colonies. If the plot sounds surreal, psychedelic and darkly hilarious, then it matches the prose, which plunges and leaps in stylish virtuosity. Please enjoy Davis Schneiderman.

Claire Hero

john@apostrophecast.com (The Apostrophe Cast Editors) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 22:20:10 PDT

Welcome to Apostrophe Cast. This episode Claire Hero reads from her first full-length collection of poetry, Sing, Mongrel, available from Noemi Press. In Sing, Mongrel, as she walks us like little children through a dark forest, Hero draws the inner beast out from hiding to serve as her muse, conjuring forth songs gruesome, honest and darkly wondrous. Please enjoy Claire Hero.

Molly Gaudry

john@apostrophecast.com (The Apostrophe Cast Editors) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 22:23:11 PDT

Welcome to Apostrophe Cast. This episode we bring you an excerpt from a novella of prose poetry by Molly Gaudry, due out from Mud Luscious Press this December. In We Take Me Apart, Gaudry draws on Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons and familiar fairy tales to create a jagged modernist narrative as beautiful and dangerous as broken stained glass. Please enjoy Molly Gaudry.

Nate Pritts

john@apostrophecast.com (The Apostrophe Cast Editors) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 00:34:30 PDT

Welcome to Apostrophe Cast. This episode we are pleased to bring you two seasons from a shepherd's calendar by poet Nate Pritts. Pritts's third collection, The Wonderfull Yeare, will see print in 2010, but its timeless quality speaks to every date. Just as the summer dies, it is right that we bring you his 14 poem cycle, "Sonnets for the Fall," and follow it with the long poem in three parts with interludes "Winter Constellations." Please enjoy the poetry of Nate Pritts.

The Collagist

john@apostrophecast.com (The Apostrophe Cast Editors) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 23:46:08 PDT

We have all heard rumors that literature is dying, but every so often one reads a new journal that renews one's faith in the future. The Collagist is just such a journal, and the contributors Charles Jensen, reading five poems from Nanopedia, Kevin Wilson, reading from the Big Book of Forgotten Lunatics, and Kim Chinquee reading three pieces of flash fiction, have written such good work that one must believe the rumors of literature's demise are premature. Please enjoy these readings from the contributors to The Collagist.

Allison Titus

john@apostrophecast.com (The Apostrophe Cast Editors) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:45:04 PDT

Welcome to Apostrophe Cast. This episode we bring you the subversive pastorals of Allison Titus. In the tradition, pastorals refer to the edenic tranquility of shepherds with nothing better to do than compose lyrics. But Allison Titus's shepherdess sees ruined factories on the horizon, lame stock to be tended to, and fences as far as the eye can see, reminding us that in North America shepherds and cowboys sing sad songs indeed. Please enjoy the poetry of Allison Titus.

Claudia Smith

john@apostrophecast.com (The Apostrophe Cast Editors) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 18:21:25 PDT

Welcome to Apostrophe Cast. This episode we're pleased to give you the short fiction of Claudia Smith. Smith's stories begin innocently enough, but soon her perfectly selected details lead her characters and listeners alike to the edge of transgression and into the wilderness beyond. Listen if you dare. Please enjoy Claudia Smith.

James Belflower

john@apostrophecast.com (The Apostrophe Cast Editors) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:05:18 PDT

Welcome to Apostrophe Cast. This episode James Belflower reads from his forthcoming book of poetry, Commuter, out this year from Instance Press. Commuter takes us around the world and through time, juxtaposing massacres and majestic archtecture, collapsing history into news and merging tourism with the flight of refugees. Please enjoy James Belflower.

Brian Evenson

john@apostrophecast.com (The Apostrophe Cast Editors) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:21:21 PDT

This episode we bring you Brian Evenson, reading his short story "Younger" from his collection Fugue State, out in July from Coffee House Press. Brian Evenson's writing might be compared to Gordon Lish, for its elegant simplicity and lush psychology, or Raymond Carver in his desolation. But the fact is that Brian Evenson's work is only familiar because it sounds exactly like life, and it is frightening because, like life, it points beyond us to what we know is true, but cannot understand. Please enjoy "Younger" by Brian Evenson.

Clane Hayward

john@apostrophecast.com (The Apostrophe Cast Editors) — Wed, 27 May 2009 20:06:29 PDT

Welcome to Apostrophe Cast. This episode we bring you the life aquatic of Clane Hayward. In her first book, the brilliant memoir, The Hypocrisy of Disco, Clane creates an elegantly melancholy portrait of an early life shaped only by the twin forces of freedom and neglect as the child of 60's radicals. In her second memoir, Nothing Is Fixed, she invites the reader with poetic diction and brutal honesty into her adult life, in which she exchanged the directionless freedom of an unstructured youth for the structure and adventure of life in the United States Navy. Listen for the thunder. Please enjoy Clane Hayward.

William Walsh

john@apostrophecast.com (The Apostrophe Cast Editors) — Wed, 13 May 2009 22:01:39 PDT

Welcome to Apostrophe Cast. This episode we bring you the quizzical interrogatory of William Walsh. In this excerpt from his new book Questionstruck, a text composed entirely of questions extracted from the writings of Calvin Trillin, Walsh impresses upon us the incredible ability of questions to suggest a world through their hunger for answers. Even as the questions speak to each other, we despair of answering them. But the pleasure of inhabiting a beautifully unfinished and unfinishable world is a delight well worth the frustration. Please enjoy William Walsh.

Mark Ehling

john@apostrophecast.com (The Apostrophe Cast Editors) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 21:53:24 PDT

This episode we bring you Mark Ehling’s searchlight to advertising, cola and anxiety. The essay “An Introduction to Slamz,” creates a surreally timed conversation that follows the expected patterns of advertising speak, finding the pangs available in the capsule of a “business narrative.” He takes on the form without abusing its excess of greed or tinheart stereotypes. Instead, he finds a cold portrait of the whimsy of consumption, and the fog of its navigation. It also explores why people smash cans on their heads. Please enjoy Mark Ehling.

Shane Jones

john@apostrophecast.com (The Apostrophe Cast Editors) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 23:11:29 PDT

In this episode of Apostrophe Cast, Shane Jones brings us excerpts from his debut novel Light Boxes. These mystifying tableaux of Hummel-like not-so-innocents tearing at the edges of a mad ginger-bread world evoke Henry Darger, Edward Gorey, even Lewis Caroll. But in these excerpts where it is always February, in which hordes of maniacal priests curse flight, and children hope to repair the sky, an originality as unique as the winter light of childhood suffuses an unforgettable space Shane Jones has fashioned out of pure imagination. Please enjoy Shane Jones.

Shanthi Sekaran

john@apostrophecast.com (The Apostrophe Cast Editors) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 23:49:26 PDT

This episode we bring you Shanthi Sekaran reading from her debut novel, The Prayer Room. Spanning decades, continents, cultures, sexes, generations, classes, and races, The Prayer Room pairs an unlikely English student with a young woman from a traditional Indian family and plops them in Northern California. How they got there and what ensues is storytelling at its best. Please enjoy Shanthi Sekaran.

Andrew Lundwall

john@apostrophecast.com (The Apostrophe Cast Editors) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 22:29:40 PDT

Welcome to Apostrophe Cast. This episode we are happy to bring you the dreamy, luxurious poetry of Andrew Lundwall. Lundwall's poetry evokes the dizzy, word-drunk hijinks of city sidewalk culture when Imagism was cafe entertainment and absinthe was no joke. Please accept this invitation into the world of Andrew Lundwall.

Matthew Kirkpatrick

john@apostrophecast.com (The Apostrophe Cast Editors) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 22:42:07 PST

Welcome to Apostrophe Cast. This episode we go underground with Matthew Kirkpatrick. In "Crystal Castles" a little girl who falls into a well and becomes a media-sensation meets her neighbor the mole, who eats dirt in variety of familiar ways and plays Atari. In "Nevada," Kirkpatrick takes us deep below the surface of the Silver State to the site of an underground nuclear test. What happens from there you have to hear to understand. A transcript of "Crystal Castles" is published at Action Yes, but only Apostrophe Cast can capture Kirkpatrick's voice, which is as stony as the Utah landscape he calls home. Please enjoy Matthew Kirkpatrick.

James Warner

john@apostrophecast.com (The Apostrophe Cast Editors) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 23:06:06 PST

Welcome to Apostrophe Cast. This episode, we are proud to bring you James Warner, a writer whose brilliant wit delivers bitter truths. Warner's story about a comedian whose routine is simply telling the truth about his disastrous life, starkly illustrates that humor is akin to madness, that laughter is never far from tears, and that the funniest things in life are the saddest seen from a surprising angle. Please enjoy "Hecklers," by James Warner.

Blake Butler

john@apostrophecast.com (The Apostrophe Cast Editors) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 01:06:35 PST

This episode we bring you Blake Butler reading from his new novella, Ever. Performing with a haunting modulation of his voice, Butler takes us spelunking into the depths of an irrational world dislocated from the comforting constrictions of cause and effect. But this is not a fantasy world of pleasure and irresponsibility, this is a world in which the disaster of another inexplicable moment is always occurring, and the high adventure of surviving is a matter of observing with as much sensitivity as possible. Please enter the labyrinthine realm of Blake Butler.

Sheri Reynolds

john@apostrophecast.com (The Apostrophe Cast Editors) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 01:38:49 PST

The new political age has begun, and Sheri Reynolds graces us with a challenging tale of gender and class identity that requires us to think in new ways. This excerpt from her new novel, The Sweet In-Between explores the existence of real people between the ocean and the land, between childhood and adulthood, between genders, between the right and wrong of the law, and between joy and despair. As difficult sometimes as it is to believe, Ms. Reynolds might convince you that even in these difficult interstices, simply existing can be sweet. Please enjoy Sheri Reynolds.

Sam Lipsyte

john@apostrophecast.com (The Apostrophe Cast Editors) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:01:24 PST

Welcome to the first Apostrophe Cast of 2009. We are proud to welcome the new year with Sam Lipsyte. Lipsyte is not the first writer to see comedic potential in the human desire to search for wisdom in the behavior of apes, but these letters from chimps to a researcher certainly makes him among the most successful. But more than simply hitting home runs off primatology humor, Lipsyte actually does find wisdom by analyzing the behavior of apes, accusing us all of being chimp-like in the process. We might be reminded that when we choose our closest friends from the animal world, we choose dwarf tigers and miniature wolves. Please enjoy Sam Lipsyte reading his story “Dear Miss Primatologist Lady in the Bushes Sometimes."

Michael Kimball

john@apostrophecast.com (The Apostrophe Cast Editors) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 21:21:45 PST

This episode features Michael Kimball reading from his latest book, Dear Everybody. In this intimate epistolary novel, a mentally ill weather man radiates crystalline awareness and luminous delusion while his family and others who knew him try to make sense of his tragic life. Both gloomy and amusing, Kimball's flurry of short short stories remind us of the necessity of communicating and the daunting difficulty of truly connecting. Please enjoy Michael Kimball.

Jane Sandor

john@apostrophecast.com (The Apostrophe Cast Editors) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:51:28 PST

Since Thanksgiving and leftovers are only days away, for this installment, we bring you a short, salty bite of malls, celebrity, and music that will cheer you up if the economy, or all the pie, is getting you down. Jane Sandor is haunted by ghosts. Very well dressed ghosts with lots of money, syndications, and entourages. If we were to connect the dots in Sandor's version of LA, the famous (and the legion of the once-famous) are persistent specters that insist on behaving as if their world is normal. She explores what it means to be from a city where shine and any-minute-now success are common enough that instead of staring, one constantly curses for having to squint from the glare. Where childhood friends marry Tom Arnold. Where Rachel Hunter dances and dances and dances. And where everything is true in some form of perfection, imperfection, and the blur of the rewarded and the special. And, also, Ice-T is at the mall. Please enjoy this excerpt by Jane Sandor, with music by Jesse Toussaint & Dent Sweat.

Ben Tanzer

john@apostrophecast.com (The Apostrophe Cast Editors) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:50:09 PST

Welcome to This Apostrophe Cast. The theme of this week's show is Disappointment. For our reader, Ben Tanzer, specifically: what do you do when you really really like someone, and even maybe idolize them a little bit, and then you meet them, and they don't seem to like you? What do you do if that person could really help your career? Well, Ben Tanzer found out. So please enjoy "Ira Glass Wants To Hit Me," on This Apostrophe Cast.

Josh Maday

john@apostrophecast.com (The Apostrophe Cast Editors) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 23:01:31 PDT

This episode we are pleased to present a short story by Josh Maday. In Josh Maday's work, something is not quite right. It keeps you mesemerized and guessing, sometimes frustrating, sometimes funny, but constantly creeping up on you with the sense that this skewed reality is heading somewhere you have always been afraid to go. When we finally understand his design, we realize that it is not Maday's work that is off, rather that he has discovered something wrong with the world. Please enjoy "Work Release" by Josh Maday.