KKUURRTT is glad you read his thing. His novel Good at Drugs is available now on Back Patio Press. He can be found on Twitter at @wwwkurtcom.
“We Both Have a Stake in the Way That Stories Are Told”: Janice Lee and Mairead Case on Writing
No two books are written the same way, even if they share an author. For some writers, the process of writing one book can sharply influence the writing of the next; for others, the circumstances under which one work is created can be radically different from that work’s predecessor. The last year and a half has seen the release of new books by Janice Lee (Imagine a Death) and Mairead Case (Tiny). In the wake of both books’ release, Lee and Case discussed their own processes, the role of imagery in their books, and the power of names in fiction — among a host of other topics.
True Crime, Weird Crime, and Fake Crime: An Interview With David James Keaton
She Was Found in a Guitar Case, the new novel by David James Keaton, opens in a way that might seem familiar to fans of crime fiction. The novel’s protagonist learns of his wife’s death, and sets out to learn the truth about it, along with several mysterious connections she may have had. Things escalate quickly from there, with the narrative doubling back on itself and taking on a tone that’s both agreeably shaggy and increasingly paranoid. (If there’s a sweet spot between Pynchon and Portis, this book finds it.) I talked with Keaton about the novel’s genesis, how locks on bridges informed the book, and this book’s long path to publication.
Currents, an Interview Series with Brian Alan Ellis (Episode 64: Adam Soldofsky)
ADAM SOLDOFSKY is the author of Memory Foam (Disorder Press), recipient of the American Book Award. His cartoon series, “Signs and Wonders,” appears regularly at maudlinhouse.net. His novella Telepaphone, with illustrations by Axel Wilhite, is out from Maudlin House.
Translating “The Plague” During a Pandemic: An Interview With Laura Marris
Literary translation isn’t solely a desk job. In December 2019, a few months after agreeing to translate Albert Camus’s The Plague, Laura Marris traveled to Algeria, the author’s native country and the setting for his powerful portrait of a city enduring a deadly epidemic. Accompanied by Alice Kaplan, the author of the 2016 book Looking for The Stranger: Albert Camus and the Life of a Literary Classic, Marris walked the same streets as Dr. Bernard Rieux, the stalwart hero of The Plague. “That really helped the book,” she told me, “just in terms of seeing the landscape and getting the right names for trees, things like that. I think it’s always helpful as a translator to see the place where a book is set.”
Currents, an Interview Series with Brian Alan Ellis (Episode 63: Laura Theobald)
LAURA THEOBALD is the author of three books of poetry—Salad Days (Maudlin House, 2021), Kokomo (Disorder Press, 2019), and What My Hair Says About You (Metatron, 2017)—plus three chapbooks. She’s an English PhD candidate at UGA in Athens and received an MFA from LSU, where she was the editor of New Delta Review. In her spare time she designs books for small press publishers. She’s on Twitter and Instagram as @lidleida.
Currents, an Interview Series with Brian Alan Ellis (Episode 62: Rax King)
RAX KING is the James Beard Award-nominated author of Tacky (Vintage, 2021) and host of the podcast Low Culture Boil. She lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her toothless Pekingese.
They Put A Gun In My Face About Poetry: The Liver Mush Interview with Graham Irvin
After I finished Graham Irvin’s new book, Liver Mush, I biked to the grocery store to buy some liver mush. In the frozen meat section, there was one solitary block of liver mush left—almost like it was waiting for me. I ate the liver mush on a pillsbury biscuit with American cheese, like Graham suggests in Liver Mush. The liver mush was phenomenal, an unexpected and great discovery. Liver Mush is also phenomenal, also an unexpected and great discovery. Two brand new delights in the course of an afternoon. It made for a good day. And you can discover them, too. They’re waiting for you, too. I had the pleasure of talking with Graham about liver mush and Liver Mush.