Otherppl with Brad Listi: Books & Culture

Latest Episodes:

Episode 141 — Kate Zambreno Jan 20, 2013

Show notes

Kate Zambreno is the guest. She is the author of two novels, O Fallen Angel and Green Girl, and her latest book is a critical memoir called Heroines, now available from Semiotext(e). The Paris Review raves "It should come as no surprise that her provocative new work, Heroines, published by Semiotext(e)'s Active Agents imprint... challenges easy categorization, this time by poetically swerving in and out of memoir, diary, fiction, literary history, criticism, and theory. With equal parts unabashed pathos and exceptional intelligence, Heroines foregrounds female subjectivity to produce an impressive and original work that examines the suppression of various female modernists in relation to Zambreno's own complicated position as a writer and a wife." And Bitch magazine calls it "A brave, enlightening, and brutally honest historical inquiry that will leave readers with an urgent desire to tell their own stories." Also in this episode: A conversation with Ron Currie, Jr., whose new novel, Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles (Viking | February 2013) is the January selection of the TNB Book Club. Monologue topics: petroleum-based cows, Ron Currie Jr., TNB Book Club.

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Episode 140 — Rosie Schaap Jan 16, 2013

Show notes

Rosie Schaap is the guest. She is a contributor to This American Life and npr.org, and she writes the monthly "Drink" column for The New York Times Magazine. Her memoir, Drinking With Men, will be published on January 24, 2013 by Riverhead Books. Kate Christensen raves "This book will be a classic. There is so much joy in this book! It’s a great, comforting, wonderful, funny, inspiring, moving memoir about community and belief and the immense redemptive powers of alcohol drunk properly." And Wendy McClure says "There are bar stories and there are coming-of-age stories. And then there is Rosie Schaap's thoughtful and funny chronicle that reminds us of all the drinks, dives, and deep conversations that helped make us who we are. This is a wise, engaging memoir." Monologue topics: beautiful people, staring, Los Angeles, DNA masterpieces, hand signals, safety words.

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Episode 139 — xTx Jan 13, 2013

Show notes

xTx is the guest. She is the author of the story collection Normally Special, and her new chapbook, Billie the Bull, has just been published by Nephew, an imprint of Mud Luscious Press. Says Dennis Cooper: “xTx is the complete young literary god. Billie the Bull is mind-bogglingly and intricately superb down to its tiniest punctuation marks. To me, she’s about as great as it can get. Seriously, I’m awestruck." Monologue topics: my unit, my thing, this podcast, hybridized forms, navel-gazing, confusion.

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Episode 138 — Panio Gianopoulos Jan 09, 2013

Show notes

Panio Gianopoulos is the guest. He's the author of the novella A Familiar Beast, now available from Nouvella Books. Jim Lynch, author of Truth Like the Sun, raves “A Familiar Beast is superb. Always engaging and often provocative, it follows the gut-tightening travails of a man hollowed by his own infidelities. With elegant prose, unforgettable scenes and Philip Roth-like psychological insights, Panio Gianopoulos’s debut novella marks the arrival of a bright and gifted writer.” And Adam Langer, author of The Thieves of Manhattan, says “Elegant, erudite and witty, this extremely well-observed and surprisingly suspenseful story offers more insights into love and human relationships than most authors manage in works three times as long.” Monologue topics: mail, Facebook suicide, savage narcissism, Twitter.

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Episode 137 — Eli Horowitz Jan 06, 2013

Show notes

Eli Horowitz is the guest. He was the managing editor and then publisher of McSweeney’s for eight years, where he worked closely with a variety of notable authors, including Michael Chabon, Joyce Carol Oates, and William Vollmann. His latest project is called The Silent History, a serialized novel designed for the iPad and iPhone. Wired magazine calls it "Entirely revolutionary." The New York Times calls it "One of the most talked-about new experiments [in publishing]." And The Los Angeles Times calls it “A landmark project that illuminates a possible future for e-book novels." Monologue topics: blood pressure, heart rate, Tweets.

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Episode 136 — Christine Schutt Jan 02, 2013

Show notes

Christine Schutt is today's guest. She's the award-winning author of several books. Her first novel, Florida, was a National Book Award finalist, and her second novel, All Souls, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her latest novel, Prosperous Friends, is now available from Grove Press. Sam Lipsyte raves "Prosperous Friends is masterful, a comic-tragic astonishment. Christine Schutt continues to write some of the most original and rewarding prose I've ever read." And Gary Lutz says “It is no longer a secret that Christine Schutt is the finest writer among us, and Prosperous Friends is her finest work yet. There isn't a corner in any of her sentences left ungraced by her lyrical genius, her heart-fathoming wisdom. A few pages in, you'll know you have a classic in your hands." Monologue topics: New Year's resolutions, killing my Facebook account, purging, getting rid of things, newspapers, radios.

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Episode 135 — Brian Allen Carr Dec 30, 2012

Show notes

Brian Allen Carr is today's guest. He is the award-winning author of the story collection Short Bus, and his latest collection, Vampire Conditions, is now available from Holler Presents. Harrold Jaffe says "Vampire Conditions melds a precise Texas regional with gothic, recalling Flannery O'Connor, who wrote out of Georgia. But Carr's intricate narrative patterns, jump cuts and unanticipated segueshave a distinctly postmodern feel. Any way you cut it, Brian Allen Carr is a potently eccentric writer." And Robert Lopez raves "At turns dark and brutal and wickedly funny, Brian Allen Carr's Vampire Conditions will put you in mind of Hannah, Pancake, Powell. This book will grab you by the throat and knock the wind out of you, will make you want to drive south, raise hell, hide out, call home, tell your friends." Monologue topics: dreams, childbirth, salad bars, fetuses, Christmas, doll houses, emasculation, 2012, passage of time.

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Episode 134 — Robert Kloss Dec 26, 2012

Show notes

Robert Kloss is the guest. His latest novel, The Alligators of Abraham, is now available from Mud Luscious Press. David Ohle raves "In this amazing, collapsed-time text, I’m led along dark alleys of American history by an all-seeing voice-over narrative that reports on things from a great height and in an ultra-factual way. Familiar events of war, sorrow and struggle are seen anew, as if on a slide under a microscope.” And Adam Braver says “In The Alligators of Abraham, Robert Kloss drops us into the darkness of the Civil War, showing a culture perpetually on the edge of extinction. Yet out of that murky world, hazed and fogged, rise the clear and distinct shapes of a people not ready to surrender to their own haunting. A novel as lyrical as it is precise in its depiction of the struggle to maintain dignity.” Monologue topics: burnout, empty-headedness, children's books, subversive kid poems, the power of one, ripple effects.

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Episode 133 — Mira Gonzalez Dec 23, 2012

Show notes

Mira Gonzalez is today's guest. Her debut poetry collection is called I Will Never Be Beautiful Enough to Make Us Beautiful Together. It is due out from Sorry House in late January 2013. Blake Butler says "Mira Gonzalez’s brain spans the weird space between bodies stuffed with Ambien and food and light from porn on laptops in an anxious, calming kind of way, one concerned more with what blood tastes like than how the blood got out. It’s messed up and feels honest, open, like lying naked on the floor with your arms chopped off." And Victor 'Kool A.D.' Vasquez says "Mira Gonzalez is doing her thing. I fuck with these poems. I felt bad for her when she talked about how that dude said 'I’m gonna come on your stomach' like 15-20 times and then didn’t." Monologue topics: Christmas, travel, my daughter, Best Parts / Worst Parts, sobbing fits, losing it.

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Episode 132 — Diana Wagman Dec 19, 2012

Show notes

Diana Wagman is the guest. She is the author of four novels and a past recipient of the PEN West Award for Fiction. Her latest novel, The Care and Feeding of Exotic Pets, is now available from Ig Publishing. It is the December selection of The TNB Book Club. Publishers Weekly raves “Wagman’s talent for imagery is well served by the subject matter, and the story is perfectly paced, with humorous breaks in the tension. A PEN Center USA Award winner (for Spontaneous), Wagman has crafted an unusual thriller for psychological crime devotees and fans of the peculiar.” And Book Page calls it "...a dark, funny and sensitive thriller that might be the first of its kind: the Oedipal abduction tale.” Monologue topics: holidays, heaviness, Sandy Hook, humanity, self-loathing, anger, depression, compassion.

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