Letters Off Paper

A highly emotional conversation with Darryl Pinckney, a long time contributor to The New York Review of Books whose most recently published work Come Back in September: A Literary Education On West Sixty-Seventh Street, revisits his relationship with writer Elizabeth Hardwick. Other topics we dive into include writing in the U.S. today as compared to in less troubling eras.

Ronaldo Wilson, winner of the Publishing Triangle's 2010 Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry, the 13th Annual Asian American Literary Award for Poetry, 2007 Cave Canem Poetry Prize and so many other accolades looks back at the powerful creative alliance we formed on the streets of New York in the early 90's.

If you've ever had questions about the contradictions of life in the U.S., Jeffrey Sommers addresses them in a discussion in which we try and make sense of why the largest economy in the world has such a crumbling infrastructure, weak job market and rise in mass shootings that symbolize a wider American pessimism about the future.

London based writer and visual artist Geraldine Snell and I discuss her playfully self-searching book published by Dostoeveksy Wannabe in 2019 that consists of a series of messages to a performer she develops obsessive feelings towards. 

Nicole and I discuss lazy liberalism, tech titans, stopping socialism from becoming another brand and discover our mutual deep affection for "Culture and Society" by Raymond Williams.

Jeff Chon's timely novel published by Sagging Meniscus Press this month, begins with an ancient Korean tale that segues into a mass shooting that becomes the complex lens through which we look at America today. Jeff and I analyze his protagonist, Scott Bonneville, the current sociopolitical climate in the U.S. that inspired the plot. We talk about Greek mythology, the future and get lost in some of the thoughts such an insightfully pieced together narrative evokes.

Gerald Nicosia, a living archive of Beat culture, talks around his research on Jack Kerouac as well as the support role he played in Kerouac's daughter Jan's often tragic life. Nicosia reflects on his friendship with Ntozake Shange, who he's currently writing a book on. We leap from Basquiat to Alan Ginsburg to William Burroughs to Ferlinghetti etcetera. This is a conversation that can't be missed.

*The audio noise at the beginning goes away within a couple of minutes

Resoketswe Manenzhe, winner of the Dinaane Debut Fiction Award, and I look closely at her book "Scatterlings," the positive light it continues to shine on her work as well as explore the burgeoning South African literary culture of Joburg and Capetown together.

Greg Tate became one of the most notorious voices in American journalism in the late eighties. We speak about his early years in DC as a budding music critic, look back at his creative influences and laugh at the days when I'd joust with him in the letter section of New York's hippest newspaper.

Award winning writer Ananda Devi and I explore the complex themes in her immersive novel about four teens in Mauritius.

Writer and translator Lindsay Lerman expounds on why she chose to make a topic as taboo as death the subject of her last novel and offers a sneak peak at her next one. 

Writer and performer Beth Lisick and I look back at the spoken word scenes in San Francisco and NY in the late nineties and the novel as archive of sub-cultures vulnerable to erasure.

Felice Rosser, lead vocalist and bass player for the band Faith NYC, who has played venues around the U.S. England and Europe, revisits the period during the late seventies when she was under contract with Simon & Schuster to write an edgy coming of age story.

Correction: I mistakenly say that Felice and I met in 1980 during this interview, but we met in 1978.

Maisy Card and I talk around and around her recent novel described as "a fluid blend of patois and erudite descriptions of Jamaica" by the New York Times Book Review.

Nora Hikari expounds on the rewards and challenges of being a young trans lesbian poet in the Internet age.

Visual artist and writer Emma Bolland, whose book "Over, In and Under" published by Dostoevsky Wannabe Press in 2019, is described as a work "between fiction, prose-poem, script and essay" riffs on writing as ritual.

Tim and I riff on his shadowy novel, Queer metaphysics, desire as cannibalism and other thoughtful and compelling stuff.

Alvin and I look back at the anti-status quo behaviors of the eras he records in his memoir and discuss the transition from non-stop partying to book writing.

Prolific author and French lit professor Sylvie Weil stops by to talk about her most recent book.

Leila explores the "black melancholy" and "space as place" with me.