RICHARD NASH ON ‘OTHER PEOPLE’

Publishing impresario Richard Nash uwith some kind words for the podcast.

HTML GIANT INTERVIEW

I’ve been interviewed by Drew Nellins over at HTML Giant.

An excerpt:

Other People with Brad Listi is a twice-weekly author interview show with a unique literary emphasis. Rather than focusing on their books, Listi asks his writer guests to open up about their lives as writers, what’s driving them, how they work, their personal philosophies and their opinions of other writers’ books. Sometimes an episode seems to be about everything except the subject’s latest book. Whatever they talk about, the shows—which typically clock in at just over an hour—are almost always filled with interesting conversation, and Listi has, in just a few months, had a lot of terrific guests, including Blake Butler, Steve Almond, Victoria Patterson, Joshua Mohr, and Dennis Cooper….

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EPISODE 25 — JOHN WARNER

Today’s guest is John Warner. He’s the author of four books, most recently a debut novel called The Funny Man, available now from SoHo Press. And he’s also the longtime editor of McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. Publishers Weekly calls The Funny Man “[An] equally sickening and humorous portrait of the celebrity as a delusional man.” And the New York Journal of Books says:

“The Funny Man joins a short list of intelligent, dark comedies about self-loathing main characters whose success is built on the poor taste and/or low IQ of the American public…[the book] puts Warner among the most perceptive and edgy chroniclers of an increasingly coarse American culture.”

This one was fun. Really enjoyed talking with John.

Topics of conversation include: Lake Charles, McSweeney’s, tent revivals, McNeese State, bicycle cops, Robert Olen Butler, John Hughes, Chicago, Dave Eggers, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, South Carolina, church, the phrase “bless your heart,” The Real World, Barry Bonds, living with your parents, the Woody Creek Tavern, Comic Sans, humor writing, and trying to fit your fist in your mouth.

Please remember to subscribe to the show over at iTunes, or at Stitcher. It’s free. Or listen online by clicking right here.

Thanks for listening, everybody. Really appreciate it.

-BL

PS. If you like show, please take a moment to rate and review it on iTunes. (Pretty please?)

EPISODE 24 — CHARLES SHIELDS

Charles Shields is the guest. He’s the author of And So It Goes — Kurt Vonnegut: A Life, now available in hardcover from Henry Holt. Shields is also the author of Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee, also available from Holt.

This is the first authoritative biography of Vonnegut ever written, with Vonnegut himself authorizing the project prior to his death in 2007.

We talk all things Kurt.

Topics of conversation include: Indianapolis, Dresden, Cornell, PTSD, suicide, The Great Depression, family, journalism, WWII, The Battle of the Bulge, Billy Pilgrim, Slaughterhouse Five, Joe Crone, creative burnout, Jill Krementz, Cape Cod, New York City, Sardi’s, divorce, tragedy, self-loathing, and the psychology of meeting famous people.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the show over at iTunes, if you haven’t already done so. It’s free. Or, if you’re a Stitcher person, you can subscribe there, too.  (Or click here to listen online.)

Many thanks, & enjoy the show…

-BL

EPISODE 23 — DENNIS COOPER

Dennis Cooper is the guest. He’s the author of several books, including The Sluts, God Jr., the five novels of the George Miles cycle, and, most recently, The Marbled Swarm, now available from Harper Perennial.

“Disquieting, humbling, and sadly beautiful in the way only Dennis Cooper can be,” raves Patrick deWitt. “The Marbled Swarm is a mystifying and courageous novel that represents [Cooper’s] finest work to date.”

And Booklist says: “Readers unfamiliar with transgressive fiction would do well to brace themselves for what will either be the shock of the unrelentingly different or, perhaps, the shock of recognizing writing that speaks to their souls.”

Dennis is a great guest. We talk about stuff.

Topics of conversation include: Los Angeles, Paris, F Troop, growth spurts, Rimbaud, Sade, vegetarianism, self-publishing, punk, anarchy, school, Ginsberg, Burroughs, England, Little Caesar, blogging, New York, Blake Butler, Art Forum, SPIN, the Pompidou, sex, violence, David Lynch, and porn writing as a creative exercise.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the show over at iTunes, or at Stitcher. It’s free. 

Thanks for listening.

-BL  

EPISODE 22 — DARIN STRAUSS

Darin Strauss is today’s guest. He is the author of three novels—Chang & Eng, The Real McCoy, and More Than It Hurts You. And his most recent book is a memoir called Half a Life (McSweeney’s) which won the National Book Critics Circle Award.

The New York Times Book Review calls it “…elegant, painful, [and] stunningly honest.”

And Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, says, “[Half a Life] is a searingly self-disciplined work of literature, and of self-examination…the impact is staggering and unforgettable.”

Plenty to talk about here.

Topics of conversation include: short books, Courier New, guilt, PTSD, the performative aspects of grief, auto-responders, subconscious motives, Dave Eggers, writing slowly, conjoined twins, Philip Roth, emoticons, David Lipsky, gestation periods, and the difference between history and memoir.

Please be sure to subscribe to the show over at iTunes, if you haven’t already done so. It’s free. Or, if you’re a Stitcher person, you can subscribe there, too.

Many thanks, and enjoy the show…

-BL

EPISODE 20 — ADAM NOVY

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

The guest is Adam Novy, author of the debut novel The Avian Gospels, available now from Short Flight / Long Drive Books, an independent press run by the good people over at Hobart.

“The Avian Gospels has the potential to become a cult classic,” says Publishers Weekly.

Adam and I, we talk about stuff.

Topics of conversation include: birds, birding, reviews, science fiction, false summits, agents, independent presses, Brooklyn, religion, Chicago, the Bible, 9/11, dislocation, South Pasadena, bad teachers, weddings, Jewishness, Medusa, privilege, war, semantics, Hamlet, gods, the process of un-fucking a manuscript, and the fear of getting squashed by the universe.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the show over at iTunes, if you haven’t done so already. It’s free. Or, if you’re a Stitcher person, you can subscribe there, too.

 Many thanks & enjoy the show…

-BL  

EPISODE 19 — ELISSA SCHAPPELL

The guest is Elissa Schappell, author of the story collections Use Me (William Morrow), which was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award, and the brand new Blueprints for Building Better Girls, available now from Simon & Schuster.

A former senior editor at The Paris Review, Elissa is a contributing editor and the Hot Type book columnist at Vanity Fair. She is also the co-founder and editor-at-large of Tin House magazine.

Topics of conversation include: feathers, taxidermy, pigeons, Mike Tyson, Tin House, face tattoos, Delaware, Joe Biden, social identity, elegant segues, the Lower East Side, talking in circles, chameleons, empathy, social graces, George Plimpton, The Paris Review, New York City, temporal lobe epilepsy, Berlin, Portugal, Spy magazine, Vanity Fair, Graydon Carter, and the abundance of good writers in the world.

If you haven’t subscribed to the show over at iTunes, please do. It’s free. Or, if you’re a Stitcher person, you can subscribe there, too. 

Okay then.

Thanks, as always, for tuning in and listening.

Enjoy…

-BL

EPISODE 18 — KATIE ARNOLDI

Today’s guest: Katie Arnoldi, the bestselling author of three novels: Chemical Pink, The Wentworths, and Point Dume.

This one’s gonna blow your mind, people. Just trust me. It’ll make you want to buy a plane ticket. It’ll make you want to stow away on a boat. It’ll make you want to go undercover and rescue a POW in a war-torn Third World country.

Topics of conversation include: marijuana, Mexican drug cartels, surfing, surf Nazis, art, discipline, lighting one’s hair on fire while making a quesadilla, southeast Utah, road trips, books on tape, experiential learning, Blackhawk helicopters, wanderlust, field research, sharks, kids, Tasers, camping, the Venice Biennale, the artist Paul McCarthy, and getting out of one’s own way creatively.

Please subscribe to the show over at iTunes, if you haven’t done so already. It’s free. Or, if you’re a Stitcher person, you can subscribe there, too.

Many thanks & enjoy…

-BL