EPISODE 17 — JOSHUA MOHR

Joshua Mohr is the guest. He’s the author of three novels: Some Things That Meant the World to Me, Termite Parade, and, most recently, Damascus. All are available from Two Dollar Radio, one of America’s finest independent presses.

“The bard of the underbelly,” says Jonathan Evison.

A rave for Damascus from The Rumpus: “It’s as if [Mohr] is standing over your shoulder lighting each page with a match as you read.”

A very good talk with a rising star writer. We discuss things.

Topics of conversation include: teaching, San Francisco, the benefits of insomnia, Hubert Selby Jr., coffee, punk rock, gentrification, creatively permissive cities, Arizona, Kurt Vonnegut, kids, monkishness, priorities, readerships, addiction, The Big Lebowski, fairy tales, reality television, and poets who live in their cars.

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. 

Many thanks. Enjoy the show….

-BL

EPISODE 15 — JILLIAN LAUREN

The guest is Jillian Lauren, author of the memoir Some Girls: My Life in a Harem, a New York Times bestseller, and the brand new novel Pretty, both available from Plume Books.

Kirkus calls her a “deft storyteller,” and Antoine Wilson, author of The Interloper, calls Pretty “a harrowing journey from darkness to light to real life.”

Topics of conversation include: youth, addiction, fearlessness, the difference between dull experience and dull writing, sex work, billionaire psychology, New Jersey, Vietnam, the Prince of Brunei, rehab, therapy, parenthood, beauty college, the Big Apple, LA, transcendental meditation, Weezer, discipline, sobriety, compulsive documentation, Instagram, the vibration of a publicity cycle, bowling, versatility, and acting.

If you haven’t subscribed to the show over at iTunes, please do so. It’s free.

Or, if you’re a Stitcher person, you can subscribe there, too.

Many thanks for listening. Enjoy.

-BL