kansasblotter

Episodes 25-33: William J. Harris

2011-04-27T18:25:00.000-07:00

Episodes 25-33 of the podcast are recordings of poems read by William J. Harris at the Raven Bookstore in Lawrence, KS on April 26th, 2011. William J. Harris is a member of the MFA/Creative PhD faculty at the University of Kansas. His books include Hey Fella Would You Mind Holding This Piano a Moment (Ithaca House 1974), In My Own Dark Way (Ithaca House 1977) and Personal Questions (Leconte Publishers, Rome, 2010). His work has been published in over fifty anthologies and he is the author of the critical work The Poetry and Poetics of Amiri Baraka (University of Missouri Press 1985) and editor of The Leroi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader (Thunder's Mouth Press, 1991, second edition, 2000). Each of the podcast episode poems is read first in English, by William Harris, and then in Italian, by Crystal Hall, an Italian Renaissance specialist and associate professor in the department of French and Italian at the University of Kansas.

Episodes 19-24: Robert Knapp & Brian Miller

2011-04-21T13:03:00.000-07:00

Episodes 19-24 of the podcast ("50 Degrees & No Jacket," "Jack London," "At the Races, Cards & Labor," "Terminal Dee," "Verse Projection, A1" and "Verse Projection, A2") are collaborations between poet Robert Knapp and sound engineer Brian Miller.

Icon, Barista, able to bend steel with one hand and roll a cigarette with another--Robert Knapp is a fixture of Lawrence, KS.

Here are the bios Brian and Robert provided for the podcast:

Brian Miller is a Sound Engineer and Record Maker from the wild hills of North Carolina. He makes crazy sounds sound crazier and is more likely than not inhabited by some kind of interesting demon or space virus.

Robert Knapp is a poet from Houston, Texas, and resides in Lawrence, Kansas. Printing is in progress, in between work-gigs and idle wildness.

Episode 018: excerpts from Distraction Contra Diaspora by Creed Shepard

2011-03-28T10:41:00.000-07:00

Episode 018 of the podcast is a recording of some excerpts from poet Creed Shepard's forthcoming chapbook. Creed is a writer and resident of Lawrence, Kansas. His forthcoming chapbook, Distraction Contra Diaspora, is due out in the spring of 2011.

Episodes 014, 015, 016 & 017: four poems by Molly MacKinnon

2011-03-09T14:10:00.000-08:00

Molly MacKinnon is a poet and resident of Lawrence, KS. Episodes 014-017 of the podcast are recordings of Molly reading her poems "Flying Over Greenland Upon the Death of Miloscz," "For Tadeusz Konwicki," "Countering Postmodernism: Topics for This Week's Poem," and "Skeleton Coast, Namibia." Molly teaches French for the University of Kansas. Her pronunciation of Polish words makes me jealous.

Episode 013, from The Prairie Opens Wide and Because Everyone Doesn't Speak the Same Language by Megan Kaminski

2011-02-17T18:57:00.000-08:00

Megan Kaminski is the author of five chapbooks: carry catastrophe (Grey Book Press, 2010), Across Soft Ruins (Scantily Clad Press, 2009), collection (Dusie, forthcoming), Favored Daughter (Dancing Girl Press, forthcoming) and The Prairie Opens Wide (La Ginestra, forthcoming). Her poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has been published in CutBank, Denver Quarterly, Phoebe, Third Coast and other fine journals. Online, her work can be found in No Tell Motel, Horse Less Review, Wicked Alice, Spine Road, Coconut and a number of other places. She lives in Lawrence, KS, where she teaches creative writing at the University of Kansas.

For Episode 013 of the podcast Megan let me record her reading selections from both The Prairie Opens Wide and Because Everyone Doesn't Speak the Same Language in her University of Kansas office. Her officemate, Adam Desnoyers, politely opened the office door and reached into the room, placing his coffee cup on a bookshelf before politely withdrawing his arm and closing the door again, while we were recording, so as not to disturb us.

Episode 012, from Things Come On by Joseph Harrington

2011-02-13T16:52:00.001-08:00

Joseph Harrington is the author of Things Come On: (an amneoir) from Wesleyan University Press (2011), earth day suite from Beard of Bees Press (2010) and Poetry and the Public from Wesleyan (2002). Joe's work has appeared in Pinstripe Fedora, Hotel Amerika, Otoliths, Fact-Simile, With+Stand, Cricket Online Review, and P-Queue, amongst others. He teaches at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. He also helps organize the BIG TENT reading series at the fantastic Raven Bookstore in Lawrence. Joe blogs at Blog of Myself. He graciously let me record him on February 10th, 2011, reading from Things Come On, for Episode 012 of the podcast.

Episodes 010 & 011, from BRIEF UNDER WATER and THE ODICY by Cyrus Console

2011-02-08T12:50:00.000-08:00

Cyrus Console's first book of poetry, BRIEF UNDER WATER, was published by Burning Deck in 2008. Cyrus' second book, THE ODICY, is forthcoming from Omnidawn. Geoffrey G. O'Brien, in the Boston Review, says the following about Cyrus' poetry: Like Beckett, another saint of petering out and shutting up, Console gives us texts that go on by routinely confessing they cannot, conveying the insufficiency of word to thing (at best, its typo or tattoo), citizen to war, art to damaged life. Cyrus lives in Lawrence, KS. I recorded him at the table in my kitchen, and he was nice to my cats. Episode 10 is an excerpt from BRIEF UNDER WATER and episode 11 is an excerpt from THE ODICY. Cyrus' work has appeared in a number of places, including Octopus and Pax Americana. His book reviews have appeared in Jacket.

Episodes 008 & 009 "There is a Bird in Victoria Station" and "A Friend on the Other Side" by Thad Haverkamp

2011-01-02T19:38:00.000-08:00

Thad Haverkamp is a poet and Lawrence, KS resident. He has worked in the past tending bar at Lawrence landmarks like the Replay Lounge and Liberty Hall. Episodes eight and nine of the podcast are recordings of Thad reading his poems "There is a Bird in Victoria Station" and "A Friend on the Other Side."

Episodes 006 & 007 "My Original Sin" and "My Father Often Told Me if I Didn't Learn Spanish He'd Disown Me" by Gabriela Lemmons

2010-12-30T12:00:00.000-08:00

Gabriela Lemmons is a poet and a non-fiction writer. She is also a founding member of the Latino Writers Collective of Kansas City. Her work has appeared in the Kansas City Hispanic News, Present Magazine and the anthologies Just Like a Girl: A Menifesta! (Girlchild Press, 2008), Primera Pagina: Poetry from the Latino Heartland (Scapegoat Press, 2009) and Cuentos: Stories from the Latino Heartland (Scapegoat Press, 2009). She was also televised as the feature poet on the PBS show Uniquely Kansas City. Episodes six and seven are recordings of Gabriela reading her poems "My Original Sin" and "My Father Often Told Me if I Didn't Learn Spanish He'd Disown Me."

Episode 005 "If I Say" by Mary Stone Dockery

2010-12-30T11:23:00.000-08:00

Mary Stone Dockery is a poet living in Lawrence, KS. She is also a current MFA student at the University of Kansas. Her work has appeared, or is forthcoming in Touchstone, FuturCycle poetry and the Pennsylvania Literary Review. Mary was also a reader for The Blue Island Review, an anthology of poetry from Lawrence, KS area writers. The fifth episode of the podcast is a recording of Mary reading her poem "If I Say."

Episode 3 and Episode 4: Mark Hennessy reads two poems

2010-12-21T13:49:00.000-08:00

Mark Hennessy is a poet and former front man for the A&M band PAW who lives in Lawrence, KS. He is currently a student in the creative writing PhD program at the University of Kansas. He has two books of poetry out; Cue the Bedlam, and most recently, I Lost it All the Night the Day the Circus Came to Town. The third and fourth episodes of the podcast are recordings of Mark reading his poems "Frankenstein and the Late Frankenstein in the Sea" and "Frankenstein's Monster on Ice: Nothing in Intellect Unless First in Sense."

Episode 002 "Tennessee Flood" by Mark Petterson

2010-12-19T13:05:00.000-08:00

Episode two is a recording of the poem "Tennessee Flood" by Mark Petterson. Mark is a poet and fiction writer who lives in Lawrence, KS. He is a current student of the University of Kansas MFA program and a former Jeopardy contestant.

Some changes after a long hiatus, and Episode 001

2010-12-18T15:12:00.000-08:00

I'm finally going to return to updating Kansas Blotter Audio more regularly. I have a large collection of short audio files in the wings and will be adding new audio files much more frequently. I've also found a new place for podcast hosting. If you'd like to subscribe to the Kansas Blotter podcasts through Itunes, or another service, feel free to do so by following this link. If you were subscribed to the old podcast through Itunes, you'll want to resubscribe. To kick things off, I've uploaded a brief excerpt of poet Kenneth Irby reading from the introduction to Swann's Way by Marcel Proust, taken from an extended, recorded conversation Kyle Waugh, poet Cyrus Console and I had with Ken last year. Enjoy! Ken has such a great reading voice.

DaMaris B. Hill interview: 11-18-2009

2009-11-19T07:52:00.000-08:00

I interviewed DaMaris B. Hill on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009, in Lawrence, KS. DaMaris is a doctoral student in the English Creative Writing program at the University of Kansas. She is a member of the National Writing Project and a graduate of Morgan State University with an M.A. degree in English. Her story "On the Other Side of Heaven-1957" won the 2003 Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Award for Short Fiction. She is currently writing a novel about female juvenile delinquents during the Great Depression. She is also working on a chap book of her poetry. Some of her past writing has been published in the Bermuda Anthology of Poetry, the African American National Biography Project, Warpland, Mourning Katrina: A Poetic Response to Tragedy, Women in Judaism, and The Sable Quill. DaMaris was recently featured on The Black Bottom, a blog dedicated to the critical discussion of African American politics and culture in Michigan, the Great Lakes region, and the United States as a whole. She served as the co-coordinator of the 2008 NWP Professional Writing Retreat anthology. Currently, she serves as the Collections Specialist for the Project on the History of Black Writing at the University of Kansas.

You can listen to DaMaris' interview as a podcast, or download the MP3 of the interview at this link.

Also, if you would like, you can now subscribe to the Kansas Blotter Interviews podcasts with Itunes.

David McLoghlin interview: 11/10/2009

2009-11-11T22:08:00.000-08:00

I interviewed David McLoghlin on November 10th, 2009, in Lawrence, KS. David was born in Dublin, Ireland, and has lived in Belgium, the U.S., France, Spain, and in West Kerry, Ireland. He is currently living in Lawrence, KS. David has received a number of awards for his writing, including second prize in the 2009 Patrick Kavanagh Awards, first prize in the English section of the inaugural Frances Brown Multilingual Poetry Competition, and selection by Poetry Ireland to participate in their annual Introductions reading series for emerging poets. In 2006 he was awarded a major Arts Council of Ireland Bursary for his memoir, The Traveled Child, which describes his family's emigration to Brussels and Connecticut, during the early 1980's. In April 2007 he received a grant from Kerry County Council that allowed him to spend several weeks at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig, Ireland's best-known artists' retreat. His writing has appeared in journals such as Poetry Ireland Review, The Stinging Fly, Southword, Cyphers, The Stony Thursday Book, Studies, Blue Canary Press, Milwaukee (edited by James Liddy), and The Irish Catholic newspaper. Most recently, six of David's poems were published by The Stinging Fly, after he was chosen as the Featured Poet for their Winter 2009-10 issue. I interviewed David in the bowels of the Watson Library on the University of Kansas campus, surrounded by tomes and outcroppings of piping and machinery.

(The MP3 of the interview is available to download to your computer, or Ipod/MP3 player HERE.)

Iris Moulton interview: 11-04-2009

2009-11-04T23:19:00.000-08:00

I interviewed Iris Moulton on November 4th, 2009 in Lawrence, KS. Iris is a poetry and fiction writer who was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. She is currently an MFA candidate in poetry and fiction at the University of Kansas. Her first book of poetry, where the echoes go, was published by PUSH! publications in 2005. Iris' poetry will also appear in the Spring 2010 issue of Cider Press Review. She is very tolerant of essay questions.

Chloe Cooper Jones interview: 10/30/2009

2009-10-31T19:19:00.000-07:00

I interviewed Chloe Cooper Jones on October 30th, 2009 in Lawrence, KS. An excerpt titled "What Can Be Learned," from her novel-in-progress, is available in the Fall 2009 issue of Black Warrior Review. A chapbook of Chloe's work will also be forthcoming from Mitzvah Chaps press. Ms Jones is also one half of the duo Lil' Mumbles and Ralph.

Some of the questions for this interview were lovingly sampled (and altered) from a series of interviews with Method Man, Redman, Tupack Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. conducted during the mid- to late-nineties.

Cote Smith interview: 10-26-2009

2009-10-27T11:05:00.000-07:00

I interviewed writer Cote Smith on October 26th, 2009. Cote's story "Hurt People" was published in the March, 2009 issue of One Story magazine. The interview took place in Lawrence, KS and involved a discussion of mallets, and one brief interruption that resulted in a luxurious creaking door sound.