The Drunken Odyssey with John King: A Podcast About the Writing Life

In this week's episode, I talk to the journalist and nonfiction writer, Craig Pittman. TEXTS DISCUSSED NOTES On November 8th, come hear me, Gelndaliz Camacho, Rachel Kolman, and Whitney Hamrick read at There Will Be Words at The Gallery at Avalon Island. Watch The Drunken Odyssey's latest video: Craig Pittman, Tod Caviness, Jesse Bradley, Susan Fallows, and David Thomas Moran read in the Loose Lips reading series. Miami Book Fair International's amazing weekend street fair will take place on November 19th and 20th.

This week is a live show: Horror Movie Poetry Night III. The Drunken Odyssey All Stars were Glendaliz Camacho, Curtis X. Meyer, Stacy Barton, Jim Driggers, Shawn McKee, Jared Silvia, Whitney Hamrick, Teege Braune, & your host, John King.

Episode 229 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download. In this week's episode, I return to Jesse Bradley's Halloween installment of his prose reading series, There Will Be Words. Jesse Bradley, Karen Best, Shawn McKee, Teege Braune, John King, & Jared Silvia. Erik Deckers Plus a final performance from The Terrible Mr. Sundrop. Save

On this week's show, I present a quartet of readings from HP Lovecraft: "The Beast in the Cave," "The Tree," "Beyond the Wall of Sleep," and "From Beyond." Our readers are Chris Booth, Elise McKenna, and Tom Lucas. THE TEXT NOTES This episode is a companion to Episode 227, a roundtable discussion of Lovecraft. If you like this show's readings, check out the previous literary reading episode, 123, on the year without a summer that spawned the ghost story contest between Lord Byron, the Shelleys, and Dr. Polidori. If you are near Orlando on October 19th, come to Horror Movie Poetry Night 3.

In this week's episode, I and my inestimable guests have a fine conversation about Lovecraft and his bizarre tales and his rather strange life and his exceptionally unfortunate opinions The participants included Elise McKenna, Tom Lucas, Julian Chambliss, and Dianne Turgeon Richardson. TEXTS DISCUSSED An author photo can look unintentionally scarier than the horror book cover sometimes. Save

In this week's episode, I talk to poet Vidhu Aggarwal, plus Adelia Johnson writes about Ned Vizzini's It's Kind of a Funny Story changed her life. TEXTS DISCUSSED NOTES Check out my essay, "There, But," in the latest issue of Animal: A Beast of a Literary Magazine.

In this week's episode, I talk to the journalist and historian, Bob Kealing, plus Heather Whited reads her essay, "Onigiri, Shirasagi, and Me." TEXTS DISCUSSED NOTES The Daytona News-JournalThe Daytona News-Journal documented Edward Albee's involvement with the Atlantic Center for the Arts. On September 30th, Richard Blanco is coming to Valencia College for the Winter Park Writers' Festival. Richard Blanco's reading is FREE, but you MUST reserve a seat via the Festival's Eventbrite page. EVENT DETAILS Location: Winter Park Campus, Valencia College, 850 W Morse Blvd, Winter Park, FL 32789, Rooms 237/2424 4 PM: Community Writing Class with Richard Blanco 5:30 PM: Open Mic Reading (Emceed by John King) 7:00 PM: Richard Blanco Reading You can find my interview with Richard Blanco back on episode 76. The deadline for submissions for Condoms and Hot Tubs Don't Mix is fast approaching. Save

In this week's episode, I talk with Vanessa Blakeslee about Virginia Woolf's "Modern Fiction" and "Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown," plus Mingzhao Xu writes about Diana Gabaldon's Outlanders series changed her life. TEXTS DISCUSSED NOTES Suki Kim's nuanced take on what happened in Brisbane can be read at The New Republic. Lionel Shriver's "Identity Politics and Fiction" can be read at The Guardian. On September 30th, Richard Blanco is coming to Valencia College for the Winter Park Writers' Festival. Richard Blanco's reading is FREE, but you MUST reserve a seat via the Festival's Eventbrite page. EVENT DETAILS Location: Winter Park Campus, Valencia College, 850 W Morse Blvd, Winter Park, FL 32789, Rooms 237/2424 4 PM: Community Writing Class with Richard Blanco 5:30 PM: Open Mic Reading (Emceed by John King) 7:00 PM: Richard Blanco Reading Save

In this week's episode, I talk to the novelist Vu Tran about the appeal of detective fiction, the importance of literary substance over style, the problem with femme fatale characters, the Iowa MFA experience, and many, many other things, plus Jared Silvia sings another Woody Guthrie number in honor of Labor Day, as part of his annual Labor Day musical project. TEXT DISCUSSED NOTES On September 30th, Richard Blanco is coming to Valencia College for the Winter Park Writers' Festival. Richard Blanco's reading is FREE, but you MUST reserve a seat via the Festival's Eventbrite page. EVENT DETAILS Location: Winter Park Campus, Valencia College, Rooms 237/2424 4 PM: Community Writing Class with Richard Blanco 5:30 PM: Open Mic Reading (Emceed by John King) 7:00 PM: Richard Blanco Reading

In this week's episode, I talk to the poet and novelist Ryler Dustin near the end of his residency at the Kerouac House in Orlando, after a weeklong tour of weddings. We speak about the horrors of what happens to poetry in educational environments, the dawning sense of contemporary poetry as a form of play and life, as opposed to some kind of stillborn puzzle. Ryler also talks about the poetic impulse overtaking him before he even knew what poetry was, and walks me through his experience in slam poetry and MFA life, and the creative writing PhD, and the drive to move beyond genres. For some reason, I bring up my favorite bit of dialogue from the movie Major League despite Bull Durham being a much better movie. The role of honesty and novelty in writing also brilliantly come up. (We were both sober.) NOTES On September 30th, Richard Blanco is headed to Valencia College for its 2016 Winter Park Writers Festival. Rest in peace, Mr. Sundrop (Episode 213), or else let your caterwauls join the heavenly chorus. Episode 222 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.