The Virtual Memories Show

With the publication of The Second Fake Death of Eddie Campbell (Top Shelf), the great cartoonist Eddie Campbell brings his decades-long autobiographical comics project into the COVID era. In this return conversation (go listen to our 2018 episode & our 2020 COVID check-in) we talk about the meta-narratives that haunt his books, the culture of masks that prompted his latest work, how it felt getting back to making long-form comics again, and whose idea it was to publish this one like an Ace Double along with the revised version of The Fate Of The Artist. We also get into how he learned to make art with computers and how that learning curve accelerated when he was making the color version of From Hell, the temptation to revise past work, why his last two major autobio books involve his fictional death, and a lot more. Follow Eddie on Twitter • More info at our site • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Patreon or Paypal and via our Substack

No show this week, but here's a bonus episode with my impromptu speech at the remembrance/memorial for the late Michael Denneny, recorded June 19, 2023. Michael & I were supposed to record a podcast on April 15 about his collection, On Christopher Street (U of Chicago), but he was dead when I arrived at his apartment. I recorded a wrenching monologue about that discovery the next day, and a followup a week later, so this piece serves as a sort of coda to that, and a celebration of all Michael meant to the literary and gay communities. We'll be back next week.

Investigative journalist & longtime pal Mitchell Prothero joins the show to talk about his new podcast, GATEWAY: Cocaine, Murder, and Dirty Money in Europe (Project Brazen). We get into how the project evolved from his reporting on the global war on terror, how the cocaine trade mirrors the globalization wave, how Colombia's piece deal led to mega-cartel consolidation, why his EU law enforcement sources did not want to talk about the cocaine trade, and whether the Netherlands trial of drug kingpin Ridouan Taghi reveals cracks in the security of the state itself. We also talk about the differences between writing for a podcast vs. writing for readers (like his reporting at Vice News), the strains of scheduling interviews with people under security detail, the changes in the media landscape over the course of his career, and his path through journalism, covering our days together in Annapolis to his time as a Capitol Hill reporter to stints in Afghanistan, Iraq, Serbia, and beyond. And we discuss how living and reporting in Baltimore in the 1990s prepared him for pretty much any scenario he's encountered since. Follow Mitch on Twitter • More info at our site • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Patreon or Paypal and via our Substack

With his new memoir, GOODBYE TO CLOCKS TICKING: How We Live While Dying (Steerforth), writer and professor Joseph Monninger writes through the experience of a stage 4 lung cancer diagnosis, delivered only 3 days into his retirement in 2021. We talk about how he's navigating life on borrowed time (& the drug that's miraculously loaning him that time), his notion of legacy and how it plays out in his books and his students, and what he's learned about impatience and regret. We get into the books that brought him solace, the comforts of Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, how Wilder's Our Town inspired the memoir's title, and his desire to take the world in while he's still in it. We also discuss the origins of his writing life, his Peace Corps stint in Burkina Faso and the big novels that he and the other volunteers traded, whether there are any books he wants to get to before he dies, what we each learned about oncology waiting room etiquette and the grace & goodwill of oncologists, the issue of assisted suicide, and a LOT more. (Plus, I talk about this week's NYC memorial for Michael Denneny.) • More info at our site • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Patreon or Paypal and via our Substack

With his new story collection, The Disappeared (Knopf), Andrew Porter explores the intricacies of loss in day-to-day life, and all that vanishes as we grow into middle age. We talk about how the stories came together for him, why he set (almost) all the stories in The Disappeared in San Antonio and Austin, how he had to adjust his writing life once he became a dad, and why he loves writing about artists. We also get into his path into writing, the moment he discovered contemporary fiction is his jam, and his lessons learned from teaching fiction for more than 20 years: how student sensibilities around genre have changed, the stories he's had to retire from teaching, and Marilynne Robinson's influence of his teaching style. Plus, we discuss stories vs. novels, the changes in literary magazines, his newfound penchant for flash fiction, how he lost all his writing in an apartment break-in 20+ years ago (and my twisted idea for a story about that), and more. Follow Andrew on Twitter and Instagram • More info at our site • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Patreon or Paypal and via our Substack

Author Jonathan Papernick joins the show to celebrate his fantastic new short story collection, Gallery of the Disappeared Men, and new novel, I am my Beloveds (Story Plant). We talk about his writing life, the weirdness & joy of retracing the footsteps of his characters in Israel, his move into playwriting and how it contrasts with writing novels & stories, and how a failed novel sparked a very successful novella. We also get into his career teaching fiction writing, what he's learned from teaching, how his students have changed and how he learned to appreciate trigger warnings, and the Tobias Wolff story he uses in virtually all of his fiction-writing classes. Plus, we discuss Judaism, his multi-generation Canadian roots, why he likes living in Providence after leaving Boston, the very embarrassing time he met Margaret Atwood, and more! Follow Jonathan on Twitter, Bluesky and Instagram • More info at our site • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Patreon or Paypal and via our Substack

Let's visit the Eternal City! Scott Samuelson joins the show to discuss his wondrous new book, ROME AS A GUIDE TO THE GOOD LIFE: A Philosophical Grand Tour (University of Chicago Press), and we get right into how he fell in love with Rome, what it means to engage with the city philosophically, and how he blended place, history, philosophy, art, poetry, religion and more in his exploration of Rome and the vita beata. We talk about mortality and mercy, the way Roman philosophers remind him of jazz musicians, critiques of Roman imperialism and why the city of Rome itself is its best defense against its colonial-critics, and what he's looking forward to when he returns to Rome after a 3-year hiatus. We also discuss his experience teaching philosophy to non-traditional students, his love of cooking and the last meal he made for a dying friend, the importance of forgetting and/or externalizing memory, whether my "Virgil is to Homer as Kobe is to MJ" comp holds up, and more! More info at our site • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Patreon or Paypal and via our Substack

With AFFINITIES: On Art & Fascination (NYRB), Brian Dillon completes a "loose trilogy" of books revolving around his connections to art, writing & the world, this time through a series of amazing essays about photography, dance, video, and other art forms, as well as the drift-nature of affinity itself. We get into the tendrils of influence (and how he has to shake himself loose of the reticence of Barthes & Sebald), the act of close looking. the way metaphors & images enable to him to explore art, and why he embraces mood over argument in his essays. We also talk about the ways his recent books (Affinities, Suppose a Sentence, & Essayism) have served as a reboot of his writing, the challenges in wedding the critical/analytic & the memoiristic, his decision to rewrite by hand the previously published pieces for this book to see if new connections revealed themselves, and how he never knows what to ask an artist in the studio. Plus, we discuss how much personal info is too much in an essay, the parallels between his aunt's descent into paranoia with his own pursuit of close looking/reading, the writers he discovered late, what comes next, why he doesn't shy away from calling Affinities an essay collection, and more! Follow Brian on Twitter and Instagram • More info at our site • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Patreon or Paypal and via our Substack

With his new book, COLOR CAPITAL OF THE WORLD (U of Akron Press), John W. Kropf explores the history of the American Crayon Co., Sandusky, OH, and his own family, while telling a bigger story about America. We get into the family stories & lore that led him to write the book, the toughest parts of researching it, when he realized that the story would involve the history of American immigration, innovation, chemistry, industry, public education, labor, and the rapaciousness of finance, and why he made sure to get a Gordon Lightfoot reference into its pages. We also talk about what crayons meant to American kids, whether he still draws with them, why his family sold out of the company, and how he met the challenge of including personal memoir in the story of a company town. Plus we contrast his multi-multi-generational history in America with my rootless cosmopolitanism, reflect on his writing life, and figure out who he's been reading lately. Follow John on Twitter and Instagram • More info at our site • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Patreon or Paypal and via our Substack

With his fantastic new novel, GONE TO THE WOLVES (FSG), John Wray explores the metal scene of the 1990s, from Gulf Coast Florida to LA to the wilds of Norway. We get into his history with metal (starting with AC/DC), why he wanted his lead characters to be fans with no aspirations to be musicians themselves, the coolness fallacy of authors writing about rock music, the brief era where a band like Cannibal Corpse could sell hundreds of thousands of records, and why this was his most fun book to write. We also talk about the theology of Norwegian black metal, this book's relationship to Denis Johnson's Tree of Smoke, his favorite drummer, and how he settled into Graham Greene's writing practice of having a word count for each day. Plus, we discuss his recurring neurotic breakdown when a book is in galleys, his realization that his parents did not take his writing seriously (when he was an 8th grader), the process of renovating a brownstone in Prospect Park and renting out rooms to other writers (like Nathan Englander), becoming a dad in recent years (and failing to teach his son how to fly a kite), the tension between writing the books he wants to write and selling more copies, the risk of getting sued by Vince Neil, and a lot more. Follow John on Twitter and Instagram • More info at our site • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Patreon or Paypal and via our Substack