1storypod

JERSEY CITY — In the second part of 2666 (2004) by Bolaño, Amalfitano, a philosophy professor losing his mind, tries to understand the secrets of the universe through an esoteric geometry book. But instead of reading it, he hangs it on a clothesline, outside, and watches it get rained on—blasted by the elements. Bud Smith’s writing embodies this idea: he out here, in the world, working at his oil refinery job, making art around his life rather than the other way around. I linked with him at his spot last weekend in Jersey City to talk about Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying (1930), which I happened to be reading when I saw, via Twitter, that he too was reading it. Faulkner also worked manual labor for a time—as an operator as a chemical plant, while writing this book. Bud Smith is the author of Teenager (Tyrant Books, 2019), Double Bird (Maudlin House, 2018), WORK (Civil Coping Mechanisms, 2017), Dust Bunny City (Disorder Press, 2017), Calm Face (House of Vlad, 2016), among others. He works heavy construction building and destroying chemical plants, refineries, and generating stations. He’s on Twitter @bud_smith https://twitter.com/Bud_Smith. Here is a list of his stories online: https://neutralspaces.co/bud_smith/. He is currently writing a serialized weekly series called Good Luck, from The Nervous Breakdown. Intro song: "when i die" by yamz https://soundcloud.com/yeums/when-i-die Sean Thor Conroe is a writer and carpenter living in Harlem. Bars in X-R-A-Y, Soft Cartel, Expat Lit; forthcoming in Philosophical Idiot, BULL Lit, Back Patio. https://twitter.com/stconroe https://instagram.com/seanthorconroe https://1storyhaus.com

N 41ST ST — Convo w my neighbor Glenda, 52. On my last day on the block (07/31/2019), after living there 2 plus yrs.

WEST PHILLY — Nicholas Baptiste is a Philly-based writer, reader, musician, and MFKN LIBRARIAN YO. So sick. We post up on a blasted summer day on Baltimore Ave and powwow off the cuff about a whole gang of shit, returning throughout to our most recent reads: Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities (1987) and Denis Johnson’s Jesus’ Son (1992), respectively. We talk writing processes and what we consider constitutes the best art. Where this leads might be summed up as: that which investigates the difficult, touchy, taboo ideas, without either valorizing or condemning any one version of them. Sean Thor Conroe was born Sho Kamura in Tokyo in 1991. Latest story: https://expatpress.com/that-fire-sean-thor-conroe/ Contact: sean.thor.conroe@gmail.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/stconroe IG: https://www.instagram.com/seanthorconroe/ iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/1storypod/id1238415112?mt=2 Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/1storypod Website: http://1storyhaus.com

BKLYN-PHILLY — Eric Conroe, 33, is a writer and builder living in Brooklyn. He is the author of the poetry chapbook TOP BLOCKER (2017), available here: https://bit.ly/2M7ZvVV. He is my cousin. He read Thrown (2014) by Kerry Howley in a sitting two weeks ago. I read it in multiple sittings a year ago. Kerry Howley, 38, teaches nonfiction at University of Iowa. Thrown is her first book.

SOUTH PHILLY/SOUTH JERSEY — Still asking the same questions about monogamy, marriage, loyalty, child rearing, father/motherhood, the nuclear family, and work v. “love.” How these questions play out in Jenny Offill’s Dept of Speculation (2014), which charts a relationship from its inception to marriage to childbirth to infidelity, complicates things. Read in sips over the past three weeks and recorded during my CSA delivery route in South Philly (till I ran outta gas), during my route in South Jersey (after getting more gas), and on the way to the dentist, on foot, the following morning. Sound quality turned out surprisingly decent. New 500-word story 'That Fire' I dropped last week: https://expatpress.com/that-fire-sean-thor-conroe/ Website: http://1storyhaus.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/stconroe IG: http://instagram.com/seanthorconroe

PHILLY VIA BOSTON — In this special Lent pod, I catch up with the homie Aaron, 28 (1SP episodes 003 and 015), about the below topics during his weekend visit to Philly from Boston. Read is blog (http://somedayyeasayer.blogspot.com/). He's got some recent poems up about a hitchhiking trip he took around Scotland late last year. 0:00 - intro (03.11.2019) 2:44 - start of convo (03.09.2019) 6:00 - on criticism 9:00 - on keeping silent 13:00 - on editing 16:00 - on the accordion method 19:00 - on Bon Iver lol 23:00 - relocation from back to front of house 25:00 - on Lent 28:00 - on rules 38:00 - on writing about the body 39:00 - on social integration 42:00 - on community 45:00 - on marriage/family 47:00 - on cults 48:00 - how should a person be? 50:00 - on civic unity 54:00 - on the gay science 56:00 - final thoughts Contact: sean.thor.conroe@gmail.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/stconroe IG: https://www.instagram.com/seanthorconroe/ iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/1storypod/id1238415112?mt=2 Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/1storypod Website: http://1storyhaus.com

PHILLY — New Bolaño novel dropped 11 days ago, written when he was 31. New story I mention: https://softcartel.com/2019/02/18/a-seat-in-the-circle-by-sean-thor-conroe/

PHILLY — Really hit close to home, this one, especially with how dang nippy out it's getting; feeling of late like hibernation is just about all I'm up for. Otessa Moshfegh's My Year of Rest and Relaxation (2018), her fourth book and second novel, is about a mid-twenties Manhattanite intent on blocking out the world by ingesting an increasingly harrowing cocktail of sedatives. Read it last week, mostly lying on my side, on my couch, on Benadryl, but also walking places, in the daytime, in the cold. In this episode, which I recorded at 7 a.m. while walking to the dentist, I get into why this character wants to block out the world and whether she's able to find her way back into the world. Also: my shifting affinities towards character-driven rather than auto-fictional writing. And: how being an alt bro doesn't change the fact that you're still, physiologically and temperamentally, a bro. Sean Thor Conroe has written stories for X-R-A-Y (http://x-r-a-y.com/author/sean-thor-conroe/) and has another coming soon from Soft Cartel. He lives on twitter at http://twitter.com/stconroe and in Philadelphia, where he works on his health.

LOS ANGELES — Sergio González Rodríguez (1950–2017) was a Mexican journalist and writer. A friend and colleague of Roberto Bolaño's, he was the primary source of information on the femicides—the countless unsolved rape-murders of women, primarily factory workers—in Ciudad Juárez, for the late Chilean novelist's novel, 2666. Sean Thor Conroe's work has appeared in X-R-A-Y and is forthcoming from Soft Cartel. He tweets @stconroe and archives other art at http://1storyhaus.com

LOS ANGELES — Been a trip and a half reading Motherhood while posted with the mother this past month of holiday fam time / convalescence out here in LA. Has really propelled me into the nitty-grit of thangs. In this ep, I go in with more gripes about Sheila's stance on procreation than I come out with. I consider her view on the importance or lack thereof of Art. I hash out her ideas on family extending beyond the nuclear. And I give her props on the deepest idea of all: that Failure can never be communicated, must always be private, and yet is the only way to Freedom. Sean Thor Conroe's work has appeared in X-R-A-Y, on sidewalks and in fields. He tweets @stconroe and archives other art at http://1storyhaus.com