Otherppl with Brad Listi

Josh Raab is the guest. He is the founder of The Newer York Press, an experimental literary publisher based in Los Angeles.  Its latest title, The Inevitable June, by Bob Schofield, is now available for pre-order. Monologue topics: the desert, Coachella, fish tacos, sunlight, curmudgeonliness.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Justin Hocking is the guest. His new memoir, The Great Floodgates of the Wonderworld, is now available from Graywolf Press. It is the official April selection of the TNB Book Club. Cheryl Strayed says "As generous as it is smart, as intimate as it is grand, as illuminating as it is dark. With grace and guts, Justin Hocking dares to go where few men have gone before: not only out to sea, but also into the depths of the human heart." And Junot Díaz says “This beautiful memoir is beyond cool. A voyage both erudite and affecting.” Monologue topics: TNB Book Club, mail, miscarriage, fatherhood, privilege, sadsploitation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's show features conversations with multiple authors, all of whom have contributed to a new anthology entitled Labor Day: True Birth Stories by Today's Best Women Writers.  Guests include the anthology's editors, Eleanor Henderson and Anna Solomon, as well as Amy Brill, Arielle Greenberg, Cristina Henriquez, Heidi Julavits, Jane Roper, Rachel Jamison Webster, Sarah Jefferis, and Sarah Strickley.   Booklist says "This isn’t a how-to book, nor does it present a case for the ‘perfect birth,’ which sets it apart from the plethora of childbirth manuals and lends it broader appeal and a very different type of resonance." And Emma Straub says "Pregnancy made my body ravenous for food and my brain ravenous for stories like this, stories of how other women had crossed the great divide. In delivery rooms, in the backseats of cars, and at home, these women tell their birth stories so clearly that they must have had stenographers present on the scene. I loved reading this book with my baby asleep in the next room, and will give it to every pregnant woman I know from here on out, forever." Monologue topics:  Labor Day, hard work, parenthood. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Douglas Coupland is the guest. His new novel is called Worst. Person. Ever. and it is available now from Blue Rider Press. The Globe and Mail says “A satirical, misanthropic romp through reality television, environmental disaster and apocalyptic possibilities. Once again, Coupland...has asserted himself as a documenter of our times and anticipator of societal threats.... The plugged-in consumer-culture philosopher has created a brand of his own, becoming—and, over the long haul, remaining—a thinky superstar for a distracted era. More than 20 years after he became a pop-culture darling with Generation X, Coupland is still innovating—not simply cranking out words and sculptures, but making a significant contribution with astute observations.... As the country’s go-to guy for art, design, and contemporary social commentary, could Coupland be Canada’s Biggest. (Cultural). Brain. Ever?” And The Independent calls it "...a scatological bun-fight of excess and debauchery, of juvenile humour peppered with bilious rage at the state of the world...It’s riotous, frequently very funny...I can’t locate very much seriousness, but I certainly enjoyed trying.” Monologue topics:  mail, age, generations, Spencer and Mira. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

T. Greenwood is the guest. Her latest novel, Bodies of Water, is now available from Kensington Books. Publishers Weekly says "Greenwood is a writer of subtle strength...finding light in the darkest of stories." And Library Journal calls it "...intricate and tragic...This compassionate, insightful look at hope and redemption is a richly textured portrait." Monologue topics: Otherppl Premium, writing, worrying about the quality of my content.     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scott O'Connor is the guest. His new novel, Half World, is now available from Simon & Schuster.   The Daily Beast calls it "Gripping...The perfect book for our present moment." And Kirkus Reviews calls it "An invigorating historical thriller... Intimately gripping... O'Connor writes with fire." Monologue topics:  company, family, being too busy, wanting to live in utopia, mail.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rene Denfeld is the guest. She is an accomplished journalist who has written for The New York Times Magazine, The Oregonian, and other publications. She is also a licensed investigator who specializes in death penalty work. Her debut novel, The Enchanted, is now available from Harper. Publishers Weekly calls it “A striking one-of-a-kind prison novel....[with] rich, haunting prose...A stunning first novel from an already accomplished writer.” And Donald Ray Pollock says “Rene Denfeld is a genius. In The Enchanted, she has imagined one of the grimmest settings in the world--a dank and filthy death row in a corrupt prison--and given us one of the most beautiful, heart-rending, and riveting novels I have ever read.” Monologue topics: Melissa Broder, public bathrooms, darkened anterooms, tall strangers, misunderstandings, micro-paranoia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jacinda Townsend is the guest. Her new novel Saint Monkey is now available from W.W. Norton & Co. Roxane Gay says “Saint Monkey is an absolute marvel of a book. Jacinda Townsend is dazzling as she transports the reader to a different time and place—the 1950s, rural Kentucky, and Harlem at the height of the jazz era. Two young girls, Audrey and Caroline, fight for a place in the world and, though their paths at times diverge, their journeys and this writer will utterly captivate you.” And Booklist, in a starred review, raves “This is a breathtakingly insightful, suspenseful, and gorgeously realized novel of cruelty and sorrow, anger and forgiveness, improvisation and survival, and the transcendent beauty of nature and art.” Monologue topics: teaching my 3-year-old about death. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

D. Foy is the guest. His debut novel, Made to Break, is now available from Two Dollar Radio. Anthony Swofford says "Reading D. Foy's prose is like watching Robert Stone and Wallace Stevens drag race across a frozen lake at midnight." And Matthew Specktor says “D. Foy’s writing is so rich, so saturated in both life and literature, that one is tempted to strain for comparison, to find whatever madcap equivalencies (“It’s X meets Y!”) might begin to describe it accurately. Yet its whorl and grain, the fantastical strangeness of Foy’s sentences and the astonishing accuracy of his perception, amounts to something I can only call new. Made To Break is that rare thing: a truly original, and ferociously necessary, book.” Monologue topics:  news, new written content, upcoming event.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mary Beth Keane is the guest. Her latest novel, Fever, is now available from Scribner. The New York Times Book Review calls it “[A] tender, detailed portrayal of willed ignorance collapsing in the face of truth…A fine novel.” And USA Today says “[Keane] is a talented storyteller, her style plain and steady, not unlike Mary’s demeanor. What’s most remarkable about this novel is its brilliantly visceral vision of everyday life in early-1900s New York City, a rich and detailed working-class backdrop filled with the sights, sounds and smells of tenement squalor, overcrowded apartments, unsanitary conditions, sweatshops, and streets teaming with people trying to survive…If you have an appetite for historical fiction, this novel could be infectious.” Monologue topics: new website reminder, rebranding reminder, mail. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices