Apostrophe Cast - The All Things Literary Podcast

2010 / 2009 / 2008 / 2007

	Amy King (December 18, 2007) It's Christmastime, and what better way to celebrate than with good food, good wine, a good friend ... and her poems. In this reading, Amy King takes us to dinner, but it is not bread alone that we enjoy. King's poems don't simply satisfy, they challenge us to reconsider our assumptions about language itself. Click here to read an interview with Daniel Groves.
	Donna Stonecipher (December 4, 2007) As the holidays begin we are proud to present Donna Stonecipher. Her poetic narratives suggest the possibilities of unconscious life, experienced as we sleep, whether dreams or nightmares. But listeners will find that Stonecipher’s affecting images are the products of an acutely awake and aware existence. They are, in fact, hyper-real. She allows us a rare glimpse of the sublime that appears only when we are brave enough to contemplate so thoroughly as to overcome those fictions that conveniently insulate our psyches and create our false notions of “reality."
	Joshua Parkinson (November 21, 2007) For Thanksgiving, we bring you Josh Parkinson. Parkinson writes of a strange and beautiful world a funnier God might have built for his children in his backyard. But as much fun as it is to listen to Josh, something very like the truth is at stake. The story's whimsical exterior is like a candy shell on a diamond. Please Enjoy Josh Parkinson's " Maribeth V. The Government." Click here to read an interview with Josh Parkinson. Josh is accompanied by the music of Steve Grubbs from Athens, GA, who performs as Little Francis. To learn more about Little Francis, please visit his MySpace page.
	B.J. Hollars (November 7, 2007) In the first half of November we are treated to the wise domestic humor of B.J. Hollars. A father's patience with a mouse is set against the background of a family losing patience with him. As he loses his eldest daughter to a boy friend, he must struggle with his squandered authority and his own impotent jealousy. Please enjoy "infestation." Click here to read an interview with BJ Hollars.
	Ryan Wilson (October 24, 2007) At the end of October, as working adults around America put serious thought into what Halloween Costume to wear, it is appropriate that we listen to Ryan Wilson, a poet who finds the place between past and present, maturity and immaturity, childhood and adulthood, where most of us live. He has returned with riches. In the tradition of Donald Justice and Stanley Plumley, we give you Ryan Wilson.
	Richard Nathan (October 10, 2007) In the middle of October we hail Richard Nathan, a British adventurer who would be right at home with the likes of Robinson Crusoe or Dr. Livingstone. But his wilderness isn't to be found in the midst of far-away continents nor deep in a romantic past. His wilderness is North America and some of its longest-inhabited regions. His time is now. Mr. Nathan took a walk from Canada to Mexico. His adventure just might change the way you think about our country. Take this journey with Richard Nathan.
	Kristen Iskandrian (September 26, 2007) With October so near, and still so warm, we bring you Kristen Iskandrian's exploration of the shapes of paper and glue, the hall smells, the return to the place where most of us have been and picked the carpet—school. As she reads from her ever growing project, The School, Iskandrian gives us a precise capture of the intense, mythical and scouring eye that such a place demands as it presents its pockets, wonders, and plain facts about function and future. Click here to read an interview with Kristen Iskandrian.
	Mark Leidner (September 12, 2007) In the midst of September we are proud to bring you the work of poet Mark Leidner. It is difficult to describe Leidner's work without using the word "uncanny," and yet he begins so simply. His poems are deceptively conversational, as if talking to a friend at a bar or over the phone, but before you know it your brilliant friend has stopped kidding around and has lapsed into pure poetics. Click here to read an interview with Mark Leidner.
	Joan Biddle (August 29, 2007) As August ends, Joan Biddle reads poems of heartbreaking delicacy and intimacy. It might seem redundant to describe a poet's work as intimate . . . until you've heard Joan Biddle. Describing the French countryside and crab rangoon with the same care and wonder, Biddle invites us into a world as familiar as a favorite bathrobe and yet even "boners" achieve poetic luminosity. Miss Biddle's poetry makes friends and confidants of its readers.
	Ned Oldham (August 15, 2007) This fortnight Ned Oldham of The Anomoanon graces us with a previously unreleased track, The Wind, from the album Songs From A Child's Garden of Verses. In this inspired project, Oldham has set Robert Louis Stevenson's deceptively simple poetry to music, and created an aural world both sublime and eerily familiar. Just as in Stevenson's poems, the apparent innocence of childhood is a conceit used to explore the wonder and melancholy of a world before, or beyond, dreary explanation. In The Wind, a child considers the nature of air in motion with biblical sincerity. Oldham captures the emotion in sound. No mean feat. As the philosopher said, "Childhood is not a phase of life and it does not end."
	Dandy Elf This week Dandy Elf reads from his new book Living Under the Mushroom. In the segment, he looks at his time as a shoe leather tanner. Elf is the author of 16 previous memoirs, the recipient of an NEA Grant, and the first person to be named a MacArthur genius fellow twice. Please find out more about Elf at his website www.littleman.com.

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Apostrophe Cast is a bi-weekly online reading series of all things literary. Every other Wednesday night, we offer a new reading or performance from another contributor. Our readings include writers of all genres, including fiction, poetry, songs and nonfiction.