James Belflower

Welcome to Apostrophe Cast. This episode James Belflower reads from his forthcoming book of poetry, Commuter, out this year from Instance Press. Commuter takes us around the world and through time, juxtaposing massacres and majestic archtecture, collapsing history into news and merging tourism with the flight of refugees. Please enjoy James Belflower. 

Brian Evenson

This episode we bring you Brian Evenson, reading his short story "Younger" from his collection Fugue State, out in July from Coffee House Press. Brian Evenson's writing might be compared to Gordon Lish, for its elegant simplicity and lush psychology, or Raymond Carver in his desolation. But the fact is that Brian Evenson's work is only familiar because it sounds exactly like life, and it is frightening because, like life, it points beyond us to what we know is true, but cannot understand. Please enjoy "Younger" by Brian Evenson. 

Clane Hayward

Welcome to Apostrophe Cast. This episode we bring you the life aquatic of Clane Hayward. In her first book, the brilliant memoir, The Hypocrisy of Disco, Clane creates an elegantly melancholy portrait of an early life shaped only by the twin forces of freedom and neglect as the child of 60's radicals. In her second memoir, Nothing Is Fixed, she invites the reader with poetic diction and brutal honesty into her adult life, in which she exchanged the directionless freedom of an unstructured youth for the structure and adventure of life in the United States Navy. Listen for the thunder. Please enjoy Clane Hayward.

William Walsh

Welcome to Apostrophe Cast. This episode we bring you the quizzical interrogatory of William Walsh. In this excerpt from his new book Questionstruck, a text composed entirely of questions extracted from the writings of Calvin Trillin, Walsh impresses upon us the incredible ability of questions to suggest a world through their hunger for answers. Even as the questions speak to each other, we despair of answering them. But the pleasure of inhabiting a beautifully unfinished and unfinishable world is a delight well worth the frustration. Please enjoy William Walsh. 

Mark Ehling

This episode we bring you Mark Ehling’s searchlight to advertising, cola and anxiety. The essay “An Introduction to Slamz,” creates a surreally timed conversation that follows the expected patterns of advertising speak, finding the pangs available in the capsule of a “business narrative.” He takes on the form without abusing its excess of greed or tinheart stereotypes. Instead, he finds a cold portrait of the whimsy of consumption, and the fog of its navigation. It also explores why people smash cans on their heads. Please enjoy Mark Ehling.

Shane Jones

In this episode of Apostrophe Cast, Shane Jones brings us excerpts from his debut novel Light Boxes. These mystifying tableaux of Hummel-like not-so-innocents tearing at the edges of a mad ginger-bread world evoke Henry Darger, Edward Gorey, even Lewis Caroll. But in these excerpts where it is always February, in which hordes of maniacal priests curse flight, and children hope to repair the sky, an originality as unique as the winter light of childhood suffuses an unforgettable space Shane Jones has fashioned out of pure imagination. Please enjoy Shane Jones.

Shanthi Sekaran

This episode we bring you Shanthi Sekaran reading from her debut novel, The Prayer Room. Spanning decades, continents, cultures, sexes, generations, classes, and races, The Prayer Room pairs an unlikely English student with a young woman from a traditional Indian family and plops them in Northern California. How they got there and what ensues is storytelling at its best. Please enjoy Shanthi Sekaran.