Late Night Library

Orientation by Daniel Orozco

Wed, 30 May 2012 23:51:33 -0400

This May, Late Night Library looks at Orientation, Daniel Orozco’s collection of short stories published by Faber & Faber in 2011. The nine stories included in Orientation were written over the past two decades. We agree with many of the wonderful things said about this collection, and certainly with the Kirkus Review, which noted that the stories in Orientation are both “precisely written” and “deeply human.”

Our guest co-hosts for this podcast, J. T. Bushnell and Jordan Hartt, studied with Daniel at University of Idaho. In addition to talking about their experiences as students, J. T. and Jordan touch on themes of isolation in “I Run Every Day” and look deeply at the narrator’s character and motivations as expressed through the story’s language.

If you haven’t yet, read Late Night Library’s microinterview with Daniel Orozco.

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About Daniel Orozco
Daniel Orozco’s stories have appeared in Best American Short Stories, Best American Mystery Stories, Best American Essays, and the Pushcart Prize anthology, as well as in Harper’s Magazine, Zoetrope: All-Story, McSweeney’s, Ecotone, and Story-Quarterly. He was awarded a 2006 NEA Fellowship and was a finalist for a 2006 National Magazine Award. A former Stegner Fellow and Jones Lecturer at Stanford, he teaches creative writing at the University of Idaho. Orientation is his first story collection. Photo by Krysta Ficca

Coming up: Erin talks to Richard Nash for Late Night Conversation on June 15^th. Nash founded Cursor, is the publisher of Red Lemonade, and runs content and community for the new cultural discoverer Small Demons. He used to run Soft Skull Press. You don’t want to miss this one.

Thank you to all of you for listening and most of all for reading. Talk to you later at Late Night Library.

Yours,
Erin and Paul

The Daniel Orozco microinterview

Tue, 22 May 2012 16:08:00 -0400

May’s podcast features J. T. Bushnell and Jordan Hartt talking about Daniel Orozco’s short story collection, Orientation. Published by Faber & Faber in 2011, Orientation “brings hope for the return of serious short-form storytelling,” according to writer Yiyun Li. “Orozco has both the relentlessness and the compassion of a truly great writer.”

Tune in for Late Night Library’s discussion, brought to you by two of the writer’s former students, on May 31^st. In the meantime, Daniel Orozco generously answered Late Night Library’s Q&A.

Photo by Krysta Ficca

What is your favorite work of debut poetry or fiction published in 2011 or early 2012?
I’m really bad at keeping up with current writing. My colleagues come up to me and tell me about a great story or essay they just read in the New Yorker, which comes every week, I believe. Or they tell me about how great Cheryl Strayed’s new book was (or Tony Doerr’s, or Hilary Mantel’s, or Steve Almond’s, or… ) and it just came out how can they have read it already? So I am behind. I have books in my to-read pile that were published in 2010 or 2011 that I will read but haven’t gotten to yet and I can list those?

I generally come across work by going deeper into writers whose work I already really like; for instance, I’ve read and re-read Edward P. Jones’ Lost in the City, and so I have The Known World and All Aunt Hagar’s Children, and I will read them. Jones is really so good at extracting emotion from the page without a trace of sentimentality or melodrama—everything is really felt. I’m a fan of Nicholson Baker—the level of texture and detail in his expansive, compulsive narratives—and so I have The Anthologist. And Alice Munro: I’ve got Too Much Happiness in my to-read pile and when I read it it’ll be the seventh or eighth story collection by her I’ve read and I’m not even sure if I like her yet, whatever “like” means? She’s the most intriguing writer I’ve read—doing all the “wrong” things so wonderfully perfectly, I think—and so I just keep going back to her.

Please identify one or two writers who have influenced you, either in general or specifically in writing “Orientation.”
Generally, “Orientation” first arose from a hubristic desire to “do Chekhov”—to write an unrequited office love story in that remote, keenly observant way Chekhov wrote unrequited love stories. I gave up on that pretty quick (though the love story is still in there, kind of). Specifically, I don’t recall having any models or influences in mind. Once I decided the story would unfold as a dramatic monologue—an office tour, in real time—I knew I was doing something a little weird. And when I started writing the episodes and assembling and shuffling them, I liked how weird it was getting. I submitted a draft to workshop and it didn’t go over very well, but—perversely—that problematic response committed me to it even more. Just a long way of saying that, while I was writing it, “Orientation” was seemingly self-influential in a kind of sui generis kind of way?

What are a few things you learned or discovered after your book was published that you wish you had known or anticipated beforehand?
Well, nothing in terms of regrets or hindsight, if that’s what you mean? I did have expectations and presumptions about what would happen during the whole publishing thing—I’ve worked with magazine and anthology editors, and I’ve had colleagues get books published—and so as far as I recall, everything that happened was what I expected/presumed?

That’s not a very interesting answer, I’m afraid. I was frankly pretty laissez-faire about the whole process: “This cover’s great!” “That gig’s fine!” “These changes are A-OK!” Maybe this attitude (lassitude?) stems from being such a… late-life debutante? Perhaps I figured, I worked on the book for fifteen years, let somebody else do the work?

Thanks, Daniel. We know our audience is looking forward to J. T. and Jordan’s look at “I Run Every Day,” out next week.

Yours,
Erin and Paul

Late Night Conversation: Roxane Gay

Tue, 15 May 2012 00:01:00 -0400

Welcome to the second installment of Late Night Conversation, Late Night Library’s podcast series featuring writers, editors, publishers, activists, educators, and other innovators who influence art culture.

This podcast features a conversation between writers Karen Munro and Roxane Gay. At one point, Karen asks Roxane whether print publications are less likely than online journals to publish emerging writers. Roxane wisely points out, “I think they are open to [publishing new writers], but I also think there are economic realities that they have to deal with that online magazines don’t. When you’re putting together a magazine that probably costs $10,000 or $15,000 to produce, you need some known quantities.” What was the process of publicizing her own debut novel like for Roxane? What is Late Night Library’s Debut-litzer, and who’s our winner this year? Listen in.

About Karen Munro
Karen Munro’s writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Glimmer Train, Grain, Beloit Fiction Review, Hunger Mountain, and elsewhere. She is at work on a novel about strangeness in the Northwest.

About Roxane Gay
Roxane Gay has fiction forthcoming in Best American Short Stories 2012. She lives and writes in the Midwest.

Late Night Library Debut-litzer Nominees
*for debut fiction published in 2010 and 2011
Dan DeWeese, You Don’t Love This Man
Deanna Fei, A Thread of Sky
Leslie Jamison, The Gin Closet
Matthew Pitt, Attention Please Now

And the winner is … ?

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Next month, Erin talks to Richard Nash, founder of Cursor and publisher of Red Lemonade, in charge of content and community for the new cultural discoverer Small Demons. Tune in on June 15^th.

Yours,
Erin and Paul

Bushnell, Hartt, and Orientation

Thu, 10 May 2012 23:35:00 -0400

This month, Late Night Library is excited to feature Daniel Orozco’s collection of short stories, Orientation, from Faber & Faber in 2011. Oregon-based fiction writer J. T. Bushnell and fellow writer Jordan Hartt from neighboring Washington state discuss their favorite aspects of the book on May 31^st.

J. T. Bushnell teaches writing and literature at Oregon State University. His craft articles have appeared in Poets & Writers, the Writer, and Fiction Writers Review, where he is a contributing editor. His fiction and creative nonfiction have appeared in Iron Horse, Redivider, Meridian, the Greensboro Review, the South Carolina Review, the Mississippi Review, Natural Bridge, Brevity, and other journals. He is working on a collection of stories and a novel. Photo by Amy Hiebert.

Jordan Hartt is the director of programs at Centrum, the multidisciplinary nonprofit arts organization that presents, along with music festivals, the Port Townsend Writers’ Conference and the Conference’s ancillary year-round literary programming and writing residencies.

According to the New York Times, Orozco “writes in a style that feels carefully tended but not overworked. His characters are short on time and hope, and mostly they know it.” Now two former students of Orozco’s will take a close look at the story “I Run Every Day.”

Purchase the book now from WORD in Brooklyn

Did you miss April’s podcast about Harmony Holiday’s collection of poems, Negro League Baseball? The conversation Megan Savage and W. M. Lobko had last month is definitely worth hearing. Tune in now!

Download the April podcast

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In a few short days, you can also listen in on Karen Munro’s talk with writer Roxane Gay. As May co-host J. T. Bushnell comments on our Facebook: “Roxane Gay is EVERYWHERE.” Late Night Conversation posts on May 15^th. Don’t miss it.

Yours,
Erin and Paul

This month: Late Night Conversation with Roxane Gay

Mon, 07 May 2012 12:32:00 -0400

In addition to Late Night Library’s flagship podcast about debut literature, each month we record an unscripted conversation with someone who is changing the way we think about books.

Roxane Gay is definitely one of those people. From her regular contributions to The Rumpus and HTMLGIANT to the entries on her own blog, titled I Have Become Accustomed to Rejection, Gay is a conversation starter. She spoke to Late Night Library friend and supporter Karen Munro for this month’s edition of Late Night Conversation.

Roxane Gay has fiction forthcoming in Best American Short Stories 2012. She lives and writes in the Midwest.

Listen in on May 15^th to hear Karen and Roxane discuss favorite places to find new writing, plus publicity challenges faced by debut authors in promoting their books. Late Night Library is also pleased to feature Daniel Orozco’s short story collection Orientation, as considered by guest co-hosts J. T. Bushnell and Jordan Hartt, in our May 30^thpodcast. We hope you’ll tune in to both!

Yours,
Erin and Paul

Negro League Baseball by Harmony Holiday

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 00:02:00 -0400

We’ve come to the end of April: National Poetry Month, and occasion of Late Night Library’s 13^th podcast, which features Harmony Holiday’s poetry collection, Negro League Baseball. Published by Fence Books, Holiday’s collection is winner of the 2011 Motherwell Prize.

Negro League Baseball is unusual (by which we mean wonderful) in a number of ways, and Late Night Library is thrilled to have guest co-hosts W. M. Lobko, a poet living in New York, and Megan Savage, Portland poet and prose writer, heading up our discussion. Lobko and Savage look at the relationship between the kinetic and static in Holiday’s book, particularly in terms of the recollection and recreation of memory. They also discuss the sonic and performative aspects of her poetry.

Curious? If you haven’t yet, read Late Night Library’s microinterview with Harmony Holiday.

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About Harmony Holiday
Harmony Holiday was born in Waterloo, Iowa, in 1982. Her father was Northern Soul singer and songwriter Jimmy Holiday; her mother, 30 years his junior, was studying writing at the University of Iowa at the time they met. Upon her father’s passing in 1987 Harmony moved to Los Angeles, where she spent most of her childhood studying dance before attending UC Berkeley. She currently lives in New York City, and is an MFA student at Columbia University and an instructor of dance and writing courses.

Plus: tune in on May 15^th, when Late Night Library releases the newest edition of Late Night Conversation, featuring guest host Karen Munro talking to Roxane Gay, co-editor of PANK, fiction editor of Bluestem, and contributor to HTMLGIANT. Gay is also the author of the book Ayiti.

Thank you to all of you for listening and most of all for reading. Talk to you later at Late Night Library.

Yours,
Erin and Paul

The Harmony Holiday microinterview

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 21:06:00 -0400

Just for you, this April New York City poet-about-town W. M. Lobko and Portland’s favorite poet/prosaist Megan Savage read Harmony Holiday’s debut collection of poems, Negro League Baseball, winner of the 2011 Motherwell Prize and published by Fence Books. Stay tuned for their discussion on April 30^th.

April is not only National Poetry Month, it is the month of Harmony Holiday’s birthday. Nevertheless, she made the time to answer our Q&A.

What is your favorite work of debut poetry or fiction published in 2011 or early 2012?
My sense of time is pretty fractal, so I don’t really categorize things by year or create lists of what came when in my head besides intuitively, which means it’s brand new for me if it’s my first encounter. I guard this mentality ‘cause it means I never feel like I’m missing out if I’m not self-consciously up on the newest latest. But I pay attention.

On top of that, genre really smolders for me lately. I don’t want to be able to tell one from another. I just want sonics, phonetic feelings, urges, reluctances, vibe, clouds for the dome, drums for the heart, etc. In that vein, I really love the James Blake album Wilhelm Scream that arrived circa last year and the close-in-age album by Thundercatbass, The Golden Age of the Apocalypse. I also really love the George Duke album that Thundercatbass covers for the opus of The Golden Age of the Apocalypse. [For instance], that massive tune “For Love I Come.” I sampled some from the original George Duke LP for the audio portion of Negro League Baseball.

Writing-specific, I discovered the work of Henry Dumas recently and wish someone would reprint his “The Knees of a Natural Man” so it can debut again.

Please identify one or two writers who have influenced you, either in general or specifically in writing Negro League Baseball.  
Writers who have influenced me recently: Hampton Hawes, Raise Up Off Me; Charles Mingus, Beneath the Underdog; Arthur Taylor, Notes and Tones; Abbey Lincoln; Kafka.

What are a few things you learned or discovered after your collection was published that you wish you had known or anticipated beforehand?
I don’t think there’s anything I discovered that I wish I had learned before I discovered it. The main visceral feeling I have is that the love for the craft has to be strong and true and renewable enough to survive the sobriety that is professionalism. And the word “tribe” juts out from contribution now like an anchor. It really helps to have a good supportive team in your publisher, an area in which Fence excels. What I’m discovering now is there’s no time to really sit back and melt into some sort of static satisfaction over a book coming out. It actually just drives me to want to work on new projects with a “fierce decorum” and ecstatic rigor, in the name of “moving forward toward my myth” and building a constellation of work, so that each individual piece continues to feel dynamic and unique. Discovering that there’s no such thing as satisfaction in this field is a new kind of peace and happiness—a relief, for a while I was worried I’d be satisfied.

With a teaser like that, we’re looking forward to a robust audience for Late Night Library’s podcast about Negro League Baseball, out next week.

Yours,
Erin and Paul

Late Night Conversation: Brad Listi

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 23:47:00 -0400

Today we’re launching Late Night Conversation, Late Night Library’s podcast series featuring writers, editors, publishers, activists, educators, and other innovators who influence art culture. In addition to our flagship podcast, every month we’ll feature unscripted conversations with the people who are changing the way we think about books.

This podcast features a fellow podcaster and good friend to debut literature, Brad Listi. Among other things, Brad talks to Paul about his thoughts on how to move the needle on selling books. Brad says, “It feels kind of like I’ve been in the laboratory for the last six years, and I’ve been doing experiments trying to figure out how to do this.” Why did Brad start The Nervous Breakdown? Why is Snooki in this episode? Listen and find out.

About Brad Listi
Brad Listi is the founder of The Nervous Breakdown and the author of a novel called Attention. Deficit. Disorder.   He is also the host of Other People, a podcast featuring in-depth, inappropriate interviews with today’s leading authors. You can also find Brad online at www.bradlisti.com, Facebook, and Twitter.

Download the show

Write us and let us know what you think! Next month, Karen Munro talks to Roxane Gay, co-editor of PANK, fiction editor of Bluestem, and contributor to HTMLGIANT. She is also the author of the book Ayiti. Tune in on May 15^th.

Yours,
Erin and Paul

Lobko, Savage, and Negro League Baseball

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 18:43:00 -0400

Can you believe it’s been a full year for Late Night Library? This April, we post our lucky 13^th podcast. This time we’re featuring Harmony Holiday’s debut collection of poems, Negro League Baseball, winner of the 2011 Motherwell Prize and published by Fence Books. New York-based poet W. M. Lobko and Portland’s Megan Savage, who writes fiction and poetry, will discuss. Tune in on April 30^th.

W. M. Lobko has published his work most recently in Kenyon Review Online and Catch-Up, and is forthcoming from Sixth Finch. His work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He holds an MFA from the University of Oregon. Currently, he teaches in New York, where work on his poetry manuscript Kin Anthem and his novel The Quick Brown Fox doggedly continues.

Megan Savage is a fiction writer and poet living in Portland, Oregon. Her work has appeared in Spork, Subtropics, and Barn Owl Review, and has been twice nominated for Best New American Voices. She has received fellowships from Ledig House International Writer’s Residency, Bard College, and Indiana University, where she completed graduate studies in Creative Writing (Fiction) and English, and served as Fiction Editor of Indiana Review. Currently, she teaches writing at Portland Community College and at the Putney School Summer Programs in Vermont.

“In order to participate as a reader of [Holiday’s] poems, we are asked first to work through the conceptualizations behind their existence,” notes The Aviary in their review. Thankfully, Lobko and Savage are ready to take up the challenge.

Purchase the book now from WORD in Brooklyn

March’s conversation, which features Margaret Malone and Karen Wood talking about Hannah Pittard’s novel, The Fates Will Find Their Way, is another installment you won’t want to miss. Best of all, you can listen right now!

Download our March podcast

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And: don’t forget that this Sunday the very first Late Night Conversation premieres. Listen in on Paul’s talk with Brad Listi, founder of The Nervous Breakdown and Other People.

Yours,
Erin and Paul

A new addition to our library

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 21:00:30 -0400

Late Night Library is pleased to offer a new regular program to its monthly line-up! Beginning April 15^th, Late Night Conversation will feature writers, editors, publishers, activists, educators, and other innovators who influence art culture.

Don’t expect traditional interviews. True to its title, Late Night Conversation will be an interactive, two-way discussion between host and guest, with no rehearsal and nothing off limits.

The very first Late Night Conversation hits iTunes and Stitcher next week, when Paul talks to Brad Listi. Future podcasts will be released in the middle of each month.

Brad Listi is the founder of The Nervous Breakdown and the author of a novel called Attention. Deficit. Disorder.   He is also the host of Other People, a podcast featuring in-depth, inappropriate interviews with today’s leading authors. You can also find Brad online at www.bradlisti.com, Facebook, and Twitter.

Hear what Paul and Brad have to say on April 15^th. Then, stay tuned for our monthly podcast on April 30^th featuring Harmony Holiday’s collection of poems, Negro League Baseball, with guest co-hosts Wil Lobko and Megan Savage.

Finally, friends in Brooklyn and Portland: we hope to see you at our annual party on April 26^th!

Yours,
Erin and Paul

The Fates Will Find Their Way by Hannah Pittard

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 00:14:00 -0400

This March, Late Night Library features Hannah Pittard’s debut novel, The Fates Will Find Their Way, published in 2011 by Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins.

The Washington Post calls The Fates Will Find Their Way a story “about how little we know of one another, but how eager we are to tape together a collage of rumors, assumptions, and fantasies to answer questions we’re too young, too cowardly, or too polite to ask.”

We’re fortunate to have fiction writer and memoirist Margaret Malone and poet Karen Wood tackling this haunting book of “what ifs” for Late Night Library this month. If you haven’t yet, read Late Night Library’s microinterview with Hannah Pittard.

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About Hannah Pittard
Hannah Pittard is the author of the novel, The Fates Will Find Their Way. She is the winner of the 2006 Amanda Davis Highwire Fiction Award, the recipient of a 2012 MacDowell Colony Fellowship, and a consulting editor for Narrative Magazine. She is a Visiting Assistant Professor in Fiction at DePaul University.

Thank you to all of you for listening and most of all for reading. Talk to you later at Late Night Library.

Yours,
Erin and Paul

p.s. Did you see that we’re hosting simultaneous parties in Brooklyn and Portland on April 26^th? Please join us in celebrating one year of Late Night Library!

The Hannah Pittard microinterview

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 21:38:00 -0400

This month, Portland writers Margaret Malone and Karen Wood look at The Fates Will Find Their Way, Hannah Pittard’s debut novel published in 2011 by Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins. Listen in on March 31^st.

Read on for our quick Q&A with Hannah.

What is your favorite work of debut poetry or fiction published in 2011 or early 2012?
I loved We the Animals [by Justin Torres]. I’d been hearing about it and hearing about it and then, one day last fall, a student showed up with a copy. I asked if I could read it while the class was taking its final. I finished it in nearly one sitting.

Please identify one or two writers who have influenced you, either in general or specifically in writing The Fates Will Find Their Way.  
Ann Beattie has done more for my writing than anyone else. We write nothing alike (which is to say, I write nothing like her), but she taught me to be demanding, to be serious, to be patient (though that one still takes lots of effort).

Tense plays a huge role in this novel—the way I jump around in time, from anecdote to anecdote. Honestly, if it weren’t for Chris Tilghman, I don’t think I’d understand the power of tense half as well as I do now. There can be such a style to it and to its use in a novel, and I think it’s something that often goes unrecognized or uncommented on.

 What are a few things you learned or discovered after your novel was published that you wish you had known or anticipated beforehand?
Honestly, if I could change anything, I would write the same book but take away the missing girl. If I could. I think of this novel as a novel about men, about childhood, about that uneasy transition for so many of us into adulthood. Lots of people read the book and they can only see that a girl is missing. I was using her as a vehicle to get inside the boys’ (and ultimately the men’s) brains.

Do you feel ready? Late Night Library’s podcast about The Fates Will Find Their Way hits iTunes and Stitcher next week! We hope you’ll join us.

Yours,
Erin and Paul

March: Malone, Wood, and The Fates Will Find Their Way

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 17:10:00 -0400

Late Night Library has an exciting March in store for listeners, with a discussion of Hannah Pittard’s The Fates Will Find Their Way, published this year by Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins. This month, we welcome two guest co-hosts from our western contingent:

Margaret Malone writes fiction and memoir. Her work has appeared in The Missouri Review, Swink, Coal City Review, latimes.com, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of a 2009 Oregon Literary Fellowship and a 2011 Oregon Arts Commission Individual Arts Fellowship. In her spare time (ha!) she is a co-host of the artist and literary gathering SHARE and co-teaches creative writing as a visiting artist at Pacific Northwest College of Art. She lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband and son.

Karen Wood is a poet living in Portland, Oregon. Karen’s work has appeared in North American Review, Miranda Literary Magazine, the Monterey Bay Poets’ Anthology, Folio, and Robot Melon. She was a finalist for the 2008 Wabash Prize in Poetry, and has an MFA in Writing from Vermont College. She writes short poems deeply rooted in the physical. Lately she’s been writing about robots.

The Washington Post calls Pittard’s debut “chilling and touching… harrowingly wise about the melancholy process of growing up.” Intrigued?

Purchase the book now from WORD in Brooklyn

If you missed Erin’s conversation with Jada Pierce last month about Between the Crackups, Rebecca Lehmann’s collection of poems, you can listen in here:

Download our February podcast

Subscribe to Late Night Library on iTunes
Listen on Stitcher SmartRadio

Stay tuned for our microinterview with Hannah Pittard next week, and don’t forget to listen in on March 31^st.

Yours,
Erin and Paul

Between the Crackups by Rebecca Lehmann

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 22:28:00 -0500

February’s podcast is a wintry mix featuring Between the Crackups by Rebecca Lehmann, from 2011’s Salt Modern Poets series. Listen in and see if you agree with the poet Mark Levine that “These poems read like just-fashioned old-fashioned letters … from one’s neglected, slightly pissed-off subterranean self.”

Poets Erin Hoover and Jada Pierce discuss Between the Crackups between their respective cities of Brooklyn and Portland this month. Don’t be shocked if Wallace Stevens makes an appearance.

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About Rebecca Lehmann
Rebecca Lehmann is the author of Between the Crackups (Salt Modern Poets 2011), winner of the Crashaw Prize. Her poems have appeared in Tin House, The Iowa Review, The Gettysburg Review, Best New Poets 2010, and other journals and anthologies. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and a PhD in poetry and critical theory from Florida State University. She lives with her husband in La Crosse, Wisconsin, where she is Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Viterbo University.

Thank you to all of you for listening and most of all for reading. Talk to you later at Late Night Library.

Yours,
Erin and Paul

The Rebecca Lehmann microinterview

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:28:34 -0500

Poet Jada Pierce joins Erin this month to talk about Between the Crackups, Rebecca Lehmann’s collection of poems from Salt Modern Poets series. Late Night Library’s episode about Between the Crackups hits February 29^th.

We were fortunate to catch up with Rebecca a few weeks ago for a quick Q&A. Read on and get ready for our discussion!

What was your favorite work of debut poetry or fiction in 2011?
I enjoyed Nick Demske’s debut collection, which I think is called Nick Demske. It has a lot of energy. I saw him read in Minneapolis, and got the book shortly thereafter. I think it may have come out in 2010, but I got it in 2011.

What other writers influenced you, either in general or specifically in writing your collection?
One of my earliest influences was Emily Dickinson. I fell in love with her work when I was a teenager, and still look to it for inspiration. I think her inventiveness with language was what drew me in.

Are there specific things you’re looking for when you pick up a new collection of poems?
Mostly I look for something surprising. I want to feel delighted when I read a poem. Use of language is a big part of that. If a book has poems that use inventive language, I’m halfway there. I’m also drawn to the quirky, the unusual, as Hopkins wrote: “All things counter, original, spare, strange; / Whatever is fickle, freckled (Who knows how?).” On that note, I’d like to add Gerard Manley Hopkins to the list of writers who have influenced me. His poems fly off the page. I think that’s important.

We hope you’ll look for our Rebecca Lehmann podcast next week.

Yours,
Erin and Paul

February: Jada Pierce and Between the Crackups

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 15:09:00 -0500

This February, Late Night Library is pleased to welcome poet Jada Pierce as guest co-host. Jada and Erin will discuss Between the Crackups, Rebecca Lehmann’s collection of poems from Salt Modern Poets series in 2011. Between the Crackups is winner of the 2010 Crashaw Prize.

Jada Pierce teaches English Humanities at Northwest Academy in Portland, Oregon.

Poet Barbara Hamby calls Lehmann “an advance scout in the war between the heart and the intellect.” On February 29^th, Erin and Jada go along for the ride, taking a close look at “The Factory, An Elegy in Six Parts,” “Think Georgia, Gorgeous,” “North Florida Rain,” “The History of Yesterday,” and “Pasture.”

Purchase the book now from WORD in Brooklyn

If you missed Paul Martone and Jay Nebel’s conversation last month about Matthew Pitt’s story collection, Attention Please Now, you can listen in here:

Download our January podcast

Subscribe to Late Night Library on iTunes
Listen on Stitcher SmartRadio

Mark your calendar and leap along with us on February 29^th!

Yours,
Erin and Paul

Attention Please Now by Matthew Pitt

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:13:00 -0500

We’re starting this year off with a bang! January’s podcast features Matthew Pitt’s Attention Please Now published by Autumn House Press in 2010. “The Mean” tells the story of a main character who hasn’t given up—he’s fighting for his life. In “The Mean,” a high school math teacher’s diagnosis leads to an unlikely alliance with a group of teenage stoners.

Paul is joined by the poet Jay Nebel for this podcast—our first with two Portland-based hosts!

Download the show

Subscribe on iTunes

Late Night Library automatically comes up in iTunes each month when you subscribe; click “Podcasts” in your Library and download. Note that there is a slight posting delay with iTunes (usually a 24-hour window).

About Matthew Pitt
Matthew Pitt’s debut collection Attention Please Now won the Autumn House Fiction Prize and is a Writers’ League of Texas Book Award Finalist. His fiction has appeared in such places as Oxford American, Epoch, Cincinnati Review, New Letters, Southern Review, Colorado Review, and Best New American Voices. He has won honors and fellowships from the New York Times Company Foundation, Mississippi Arts Commission, Bronx Arts Council, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and the Bread Loaf and Sewanee Writers’ Conferences, and has been cited in the Best American Short Stories, Best American Nonrequired Reading, and Pushcart Prize anthologies. A teacher of creative writing at NYU, Hendrix College, Illinois College, and Penn State Altoona, Matt currently lives two blocks from Gulf Coast beachfront, though he remains untanned.

There’s a new way to hear Late Night Library every month: on Stitcher SmartRadio! Stitcher allows you to listen to your favorite shows directly from your iPhone, Android Phone, Kindle Fire, and beyond. Listen here.

Thank you to all of you for listening and most of all for reading. Talk to you later at Late Night Library.

Yours,
Erin and Paul

Snippets from our Matthew Pitt podcast

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:15:11 -0500

This month, guest co-host Jay Nebel and Paul Martone discuss Attention Please Now, Matthew Pitt’s 2010 short story collection from Autumn House Press and winner of the 2009 Autumn House Fiction Contest, selected by Sharon Dilworth.

For Late Night Library’s Matthew Pitt podcast, Paul and Jay will focus on his story “The Mean,” chosen as a finalist by Robert Olen Butler in 2007 for Del Sol Press’s prize of the same name.

Here’s a preview of a few things you’ll hear:

“Everything in [Shales’s] life mirrors what’s going on within the cage. The monkeys are not going quietly, right? And neither does Shales.”

“This is a story that really transcends any kind of labeling. We mentioned that the chimps going berserk was almost surreal, here the superintendent with his ass [pressing a button to warn the governor about impending teacher contract negotiations] is kind of satirical, and throughout, what predominates, of course, is the realism of the story.”

“As a reader, I’m just willing to grant so much more to a character who’s facing something tragic than I am to Joe Shmoe. This guy is not a sexual predator; he’s not even sleeping with Liddy anymore.”

“I thought [Pitt’s use of equations] was a great metaphor…It’s not where you get to with the equation, it’s how you show your work, how you live your life before this moment.”

“That innocence is gone from [Shales]…That’s what ‘the spoiler’ of cancer has done. It’s taken away any sort of probability of good fortune for him.”

It’s not too late to pick up a copy of Attention Please Now and get to know Shales, Liddy, Mary, the Spoiler, and other characters in “The Mean.” As we posted on Facebook: What do marijuana, mathetmatics, cancer, and chimpanzees all have in common?

A lot, it seems. Listen in on January 31^st to our first all-Portland podcast and find out.

Yours,
Erin and Paul

January: Jay Nebel and Attention Please Now

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:41:00 -0500

Poet Jay Nebel joins Late Night Library as guest co-host this January to talk about Attention Please Now, Matthew Pitt’s collection of short stories published in 2010 by Autumn House Press.

Poems from Jay Nebel have appeared in Tin House, ZYZZYVA, the New Orleans Review, and others. He lives in Portland with his wife and son.

Author Rachel Pastan notes that in Attention Please Now, Matthew Pitt “pushes his characters to the edge of the possible with a fabulist’s eye for the strange, potent detail and the realist’s sure grasp of human emotion.” On January 31^st, Paul and Jay will discuss his short story, “The Mean.”

We invite you to pick up a copy of Matthew’s book and check out “The Mean.” If you haven’t already, please listen to Erin and Eliza Rotterman’s conversation about Goat in the Snow by poet Emily Pettit.

Download our December podcast

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Finally: are you curious about why we started Late Night Library? Paul’s article about our efforts to promote debut literature that recently appeared on Tin House’s website explains it all—big thanks to Tin House for helping Late Night Library garner more attention for first books! Take a look, and leave a comment if you wish.

Yours,
Erin and Paul

Goat in the Snow by Emily Pettit

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 00:51:00 -0500

Our last podcast of 2011 features Emily Pettit’s Goat in the Snow, published by Birds, LLC. Pettit has created a collection of poems that is both delightful and challenging—we hope Late Night Library’s discussion can serve as a starting point for readers in unraveling this astounding debut!

For December’s program, Erin is joined by the poet Eliza Rotterman, our first guest co-host for Late Night Library. Please let us know what you think of the podcast’s expanded format! Huge thanks to Julie Mashack for editing this episode.

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Late Night Library automatically comes up in iTunes each month when you subscribe; click “Podcasts” in your Library and download. Note that there is a slight posting delay with iTunes (usually a 24-hour window).

About Emily Pettit
In addition to Goat In the Snow, Emily Pettit is the author of two chapbooks, How (Octopus Books) and What Happened to Limbo (Pilot Books). She is an editor for notnostrums and Factory Hollow Press, as well as the publisher of jubilat. She teaches at Flying Object.

Thank you to all of you for listening and most of all for reading. Talk to you later at Late Night Library.

Yours,
Erin and Paul