The Host Dispatch: A Literary Podcast

In Conversation with Katherine Packert Burke

In this episode, it was a thrill to speak with Katherine Packert Burke about her captivating debut novel, Still Life (Norton, 2024).

"Katherine Packert Burke’s Still Life is everything you want from a Künstlerroman: smart, sexy, funny, sly, and exceptionally queer. With biting insights and heartbreaking attention, this debut captures the daunting thrill of becoming an artist while becoming yourself." — Isle McElroy, author of People Collide

 

This was such a fun, tender and insightful conversation with an exceptionally talented writer. We are honored to share this episode with you! Here are some titles Katherine recommends that are in conversation with or inspired the writing of Still Life:


The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
The Idiot by Elif Batuman
Little Rabbit by Alyssa Songsiridej
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
Imogen by Nevada Bonnie

And Katherine was so generous to give us an additional list of the trans authors she recommends as well! ::

LOTE by Shola von Reinhold
Gossip Girl Fanfic Novella by Charlie Markbreiter 
My Volcano and Bad Houses by John Elizabeth Stintzi 
and the writings of: Alison Rumfitt, Jackie Ess, Gretchen Felker-Martin, torrin a. greathouse, and Isle McElroy

We're Open for Submissions!

We're thrilled to announce that we are currently open for submissions!

In this episode, we discuss what's new about this year's open reading period, our tips and tricks for submitting your work, and what our vision for Host's 2025 publishing program holds!

We're looking for poetry and fiction (short stories or novellas) full-length manuscripts submissions between September 13th, 2024 through October 15th, 2024. Please review the finer details of our general guidelines on our submissions page.

• Submissions are open to any US-based poet or fiction writer. Though we love and have historically published works in translation, all submissions for this period must be original work written in English.
• Our reading fee is $15, however a limited number of free entries will be available for writers for whom the reading fee presents a financial hardship. Please contact us at editors@hostpublications.com.
• We encourage to all who submit that familiarize themselves with our most recent publications. You may purchase our titles on our website or through our distributor. 
• Submissions will be reviewed and participants will be notified by February 1st, 2024.

We can't wait to read your poetry and short fiction manuscripts! As always, thanks for listening <3

Happy Women in Translation Month!

In this episode, we discuss the works by women in translation that have been blowing our socks off this month. We talk about literary celebrities in the small press world, how their books have opened our minds, and taught us something new about literature.

The books we discussed in this episode are:

Tentacle by Rita Indiana

Autobiography of Death by Kim Hyesoon 

In Conversation with mónica teresa ortiz

In this episode, we had the immense honor to chat with mónica teresa ortiz, author of book of provocations, the inaugural winner of the Joe W. Bratcher Prize for Poetry. mónica teresa ortiz (they / them) is a poet, memory worker, and critic born, raised, and based in Texas.

In book of provocations, mónica teresa ortiz posits that the most important role of the poet is that of “provocateur, to prod the audience, to interpret a visible and invisible world, to unveil secrets through the communication of language, sound, and meaning.” Tender and radical, these poems offer an unflinching look into the present, which they see with a brutal clarity.

 

With the Joe W. Bratcher Prize, Host Publications aims to amplify the kind of work that Joe was most passionate about—poetry that pushes the boundaries of form, art and culture, poetry that is urgent in its subject matter, poetry with a heart that beats for change.

In this conversation, we talk about the origins of mónica's radical poetry, and how their work has evolved since we published their chapbook autobiography of a semiromantic anarchist in 2019. Some of the recommended works mónica cites in this episode are:

1. Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo Galleano
2. The works of Kwame Nkrumah 
3. The works of Aime Cesaire
4. The Great Camouflage by Suzanne Cesaire
5. The works of Khaled Mattawa

 

Celebrating Queer Poets

In this episode, we discuss the importance not only of amplifying queer rights, but the ways in which queer activism can work to advocate for the liberation of all, with Pride month events this year donating proceeds to efforts for Palestinian liberation and relief funds. One such event in Austin this year is Sunbird Fest, an arts and education festival organized by Austin community members in solidarity with Palestine happening June 20-23, all proceeds will go toward humanitarian relief in Gaza. More information including the complete list of fundraisers, how they are vetted, and how Sunbird Festival is handling proceeds here.

Considering themes of liberation, we take a close look at the work of three queer poets whose work we admire, Host's very own m. mick powell (author of threesome in the last Toyota Celica & other circus tricks,) Destiny Hemphill, and Cedar Sigo. 

How the Hell Do You End a Poem?

This episode dives head first into the age old question: how the hell do you end a poem? Investigating the endings of three poems by poets we admire, we discuss the various strategies poets use to make a grand (or subtle, or repetitive, or mysterious) exit. 

In this episode, we use this amazing list of 50 ways to end a poem, curated by the poet Emily Skaja, as a kind of map to guide us along the way. 

 

The poems we discuss in this episode are:

"Romanticism 101" by Dean Young

"Person" and "Listening to Billie Holiday" by Blanca Varela
"Upon Practicing a Second Language" by Ae Hee Lee

In Conversation with Stephanie Niu

To kick off season 5 (!!) we has the chance to chat with the winner of the Spring 2024 Host Publications Chapbook Prize, Stephanie Niu about her incredible chapbook, Survived By: an Atlas of Disappearance. 

Stephanie is a Chinese-American poet, digital humanities scholar, and ecology enthusiast from Marietta, Georgia. She is the author of She Has Dreamt Again of Water, winner of the 2021 Diode Editions Chapbook Contest, and the editor of Our Island, Our Future: A Zine of Youth Poetry from Christmas Island. Her poems have appeared in Copper Nickel, Missouri Review, Georgia Review, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of a Fulbright scholarship for community archiving research on Christmas Island’s immigration and labor history.

Stephanie regales us with stories from Christmas Island, the remote Australian territory that is woven through many of the poems in Survived By, animating the extinct, endangered, and recovering species of the island through visual poems that chronicle the extinction crisis.

We talk about the possible links between the poetic and scientific practices, what poetry as "atlas" might mean, how her poems try attempt to understand the scale and scope of ecological crisis through a human sensibility, how engaging with other art forms, studies, and obsessions can fuel our poetry, and much more. 

Some things we discussed in this episode:

"What is it Like to Be a Bat?" scientific paper by Thomas Nagel 

Dear Memory by Victoria Chang

Shell hall in the American Museum of Natural History

 

In Conversation with m. mick powell

In this episode, we had the immense pleasure of talking with our forthcoming poet and author of the chapbook threesome in the last Toyota Celica & other circus tricks m. mick powell! We talked about everything from digital collage and it's relationship to mick's poetry practice, to the way the organization of a book of poems can be inspired by the way an album is composed. mick's brilliance and depth as a poet is undeniable, and their warmth as a conversationalist made for an uplifting discussion about poetry and art making! 

 

m. mick powell (she/they) is a queer Black Cape Verdean femme, a poet, an artist, and an Aries. Their poems have been nominated for the Best of the Net Anthology and a Pushcart Prize, and appear in Muzzle, Frontier Poetry, Up the Staircase Quarterly, and elsewhere. A 2023 Tin House Resident and professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies, mick enjoys chasing waterfalls and being in love. Keep up with her at mickpowellpoet.com and on IG @mickmakesmagic.art

 

Here are some links to books and other media discussed in this episode: 

Mick's Interview with Working on Gallery

Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals by Saidiyah Hartman

Anything by Morgan Parker

Janelle Monáe's album Age of Pleasure 

I Will Destroy You - British black comedy-drama limited series created, written, co-directed, and executive produced by Michaela Coel

Poetry and The Primal

Hello Wildlings! In this episode, Claire and Annar discuss the idea of the primal in poetry, how and why we might tap into our most raw and instinctive urges in the making of a poem, to explore "the unknown capacities of the mind and heart" (Dean Young). In a sprawling but intimate conversation about fueling the fire of imagination, empathy and a spirit of desire unhindered by doubt, this episode dives in head first, discussing the work of these brilliant poets:

The Art of Recklessness by Dean Young

Solar Throat Slashed by Aimé Césaire 

Alphabet in the Park by Adélia Prado

Celebrating Women in Translation Month 2023!

In this episode, Annar and Claire celebrate one of their favorite literary months, Women in Translation Month, by turning to the work of a couple of the podcast's favorite poets - Yi Lu and Alejandra Pizarnik. Discussing themes of loss, eco-poetry, drama and surrealism, these two poets were a perfect pairing for the celebration of women in translation. 

The books featured on this episode are:

Yi Lu's Sea Summit (formerly featured on the Earth Day episode with Host Poet Julie Howd!)

Alejandra Pizarnik's The Last Innocence / The Lost Adventures