The Host Dispatch: A Literary Podcast

In Conversation with Chiagoziem Jideofor

In this episode, we had the immense honor to chat with Chiagoziem Jideofor, author of local remedies, 

In local remedies, Chiagoziem Jideofor speaks through memory, myth and strangeness to interpret lived and inherited experiences, and in this conversation we talk about everything from the Igbo Uri art form that is featured on the cover, to the way poems are like very different fruits that grow on the same tree—a tree that doesn't belong to anyone, but is ours collectively to tend and to share.

 

Chiagoziem is so fun to talk to, and brings such an engaging and meditative presence to the conversation on this feral podcast. We loved getting to learn more about her and about local remedies, and we're so honored to share this humorous and wise poet's work with you. As always, thanks for listening! 

In Conversation with dezireé a. brown

In this episode, we dive deep into the creative practices and philosophies of the brilliant gamer, poet, professor, scholar, and the most charismatic introvert we know, dezireé a. brown! 

Dez's debut poetry collection, they/she/he: ritual to forget your (un)becoming, won the 2025 Joe W. Bratcher Prize, for its immense tenderness, singular experimentation, and refusal to conform to what we think we know about poetry.

Influenced by video game worlds, choose-your-own adventures, and a multifaceted collective of Mesopotamian goddesses, speaking with Dez about this collection led to the most engaging conversation about gender, transformation, and healing, as well as video games and the space they can create for us to imagine ourselves into a better future. 

We know you'll love this conversation with this inimitable poet. As always, thanks for listening! 

 

In Conversation with Summer Farah

What a maximalist joy it was to speak with Summer Farah, Palestinian American editor, zine-maker and author of THE HUNGERING YEARS! In this conversation, we geek out about our poetic obsessions, and pick Summer's brain about her relationship to digital collage, Etel Adnan, and Supernatural, just to name a few. Listen to this wild conversation for a boost of creative energy, and enjoy the sneak preview into Summer Farah's magnetic collection, THE HUNGERING YEARS, available at hostpublications.com 

Please join us in making a donation to The Sameer Project  by supporting one of their campaigns or purchasing books (including Summer's chapbook I Could Die Today and Live Again) through Open Books' Workshops for Gaza Bookstore

In Conversation with heidi andrea restrepo rhodes

After a long hiatus (while we converted to nonprofit and published 4 new books!) we're back with Season 6 of The Host Dispatch!

We're thrilled to be kicking off this season with a very special episode, a conversation with one of our all-time favorite creatures, heidi andrea restrepo rhodes! heidi is the author of Wayward Creatures, which we had the privilege to publish in August of 2025. After a delightful set of readings and an incredible author panel to celebrate Wayward Creatures, we hopped on the mics to talk with heidi about the poet's right to opacity, cultivating a perpetual curiosity, queer joy in the ocean, and much more! We're so happy to be back, and we hope you enjoy the episode! 

This is a monster of a book, an ecology of being in which all bodies are poems and all poems are bodies. rhodes asks the reader: How does the poem of us begin? Then, proceeds to dismantle the notion of beginning and ending. In Wayward Creatures, time is a branch from which we fruit, die, and bud again. It is the dark unknowable depth of space. It is the constellatory nature of queer love. Tucked into these pages is the book of crip dreams, which is a kind of scripture, and is also the book you are touching now—with your hot and human hands. — Gala Mukomolova, author of Without Protection

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