The Host Dispatch: A Literary Podcast

Happy Pride Month!

This Pride Month, we are celebrating by making donations to the following organizations that support the LGBTQIA+ community: 

The Okra Project - a collective that seeks to address the global crisis faced by Black Trans people by bringing home cooked, healthy, and culturally specific meals and resources to Black Trans People wherever we can reach them.

Out Youth - Out Youth serves Central Texas LGBTQIA+ youth and their allies with programs and services to ensure these promising young people develop into happy, healthy, successful adults.

In this episode, Claire and Annar discuss some of the queer poets they've been reading lately, with a focus on up-and-coming LGBTQ+ poets with debut collections, including a couple of Host Chapbook Prize Winners! 

The books discussed in this episode are: 

autobiography of a semiromantic anarchist by mónica teresa ortiz

Mistaken for Loud Comets by lily someson

Punks by John Keene

Wound from the Mouth of a Wound by torrin a. greathouse

Burying the Mountain by Shangyang Fang

What the Hell Is a Line Break?

In this episode, Host editors Annar and Claire go back to the basics of poetry, to investigate one of the seemingly simplest yet most elusive poetic elements: the line break. 

 

The poems discussed in this episode come from the following books:

Ariel by Sylvia Plath

Mistaken for Loud Comets by lily someson

Little Girl Blue: Poems by Sequoia Maner

 

In Conversation with Fernando A. Flores

In this episode, Annar and Joe had the chance to sit down with Fernando A. Flores, author of Death to the Bullshit Artists of South Texas, the short story collection that revived Host Publications as we know it after taking a brief hiatus.

 

We always like to say that Death to the Bullshit Artists of South Texas is a psychedelic romp through the Rio Grande Valley music scene. It is collection of 10 punk rock fairy-tales about artists and misfits trying to make noise and live forever in the unforgiving landscape of the Rio Grande Valley.

 

Fernando A. Flores is a writer who grew up in the Rio Grande Valley, near McAllen, Texas. In addition to Death to the Bullshit Artists of South Texas, he is the author of Tears of the Truffle Pig, which was long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and the forthcoming short story collection, Velleyesque, out May 3rd, 2022.

Happy National Poetry Month!

In this episode, Host editors Claire and Annar, and publisher Joe celebrate National Poetry Month by reading a few poems they've been returning to again and again to find inspiration this month. 

 

The poems discussed in this episode are:

"Poetry" by John Keene

"Sailing to Byzantium" by W. B. Yeats

"Black Star Line" by Henry Dumas

"Reading Darwish in Vermont" by Zaina Alsous

 

In Conversation with Maryan Nagy Captan

In this episode, Claire and Annar interview the Spring 2022 Host Publications Chapbook Prize Winner, Maryan Nagy Captan. 

Maryan is a poet, screenwriter and educator living in Austin, Texas. She is a 2021 graduate of the Michener Center for Writers and attended the Disquiet International Literary Conference in 2017 and 2019. Her first book, Copy/Body, was published in 2017 by Empty Set Press and, her second book, Sixteen Rabbits, was the Spring 2022 winner of the Host Publications Chapbook Prize and is now available from Host Publications.

With Maryan, Claire and Annar discuss the poems in Sixteen Rabbits, how Maryan came to poetry as an art form, what it means to be an experimental writer, and much more. 

If you're listening to this episode before March 5th, 2022, please join us in celebrating Maryan at the virtual chapbook launch for Sixteen Rabbits via the Malvern Books YouTube channel. 

Facebook Event Page: here

Malvern Books YouTube: here

In Conversation with Amanda Johnston

Hello, and welcome to *Season 3* of The Host Dispatch!

What an honor it is to share the first episode of Season 3 of The Host Dispatch with you, in conversation with poet, educator, community organizer and founder of TORCH Literary Arts, Amanda Johnston.

Amanda has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine. She is the author of two chapbooks, GUAP and Lock & Key, and the full-length collection Another Way to Say Enter. She has received fellowships, grants, and awards from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, Tasajillo, the Kentucky Foundation for Women, The Watermill Center, and the Austin International Poetry Festival. She is a former Board President of Cave Canem Foundation, a member of the Affrilachian Poets, cofounder of Black Poets Speak Out, and founder of Torch Literary Arts.

TORCH Literary Arts is a nonprofit organization established to publish and promote creative writing by Black women based in Austin, Texas.

Amanda is doing so much for Black women writers, but she also has such a beautiful vision for the future of this newly minted non-profit, including retreats, writing workshops, and more! So keep an eye out for more great things coming soon from TORCH by visiting their website, torchliteraryarts.org, following them on socials @TORCHliteraryarts and if you want to support, please consider joining us in making a donation!

Happy Jolabokaflöd!

This year, the Host team is celebrating the holidays with the Icelandic tradition of Jolabokaflöd, which translates to "great book flood," in which loved ones exchange books on Christmas Eve, curl up by the fireplace and sip on hot cocoa while reading their new books each year.  

The books we gifted each other in this episode are:

Other Peoples's Comfort Keeps Me Up At Night by Morgan Parker

Touch Me Not: A Rare Compendium of the Whole Magical Art edited by Hereward Tilton

Echo Tree: The Collected Short Fiction of Henry Dumas

In Conversation with Cecily Sailer, Founder of Typewriter Tarot

In this episode, Claire and Annar interview Cecily Sailer, a freelance writer writing coach, and the founder of Typewriter Tarot. Growing up an only child in a quiet home, she fell in love at an early age with ghost stories, hidden realities, and anything mysterious and inexplicable. In 2017, she finally picked up a Tarot deck and quickly discovered the power of Tarot as a tool for self-examination, guidance, and connection. She created Typewriter Tarot to offer guidance and inspiration for creative spirits. 

In Cecily’s own words, “Tarot has shown me new truths about myself, new opportunities I might have missed, new invitations to create my life in more meaningful and authentic ways. I created Typewriter Tarot because I wanted to share that with others.”

This business is a passion project for Cecily, and for it she invents new offerings and classes, writes Tarot poems called Mystic Messages, creates meditations and designs rituals for her Patreon members. Check out her YouTube series Cosmic Rescue, which features creative people talking about a creative problem that they explore using Tarot. 

Cecily is a strong proponent of social and climate justice movements, a big believer in reparations (in many forms), and a supporter of land-back, land-rematriation, and water protection movements. 10 percent of Typewriter Tarot’s monthly revenue — sometimes more —is donated to social and climate justice efforts. 

If you’re interested in receiving typewriter tarot content, consider joining the Patreon Membership program. More information can be found at typewritertarot.com, or follow them on Instagram @typewritertarot !

SpoOOoky Books: The Women of Weird Tales

Happy Spooky Season! In this episode, The Host Team dives into a spooky short story anthology titled The Women of Weird Tales, the second book in the series "Monster, She Wrote" by Valancourt Books, which resurrects fiction written by women who were pioneers in the speculative and horror genres.

The Women of Weird Tales includes thirteen fantastic tales originally published between 1925 and 1949, written by four of Weird Tales magazine's most prolific female contributors: Everil Worrell, Eli Colter, Mary Elizabeth Counselman and Greye La Spina. 

We loved this spooky collection, and can't wait to read more books from "Monster, She Wrote" series by Valancourt Books! 

Hope you're having a spooky October, and as always, thanks for listening!

In Conversation with Sequoia Maner

We are beyond excited to share this incredible conversation with the Fall 2021 Host Publications Chapbook Prize Winner, Sequoia Maner!

Sequoia is an Assistant Professor of African American Literature at Spelman College. She is a co-editor of the critical-creative book Revisiting the Elegy in the Black Lives Matter Era (Routledge, 2020) and at work on a forthcoming book regarding Kendrick Lamar's album To Pimp a Butterfly for the 33 1/3 series (Bloomsbury). Her writing has been published in Auburn Avenue, The Feminist Wire, Meridians, Obsidian, The Langston Hughes Review, and other venues. 

In this conversation with Sequoia, we sat back and let her expound on so many thought-provoking topics, including the importance of interiority to the life of the poet and for little blue girls everywhere, the life of Harriet Jacobs and honoring one’s lineage, the music of Tupac and Prince, and so much more!