Episodes
Friday Dec 24, 2021
Happy Jolabokaflöd!
Friday Dec 24, 2021
Friday Dec 24, 2021
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
Tuesday Dec 07, 2021
In Conversation with Cecily Sailer, Founder of Typewriter Tarot
Tuesday Dec 07, 2021
Tuesday Dec 07, 2021
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 !
Tuesday Oct 26, 2021
SpoOOoky Books: The Women of Weird Tales
Tuesday Oct 26, 2021
Tuesday Oct 26, 2021
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!
Tuesday Oct 05, 2021
In Conversation with Sequoia Maner
Tuesday Oct 05, 2021
Tuesday Oct 05, 2021
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!
Tuesday Aug 17, 2021
Happy Women In Translation Month!
Tuesday Aug 17, 2021
Tuesday Aug 17, 2021
This year, we've put together the first official Host Publications Women In Translation Month Reading List, which includes many of our all-time favorite WIT titles, some new faves, a few books that are on our "to-read" lists, and even some books translated by women.
In this episode, we discuss our beloved WIT reading list, before diving into three amazing books we wanted to highlight:
A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa, with translations by the author (Biblioasis)
Our Lady of The Nile by Scholastique Mukasonga, translated by Melanie Mauthner (Archipelago Books)
Yi Sang: Selected Works with translations by Don Mee Choi and Sawako Nakayasu (Wave Books)
Wednesday Aug 04, 2021
Introducing: The Austin Youth Poet Laureate Program
Wednesday Aug 04, 2021
Wednesday Aug 04, 2021
The Austin Youth Poet Laureate program has landed in Austin! We here at Host Publications are thrilled to partner with the Library Foundation and the National Youth Poet Laureate Program led by Urban Word, with additional support from the Austin Public Library, Creative Learning Initiative, and Learn All The Time.
In this episode, we discuss the details of this exciting new program for young writers in Austin, and all of the benefits that it offers them, for their writing, their confidence, and for their engagement with their communities.
We had the opportunity to speak with the inaugural Teaching Artists who ran the application workshops this year, to hear about their experiences in the workshops and to get a better sense of what this program will offer young writers in Austin.
We spoke with Bianca Perez: (she/her) Bianca was born and raised in Mission, Texas – a small southern town bordering Mexico. She is currently an MFA Poetry candidate at Texas State University. Her poems have been published in The New York Quarterly, Re-side Magazine, Magma Poetry UK, ReclamationATX, Psst! Press’ The Sappho Diaries, and East French Press. Forthcoming in The Ice Colony Anthology. She is also the co-host of a horror podcast with writer Stephanie Grossman. Her poetry centers on her Latin culture, spirituality, family, and womanhood.
We also spoke with Steven Espada Dawson: (he/him) is a writer from East Los Angeles, currently working out of Austin. The son of a Mexican immigrant, he holds an MFA in poetry from Purdue University. He has served as poetry editor for Sycamore Review and Copper Nickel. Winner of the Barriss and Iola Mills Award and the Kneale Award, his poems have appeared recently or are forthcoming in The Adroit Journal, Best New Poets 2020, Colorado Review, Copper Nickel, Gulf Coast, Hobart, Kenyon Review Online, Split Lip Magazine, and Waxwing, among other journals.
We want to encourage any and all interested folks to apply for the Youth Poet Laureate position this year by Sunday, August 15, 2021, at 11:59pm, or to take the Application Workshops next year for a fully immersive creative experience. Head on over to the Library Foundation's website for more information on how to apply, and follow Library Foundation ATX and Host Publications on social media for updates on deadlines, the inaugural winner, readings and the forthcoming chapbook!
Wednesday Jul 07, 2021
Beach Reads!
Wednesday Jul 07, 2021
Wednesday Jul 07, 2021
In this episode, the Host team deconstructs and reimagines the idea of a "Beach Read," offering three unlikely candidates for this year's summer reading list that don't quite fit in with the mass-marketing schemes of the "Beach Read" convention:
Wild Milk by Sabrina Orah Mark
The Hour of The Star by Clarice Lispector
and The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
Tuesday Jun 01, 2021
In Conversation with Poet Julie Poole
Tuesday Jun 01, 2021
Tuesday Jun 01, 2021
In this episode, Claire and Annar chat with poet and writer extraordinaire, Julie Poole. This episode airs on June 1st, 2021, which is the publication date for Julie's first full-length collection of poetry, Bright Specimen, published by fellow small Texas press, Deep Vellum.
We had an enchanting conversation with Julie about her poems in Bright Specimen, which were inspired by her exploration of the Billie L. Turner Plant Resources Center at The University of Texas at Austin, the largest herbaria in the Southwestern United States.
Julie takes us on a journey into the herbarium, describing what it was like to discover that space, and how it became a sanctuary for her where her poems began to blossom and multiply into this beautiful book.
Working at a small desk in the back of the building in the tower that was a sniper’s outpost in the 1966 UT mass shooting, Julie writes in her afterword that "Nature is the path forward; all of the lessons of unity are there.”
To read more about Julie and her writing, including her incredible essays published in places like HuffPost, Publisher's Weekly and The Texas Observer, visit her website https://www.juliepoolejp.com
Julie Poole was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. She received a BA from Columbia University and an MFA in poetry from The University of Texas at Austin. Her first book of poems, Bright Specimen, was inspired by the Billie L. Turner Plant Resources Center at The University of Texas at Austin and will be published by Deep Vellum on June 1st, 2021. She has received fellowship support from the James A. Michener Center, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, and Yaddo. In 2017, she was a finalist for the Keene Prize for Literature. Her poems and essays have appeared in Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, CutBank, Denver Quarterly, Poet Lore, Cold Mountain Review, HuffPost, and elsewhere. Her arts and culture writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Publishers Weekly, Sightlines, The Texas Observer, and Texas Monthly. She lives in Austin, Texas, with her growing collection of found butterflies.
Wednesday May 26, 2021
One Year Anniversary Minisode!
Wednesday May 26, 2021
Wednesday May 26, 2021
Welcome to the 1 Year Anniversary Episode of the Host Dispatch!
In this episode, we are celebrating the 1 year anniversary of The Host Dispatch with so much joy in our hearts! We are grateful for the opportunity to connect more deeply with each other, with poetry, great literature, and with you, our dear listeners. <3
In this episode, we reflect upon our very first episode, Poetry for Quarantimes, which aired on May 26th, 2020 We discuss the ways in which the world has changed since then, and how it has changed us.
We also bring More Poetry to the table to help us frame our experience of the last year. The books we discuss in this episode are:
Moscow in the Plague Year by Marina Tsvetaeva (Archipelago Books) and
How to Carry Water: Selected Poems by Lucille Clifton (BOA Editions)
This podcast is so dear to our hearts, and it is an honor and a joy to share it with you. As always, thanks for listening.
Thursday Apr 22, 2021
Eco-Surrealism, Silvina Ocampo, and Earth Day with Poet Julie Howd
Thursday Apr 22, 2021
Thursday Apr 22, 2021
In this episode, we had the pleasure of talking again with poet, Julie Howd.
Julie defines her term "Eco-Surrealism" in this episode, and we discuss the intersection of avant-garde poetry and the ever-pressing fight for the health of our planet.
In this context, we discuss the work of Argentinian poet, Silvina Ocampo, specifically her selected poems published by NYRB.
Julie's Eco-Surrealist Recommended Reading List:
Ways to Get Involved for Earth Day
In Austin:
- Check out Austin's Zero Waste Resource Recovery Program
- The Trail Foundation - Weekly Volunteer Opportunities: Ecological Restoration and Trash Clean-up
-
Join the Citizens’ Climate Lobby Austin Chapter to build relationships with elected officials, the media and your local community
- Donate to the Austin Bat Refuge to help conserve the Austin bat population, vital to our local ecosystem
- Volunteer or Donate to Austin Wildlife Refuge (You can also support them by buying merch from their online store!)
- Volunteer or Intern with Environment Texas to protect Texas natural areas from development, to improve enforcement of our clean air laws, and to bring more wind and solar energy to Texas
Nationally:
- Donate to the Rainforest Foundation or check out their list of 10 Things You Can Do to Save the Rainforest
- Donate to the National Park Foundation
- Donate to World Animal Protection
- Donate to 350.org to stand up to the fossil fuel industry to stop all new coal, oil and gas projects and build a clean energy future for all
- Join the Good Food Institute community or Donate to their cause to accelerate alternative protein innovation
- Check out the Coral Restoration Foundation and all the amazing ways to get involved, including hands-on Dive Programs
- Donate or Volunteer with Sea Shepherd Global to help conserve and protect our oceans **Julie's disclaimer: "These guys might be pirates"
Julie Howd is a poet and educator from Massachusetts. She is the author of Threshold (Host Publications, 2020), winner of the Host Publications Chapbook prize, and Talking from the Knees Up (dancing girl press, 2018). She holds an MFA from the University of Texas, Austin, and has received fellowships from the Juniper Summer Writing Institute and the James A. Michener Center. Her work can be found in Sixth Finch, The Spectacle, Deluge, and elsewhere. She lives in Amherst, MA.