The Host Dispatch: A Literary Podcast

In Conversation with lily someson

Welcome to Season 2 of the Host Dispatch!

We're so thrilled to kick off Season 2 conversing with the warm and magical poet, lily someson. lily is the Spring 2021 Host Publications Chapbook Prize winner for her chapbook called mistaken for loud comets, forthcoming in February 2021.

lily someson (she/they) is a poet and essayist from Chicago. She has obtained a B.A. in Poetry from Columbia College Chicago and is a winner of the 2020 Eileen Lannan poetry prize with the Academy of American Poets. She has read at the Poetry Foundation’s Open Door Reading Series and has also been published/is forthcoming in Court Green, Queeriosity (Young Chicago Authors), and Columbia Poetry Review among others. She is currently a first-year Poetry MFA student at Vanderbilt University and an assistant poetry editor of the Nashville Review.

mistaken for loud comets is a collection of poems that peers deeply into experiences around incarceration, queerness, and the Black body in America. This is deeply personal work, and there is a tender heart at the center of this chapbook that made us fall in love with it at first sight.

The pre-order link is live on our website, hostpublications.com, and the first 100 pre-orders will receive a fun party pack of accompaniments to Lily’s work. 

On February 27^th, tune in at 7pm to the Malvern Books’ YouTube channel for the book launch for mistaken for loud comets and join us for a special reading by lily someson followed by a Q&A.

Submissions OPEN for the Host Publications Chapbook Prize!

We are delighted to announce that the Host Publications Chapbook Prize will be open for submissions from January 20th-March 15th. Two selected manuscripts will be published, one in the Fall of 2021 and one in the Spring 2022. Prize winners will be announced May 15th. 

ABOUT THE HOST PUBLICATIONS CHAPBOOK PRIZE

The Host Publications Chapbook prize awards a womxn writer $1000 + 20 author copies, dedicated, extensive editorial work from our skilled editors, a book launch at Malvern Books (pandemic permitting) and energetic promotion from our staff.  

Our chapbooks are perfect-bound, feature striking cover designs, each receive an ISBN, and are distributed nationally. We treat our chapbooks just like full-length titles in terms of aesthetics, production, marketing, and editorial love and care.

Submissions are open to any US-based womxn poet writing in English, regardless of publication history. We strive to elevate voices of marginalized groups who have been historically silenced. Writers of color, LGBTQ+ writers, disabled writers, immigrant writers: you are all welcome and wanted here. 

We are not looking for any particular kind of poetry, but are open to all kinds of poetry with the exception of translated works. Please familiarize yourself with what we’ve published so far by checking out our former prize winners: mónica teresa ortiz, Stephanie Goehring, Julie Howd, Claudia Delfina Cardona and lily someson. 

Our reading fee is $10. You may submit additional manuscripts for an additional reading fee for each. A limited number of free entries are available for poets for whom the reading fee presents a hardship. (email us at submissions.hostpublications [at] gmail.com for details.)  

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Once the submission fee is purchased, you will see a download PDF link (and be emailed a link as well). The PDF will review our submission guidelines and under "FORM LINK" you will see a clickable link to our application.

Submit a manuscript of 30-40 pages (in .docx and .pdf formats), set in 12-point font in Times New Roman or equivalent. Each poem should begin on its own page. We do not accept hard copy submissions. 

While individual poems may have appeared in journals, magazines, etc., the manuscript as a whole must be previously unpublished. 

Reading fee of $10. You may submit additional manuscripts for an additional reading fee for each. A limited number of free entries are available for poets for whom the reading fee presents a hardship. (email us at submissions.hostpublications@gmail.com for details.)  

Simultaneous submissions are welcome. Please let us know if it is a simultaneous submission, and notify us immediately if the work is accepted elsewhere. If we accept your piece, please withdraw it from consideration elsewhere.

Note: By submitting, you agree to let us send you the occasional email newsletter with relevant announcements. You may opt out at any time.

 

 

Haunted Christmas Tales

In this episode, we discuss the age-old tradition of reading ghost stories on Christmas! Here are the books we discuss in this episode:

The Green Room by Walter de la Mare

Christmas Eve on a Haunted Hulk by Frank Cowper

The Diary of Mr. Poynter by M. R. James

The Night Before Christmas by Nikolai Gogol

This is the last episode of Season 1, and we want to thank you for listening from the bottom of our hearts. 

For season two of The Host Dispatch, we want to connect more with our community and to get your voices in the mix! We plan to read listener stories, poems and experiences on air. To that end, I’d like to put out a call for submissions for the beginning of season 2:

"2020 has been such a difficult year for so many of us, in ways we never could have imagined. There has been so much suffering and loss due to the pandemic, so much social upheaval in pursuit of justice for black lives, and the bipoc community, and the conversation won’t end here. As a community of book lovers, I feel we’ve learned that books are not only an escape from reality, but can be tools we use to cope with and better understand our reality. I know I’ve learned just how powerful a book can be in helping to change the minds and hearts of those who are willing to listen. To that end, we want to hear from you: Tell us What book has helped you cope this year? What book feels like the most important book for the year 2020? What should we be reading to carry us into the new year, to face whatever challenges may come in 2021?

We want to hear about your experience with these books, and to create a powerful reading list to share with our listeners and our community to kick off 2021 in the best way possible! All genres welcome!"

Celebrating Native American Heritage Day

In this minisode, Host editors Annar and Claire offer ways in which to pay respect to native people during the ever-problematic Thanksgiving holiday and its frightening capitalist cousin, Black Friday, which has been deemed Native American Heritage Day. This is a time to honor indigenous cultures, and to educate ourselves about the history of this land, and the challenges Native people have faced both historically and in the present, and the ways in which we can be of service to their communities.

Annar offers three easy ways to get involved in Native American Heritage Month:

Get Educated

- https://nativeamericanheritagemonth.gov

- https://www.nps.gov/index.htm

Donate

- https://collegefund.org

- https://www.firstpeoplesfund.org

- https://www.navajohopisolidarity.org

Practice Land Acknowledgment

- https://nativegov.org/a-guide-to-indigenous-land-acknowledgment/

 

Claire and Annar also discuss a new poetry collection, When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry edited by US poet Laureate, Joy Harjo.

 

In Conversation with Poet Julie Howd

In this episode, Host editors Claire and Annar converse with the delightful poet, Julie Howd.

Julie is a poet and educator from Massachusetts. She is the author of Threshold winner of the Spring 2020 Host Publications Chapbook prize.

Julie’s poetry is a delightful force, and the poet has come to consider herself an “eco-surrealist” writing poetry that is deeply in tune with the threats facing our natural world, our sanity, and our joy.

In this conversation, Julie and the Host team discuss some of the poems in Threshold, what kinds of toast they’ve been making these days, how many blankets are appropriate to use when working from home, where poetry comes from, and a bevy of other hilarities and affairs facing the life of the artist in the year 2020.

Julie's chapbook, Threshold, will be the next selection for the Host Chapbook Club, for the Dec. 10th meeting. You can buy a copy here and sign up for the Chapbook Club here. 

Here are links to some of the books, music, TV shows and more discussed in this episode:

Threshold Chapbook Club Event

Octave of Light - Compositions by David Ibbett for the Museum of Science in Boston's Multiverse Series

Weighted blanket that feels like a real blanket

The Musical Brain by César Aira

Jack Spicer's Vancouver Lectures

Hoa Nguyen

Maria Bamford, Lady Dynamite

Toast recipe to pair with Threshold 

Spooky BooOooks

In this episode, the Host Publications team chats about the scary books they've been reading get into the spirit of Halloween from home this year. They discuss the new HBO Series Lovecraft Country, the Horror genre and subgenres, & what makes a book scary. 

The books discussed in this episode are:

Dracula by Bram Stoker

R E D by Chase Berggrun

Rogomelec by Leonor Fini (“ROGUE – MELL- IC”)

The Great Nocturnal: Tales of Dread by Jean Ray

& The Dunwich Horror by H. P. Lovecraft

 

Stay tuned after the episode for some special bonus content, where Annar and Claire talk about vampire movies, and our personal favorite Halloween costumes. 

In Conversation with Poet Claudia Delfina Cardona

In this episode, Host Editors Annar Veröld and Claire Bowman chat with Claudia Delfina Cardona, winner of the Fall 2020 Host Publications Chapbook Prize.

Claudia is a talented poet born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. Claudia is the co-founder of Chifladazine, a zine that highlights creative work by Latinas and Latinxs, and co-founder of Infrarrealista Review, a literary journal for Texan writers. You can find out more about Claudia and her work on her website, https://claudiadelfinacardona.com and follow her in Instagram @mexistentialism.

In this episode, Claudia tells us about her collection What Remains, the experiences that inspired those poems, her philosophies as an artist, poets who have influenced her, and much more.

If you are listening to this episode before October 10th, 2020: We will be virtually hosting the book launch for What Remains on Saturday, October 10^th  at 7PM. It is free and open to all. Please join us in celebrating this beautiful book, with a reading and virtual party you won’t want to miss. You can find more information about the reading on our website hostpublications.com, on Instagram @hostpublications, or at Malvernbooks.com  

Mayor's Book Club Read Local: In Conversation with Kate Kelly

In this episode, Host editors Annar and Claire are joined by friend of the podcast, Kate Kelly. Kate is an incredible poet, editor and educator, and currently serves as the Programs Manager for The Library Foundation in Austin, Texas. In this episode, she introduces the lineup for this year’s Mayor’s Book Club Read Local campaign, featuring a list of over fifty books written by Austin authors this year.

In 2020, the expansion of the Mayor's Book Club to include all books published by Austin authors promotes Austin’s rich literary scene and, in particular, many Austin authors whose titles might not have gotten the attention they deserve due to COVID-19.

Kate provides recommendations and insight into the Mayor's Book Club Read Local authors, books, workshops and book talks, as well as some key tips for how to be a happy, organized and mayor-quality human in these unprecedented times. You can check out the programming for The Mayor’s Book Club at austinlibrary.org where you can sign up for all virtual events for free.

To can see what else Kate is up to, including links to some of her published work, check out her website or follow her on Instagram @katekellytho

In Conversation with Poet Taisia Kitaiskaia

In this very special episode, we were honored to interview the charming and inimitable poet, Taisia Kitaiskaia.

Taisia Kitaiskaia is a Russian-American poet and writer, and a dear friend of the podcast. In this interview, we discuss her forthcoming book of poems THE NIGHTGOWN AND OTHER POEMS (Deep Vellum, 2020), among other things, including: toads, luxury quarantine snacks, munchkin icon Danny DeVito, and ham sandwiches.

Taisia is also the author of LITERARY WITCHES, a collaboration with artist Katy Horan celebrating magical women writers; a divination deck, THE LITERARY WITCHES ORACLE; and two books of experimental advice from a witch of Slavic folklore, ASK BABA YAGA: OTHERWORLDLY ADVICE FOR EVERYDAY TROUBLES and its forthcoming sequent, POETIC REMEDIES FOR TROUBLED TIMES FROM ASK BABA YAGA. Please check out all of her books and other projects, like her incredible illustrations, on her website.

Women in Translation Month Roundtable

In this episode, we're excited to share our Women in Translation roundtable discussion with the founder of Host Publications, Joe Bratcher!

Women in Translation Month was launched in 2014, a creation of literary blogger Meytal Radzinski as a response to her observation that only around 30% of books published in translation were by women. At Host Publications, we celebrate women in translation all year round, but August is a special time of year to elevate those writers and share some of our favorites with you!

The Host 88 titles we discussed in this episode are:

• Voices from the Bitter Core by URSULA KRECHEL translated by Amy Kepple Strawser
• Women and Clothes by BRIGITTE KRONAUER trans. By Jutta Ittner
• Reason Enough by Ida Vitale trans. By Sarah Pollack
• Ambers Aglow: An Anthology of Contemporary Polish Women’s Poetry trans. By Regina Grol

These titles can be found on our website, hostpublications.com

We also discussed:

• I Remember Nightfall by Marosa di Giorgio trans. by Jeannine Pitas
• The Collected Poems of Chika Sagawa trans. by Sawako Nakayasu

We recommend shopping these titles on Bookshop.org, where a portion of all sales goes to supporting small, locally owned bookstores across the nation.