Monday, August 26, 2024

 Guerrilla Podcasts

                           Bite-sized nutrition for the mind!

Of a Feather, by Susan Israel as read by Elizabeth Bruce

And Endless Stars to Wish Upon, by Tara Campbell

The Limits of Art, by Marianne Szlyk


Susan Israel’s work has recently been published by MacQueen’s Quinterly, 50 Word Stories, Flash Boulevard (where this story was originally published) and is forthcoming in The Dribble Drabble Review and Blink-Ink. Links to her longer works can.be found here: www.susanisrael.net.

Tara Campbell is a writer, teacher, Kimbilio Fellow, and fiction co-editor at Barrelhouse Magazine. Her sixth book, City of Dancing Gargoyles, is forthcoming from Santa Fe Writers Project (SFWP) in September 2024. "And Endless Stars to Wish Upon" was originally published in Twin Pies Literary, October 2022 Find out more at www.taracampbell.com.

Marianne Szlyk thought she was done with writing fiction, but fiction is not done with her. Her most recent book of poetry is Why We Never Visited the Elms.

Musical excerpts from The Entertainer by Scott Joplin, 1902 (Frog Legs, Ragtime era Favorites)

Wednesday, August 7, 2024

Guerrilla Podcasts

                                                        bite-sized nutrition for the mind!

Homelandby Jeff Friedman

Dope Show, by Anthony Ripp

Or Could I Finally Be Allowed To Leave My Analyst? by Hedy Habra

Jeff Friedman is the author of 10 books of poetry and prose, including Ashes in Paradise, The Marksman and Floating Tales. Homeland is from his new book Broken Signals, published by Bamboo Dart Press. 

Anthony Ripp is a storyteller who takes his inspiration from real-life events and enjoys featuring the beauty that is attached to the rusty side of life.

Hedy Habra is a poet, artist and essayist. Her fourth poetry collection, Or Did You Ever See The Other Side? won the 2024 International Poetry Book Awards and was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Awards. www.hedyhabra.com

Musical excerpts from The Entertainer by Scott Joplin, 1902 (Frog Legs, Ragtime era Favorites)


Saturday, July 27, 2024

 Guerrilla Podcasts

    bite-sized nutrition for the Mind








We Drink the Universe in a Cup of Tea, by Ethan Goffman

Mama Isn't Always Right, by Luanne Castle

First Kiss, by John Stanizzi


Ethan Goffman writes fiction so brief it barely exists.

Luanne Castle lives in Arizona, next to a wash that wildlife use as a thoroughfare. She has published two full-length poetry collections, Rooted and Winged and Doll God, which won the New Mexico-Arizona Book Award for Poetry.

John L. Stanizzi is the author of 15 books. His newest releases are Feathers and Bones, Viper Brain, and SEE.


Musical excerpts from The Entertainer by Scott Joplin, 1902 (Frog Legs, Ragtime era Favorites)

Friday, July 12, 2024

Guerrilla Podcasts

    bite-sized nutrition for the mind!


1999, by Francine Witte

Gutter, by Elizabeth Bruce

What's in a Handbag, by Ethan Goffman


Francine Witte is the author of 12 books of poetry and flash. She lives in NYC.  Visit her website at francinewitte.com.

Elizabeth Bruce is a DC-based, Tex-pat fiction author, educator, theatre artist and arts producer. whose new collection, Universally Adored & Other One Dollar Stories, was just published by Vine Leaves Press. She's published fiction in the USA and 13 other countries; her debut novel, And Silent Left the Place, won Washington Writers' Publishing House's Fiction Prize.

Ethan Goffman is a poet, fiction writer, journalist, and teacher. He and his wife, Marianne Szlyk, reside in Rockville, Maryland in a tiny house that contains multitudes.

Musical excerpts from The Entertainer by Scott Joplin, 1902 (Frog Legs, Ragtime era Favorites)



Thursday, July 4, 2024

Review of Klyd Watkins' Roy Acuff and Charley Pride Talk about the Atlanta Braves on the Stage of the Grand Ole Opry and Other Scences



 Klyd Watkins, Roy Acuff and Charley Pride Talk about the Atlanta Braves on the Stage of the Grand Old Opry and Other Scenes, Hand to Mouth, 2024, 43 pp.

Klyd Watkins’ new book reveals his habits of mind and his boundless curiosity, two intertwined qualities.  Both are exemplified in his poem “multiplication.” It begins as a meditation on ants but evolves into a statement on poetry where he compares ants and poets, both humble, both ridiculous. He concludes: “We act like/ it is necessary/ to make it ours. We act like we have to/ always keep it brand/ new.” He responds to Ezra Pound’s call to modern poets to “make it new,” which shaped Modernist poetry from the very beginning. Watkins reminds readers how plentiful poets are and how he himself is just “one more [poet] . . ./ reclaiming for particular generations . . ./ the one and only very/ old/ song.” 

More importantly, Watkins’ poems are fun, and he wears his learning lightly. The Roman poet Ovid refuses to appear in the poem “miracles” until he learns that Hawkman, the “118-th greatest comic book character of all time,” according to writers at Wizard magazine (cited in Wikipedia), will join him. In “words can only beat about the truth, the holy one said,” Watkins supports his point with an anecdote about how truth and the poet Rilke go on a road trip. When truth has to use the bathroom at a 7-11, Rilke lets them out. As a result, the car disappears, which means that in the absence of truth, poetry disappears—even if poetry can’t directly represent the truth. 

Watkins says this in a humorous way without overt anger at readers’ demands for platitudes, poets’ complacency, or the fact that we can’t directly represent the truth. Through these anecdotes, he shows that he is able to add a light touch to his thoughtful, inquisitive poems. In “miracles,” this light touch shows that “the world/ will get some magic in it” whether it is through stories, comic books, or science. Without this element of Watkins’ poetry, these insights may seem undigestible and even too abstract for many readers, particularly when they are made by a poet who has not been “certified” by the academy.

And, of course, there are “yall allow me to be silly” where the poet riffs on angels and nothingness and “It is fun to read Gertrude Stein sometimes” which begins with an imitation of Stein and ends in a catty story about a pretentious male poet whose poem reshuffles her words. Even when Watkins writes a poem with a more traditionally literary premise as in “sonnet – in candy sensual silence (for sweet Emily and the judge),” it is whimsical. Each of these poems highlight not only the poet’s humanity but also the humanity of poetry where the poet can be silly or catty or the literary figure in the poem can simply be in love or lust with someone who is not a poet. In the last poem, both Emily Dickinson and her beau, Judge Otis Phillips Lord, are human beings, two older people in love. 

In Watkins’ hands, no matter what his subject is, with his sometime use of rhyme and his light touch, poetry is musical and fun. I encourage you to spend some time with his poems. Also, check out his videos on YouTube where he blends music and poetry.

To buy Klyd's book, visit this site: https://www.biblio.com/book/roy-acuff-charley-pride-talk-about/d/1606628887?view=1

Here are a couple of his videos. The first is his "Dance" with family and friends:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Tc1rDeXNtI

The second is "Bruce in a Boat with his Saxophone": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq-3zM09Qy4

Enjoy!




Wednesday, June 26, 2024

 Guerrilla Podcasts

           bite-sized nutrition for the mind

     

Why Harbors Become Regattas When the Rich Come to Town, by Ryan Quinn Flanagan

The Day My Mother Takes on Terrorists, by Sharon Waller Knutson, read by Joan Leotta

For Once She Was Good, by Marianne Szlyk 


Ryan Quinn Flanagan is a Canadian-born author who lives in Elliot Lake, Ontario, Canada with his wife and many bears that rifle through his garbage.  His most recent books are Sky Water Gravy (Marathon Books) and Cake Jumping Out of Strippers is Just Vomiting and Other Poems (Dark Heart Press).  His forthcoming book from Roadside Press is titled: These Many Cold Winters of the Heart.

Sharon Waller Knutson has published over 1,000 poems in more than 50 journals and 13 poetry books, including The Vultures Are Circling. She is the founder and editor of Storyteller Poetry Review and has been nominated for a Pushcart prize and Best of the Net.

Marianne Szlyk thought she was done with writing fiction, but fiction is not done with her. Her most recent book of poetry is Why We Never Visited the Elms.

Musical excerpts from The Entertainer by Scott Joplin, 1902 (Frog Legs, Ragtime era Favorites)

Monday, June 10, 2024

Guerrilla Podcasts
        bite-sized nutrition for the mind!



One Last Walk Around Babylon, by Ryan Quinn Flanagan
Sweat, by Elizabeth Bruce
Everything Is Everything, by Ethan Goffman 


Ryan Quinn Flanagan is a Canadian-born author who lives in Elliot Lake, Ontario, Canada with his wife and many bears that rifle through his garbage.  His most recent books are Sky Water Gravy (Marathon Books) and Cake Jumping Out of Strippers is Just Vomiting and Other Poems (Dark Heart Press).  His forthcoming book from Roadside Press is titled: These Many Cold Winters of the Heart.

Elizabeth Bruce is a DC-based, Tex-pat fiction author, educator, theatre artist and arts producer. whose new collection, Universally Adored & Other One Dollar Stories, was just published by Vine Leaves Press. She's published fiction in the USA and 13 other countries; her debut novel, And Silent Left the Place, won Washington Writers' Publishing House's Fiction Prize.

Ethan Goffman is a poet, fiction writer, journalist, and teacher. He resides in Rockville, Maryland with his wife, Marianne Szlyk, cat, Tyler Gottlieb, and an occasional cricket that Tyler makes short work of.

Musical excerpts from The Entertainer by Scott Joplin, 1902 (Frog Legs, Ragtime era Favorites)