TRANSMISSIONS: Books of Some Substance

TRANSMISSIONS: Books of Some Substance

June 13, 2024  ·  Interviews & Reviews

Welcome to Transmissions, an interview feature in which X-R-A-Y profiles podcasts. Books Of Some Substance can be found at the website, Apple podcasts and YouTube. David Southard reads. He’s written a book or two. Maybe he’ll write another someday. He co-hosts the Books Of Some Substance podcast from his home in South Korea. Nathan Sharp is a graphic designer, an amateur motorcycle mechanic, an explorer of sounds, a reader of fictions, a collector of cameras, and a fixer of discarded things. He co-hosts the Books of Some Substance podcast and lives with his partner and his cat in California.   Rebecca…

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TRYING TO FIND SOMETHING BETTER: An Interview with Steve Gergley

TRYING TO FIND SOMETHING BETTER: An Interview with Steve Gergley

June 11, 2024  ·  Interviews & Reviews

Since 2022’s A Quick Primer on Wallowing in Despair: Stories (LEFTOVER Books) Steve Gergley has been steadily and consistently adding to an impressive body of work. The Great Atlantic Highway & Other Stories (Malarkey, 2024) is a showcase for Gergley’s specialties, and reflects the ache at the center of modern existence. Contemporary fables grounded in grit follow tales of high weirdness, and the mundane frequently threatens to be undone. A fuzz pedal is just as likely to be encountered as a strange angel. I spoke to Steve about the collection.       Rebecca Gransden: Like it always felt like…

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TRANSMISSIONS: Another Fucking Writing Podcast

TRANSMISSIONS: Another Fucking Writing Podcast

May 28, 2024  ·  Interviews & Reviews

Tyler Dempsey is the author of 4 books. He hosts Another Fucking Writing Podcast and lives in Utah with his dog. Another Fucking Writing Podcast can be found here and at Patreon. Rebecca Gransden: How would you describe the podcast to someone who is unfamiliar with what you do? Tyler Dempsey: It’s kind of a literary podcast. Kind of. I don’t know anything about writing. Don’t have the language to talk about craft or know what a Hermit Crabcake or Villanelle is. I just fell in love with books in college. And, when I’d finish a good one, always hunted…

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LOSS, GRIEF, SADNESS, MAGIC: An Interview with Bradley Sides

LOSS, GRIEF, SADNESS, MAGIC: An Interview with Bradley Sides

May 22, 2024  ·  Interviews & Reviews

In Crocodile Tears Don’t Cause the Flood (Montag Press, 2024), Bradley Sides folds heavy themes like grief and loss into lighter elements like magic, resulting in an experimental short-story collection that feels relatable even at its most uncanny. Set very firmly in the South, each of Sides’ stories hums with an inventive playfulness that always complements, never overwhelms, the narrative. Sides was kind enough to answer a few of my questions about his craft, his collection, and more.   Elizabeth Crowder: What was your inspiration for Crocodile Tears Didn’t Cause the Flood? Bradley Sides: The book had kind of a…

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LOVE IS A SHITPOST FROM THE SOUL: A Profile of Cash Compson by K Hank Jost

LOVE IS A SHITPOST FROM THE SOUL: A Profile of Cash Compson by K Hank Jost

May 20, 2024  ·  Interviews & Reviews

“You ever waste much time with this guy?” Cash has removed from the bookshelf a tattered volume of Hunter S. Thompson. He holds it aloft with a smirk I will come increasingly to recognize as punctuation to a dry joke.  The both of us are now newly in our thirties, young but fresh in our next decade, and our trip to the bookstore has largely been a coming to terms with all that we once read and held sacred. Kerouac. Bukowski. Thompson. Hemingway. All the etceterated, quintessential, sensitive but itchy-fisted guy-reads. The one, though, that we mutually hold in unshakeable…

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X-R-A-Y Specs: THE PLUMBER (1979)

X-R-A-Y Specs: THE PLUMBER (1979)

March 22, 2024  ·  Interviews & Reviews

I don’t think Max’s colonization of the bathroom is an accident. It’s a place where we feel vulnerable, and many times we attach a lock to the door to prevent others from walking in unannounced.

Katharine Coldiron

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