Book Fight

We discuss Jeff Sharlet's Instagram essay, created with the hashtag #Nightshift and later featured on Longreads (you can check it out here). We also talk more generally about the possibilities of using social media for storytelling. In the second half of the show we answer a listener question about cover letters and, in preparation for National Novel Writing Month, we visit the NaNoWriMo forums to see how we should be prepping for next month's fun. 

For more, visit us online at bookfightpod.com

Direct download: Ep97-Instagram_Essay.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

This week we've got a pair of guests, Kelly Phillips and Claire Folkman, editors of Dirty Diamonds: An All-Girl Comics Anthology, and recent winners of a Philly Geek Award. They've chosen Emily Carroll's Through the Woods for us to read, and they try to teach us how to approach comic stories. We talk about the relationship between text and image, ambiguous endings and spooky stories.

In the second half of the show we talk to Claire and Kelly about their work with Dirty Diamonds, their own comics, crying at pop concerts and the enduring legacy of Weird Al.

For more, visit us online at bookfightpod.com.  

Direct download: Ep96-Carroll_ThroughTheWoods.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

This week's reading is an essay about college binge drinking from a recent issue of Okey-Panky. We contemplate what an un-themed season of Book Fight might look like, plus Tom talks about his recent arguments with his publisher over the title of his book.

For more, visit us online at bookfightpod.com

Direct download: Ep95-Washuta-Consumption.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

This week's book was a donor pick, and man it sure was weird. Jelinek won the Nobel Prize just before this novel came out, though the award was not without controversy (one committee member actually resigned his post in protest). We try to make sense of the book's structure and prose, as well as its views on male sexuality. Then we talk about fan fiction for a while, since that's kind of our thing. 

For more, check us out online at bookfightpod.com

Direct download: Ep94-JelinekGreed.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

Summer is coming to an end, and so is our Summer of Love feature. Join us for one final lap in the pool as we discuss this second-person story about how you're a real creep who should maybe stop treating women like objects.

Also this week: hot takes on Kim Davis and the Duke freshman who won't read Fun Home because of boobies. 

For more, visit us online at bookfightpod.com.

Direct download: Summer6_Barthelme.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:01am EDT

We welcome special guest Helen McClory this week, who traveled all the way from Scottland to make us discuss the new novel by Rachel B. Glaser, Paulina & Fran, about an art-school social circle revolving around a woman perhaps most charitably described as "difficult." McClory tells us why she loves problem characters, and books that explore relationships between women. She also talks about her school days in Scottland, her obsession with monsters--and with weird American food--and we ask her questions about her recent American tour in support of her book, On the Edges of Vision, from Queen's Ferry Press.

As always, you can find more, including links to things we talked about on the show, at our website, bookfightpod.com

Direct download: Ep93-Glaser-RachelFran.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

This week's story is one of Tom's favorites, which he teaches often as an antidote to his usual depressing fare. Though it's debatable whether D'Ambrosio's story of a man caring for his psychologically troubled son is really a happy one? We talk about whether "reading as a writer" ruins your understanding of what non-writers might want to read. We also talk about some of history's (and pop culture's) worst dads. And we take a question from a listener about whether the way a person falls in love changes over time.

For more, as always, visit us online at bookfightpod.com

Direct download: Summer5_Dambrosio.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

Duras wrote this short, 110-page novel late in her career, in 1984, claiming it was "purely autobiographical," which created a bit of a scandal in certain corners, since the plot revolves around an affair a 15-year-old girl carries on with a 27-year-old man in what was then French Indochina. 

We talk about the perhaps unconventional power dynamics of that romantic relationship, Duras's mother and brothers, who also feature heavily in the book, and short novels more generally. We also see if we can make heads or tails of some grad-school questions about this book, and Tom's got another installment of Raccoon News.

For more, as always, you can visit us online at bookfightpod.com

Direct download: Ep92-Duras-TheLover.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

This week we revisit a story about adultery from Lorrie Moore's debut story collection, Self-Help. We talk about Moore's strengths as a story writer, the relative ethics of adultery, and why we both use Moore's work in our classes. 

Also this week: we answer a question from a listener about their upcoming nuptials, and we learn about whether pets can, in fact, love their owners.

For more, as always, you can visit us online at bookfightpod.com.  

Direct download: Summer4_Moore.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

Tom tries to get Mike to enjoy some science fiction, and Mike says: no, thank you. We discuss predictions of the future, annoying robots, 90s slang, and information overload. Also this week, a new edition of Fan Fiction Corner, featuring a very sexy story set in the Nintendo universe. 

For more, including links to things we talked about in the show, visit us online at bookfightpod.com

Direct download: Ep91-StephensonSnowCrash.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EDT