CRB Podcasts: Recent Episodes
Cleveland Review of Books
The official podcast of the Cleveland Review of Books, a regionally-focused literary, cultural, and arts criticism journal. The podcast is for audio versions of our articles, discussions centered around pieces we publish, hot topics in arts/cultural/literary circles, and interviews.
We talk with J. Arthur Boyle about his piece, “The Artist’s Self Interest: On Capitalist Fiction.” Stay in touch with us by subscribing to our newsletter. Find subscription plans, print issues, and merch at our online store. Music/beats by producer aLiVE of Muamin Collective.Piece: https://www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/dan-sinykin-big-fictionNewsletter: www.clereviewofbooks.com/newsletterStore: www.clereviewofbooks.com/storeMuamin Collective Bandcamp: muamincollective.bandcamp.com/album/tailor-made
Joined by special guest, fellow editor Alana Pockros, we talk with Emmeline Clein about her piece, “Recipes, Rumors, and Reminiscence: A Literary Cookbook Gift Guide.” “We talk about opulence, decadence, intransigence, dinner parties, the list as form, stealing husbands, anti-fascist pasta, Italian futurism, what Alice Toklas ate during before and after the war, considerations of oysters, and Salvador Dali.” Emmeline’s book “Dead Weight,” a cultural, political, and personal history of disordered eating, comes out in late February from Knopf. Stay in touch with us by subscribing to our newsletter. Find subscription plans, print issues, and merch at our online store. Music/beats by producer aLiVE of Muamin Collective.Piece: https://www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/a-literary-cookbook-gift-guideNewsletter: www.clereviewofbooks.com/newsletterStore: www.clereviewofbooks.com/storeMuamin Collective Bandcamp: muamincollective.bandcamp.com/album/tailor-made
Buy Volume 1, out now, here :) (https://www.clereviewofbooks.com/store/p/volume-01) We talk with Chapman Caddell about his piece “View from the Couch: Success, “The Topeka School,” and “A Fan’s Notes.” Fiction-criticism, criticism-fiction, a loser’s guide to the future of contemporary literature, the careerist novel, “36 on the ACT-core” prose, Henry James in Philly, literary criticism in Argentina, and a young Ben Lerner in the grocery store. Stay in touch with us by subscribing to our newsletter. Find subscription plans, print issues, and merch at our online store. Music/beats by producer aLiVE of Muamin Collective.Piece: https://www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/view-from-the-couch-the-topeka-school-a-fans-notes-the-novelNewsletter: www.clereviewofbooks.com/newsletterStore: www.clereviewofbooks.com/storeMuamin Collective Bandcamp: muamincollective.bandcamp.com/album/tailor-madePieces or Works Mentioned:“The Pound Era” by Hugh Kenner (University of California Press, 1971) (PDF easily available online)“A Golden Age” by Ryan Ruby (article published by Vinduet, April 2023) (https://www.vinduet.no/essayistikk/a-golden-age-ryan-ruby-on-literary-criticism-and-the-internet/)“The Golden Age of the Working Critic”, American Vandal Podcast (Criticism LTD series, hosted by Matt Seybold) (https://marktwainstudies.com/goldenage/)We didn’t specifically talk about this piece, but I’d never heard of Piglia before so this is worth sharing. “Ricardo Piglia’s Prescient Conspiracies” (Article published by the New Yorker in 2017) (https://www.newyorker.com/books/second-read/ricardo-piglias-prescient-conspiracies)“Jock Itch: Toxic Fandom in the Novels of Frederick Exley and Chris Bachelder” by Mina Tavakoli (Article published by Bookforum, July 2022) (https://www.bookforum.com/fiction/toxic-fandom-in-the-novels-of-frederick-exley-and-chris-bachelder-25002)
We talk with Rafaela Bassili about her piece “Andy Warhol Has Been Shot: On Nicole Flattery’s “Nothing Special". It Girls, Invisible yet omnipresent Warhol, Edie Sedgwick (tormenter and tormented), hierarchies of attention-value, fleeing the suburbs for the big city, the difficulty of being cool, avoiding writing preachy, morally simplistic novels, and proto-only fans. Stay in touch with us by subscribing to our newsletter. Find subscription plans, print issues, and merch at our online store. Music/beats by producer aLiVE of Muamin Collective.Piece: https://www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/nicole-flattery-nothing-specialNewsletter: www.clereviewofbooks.com/newsletterStore: www.clereviewofbooks.com/storeMuamin Collective Bandcamp: muamincollective.bandcamp.com/album/tailor-made
We talk with Philip Metres about his upcoming award winning book of translated poems: “Ochre and Rust: New Selected Poems of Sergey Gandlevsky.” Russian Literature as homeland, (self-)imposed exile, close readings, mothers, slant rhyme being cooler than direct end rhyme, retweeting Walter Benjamin, the deficit model of translation, and the music of language. Stay in touch with us by subscribing to our newsletter. Find subscription plans, print issues, and merch at our online store. Music/beats by producer aLiVE of Muamin Collective.Newsletter: www.clereviewofbooks.com/newsletterStore: www.clereviewofbooks.com/storeMuamin Collective Bandcamp: muamincollective.bandcamp.com/album/tailor-madeRegister for Virtual Book Launch: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAtdOqsqTMiG9yBQ_-u_7HVPh4US7Ma453v?mibextid=Zxz2cZ#/registration(Pre-)Order the book: https://www.greenlindenpress.com/books/ochre-and-rust
We talk with Juliet Gelfman-Randazzo about her piece “Still, Observing: On Christine Kwon’s A Ribbon the Most Perfect Blue”. Labor’s relation to and intertwinement with domestic life, femininity, and craft; upper-level seminar close reading mode, good parties and bad parties, bathtubs, Korean and Korean-American poetry, name-checking your influences, pay-to-play poetry prize chapbook publishing, and survival.Stay in touch with us by subscribing to our newsletter. Find subscription plans, print issues, and merch at our online store. Music/beats by producer aLiVE of Muamin Collective.Piece: https://www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/christine-kwon-a-ribbon-the-most-perfect-blueNewsletter: www.clereviewofbooks.com/newsletterStore: www.clereviewofbooks.com/storeMuamin Collective Bandcamp: muamincollective.bandcamp.com/album/tailor-madeIndex for Continuance Podcast by CSU Poetry Center(referenced): http://www.csupoetrycenter.com/index-for-continuance-podcast
We talk with Guillermo Rebollo Gil about his piece “Deaths Plural: On Pro Wrestling and Poetry.” Performance, grief, Roland Barthes, the stone cold stunners of Steve Austin, high brow snobbery, low brow elevation, bros, drag, Puerto Rico, and nostalgia. Stay in touch with us by subscribing to our newsletter. Find subscription plans, print issues, and merch at our online store. Music/beats by producer aLiVE of Muamin Collective.
Trigger Warning: Extended discussion about Suicide. We talk with Micah Cash about his review of Osamu Dazai’s “Flowers of Buffoonery.” Convalescence, the “I” novel, Western influence on Japanese mores and aesthetic practices, “the fellas” novel, the hard drug “leftist thought,” little mag scenes in Japan, and the emperor is dead, long live the emperor. Stay in touch with us by subscribing to our newsletter. Find subscription plans, print issues, and merch at our online store. Music/beats by producer aLiVE of Muamin Collective.Piece: https://www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/osamu-dazai-the-flowers-of-buffooneryNewsletter: www.clereviewofbooks.com/newsletterStore: www.clereviewofbooks.com/storeMuamin Collective Bandcamp: muamincollective.bandcamp.com/album/tailor-made
We talk with Will Harrison about his review of McKenzie Wark’s “Raving.” Not selling out the scene, Detroit techno, Chicago footwork, k-time, situationism, style extraction, “Punisher” types, and theorizing as a way to both clarify and escape the self. Stay in touch with us by subscribing to our newsletter. Find subscription plans, print issues, and merch at our online store. Music/beats by producer aLiVE of Muamin Collective.Piece: https://www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/mckenzie-wark-ravingNewsletter: www.clereviewofbooks.com/newsletterStore: www.clereviewofbooks.com/storeMuamin Collective Bandcamp: muamincollective.bandcamp.com/album/tailor-made
We talk with Erika Dirk about Dizz Tate’s novel, “Brutes.” We discuss Florida, attractiveness as a means of social mobility, adolescent gazes, the novel's “adaptable to the screen”-ness, Jeffrey Eugenides, and first-person plural narration. Stay in touch with us by subscribing to our newsletter. Find subscription plans, print issues, and merch at our online store. Music/beats by producer aLiVE of Muamin Collective.Piece: https://www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/dizz-tate-brutesNewsletter: www.clereviewofbooks.com/newsletterStore: www.clereviewofbooks.com/storeMuamin Collective Bandcamp: muamincollective.bandcamp.com/album/tailor-made
We talk with Cary Stough about his review of Michael Palmer’s “The Danish Notebook.” Paratactic poetics, diaristic writing, “Harvard,” post-Imagism, anti-confessionalism, and friendship. Stay in touch with us by subscribing to our newsletter. Find subscription plans, print issues, and merch at our online store. Music/beats by producer aLiVE of Muamin Collective.Piece: https://www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/danish-notebookNewsletter: www.clereviewofbooks.com/newsletterStore: www.clereviewofbooks.com/storeMuamin Collective Bandcamp: muamincollective.bandcamp.com/album/tailor-made
We talk with Kameryn Alexa Carter about her piece “That Which We Call Ecstasy: On Artemesia Gentileschi’s Mary Magdalenes.” Gendered power dynamics embedded in artistic technique itself, the Italian Renaissance, proto-feminism, color theory, public-facing art history, and saving the work of forgotten artists. Stay in touch with us by subscribing to our newsletter. Find subscription plans, print issues, and merch at our online store. Music/beats by producer aLiVE of Muamin Collective.Piece: https://www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/on-gentileschis-mary-magdalenes Newsletter: www.clereviewofbooks.com/newsletterStore: www.clereviewofbooks.com/storeMuamin Collective Bandcamp: muamincollective.bandcamp.com/album/tailor-made
We talk with Devin Thomas O’Shea about his piece “Paranoid Reading: Steamshovel Press and the American Conspiracy Canon.” Midwestern paranoia, our favorite conspiracies, Pynchon, St. Louis’ literary history, etc.Piece: https://www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/popular-alienationStay in touch with us by subscribing to our newsletter. https://www.clereviewofbooks.com/newsletterFind subscription plans, print issues, and merch at our online store. https://www.clereviewofbooks.com/storeMusic/beats by producer aLiVE of Muamin Collective.https://muamincollective.bandcamp.com/album/tailor-made
We talk with Caroline McManus about her piece “Maximally Likable: The Stay-at-Home Girlfriend and the White-Collar Woman.” Refracted identities, TikTok, 21st century ressentiment, and wellness routines. Stay in touch with us by subscribing to our newsletter. Find subscription plans, print issues, and merch at our online store. Music/beats by producer aLiVE of Muamin Collective.Piece: https://www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/stay-at-home-girlfriend-white-collar-womanNewsletter: https://www.clereviewofbooks.com/newsletterStore: https://www.clereviewofbooks.com/storeMuamin Collective Bandcamp: https://muamincollective.bandcamp.com/album/tailor-made
On episode 10.2 of the CRB Podcast, we talk with our Health and Society Editor Anand Bhat about his recent piece, "Love in the Time of Corona." Major topics include the right-wing's sudden seizure of a left populist movement, "helicopter money," what's going to happen in a situation where the many unemployed rely on their previous employer for insurance, and an analysis of single-payer healthcare systems in South Korea and Taiwan.
Interviewer is William Lennon (@podracing_champ)
Music credit: aLive and Gigi D'Agostino
Read the piece here: https://www.clereviewofbooks.com/home/2020/4/21/love-in-the-time-of-corona-or-the-neoliberals-dont-have-a-plan-for-the-covid-19-epidemic
Episode 10.1 of the CRB Podcast is a reading of a piece by Dr. Anand Bhat, our health and society editor. He describes the present and post-covid epidemic from political, economic, and medical lenses, focusing specifically on how we will deal with a health-care system where most people receive healthcare from work will manage to get by in a system where most people lose their jobs. He also discusses the concern of right wing nationalism combined with subsidies and government handouts.
SUBSCRIBE on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Music Credit: aLIVE from Muamin Collective
9.1 - On this Episode, CRB interviews Philip Metres, whose book "Shrapnel Maps" comes out on April 24. We jump off of J. David's review of the book(https://www.clereviewofbooks.com/home/2020/4/7/why-do-you-laugh-on-philip-metress-shrapnel-maps) and talk about the power of myth and story telling to bridge ideological divides, the politics of representation, and the ability of poetry to do what political theory and philosophy in creative/different, not necessarily better, ways.
Philip Metres is the author of ten books, including Shrapnel Maps (Copper Canyon 2020). His other works include The Sound of Listening (essays), Pictures at an Exhibition (poems), the translation I Burned at the Feast: Selected Poems of Arseny Tarkovsky, and Sand Opera. His work has garnered fellowships from the Lannan Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as six Ohio Arts Council grants, the Hunt Prize, the Adrienne Rich Award, two Arab American Book Awards, the Watson Fellowship, the Lyric Poetry Award, the Alice James Award, the Creative Workforce Fellowship, and the Cleveland Arts Prize. Most recently, he won a Guggenheim Fellowship. He is a professor of English and director of the Peace, Justice, and Human Rights program at John Carroll University.
Music Credit: a-Live of Muamin Collective
SUBSCRIBE on Spotify and Apple Music
On this episode, our eic talks to contributing writer Eric Sandy about his piece "When Disaster Strikes: on Jon Mooallem's 'This is Chance!: The Shaking of an All-American City, a Voice That Held It Together.'
We discuss how Genie Chance simultaneously broadcasted basic safety information to the local citizens so as to reduce panic, and got the message to the outside world. She held it together. The question is, can anything hold our current covid-19 crisis together? And is there a chance for a better future.
Music Credit: a-Live of Muamin Collective
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Our eic (Billy Lennon) talks to CRB's Visual Arts Critic Tony Mastromatteo in the first part of a two part series about his piece "Stress and Fear," which is amongst other things a commentary on Peter Sloterdijk's "Stress and Freedom." We unpack the idea of stress and networks, populations, and small groups' ability to handle that stress, and why that is amazing. One such example is declaring "Cleveland against the world." We often take that for granted.
Other topics include fantasy football and Petoria from Family Guy.
Music credit: A-Live of Muamin Collective and Projection Hotline.
An audio version of Anthony Mastromatteo's "Art and Fear: On Peter Sloterdijk's 'Stress and Freedom', Coronavirus, and the Media's Production of Panic".
Actual Reading doesn't begin until around 2:30.
Read article here: https://www.clereviewofbooks.com/home/2020/3/5/art-and-fear-on-peter-sloterdijks-stress-and-freedom-coronavirus-and-the-medias-production-of-panic
Music Credit: A-Live of Muamin Collective (muamincollective.com/) Projection Hotline (projectionhotline.bandcamp.com/) (@projection-hotline)
Listen on Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/0Ke5dR8cENEBDQbqODeaTJ?si=RG8rWhgMQF6QXPOZ3W6xtQ) and Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/crb-podcasts/id1451996592)
An audio version of Eric Betts' article "Anti-Panic: On Svetlana Alexievich's 'Voices from Chernobyl.'"
Actual Reading doesn't begin until like 3 minutes in.
Read article here: https://www.clereviewofbooks.com/home/2020/3/30/anti-panic-on-svetlana-alexievichs-voices-from-chernobyl
Music Credit: Projection Hotline (https://projectionhotline.bandcamp.com/) (https://soundcloud.com/projection-hotline)
Billy Lennon (eic of the journal) and Berlin-based writer Eric Betts discuss the latter's article: Anti-Panic: On Svetlana Alexievich's "Voices From Chernobyl."
We discuss the disaster itself in relation to the covid-19 epidemic now, how people reacted then and how their actions reflect ours now with the caveat of maybe learning a new way forward, and the end of history.
Read the article here: https://www.clereviewofbooks.com/home/2020/3/30/anti-panic-on-svetlana-alexievichs-voices-from-chernobyl
Music Credits: A-live (Muamin Collective), Racket Man, and Projection Hotline
This is the first installment of of our "Art of Podcasting" interview series (which is a play on the Paris Review's (whom we greatly admire) "Art of Fiction" interview series .
We sat down with Bryan Quinby, one half of Street Fight (the other being Bret Pein) to discuss his craft, the actual work that goes into making a podcast, blending comedy with politics, and his view of the show as being mainly a way to entertain people who feel isolated under the terrible conditions of late capitalism. Starring: Bryan Quinby Billy Lennon (eic) Kyle(contributing editor)
Music Credits: A-Live of Muamin Collective and Mourning [A] BLKstar
This show is available on apple podcasts.
Learn more about Street Fight here: https://www.streetfightradio.com/
We will release the second half of the interview at a later date, which is focused on Ohio and Columbus politics and culture and, you guessed it, Les Wexner.
Enjoy the show.
Note: First part is the reading of the piece, Interview starts at 10:30.
An audio version of Matt Morgenstern's Review of Lauren Berlant and Kathleen Stewart's "The Hundreds" is followed by an interview between the editor and Matt.
Music Credit: A-Live (Muamin Collective), LCD Soundsystem, Projection Hotline
An audio version of Dr. Anand Bhat's "The Atypical Messenger We Need: On Timothy Faust's "Health Justice Now," followed by an interview with Dr. Bhat taking a deeper dive into the piece.
Song Credits: Mourning a Blkstar "Anti-Anthem" LCD Soundsystem "Dance Yrself Clean" Projection Hotline "Trampoline"
Read the piece here: https://www.clereviewofbooks.com/
Follow us on twitter @clereviewbooks
While Washington Post reporter Kyle Swenson (who formerly worked for Cleveland Scene) was in town promoting his new book ("Good Kids. Bad City"), we were joined by current and former Scene writers Sam Allard and Eric Sandy to discuss the importance of journalism in holding power accountable and uncovering and telling the truth in the pursuit of justice.
We also discuss their respective times working at Cleveland Scene, their involvement in starting a new wave of journalism for the publication, and the importance of alt-weeklies both in small cities and as a wake-up call to journalists who stick to the coasts, rather than taking up crucial positions in local journalism in flyover country.
The intro song for this episode is "Going to Canada" by Racket Man. You can find their music on Spotify or purchase their music on bandcamp (racketman.bandcamp.com/).
The outro for this episode is a beat graciously shared by aLive of Muamin Collective. Find their music on their website (muamincollective.com/) and listen to them on Spotify.
Show notes and relevant articles: 1. "What the Boy Saw." Kyle's article in Scene that was the precursor to the book, and played a huge role in getting Ricky Jackson and Wiley Bridgeman freed. (www.clevescene.com/cleveland/what-…ent?oid=2598138) 2. Find Sam's reporting here: www.clevescene.com/cleveland/Artic…?author=3130652. He tirelessly holds power in Cleveland accountable, and points out the absurdities that further demonstrate how poorly our city is run. 3. Eric Sandy reviewed the book for our publication. Find the review here: www.clereviewofbooks.com/home/2019/2/…ids-bad-city. 4. Purchase the book at your local bookstore or on IndieBound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781250120236
Conducted in the fall of 2018, episode 1 of the CRB Podcast is Billy Lennon (CRB's Editor-in-Chief) interviewing the, amongst many other things, comic book artist Chad Bilyeu. A Cleveland ex-pat, Chad recently started the "Chad in Amsterdam" series of comic books, which, by creating scenes of humor-filled alienation, explore how one's identity changes and how one is treated based on where they live. Chad is nothing but an acute observer, and his brilliance is tied to the everyday, keeping a critical distance but never hovering off the ground.
We discuss his upbringing, his long undergraduate career which ended with him getting a degree from Georgetown, and the impetus to create the Chad in Amsterdam series. He also delivers harsh but well-meaning critiques of Cleveland's culture.
Buy the comic on Chad's website: http://www.chadinamsterdam.nl/ Follow him on twitter: https://twitter.com/CHADinAMSTERDAM
The music on this episode is from Mourning [A] Blkstar. Last fall, they released their album "Garner Poems." Read more about them on their website (https://mourningablkstar.com/, purchase the album here (https://mourningablkstar.com/) and listen to them on Spotify. The band is RA Washington, James Longs, Kyle Kidd, LaToya Kent, Dante Foley, Peter Saudek, Theresa May, and William Washington, amongst others.