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SR Pod/Vod Series – Authors Talk: Poet Trina Young

Cass Murphy

Trina Young2Today, we’re proud to feature SR contributor Trina Young as our nineteenth Authors Talk series contributor with her podcast “Never Forget the Basics.”

‘The basics,’ those ever-elusive things about which creative writing students are accustomed to hearing, encouraged to practice, and – speaking from personal experience – eager to upgrade. They’re something Trina wants to remind us of as we aspire to new sets of skills, leave the classroom, and strike out on our own.

Trina explains, “I was speaking to young writers like myself who may have hit a rough patch in their process, and many of the tips I had were the things you seem to learn early on in writing and are essential, but perhaps can be forgotten or not practiced enough.”

She hopes the truth of the titular sentiment will resonate with listeners, and speaking from personal experience (again), I’ll say it definitely does.

You can listen to the podcast on our iTunes Channel, #199.

You can read “The Body” in Superstition Review Issue 15, and listen to Trina Young read it aloud in podcast #155.

 

More About the Author:

Trina Young is a graduate from DePaul University with a passion for many kinds of writing. She was one of the winners of the Pegasus Young Playwrights competition in 2010, and has had one poem published by Afterimage Online’s Inklight gallery. She recently received the honor of placing third as a Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award Winner in the Illinois Emerging Writers Competition. She continues to submit to journals in order to build her credits and be included among many other talented people. She currently writes for Blavity, a site for black millennials to fight the stereotypes against them, and is pursuing a career in television writing as well. She lives in Chicago, IL.

 

About the Authors Talk series:

For several years, we have featured audio or video of Superstition Review contributors reading their work. We’ve now established a new series of podcasts called Authors Talk. The podcasts in this series take a broader scope and feature SR contributors discussing their own thoughts on writing, the creative process, and anything else they may want to share with listeners.

SR Pod/Vod Series – Recording: Poet Trina Young

Cass Murphy

Trina Young2Today we’re proud to re-feature SR contributor Trina Young reading her poem “The Body” on our podcast, with her related Authors Talk forthcoming.

You can listen to the podcast on our iTunes Channel, number 155.

You can read Trina’s work in Superstition Review, Issue 15.

Her Authors Talk podcast was released on March 4th, #199.

 

More About the Author:
Trina Young is a graduate from DePaul University with a passion for many kinds of writing. She was one of the winners of the Pegasus Young Playwrights competition in 2010, and has had one poem published by Afterimage Online’s Inklight gallery. She recently received the honor of placing third as a Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award Winner in the Illinois Emerging Writers Competition. She continues to submit to journals in order to build her credits and be included among many other talented people. She currently writes for Blavity, a site for black millennials to fight the stereotypes against them, and is pursuing a career in television writing as well. She lives in Chicago, IL.

SR Pod/Vod Series – Authors Talk: Author Luke Muyskens

Cass Murphy

Luke MuyskensToday, we’re proud to feature SR contributor Luke Muyskens as our eighteenth Authors Talk series contributor with his interview-style podcast “Discussing Knock-Out Drum.”

“When my friend told me this story, I thought immediately, ‘that’s something that needs to be told; that’s something that I need to write about, because if I don’t, it’s just another story that’s going to disappear into the ether,’” Luke says in his podcast regarding the origins of his fictional story.

Unfortunately, the premise is real: An oil rig hand in North Dakota actually faced harassment at the hand of his co-workers for being gay. It’s a fact that makes “Knock-Out Drum” even more haunting. Luke’s discussion on its writing is similarly grounded, touching on the need to fictionalize events and characters as well as the responsibility he felt to the true story and the real people who became his characters.

But as Luke notes, his story is about more than a character’s sexual orientation. It’s about the challenge of not fitting it, the “clashes between who we were – who we’re going to be – as individuals, and as a collective whole.”

You can listen to the podcast on our iTunes Channel.

You can read “Knock-Out Drum” in Superstition Review Issue 16, and listen to Luke read it aloud in SR podcast #197.

 

More About the Author:

Luke Muyskens’ fiction, poetry, and humor has appeared in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Digital Americana, and One Throne Magazine. He was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, though he now resides in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He is pursuing an MFA through Queens University of Charlotte, and earned a bachelor’s degree from St. John’s University.

 

About the Authors Talk series:

For several years, we have featured audio or video of Superstition Review contributors reading their work. We’ve now established a new series of podcasts called Authors Talk. The podcasts in this series take a broader scope and feature SR contributors discussing their own thoughts on writing, the creative process, and anything else they may want to share with listeners.

 

SR Pod/Vod Series – Recording: Author Luke Muyskens

Cass Murphy

Luke MuyskensThis Tuesday, we’re proud to feature SR contributor Luke Muyskens reading his story “Knock-Out Drum” on our podcast.

You can listen to the podcast on our iTunes Channel.

You can read Luke’s work in Superstition Review, Issue 16.

Also check out Luke Muysken’s Authors Talk podcast, posted Friday February 26th.

More About the Author:
Luke Muyskens’ fiction, poetry, and humor has appeared in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Digital Americana, and One Throne Magazine. He was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, though he now resides in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He is pursuing an MFA through Queens University of Charlotte, and earned a bachelor’s degree from St. John’s University.

SR Pod/Vod Series – Authors Talk: Author Jon Pearson

Cass Murphy

Jon PearsonToday we’re proud to feature Jon Pearson as our seventeenth Authors Talk series contributor, sharing his thoughts on harnessing creativity in his podcast, “Our Minds All Have Giant Backyards.”

Nothing kills creativity more than the desire to do well, Jon says in his Authors Talk podcast, adding “talent wants to know what the rules are so it can succeed. Genius wants to know what the rules are so it can break them and shoot for the stars.” But his advice is more complex than ‘throw all the rules away and start over:’ he’s fond of imagery in particular, and encourages writers to be polishers rather than editors.

The repeated idea of an “eternal Saturday that is at the heart of powerful writing” conjures up a number of situations common to artists of any medium. It’s representative of an Authors Talk that examines what it means to be a creative person, and the mindset in which art flourishes.

You can listen to the podcast on our iTunes Channel, #196.

You can read Jon’s story “Saturday” in Superstition Review Issue 16, and listen to him read it aloud in SR podcast #195.

 

More About the Author:

Jon Pearson is a writer, speaker, artist, and creative thinking consultant. He was nominated for a 2014 Pushcart Prize and a 2014 Million Writers Award and his work has appeared in Barely South Review, Barnstorm, Carve, The Citron Review, Crack the Spine, Critical Pass Review, Cultural Weekly, Existere, Faultline, Fiction Fix, Lake Effect, Penmen Review, Psychoanalytic Perspectives, Reed Magazine, Shark Reef, Sou’wester, Tower Journal, West Wind Review, and Wild Violet. Jon writes now for the same reason he played with his food as a kid: to make the world a better place. Feel free to contact Jon at jonstuartpearson@gmail.com

 

About the Authors Talk series:

For several years, we have featured audio or video of Superstition Review contributors reading their work. We’ve now established a new series of podcasts called Authors Talk. The podcasts in this series take a broader scope and feature SR contributors discussing their own thoughts on writing, the creative process, and anything else they may want to share with listeners.

SR Pod/Vod Series – Recording: Author Jon Pearson

Cass Murphy

Jon PearsonThis Tuesday, we’re proud to feature SR contributor Jon Pearson reading his story “Saturday” on our podcast.

You can listen to the podcast on our iTunes Channel.

You can follow along with “Saturday” in Superstition Review Issue 16.

Also check out Jon Pearson’s Authors Talk podcast, posted Friday February 16th.

More About the Author:
Jon Pearson is a writer, speaker, artist, and creative thinking consultant. He was nominated for a 2014 Pushcart Prize and a 2014 Million Writers Award and his work has appeared in Barely South Review, Barnstorm, Carve, The Citron Review, Crack the Spine, Critical Pass Review, Cultural Weekly, Existere, Faultline, Fiction Fix, Lake Effect, Penmen Review, Psychoanalytic Perspectives, Reed Magazine, Shark Reef, Sou’wester, Tower Journal, West Wind Review, and Wild Violet. Jon writes now for the same reason he played with his food as a kid: to make the world a better place.

 

 

SR Pod/Vod Series – Authors Talk: Author Adrianne Kalfopoulou

Cass Murphy

Today we’re proud to feature Adrianne Kalfopoulou as our sixteenth Authors Talk series contributor, sharing the process behind writing her nonfiction essay “The Journey Where” in her podcast “Travelers.”

The search for belonging is a major theme that Adrianne discusses in her work, as well as being mindful of its greater context. “What I’m working on becomes a part of something outside of the space of the text itself,” she says, tying themes of travel and the open sea to Homer’s Odysseus and the current Middle Eastern refugee crisis.

The “kind of clash between world views and points of reference has often fascinated me, both personally in terms of my own kind of microcosm, but also how that connects with larger, more existentialist questions having to do with what people are willing to risk for greater freedoms that are never guaranteed.”

Adrianne’s podcast is a thoughtful discussion on the ideas present in a writer’s work and the world. 
You can listen to it on our iTunes Channel.

You can read Adrianne’s essay “The Journey Where” in Superstition Review Issue 16, and listen to her read it aloud in SR podcast #193. She has also been published in Issue 9.

 

More About the Author:

Adrianne Kalfopoulou lives and teaches in Athens, Greece. Her most recent publication is Ruin, Essays in Exilic Living (Red Hen Press 2014). Her poems and essays have appeared in online and print journals including Hotel Amerika, The Harvard Review, WORDPEACE, and Superstition Review. She occasionally blogs on Greece, and is the Writing Program Director at Deree College in Athens.  adrianne kalfopoulou’s website

 

About the Authors Talk series:

For several years, we have featured audio or video of Superstition Review contributors reading their work. We’ve now established a new series of podcasts called Authors Talk. The podcasts in this series take a broader scope and feature SR contributors discussing their own thoughts on writing, the creative process, and anything else they may want to share with listeners.

SR Pod/Vod Series – Recording: Author Adrianne Kalfopoulou

Cass Murphy

Adrianne Kalfopoulou greyscaleThis Tuesday, we’re proud to feature SR contributor Adrianne Kalfopoulou reading her nonfiction essay “The Journey Where” on our podcast.

You can listen to the podcast on our iTunes Channel.

You can follow along with “The Journey Where” in Superstition Review Issue 16, and read more of Adrianne’s work in Issue 9.

Also check out Adrianne Kalfopoulou’s Authors Talk podcast, posted Friday February 12th.

 

More About the Author:
Adrianne Kalfopoulou lives and teaches in Athens, Greece. Her most recent publication is Ruin, Essays in Exilic Living (Red Hen Press 2014). Her poems and essays have appeared in online and print journals including Hotel Amerika, The Harvard Review, WORDPEACE, and Superstition Review. She occasionally blogs on Greece, and is the Writing Program Director at Deree College in Athens.  adrianne kalfopoulou’s website

SR Pod/Vod Series – Authors Talk: Author Cathy Krizik

Cass Murphy

CathyKrizikHeadshot_BW_SquareToday we’re proud to feature Cathy Krizik as our fifteenth Authors Talk series contributor, sharing her thoughts on her writing process in her vodcast “Writing is Easy. Writing Well is Hard.”

“First Drafts are an Embarrassment” is the secondary title for this vodcast because, according to Cathy, “just because you can type doesn’t mean you can write.” Indeed, one of the topics she addresses is the role of the writer as editor, and it’s not just a nod to the importance of fine-tuning. Rather it’s a celebration of its “joy.”

Take, for example, the fluidity of paragraphs; how it really takes until the ending of a paragraph to even know what you’re saying, and that this ending frequently becomes the top (incidentally, exactly what happened to this much-shuffled blog post). And writing isn’t without its sadnesses, one of which Cathy summarizes as “falling in love with sentences, and oh, they’re so brilliant, but you gotta let them go in service to the story. Just put them in that word cemetery that is the most beautiful, saddest place on the planet.”

A kind of writer’s video blog about best practices and personal challenges, Cathy’s vodcast juxtaposes advice with personal examples to cover most of the ins and outs of a writer’s life. 
You can watch it on our iTunes Channel.

You can read Cathy’s essay “Prairie of the Mind” in Superstition Review Issue 16, and listen to her read it aloud in podcast #191, also on the SR iTunes Channel.

 

More About the Author:

Cathy Krizik has been published in The Penmen Review and The Prague Post. When she’s not making a living as a magazine art director and career counselor, she’s writing—an adventure she wishes had begun before menopause. She lives in Santa Cruz, CA with her wife and two cats because you can’t be a lesbian without owning cats.  cathy krizik’s website

 

About the Authors Talk series:

For several years, we have featured audio or video of Superstition Review contributors reading their work. We’ve now established a new series of podcasts called Authors Talk. The podcasts in this series take a broader scope and feature SR contributors discussing their own thoughts on writing, the creative process, and anything else they may want to share with listeners.

SR Pod/Vod Series – Recording: Author Cathy Krizik

Cass Murphy

CathyKrizikHeadshot_BW_SquareThis Tuesday, we’re proud to feature SR contributor Cathy Krizik reading her nonfiction essay “Prairie of the Mind” on our podcast.

You can listen to the podcast on our iTunes Channel.

You can read Cathy’s work in Superstition Review, Issue 16.

Also check out Cathy Krizik’s Authors Talk vodcast, posted Friday February 5th.

 

More About the Author:
Cathy Krizik has been published in The Penmen Review and The Prague Post. When she’s not making a living as a magazine art director and career counselor, she’s writing—an adventure she wishes had begun before menopause. She lives in Santa Cruz, CA with her wife and two cats because you can’t be a lesbian without owning cats.  cathy krizik’s website