Animal Riot Podcast

Episode 23: Bad Habits

Welcome to the twenty-third episode of the Animal Riot Podcast brought to you by Animal Riot, a literary press for books that matter. Today we're talking all things rejection with three diligent, talented, and thoughtful writers in our community: Meher Manda, Crystal Yeung, and Sharmaine Ong. You'll remember Meher of An Angry Reading Series from our 9th episode, and she's come back to talk about her rejection journey alongside Crystal and Sharmaine. Join us as we go beyond rejections with this in-depth conversation, and explore what it means to be a real writer, an Asian-American writer, and more, all while watching that hideous excuse of a final episode from Game of Thrones.

The transcript of this episode is available on our website. 

Episode 22: Paragraph: Workspace for Writers

What's good, animals? This is a special episode because it is actually a mulligan! That's right, it's a do over! Due to our name change & legal woes, we had to scrap the former episode and re-record with our pals over at Paragraph: Workspace for Writers. We're joined today by one of Paragraph's founders, Joy Parisi, and one of their members and a long time friend of AR, Aaron Poochigian. Founded in 2005, Paragraph is a membership organization dedicated to providing an affordable and tranquil working environment for writers of all genres. Paragraph was created by writers for writers, with an understanding that writers work best in a quiet, comfortable space away from the hurry and obligation of daily life. Join us as we dive into all things community and hear all about the highs, lows, and oddest moments in Paragraph's history. 

Episode 21: I’m Trying To Tell You I’m Sorry

In this twenty-first episode of the Animal Riot Podcast we welcome Nina Boutsikaris, a writer of prose with ambitions to start an arts residency near her home in the Hudson Valley. Nina is the author of the recently released I'm Trying to Tell You I'm Sorry from Black Lawrence Press, from whose breathtaking pages she offers an excerpt--but not before we embark on discussions surrounding what it means to write candidly about conflicts involving family and friends, her experience as an MFA student at the DFW's begrudging alma mater, Arizona University, and her long-awaited, highly-anticipated foray into fiction--coming in 2021? Tune in to find out! 

The transcript of this episode is available here. 

Episode 20: What’s in a name?

Welcome to the 20th episode of the Animal Riot podcast. We'd like to thank you for leasing twenty hours of your time over to the wisdom and fuckery of our burgeoning warren. Today we'd like to invite Elae [Lynne DeSilva-Johnson] who, as an agent of change across arts and progressivism and the founder of The Operating System, is most notably a creative practitioner, which affiliation they expound upon in the upcoming episode. We’re also happy to welcome back Caits Meissner, Director of the Prison Writing Program at PEN America and author of Let it Die Hungry, published with none other than The Operating System. Today we’ll talk about the intersections of art, what it means to name things, collective creative practice, and, of course, we’ll get a reading from our two lovely guests. 

Transcripts for our Deaf and Hard of Hearing Animals can be found on our website. 

Episode 19: I love my job

On the cusp of our twentieth episode, we invite Devin Kelly, poet extraordinaire, who dragged along our good friend and peer Bud Smith, a fiction and nonfiction writer whose positive outlook and benefit-of-the-doubt disposition should be profiled and duly archived as a reliable manual to Save Us All. Anyway, today we'll talk about Bud's ability to balance long hours of heavy labor with writing, his new project, Teenager, coming out with the enviable Tyrant Books, and, of course, we'll get a reading from Bud--but only after we talk about a mobbed up individual named Frank Hague who was in Boardwalk Empire, which is a very good show. 

Transcripts for our Deaf and Hard of Hearing Animals can be found on our website. 

Episode 18: On Shame & Writing

Welcome to the eighteenth episode of the Animal Riot Podcast, brought to you by persons eponymous (corporations are people too, people-bunnies), for which we've invited David Olimpio, Editor in Chief of Atticus Review and author of the stunning, memoiristic collection of linked nonfictions, THIS IS NOT A CONFESSION. Today we'll be talking about his hostile takeover of Atticus Review (kidding, he bought it fair and square -- but seriously, corporations are people too), the heartbreaking yet tragedy-defying experiences embedded within his book, and, of course, we'll get a reading from David, which is sure to remind you why we do this work. 

Transcripts for our Deaf and Hard of Hearing Animals can be found on our website. 

Episode 17: Minorities in Publishing

Welcome to the seventeenth episode of the Animal Riot Podcast brought to you by -- you guessed it -- Animal Riot Press. We welcome arts and social activist virtuoso Jenn Baker, host of the podcast Minorities in Publishing, contributing editor at Electric Literature, and many more things that you'll hear during her highly decorated introduction. Today we'll be talking about Jenn's work as a podcast host and activist for POC writers, editors, and artists, the responsibility of presses small and large to give voice to minority writers, and, as has become custom, we'll get to hear Jenn read some of her incredible prose.

Transcripts for our Deaf and Hard of Hearing Animals can be found on our website. 

Episode 16: Cease & Desist

The Animal Riot Podcast is bursting with ebullience over our latest episode featuring the co-creators and -hosts of Amazon Book Club, perhaps the funniest literary podcast out there right now. Tune in to hear an impromptu sample of the ABC podcast -- i.e. us picking a ripely self-published book on Amazon and providing unparalleled insight as we read its first page -- and a discussion of the podcast's risks, which include receiving cease and desist letters from disgruntled contestants. 

Transcripts for our Deaf and Hard of Hearing Animals can be found on our website. 

Episode 15: Voices on Addiction

The Animal Riot podcast is turning fifteen episodes old. To celebrate, we've invited Britt Canty, co-founder of the Brooklyn-based reading series HIP Lit, board member for Epiphany Lit Mag, and a fine writer of prose. Today we talk all of these things and more, ending with a reading from 'One More Conversation,' an essay recently published in The Rumpus's Voices on Addictions column -- a stunning piece about how Britt navigated the relationship with her father and his alcoholism. 

Transcripts for our Deaf and Hard of Hearing Animals can be found on our website. 

Episode 14: My father was right to leave

For the fourteenth episode of the Animal Riot Podcast we invite Dave Wiswell, comedian extraordinaire and victim of the true artist's necessarily depraved upbringing (kidding but not kidding). After giving and overview of his spectacular new YouTube show, Pop-up Interviews, Dave delves into his trajectory as a comedian, taking us on a tragicomic tour of his rise as a comedian and, hilariously, the nearly implausible litany of foibles and contretemps that came with his first few years of trying to settle in New York City. So gather round and give a gander as we expand on our fuckery-filled quest for literary and artistic community.

Transcripts for our Deaf and Hard of Hearing Animals can be found on our website.